Tie Ci reflected on what had just happened. Living people don’t vanish into thin air—the only thing that could have gone wrong was Feiyu’s fall.

After she stumbled, Chi Xue also fell with her, and when Tie Ci went to help them up, what she supported was already Chi Xue.

Through similar shoulder fabric, she hadn’t noticed, and at that moment there had suddenly been movement—faint tinkling sounds masked footsteps. Otherwise, Tie Ci would have heard that the footsteps had changed to three people’s.

In other words, Feiyu’s disappearance occurred only between her fall and Tie Ci helping Chi Xue up—that was really just a few blinks of an eye. How was it done in such a short time?

Was it voluntary or involuntary? And which way did she go?

When Tie Ci was walking, she had constantly watched the walls on both sides, fearing mechanisms. If Feiyu had gone through the sides, it would be hard to escape her notice.

Could it be… the floor?

But when walking, she hadn’t noticed any holes in the floor either.

Dan Shuang looked at Tie Ci with a pale face. Tie Ci lowered her eyes and after a moment said: “Let’s not worry about this for now. The current matter is more urgent.”

Looking up, the high tower seemed to reach into the clouds, wind passing through countless copper bells making them ring clearly.

Cangsheng Tower.

This was the back courtyard of Cangsheng Tower, very large, enclosing enough space for a horse track. In the northwest corner was the kitchen, with a well beside it, several field ridges where vegetables grew poorly—wilted and drooping—and a few flowering trees by the dirt ridges that looked like pear blossoms from a distance in the night.

Further away to the side front was a peach blossom grove with artificial hills and flowing water. Though peach blossoms should already be showing signs of withering at this season, the peach trees there had branches full of green leaves, dotted with buds, and countless fresh pink peach blossoms still blooming in the night—a scene of prosperity.

There were faint sounds from the front courtyard. Using the tower’s shelter, Tie Ci looked that way and saw over ten large carts in the courtyard, all tightly covered. Beside the carts, on the courtyard walls, and throughout the courtyard, countless monks walked back and forth standing guard. Under their robes, the bright gleam of blades was visible. One monk, probably with an itchy head, scratched while walking, and his black prayer scars visibly fell off.

So they were fake monks.

Many other monks were carrying boxes out of the tower gates, continuously loading them onto the large carts. From the deep impressions the carts made in the muddy ground, those boxes were very heavy.

Tie Ci counted those boxes and large carts. It looked like the other party would soon finish loading. Dan Shuang gestured asking whether to take action, but Tie Ci held her back.

The opponents were numerous—their three people couldn’t stop much, and acting now would alert them.

Since they’d infiltrated here, they naturally needed to see clearly who the opponent’s leader was.

After waiting a while longer, a group of people escorted someone out. These people weren’t dressed as monks. The person in the middle wore a long cloak and their face couldn’t be seen clearly. Tie Ci stared at their steps for a while. Chi Xue inadvertently turned her head and discovered that the Crown Princess, usually leisurely and composed, now had a face like frost.

She looked back but truly couldn’t understand what could be discerned from those people wrapped head to toe in cloaks.

But Tie Ci was very patient, watching as those people finished loading and prepared to board the carts. Someone in the courtyard said to the middle man: “…That side still hasn’t arrived. Should we wait?”

The middle man hesitated slightly, looked up, thought for a moment, then sneered coldly: “He probably guessed our meaning and doesn’t dare come for his share of the spoils. That’s fine too! Let’s go!”

A whip cracked, the tower gates opened wide, and the large carts filed out.

Tie Ci waited a while longer, confirming everyone had left, then flashed into the tower.

Dan Shuang and Chi Xue followed, still not understanding her intention, asking what she was looking for.

“This is a long story,” Tie Ci said. “These past days, have you found my experiences somewhat inexplicable?”

Dan Shuang immediately said angrily: “The people of Ziyang County have lost their minds! We were properly investigating a case, yet they framed us and pursued us, causing landslides and fires—what hornet’s nest did we poke to make them so frenzied and deranged!”

“You’re right—we poked a hornet’s nest. Otherwise, why would they disregard everything and dare pursue a young master who obviously has connections in the capital?”

“Is it related to the county office and the flower-picking murder case culprit?” Chi Xue asked.

“Yes, and no. Just one flower-picking murder case could actually be handled with many gentler methods than this. There’s no need to go this far. Unless I inadvertently touched their deeper, more hidden secrets—secrets so crucial they involve lives and fortunes, where even the slightest possibility of discovery would keep them restless day and night. Even if I’m the son of a capital official, it wouldn’t stop their desire to silence me. This can only be because the consequences of exposure would be far more serious than killing an official’s son.”

“Master, you suspect…”

“Think about it—from which point did my situation take a sharp turn for the worse?”

Dan Shuang stared blankly. She could handle fighting and killing, but analyzing these complex, intertwined matters was absolutely beyond her. Chi Xue said: “After visiting Cangsheng Tower.”

“Right, after that night’s visit to Cangsheng Tower, the fake monks there immediately reacted unfavorably toward me. The next day there was trouble at Cangsheng Tower, someone tried to assassinate me. After dealing with that, immediately there was a suspected major thief at the county deputy’s house, luring me into the county deputy’s residence. They used drugs trying to frame me as the flower-picking bandit, and siege engines appeared…”

“Then they pinned the flower-picking murder charges on you, threw you in the dungeon, and hastily created a landslide. When that failed to kill you, they simply called in soldiers from the military garrison… Step by step, link by link, never resting until death!”

“The tunnel under Fuchun Tower leads to Cangsheng Tower. Just now we also saw them loading and leaving—clearly there are dealings under Cangsheng Tower. Li Yao’s crazy behavior all along was simply because I went to Cangsheng Tower. He feared I’d discovered something and feared I’d continue investigating, wanting to eliminate future troubles… Those several murder cases must be connected to Cangsheng Tower.”

“But the people have already left…”

Tie Ci smiled slowly.

“As long as they came and did something, traces will always remain.”

The tower had been rearranged, no different from ordinary tower furnishings. The space below was cramped—a few steps made a complete circuit. Tie Ci climbed the tower floor by floor, her frost-white hem flashing on the narrow stairs like flowing clouds. After a moment she came down, shaking her head, confirming there were no problems in the tower—the focus should still be underground.

But every floor tile on the first level had been turned over, every inch of wall explored, yet no mechanism to open the ground was detected.

Night deepened. Tie Ci felt vague anxiety—the opponents had already obtained what they wanted, but she couldn’t let them get too far. If they truly left Haiyou territory, it would be troublesome.

She must quickly find the underground chamber, uncover the secrets beneath Cangsheng Tower, capture Li Yao for strict interrogation, and determine who was providing support behind all this, pursuing the trail to its end.

There must be a door into the underground within the tower—otherwise they wouldn’t have tried everything to prevent people from entering that day.

She went directly to the tower’s top. The top was empty with windows on all sides and copper bells on the eaves ringing in a dense, clear chorus.

The air retained faint fragrance, but the incense burner was empty. From the ash color, it was from long ago.

The window sills on all sides were much cleaner than the lower floors—obviously someone frequently wiped them.

Tie Ci crouched down and picked up a bright bead from a corner of the floor.

It was a precious crystal bead, but extremely small, looking like it had fallen from a bead curtain.

Bead curtains and incense burners had once been arranged here—someone had lived here.

Carrying travel items everywhere, even preparing bead curtains, and liking to live high up overlooking the mortal world—this person had noble status and particular standards for living.

The lower floors showed no signs of habitation but had multiple traces of groups standing and gathering—presumably their guards.

Dan Shuang searched everywhere without results and grew somewhat irritated: “The tower top is so remote. Since there’s nothing unusual, we still need to search below.”

So many floors—searching each one carefully would take too much time.

But Tie Ci wasn’t hurried, still slowly wandering.

“Master, what are you looking for?”

“You said something good just now. The tower top is so remote, and the tower’s secrets are below—then across this great distance, how did the person living at the tower top achieve control over the tower’s bottom? Wasn’t he afraid that while enjoying scenery from high up, someone might sneak in from below to see his secrets?”

Both women understood suddenly.

For someone positioned at the highest point to control the very bottom, they must ensure the initiative to open the underground remained in their hands for absolute peace of mind.

So the mechanism was on this floor.

Tie Ci looked down. The tower’s center was hollow, with spiral stairs ascending. Looking long, those circling steps seemed to slowly rise toward the tower’s peak.

The tower top…

If neither the ground nor surroundings had it, what about the tower top?

Tie Ci looked up.

Around the tower top was a circle of relief sculptures depicting the classic legend of Buddha riding his horse over the city wall to renounce worldly life. The Great Qian revered the Sumeru religion. Buddha was the founding patriarch of Sumeru. Under Buddha’s feet, the horse stepped on drooping lotus flowers, and lotus flowers were carved around the entire tower top.

Tie Ci’s first glance revealed no clues. After thinking, she carefully counted the lotus flowers.

Nine flowers.

She leaped onto the tower top, feeling those intaglio lotus patterns and comparing them with other carvings. Suddenly she pressed her palm against that pattern and pushed inward.

“Click”—a sharp sound from the tower top’s center.

Tie Ci shouted: “Duck!”

Chi Xue yanked Dan Shuang, who was leaning down to look below, backward. With a whoosh, a thin black shadow shot out from the tower top’s center like lightning, grazing Dan Shuang’s forehead and shooting down through the hollow center with a thud against the bottom floor, followed by a faint cracking sound.

A thin iron pillar now stood in the center of the entire precious tower, and the bottom floor had opened a dark hole. The iron rod went straight into that darkness, bottomless to the eye.

Cold sweat beaded on Dan Shuang’s forehead.

If she’d been a step slower, her head would now be pierced through to the underground.

“Master, how did you know the lotus had problems?”

“In Sumeru doctrine, one through ten all have their meanings—one realm, two truths, three treasures and three blessings, four immeasurable hearts, five powers and five roots, six paths and six perfections, seven factors of enlightenment, eight sufferings and eight schools, ten vows and ten directions of the world… But teachings related to nine are relatively few. The most commonly used and auspicious number in Sumeru is seven.”

Though she’d followed a fake nun, Tie Ci still understood Sumeru doctrine.

Dan Shuang nodded. The world knew the Crown Princess didn’t love studying, but not loving didn’t mean not reading or understanding. If truly discussing scholarship, the Crown Princess wouldn’t necessarily be inferior to those talented students from Yueli Academy. Moreover, the imperial palace’s collection was vast—her learning and attainments would only be more extensive.

She looked at that deep, dark hole below, hesitating about the safest way down, when a figure flashed—Tie Ci silently leaped from the tower top, grabbed the iron rod, and slid down with a swoosh.

Dan Shuang and Chi Xue could only follow.

The Crown Princess was always fearless and decisive—someone who would dare jump even into hell.

Tie Ci slid into the darkness. After her eyes adjusted, she saw below was a huge space like a cave, which didn’t look like something human effort could create.

Not far outside Cangsheng Tower was Ziyang’s largest Fengbo Mountain, with mountain ranges stretching across several counties. This should still be a cave under the mountain.

The cave was already empty, scattered with many miscellaneous items—quite a few spare monk robes and daily clothing of Haiyou people, boxes by the walls piled with considerable dried food and unfinished preserved meat, and some simple daily necessities.

Footsteps echoed hollowly. The huge cave had intricate, complex paths. After walking a section, the three stopped, fearing they’d wander deep into the mountain caves and be unable to exit.

This situation should require the same caution from the opponents. Tie Ci held up a torch to examine carefully—wherever cave entrances showed no traces of frequent human passage, she marked them and didn’t enter.

After looking around this way, roughly seven or eight caves could accommodate people. Two of these had traces of fires and scattered old shoes—those were where the fake monks rested. No need to go there for now.

But there were still five or six caves. Time was too tight to examine each one.

Tie Ci suddenly stopped at one cave entrance, reaching out to touch the slightly moist wind from within.

This one connected through.

Since it connected, why didn’t those people leave this way? Crossing underground through the mountains, emerging in mountain forests—wouldn’t that be safer?

This suggested this cave wasn’t necessarily safe, but Tie Ci saw countless footprints at the entrance—clearly people frequently entered and exited here.

There were dragging marks in the mud.

She led the two women inside. The deeper they went, the more moist the cave became, with steamy heat spreading out, making the torch flame hazy. This scene was somewhat familiar.

Like… hot springs.

Thinking of the gourd-shaped cave entrance and the current heat, Tie Ci was basically certain this was a rare underground thermal cave.

Underground thermal caves were difficult to form, requiring a constrictive entrance and hot springs within.

Tie Ci continued forward. The mist grew thicker—human figures were no longer visible. She signaled Dan Shuang and Chi Xue to place hands on each other’s shoulders to avoid getting separated in this cave. When giving this order, remembering the earlier incident of putting hands on shoulders and losing someone, she found it amusing, thinking surely they wouldn’t lose someone again this time.

While thinking this, she suddenly heard water sounds.

Not ordinary flowing water, but the sound of large amounts of water being thrown by great force, with faint deep laughter mixed in.

That laughter, heard through the winding cave and thick white mist, came intermittently, low and hoarse, like a poorly connected radio suddenly crackling to life at midnight.

The people hadn’t decreased—they’d increased!

Even with more, it was still a horror movie!

Ahead was a corner. Suddenly with a splash, a large sheet of water mist splashed out like crystal curtains.

Tie Ci leaped up, whooshing through the water mist. While still in mid-air, the brush at her waist suddenly flew up, both ends popping open in mid-air to become a weapon with an extremely fine round body—like a three-edged spike or thin sword. Tie Ci raised her arm to grasp it, her fingers turning with two sharp sounds as cold light spread like spilled water.

The next instant, a huge black shadow silently slid above her head—steel claws and iron hooks striking down!

Tie Ci horizontally positioned the steel spike in her hand, fitting it precisely between those iron hooks. With a sharp cry, that thing carried her flying.

In that moment of flight, another splash of water sounded. Through the misty vapor, someone stood up abruptly.

At this moment, Tie Ci was being carried by that black shadow over the water mist. Looking down—

She saw a naked man.

Tie Ci: “…”

Mist obscured the man’s face, but her gaze met his wheat-colored skin made crystal-bright by constantly rolling water droplets, his long straight neck, shoulders that appeared particularly straight and showed well-proportioned muscle and bone, chest muscles firm and full as if every inch contained hidden strength, and a lean waist with smooth lines…

The man stood in the water, obviously also stunned. His gaze followed Tie Ci’s downward, suddenly awakening and bending sharply to cover himself.

Tie Ci: “…”

Can’t blame me—blame yourself for being too worth watching.

Above, the creature gave a strange cry that rolled like thunder in the mountain cave, obviously also outraged by this person’s shamelessness and frustrated at being unable to break the hard object in its claws. After carrying Tie Ci in a circle, it suddenly released its grip.

Tie Ci fell into the water with a splash, landing right in front of the naked man, splashing up great waves. The man had originally buried his lower body in the water, but the water was displaced by Tie Ci’s impact into a whirlpool, so he was exposed again…

The man howled like a beast, reaching out claw-like to fiercely grab at Tie Ci.

Tie Ci horizontally positioned her iron brush to block the opponent’s vicious claws, laughing: “Dan Ye!”

Dan Ye’s hand paused. Only then did the mist scatter from Hai Dongqing’s wings, and he saw Tie Ci’s face clearly, becoming even more enraged.

“You actually followed here to peep at my bath!”

“Where’s your shame!”

He reached for his weapon, grasping empty air before remembering he’d stripped completely for bathing—where would there be weapons?

Tie Ci had already retreated half a zhang during this gap, laughing: “The mighty Little Wolf King, actually seen bathing—where’s your shame?”

Dan Ye stared at her with sinister eyes.

Encountering this woman never brought good things.

Being falsely accused as a murderer and even thrown into prison—when he finally saw her also dragged in, the prison collapsed.

When the prison collapsed and he came out, he killed several of the blocking officers and flew away with Mo Ye. Mo Ye liked staying in mountains and wilderness, liked drilling into caves. Before finding Tie Ci, he had lived in a cave halfway up the mountain. That cave was very winding and deep. During his exploration, he discovered hot springs in the cave’s depths. Today he returned, covered in dust from the landslide, so he went into the hot springs to wash. Who would have known he could encounter this woman even here!

He stared at Tie Ci, seeing that though she spoke and laughed freely, her gaze drifted through the mist.

Dan Ye suddenly smiled.

He abruptly stood up.

Tie Ci immediately closed her eyes.

Dan Ye gave an unsurprised cold laugh. With a splash, he emerged from the water. In mid-air, his toe flicked, and his robe lying on the stone flew up with a whoosh. Dan Ye spread his arms wide. In the next instant, the robe settled gracefully. As his long arms slipped into the sleeves, his other foot had already kicked up three stones from beside the hot spring. With three sharp sounds, fierce wind like thunder struck separately at Tie Ci, Dan Shuang, and Chi Xue.

Hai Dongqing gave a long cry and flew close to the ground.

When Tie Ci deflected the stones, she saw a corner of a robe in the thick mist, accompanied by a flash of bare long legs disappearing.

Seemingly graceful but actually flustered.

He hadn’t even had time to put on pants.

Tie Ci chuckled, thinking that men raised in the desert might be rough around the edges, but their physiques were quite impressive.

As she also stood up, the moment she rose she felt a sudden pain in her chest, as if struck by lightning, but the sensation instantly disappeared and she paid it no mind.

Turning to look in the direction where Dan Ye had vanished, she vaguely saw a figure flash by, but when she went to look, she only saw wet cave walls.

This cave should also have other passages.

But she didn’t intend to try. Seeing that this cave contained only a few hot springs and nothing else, with one fork leading upward but very narrow and difficult to pass, and the areas with hot springs being narrow and unsuitable for activities, she withdrew.

Changing direction, she saw from afar that footprints at a cave entrance faintly glimmered. Crouching down, Tie Ci realized they were fine ice crystals.

Her spirits lifted. Walking inside, she felt she’d traveled quite a distance. The further she went, the colder it became. Above the flickering yellow light of the fire stick, faint mist gradually rose. The cave walls on all sides gleamed dimly, appearing like stars covering the walls under the firelight, twinkling brilliantly.

Suddenly turning a corner, the view opened dramatically. Large patches of frost-white stalactites hung high and low from the ceiling like an inverted stone forest in snow, with crystal ice beads condensed at their tips, flashing in five colors under the firelight. The stone walls were layered with fish-scale-like thin frost and ice, as if they had once been swept from head to toe by snow waves.

This was an ice cave.

Tie Ci marveled in wonder.

This place was truly blessed—just now a hot spring cave, here an ice cave. Was the bottom of this mountain range trying to gather spring, summer, autumn, and winter?

The hot cave had left her sweating all over, but here was bone-chilling cold. The sudden change from hot to cold made even Tie Ci shiver involuntarily. At the acupoint she’d broken through last time in her chest, there was again that strange lightning-like penetrating sensation, then it disappeared.

But unlike the previous times, that crucial point now vaguely felt unobstructed.

She couldn’t concern herself with these matters, because she finally saw what she wanted to see.

Ahead was a huge square ice pool, crystal clear like a perfectly square house. The house had countless holes—most were flat, thin, and long. The widest was palm-width, the narrowest no more than two fingers wide. Occasionally there were also irregular shapes, like irregular squares that were wide outside but narrow inside, circular long holes, and three pointed openings connected together.

Beside the ice pool were also ice steps with traces of use.

The ice pool and ice steps were obviously made by someone according to this cave’s characteristics. Making things with ice was very convenient here. So even the ground was entirely ice, laid flat and even, with spare sleds and spiked shoes. It seemed the people inside either used sleds or spiked shoes to walk, otherwise they’d easily slip.

Having seen this, Tie Ci was about to withdraw when suddenly there was a bang, as if someone had fallen, followed by the sharp sound of wind.

Tie Ci looked up.

She was dumbstruck.

The ice path ahead sloped slightly downward. At this moment, amid the crystal-bright gleaming, someone was sliding down like flying, a large red robe billowing behind them, friction beneath creating hissing sounds as they continuously splashed up snow foam and ice crystals, with two long legs helplessly raised high…

The entire ice cave echoed with his embarrassed and angry roar: “Get out of the way—”

Seeing that fellow about to crash into her like a cannonball, Tie Ci spread her legs apart and leaped into the air in a beautiful gymnastic move.

The next instant, with a swoosh, Dan Ye slid between her spread legs, creating a trail of ice flowers.

This posture was truly deadly. Dan Ye’s roar had already cracked: “What kind of posture is that!”

Tie Ci landed gracefully, neither blushing nor breathing hard, bowing elegantly: “Split-leg horizontal flying swallow, thank you.”

Dan Ye drew his blade.

With a slash, the curved blade entered the ice. Thick ice layers sent ice chips flying like white fireworks, hissing as they carved a long deep groove that extended a full half-zhang before stopping.

As soon as his body stopped, Dan Ye leaped up. With a “hey” sound he drew his blade and turned, the blade carrying countless ice chips and snowflakes as it chopped down. Using too much force, the air seemed to explode, the ground’s ice layer shattered, and it seemed like a wild snowstorm was falling from mid-air.

With a “swoosh,” a sled passed precisely through the gap in that blade wind. Three people on the sled—Tie Ci at the front waved at Dan Ye with curved, smiling eyes.

A moment later, Tie Ci heard the sound of ice layers exploding throughout the cave behind her, with large pieces of broken ice splashing out, nearly hitting Dan Shuang who sat at the back.

Tie Ci clicked her tongue.

She hadn’t done it on purpose.

Probably Heaven couldn’t stand Dan Ye being so arrogant about breaking off their engagement, so it arranged for him to be so unlucky every time he saw her.

Before this thought finished, suddenly wind howled behind her. Something huge came thundering with mountain-toppling momentum. Tie Ci couldn’t turn back in time, controlling the sled to dodge sideways with a thump into a snow pile beside them, splashing up thousands of layers of snow.

Before crashing into the snow pile, Tie Ci’s peripheral vision caught that what crashed toward them was actually that huge ice pool. Only then did she realize that thing was movable, sliding extremely fast on the ice. The ice pool scraped past Tie Ci’s sled, the bone-chilling cold and overwhelming snow nearly freezing Tie Ci’s breath. Then came a tremendous bang that seemed to shake the entire mountain cave three times. All three people on the sled were jolted up simultaneously, the snow pile scattered, and somewhere came a creaking sound like some mechanism opening. Tie Ci suddenly felt emptiness beneath her, and she fell down along with the sled.

As she fell, Dan Ye was lunging over to grab her and also fell with them. Amid the chaotic flowers and broken snow, Tie Ci clearly heard him curse in the Western Rong language.

But Tie Ci couldn’t worry about that now. The moment she fell, she felt heat waves mixed with choking smoke. That heat was much hotter than the earlier hot spring cave, like a boiling cauldron was set up below, waiting for her to fall in.

In her panic, Tie Ci shouted loudly: “Grab onto everything you can!”

At the same time, she reached out and grabbed something—smooth yet furry to the touch, soft yet firm, elastic yet solid—a very strange feeling. Then she heard an eagle’s cry accompanied by a curse.

The broken snow falling on her head was instantly vaporized by the heat waves. Looking down, Tie Ci saw she was actually hugging a pair of big feet.

Looking up, she saw a pair of strong calves with ankle chains made of lapis lazuli, dzi beads, yak bone, and amber, plus a length of hanging red robe and brown belt.

Tie Ci: “…”

Above, Dan Ye angrily kicked his feet: “Let me down!”

Tie Ci looked down to see Dan Shuang hugging her waist, Chi Xue hugging Dan Shuang’s legs, with Chi Xue at the bottom swaying back and forth. Below her wasn’t a big hot water pot, but an entire expanse of dark pits, occasionally with some white, while the edges flowed with snake-like red light, ominously flickering in the darkness. Curling smoke rose around the red light—this was the source of the heat waves.

The black was charcoal burned out and cooled, the white was charcoal that had been burning but was now extinguished, the red was currently burning charcoal embers—this was a huge charcoal furnace!

Below the ice cave was actually a burning charcoal cave. The distance between upper and lower caves wasn’t high—falling wouldn’t kill them, but they’d be burned to death. Tie Ci heard a hissing sound as if something had caught fire, with vague dark red sparks flickering upward. Chi Xue, in the lowest position, inhaled and started coughing. Tie Ci asked: “Chi Xue, is your sash on fire!”

Chi Xue: “No! Young Master, don’t worry!”

While answering, she pulled out her hairpin and cut through her sash.

Even Chi Xue’s hairpin was sharp as a small knife on one side.

Though the sash was cut, the crisis hadn’t passed, because what held Dan Ye was Hai Dongqing, and no matter how strong the sea eagle was, it couldn’t pull up four people. It was only because that bird was clever—at the moment they were about to fall, its iron claws gripped the ice wall above.

But no matter how thick the ice layer, it couldn’t withstand the force of four people hanging from those iron claws. With a crack, Hai Dongqing gave a long cry, the ice layer split, the iron claws slid down. The hard rock wall sent countless broken stones flying, the friction sound so grating it made teeth ache.

The four people continued falling with it. Chi Xue at the bottom could already feel the scorching heat of the charcoal fire beneath her feet, but she gritted her teeth without making a sound.

Tie Ci shouted loudly: “Bring down the ice!”

Blade light flashed. Dan Ye’s curved blade spiraled upward, passing over the cave opening overhead and circling around the ice walls above. A series of crashing sounds followed. At the same time, Hai Dongqing also reached the bottom and slid down the ice cave with a sharp cry.

With a bang, all four fell into the charcoal furnace. Simultaneously, brilliant crystal light shone from overhead as large amounts of ice and snow fell. Broken snow and scattered ice instantly vaporized into water, drenching all four like rain. Large ice blocks thundered down, and the great charcoal furnace immediately rang with hissing sounds of ice and fire meeting everywhere. Smoke billowed up, momentarily obscuring everything from view.

Black charcoal underfoot and ice rain overhead—for a moment it was ice and fire in double layers. Fortunately, the ice rain extinguished most of the charcoal fire. Though their feet were hot, it wasn’t enough to cause burns. Tie Ci saw pillars above and had Dan Shuang throw up her belt. All four climbed out along it. Dan Ye, without shoes, walked extra carefully. Suddenly there was a crisp cracking sound underfoot and his body tilted, followed by a loud shout.

Tie Ci turned back to see Dan Ye with legs spread apart, extremely carefully backing away slowly. When he retreated one step, Tie Ci saw a piece of charcoal had been stepped on and flipped over, revealing a section of black, long object sticking up. Its irregularly broken sharp edge pointed directly at Dan Ye’s empty robe. Obviously, Dan Ye had just stepped on the charcoal and this thing suddenly stuck out. From that thing’s length of over two feet, thank goodness Dan Ye had long legs—otherwise the little insects of Ruixiang Hall might have gained new sisters.

Dan Ye’s face was rarely pale. After staring at that thing for a long moment, he looked up and fixed his gaze deadly on Tie Ci. For the first time, Tie Ci realized what a man-eating gaze looked like. It seemed this fellow was also attributing this stroke of bad luck to her account.

She didn’t care, laughing carefreely. When there are many lice, one doesn’t itch; when there are many debts, one doesn’t worry. So what if she offended him to death? Even when she hadn’t offended him, he wasn’t any gentler.

Only after climbing up did they discover this place was walled on all sides—it looked like a huge furnace. Climbing down from the outer furnace walls to the bottom, they could see there was a furnace door below. The iron furnace door also had countless thin flat slits, so densely packed it could give someone trypophobia. After looking for a while, Tie Ci reached out and drew Dan Ye’s curved blade. Dan Ye was caught off guard, angrily raising his leg to kick, but Tie Ci had already lightning-fast inserted his curved blade into one of the slits.

A perfect fit.

Dan Ye’s leg stopped mid-kick.

Tie Ci had already drawn out the blade and tossed it back to him.

“Blade-forging giant furnace.”

Dan Shuang and Chi Xue looked up in amazement at the huge charcoal furnace. They’d heard that an important process in blade forging was high-temperature refinement in charcoal furnaces, then constant hammering—the so-called “thousand hammers and hundred refinements make steel.”

But ordinary blacksmiths only had one furnace and one platform—where had they ever seen such a scene? If each of these countless holes belonged to one blade or sword, couldn’t this place forge thousands of blades and swords in the shortest time?

This cave was very large. Beside the charcoal furnace was indeed a stone platform, showing traces of repeated pounding. Iron hammers were piled in the corner. The ground had been cleaned very thoroughly. After carefully examining everything, Tie Ci finally picked up several gray-black stones from a corner.

She tapped the stones, listened to the echo, felt their hardness, and put the stones in her chest.

Searching this cave, she indeed found another passage leading to the ice cave above. This one was much more gradual, obviously artificially excavated, with simple steps carved out. Both walls showed many traces of hard objects being dragged and scraped.

By now, Tie Ci had verified her suspicions and was thinking of returning the same way when she suddenly heard human voices echoing from the upper cave.

Someone had entered the cave.

Tie Ci asked Dan Ye: “How did you enter the hot spring cave before?”

Dan Ye lifted his foot toward her.

Tie Ci: “?”

“Lick my feet clean and I’ll tell you.” Dan Ye slightly raised his chin. The lapis lazuli and coral earring on his left earlobe swayed and glittered like his gaze.

Tie Ci glanced at him, smiled, and turned to leave.

The voices were getting closer—quite a few people by the sound. The first group rushed to the charcoal furnace cave, but by then Tie Ci had just entered the ice cave through that crevice.

Dan Ye followed, watching Tie Ci, but she didn’t even glance at him. Unhurriedly looking down, she found traces of Dan Ye’s earlier slide, followed the tracks to find a narrow passage in the ice cave. Earlier when Dan Ye was bathing and she saw him, he had darted into the ice cave from here.

Following that long passage back to the hot spring pool, when she led the group back to the hot spring cave, that batch of searchers had just finished searching the charcoal furnace cave and gone to the ice cave, their torches flashing past the entrance.

When those people finished searching the ice cave and entered the hot spring cave, Tie Ci had already followed the direction of the hot spring into the depths of the hot spring cave.

The hot spring cave was originally semi-enclosed. The people who had lived here before used it as a bathing pool, never thinking this cave connected through. It was Dan Ye who, while living in the mountain cave, had walked inside out of curiosity. When he couldn’t get through, he smashed through a section of thin stalagmites, and after breaking through, found this hot spring pool.

Following the path Dan Ye had broken open all the way, crossing through the entire mountain’s belly, Tie Ci occasionally saw those gray-black stone blocks scattered on the ground. Even when the entire stone wall reached the mountain belly’s downward position, it was entirely composed of that gray-black rock.

Faint light appeared ahead—they’d reached the exit. The exit was densely covered with vines, with light purple small flowers emerging from stone crevices in the cave walls. Tie Ci leaned close, examined the broken stems and leaves on those small flowers, and was about to part the vines covering the cave entrance when she suddenly heard human voices.

Tie Ci immediately gestured to wait before coming out, moved to one side, and quietly parted the entrance vines to look outside.

This was about halfway up the mountain. On a protruding cliff ahead stood several people, but Tie Ci immediately saw the black-clad man at the front.

That person was tall and slender, with hair black as lacquer hanging to his tightly bound waist. His entire body was black as dense as night, the whole person condensed like black jade, only the fingertips showing beneath his drooping sleeves were snow-white, like snow fallen on a black cliff.

He was the type where just seeing his back, one would know he must be elegant as jade trees, with bright teeth and red lips—a perfect beauty.

He was looking down the mountain, talking with someone beside him about something: “…Judging by their route direction, they probably won’t take the water route.”

A man beside him responded: “We received word that both the Haiyou Regional Military Commission and Dengzhou Thousand Household Office are making moves.”

Tie Ci was shocked.

The Haiyou Regional Military Commission was Haiyou’s highest military command organization—the Regional Military Commission—responsible for Haiyou’s military defense. Dengzhou was the prefecture closest to Lai Prefecture, with its Thousand Household Office defending Dengzhou under Haiyou Regional Military Commission jurisdiction.

Now both places were mobilizing troops—which was loyal and which treacherous?

Where exactly had Shen Mi gone with her seal to mobilize troops?

From the timing, it should be Dengzhou, but if he mobilized Dengzhou troops while the Haiyou Regional Military Commission moved, that would be a big problem.

And the people before her were obviously monitoring Ziyang’s movements—who were they?

Tie Ci had originally noticed something else, but now her attention was entirely drawn by their conversation. Focused on puzzling it out, she forgot the thought that had flashed through her mind moments ago.

Behind her, Dan Shuang and Chi Xue also understood the crisis. Dan Shuang moved slightly, and the black-clad beauty outside suddenly turned back: “Who’s there!”