The cloaked figure followed her leisurely into the moonlight, revealing a man that didn’t appear much older than Xue Xian. Although he had a good-looking face, there was a type of wild and unhinged aura about him that made people feel on edge, instinctively putting people on the defensive.
He spun the dagger in his hand habitually, looking at Xue Xian with deep interest. “I didn’t expect to meet someone of such high skill on this beautiful night! We were only informed that the Imperial Dragon Bureau Commander was coming along, but unexpectedly another master martial artist is here. Would you be so kind as to letting this one know who you are?”
Xue Xian let out a cold hmph, giving him an extremely fake smile. “I’m just a small fry that’s assisting Commander Xiao this time around, I’m afraid my name isn’t worthy enough to be heard by your ears.”
“My, isn’t your mouth as sharp as your skills!” he extended his hands outwards and shook his head regretfully. “Unfortunately, I have a goal to accomplish today, so I can’t stick around too long. If you’ll excuse me-”
Xue Xian wasn’t interested in further wasting time, and before he could even finish, she once again dashed at him, one sword crossed in front of her while the other tailed her. Her movements were extremely smooth and fluid, like a fish in water, as her blade cut towards him, the arc and afterimage made by them appearing akin to that of water ripples. The way her swords moved were truly very beautiful, but unfortunately there was no time for her opponent to admire it, as he dropped the casual act and his gaze turned serious. He narrowly dodged her left hand blade, only to be forced to immediately block her right hand one. Xue Xian took the chance to give him a powerful kick, successfully connecting it with his ribs and launching him backwards a few meters.
A mouthful of blood welled up within his chest, and he involuntarily spat it out. At this point, he finally realized that he had underestimated his opponent. However, it was clear that Xue Xian wasn’t going to let him off easy and was already kicking towards him once again.
No longer holding back, the man twirled his dagger reflexively and leapt forward to meet her head on, clashing with her blades head on. Xue Xian crossed her swords and pressured him while his dagger pressed back by wedging itself within the gap between her blades.
Unfortunately, despite his weapon being at a disadvantage, Xue Xian was not fit for this type of head on battle. The man used his other arm to grab at her right wrist, dragging it to the side and forcing her to break her defensive formation. His dagger went through and stabbed towards her chest, but with incredible reflexes, Xue Xian used her other wrist and blocked this attack while simultaneously jabbing her right foot towards his crotch.
He was much more on guard this time and immediately leapt backwards, the two breaking apart violently. There was a red mark on Xue Xian’s right wrist from where he had grabbed her earlier as well as a thin cut in the area by her chest, blood leaking outwards to stain her white robes crimson.
The man’s lips curled up cruelly as they both stood a good distance apart, their breaths uneven. “You play dirty, missy. Aren’t martial artists all about honor?”
Xue Xian gazed at him indifferently, her eyes empty. “Honor? Do you think I care about that? As long as I win, I don’t care about the means.”
“Hahaha! That’s a first!” he wiped the blood at the corner of his mouth away. “Out of all the martial artists I’ve killed, to the last moment they’d be screaming about honor this and honor that. In reality, that’s just an excuse for their weakness.”
“Oh, is that so?” Xue Xian’s lips curled up into a sneer. “Are you going to start talking about honor now, then?”
The man’s face immediately changed, anger flashing within his eyes. He narrowed them dangerously, appearing especially wolf-like. “Don’t test my patience, missy.”
“Your patience? I think that’s my line. I say, you really do talk a lot considering we’re in the middle of a battle. If not for you, I probably would be enjoying a nice meal right now instead.” her eyes flashed coldly and she rushed forward once again, closing the distance within a blink of an eye. “Isn’t that unforgivable?”
Caught off guard, the man quickly held up his dagger and blocked her again, except this time, this was just a feint on Xue Xian’s side, and she suddenly let go of her right hand sword and pulled a dagger out of her robes, immediately driving it towards his chest. What was even more impressive was the fact that she somehow managed to do this all in one fluid movement without hesitation at all.
Suddenly, a third person came from the side and barreled into Xue Xian’s opponent, causing her dagger to miss. The newcomer was the man’s partner, Shi Tang, whom he had been conversing with earlier outside the town.
Almost immediately afterwards, Xiao Che appeared right behind him. His black hair and robes flowed elegantly behind him as he flew through the air, the feather on his lone earring mixing with his hair. He aimed his lance at the two people, forcing them to immediately split apart and hop to either side of Xiao Che as he landed impactfully.
Shi Tang was clutching his right arm, which was bleeding from an unseen wound. He glared at his partner angrily. “Yang Yan, I told you to prioritize killing Wei Fang, what exactly do you think you’re doing?!”
Yang Yan sneered. “Listen old man, why don’t you try taking on that girl over there before you start pointing fingers?”
On the other hand, Xue Xian was extremely laid back as she sauntered over to where Xiao Che stood, swinging her swords loosely within her hands. “Yo, A-Che, so it appears you had your own battle going. And here I thought you were slacking letting me do all the fighting.”
He rolled his eyes at her and said sarcastically, “Sure, that’s definitely something I’d do. Definitely not the type of thing you’d do.”
Before Xue Xian could reply, they heard Yang Yan give Shi Tang another sneering remark. “Shi Tang, you have the audacity to lecture me on not completing my assignment, but what about yourself, hm?”
“I-“ Shi Tang was rendered speechless. He angrily shook his head, “Nevermind, we don’t have time for this! Let’s go!”
“Oh, you’re so ashamed that you’re running away now?” Yang Yan snickered.
Shi Tang no longer paid him any mind and jumped off the roof, disappearing from sight. Seeing him go Yang Yan heaved a sigh and turned to Xue Xian and Xiao Che. “What a shame, two worthy opponents and not enough time to fight. Let’s hope we meet again in the future!” With that, he followed after Shi Tang, the two of them disappearing into the night.
Once they left, Xue Xian sheathed her swords again, giving a satisfying click. “Not gonna chase?” she said to Xiao Che lightly.
The man side eyed her. “No, protecting Wei Fang and the grail is most important. Plus,” he looked at her accusingly, “you wouldn’t help me even if I did give chase.”
Xue Xian smiled cheekily. “You’re right. Not only is it extra work, it’s also not part of my job. His Majesty only told me to protect.”
“Why’d you even bring it up then…” he muttered under his breath.
“Cause I knew it’d annoy you.”
He turned to leave.
“Hey wait, I was just kidding, come back!”
Xiao Che eyed her distrustfully.
Xue Xian almost felt a little bad looking at his cynical gaze, but she got over it real fast and said, “Those two people, they don’t seem like they’re from the palace.”
“No, they don’t,” Xiao Che agreed, finally turning his whole body to face her. He pondered for a moment, unconsciously reaching up to tug absentmindedly at his earring. “The person that I fought with was full of tricks and schemes, most likely…”
“Jianghu people.” Xue Xian finished for him. She frowned slightly. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t. There’s no reason for people of the jianghu to be targeting us. Perhaps for the Jaded Grail, but it’s clear that they also had the intent to kill Wei Fang.”
It has to be said, the world of the jianghu and government was wholly different and both sides have drawn a clear line between each other for a long time now. Though technically jianghu people were still under the jurisdiction and law of the Emperor, more often than not, dealings that happened amongst jianghu people were more or less ignored by the government. Even if the government did try to intervene, there were numerous master martial artists out there that could easily dodge them, so there was no point.
The one thing the two had in common was martial artists. Since the beginning of history, the strong have always been respected. It was the same here as well; although Xiao Che wasn’t considered a person of the jianghu, he was quite well known amongst people who were for his skills. Likewise, there was a master in the jianghu called Sheng Qing, hailed as the number one martial artist, that those involved with the government knew of.
Xue Xian mulled over it for a second, and then suddenly remembered something. “Earlier, that Yang Yan guy, he said that he had been informed of your presence but not mine. It’s possible that someone from court hired them.”
“Still…” Xiao Che shook his head. “Those people aren’t simple. That Shi Tang person was pretty evenly matched with me, and it seems that it was the same on your end then. I just feel… that there’s something more to them.”
It was too late in the night for Xue Xian to want to think too deeply about this type of confusing thing, so she half-heartedly said, “I don’t know… whatever, it’s none of my business. Wei Fang and the grail are both safe, and that’s all that matters.”
Xiao Che furrowed his brows at her uncaring attitude, but before he could open his mouth, he caught sight of the spot of blood stained white cloth on her chest. It had previously been hidden by her long hair, but her movements shifted it out of the way to reveal the thin cut. He grabbed her arm, stopping her. “You… did you get hurt?”
“Hm?” Xue Xian glanced down at the cut indifferently. “Ahh, this? It’s nothing, just a light graze. Nothing serious.”
It was that dismissive attitude again.
There was an assassination incident back when they were still confidants of crown prince Feng Luo, the current Emperor. It was staged by a corrupt court official that had been stripped of his title, and out of spite against the Emperor at that time, he made a move on Feng Luo. The assassins themselves weren’t hard to deal with, it was just that they had come completely unexpectedly. A knife was thrown straight at Feng Luo with no warning, and with no other options, Xue Xian stopped it by using herself as a meat shield, earning a deep stab wound right to the underside of her ribs. However, she didn’t flinch, nor did she cry out in pain. All she did was emotionlessly pull it out of her own flesh and ruthlessly shot it straight back into the skull of the assassin who threw it.
Afterwards, Feng Luo was taken back to the palace and Xue Xian and Xiao Che remained behind at the academy. At that time, Xiao Che finally got a good view of her wound and immediately felt concerned. There was a huge splotch of red staining her white robes, the whole left side of her stomach dyed a sticky red. He could even vaguely make out the ugly messy cut beneath all of that.
It definitely hurt a lot.
Frowning, he told her, “Go get your wound treated by the academy doctor, you’re still bleeding…”
And what was her response?
In that same dismissive tone, as if she wasn’t even talking about herself, she said “This? It’s fine, it’s not serious. I’ll just use gauze to wrap it up later or something. No need to bother the doctor.”
As she said this, she turned to meet his gaze. In that one moment when he looked into her eyes, he suddenly felt that no matter how deep he searched, there was no light in them. It made him feel unsettled and oddly very upset.
Xue Xian lowered her gaze and turned to leave. Normally, he might have just let her walk away like that. He had been working alongside her for years and knew how capable she was. If she said she was fine, then she was fine. But in that moment-
He impulsively grabbed her arm and dragged her in the other direction. Xue Xian let out a surprised yelp, wincing a bit as the movement disturbed her wound. “I- what are you…”
“That wound is clearly serious, you can’t just ‘wrap it up with gauze or something’. If you become injured, then my workload will be doubled, why would I invite trouble onto myself?” he snapped coldly. “Get it. Treated. Properly.”
She looked up at him, a rare look of both helplessness and annoyance appearing on her face. “I’m sorry, is this our wound? I’ll take care of it-”
“Trust me, I’ve seen you try ‘taking care of yourself’ before. It’s not going to work.”
“…” she knew how stubborn this person could get, so she stopped arguing with him, feeling too tired for it anyway.
Xiao Che finally noticed that he may have been a little too rough and stopped for a moment, letting go of her arm. He coughed awkwardly. “I… um, sorry, your wound… I didn’t…”
At this point Xue Xian wasn’t even annoyed anymore, just vaguely amused at seeing the you to be so expressive.”
He didn’t want to speak anymore and just looked at her gloomily.
She genuinely laughed at his somewhat funny expression. In the end, she did get it properly treated.
In comparison, the cut she got from her battle with Yang Yan just now really was nothing to the stab wound back then, but Xiao Che felt really, really bothered by how dismissive she was towards her own well-being.
usually distant and cool-headed Xiao Che look so awkward. She didn’t bother hiding her amusement as she said, “It’s fine. Since you’ve said all that, how could I not listen, hm? Rare of A long moment passed and Xiao Che still didn’t say anything, lost in thought. Xue Xian poked him lightly, “Hello? Did you hit your head earlier or something?”
He snapped out of his own thoughts and shook his head vaguely. “Never mind, forget it. I’ll send a message back to His Majesty about this incident just in case.”
Xue Xian shrugged half-heartedly. “Do what you will. I’m going back to keeping watch.” As she said this, she turned to go back to the spot she had been sitting at earlier.
Xiao Che rubbed his forehead and stopped her. “It’s fine, I’ll take over for you, you can go rest.”
She turned back to look at him. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Even if I tried to go sleep, I wouldn’t be able to. Plus, we martial artists have been trained to go days without rest, right?”
Since she said as much, he wouldn’t push it. Without another word, he leapt off the roof and headed into the inn himself so that he could inform the Emperor of the events that happened today.
Xue Xian was left alone on the roof, resuming her observing of the bright moon and stars.
A/N: Btw, in case anyone cares, Xue Xian is 22, Xiao Che is 23. Assassination incident happened when they were 16/17 respectively.
