The vortex of wind around the two gradually subsided as they stopped moving, looking at each other in the same poses they started in.

“Mm, you managed to surprise me” 𝘪.𝑐ℴ𝘮

Wu Long nodded as with this he gauged her level of skill, roughly determining what skills would suit her, guiding her at the same time. But her level of mastery was above what he had expected, causing a slightly proud, confident expression to appear on her face,?much like the one she had the first time he saw her, making her incredibly alluring.

He smiled as he liked to see that look much more than the insecure one she had before, self-conscious of her self-perceived shortcomings. He knew that it would take time for her to realize that her ‘flaws’ were not something he cared about, and were only considered such by her.

He inwardly chuckled at his urge to take her back to the bedroom as he saw that expression on her face while two figures approached him from the corner of his vision.

“Honey”

“Wu Long”

The two exclaimed at the same time, and looked at each other with surprise, a smile appearing on each of their faces.

“Come together”

He nodded with a smile, as he took the same pose with the iron fan. And the two beauties launched at him. Avoiding the sword, his fan struck the spear blade gently sending it’s trajectory off.

The iron fan traced the shaft of the spear as Wu Long moved forward and Bi Rui used his fan as a pivot point to turn her spear sideways, blocking his advance, while Wu Mengqi’s sword arched from the missed strike without breaking her balance and returned to strike him again.

Wu Long engaged in close combat with the two beauties, constantly prompting Bi Rui to be conscious of her range and control of distance. He mostly dodged Wu Mengqi’s attacks, giving her a sign that her attack patterns were readable, and causing her to find more elaborate trajectories as well as switch up the patterns of attack.

After some time, Sui Luxiao noticed him looking at her and nodding, and joined the fray, as Wu Long guided the three, at the same time helping them to get used to cooperating with each other, covering for each other’s weaknesses.

—

In the afternoon, he left to visit the palace as he received a message from Chu Ren that his presence was required by the Emperor.

He was led to the throne room where a fierce debate unfolded with Song Minfu and his daughter at the center of it.

As the door opened, Wu Long felt the eyes of the entire room on him, noticing that this time there were senior members of the Imperial Family present and not just they younger generation like previously.

He calmly walked in amid a silence that seemed to be even more intense because the room was full of shouting and bickering right before the door opened. As he was walking forward, the door closed behind him, and the silence still continued as the gazes followed his figure.

*Step* *step* *step*

Wu Long’s last steps reverberated with echoes, and he came to a halt not far from the Song Minfu and Song Linfei, the eyes of the two looking at him with slight guilt in them that he had to use his time on this place again.

“Is this your miracle doctor?!”

“Is this a joke?!”

“There is no way you are not plotting something by getting away from the capital!”

“What is the meaning of this, Your Imperial Highness? Is this how a Crown Prince should deal with such an important matter?!?!”

“I am suspecting this man has an ulterior motive in acting like he could cure Her Highness!”

“Yes! He is surely trying to harm the Empire!!!”

“Remember how he attacked Prince Gengxin before! He definitely has no goodwill to the Empire or respect for its authority”

“…!”

With Wu Long’s stop the shouting came back as the surroundings instantly turned noisy again, as if a dam that held in their words was broken and the shouting flooded the room once more.

“Silence”

A steady voice quelled the unrest as the Emperor straightened up on his throne from the laid-back posture he had before. It was obvious he allowed the circus to go on while Wu Long was not here because he could not be bothered with meaningless shouting, and only now took control of the room.

“Crown Prince Song Minfu, is this the man who is going to treat your daughter?”

The Emperor asked, since the whole debate sprang out as Song Minfu tried to get permission to leave the capital for his daughter’s treatment. The matter was brought up in the throne room as the rules of the Empire explicitly forbid private meetings between the sitting Emperor and any of the Imperial Heirs, as every matter was to be discussed publicly in front of other Heirs if they were present.

The following debate caused almost the entire Song Family upper echelon to gradually assemble in the throne room over the course of two hours. It took the whole morning from the Crown Prince to argue his case until finally in the afternoon, Wu Long’s presence was demanded by the other side.

“Yes, Your Majesty”

Song Minfu did not see any further use in hiding it, since anyone who had a brain already knew it long before Wu Long even arrived in the capital for the second time. The last time Wu Long cut the argument short, not allowing it to progress here, so this time the ones who made the waves started right from the main topic.

‘Heh, did they think that numbers would help?’

Wu Long inwardly chuckled as this time the tactic was not for one man to attack him, but for the formless mass to do so as a collective. However, his opponents still did not fundamentally understand the message he gave them the last time.

“I am not interested in long discussions, so I am just going to say it, there is not a single person here capable of stopping me from snapping the neck of anyone who opposes me.

Last time I entertained your game, even if only a little bit, this time I am not inclined to do so”

Wu Long spoke, not waiting for the meeting to slowly progress to the part he would be questioned.

“Y-You are breaching the etiquette!”

One member of the Imperial Family exclaimed, seemingly still thinking that the rules of the game they played in this Imperial Court for years upon years, every single day, still applied.

“Oh no!”

Wu Long turned to the one who spoke with a devastated expression, and then turned back reverting to his normal expression.

“Anyway, Your Imperial Ancestor is the only one in the palace who can delay your deaths, but he would still not change the outcome.

And your Grand Ancestor may be backing you, but he would not mind a few of you missing as long as the existence of the Empire and the entirety of the Imperial Family is not threatened”

He turned his gaze to the rows and rows of Imperial Family members, seeing the stunned faces of most, and intense stares of the ones who thought this would work.

“Your authority lies with the status each of you has a possible inheritor of the throne, and therefore is not your own. Your power does not belong to you. And that is why you have to play games against each other in this place to out maneuver each other to direct that power against each other.

But unlike you, I am not part of this farce, and the Emperor is not going to oppose me for a few candidates to the throne, so however you spin this meeting, the power of the Empire which you ‘wield’ will not be directed at me.

So let’s be clear, you are only alive because I do not enjoy meaningless slaughter, and generally prefer not to meddle in business that does not concern me.

And I am still benefiting from a relationship with the Imperial Family.

But make no mistake. I don’t play by your rules. And can stop being nice at any moment of my choosing.

We. Are. Not. The same.”

Wu Long enunciated each word, making sure the ones behind the ruckus understood that he was not inclined to play long-

winded games, and was not bound by the rules of their little court that they were bound by.

“…”

A deafening silence fell down in the hall, as stunned faces looked at him. His words rendered the rest of the routine prepared for this meeting meaningless, because, as he said, he was not the same as them and if he just said no, there was nothing any of them could do to make him participate on their terms.

The Emperor furrowed his brows but did not argue either, just looking at Wu Long in deep thought.

“Do you intend to say that you will take the Crown Prince and his daughter away regardless?”

He finally asked, clarifying Wu Long’s stance.

“That is in your purview, I am just saying that trying to target me using my future treatment of Her Highness is pointless”

Wu Long shook his head, as he merely spoke up since he saw where this was going, and the futility of it. The purpose of summoning him tothis meeting was not to deny Song Minfu and Song Lingfei the right to temporarily leave the capital, but to try and corner Wu Long.

He just cut to the endgame argument, not willing to sit through the entirety of it, showing them that the entire farce was pointless. At the same time, he warned them that any further attempts would simply lead to their deaths.

Updated from 𝑖𝘳.𝒸ℴ𝑚