The Prince of Travelers

Chapter 40: The Chaotic Palace

"The intruders were great. Even though we had expected their arrival, we still had time to fail," Li Bei murmured while observing the vast palace complex. Some of it has been swallowed by the red guy. The fierce night there became brightly smoldering and hot, complete with the sound of moans and cries of fear of its ignorant inhabitants.

The Fourth Prince and some of his guards observed all the chaos from the highest pagoda in the palace. This night, he was busy reading there while waiting for the arrival of the enemy who would attack. As expected, the intruders actually came tonight.

"They even killed indiscriminately" a swordsman who had long accompanied Li Bei commented. His name was Xiao Long. Because of his great defensive abilities, he was nicknamed the Earth Dragon Swordsman. The same school as Wang Hongli. You could say, he is the brother of the Swordsman Cenangkas Kembar. "Prince, are you going to remain silent like this? You must evacuate immediately."

"Is there a safer place than here?" Li Bei was flat-faced, then gazed at the compound where they were staying, "My sisters are in danger down there. Well, I don't have to worry too much anyway. After all, An'er had a great army by his side. If I go downstairs, I'm gonna mess with you."

"What if there's an intruder coming?" Xiao Long glanced at a glance somewhere. Li Bei gave a sinister grin, then said, "Like her?"

"Curtain! I've been to ...!?" a dagger pierced the chest of the black figure hiding behind the room. Not far from him, Xiao Long stared coldly at the figure that had become a lump of corpse.

"Get me my arrow!" pinta Li Bei later. He had a chance to see how Li An showed off his archery skills. As a person who was both cold-handed in that ability, he did not want to lose to his sister. "We'll be down in a minute."

"Ready, Pageran!" one of the warriors under Xiao Long exclaimed. He left for a while, then returned with a set of archery tools that had been prepared since last night.

Li Bei was pleased with his response. He stood up and exclaimed, "I promised the King of the Left to save his kingdom. Finish off the intruders and set up troops in the fort. We're going to have a bigger guest tomorrow."

"Hhhh!" the soldiers exclaimed.

***

"Sister An!" li Rouwei shouted after hearing her brother's moans. He saw Li An's red arm, wet with blood. There was a dagger that almost hit him.

"I'm fine," Li An said as he endured the pain in his arm. His eyes swept around quickly. In an instant, he found the vanguard troop.

"Let me, Prince," a swordsman prepared his arrow faster than Li An, "Your hand is wounded. You better get some rest."

"Give it to you," Li An also canceled his intention to pull the arrow. After all, his arm was indeed sore. It seemed, the attack injured him quite deeply.

On the way, they met the royal guard troops who were fighting with the enemy. They look troubled despite winning numbers. The enemy vanguard troops are very agile to and fro confuse them.

"Mr Prince!?" one of the high-ranking officers who knew Li An immediately exclaimed. He also approached the Eighth Prince of Tang. After all, they were also responsible for his safety. The empire would definitely be extremely wrathful if their sons were killed in this place. That would add a burden to the Left Kingdom later.

"How is the Left Royal Family?" Li An immediately ascertained the condition of his ally. If they were to die today, it would have been a waste of their negotiation results all along.

"I know," Li An gave a small nod. His cold face was expressionless making the high officer nervous. He was afraid that the young prince would sue his kingdom later for the poor security of the palace. "Where is your master?"

"Let's follow me, Lord Prince," the officer bowed respectfully as he found that his enemy had almost been crushed by the warriors in a short time. The rest retreated as soon as they saw an even more powerful and elite-looking relief force.

***

"Prince Seong, we've arrived" Ji said as soon as they reached a large pavilion heavily guarded by dozens or even hundreds of soldiers. The eunuch lowered the little prince from his sling. They were lucky to get here safely.

"Eunuch Ji, find Seonghwa! You must find him," pinta Yong Seong with his body still shaking violently. His eyes were still puffy, but he kept trying not to cry.

"I'll look for him, Prince," Ji promised as he bowed respectfully, "Please rest first inside."

Yong Seong entered the pavilion. He found a lot of wounded people, whether they were servants or soldiers, male or female, old or young, all here. Seeing that, Yong Seong felt guilty for his weakness. He was really stupid and unreliable, even though he was born as a prince who had enjoyed a variety of comfortable living facilities.

"Prince, you should rest immediately. This place is safe, so you don't have to worry" said a lady-in-waiting whom Yong Seong knew. There was a tired hue on the lady's face. It was obvious that the woman was working hard.

"I ..," Yong Seong instead thought of going back outside and helping his people. He did not want to stay silent like this, while the fate of his sister was not yet known. However, after rethinking, he also realized that he was really useless.

"Follow me," muttered Yong Seong softly after wiping away the rest of his tears. He followed the middle-aged lady into a large space. This is a room prepared for a concubine. However, due to the issue of territorial conflicts with the other two kingdoms, the Left King never had the opportunity to think of having another concubine so that this place was empty.

"Rest in peace, Prince," said the lady-in-waiting before leaving Yong Seong, "Just call me or the guard outside if there's anything you need."

Yong Seong did not answer. He was silent in a thousand languages with a blank look. How could he possibly rest in peace, while his people were busy fighting outside?

***

By morning, no more attackers came. There are some possibilities. It was possible that they had exhausted no remaining massacred by the warriors led by Wang Hong and Xiao Long. It is also possible that they fled or hid because of the large number of victims who fell from their side. Well, from the Left Kingdom side there were also many casualties, but they managed to survive quite a bit.

Although the condition starts to calm down, it does not mean that the problem is over. The survivors had to go hand in hand to put out a huge fire. Some must be on guard there may be further attacks, while others must clean up the bodies that are lying there. There is hardly any time off for adults.

When the sun began to emit its rays on the eastern horizon, Li Bei and Li An stood at the top of the fortress. They stared out quietly. There, the remaining thousands of vanguard troops were already preparing to attack.