The piercing scream was so sharp that it startled everyone instantly.

The Luo family members rushed frantically toward the prison, but the guards immediately held them back. Luo Shangchun became agitated: “Let us in! That’s my sister, and my mother is a doctor! Let her go and take a look!”

“Stop! Stay where you are!”

Chaos erupted at the prison entrance. The jailers dragged Luo Wanqing, who had rolled several times on the ground, away from the brazier, shouting angrily: “What are you doing?! Do you have a death wish?!”

Luo Wanqing was in such pain that her consciousness was hazy. She curled up on the ground, wanting to touch her face but not daring to, her entire body trembling.

She felt as if her face had been skinned and then pressed bloody against an iron plate, the sizzling sound of flesh meeting heat still echoing in her ears.

Fortunately, having been beaten so much by Liu Xiniang during these past days, she had already developed the ability to remain conscious through pain. Enduring the agony, she used her last trace of rationality to speak: “Medical office—take me to the medical office—it hurts so much! It hurts so much!”

The lead guard, seeing her anguished state, gritted his teeth and finally waved his hand: “Take her to the medical office! She’s an exile convict—don’t let her die!”

With that, Luo Wanqing was lifted and carried toward the prison medical office.

She heard Yao Zelan’s voice.

She heard Luo Shangchun’s voice.

She heard Su Hui’s weeping.

She struggled to open her blurred eyes and saw the white light at the prison entrance growing more distant, the figures becoming smaller and smaller.

The jailers hurriedly brought her to the medical office. The physician, seeing Luo Wanqing’s injuries, immediately began treating her while complaining: “What’s been going on with you people lately? Just brought in one with a ruined face, and now another one. They’re all young women—why do you always target their faces? And injuries like this can be fatal if not treated properly, you know?!”

“No,” the jailer quickly explained, “we didn’t do this. She crashed into it herself.”

“Nonsense! Who would seek death like that!”

The physician didn’t believe them and scolded the jailers.

Luo Wanqing remained silent, gasping and enduring the pain while observing her surroundings.

The medical office was one large room. Not far away by the window was a row of white cloth partitions, which should be the area for patients to rest. Based on the physician’s words, Liu Xiniang must have arrived earlier.

After some thought, once the physician had finished treating the wound on her face, Luo Wanqing said weakly: “Doctor, I’d like to rest for a while.”

“Help her over there.”

The physician glanced at her with sympathy and had an assistant help her to the area with the patient beds.

Here, the beds were separated by white cloth partitions. Luo Wanqing couldn’t see clearly what was happening in the adjacent beds. She was pondering how to find Liu Xiniang when she heard rustling sounds from nearby. She turned around alertly and felt someone gently press a hand over her mouth, speaking in a low, hoarse voice: “It’s me.”

Luo Wanqing looked up and saw Liu Xiniang’s eyes.

Liu Xiniang’s wounds had all been bandaged, and like her, she was wrapped in white gauze around her head.

She wore a clean prisoner’s uniform. The exile prisoner uniform was different from the prison uniform—the prison uniform was more whitish, while the exile uniform was more yellowish. The prison uniform had the character “prisoner” written on it, while the exile uniform had the character “exile.”

“Change clothes.”

Liu Xiniang immediately began undressing, and Luo Wanqing quickly followed suit. As they changed clothes, they rapidly briefed each other on the situation.

“I confessed in court just now and was sentenced to death. Someone will come to take you to death row in a while. Remember what I told you,” Liu Xiniang handed her clothes to Luo Wanqing to change into while emphasizing, “Stay away from Qin Jue, find Nine Frost, and get into many fights in death row.”

“The prison officials don’t want to delay the exile journey, and burn injuries can be fatal. They’re afraid of taking responsibility. From their behavior just now, they should come to take you away soon. If you end up exiled with my mother and brother and they discover the truth,” Luo Wanqing pressed her lips together, and after a long while, she controlled her urge to cry and spoke hoarsely, “tell them I was severely injured and couldn’t recover, that I exchanged with you before dying and died in prison. Don’t let them look for me.”

“I just got you some pain-relieving and life-preserving medicine, and this is my family’s ancestral blade technique.” Liu Xiniang didn’t dare look into her eyes, keeping her head down as she handed her a book, saying earnestly, “Practice well and preserve your life well.”

“This is the dagger Jiang Shaoyan gave me, and the pouch I embroidered for him.”

Luo Wanqing handed the dagger and pouch to Liu Xiniang: “When you’re on the exile road and pretend to die to escape, leave the pouch behind as identification. Take the dagger with you, and after you get out, bury it under the century-old tree at the foot of Huguo Temple mountain in the Eastern Capital. If I survive,” Luo Wanqing looked up at her, “I’ll naturally go retrieve it.”

This statement made Liu Xiniang pause. After a long while, she finally took the dagger.

“My bed is seven positions south of here. I checked when I came over—there’s no one in between. You can just walk along the window-side path. I piled the blanket into a heap and placed it toward the window. Don’t get it wrong.”

Liu Xiniang said this while inserting the dagger at her waist, then looked up to see the woman across from her wearing her original clothes and holding iron shackles.

They were both wrapped in white gauze around their faces, and under the loose prisoner uniforms, their body shapes couldn’t be distinguished. Just from height alone, there was no way to tell the two apart.

However, both knew what different paths they would embark upon.

Thinking of Luo Wanqing’s future, Liu Xiniang’s eyes couldn’t help but flicker slightly, only managing to say: “Take care…”

Luo Wanqing lowered her eyes to look at the iron chains in her hands. She didn’t dare raise her head and said softly: “Take care.”

After saying this, Luo Wanqing said nothing more and immediately turned to leave quickly from behind the curtain.

Last time, Liu Xiniang said her mental fortitude was insufficient, so this time she would be the one to turn away first.

She didn’t dare linger. Carrying the iron shackles, she walked quickly forward from behind the curtain, counted seven positions, and came to the bed Liu Xiniang had marked. She lay down, covered herself with the blanket, closed her eyes, and pretended to nap.

Before long, she heard the jailer’s voice from outside.

“Liu Xiniang, have you rested enough?”

The jailer pulled back the curtain and said impatiently: “Let’s go!”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing made no sound and quietly stood up, allowing the jailer to chain her with iron shackles and drag her toward death row.

The wound on her face kept aching. Following Liu Xiniang’s instructions, she carefully circulated her internal energy.

According to Liu Xiniang, for martial artists, what sustained life was this breath of energy—it was the foundation of martial arts practitioners. Ordinary wounds were rarely fatal to martial artists because true energy circulation would heal injuries.

The stronger the internal energy, the stronger the body’s healing ability. For top-level masters, it was almost like bringing the dead back to life, regenerating flesh and bone.

Although these were also legends, Luo Wanqing felt that, for the burn on her face, if she didn’t have this bit of internal energy to rely on, she wouldn’t be able to endure it at all, much less impersonate Liu Xiniang, who had been injured for some time.

She quietly followed the jailer to death row, changed clothes, and was then pushed into a huge room.

This room was about ten zhang long and held over a hundred people. As soon as she entered, everyone looked over. Among them, a middle-aged woman sat on a connected bed platform. She was extremely tall and large, with a thick waist and round arms, her face full of fierce flesh.

She was stepping on a particularly thin, tear-faced woman. Seeing Luo Wanqing, she showed a mouthful of yellow teeth and laughed: “Oh, what a fearsome night demon has arrived.”

Luo Wanqing said nothing, clearly sensing the other’s hostile intentions. She stood quietly in place, watching as the woman kicked away the thin woman under her feet, stood up, and walked toward Luo Wanqing with several others.

“Newcomer, did you bring a greeting gift?” The woman examined Luo Wanqing, using her finger to lift Luo Wanqing’s whip-scarred hand, “Such delicate skin and tender flesh. What’s your name?”

Luo Wanqing didn’t speak immediately. Liu Xiniang’s instructions echoed in her mind.

This was her best training ground. She needed to put everything Liu Xiniang had taught her into actual combat here, to train and practice external martial arts fundamentals in this place.

Earlier, when Liu Xiniang asked if she was afraid of getting into many fights, she said she wasn’t. But now, surrounded by so many people, standing here alone while this group of people—whose hands were stained with who knows how much blood—stared at her, she discovered that she was afraid.

“What are you spacing out for?” Seeing her long silence, the tall woman slapped her hard across the face, shouting: “Speak!”

This slap, combined with the burn injury, sent sharp pain straight to the top of her head, startling her awake.

The pain instantly cleared her mind. What was there to fear?

It was nothing more than death anyway.

With this thought, Luo Wanqing collected herself, turned her head, wiped the blood from her chin, and said calmly: “I’ve been rude. I’ll give you your greeting gift right now.”

The other woman grinned widely, but before her smile could fully bloom, she saw Luo Wanqing clench her fist and swing it viciously toward her!

She landed a heavy punch on the other’s face, then her fists fell like rain, frantically striking the other’s face while calling out: “This is my greeting gift! You ask what I’m called?”

People from the sides swarmed over. Luo Wanqing tightly grabbed the tall woman’s hair, pounding her head, refusing to let go no matter what.

Over a hundred people gathered around, shouting and cheering, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

When the other woman slapped back at her, Luo Wanqing viciously lifted her leg and used her knee to brutally break the other’s nose bridge, declaring resoundingly: “My name is Liu! Xi! Niang!”

While chaos erupted in the death row, in the specially designated interrogation room of the Yangzhou Supervision Department, blood spread across the floor like water soaking into the ground.

Accompanied by a scream, the room instantly fell silent.

“Young Master,” the red-clothed youth who had been conducting the torture saw that the person had breathed their last. He hesitantly turned to look at the young man sitting in the chair with his eyes closed, resting, and said carefully, “The last assassin is also dead.”

“Zhuque, you all need to practice your skills,” the young man supported his forehead with his hand and slowly opened his eyes. “You killed them all before finding out where that remaining assassin who came to help is hiding?”

“They didn’t know either.” Zhuque felt somewhat guilty and said quietly: “We’ve searched up and down several times. These assassins only knew that Fengyu Pavilion wanted them to assassinate Young Master Qin, and that there would be a heaven-level top assassin coming to help, but none of them knew who this assassin was or where he was hiding.”

“Forget it then,” the young man waved his hand. “Stop investigating. Let’s wait for the rabbit by the tree stump. They want to kill Qin Jue simply because they’re afraid that if Qin Jue returns to the Eastern Capital alive, he’ll reveal things that shouldn’t be said. If this attempt fails, there will certainly be a next time.”

“Yes,” Zhuque nodded, then asked with some confusion: “How did that assassin know we had set an ambush? I investigated for a long time and cleared out everyone several times, but still couldn’t figure out who leaked the information.”

“That’s also unimportant now.” The young man pondered, “The key is: who instructed Fengyu Pavilion to kill Qin Jue?”

“What should we do now?” Zhuque frowned. “Fengyu Pavilion’s people haven’t been eliminated. Young Master Qin is currently in prison with severe injuries that haven’t fully healed. If we let him follow the normal procedure to take the Supervision Department examination, the journey might be too dangerous. Should we arrange more personnel…”

“Fengyu Pavilion has too many experts. Just arranging personnel probably won’t be enough to protect Qin Jue.”

The young man interrupted Zhuque, saying lazily: “Moreover, if the formation is too large and discovered by the Eastern Capital, His Majesty might become suspicious. The Qin family is involved in treason charges. Being able to give him a chance to receive amnesty through the Supervision Department examination is already a special privilege His Majesty granted to the Supervision Department. If His Majesty thinks the Supervision Department is using this method to save people they shouldn’t save, it will arouse His Majesty’s suspicion.”

“This won’t work, that won’t work either,” Zhuque sighed. “Then what should we do?”

“There’s only one solution now.”

The young man raised his intensely colored phoenix eyes, revealing a hint of amusement.

“Have Qin Jue disguise himself as me and escort him back to the Eastern Capital, while I take Qin Jue’s place going from Yangzhou to take the Supervision Department examination in the Eastern Capital.”

“Ah?!” Zhuque looked completely shocked. “You’re going to take the examination?!”

“That’s right,” the young man straightened up, smoothed his hair, and sighed. “Fengyu Pavilion sent so many experts to wait for him—isn’t that bullying? I’ll help him meet them and let me see,” he said, his smiling eyes carrying a hint of killing intent, “exactly how capable Fengyu Pavilion is.”

Author’s Note:

[Mini Theater]

Death row crowd: “It’s over, a honey badger has entered death row (honey badger, a creature that faces life and death with indifference, fights anyone who disagrees, fears no species, and battles to the death).”

Luo Wanqing: “Actually, I used to be… a refined young lady from a good family.”

Death row: “…Who changed you? May they be struck by lightning! Bring her here!”

Liu Xiniang: “Huh? You’re calling me? Summoning an assassin?”

Death row crowd: “Never mind, let the honey badger stay here. At least she doesn’t kill people.”