"Chen Xuan, keep a tight hold on those reins! The western market outside is a jumble of dragons and fish, nothing like the peace and quiet of our Listening to Rain Pavilion!"
Outside the eastern side gate of the Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence, Xiao Ling'er, dressed in fiery-red, narrow-sleeved riding gear, reined in her spirited horse, Treading Snow, and turned to snap at the blue-robed youth riding half a horse's length behind her.
"Yes, Third Miss! Even if I stare until my eyes bleed, I will never stray more than three paces from you! If anyone dares offend you in the streets today, they will have to step over my corpse first!"
Chen Xuan shook his reins, and the carefully selected bay horse beneath him immediately trotted up beside her. With his head slightly lowered and his voice ringing out, he played the part of a diehard loyal guard to the hilt.
While Xiao Ling'er turned back to watch the road, Chen Xuan's gaze climbed up from her horse's back.
He had to admit, this little spitfire in riding gear was enough to be the death of a man. Her fiery-red brocade outfit was cut to fit her body as closely as possible, outlining her already slender waist without a trace of excess flesh. Farther down, her long, straight legs gripped the black saddle tightly. With her legs tensed from the effort, a small strip of delicate, dazzlingly white skin showed faintly between the hem of her outfit and her tall calfskin riding boots.
The fiery-red, close-fitting leather armor paired with skin that put frost and snow to shame, bouncing into breathtaking curves as her fine horse trotted.
"Such a slick tongue!"
As though she had eyes in the back of her head, Xiao Ling'er's ears quietly reddened. Her small hand tightened around her red-tailed snakebone whip, but her tone remained fierce as she scolded him:
"That wretched mouth of yours has done more yapping than anything else this whole way! I'm warning you, once we reach those two streets in the western district, keep that tongue firmly in check. Talk less and watch more. Do you understand?!"
"Understood! These eyes of mine hold only you, Third Miss. As for the stray cats and dogs and other irrelevant people in the streets, I'll treat them all as stone posts by the roadside!"
Without blushing or missing a beat, Chen Xuan delivered a flawless piece of flattery.
"You... you oaf! Who told you to stare only at me?!"
His reply left Xiao Ling'er spluttering, her pretty face growing hot. She turned and shot him a fierce glare:
"I meant for you to watch for assassins and spies around us! But look at you, openly sneaking looks at your mistress, and you even dare talk back? Believe it or not, I'll kick you off your horse right now and make you run all the way to the western district!"
"Please judge fairly, Third Miss! I'm only worried I might miss even half a gesture from you and delay my duties of leading your horse or handing you your whip!"
Chen Xuan chuckled, putting on that honest, simplehearted expression at just the right moment:
"Besides, at the training grounds the day before yesterday, those instructors and guards were looking everywhere, weren't they? And what happened? When Treading Snow went wild, every last one of them stood ten zhang away, staring helplessly! I'm slow, and I don't understand watching all six directions. I only know one unshakable truth-as long as I keep my eyes fixed on you, there isn't a single treacherous arrow under heaven that can get past my chest and strike you!"
At those words, Xiao Ling'er's whip, already raised halfway into the air, froze.
She stared blankly at the sharply defined profile of the youth beside her, his face filled with devotion, and felt as though something warm had gently bumped against the tip of her heart.
Yes, when Treading Snow had gone berserk the day before yesterday, all those An Jin and Ming Jin guards in the training grounds had been weighing the pros and cons, waiting for someone else to act first. Only this groom before her, who had not even reached the threshold of martial arts then, had risked his life like a madman to shield her from disaster.
"Hmph... at least you have some conscience!"
Xiao Ling'er bit her red lip. In the end, she could not bear to bring the whip down. Turning her head away, she gave a soft huff:
"All right, I'm in a good mood today, so I can't be bothered to punish you for talking back! Once we cross that stone arch bridge ahead, we'll be in the western market. Stay on your sharpest guard! Hyah!"
"As you command! Hyah!"
The two swift horses galloped down the main bluestone street, their hooves flying.
The oncoming autumn wind lashed Chen Xuan's face. Outwardly, he held the reins steady with both hands and swept his sharp gaze over either side of the long street. In truth, half his attention had already sunk into the meridians within his body.
Using the jolting of his Qi and blood from the horse's bouncing gait, he was silently circulating both the "Boulder Art" and the "Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang" at once!
His Boulder Qi and blood, heavy as mountains, and his domineering, blazing pure Yang Gang Qi wildly converged, collided, and catalyzed one another throughout his limbs and bones. Every ten zhang he traveled, his sinews, bones, skin, and membranes underwent another subtle tempering. Even the rhythm of his breathing meshed perfectly with the drumbeat of the horse's hooves.
In my past life, I could handle revising proposals for thirty-six hours straight at the ad agency. Now that I've got this martial body, how could I not grind every last breath until it smokes?
Feeling the crimson current of heat in his dantian grow ever thicker, Chen Xuan sneered inwardly:
That useless heir Xiao Yuxuan has an entire marquis's residence full of spiritual medicines at his disposal, but he doesn't appreciate any of it. All day long, he only puts effort into women's bellies and looking impressive. He'll never understand how terrifying the leveling speed can be when a king of the 996 grind gets a proficiency panel with real-time feedback!
As a faint warm current washed through his eight extraordinary meridians, the golden writing deep in his mind flickered and shifted again:
[Boulder Art: Major accomplishment (150/1000)] [Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang: Minor accomplishment (112/1000)]
At this stacked efficiency from circulating both arts together, I'll need another month at most to push the Yang Gang to major accomplishment and officially challenge the An Jin bottleneck!
Chen Xuan suppressed the heat in his heart and was just about to continue driving his Qi and blood when a burst of exceptionally grating smashing and sobbing suddenly came from the far end of the street ahead!
"Whoa-!"
Riding in front, Xiao Ling'er abruptly hauled back on her reins. Her willow brows shot up as she pointed at a large three-story storefront a hundred paces ahead, its gilded sign reading "Splendid Cloud Silk," and demanded:
"Chen Xuan, look up ahead! Isn't that our residence's largest cloud silk shop in the western district? Why are so many people gathered around it in broad daylight?!"
Chen Xuan focused his gaze and saw that the normally bustling market crossroads had already been blocked so tightly by a dense crowd that not a drop of water could pass through. Frightened food vendors and sundries peddlers all around were pushing their carts away in flight. Right outside the cloud silk shop's entrance, a dozen or so street thugs wielding wooden clubs and chopping blades were smashing things like mad!
"Smash it! Smash every last bit of it! Drag out all that cloud brocade shipped in from Suzhou and Hangzhou and throw it into the filthy ditch!"
"Fucking property of the Marquis of Zhenbei's Residence, my ass! Debts must be repaid-that's heaven's law and earth's justice! Even if the King of Heaven himself came today, he'd have to settle the three thousand taels in loan-shark debt owed to our Black Tiger Gang first!"
"Where's the shopkeeper? Get out here! If you don't hand over the money, I'll burn this lousy cloth shop to the ground today!"
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