XH 194 - Second Prince's whip

A group more than twenty, dressed similarly to the female assassin, suddenly surrounded Duke Heng's group, their weapons out and ready. 

Duke Heng fanned himself loftily as if he was not in a dangerous situation. He even have the mood to mock the enemies. "To command a large troop just to deal with a drugged first rank cultivator, I feel embarrassed for your owner."

The female assassin ignored him and ordered, "Get the girl! Kill those that block the way!"

The assassins darted straight to Liu Bing who was shielding Wan Ting behind him. 

"Miss Wan, stay behind me!" Liu Bing bent his knee forward, preparing to fight. Even if he was aiming to be a top scholar, his teacher never let him neglect cultivation for self-defense. 

The higher you rise, the more enemies you will meet. 

"I can fight by myself!" Wan Ting said, but she did not step out from Liu Bing's protective back. But she was prepared to fight with her still weak body, and urged her flame spirit to speed up the dissolution of the drugs in her system. 

"Bring them down," Duke Heng said coldly.

Just as his order passed, shadows from every corner darted out from their hiding space. Their nimble figures quickly darted around to kill the assassins, their movement silent yet deadly. With their large number, they only need one guard to deliver one attack to each assassin and it was enough to send them to the afterlife. 
 
The female assassin was shocked at the sudden change in events. Her pupils trembled in fear as she eyed the number of guards surrounding her target protectively. 

It was more than fifty guards!

"You are insane!" The female assassin spat out and quickly turned around to flee, but her shoulder was suddenly grabbed.

With a flexible twist of her body, she escaped from the hold and unleashed a fierce attack with her whip, immediately bringing down two of Duke Heng's guards. But no matter how strong and fast she was, she was not able to withstand fifty top-notch guards focusing all their attention on her. 

Despite one versus fifty, she was still able to severely injure almost half of Duke Heng's troop before she could no longer fight. Her display of strength had Duke Heng frown with displeasure and anxiety. Fortunately, he had brought enough guards or else she would have escaped. 

"Immobile her," Duke Heng ordered and watch without sympathy as his guard break her arms and legs, eliciting a sharp hiss from her. A normal person would have already screamed like a slaughtered pig from the pain and fainted. 

"You!" The female assassin hissed at Duke Heng like a wounded, yet unwilling dog to be permanently put down. 

She had never thought Duke Heng would be this insane! She had predicted that Duke Heng will bring his guards around, but to bring more than fifty with him, which was equal to the strength capable of eradicating a whole clan! Not only that, each of Duke Heng's guards could deal with rank two and lower cultivator! 

"Lu Bian, the whip of our great and honorable war God of Guilin Kingdom, is planning to kidnap an innocent girl? Could it be our War God is no longer our protector, but the Death God of Guilin?" Duke Heng questioned icily. 

Breathing harshly, the female assassin narrowed her eyes at him. "You know me," she said hoarsely from the effort to withstand the pain. As the Second Prince's weapon, what degree of pain she had not endured before?

No one, other than his close confidants, knew that Duke Heng was actually a coward. The older he gets, the more things he grew fearful of. For today's trip, he had brought more than enough shadow guards to avoid any dangers.

The Second Prince had lent one of his four strongest guards to Liu Chu Chu as her additional bodyguard. Duke Heng will not pay attention to this matter if his spy had not passed on him what the Second Prince had said to Liu Chu Chu when she doubted the strength of her new bodyguard. 

'Her strength is equal to a hundred soldiers.'

For the Second Prince to be able to boast that way, the guard was naturally not an average one. Among his guards, there were four whose fame was well known to those that had fought against the Second Prince.  

Shield, sword, whip, and spear. 

They were named as weapons and trained to use their namesake for their master till the last second of their life. The number of people knowing the identity of these four guards was lesser than the number of fingers in a hand. 

Duke Heng actually took a gamble and guessed that this female wielding a whip was the 'whip' of the Second Prince and he got it right.

"I surrender."

Duke Heng blinked in surprise and his fast-paced thought came into a halt. His mind was already filled with plans to torture this female assassin to pry information from her tightly sealed mouth. He knew that as a 'weapon' personally trained by the Second Prince, she would be extremely loyal to him. Duke Heng would not be surprised if she chooses to kill herself before betraying her master. 

Duke Heng arched an eyebrow. "Second Prince's whip is known to be ferocious and loyal to her master." 

"I had lost. Surrender is the only choice I have," Lu Bian answered calmly, any unwillingness from before was gone without a trace. Only the fierce trembling showed her pain.

"Teacher!" Liu Bing stared at his teacher anxiously. He did not know what that female assassin was planning, but he was worried that his teacher's compassion would harm himself. 

Duke Heng raised a hand, calming down Liu Bing. This matter was not difficult to solve compared to what he had faced before. Now that he has enough power, he has more choices to pick from.

"Bring her along." Dou Dou was quick and knocked Lu Bian out easily, especially when she was already weakened from the pain. Using special ropes, he tied up the unconscious female and dragged her without any care, throwing her right beside the three tied up kidnappers. 

"Jin Jin, inform the Forensic Department to pick up these bodies. Find out their identities."

"Yes!"

Wan Ting stared at the dead corpses in a daze, her body trembling from the adrenaline. She had not witnessed such brutality before and would naturally feel fear. But she was relieved to avoid being killed. 

"The Second Prince's precious guard personally came to ensure your demise. Do you still love this kind of man?" Duke Heng asked Wan Ting.

Wan Ting released a shaky breath but did not get angry upon hearing the mockery from his words. "I know Liu Chu Chu is the one that makes trouble for me, not the Second Prince."

"The Second Prince know about today's plan but he did not stop her." Duke Heng refuted. "Is that not wanting your demise?"

Wan Ting bit her lip, the pain clearing her mind slightly. She could not refute, because the Second Prince must have known what Liu Chu Chu wanted to do or else why would his top guard helped Liu Chu Chu to do her dirty work?

"The Second Prince is gathering information about Minister Wan."

"What?" Wan Ting snapped her head up.

"It won't be long before the Second Prince is able to expose all the crimes Minister Wan has done for all these years." Duke Heng stared at Wan Ting sternly. "Your whole family will be prosecuted for corruption and stealing once the Emperor knows about this."

"Impossible!" Wan Ting cried out. "My father is an honorable minister and my family has a strict budget because of father's measly wages! How can there be any stealing when our budget is tight!" 

As the sole child of Minister Wan, the number of new clothes she could make for a year was less than ten! Compared to other Ministers with plenty of the first wives' born child and concubine born children, Wan Ting could be said to not living a luxurious lifestyle!

"I can safely say that only our Minister of Justice could remain clean in his officialdom." 

Not even Duke Heng could avoid it dabbing in corruption. He had bribed and pushed a few corrupted ministers to get things done, even if his intention was for the sake of the citizens that were counting on him to make their lives better. 

"You are lying-"

"To have the Second Prince focusing his energy on Minister Wan, isn't it because of you?" Duke Heng cut in, his eyes were cold without pity, rendering Wan Ting to a mute with wide, shocked eyes. 

"You keep on pestering him, forcing your one-sided feelings onto him, and he has no choice but to do something to stop you. To stop you permanently and punish you for hurting his one true love," Duke Heng said with thick sarcasm, "Why not have your family fall into ruin? If you die, that would be even better for the Second Prince. Once you are dead, he doesn't need to worry about whatever schemes you would think up in the future."

"No...no…" Wan Ting mumbled, completely shaken from what the duke had said. "He would never do this!"

Duke Heng passed a book to Liu Bing, who then passed it to Wan Ting. "This is a copy from the Second Prince's account about Minister Wan."

Wan Ting frowned and took the book after a brief hesitation, flipping it open at a random page. The more she read, the more disbelief she feels. The remaining fire inside her died out and despair colored her eyes, with tears rolling down her cheeks silently. 

Duke Heng's voice softened an inch. "From my estimation, the Second Prince will hand over the information to the court after his marriage. It's best if your family relocate far away before then. If you choose to stay, your family should prepare yourselves."

Her tears stopped flowing, Wan Ting remained silent all the way back to her home with the book gripped tightly in her hands, escorted by Duke Heng with a new carriage. They stopped at Minister Wan's backdoor to avoid anyone seeing Miss Wan's messy appearance that will give birth to new rumors. 

Once Wan Ting stepped down from the carriage, she was enveloped by her tearful mother. Minister Wan's aged face filled with worry as he eyed his sole daughter from head to toe to make sure she was fine.

After he was sure that Wan Ting was not injured, Minister Wan turned to Duke Heng that had exited from the carriage as well. 

Minister Wan bowed low in a very respectful manner. "Thank you, Duke Heng. This favor, I will repay it with my life!"

"Saving Miss Wan is just a small matter."

Wan Ting pulled herself away from her mother's comfortable embrace and stepped closer to her father with a determined posture. "Father, we need to get out of the Guilin Kingdom before the Second Prince's wedding date."

Duke Heng was inwardly surprised at Wan Ting's declaration. He had originally planned to encourage Minister Wan to do so, but it was a good thing that Miss Wan finally stopped being stubborn and placed the first priority on her family. 

Wan Ting passed the book to her father, her hands could not stop shaking. "Father, please tell me you did not do these things."

Minister Wan took the book, a little confused and worried about his daughter's pleading tone. 

Wan Ting's hope that the content in the book were lies crumbled when her father's face paled in fear. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down her chaotic emotions. 

The boy she long loved was no longer the same. He grew up and changed, leaving her behind to be the only one to remember their promise. She had foolishly believed that one day, he will remember her again, along with the promise they had made. 

This time, she will stop waiting and let go of the promise.