After reporting the situation to the city guards, Xieren held his disciple tightly by the shoulder and teleported back to the manor.
The guards gasped when they saw their young master arrive at the manor willingly!
"Y-Young master!" The guards kneeled in respect and shock and moved away from him. They did not question him about the little girl in his arms although they did have some weird speculations regarding the ordeal.
Just as Xieren was about to walk away, a spear came in his way shocking the guards who quickly blocked Xieren from the attack and destroyed the weapon, while gathering infront of him hoping the assassin would target them instead...
"YOU IDIOTS, MOVE!" The guards heard a booming voice and paled.
"G-Guard captain!" They squeaked and moved away from Xieren who almost spat blood seeing his guards leave his side.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the young master!" Xieren spoke to him calmly only to be insulted...
"Bullshit! Our young master never comes on time for banquets!" The Guard captain said and pointed his sword at Xieren who's eyebrow was twitching.
"Huh?! Doesn't come on time?! This young master always comes on f@#king time!" Xieren retorted and put his fists up comically to fight the captain.
"Chi chi chi! Our young master is a very special entity, an intruder like you wouldn't know!" The captain goaded him as Xieren felt faintish.
"Motherf@#ke-"
"That's enough son!" Duke Qiu covered his son's mouth and held him in place while Mei covered her mouth and chuckled elegantly.
"Mhph! mmmghph!" Xieren's eyes looked like it would kill someone as his hands moved violently, trying to grab the captain that kneeled and begged for forgiveness realising his mistake.
"..."
"Umm... master, where are we?" He heard his cute disciple's voice and calmed down immediately.
"...who is this young master? and why did she call you master?" Mei's cold voice entered his ear as the onlookers shivered and looked the other way...
"Behold... my disciple!" Xieren then pointed at the cute girl and patted her head.
"... this..." Duke Qiu frowned and used his Qi to see what was so special about this little girl, he was actually concerned about his son as he had not shown much interest for women and was worried about the future of the bloodline...
But once he found out, his breathing hitched almost immediately and stared at Xieren for who knows how long and sighed.
"Xieren... I hope you know what you are doing..." He spoke softly as if there was a heavy load on his back and returned back to the manor.
Xieren stayed quiet knowing that this act of his was a major threat to the family, especially with the Empire's greedy nature...
"Lord Xieren, I thought you were going to throw me away like those girls..." Mei covered her face and 'sobbed'.
"Ah?! Young master, I never thought you were a womaniser..." The guard captain mumbled and bowed with even more respect.
"I heard the captain is henpecked by his wife..."
"So that's why he admires men with alot of women!"
Xieren heard the whispers of the guards and coughed to stop himself from laughing. Maybe that's why he's angry all the time...
"pfft haha"
"..."
"WHICH ONE OF YOU ALL BASTARDS SAID THAT?!" The captain said and chased after his subordinates leaving the trio alone, Xieren then flicked Mei's forehead.
"Ow... Young master, that hurt!" She pouted.
"That was the whole point woman..." He grumbled and took long strides along the stone paved pathway back to his palace...
•••••
"Xiao Ling"
"Yes master!"
"Since this is your first banquet, I want to teach you some things you must obey!" Seeing her master's serious face, Ling nodded and listened with her utmost attention...
"Firstly, we will go with the rules you must follow, listen carefully!" Xieren told her.
"rule one: do not leave my side!"
"Un!"
"rule two: do not talk to anyone but me and Mei!"
"Un!"
"rule three: stay away from the snobbish fellows..."
"Un?"
"and the last rule, the most important one, rule four: do not ever expose yourself!"
"Un!" Xiao Ling nodded strongly as Xieren smiled softly seeing her look so diligent but frowned when he remembered the types of people he would meet in the banquet...
'Yang Ning... I've heard that fellow still has a grudge with me...' He shook his head and ordered the maids of his manor to take care of his disciple's accomodation.
He went through the outfits he was presented by the maids that blushed when his eyes glance at them...
"Let's go with this one... I still have to show that I'm part of the Qiu family" Xieren sighed and disrobed himself as several maids bled from their nose.
They helped him with his attire, it consisted of several layers of white silk robes that shone with a slight hue of violet, once that was put on they brought several pieces of armour for him.
An elegant chestplate that radiated power. It went upto his knees making him look like a general that had fought a hundred battles...
The metal used for the armour was of Qi conducting material, basically using Qi in the nature and in attacks, to strengthen itself.
The shoulder guards were carved into dramatic expressions of dragons which would make one feel weak in the knees.
After tying up his hair into a ponytail, Xieren grabbed the sword handed over to him by a maid that held it with shaky hands...
"The 'Heavenly Mandate'..." He whispered to himself and fitted it onto his side for easy use incase something unexpected happened.
"Li Na, where is Xiao Ling?" He asked the head maid who bowed her head and replied,
"Answering your Lordship, Lady Xiao is being attended by the maids at her allocated chamber!"
"I see... inform me when she is done with everything" He smiled gently as she nodded her head.
"It will be done"
•••••
"Yang Ning, you better be in your best behaviour today... after the humiliation last time the face of our Yang family has gone into a decline!" Explained the Patriarch of the Yang family.
"I obey, father..." Yang Ning said through gritted teeth as he clenched his fists in anger.
"Apparently the Emperor will also be present this time... including..." The Patriarch stopped knowing that the information he was about to give out was a very delicate subject...
"including?" Ning asked, trying to get more information.
"The eldest daughter of the Hōjo clan and Qiu Xieren..." He said solemnly knowing that his son would probably react violently.
"I see... thank you for the information father..." Yang Ning said and excused himself out of the room, this made the Patriarch frown in disappointment as he knew something was bound to happen today...
"But to think that the Hōjo clan would participate... those outsiders are too troublesome..." He then got his elders to prepare to set off to the Qiu manor...
••••••••••
A/N: Is it just me or I can't see author's thoughts? But anyway, I hope the story is to your liking including the grammar and such :) I hope to see comments in the future!
Regarding the whole Japanese thing at the end, I decided to add some into the mix as a full on Chinese based novel might seem too cliché, sorry if you don't like it :/