The water was actually scalding hot! She could even see bubbles boiling on the surface.

Tie Ci was shocked and quickly turned to exit the water. Seeing Murong Yi leap from the damaged ship to enter the water, she kicked him away, shouting, “No one can go into the water!”

Murong Yi landed not far from her and, seeing her face, exclaimed in surprise, “Why is your face so red!”

From the burns!

Tie Ci’s face was flushed red, her legs and feet aching. She knew she’d been scalded and should immediately remove her pants and boots soaked in boiling water and rinse with cold water, but surrounded by men, she really couldn’t undress.

Dan Shuang and Chi Xue had already rushed over but hadn’t yet noticed her condition. However, Murong Yi suddenly charged toward her.

He scooped her up and leaped into the air, crossing over the broken ship and several other ship decks. At the same time, he tore off his outer robe to cover her, quickly removing her boots filled with scalding water beneath the robe.

Having left that water area, Murong Yi looked at the water surface, carried her on his shoulder, and jumped into the water himself.

Tie Ci feared the water here might also be hot – if he jumped like this, he’d lose a layer of skin. But before she could stop him, Murong Yi was already in the water. She didn’t know how he managed to jump without splashing even a drop on her.

Her heart was in her throat, but fortunately the next moment she heard Murong Yi exhale in relief, “The water here is cold!” Only then did he lower her, letting her legs and feet soak in the cold water.

All this happened in an instant. Dan Shuang was still stunned on the ship, just realizing she should chase after them. Tie Ci, soaking in the water, waved to her from afar, indicating she needn’t worry about this and should hurry to rescue people.

Dan Shuang felt relieved and went with Chi Xue to direct the rescue. Perhaps she herself didn’t realize that as long as Murong Yi was with the Crown Princess, she felt at ease and could ignore everything else.

The burning pain in her legs and feet subsided, and she couldn’t help but exhale deeply. Turning to Murong Yi, she said, “Good thing the water here hasn’t heated up yet. What kind of ability is this – can it actually boil the sea…”

She suddenly stopped speaking.

At this moment, with bright moon and sparse stars, the clear river water reflected everything clearly on the opposite person’s face.

Murong Yi had been too rushed to save her to wear his hat or anything.

She watched helplessly as another pimple silently erupted on that exquisitely perfect face across from her, then another…

Moreover, that jade-smooth skin visibly darkened by a shade.

Murong Yi was still oblivious, only asking repeatedly, “How do you feel? Are you burned?”

Tie Ci immediately replied, “I’m fine. The cold water came in time – there shouldn’t be any scars.”

But Murong Yi was no ordinary person. He immediately realized what was happening, reached up to touch his face, and his expression changed dramatically.

Tie Ci felt very sorry for him and plunged her head into the water.

The next instant, Murong Yi pulled her out, shouting, “What are you doing? Trying to drown yourself!”

Tie Ci turned and swam back, saying, “Yes, attempting suicide out of guilt.”

Murong Yi looked at her sideways, “You find me ugly and can’t bear to look?”

Tie Ci sighed, thinking drama queens were hard to appease. She had to stop and say, “You’re perfect in my heart. Never mind a few pimples – even if your whole face truly bloomed, in my eyes you’d still be a descended deity, unmatched in the world.”

Murong Yi smiled, “I love hearing that. Say a few more things.”

“Since you love hearing it, if I always say it, it won’t be valuable anymore.” Tie Ci refused. Feeling guilty in her heart, she said, “I’m not without self-protection abilities. Don’t rush over first thing in the future – your poison is more important.”

“In that situation just now, you absolutely wouldn’t undress in front of everyone. By the time you dealt with your subordinates and found a place to undress, you’d already be blistered. Aren’t you afraid that if you damage your skin, I won’t want you?”

“You should worry about yourself first.” Tie Ci said irritably, “You keep coming closer, getting uglier and uglier – aren’t you afraid I won’t want you?”

“Naturally I’m not afraid of that.” Murong Yi smiled, “If you liked me for my appearance, then you wouldn’t be Tie Ci. I don’t care about this – I just fear you’ll also be infected.”

“At least you’re perceptive. Then don’t be jealous casually in the future – it’s not magnanimous.” Tie Ci felt the water seemed to be getting hot again and, fearing this part of the river would also boil, turned to climb onto a ship.

Murong Yi said from far behind her, “I won’t. I just love being jealous – it’s romantic.”

Tie Ci climbed onto a small fishing boat and looked up to see a sheet of snow-white spreading toward the riverbank ahead.

Wherever it passed, the river became mirror-like with frozen waves.

Then a patch of pink light clouds appeared on the shore.

The clouds were still moving.

Looking more carefully – good heavens, those weren’t clouds but a large group of pink little pigs.

The Peppa army had arrived!

Tie Ci’s hair stood on end.

The next instant, she saw a human figure standing atop the Peppa army.

Tall and elegant, in dark robes like clouds, with satin-black long hair falling to the waist.

River wind swept his wide robes and long sleeves, creating a magnificent sight.

Tie Ci watched that sheet of white extend toward her front while the water beneath her feet began bubbling.

The river water was divided by this small fishing boat – half ice and snow, half boiling.

A spectacular sight.

Tie Ci watched that person stroll leisurely, herding a large group of pink pigs along the riverbank as he walked forward, as casually as if taking a midnight walk.

If not for the fact that wherever he passed, the river was half frozen and half boiling.

Tie Ci had a sudden thought that she should have Pingzong come see this. If Pingzong could master the two types of qi in his body well, he might achieve such power too.

Though that fellow wasn’t coming toward her, her heart was already on edge.

If this person was the one from Wanmei Pavilion, he clearly bore hostility toward her, but she didn’t know where this hostility originated.

But even with hostility, some things still had to be attempted.

She waved in greeting, “Pig herder, hello there!”

Seeing this scene from afar, Xiao Xueya, who was constantly laying planks to rush over, nearly stumbled and fell off the plank upon hearing this greeting.

Greeting someone who was obviously a great master like this – was the Crown Princess seeking death? Would they even acknowledge her?

But contrary to his expectations, that fellow who was strolling on the river surface with pigs as if no one else existed actually stopped and looked toward Tie Ci from afar.

Xiao Xueya was silent for a moment, thinking it made sense. Such a great master with almost world-overturning power wouldn’t care about ordinary words. Even if you knelt until your legs broke before them, they might not be interested in sparing you a glance. Acting unconventionally might actually get their attention.

Behind him, his lieutenant suddenly exclaimed, “General—”

Xiao Xueya was startled and suddenly felt cold on his head, only then realizing his hat had fallen into the water when he’d swayed earlier.

Though he still had the net covering, those following closely could still see the shiny bald head beneath the netting.

Lieutenant: “…”

What had happened? The general just went to Xizhou city with the Crown Princess once – how did all his hair disappear! Did the Crown Princess shave it? Even the Crown Princess couldn’t humiliate the general like this!

The lieutenant’s anger rose from his heart. He stepped forward, wanting to discuss this matter properly with the general.

But then he saw the Crown Princess on the small boat seeming to sense something and turning back.

Then the general in front of him suddenly disappeared.

The lieutenant stared blankly and slowly looked down.

The general’s boots were still hooked to the plank, but his entire body was hanging upside down beneath it.

Their four eyes met.

The general’s expression was blank.

The lieutenant suddenly jumped up.

He seemed to have seen something he shouldn’t have seen.

He said, “I’ll go support the Crown Princess!” and hurriedly ran away.

Xiao Xueya used his core strength to spring back up.

He had no choice but to turn back and find another hat to wear.

Meanwhile, Tie Ci was praising the pigs of the person strolling on the river.

Praising how each pig was beautiful, with glossy coats, big eyes and small mouths, adorable coloring.

That person just stood on his group of pigs, quietly listening to Tie Ci praise his pigs, neither speaking nor leaving.

Murong Yi quietly approached and hid nearby, ready to support Tie Ci at any moment. Mu Si also quietly swam over. After listening for a few sentences, he immediately showed an expression of unable to bear listening.

The Crown Princess could praise pigs with such flowery language and torrents of flattery – ministers praising her didn’t have such rich vocabulary. Did the court officials know? Did His Majesty know?

Mu Si looked sarcastic, but when he glanced at Murong Yi, he saw him smiling brightly with sparkling eyes, making Mu Si suspect they weren’t hearing the same content.

He couldn’t help saying, “Your expression looks like you’re listening to the Crown Princess’s love letter to you.”

Murong Yi smiled, “Isn’t that exactly what it is?”

Mu Si had a sudden realization, “Oh, the Crown Princess praising pigs equals a love letter to you.”

Murong Yi knocked him on the head, saying, “What do you understand! The Crown Princess is building relationships with people, trying to cure my poison. To cure my poison, she can even praise pigs – you think about it, think carefully.”

“You can probably relate anything to the Crown Princess’s deep affection for you.” Mu Si suddenly felt somewhat resentful and turned to leave. He ran into Dan Shuang, who was worried about Tie Ci and had followed over. The two met in the water, staring at each other. Dan Shuang swam to the side, but Mu Si blocked her sideways. Dan Shuang swam right, and Mu Si blocked her again.

After three times like this, Dan Shuang was blocked.

Though this river area was vast and even a naval force couldn’t really block someone who truly wanted to leave.

But Dan Shuang just stopped in the water, glaring at Mu Si.

Mu Si had blocked her but didn’t know what to say. Dan Shuang’s personality was even harder to crack than the Crown Princess’s. After hemming and hawing for a long time, he had a flash of inspiration and asked, “Dan Shuang, if one day I were poisoned, could you praise pigs for me?”

Dan Shuang’s eyebrows shot up.

The next instant, a fist landed on Mu Si’s head.

…

Having finished praising the pigs, Tie Ci saw that the person seemed to be in a good mood and said directly, “I don’t know your distinguished name, sir. We meant no offense earlier – it’s just that I have a friend who was poisoned by someone’s scheme. We discovered that someone in Wanmei Pavilion might be able to cure it, so we took the liberty to visit…”

That person said, “Pleasure butterfly?”

Tie Ci was delighted and quickly said, “Can you cure it, sir? If you would lend assistance, I would certainly repay you handsomely, or if you have any requests, please feel free to command.”

That person turned to look at her and suddenly said, “Take three of my moves.”

Before he finished speaking, the fishing boat beneath Tie Ci’s feet creaked and split in half.

Tie Ci’s attention was entirely on him, and from beginning to end, she never saw him move at all.

Facing such a powerful enemy, she naturally couldn’t worry about using her gifted abilities sparingly. Her figure flashed and she was already on the ice surface.

The opponent said, “Teleportation.”

The ice was thin, but safe enough for her. But before she could steady herself, she heard an extremely subtle, dense sound.

She looked around – the river surface was empty and quiet with no discoveries.

She used her transparency ability, which also had far-sight capability. In this clear, bright place, it could reach ten li distant.

Now she saw the opponent in a light blue silk Daoist robe, not belted, extremely tall and thin, with long hair flowing like satin and a face with deep, beautiful features. If not for the fact that beneath his feet were pink pigs instead of auspicious clouds, he could pass for an immortal with just a halo of light.

The opponent glanced at her and said, “X-ray vision, ten thousand li sight.”

Tie Ci felt as if that glance had seen into her bones.

She had a sudden understanding that she couldn’t use her gifted abilities anymore.

But this wasn’t up to her.

That noisy sound came again, and her ears instinctively twitched slightly, tracking where the sound came from.

Then she looked toward the bottom of the ice layer. Through the thin ice, she could see the gurgling river water below. Under the ice’s reflection, the water was almost black, and suddenly a large cluster of white light points like dandelions appeared in the blackness—

Tie Ci suddenly leaped up like a firecracker, shooting a zhang high.

With a crisp crack, the ice surface shattered, water splashing everywhere. Within the scattered snow-colored droplets, countless snow-bright lights burst out like giant fireworks, chasing and swirling toward Tie Ci’s figure in mid-air with howling sounds. Looking carefully, these were countless ice swords breaking through the water, and from afar it looked as if Tie Ci had grown a giant meteor tail, sweeping across the dark blue sky with a roar.

Countless people rushed to ship bows, pointing and exclaiming in amazement.

Many were Nanyue naval officers and soldiers who had heard the Crown Princess had extraordinary martial arts but usually had no chance to witness it. In their hearts, they mostly didn’t think much of it, thinking it was just exaggerated words out of fear of the Crown Princess’s status. Now seeing Tie Ci’s figure sometimes disappearing like a ghost, sometimes gracefully soaring like a dragon, they couldn’t help but exclaim loudly.

Only Tie Ci knew her current predicament – these swords clung like maggots to bone, pursuing relentlessly with bone-piercing cold, while she wasn’t wearing shoes and her strength was nearly exhausted.

The opponent’s internal power far exceeded hers!

From afar, she heard the blue-robed person say, “Listening to heaven.”

Suddenly, a clear shout came from below – the voice wasn’t loud, but the momentum that followed was extremely startling. A ship suddenly flew up, skimming the river surface diagonally upward, bringing a transparent water column like a dragon, then thunderously crashing into that giant meteor tail of ice swords. Wherever it passed, ice swords shattered into flying ice particles.

People on nearby ships who couldn’t avoid in time were all showered with ice fragments.

People exclaimed endlessly, this time for the thrower’s incomparable strength.

In the distance, the Chi couple, who had just been rescued onto another ship, looked toward this scene with unusual expressions.

Xiao Xueya stood on the nearest ship, so close that he could see the bottom of the ship flying overhead. People around him were moving away, but he didn’t move, letting the ice fragments splash all over his hat.

His eyes held complex emotions.

Xiao Xueya’s martial arts weren’t low, but only relatively speaking compared to ordinary people. He looked down on the martial world and jianghu, feeling that “knights using martial arts to violate prohibitions” and jianghu people were just troublemakers. For someone like him, learning martial arts was only to protect himself adequately on the battlefield without becoming a burden. Knowledge of battle formations, military law, troop management, and military strategy were what truly concerned the world and the Great Qian, and were the real means to protect a region and demonstrate power.

So toward extraordinary martial arts, he only glanced indifferently, unimpressed.

However, at this moment, watching Tie Ci in mid-air and Murong Yi who had actually thrown a small ship from the water, with ice and river water falling from the sky and a powerful enemy right before them, he was the general protecting the heir apparent but couldn’t draw his sword to fight.

Like a wordless humiliation.

He looked up and noticed keenly that Tie Ci wasn’t wearing boots – she was barefoot.

And those sharp ice fragments were right beneath her feet.

Xiao Xueya’s first reaction was to take off his boots and throw them to her, but having lived his entire life with proper decorum, never doing anything improper, he instinctively hesitated for a moment.

Then he saw a pair of boots fly through the ice rain toward Tie Ci’s feet.

At this time, Tie Ci was already falling, landing on the ship. The boots flew over and she nimbly stepped into them, pushed off with her feet, and the ship carried her diagonally down, sliding across the river surface toward the ice. The ship’s prow plowed a furrow of flying ice fragments across the thin ice surface, charging aggressively into the pink pig herd. The pink pigs scattered in fright, and Tie Ci casually grabbed one.

She tucked the squealing pig into her chest and shouted, “Three moves complete!”

The blue-robed person kept his word and didn’t continue attacking. He extended his hand palm up, his jade-white palm flat and waiting for her to return the pig.

Tie Ci ignored him, saying, “Three moves are over – give me the antidote.”

The blue-robed person said, “There is no antidote.”

“You’re breaking your word…”

“Did I promise to give you an antidote?” The blue-robed person asked in surprise.

Tie Ci was speechless.

Only then did she remember this fellow indeed had never promised her anything.

The blue-robed person said indifferently, “Taking my three moves merely spares your life. Return my pig.”

Tie Ci laughed, “I won’t return it.”

The blue-robed person raised an eyebrow.

His features were soft and beautiful, his voice gentle, but his temperament carried a faint coolness that made people afraid to look directly at him.

“Clearly a senior, yet fighting a junior, three moves couldn’t win, and still taking advantage, stealing several types of gifted abilities. Do you think everyone’s a fool? Taking people’s things without paying?” Tie Ci said, “Since you won’t pay, I’ll keep this pig as collateral. Good for roasting as a midnight snack when I’m hungry tonight.”

The blue-robed person’s eyes finally showed a trace of surprise as he looked Tie Ci up and down.

A clever one, seeing through his true purpose.

But just a clever ant nonetheless.

After a long moment, he said, “I have a commitment to someone – the antidote won’t be given. If you have the ability, take it yourself.”

The boiling bubbles on the water surface advanced, slowly devouring the ice surface. Dawn light appeared as a thin line.

The blue-robed person finally said, “Raise the pig well,” and unhurriedly walked back to the riverbank with his group of pink pigs.

Tie Ci, holding the pig, tossed it to Murong Yi, saying, “For the next few days, you’ll eat and sleep with your second junior brother.”

“Journey to the West” was known to every household, so Murong Yi naturally understood the reference. Holding his second junior brother by the soft skin of his neck and examining him up and down, he said, “Second junior brother, is the kang at Gao Village warm? Is your wife beautiful?”