Prohibited from leaving the palace

Tai Jian continued his drawing after Xue Kai left. He carefully drew the picture before writing a poem below the painting after he was sure that the painting was up to his standards. If one looked carefully one would find out that the painting was that of princess Hongchen. If one carefully looked into Tai Jian's drawers only her paintings would be found and no official document could be found. This was the reason as to why no matter how much the shadows tried investigating him no clue was found as he only had paintings and poems written for his woman. Ever since Tai Jian left the border,he has been nurturing his sword and has been pouring his yang mana into the sword to strengthen it and the sword did not disappoint him. After two years of constant nurturing the sword was now strong enough and could withstand Tai Jian's current strength. Tai Jian did not leave his study until it was very late in the evening. He now had eyes on him everywhere. His brothers were cautious of him and were watching hid every move,his wife's brothers had also set their eyes on him and were extremely cautious of him and the princess and the shadow guild also had their eyes on him with many assassins looking for a chance to take his life after all Tai Jian was a living treasure. The heaven battling state had made him a golden mission in their assassination guilds and any assassin who managed to kill him would earn a lot. To make matters worst in the shadow guild he was classified as a five star rank mission. His head was extremely precious. Even Tai Jian was shocked when he heard this and almost heard an urge of chopping off his own head and delivering it to them so that he could be given the rewards. At first he only had three star ranks but after numerous failures from ranked assassins the value of his head rose to five star. It was said that no assassin sent to assassinate him had managed to return alive. This prompted the higher ups to change the rank of his stars. Since then few assassins dared to apply for the mission but even when strong assassins tried they still failed as Tai Jian was far too more cunning and cautious. He did not use his martial arts to kill the assassins but all of the guards trained by Tai Jian were terrifying. Their capabilities were unmeasurable and Tai Jian had taught them various fighting formations and the techniques that Tai Jian taught them were ancient techniques that he had picked up. He had trained eight special guards and each of them were strong and when they unleashed a forbidden technique combining their powers then even Tai Jian was not sure of the extent of their abilities. These eight guards were called controllers of the shadows by Tai Jian as he wanted these guards to be the ones to stop the attempts of the shadows and so far the guards had done their duties diligently and Tai Jian was pleased. His brothers had once tried to set him up by charging him with rebellion but Tai Jian did nor back down in the presence of such accusations rather he called those old officials who claimed to be knowledgeable on matters concerning state affairs and he used them to prove his innocence. The laws governing the state states that a prince is allowed to own his own force as long as it doesn't exceed a hundred troupes so Tai Jian's troupe of eight broke no law and he was even allowed to add more followers but Tai Jian seemingly had no intention of adding to his forces and prudently backed down. He even went as far as removing half of the soldiers stationed in his mansion . Since then Tai Jian's palace had been deserted and had very few people but all these people who remained were all loyal to Tai Jian and would lay down their lives for his sake. Ever since Qin Wushuang retired from state affairs due to his sudden illness,the situation in court had changed since then with many ministers leaning towards the first prince which was within Tai Jian's expectations. Since then Tai Jian was not allowed to take even half a step into the palace so it could be said that it has been two years since he last saw his parents and this worried Tai Jian as his family happened to be a fatal weakness that he has. He has tried placing spies on the palace but most of his spies were uprooted in one way or another which left him helpless. With his parents inside the palace and their condition unknown Tai Jian could not dare expose himself because he was sure that if he took one misstep then it would be bye bye to his parents which was something that Tai Jian did not want to see so he had to tread carefully. When Tai Jian left he went directly to Tie Hongchen's room. By this time Tie Hongchen was already asleep. Tai Jian entered the room as always but what he did not expect was that Tie Hongchen had yet to fall asleep. He entered the room as always and found Tie Hongchen already on the bed pretending to be asleep. As always Tai Jian walked up to the bed and checked her pulse as always. He found the cold yin mana suppressed but it was showing signs of erupting again soon. Upon seeing this he hugged Tie Hongchen from behind and transferred his yang mana to her to help neutralise the cold yin mana. Tai Jian has been doing this for the last two years ever since they stopped dual cultivating due to that incident. At first he only wanted Tie Hongchen to live and for her to not freeze to death but later something inside him seemed to have been awakened as he suddenly developed special feelings for Tie Hongchen. He would rarely taste his food when she was depressed and would spend sleepless nights in his study when she was upset and could not sleep. His love for Tie Hongchen has grown and now he is head over heels in love with Tie Hongchen. Each time he heard news of Tie Hongchen smiling with any other man apart from him he would feel upset and jealous. There was a time when the princes invited Tie Hongchen to a banquet and Tai Jian heard of it. At that time Toe Hongchen was having a nice time with the princes and even got drunk. His fourth brother tried to use the opportunity to leave with Tie Hongchen but Tai Jian appeared in the nick of time." Fourth brother,thank you for caring for my wife. I am sorry for allowing you all to witness such a scene," Tai Jian had said before he carried the princess back to his palace under the watch of the princes. The princes were furious as they wanted to take advantage of the princess and to also embarrass Tai Jian but Tai Jian disrupted their plan but with this they also came to know that the princess meant a lot to Tai Jian but this did not bother Tai Jian. He brought back the drunk Tie Hongchen and scolded her but even then at the end of it he could only sigh as Tie Hongchen paid no heed to his advice. Since then he prohibited Tie Hongchen from leaving the palace.