As the sky was about to darken again, new guests arrived at the circular building.

The new guests were a group of seven or eight people. The leading man wore a cloak that was quite cumbersome in the mountain forest, covering him from head to toe, and he wore a wooden carved mask. When A’Dan saw him, she seemed quite familiar with him and smiled, saying: “Today we caught a fat fish here, but Young Master didn’t come himself?”

That person coldly snorted and said: “Young Master has other important matters.”

A’Dan didn’t ask further and pointed to the third floor of the circular building: “The people are trapped there. I don’t care about anything else. The opponents are quite thorny, so you’ll have to capture them yourselves.”

The chieftain strode over and said: “A’Dan, don’t be rude.”

A’Dan stuck out her tongue.

The cloaked person respectfully bowed to the chieftain, who waved his hand and said: “The people have all been knocked unconscious by A’Dan. She’s just teasing you.”

The cloaked person smiled as expected and led his people to the third floor of the circular building. In the iron cage lay several unconscious people. The cloaked person pulled out a roll of silk cloth and carefully compared it with the portraits on it. A’Dan leaned over to take a look and exclaimed in surprise: “The drawings are so lifelike! When did you see these people? Otherwise, how could you draw them so accurately? Since you’ve seen them before, why didn’t you capture them yourselves instead of troubling us until our trap house was almost destroyed?”

The cloaked person ignored her, finished looking, rolled up the portrait, nodded to signal his subordinates to carry away the cage, then asked: “Are there any others caught in the net?”

“Yes, one of my clansmen. I kept him. What, do you want to exterminate the魃族(Mò zú) people as well?”

The cloaked person said: “Don’t you hate your clanspeople the most?”

“I hate them, but that doesn’t mean they can be trampled by you.”

The cloaked person said nothing. Seeing that the iron cage had been loaded onto the cart, he waved his hand and led his people to turn around. The chieftain also beckoned, signaling a team of Nanya warriors to come forward: “Old rules, we’ll send people to escort you out. When you return, bring back the grain and tools you promised us. A’Dan, you lead the escort.”

The cloaked person silently agreed. Those Nanya warriors were all tall and agile, with bare muscular arms and legs, purple-black beast blood smeared at the corners of their eyes, making their pairs of eyes appear as wild and fierce as beasts.

A’Dan went back to change into practical clothes and walked at the back of the group. The party left the circular house and disappeared into the uniformly deep green jungle. With A’Dan present, vines retreated and green shade withdrew; many places that originally seemed impassable now had paths. After walking for about an hour, they had moved far from the Nanya circular building. The cloaked person ordered them to set up camp and rest, placing the iron cage under guard in the center and lighting a pile of firewood.

He had added something unknown to the firewood pile, which produced rolling smoke, deep red in color, condensed and undispersed, rising straight to the sky like a fire pillar, quite conspicuous in the green forest. Fortunately, it wasn’t choking and even had a faint fragrance.

Not long after the fragrance spread, there were sounds of movement in the forest. A group of people came through the forest, brushing past leaves. The cloaked person immediately stood up to greet them. That group moved through the dense forest like wind and quickly approached this camp. The cloaked person went up to greet them and was about to speak when the leader glanced at the several people in the cage and without a word, waved his hand.

Behind him, a row of guards bent their bows and nocked arrows. A shower of arrows instantly covered the huge iron cage. In just three to five breaths, the people in the cage were riddled with feathered arrows like hedgehogs, with thick blood flowing along the fine steel bars, staining the ground’s green leaves crimson red.

The cloaked person hadn’t expected this sudden killing without warning and stood there stunned.

The newly arrived leader was also dressed in a cloak from head to toe, but in blue-green color that almost blended into the mountain forest’s green shade. He looked at him from afar and smiled: “I read an idle book before and found an interesting phrase: ‘Villains die from talking too much.’ Although we can’t be called villains, since we don’t intend to let the enemy live, there’s no need to delay even a moment.”

The cloaked person came to his senses and bowed respectfully: “Young Master speaks truly.”

The blue-clothed person stared at the iron cage and said: “No matter how noble a person is, dying is always easy… Just bury them on the spot.”

He never approached to look at the corpses closely, so the cloaked person arranged for people to dig a pit on the spot. The blue-clothed person sighed and turned his horse around. Suddenly he turned to A’Dan and said: “Is Madam personally here to collect the grain and tools? I brought the items with me, just ahead not far away. How about Madam come with me?”

Attendants brought horses, and A’Dan smiled charmingly as she leaped onto horseback, with several tall, long-legged Nanya clanspeople quickly following.

The group galloped through the forest. The roads gradually widened where they passed, and the mountain wind gradually carried a wet, salty air. Following the mountain path upward, the faint sound of waves could be heard.

Turning around a bend, the view suddenly opened up. Fine white sand stretched before them, sparkling like gold under the sunlight, connecting to blue-green seawater topped with white foam. Dark thousand-ren-high cliffs stood by the seashore, with rocks at the cliff base carved by millennia of giant waves into fantastic shapes.

The blue-clothed person stopped his horse, with his back to Tie Ci, and said: “Madam, what you want is ahead. Please go get it yourself.”

Behind him, A’Dan looked left and right with a puzzled expression: “Where are the things? There’s nothing on this beach. Were they transported by ship?”

The blue-clothed person pulled the reins and slowly retreated, laughing: “What you want are the private army of the Prince’s mansion.”

As soon as he finished speaking, countless figures suddenly appeared on the blue-black cliff like apes and monkeys. These people climbed the sheer cliff as if walking on flat ground, and in the blink of an eye, they had descended to the mountainside.

“A’Dan” blinked and smiled. She lowered her head and stroked her face for a while, then raised her head to reveal Tie Ci’s face: “We really can’t fool each other, can we?”

The blue-clothed person had already retreated far to one side of the mountain cliff under the protection of his guards. Hearing this, he laughed from afar: “No, Your Highness is still superior in skill. You didn’t fall into A’Dan’s trap and even got A’Dan to cooperate in your performance. It’s just that since Your Highness wants the Prince’s mansion’s private army, I’ll simply bring you to take a look. Your Highness, please look and see if they meet your approval.”

In just these few exchanges, those exceptionally agile soldiers had already descended the mountain cliff and charged toward Tie Ci’s direction.

The blue-clothed person laughed loudly as he retreated. He had used this stratagem to lure Tie Ci here because this army hiding place faced the mountain and backed to the sea. The junction between the beach and forest was narrow and tight. Once entering the beach, if the entrance to the forest was guarded, there would be no retreat route unless Tie Ci had strong ships and powerful cannons to cross the bay. But he had been constantly monitoring Tie Ci’s troops and had just received news that Xiao Xueya’s Nanyue naval forces had been stationed in Qianzhou, while the Crown Princess’s guard unit had appeared south of Kunzhou, obviously preparing to enter the city. Neither could possibly appear at Mingzhu Sea.

This thought had just flashed through his mind when suddenly there was a tremendous roar, and the entire sea surface seemed to shake.

The blue-clothed person turned around to see a tall treasure ship slowly turning from behind the mountain cliff. On the treasure ship, black cannon muzzles pointed directly at the beach, with a snow-white commander’s flag bearing the prominent character “Xiao.” Under the flag stood a general in snow-white clothes, hands gripping his spear, face stern and cold.

The blue-clothed person was stunned.

The Nanyue naval forces!

This place was so secret that even the Nanya chieftain didn’t know this was the army hiding place. How could Xiao Xueya have ambushed here in advance? Wasn’t he just yesterday in Qianzhou executing a shipping department official who had used the Crown Princess’s southern tour as a pretext to exploit the people?

Even if yesterday’s incident was deliberately released as a diversion, the water route from Qianzhou to Mingzhu Sea would take several days. How did Xiao Xueya determine that this place could block him?

But this wasn’t the time to think about such matters. Without hesitation, he led his people toward the forest, but after just a few steps, he slowly returned with his back turned.

A’Dan emerged from the forest with a large group of Nanya natives, frowning: “You killed my clansmen and think you can just leave?”

The people in the iron cage were ones she had lent to Tie Ci as a diversion. When the cloaked person came to collect them, A’Dan received them at first, then after changing clothes, it was Tie Ci who took over. As for those in the iron cage, they were all disguised Nanya tribal people, just serving as decoys. But neither Tie Ci nor A’Dan had expected that the blue-clothed person would be so ruthless, not caring whether they were the people he wanted or not, shooting to kill first. This resulted in the senseless deaths of those clansmen.

Because of this, A’Dan, who had followed from afar, naturally wouldn’t let it go. Taking advantage of the blue-clothed person’s distraction, she had already dealt with the guards at the forest entrance and replaced them with her own people.

On the large ship, Xiao Xueya waved his hand. The ship’s mechanisms creaked and groaned as the black cannon muzzles slowly aimed at the group on the beach.

The cloaked person suddenly let out a sharp whistle.

The soldiers who had just descended from the mountain cliff rushed forward. These people, barefoot on the soft sand, were still as swift as the wind. They rushed over and picked up the blue-clothed person on their backs.

At this moment, Xiao Xueya’s hand cut a sharp arc through the air. Black and red fire flashed in mid-air, and the next instant, a tremendous roar erupted. White sand exploded high into the sky, with severed limbs and blood splattering half the beach. The seawater that had just surged onto shore seemed startled by this power and suddenly surged back, stirring up waves several zhang high.

Where the blue-clothed person had been standing, only a crater remained. The cloaked person was sprawled beside the crater, obviously having shielded his master with his body in that explosion, buying the blue-clothed person a chance to escape.

Tie Ci looked up and saw a row of soldiers on the beach working in relay, nimbly transporting the blue-clothed person toward the high cliff. Their physical strength was extraordinary, and the blue-clothed person was tossed about, constantly swaying in the air. This made it impossible for the Nanya soldiers’ arrows and Xiao Xueya’s ship cannons to aim accurately. In just a few moves, the blue-clothed person was passed to the cliff edge.

Tie Ci didn’t pursue. At this moment, the beach was a hunting ground, and appearing rashly would only constrain A’Dan and Xiao Xueya who were responsible for the pincer attack. She calmly watched those soldiers rapidly climbing down the nearly vertical high cliff to support the blue-clothed person.

A soldier put the blue-clothed person on his back and nimbly climbed up. Once on the mountain cliff and into the dense forest, pursuing them would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

That soldier moved extremely fast, reaching the mid-cliff in an instant. A cannon from the ship blasted over, creating a large hole in the lower half of the cliff, almost grazing the blue-clothed person’s heels.

A wave of sharp arrows attacked, but those soldiers swayed their bodies on the mountain cliff, cleverly avoiding them with extreme skill.

Tie Ci could see that these people had trained their fighting and leaping skills among beaches, cliffs, and sea waves, combining the agility of apes, the speed of leopards, and the slipperiness of fish. They were very difficult to deal with.

Another cannon blast still hit near the blue-clothed person’s heels. In the spreading gunpowder smoke, the blue-clothed person actually turned around on the precipice and, on the soldier’s back, made a frivolous, provocative gesture toward the large ship on the sea below.

Xiao Xueya remained expressionless. The general, hard as a cliff, didn’t become angry at the provocation but instead signaled to stop firing.

Tie Ci smiled slightly at the beach’s edge.

If certain people wanted to reclaim the benefits they had lost, it would depend on this encounter.

The soldier carrying the blue-clothed person was only one zhang from the cliff top—two leaps would allow them to escape to safety.

Suddenly, a person appeared on the cliff top.

The moment he appeared, he charged down along the ninety-degree cliff wall like a cannonball falling from the sky, cutting through the blue sky above the cliff like a blade. The next moment, he crashed thunderously into that soldier.

Using pure force to overcome all techniques, faced with absolutely overwhelming power and an attack with no room for maneuvering, all evasive skills and methods had no chance to be deployed. With a muffled sound, the soldier bounced up like a shattering stone, while a snow-white yet hard hand forcibly pierced through his chest, carrying hot blood and cold wind, pointing at the blue-clothed person’s chest.

The teeth-aching sound of crushing bones arose, continuously spreading outward from the point of contact. But at this moment, the blue-clothed person leaned back forcefully, not caring that below was a high cliff and vast sea, falling backward.

Murong Yi, hanging on the ninety-degree cliff wall, wasn’t surprised by the blue-clothed person’s choice. With a wave of his hand, a large net had somehow been stretched near the sea at the bottom of the cliff, with bright light flashing on it, obviously equipped with hidden hooks.

Please enter the net.

Tie Ci smiled slightly.

The opponent had schemed against her quite a bit, but did they really think there would be no price to pay for scheming against her?

Using one’s body to feed the tiger—but hadn’t the tiger been silently waiting all along?

The blue-clothed person was about to fall into the net.

Suddenly, a white light flashed on the sea surface below the cliff, stirring up a zhang-high water column that surged toward the large net. The net silently broke a hole, and the blue-clothed person passed through the hole, falling into the center of that water column. With another splash, he was swept into the sea bottom, leaving only misty water vapor in mid-air like smoke and clouds.

In the moment the water splashed, there was vaguely the shape of a giant fish swaying.

A moment later, the water splash disappeared, and a transparent ripple on the sea surface quickly moved away.