Ink Blade

Jade Plaque (part 1)

Above the high clouds, a golden eyed black eagle stretched its long wings and descended sharply. This was the bird of prey messenger raised by the Jiuzhong Palace. At present, coming from afar, nine out of ten, there should be important news from the guardians outside.

Mo Ren raised his hand as a signal, and the black eagle landed on the guard's shoulder, rubbing his cheek affectionately.

Seen from a distance, the thin, pale and stern young man was dressed in tight black clothes, his long hair hung down in a high black headband, and he wore a long black sword at his waist, which matched the bird of prey on his shoulder very well.

Mo Ren touched the black eagle, and it opened its golden beak and spit out a small pill-like object. Mo Ren held it cautiously, walked back to Chu Yan and knelt down halfway, and presented the object with both hands, "Master, it's from Xiao Yu's...bringing a communication pill.”

When he said this, his voice was calm and his expression was a little heavy. The golden eyed black eagle and the communication pill were unique to the Jiuzhong Palace, and they were only used when delivering the most top-secret and most urgent information, therefore something must have happened outside.

Chu Yan naturally realized that something went wrong, but he didn't panic, first he frowned and said to Mo Ren, "Didn't this Master just tell you that you don't have to kneel in the future?"

“.....”

Only then did Mo Ren remember that sentence, thus he had to stand up. Chu Yan handed the chopsticks to the guard again, "Sit down and continue eating." After thinking about it, he then added, "This is an order."

Mo Ren had no choice but to say thank you.....and changed from standing to sitting, and began to eat.

He stretched out the tip of the chopsticks with his fingers a little unsteadily, picked up the food from the corner of the dish carefully, and sent it to his lips in small bites.

...The guard at this time looked really handsome and obedient. Chu Yan couldn't help but take a second look, and then sat down next to Mo Ren again. Infused with internal force in his hand, he opened the communication pill.

It turned out that this communication pill contained a letter, and its outer layer was coated with a poisonous film. If the black eagle was intercepted by other forces on the way of transmitting the message, it would swallow the communication pill into the stomach and die; if the message was safely delivered to Jiuzhong Palace, the master of the palace would personally use his internal force to dissolve the poison film and open the hidden letter inside.

Chu Yan rubbed the special silk letter. The small ball magically became the size of a palm, with a few lines of tiny characters written on it. He only glanced at it, and the next moment he flew into a rage and slapped the letter on the table, cursing which bastard it was in a low voice.

Mo Ren was lowering his eyes at this moment, silently biting a small soup dumpling. When he heard the sound, he raised his eyes abruptly, and a cold light flashed in the bottom of his eyes without leaving any trace.

Chu Yan handed over the letter paper, "Look and see.”

Mo Ren swallowed what was in his mouth expressionlessly, took the letter with both hands, and saw what was written:

Fifteenth day of the fourth month of the lunar year

The Elder of Shuijing Tower in Changqing City was attacked, his body was poisoned, and he died holding the Jiuyun Jade Plaque of the Jiuzhong Palace. The matter is strange and involves a wide range of factors, and it’s hard to explain all in just a few words. Martial artists are gathering in Changqing City, this subordinate dare not make rash claims, hoping the Palace Master to weigh the matter carefully.

Wind, Yun Baishang.

After a moment of silence, Mo Ren's eyes darkened, and he returned the letter to Chu Yan.

The latter squeezed the palm of his hand, and immediately disintegrated the letter into white crumbs, sighing, "Another stupid thing this Master had done. The Jiuyun Jade Plaque..this Master gave one to that villain Bai Hua, the other one is on this Master's body right now. It’s estimated that it was Bai Hua's that was lost."

Mo Ren listened quietly. At this time in his previous life, he was probably severely punished by Chu Yan for offending Bai Hua, since he didn't have a clear memory of this matter. He just remembered that the Jiuzhong Palace began to become estranged with the big and small forces in the Jianghu and it seemed that after this period of time, there must be a significant correlation.

Even if this point was ignored, the Jiuyun Jade Plaque was a supreme token of the Jiuzhong Palace. If the Palace Master came in person, coupled with the murder case in Jianghu at present, it was destined to not be good.

Sure enough, Chu Yan said, "The loss of the Jiuyun Jade Plaque is of great significance. In this Master’s previous life, this Master only regarded it as being framed by treacherous people, didn't bother to pay attention to it and just asked the Wind and Rain Guardians to deal with it...Alas, this Master lost track of what followed and forgot how it ended in the end. This Master just remembered that the Shuijing Tower has gradually disappeared from the Jianghu since then, as if it had fallen into a state of decline.”

After he finished speaking, Chu Yan paused, turned his eyes to Mo Ren and asked, "What does Ah Ren think about it?"

"This subordinate," Mo Ren said in a low voice,”dared not to speak recklessly.”

Chu Yan's eyes turned dark, he looked at the guard with a complicated expression, and emphasized his tone, "This Master just wants to hear from you this time......Is Ah Ren still willing?"

In the previous life, this person had also advised and begged countless times, listing all kinds of doubts about Bai Hua's person, even willing to kneel and wait for several days, hurting himself to show his sincerity...yet he still didn’t listen.

Well done, now at present, this person who was hurt so much never dared to speak in front of the master easily. Only then did he know regret, and only then did he know that his heart hurts.

Mo Ren was touched by Chu Yan's magnetic and calm voice. He pursed his lips, stood up slowly, and knelt down in front of Chu Yan...

Chu Yan raised his eyebrows and knocked hard on the table, "Not allowed to kneel...won’t you dare to talk to this Master if you don’t kneel down?"

Mo Ren said nothing. He felt a bit embarrassed and thought to himself: Obviously the original words of the Master before were "don't kneel", how could it become "not allowed to kneel" in a blink of an eye. That difference of a single word was a world’s apart difference.

In fact, what Chu Yan said was correct, he was indeed comfortable on his knees, especially when he thought that he might offend his master.

Chu Yan felt uncomfortable watching him kneel down, however, as a subordinate, he should obey his master. Thus the Master of the Jiuzhong Palace had to easily bring his guard up from the ground again.

Chu Yan leaned over to look at Mo Ren's face, and said tentatively, "Ah Ren...are you still afraid of this Master?"

Mo Ren continued to feel awkward. Which master doesn't want to be intimidating in front of his subordinates? But Mo Ren vaguely felt that if he agreed, his master would be embarrassed.

Under comprehensive consideration, guard Mo said cautiously, "This subordinate dare not.”

Chu Yan: “.......”

Fortunately, Mo Ren realized that the situation was not good, thus he immediately became serious, "Master, please allow this subordinate to report."

Chu Yan forbade him to kneel, therefore he stood behind the palace master, slightly bent and lowered his body to speak, "...this subordinate has also performed missions to take people's lives. A true assassin would never watch a dying prey steal his personal belongings. "

Unless in folk novels and story books, such ridiculous mistakes would exist. How could someone who really traded human lives be so stupid.