“Your Ladyship, your subordinates are merely acting under orders. Please bear with us.” The guard captain’s manner was respectful, yet in this matter, he was resolved to proceed.

“Insolent! This consort’s residence — how dare you lot run amok here?” Nanmeng Rong gave a cold snort and cried out furiously: “Get out!”

Every one of these people could see that the Nanmeng clan’s military power had now been halved by half, and even a lowly little guard captain dared to come and bully her!

Had that incompetent Emperor Qiwen grown so bold?

Even if her Nanmeng clan’s military authority had been reduced, she remained the most powerful woman in the rear palace — could Emperor Qiwen truly dare to go against her?

From outside, a eunuch’s voice suddenly rang out: “His Majesty arrives!”

Emperor Qiwen had come. Nanmeng Rong was not alarmed — if anything, she felt even more assured and unafraid.

“Greetings to His Majesty!” The guard captain and the others saluted together.

On Nanmeng Rong’s side, the maids and senior maidservants all curtseyed: “Greetings to His Majesty.”

Emperor Qiwen’s gaze fell upon Nanmeng Rong. She had long carried a grievance against him in her heart — in truth, it had been a very long time since she had seen Emperor Qiwen in her own bedchamber. Yet when the Emperor came, she did not go to welcome him; instead, she stifled her anger and paid him no heed.

Emperor Qiwen’s expression darkened somewhat, displeasure already rising within him: “What is going on here?”

His Majesty was still His Majesty, always bearing an authority that could not be challenged. With that one question, the maids and senior maidservants’ spirits wilted; they glanced at one another in private, hearts all churning with unease.

The guard captain stepped forward and said respectfully: “Reporting to Your Majesty — your subordinates witnessed with their own eyes the assassin entering Xuanhua Hall. Therefore, to ensure Noble Consort Rong’s safety, your subordinates were about to conduct a search.”

“Then why are you still standing here?” The chief eunuch said with displeasure.

The guard captain’s expression remained impassive as he reported the facts: “Her Ladyship refuses to permit a search. Your subordinates were at a loss and respectfully ask His Majesty to decide.”

“What do you mean by that?” That wretched creature, how dare he stir up trouble before her! Noble Consort Rong strode forward, raised her hand, and dealt him a slap: “Insolent!”

With a sharp crack, the guard captain did not dare to dodge. Yet the look in his eyes turned icy and cold.

He might only be a guard captain, but to be slapped by a woman from the rear palace — this was truly a first in his entire life!

The hand gripping his sword tightened until the knuckles were white, the veins on the back of his hand bulging prominently. Had this woman’s identity not been what it was, he would have long since run her through with his sword on the spot.

A towering man of seven feet, slapped by a woman in front of his own subordinates — it was truly something no one could bear to witness.

Yet among those present, not even the chief eunuch could say a single word at this moment.

Emperor Qiwen’s breathing became heavy and labored; the veins at his temple pulsed and faintly surfaced, showing just how infuriated he too had become.

The guard captain was his man. Nanmeng Rong slapping the guard captain — how was that any different from striking him across the face?

“Search.” After a brief silence, Emperor Qiwen suddenly said in a cold voice.

“Who dares?” Nanmeng Rong gave a cold snort. Whether in the past, now, or even in the future, she had never placed Emperor Qiwen in her eyes.

That he could become Emperor was entirely due to the Nanmeng clan’s merit. Had they not seen that this incompetent emperor could be controlled, she would never have married him, never have pushed him onto the throne.

Had he forgotten all the kindness the Nanmeng clan had shown him?

Nanmeng Rong walked up to stand before Emperor Qiwen. Even having been demoted to Noble Consort, her bearing remained one of supreme arrogance and superiority.

“Whoever dares to search this consort’s Xuanhua Hall is picking a fight with the Nanmeng clan. My Nanmeng clan——”

Crack.

So abrupt, so utterly without warning, so utterly beyond anyone’s expectation.

Nanmeng Rong was standing far too close to him — that face loomed larger and larger within his field of vision, that insufferable arrogance, that overbearing and imperious air, making the veins at Emperor Qiwen’s temple surge and pulse again and again, his fury rising again and again, roaring through him again and again.

Even he himself did not know when his hand had gone out of its own accord; even he himself had not realized it — his heavy palm, just as she invoked the Nanmeng clan’s name over and over, had been hurled with every ounce of his strength.

Nanmeng Rong had been completely without guard, for she had never believed — not even at the moment of death would she have believed — that this incompetent emperor would give her such a fierce and merciless slap.

With her own martial arts, how could Emperor Qiwen ever harm her? Yet she had not anticipated it — truly had not anticipated it — it was so utterly sudden and unprepared for!

With a thud, the magnificently dressed woman was struck and fell sitting to the ground. She did not get up at once, but stared at Emperor Qiwen in disbelief.

From shock, to astonishment, to fury — in a single instant those eyes had gone red, red as though they could bleed!

The maids, eunuchs, and even the senior maidservants — each and every one of them was so frightened they dared not draw a breath, so frightened that even stepping forward to help her up was beyond them.

Nothing like this had ever happened before. Never!

His Majesty had struck Noble Consort Rong. His Majesty had disrespected Noble Consort Rong!

Had they not witnessed it with their own eyes, no one would have believed it — His Majesty, who had always been respectful and deferential toward Noble Consort Rong, had actually slapped her Ladyship!

Yet he was the Emperor. His slapping a consort was not exactly something that defied heaven’s law — after all, it was Noble Consort Rong who had provoked him first.

It was only that if this had been done to any other consort, the matter would pass without much consequence. But at this moment, the person His Majesty had struck was Noble Consort Rong…

“You… you… you wretched old thing!” As Nanmeng Rong came back to herself, a surging killing intent blazed to life in the depths of her eyes!

“How dare you — how dare you!” She leapt to her feet, and with a scraping hiss yanked the longsword from the scabbard of a nearby guard, leveling the blade at Emperor Qiwen’s face: “You——”

“Assassin!” The guard captain bellowed, drawing his longsword with a ring: “Guards! Protect His Majesty! Protect His Majesty!”

With that, he actually raised his longsword and drove it straight at Noble Consort Rong.

Had it not been for that slap moments ago, the guard captain would naturally have held back to some degree, wary of the Nanmeng clan’s power, and would not have dared to act rashly against Nanmeng Rong.

But that slap Nanmeng Rong had given him — the guard captain could not swallow that.

A proper man, slapped by a woman in front of his own subordinates.

What could be tolerated, what could not — and now Nanmeng Rong had already drawn her sword, which amounted to a threat against His Majesty’s life. Even if he could not kill her, giving her a taste of suffering was entirely warranted.

If even the guard captain had drawn his sword, how could the other guards still stand there in a daze?

Noble Consort Rong had always been blazingly arrogant, never treating anyone as a real person. How many people had long been hoping for her — and the entire Nanmeng clan — to fall from power as soon as possible?

With a succession of ringing scrapes, the guards drew their longswords one by one, shouting “Protect His Majesty!” and sweeping their blades toward Nanmeng Rong.

Even so, the guards still did not dare to truly take Nanmeng Rong’s life — she was, after all, Noble Consort Rong. She could be detained, but she could not truly be harmed.

Seeing that every last one of them was putting on a show and not one dared to genuinely wound her, Nanmeng Rong’s arrogance rose another tier. She swept her longsword about and laughed with contempt.

“Mongrel Emperor, your people are only so much — not one of them dares to harm this consort, yet you want this consort’s life? Pfft!”