Breaking the Day
chapter-5

[DOGE's Note: hey guys, i’ve started to put asterisks in some curse words bec it affects adsense :( my apologies, hahaha gotta get the earnings wherever i can... but i'll only use asterisks if needed ]

One moment, the atmosphere in the room was steamy and sensual; a moment later, the deadly atmosphere of a set-up filled the room.

To be caught in the same room as the Prefecture Chief's mistress- who was partially nude by the way- was a very precarious situation to be in. As the saying went, it doesn’t matter if that’s soil or crap in your pants, everyone else is just going to assume it’s crap anyway. If the Chief catches wind of this, who knows what rumour will spread across Cheng'an? What will happen to his family’s reputation?

Chengfeng stood frozen for a while but quickly regained his thoughts. He grabbed Zhixian’s wrist and hissed, “What are you doing here?!”

“Mmmppphhh”

Chengfeng realized and removed the gag from her mouth and untied the ropes that bound her. He glared at her and demanded, “Now speak!”

There were tears in her eyes. She shook her head and muttered, “I don’t know… I woke up here, like this. Who are you?”

Chengfeng was incensed. “Who am I? That’s not even the most important question right now! More importantly, does Chief Zhang know me? What if I said I walked into the wrong room… No, no, what if I said I was set up? Do you think he’ll believe me?”

Zhixian just sat there staring at him. Her eyes watery, and lips slightly parted, speechless and confused. It was a pitiful sight. As she almost started sobbing Chengfeng quickly interrupted, “Okay, okay, don’t cry now!”

“How will that help me?” she muttered as she cried.

A voice came from the outside. It was a male voice, low and serious, “Is the area secured?”

“We’ve got the area surrounded. Not even a fly can escape!”

“If he escapes, you know what’s going to happen!”

“Yes, sir!”

Chengfeng mulled. He grabbed a chair and propped it against the door, barricading it. He returned to the bed and whispered to Zhixian, “How did this happen? Why are they causing so much ruckus over a guy like me? What for? Hey, are you part of this? Did you make some secret deal to show up here?”

Zhixian replied as she continued to weep, “No, that’s not true! I was resting in my quarters this afternoon, but when I woke up I’m already here.”

As Chengfeng was about to reply, he heard the same voice outside yell, “Search the place!”

Chengfeng was scared senseless. It was supposed to be a good day, how did it end up like this?

In a panic, he yelled, “Halt!”

The man outside was surprised. In the midst of confusion, he too yelled, “Halt!”

Chengfeng could hear the footsteps come to a halt, the men wary of the situation.

Someone yelled, “Who’s in there?!”

Chengfeng’s eyes scoured the place. He shot back, “Who’s out there?!”

The man laughed icily and asked, “Do you know who you’re with in there?”

Chengfeng slowly peeked out the window and retorted, “Do you know?”

The man was slowly growing impatient, “Do you know who you’re talking to right now?”

“Do you know?”

The man took a deep breath and, with great restraint, he replied, “Hey bud, if you let the girl go, we’ll just pretend this never happened, and we can all go our separate ways. Sounds good?”

Chengfeng fell silent, with Zhixian by his side, just staring at him. She grabbed his arm and begged, “Please save me!”

Chengfeng tried to maintain his composure and reassured, “Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.”

Before Zhixian could even smile in reaction to Chengfeng’s reassurance, Chengfeng yanked her by the neck and brought her to the window, showing a glimpse of her face to the men outside, while yelling, “I have the Chief’s favourite concubine, don’t you guys do anything stupid!”

The man laughed coldly. “Oh, so you do know who she is.” The other men raised their crossbows and aimed it at Zhixian.

Chengfeng peeked from the window and saw their crossbows. They were well-designed and intricately made. The crossbow’s riser allowed it to shoot two arrows at once, but most noticeably, the arrows gave off a faint, fluid stream of light. On top of that, there was a bright blue rune on the arrows.

Chengfeng’s eyes grew wide at this. These are runic crossbows!

These crossbows were state-of-the-art weaponry. What makes them so unique was that they were compact and foldable, so that the user could hide it in their sleeves or in their coats, and it wouldn’t be noticeable. Furthermore, they were easy to use. So easy, that even a mere child could use them without any prior skill, and it could still easily pierce through armoured enemies a hundred metres away.

But what makes them so fearsome, is if one were to combine it with other runic crossbows, its destructive power will be magnified ten times over. A killing machine so powerful that it is capable of even killing demonic entities!

According to the Daqi military law, a military camp can only possess a maximum of three hundred runic crossbows. Before approving it for use, it had to go through three levels of security clearance, and each of these crossbows are closely monitored. If any military officer or soldier was found guilty of hoarding more than thirty arrows, their entire family would be executed along with them!

It was so tightly controlled that barely any Daqi citizens had even seen such a weapon!

Now here’s the weird part: If it’s so tightly controlled, how could they have tens of these crossbows?

Chengfeng’s mind raced with these thoughts, as suddenly, one of the men fired towards them. Chengfeng instinctively pulled Zhixian down, and the two arrows whizz past her scalp, leaving a trail of green light.

Both of them fell flat on their butts. The two arrows emitted a whistling noise and struck the bedpost. The arrows glowed a bright emerald light, and within a second, the solid, impenetrable peach wood began to crack. The area struck by the arrows rotted away, turning the wood into mush.

The power of the arrows gave Chengfeng goosebumps. He turned to Zhixian and asked, “Just who the h*ll are you? Who did you p*ss off this time?”

Zhixian was absolutely terrified, she replied with chattering teeth, “I really don’t know! I’m just a lowly citizen of Dongyang Qingshui! My family is just an ordinary one. The Chief chose me to be his concubine! I don’t even know what kind of man he is!”

The men outside shouted, “Hand her over to us, or we’ll burn this place down!”

Chengfeng spat back, “You dare say things like that? Do you know who I am?”

“Why don’t you tell us?”

Chengfeng roared with laughter, “Alright, listen up! I am the Spiritual Mountain Sect’s Sun Boren! I’m sure you’ve heard of me.”

The men outside turned pale. They’ve never heard of Sun Boren, but they’ve definitely heard of the Spiritual Mountain Sect. Only an idiot would cross them.

Chengfeng knew this lie would pay off, knowing the sect’s presence.

As he was about to turn to speak to Zhixian, she spoke first, “Kind sir, I assure you, if you hold out for the both of us, my husband will come to our rescue!”

Upon hearing that, Chengfeng’s hair stood up out of fear. “Lady, he may come to save you, but I’ll be in deep trouble if he sees us like this! A single man and woman in the same room! *Even the waters of the Yellow River will not clear me of today’s incident!”

[*idiom: unable to explain oneself’s innocence due to lack of proper evidence/explanation]

Zhixian continued with tears in her eyes, “Now how would that be? I married my husband for a life of comfort. I was resting in my own quarters, and this happened out of nowhere!” She gripped his sleeve as if her life depended on it. “Sir, you have to save me!”

Chengfeng was bewildered by her words, and nearly yelled out, “Save you? Then who’s gonna save me?!”