What kind of muddled account was all this?

This wasn’t the first time she had encountered such absurd things. When executing missions in the past, she had also encountered similar unbelievable incidents.

As an agent of National Intelligence Agency Division 9, she had long known that this world was not as simple as it appeared on the surface, and Newton’s three laws didn’t necessarily apply to all situations. She had once seen an elderly man in his seventies – the military’s gunpowder bullets were as fragile as a gentle breeze on water before him. There was also a child held in the military laboratory – this child was the world’s first case of hermaphroditism. At age twelve, she (he) gave birth to a male infant after three months of pregnancy, and under the military’s strict surveillance, three months later, she (he) became pregnant again through parthenogenesis.

To put it simply, for social stability, the state had to cover up these incidents that threatened social order. As far as she knew, the intelligence agency had an extremely mysterious organization called Division 11, which specialized in handling these mysterious emergency incidents. Unlike agents like themselves, Division 11 personnel possessed even more elusive skills and wisdom, and according to a colleague who had cooperated with Division 11, a large portion of those people had special abilities.

She knew one such elderly man who could remember everything that happened every single day of his sixty years of life. Including what year, month, and date, what he had for breakfast, how many channels his son flipped before giving him the remote control, what program was on TV, how many people appeared. Like a computer with enormous storage capacity, yet this man with extraordinary memory could never remember his own home phone number.

In this world, how many people live their entire lives in confusion without knowing anything? If everything were laid out before them, their worldview would probably collapse with a thunderous crash.

Often, our lives are far more exciting than science fiction novels.

Qing Xia seriously digested all of this. However, this wasn’t particularly useful to her. What she valued was the books themselves.

History had coincided cleverly here. Qing Xia knew that things weren’t as simple as they appeared on the surface, and her life finally had a glimmer of hope. Because all the texts in the manuscripts were written using simplified Chinese characters!

What did this mean?

This world held too many secrets that needed to be opened one by one. Perhaps she could find the door home.

Therefore, despite knowing Chu Li’s attitude, Qing Xia still went with the flow and accepted it. Although sentenced to death, she had at least left that heavily guarded palace. Only this way would she have a greater chance to escape from Zhuang Qing Xia’s prison and shackles and become the true Tang Xiaoshi.

As for whatever potential conspiracy that Southern Chu crown prince had, it was beyond her consideration.

The night was dark, without stars or moonlight. The small skylight lost its last ray of light.

Qing Xia, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, suddenly opened her eyes. A faint smile crossed her lips. Very good – time to get to work.

She stood up and efficiently tore off the cumbersome cloak, revealing men’s martial arts clothing underneath. The clothes were a bit large and didn’t fit well on her body, but they were still better than women’s palace garments. The cloak’s hidden pocket also contained a pair of boots. Qing Xia pulled out a dagger tied to her calf – the cold blade made a crisp sound in the air.

Very good! Qing Xia nodded with satisfaction. Though not as sturdy as a master craftsman’s work, it was definitely sharp enough. For today’s escape, Qing Xia had made adequate preparations.

Everything was ready except the favorable wind. Casually throwing the iron wire into her pocket, Qing Xia carefully placed the now-useless pile of handcuffs and leg shackles on the ground, tiptoed to the door, and had the lock open in the blink of an eye.

Outside was deathly quiet – everyone had fallen into deep sleep.

In the spacious torture chamber, the tortured man’s low moans could still be heard occasionally. This person had endured a night of torment from that perverted Prison Warden Shen and was now more breathing out than breathing in – he wouldn’t live much longer.

Qing Xia didn’t complicate matters by rescuing others. Agile as a wildcat, she silently crept to the heavy iron door. The locks of this era were like children’s games to this lock-picking master – she had it completely solved in less than a second.

In the final second before opening the door, Qing Xia looked back at this place one last time. From now on, Zhuang Qing Xia would truly be dead, and only Tang Xiaoshi would live in this world.

Her mood instantly became cheerful, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Chu Li, farewell forever!

“Boom!”

Just as Qing Xia was about to open the prison door, a tremendous force suddenly came. The massive iron door was blasted away with a thunderous crash. Qing Xia nimbly dodged, pressing against the shadows of the lamplight, her eyes sharp as an agile leopard.

“Who are you people? How dare you break into the Great Temple Bureau!” The enormous noise awakened the originally sleeping prison guards, and in the next second, both sides were already fighting.

The entire prison was instantly filled with screams and prisoners’ mad laughter. Qing Xia hid in a blind spot, temporarily undiscovered, but her perfect escape had suddenly been disrupted by others. Qing Xia’s brow couldn’t help but furrow tightly. She wondered what important figure was imprisoned here to merit such a risky rescue attempt.

“Master! The person isn’t here!” A fierce shout suddenly rang out. Someone rushed out from the direction of Qing Xia’s cell, shouting loudly to a black-clothed man at the entrance.

“Not here?” A slightly deep male voice suddenly responded. The black-clothed man wore a face mask, showing only sharp sword-like eyebrows and gem-like keen eyes. He frowned, nimbly flashed forward, grabbed a jailer by the hair, gripped his neck, and demanded in a deep voice: “Tell me, where is Zhuang Qing Xia?”

Looking for me? Qing Xia raised an eyebrow. Friend or foe? Jailbreak or assassination? In a flash, a name suddenly popped into Qing Xia’s mind. Could it be Concubine Dan?

“Ah! There’s another person here!”

Cold light flashed. Qing Xia immediately pounced like a fierce lion, delivering a clean knee strike followed by a flash of white light – a line of blood opened on the man’s neck. Qing Xia moved agilely, half-kneeling on the man’s corpse, gripping the chilling dagger backhanded, quickly bouncing up, kicking away an approaching black-clothed subordinate, rolling on the ground to avoid two men’s long swords, and running toward the main entrance.

“Catch her! Don’t let her escape!” the black-clothed leader shouted sternly, but rushed ahead of everyone else. A dragon-like cold gleam immediately struck her face. Qing Xia’s breathing instantly stopped – was this legendary swordsmanship? It was indeed masterful. Qing Xia was an expert in free combat and a shooting champion, but she didn’t understand much about cold weapon-era swordsmanship.

She could only rely on her superior adaptability to dodge the man’s fierce offensive. During the battle, the man’s blade swept across, and Qing Xia felt cold air approaching her face as her mask immediately left her face. With her back to the man, pressed by his long sword until she could retreat no further, seeing the sword shadow approaching from all angles without gaps, Qing Xia suddenly became fierce, steeled her heart, and using her waist strength to turn around, completely disregarding that she might be cut down by the sword, she met him with her small dagger in a life-or-death fighting style.

“Qing Xia?” The eyes beneath the sword eyebrows instantly widened. The black-clothed man called out in shock, immediately stopping his movements.

Qing Xia’s ears roared, her brow furrowing. She saw a line of blood instantly spray out as Qing Xia’s dagger immediately pierced into the man’s chest!

“Master!” Countless fierce shouts rang out simultaneously as several figures rushed forward together. Heavy war blades chopped down at Qing Xia’s head, filled with violent fury without the slightest mercy.

Qing Xia’s expression turned cold as she pulled the dagger from the man’s chest. Blood spurted out, splashing across Qing Xia’s face. She showed no emotion whatsoever, her body flashing to avoid one person’s sneak attack. However, before she could catch her breath, another heavy war blade was already chopping down!

“Stop!” The black-clothed man suddenly roared fiercely. Immediately after, several sharp arrows suddenly shot forth, perfectly hitting the sword-wielding man’s heart. That person stared with incredulous wide eyes and crashed to the ground.

Countless green-clothed soldiers poured out from various cells in the prison. The leader was a man with sword eyebrows and bright eyes, an evil smile, expensive clothing. He walked out slowly with a light smile, smiling slightly at the blood-soaked black-clothed man: “Prince An, we haven’t seen each other for a long time.”

“Chu Li?” Qing Xia opened her eyes wide, staring deadly at Chu Li before her. How could he also be in the prison? A feeling of being calculated instantly struck her heart.

“Qing Xia, well done.” Under the cold arrows, Chu Li calmly pulled the motionless Qing Xia to his side, dotingly tapped Qing Xia’s nose tip, and smiled wickedly: “You’ve worked hard.”

“Why?”

A deep voice suddenly rose slowly in the air. The black-clothed man pulled down the mask from his face, revealing a pale but handsome and distinguished face. Only that voice was full of pain and hatred as he looked coldly at Qing Xia, his voice deep and hoarse, his eyes like burning flames.

“Qing Xia, you betrayed me!”

Chu Li’s lips curled mockingly as he smiled indifferently and said coldly: “Release the arrows!”

Instantly, a sea of blood thunderously rose!

In the center of the spacious and bright Lanting Palace hall stood a blue bronze cauldron, heavy and ancient. Just one glance seemed to carry the scent of history – said to be an ancient artifact passed down from the Zhou era, now over a thousand years old. The finest sandalwood incense filled the air with fragrance, wisps of blue smoke floating faintly from the great cauldron. Everything appeared hazy.

Led by Xiangju, the servants of Lanting Palace were all joyfully bustling about. The entire palace was filled with a festive atmosphere of celebration. Just moments ago, His Highness the Prince, who rarely set foot in Lanting Palace, had sent people with great rewards – those unseen exotic treasures and rare gems dazzled these young girls who had never seen much of the world. Overnight, the formerly weak and timid Concubine Lan had turned the tables and gained great favor. This news instantly spread throughout the six eastern and western palaces. Even the emperor’s legitimate consorts from outside the Prince’s Eastern Palace all stepped across Lanting Palace’s threshold to offer identical flattery and fawning to this new imperial favorite with the greatest honor in the current harem.