Pei Fengji felt the roaring in his ears that had started upon entering grow louder, and the nauseous feeling in his chest became several times worse. He exclaimed in shock: “Impossible! Their corpses were clearly completely burned!”

“As the saying goes, Heaven’s net is vast and wide.” The woman looked at him coldly. “We sisters refuse to believe no one in this world can deal with you. We knew the coroner’s examination in court was problematic. Before Coroner Wang burned the bodies that day, we switched the bones and preserved them with deep-sea ice. I heard Master Li say there’s a mysterious, ancient medical hall called Huichun Hall that can shave bones and change faces, completely altering a person’s appearance. Though not perfectly identical, they can achieve seven or eight parts similarity. Therefore, the autopsy results were completely wrong. You guessed that Master Li would certainly examine the bodies publicly, so you beforehand killed several women with hairpins, found Huichun Hall to change their appearances, then finally sent these false corpses to the Ministry of Justice for public examination, framing Scholar Xie.”

“Li Huaisu again, that brat!” Pei Fengji was startled, but the shock in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by sinister viciousness and lecherous intent. “Since you know all this, how do you not know that if I could kill your mother and those two women that day, I can kill you today!”

“So… it really was you who killed them.” The woman suddenly spoke quietly, her dark eyes immediately blazing with hatred as she gritted her teeth, saying word by word: “I want to kill you, to avenge them!”

“Kill me?” Pei Fengji laughed loudly, asking softly in return: “Do you think you can?”

“Why couldn’t I? I lured you here to kill you. Since the law cannot give us poor people justice, we’ll take action ourselves!” The woman set down her qin, her gaze becoming sharp as she slowly drew a dagger from her bosom.

But Pei Fengji treated her like someone scratching an itch—completely painless. He continued to leer at her, laughing even more uncontrollably: “This building of yours must have ambushes. You were playing the qin earlier to disrupt my hearing so I couldn’t detect people hidden in your building, making me feel safe to enter. But don’t forget—my guards are right outside. I need only shout loudly, and can you kill my several guards who have superior martial arts and can each fight dozens?”

“The young master is clever. This building indeed hides my sisters and Guixiang House’s guards, whose martial arts are far inferior to yours.”

But the woman smiled, her clear, bright eyes becoming even more alluring as she softened her voice: “But don’t you feel chest tightness and ear ringing? Do you think I brought you first to my mother’s former residence for no reason? Because we added bewildering powder to the candle wicks early on. As the candles burned, you slowly inhaled the drug. These drugs won’t kill, but as you said, combined with the qin music just now, it’s enough to disrupt your hearing, making you think no one is hidden here. At the same time, before the drug effects wear off, you temporarily cannot display your martial arts.”

As her words ended, her purple eye makeup trembled slightly with her eyelashes. Though veiled, her eyes held myriad charms.

Hearing this, Pei Fengji’s expression changed drastically, his eyes flashing with cruel venom. He gritted his teeth, covering his chest, yet still looked at her somewhat greedily.

The white-clothed woman was like proud snow and cold plum blossoms, carrying the same bone-deep hatred, holding the dagger as she walked toward him step by step.

But Pei Fengji suddenly burst into laughter again, his triumphant expression gradually showing completely. The woman’s brow furrowed instead, somewhat surprised and suspicious as she slowly stopped in place.

She asked in a low voice: “Facing death, what are you laughing about?”

“Little beauty, call out the people you have lying in ambush to kill me—ten? Or twenty? Then open the main door and see exactly how many of my people are outside this Guixiang House!”

Pei Fengji slowly removed the hand covering his chest, biting his lower lip hard. Blood pearls immediately seeped from his lip, clearing his mind considerably. Seeing the woman’s delicate brows tightly furrowed, he finally couldn’t help laughing aloud, his face showing cruelty, lewdness, and other complex expressions that made him appear ferocious and malicious.

The woman couldn’t help shivering, demanding in a low voice: “What exactly are you saying?”

Pei Fengji slowly approached her, watching her retreat step by step, laughing: “You’re quite clever and spirited. After I finish enjoying you, I’ll kill you properly—it won’t be too painful.”

“The corpse matter—your switching was quite clever, and the candle arrangement even more brilliant. Even I was fooled. But do you really think everything is under your control?”

“Before leaving, I sent someone to notify He Sai, your Jingzhao Prefect. I told him to immediately send people to monitor everything around Wu Niang’s former residence—wherever I went, his people would follow. Now he and his people must be outside! Tell me, do you have more girls and guard men in this building, or do your Great Zhou officials have more subordinates?”

After Pei Fengji finished speaking, the woman clearly trembled all over, her dagger suddenly dropping to the ground as she murmured: “What did you say? Master He has been working for you all along? He’s an official of our Great Zhou—could it be that in Mo Chou’s case, Master He helped you forge false evidence?”

Pei Fengji sneered: “Nonsense—do you think he wouldn’t help me?”

The woman exclaimed: “Besides him, are there many other ministers in court also helping you? Who are they… all?”

Pei Fengji raised an eyebrow and smiled proudly: “Do you know that even the current Prime…”

Staring at the woman watching him intently, he suddenly realized something and was greatly alarmed. His originally handsome features became somewhat distorted as he stared at her deadly, saying harshly: “No, you’re not an ordinary pleasure house woman. From beginning to end, step by step, you’ve asked too much and said too much. You’re not here for revenge—no one takes revenge like this. You’re trying to get me to talk—”

“Tsk tsk, you finally discovered it. But it’s about enough. Let’s leave it at that. Watching only you yelling and laughing in your solo performance, I think everyone’s probably tired of watching. Fine, if you won’t reveal those remaining officials, so be it. But I believe that someday, good and evil will have their rewards. People act, Heaven watches—these are your words!”

Pei Fengji, filled with shock and gasping heavily, shouted hoarsely, but heard a crisp voice laughing mischievously. That laughter clearly didn’t come from the white-clothed woman in the hall—it came from behind the screen!

His eyes nearly split with rage as he saw a young man wearing a black gauze cap with double wings and draped in a bright red brocade official robe slowly emerging from the inner hall behind the magnificent peony screen.

He had an ordinary appearance, single eyelids, thin lips, and even some freckles on his face. However, his eyes were extremely bright, like sparkling stars, looking at him with an expression half-smiling, half-serious.

“Leng Xue, Wu Qing, Zhuiming, Tieshou—curtain call, raise the curtains!”

This person stood beside the white-clothed woman and shouted loudly. In an instant, Pei Fengji saw the doors of four central rooms on the second floor elegantly burst open simultaneously. Four figures flew out together, four sword lights silver as dragons fiercely splitting heaven and earth in the air. The rose-colored gauze curtains surrounding all the rooms on the second floor were completely sliced and shredded. In an instant, colorful falling petals drifted through the air, scattering to every corner of Guixiang House.

As the entire second floor suddenly opened wide, white, blue, green, and gray figures gracefully spun down from the air to the young man’s side. From the dozen or so rooms upstairs, doors opened one after another as people quickly stepped out of each room to stand at the railings—no fewer than eighty or ninety people, instantly transforming the originally spacious second floor into a crowded space.