Chapter 31

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Zhu Yan frowned as she listened in distress and hugged the child in her arms, “Then why did you brought me here? This little brat already has legs, it’s not like he needs to receive another cut!”

“Your Highness, you are unaware that due to his deep knowledge of the shark’s body structure, the Dragon Slayer is often a doctor as well – otherwise, who would be patient to treat a shark, the other Kongsang doctors?” The steward shook his head, “Master Shen Tu is the best shark doctor, and whenever a shark slave is sick in Yecheng, the owner will call him in.”

“Oh.” It was then that Zhu Yan came to a realization.

“Why hasn’t Doctor Shen Tu come out yet? This waiting is too long.” The steward frowned and bowed his head, seeing that she had been standing with that child in her arms, he couldn’t help but extend his hand, “Princess, give the child to me to hold.”

“No need.” Zhu Yan shook her head, “It’s light enough.”

This child could be so good, so soft and snuffling only when unconscious, like a kitten with its claws and teeth recollected, that one could not bear to put it down for a moment.

However, in the next instant, she raised her eyebrows slightly and her face changed color abruptly.

“Get back in the carriage!” She shoved the child into the housekeeper’s arms and snarled, “Go get someone over here right now! There’s something going on in here!”

Before the housekeeper could regain his senses, he saw Zhu Yan turn her wrist and the Jade Bone flew out as a bolt of lightning, shattering the door deep inside the room with a bang! That door led to the backyard, and it was through this door that the first dragon slayer who went to ask for Master Shen Tu went out, but never returned.

At that moment, the door fell down, revealing the backyard.

There were bodies scattered all over the place. One on top of the other, silent, the only thing staining the ground was the blood pouring out – these were not sharks who had just died, but the dragon slayers of this place!

As the door came crashing down, several dark shadows swept past.

“Quick, get back to the gate!” The steward turned pale for an instant and, turning his head, pulled her towards the carriage, “Princess, go! It’s dangerous here! Leave me here and go.” But Zhu Yan shook off her hand and shouted at the inside, “Still want to run? Stop where you are!”

With a tap of the toes, she swept after the light of the Jade Bone, as fast as lightning. By the time she reached the backyard, the dark figures had already climbed to the eaves, each of them sharp and swift, obviously trained for a long time – they were masked, but their eyes were blue and their long aquamarine hair flew in the wind, it was clear that they were sharks.

“Stop!” Zhu Yan shouted, and with a snap of her finger, the Jade Bone turned into a ray of light, trying to block the man in the lead. However, the man’s body suddenly retreated, he was able to block the strike as fast as lightning, giving time to the other sharks, that jumped off the roof with the swords in their hands.

Zhu Yan tapped her foot and jumped onto the roof after him, holding the Jade Bone in her hand. However, when she leaned down to look, the whole village was empty, there was not a single figure underneath. It was as if the sharks had disappeared into the void in one leap. Only the gutter behind the house was rippling gently.

It suddenly became clear to her that the water nets in front of and behind the houses of this village of dragon slayers, originally designed to facilitate the slaughter and cleaning of the sharks, had now become a shortcut for the sharks to escape, and that the sharks – when they jumped into the water – immediately vanished, impossible to be found.

She leaned over and stared blankly at the ripples on the water, only to be startled suddenly when she heard voices coming from the outside, on the ground below.

“Princess! Princess!” It was the steward who came, leading a large group of soldiers behind him. The steward ran in with a pale face, and only when he saw her, he took a long breath of relief: “Princes, are you all right? Thank goodness!”

“I’m fine.” She jumped down to the ground and looked around.

The smell of blood in the courtyard was even stronger than in the room, it was absolutely disgusting. The dragon slayers were all dead, and they all died in a gruesome manner, having had their throats slit with a sword and their bodies cut open, probably without being able to utter a single sound of grief. It looked like the enemy was fiercely ruthless, clearly used to doing this kind of assassination.

“It’s the Restoration Army again!” The officer in command of the troops cursed as he glanced at the tragic situation in the backyard, and immediately blew his horn, to which the four corner towers instantly responded with trumpets and flags flying, only to hear something being lowered in the water on all sides in succession, as if to intercept something.

However, there was a sudden, piercing sound coming from underwater, a clash of metal against metal, travelling all the way into the distance.

“Damn it! How dare they cut all the underwater fences? These insufferable vermin!” The captain spit out in hatred, and after a pause, seeing Zhu Yan beside him, he hastened to make amends, “I’ve frightened you, Your Highness! Fortunately, Your Highness is fine, otherwise I would not be able to secure my head…”

“It’s alright,” Zhu Yan was stunned for a moment and only said, “Do the Restoration Army often barge in here?”

“Yes. It’s a headache beyond belief.” The captain sighed, “They hate the fact that the dragon slayers often intrude to take away the shark slaves in the cages and kill their men – hey, I suspect they’ve planted spies here, otherwise how else could they come and go so freely time and time again when we’re so heavily guarded?”

Zhu Yan, however, did not listen to the latter half of his words and blurted out, “So… is doctor Shen Tu dead too?”

“Huh? That old guy? It should have been hard to escape for him as well.” The captain sighed, and as he spoke, he scavenged through the pile of corpses and grunted, “Strange, Master Shen Tu is not here! Could it be…”

He immediately straightened up and ordered, “Quickly, go to the cellar and check!”

“Yes!” The soldier followed the order and rushed off, coming back within a few moments, “Doctor Shen Tu is fine! He… He happened to be in the cellar dispensing medicine just now, and had no idea what was going on outside!”

“Excellent!” The captain slapped his thigh, “This old guy is really tough!”

When the Restoration Army sneaked in to assassinate them, Master Shen Tu escaped the attack because he happened to be in the cellar preparing medicine, however, the fifty-something year old Dragon Slayer could not help but turn pale when he saw the bodies of his companions on the ground, and was about to fall over; fortunately, the lieutenant next to him was quick to see and pulled him back.

“A sin… a terrible sin!” He repeatedly exclaimed, thumping his knees as he widened his dusky old eyes, “I knew there would be retribution sooner or later for doing such work!”

“It was a dereliction of duty on my part, I will go back and ask for punishment from the governor.” The captain’s face was also very sad as he whispered, “Well, don’t be saddened for now… Princess Zhu Yan here is still waiting for you to go and attend to her!”

“Pigs*… pigs what?” Master Shen Tu waved his hand, tearing up and sighing, “Look, people are dead here like this, how can I be in the mood to treat pigs!”

“…” Zhu Yan’s eyebrows rose in anger, forcing herself to resist the urge to smack him – for the sake of this Dragon Slayer’s old age, his deafness, and the sudden blow he had received, forget it. After all, she still had to beg him for a consultation!

“How dare you!” The steward, however, could not bear to witness this and stepped forward, shouting, “The Red King’s Princess Zhu Yan is here, how dare a mere dragon slayer speak out of turn?”

At the sound of his voice, Master Shen Tu turned his head and looked at him with dizzy old eyes for a while, questioning, “Who are you? How bold are you to shout like this?”

Even though the steward was well-behaved, his face suddenly flushed and turned blue in anger.

“Alright, alright.” Knowing this old dragon slayer’s foul temper, the captain hurriedly stepped forward to round things up and took him by the arm, pushing him to approach Zhu Yan, “Here, this is Princess Zhu Yan from the Red King’s Palace! Did you hear that? She’s a Princess, a noble one! Her shark is sick and has rushed over to let you have a look.”

“Oh… an aristocratic lady?” Doctor Shen Tu frowned, twitched his nose a few times, moved over and gushed, “Indeed, it’s a noble… very noble! The incense she used is hundreds of gold baht a box of ambergris, right? Not even the head girls at the Jade Pavilion can afford to use such a good fragrance…”

He blinked his foggy eyes and muttered as he moved up, the tip of his nose almost touching Zhu Yan’s chest. Zhu Yan could no longer hold back her anger, she grabbed the old man by the collar and lifted him up with one hand, almost slapping him, “Old impudent! Are you looking for a beating?”

“Hey, don’t, don’t!” The captain was startled and hurried over to beg for mercy, “This old guy is like that. He’s old, and he’s a good drinker and a womanizer! He looks drunk again today… he has a horrible temper, so don’t bother with him, Princess.”

“I won’t bother with him,” Zhu Yan sneered and pushed him away then ordered, “Housekeeper, bring him back to me!”

“Aye!” The steward came up with the guards, yet instead of directly proceeding to arrest the man, he politely bowed to the old dragon slayer and said, “Please, Master Shen Tu.”

“Not going!” After seeing how respectful the other person was, it was surprising to see how pleased Doctor Shen Tu became, throwing off his head and shaking it like a rattle, “I’m not in a good mood today, I’m not going anywhere!”

“You old man! How shameless can you be?” Zhu Yan was so angry that she again wanted to punch him, but the housekeeper secretly pulled the corner of her coat, shaking his head covertly and whispering in her ear, “Your Highness, that old man is very sneaky, you’d better be polite to him, otherwise he might not treat the child properly even if he goes to check him – if he unknowingly changes a few medicines and treats the child to death, that would be…”

“He dares?!” Zhu Yan was taken aback and became furious.

“What wouldn’t he dare… an old loner, without children or a family.” The steward whispered, pointing to the old man who reeked of wine and blood, “He’s the oldest of the Dragon Slayers, even the shark that the emperor used to favor the most, the Autumn Water Singer, was dissected by his own hands – in Yecheng, even the Lord Governor gives him some respect…”

“The Autumn Water Singer?” Zhu Yan was surprised. That legendary shark, who was said to have a peerless beauty and a heavenly singing voice, was once the favorite of the harem, unmatched by anyone else. The Bei Mian Emperor was so enthralled with her that he even built a watchtower in the Imperial Capital just for her to relieve her of homesickness when she could not return to the sea.

However, it was a great pity that this beautiful woman was so ill-fated that she died after only five or six years in her favor. After her death, the Bei Mian Emperor mourned so much that he withdrew from court for several months, and finally wanted to posthumously crown her as Empress and bury her in the Valley of the Kings of Jiuyi Mountain, where only the Empresses of Kongsang could be buried. The matter naturally caused an uproar in the court and the six vassal Kings all petitioned to stop it, especially the White King, who was even more furious, almost triggering a political upheaval in Yunhuang.

Could it be that the legendary beauty came from these same bloodstained and wretched hands?

She was in a slight dilemma: “Then… what should I do if he refuses to cure the child?”

“It’s alright, let your servant take care of it.” The housekeeper finished talking to her and walked towards Shen Tu, whispering a few words. Instantly, she saw Master Shen Tu’s expression change drastically, and his eyebrows widened immediately as he kept nodding, “Okay, okay! I’ll go with you right away!”

“Let’s go then.” The steward walked back with a smile, “No more problem.”

“…” Zhu Yan was staggered, “How did you manage to convince him?”

The housekeeper chuckled and shook his head, “It is better not to mention such matters to the Princess.”

“Go ahead and say it!” Her curiosity rose and she tugged on the steward’s sleeve, “How on earth did you convince him, please let me learn as well.”

The steward looked at Master Shen Tu, who was happy to climb onto the carriage, and then at Zhu Yan, coughed a few times and said, “I promised him that as long as he was willing to treat the Princess’ shark properly, all his expenses for a month at the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion would be counted as part of the expenses of the Red King Palace.”

*猪 = pinyin zhū, with the meaning Pig, phonetically sounds the same as surname Zhu – 朱 = pinyin zhū , meaning Vermillion/Jade.

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