deltrittennovels #207 - A passing cloud
#207 - A passing cloud
This group of martial artists imitated Liang Jin's attire from last night, even preparing masks to cover their faces, acting furtively and suspiciously.
This was clearly an attempt to do something evil and then frame someone.
No matter what they did, others would probably think it was Liang Jin who did it.
"You want to play like this, huh?"
"Fine, I'll play with you and make sure you have a good time."
A cold smile appeared on the corner of Liang Jin's mouth.
Fortunately, he had the [Serpent Mask], allowing him to see through this group's conspiracy.
Otherwise, after just one night, Liang Jin would inexplicably have several black marks on his name.
Since this group wanted to frame him, he would teach them a lesson or two.
Afterward.
Liang Jin also saw Ayina and her group from the Si Ha Li Kingdom, who seemed to be purchasing supplies.
At the same time, Liang Jin also saw the slave Yunlong, whom he had released last night.
Yunlong was currently with the dancing girl from last night, as well as a middle-aged woman with a distinctive appearance, all three of them hiding in a remote house.
As for the others, there was nothing worth Liang Jin's attention.
Unfortunately.
This [Serpent Mask] could see people, but couldn't hear sounds.
He could see what others were doing, but couldn't know what they were plotting.
This also made Liang Jin consider whether he should learn lip-reading in the future.
That way, he could make up for the shortcomings of the [Serpent Mask].
When there was nothing worth paying attention to, Liang Jin took off the [Serpent Mask] and put it into his [Inventory].
Afterward, he looked at his personal information.
[Host: Liang Jin]
[Cultivation: Martial Artist Fifth Rank]
[Martial Arts: "Imperial Guard Long Fist" (Eighth Level), "Coiling Dragon Staff Technique" (Seventh Level), "Taiyin Palm" (Fifth Level), "Great Subduing Demon Fist" (Ninth Level), "Northern Overlord Six Harmony Spear" (Ninth Level), "Bone-Melting Cotton Palm" (Fifth Level), "Divine Travel, Hundred Transformations" (Seventh Level), "Wind-Chasing Saber Technique" (Uninitiated), "Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training" (Uninitiated), "Military Affairs Value Speed" (Third Level), "Iron Cauldron Golden Body Skill" (Second Level), "Overlord's Armor Removal Skill" (Ninth Level), "Five Step Fist" (First Level), "Hundred Evil Body Great Art" (Fifth Level), "Beauty Fist Technique" (Uninitiated), "Hu Family Saber Technique" (Uninitiated), "Prairie Fire Spear Technique" (Second Level), "Golden Man Lance Technique" (Uninitiated), "Blood Saber Sutra" (Uninitiated), "Sky Full of Flowers Rain" (Uninitiated), "Golden Snake Sword Technique" (Uninitiated), "Repentance of the Soaring Dragon" (Uninitiated), "Great Sumeru Sword Style" (Uninitiated), "Wind-Following Foot Shadow" (Seventh Level), "Crimson Fire Burning Heaven Sword Technique" (Second Level)]
[Traits: Talisman Water Cures Diseases, Thousand Mile Tracking, Immunity to All Poisons, Daily Intelligence]
[Number of Incarnations: 3]
[Items: Tiger Subduing Pill × 16, Longevity Paste × 2, Bone Strengthening Medicine × 26, Battle Puppet (Wild Walker), Gold × 10999, Qi Boosting Paste × 28, Cold Jade Bed, Vermilion-Eyed Ice Toad × 1, Cold Jade Ice Toad Paste × 99, Ten Fragrance Soft Tendon Powder × 2, Antidote for Ten Fragrance Soft Tendon Powder × 2, Intermediate Battle Puppet (Iron Mad Butcher), Golden Silk Gloves, Twelve-Foot Red Spear, One-Legged Bronze Man, Blood Saber, Golden Snake Sword, Soaring Dragon Mace, Swimming Dragon Sword, Serpent Mask]
These days, his realm had already entered the late Fifth Rank, and it wouldn't be long before he reached the peak of the Fifth Rank.
And several of the martial arts he had learned before had also increased to a certain extent.
Liang Jin originally planned to practice the "Prairie Fire Spear Technique," a martial art that could be upgraded to the Earth Rank and had great potential.
But plans often couldn't keep up with changes. His "Prairie Fire Spear Technique" had just started when he obtained an Earth Rank martial art like the "Crimson Fire Burning Heaven Sword Technique."
So he could only switch to practicing the "Crimson Fire Burning Heaven Sword Technique," which he had now practiced to the Second Level.
The "Crimson Fire Burning Heaven Sword Technique" was a powerful sword technique, especially since it also came with fire damage. It was not only powerful but also dazzling.
Especially with this sword technique, the deeper the inner strength, the more the power would increase exponentially.
But the specific effect could only be known after trying it out after practicing to a higher level.
And the "Hundred Evil Body Great Art" had already entered the Fifth Level!
Liang Jin hadn't invested any system resources into this Earth Rank martial art at all, but the speed of cultivation was ridiculously fast.
This was mainly due to the diligent practice of the Dragon Transformation Island clone every day, coupled with the [Immunity to All Poisons] trait, which made the Dragon Transformation Island clone's cultivation easy and smooth.
The rest of the martial arts basically didn't move.
Liang Jin's highly anticipated "Wind-Following Foot Shadow" was too difficult to cultivate. Even if Liang Jin invested a lot of martial arts proficiency rewards obtained from [Sign-In], he couldn't improve it again in a short time.
As for the rest of the martial arts, Liang Jin no longer had the resources and time to cultivate them, so they basically remained unchanged.
And the elixirs that Liang Jin had obtained during this time had also increased.
He planned to accumulate some elixirs, and then after he reached the peak of the Fifth Rank, he could rely on the elixirs to break through the final distance and enter the Fourth Rank.
Liang Jin came to the window.
He looked up at the sky outside.
The sun had already set below the desert.
The moon had also already risen.
There was still a little light in the sky, but it would be completely dark soon.
The hunting moment was about to arrive!
… … … …
A secluded room in Flowing Sand City.
This was just an ordinary home.
But now the commoners in this home had been knocked unconscious and tied up.
A one-eyed, disabled middle-aged man was carrying two bowls of freshly cooked food into the bedroom.
This one-eyed man was actually Yunlong, whom Liang Jin had released last night.
Yunlong knelt down and presented the two bowls of food:
“Princess, Little Princess, we only have simple meals here now.”
“For the moment, you two will have to make do. I will go out later to find better food.”
Sitting on the kang in front of Yunlong were two women.
One of them, a graceful and beautiful young woman, was the dancer from last night.
Besides her, there was also a middle-aged woman.
And this middle-aged woman had a very peculiar appearance.
One half of her face was exquisitely beautiful, with an elegant demeanor.
But the other half... was covered in terrifying scars.
These old scars seemed to be from burns, causing the skin around her eyes to fuse together, leaving only a slit to see through. Half of her lips were also burned and shrunken, exposing her teeth.
It looked very frightening.
The middle-aged woman sighed:
“General Yunlong, please don't call me Princess anymore.”
“Juhuan has been a fallen kingdom for twenty years, now just a passing cloud.”
“We who have survived until now should not dwell on past relationships between lord and servant, nor waste our lives on a country buried in the yellow sands.”
“Yunlong, we should start our own lives.”
The middle-aged woman was the former princess of Juhuan.
She took the hand of the beautiful girl beside her, her eyes filled with deep love and pity:
“I only pity my daughter, Xiaowan, who has been a slave since birth. All she has learned is how to serve masters, and she doesn't know what a normal world and life are like.”
“If it weren't for my daughter Xiaowan, I'm afraid... I would have already left this world.”
As she said this, the middle-aged woman coughed violently.
Even coughing up blood!
Clearly, she was already seriously ill.
And the beautiful girl called Xiaowan stared blankly at everything, her face full of confusion and helplessness.
She knew that this middle-aged woman was her mother, but she had rarely seen her mother in her life, and had little affection for her.
Xiaowan was even more accustomed to the life of a slave.
From a young age, she was taught how to serve and please masters, how to be a good slave, learning music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and dance, even martial arts.
She had completely adapted and become accustomed to this kind of life.
But last night, everything changed.
She had just been bought, and was about to have a master.
But then, the buyer was murdered in front of her.
Immediately after, she was forcibly taken away by this Yunlong and brought here.
This experience completely shattered Xiaowan's previous life.
It made her feel uneasy and uncomfortable, her heart filled with fear and anxiety.
She just wanted to go back quickly, put on her collar, kneel obediently, and continue to be an obedient slave.
Yunlong sighed deeply:
“Alas…”
“Princess, can we really start a new life?”
His glorious life had stopped twenty years ago.
After that, he became a slave, and every day someone wanted to tame him, even subjecting him to torture that crippled him.
But in Yunlong's heart, he still held firm to his beliefs.
Twenty years ago, in the final moments before the fall of Juhuan, the King and his father told him that he must protect the royal bloodline at all costs, and eventually assist the royal bloodline in successfully restoring the kingdom.
Afterwards, his father died in battle, and the King immolated himself.
Yunlong was defeated and captured, watching helplessly as the royal bloodline was almost completely slaughtered.
Only one princess remained.
It was this belief that kept him tenacious and persistent until today.
But who would have thought that after he finally rescued the princess and her daughter, the princess had completely lost her ambition to restore the kingdom, and even advised him to give up.
This made Yunlong feel that his beliefs had collapsed, and he had completely lost the will to live.
His mind was in a daze.
So much so that he didn't hear the middle-aged woman coughing more and more severely, even spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Suddenly.
The middle-aged woman swayed and fell onto the bed.
“Princess!”
Yunlong was shocked and hurriedly went forward to check on the princess's condition.
Upon examination, he discovered that the middle-aged woman was already terminally ill, her life about to end.
Perhaps, as she said, if she hadn't been constantly concerned about her daughter, she would have died long ago.
“Princess, please hold on a little longer, I will take you to find a doctor!”
Yunlong said anxiously, and wanted to carry the middle-aged woman on his back.
But the middle-aged woman waved her hand, refusing Yunlong.
She seemed to have been prepared for this day for a long time.
Now that she saw her daughter right in front of her, her eyes were full of tenderness, and she had no regrets.
She took Yunlong's hand with one hand and Xiaowan's hand with the other, and said weakly:
“Xiaowan... you have no father, from now on... please regard Yunlong as your own father…”
“Yunlong, please... take Xiaowan away from here... protect her... and live well…”
After the middle-aged woman finished speaking, a gentle smile appeared on her lips.
But the light in her eyes gradually faded.
“Princess…”
Yunlong knelt down, sobbing uncontrollably.
Xiaowan only felt that her mother's hand was rapidly losing temperature.
She felt lost and confused, her heart becoming more and more panicked, and she couldn't help but want to escape immediately.
Her heart was filled with discomfort, but she couldn't speak.
Then, she only felt two lines of tears inexplicably flowing from her eyes.
She didn't know why she was crying, but she couldn't help it.
Finally.
She finally spoke:
“Mother…”