Qin Yining’s pupils contracted slightly as she asked in a deep voice, “Those six people had no grievances or enmity with you. I always thought the Blue Sky Alliance was an organization that eliminated violence, pacified good people, and upheld justice, filled with benevolent and righteous individuals. I never imagined you would also have times when you harm people’s lives for money!”

“Don’t speak as if you’re so noble.”

Madam Liao’s face flushed red from being spoken to this way, and her voice rose higher.

“You’ve had everything since birth! How could you ever experience the suffering of us common people? The foolish ruler didn’t care whether people lived or died, and raised those Silver-Masked Scouts to do those conscience-less, filthy deeds for him! That group was nothing but dogs raised by the dog emperor’s side – they should have died long ago!

“And what good thing are you? Hmm? Do you dare say that when you initially accepted the Blue Sky Alliance, it wasn’t to covet our alliance’s power? Do you dare say that after taking the dog emperor’s scouts to your side, you’re much more noble than the dog emperor?

“You people are all the dog emperor’s lackeys, all equally disgusting!

“Now you have the nerve to question me about seeking wealth and harming lives? You’re nothing more than wanting to use us people to help you seize the treasure and strengthen your husband’s army! Aren’t you also seeking wealth and harming lives!

“Don’t treat anyone like fools. We risk our lives while all the benefits go to you – why should we!”

Madam Liao held her treasured sword and walked step by step toward Qin Yining.

Cao Yuqing’s expression was grave as she protected Qin Yining behind her, retreating under the cover of Jingzhe and the other four.

Madam Liao was in no hurry to order an attack. Instead, she slowly walked to the chests and picked up a silver ingot to weigh it.

“The silver here is all dirty money! It was all obtained by the dog emperor sacrificing common people’s lives! Alliance Leader, didn’t you surrender to Great Zhou with your father? How come you’re not loyal to your ruler and loving your country? Why are you still ordering people to steal treasure? Isn’t this your disloyalty?

“The wealth accumulated by causing so many deaths back then, yet you want to take it for your own selfish purposes. Tell me, how much more noble are you than me? How much more noble?”

By the end, Madam Liao was angrily shouting. Her voice echoed deafeningly in the spacious cave, actually causing dirt and pebbles to clatter down, though everyone’s nerves were taut as they stared at their opponents, with no time to pay attention to such things.

Qin Yining said, “I took over as Alliance Leader because the previous leader passed the position to me. You were dissatisfied with me, yet I never interfered with your actions. On the contrary, when you encountered troubles, you still had to rely on my court position to help you find solutions. When necessary, you even wanted me to take the blame for you.

“I believe I’ve never wronged the Blue Sky Alliance, yet you betrayed your leader for a sum of silver, abandoning righteousness. How are your actions any different from the former foolish ruler? Do you know that you’re no longer worthy of the words ‘blue sky’ in ‘Blue Sky Alliance’? I advise you to change your name.”

Madam Liao’s face burned from these words, and a flash of embarrassment crossed her heart.

Immediately following was a burst of wild, evil laughter.

“You needn’t say such words to pierce our hearts! The brothers risk their lives and seized silver not for our own use – we do it for the people! Yan Dynasty’s foolish ruler wasn’t good, and Great Zhou’s foolish ruler is even worse!

“When the earth dragon turned over and countless people died or were injured, the foolish ruler only knew to stare at money. He wasn’t even earnest about rescue efforts, delaying two months before sending people empty-handed to the disaster area. Did he send people to count corpses?

“With such a foolish ruler, the treasure absolutely cannot fall into such hands! Our Blue Sky Alliance can naturally always bear the words ‘blue sky’! We will preserve this silver and use it to overthrow Great Zhou’s foolish ruler! And you – you can watch from the underworld alongside your Silver-Masked Scouts!”

Qin Yining sneered, “Such high-sounding words. Using your own words, who’s more noble than whom?”

“I only thought the Alliance Leader looked down on us rabble.” Madam Liao smiled mockingly. “The six people you arranged were all elites, all elites from beside the dog emperor. They were indeed loyal, but after taking knockout drugs, weren’t they still knocked down for us to kill?”

Qin Yining’s pupils suddenly contracted as she angrily said, “You really used drugs to knock them unconscious and then killed them all?”

The reason the Silver-Masked Scouts trusted the Blue Sky Alliance was all because of her!

If this was truly the case, she really bore even deeper sins!

Madam Liao continued walking toward Qin Yining with her people holding swords, saying, “I’m not afraid to tell you – that group truly lived up to being trained. Their drug resistance was really strong. Of the six people, we initially only killed three, and three escaped. They kept tracking behind our treasure transport team like wolves that had locked onto prey. If they hadn’t pursued relentlessly, the treasure route wouldn’t have been altered.

“We didn’t know how much information they had leaked to the outside world, so we could only scheme to go to you and falsely accuse them, while also wanting to see from you whether they had revealed the treasure’s location.

“Originally, our worst-case scenario was that they had leaked the location. But unexpectedly, this group wasn’t smart enough. When we finally caught and killed those last three, we discovered that none of them had told anyone.

“Alliance Leader, Princess Zhongshun, now you understand everything, don’t you? Now, we only need to kill you, and no one will know this treasure has fallen into our alliance’s hands, and no one will reveal the true identities of our alliance members.

“We only need to hide our identities and wait for the right opportunity to act.

“And you will be the poor victim who was targeted by mountain bandits on your way back to the capital and robbed and murdered.

“If the Prince comes to suppress the bandits, it would be doing a good deed for the local people. Tell me, aren’t we very concerned for our country and people?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Madam Liao suddenly showed her power, pointing at the dozen or so people behind her and saying in a deep voice, “Kill them all!”

“Yes!”

The men roared as they charged forward.

Qin Yining and Bingtang immediately hid at the back to avoid getting in the way and hindering the Silver-Masked Scouts’ performance.

Cao Yuqing was already furious from listening, and together with Jingzhe and the other four, they gritted their teeth and held back a fierce determination to avenge the six who had died.

Their Silver-Masked Scouts had no new recruits joining – truly, one death meant one less. These brothers could die gloriously, but they couldn’t be secretly murdered by Blue Sky Alliance scoundrels like this – that would truly make them die with eyes wide open!

For a time, the sound of clashing weapons echoed continuously in the underground cave. Those from the Blue Sky Alliance were obviously skilled fighters as well – more than ten people could actually fight Cao Yuqing and the other five scouts to a draw.

Just as the battle was fierce and heated, they suddenly heard the sound of thundering footsteps. Soon, men wearing Dragon Soar Army armor rushed in.

The leader shouted loudly, “Excellent! What princess being ill and needing rest? The princess actually came for treasure – if this isn’t that Pang fellow committing treason, what is it? Brothers, take them all down!”

With one command, the Dragon Soar Army soldiers rushed forward without another word.