The engagement festivities had proceeded with calculated grandeur. Every detail perfect, every element positioned to suggest complete normalcy.
By midnight, the Emperor of Yue had retired to the Yue kingdom's temporary palace within the Wu capital, a diplomatic structure now serving as the staging ground for everything that would follow.
Luo He and his wives remained hidden in the upper chambers, waiting in silence for the signal that would initiate their departure without participating in the engagement ceremony.
At early dawn, the Yue kingdom's maid soldiers, carefully disguised, moved to the east gate carrying trays of drugged wine and water. The story was simple, elegant, impossible to question.
The emperor of Wu, in a gesture of goodwill toward the engagement festivities, had ensured that even the outer guards and patrol forces should participate in the celebration.
The guards accepted without hesitation. Wine and water, presented as hospitality, seemed entirely reasonable. They drank deeply.
Within a quarter hour, every guard at the eastern gate had collapsed into unconsciousness. The barracks lay silent. The sedative had rendered the entire garrison incapable of resistance.
Shu Kang approached the gate with deliberate slowness, his frame moving with surprising grace. He lifted the gate mechanism, the heavy door rose creating an opening for the contingent to pass through.
The escape began. Thousands of people flooded out. Servants, attendants, family members, all moving in organized chaos.
The twenty Grandmasters spread throughout the group provided protection and guidance, their martial prowess creating a moving shield around the civilians.
They were nearly clear when Luo He e sensesed a presence. A figure emerged from a side passage, a guard who had avoided the drugged offerings, who had remained conscious and aware.
His hand moved toward the alarm bell with desperate urgency. In moments, the entire capital would know that an escape was occurring. Luo He did not hesitate. He turned to Jin Mulan and simply asked: "Honey can I burrow your spear."
Before she even understood, he forcefully took it from her hands immediately. Without question, without delay, she handed him the weapon anyway.
Not resisting despite not knowing why he needed it. The spear that was an extension of her martial skill, that she had trained with for years.
A martial artists weapons was sacred for them so they never gave it away but she trusted him enough to hand it over without question.
Luo He took it with fluid grace and threw it with such force that the trajectory seemed to bend space itself. The spear flew through the darkness and cut the bell's rope with surgical precision. The rope severed. The rope fell harmlessly to the ground.
In the same moment, Shu Kang disappeared. Vanished from one location and reappeared behind the guard. The guard never processed what was occurring before Shu Kang's massive scimitar bisected him completely, his body falling in two parts to the stone floor.
The escape continued without pause.
By the time dawn truly broke, Luo He and the emperor of Yue, accompanied by Luo He's wives and Shu Kang had reached a local inn in a district not very far from the palace.
They presented themselves as wealthy merchants traveling to conduct business, a story that the innkeeper accepted without question, particularly given their obvious affluence and willingness to pay premium prices for immediate accommodations.
Five of the Emperor's most essential servants had remained behind, tasked with preparing him for the grand wedding event that would occur that morning.
Protection had been guaranteed by Luo He with characteristic indifference. "I will personally draw my sword if it gets desperate. Don't worry." He had said calmly.
The Emperor, understanding that Luo He's martial arts exceeded even Shu Kang's formidable power, had trusted this promise completely and left the guards behind except for Shu Kang and eunuch Long.
Luo He did not sleep that night. He sat in the emperors room of the inn, keeping the him company, talking about various things and nothing at all.
The emperor was too unsettled to sleep, his mind churning through the implications of what they had accomplished, what they had risked, what might still go wrong.
"You are like a powder baby," Luo He said at one point, his tone carrying genuine amusement. "Too anxious to rest despite the danger having passed."
"I find it remarkable that someone can rule an entire kingdom yet become so unsettled when personal circumstances shift."
"In my case, I have never had such issues, though perhaps that is because I was born into the Flame kingdom's chaos. Most high stakes problems becomes meaningless when one has survived far far worse." He said proudly.
The Emperor could not decide if this was mockery or observation. It was, most likely, both.
When his wives attempted to keep him company, to sit with him through the anxious night, he directed them to bed with the firmness of a parent instructing children.
"You need rest." He told them while kissing each of them goodnight and specially warning them not to disturb him during the night.
"Tomorrow is life or death. Your minds need to be sharp. Mine can afford to remain restless. I have nothing to fear as long as you two are with me." He said very affectionately.
Both women were genuinely angry about being dismissed, but they understood the logic of his decision.
More importantly, they understood that when Luo He gave orders socially in public like this, he expected obedience without rebellion. So they unhappily went to bed like two disappointed kittens.
Because he had instructed them to do so, their irritation carefully concealed beneath a facade of compliance. After they had departed, Luo He settled back into conversation with the emperor.
"I intend to marry Ning Jia officially," he said at one point, the statement casual despite its significance. "I want legitimate rights to remain with her, to have standing in your family structure."
"I won't abandon her despite having another wife, plus Mulan and Ning Jia are already doing remarkably well with one another."
The emperor had initially bristled at this mention. His daughter, formally married off without consultation. But as Luo He continued speaking, the emperor's anger gradually softened.
"That's remarkable," he admitted finally. "She don't even know your true identity yet. But she happily chose you when she had no political reason to accept you. She had chosen based on genuine feelings."
He paused, then something shifted in his expression. The realization that his daughter, whom he had worried would refuse marriage in favor of remaining a martial artist, had instead found genuine love.
"The emperor is now genuinely pleased," the emperor said quietly. She was truly being married due to genuine affection, not duty.
Two benefits achieved simultaneously. A strong relationship and a daughter properly married. "So, can I be a living son-in-law for the Ning family as well from now on?" Luo He asked, genuinely intrigued.
He smiled a genuine smile that suggested he found the emperor's concern about familial relations both touching and somewhat amusingly funny as for him to mock at it.
"Of course." The emperor replied simply. "Though I should warn you, don't worry about me demanding anything as compensation if circumstances ever change."
"I won't be saying I want any of your assets if I ever get divorced. I am rich for some reason, and I can happily pay for the Yue kingdom's debt settlements as well. Just as a gesture of goodwill for my wife." Luo He said casually.
The emperor of Yue studied this man, this person who had infiltrated a palace, who had orchestrated an entire escape, who now sat beside him discussing marriage arrangements with shameless indifference to convention. He could not identify what motivated such boldness.
Which man willingly chose to be a living son-in-law? What fool offered to pay a kingdom's debts just as a gesture of goodwill for his wife?
But as the night wore on, the emperor began to understand something fundamental. This man did not seek approval or validation. He simply acted according to his own principles and allowed everyone else to adjust their expectations accordingly.
And somehow, that quality, more than power, more than brilliance, was the most dangerous and intriguing thing about him.
At approximately five in the morning, Luo He entered his wives' bedroom with the quiet deliberation of someone conducting an important transaction.
He locked the door and activated the seashell immediately.
That small artifact that created perfect silence, perfect privacy, perfect separation from the world beyond the chamber.
It is truly a priceless asset, no wonder Jin Su dossiers it so badly that she went on to flirt with her own daughter's husband.