Chaotic Sword God

.
If you two don’t believe me, then my apologies.
Your junior still has some matters to take care and cannot accompany you any longer.
Goodbye.” Jian Chen had no longer felt inclined to talk to them any longer and stood up from the table to walk back to his room.
In no time at all, he had disappeared from the eyes of the two saint Ruler.

The two Saint Ruler had stared at the back of Jian Chen until he had disappeared away from sight.
For a good while, neither of the two responded.
Ever since they became Saint Rulers, this was the very first time they had met a Heaven Saint Master that did not show them courtesy.

Finally, patriarch Shi clenched his fists tightly as he stared at the spot where Jian Chen had last been before disappearing.
Clenching his teeth as well, he spat, “Jian Chen, if you refuse the carrot, then you’ll not be spared the whip.
Do not blame us.”

The other Saint Ruler had sighed at his words, “It’s unfortunate that this is Mercenary City.
With just ourselves, we have no way of touching him.
Neither do we know where the Ruler Armaments are, just why can we not sense them if they are so close?”

“They have to be on his body.
He must have used some sort of secret method to separate the connection between our Ruler Armaments and us.
But what can we do about it? Hmph, he still has the Imprint of Death on his body.
No matter where he runs off to, we’ll be able to find him.
That is, unless he stays within Mercenary City his entire life.” Patriarch Shi spoke under his breath before leaving the inn with the other.

Not too long after the two Saint Rulers left, a good portion of the patrons within the inn had done so as well.
Each one of them were from many different factions and had been there to spy on the meeting before reporting back to their respective factions.

In a corner of the inn, Hu Xiaotian had been eating a platter of barbecued meat by himself.
Giving only a vague soliloquy to himself, he spoke, “Even after that loud conversation, not a single bit of it could be heard.
That must be the power to control space itself.
Only a Saint Ruler could do magic like that.
It seems that the enemies of Jian Chen aren’t unordinary themselves.
Should I help him, I wonder?”

After a moment’s consideration, Hu Xiaotian sighed, “The clan has never once meddled with the affair of the continent.
And with my strength as a heaven Saint Master, I’m powerless to help.”

　　……

For the next series of days, Jian Chen spent the entire time within the room having the sword spirits try and remove the Imprint of Death on him.
Not once did he ever step out from the inn.

In this time, plenty of people from plenty of factions came to seek out Jian Chen with greetings and promises to help Jian Chen out with his problem.
Each one of them had the condition that Jian Chen join their faction, and some of them had been extremely generous so that Jian Chen would be tempted.
But Jian Chen had no desire to join them as he did not want to owe any person anything.

As more and more factions began to try to recruit Jian Chen into their ranks, the Shi family and Jiede clan grew more and more worried.
These factions that wanted to recruit Jian Chen weren’t too much weaker than they were, and some of them were people that even the two of them were afraid of.
Up against this deadly situation, the two of them had no other solution but to watch in silence.

Although the two of them had plenty of connections in their own right, they both knew that even if they tried to call upon those connections to fight Jian Chen, it would be useless.

Several days later, the third prince of the Qinhuang Kingdom, Qin Ji, and several other Imperial Advisors had came to Mercenary City to find Jian Chen.
He and the other four had given Jian Chen a message that allowed Jian Chen to stay even longer in Mercenary City and to not make any more enemies for the Qinhuang Kingdom.

Qin Ji hadn’t stayed within the city for long, he and Jian Chen had only given a few sparse words of conversation before the prince left.
He had been in a hurry, giving Jian Chen a bad feeling that something was about to happen to the kingdom.

In the blink of an eye, two months had passed.
In these two months, Jian Chen had spent day and night trying to remove the Imprint of Death.
After these two months of vigorous work, the Imprint of Death had two-thirds of it successfully removed.
In the case that it was completely removed, then he wouldn’t have to worry much anymore and could think of a way to escape the Shi family and Jiede clan and gain a new leash on his freedom.

In an inn not too far away, the two Saint Rulers were currently watching the window to where Jian Chen’s room was.
The Ruler Armaments were far too important for them to give up, so they could only spend their time observing him themselves without letting him escape.

“It’s been well more than half a month since his last step out of his room.
I’ve heard that he once managed to escape detection while under close watch.
Shi Qing, Jian Chen has the Imprint of Death on him thanks to your family, so why don’t you check up on it? We should avoid to have a situation where he escapes from under our noses.” The Saint Ruler spoke.

Patriarch Shi nodded his head and closed his eyes to sense the Imprint of Death.
But as soon as he did so, his eyes flew open in disbelief, “The Imprint of Death is weakening! It’s practically gone–he’s managed remove most of it in such a short amount of time!”

Even the Saint Ruler of the Jiede clan was surprised, “What? He has a way to remove the Imprint of Death? We have to hurry then, once that’s gone, making sure he’s around will be significantly harder.”