The Imperial Bodyguards around them had passed from sorrow to joy in a matter of moments. Collective pride needed an outside threat to ignite it, and unity needed an external force to catalyze it. Hu Xiaotian understood this well. His two attacks had not only restored the face Zuo Tang had lost in defeat, but also humiliated an expert from the Heavenly Secrets Bureau with a resounding slap, leaving him wishing the ground would swallow him.
Liang Bao roared and tried to charge forward regardless of the consequences, but Liu Huchan shouted him down. Liu Huchan strode out of the Zen Room and fixed his eyes on Hu Xiaotian, as though only tonight had he truly come to know him.
Hu Xiaotian said with a broad smile, "I already told you to come at me together."
Liu Huchan clenched his fists, yet hesitation stirred within him. The strength Hu Xiaotian had just displayed was simply too shocking. Even he had no confidence that he could defeat Hu Xiaotian.
Long Xuan'en's low voice came from the Zen Room. "It's so late already. Are you going to let me rest or not?"
Liu Huchan's tightly clenched hands relaxed again.
Hu Xiaotian smiled. "If Your Majesty's safety is entrusted to these few men from the Heavenly Secrets Bureau, I won't be able to sleep peacefully either. Men! Recall the guards posted at the intersections. Take fifty of the hundred Imperial Bodyguards and divide them into five squads. Zuo Tang, you'll coordinate their deployment. Twenty men will remain inside the Samantabhadra Courtyard to protect His Majesty, and the remaining thirty will patrol outside it. The other fifty will follow me to search for the intruder."
Liu Huchan snapped, "What are you trying to do?"
"Nothing of the sort," Hu Xiaotian said. "Protecting His Majesty