WJ Chapter 2

Shiwei (2)

What Ah Ku hadn’t expected was that the leader of the Zhuhuo Guards merely lowered his head in thought for a few moments, then stepped aside with apparent understanding, clearing the path. “Since that’s the case, please proceed, Protector. This subordinate will immediately send someone to report to the Sect Leader. I’m sure there won’t be any major issues.”

“That’s more like it.” Guan Wujue laughed once. “This Protector will go ahead first. You all continue guarding the city. The weather has been cold these past few days—you must not slack off in the slightest.”

With that, he squeezed his horse’s flanks with both legs, and the fiery red steed shot forward like an arrow, instantly disappearing before the dark city gate.

Shielded by walls on four sides that blocked the cold wind, Xifeng City was considerably warmer inside. The city’s main roads were well-paved, with halls and pavilions arranged in rows. Every ten or so steps, a torch was lit, creating an extremely solemn atmosphere. The Zhuyin Sect members encountered along the way all bowed their heads in salute upon seeing Guan Wujue.

“Protector Daren, why did those Zhuhuo Guards just now… how did they let us in so easily?”

Even now, Ah Ku still couldn’t quite believe they had entered the city so effortlessly.

This was Xifeng City of the Zhuyin Sect, known throughout the martial world as “the most difficult to attack.” The city was guarded by elite Zhuhuo Guards trained by the sect’s Ghost Gate. Yet they had truly let people through just because of a few words from Guan Wujue?

Guan Wujue said, “Because he knew that if he didn’t let me enter the city, I would force my way through. Since he couldn’t defeat me, why invite suffering upon himself?”

Such reasoning naturally couldn’t satisfy Ah Ku. “But…”

“Fool.” Guan Wujue shook his head, thinking to himself that this little medicine servant he’d brought back was rather too simple-minded.

However, thinking from another angle, since this person was prepared to serve at the Sect Leader’s side, having a simple mind wasn’t necessarily bad. With this thought, he felt somewhat satisfied and rarely took the patience to explain slowly:

“Do you think these several-zhang-high city walls of Xifeng City and the hundreds of Zhuhuo Guards stationed here are for what purpose? They’re meant to defend against large armies and invasions, not provocations from one or two martial arts masters. The Sect Leader is very merciful to his own people—when these Zhuhuo Guards cannot stop someone, he never makes them throw their lives away in vain.”

Ah Ku made a sound of half-understanding.

“You still don’t understand…” Guan Wujue tilted his head with a lazy smile, the ends of his bound long hair scattering across his shoulders with the movement. The slight curve at the corner of his lips, perfectly blended between the light of torches on both sides and the drifting snow fragments, created an almost bewitching beauty.

“Xifeng City is nothing like those mundane cities. In worldly cities, the defending soldiers are the only barrier—when the city falls, the common people inside become lambs awaiting slaughter. But this Xifeng City doesn’t house ordinary citizens. Not to mention the Sect Leader with his world-conquering divine arts, just the nearly hundred Yin Ghosts of the Ghost Gate, nearly thousand Zhuhuo Guards, the Left and Right Envoys, and the two Great Elders—they’re all within the city.

“By letting me in, they’ll immediately report this matter to the sect. If those above feel it’s inappropriate, the sect will naturally send someone to capture you and me.”

Only then did Ah Ku understand, sincerely sighing. “I see… The main sect truly is different. It’s Ah Ku who was too foolish.”

Guan Wujue had only made a casual mocking remark earlier, yet this person seriously began self-reflection, his tone full of careful guilt and panic.

Guan Wujue narrowed his eyes and glanced at him, his voice lowering and becoming somewhat indistinct in the piercing wind. “That’s not entirely it either. The matter of returning to the sect without permission could be big or small. The biggest reason the Zhuhuo Guards let us pass so easily is that… they don’t know how exactly the Sect Leader ‘dispatched’ the Four Directions Protector to leave the main sect a year ago.”

He placed one hand over his chest, fingers slowly sliding down, as if tracing an old scar.

“Heh, if they knew that I had taken over twenty lashes from the Sect Leader’s Bone-Crushing Whip back then, and rolled out of Xifeng City barely breathing… they probably wouldn’t tolerate such insolence from me again.”

….

This Xifeng City wasn’t particularly large, but it wasn’t small either. There was quite a distance from the city gate to Sect Leader Yun Changliu’s Yangxin Hall, and even farther to the Sect Leader’s place of seclusion—the Wolong Platform atop the mountain, perpetually covered in snow.

Now that Yun Changliu was in closed-door cultivation, Guan Wujue, after brief consideration, decided to first take Ah Ku back to his own residence. At least there, this delicate medicine servant without internal energy to ward off the cold wouldn’t freeze. After all, using internal energy to protect another person all this way was too draining—Guan Wujue was already beginning to feel somewhat taxed.

He followed his memory as he rode forward, but when the familiar small residence came into view, his expression suddenly darkened.

The place had completely changed.

A year ago, this place had been filled with the finest cinnabar plum trees. Now should have been the perfect season for blooming, yet all that met the eye was a scene of destroyed dead branches and withered twigs. The plaque bearing the three characters “Qingjue Residence,” personally written by the Sect Leader, had fallen and rolled in the dust, seemingly still bearing a few dark footprints. In its place hung a bright golden plaque reading “Shuiyue Hall,” polished to a brilliant shine and gleaming with luster.

Guan Wujue stared motionlessly at the scene before him, as if momentarily stunned.

For a moment, his face suddenly turned deathly pale, a look of suppressed pain flashing across it, as if he were enduring some intense agony.

After several moments, he silently exhaled, closing his eyes. Ah Ku anxiously touched his fingers, “Protector Daren, you…?”

“It’s nothing. Come with me.”

Guan Wujue opened his eyes, his expression having returned to normal. He dismounted with Ah Ku and walked forward with a cold face. Four sword-bearing maidservants in pink skirts stood before what had once been a very quiet entrance. Upon seeing him, they immediately burst into chattering laughter, their slender fingers pointing and gesturing, their mockery unconcealed, their voices coquettish:

“Look, look, look, the homeless cur is coming our way.”

“What Four Directions Protector—reduced to losing even his own residence.”

“Hehe, how pitiful…”

Following this, as if echoing these maidservants, silvery laughter rang out from within the gate, and a maiden as beautiful as a painting emerged. Her black hair was arranged in a topknot, a red flower ornament adorned her forehead, a white fox fur draped her shoulders, and her cherry-pink long dress swayed gracefully. Silks and jade ornaments around her body gleamed with brilliance, making the already captivating maiden appear even more enchantingly beautiful.

Upon seeing Guan Wujue, the maiden pretended to be greatly surprised, leaning prettily against the main gate. “Oh my, isn’t this Protector Guan? How did Protector Daren come here? Don’t tell me you’ve mistaken this young lady’s Shuiyue Hall for your Qingjue Residence? Such a pity—Brother Changliu gifted this place to this young lady a year ago. You can’t live here anymore.”

“Wujue greets Miss Chanjuan.”

Guan Wujue stepped forward again, as if he hadn’t heard the sarcasm in Yun Chanjuan’s words or the maidservants’ laughter, bowing with composed expression.

This made Yun Chanjuan frown.

She seemed determined to see humiliation on this young Four Directions Protector’s face. Suddenly raising her eyebrows with a smile, she said, “Guan Wujue, you needn’t worry. Since Protector Daren has returned to the sect, my Brother Changliu will surely arrange other accommodations for you—”

Guan Wujue said nothing, only looking at her calmly.

Yun Chanjuan seemed greatly surprised as she raised her hand to cover half her red lips. “What? Could it be—Sect Leader Brother forgot? Oh dear, this is problematic…”

She frowned with apparent distress, then suddenly clapped her hands. Her dark, starry eyes lit up as she smiled sweetly. “Ah, that’s right! I remember there’s a servant named Ah Ji in this Shuiyue Hall who went out yesterday to purchase supplies. Why don’t you, Protector Guan, humble yourself temporarily and stay in his room? Though it might not be as comfortable as Qingjue Residence, it should still be quite nice. You mustn’t be disdainful—come, come, if Protector Guan can’t find the place, this young lady wouldn’t be unwilling to show great mercy and point you in the right direction.”

Such humiliation was truly unbearable. The four pink-skirted maidservants began snickering and gesturing again.

Ah Ku uneasily looked toward Guan Wujue, only to see him suddenly chuckle softly and shake his head with a light sigh. “That won’t be necessary. Miss possesses such magnanimity, willing to live in quarters left behind by a subordinate expelled from the main sect. Wujue truly cannot compare.”

This seemingly light remark carried tremendous power.

The smugness on Yun Chanjuan’s face immediately froze into a twisted expression.

“Guan Wujue! You—you insolent madman!”

The maiden’s beautiful face flushed red with a “whoosh.” Who was she? The half-sister of Zhuyin Sect Leader Yun Changliu, a pampered young miss accustomed to having others submit to her scolding and beating. When had she ever suffered such mockery?

Yun Chanjuan was furious beyond measure. She reached for her waist and with a “swoosh” drew out a rouge-colored soft whip. With a crack in the cold wind, her willow eyebrows standing on end, she scolded. “Truly a born rebel, traitor, lowly wretch! A year ago, it was Sect Leader Brother’s mercy that didn’t have you whipped to death. Today you dare return, so I’ll teach you the power of your young lady’s whip!”

Before the words finished, the whip whistled through the air, striking mercilessly toward Guan Wujue’s face.

Guan Wujue’s lips curved slightly. His left hand pushed Ah Ku backward, his right palm rose, and his pale, slender fingers closed together. With a sharp “crack,” the rouge soft whip was firmly grasped in his hand, held as if by iron pincers. No matter how Yun Chanjuan cried out in shock and struggled to pull with all her strength in shame and anger, it wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Miss, please conduct yourself with dignity.”

Guan Wujue sneered coldly. His stern gaze swept over the maidservants who intended to step forward to rescue their mistress, frightening these four young girls into trembling and not daring to advance. “The Sect Leader’s whip techniques are naturally exquisite, but unfortunately, Miss’s way of using the whip is quite poor. Playing around with these servant girls on ordinary days is fine….but trying to discipline Wujue is truly far from adequate.”