Ink Blade

Yangming Mountain (part 1)

Memory began to return with extremely vibrant colors.

The scorching red was the color of blood, the icy snow was the skin, and the deep black was the black clothes of the young guard and the eyes that were looking up at him...

Chu Yan recalled that back then, the news that the goods escorted by the Jiuzhong Palace had been robbed returned to him.

That was the first time he dispatched Mo Ren, yet as a result, such an accident happened. He lowered his voice and asked about the casualties, but the subordinate who sent the message couldn't answer, thus he kicked the table over in anger.

The pen and ink fell were knocked to the ground, and the black flowed in a meandering way.

Chu Yan stepped on the pen and walked out.

At that time, several guardians who stayed in the palace came to stop him, refusing to let this young master take risks.

Chu Yan didn't know what was wrong with him at that time, his heart seemed to be burning with urgency, his blood vessels were throbbing, and he would fight with anyone who came to stop him.

He didn't want to care about anything, he just wanted to get his little guard back.

Finally, Chu Yan took his Xuanhong sword and went down the mountain. He disliked the slowness of the reinforcements, thus he rode his horse and ran for three hundred miles. At that time, the winter cold had not yet dissipated, and the horses' hooves crushed the thin white frost along the way.

At that moment, the sound of ice shattering mixed with the increasingly rapid heartbeat vibration in the chest cavity, added with a layer of deep panting, like going back to more than ten years, it echoed in his ears again, causing the reborn Jiuzhong Palace Master at this moment to tremble all over.

The black-clothed guard whispered beside him, "Master, did you remember?"

"That year...you were the one who personally came to find this subordinate and brought this subordinate back to the palace."

Back then, when Chu Yan arrived at the place quickly, the goods had already been robbed. He didn't care about others, looking for his little guard among the group of twenty or thirty secret guards with scars and bruises with a cold and handsome face.

But he couldn't find him, he was nowhere to be found.

Chu Yan's clenched fingers began to turn blue, his whole body was like a volcano that was on the verge of erupting but was still suppressed. He suddenly pulled a kneeling secret guard who pleaded guilty, and almost squeezed out words from between his teeth, "Where is this Young Master’s person!?"

All the secret guards knelt down and pleaded guilty, only saying that the person was probably lost in the chaotic battle, and their life and death were unknown. The brigade from the Jiuzhong Palace came afterwards, took away the seriously injured secret guards and was about to withdraw.

After all, it was just losing one secret guard, and was not worth wasting so much time.

Not to mention that Mo Ren was actually not considered a secret guard, and was only considered a half-flawed defective product.

Unexpectedly, the Fourth Young Master Chu exploded all of a sudden, drew his sword with red "burning" eyes, and threatened to cut off the head of anyone who dared to leave before he found his person.

He knew that if the brigade left at this time, if the little guard was seriously injured when he found him later, there was no medical treatment or myrrh in this wilderness, it’s estimated that he would just probably watch as his body cooled down. (TL: The name of the traditional Chinese medicine; myrrh oil is commonly used today as a remedy for a variety of ailments)

In his early years, Chu Yan’s origin was not good, and he was also involved in the dark vortex of fighting for power and profit in the palace when he was young and helpless. On the matter of honor, he often chose to be more patient and rarely showed his sharp edges. Everyone had never seen this crazy appearance of the Fourth Young Master before, they were stunned in place for a while, and they didn't dare to disobey him, thus they waited for Fourth Young Master Chu as he personally looked for his person.

Chu Yan really went to find him himself. As the dusk deepened and the cold wind howled, he walked in the blood-stained forest with his sword in hand, his heart felt cold and painful as if filled with ice.

Chu Yan even prepared for the worst case scenario, but at this moment he suddenly found that he really couldn't accept that "worst case scenario".

If Ah Ren is gone, he...

——He will go to the Dark Hall to ask for another secret guard to protect himself.

This thought, which he had been using to comfort himself all the way, seemed to have turned into a giant claw of an evil ghost at this moment, causing Chu Yan's stomach to twitch violently.

He shuddered all over with nausea.

But what Chu Yan never expected was for him to unexpectedly find him so easily.

The reason why it was said to be easy was that he didn't bother to find him at all, Mo Ren walked up to him by himself.

As dusk fell, the crows returned to their nests.

The young man in black supported himself by an old tree, his body was covered in blood, his face was as pale as a dead man, but he stared at Chu Yan calmly.

"Master." He said to the stunned Chu Yan, "Ah Ren is here."

The three colors of extremely intense red, extremely pale, and extremely dark were intertwined on such a thin young man. The afterglow of the setting sun made people dizzy, and Chu Yan felt dizzy in front of him.

The fear of being lost, only to regain it and the anger of being tricked instantly overwhelmed his reason, Chu Yan trembled all over, and said hoarsely, "What are you doing hiding here?"

Mo Ren bowed his head and remained silent.

"Are you hiding from the people of Jiuzhong Palace on purpose!?" Chu Yan was even more angry, he stepped forward, slapped Mo Ren's face so hard and flames almost burst through his eyes, "Are you dumb!? Talk to this Young Master!!"

Mo Ren was scraped and fell to the ground. He propped himself up and knelt straight, covered his lips and coughed, and blood dripped down from between his thin white fingers.

Chu Yan trembled in fright. He subconsciously glanced at his hand that hit him, then immediately turned his gaze away as if avoiding it, and cursed, "Trash!"

Mo Ren coughed and his breathing was weak and scattered, obviously his internally injured was not light. Chu Yan's eyes wandered anxiously twice, then he stretched out his hand angrily, "Come over here."

However, Mo Ren did not come.

Chu Yan said angrily, "What kind of madness is this? Are you courting death!?"

Mo Ren said in a low voice, "Master ordered this subordinate to lead a team to escort the goods, but now they are lost. According to the rules, this subordinate should be punished in the Punishment Hall."

"You dare to escape punishment!?"

Chu Yan subconsciously said the sentence first, but he knew in his heart that Mo Ren was not a person who escapes punishment.