The Princess’ Shadow Guard – Chapter 51
by Little PandaGet out of the way! Otherwise, you die (Fighting Xiao He again)
“Jiejie.”
A call as cold and clammy as a venomous snake; the rustling sound of rubbing sleeves was just like crawling snake scales.
Murong Yan looked at the man before her, whom she thought she would never see again. Her face was deathly pale, but her tone was still calm. “How can you be here?”
“How could This Lonely One1 not come to find Jiejie?”
The Murong Xiao of today was not dressed in his usual magnificent attire, merely a black shirt and a black robe, his complexion horrifying. “The great Prince Yu’s Manor isn’t so indestructible after all.”
As expected, did someone leak the news?
No wonder he was able to escape under heavy encirclement, and no wonder no guards appeared no matter how she called.
And Hu’er, Hu’er was also taken away by someone.
Who was it?
While pondering the culprit in her heart, Murong Yan quietly took a breath, trying to calm herself.
“Spat upon by the world, wanted by the entire city, for you to dare to show yourself here, you have some nerve.” The woman spoke, the hand gripping a tea needle inside her sleeve tightening.
Murong Xiao smiled sinisterly. “For Jiejie, This Lonely One can do anything. Even if This Lonely One were to be captured and executed the next second, This Lonely One would have no fear.”
He slowly walked towards the woman he had not seen in a long time, as if with deep affection, as if to claim her life.
As if suddenly remembering something, the man chuckled lightly.
“This Lonely One heard Xiao He tell an interesting story.”
Arriving in front of Murong Yan, Murong Xiao bent down and said softly, “He killed one of your guards. That guard seemed to call Jiejie… 『Yanyan』?”
The sound of air being sliced suddenly rang out. Murong Yan fiercely stabbed the sharp weapon in her hand toward the man’s neck.
But the other party, as if long prepared, tightly gripped the tea needle, not caring at all that his palm was pierced. Fresh blood dripped along the needle’s tip, dirtying the woman’s hand.
“Why does Jiejie want to give up This Lonely One for that low-class person? Why is Jiejie unwilling to be with This Lonely One?”
Snatching the thing from her hand and throwing it forcefully to the ground, Murong Xiao’s face was crazed, but his tone suddenly softened as he asked with a cloying sweetness, “Should This Lonely One also call Jiejie 『Yanyan』? Hmm?”
“Shut up!”
Murong Yan’s usually indifferent tone changed slightly. She raised her head and looked fearlessly at the man before her. “You are not allowed to use that filthy mouth of yours to say that name.”
“So Jiejie likes being called Yanyan, ah?”
Seeing the woman’s rare agitation and the vigorous fire in her eyes, Murong Xiao smiled instead of getting angry and reached out to touch her face. “If This Lonely One calls Jiejie Yanyan? Will Jiejie like This Lonely One?”
Gritting her teeth, Murong Yan swatted away the hand before her. “Whether it’s this life or the next,” she said resolutely, “I will absolutely never like you.”
“Why…”
Hearing this, the smug expression on the man’s face suddenly vanished. “Why… why… why?” he murmured as if going mad.
Raising his head, Murong Xiao grabbed the slender neck of the person before him with his blood-covered hand, panting uncontrollably. “Why? This Lonely One clearly already gave Jiejie so many chances, why must Jiejie always force This Lonely One?!”
“Since I cannot have Jiejie, This Lonely One also has no path to live…”
Stretching out his other hand, the man took a gourd-shaped bottle from his sleeve and poured out several pitch-black pills. “Then Jiejie will go to the Yellow Springs2 with This Lonely One.”
The man’s face was ferocious.
“What This Lonely One cannot have, no one else can even think of coveting…”
Forcefully stuffing the pills into Murong Yan’s tightly clenched jaw, Murong Xiao pressed down hard on her nose and mouth with one hand to force her to swallow, while shouting crazily, “When we get to the Yincao Difu3, Jiejie must wait for This Lonely One, let’s meet in the next life together!”
In the tall building, besides the man’s crazed, ferocious laughter, there were also the woman’s helpless gasps from suffocation.
“Xiao He!”
On the night street, Ming Qin and the man before her stared at each other, her mind racing.
If Xiao He is at Cangyue Tower, doesn’t that mean the deposed crown prince is also there?
Then Yanyan…
Not good!
At this thought, Ming Qin no longer hesitated. She drew her dagger and lunged, slashing at the man before her, her nemesis.
Xiao He drew his sword, but not with his accustomed left hand, and stood tall before the building to meet the attack.
The instant the iron weapons crossed, sparks flew, appearing especially glaring in the pitch-black street.
“Get out of the way!”
Ming Qin shouted sternly. After deflecting his blade, she pivoted on her right leg, spun, and stabbed at the man’s neck again. “Otherwise, you die.”
Xiao He’s figure did not move; he still stood before the building, his expression somewhat surprised. His left hand, with its crippled tendons and bones, ached faintly, merely hanging at his side.
“I didn’t expect you to still be alive.” With a cold voice, he tilted his head slightly, did a side flip, and landed on his toes behind the woman, about to kick her unguarded stomach.
Ming Qin did not dodge. Instead, she moved forward, catching the attacking leg with one hand while raising the other, about to plunge her dagger in to sever the tendons and veins. She spoke with the light certainty of stating a matter of course, “This time, I will definitely kill you.”
“You should take another look at your face.” The corners of Xiao He’s mouth lifted in a sneer as he dropped his body low.
Pushing off the ground with both hands to throw her off, he raised his sword and stabbed at Ming Qin again. “It’s like you’re anxiously begging me to add a few more scars.”
“Just a chang ghost for a tiger4.” Leaping into the night sky, silhouetted against the moonlight, Ming Qin curled her body to dodge the attack. “Don’t be so rampant.” She raised her hand and dove.
“Aren’t you also Commandery Princess Chongwen’s dog?” Xiao He sneered, bending his knees to steady his stance. “Hmph… this time, before I cut off your head, I’ll remember to chop off your left ear as well.”
The blades collided again. The two experts traded blows, evenly matched. After fifty or sixty rounds, they were still unable to determine a winner.
Both of them had their nerves stretched taut. Under the bright moon, there was an inexplicable, strange peace, as if a single gust of wind blowing on one side of the scales would instantly shatter the forcefully maintained, false harmony, causing it to tip toward one of the weights.
Ming Qin did not want a prolonged fight. Worried, her heart was set on a quick battle. Her emotions were anxious, and the speed of her slashes grew faster and faster, fighting with her life on the line, as if she had returned to that state in the forest where she hoped for jade and stone burning together5.
Just as Ming Qin wished she could let the person before her land a blow on her own abdomen in an attempt to cut the man’s throat…
『Swoosh!』
A cold, sharp sound cut through the air.
Faintly, the sound of a long needle burying itself in flesh was heard.
Xiao He, who had been in the middle of a fierce battle, his expression suddenly stiffened. Feeling waves of aching weakness spreading from his thigh, his body could not help but tilt.
The opportunity could not be missed. Ming Qin pressed in close and, with both hands, plunged the dagger deep into the abdomen of the man before her, who wore a look of disbelief. Without any pity, she used the sharp blade to slice all the way up.
Only when his chest was split open and his internal organs spilled out uncontrollably did Ming Qin stop, wiping her hands on the fallen man’s sleeve.
“Qinqin, you’re too impatient. Have a little more patience.” Song Shuqing, who had been hiding in the shadows, now appeared. The night wind blew her long hair, making it look wild. Though she was smiling, it strangely made one feel a sinister chill.
“It’s you who was too slow, Shijie.” Ming Qin complained, while expressionlessly sheathing her weapon.
“Your movements were too fast, it was hard for me to find an opening.”
Song Shuqing revealed the hand she held behind her back. Tucked between the fingers of her clenched fist were several long needles made of black iron. She tilted her head and said to the person lying on the ground, “But… that was truly a splendid match. It’s a pity your opponent wasn’t just one person.”
Still possessing a trace of consciousness, Xiao He spat blood, his gaze hateful but his tone weak as he said, “Truly… despicable.”
“Despicable?” Hearing this, Song Shuqing squatted down as if she had heard something interesting, suppressing a laugh. She teasingly poked the man’s face with the long needle in her hand. “You’re really cute, you know?”
Ming Qin expressionlessly sheathed her weapon and spoke to Xiao He, “You were a good opponent.”
She paused.
“But for the person who assassinated Yanyan’s mother, I will definitely kill them with my own hands…” She glanced at the man on the ground, her tone cold. “Stopping at nothing.”
“After all, I am her dog.”
Retracting her gaze and looking up, Ming Qin saw the window from which light was spilling. Unwilling to delay any longer, she gathered her qi6 and leaped up, climbing to the high place in just a few moves.
On the ground, Song Shuqing looked at the man’s staring eyes, checked his breathing, and only stood up after confirming he had breathed his last.
She looked at her Shimei’s already vanished back and sighed helplessly. “Qinqin, did you forget that my qinggong7 really isn’t as good as yours…”
Finding an entrance, she resignedly began to climb the stairs.
LP: Re-translated on August 21, 2025
Footnotes
- 孤 | gū | Literally “the lonely one” or “orphan.” A first-person pronoun used by royalty, such as kings or princes, to refer to themselves. It carries a sense of authority and status.
- 黃泉 | huáng quán | Literally “Yellow Springs.” A term for the underworld or the realm of the dead in Chinese mythology, similar in concept to the Greek Hades or the river Styx.
- 陰曹地府 | yīn cáo dì fǔ | A comprehensive term for the underworld in Chinese mythology and folk religion. It is the realm where souls are judged after death, presided over by Yama, the King of Hell. It’s a complex bureaucracy of hell, not just a place of punishment.
- 為虎作伥 | wèi hǔ zuò chāng | Literally “to act as a chang ghost for a tiger.” A ‘chang’ is a ghost of someone killed by a tiger, who then lures new victims for the tiger. The idiom means to willingly help an evil person do evil.
- 玉石具焚 | yù shí jù fén | Literally “jade and stone burn together.” An idiom meaning that the good and the bad are destroyed together; mutual destruction.
- 氣 | qì | A fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and martial arts, referring to the vital life force or energy that flows through all living things. “提氣” (tí qì) means to gather or lift one’s qi, often to perform feats of superhuman speed or strength, like leaping to great heights.
- 輕功 | qīnggōng | Literally “lightness skill.” A common skill in Chinese wuxia fiction that allows practitioners to move with superhuman speed, agility, and grace, including leaping great distances, running up walls, and moving silently.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. This asshole just refuses to die, over and over and over again, popping back up like a weed or the cockroach he is, but now he wants to die?? After all that, he still gets to die on his own terms instead of getting properly tortured and murdered by his victims? He gets to just piece out and not pay a drop of all that blood debt?? A death like that is bull. shit. That’s not any different from getting off scott-free! My deep seated loathing is not the slightest bit satisfied by this.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. This asshole just refuses to die, over and over and over again, popping back up like a weed or the cockroach he is, but now he wants to die?? After all that, he still gets to die on his own terms instead of getting properly tortured and murdered by his victims? He gets to just piece out and not pay a drop of all that blood debt?? A death like that is bull. shit. That’s not any different from getting off scott-free! My deep seated loathing is not the slightest bit satisfied by this.
Yes! Finally the reunion! Go save your princess Ming Qin
Yes! Finally the reunion! Go save your princess Ming Qin
Hi! Sorry about that, I’ve just been curious whether its true that a certain ad provider has malicious ads. They didn’t appear to me, but I suppose its true? I’ll remove it immediately.
Thank you for your hard work! Just wanted to point out that the ads which appear now are quite malicious popups, maybe you could change the ad provider?
Hi! Sorry about that, I’ve just been curious whether its true that a certain ad provider has malicious ads. They didn’t appear to me, but I suppose its true? I’ll remove it immediately.
So happy that this guy finally gets what he deserves, and thank tou you dor the chapter!
Thank you for your hard work! Just wanted to point out that the ads which appear now are quite malicious popups, maybe you could change the ad provider?
I forgot to say this last chapter but I love that song shu qing is her own character with wants and has her own strange background of reincarnation. Love the way things happen so fast in this! Reunion next chapter yay
So happy that this guy finally gets what he deserves, and thank tou you dor the chapter!
I forgot to say this last chapter but I love that song shu qing is her own character with wants and has her own strange background of reincarnation. Love the way things happen so fast in this! Reunion next chapter yay