It's Okay
***
Empire of Qing Palace
On the neighboring kingdom, the Qing emperor is having a discussion to his brother together with his other subordinates. They are talking about their new plans towards the He Empire.
"My emperor, our second princess shall arrive inside the Empire of He most likely tomorrow. The elder from Formation Masters Association has been contacted. The man told me that everything is already prepared. Nobody was able to detect that his daughter successfully slipped in together with the second princess. His daughter will be pretending to be one of the servants, my Liege. Once they enter the Palace of He, this lady will create a formation called endless nightmare. This will make the brat emperor to have nightmare occurrence every night. The crystal here will allow us to see what's going on inside his dreams. We will gradually torture this ignorant emperor in his dream." his brother reported as he show him a medium sized crystal like the one that witches used. The Qing emperor looks at them with satisfaction.
"In the surface we will be unifying our territories by marriage using the second princess but they won't know that we are also secretly attacking the He Emperor. Using this endless nightmare formation, his health will slowly deteriorate. In no time, we will be able to rule his Empire!" the emperor said while laughing loudly. All his subordinates joined his laughter. No one can measure the depth of this emperor's ambition.
The Formation Masters Association is an independent underground sect that is hired by them. They are people who specialize in using various formations to attack their enemies. This people uses various powerful objects to create a formation. The formation could either be beneficial or detrimental. Some families employ these kind of people to for benefits health and cultivation purposes. Others for territorial barriers and safety. Then there are also people who use their skills for harming other people.
Since their initial plans of creating trouble to the He Empire failed, the Qing emperor decided to use a silent approach on dealing with the He Emperor. This time they are very confident that they will be successful.
***
Empire of He, Celebration Grounds
Although the other people seem to ridicule the wish of Ye Shin the moment they heard of it, they did not think too much about it nor do they make a fuss. After all, the lady is not familiar to them. Ye Yin is also not in a mood to ask about Ye Shin's wish. After the young emperor bestowed her marriage, she kept quite in her seat. The excitement in her face had vanished and probably evaporated in the air creating an awkward atmosphere.
The palace performers prepared a traditional dance and other literary shows for the onlookers to enjoy. People are both having fun in their eyes and food in their bellies. After the celebration, everyone gradually went to their own home either drunk or have a satisfied looks reflected in their faces. This scene is the very evidence as to how the young emperor had managed to successfully place peace in his empire and comforts to his citizens. Almost all people wears similar expressions on their face except for the two swordswomen. One of them was abnormally silent in her seat while the other one looks undisturbed of her joyful surroundings.
As the two of them are about to also resign for the night, they saw the elder of their clan talking with the emperor. They did not notice the arrival of their elder in the place so they are slightly surprise to see him. They decided to stay on their seat for a while and wait for the elder. After several breaths, the elder strides to their direction but continued walking until it reach to the seat of General Xia. They could not hear what the two elders were talking but soon after, they learned that Ye Yin shall go back to her home. Her marriage date and preparations will be planned sooner and there is no reason for the lady to stay in the palace any longer.
It was almost midnight when everyone left. The emperor had also gone to sleep. Ye Shin was outside in her room. She appears to be reflecting on something while looking at the darkness in the sky. It is new moon and there is nothing can been seen in the sky except the glittering stars. Her mind wanders on the events from the morning until the feast. It surely did not escape on her watchful eyes the irregular reaction of a certain prime minister. The lady has noticed that the minister were very skeptical of the arrival of the Qing Princess in the morning that day. But just as Ye Yin proposed her wish to the emperor, this minister appears to agree of the said arrival. She needed to examine the motive of the minister for such change of heart.
As her mind continues to ponder of the past events, she slowly feels that there are eyes that are observing her. She slowly closed her own eyes and took some deep breath. She concentrated on her instinct so as to check if there is malice within the person who is intently watching her. After a while of checking, she has not detected any hostility of the person's gaze but she could not also feel any familiarity from it. This person is a complete stranger to her and she needed to know who this person is!
Ye Shin manifests a tiny weapon in her right hand and secretly released it towards the person's direction. As her weapon reached the stranger, she realized that this person is wide open and completely defenseless! Is this person not expecting for any attacks or is he not capable of guarding the attack himself? Perhaps an innocent bystander? That's impossible, she is inside the emperor's pavilion. The calculated thoughts appears in her mind.
She did not retract her weapon but instead, she decided to see the person. In one breath, Ye Shin arrived and is standing behind the person. She saw that this person is wearing a dark battle suit similar to that of the young emperor had wear once.
"A shadow?" Ye Shin asked calmly from behind. The shadow nods his head at a snail's pace. This person has been frozen on the spot. His body was almost stiffened since he had felt the small weapon poking in his throat. He could feel the danger he is facing.
What an embarrassing state he is in! As a shadow, he should not let his guard down. However, when he saw the countenance of the lady, he was completely at lost. Ye Shin remove her blade and the shadow immediately sighed in relief.
"You won't interrogate me further? What if I am lying to you?" the shadow asked her in an attempt to pull himself out of the embarrassing situation. His eyes is probing towards her. Such a tranquil temperament that this lady have! He thought as the lady looked at him placidly.
"It's okay." Ye Shin responded and leisurely went away. She did not interact with the shadow anymore. The lady thought that if this person is an assassin, then he should have been vigilant and defensive of possible attacks at all times and he won't be able to hide his hostility to her. Besides she trusted her instincts and even if the person is really lying to her, it would be too easy for her to end his life. Ye Shin then, decided to take her rest.
As soon as she was out of the shadow's sight the person stands straight and releases the air that he had kept holding earlier. He had thought that the lady did not saw him and the result almost cost him his life! Her response lingers in his mind. What does she mean by saying that its okay? This response had totally confused the shadow. Does this mean that it was okay if he was lying? What if he was really not a real shadow and is just pretending to be one of them? The lady seems easily persuaded to believe what he had just said. But is she really that gullible or could it be that this how strong people reacts to the weaker person? But he was not a weak person at all! He had just put his guard off for a few minutes! Countless of thoughts had flooded on shadow's mind before he remembered the feeling when a blade was placed in his throat. He subconsciously touched the area where the blade was placed earlier.
Such a terrifying person really deserves to be called the White Death. He shivered of the thought. That's right; the shadow was actually He Ling who had just finished his errands. He was about to report to the emperor when he saw the lady outside. He decided to observe her and check if she was really the person they referred to as White Death. If he still have doubts about the lady during his last discussion with the young emperor, he was now completely convinced. There is really something powerful about real experience that makes everything and anyone get persuaded.