Di Feimu’s brow creased sharply. He shoved the woman in his arms away.

“You… are not Jiu’er. Jiu’er could never… harm my elder brother. You are not…”

Before he could finish, a mouthful of dark blood spilled from between his lips.

“Ha ha ha…” The white-clad woman threw her head back and laughed. “What a pity. You have learned too late.”

“Just now, I already gave you poison. If he does not die, then only you will die!”

In the moonlight, the short blade in the white-clad woman’s hand gleamed with a dark luster.

Looking more closely, one could see her face beginning to contort, fissures spreading across it in jagged lines.

“Give me your life!”

Watching the woman advance on him with the short blade, Di Feimu gathered his energy, but his legs buckled — he had no chance to strike back.

The merciless blade plunged into his body. He raised his eyes and looked toward the crescent moon hanging in the sky.

In the moonlight, a small face appeared — she seemed to be weeping.

Jiu’er, I am going now. Do not cry. In the next life — farewell.

The white-clad woman drove the blade into Di Feimu savagely three times over, each strike deadly.

Suddenly, a great gust of wind came roaring in. The white-clad woman looked back for a moment, then turned and fled.

“Mu’er.” Seeing Di Feimu drenched in blood from head to toe, Ye Luosha rushed over in a frenzy.

But Di Feimu could no longer hear anyone’s call. After his silent “farewell” to Feng Jiu’er, he closed his eyes.

“Mu’er.” Ye Luosha arrived just in time, catching the man as he crumpled to the ground.

Looking at the face drained of all color, the center of his brow darkened, her cries tore through with a pain that ripped at the heart and lungs.

Ye Luosha sealed several of Di Feimu’s vital pressure points, then held him in her arms and moved at great speed back the way she had come.

“Mu’er, do not be afraid! I will not let anything happen to you. Mu’er, do not be afraid!”

“Quickly! Go find a physician! Quickly! Find every last physician in Phoenix City and bring them here — go!”

Ye Luosha’s voice still echoed on the air as she carried Di Feimu away and disappeared from sight.

“Foster Father, it was Feng Jiu’er.” Leng Yue spoke in a deep voice.

“You also saw — it was Feng Jiu’er. Was it not? It was Feng Jiu’er who took the Second Prince away. I saw it with my own eyes. It was her, it had to be her!”

“Go find the physicians — do not worry about me! Go!” Thinking of Di Feimu’s condition, Emperor Ji too had fallen into a state of frenzy.

“Yes, I will go and give the order now.” Leng Yue dipped her head, turned, and disappeared into the night as well.

The moment the doors of the hall were forced open, Feng Jiu’er was in her own inner chamber studying the two tracings she had made.

Having finally coaxed her most adorable Ninth Imperial Uncle to sleep, Feng Jiu’er had quietly slipped out of a certain man’s arms and sat down at the table, pulling out the two drawings.

The dragon-soaring pattern on Ninth Imperial Uncle’s body very likely held the missing half of the treasure map. Without so much as a moment to study it properly, how could she possibly sleep?

But she had barely sat down when the sound of the outer door being thrown open reached her from outside.

“Old Venerable Master, the Venerable Master is resting. You…”

Yu Jingfeng had no chance to finish his words. Emperor Ji, seated in his wheeled chair, sent out a palm strike with a great boom that blew the very door of the inner chamber open.

Perhaps because the one who had come was Emperor Ji — even Yu Jingfeng could not stop him in time.

Feng Jiu’er had only just tucked the two drawings into her bosom and risen to her feet when the residual force of the palm swept in, billowing her robes and scattering her dark hair.

Di Wu Ya, deep in sleep, sensed the murderous intent and snapped open his eyes. In the blink of an eye, he had already moved to stand before Feng Jiu’er, shielding her behind him.

“Your Highness, the Old Venerable Master, he…”

“Wu Ya.” Emperor Ji’s voice cut off Yu Jingfeng’s words. “Even at a moment like this, you still protect her?”

“Step aside! Today I will absolutely rid ourselves of this vile woman.”

Emperor Ji’s fury erupted to the heavens, the inner force in his palms building to a violent surge.

“Foster Father, what exactly has happened?” Di Wu Ya’s thick brows furrowed deeply, his voice low and weighted.

This was too significant a moment for Leng Yue to miss.

After instructing the brothers to go and summon physicians, she had rushed over in great haste.

“Venerable Master, Feng Jiu’er tried to kill the Second Prince. We saw with our own eyes that she stabbed the Second Prince several times. Now…”

Before Leng Yue could finish, Feng Jiu’er stepped out from behind Di Wu Ya.

“What did you say? Mu Mu is injured?” The crease in her brow was no less severe than Emperor Ji’s.

“Vile woman, and you still dare deny it!” Leng Yue said coldly.

“I saw with my own eyes that you took the Second Prince away. When Foster Father, I, and Senior Ye arrived, we saw you with our own eyes drive a short blade into the Second Prince…”

“Where is he?” Feng Jiu’er walked forward.

She could no longer take in Leng Yue’s words — she only wanted to know where Mu Mu was. Mu Mu had to be gravely injured; otherwise Emperor Ji would not have erupted in such fury.

“Vile…”

“I am asking you — where is he?”

The moment Leng Yue’s words left her mouth, Feng Jiu’er was before her in a blur of motion impossible to follow, and had seized her by the front of her robes.

The speed Feng Jiu’er moved at gave Leng Yue a tremendous shock. Her body stiffened slightly, and she cut her eyes sideways toward Emperor Ji.

“Foster Father, this vile woman wants to kill me too! Foster Father, save me!”

Feng Jiu’er gave a sharp twist and hoisted Leng Yue bodily into the air. “I will ask one more time — where is Mu Mu?”

Leng Yue met Feng Jiu’er’s eyes — cold and bottomless — and her whole body began to tremble. She genuinely wondered whether she had provoked a frenzied leopard.

Not wanting to lose her life, she stammered haltingly, “In the front hall. The Senior Ye took him there… to be treated.”

Feng Jiu’er flung Leng Yue down with force and strode toward the door.

Emperor Ji spun around. The palm force he had been gathering came crashing toward Feng Jiu’er’s slight frame in a powerful blow.

By the time Feng Jiu’er sensed the murderous intent and turned back, a tall figure had already stepped in front of her.

He took the full force of the palm blow — for her.

“Wu Ya.” Emperor Ji looked at Di Wu Ya, from whose lips crimson had begun to seep, and gripped his fists tight. “I saw it with my own eyes. Do not let her deceive you any longer!”

“Since this woman appeared, your life has been thrown into chaos. Will you not see reason until she has brought harm to everyone around you?”

Emperor Ji gnashed his teeth, so agitated that the veins at his temples stood out in stark relief.

Feng Jiu’er stepped back to Di Wu Ya’s side and looked at the crimson at the corner of his mouth. She too was furious.

“Are you unwell?” She swept a cold glance at Emperor Ji and pulled a medicinal pill from inside her robes.

She could understand his anxiety, but to act against another before the facts had even been established — that was truly unreasonable.

A perfectly fine person, suddenly struck until they spat blood — who could remain unangered?

“Wu Ya, do not take it! She will harm you.” Emperor Ji gathered his inner energy in his palm again, readying to strike.

Even knowing he was no match for Feng Jiu’er, he could not stand by and watch his nephew come to harm once more.

“Foster Father.” Di Wu Ya looked at Emperor Ji, his expression grave. “It was not Jiu’er. She and I have been together the entire night. It cannot have been her.”

The words had scarcely fallen when he took the pill from Feng Jiu’er’s hand and, without a moment’s hesitation, placed it in his mouth and swallowed it.

Leng Yue, collapsed on the ground with one hand pressed to her chest, brow drawn tight.

She had not spat blood when Feng Jiu’er threw her just now — but watching the Venerable Master place such utter trust in this vile woman, she nearly coughed up a mouthful then and there.

Then she caught a faint scent on the air, and a flicker of joy lit her heart.

“Foster Father, there is the smell of sedative smoke.”