The sound of a horse's neigh could be heard in the distance. A white silhouette appeared under the dim light. A person and a horse appeared close by faster than the blink of an eye. The horse was so bright it was dazzling. It was snow-white from head to its tail. The horse was none other than the capital's number one divine battle steed.
A girl dressed in a purple fighter robe with facial features that were so beautiful no illustration would do her justice appeared. Her facial features were very similar to Shen Kuang who was dressed in a lake-green shirt, but was much more heroic and exquisite. She was Liu Shan Men's vice-captain Shen Yiren.
"Oh! I finally get to see her!"
Long Zaitian looked at her beautiful face, bouncing twin valleys and couldn't stop himself from revealing a perverted look on his face.
But it wasn't easy for Shen Yiren to get back to the office.
Three hundred guards surrounded Liu Shan Men's office, forming three layers. Even if they were willing to make way, it wouldn't be easy for them to open a path. The Qilin Guards chuckled coldly to themselves: Who cares if you're a warrior from the seventeen hidden dragons. We have three hundred men here. What can the few tens of Liu Shan Men members do to us?
The battle steed came closer and closer, but the Qilin Guards didn't budge. It was evident they wanted to force Shen Yiren off her horse.
Shen Yiren looked forwards and rode forward with total disregard. All that could be seen was her prized battle steed coming closer and closer, frightening the guards at the forefront to the point where they were afraid their hearts would jump out of their chest.
She wouldn't dare… She wouldn't dare…
Her steed was one step away from crashing into the guards at the outer-most layer.
Shen Yiren's gaze was cold as ice and she angrily shouted: "Who dares stand in my way?!" After she shouted, her steed charged forward without slowing down like it was in sync with her. They didn't give the Qilin Guards a chance to react, jumping straight onto their heads and continuing on their way.
Ming Feizhen was the only one who noticed the small hand movements Shen Yiren made. While her battle steed was smart, it wasn't a human, and so it wasn't as mobile. It simply moved according to Shen Yiren's direction, but that's not to say that Shen Yiren doesn't possess outstanding skills to be able to subdue her battle steed. She lives up to her title as the master of the capital's number one divine steed.
Long Zaitian's heart was racing as he watched from behind his men. He knew about Shen Yiren's ruthless nature, but felt that she was a little too ruthless and taking things a tad too far. Her steed stepped on the imperial court's warriors. Not even members of the royal family would act like that.
Shen Yiren's steed hopped off the guards and before the rows of men she resolutely shouted: "Get lost!"
The rows of Qilin Guards behind couldn't help but feel frightened and all move aside, creating a wide path for her to walk down.
However, Shen Yiren didn't dismount. Instead, she slowly trotted forward while on horseback to the office door. She swept her eyes around, starting from Su Xiao, then Tang Ye, than Ming Feizhen, then Song Ou, then Shen Kuang… She didn't look pleased. Nobody knew what she was thinking.
Shen Yiren looked at Long Zaitian last. Long Zaitian looked like he was blessed for three lives since the beauty looked at him.
"Miss Shen, I…"
Shen Yiren wore a cold expression, raised her delicate and white hand to cut off Long Zaitian.
"I don't want to hear it. Long Zaitian, aren't you the hot-shot? You dare to order your men to surround my Liu Shan Men. Are you bullying my men because I'm absent?"
Long Zaitian didn't answer. He just grinned slightly. He then looked around at his three hundred men, and fanned himself in an extremely proud and conceited fashion.
"The truth is that I was not the one started the fight. Who else may you be able to invite here, Miss Shen?"
Shen Yiren scoffed at him. She wore an extremely cold expression and said: "They say that the Qilin Guards have gotten much wealthier and stronger these last few years, focusing on only expanding, so you've been taking in nobodies. I think that's a compliment."
Long Zaitian got insulted by Shen Yiren. He didn't feel offended, instead he felt incomparably happy that he got to trade words with the beauty. She even glared at Song Ou as she spoke.
"Miss Shen, are you saying that you can fight against three hundred of our men? You are most certainly skilled, but can you beat three hundred of our men? We are both warriors of the seventeen hidden dragons, and basically on par in terms of martial arts skills. Your subordinates were the ones who stirred trouble in our main courtyard first. They even apprehended my subordinate, so I must settle the score for my brothers. We must fight!"
The three hundred warriors shouted in unison: "We must fight!! We must fight!!"
Their voices were in unison and fierce as if they were never panicked by Shen Yiren. The three hundred of them were still a fierce fighting force. They were frightened by Shen Yiren's dominance before, but if they were to fight, Shen Yiren would be very impressive if she could defeat the three hundred of them, bearing in mind, they had Long Zaitian whose skills were on par with her, so she was doomed to lose if they fought.
Song Ou was frightened by their roar. He couldn't help but shout: "Long Zaitian, don't push it!"
"Shut up, idiot. Don't you have any other lines? There's a simple solution if you don't want to fight though."
Long Zaitian suddenly revealed a filthy smile and said to Shen Yiren who was sitting on her steed: "Miss Shen, I will immediately order my men to leave if you agree to come and be my guest at my place for a night." He then let out a disgusting laugh after he finished speaking. He even opened his fan to fan himself.
Shen Yiren watched Long Zaitian laugh without saying a word, just giving him a cold glare until his laughter slowly stopped.
Shen Yiren finally spoke: "You courting death?"
"Miss Shen, you're…"
"I asked you: are you courting death?"
Before Long Zaitian could speak, Shen Yiren then said: "You've let the fact that you have three hundred men with you get to your head, haven't you?" Shen Yiren wore an incomparably cold expression and asked: "Thirty thousand imperial city guards, one thousand five hundred men under each prince, one thousand men under every princess, three of the princesses are close to me, you think it's hard for me to call over a thousand imperial guards?"
"Huh? Imperial guards?"
Long Zaitian blinked as if he never considered that possibility. She wants to call the imperial guards for a fight between the three offices?!
While there was no such precedent, the woman before him was called the imperial court's number one crazy bitch, Shen Yiren! If she were to actually lose it, she would actually call for the imperial guards.
Before Long Zaitian could speak, Shen Yiren suddenly spoke again.
"Shun Tian Prefecture who is in charge of managing the capital, Fat Bao is my father's student. I was the one who recommended him to his post. Do you think I won't be able to ask him for another thousand men?"
Shen Yiren then added the men from Shun Tian Prefecture as well.
Shen Yiren then suddenly pointed at Song Ou with her finger.
"He, Song Ou, is the eldest child of the Song family. There are no less than ten thousand men at the Song Ou family's fortress with another several hundred skilled masters. Do you think that I can't ask for three thousand men to protect their eldest child? Long Zaitian, do you know how far Yang Zhou is from Nan Jing?"
Long Zaitian broke out in a cold sweat. He wore a heavy expression and said: "Miss Shen, please do not try to scare me with bluffs. His majesty would not……"
Long Zaitian lost confidence in himself as he spoke.
"His majesty?" Shen Yiren laughed and asked: "Do you think his majesty will listen to me or not?"
Of course he would. He has always treated Shen Yiren like a treasured pearl, so of course he'd listen to her.
Shen Yiren's gaze hid a cold look. She asked him again: "Are you courting death?"
Long Zaitian changed his facial expression a number of times while breaking out in a cold sweat causing him to feel cold even though there was no wind blowing. He couldn't help but raise his hand, force a smile and said: "Miss Shen, please listen to me…"
"Shut up." Shen Yiren cut him off again, and slowly asked: "What… did you call me?"
Long Zaitian stuttered, not daring to joke again. He earnestly replied: "… Vice-captain Shen."
With Boss Shen's stern gaze on him, Long Zaitian didn't dare to smile again. He wore a serious expression and said: "Please be understanding, Vice-captain Shen! I only brought my brothers here to train the new recruits. I didn't intend to do anything else. I was just looking for Bast-… Captain Song to discuss some matters, and would've left once I was done. I……"
Pfft! Nice excuse. Why didn't you say that our office was on fire so you brought people over to help us put it out.
Boss Shen cut him off, pointed to the front door of Liu Shan Men's office and said: "There's no longer any need for it. If you don't take your men and leave now, I'll burn up this office, and then I'll tell his majesty that you brought your men over and set Liu Shan Men on fire. Thousands of people on the streets saw you leading your men in pursuit of my men. They're all witnesses. All of our members from Liu Shan Men will also speak out. That's all I'm going to say, now, bring me a fire torch!"
Fuck, fuck, fuck!!!
Well played Boss Shen. She's playing the thug card, and even forcing him to take the blame. This move is comparable to Yang Shisan's. Actually, it's better than Yang Shisan's!
Long Zaitian's expression changed again. He knew that the consequences would be dire if he let it continue. He scrambled to say: "Please don't misunderstand, Vice-captain. Truthfully, I just brought my men to……."
"Have all the men at Liu Shan Men died?!"
Boss Shen completely ignored Long Zaitian and domineeringly shouted: "I said bring me a fire torch!"
"HERE IT IS!"
Su Xiao turned around and went to grab the fire torch at the door when he heard Boss Shen ask for one, and then he raised it up high. The other Liu Shan Men members were now enraged. Long Zaitian's bullying finally pushed them to the point of explosion. They all took turns to go and grab fire torches. Those who couldn't find one chopped off bits off the door or found some sticks, brooms and whatnot and lit them up.
The sky was quickly brightened up like it was daytime by the flames. The thirty plus fire torches put the pressure on the three hundred Qilin Guards.
"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!!" Long Zaitian fiercely exclaimed to a minor captain beside him: "What are you still standing there for?! Are you looking to get in trouble?!"
"R-Right! Let's go everybody!"
Long Zaitian and his three hundred Qilin Guards left like an ocean wave, with each leader quickly leaving the office.
Shen Yiren was a woman in her twenties, and yet she brought the scattered Liu Shan Men's souls together.
I looked at the side of Boss Shen's beautiful face. The name Shen Yiren was firmly imprinted in my heart again. I think everybody present must've shared the same feeling. It was hard to forget her if you saw her just once. That was the sort of woman Shen Yiren was.
Liu Shan Men and Shen Yiren exceeded my expectations again today.
"It's been tough on you, boss."
I was the first to step forward and hold the reins of Shen Yiren's battle steed.
Boss Shen looked at me with surprised. Her cold gaze softened up. She grumbled: "You guys sure caused quite the mess." However, her tone was filled with affection.
I smiled and said: "I wasn't the one who started it, it was Su Xiao."
I smiled and looked at Boss Shen. Boss Shen had yet to understand what I meant as she looked at me with a gaze looking to understand what I meant. She poked me on my forehead, smiled and said: "Luckily you got a pigeon to send me a notice, you smart aleck."
Yep, I knew that Boss Shen was on duty in the imperial palace and since I didn't have a token to get inside, I would need to deal with all the guards to get. Hence I came up with the idea to send an emergency notice via a pigeon and contacted Boss Shen directly.
Of course, I had no idea that this would be how the event would unfold. I just made some preparations. For example, I didn't know that Liu Shan Men would recuperate thanks to Su Xiao's anger and no longer be cowardly. I didn't know that Boss Shen could be so ruthless either, and send three hundred warriors scramming on her own.
This was my test for Liu Shan Men. If they could not pass it, then it would be time for me to leave because I have no reason to stay with an organisation that is falling.
What happened today was valuable.
Today's event is an important turning point for Liu Shan Men.
Shen Yiren and Liu Shan Men will have my loyalty from today onwards.
At that moment, a voice that was panting from the streets called out: "V-Vice-captain, W-Wait for me."
The silhouette of a person slowly came closer from within the distance. He was out of breath.
It was Liu Yuan!
He went to the palace to notify Boss Shen, but couldn't catch up.
"I had something to say but you rode off faster than anybody around. I, I have a matter to report!" Liu Yuan appeared before us and looked dead like a plant. He panted for air and exclaimed: "Vice-captain, we have an urgent matter. That uhh… that, that… Su Xiao… Su Xiao took our men to trespass into the Qilin main courtyard!"
Su Xiao: "……"
Tang Ye: "……."
Me: "……."
Boss Shen: "……. Uhm, have a rest."
Seeing him out of breath from running after her, Boss Shen couldn't bear to scold him.
Trivia
The chapter title is also a pun since the "Yiren" part in Shen Yiren's name means "lover", so it can also mean "So-called Lover" which refers to her being the crush of Dragon Licking the Ground and Song Bastard