Can a Scholar Be Called a Villain

Chapter 12: Found the protagonist Long Chen

The morning court of the next day.

Murong Lin had arrived at the imperial palace early, and he stood at the square in front of the palace alongside the ministers. He stood there, absently watching the clamouring officials.

Next to him, some of the princes, as well as the princesses, were waiting as well.

It didn’t take long for the gates to open and people rushed in.

Each minister had their assigned seats and the front left seats were reserved for the royalty.

After they had stood at their respective seats, the emperor walked in from the back, seating himself on the grand throne with the support of the sixth princess.

The eunuch next to him announced in a loud voice, “Report any important matter. Leave if you have nothing to say.”

Following that, prime minister Sheng Guo Gong and a few other ministers each walked up to report the recent matters of the country. Then, the people of the six departments and the twenty-five syndicates walked up as well, each receiving orders from Murong Tong, the emperor.

Lastly, Murong Tong brought up the matter of the beast wave in the South.

“The beast waves of the south occur once every seven years, and this year, they are back again. As such, I will personally dispatch a few people to the south to aid the South Village King.”

“As you command.”

“The third prince Murong Lin, the top warrior Zhu Xiao Ming, cabinet member Zheng Si Que, and the son of the prime minister, Sheng Yi. The four of you will depart today to assist the South Village King in suppressing the beast wave.”

“Yes.” Murong Lin walked forward and cupped his hand.Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m nov𝒆lb(i)n.c(o)m

Behind him, the three that were mentioned took a step forward as well, shouting as they cupped their hands.

“Aside from that, inform the people of the thirty-two counties to start preparing for the preliminaries within the country.”

“Yes.”

After the morning court had ended, Murong Lin followed the crowd and exited the imperial palace.

At the side, Murong Tong had brought a few ministers with him to have a private discussion in the back.

Murong Lin’s gaze scanned the crowd before stopping on Sheng Yi, who was conversing with a few ministers.

Was he the one that had revealed his identity to Ru Meng’er?

Murong Lin thought for a bit, and without caring too much, he walked towards the carriage that was waiting for him.

Despite the great difference in strength, he couldn’t defeat Sheng Yi yet, considering his protagonist halo and his backing.

What Murong Lin wanted was an absolute victory. He did not wish to leave anything to chance.

Returning to the palace, old man Bai had already prepared his luggage.

“Your Highness, everything has been prepared. Are you sure you do not need me to accompany you?” Old man Bai placed a large bag of holding into Murong Lin’s hands, which he hung casually at his waist.

“No need.” Murong Lin sat in his study, allowing the Bloody Poison insect to crawl out from his acupoint and perch itself on his fingertip.

“Proceed with what I had mentioned earlier, also find an isolated house.” Murong Lin waved his hand, signalling for the old man to leave.

“Yes.” With a bow, the old man left the room.

“Let’s not waste any time and depart now. As for that Sheng Yi fellow, it’s best if I avoid him.” Murong Lin thought to himself.

Changing his clothes, Murong Lin left his residence and entered a carriage.

The two of the ‘Flowering Steel Trees’ sat within the carriage, while the ‘Eight Great Butcher Kings’ protected the sides of the carriage, and the three fierce operators drove the carriage towards the outside of the city.

People walked on the busy street, not noticing the carriages that were headed outside of the capital towards South Village City.

The Empire of Yan was developed with the capital in the North, and the South Village was known as the heart of the South, developing along the demonic beast forest, which stretched out towards the north.

The demonic beast forest was surrounded by four countries, with Yan occupying a large swath of land within the forest, that didn’t contain any beasts that were exceptionally strong, it was considered to be relatively safe, except for the weak demonic beasts that reproduced at a horrifying speed. Despite their efforts, humans were incapable of completely exterminating these beasts and would suffer the onslaught of the occasional suicidal beast waves, which reduced internal conflict.

South Village was the city that played the most vital role during the beast wave suppression, and it was also the place that was under the highest pressure of the beast wave’s onslaught. The current city governor, the South Village king, was personally appointed by the current emperor, Murong Tong. And with the strength of the Sky Reaching realm, the South Village King protected the city and aided in its resistance against the beast waves. However, in the past few years, his discontent with the imperial court had been growing.

As South Village was rather far from the capital, the trip would take at least 10 days even on a carriage. As Murong Lin had no need to hastily arrive at the city, he naturally decided to lie in his luxurious carriage and make his way there serenely.

But unexpectedly, his carriage was stopped by a group the moment he exited the gates of the city.

“Dare I ask if the seniors are heading towards the South Village city?”

The group was filled with young men and women, wearing the same outfit that made it seem like they were disciples of the same sect. Among them, one of the young men walked forward and bowed.

“Your Highness.” The three men were silent, and within the carriage, ‘Flowering Steel Trees’ asked, “What should we do?”

Murong Lin waved the fan in his hands as he thought before responding, “I will deal with these people myself.”

And after he had finished speaking, he pulled the curtains and shouted, “That is indeed correct, why not travel together and aid each other in the journey!”

Obvious expressions of joy flashed past the group of disciples as they quickly cupped their hands and responded, “We are the disciples of the Purple Goose sect, and we are grateful to senior.”

Murong Lin smiled, “No need to call me senior, I am the third prince of Yan, Murong Lin. You all can refer to me by my name. Where are your seniors from your sect?”

“So it was His Highness, the third prince!” The young man that was the leader of the group spoke, “I am the head disciple of Purple Goose sect, Lu Chi, and we have descended the mountain to suppress the beast wave in South Village as a form of training. Our seniors have already left for the south, and as the disciples, we are making our way there ourselves as well.

“So it was like that.” Murong Lin pulled a face as he inspected the group, the strongest person among them had just reached the Crystalline realm. He nodded, “It’ll be boring for all of you on the road, why not travel together and we can discuss interesting events of the Jiang Hu.”

“Exactly my thoughts!” Lu Chi smiled stupidly, and paired with the treasure sword on his waist, he looked exactly like an adventurer.

The remaining disciples at the back all had grateful expressions as they looked at Murong Lin. In the end, the disciples took the front with their horses as Murong Lin’s carriage followed behind.

The people in front were all whispering amongst themselves.

“Woah! It’s actually the third royal prince! He looks to be exceptionally strong!”

“That’s right, those people on the carriage seem to be even stronger than the elders of our sect!”

“The third prince is not only handsome and strong, but he’s amicable as well, wah, it’ll be great if I could marry him.”

“Hahaha, look at you daydreaming again!”

“We must show off our Purple Goose sect’s might during the suppression of the beast wave this time!”

“Of course!”

Murong Lin was also in a conversation with Lu Chi.

“Brother Lu, did you say that the Black River cult was acting strangely these days?”

“That’s right! Not just the Black River cult, all the cults are acting strangely! The Black River cult is madly attacking the disciples of our sect, and this was the reason why we wanted to travel with you. For example, the Blood Spirits aren’t even killing people anymore and they instead went into hiding, there must be something going on!” Lu Chi spoke surely.

Eh, well, Murong Lin couldn’t guarantee that there wasn’t a conspiracy going on in the other cults, but he was sure that there was nothing going on in the Blood Spirits, they were just busy looking for protagonists.

But he naturally wasn’t stupid enough to explain this to him.

“Brother Lu, tell me more about the events of the Jiang Hu, I haven’t heard much while living in the capital.”

“Hahaha! Alright! I’ll tell you about the big events that transpired in the past few years! I mostly have information relating to the sects, such as the absolute genius that appeared in the Moon Fire sect last year. He overwhelmed all heroes, and his swordsmanship is considered to be the best.”

And as he listened to Lu Chi’s chattering, Murong Lin comfortably laid inside the carriage.

Suddenly, he heard a piece of interesting information.

“The young master of the Long clan of Betan city had his engagement with the ‘Hundred Flower Fairy’ of the Hundred Flower sect annulled, the entire affair was pitiful to watch! The young master of the Long clan isn’t someone to lightly offend either, and he chose to abandon Zhu Zhu Shu in front of the entire crowd. If it weren’t for the fact that I had a friend in the Long clan, I wouldn’t even know about this!”

The engagement breaking off cliche!

This was definitely the protagonist’s engagement-breaking cliche!

“What’s the situation with the Long family’s young master?” Murong Lin pretended to be curious as he asked.

And Lu Chi naturally knew the answer.

“Long Chen is the sole child of the Long family in BetanCity, and he is somewhat considered the pride of the family. It’s just sad that his talent for cultivation isn’t very good, while Zhu Zhu Shu from the Zhu clan who was betrothed to him when they were just infants, was born talented and became the ‘Hundred Flower Fairy’ after entering the Hundred Flower Clan. Unwilling to proceed with the engagement, Zhu Zhu Shu had formally requested to break it off with the Long clan, and the engagement was eventually ended a year later to prevent any conflict. At the time, Long Chen had made a bet that he would compete with Zhu Zhu Shu a year later. Now that the deadline for the match is close, I wonder what’s going on.”

And as Lu Chi spoke, the system’s voice spoke in Murong Lin’s mind.

“Ding! Master has found a protagonist!”

Protagonist value: 300

Age: 18

Cultivation: Unknown

Innate talent: Little protagonist halo, (Unknown)

Translator’s note

I found out today that old man Bai’s name was actually Bai Lao Bo, it literally means white old man. lul.

Will stop referring to him as ‘Old man Bai’.

The copy-paste on Webnovel has been removed. Yay.