bookpower Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Web Novel: Volume 1 Chapter 6
The Title: Encounters
Taking the “back road,” Jeong Ah pushed her way to the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion, the Archduke’s residence.
Back roads meant roads for those of low or no status.
From the procession of oxcarts loaded with grain sacks, to groups of twos and threes talking while going about, to strong-looking men hurriedly moving with boxes tied to them. Except for the absence of merchants screaming and hordes of beggars, it was like the bustling market street.Fiind updated novels at novelhall.com
This procession of countless people, moving busily and purposefully, was the ancestors of the Luoyang Sword, the mighty clan that gave rise to them.
Under the shelter of the wall, Jeong Ah was making her way while draped in a long robe.
“Hey, take a peek over there. Isn’t she gorgeous?”
“Yeah, man—turn your gaze away from her; she seems to be a high-ranking person, so don’t do anything stupid!”
“You’re right. But why is a high-ranking woman strolling down a back street?”
“What good are we, worms, if we know that?”
“No, I just...”
In the distance, two servants were admiring her beauty peeping out from behind her long robe. On a loud back road, it was a conversation that no ordinary person would overhear.
Jeong Ah, however, saw their conversation. The curve of their lips, the rolling of their eyes, and their slight gestures vividly conveyed their dialogue.
And not just them, but everyone who had passed by Jeong Ah so far had passed through her “eyes.”
Great. Changing into different clothing wasn’t a terrible idea. No one after me.
It was unlikely that a second or third master would have someone keep an eye on a maid like Jeong Ah, but that didn’t make Jeong Ah any less on edge. Until she could enter under the roof of the Archduke, a lot could happen.
As usual, ignoring the familiar glances, glancing at her beauty and figure, she kept flashing.
After walking and walking for a long time, she eventually was able to reach her destination. ‘This is the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion....?’
Jeong Ah was taken aback as she arrived under the Pure Silver Garden Pavilion’s wall.
She’d heard a lot about the Pure Silver Garden Pavilion, a place solely for the Archduke situated in the distant corner of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
Seeing it in person, though, was a whole other experience. The walls lined up on both sides with no end in sight, and beyond them was a thick jungle of towering trees.
I’m not even sure where it ends...
Judging by the fact that her eyes didn’t dare to assess its magnitude, it must have been one of the biggest residential areas, even among the legendary Luoyang Sword Clan.
But why isn’t anybody here?
The back road, which had before reminded her of a market street, had become quieter as she approached the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion, but now it was surprisingly full of silence.
It wasn’t an exaggeration. Literally nobody, not even a few.
Even the servants who usually carry the foodstuffs were nowhere to be seen.
In Jeong Ah’s mind, the teachings given by the head of the Greet Guests Hall in the past had passed by.
Jeong Ah—It’s the same with any family. If you want to peek into the family’s financial power, you can look at the family’s back roads.
According to his words, the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion was a place where money power had dried up.
Well, it’s not like I didn’t know... Jeong Ah swallowed her dry saliva and continued on her way.
After a while of walking along the wall, she stepped onto the main road leading to the main gate.
The main road, in contrast to the back road, was a road that only important people in the Luoyang Sword Clan, including guests and warriors, walked.
Once she seemed to have walked far enough away, one of the guards burst into laughter.
“New maid at the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion! Does the swordless need a new maid or something?”
“I don’t know, but isn’t a maid necessary for important people who do ‘outside work’?”
Then, another guard drew Jeong Ah’s shape in the air with his hands, laughing crazily. “He might be the “swordless” without a “sword,” but at least he’s a “man with d...”
A roar of laughter followed.
As expected... Jeong Ah, who had heard their exchange from afar, bit her lip in frustration.
She felt that the Luoyang Sword Clan’s contempt for the Archduke varied in degree. It was particularly acute among warriors who revered martial arts.
If the two pillars sustaining the Luoyang Sword Clan were wealth and military might, then the Archduke had already lost one of them, along with the derogatory title of “swordless.”
Even masters who had attained the level of employing qi sense merely guarded the Archduke’s main gate as a matter of duty.
Nobody appeared to have any loyalty to him.
There’s a long way to go.
Even if the head butler was true and the Archduke had changed his mind, there wasn’t much the Archduke could do.
“......!” Jeong Ah, who had been deep in thought, abruptly snapped out of it, knowing something wasn’t right. She was in the midst of a massive, dense formation she had never seen before.
The forest! These trees—no, this whole forest is a battle formation!
Her eyes were plainly showing the formation.
It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen formations before.
From the “don’t let the visitors get lost” formation used to keep them from wandering into dangerous areas to the “kill everyone” formation kept ready at every defensive stronghold in case of emergency.
But the one she was looking at right now was the densest, most scary of all of them. It seemed as though the very act of “seeing” this formation would be enough to squash humans like worms.
Just one way to go. The whole forest, other than the path she was on, seemed pitch black to her eyes.
Even as a woman with eyes, she dared not even try to comprehend it.
Never stray from the woodland path. She now understood what the guard captain had meant.
She also realized. Just like the masters disguised as guards stationed at the main gate. The same applied to this horrible formation.
She was now getting close to one of the key figures in this gigantic clan that raged throughout the continent. Regardless of how much he was disregarded and ridiculed. He was the clan’s Archduke.
Her eyesight faded and then brightened. In her view, she first took in the woodland, then the formation, before her vision faded and then brightened again.
And then—the Archduke was standing in front of her before she knew it.
“You’re an odd kid.” Standing in the middle of the forest road, he murmured.
His-Its voice sounded like a boy’s voice, a young man’s voice, a beast’s howl, or a devil’s cry.
“How are you able to see the Pure Silver Garden Pavillion’s formation?”
He-It tilted his head, thrusting his pallid face towards her.
Its eyes were empty and pierced, as though someone had dug them out, and the inside resembled a portal to an unending darkness. Bloody tears mingled with yellow pus that spilled from the bottomless abyss.
“And how are you able to see me?”
It was seeing through her with its empty eye, but she—she couldn’t see or comprehend anything with her ‘eyes’.
It was a thing that could never be seen.
It was a thing that should never be seen.
“Eeeek!” With a shriek, her consciousness was lost.