As the mayhem in the Imperial Palace gradually calmed down, so did the citizens. Before, the streets and taverns would be abuzz with gossip. Which ministers were replaced, which ministers were removed from their position in court, which officials were arrested for what crimes, there was no dearth of rumors on such topics for a few months.

Time continued to pass and slowly, people started to forget about such things and everything went back to normal. Life continued without any other major incidents occurring and before anyone noticed it, another cycle of seasons had passed, and it was the season of spring once more.

Over these two years, Lin Xiao had gotten used to living in the cave with Long Yinlian and the three tigers. He could even differentiate between Wang Lan, Wang Fan, and Wang Zan now.

Wang Lan liked to act like the big brother of the other two. He would be the first to bring his brothers along when it was time to go hunt for food. He was also the largest amongst the three.

Wang Fan, on the other hand, preferred to laze around. He would eat and sleep the whole day away if he could. His favourite pastime was swimming in the lake near their cave. What shocked Lin Xiao the most about Wang Fan was the fact that despite all these traits,  he was the fiercest of the three tigers. He always remembered how he once ran into them hunting while picking up herbs for Long Yinlian and how he had shivered in fear as he watched how ruthless Wang Fan could be.

On the other hand, Wang Zan is the one that Lin Xiao was fond of the most. Rather than a tiger, Wang Zan reminded Lin Xiao more of a domestic cat. He liked to be pampered and spoiled. He likes to play around and whenever he saw Wang Fan swimming, he would drag Long Yinlian and Lin Xiao in the lake for a swim too. This usually ended up with all of them, including Wang Lan, playing around in the water for several hours.

Despite all these discoveries, it was Long Yinlian that gave Lin Xiao the biggest shock. Not long after Lin Xiao had made his full recovery, he saw Long Yinlian practicing with his sword. Lin Xiao couldn’t take his eyes off him. Each movement was precise and concise. It was as if Long Yinlian was not visually challenged at all.

Of course, Long Yinlian also noticed that Lin Xiao had been staring at him for a while now. Any martial arts practitioner would’ve been able to feel that burning gaze locked on them. So, after he was done with his practice, he turned to Lin Xiao and asked if Lin Xiao wanted to learn under him, to which Lin Xiao immediately accepted in complete excitement. Since then, Lin Xiao had learned a lot from Long Yinlian.

Currently, Lin Xiao was sparring with Long Yinlian and no matter what he did, Long Yinlian always seemed to have a counter for it. One particular move sent the wooden sword flying from Lin Xiao’s hand and soon after, the tip of Long Yinlian’s wooden sword lightly grazed Lin Xiao’s neck. 

“Xiao-er, you still have much to learn,” Long Yinlian said with a smile. “But compared to when I first trained you, you have improved a lot.”

“Shizun is just too strong,” Lin Xiao smiled back. Although he always lost to Long Yinlian, Lin Xiao never once felt downhearted about it. In fact, he felt proud to have such a proficient master teaching him. The tip of the wooden sword moved away, and Lin Xiao bowed to Long Yinlian respectfully.

Just then, Wang Zan came over to Lin Xiao’s side. He nuzzled against the male and Lin Xiao’s hand instinctively went to pat the tiger’s head. 

“Zan-er, want to play?” Lin Xiao asked, and the tiger’s eyes immediately shone with excitement.  

Seeing this, Lin Xiao chuckled before turning to Long Yinlian, “Shizun, I’m going to take Zan-er for a quick walk.”

“Alright. Just be cautious, and don’t stray too far. You remember, right? The last time we went to the village, they told us how the bandits seem to have become more daring lately,” Long Yinlian reminded him.

“Shizun does not have to worry. Lin Xiao remembers. We will be back before it gets dark,” Lin Xiao assured Long Yinlian before he turned to Wang Zan. “Come on, Zan-er!”

 Lin Xiao bestrode the tiger and began to ride him further into the forest. They usually just patrolled around the perimeter of their cave to make sure no bandits found out about them. This was kept as a secret from Long Yinlian, and the reason why Lin Xiao decided to do this was because that one day, he had found out about Long Yinlian’s secret stash of gold.

Thus, he made it a habit to take Wang Zan out to ‘play’ every day and if there were any bandits that managed to get close to their cave, they would immediately subdue the threat. Of course, Long Yinlian knew nothing about this arrangement since they always made sure to clean up well before going back to the cave.

This time, they only finished patrolling the northern side of their cave when they heard a shout.

“Release me this instant!!” 

From the voice, Lin Xiao figured that the voice belonged to a young maiden. 

He patted Wang Zan’s back and pointed at the direction where the voice came from. Wang Zan understood and began to quietly approach said direction. As they got closer, more and more voices could be heard.

“Ha! Even though her guards were killed right in front of her, she still acts defiantly!”

“The boss would love to break her first!”

“How much do you think we can get from her family?”

“Based on her carriage, it looks like that she’s from a very wealthy family… huh? What’s this…”

By now, Lin Xiao and Wang Zan were already close enough to see the scene play out before them. They continued to hide in order to fully gauge the situation before deciding on the best course of action. They watched as one of the bandits that was near the carriage pulled out a long red dress from the carriage.

“Guys! Look! Isn’t this a wedding dress?! So, this lady is about to be sent off for marriage! We’ve struck gold!”

The bandits all laughed uproariously. Hearing the laughter, the young maiden’s eyes started to tear up but not from fear, but from humiliation. She suddenly clenched her hands into fists and launched herself at the bandit closest to her, hoping to take him by surprise so she could try to escape, but of course, it was a futile attempt. The bandit noticed this and immediately hit her across the face.

“Heh, she even tries to fight back. This lady is really something. Maybe after we get our money, we can have some fun with her before returning her!”

Another bout of menacing laughter filled the area and Lin Xiao felt that the young maiden had suffered enough. He covered the lower half of his face with a piece of clothing that he always had in handy for whenever he had to deal with rogue bandits, and then signalled Wang Zan to go around before he went out of his hiding place. He was relaxed, like this was just a walk around the park.

“Huh? Where did you come from?” One of the bandits noticed him and immediately asked.

“Whatever, we are feeling generous right now because we found such good ‘merchandise’. So, hurry up and scram!” Another bandit said offhandedly.

“Hey! What if he reports this to the authorities before we can even get back to the family of this young lady?! That would be a disaster!” A smarter bandit scolded the bandit from  before, before turning to Lin Xiao, “Well, since we can’t let you go, we’ll give you a swift death instead.”

Lin Xiao simply ignored them and glanced at the young lady on the ground. 

“My lady, please close your eyes and wait for a moment. Ignore whatever you hear and no matter what, you must not move from here unless you wish for death,” he said in a calm voice. Once she nodded that she would do as she was told to, Lin Xiao smiled behind his mask.

Being ignored and indirectly threatened, the bandits faces all turned ugly. 

“Are you saying you’re going to defeat us alone?!” One of the more short-tempered bandits yelled furiously. “You don’t even have a weapon! And there are more than a dozen of us!”

Lin Xiao just chuckled when he heard this. “Say… Did you really think I would need a weapon to deal with the likes of you?” He replied smugly.

“You--!”

“Oh, and if you think that I am alone, then you are hugely mistaken…” Lin Xiao was smirking as he stared at the bandits with a hint of pity in his eyes. 

“Zan-er, it’s time to play!” Lin Xiao called out and with a loud roar, Wang Zan finally came out of his hiding place.

The unexpected appearance of a tiger petrified the bandits for a moment before they came back to their senses and started to flee. Of course, if they weren’t caught off guard and decided  to work together, they could’ve killed Wang Zan. 

It was only unfortunate that Lin Xiao was around to disrupt any potential teamwork they could try to organize. In addition, these bandits were all spineless and had no sense of loyalty. As they ran, the one acting as the leader of the group pushed one of the bandits down to become the cannon fodder to buy the rest of them time to run.

“Zan-er! Leave that one and chase the rest! Don’t let them escape!” Lin Xiao told Wang Zan who is more than happy to listen. To the tiger, chasing those who ran was more exciting than those who were down. Lin Xiao watched as Wang Zan did as told while he approached the abandoned bandit. 

“Now, how to deal with you…” Lin Xiao had a sadistic smile on his face which the bandit could somehow sense, even though he couldn’t see it due to the cloth mask.

Lin Xiao eyed the bandit before his eyes landed on a dagger strapped on his waist. 

“Oh? This dagger, I will be taking this,” Lin Xiao said as he reached out to take the dagger. Only then did the bandit realize what Lin Xiao was doing and he tried to snatch back the dagger away. Unfortunately for him, Lin Xiao was quick to react and with one swift movement, he cut off the bandit’s hand. The bandit screamed out in pain as he held his now dismembered arm, looking at it with tearful eyes as if waiting for his hand to grow back. 

“Ah, my apologies. My hand… slipped.” After saying this, Lin Xiao looked at Wang Zan, who was having fun toying with the rest of the bandits. But slowly, he saw that Wang Zan was being overpowered, and so he decided to go and help the tiger.

Both human and tiger worked together seamlessly. It looked as natural as breathing. Whenever the dagger in Lin Xiao’s hand found its mark, it never failed to take the life of the target away. Each time he made a move, he always targeted the most vulnerable place. Sometimes, the bandits couldn’t even let out a scream before finding out they were now dying with a deep wound on their throat.

Moments later, Lin Xiao returned to the incapaciated bandit who he abandoned before. The rest were already nothing more than corpses on the ground and this bandit was the last one alive remaining. Lin Xiao squatted before the bandit and played with the dagger in his hand. 

“We’re done over there, so now it’s your turn. Do not blame me. Blame your luck for running into me today,” Lin Xiao said before he held the dagger to the bandit’s throat and swiftly killed him.

After he was done, he walked over to the young lady’s side and knelt beside her. “My lady, you can open your eyes now,” Lin Xiao said as he removed his mask.

When the young lady opened her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she saw. The bandits were completely wiped out and she stared fearfully at the man before her. “Are you going to kill me too?”

“What? What makes you say that? After all the trouble I went through to save you, why would I kill you?” Lin Xiao felt wronged. Just because he was ruthless, it didn’t mean he was heartless. To be misunderstood so by a fair looking young lady would make any gentleman feel hurt.

“I… umm… then, thank you for saving me,” the young lady said, and she finally took a good look at Lin Xiao’s face. Only then did she find out how attractive her saviour is. In fact, based on looks alone, he could compete with the top-ranked attractive men in the Qin Empire.

“Miss…?” Lin Xiao noticed that he was being stared at excessively and couldn’t help but feel slightly uncomfortable. 

“Are you feeling alright? Let me escort you to the nearby village. We can find more help there,” Lin Xiao said before he turned to face Wang Zan. “Zan-er! Come and help carry the young miss over,” 

“This is Wang Zan, don’t worry. He won’t bite,” Lin Xiao introduced the tiger to the young lady.

It seemed that the current state of Wang Zan was too stimulating for her. Wang Zan’s maw was covered in blood and when Wang Zan opened its mouth to let out a low growl, her face turned white before her pupils rolled to the back of her eyes. Lin Xiao immediately caught her before she fell to the ground.

“Zan-er… Did she faint? I have yet to find more information about her. Maybe she experienced too much today,” Lin Xiao sighed before he picked her up and placed her on top of Wang Zan’s back. “Oh well, since we can’t do anything else now, let’s just carry her home first.”

After saying that, Lin Xiao looked around the area and decided to bring some of her stuff along, especially the wedding dress and other things that he deemed important. As for the dead bodies of the guards and servants, though Lin Xiao felt pity, he did not have the luxury to bury them. “Well, I’m really sorry. But since your Young Miss is safe now, I hope you will find peace,” Lin Xiao offered them his prayers before he left the area with Wang Zan, who was carrying the young lady. This time, Lin Xiao decided not to clean up. After all, he must tell Long Yinlian about the young lady and that meant, he needs to tell him about the bandits too.

After he left, a bird of prey landed on the nearby tree. It was an adult falcon, and though it has yet to reach its full size, it was already big enough to fly off with a rabbit. This time, its gaze followed Lin Xiao and the rest. Whenever the three are about to leave its sight, it would spread its wings and with few flaps, it would land on a tree with a good vantage on the three. This continued all the way till Lin Xiao and the rest reached their dwelling.