Talent in Abundance

Outside the loft, Overlord Dragon and Ground Tiger came and went, each displaying their own prowess.

Zuo Zixiong was upright and incorruptible. His two Divine Machine Treasure Blades twisted together like a two-headed silver dragon as he charged straight at Bai Luo without a single flashy move.

Bai Luo was dressed in white, resembling a little white flower. He bobbed and weaved amid the stormy waves, appearing to be in danger at every turn, though in truth he was having no easy time of it.

This roughneck from the military camp was unbelievably crude. He really had no sense of humor at all!

Bai Luo had just finished telling Zuo Zixiong to convert, when the other man acted as though he had encountered the murderer of his entire family. Every move was a life-for-life exchange.

"I, Zuo Zixiong, was a Yong person in life and will be a Yong ghost in death. How dare you, demon, slander me!"

"Yong person? So you know you're a common fool."

Bai Luo hurled taunts while searching for a way to break the deadlock.

The Tianxin Cult had only one goal on this journey: assassinating the Crown Prince.

He had no intention of wasting too much time on Zuo Zixiong.

After circling his opponent for a while and realizing how troublesome he was, Bai Luo hardened his heart and said:

"Incense Master Qin, I'll hold this brute off. Hurry and cut off that Crown Prince's dog head!"

The moment Bai Luo finished speaking, a wealthy merchant dressed as a pleasure-seeker suddenly sprang into action. The other disguised cultists likewise drew sharp blades from beneath the tables and out of flowerpots, charging toward the private room where the Crown Prince was.

Seeing this, Zuo Zixiong immediately pulled away to intercept them, but Bai Luo followed him like a shadow, giving him no chance to defend against them.

"Zuo Zixiong! You've ruined my schemes time and again. Today, I'll kill the Crown Prince right in front of you and make you bear the crime of failing to protect him!"

Bai Luo's eyes brimmed with baleful intent. Back in the Imperial Capital, Zuo Zixiong had pursued him for a thousand miles. Now he had disguised himself as the man coming to retrieve the zither and should have been able to take the Crown Prince's life with ease. Who could have thought this loyal hound would be so devoted to his master? He had only allowed the guards to send the zither out, refusing to let Bai Luo set foot inside the Crown Prince's private room.

With old and new grudges piled together, how could Bai Luo not hate him?

In the corridors, the Crown Prince's guards had already clashed with Incense Master Qin and the other members of the Tianxin Cult.

The Crown Prince, who had passed sixty, watched everything unfold without the slightest ripple on his face, as though he had long grown accustomed to it.

The elderly man beside the Crown Prince had a feminine air and held a horsetail whisk. From beginning to end, he wore a smile.

Downstairs, a talented woman competing to become Courtesan Queen let out a shriek, but not because she had been hurt. She was simply heartbroken over the Cry of Cicadas Zither, which Bai Luo was wielding as a weapon.

Crown Prince Zhao You frowned when he saw this, then turned to the old man beside him, who was of the same generation, and said, "Baban, we mustn't hurt the beauty's feelings."

The clean-shaven old man understood at once. He immediately opened his ducklike voice and shouted down at Zuo Zixiong, who was fighting with all his might:

"The Crown Prince commands that the Cry of Cicadas Zither must not be damaged!"

Downstairs, Zuo Zixiong leaped high into the air, his pair of Divine Machine Treasure Blades whipping into a mad dragon. Just as they were about to cleave into Bai Luo, he had no choice but to pour all his strength into dragging the descending blades back.

The move sent Zuo Zixiong's blood and qi surging backward. His throat filled with a bloody taste, and he nearly spat out blood.

Bai Luo immediately brightened at the sight. He then held a sword in one hand and the Cry of Cicadas Zither as a shield in the other, instantly turning the tide of attack and defense.

Zuo Zixiong was an upright man who would never disobey the Crown Prince's command. Whenever Bai Luo held the zither in front of himself, Zuo Zixiong was forced to withdraw his attack. For a time, he was like a prisoner shackled hand and foot. No matter how many techniques he possessed, he could not use a single one.

In just a few breaths, several wounds had appeared on his body.

"In their eyes, Zuo Zixiong, you're nothing but a watchdog. You're not even as valuable as this broken zither in my hands. I truly feel sorry for you."

"Demon, don't even think of confusing my mind. Take this blade!"

Though he shouted about his blade, Zuo Zixiong suddenly tore open his robe. Several Divine Machine Darts spun out from within, shooting straight for Bai Luo's face.

Although Bai Luo had the Cry of Cicadas Zither in hand, he did not dare truly use it to block the darts. If he damaged the zither, wouldn't this martial brute before him go completely berserk?

He threw back his head and dodged the hidden weapons. A booming thunderclap immediately sounded behind him.

The hidden weapons of the Divine Machine Battalion were ingenious. They concealed Thunder Fire inside, and when they struck a pillar of the tower, they exploded.

Seeing this, the feminine old man upstairs immediately shrilled a warning: "Baihu Zuo, did you not hear what I said? If you damage the Cry of Cicadas Zither, even a thousand deaths won't atone for it!"

Inside the Xiangyin Small Pavilion, Xu Qing kept a constant watch on the commotion outside. Although he had not witnessed the entire fight between Zuo Zixiong and Bai Luo, he had heard most of what happened.

He had not heard everything, however. The commotion caused by Zhu Huai'an and Miss Zhen Wan upstairs was no quieter than the battle between Zuo Zixiong and the others.

While dragons and tigers battled fiercely on the Crown Prince's side, Azure Dragon White Tiger were likewise tangled together here.

Zhu Huai'an was generous to a fault and had deliberately chosen a "dowry" maid to attend the Wu Family Brothers.

Wu Zhiyuan was worried about the situation outside, but Wu Wencai pulled him back, saying that a moment of spring nights was worth a thousand pieces of gold. The Crown Prince was not so easy to kill, and whoever was outside was probably just a few petty thieves, nothing to worry about.

Now only Xu Qing was paying attention to the commotion outside the loft. He had no time to attend to the girl Zhu Huai'an had called for him either. Only after the distant noise gradually died down did he push open the loft door and head alone toward the depths of Shuhuang Pavilion.

When he encountered a hurried young servant, Xu Qing reached out to stop him and asked, "I'm the guest who gave Miss Shuyu a hair-combing gift. May I ask where Miss Shuyu's loft is?"

After receiving directions from the servant, Xu Qing avoided the hall, where shouts of killing rang out, and wound through the twisting corridors. After several turns, he finally arrived beneath Miss Shuyu's loft.

When the Yin Ghost Jade had been given as a hair-combing gift earlier, he had deliberately taken note of Miss Shuyu's stage name.

With Shuhuang Pavilion in chaos, this was the perfect time for him to fish in troubled waters.

"You're an officer from the Patrol Office?"

When Xu Qing reached the boudoir where Shuyu lived, he had not yet intended to enter when he saw a dazed young man standing in front of the loft.

He had often visited the office these past few days and had some impression of this man. He only remembered that the young man was a constable from the Fast Squad among the Three Squads and Six Offices.

The other man also recognized Xu Qing. After the two exchanged a few words, Xu Qing merely said that he was passing by, but this constable surnamed Zhang clearly had not arrived here by chance.

"Since Brother Zhang has come to Shuhuang Pavilion, why not find a girl to ease your boredom? Why sit here alone like an idiot?"

Zhang Jun gave a bitter smile and shook his head. He then picked up the wine pot, intending to drown his thousand sorrows, only to discover that it was already empty.

"It hurts, it hurts. You ask why I don't find a girl to ease my worries, but you don't know that the girl I love is inside, keeping another man company."

Xu Qing's lips parted slightly when he heard this. What kind of act was this supposed to be?

Seeing that Xu Qing did not speak, the drunken Zhang Jun pointed at the loft beside him and said, one word at a time, "Miss Shuyu is talented and accomplished. When she was young, her family was wealthy and prosperous. I was merely the son of an oil peddler, and could only occasionally see her when I followed my father to sell and deliver oil.

"Later, her family fell into decline, and her mother remarried. I escorted her here to seek refuge with relatives."

"At the time, she swore again and again that she would marry me once she had established herself. But what about her? She broke her word. Relying on a little talent, she threw herself into a place like this without a second thought."

"I begged to see her several times, but she refused even to look at me properly. Today, I brought a hair-combing gift and gave her all the silver I'd saved over the years, yet she chose some rotten old man to accompany her during her hair-combing ceremony."

After saying this, Zhang Jun burst into a loud, wailing laugh, then squatted down and began to weep bitterly.

Xu Qing did not know how to console him. He could only ask, "Since she's heartless, why stay here grieving? Why not go home soon and find another good match?"

Zhang Jun lowered his head and said, "I'm afraid she'll be bullied. Those rotten old men are best at tormenting women. If she's hurt and cries out for help, who will help her if I'm not here?"

"..."

Xu Qing was rendered speechless.

Inside the loft, Miss Shuyu's gasps struck Zhang Jun like heavy hammers, mercilessly pounding against him.

This tiny Shuhuang Pavilion actually had so many talented people today.

Zhang Jun looked up at the loft, then asked Xu Qing, "What happened outside? Why is it so noisy?"

Xu Qing replied, "I heard that demon cultists from the Tianxin Cult are assassinating the Crown Prince. The two sides are fighting fiercely now."

"The Crown Prince? The future Crown Prince?"

A trace of spirit suddenly returned to Zhang Jun's murky eyes.

Miss Shuyu had chosen that rotten old man only because he was famous and wealthy. If Zhang Jun went to protect the Crown Prince now and staked his life on a future, then once he succeeded, he would have rendered meritorious service protecting the Crown Prince.

With that merit, why would he worry about having no future?

Once he had a future, gold and silver would naturally be within reach, and Miss Shuyu would no longer reject him.

At this thought, Zhang Jun instantly perked up. He pressed a hand to the constable's blade at his waist and was about to leave.

"Where are you going, Brother Zhang?"

"To protect the Crown Prince!"

"The assassins are demon cultists from the Tianxin Cult. You're no match for them."

"The more powerful they are compared to me, the greater the merit! Without merit, being alive is no different from being dead!"

Watching Zhang Jun's fearless figure stride away, Xu Qing could not for the life of him figure out what sort of madness had seized the man.

Still, his departure made things more convenient for Xu Qing.

Seeing that no one was paying attention, Xu Qing slipped into the small pavilion. At that moment, Miss Shuyu was using every means at her disposal to attend to a client older than her own father, assisted by her personal maid.

Xu Qing unleashed his Qi Gazing Technique and silently surveyed his surroundings. In the end, he discovered the Yin Ghost Jade inside a Cosmetic Box used for applying makeup.