Chapter 13: Interference

Wei was alone in his thoughts. Once more his sickness was acting up, his insides burned and his head hurt but he didn’t let it distract him. He tried to ignore the shaking of his hands. He thrummed his fingers in a set rhythm and clenched his fingers every once in a while, but no matter what he couldn’t lessen the nervousness and anxiety he felt.

Calm. Calm. As long as I focus I can think up a feasible plan no problem.

The clock was ticking, soon he would have to decide on a plan. And it had to be a good one. Otherwise if he made a mistake, well he had seen the speed of the enforcers, they would have no problem wiping out the rest of the room and himself before he could take down even a couple of them. His mental qi at the moment was nowhere near fast enough to save him. The greatest advantage he had was that only he could see his mental qi. The question was how best to use that.

The simplest option would be to just shatter the mind of the king. Chen An was a detestable person and Wei would shed no tears if he was mentally broken. But it was clear as day that if the king just stopped and became a vegetable, the loyalists including himself would have a hard time avoiding being imprisoned or worse. I should make it seem like it is happening to everyone, first a noble, then an enforcer, a merchant and then finally the king. It will seem entirely random and very terrifying! Hopefully. After witnessing that everyone will scatter and leave. Leaving me free to make my exit. Whatever happens in the aftermath has nothing to do with me.

But who? Who should I condemn to being mentally broken?

Thinking carefully Wei contemplated deeply on his choice. Do I really have to condemn someone due to an idiotic king? I don’t even know who it should be? Those who are the most infamous are either the most careless or are just so despicable that you can hear about them no matter where you are. Both types of people are bad but…

Looking at the fat merchant Ah Hai, Wei questioned whether he could go through with it. Does he really deserve to die? Doubtless there are more despicable people but I don’t know them. I can only take action here and now to save myself.

If the king is adamant as I expect he will be then I will have to do it. The entire situation was absurd. Coming along with Lady Seer today was supposed to be a final outing that they shared together before he became a cultivator. Now Lady Seer had left and he was left in this despicable situation. He felt sick to his stomach imagining the empty blank faces that would be left in his wake.

It was bad enough seeing a spirit beast that only had mediocre intelligence turned into a mindless thing but a human is going to probably be even worse. Looking around the throne room and seeing the people – who would be crippled by him everything seemed to gain a surreal quality to it, he could feel his heart beating faster like a drum in his chest, his temple was throbbing and he was finding it impossible to breathe. The lights in the bright room seemed to dim and he could see nonexistent shadows dancing along the walls. I have to stop panicking. I’m hallucinating, and rather vividly at that.

Am I having a panic attack? Me! Wei thought incredulously. Never in his life had he cared enough about an issue or thought about one long enough to even worry for long let alone have a panic attack. But here he was worrying over the fates of random scumbag nobles and merchants. Since when was I such a saint. When it comes down to it I will have to choose. Me or five scummy people. An easy choice.

I choose myself. I will always choose myself first. Mind made up Wei concentrated on pulling his refined mental qi out of his body. The pain of his illness and his anxiety were both pushed into the back of his mind. Right now, he needed all of his focus if his plan was going to work.

“Your time is up! Those of you who are loyal, kneel and acknowledge your allegiance. Everyone who doesn’t will be cut down. Enforcers ready yourselves! anyone not kneeling in the span of three breaths cut them down.” The king had clearly pushed forward the time allotted but who could call him out on it?

One after another proud and privileged members of the upper class kneeled in front of the king their haughty faces full of shame. For every person who kneeled the king’s eyes grew brighter a deranged smile seemingly permanently etched on his features. Three breaths of time passed almost instantly in Wei’s eyes and he readied himself mentally, his refined mental qi roiled ready to be used at any time. The enforcers quickly went into action rushing forth in a competition of who could kill one of the handful of the people stupid enough to disobey the king. The enforcers at the back stayed where they were. Whether that was because someone had to block the exits or because they knew they wouldn’t be able to catch up to their comrades. Wei didn’t know.

But he had much bigger problems. His plan had been disrupted by the king starting the execution earlier than he expected. Now he would have to fend of the enforcers and escape on foot. For someone of his physical capabilities it was basically impossible. His future had just become much less uncertain. So much for my master plan. The king couldn’t even stick to the plan that he devised. What an utter idiot.

While he was bemoaning the ruining of his master plan Wei had still been paying attention to each of the enforcers near him. Almost all of the enforcers were ignoring the back since most of the people were kneeling, only the odd person like Wei stood out like a sore thumb. noticed two enforcers were rushing towards him clearly competing to see who could kill him first. This is the moment where I have to remain calm. Although they have the advantage of numbers. I will still prevail. Because I have an invisible weapon. One none of you can hide from. Come just a little bit closer. The enforcers all had impressive speed, far faster than the likes of Wei could match with his sickness addled body. But, he didn’t intend to compete with speed. At least not of the body.

Wei took a single step back and focused his mental qi preparing to unleash it in one burst and turn the two enforcers into mentally broken husks. At that exact moment everyone stopped moving

Two different sets of footsteps accompanied by the rattling of some material interrupted the massacre that was about to begin. Everyone froze. The enforcers listened carefully. Clearly there was something odd about the fact that above all the ruckus of the throne room, mere footsteps could be heard. Four enforcers quickly encircled the King protecting him in a diamond formation.

Everyone waited, even the enforcers who were mere steps away from there to be targets stopped what they were doing. Seemingly involuntarily. The two enforcers stopped mere steps away from Wei. Looking towards the now identified location of the sounds – the main entrance. As the sounds came closer, the tension within the throne room reached an all-time high.

For a single instant Wei felt like making his move and attacking them while they were immobilized, some of the enforcers could clearly move but the two in front of him clearly couldn’t. It was clear in the awkward placing of their footing and how they didn’t move even a bit to be more stable.

It was literally the best scenario that could happen. Immobile, clearly vulnerable targets. This is clearly an opportune moment. I won’t waste. Wei reached for his refined mental qi. Smoothly like he’d done it a thousand times. It was an easy, comfortable feeling.

However, when he tried to active his refined mental qi, it seemed to move sluggishly, It didn’t disobey him but it was almost as if mental qi was scared.

Wei immediately stopped. To him his refined mental qi was the highest power he had ever seen. Invisible, quick and directly attacking the most vulnerable part of an enemy.

The mind.

But now his best and most formidable weapon was cautioning him. Who on earth was walking towards the throne rooms entrance?

The footsteps and rattling slowly echoed out until they couldn’t be heard anymore. The enforcers perked up their ears waiting with baited breath for anything to happen, nothing happened. The sound of footsteps and the odd rattling sound completely disappeared, as if having never existed in the first place.

The sudden quiet was disturbing, no moves were made and the only sound was from the rasping breath of an old man kneeling in a corner. A few long moments passed and everyone was still when one of the enforcers near the entrance made an exasperated sound. Ignoring the stillness of the throne room he pounced towards the entrance planning do deal with whoever was interfering with their orders.

Trusting in one of their own to settle the issue the rest of the enforcers once more prepared to attack. Readying their weapons, they signaled each other, to move as one. In this strange situation, their well ingrained instincts of only acting after receiving their leaders’ orders had left them.

They followed their instincts and started to move once more. Intent on fulfilling their mission.

It was a huge mistake.

“SETTLE DOWN,” a voice loud enough to shake the foundations of the palace reverberated through the entire palace. Every single person in the palace heard the voice and stopped what they were doing. The enforcer near the entrance however was unperturbed and opened the door.

“No, don’t.” Yelled Shuang Min not moving from his position beside the king but still having sensed something wrong about the situation. The words had just left his mouth when the enforcers was struck by some force none of the spectators could see. He hurtled through the air sideways for a single moment before hitting the floor with a hard thud and skidding across the floor before coming to a stop before the king and his protectors.

Seeing his unconscious subordinate, the leader of the enforcer rallied his followers “Protect the king,” he roared and many of the enforcers quickly rushed back to surround the king. Within a few seconds the king was protected by so many enforcers Wei couldn’t even see his gleaming crown.

The king, his enforcers, those who knelt and those who stood defiant all experienced many different emotions and expectations as they heard the sounds restart again. Everyone felt a feeling of fear that always came with the unknown. But even those who had resigned themselves to gruesome deaths felt a small sense of curiosity. Who were the two people outside? Everyone had their own suspicions but after the massacre everyone had repositioned themselves near the throne room blocking their vision of what had just occurred.

Wei himself felt sure they were cultivators but there still existed many things he was unaware of so he watched the entrance waiting until ‘they’ came into view eyes filled with curiosity.

‘They’ stepped in entering the sight of everyone in the room.

They were a pair of men. Powerful and radiating a sense of superiority. They were cultivators.

A swordsman and a monk.