The people and the guards that were checking the carriages became surprised at the sudden interruption. The guards particularly recognized the voice to be of their superior and quickly turned around to salute.

"CAPTAIN!" They all saluted with cupped hands.

"What are you all doing here standing!? Get these commoners moving, Young Master Shirong of the Ji clan is on his way!" The captain ordered, anxiety visible on his face.

Originally Shirong was supposed to arrive over three days ago and they had no idea why he had not come yet. So as to not alert the bandits or whoever was behind the kidnapping of Ye Dai and Bei Wen, Shirong had not allowed information about him to be revealed beforehand.

Still, the capital needed to be informed and thus, Shirong simply asked clan Head Lu to tell them that he will be coming there in two to five days. He had expected that he would be able to find the bandits in that time period but it had taken him much longer to do that.

Still, Shirong was carrying the jade slip and the guards that were accompanying him informed the city only when they had taken care of the bandits. Because of this, the people from the city had to hurry up and prepare for Shirong's arrival.

While Shirong was was the Heir of the Ji clan, if one considered his social standing he would still be below compared to the King of a kingdom. But the king would not miss out on this and did his best to prepare for the meeting.

Good impressions were important and were absolutely necessary for the higher social circles.

The guard captain had to be prompt due to this order and rushed to the entrance. He knew there would be people at the city gates waiting for verification, since it was soon going to be the time for the annual ancestral worship ceremony. On normal days, it would have been less traffic.

Shirong though, did not really care for all this stuff and only wanted to get onto his next task. Right now his first Job would be to meet the king and pay his respects before meeting the merchant who worked for the Ji clan.

He would have to collect his token from him and also give him some information that is to be sent to the clan. Then he also needed to collect the supplies that would b needs for the mission that his clan assigned to him.

Then after this came two jobs that were personal to him. The first was Minister Du Yang, who had dared to conspire against him and the second was the Shadow Dagger pavilion who had kidnapped his subordinates.

Overall, he knew it would take him a few days before he would be able to leave the capital.

~Sigh~

"Hopefully, the king doesn't pull any extra acts to show to the people. Or he'll really delay me a long time." Shirong thought to himself.

While Shirong was fine with the treatment that the Lu clan gave him and all the celebrations they held for him, he did not want the king to be doing the same for him. In the case of the Lu clan, they were meant to be allies and thus it was fine.

But in the case of the King and his family, it would never work out as they were two opposing parties in the end. While he would present a genial and friendly front to him, he knew that the king would still be displeased about him coming here and recruiting allies from his people.

It was the same as poking holes in one walls. The king was the owner of the house while aristocrats were the walls that held it up. When holes were poked in it, the wall would get weaker and there would be a greater chance of the owner that lived inside it getting harmed or injured.

~canter~

The sound of the horses could be heard by the people from far and they soon spotted Shirong's carriage coming towards them at great speed. There were two horses pulling it, and six guards that followed at the sides on horseback as well.

From afar these horses looked like normal horses, but in reality, they were thousand-mile horses that had the stamina to run for a long time without tiring out. Before they had barely used them due to searching for the bandits and thus the horses were well rested.

Now taking advantage of that, Shirong quickly approached the gates. The guards had already gotten to making a free area for Shirong to pass through and had gotten the commoners to move from the path.

Most of the people did not dare complain, but did feel a bit displeased by this. They did not know who the Ji clan was, but seeing the reaction of the guards, they knew better than to make any problem here. If they really did so, they would be swiftly arrested and sent to the prison for a few days. Or worse, flogged till they bled.

Shirong did not stop at the gates as they had already received the signal from the city guards to proceed. The guards made two files, one to each side, and cupped their hands while bowing their heads in a formal salute.

Just this gesture showed how much respect was demanded by the Ji clan.

"Where should we head to first, Young master?" The Servant questioned.

"Hmm… head to this place first…" Shirong said before describing the location to him.

This was the location of the merchant who would be giving Shirong his supplies. While he had initially planned to go directly to the king, Shirong now thought that perhaps he should prepare for a bit beforehand.

He didn't know but he was having this strange gut feeling that was prompting him to be prepared for everything that came.

"He's going to jinx it, isn't he?" Lin Wu said upon seeing Shirong's actions.