Green Mountain
Chapter 272 - 215, Cicada Wings

Chapter 272: 215, Cicada Wings

In the hall, Su Zhou sat weakly on the bed, while Xiao Man peeked out from behind Chen Ji, the dim flickering candlelight continuously stretching their shadows like their fluctuating thoughts.

Chen Ji instructed Xiao Man, "Stay in the room, I’ll be right back."

Xiao Man tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "Your Highness, this woman is too fierce, let me go with you!"

Chen Ji assured, "Keep an eye on the door, don’t let anyone else in."

Xiao Man responded, "Oh..."

Su Zhou watched Chen Ji coldly, "I advise you not to harbor any ill intentions, or else everyone in Chen Mansion could die."

Chen Ji replied softly, "Don’t worry, I’m going to get some healing items for you."

Having said that, he turned and exited the door, closing the two wooden doors of the hall behind him before heading out of the courtyard.

Xiao Man, anxious, called after him, "Your Highness, go quickly and come back soon, I’m a bit scared to be alone with this woman."

Chen Ji raised his eyebrows but didn’t turn around.

As the door closed, Xiao Man straightened up, the panic on her face receding somewhat.

She opened the door slightly, peering out stealthily, and casually said to Su Zhou behind her, "You must be mistaken, my young master would never betray Prince Jing. This afternoon at Zhang Mansion, he had already proven himself..."

Before she could finish, Xiao Man turned to find Su Zhou already ghostly behind her.

Xiao Man formed her fingers into a dagger and struck at Su Zhou, but Su Zhou moved fluidly like a slippery eel, sticking to the incoming arm and slipped behind Xiao Man.

The Emei dagger was once again put to Xiao Man’s jaw, a slight movement and the poisoned tip would pierce her chin.

Xiao Man, caught off guard, yelled, "Let me go, let’s go outside and fight."

Su Zhou whispered, "Don’t scream, or I’ll have to kill you too."

She peered through the door crack, watching Chen Ji talking with the soldiers from the Military Department; not seeing anyone coming to arrest her, she breathed a little easier.

Xiao Man muttered, "See, you can relax now? My young master wouldn’t betray you or Prince Jing."

Su Zhou said gravely, "It’s easy to know a face, difficult to know a heart. Even Prince Jing’s lifelong brothers can betray him, who says he can’t?"

Xiao Man helplessly responded, "My young master isn’t like that, since he was little he couldn’t even bear to kill a chicken. He once raised two chicks and cried for a long time when one of them died accidentally. He’s very kind."

Su Zhou sneered, "People change. Everyone in Jianghu says he has deep friendships with the Commandery Princess and the Princely Heir, yet he didn’t seem upset when disaster struck Prince Jing Mansion, how can this not prove that he betrayed the prince?"

Xiao Man, watching Chen Ji’s departing figure through the door crack, fell silent for a long while before speaking, "He is very upset, he just doesn’t want others to see it, but I can tell."

Su Zhou scoffed, "You know his mind that well?"

After a brief silence, Xiao Man calmly said, "Hey, we’re all working under the Lord, I saved you out of goodwill, don’t be ungrateful now. You’ve pointed that Emei dagger at my neck twice now, what, are you really going to kill me?"

The candlelight in the room flickered momentarily, the atmosphere turning icy cold, as if even the charcoal stove seemed to dim.

Su Zhou calmly said, "You’re just a Seventh Rank Candle, how dare you speak to me this way?"

Xiao Man opened her mouth, "I... I just don’t have the same killer instinct as you guys, I just dislike killing, that’s why I can’t rise up. By the way, I saved you this time, you haven’t given me the Copper Coin yet."

After pondering for a moment, Su Zhou slowly put down her Emei dagger and took out a Copper Coin from her sleeve, tossing it into Xiao Man’s arms.

Xiao Man picked up the Copper Coin and examined it closely, but saw that it was engraved not with ’Jianing Currency’ but with the words ’Lamp’: "So this is a Lamp Copper Coin, can it really be exchanged for two hundred taels of silver?"

Su Zhou, seeing her look, asked with confusion, "You’ve never seen a Copper Coin?"

Xiao Man stiffened her neck, "Who said I haven’t, haven’t I just seen it now?"

Su Zhou grew more puzzled, "You really haven’t seen a Lamp Copper Coin before, have you never taken a mission before? Who exactly brought you into the Lamp?"

Xiao Man pouted, "Who are you to me? Why should I tell you? Oh right, has the Lord ever mentioned why we are called ’Lamp’?"

Su Zhou sighed, "You really don’t know anything. ’Lamp’ implies ’home’, when returning home, if there’s a light it means there’s someone home, ’Lamp’ is meant to provide a home for us who have no home."

Xiao Man tucked the Copper Coin into her wallet at her waist, "That’s not necessary, you might not have a home, but I do."

Su Zhou, "..."

Tucking away the Copper Coin, Xiao Man warned, "I saved you this time, but I’m warning you not to harm my young master, and you mustn’t reveal my identity or point that Emei dagger at me again... Hey you!"

Thud.

Before Xiao Man could finish, Su Zhou had already fainted to the ground.

Chen Ji returned with two red lacquer food boxes in his hands.

Outside the gate of Mingquan Garden, six soldiers from the Luocheng Military Department were holding torches. Chen Ji handed the food boxes over to them, "Gentlemen, it’s tough being out in this piercingly cold wind on duty. I’ve instructed the kitchen to prepare some meals for you. Please eat them while they’re hot."

The soldiers were flattered, "Third Young Master is too kind. We shouldn’t trouble you to think about our meals."

Although Chen Ji was a bastard of the Chen family, to these soldiers, he was a highly esteemed figure, almost unreachable.

Chen Ji smiled and casually asked, "By the way, with so many of you guarding the Chen Mansion, how is the capture proceeding?"

The leading soldier at the gate snorted, "We in the Luocheng Military Department know our own strength. The true capturing is still done by the Spy Department."

Chen Ji nonchalantly asked, "Any clues at the scene of the incident?"

The soldier replied with a smile, "You’re asking the right person. We were the first ones on the scene. There was blood all over Xingluo Street, and soldiers from the Thousand-year Army were slaughtered, leaving only one alive. General Wang’s chest was punctured like a sieve."

Chen Ji took a deep breath, "So many people killed, how many assailants were there?"

The soldier casually mentioned, "According to the ’King of Hell’ from the Spy Department, there were a total of two assailants; one was a female assassin from the ’Lamp’, and another who commanded spirit monsters."

Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Since the Spy Department took action, I assume they’ll surely capture them. Did the Spy Department mention how or when they would catch them? After all, such murderers roaming free is quite frightening."

"Don’t worry, Third Young Master, we are here to protect you," a naive soldier chuckled, "The Spy Department is currently searching through the entire city’s Medical Halls. It’s said that the female assassin has been seriously injured, and without timely treatment, she might not survive."

Chen Ji hummed in acknowledgment and smiled as he entered Mingquan Garden, "Thank you for your hard work, brothers. I’ll head back to rest now."

The soldiers quickly nodded and bowed, "Thank you, Third Young Master. You should go and rest."

Chen Ji secured the gate of the courtyard and returned to the house.

Su Zhou lay unconscious on the bed. Seeing Chen Ji return, Xiao Man quickly approached him in distress, "Master has been gone for a long time. Staying in a room with this violent woman has nearly scared me to death."

Chen Ji chuckled and didn’t take her words to heart.

The biggest mystery of the night was why Su Zhou managed to accurately find his room while on the run.

It was not difficult to locate the Chen Mansion, but for a female assassin new to Luocheng City and alone, how could she precisely find his location?

Both Su Zhou and Xiao Man treated him as an ordinary person, thinking he was easy to hoodwink.

Chen Ji did not expose them but quietly watched what they were up to.

He took out a palm-sized white porcelain bottle and a needle kit from his bosom and handed them to Xiao Man, "The white porcelain bottle contains the strongest Fire Saber from the mansion. Use it to cleanse her wounds, and they won’t fester."

Xiao Man looked at the needle kit, "What is this?"

Chen Ji glanced at the sword and dagger wounds on Su Zhou, "Heat the needle on a charcoal basin. After heating, sew her wounds like sewing clothes. Whether she can survive or not depends on her own luck."

Xiao Man’s eyes widened, "I’ve heard of pouring strong liquor on wounds, but sewing human skin with needle and thread, did Master learn this in the Medical Hall? Why haven’t I heard of this before?"

Chen Ji hummed, "Learned it in the Medical Hall. It’s useful."

Stitching the wound could prevent secondary infections, and it might heal within about ten days. If not stitched, it might not heal even in a month.

Chen Ji stepped out of the room, leaving Xiao Man to tend to the injuries.

He sat by the stone table in the courtyard, quietly examining his palm.

The next moment, he closed his hand and then opened it to reveal a black ’sword seed’ floating above his palm.

The black sword seed, shaped like a bamboo leaf, without hilt or blade, thin as a cicada’s wing.

Chen Ji caressed it with his fingertip. The surface was rough, as if forged from black iron, with uneven edges, clearly lacking elegance.

He pondered, "Why does Xuanyuan’s sword seed shimmer with colors, moving like a shooting star? Why does mine look just like an inconspicuous piece of iron... Is it because I haven’t seized enough Sword Intent, or haven’t nurtured it long enough?"

Chen Ji tried to control the sword seed with his mind, but the black iron piece wavered unsteadily in front of him, disobedient and slow.

Suddenly, he commanded the sword seed towards a plum tree in the courtyard.

His intention was to pierce a leaf, but the sword seed deviated several inches from the plum tree.

With a fizz, a branch as thick as two fingers snapped off. When the sword seed returned to Chen Ji’s palm, it was unscathed.

Chen Ji walked forward, looked up at the smooth cut on the plum branch, which appeared as if he had sliced through a block of tofu, not wood.

He lowered his head to examine the sword seed. The training in the Sword Seed Path had finally started to bear fruit; he was no longer an outsider.

Still, he wondered how many more Sword Intents he needed to seize, how many more people he needed to kill, to achieve his own greatness.

The room door creaked open.

Chen Ji flipped his hand to conceal the sword seed in his sleeve and nonchalantly asked, "What’s the matter?"

Xiao Man eyed him suspiciously for a moment before responding, "The wounds are all stitched up. Please come in."