As soon as Tie Ci left, indeed most of those assassins chased after her. Dan Ye turned his head to see this and immediately became anxious to pursue, but was unfortunately surrounded and entangled in combat by several assassins. He cursed loudly, “Brother, bite them to death for me!”

Hai Dongqing dove straight down from the clouds, sweeping through the assassin group. In the span of its wings, it carried away a trail of fresh blood.

By then, Tie Ci had already gone far.

She ran toward outside the memorial arch, where Nine Guards Deputy Commander Qin Jue was stationed at the gate. He was also personally promoted by her, originally from a fallen minor noble family who had climbed step by step to his current position. Compared to the careless and casual Xia Houchun, Tie Ci had always trusted Qin Jue more in daily affairs.

Qin Jue’s honest face was full of anxiety. He rushed forward from afar, saying, “The scouts report unidentified persons on all four sides. Your Highness, quickly come with me!”

As he spoke, he led over a fast horse. Tie Ci leaped onto the horse.

But in the next instant, she stood on the saddle without immediately sitting down.

Qin Jue’s expression changed dramatically. He suddenly flipped backwards, and while still in midair, already let out a sharp whistle.

Among the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards formed in small squad formations, sudden commotion erupted.

One person raised a long spear, stabbing toward his companion’s waist.

One person swung his blade’s back hard toward his companion’s neck.

One person lifted his leg, kicking toward his companion’s knee bend.

Distant archers drew their bows and shot arrows toward the formations ahead.

Among the nearby cavalry, someone broke from the ranks, raising hooves to trample on comrades.

…

The shocking change happened in an instant.

With a “whoosh” sound, like a thick cloud rolling past, an anise bean and several cat hairs fell from midair.

A howling sound rang out overhead, deep and resonant like great bronze bells, making everyone’s eardrums buzz and their minds dizzy.

The one with the long spear slowed, the one raising the blade’s back became dazed.

The one lifting his leg trembled, the archer’s aim went off, and the cavalryman’s horse suddenly reared with a long neigh.

Standing on the saddle, Tie Ci raised her hand. The tip of the jade brush at her waist shot out, striking precisely at the fleeing Qin Jue’s back of the neck.

Qin Jue’s body stiffened and he fell straight to the ground like a dead fish.

At the same time.

The guard under the long spear raised his own spear, deflected his opponent’s spear, and with a backhand thrust, the spear tip viciously pierced into his opponent’s cheek.

The person about to be struck by the blade’s back remained silent, twisted around to get behind his opponent, and delivered an elbow strike with a solid thud. His opponent spat blood and fell.

The person lifting his leg trembled, but the two guards beside him had already seized him from left and right. The person whose knee bend was about to be struck turned around, and with a clatter, chains were already around his neck.

The archer’s arrow went off course. When he came to his senses, arrows from surrounding comrades were already aimed at him.

The cavalryman’s horse reared backward. He was dragged down by a pair of large hands, beaten into a pulp by chaotic fists, then thrown under the horse’s hooves.

…

In one instant some rebelled, in the next instant the rebels were instantly captured.

Viewed from above, one could see the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards divided into small clusters, with rebels in each cluster being cut off, surrounded, captured, and executed by those around them.

There was still differentiated treatment. Those who had shown restraint when attacking companions during the earlier chaos and hadn’t gone for the kill received retaliation that also wasn’t fatal.

Those who had gone for the kill received death in return.

On the battlefield, comrades being unable to entrust their backs to each other was a great taboo. Such an army had no vitality.

Tie Ci would rather suffer combat losses than leave such people alive.

The rebellion from start to finish took only a few moments.

Tie Ci stood on the horse, slowly lifted that saddle, and pulled out a needle from underneath. The needle tip flashed blue light in the moonlight.

She sniffed the scent on the needle, jumped down from the horse, and stabbed it into the back of Qin Jue’s neck.

Qin Jue closed his eyes in despair.

Looking at the scene among the crowd, he knew he had failed completely, but was ultimately unwilling to accept it and couldn’t help asking, “…How did you know…”

Tie Ci was slightly silent before answering, “I didn’t know it would be you.”

Really, she hadn’t expected that the person she had personally cultivated, secretly trusted, and planned to entrust the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards to in the future would be a traitor.

Instead, it was Xia Houchun, whom she had casually pushed forward as a facade and never truly trusted, who had early on discovered which ones were spies and temporarily changed formations to divide and eliminate the traitors.

Tie Ci said, “I just have a habit of never sitting down without looking, no matter the circumstances.”

A previous dynasty’s emperor had been poisoned on his saddle and lost his life. Tie Ci, having grown up amid storms and waves, always feared not being careful enough.

This needle would have been very difficult to discover normally—a blue needle hidden in a blue saddle.

But she had gained the ability of X-ray vision.

Before mounting, she carefully scanned once and discovered it.

After discovering it, she struck at Qin Jue while still holding hope in her heart—perhaps he didn’t know?

However, the next moment’s commotion in the troops proved she was still naive.

This mobilization of the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards was intentional on her part. Xia Houchun had told her that Xiao Chang was the one who came from the capital. She knew Xiao Chang’s character—fond of great achievements, possessive, sinister and impatient. The Empress Dowager’s actions were actually quite prudent, but Xiao Chang would definitely feel the Empress Dowager was too cautious and would take this opportunity to strike first.

She knew her Crown Princess’s Nine Guards had been severely infiltrated by the Xiao family, so she dared not use them when leaving the capital. But she ultimately still needed this force. The Crown Princess’s Nine Guards had to be truly held in her own hands to ensure her family’s safety.

So when news of her being alone in Haiyou came out, Xiao Chang heard the wind and came, luring her out. As a military general leaving the capital, Xiao Chang couldn’t bring too many troops, and mobilizing local forces would leave traces. When she mobilized the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards to come protect her, Xiao Chang would secretly unite with Xiao family members within the Nine Guards to act together in order to surround her.

After all, she had controlled the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards for many years and wasn’t without trusted followers. She had beforehand ordered Chi Xue to take the opportunity of getting maps to contact trusted followers and make preparations.

Chi Xue had been observing within the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards this whole time. Later she gave feedback that Xia Houchun had disrupted the Nine Guards’ organization and reorganized square formations for drilling. After hearing this, she discovered there was quite some mystery in it, but overall it wasn’t disadvantageous to her, so she quietly observed the changes.

Only now did she confirm that Xia Houchun actually had the same plan and had even found out which ones were the spies. Using the opportunity of drilling, he scattered and surrounded the spies, harvesting them all at once.

The two hadn’t coordinated beforehand, yet their cooperation was seamless, achieving complete success in one move.

This was the fifth eagle she had gained from coming to the academy.

Purging the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards.

Those who remained were truly her people.

Tie Ci sighed softly, thinking that the reason she hadn’t suspected Qin Jue was because she had Qin Jue escort Chi Xue to the academy. Qin Jue knew she was at the academy, yet she hadn’t immediately encountered Xiao family assassins, so she felt Qin Jue was trustworthy.

Now thinking about it, Qin Jue probably had leaked information, but it was intercepted by Xia Houchun. Only when she began mobilizing the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards did Xia Houchun know the time was ripe and let him contact Xiao Chang.

The first-place martial arts scholar of that year—his reputation was well-deserved.

Squad captains came forward to report spy numbers and battle conditions. There were a total of 1,322 spies, with 541 currently dead and 781 captured. Their own side had no deaths and ten lightly wounded.

Tie Ci nodded. These people were all more or less connected to the Xiao family. While they only comprised a little over ten percent, once a military force had so many people with divided loyalties, the consequences were almost devastating. Because once someone attacked those beside them, even killing just a few people would cause the entire army’s morale to collapse. They would either scatter in flight or surrender—the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards would cease to exist.

The Xiao family’s methods were impressive. They had infiltrated even the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards with so many people, including a deputy commander who would take over in the future.

“Interrogate the prisoners and find out their secret signals with Xiao Chang’s side.”

Before long, the secret signals were reported. Tie Ci ordered her subordinates to scatter and appear as if they had been attacked and scattered. She selected a group of elite troops to disguise themselves as Xiao family spies and disperse to surrounding forests, infiltrating Xiao Chang’s guard units.

Xiao Chang’s guard units were currently scattered to hunt her down, so her people mixing in among them would be perfect for breaking them apart piece by piece.

What Xiao Chang brought out of the capital must be his elite forces. Tonight she would sever him and one of the Xiao family’s arms.

The Nine Guards in black soft armor raised their hands, matched the secret signals with Xiao Chang’s side, and silently infiltrated the forest.

The assassins had already chased out, and the remaining Nine Guards stepped forward to meet them in battle.

Tie Ci was escorted into the formation center to command the elimination of assassins. The assassins had obviously received word beforehand that the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards were nothing to worry about and they could pursue and kill the Crown Princess to their hearts’ content. Now seeing the Nine Guards counterattack, they were all somewhat bewildered.

Tie Ci’s gaze fell on one particular group.

These were the first assassins who charged in. The later batch were Xiao Chang’s elite forces disguised with covered faces. Tie Ci now noticed that there was no interaction between the first and second batches of assassins. The first batch seemed unclear about her identity as well—they were simply here to kill her.

Looking at that group’s height, martial arts styles, and the crossbows they carried, she suddenly remembered that day when she and Rong Wei went to town to treat guests at the restaurant and encountered crossbow ambushes in the forest.

At the time, she suspected they were people looking for Murong Duan who had found her instead.

Now looking at this group, they vaguely had some Liaodong characteristics. Could it be that people searching for Murong Duan had finally found where she was and came for revenge?

Since Murong Duan’s people weren’t in collusion with Xiao Chang, then who provided them with information about herself?

Tie Ci suddenly thought of two names.

…

This night on Qingyang Mountain, some people moved stealthily through dense forests, blade tips cold, reflecting the chilly moonlight.

Some people strategized amid golden spears and iron horses, a jade brush dipped in blood to write the realm.

Some people counted beans and petted cats on eaves, one bean one life, one pet training ten thousand troops.

Some people watched blood flowers bloom behind grand halls and spacious chambers, hot blood boiling, all transforming into twenty years of inexhaustible loyalty.

Everyone was within the game, acting boldly and freely.

Yet someone gazed far from a cliff top, with one mat, one wine, one flower, one moon.

The mat was snow silkworm silk, warm in winter and cool in summer, worth ten thousand gold and hard to obtain. The wine was Imperial Feast Fragrance, specially supplied to the imperial family and unseen in markets. The flower was a golden silk gemstone flower arranged in a jade vase carved from a single piece of mutton-fat jade—gold, ruby, sapphire, agate, lapis lazuli, topaz… sparkling brilliantly on this dark mountain cliff.

The moon wasn’t the one overhead, but a huge luminous pearl hanging on tree branches by the cliff edge, truly like a small moon, casting gentle halos that illuminated the brilliant luxury of that mat.

Silent night, deep mountains, lonely cliff, paired with this scene of decadent splendor—indescribably eerie.

Sitting on the mat was an old man, his withered corpse-like body draped in luxurious brocade robes, revealing a flat neck with prominent blue veins, topped by a huge head that made one constantly worry that thin neck would snap at any moment.

He was thin, with hands like bird claws and nails gleaming with iridescent light. His facial features were unusually large, making him look like a big-headed doll connected to a shadow puppet body—even more bizarre than the current scene.

Beside him, someone respectfully poured wine, occasionally raising his head to reveal a curved hawk nose. It was Jin Wanliang, who had been expelled from the academy early for theft and was once Tie Ci’s roommate.

He glanced at the foot of the mountain where grass and trees moved in the wind, seeming to indicate fierce battles. With some anxiety in his brow, he carefully said, “Venerable One, you see…”

The bird-claw old man picked up a gemstone flower and sniffed it as if it had fragrance, appearing intoxicated. Hearing this, he didn’t even open his eyes and said impatiently, “What’s the rush?”

“Yes, yes. But Venerable One, with your keen ears and sharp eyes, can you see how the current situation looks?”

“Unsuccessful.”

Jin Wanliang cursed inwardly. Of course I know it wasn’t successful—if it had been, there would have been fireworks as a signal long ago, and I wouldn’t need to keep dealing with you, old zombie. Called “Poison Maniac,” he’s certainly poisonous and maniacal enough. The smell on his body is like he’s been soaking in corpse fluid for three years. Every word spoken to him requires all my strength to prevent myself from vomiting on the spot.

He dared not show any sign of disgust in front of him, or this legendary old poison would definitely not mind letting him die first.

Jin Wanliang looked at the foot of the mountain, feeling complicated emotions. He both hoped he wouldn’t have to serve this disgusting old man anymore and didn’t want the blood money invested by both families to go to waste.

He had previously been expelled from the academy for theft and had to slink back to his family in disgrace. He wasn’t cut out for studying anyway—going to the academy was just to build connections. But he was repeatedly relegated to the Wu dormitory and finally suffered a ruined reputation. Since that was the case and connections couldn’t be built, he might as well return.

His family appeared to be Bian Zhou merchants on the surface, but were more famous secretly for operating and selling information—various relationship networking and matchmaking. They were a well-known broker family in the surrounding areas.

After returning, he inevitably faced family blame for managing to insert someone into the academy only to have it end in failure.

Unexpectedly, not long after, the Ma family’s head found his family. They wanted to curry favor with officials to fish out Ma De, and also sought experts to teach Ye Shiba a lesson.

During the process of trying to fish out Ma De, the Ma family repeatedly met with setbacks, so they suspected Ye Shiba had extraordinary origins and was interfering. They thought they might as well eliminate Ye Shiba—perhaps then Ma De could be released.

Ye Shiba was also his enemy, so Jin Wanliang took on this task very enthusiastically. He had also found experts for the Ma family before, but often these people would disappear without a trace before even approaching Yueli Academy.

Jin Wanliang gritted his teeth and used family connections, pleading with many people. After much maneuvering, he found this legendary figure before him.

In the martial world, there were once titles of “Three Maniacs and Five Emperors” referring to the eight highest martial artists. Later these people retired for various reasons. Now with great difficulty finding this “Poison Maniac,” this old monster had two lifelong passions: money and women, both requiring the finest quality.

The Ma family spent a fortune, the Jin family coveted the generous commission, and the old monster only looked at money, so he came out of retirement.

The hospitality along the way was lavish. Upon reaching their destination, the old monster still wanted to watch the moon from a mountaintop, maintaining his status and not rushing to act.

Jin Wanliang discovered that because of identity issues, Ye Shiba seemed to have encountered killers other than their group.

One group had previous dealings with him—he was able to find the old monster thanks to their assistance, otherwise where would he find hidden martial arts masters?

They told him that if successful, red fireworks would be the signal.

No fireworks had been seen until now, yet dawn was almost breaking.

Qingyang Mountain was vast. Distant disturbances couldn’t disturb the peace here. But Jin Wanliang had a vague bad premonition.

He couldn’t help saying again, “Venerable One, perhaps we should go down the mountain to look?”

The old monster placed that golden silk ruby flower on his big head, compared it left and right against the luminous pearl, then said, “No beauties, no interest in walking mountain paths.”

Jin Wanliang: “…”

As a broker family, they had encountered countless strange clients, but none as vicious and shameless as this.

Weren’t there enough beauties found along the way? Most were deemed ugly and poisoned to death. Those not deemed ugly were tormented to death.

He still had to painstakingly dispose of the corpses.

Deemed ugly? This old monster should piss and look at himself in the mirror.

The old monster added, “Go get me some water to drink. Down the winding mountain path, from the second spring, take only the topmost layer.”

Jin Wanliang had to comply. Taking a jade cup to fetch water, the spring the old monster specified was quite far from the cliff. He stumbled down the mountain, fetched the water, and suddenly felt something odd about the water surface—there seemed to be a reflection.

The hair on his back stood up and he immediately looked up.

Facing him was gentle moonlight, and within the moonlight a beautiful face suddenly came into view.

Long eyebrows like silk, fragrant cheeks like snow, spring half-peach blossoms, supremely beautiful and elegant.

Her robes fluttered in the mountain wind, like a goddess or fairy gracefully walking on waves in the mortal world.