Zhu Yan – Chapter 55

 Shi Ying sneered coldly, “If I don’t take it back, should I let you keep it to kill me with it?”
 “Master… Master!” She shuddered, snapping to understand the cold intent in his eyes, her back instantly covered in cold sweat as she stammered, “How would your disciple… disciple dare?”
 “Heh, you’ve always been fearless and unafraid of the heavens and earth, is there anything you would not dare to do?” Shi Ying actually grinned coldly, his tone calm, glancing at the Wanted Notice she held in her hand, and suddenly saying, “Had you not seen this thing today, would you be jumping up to avenge him at this moment if you were to see me?”
 His voice was faint, but as deep as quiescent water, it sent chills down the spine.
 Zhu Yan froze for a moment, actually speechless – yes, if Yuan was really dead, at this moment, as soon as she saw her Master, she might have been so furious that she would have rushed up to fight him to death! But thank goodness that didn’t happened! Why does Master keep on asking this question? Oh no, this time how much will she have to beg for mercy before he lets her go?
 She cried and slumped her head, “I… I was just blurting it out that day! You mustn’t take it seriously.”
 “Deceiving the Master, how can such words be said casually?” Shi Ying’s voice didn’t waver, his tone still calm and sharp with no sign of relaxation, “You really wanted to kill me that time, didn’t you?”
 “Your disciple is young and has no sense of propriety, so please don’t take it to heart.” Zhu Yan stammered and tried to put on a smile, “How would I dare to fight with you… With my little amount of cultivation, wouldn’t I immediately be beaten to the ground by Master?”
 “Is that so?” He glanced at her, appearing to instantly gain insight into her recent changes, and said lightly, “There is no need to be too modest. You are progressing quickly, with your current abilities, you can last at least a quarter of an hour against me… If you mastered the true essence of the Jade Bone, you could even fight against me. It’s just a pity…”
 With a slight movement of his finger, Zhu Yan suddenly felt a motion on her head, and the Jade Bone unexpectedly jumped out of her hair bun with a “brush” and flew towards the palm of Shi Ying’s hand!
 “Master!” She exclaimed, lunging up recklessly and grabbing the Jade Bone, “No!”
 Luckily, her grasp still caught the tip of the Jade Bone. The hairpin jumped slightly in her palm, as if held by an invisible thread, trying desperately to break free. She held on to the Jade Bone with both hands with all her might, fighting against that force, and for a moment she was unable to utter a single word of pleading. However, this brief tug of war ended in her defeat.
 The moment the strength in her body dried up, the Jade Bone flew away from her palm like an arrow and returned to Shi Ying’s hand – the crystal-clear tip remained tainted with a trace of crimson, the mark of a cut from her palm as it flew out. The drop of blood seeped into the Jade Bone and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
 When Shi Ying looked down at the hairpin in his hand, his eyes were both complicated and silent – it turned out that so many years had passed.
 On her departure, he gave her this hairpin to lift her long hair up. Her eyes were limpid in the bronze mirror, but her expression was confused, not having a very clear understanding of the preciousness of this gift.
 This hairpin has been passed down from ancient times and has remained in the hair of the Empress of Kongsang for generations, starting with Empress Baiwei. After his mother’s death, his father took away the Divine Ring of Huotu from her finger and stripped her of her identity, yet this hairpin was preserved. It was the only relic left to him by his mother.
 He once entrusted it to that young girl, along with the most precious thing in his heart. But after all these years, events have changed, and in the end, it turns out that everything was only his own wishful thinking! How ridiculous, how foolish…
 He did not speak, just withdrew the hairpin and clutched it wordlessly into his hand, just as he would clutch a broken heart in silence.
 “Master!” Zhu Yan stumbled and fell to the ground, when she saw such expression on his face, her heart couldn’t help but sink to the ground – yes, that silence was even more frightening than when he was angry!
 He gave her a glance, and with a swift movement of his feet, he tried to leave. That glance caused Zhu Yan to shiver, forgetting to even stand up, she rolled and crawled over towards him, grabbing the corner of his garment right there on the ground, exclaiming out of breath, “Master! You… are not going to leave me like this, are you?”
 He appeared to be shocked by these words too, and looked down at her – she was perceptive enough to guess his sudden determination at this point without him having to speak.
 “It’s my fault! A thousand mistakes are all your disciple’s fault!” Hearing that he didn’t deny it, Zhu Yan’s heart became even more frightened and her voice trembled a little, “If you are angry, just punish your apprentice fiercely, I will not even cry out in pain! But… don’t abandon me like this please…”
 Shi Ying still remained silent, and only took a step backwards. Zhu Yan held onto the hem of his white robe with a deadly grip, refusing to let go, and actually dragged her entire body a step forward on the ground.
 “Let go.” He finally opened his mouth, his tone glacial, as he said, “Pulling and tugging, don’t act like that!”
 “No! No letting go!” She was being dragged along, holding onto his clothes desperately whilst on the ground, disheveled and in a terrible mess, but she wouldn’t let go, “I won’t let go until I receive Master’s forgiveness! I won’t get up even if… it means beating me to death! You don’t want me anyway… what’s the point of me being alive!”
 At first, she was only playing a cheating game, but in the end, she started to feel real emotions, her tone choking up, and her eyes turning red. When he saw her in such a distressed state, his eyes wavered slightly, but his tone continued to be cold: “Why are you crying? I don’t have such a deceitful disciple – stand up for me!”
 Zhu Yan had always known her Master’s temper and knew that he had been loosening his heart, so she quickly stood up obediently as she smiled, “What are you saying, Shifu? Master for a day, father for life, even if I had ten guts, I wouldn’t dare to deceive my Master and destroy my family!”
 “A Master for a day is a father for a lifetime?” Shi Ying shuddered slightly, his eyes suddenly becoming cold and stern again.
 Her heart thumped and she wondered what was wrong with these words again. Her mind raced and she was just about to say something when she saw her Master pulling his lapel, a white light flashed before her eyes as she dropped to the ground with a soft thud, inhaling a mouthful of dust.
 With great difficulty, she lifted her head and saw that Master was holding the Jade Bone in his hand – where the Jade Bone had cut through, the hem of the sash was completely severed! Zhu Yan held the piece of lapel in her hands, she could not help but be baffled and said abruptly, “Master… you, what are you doing? It’s not like you want to cut off your ties with me, right?”
 After a pause, she hastily piled on a smile, “Master certainly wouldn’t want to part with me, would he?”
 “Don’t give me that cheeky talk!” Shi Ying stared at her, his voice was actually harsh in a rare way, tinged with stern frost, word for word, “You dare to talk to me so playfully now, just because I didn’t really kill that shark – don’t laugh so soon. Do you think this matter will just go away? I’m telling you, that shark, I’m determined to kill him!”
 “Master!” Zhu Yan jumped up as she inhaled a cold breath, “Are you being serious?”
 “When was I ever joking?” Shi Ying looked at his disciple whose face was blanched and said coldly, “These days I ordered the Governor of Yecheng to seal the city and search for people just to find him. The Restoration Army is all surrounded to the South of the city, resisting, and can’t hold out for more than a few days.”
 “What? Bai Fenglin sealed the city, it turns out that… it was you who ordered it?” The more Zhu Yan listened the more her heart sank, couldn’t help but stomp her foot, blundering, “Master, you, why do you have to kill Yuan, huh? The two of you don’t even know each other, in the end what kind of grudge do you have against each other?!”
 “…” Shi Ying paused for a moment and replied coldly, ” Zhi Yuan is the rebellious head of the Restoration Army, and in both official and private life, he is a man who must be killed!”
 “But, Master, you’re just a priest! Aren’t practitioners expected to stay out of state affairs?” In her eagerness, Zhu Yan forgot to speak euphemistically and almost blurted out, “This is something that only the Emperor, the Six Kings and the General should be in charge of, what does it have to do with you?”
 When Shi Ying looked at the anguished disciple, a cold smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth and asked, “Why are you so eager to know the reason? If I had a legitimate reason, you would not object to it?”
 “This…” Zhu Yan hesitated for a moment and immediately nodded, “Yes!”
 “Well then, I will tell you so that you will be convinced.” Shi Ying looked at her, flexed his first finger and said, word by word, “First, as the firstborn son of the Bei Mian Emperor and bearing the blood of the Imperial Family, of course everything that happens in Yunhuang has something to do with me!”
 Zhu Yan was stunned as if she had been struck by lightning and stammered, “What? You… are the Emperor’s son?!”
 Not caring about her astonishment, Shi Ying simply continued indifferently, “Second, the reason why I targeted the Restoration Army was because both the Great Sage and I foresaw a great calamity coming soon to the Kingdom of Kongsang – and that calamity, which would destroy the entire Kongsang, will be brought on by the Shark Clan!”
 “Wh… what?” Zhu Yan was almost speechless by now, “Is it true?”
 “Of course it’s true.” Shi Ying stared deeply at the dumbfounded disciple, still unperturbed, and asked calmly, “Now, do you think I have enough reason to kill that man?”
 Zhu Yan froze in place, unable to speak for a long time.
 “Really… are you really sincere?” After a long time, she finally strained to spit out the words, “You… are a Royal Prince? The shark will make our country fall? Could… there be a mistake somewhere?”
 Shi Ying frowned, “Do you mean the first question, or the second?”
 “Both of them! Ah by the way! In this case, is your mother… your mother is the Empress Bai Yan?” She jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, stroked her hair and exclaimed in disbelief, “Why did you hide it from me? So that’s it! No wonder…” she touched an empty space on top of her head, came back to her senses, and pointed to the Jade Bone in his hand, trembling, “No wonder you have this thing!”
 “I never intended to hide it from you,” Shi Ying frowned wordlessly and tightened his grip on the hairpin, “I thought you would have known long ago when you saw the Jade Bone – it turns out you are still slower than I thought.”
 “…” Zhu Yan choked on his words.
 The glistening hairpin, like a glazed tree of ice and snow – it was a relic of the remote Empress Baiwei, and had never been passed down except to the Royal Family in the Imperial City. If Master was not a direct descendant of the Imperial Blood, how could he have something so precious? Such a simple question, the careless her had never actually thought of it! And Father should have known about it long ago, right? That’s why he was in such reverence for her Shifu.
 But these adults, why do they always keep everything to themselves?
 “Then… what about the second question?” She asked sharply, “The Sharks will destroy Kongsang? No way!”
 Shi Ying frowned, his tone grim, “You think I would misread anything?”
 “…” When Master’s tone became serious, Zhu Yan immediately hesitated to answer, yet soon realizing that if she acquiesces to this, she would basically be acquiescing to the idea that Master could kill Yuan, she immediately screamed again, “Impossible! How could the shark… sharks possibly exterminate our Kongsang! Where do they have the ability to do that?”
 “Not yet, but in another seventy years, they will.” Shi Ying’s voice was cold and calm, “The sharks are not yet able to make it into the world, only because for thousands of years, no one has ever appeared to inherit the lineage of the Sea Emperor, and there is no leader in the herd – but the Emperor among them has now descended into this world.”
 “What?!” Zhu Yan froze for a moment and blurted out, “Impossible! Didn’t the Great Emperor Xingzun kill the last Sea Emperor? The Sea Emperor’s bloodline was disrupted long ago, seven thousand years ago!”
 Shi Ying nodded, “Yes. The Emperor Xingzun was the one who killed the last Sea Emperor, the Pure Brilliance, and sealed his only sibling sister, Ya Ran, in his own underground palace – but the Sea Emperor’s bloodline, however, was not cut off by this.”
 “How can that be?” She couldn’t believe it, ” Everyone is dead!”
 “The bloodline and power inheritance of the sharks is different from that of us, humans on land.” Shi Ying did not mock her shallow insight, but merely spoke in a light tone, “Their bloodline can return to this world abruptly after a generation, or even after several generations have passed between them.”
 Zhu Yan’s eyes widened incredulously, “What do you mean?”

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