Ling’an Temple was not large, just over twenty years old. Legend had it that it was built by a high-ranking official for his deceased mother’s spiritual merit in her hometown. But the common people of the Northern City didn’t take the legend seriously. Over the years, let alone nobles, even wealthy people rarely visited, because Luo Zhou’s largest temple was Cinian Temple. Even so, Ling’an Temple’s incense offerings were quite prosperous, especially because the abbot could treat illnesses, providing free medical care to the poor and sometimes even giving away medicine, earning a good reputation throughout the Northern City area.

This night, wind and rain battered down. The streets were empty, the temple gates tightly shut, but the great hall was brightly lit. A group of monks sat in meditation, though no scriptures or wooden fish drums lay before them. The abbot’s room was also brightly lit. Inside were two people—one was the abbot, the other was the black-clothed man who had ultimately seized the Water-Purifying Pearls. He still covered his face with cloth. The bundle was opened and placed on the table, revealing a gold-inlaid ebony box.

“Take a look, see if they’re real or fake,” the black-clothed man said, tapping the lid.

The abbot opened it and saw six pure white pearls nestled in the silk cushioning. He picked them up one by one to examine them. Each pearl had faded in color, revealing the Guanyin figure inside.

“They’re authentic. This characteristic of changing color with body temperature is unique to Water-Purifying Pearls—there’s simply no way to counterfeit it.” The abbot carefully placed the pearls back. “However, they seem to have been obtained rather easily.”

“How was it easy?” The black-clothed man snorted coldly. “Sixty-six people went in total, and only eleven returned with me. Never mind that man surnamed Yuan—just that Song Mo Zi alone, she used a palm-sized concealed crossbow to take down Three-Eyes. This woman is someone the King of Daqiu desperately wants to obtain, so she must be quite capable. I’ve seen her left-handed skills with my own eyes—exquisite craftsmanship, truly a marvel. That I could seize this treasure from her hands was pure luck.”

“This old monk was merely being cautiously concerned as instructed in the master’s letter.” The abbot fingered his prayer beads. “I wonder when you’ll depart?”

“I’ll leave after the rain passes. Heavy rain and strong wind make travel difficult for carriages and horses, and we must also consider these fragile pearls in the box.” The black-clothed man pillowed his hands behind his head, planning to sleep.

“In my view, it would be better to leave right now.” The abbot frowned at him. “The other side has lost the Water-Purifying Pearls and will certainly search everywhere. If they trace you here—”

The black-clothed man ignored him. “Although only eleven people remain on my side, their side isn’t much better off either. I heard that man surnamed Yuan is dead. They’re leaderless now. Would they really listen to a woman giving orders? Besides, they’re criminals wanted by the court—they can’t possibly walk into a trap by reporting to the authorities. Having lost the item, they can only accept their bad luck.”

“But the young master is still in Yun Zhou waiting for news.” The abbot felt there was no time to delay.

A teacup flew over. He immediately swept his sleeve to dodge, exclaiming angrily, “What are you doing?!”

The black-clothed man sat up, his eyes cold. “You’d better figure out who the real young master is. He’s second in line. I am Father’s legitimate eldest son. In the future, I will be the Crown Prince.”

The abbot fell silent, bowed his head, and withdrew.

The black-clothed man stroked the wooden box, the corners of his eyes lifting as he laughed in a low, dark voice. “With this great achievement, who will still question my abilities? Each and every one of you better watch carefully. If you dare look down on me, don’t blame me for showing no mercy in the future!”

He blew out the lamp and slept in his clothes. At midnight, he suddenly shivered and awoke. His ears could no longer hear the sound of rain, only occasional gusts of wind sweeping past the window, making the tree leaves rustle.

Though he had been arrogant before the abbot, he understood very well the principle that long nights bring many dreams. So he got up and called for someone to prepare washing water. But the only response was silence.

“Damn bald donkey, daring to give me attitude.” He thought the abbot was expressing dissatisfaction this way, so he cursed naturally, then threw on his outer robe and opened the door.

Wind immediately billowed his sleeves, slapping against the door behind him.

As overwhelming darkness descended, he was shocked to discover that the originally bright great hall and courtyard didn’t have even a single lamp lit. He immediately sensed something was wrong. Wanting to rush back into his room to get the Water-Purifying Pearls, the open door suddenly slammed shut before him.

“Who’s there?” he shouted, pulling up his face covering, instantly breaking out in cold sweat.

Still no one answered him.

The wind whistled. Stinging rain drops hit his eyes. He wiped them away, his eyeballs darting around. “Too cowardly to show yourself? Playing ghost tricks—do you think I’m scared?” Could it be the old bald donkey deliberately trying to frighten him? Because no matter how he thought about it, if the other side had tracked him here, there couldn’t possibly be no commotion at all. Those monks weren’t pushovers!

“Could it be—” a laughing voice, a woman’s—”that you actually are scared?”

As soon as those words fell, a tremendous boom sounded. Flames shot up half as high as the sky. A pile of tall firewood had somehow appeared in the center of the courtyard, burning fiercely.

The black-clothed man drew his long sword, still unwilling to give up. “Someone! Come quickly!” He couldn’t believe so many people had just vanished without a trace.

“They’re coming, people are coming.” A small, skinny person ran to the bonfire with a grinning face, holding a thick, coarse rope. He tugged it a few times. “Come out quickly, let your leader take a look so you won’t mistake us for bad people.”

A long shadow danced out of the firelight.

The black-clothed man looked carefully and saw that the person at the front was indeed the abbot, with monks and his assassins tied up like a string of rice dumplings behind him. Some had black eyes and swollen faces, others wore tattered clothes—all looking thoroughly beaten down. Greatly alarmed, he flew up to the rooftop to escape.

A tall young woman flung a roof tile from her hand, even saying, “Careful.”

He hurried to block it, thinking it was just a tile. Who knew that when his sword touched it, it shattered into several pieces that circled around his sword with a whooshing sound three or four times. He felt his hand go empty—the sword was actually snatched away by that woman. It turned out that wasn’t a tile piece at all, but a concealed weapon with fine threads attached.

“I told you to be careful.” That woman, having obtained his sword, threw it behind the building, then with a flick of her foot, knocked down a row of tubes.

This time the black-clothed man was very careful, afraid the tubes contained something else. He touched his toes to the roof and leaped up. But what goes up must come down. When he landed back down, his feet slipped and he rolled off the roof.

He scrambled to his feet in embarrassment and heard the small man by the bonfire laughing heartily. He angrily raised his eyes, but then let out a loud cry.

An upside-down, featureless blank face.

These were all evil ghosts! The black-clothed man was scared half to death.

“If you’ve done nothing wrong, you need not fear ghosts knocking at your door.” The voice of the first woman slowly rang out.

“Who says I’m afraid?!” The black-clothed man struck a palm toward that blank face.

But the blank face flipped up onto the corridor eaves. With tinkling laughter, it turned around—it was a woman of ordinary appearance. “Just wearing a mask on the back of my head—I didn’t expect it to work so well. Miss is too clever.”

“It’s not that your miss is clever, but that someone has a guilty conscience.” Some people walked into the courtyard. Leading them was Yuan Cheng, with Mo Zi on his left and Wei Jia on his right.

At this moment, the black-clothed man’s mind was racing. The situation was clearly unfavorable to him—the other side had many people while he fought alone. However, he wasn’t afraid of his people being captured. Even if they couldn’t take poison to commit suicide in time, they couldn’t possibly reveal anything. So he only needed to find a way to escape himself.

Therefore, he said loudly, “Although I don’t understand what exactly happened, you must have made a mistake. I came here to lodge for the night.”

“Lodge for the night?” Mo Zi rather admired this person. “You’re dressed like that, with your face covered like that?”

“My identity makes it inconvenient to travel openly. Just now in my panic, I covered my face wanting to leave—I’m not some villainous evildoer.” The black-clothed man sighed. “You’ve all truly misunderstood.”

“How skillfully you turn black into white. What identity prevents you from showing your face in public?” Mo Zi picked up his thread of conversation.

“I can let you see my true face.” As the black-clothed man spoke, he reached to pull off the cloth on his face.

“Wait.” Yuan Cheng stepped forward. “Before Your Excellency reveals your identity, may I guess? Wu Lianqi, Young Marquis Wu.”

The black-clothed man froze.

Mo Zi had never heard this name and was dumbfounded. She thought that if it was Wu Lianqi, what was his father Prince Li trying to clear—obviously father and son were conspiring together.

“Princess, please come here to me,” Yuan Cheng said to those behind him.

The shadows behind parted to make way.

Wu Youyan walked out, her face full of disbelief, her eyes widening again and again. “Are you Brother?”

“Youyan?” The black-clothed man was shocked.

This undoubtedly confirmed Yuan Cheng’s guess: the black-clothed man was Wu Lianqi.

Wu Lianqi himself also realized it and simply pulled off his face covering. “So what if it’s me?”

“Brother, why would you seize the Water-Purifying Pearls, and why would you kill people?” Wu Youyan was utterly shocked.

“Youyan, don’t just believe whatever people tell you. I didn’t seize pearls or kill anyone. I’ve been sleeping in my room all night and never left the temple gates.” Wu Lianqi brazenly lied.

“We didn’t say anything—how do you know the incident happened tonight?” Mo Zi caught the flaw.

Wu Lianqi was really good at making things up. “You came tonight, so I guessed the incident happened tonight. What’s wrong with that? Those who wish to condemn will always find a pretext!”

He asked his sister again, “Youyan, didn’t you marry into Qing Zhou? Why are you here?”

“Father got into trouble, so I came to find Uncle for help,” Wu Youyan said simply.

“My sister and I thought of the same thing—I also came to find Uncle.” Wu Lianqi finally got his story straight. “I left Shangdu without permission, afraid the Emperor would send people to catch me and bring me back, so I hid my tracks along the way, often lodging in temples, and hiding whenever there was any disturbance.”

“Wei Jia.” Having no friendship with Yuan Cheng and Mo Zi, but being longtime friends with Wei Jia, he said, “If you don’t believe me, you can certainly ask those people you’ve captured.”

Wei Jia looked toward the abbot.

The abbot glanced coldly at Wu Lianqi. “That young master was indeed just lodging here. Heaven has virtue in cherishing life. We’ll answer for our own actions—there’s no need for officials to implicate the innocent.”

Wu Lianqi raised his eyebrows. “I truly am innocent.”

“Brother, I believe you.” Wu Youyan had been half-believing and half-doubting anyway, and wanted to walk forward.

“Princess.” Yuan Cheng extended his hand to stop her. “What defines true siblings—brothers and sisters?”

Wu Youyan didn’t understand why he asked this, and answered, “Born of the same parents, blood is thicker than water.”

“Well said.” Yuan Cheng smiled slightly, his gaze turning toward Wu Lianqi.

Wu Lianqi’s face was cold. “Yuan Cheng, don’t try to sow discord.”

Mo Zi’s lips moved in an extremely soft voice. “Yuan Cheng, stop being mysterious.”

“Wei Jia, since everyone can’t wait, bring the person out. Though the rain has stopped, it’s gotten cold. The sooner we finish this business, the sooner everyone can return to rest.” Time to close the net.

Wei Jia waved his hand, and his subordinates brought someone forward.

After Wu Youyan saw clearly, she screamed.