“Why did Wu Yan’s body move?”

At the moment his strength was about to penetrate through his skull, he heard Su Zhen’s startled cry. His heart suddenly shook, and he almost immediately withdrew his force, carefully placing the person on the ground. Just as he was about to call Xiao Zhou over to diagnose, his peripheral vision caught Su Zhen’s grief-stricken face, and he instantly realized something!

Under normal circumstances, he would never have been deceived, but in his current state of losing himself, he had forgotten just how crafty this friend could be.

His heart suddenly plummeted from wild joy to emptiness, the sharp pain almost unbearable. But it was precisely this brief gap that allowed Wu Qing and the others to reach him and restrain him. Li Huaisu understood him—she knew that even in death, he would want to die beside that person, so she was buying just a moment’s time.

He shook his head and smiled, striking with fierce intensity. Aside from avoiding killing moves that could take lives, every strike was extremely heavy as he tried to reclaim the corpse.

In the chaotic mayhem, a person walked over from the front of the mausoleum. Seeing Lian Yue, who had been crying and collapsed to the ground, his face showed alarm. “Sister, how did you get injured? Let me take a look—”

Before he could finish speaking, his facial expression suddenly froze completely, then he rushed frantically to one spot, helping the woman on the ground to sit up. He turned his head toward Su Zhen and demanded sternly, “Wu Yan, what exactly happened to Wu Yan…”

Before Su Zhen could answer, he was already muttering to himself, “Her pulse is gone, she’s dead? Dead…”

The expression of extreme pain almost twisted that young, handsome face.

How could Huo Chang’an tolerate anyone else touching Wu Yan’s corpse? His gaze turned cold, and he struck with killing intent. Wu Qing and the others had no choice but to leap away. Huo Chang’an’s form shifted, and he was already before Lian Jie, snatching the person back.

It was clearly the posture of a child protecting something beloved.

Lian Jie flew into a rage, his teeth chattering with anger. “It was you, you killed her! Since you’ve already married my imperial sister, you should be good to my imperial sister. Why did you still have to provoke her? Huo Chang’an, I’ll kill you!”

As he spoke, he pulled a long sword from the corpse of an assassin on the ground, flourished the blade, and attacked.

Su Zhen urgently shouted, “Lian Jie, you damn well stop right there!”

Huo Chang’an remained motionless, looking down at Wu Yan, letting him strike.

Xiao Zhou cursed under his breath, and the others had no choice but to step forward with swords raised to stop him again.

However, when Lian Jie’s sword tip reached Huo Chang’an’s heart, it suddenly stopped, and his eyes showed an extremely strange expression of excitement.

“She’s not completely dead yet, she still has a trace of breath. Just now when you made no movement, her hair moved slightly—that was caused by breathing. You surnamed Huo, give her to me!” His voice actually contained a trace of choking emotion.

From Su Zhen down, all the Court of Justice people were greatly delighted. Huo Chang’an didn’t believe it at first, but Lian Jie wasn’t like Su Zhen who would care about his life—this gave his empty heart a trembling trace of hope again.

He swallowed and carefully placed the person in the other’s hands.

Faced with the almost humble pleading and hope in his eyes, Lian Jie’s heart was filled with even more pain and anger. He said coldly, “I will spare no effort to save her, but you… haven’t you brought her enough disasters already? Do you think dying would redeem your sins? That she would forgive you? Please leave!”

Huo Chang’an’s tall body swayed slightly, his gaze lowered.

“If she can survive, I’ll do anything. If she no longer wants to see me, I’ll stay far away from her.”

His voice was hoarse.

Back at the Court of Justice

Saving a life was like fighting a fire. Since the mausoleum had no medical supplies, everyone set out again to return to the Court of Justice.

Back at the Court of Justice, Tie Shou and Zhui Ming threw the two black-clad men into prison. To prevent them from committing suicide, they sealed their acupoints as well.

Lian Jie immediately carried Wu Yan into a room, having Xiao Zhou assist. Fortunately, Xiao Zhou’s room was well-equipped with various medical instruments. They boiled hot water, sterilized knives and scissors, then tightly closed the room door.

Su Zhen knew some medicine. Though she greatly disliked Lian Yue, for Huo Chang’an and Lian Jie’s sake, she couldn’t let her bleed continuously, so she pulled her into her own room to treat the wound.

Lian Yue, whose emotions had collapsed completely, had regained some rationality.

She frowned tightly, her lips pressed together, seeming to be calculating and thinking about something, not saying a word throughout the entire process. This made Su Zhen regret treating her wounds, as she could guess Lian Yue’s thoughts—if Wu Yan lived, there would still be hope between her and Huo Chang’an.

At this moment, she suddenly thought of herself—in Lian Yu’s heart, was A Luo, who was first loved but unfortunately died, also the best?

She also simply treated the wounds of Wu Qing and the others. When it came to Huo Chang’an, he shook his head, only staring intently at the room ahead.

After all this busy work, when Lian Yu received the news and hurriedly arrived with his people, Su Zhen was almost exhausted, wearily leaning against an old tree in the courtyard.

Wu Qing took the initiative to briefly explain the situation to Lian Yu. He nodded, went to ask about Lian Yue’s injuries, patted Huo Chang’an’s shoulder, and finally walked to her side, extending his arm to draw her into his embrace.

Though this was somewhat brazen under everyone’s watchful eyes, except for White Tiger’s intentional or unintentional glances, with life and death separated by only a wall, the others’ attention was all on the inner room, showing no surprise.

Su Zhen, embraced by his strong arms, felt as if her entire being had relaxed, burying her head in his chest.

Lian Yu saw her disheveled state, and his deep brows and eyes rarely showed a trace of heartache as he held her tighter.

Su Zhen’s heart finally settled down, and she began to scold him, “You and Huo Chang’an certainly kept things secret enough.”

How could Lian Yu not hear the complaint in her tone? “Men and women handle things differently. It’s just that now we may have failed completely—sometimes human calculations cannot match heaven’s will. We’ll have to think of other methods.”

Su Zhen remained silent. Now, with Wu Yan’s situation already worrying her enough, she had no mood to argue about this.

He continued, his voice slightly cold, “Leave the matter of the assassins to me to investigate. Someone dares to attack my people in my territory—this person is quite bold indeed. You can continue the case later.”

Su Zhen knew he was worried about her safety, but she firmly shook her head. “I must continue investigating the case.”

“Let’s not argue about this for now. Rest a bit, I’ll call you in a while.” Lian Yu found a large stone under the tree and sat down regardless of the dust, pressing her head into his chest. Though Su Zhen was extremely tired, she couldn’t sleep at all. Lian Yu knew her thoughts and gently comforted her, “It’ll be fine, good people have their own good fortune.”

Just then, they heard the room door creak open, and Lian Jie and Xiao Zhou came out. Su Zhen was both surprised and delighted, immediately sitting up.

Everyone immediately surrounded them. Xiao Zhou showed the first smile since the incident began. “Her Ladyship has great fortune—this life is finally saved.”

Everyone was greatly delighted upon hearing this. Even Lian Yue’s eyes lit up, but Huo Chang’an frowned tightly, and Lian Jie’s expression wasn’t very good.

This made everyone’s hearts, which had just relaxed, tense up again. Lian Yu almost immediately spoke up, “Seventh Brother, is there still some other condition?”

Lian Jie nodded. “She was just in mortal danger. The cause wasn’t the sword wound, but… deadly poison in her body.”

The mention of deadly poison shocked everyone. “How could there be deadly poison? Was the sword poisoned?” Su Zhen’s voice changed with urgency.

Lian Jie slowly shook his head, a bitter smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. “The poison is in her body. When she fell ill before, we treated her. Her symptoms were no different from depression and blocked qi, except for a patch of dark qi on her head that we couldn’t identify the cause of. We thought it was due to individual constitution and that we were overthinking. But this injury revealed the signs.”

“She has indeed been poisoned—this is an extremely strange chronic poison. From the moment the poison enters the body, it’s locked in the heart meridians. Normally, no symptoms can be seen. Even when emotional disturbance causes the toxin to circulate, causing unbearable pain, people would mistake it for heart palpitations. However, this sword wound pierced the heart meridians that locked the toxin, causing the poison to rapidly spread to other organs. Multiple organs being invaded by poison simultaneously caused excruciating pain. This… was what almost took her life.”

“What exactly is this poison? Can it be cured?”

Huo Chang’an spoke, his voice so broken and hoarse it seemed torn from a rotted throat.

Wu Yan’s Recovery

In her daze, Wu Yan only felt a hand gently stroking her forehead and cheeks, so tender, so careful, just like when her mother coaxed her to sleep as a child. But her mother’s hands were small and soft, while this hand was thick, rough, and incredibly warm.

She suddenly thought of someone—that person she both loved and hated.

“Chang’an…”

“I’m here, I’m here.”

She heard a slightly flustered voice responding urgently, and it was this sound that made her suddenly alarmed. She sat up abruptly.

Familiar scenes from the room flooded her vision. This was the Court of Justice? She wasn’t dead?

The person she had called out to in her dream was sitting right beside her, staring at her intently without blinking. Love, fear, heartache, pain… his eyes were full of intense emotions she couldn’t describe or understand.

She stared blankly at this man she desperately longed to see, yet whose presence simultaneously twisted her heart into knots.

This bewildered, helpless gaze made Huo Chang’an’s heart slam against his chest. Even taking a gentle breath made his heart and lungs ache. His whole body trembled, yet he couldn’t help but extend his hand, wanting to crush her into his embrace.

But she smiled and said, “I thought I would die this time, but now I’m fine. You don’t need to pity me—go back.”