Chapter 704: His Highness Duke of Qin’s reward 1 (1/2)

Chapter 704: His Highness Duke of Qin’s reward (1)

After setting out, Long Feiye asked Han Yunxi, “Aren’t you going to ask your lordship for your reward yet?”

It was a glorious honor to earn a prize from him, yet this woman had forgotten? She even needed him to remind her personally? If any of His Highness Duke of Qin’s admirers heard of this, Han Yunxi might die from all their jealous glares.

Although Han Yunxi had really been too busy to remember, she was smart enough to amend, “Your Highness Duke of Qin’s words once spoken cannot be taken back even by a team of four horses. You’ll definitely award a prize like you said you would. If chenqie pestered you after that, wouldn’t it be calling my trust in your lordship into question?”

Long Feiye knew she was playing sly, but he quite enjoyed her “flattery.” He played with the strands of her hair lovingly and laughed out loud. “Just wait for a grand prize.”

“How grand?” Han Yunxi’s heart was moved. In truth, she’d been utterly spoilt by Long Feiye. His awards were probably the only things she found worthy in this world.

“Very grand. Be patient and wait.” Long Feiye finally seized a chance to whet Han Yunxi’s appetite, but instead of pursuing the subject, she simply smile.

“Alright, I’ll be waiting with anticipation.”

Just like that?

It wasn’t that she wasn’t curious, but that she knew he was goading her on and wouldn’t reveal the surprise. Instead of wondering, she might as well wait! He’d never disappointed her, after all. Very soon, she was leaning against Long Feiye’s shoulder and falling asleep. Or rather, she appeared to be unconscious, but was actually training in her poison storage space. This was completely different from cultivation of internal energy practiced by martial artists, because the poison storage space required mental training from her mind. Access and use of the space depleted that same energy.

Actually, Han Yunxi’s training speed already far surpassed that of the original blood heirs of the poison storage spaces in the Poison Sect of the past. Yet she still felt that her speed was lacking. Ever since meeting the poisons expert at Lost Void Lake, she was more determined than ever to push forward. No matter whether the stranger was the head of the Hundred Poisons Sect or a descendent of the Poison Sect–or even another expert entirely–she couldn’t afford to be careless. She wasn’t of much help to Long Feiye in other matters, but she had to make sure he was safe on the poisons front.

Long Feiye tilted his head to look at Han Yunxi and saw that she wasn’t curious at all since she fell asleep so quickly. I really can’t do a thing when it comes to this woman, he thought helplessly.

Their carriage took them north and quickly reached East Jing Prefecture. It was under rule of Tianan Country and acted as a buffer between their capital and the south central regions. The East Jing River ran east to west across its lands. Although the saying went that you had to pass through East Jing to reach the City of Daughters, it was more accurate to say that you had to use the East Jing River to reach their domain. Following along the river would easily take you to the gorge in its center that concealed the mercenary center.

Long Feiye had long prepared a large louchuan (楼船), or floating fortress boat. He and Han Yunxi brought the carriage onboard with them to head downstream. Endless sights of impressive canyons and gorges followed them along the way. The duo stood on deck surveying the river and surrounding green mountains. From the scenery alone, they could guess that the City of Daughters would be a lovely place.

“Long Feiye, have you gone there before?” Han Yunxi asked.

“I haven’t.”

Thus, he had arranged for subordinates to mark out a pathway first and prepare the ship. This way, even their maiden voyage there would be clear cut.

“A walled and moated city hidden within the lofty mountains. It’s certainly a good spot to maintain an army,” Han Yunxi remarked.

Both the City of Daughters and Carefree City were mercenary centers that gathered hired killers. The former favored females, while the latter preferred males. Both cities were filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers, either independent mercenaries who worked on their own or powerful assassin clans. The Leng Clan and Qi Clan who ruled over each were from Cloud Realm Continent’s oldest families of killers. Han Yunxi knew that Long Feiye wouldn’t have come here without ample preparation. Still, she was stunned by the breadth of his measures once they reached the entrance to the City of Daughters.

The gates to the city, located high up in the mountains, were tightly shut. Dozens of bodies lined the entrance in three rows. All of them had been the poison victims collected from Lost Void Lake. Behind the bodies were three teams of people and horses. Two teams were dressed in black and obviously part of an organization, while the last was a scraggly collection of people in different garb that formed a scattered whole.

Atop the city, Lady Leng Yue stood at the head of a massive crowd to confront the three groups below. Han Yunxi looked closer and grew even more stunned. She could recognize some of the black-robed figures below. Wasn’t the group on the left Long Feiye’s strongest swordsmen from his shadow guards? There were about 50 of them, all hand-picked from Celestial Mountain disciples by Long Feiye himself to be personally trained. The ten leading the pack were there in a previous face-off against Duanmu Yao. They were famous names even within Celestial Mountain Sword Sect.

Meanwhile, the group on the right numbered about 30. Although they too were dressed in black robes, the symbol sewn onto their backs belonged to the Qi Clan from Carefree City! In fact, Han Yunxi even saw Qi Yaotian–the assassin who’d tried to attack them with bats in the past–amongst them. Qi Yaotian was the future city lord heir to Carefree City. His strength was extraordinary. But despite this, he didn’t stand out much from the other members of his group–perhaps somewhere around the middling rank. In other words, it was clear that the Carefree City’s team of 30 had at least half of its members with stronger skills than Qi Yaotian himself. If the leader of their group wasn’t wearing such ordinary clothes, she might have thought the Carefree City’s city lord had joined the fray as well.

“You’ve collaborated with Carefree City!” she exclaimed.

“No, your lordship is merely employing them,” Long Feiye said coldly. A collaboration meant giving up profits and dividing the spoils, but hiring help merely meant one only had to pay them for their work.

“The top three elders of Carefree City’s Qi Clan, as well as the eldest son of the firstborn wife, have come along with a few elders of other assassin clans. This battle will be sensational,” Long Feiye smiled happily.