The crisp sound of horseshoes striking the Blue Stone Slab scattered the morning mist. Ye Fan clutched the reins with one hand while keeping the other pressed against the Jiuxiao Huanpei at his waist. The jade pendant grew hot against his skin, and the illusory image of flying eaves and bronze bells flickered in his consciousness—a lingering resonance left behind when the pendant absorbed his tension back in the valley.
"Young Master Ye!" The guard at the city gate cupped his fists from afar. Who in Qinglan City did not know that although the eldest legitimate son of the Ye Family was only sixteen, he had long since managed the family caravan in perfect order? Ye Fan nodded in return, his pestle-like gaze sweeping over a few crouching figures beneath the city wall. Half the hilts of their blades were exposed, and their clothes bulged awkwardly with poison-quenched short daggers.
"It seems that old scoundrel Lin Fei moves fast." Ye Fan's mouth twisted into a sneer as he dug his heels into the horse's flanks, and the black steed bolted into the alley in pain. Having already sent Liu Er ahead to report to the Ye Family, the person he needed to see now was Boss Qian of the Treasure Pavilion in the southern part of the city.
Chapter 46