Legs Weak, Taking You to the Ninth Royal Uncle
As a powerless woman with no martial arts, traveling alone is dangerous enough; if that woman happens to be even slightly attractive, she’s all the more likely to become a target.
Serena Feng might have a few tricks for self-defense, but those are only good against small-time thugs. If she ran into a real expert or a gang of hired muscle, she’d have no choice but to surrender.
Serena has always been clear-eyed about her limits, and she values her life. Without those twelve free bodyguards from Heartshadow Pavilion, she ruined her own face that very night.
Painting her face black was too fake—sure, you could darken your face, but what about your neck and hands?
A pitch-black face on a snow-white neck, plus a pair of fair, delicate hands—who are you fooling?
And if you want to paint your whole body black, that’s just way too much work. Serena found it troublesome, and besides, it would all wash off the moment she touched water.
To settle things once and for all, Serena went straight for her face—she smeared it with a medicine that would trigger her allergies. By the next morning, her whole face was covered in little red bumps.
No matter how good your looks are, with a swollen, blotchy face, nobody’s going to give you a second glance. Walking down the street, Serena was perfectly safe—people who saw her face even went out of their way to avoid her, looking thoroughly disgusted.
“Miss Feng is truly ruthless,” whispered the hidden guards, awestruck. To go after her own face like that—Serena was a whole different level of fierce.
With no household registration or travel pass, Serena could only stick to back roads and remote towns. Thanks to her face, the journey went smoothly—if any clueless fool tried to approach, the hidden guards took care of them from the shadows.
After days of hard travel, Serena finally reached a larger town. But without any papers, she couldn’t get in at all—she had to settle for a ruined temple outside the city while she figured out how to sneak in.
The hidden guards kept protecting Serena from the shadows, right up until Lance Quinn showed up. Then they quietly withdrew, clearing out any troublemakers nearby to give Lance space—so the two could talk in peace.
Lance Quinn wore a half silver mask, and the moonlight spilled across his face, reflecting off the metal and making that exposed half shine with an almost eerie brightness.
The moment Lance stepped in, Serena snapped awake. “Who’s there?”
She looked up and saw a familiar figure, but Serena didn’t relax—instead, she stood up warily, her face fixed in an official smile. “Lance, is that you?”
After being tricked once, she couldn’t afford to let her guard down.
“Mm.” Sensing Serena’s coldness, Lance was a little confused. He hadn’t seen her for ages—he couldn’t think of anything he’d done to make her upset.
As Lance drew closer, Serena quietly hid her hands behind her back, her right gripping a knife, body pressed against the wall, her smile unchanged. “Lance, what are you doing here? What a coincidence.”
“Not a coincidence. I heard you were in trouble, so I came looking for you. Now that I see you’re safe, I can finally relax.” Lance had no idea what Serena had gone through, but seeing her so guarded, he stopped three steps away—close enough for her to size him up, but far enough that she could escape if she needed.
“How did you know I was in trouble?” Once she was close enough, Serena finally confirmed it was really Lance. Her nerves unraveled, her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath as she leaned against the wall. “It’s not a fake this time—I’m actually safe.”