Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 90: Freedom and Peace

Wuyi's gaze drifted from one pleased face to another among the freed prisoners.

Freedom, that's all everyone wanted, but the price is always steep. These fools thought they were in luck, but luck had nothing to do with their freedom or peace. They didn't know it, but instead of the dungeon, they were going to be his prisoners. In this world, peaceful coexistence was a rarity; everyone had to pay the price for freedom and peace.

Thinking about peace and freedom, for some reason, triggered memories of life in Lujingbao.

A life filled with the care of Boluo and Chao. The horses, the hounds, mutable truths, gentle guidance, and smiles for their own sake. He hadn't realized how deeply he was attached to Boluo and Chao until they were gone. Sometimes he would dream of them speaking to him through the statues, saying they were with him.

Boluo would frown at Wuyi, trying to make him righteous, while Chao would just giggle at the power Wuyi had given him.

Remembering his guardians brought back memories of his most beloved Gao. It was Gao who had yanked him from that world, from the warmth of his caretakers, into a night filled with death.

He was naive, even after living a life. Now, he could never return to that kind of life or world. He had been pulled through a doorway he could never re-enter. Whatever transpired, he emerged a winner out of it because of his cheats, but if those tragedies had not happened, he would have never understood his cheat so deeply.

In the last two years, he had grown exponentially. He saw the harsh desert as he moved, finding subordinates who were now Qi warriors.

During the travels, he felt he had matured a bit too. He had time to think and felt the harsh reality of the world through the emotions of people everywhere he went. He was not alone, but almost every being felt alone in a world that offered nothing but suffering unless you fought and killed. You will always suffer.

His old thoughts and dreams, if he had any, about this world having a peaceful, free life, had shriveled and died. His new childhood yellowed like a leaf in autumn, falling away as if a harsh winter had come to haunt the spring.

For the last two years, during his journey, every waking hour, he felt an ache and weakness, a pain that intensified each time he revisited the sacred chamber and saw the only two people he ever got attached to in this world. The physical and mental trauma he went through was something he was not ready for.

He knew it would eventually heal physically and mentally too, but like a tongue probing the socket of a missing tooth, he was drawn to the absence of emotions he presently had.

Just now, he saw a man getting tortured and two men die. It didn't affect him at all, granted that he had the support of the statue of harmony. But the more he understood the emotions of people, the more emotionless he felt, especially now.

How Congming had considered him as a tool. Now, he considered every being, be it his subordinates or any, just tools for his use.

"Come," suddenly a voice broke his thoughts. Wuyi looked up. Jin was speaking to him. "Come. We're ready." The brothers had gathered, a ragged and odorous assembly. Baijian wielded one of the guards' swords, while another giant of a man, almost a mirror image of Baijian, held another gleaming blade.

"We're going to cut a way out of here," Baijian declared, testing the edge of his sword against his short beard. "Jiao, you're up front with Shen and me. Dierke and Jun, take the rear. If the boy slows us down, kill him." With a disdainful look around the chamber, Baijian led the way into the corridor. Jin placed a hand on Wuyi's shoulder. "You should stay," he said, nodding toward Xuebi.

"But if you come, don't fall behind."

Wuyi glanced back at Xuebi, then turned his gaze up to Jin. "We won't fall behind," he assured. Jin pursed his lips, shrugged, and followed the others. Wuyi, with Xuebi trailing behind him, kept pace. They exited the Yuzhao Fortress's first wall through the back gate, a modest door situated on the lower slopes of the wall, beyond which lay another high wall.

All of these prisoners were Qi warriors; when Wuyi had done research, he had learned this dungeon was special. The prisoners here were not just from this province but from other provinces too, since not all dungeons could keep Qi warriors. Prisons such as this were used not just by the clan that ruled the area but by the empire itself.

They faced few guards during their escape. But Baijian, the giant, took care of most of the guards that came their way. Rarely anyone else had to do much work.

Faint red footprints marked the top stair, a grim reminder of the violence they had left behind. The noise of violence brought more guards, but these prisoners were men of their word as they cut through the guards.

After passing through the first wall, they took another hidden path, a route frequently used by chambermen disposing of waste.

As they passed through the archway, the man ahead of Wuyi turned and flashed a toothy grin. "Fresh air! Take a breath of that, Noble Boy." Wuyi recognized him he was called Lang—a wiry man made of gristle and bone, old scars, and a mean eye.

"I'd rather smell this waste than inhale your stench, Lang," Wuyi retorted as he pushed past him. For a moment, Wuyi felt as if he were back in his gangster days, when he would make nasty jokes with gangster buddies who visited him. But when his time came, one of those buddies was sent to finish him off too.

Soon they reached on top of the most outer wall. To their right lay the expanse of Yuzhao fort, and to the left, the smoke and spires of Yuzhao City rose behind the Wall. The landscape was covered in a flat, stormy light, the kind that falls when thunderclouds gather during the day. It made even the most familiar scenery seem alien, which felt oddly fitting.