Assassin vs Blind Priest

 LUO FAN

Two days after my first visit, Lord Lan accompanied me back to the imperial palace so I could further examine the crown prince.

I still had not found any traces of poison from the specimen that Lord Lan had taken from Prince Shang’s body, but I found some tiny particles that could only be obtained from a highly refined elixir that only a master alchemist could create.

But it was not poison.

I knew that the crown prince’s life was hanging by a thread, so in the meantime, I had refined a potion, with the help of Xu Dong’s level three alchemy, to prolong the crown prince’s life.

Just as we disembarked from the carriage, I heard a voice calling from behind us.

We both turned around and found a eunuch and an imperial guard running towards us. They stopped three steps away and greeted Lord Lan.

Lord Lan introduced me to them. One was the chief eunuch, Zeng Jie, and the other was an imperial guard, Shao Wei.

“Forgive us for bothering his lordship,” Zeng Jie said after the introduction and a brief exchange of courtesies. “His Majesty just heard of your arrival in the palace and he wishes to see you right away.”

Lord Lan looked at me. “Do you want to come along and meet the emperor?”

Come along? To meet the emperor?

The thought alone sent chills down my spine. My master was a prince, a brother of the emperor of Kan Empire, and a few times, he had brought me to the palace to meet the emperor himself.

I could never forget how Emperor Sun had interrogated me then, kept asking over and over again why I had joined the Ethereal Frost Sect and what my real name was as if he suspected me of espionage. Since then, I had avoided the emperor’s palace like a plaque.

And I still did not want to step foot in another emperor’s palace.

Besides, I did not think I was worthy to meet the revered Emperor Yin of Xianru.

“I’m grateful for the invitation, Lord Lan,” I replied. “But His Majesty wishes to see you all of a sudden so there must be something important that he wants to discuss with you. I don’t want to be a bother.”

He sighed and looked at the chief eunuch. “Escort Priest Luo to the crown prince’s palace. Tell them he has come under my order. If any of those imperial physicians bully him, let me know.”

“Yes, my lord.” Zeng Jie cupped his hands and bowed his head to Lord Lan as if he had taken an order from the emperor himself.

Lord Lan turned away and left on his own.

“This way, Priest Luo,” Zheng Jie said and took the lead.

I followed him with Shao Wei tailing right behind me.

As we passed by an alley, Zeng Jie looked around. “Where are the guards here?” he asked.

I also glanced around. The alley was indeed empty, but it was the middle of the day and the sun was high so I guessed they simply had sought shelter from the heat.

When suddenly, a masked man hiding behind a tree revealed himself and charged towards Zeng Jie.

Quickly, I pushed Zeng Jie to the side but the assassin did not change direction. I realized I was the target.

My reaction was slow and I did not have the speed that I used to possess back then, but I still tried to raise the stick in a defensive position even though I knew it would be too late already.

To my surprise, the assassin’s knife did not reach me. Shao Wei had knocked the assassin to the ground.

I pulled Zheng Jie up and yelled, “Go and seek for help!”

Without wasting a second, Zheng Jie scampered away, turning to the corner as fast as a rabbit running from its hunters.

When I looked at the two on the ground, they were still wrestling each other. Shao Wei was stronger so he managed to pin the assassin underneath him. Just when I thought everything was going to be fine, I saw the tip of a blade protruding through Shao Wei’s back, followed by a painful grunt.

I froze in shock.

I should run to save myself, but I did not want to leave behind a person who had risked his life for me. And even if I did, the assassin was back on his feet now. He’d surely catch up with me or throw his knife on my cowardly fleeing back.

My best option was to face him, even though I knew it was futile.

I only had to stall him for a moment or so until help arrived.

He leapt towards me with his long knife which was probably still dripping with Shao Wei’s blood. I deflected his attack with my bamboo stick and stepped to the side. Before I could even counter, he attacked again.

He was fast and strong. I may have matched his speed and that was why I was able to dodge his attacks, but my strength was way inferior.

After dodging his knife several times, he briefly lost his balance and I took the opportunity to counter. I grabbed his bladed arm with one hand and with my other hand, I poked at a certain point on his wrist, temporarily paralyzing his fingers.

 The knife fell to the ground, but then I realized that he was wearing an iron knuckle on his other hand.

He did not try to retrieve his knife back. As soon as he recovered, he threw a reckless punch at me. Since he no longer needed precision, his attacks became brutal. The contacts I took all over my arm that I used to block his attacks with must have all turned blue and purple.

I could no longer stand it. I could not breathe anymore, as if I would collapse the moment I made another move, and my poor eyesight blurred even more until there was only total darkness.

Disoriented, exhausted, and totally blind, I was helpless. A hard blow landed on my back. It felt like a rock had smashed my spine into fragments, paralyzing me.

I dropped to the ground, unable to utter a sound, unable to move.

Then I heard something.

Someone had just arrived. Even if I could not see, my senses captured some movements in the air.

A moment later, my vision slightly cleared and I was able to see shadows once again.

I blinked as I tried to recognize the figure of my savior.

It looked like Lord Lan.

I did not expect that he was that fast. In just a short while, he had managed to completely incapacitate the assassin and held him by the neck. I barely even saw anything, and I really wanted to know how he had finished off the assassin so easily.

“Who sent you?” Lord Lan grunted.

The assassin did not answer, and then I heard the sound of a dying breath. I knew then that the assassin had bitten off a poisonous pill. It was what hired assassins do to end their life when they failed their job, rather than subject themselves to interrogation and torture.

Furiously, Lord Lan tossed the corpse across the ground. “Search him and find out who sent him,” he ordered.

I did not even notice that there were other people around us already.

He quickly came to me and slowly turned me around. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Although my whole body felt numb, I felt no pain so I nodded.

He was about to haul me up when he fondled at something on my back. “Your spine is dislocated,” he said as his fingers gently traced the length of my spine. “Are your feet numb?”

I tried to move my legs and realized that I had lost sensation in my lower body.

The realization froze me. It felt like the world had crumbled down on me yet once again.

After losing my sight, now I’m half-paralyzed?

Why didn’t I just die?

“Don’t worry, it’s only temporary,” he said. “A bone just slipped out of place. We can easily fix that.”

I breathed out my relief.

I hoped he was telling the truth.

He repositioned his arms before he slowly lifted me.

I stiffened, my face and ears turning hot.

How could he carry me like a woman? Right in front of these people?

But without my voice, I could not complain. I could not even move. I could only shake my head.

“What?” he asked.

I shook my head again.

He sighed and continued walking with me lying in his arms. “It’s my fault. I should have asked one of my disciples to escort you. Who would have thought that the traitors lurking in this palace are easily threatened by an unknown alchemist from an unknown sect? They’re pathetic.”

He was an intelligent man. I suspected that he understood my silent protest too well but played dumb by intentionally misinterpreting my real concern.

A carriage stopped before us and Lord Lan carefully settled me on the couch. He sat beside me, his arms across my back, supporting me from falling. He even pulled my head to rest on his shoulder and gently brushed my hair backward with his fingers.

It was awkward in all aspects. He was treating me like I was a fragile woman who needed that much extra care and attention. I suspected that he was doing so intentionally just to tease me, and it made me feel uncomfortable instead of being thankful.