She killed two attacking soldiers with a backhand strike and shouted: “Close the gate!”

Qiu Wujiu had a body double! He wasn’t dead!

The gate couldn’t continue opening, or the army would pour in.

This time no one listened to her. On the contrary, some people wanted to squeeze out with her.

Dan Ye stared wide-eyed at the gate. He had originally thought Tie Ci had heard about Di Yiwei’s situation and was eager to leave the city, wanting to open the gate. Though unwilling, he dared not disobey.

He hadn’t been too worried about Tie Ci’s safety—after all, she had innate abilities, so breaking out would be simple.

But he hadn’t expected Tie Ci not to use teleportation and to get caught up in Qiu Wujiu’s army on the mountain path.

He didn’t understand why she wasn’t using teleportation, but already sensing things were developing wrongly, he instinctively rushed over. The ropes on his body snapped one after another as he shouted: “Don’t close the gate!”

But Tie Ci had already anticipated the reaction inside.

So when she had darted out earlier, she still gripped the iron chains from inside.

With two conflicting orders, the soldiers responsible for opening and closing the gate couldn’t react in time and stood there stunned.

Tie Ci yanked the iron chains downward.

The gate’s rising momentum slowed.

Tie Ci pulled again.

Dan Ye rushed over, using his hands to turn the windlass while shouting: “Come back!”

The windlass was covered with serrated teeth. His hands were instantly bloody.

The gate continued rising slowly.

Every few steps Tie Ci tried to rush back, she was blocked by soldiers desperately trying to keep her there, like shores holding back a tide.

Those soldiers even gave up rushing into the gate, all turning back to overwhelm her.

Qiu Wujiu retreated against the flow of people. Seeing Tie Ci surrounded by more and more people, his smile deepened.

He had seen Wu Liang Yunzhu before.

That child didn’t have such a beautiful figure and height.

Much less such skills and decisiveness.

Honestly, using a body double was just his habitual method, not based on any premonition.

He really hadn’t expected that the bait left in the Western Rong royal palace would be exposed like this.

After all, even he didn’t know who in the Western Rong palace had fallen for his trick. How had these newly arrived Da Qian people and the declining Western Rong royal family discovered it?

Truly formidable.

When did the Western Rong royal family have such capable people?

Moreover, she also had innate abilities.

Right now, many people across the continent still didn’t know this earth-shaking news.

It was… very interesting…

He retreated with the crowd, watching as people surged like a tide to drown that woman. Thinking about how perhaps the most noble woman in the world would die like grass in this sea of people, thinking about the shocking changes to the world’s power structure her death would bring, his smile deepened further.

Meanwhile, those waiting behind the gate for her to teleport back gradually changed expression.

Dan Shuang, who had been pushed to the back by the incoming crowd earlier, now ran frantically forward.

Dan Ye knew that not closing the gate was more important now. He opened the gate with all his strength, but saw Tie Ci suddenly raise her hand in the crowd. Her long blade transformed into flowing lightning, striking a central point of the windlass.

With a thunderous crash, the gate fell again.

Dan Ye saw Tie Ci lose her blade, draw her dagger, and once again plunge into the crowd. He bit his teeth and gripped the windlass tightly, completely unaware that his fingers were being torn by the sharp windlass.

He dared not open the gate again.

Tie Ci was fighting alone outside. He dared not distract her or make her lose her weapon because of this gate.

He could only stop.

The gate finally stopped at a distance of a forearm’s height from the ground.

After repeated violent treatment of the windlass mechanism, the gate was stuck.

Fortunately, the remaining gap was very small—even grown men couldn’t pass through. If Qiu Wujiu’s army wanted to lie down and crawl in, they would just be delivering heads.

The moment the gate fell, Dan Ye grabbed Dan Shuang, barely saving her from being crushed by the suddenly falling gate.

Dan Shuang kicked him with her foot: “Let go! Master is alone outside! If something happens to her, you all have to die!”

“I’ll die first without you saying so!” Dan Ye roared. “What’s going on! Why isn’t she using her innate abilities!”

“I don’t know! It must be your fault! Let me out!” Dan Shuang lay on the ground, preparing to roll out.

Dan Ye also lay down, apparently preparing to be the second.

Both were grabbed by Rong Pu, one in each hand: “You two, want to roll out and lose your heads, making her distracted and hacked to death by random blades!”

Now with this narrow gap, no one could pass through—after all, lying down was the most disadvantageous position for combat.

Dan Ye stopped, got up and thought, then said: “I’ll take people over the palace wall.”

“Stop. That’s equally suicidal.” Rong Pu said, “She should have had a sudden problem with her innate abilities. We just need to find a way to help her solve this problem.”

“How to solve it?”

“Too bad I couldn’t take her pulse first…” A flash of memory crossed Rong Pu’s mind—what that doctor had said back in Ziyang.

His heart stirred as he said: “Take me to high ground.”

Dan Ye looked around.

“Somewhere I can reach her position with stones.”

That would only be atop the palace wall, the most dangerous place.

“I’ll go.”

“Just you going won’t work. I need to be there to identify acupoints based on her reactions.”

Dan Ye called over the tattooed man under his command, also recognized as the general with the highest martial prowess, saying: “Take your men and protect him well. If anything happens to him, take your own life!”

He leaped up onto the palace wall and shouted down: “Dan Ye is here!”

The soldiers of Qiu Wujiu below looked up, recognized him, and immediately became excited and clamorous, rushing wildly upward.

Part of the crowd was naturally drawn away by him.

The pressure on Tie Ci in the crowd immediately lessened.

Dan Shuang also rushed up the palace wall. With no one paying attention to her, she found people to fight on her own. She had learned killing techniques and struck ruthlessly, quickly attracting part of the military force as well.

Tie Ci breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the blood splattered on her face.

Dealing with these soldiers wasn’t difficult for her. She had never relaxed her exploration and training in martial arts despite the successive activations of her innate abilities. But this mountain path was narrow and the crowd dense, making it impossible to fully deploy her skills. When a corpse fell, it became an obstacle. Often she was even fighting while stepping on corpses—each step producing a squelching sound as blood splattered.

No martial arts master could face thousands of troops and horses. The key lay in the long-term consumption of stamina and will. Tie Ci wanted to rush to Qiu Wujiu’s side, but his soldiers blocked the way desperately, unafraid of death. Bodies filled the front and back. She spun like a windlass at high speed, deep red blood mist spraying wherever she passed.

And her retreat route had long been blocked.

Dan Ye took the risk of operating a bow personally on the palace wall, but every arrow he shot was met by countless people leaping up with shields to block it.

People constantly couldn’t withstand the power of Dan Ye’s heavy arrows and fell vomiting blood, but all the arrows were intercepted.

Dan Shuang tried shooting hidden weapons, equally fruitless. The crowd was densely packed and turbulent. Looking down from above, it was all the same mass of black heads, impossible to distinguish accurately.

They could only see from clusters of blood flowers that the fighting never ceased.

Suddenly stumbling underfoot—there were too many corpses.

Tie Ci staggered, and someone behind her crouched low to charge, a curved blade emerging at an extremely cunning angle from under her ribs, stabbing toward her back.

But Tie Ci didn’t turn her head at all.

Those on the palace wall who saw this scene had their breath catch in their throats.

Cold light flashed as half of a slightly curved blade tip shot skyward.

The sneak attacker held his broken blade, slightly dazed.

Tie Ci didn’t turn her head back. Her dagger passed through her armpit with a hissing sound, piercing his chest.

Only then did those on the palace wall regain that breath.

Qiu Wujiu watched from afar, a gleam of interest flashing in his eyes.

The Crown Princess indeed wore treasure armor.

Tie Ci didn’t pause, didn’t even try to turn back in that moment. She continued charging toward Qiu Wujiu’s direction.

The treasure armor vibrated slightly during combat. She flicked her finger, and a polished steel wire shot out, piercing the abdomen of the person in front of her.

In this moment she suddenly thought of Feiyu.

Had he also once been trapped in heavy siege, fighting alone?

In that moment of solitary battle, had he thought of me?

…

Everyone could see that Qiu Wujiu wanted to use a human sea to exhaust Tie Ci to death.

Qiu Wujiu had retreated to the edge of the downward mountain path and stopped retreating. He felt that personally witnessing Tie Ci’s death should also be a rare experience. Moreover, he was interested in both Tie Ci’s weapons and treasure armor.

Atop the palace wall, someone carrying Rong Pu leaped onto the high wall.

This was virtually suicide. Almost the instant they came up, that person’s leg was severed by someone rushing up.

That person fell from the palace wall. Rong Pu was prepared and jumped from his back. Soldiers behind him rushed up with a clang, blocking cold arrows shot at him.

Rong Pu stood firm on the palace wall. Tian Wu charged over, leaped onto the wall, and held a shield in front of him.

Countless people pounded the shield violently. Tian Wu was shaken until his blood and qi fluctuated uncomfortably, but he gritted his teeth and endured.

But Rong Pu pushed the shield aside, holding a golden needle in one hand: “Don’t block me, I need light!”

He had an iron umbrella for protection but didn’t use it, because no matter how dangerous, he couldn’t obstruct his vision.

It was already nighttime. Yang Yixiu tremblingly held up a lantern behind him. Qiu Wujiu in the distance saw this and pointed: “Extinguish the light!”

Arrows flew like rain, extinguishing Yang Yixiu’s lantern. When lit again, extinguished again.

Yang Yixiu’s voice already carried tears: “Can’t light it!”

Dan Ye suddenly roared: “Light the front hall!”

Everyone in the square froze, then someone ran frantically away to cut trees, splash oil, and ignite a roaring fire in the front hall of the top-level palace.

No one had expected Dan Ye to burn the palace just after seizing power. The firelight illuminated half the sky—this time no one could extinguish this fire.

Qiu Wujiu smiled.

He hadn’t expected the Crown Princess to be so capable of winning people’s hearts.

Then she definitely couldn’t be spared.

Such wisdom, such talent, such martial prowess, plus innate abilities—it was conceivable that as long as she could return, she would eventually reclaim power.

A future powerful Da Qian was something no one could bear.

He pointed at Rong Pu: “Kill that man.”

Rong Pu was just standing up from behind the shield, squinting as he searched for Tie Ci’s acupoints.

Tie Ci had once told him that when innate abilities activated, inner energy flowed in reverse, showing signs of impacting acupoints. Now that she suddenly couldn’t fully activate her innate abilities, there must be problems with her inner energy circulation.

The only method to try was clearing meridians and stimulating acupoints.

But now the two were separated by distance, and Tie Ci was constantly fighting. Identifying acupoints was difficult as ascending to heaven, much less needling them.

Just as Rong Pu’s head emerged from behind the shield, a long blade whistled toward him. Someone beside him swung a blade to block it.

Blade light flashed from all directions. The sounds of blocking impacts rang continuously. Behind Rong Pu was bright firelight, in front steel sparks flew. His face was pale but his expression calm, the golden needle at his fingertip glinting.

A long spear like a venomous snake pierced through the crowd toward Rong Pu’s calf.

When the cold wind struck, Rong Pu had already noticed, but he only slightly adjusted his angle without even moving his leg.

His current position directly faced Tie Ci’s back—he couldn’t be forced down the wall or moved from his position.

With a light hissing sound, Rong Pu’s ankle was pierced, blood flowing freely. The attacker tried to continue stabbing but was cut down by Dan Ye’s throwing knife from afar.

Rong Pu didn’t glance at his wound. Seeing Tie Ci’s figure turning and about to leave his sight again, he broke into a slight sweat despite the bitter cold.

Tie Ci couldn’t stop moving—stopping meant certain death. But needling required her to stop.

She would stop only if the people around her stopped.

The night air was bone-piercingly cold. Some people had frost on their eyebrows. Tie Ci’s long hair had almost turned frost-colored—she had fought too long, sweated too much, then been frozen by the severe cold. Her hair looked white from afar.

Rong Pu suddenly turned and gave Dan Ye some instructions as he rushed over.

Dan Ye was also injured—a bloody gash on his shoulder with flesh curled back. He took cloth strips handed by his subordinates, wrapped it casually, and passed down orders.

Moments later many people carried over vats of water with broken ice and snow floating on the surface.

Rong Pu quickly pulled out a medicine pouch from his chest and scattered the grayish-white powder inside into the ice water.

“I need people with extraordinary strength!”

Dan Ye and several strong men behind him stepped forward.

Rong Pu pointed toward that constantly moving cluster flashing with blade light and packed with heads: “Quick! Pour this ice water on their heads! The more accurate the better!”

At the same time he shouted to Tie Ci: “Crouch after three calls!”

Dan Ye lifted the water vat, his shoulder wound splitting open.

“Splash.” The water in the vat crossed over the palace wall and half the mountain path like a transparent meteor, crashing hard toward Tie Ci’s direction.

Naturally people tried to intercept it, but water couldn’t be stopped.

After mentally counting three, Tie Ci suddenly crouched.

The medicated ice water fell on those besieging her.

People shivered intensely, briefly stiffening.

Without waiting for Rong Pu’s call, Tie Ci shot upright.

Her gaze swept sharply to Qiu Wujiu in the distance, hurriedly descending the mountain.

Behind the palace wall someone sprang up, knocked over the shield, and pounced toward Rong Pu.

Countless others pounced on those pouncing toward him.

Around him was chaos and clamor, killing intent pressing against his body.

But Rong Pu seemed unaware, eyes fixed only on Tie Ci’s back. Those major meridian paths spread before his eyes like an acupoint chart, clear and definite.

Dan Ye slapped his back, lending him inner force.

Golden light flashed in his hand, instantly penetrating Tie Ci’s back.

Time and space seemed to freeze in this moment.

Tie Ci only felt pain in her back—though she wore treasure armor, there were still gaps where the golden needle could penetrate.

Inside her body came another familiar thunderous sound. This time it wasn’t reverse energy flow but forward flow. A surge of heat power flowed down abundantly. She seemed to hear resonant sounds within her body.

Something had been blocked, something had been opened.

The freezing effect lasted only an instant—after all, the medicine powder was diluted when mixed with water.

People raised their blades and charged again.

But the figure before them flashed—Tie Ci was no longer there.

The next instant she appeared behind Qiu Wujiu, who had sensed something wrong and was rapidly descending. Before his guards could thrust their blades into her body, she stabbed her dagger into Qiu Wujiu’s back.

When it entered flesh there was a slight resistance—Qiu Wujiu also wore protective armor, but it couldn’t withstand the sharpness of abyssal iron.

Qiu Wujiu collapsed silently.

Tie Ci smoothly kicked him high into the air and shouted: “Qiu Wujiu is dead!”