The gargantuan white serpent lunged forward to swallow me whole, only to end up eating a black arrow instead. There was a shudder as the projectile sped through its body, tearing the gigantic snake apart from the inside out. So powerful was the arrow that the walls on either side of the behemoth serpent were blasted into smithereens, debris rolling down in a cloud of dust.
The gargantuan white serpent trembled before falling apart in two bloody halves. At the far end, several dozen meters behind its split tail, the assassin stood, a huge hole in the center of his body. His mask had been blown off, revealing a bloodied face.
"Ugh…"
The assassin let out a groan, blood trickling from his mouth. He looked like he was going to say something, but with a big hole in the middle of his body, I doubted he could. His heart and most of his lungs had ceased to exist. I was surprised he was still alive.
"Um, you're not going to stab yourself with your sword and turn yourself into goo, are you?" I asked apprehensively.
"C…" the assassin managed to splutter out…and then he toppled over and expired. Good. I didn't want to have to chase him down or spend the rest of the story…ahem, my life looking over my shoulder and watching out for a damned assassin who got away because…well, plot.
"Huff…huff…huff…."
I was panting heavily, my fingers bleeding profusely. The bowstring had snapped from the force of the arrow and the strands drifted on the breeze. My hands stung, feeling like they were on fire. It was only natural. I had overloaded them with excessive qi – enough to power a star, or so it felt like.
"Are you guys all right?" I turned away from the dead assassin to check on the royal guard and my wife. And the seventh princess, as an aside.
"Yeah, we're fine." Lan Bei Er had taken cover intelligently enough, and now that the fight was over, she had emerged to check on the wounds of everyone. Apparently, they were all okay, so she switched her attention to me. "And you should stop moving around, sir. Let me check you."
"Yes, wife." I held both hands up in surrender. Best to obey her for now because a good husband never incurred his wife's wrath for no reason. It was one thing when I was fighting, but now that the battle was over, I should be a good guy and comply with her check up.
Lan Bei Er specialized in healing, after all. In matters of health, I should listen to her.
Fortunately, it appeared that I didn't suffer serious injuries. Scrapes, cuts and bruises, but nothing internal and nothing too severe. Lan Bei Er could heal all of them immediately. Even my fingers, which had been bleeding profusely and stung like a bitch, were fully restored. I was impressed by how quickly the pain had faded, replaced by a comfortable warmth. The bleeding had been stemmed immediately before the cuts on my fingers had totally disappeared without leaving even a scar.
"Thanks." I lowered my head slightly. Lan Bei Er shook her head and examined me again, just to be sure.
"How did you get away virtually unscathed?" she marveled in amazement. I laughed, basking in my wife's admiring gaze.
"I got lucky, I guess?"
"We owe you our lives," one of the royal guard said, coming up to us and bowing deeply. His comrades mirrored him. Only Huang Wan Hai didn't lower her head, but she at least nodded in acknowledgement and expressed her gratitude.
"I will definitely repay you for saving us." her expression softened. "I see now why Qian Jin spoke highly of you and made you his sworn brother. You truly are…an enigma."
Was that supposed to be a compliment?
"U…um…"
We all turned around, only to catch sight of the innkeeper nervously poking his head out from behind a ruined wall. His complexion was ashen and he looked utterly distraught, his eyes constantly darting around to survey the wreckage of his inn.
His wife was beside him, almost in tears. She was trembling uncontrollably, and her husband had to support her to prevent her from collapsing.
Huang Wan Hai sighed and stepped toward them. The innkeeper couple jumped, but she raised a hand and nodded to one of her royal guard. He stepped forward and reached into his spatial pouch to produce an exorbitant amount of taels.
"T…this…" the innkeeper husband began. The seventh princess smiled.
"We apologize for all the damage done to your inn. We will definitely pay for it. After all, this whole thing is my fault. If we hadn't stopped here for the night, your inn wouldn't have been caught up in all this fighting."
"It's not your fault, your highness," one of the royal guard protested. "One of your brothers sent the assassin after you. If anything, he is to be blamed."
"It might be one of your sisters, your highness," another of the royal guard added. "We cannot rule out the possibility that it might be the third princess who sent the assassin."
"Nonetheless, it doesn't change the fact that the innkeepers and guests here are all victims caught up in our political infighting." Huang Wan Hai sighed. "I would rather not drag innocent people into this if I could help it, but it appears that my siblings do not have such scruples."
She raised her head determinedly.
"But I'm different from them. I will not allow the innocent people to suffer just because of a squabble and assassinations between the royal princes and princesses."
I watched Huang Wan Hai and the royal guard from afar, glancing at the innkeeper couple and the beleaguered guests. Lan Bei Er was hurrying over to check on nthe wounded guests and heal them. Sighing, I went to help her, but I could already sense that there were more than a few casualties.
Even though I had avoided killing anybody with my arrows, the assassin had no qualms in involving the innocent civilians, his serpentine sword – Spirit Slayer, was it? – having sliced through the guest rooms and massacring a handful of unfortunate guests. Many more were injured by the falling debris, but these could be saved.
I swiftly kicked the rubble off and freed them, dragging them to the open for my wife to tend to and heal them. It took a whole night, but eventually we were able to rescue everybody.
Those who hadn't died, anyway. It was too late for the dead. As miraculous as Lan Bei Er's healing techniques were, she couldn't resurrect those who had already lost their lives.
"Huff…"
After a whole night of healing, Lan Bei Er swayed on her feet as she wiped the perspiration from her face. I quickly caught her before she could fall, supporting her. She must be exhausted after healing dozens of people nonstop. And she also had to tend to the injuries of both me and the royal guard too. It was only natural that she would be drained.
"Good thing I reached the first level of Innate Realm, or I wouldn't have been able to muster up enough qi to heal everybody," she remarked in an attempt to be humorous, but I could see from her pallor that she needed rest.
"You should lie down now," I assured her before sweeping her into my arms and carrying her like a princess. "You did a great job, Bei Er. Close your eyes. I'll look for a place for you to sleep."
"I can sleep in the carriage," she replied drowsily. "So you don't have to worry. We should head to the imperial capital as soon as possible…try not to delay the journey."
"Your wife can ride in my carriage," Huang Wan Hai spoke up, surprising me. She looked a little apologetic. "It's much more spacious and more comfortable than the one you're using. She'll have plenty of room to lie down and sleep. We do actually have a proper bed in there."
Figures. The royal family were a step above normal people like us. They would have access to all the best and most luxurious gear.
"Besides," Huang Wan Hai continued. "This is our responsibility. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been dragged into this mess and forced to fight the assassin on my behalf. If it weren't for me, your wife wouldn't have exhausted herself having to heal so many people."
"Stuff happens. I'll be counting on you then." I helped transferred my wife over to the largest royal carriage and placed her on the bed. Then I hopped out.
"You will not be joining her?" Huang Wan Hai asked, surprised. I shook my head.
"No, I'll be taking care of our own heavenly carriage. Can't just leave the chauffeur and staff here, after all. And we'll need it for the return trip. And before that…"
I proceeded toward the ruins of the inn and began setting up a formation. It took a while, but once I had all the talismans and flags in place, I activated it.
Right before everyone's eyes, the inn was slowly repaired and restored. It was similar to the earth techniques used by the cultivators of Azure Water Sect during the intersect tournament, whenever they needed to repair the arena after a particularly vicious fight.
This was on a much larger scale, drawing natural qi from the heavens and earth via a formation.
"Amazing," Huang Wan Hai breathed. She stared at me in disbelief. "Just how many spirit arrays can you set up?"
"A lot," I replied shortly. She shook her head.
"So you really are an array master, like Qian Jin said."
"Did you doubt your brother?" There was some scorn in my words, but Huang Wan Hai took no offense.
"It wasn't that I didn't believe him, but witnessing your abilities for myself is totally different from simply hearing about it."
"Fair enough." I shrugged and returned to restoring the inn. It took quite a toll on me, the amount of mental energy and concentration I needed to maintain and operate the formation. The less distractions, the better.
Understanding that, Huang Wan Hai left me to my job and returned to the midst of her royal guard, barking instructions and the like. I didn't pay any attention to that, focusing on operating my formation. I only needed an hour or so before I could fully repair the inn.
Unfortunately, the formation wasn't able to resurrect the dead. No such arrays existed. The dead would never be able to come back to life. That was an inviolable law of nature. People claimed that they could go against the heavens or cultivation was going against the heavens, but that was just bullshit. Having studied history and reading tenets of Daoism, I knew that it was a way of cultivation developed by Lao Zi to prolong one's life.
Indeed, actual cultivation of the Way (Daoism) involved giving up wealth and desires…yet you see all these cultivators in these stories having desires, ambitions, amassing wealth (like greedy capitalists) and robbing each other or plundering from the dead. That went against the tenets of Daoism and Dao De Jing. Cultivation was giving up on worldly desires, retreating from the world, meditating, adhering to a strict diet and exercising in order to prolong your life and extend your lifespan for as long as possible. Somehow that health method turned into "cultivating to become immortals (xian)."
But obviously readers didn't want to read about ascetics performing exercises, dieting and meditating in order to healthily prolong their lives. They wanted adventure, immortality, wealth and success. They wanted instant gratification. They wanted superpowers and to become heroes.
So the genre ended up distorting the original Way (Dao) and turning into this martial artist or wuxia hybrid where warriors with superpowers climbed up the ranks and amass wealth, women and success. I suspected that if Lao Zi was to see what had happened to his teachings, he would turn over in his grave.
"Well…fiction is a form of escapism anyway, so I guess taking liberties with something is unavoidable."
Sighing, I switched off the formation once I was done repairing the inn, gathered the flags and talismans, and then proceeded toward the Lan family's heavenly carriage. The chauffeur and staff were waiting for me, but it seemed that Huang Wan Hai's entourage had left earlier.
That was fine by me. I would catch up with them eventually. Or so I hope.
Embarking onto the carriage, I took one last look at the long suffering civilians who were now putting things back in place and cleaning the newly repaired inn, and then turned around to prepare for the journey.