| Author: Cherish the World | Original Source: SFACG |
| Translator: raltzero | English Source: Re:Library |
Whether or not my gaze was gentle and soft or not seemed to have no influence on her at all.
The young woman turned her gaze away from Shiloh and looked at me with a trace of ridicule in her eyes as she said:
“Sir City Lord is indeed skillful, to try and poach one of our【Hidden Guard】’s people. And your target was even our young family head, did you really think our hands wouldn’t be able to reach this small West-Resisting City?”
【Hidden Guard】……?
I wrinkled my brows and felt as if I had heard this phrase somewhere before.
Before I was able to try and recall where I had heard it, the woman in front of us had already started talking:
“Let me introduce myself, I am Frost, the ‘frost’ from hoarfrost, and the missions official of Lingwu’s Three Guards in【Hidden Guard】as well as Shiloh’s direct superior. To tell you the truth, this little girl joined Hidden Guard ever since she was 8 years-old. In my 15 years of serving the organization, I’ve never seen anyone dare to have any ideas on our Hidden Guard. Should I say that you’re ignorant and fearless or that……you’re bringing about your own destruction.”
Oh, I finally remember!
Recalling the general overview that Moon had given me, he told me that there were three Secret Division Organizations famous for【Assassination】; the Overlord of Huaiwang’s【Nocturne】, the Overlord of Zixuan’s【Setting Morning】, and the Overlord of Lingwu’s【Hidden Guard】.
Leaving aside the first two for the time being, Lingwu Territory’s overall strength can be ranked amongst the top three of Eternal Heaven State’s thirty-six territories. After all, it’s a super-territory able to depend on itself to fend off the northern Giant Race and prevent them from going southwards. I once heard my dad say that if it weren’t for their family allocating the majority of the power to maintain the northern defensive line, it would be very hard to say what the surname of Eternal Heaven State’s current royal family would be. But my dad didn’t talk too much about it at the time. Even though Lingwu is an Overlord Territory just like ours, they clearly weren’t able to see eye-to-eye with our Yunyang, so we basically had no relations with one another.
With that said, I recalled that night of cohabitation. That night, Bai Huang also mentioned the Overlord of Lingwu and how she was Yun Hai’s Beauty Queen from last time. How her looks were capable of causing the downfall of a country and how her beauty didn’t seem to be from this world. Because of that Overlord of Lingwu’s existence, Moon is doomed to be the second most beautiful person under the heavens for her entire lifetime. When Bai Huang was talking about her at the time, about how aloof and distant she was from us, I reckoned that there would be no interactions between us for a lifetime.
Is this what you call ‘no interactions’? Can the words that come out of your little mouth even be trusted? You call yourself Bai Huang, but I think I’ll just call your Bai Wuya from here on out. 1
Looking at the cold and contemptuous gaze of the woman who called herself Frost, I laughed and remarked:
“Ah, Lingwu Territory. I have heard about the Overlord in that place, capable of using her own strength to withstand the northern Giants’ invasion, so she’s naturally not one to be trifled with. But what do her exploits have to do with you? Do you think I’ll be fearful the moment you bring up her name? My, Li De’s, family’s courtyard does not need a dog from a foreign part of the country to bark out here.”
Frost just stared at me. Though the veil covered half of her face, I could clearly sense that she was sneering at me.
But after sneering at me, she didn’t deign to argue with me. Instead, she turned to Shiloh and coldly said:
“Alright then, so it seems like your courage has fattened up? You won’t even listen to my words anymore, huh? Or do you think that being at Level 7 at greater perfection realm is sufficient for you to grow up, spread your wings, and settle down elsewhere? Are you insisting on having the Ten Temple Hell Kings come personally to invite you back to your nest? I won’t need to persuade you when that time comes since you know what your own ending will be!”
Shiloh began gasping for air as if she were a rescued drowning person on land and a tremble wracked her body.
That was until the four words【Ten Temple Hell Kings】entered her ears, causing Shiloh’s body to suddenly stop.
She lifted up her head and looked at Frost.
Frost squinted her slender eyes and stated:
“You think I’m lying to you? Ruler is very disappointed in you and those several teachers of yours will be arriving soon. The thing that you’re unable to accomplish, there will naturally be someone coming to accomplish it for you.”
I wanted to pat Shiloh on the back so as to soothe her mood, but the hand I extended out patted empty air.
In that instant, Shiloh was like a frightened cat with all its fur standing upright and she quickly pulled some distance away from me. She fixed her stare on me and for the first time, a slight trace of emotion appeared in the depths of her pitch-black pupils. However, the emotions that appeared were an indescribable fear and hesitation.
After stumbling backwards several steps, Shiloh suddenly turned around and escaped without looking back.
The coat that I had draped onto her shoulders fell onto the floor, covering it with a layer of light dust.
I gazed at Shiloh’s departing figure, but didn’t give chase. Seeing as her silhouette disappeared from my line of sight, I went to question frost:
“You’re considered one of the higher ups in Hidden Guard?”
Frost tilted her head, causing strands of her crimson hair to fall onto her shoulder, and she chuckled:
“Not really. I am merely a missions official, sir City Lord, and even if you wanted to use this girl to blackmail, it wouldn’t be of any use? My life is not as valuable as Shiloh’s life. Even if I were to die here, what should come, will come. This is retribution that you won’t be able to escape, karma that accompanies you until your death. From the ancient times until the present, none of the people on our, Hidden Guard’s, assassination list has ever survived.”
I turned my head and stared at Frost as I said with a heavy voice:
“Shiloh, she nearly died in West-Resisting City once.”
Frost’s expression stayed unperturbed, her tone light and indifferent:
“Oh, is that so? If she were to die, death was her fate.”
I pressed on:
“But isn’t she your young family head?”
Frost coldly tittered, then disdainfully remarked:
“She is our young family head, but she isn’t our only young family head. Every time Hidden Guard’s authority is about to change hands, there will be 49 candidates competing for the position. First, they all need to grow up and accumulate experience. Then, those who survive will have to massacre each other and the last one standing will be qualified to inherit Hidden Guard. Those who die during the ‘accumulating experience’ phase are nothing but trash. I would like to ask if sir City Lord would take pity on a piece of trash?”
As she was speaking, she shipped out an appearance of sudden realization and giggled:
“Haha, I forgot sir City Lord is also one. Something like an affinity between trash-kind, is it?”
I didn’t pay her any more attention.
She is nothing more than a mere clown.
I’ve already asked the questions I had in mind and got my answers. Yawning, I said without much interest:
“Just open your big worthless eyes and watch on obediently.”
With those words out of the way, I picked up my coat from the ground, bypassed Frost, and walked towards West-Resisting City.
Behind me, Frost spoke a pitch higher and mocked with a nasally voice:
“I advise sir City Lord to stop struggling. It’s a much better ending for one or two people to be sacrificed rather than have the entirety of West-Resisting City be massacred.”
Is that so?
Perhaps it’s the correct ending, but I don’t like it too much.
Frost is a mere Level 4 at greater perfection realm, so it’s highly unlikely that such a person would be one of Hidden Guard’s higher ups. It’s as she says, there’s no point in killing her or using her as a threat. This is because not only is it meaningless, it will even aggravate the situation into one even more impossible to redeem. This is why she dares to come to the outskirts of West-Resisting City alone and disgust me so unbridled.
But the thing that I’m unable to refute is that I indeed am disgusted by her words.
When I arrived under the city gates, I let out a sigh.
Honestly, I already knew. Even if this woman called Frost never appeared, I was aware that the situation would inevitably worsen one day.
It’s just as Evergreen said, establishing a good relationship with Shiloh is undoubtedly an important matter, but the mountainous influence behind her cannot be avoided. Before I have the skill to move such a mountain, there wouldn’t be any happy ending for us regardless of how high Shiloh’s favorability bar is.
Lingwu, hmm……this backer is a bit tough, so poaching her won’t be so easy.
