Su Qingyao stood there in a daze, her face filled with gloom and sorrow.
"What a pity. He still managed to get away..."
"It seems his background is even more extraordinary than I imagined."
"With his talent for escaping, even the Jade Sea Celestial Heart only grazed him."
Jiang Lan remarked with a hint of amusement as he walked over unhurriedly, his gaze falling upon the large patch of crimson blood under the ice.
In truth, the attack had only succeeded because of the element of surprise and because Lin Fan had let his guard down. If Ying had used the artifact directly, it would have been easy for someone of Lin Fan's current skill to dodge.
However, Jiang Lan had already anticipated this outcome, so he wasn't surprised.
Although Lin Fan's Eternal Damnation Sword could cut through the Void and allow him to escape, his current physical body and strength were insufficient to withstand the raging gales and turbulence within it.
He would be severely crippled, if not killed outright.
The Jade Sea Celestial Heart, while precious and worth a fortune, was an equally effective tool for dealing with Lin Fan.
The instantaneous burst of its dense, frigid aura would freeze all the meridians in his body, turning him into an ice sculpture, unable to move for a short period.
Even after he thawed, he would be afflicted with a lingering cold malady.
In this state, no matter how heaven-defying Lin Fan's luck was, after emerging from the Void, he would be immobilized for at least ten to fifteen days.
"It was my incompetence that allowed the assassin to escape."
Ying's expression was one of deep guilt.
He had been charged with protecting Jiang Lan, yet now he couldn't even stop an assassin who was only in the Second Realm.
Jiang Lan waved his hand. "Ying, don't blame yourself. That fellow was fully prepared, which is why he acted so brazenly. In any case, he can't have gotten far in his condition."
Ying immediately replied, "I'll dispatch men at once to search for any sign of him."
Wang Anming, the City Lord of Yu Yi City, who was standing nearby, quickly added, "Rest assured, Young Master Jiang. I will contact the lords of the other cities and have them dispatch men to search for this scoundrel's whereabouts. We'll do our best to capture him as soon as possible."
If he couldn't handle a crisis of this magnitude, he could forget about keeping his position as the City Lord of Yu Yi City.
He immediately took out a Communication Jade Talisman and began to mobilize all the forces in Yu Yi City. At the same time, he issued a wanted poster with a hefty bounty for Lin Fan's capture.
Jiang Lan, however, had no expectation that the City Lord of Yu Yi City could actually capture Lin Fan.
'Unless the various Immortal Sects hunt him using his True Soul Aura, how could anyone find him once he disguises himself and changes his appearance?'
'Now that Lin Fan has crashed somewhere, unable to move for ten to fifteen days... knowing the typical trope for a Child of Fortune, there's a ninety percent chance he'll be rescued by someone.'
'What I'm pondering now is this: since even the grandfather-granddaughter duo, Zhao Tianhe and Zhao Dieyi, have shown up ahead of schedule, perhaps Lin Fan's escape after being so heavily injured will lead to him being rescued by another character from a later part of the story.'
'In my memory, there's one other person within the borders of Jiangling County who becomes deeply entangled with Lin Fan.'
'But that's not important anymore.'
'When the time comes, caught in an inescapable net and stripped of his greatest trump card, he won't be able to escape even if he sprouts wings. Death will be his only way out.'
...
Soon, news of the Su Family's live-in son-in-law attempting to assassinate the Son of the Prime Minister swept through Yu Yi City like a hurricane, causing a massive uproar.
No one could have imagined that a worthless live-in son-in-law could have lain low in Yu Yi City for so long.
In the Great Xia Dynasty, this crime was tantamount to assassinating the Royal Family and Relatives—a sin punishable by the execution of one's entire clan.
The other major cities in Jiangling County also received the news.
The City Lords of every city immediately began coordinating with Yu Yi City, mobilizing their men to search everywhere while issuing wanted posters with astronomical bounties.
Meanwhile, all sorts of information about the Su Family's live-in son-in-law spread among the many Cultivators, passed on by the various families of Yu Yi City and even members of the Su Family themselves.
The various Sects and factions within Jiangling County were also deeply shaken, thinking that this live-in son-in-law of the Su Family was unbelievably audacious, practically suicidal.
A Prime Minister's wrath could leave a million corpses in its wake.
No one knew how many heads would have to roll from any clan or Dao Lineage that got implicated.
And for the Prime Minister, the act of assassinating his only son was likely far more than a simple provocation...
Fortunately, the Son of the Prime Minister was kind-hearted and magnanimous. Considering the Su Family of Yu Yi City had been unaware of the plot, he did not hold them responsible.
The entire Su Family was eternally grateful to the Son of the Prime Minister.
That night, inside the City Lord's Mansion of Yu Yi City, Wang Anming held a banquet in Jiang Lan's honor to formally apologize for his negligence.
The patriarchs of the four great families also attended with their kin, partly due to the City Lord's invitation, and partly out of fear of being implicated in the day's scandalous disturbance.
Although Jiang Lan had not held the Su Family accountable, its members were still fraught with anxiety.
The patriarch, Su Changkong, arrived at the banquet with his two daughters, Su Qinghan and Su Qingyao, followed by clansmen bearing conciliatory gifts.
The main courtyard of the City Lord's Mansion was opulent and magnificent.
The private garden where the banquet was held, however, was rather quiet and secluded. It was enclosed by red walls and shaded by green roof tiles, with slender willows and emerald bamboo draping down on all sides, exuding an air of ancient elegance.
A faint floral scent drifted through the air. Beautiful serving girls, like butterflies flitting among flowers, weaved through the banquet, presenting fine wine and delivering delicacies in a display of breathtaking beauty.
However, they all paled in comparison to the two Su Family daughters, each with her own unique charm and adorned with only a light touch of makeup.
Su Qinghan wore her usual plain white long dress. Her face, with just a hint of powder, was as fine and white as porcelain. Her features were as exquisite as if she had stepped out of a painting, and her cold expression held the aloof, worldly detachment of a solitary, frozen peak.
Her figure was slender and graceful, with alluring curves. A simple jade hairpin held her black hair in a high bun, while a few stray locks fell beside her translucent, crystalline ears, adding a unique allure.
Her younger sister, Su Qingyao, bore a slight resemblance to her but seemed far more innocent and naive, unversed in the ways of the world.
Her clear, lustrous eyes were cast downward in unease, and her small, jade-white hands nervously clutched the sleeves of her lotus-pink dress. She was clearly very nervous.
Though a spread of her favorite delicacies lay before her, she dared not touch her chopsticks. She kept her slender back perfectly straight, trying her best to maintain the so-called elegant "etiquette" her father had taught her.
In contrast to her sister's breathless anxiety, Su Qinghan, who was far more worldly, appeared much more at ease.
She sat quietly beside her father, neither interjecting nor speaking much at all.