When I was still a confused and ignorant Flower, I could count the number of smiles people gave me on one hand.
Whenever anyone smiled at me, I would feel immense joy.
Even after my hands became dyed red with blood, people would still smile at me.
But whenever I saw those smiles, I would only feel pain.
The people who have smiled at me, did you know you were smiling at a death god?
—Gong Hua
I will never leave you…
Yin Qie Zi’s eyes flew open, but the assassin with the injured left eye was already gone. He wanted to sit up, but the action pulled at his wound. He felt a wave of searing pain from his left shoulder; his wound had torn open again.
After enduring the pain for a moment, he sat up with some difficulty. When he saw his appearance, he took a sudden gasp of breath. He felt like his heart was seized in an icy grip… someone had already changed his clothes.
Did they know?
During his moment of panic, the door opened and Fenny came in holding a candle. When she saw Yin Qie Zi was awake, she went around the room lighting up the candles. She then smiled at Yin Qie Zi and said, “I’ll pour you a glass of water.”
Yin Qie Zi felt thirsty and gladly took the glass Fenny offered him. After he drained the glass, he handed it back to Fenny. He then asked, with slight desperation in his voice, “Does everyone know?”
“Miss Mila, Young Master Owen, Yehv, and I know.” Fenny’s reply was very concise, but then she went on to explain. “When Yehv was examining your wounds, he felt something was wrong. He immediately covered you up. After reporting to Young Master, he brought you to this room. After that, only I helped you change your clothes. No one else saw you naked.”
Even though he heard what Fenny said, Yin Qie Zi felt everything was hopeless. He buried his head between his knees and quietly said, “Get out.”
Fenny hesitated for a moment, but then replied, “Yes.”
Yin Qie Zi’s heart was chaotic. What was he going to do now? Should he make up a reason and lie his way through? But West must have already told his son and daughter things about him. Did that mean he had to give up on his revenge…?
“Yin Qie Zi!” Owen shoved the door open.
He raised his head to look at Owen. Yin Qie Zi was immediately reminded of the fact that he had waited 20 years for his revenge. If he didn’t act now, all his efforts would’ve been for naught… Perhaps he could change to it assassinating Owen?
Just when the thought formed in his head, Yehv and Fenny followed Owen into the room. He was injured, Owen wasn’t a weakling, and now there was also Yehv and Fenny. It was obvious he had no chance of winning!
What to do? What could he do?
“Don’t, don’t cry Yin Qie Zi. What does a grown man like you… Oh!”
Owen was flustered. He had originally wanted to say “what does a grown man have to cry about,” but he wasn’t even sure if the other was a man. Owen was at a loss for words. He had no clue what to say.
Finally, Owen managed to force out a sentence, “Yin Qie Zi, don’t worry. We would never tell your secret to other people.”
“Don’t talk about it!”
Hearing Owen’s words, Yin Qie Zi grasped onto the thread of hope and turned to face Owen. “You’re not allowed to tell anyone, inclu-including your father…and Prince Edward. They’re not allowed to know!”
Owen had never seen Yin Qie Zi act this frenzied. In his mind, Yin Qie Zi was always the definition of calm and mysterious. He could only continue to promise the other, “Alright, I won’t tell them. No one will tell them.”
After hearing that, Yin Qie Zi finally stopped panicking and incredulously asked, “Really?”
“Really.” Owen scratched his face and honestly said, “In truth, Mila had already warned us that we couldn’t tell anyone else.”
Mila? Yin Qie Zi was taken aback; he couldn’t help but feel grateful to Mila’s attentiveness. But just when he was feeling grateful, he thought that if Mila was protecting his secret…she could also end up ruining her own life.
How ironic.
“But can you tell me exactly why your body is like this?” Owen couldn’t resist asking.
Yin Qie Zi was silent, but there was no point to hiding it anymore. He openly admitted, “I’m not human.”
Owen suddenly remembered that Yin Qie Zi had Leaf ancestry, and exclaimed, “Then you’re a Leaf?”
Yehv opened his mouth at this moment to explain, “Young Master, I don’t think that’s the case. The Leaves have the same body anatomy as humans.”
“Oh!” Owen realized his mistake and stopped recklessly guessing. Instead, he watched Yin Qie Zi. Although he didn’t want to pressure the other into answering, he couldn’t stifle his own curiosity.
Yin Qie Zi took in several deep breaths, and finally opened his mouth. “Owen, has Mila ever told you anything about the ‘Flower’?”
“Flower?” Owen was struck dumb, but then he remembered. “You mean the Leaf Tribe’s guardian spirit… Ah! It couldn’t be?”
Owen stared disbelievingly at Yin Qie Zi, the latter nodded his head reluctantly to affirm the other’s suspicions.
“I’m a Flower… A Flower that has been abandoned by the Leaf Tribe.”
After hearing those words, Owen became even more curious and wanted to know everything. However, Yin Qie Zi said they had to wait for Mila to come before he would explain, because he didn’t want to explain twice. So Owen could only wait obediently until Mila had woken up and finished dressing before he asked Fenny to go pick her up.
Owen was very impatient to listen to Yin Qie Zi’s explanation, but when Mila came into the room, the first thing she said was, “Brother, let’s eat breakfast first! Yin Qie Zi is heavily injured. We should let him replenish his nutrients.”
Owen stared for moment, but quickly replied, “You’re right! Yehv, quickly, go prepare breakfast. We can eat in the room!”
“Yes.”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head, “You guys can eat. I’ll just have some fruit-leaf.”
Mila immediately opposed his decision, “No, that’s not enough! You need to replenish your nutrients—”
“I only need water,” Yin Qie Zi cut in, “Other types of food will only cause me more trouble.”
Mila, surprised, asked puzzledly, “I don’t understand what you mean.”
Owen quickly explained, “Mila, Yin Qie Zi said he’s a Flower.”
“Flower?” Mila revealed a confused expression, but then remembered what a Flower was. Alarmed, she blurted out, “You’re the Leaf Tribe’s guardian spirit?”
Yin Qie Zi nodded his head, “I’m a Flower. In reality, I don’t even need to eat anything. I only need water. The fruit-leaf has a lot of water and it’s also very fresh.”
Mila was silent upon hearing Yin Qie Zi’s words. She then ordered, “Fenny, prepare a lot of fruit-leaves. Also, bring two jars of spirit medicine.”
“Yes.”
At this moment, Yin Qie Zi quietly said, “You don’t need to bring the spirit medicine. It has no effect on me. But my recovery speed is very fast, though not as fast as drinking spirit medicine.”
“So there are tradeoffs,” Owen muttered.
After that, Yehv and Fenny brought the food to the room. As everyone else was eating breakfast, Yin Qie Zi quickly ate some pieces of fruit-leaf. He then turned away from everyone and loosened the bandage on his shoulder. He examined his wound; it was as long as his pinkie, but it wasn’t very wide. The wound was already starting to close up.
Yehv’s voice came from behind him, “The weapon that hurt you wasn’t tipped with poison. It’s seems like the other person’s main goal wasn’t killing you.”
“Perhaps,” Yin Qie Zi coldly replied and began to retie the bandage.
“Let me help you.”
Yin Qie Zi immediately rejected the offer, “No, it’s fine.”
With his back to everyone, Yin Qie Zi’s hair started floating. A lock of hair picked up the bandage and swiftly began wrapping it around the wound. Seeing this, the whole room went quiet. Yin Qie Zi began recounting his story.
“The Leaf Tribe’s migration occurred around 20 years ago. Sometime before that happened, the Tree gave birth to me. But I don’t remember the exact time I was born. At that time, I was always sitting beneath the Tree. I had no concept of time, and I can only guess that I sat there for at least 50 years.”
Yin Qie Zi heard a gasp behind him, and he involuntarily paused in his story.
“Later, the Leaf Tribe began to migrate. At the beginning I followed them. I followed them until they reached the ocean. The Leaf Tribe all boarded a ship, but they didn’t allow me to get on. In the end, the ships all left. I was the only one left on the beach… They abandoned me.”
Owen blurted out, “Why did they abandon you? Aren’t you their guardian spirit?”
“I don’t know.”
“I know why,” Mila said quietly.
Yin Qie Zi was taken aback, he turned around, not caring that he was half-naked. He fixed his eyes confusedly at Mila.
“Although this seldom happens, there have definitely been records of this. When a spirit tree dies, the Flower it has given birth to will go mad and die. An insane Flower is extremely dangerous. They are capable of controlling plants, so the damage they can inflict is very great.”
Upon hearing those words, Yin Qie Zi was shocked to his core. It was the first time he had heard about this. He couldn’t speak for a long while. Finally, he said, “I, I definitely went crazy. But I didn’t die…” Though back then, he was in so much pain that he’d wanted to die.
Mila replied with an apologetic expression, “I don’t know why that would be. In the records, there was not a single case where it mentioned that the Flower lived while the Tree died.”
Although Yin Qie Zi didn’t know why he was still alive, he at least knew why the Leaf Tribe abandoned him. He would go crazy upon the Tree’s death, so the Leaf Tribe refused to bring him along. For the first time, Yin Qie Zi understood their reasons.
However, he didn’t know what to think upon hearing this reason. Should he thank them for abandoning him only because they were forced to, and not for no reason?
Even though he knew the Leaves were forced into their decision, Yin Qie Zi didn’t feel an ounce of happiness. Instead he wanted to cry, but he had no tears. He wanted to laugh manically at the tragedy of his life.
But he couldn’t even do that. He couldn’t scare Owen or Mila, and ruin his plans for revenge.
“Yin Qie Zi, can you really control plants?” Owen excitedly asked. “I want to see!”
Faced with those words, Yin Qie Zi’s heart was seized with pain. On the surface, all he did was quietly reply, “I lost my powers a long time ago. I don’t know why it happened and I don’t know how to restore them either.”
What he didn’t say was: If it wasn’t for the fact that he lost his power as a Flower, revenge wouldn’t be this difficult.
“You lost your powers?” Mila exclaimed. “How can that be?”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head; that was what he wanted to know the most. When had he first wanted to take revenge, he found out he had lost his powers. The despair he felt then almost drove him to insanity.
“I’ll go find out!” Mila pushed her wheelchair along, but found the movement too slow. Though she normally refrained from asking for help, this time she asked Fenny. “Fenny, quickly, take me to the library.”
“Of course, Miss.”
Seeing that Mila was so urgent to investigate things that didn’t even concern her, Yin Qie Zi couldn’t help but puzzledly ask, “Why would she—”
He stopped in the middle of his question. He suddenly remembered that he had once asked Litelli some ways on how to handle human relationships. Unfortunately, Litelli wasn’t someone who closely followed proper etiquette. All he had told Yin Qie Zi was to be cautious when it came to dealing with girls, especially when the topic was about relationships between men and women. If he didn’t have to talk about it, then avoid it.
If he asked a girl’s brother about why she cared about him, the question would not only pull in relationships with girls but also relationships between men and women. It did seem like not needing the answer meant he shouldn’t ask the question. Although, in reality, it wasn’t like he was an actual man.
Owen shrugged. He had originally wanted to put a hand on Yin Qie Zi’s shoulder, but when Owen saw that the other’s hair draped over his entire shoulder, he pulled his hand back. He then sternly said, “Alright! Since Mila left, let’s talk about the main problem here.”
“The main problem?” Yin Qie Zi asked, a little bewildered.
“That assassin yesterday, who is he?”
Yin Qie Zi was startled, but then coldly said, “That does not concern you.”
Owen’s face stiffened up, but he had known Yin Qie Zi for a year; just that wasn’t enough to make him give up. He indignantly growled at Yin Qie Zi, “He hurt my friend, of course it concerns me!”
Friend…
Yin Qie Zi stared. He turned his head away and maintained his cold attitude, “Even then, it still doesn’t concern you.”
Seeing Yin Qie Zi acting so distant, Owen became angry. He shouted, “Fine then! I won’t intervene in your business. But I refuse to watch my friend get killed in front of my own eyes! Starting today, you’re living in my house. You are not allowed to go anywhere without either Yehv or me accompanying you!
Yin Qie Zi was conflicted. Just moments ago, he thought his plans for revenge were hopeless, but now he was a step closer to achieving it.
When Yin Qie Zi didn’t reply, Owen thought he was against the idea. Owen immediately sternly added, “I am very serious about this! Even if I agree to let you go home, I can’t promise Mila will allow the same thing! She’s worried about you!”
Mila was worried about him? No matter the reason, it was a great opportunity to get closer to Mila.
Yin Qie Zi considered it, and said, “I want my servant here, and also my sword.”
When Litelli walked into the room, he exclaimed, “Wow, those are some heavy injuries.” That one sentence made Yin Qie Zi wonder if he made the right choice in calling Litelli here.
However, he didn’t have the option of being picky. The wound on his left shoulder needed time to heal, but there were pressing things he needed to take care of. If he was taking risks to live in this house, the security might become even tighter. It would be hard to get an opportunity alone with Mila.
After making sure there wasn’t anyone else hiding in the room, Litelli took off the veil that covered his face. He took off his cloak and the sword-case he had strapped to his back. He put the case on the bed.
Litelli was very thin and short, he was shorter by half a head when compared to Yin Qi Zi, who was only 170 centimeters. Even then, he couldn’t really be called short… Among his race, he was already considered tall.
Litelli belonged to the Servile Spirits Tribe. The members of his tribe were wanderers. They wander their whole life searching for physical spirits. The unique tribe’s only goal in life was to serve those spirits.
Although they were short, the Servile Spirits Tribe had a special characteristic: their skin emitted a faint light. The light was so faint that it could only be seen clearly if there was complete darkness. The color of light was also different for each individual, and depended on the kind of spirit they served.
It was day right now, and the light in the room was extremely bright. By theory, the light Litelli’s skin emitted shouldn’t be visible. However, in reality, the light around him was very prominent… Perhaps it wasn’t correct to call it a light; it was more like a thick black fog that wrapped around his body.
Litelli liked the unique black light that covered him and that was why he decided to serve Yin Qie Zi, the cause of this particular color. It didn’t matter if he had already lost his powers. At least that’s what Litelli told him. Yin Qie Zi never quite believed in those words, but he couldn’t find a better reason for why Litelli stuck around him.
“I brought your sword. But why did I have to personally bring it over?” Litelli tilted his head, and curiously said, “Master, you’re injured. And by law, as the servant, I should be attending to you. However, you don’t like people touching you at all. Even if I tried, there would be nothing for me to do. Not to mention I can’t even heal wounds. In the end, what did you call me here for?”
“I want you to go into town and find a man with a scar on his left eye.”
“Aha—” Litelli deliberately dragged out the last syllable. He sounded quite excited. “So he came to find you personally? Looks like he’s not a weakling! He even managed to injure you after all. But…what are you going to do when I find him? With you injured like this, you can’t possibly go and attempt to kill him, right? Oh! Or is it that you want me to kill him? That won’t work! We’ve already talked about this. You can order me to do anything, anything but killing!”
After listening to Litelli’s long-winded speech, Yin Qie Zi once again questioned his decision to call him over. Well, it didn’t matter if his decision was right or wrong, Litelli always came. Yin Qie Zi sighed, and said, “I know, I only want you to tell him something.”
“Oh?”
Yin Qie Zi took a deep breath, “Tell him that I’m in the middle of getting revenge. After I’m finished here, I will go find him. He can take his revenge on me then.”
Litelli couldn’t resist asking, “If you word it like that, it’s as if you know him—”
“Don’t ask!” Yin Qie Zi interrupted him and coldly said, “When you said you wanted to follow me, I gave you three rules.”
“Don’t ask questions. Don’t intervene in your business. If you tell me to get lost, I have to get lost. I know, I remember. I’ll follow them, you don’t have to remind me!” Litelli smoothly recited, and then continued speaking, “However, I have something I want to tell you. But you said not to intervene in your business, so do I tell you or not? This is a very difficult choice! Don’t you agree?”
“You have something to tell me?” Yin Qie Zi frowned, and asked, “You or your tribe?”
The Litelli he knew ususlly wasn’t someone who would take the initiative and do something. Whenever he did, it was always because he found something amusing and wanted to add fuel to the fire.
What Litelli considered amusing was always the opposite of everyone else. What he found amusing, other people always found unpleasant.
“Of course it’s me.” Litelli then said in a mocking voice, “Master, it’s enough that you don’t have your powers anymore. Now your ears aren’t working either?”
Yin Qie Zi only coldly stared at him, “If you have something to say then say it!”
“Master, do you know of the peace treaty the Country of Zhan Yan signed with the Danya People 20 years ago?”
“I do,” Yin Qie Zi quietly replied.
“In the peace treaty, there’s a line that says that every year, both sides have to exchange a gift as a symbol of peace. In this way, both sides can confirm that the other still wants peace. This time, the gift exchanging ceremony is just 10 days away!”
Litelli then exaggeratedly sighed, “According to my sources! The Danya People’s gift is the typical big pile of special spirits and gems.”
Yin Qie Zi listened indifferently, he didn’t care about this sort of news. Litelli understood him and knew that he didn’t have any interest in them. So he wouldn’t talk about them without a reason. The point to all this was definitely coming up.
Litelli smiled widely and asked, “Master, do you know what the Country of Zhan Yan is bringing?”
“I don’t know.” Yin Qie Zi quietly replied.
The gift had to be something he was interested in; otherwise Litelli wouldn’t especially tell him. He was slightly interested in the answer; the only problem was that Litelli had an eccentric personality. The more people wanted to know, the more he would tease them. So the best way to get an answer out of him was to act indifferently.
Although Yin Qie Zi was acting disinterested, Litelli knew once he said his answer, Yin Qie Zi would definitely become interested. With slightly malicious tone, he declared, “The gift is ten Leaf slaves.”
Yin Qie Zi opened his eyes widely and lightly said, “How is that possible? The Leaf Tribe has all migrated to the continent Jun De.”
Litelli shrugged and said, “The Human Tribe and the Danya Tribe were always interested in having Leaf slaves. But the Leaves are a self-sufficient tribe; they almost never come out of the forest. It’s not easy for the Human Tribe or the Danya Tribe to capture them. But! Shipbuilding and sailing for long distances are not things you can learn overnight. The Leaves would have to step out of the forest and exchange materials and knowledge with other tribes. The Leaves that were captured during those times are definitely not small in number! The Leaf Lord was so anxious that he ordered the Leaves to not leave the forest without at least 20 companions.”
“Leaf Lord… Who’s that?”
Litelli stared and then blurted out, “You don’t know?”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head.
“This is unbelievable! Really unbelievable!” Litelli shouted in an exaggerated disbelieving tone, “You’re the guardian Flower, yet you don’t even know who the Leaf Lord is? You call yourself a Flower? The Leaf Lord is equivalent to the king of the Human Tribe!”
Hearing that, Yin Qie Zi’s face immediately darkened.
“Wait, wait, if it’s like that…” Litelli frowned, and muttered, “I seem to have heard the name ‘Yin Qie Zi’ before.”
Yin Qie Zi rolled his eyes. Shouldn’t it be more than just heard? Wasn’t he sitting in front of him right now?
“Not you! I’ve heard the name long before I’ve met you.”
Yin Qie Zi was already used to hearing Litelli’s disrespectful tone. However, that didn’t mean it was the same for everyone else. If Owen were to hear Litelli acting so impertinent even though he was the servant, Owen would surely explode in anger. Yin Qie Zi couldn’t refrain from saying, “I’m not interested in these kinds of things! Why don’t you just go do what I’ve ordered you…”
Suddenly, Litelli let out a loud “aha” and then shouted, “I remember! It’s the Leaf Lord’s name. That’s right! Yin Qie Zi is the Leaf Lord’s name! Jeez, you’re even using his name. Why did you pretend to be stupid and say you didn’t know who the Leaf Lord is?”
Litelli fixed Yin Qie Zi with a questioning stare. With a cold expression, Yin Qie Zi explained clearly to the other that he truly did not know who the Leaf Lord was. Also, he didn’t know that he was using the same name as the Leaf Lord’s.
“What? You really didn’t know?” Litelli softened his voice, and asked, “This can’t be just a coincidence, right?”
Yin Qie Zi was silent for a moment. He then said, “I’ve seen him before, but I didn’t know he was the Leaf Lord. I don’t even remember what he looks like anymore. Although I do remember he had a head of silvery-purple hair. It was very beautiful.”
Yin Qie Zi closed his eyes; he could still see the head of silvery-purple hair in his mind… He then abruptly opened his eyes and growled at his servant, “It doesn’t matter who the name Yin Qie Zi belongs to. That’s not important! I needed an alias, and that name was the only one that came to mind at the time. It’s as simple as that! Now are you going to do the task I’ve asked you? If not, you might as well just get lost! And never come back!”
“I will, I will do it! I was only telling you the information that I spent ages to get! Then, I’m going?” Litelli said in an aggrieved tone.
Yin Qie Zi only coldly snorted.
Litelli walked towards the door, but as he was walking he couldn’t resist turning around and asking, “But do you really not care about those ten Leaf slaves? You’re their guardian Flower!”
Litelli curiously watched the silent Yin Qie Zi. Even though Litelli was normally impatient, this time, instead of urging the other to reply, he patiently waited for the other’s answer.
“I’m not; they’ve already abandoned me.”
After Yin Qie Zi finished speaking, he saw Litelli’s face fall slightly with disappointment. The latter picked up his cloak and veil, and after putting them on, he left the room.
Yin Qie Zi gazed at the empty door for a long while after Litelli left. He turned around, and when he did, he saw the Xialan flowers blooming outside the window. It was the national flower of the Country of Zhan Yan. Looking at those flowers, he couldn’t resist opening his mouth and calling, “Come, come to my side…”
The Xialan flowers gently shook. Yin Qie Zi was shocked, and a glimmer of hope immediately appeared in his heart. However, no matter how he called them afterwards, the flowers never moved.
Just then, one of the curtains started floating. A gentle breeze blew into the room, bringing with it a wave of cool air.
Was it the wind that moved them earlier? Yin Qie Zi stopped calling the flowers and stood quietly for a moment. He then opened the sword-case that was lying on the bed. An ornately decorated sword lay inside the case. Numerous mysterious and beautiful incantations were etched onto the blade and the hilt. The incantations were not simply for decoration; they each had a purpose. Some could gather spirits, some could increase the sword’s speed, and others could increase the speed of chain cutting. Besides the incantations, the cold and sharp ends of the double-edged sword showed that it wasn’t just a piece of decoration.
Holding up the sword, Yin Qie Zi picked up the greasing cloth from the case. He began oiling the blade, carefully maintaining its sharpness.
“Yin Qie Zi,” Owen knocked the door open, an urgent expression on his face. When he saw the sword in Yin Qie Zi’s hands though, all his thoughts flew out the window. Instead, he kept showering praise after praise about the sword, “Wow! That is one beautiful sword. Where’d you get it?”
“Nightclaw,” Yin Qie Zi said as he continued wiping the blade. “He…gave me the sword, as one of the conditions for not killing him.”
“Nightclaw? Is that someone’s name?” Owen questioned.
“No, it’s a physical spirit… Forget it.”
Just by looking at Owen, Yin Qie Zi knew that the other didn’t know much about physical spirits. He was too lazy to explain, so he only shook his head and said, “It’s something that happened a long time ago. I still had my powers then. I was able to defeat another physical spirit, and got this sword in return.”
“If you say it like that, then the other spirit must be extremely strong?” As a spiritmancer, Owen couldn’t help wanting to compare notes with the other.
Yin Qie Zi quietly replied, “If I meet Nightclaw now, I would probably be killed in a flash.”
Owen was shocked and quickly asked, “He won’t come to Qi Feng just to kill you, right? Ah… It can’t be that he was the assassin from last time?”
Hearing those words, Yin Qie Zi immediately snapped, “If that was him, then I would be dead! I wouldn’t even be here listening to you spout idiotic theories. Moreover, if he really came, it wouldn’t be just my problem; it would also be His Majesty the King’s problem! That guy always has a pack of 50 beasts around him.”
“Oh, so he isn’t human.” Owen awkwardly scratched his face.
Yin Qie Zi felt he went a little overboard. No matter what, Owen was only worried about him. He silently handed Owen the sword in his hands. “The wound on my shoulder is making this difficult. You can help me grease it.”
Owen’s eyes immediately brightened and shouted, “Definitely!”
Since Owen was wiping the sword, Yin Qie Zi had nothing to do. He moved to sit on the bed, and after a while, he asked, “Oh right, what were you going to say when you came in?”
“… Ah!”
After being prompted, Owen finally remembered what he came for. He quickly said, “Right, Mila told me to come here to warn you.”
“Warn me?” Yin Qie Zi was taken aback.
“Well, it’s not really a warning… Anyways… Uh, the peace offering the Country of Zhan Yan is giving to the Danya People this year is…” Owen spoke somewhat haltingly.
“Ten Leaf slaves. My servant already told me.” Yin Qie Zi quietly continued Owen’s sentence.
Owen awkwardly smiled, and quickly relayed what he was going to say. “Mila told me to tell you that, no matter what, you can’t attempt to rescue those ten Leaf slaves. Errors are not allowed in the peace ceremony between our country and the Danya People. Due to that, the security is extremely tight for those slaves. It’s not possible to rescue them!”
“Don’t call them slaves!”
Owen was surprised, but Yin Qie Zi quickly calmed down. In a steady voice, Yin Qie Zi said, “Don’t worry, I won’t rescue them. They abandoned me, so how can they expect me to go rescue them? Don’t you agree?”
Owen stared blankly at the other. He then forcefully nodded. “You’re right.”
When I was still a confused and ignorant Flower, I could count the number of smiles people gave me on one hand.
Whenever anyone smiled at me, I would feel immense joy.
Even after my hands became dyed red with blood, people would still smile at me.
But whenever I saw those smiles, I would only feel pain.
The people who have smiled at me, did you know you were smiling at a death god?
—Gong Hua
I will never leave you…
Yin Qie Zi’s eyes flew open, but the assassin with the injured left eye was already gone. He wanted to sit up, but the action pulled at his wound. He felt a wave of searing pain from his left shoulder; his wound had torn open again.
After enduring the pain for a moment, he sat up with some difficulty. When he saw his appearance, he took a sudden gasp of breath. He felt like his heart was seized in an icy grip… someone had already changed his clothes.
Did they know?
During his moment of panic, the door opened and Fenny came in holding a candle. When she saw Yin Qie Zi was awake, she went around the room lighting up the candles. She then smiled at Yin Qie Zi and said, “I’ll pour you a glass of water.”
Yin Qie Zi felt thirsty and gladly took the glass Fenny offered him. After he drained the glass, he handed it back to Fenny. He then asked, with slight desperation in his voice, “Does everyone know?”
“Miss Mila, Young Master Owen, Yehv, and I know.” Fenny’s reply was very concise, but then she went on to explain. “When Yehv was examining your wounds, he felt something was wrong. He immediately covered you up. After reporting to Young Master, he brought you to this room. After that, only I helped you change your clothes. No one else saw you naked.”
Even though he heard what Fenny said, Yin Qie Zi felt everything was hopeless. He buried his head between his knees and quietly said, “Get out.”
Fenny hesitated for a moment, but then replied, “Yes.”
Yin Qie Zi’s heart was chaotic. What was he going to do now? Should he make up a reason and lie his way through? But West must have already told his son and daughter things about him. Did that mean he had to give up on his revenge…?
“Yin Qie Zi!” Owen shoved the door open.
He raised his head to look at Owen. Yin Qie Zi was immediately reminded of the fact that he had waited 20 years for his revenge. If he didn’t act now, all his efforts would’ve been for naught… Perhaps he could change to it assassinating Owen?
Just when the thought formed in his head, Yehv and Fenny followed Owen into the room. He was injured, Owen wasn’t a weakling, and now there was also Yehv and Fenny. It was obvious he had no chance of winning!
What to do? What could he do?
“Don’t, don’t cry Yin Qie Zi. What does a grown man like you… Oh!”
Owen was flustered. He had originally wanted to say “what does a grown man have to cry about,” but he wasn’t even sure if the other was a man. Owen was at a loss for words. He had no clue what to say.
Finally, Owen managed to force out a sentence, “Yin Qie Zi, don’t worry. We would never tell your secret to other people.”
“Don’t talk about it!”
Hearing Owen’s words, Yin Qie Zi grasped onto the thread of hope and turned to face Owen. “You’re not allowed to tell anyone, inclu-including your father…and Prince Edward. They’re not allowed to know!”
Owen had never seen Yin Qie Zi act this frenzied. In his mind, Yin Qie Zi was always the definition of calm and mysterious. He could only continue to promise the other, “Alright, I won’t tell them. No one will tell them.”
After hearing that, Yin Qie Zi finally stopped panicking and incredulously asked, “Really?”
“Really.” Owen scratched his face and honestly said, “In truth, Mila had already warned us that we couldn’t tell anyone else.”
Mila? Yin Qie Zi was taken aback; he couldn’t help but feel grateful to Mila’s attentiveness. But just when he was feeling grateful, he thought that if Mila was protecting his secret…she could also end up ruining her own life.
How ironic.
“But can you tell me exactly why your body is like this?” Owen couldn’t resist asking.
Yin Qie Zi was silent, but there was no point to hiding it anymore. He openly admitted, “I’m not human.”
Owen suddenly remembered that Yin Qie Zi had Leaf ancestry, and exclaimed, “Then you’re a Leaf?”
Yehv opened his mouth at this moment to explain, “Young Master, I don’t think that’s the case. The Leaves have the same body anatomy as humans.”
“Oh!” Owen realized his mistake and stopped recklessly guessing. Instead, he watched Yin Qie Zi. Although he didn’t want to pressure the other into answering, he couldn’t stifle his own curiosity.
Yin Qie Zi took in several deep breaths, and finally opened his mouth. “Owen, has Mila ever told you anything about the ‘Flower’?”
“Flower?” Owen was struck dumb, but then he remembered. “You mean the Leaf Tribe’s guardian spirit… Ah! It couldn’t be?”
Owen stared disbelievingly at Yin Qie Zi, the latter nodded his head reluctantly to affirm the other’s suspicions.
“I’m a Flower… A Flower that has been abandoned by the Leaf Tribe.”
After hearing those words, Owen became even more curious and wanted to know everything. However, Yin Qie Zi said they had to wait for Mila to come before he would explain, because he didn’t want to explain twice. So Owen could only wait obediently until Mila had woken up and finished dressing before he asked Fenny to go pick her up.
Owen was very impatient to listen to Yin Qie Zi’s explanation, but when Mila came into the room, the first thing she said was, “Brother, let’s eat breakfast first! Yin Qie Zi is heavily injured. We should let him replenish his nutrients.”
Owen stared for moment, but quickly replied, “You’re right! Yehv, quickly, go prepare breakfast. We can eat in the room!”
“Yes.”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head, “You guys can eat. I’ll just have some fruit-leaf.”
Mila immediately opposed his decision, “No, that’s not enough! You need to replenish your nutrients—”
“I only need water,” Yin Qie Zi cut in, “Other types of food will only cause me more trouble.”
Mila, surprised, asked puzzledly, “I don’t understand what you mean.”
Owen quickly explained, “Mila, Yin Qie Zi said he’s a Flower.”
“Flower?” Mila revealed a confused expression, but then remembered what a Flower was. Alarmed, she blurted out, “You’re the Leaf Tribe’s guardian spirit?”
Yin Qie Zi nodded his head, “I’m a Flower. In reality, I don’t even need to eat anything. I only need water. The fruit-leaf has a lot of water and it’s also very fresh.”
Mila was silent upon hearing Yin Qie Zi’s words. She then ordered, “Fenny, prepare a lot of fruit-leaves. Also, bring two jars of spirit medicine.”
“Yes.”
At this moment, Yin Qie Zi quietly said, “You don’t need to bring the spirit medicine. It has no effect on me. But my recovery speed is very fast, though not as fast as drinking spirit medicine.”
“So there are tradeoffs,” Owen muttered.
After that, Yehv and Fenny brought the food to the room. As everyone else was eating breakfast, Yin Qie Zi quickly ate some pieces of fruit-leaf. He then turned away from everyone and loosened the bandage on his shoulder. He examined his wound; it was as long as his pinkie, but it wasn’t very wide. The wound was already starting to close up.
Yehv’s voice came from behind him, “The weapon that hurt you wasn’t tipped with poison. It’s seems like the other person’s main goal wasn’t killing you.”
“Perhaps,” Yin Qie Zi coldly replied and began to retie the bandage.
“Let me help you.”
Yin Qie Zi immediately rejected the offer, “No, it’s fine.”
With his back to everyone, Yin Qie Zi’s hair started floating. A lock of hair picked up the bandage and swiftly began wrapping it around the wound. Seeing this, the whole room went quiet. Yin Qie Zi began recounting his story.
“The Leaf Tribe’s migration occurred around 20 years ago. Sometime before that happened, the Tree gave birth to me. But I don’t remember the exact time I was born. At that time, I was always sitting beneath the Tree. I had no concept of time, and I can only guess that I sat there for at least 50 years.”
Yin Qie Zi heard a gasp behind him, and he involuntarily paused in his story.
“Later, the Leaf Tribe began to migrate. At the beginning I followed them. I followed them until they reached the ocean. The Leaf Tribe all boarded a ship, but they didn’t allow me to get on. In the end, the ships all left. I was the only one left on the beach… They abandoned me.”
Owen blurted out, “Why did they abandon you? Aren’t you their guardian spirit?”
“I don’t know.”
“I know why,” Mila said quietly.
Yin Qie Zi was taken aback, he turned around, not caring that he was half-naked. He fixed his eyes confusedly at Mila.
“Although this seldom happens, there have definitely been records of this. When a spirit tree dies, the Flower it has given birth to will go mad and die. An insane Flower is extremely dangerous. They are capable of controlling plants, so the damage they can inflict is very great.”
Upon hearing those words, Yin Qie Zi was shocked to his core. It was the first time he had heard about this. He couldn’t speak for a long while. Finally, he said, “I, I definitely went crazy. But I didn’t die…” Though back then, he was in so much pain that he’d wanted to die.
Mila replied with an apologetic expression, “I don’t know why that would be. In the records, there was not a single case where it mentioned that the Flower lived while the Tree died.”
Although Yin Qie Zi didn’t know why he was still alive, he at least knew why the Leaf Tribe abandoned him. He would go crazy upon the Tree’s death, so the Leaf Tribe refused to bring him along. For the first time, Yin Qie Zi understood their reasons.
However, he didn’t know what to think upon hearing this reason. Should he thank them for abandoning him only because they were forced to, and not for no reason?
Even though he knew the Leaves were forced into their decision, Yin Qie Zi didn’t feel an ounce of happiness. Instead he wanted to cry, but he had no tears. He wanted to laugh manically at the tragedy of his life.
But he couldn’t even do that. He couldn’t scare Owen or Mila, and ruin his plans for revenge.
“Yin Qie Zi, can you really control plants?” Owen excitedly asked. “I want to see!”
Faced with those words, Yin Qie Zi’s heart was seized with pain. On the surface, all he did was quietly reply, “I lost my powers a long time ago. I don’t know why it happened and I don’t know how to restore them either.”
What he didn’t say was: If it wasn’t for the fact that he lost his power as a Flower, revenge wouldn’t be this difficult.
“You lost your powers?” Mila exclaimed. “How can that be?”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head; that was what he wanted to know the most. When had he first wanted to take revenge, he found out he had lost his powers. The despair he felt then almost drove him to insanity.
“I’ll go find out!” Mila pushed her wheelchair along, but found the movement too slow. Though she normally refrained from asking for help, this time she asked Fenny. “Fenny, quickly, take me to the library.”
“Of course, Miss.”
Seeing that Mila was so urgent to investigate things that didn’t even concern her, Yin Qie Zi couldn’t help but puzzledly ask, “Why would she—”
He stopped in the middle of his question. He suddenly remembered that he had once asked Litelli some ways on how to handle human relationships. Unfortunately, Litelli wasn’t someone who closely followed proper etiquette. All he had told Yin Qie Zi was to be cautious when it came to dealing with girls, especially when the topic was about relationships between men and women. If he didn’t have to talk about it, then avoid it.
If he asked a girl’s brother about why she cared about him, the question would not only pull in relationships with girls but also relationships between men and women. It did seem like not needing the answer meant he shouldn’t ask the question. Although, in reality, it wasn’t like he was an actual man.
Owen shrugged. He had originally wanted to put a hand on Yin Qie Zi’s shoulder, but when Owen saw that the other’s hair draped over his entire shoulder, he pulled his hand back. He then sternly said, “Alright! Since Mila left, let’s talk about the main problem here.”
“The main problem?” Yin Qie Zi asked, a little bewildered.
“That assassin yesterday, who is he?”
Yin Qie Zi was startled, but then coldly said, “That does not concern you.”
Owen’s face stiffened up, but he had known Yin Qie Zi for a year; just that wasn’t enough to make him give up. He indignantly growled at Yin Qie Zi, “He hurt my friend, of course it concerns me!”
Friend…
Yin Qie Zi stared. He turned his head away and maintained his cold attitude, “Even then, it still doesn’t concern you.”
Seeing Yin Qie Zi acting so distant, Owen became angry. He shouted, “Fine then! I won’t intervene in your business. But I refuse to watch my friend get killed in front of my own eyes! Starting today, you’re living in my house. You are not allowed to go anywhere without either Yehv or me accompanying you!
Yin Qie Zi was conflicted. Just moments ago, he thought his plans for revenge were hopeless, but now he was a step closer to achieving it.
When Yin Qie Zi didn’t reply, Owen thought he was against the idea. Owen immediately sternly added, “I am very serious about this! Even if I agree to let you go home, I can’t promise Mila will allow the same thing! She’s worried about you!”
Mila was worried about him? No matter the reason, it was a great opportunity to get closer to Mila.
Yin Qie Zi considered it, and said, “I want my servant here, and also my sword.”
When Litelli walked into the room, he exclaimed, “Wow, those are some heavy injuries.” That one sentence made Yin Qie Zi wonder if he made the right choice in calling Litelli here.
However, he didn’t have the option of being picky. The wound on his left shoulder needed time to heal, but there were pressing things he needed to take care of. If he was taking risks to live in this house, the security might become even tighter. It would be hard to get an opportunity alone with Mila.
After making sure there wasn’t anyone else hiding in the room, Litelli took off the veil that covered his face. He took off his cloak and the sword-case he had strapped to his back. He put the case on the bed.
Litelli was very thin and short, he was shorter by half a head when compared to Yin Qi Zi, who was only 170 centimeters. Even then, he couldn’t really be called short… Among his race, he was already considered tall.
Litelli belonged to the Servile Spirits Tribe. The members of his tribe were wanderers. They wander their whole life searching for physical spirits. The unique tribe’s only goal in life was to serve those spirits.
Although they were short, the Servile Spirits Tribe had a special characteristic: their skin emitted a faint light. The light was so faint that it could only be seen clearly if there was complete darkness. The color of light was also different for each individual, and depended on the kind of spirit they served.
It was day right now, and the light in the room was extremely bright. By theory, the light Litelli’s skin emitted shouldn’t be visible. However, in reality, the light around him was very prominent… Perhaps it wasn’t correct to call it a light; it was more like a thick black fog that wrapped around his body.
Litelli liked the unique black light that covered him and that was why he decided to serve Yin Qie Zi, the cause of this particular color. It didn’t matter if he had already lost his powers. At least that’s what Litelli told him. Yin Qie Zi never quite believed in those words, but he couldn’t find a better reason for why Litelli stuck around him.
“I brought your sword. But why did I have to personally bring it over?” Litelli tilted his head, and curiously said, “Master, you’re injured. And by law, as the servant, I should be attending to you. However, you don’t like people touching you at all. Even if I tried, there would be nothing for me to do. Not to mention I can’t even heal wounds. In the end, what did you call me here for?”
“I want you to go into town and find a man with a scar on his left eye.”
“Aha—” Litelli deliberately dragged out the last syllable. He sounded quite excited. “So he came to find you personally? Looks like he’s not a weakling! He even managed to injure you after all. But…what are you going to do when I find him? With you injured like this, you can’t possibly go and attempt to kill him, right? Oh! Or is it that you want me to kill him? That won’t work! We’ve already talked about this. You can order me to do anything, anything but killing!”
After listening to Litelli’s long-winded speech, Yin Qie Zi once again questioned his decision to call him over. Well, it didn’t matter if his decision was right or wrong, Litelli always came. Yin Qie Zi sighed, and said, “I know, I only want you to tell him something.”
“Oh?”
Yin Qie Zi took a deep breath, “Tell him that I’m in the middle of getting revenge. After I’m finished here, I will go find him. He can take his revenge on me then.”
Litelli couldn’t resist asking, “If you word it like that, it’s as if you know him—”
“Don’t ask!” Yin Qie Zi interrupted him and coldly said, “When you said you wanted to follow me, I gave you three rules.”
“Don’t ask questions. Don’t intervene in your business. If you tell me to get lost, I have to get lost. I know, I remember. I’ll follow them, you don’t have to remind me!” Litelli smoothly recited, and then continued speaking, “However, I have something I want to tell you. But you said not to intervene in your business, so do I tell you or not? This is a very difficult choice! Don’t you agree?”
“You have something to tell me?” Yin Qie Zi frowned, and asked, “You or your tribe?”
The Litelli he knew ususlly wasn’t someone who would take the initiative and do something. Whenever he did, it was always because he found something amusing and wanted to add fuel to the fire.
What Litelli considered amusing was always the opposite of everyone else. What he found amusing, other people always found unpleasant.
“Of course it’s me.” Litelli then said in a mocking voice, “Master, it’s enough that you don’t have your powers anymore. Now your ears aren’t working either?”
Yin Qie Zi only coldly stared at him, “If you have something to say then say it!”
“Master, do you know of the peace treaty the Country of Zhan Yan signed with the Danya People 20 years ago?”
“I do,” Yin Qie Zi quietly replied.
“In the peace treaty, there’s a line that says that every year, both sides have to exchange a gift as a symbol of peace. In this way, both sides can confirm that the other still wants peace. This time, the gift exchanging ceremony is just 10 days away!”
Litelli then exaggeratedly sighed, “According to my sources! The Danya People’s gift is the typical big pile of special spirits and gems.”
Yin Qie Zi listened indifferently, he didn’t care about this sort of news. Litelli understood him and knew that he didn’t have any interest in them. So he wouldn’t talk about them without a reason. The point to all this was definitely coming up.
Litelli smiled widely and asked, “Master, do you know what the Country of Zhan Yan is bringing?”
“I don’t know.” Yin Qie Zi quietly replied.
The gift had to be something he was interested in; otherwise Litelli wouldn’t especially tell him. He was slightly interested in the answer; the only problem was that Litelli had an eccentric personality. The more people wanted to know, the more he would tease them. So the best way to get an answer out of him was to act indifferently.
Although Yin Qie Zi was acting disinterested, Litelli knew once he said his answer, Yin Qie Zi would definitely become interested. With slightly malicious tone, he declared, “The gift is ten Leaf slaves.”
Yin Qie Zi opened his eyes widely and lightly said, “How is that possible? The Leaf Tribe has all migrated to the continent Jun De.”
Litelli shrugged and said, “The Human Tribe and the Danya Tribe were always interested in having Leaf slaves. But the Leaves are a self-sufficient tribe; they almost never come out of the forest. It’s not easy for the Human Tribe or the Danya Tribe to capture them. But! Shipbuilding and sailing for long distances are not things you can learn overnight. The Leaves would have to step out of the forest and exchange materials and knowledge with other tribes. The Leaves that were captured during those times are definitely not small in number! The Leaf Lord was so anxious that he ordered the Leaves to not leave the forest without at least 20 companions.”
“Leaf Lord… Who’s that?”
Litelli stared and then blurted out, “You don’t know?”
Yin Qie Zi shook his head.
“This is unbelievable! Really unbelievable!” Litelli shouted in an exaggerated disbelieving tone, “You’re the guardian Flower, yet you don’t even know who the Leaf Lord is? You call yourself a Flower? The Leaf Lord is equivalent to the king of the Human Tribe!”
Hearing that, Yin Qie Zi’s face immediately darkened.
“Wait, wait, if it’s like that…” Litelli frowned, and muttered, “I seem to have heard the name ‘Yin Qie Zi’ before.”
Yin Qie Zi rolled his eyes. Shouldn’t it be more than just heard? Wasn’t he sitting in front of him right now?
“Not you! I’ve heard the name long before I’ve met you.”
Yin Qie Zi was already used to hearing Litelli’s disrespectful tone. However, that didn’t mean it was the same for everyone else. If Owen were to hear Litelli acting so impertinent even though he was the servant, Owen would surely explode in anger. Yin Qie Zi couldn’t refrain from saying, “I’m not interested in these kinds of things! Why don’t you just go do what I’ve ordered you…”
Suddenly, Litelli let out a loud “aha” and then shouted, “I remember! It’s the Leaf Lord’s name. That’s right! Yin Qie Zi is the Leaf Lord’s name! Jeez, you’re even using his name. Why did you pretend to be stupid and say you didn’t know who the Leaf Lord is?”
Litelli fixed Yin Qie Zi with a questioning stare. With a cold expression, Yin Qie Zi explained clearly to the other that he truly did not know who the Leaf Lord was. Also, he didn’t know that he was using the same name as the Leaf Lord’s.
“What? You really didn’t know?” Litelli softened his voice, and asked, “This can’t be just a coincidence, right?”
Yin Qie Zi was silent for a moment. He then said, “I’ve seen him before, but I didn’t know he was the Leaf Lord. I don’t even remember what he looks like anymore. Although I do remember he had a head of silvery-purple hair. It was very beautiful.”
Yin Qie Zi closed his eyes; he could still see the head of silvery-purple hair in his mind… He then abruptly opened his eyes and growled at his servant, “It doesn’t matter who the name Yin Qie Zi belongs to. That’s not important! I needed an alias, and that name was the only one that came to mind at the time. It’s as simple as that! Now are you going to do the task I’ve asked you? If not, you might as well just get lost! And never come back!”
“I will, I will do it! I was only telling you the information that I spent ages to get! Then, I’m going?” Litelli said in an aggrieved tone.
Yin Qie Zi only coldly snorted.
Litelli walked towards the door, but as he was walking he couldn’t resist turning around and asking, “But do you really not care about those ten Leaf slaves? You’re their guardian Flower!”
Litelli curiously watched the silent Yin Qie Zi. Even though Litelli was normally impatient, this time, instead of urging the other to reply, he patiently waited for the other’s answer.
“I’m not; they’ve already abandoned me.”
After Yin Qie Zi finished speaking, he saw Litelli’s face fall slightly with disappointment. The latter picked up his cloak and veil, and after putting them on, he left the room.
Yin Qie Zi gazed at the empty door for a long while after Litelli left. He turned around, and when he did, he saw the Xialan flowers blooming outside the window. It was the national flower of the Country of Zhan Yan. Looking at those flowers, he couldn’t resist opening his mouth and calling, “Come, come to my side…”
The Xialan flowers gently shook. Yin Qie Zi was shocked, and a glimmer of hope immediately appeared in his heart. However, no matter how he called them afterwards, the flowers never moved.
Just then, one of the curtains started floating. A gentle breeze blew into the room, bringing with it a wave of cool air.
Was it the wind that moved them earlier? Yin Qie Zi stopped calling the flowers and stood quietly for a moment. He then opened the sword-case that was lying on the bed. An ornately decorated sword lay inside the case. Numerous mysterious and beautiful incantations were etched onto the blade and the hilt. The incantations were not simply for decoration; they each had a purpose. Some could gather spirits, some could increase the sword’s speed, and others could increase the speed of chain cutting. Besides the incantations, the cold and sharp ends of the double-edged sword showed that it wasn’t just a piece of decoration.
Holding up the sword, Yin Qie Zi picked up the greasing cloth from the case. He began oiling the blade, carefully maintaining its sharpness.
“Yin Qie Zi,” Owen knocked the door open, an urgent expression on his face. When he saw the sword in Yin Qie Zi’s hands though, all his thoughts flew out the window. Instead, he kept showering praise after praise about the sword, “Wow! That is one beautiful sword. Where’d you get it?”
“Nightclaw,” Yin Qie Zi said as he continued wiping the blade. “He…gave me the sword, as one of the conditions for not killing him.”
“Nightclaw? Is that someone’s name?” Owen questioned.
“No, it’s a physical spirit… Forget it.”
Just by looking at Owen, Yin Qie Zi knew that the other didn’t know much about physical spirits. He was too lazy to explain, so he only shook his head and said, “It’s something that happened a long time ago. I still had my powers then. I was able to defeat another physical spirit, and got this sword in return.”
“If you say it like that, then the other spirit must be extremely strong?” As a spiritmancer, Owen couldn’t help wanting to compare notes with the other.
Yin Qie Zi quietly replied, “If I meet Nightclaw now, I would probably be killed in a flash.”
Owen was shocked and quickly asked, “He won’t come to Qi Feng just to kill you, right? Ah… It can’t be that he was the assassin from last time?”
Hearing those words, Yin Qie Zi immediately snapped, “If that was him, then I would be dead! I wouldn’t even be here listening to you spout idiotic theories. Moreover, if he really came, it wouldn’t be just my problem; it would also be His Majesty the King’s problem! That guy always has a pack of 50 beasts around him.”
“Oh, so he isn’t human.” Owen awkwardly scratched his face.
Yin Qie Zi felt he went a little overboard. No matter what, Owen was only worried about him. He silently handed Owen the sword in his hands. “The wound on my shoulder is making this difficult. You can help me grease it.”
Owen’s eyes immediately brightened and shouted, “Definitely!”
Since Owen was wiping the sword, Yin Qie Zi had nothing to do. He moved to sit on the bed, and after a while, he asked, “Oh right, what were you going to say when you came in?”
“… Ah!”
After being prompted, Owen finally remembered what he came for. He quickly said, “Right, Mila told me to come here to warn you.”
“Warn me?” Yin Qie Zi was taken aback.
“Well, it’s not really a warning… Anyways… Uh, the peace offering the Country of Zhan Yan is giving to the Danya People this year is…” Owen spoke somewhat haltingly.
“Ten Leaf slaves. My servant already told me.” Yin Qie Zi quietly continued Owen’s sentence.
Owen awkwardly smiled, and quickly relayed what he was going to say. “Mila told me to tell you that, no matter what, you can’t attempt to rescue those ten Leaf slaves. Errors are not allowed in the peace ceremony between our country and the Danya People. Due to that, the security is extremely tight for those slaves. It’s not possible to rescue them!”
“Don’t call them slaves!”
Owen was surprised, but Yin Qie Zi quickly calmed down. In a steady voice, Yin Qie Zi said, “Don’t worry, I won’t rescue them. They abandoned me, so how can they expect me to go rescue them? Don’t you agree?”
Owen stared blankly at the other. He then forcefully nodded. “You’re right.”
