Liu Shan Men and the Three Departments - Helping a Dragon Evolve into a Sovereign

　　I didn't have anything to say. Grandmaster's divinations had a one in five chance of coming true at best. n.o.body could say with absolute certainty that he was right. Up until this point, I still didn't know what he meant by "Be careful of women… and men". In this case, though, Wudang and Shaolin's patriarchs came to the same conclusion. Hence, it was more credible. That being the case, the Emperor had sound reasons to be so superst.i.tious about it.

　　If I was to be honest, I was fairly convinced the three old geezers colluded to dupe the Emperor… but I couldn't identify a motive for them to take it so far. If the prophecy held true, the nation would be plunged into absolute chaos with the six Princes contending for the throne. In turn, my salary from Liu Shan Men would be doomed. Seriously, the nation's future was worrisome.

　　I reminded myself, "I need to go to Eight Deities Tavern in a second! Wait for me, my pork shoulders!"

　　"What about the other letter?"

　　"That's your s.h.i.+fu's letter to you."

　　"Hmm?" I blinked several times. I doubted my ears. When it finally registered, I exclaimed, "s.h.i.+fu? Oh, so he does remember to write me letters!"

　　The son of a beep dumped Jingan's mess on me, and then took off to go enjoy himself. I searched and searched to no avail!"

　　"When I wrote the letter to Mount Daluo, I wrote one to your s.h.i.+fu, our patriarch," said Young s.h.i.+yi, shyly yet charmingly.

　　"I told him… I was staying with you at Liu Shan Men and asked for his opinion."

　　"Huh? S-Staying with me at Liu Shan Men?!" I exclaimed to myself.

　　Without looking at me and forcing herself to sound composed, s.h.i.+yi said, "You're a junior, so it would be hard for you to bring it up with your s.h.i.+fu. It's only reasonable for me to notify the sect, since I've joined Liu Shan Men, right?"

　　While she said that, there was a "I wasn't helping you" undertone. I was unexpectedly touched. s.h.i.+yi was aware that I was always in a tough position when I had to speak to Mount Daluo. I chose not to lead the clan and wanted to slack off, so I actually let the sect down in many ways. For that reason, s.h.i.+yi spoke up on my behalf to keep me by her side.

　　…

　　'Wait. So, s.h.i.+fu learnt what s.h.i.+yi and I were thinking while I was occupied with daydreaming about pork shoulders and wrote back?'

　　I quickly opened the envelope. It was unmistakably his handwriting. His handwriting resembled the text on plaques at brothels. Actually, f.u.c.k me, there was even the scent found in brothels. I had no idea where he penned it from, but I held it outstretched as far as I could to read. The last thing I wanted was to contract some disease.