Chapter 43 - Honey Tangerine Flavored Shadow Guard Gong (1): Target-dada called me Master!!(/ω＼)

Gou Liang was a bit curious about how the original host died, because—

It really hurts so much ah…

[Ding, the host's body scan has been completed!]

[System: The host's body condition is extremely dire. Not only is he heavily injured, his legs are broken, followed by excessive blood loss, and he is also poisoned by a rare poison. Do you perhaps need—Wait! M-m-master!! On my initial mapping there's–]

[Gou Liang: Little Wanton, block my pain first… What's wrong?]

[Ding! Initiating matching function, the map covers the entire city, now starting the match search!]

[Ding!! The mission target has been located! The soul's match rate: 99.99%! Proceeding to scan the target's soul!]

An unprecedented efficiency. After the two urgent notifications, the system finally finished what it was saying before.

[System: Master! I saw a big blind spot!!]

It was astounded like it had never seen a big blind spot before.

Gou Liang was not any different. In his surprise, he almost forgot about the pain he was feeling. Of course, it was only almost. Weakly closing his eyes, Gou Liang made the system put aside all matters regardless of their importance. Everything could be discussed after he had his sense of pain blocked first. After the pain was cut off, Gou Liang was finally able to stretch out his body that was curled up in agony.

[Gou Liang: Little Wanton, you said that the target is near us?]

[System: The target's soul scan is still in progress, however, a big blind spot is currently approaching you, I promise!]

[Gou Liang: …The delicacy that he had parted with for ten years ah, here I cooome!!!]

The excitement surging in his heart slightly alleviated the I-want-to-die.jpg on his face, but the approaching footsteps had him put a lid to his bubbling joy.

The footsteps of the person coming were hasty. The first thing the person did after approaching him was to check his breathing. Afterward, the person softly let out a sigh of relief. He propped Gou Liang up against his chest and fed him medicine.

"Master, it's time to eat your medicine."

The person said.

[Gou Liang: He, he called me M-Master? (/ω＼) ]

[System: Ding, the target's basic information scan has been completed!]

Name: Zhong Quan

Gender:Male

Age:29

Height:194CM

Appearance:★★★★★

Intelligence:★★★★★

Strength:★★★★★

Health:★★★★★

Potential: Grade S

Current favorability value:+80.

Zhong Quan started out as a beggar with no mother or father. At the age of five, he was adopted into the Zhong Clan and was trained to be a secret guard, but due to his outstanding aptitude, he was already a shadow guard of the Zhong Clan currently. He was the leader of Quan Ya and his loyalty to the Zhong Clan was second to none.

Zhong Quan's information was exceedingly simple, or should he say, his life was just this insipid. Other than carrying out his master's will in order to repay the kindness he had received, there was no second meaning to his life.

However&#k2026;

&#k3010;+80 is akin to a like where even pouring cold rain would not extinguish the joy of meeting. Gou Liang's brows furrowed tightly&#kUU1J; &#k2026;He likes the original host&#kUU1U;&#k3011;

[Pursing his lips, Gou Liang said in a dark voice: Little Wanton, make a copy of the original's soul.]

[System: Yes, Master!]

This was the life of a strategist, one full of ploys, a pitiful, lamentable life.

Original host, surnamed Zhong, named Gu. Twenty-six years old, born in the capital of the State of Wei.

The Zhong Clan was a reclused aristocratic family. Their descendants studied astronomy and geography from a young age. By observing the heavens, they were able to predict the wind and rain. However, since the clan's ancestors forbade involvement in state affairs, no clan members had entered the imperial court, the Zhong Clan was then situated in the obscure countryside, adopting a laissez-faire attitude towards the world.

The reason why there was a Zhong Clan member in the capital was because of Zhong Gu's great-great-great-great-grandfather. Zhong Gu's great-great-great-great-grandfather had once received a life-saving grace from Wei State's founding Emperor. During the period where the latter had successfully obtained the throne, he was bound to be faced with many difficulties, so Zhong Gu's great-great-great-great-grandfather had broken the clan rule to help his benefactor, thus entering the secular world. Zhong Gu's great-great-great-great-grandfather had also paid the price for doing so—he was removed from the family tree and expelled from the clan.

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The benefactor, relying on Zhong Gu's great-great-great-great-grandfather's strength, not only kept his life but his career also rapidly shot forward. He seized control of the nation and founded the state of Wei.

The generations of Zhong Clan descendants in the capital enjoyed the Dragon's merit and the title of State Teacher was also inherited by each generation. Like so, six generations had already passed in honor of the agreement.

That was until fifteen years ago, when Emperor Wu succeeded the throne.

Emperor Wu dominated the battlefield since his youth. He did not believe in gods or demons and did not favor nor trust the Zhong Clan as much as the previous nine emperors had, causing the Zhong Clan's position to become unsteady. However, at this point, Emperor Wu still upheld the custom and didn't seize power from the Zhong Clan. The reason why the Zhong Clan met with destruction was due to another complicated reason.

The year when Emperor Wu was born, Zhong Gu's grandfather divined that the other carried a monarch's destiny, but it was entangled with the Zhong Clan's fate star—when the other's monarch star lighted up, the fate star of the Zhong Clan got noticeably dimmer. It was an ill omen which showed that one could not exist unless the other perished!

Because of this, when the late Emperor had the intention to name him as the crown prince, Zhong Gu's grandfather still intervened out of selfishness in the end.

Even if this was a son born from his beloved, and even though Emperor Wu had been intelligent from young and resembled his father in his manners, the late Emperor still made the decision to keep him away from the center of power.

But Emperor Wu's ambition was not something that could be satisfied with just his Father Emperor's doting. He was unwilling to just accept his fate like this, so when he turned fifteen and could get involved with politics, he chose to enter the battlefield, earning merits until his name was renowned. When the late Emperor passed away from illness, the crown prince was preparing to succeed the throne but died in an assassination that Emperor Wu had planned. Like this, Emperor Wu successfully obtained the world.

When he dissuaded the late Emperor, only the late Emperor and himself knew of this matter but Zhong Gu's grandfather still felt unrest in his heart.

And as expected, what was meant to happen would eventually happen.

Perhaps it was because he had been on the battlefield for many years and the killing sins on him were too heavy, but Emperor Wu met with obstructions in the matter of heir. It was only after three years since his ascension before good news came from the imperial harem.

Imperial Noble Consort Gao Shi was pregnant. Emperor Wu was overjoyed and divulged many times that so long as she birthed a son, he would name him the crown prince—he was really desperately in need of a son!

Since he had obtained the throne in a questionable manner and he was without an heir behind him to inherit the nation, the pressure he was facing was immense.

At the same time, the Gao Clan's ambition knew no bounds. The imperial noble consort had given birth to a daughter but they replaced her with their own grandson, switching in a raccoon dog for a crown prince. The Emperor was overjoyed. When the eldest prince turned a full month old, an imperial order was passed to name him the crown prince.

It was also on the full month ceremony that Zhong Gu's grandfather felt that something was amiss. With a sense of foreboding, he performed a divination and found out that the Emperor's bloodline had been tainted!

This was no small matter. He immediately reported this to the Emperor.

Originally, all important matters should be discussed between the Emperor and the State Teacher. But due to the sense of rejection Emperor Wu felt towards the Zhong Clan, other than when making arrangements for the annual offering ceremony, Zhong Gu's grandfather could rarely see the Emperor's face.

Zhong Gu's grandfather had no choice but to request for an audience, which led to the incident which happened later.

The Gao Clan was highly strung after committing a treasonous crime. After hearing rumors of the State Teacher requesting an audience, they guessed that he must've caught on to something, thus they decided to strike first to gain the upper hand.

First, they had someone forge the State Teacher's handwriting and official seal to write a memorial which was then passed on to the Emperor, saying, "Emperor Wu's killing sins are too heavy, his son will not live long. He must adopt the previous Crown Prince's son in order to protect his reign."

They then instigated the prince—who was the son of the imperial brother's first wife —that Emperor Wu had killed his father, suggesting that this world was originally supposed to be his, and that if it weren't for the little crown prince, the title of crown prince would've belonged to him. This prince had also long heard from the previous crown prince's consort that his father's death had to do with Emperor Wu. As expected, this seven-year-old prince took the bait, and in a moment of impulse, he strangled the little crown prince and nearly killed him.

The Emperor was infuriated. He stripped the State Teacher of his position on the spot and demoted Zhong Clan, banishing them from the capital. He assigned them to watch over the late Emperor's grave for an indefinite time, not allowing them to return unless they received an imperial edict to do so.

On the night the Zhong Clan left the capital, they were met with assassins from the Gao Clan—if it weren't for the fact the Zhong Gu's grandfather was vigilant and had arranged for the shadow guards that the clan had secretly cultivated to send his young grandson away at an earlier time, then the original host, the Zhong Clan's last bloodline, would've been doomed too.

Zhong Gu who was eleven years old at that time had sworn to exact revenge. He wanted to bring justice to his clan and restore it to its former position, thus he studied bitterly and when he turned twenty years old, he finally returned to the capital.

Ever since he had the crown prince, it was like Emperor Wu had been released from a curse. The amount of heirs he had wasn't considered a lot but he successively had two sons and five daughters. The person that Zhong Gu had chosen to work with was precisely the Second Prince who was full of ambition and had the ability to fight the crown prince for power in court, Li Yan.

Zhong Gu was indeed a good helper.

The original owner joined his rank and became the sharp knife in the other's hand, clearing all obstacles in the other's way. He committed countless sins, but the two of them successfully managed to eradicate the crown prince and the Gao Clan's henchmen.

Just seven months ago, Li Yan finally managed to firmly grasp a third of the power of the six ministries at court. And like Heaven was lending a helping hand, Emperor Wu's old illness relapsed. Seeing that the other didn't have long to live, the second prince who had been patiently waiting all this time finally revealed what he had heard from the original owner a long time ago, that the crown prince's bloodline was improper.

Emperor Wu was enraged.

Compared to the ambitious second prince, he naturally liked the obedient and docile Crown Prince more. Even though the crown prince was mediocre and couldn't match up to the second prince whose prestige was growing by the day, Emperor Wu still had no intention of changing his heir.

But now he was told that the crown prince wasn't of his own blood!

The imperial consort and Gao family members were separately imprisoned. After only one night of interrogation, the imperial consort's younger brother—who was the crown prince's biological father—couldn't endure it and actually confessed the truth.

In merely a day, the wind in the capital changed direction.

The Emperor naturally wouldn't spread his own scandal outside, but he arranged for poison to appear in his medicine with all the evidence pointing towards the crown prince.

Even if he killed the crown prince along with every last member of the Gao Clan, it wouldn't be enough to quell the hatred in Emperor Wu's heart. Thus, he passed an imperial edict, harshly denouncing the crown prince for attempting to commit the treasonous act of patricide in order to ascend to the throne faster; his grave crime of being unfilial and disloyal should be publicized to the entire world! Afterward, the entire Gao Clan was beheaded and the imperial consort was ordered to commit suicide. Even his eldest daughter—who had been raised as Gao Clan's first wife's second daughter and was usually also doted on by the Emperor—didn't live.

The crown prince was removed from his position and imprisoned. The Emperor couldn't kill him but presumably in a few years, the other would die quietly in his palace from an illness.

As for the second prince, as he wanted, he was named the new crown prince.

The new crown prince and the original host had thought that after experiencing this farce, the Emperor's condition would definitely worsen further and the day the crown prince became the new Emperor wouldn't be far off. But who knew, as if all the recently accumulated misfortunes had instead converted to luck, the Emperor's body unexpectedly got healthier by the day. Although Li Yan found this to be a pity, he had always been a patient person. Even after obtaining information that could forfeit the previous crown prince's and Gao Clan's lives, he could still restrain himself and station his troops to wait for the optimal opportunity. It could be seen clearly what his temperament was like. Not only was he able to keep his composure, but he also concealed his strength, acting respectful and docile like the previous crown prince, wholeheartedly treating Emperor Wu with filial piety.

Li Yan wasn't impatient, but the original host was.

He urged Li Yan to clarify to the Emperor the role Zhong Clan had in this case of a raccoon dog being passed off as a crown prince. He wanted him to tell the Emperor the injustice that Zhong Clan had suffered that year and to have the Zhong Clan reinstated.

Li Yan, however, said that Emperor Wu had always hated the generations of State Teachers, the matter of having this position reinstated couldn't be approached with haste. Otherwise, should he incur the Emperor's dislike, it may be hard for him to keep this crown prince position. He instead promised that if his wish couldn't be fulfilled during Emperor Wu's reign, then when he himself succeeded the throne, the first thing he would do as monarch would be to clear Zhong Clan's name, restore it to its former glory, and welcome Zhong Gu back as the State Teacher.

Zhong Gu believed him.

The original host normally wasn't so trustful towards others, not to mention that this was a promise without any sort of guarantees, but to him, Li Yan wasn't just anyone.

Not only was Li Yan the liege that he had wholeheartedly served and assisted for the past six years, he was also his lover.

Indeed, other than being Li Yan's strategist, the original host had another set of entanglement with him.

Li Yan liked males. Although he had taken wives for the sake of heirs to increase his own worth, in secret, he continued to keep male pets.

The original host knew this. From the start, in order to gain the other's trust as quickly as possible, he had used a beauty trap to get closer to him and as expected, Li Yan fell for it. At that time, how would the original host know that the situation would become like this? He wasn't Li Yan's match at all when it came to a glib tongue. After complying with the pretense for not even a year, the original host ended up paying with his true heart—As for the things that happened afterward, no one could say if it was the original host who had used his appearance to befuddle the crown prince or if it was the crown prince who had used the other's feelings to exploit the original host.

Just as the original host's lifelong dream was about to be turned into reality, an unforeseen incident occurred.

Five months ago, Li Yan headed down to Jiang Nan to provide flood relief. However, a dam had broken and during that bout of flood, he had been separated from the original host.

After the original host was saved by his shadow guards, he spent an entire month before he was able to find Lin Yan again. However, there was someone else besides Li Yan at the time whom Li Yan appeared to be extremely intimate with.

That person's name was Zhong Yue. He was born with a peerlessly handsome appearance and had yet to turn eighteen. His personality was both arrogant and naive.

The moment the original host saw this person, a sense of foreboding formed in his heart. This was the sort of appearance that Li Yan loved the most and this person's countenance was even quite a few points similar to his, but he was younger and although his temperament was haughty and unrestrained, it was pure, forming a striking contrast.

What was even more unfortunate was that he was actually someone from the main Zhong Clan.

As for why he would appear here, it was because of his young age that he was in the rebellious phase. He wanted to see the world outside of the mountains, so he secretly ran outside behind the back of his clan's elders.

He really looked down on someone like the original host who was the descendant of a traitor who had been expelled from the clan. He was also more proficient in the way of metaphysics. He would constantly overthrow what the original owner divined and instead divine the correct answer himself. Zhong Yue was more accurate in his divination than the original host, causing the original host's credibility to fall to the ground at once. Li Yan had also fallen in love at first sight with his benefactor and would treat Zhong Yue well in a hundred different ways.

And much like the original host, in a short four month's time, Zhong Yue was a complete fool who was in love with Li Yan.

Gou Liang, viewing the memories up to this point, couldn't help but say 'as expected' in his heart.

From his perspective, Zhong Yue merely dealt the final blow. But even without Zhong Yue's appearance, there would be another Wu Yue or Wang Yue. The relationship between the original host and Li Yan was going to end sooner or later.

Not only was Li Yan cautious and guarded against Zhong Gu, but more importantly, the original host had refused his marriage proposal. For a person who instinctively coveted beauties, if you didn't give him irresistible benefits, after he had eaten his fill, how would you be able to restrict a stallion horse's heart?

The original host also had his own reasons. It was the tradition of the Zhong Clan that descendants who had inherited the clan's teachings couldn't break the purity of their bodies before the age of thirty. A person reached stability at thirty. One had to reach a full thirty years before they could genuinely make contact with the mysterious and profound power of heaven and earth and be able to retain the power without it being easily taken back. Zhong Gu was extremely persevering in this aspect and because of this, even though he knew that Li Yan was seeking pleasure with others, he chose to turn a blind eye to it, enduring the pain as he held onto the belief that Li Yan only spoke words of love to him alone.

Gou Liang, upon seeing this, knew that in this 'battle', the original host was doomed to lose.

And sure enough, as Zhong Yue's feelings towards Li Yan reached its peak, Li Yan arranged for the other to find out that the original host had been in a relationship with him. He stuck by Li Yan's side and pestered him everyday. Upon knowing this, how could Zhong Yue remain still?

Love makes a person blind, it also makes a person irrational.

No matter if it was Zhong Gu or Zhong Yue, they were both like this.

Li Yan was stuck between the two's conflict and was in a very awkward position. In the end, he caved in to Zhong Yue's badgering and said to the original host that they should break it off.

The pledges of undying love from the past were reneged so easily. Li Yan said he only felt for him what a Master did towards his subordinate. He would remember the sacrifices and assistance that he had done for him over the years and promised that he would definitely fulfill his wish—giving him wealth and honor—but they would only remain friends and would have no further relationship beyond that of a ruler and his minister. The original host truly loved Li Yan, so he was naturally unwilling to accept this outcome. He exhausted all methods to win the other back, going as far as breaking his ancestor's teaching, using his body in an attempt to make Li Yan stay.

This event happened just two days ago.

What was unfortunate was, Zhong Yue happened to walk in on this scene.

All of Li Yan's attention immediately went to Zhong Yue. He couldn't bear for the other to feel wronged. Right in front of the original host, he only cared about explaining himself in a hurry. He said that he had had too much to drink and accidentally mistaken the original host for him.

Zhong Yue looked at the original host's face which bore resemblances to his. He then looked at the robe that the other was wearing and saw that it was similar to the style of robes that he usually wore. He determined that it was the original host causing mischief. In a fit of rage, he pulled out a sword and slashed the original host's face. The shadow guards revealed themselves and wanted to kill Zhong Yue on the spot, however, Li Yan used his own body to shield the other while begging the original host to stop the shadow guards. Seeing that the original host remained unmoved, Li Yan also didn't remain passive any longer. Not only did he kill numerous shadow guards, he even captured the original host and imprisoned him.

After staying in prison for a day and night, the original host finally realized how laughable his feeling towards Li Yan was.

He thought himself a smart person, but in the end, he was nothing but a fool. He allowed Li Yan's false pretense of love to blind his eyes. For the other, he had abandoned his conscience and committed all imaginable misdeeds, for him, he had devoted his entire being as he believed they held the same feelings for each other. However, in the end, everything he did could only be exchanged for a single sentence of:

"Zhong Gu, he's not scheming like you. Sometimes when you're by my side, I even feel afraid. It makes me wonder if I would also die by your hands one day. Tell me, how can I have feelings for you like this?"

Perhaps for Li Yan, there had been some thrill in obtaining Zhong Gu, but what he truly desired was the original host's strategic brilliance and the mysterious shadow guards in his hands. Otherwise, he would not have kept up this pretense of deep love for so many years

For it to end up like this, Li Yan had originally only wanted to use Zhong Yue to stimulate the original owner so the original owner would finally submit to him completely—be it his body that Li Yan had long desired or his shadow guards. However, compared to Zhong Gu and the power in his hands, Li Yan was more unwilling to give Zhong Yue up.

Who in this world didn't know of the Zhong Clan and who didn't know of their protectiveness?

Should Zhong Yue die in his residence, the Zhong Clan would definitely not let him go, even if he was the country's crown prince.

Moreover, Zhong Yue had countless clan members to back him. Even if Li Yan couldn't establish a diplomatic relationship with the main Zhong Clan through Zhong Yue, Zhong Yue's ability was still of great help to him.

Truthfully speaking, Li Yan was also unwilling for things to develop to this point. But since the soft method didn't work, then he could only use the hard approach.

The wounds on the original host right now were because he wouldn't hand over the shadow guards. Afterward, he was found by Zhong Yue who fed him aphrodisiac, Zhong Yue had planned to toss him into the dirtiest NanFeng brothel. At this time, Zhong Quan and the shadow guards that the original host had previously sent out to handle affairs for Li Yan finally returned. They saved him from Zhong Yue's hands and escaped while being chased by Li Yan's men the entire way. They paid a heavy price to bring the original host out from the East Palace.

However, the original host was too heavily injured and ultimately died with regret.

After he finished viewing the original host's mirror soul image, the dark feeling Gou Liang felt earlier was finally dispersed.

If the favorability value surpassed +80, even if it was only +81, it would mean love and not like. At this level of favorability, there was no such thing as a simple friendship, there was only familial love or love between lovers.

And Zhong Quan who protected the original host with even his life, his feeling towards the original host was not like, it was a category of feelings unique to this era where shadow guards had no human rights instead. It was the feeling of one hundred percent devotion where the shadow guard placed utmost importance on their master.

However, Gou Liang was faced with yet another grave issue—the original host's interpersonal relationship with the target was too strong!

The author has something to say: Please note: Zhong Gu, Father, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Great-Great-Grandfather, Great-Great-Great- Grandfather, and finally Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. These are the six generations, Zhong Gu is the seventh.

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