A scream rang out as Chi Xue, who had just arrived, tumbled down on the curved bridge in the distance.

Tie Ci sat in front of the house, with Jingxu and Pingzong gripping her shoulders tightly, but she was no longer struggling.

The entire house was already engulfed in flames. Guards from Ningfang Pavilion came running with water buckets to fight the fire. They didn’t recognize this group of people with the emperor—Tie Ci rarely came here, and when she did, she entered through secret passages without meeting outsiders.

That group of people was noisily fighting the fire, while this group was silent as death.

Suddenly Jingxu looked up, and Pingzong also said: “What’s that sound?”

Both looked up to see a cold light streak across the sky. Though clearly coming from an extremely distant place, it could condense without dispersing in mid-air, like a jade pillar piercing heaven and earth, about to arrive in an instant.

The dazed Tie Ci looked up.

In that moment, this light flashed before her eyes, along with that painting she had seen in the Ba tribe valley that year.

A beam of light pierced from one end of the street to the other. The leader of the Three Madmen and Five Emperors at the height of his power had no resistance, and from then on had to separate from his close friend and lie dormant in the southern frontier for twenty years.

Without thinking, she grabbed the two people with both hands and flashed away with all her strength.

In the next instant, water splashed up half a zhang high as the three fell into the pool. All three felt sudden brightness overhead, unable to see anything clearly for a moment. In the blinding white light, they only felt something splashing and falling on their heads, while the surrounding scenery seemed to dissolve silently.

After a moment, the white light disappeared. Pingzong turned her head and let out an “ah!”

Where there had been an arched bridge over the water, now half the bridge had vanished.

And before the bridge, on the ground where Tie Ci had just been sitting, appeared a basin-sized hole. From the amount of earth splattered in all directions, the hole was extremely deep. Now a person was propped over that hole—or rather, only half a person. One half had neat clothing with not even disheveled hair, while the other half had completely disappeared, showing only an orderly, ghastly skeleton.

It was a guard who had come to fight the fire, still holding the water bucket in his hand, with not even a drop of water spilled.

After a long moment, Pingzong murmured: “What kind of weapon is this…”

But Jingxu’s expression was extremely grim as he looked at his own palm.

When Tie Ci had pulled him down just now, he had reached out his hand and was grazed by the edge of the white light.

Now he was missing a little finger.

The pain only struck him now. Looking at that incredibly neat cut surface, he gritted his teeth, took out wound medicine, and bandaged himself. Then he stood up and walked away without a word.

“Stop,” Tie Ci said coldly.

Jingxu ignored her completely.

“What, scared out of your wits?” Tie Ci said. “Escaped disaster twenty years ago, yet the trouble lingers to this day—don’t even have the courage to face it anymore?”

“If I had known it was these people earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in this muddy water.” Jingxu faced away from her, his voice hoarse. “Don’t mock me. These people can’t even be called human. Da Qian has no way to resist them. Or do you think you can surpass the Three Madmen and Five Emperors of that time?”

“I’m not your Three Madmen and Five Emperors, but I am the person in all of Da Qian who understands them best,” Tie Ci said. “Follow me, protect me, and you still have a chance to live. Otherwise, just like back then, you strong people of Da Qian will equally be their primary targets for elimination. In their words, you’re dangerous elements, unstable factors, primary targets for removal.”

When she first saw that painting, she had suspected her master’s involvement, but couldn’t understand why her master, a merchant, would strike down the Three Madmen and Five Emperors.

Now she was beginning to understand. The Three Madmen and Five Emperors had mainly been in the capital back then, supported by various princely mansions. Her master had very likely come with a mission, selected her, and naturally became involved in political struggles. Whether to support Tie Yan’s faction in seizing the throne or for their future invasion of Da Qian, powerful figures like the Three Madmen and Five Emperors could not be left alive.

So the rescue at the ice lake might never have been coincidental.

All luck in this world is secretly priced, and all favors ultimately demand payment.

“Now the primary target for elimination should be Your Majesty, right?” Jingxu pointed at that hole.

“Yes, and then? After killing me, who’s next?”

Jingxu fell silent.

Tie Ci opened the small box that Dan Shuang had thrown out at the end. Inside was a syringe. Without a word, Tie Ci injected herself with it.

She couldn’t be infected. If she died, Dan Shuang would have died for nothing.

Da Qian would also fall as a nation.

She took one last look at the house continuously collapsing in the firelight and said to Chi Xue, who was lying on the ground weeping: “You’ll be responsible for collecting Dan Shuang’s ashes.”

“If there’s no chance to bury her properly, carefully preserve the ashes.”

“You know all the hiding places in the capital, all our arrangements. So from today on, I want you to provide maximum protection to the officials and people of the capital while protecting yourself.”

“I’ve already sent orders to Qi Ling, Xia Houchun, Buqing, and A’kou. Palace guards, the Nine Guards, half the Ba tribe forces—all troops in the capital will remain in the capital to implement wartime emergency policies. Military authority naturally remains in their own hands. What you need to do is share information with them, prevent the spread of plague, and protect everyone you can protect.”

“Unless absolutely necessary, the enemy won’t engage in wholesale slaughter. Because they need people, they need a stably functioning nation. I suspect that even spreading toxins, given that contradictions haven’t reached an irreconcilable point, probably isn’t the most virulent and irreversible kind. The main purpose is intimidation and submission.”

“Moreover, I destroyed the laboratory too. I suspect their material reserves are insufficient, and they would have stored some in the laboratory over the past few years, so they’ll act more cautiously now. Unless absolutely necessary, they won’t want direct conflict with our people and troops.”

“We still have a chance. My policy for you during this time is non-violent non-cooperation. Passive resistance—just ensure the most basic livelihood, but halt and shelve all other governmental operations. Transfer all resources underground, giving the other side no opportunity to access any resources.”

“Place all officials who control important engineering and mineral information under soft house arrest, disappearing them from public view.”

“All maps and military deployment plans and other classified documents throughout the nation—if discovered, destroy them immediately.”

“All radical students who participated in this joint petition demanding reform—arrest them all on charges of collaborating with foreign enemies and treason. All officials involved in this matter—remove from office and imprison.”

“I require you to eliminate the other side’s personnel and forces as much as possible while preserving yourselves. Their personnel are precious, and they won’t leave too many in the capital. You can lull them initially—I don’t care what methods you use: fine wine and beautiful women, open guns and hidden arrows, honorable or dishonorable, all are acceptable. Wait until they’re weary or careless, then defeat them one by one. Find ways to capture or destroy their weapons and equipment. Later, if they still haven’t succeeded, they may resort to extreme measures, so making them lose power in advance is important.”

“The other side should arrive soon. There’s much I haven’t had time to explain. Return to the hidden compartment under the Sumeru throne in Chongming Palace to search—there’s a letter I left for you. Just follow the instructions.”

“Finally, use our propaganda forces to spread among the people the enemy’s fundamental goal of enslaving and ruling us. Inform them of the other side’s danger and the terrible future we may face. Tell them we face the crisis of national destruction. Tell them that no matter what the other side says, no matter how powerful they are, I will not die, will not abandon the capital, will not abandon Da Qian. I will definitely return.”

Chi Xue raised her red, swollen eyes, her voice trembling: “Your Majesty… where are you going? The capital cannot do without you now!”

“The capital now cannot have me,” Tie Ci replied.

Because she was the primary target.

With her in the capital, the other side would continuously pursue her, never stopping until death. In this process, their methods would gradually escalate and become increasingly unscrupulous.

This could already be seen from their spreading toxins from the very beginning.

They would use that terrible light, use giant war vehicles that could level mountains and forests, use cannons that could explode with enormous firepower and infinite killing power, use various terrible weapons that people of this era had never seen or could even imagine—weapons that could instantly destroy countless lives.

They wouldn’t care about the lives of Da Qian’s people, just as elephants don’t avoid the ants beneath their feet.

In this process, how many towers and pavilions would be leveled to the ground by the continuously escalating military strikes? How many lives would be reduced to nothing?

In the laboratory, she had seen that student whose forehead was pierced through in an instant. Just now, she had seen that guard with only half remaining. Her heart knew that as long as she was here, the densely populated capital, which gathered countless important buildings and centuries of culture from Da Qian, would be destroyed in the flames of war.

She could only leave.

Go to a prepared place, go to sparsely populated lands, draw out the vast majority of the other side’s effective forces from the capital, and fight the decisive battle on green mountains, wastelands, and snowy plains.

That way, even if the other side used extermination methods, whether harm or disaster, both would be greatly reduced.

And she would keep the main forces of these invaders in those uninhabited lands, using Da Qian’s thick loess to completely bury their ambitions.

She knew.

This journey would be fraught with mortal danger.

But she had no choice.

…

A buzzing sound came from the sky, and light could be faintly seen.

Tie Ci stood up. Before her was a lotus pond—this season only withered lotuses remained, broken stems and dried leaves still scattered on the water surface, looking somewhat unsightly. But this was originally a ruined garden, so it wasn’t particularly conspicuous.

Tie Ci leaped onto that cluster of withered lotuses.

Her footing was very stable—the withered lotus surprisingly didn’t sway. Looking carefully, one could discover that the lotus was fake, hidden among many decaying lotus leaves, with many rust stains made on it, appearing seamless.

Tie Ci applied slight pressure with her foot, and the withered lotus made a “click” sound.

For her next step, Tie Ci landed on another fake withered lotus, producing another “click.”

Tie Ci’s every step landed on fake withered lotuses in that lotus cluster, the clicking sounds continuous. Jingxu and the others followed behind, completely unable to figure out where those fake lotus leaves were. After more than ten sounds, there was a long response, and the water level in the pool suddenly began dropping.

After a moment, it had drained completely, revealing the bottom and a stone door slowly opening.

Inside the opened stone door, a downward slide could be faintly seen.

Jingxu couldn’t help but secretly admire this mechanism design as truly ingenious.

Tie Ci went first, and several people slid down. Jingxu noticed that before sliding down, Tie Ci’s hand pressed something at the door’s edge.

After landing, wind entered and oil lamps ignited automatically, illuminating a vast stone chamber.

Facing them was an extremely detailed map of Da Qian.

The map showed all cities, with mountains and hills in relief, though it didn’t mark important locations like armies and granaries. Instead, flags were planted in several places.

Additionally, the map was densely covered with a symbol that looked very brilliant and gem-like, especially numerous in the capital.

Everyone recognized it as the Gui Qizhai symbol. Over the years, due to the Grand Preceptor’s rise to power, Gui Qizhai’s scale had continuously expanded with extremely rapid development. It could almost be said that “wherever there are wells, there is Gui Qizhai.”

There was a joke that in the capital, you could randomly urinate anywhere and might very well be urinating on Gui Qizhai territory.

The map also had some other symbols, and various routes marked in colors.

Tie Ci stood silent before the map for a long time. Pingzong looked at the map with circles in her eyes, murmuring: “So many Gui Qizhai…”

Jingxu snorted.

Indeed many—so many they formed a dense web, impossible to go anywhere without hitting this net.

If all these Gui Qizhai possessed powerful weapons surpassing the present era, then no one could leave this capital.

Even those already marked routes might not be safe.

Sudden vibrations came from overhead. Though this was already extremely deep underground, the vibrations were still so distinct that one could imagine something major had happened above.

At this moment, Tie Ci took up a brush and drew a line on the map.

She drew very quickly. Jingxu only sensed that the route was extremely winding.

Then the lights dimmed. Tie Ci took a small pack from beside the map and walked forward along the passage, taking down two backpacks from the wall as she walked and throwing them to Jingxu and Pingzong respectively.

She walked alone in front, with Pingzong following behind her. The corridor was deep and dark, with oil lamps on the walls casting dim light. Her figure was thin and delicate, made blurry by the lamplight, as if about to walk into that dense, long darkness.

Pingzong’s heart suddenly jumped, and she instinctively quickened two steps to look at her sideways.

In the dim light, she saw a glimmer flashing by her cheek—a teardrop was sliding down Tie Ci’s chin, silently falling into her collar.

And disappearing from sight.

Pingzong stood frozen in place.

From their first meeting on Ghost Island years ago to today’s flight with Tie Ci, even before Chongming Palace back then, she had never seen a single tear from Tie Ci.

She would always remember that year in the wind and snow—pale and coldly resolute Tie Ci, sitting on the Sumeru throne in Chongming Palace overlooking enemies, with only blood, fire, and this world in the depths of her eyes.

Until today, seeing this single tear in the deep corridor.

In this instant, she too felt enormous grief sweep through her entire body.

At that moment years ago, Tie Ci lost all her beloved people.

At this moment now, she lost her final beliefs and pillars.

What she trusted, revered, remained loyal to, yearned for, and was willing to dedicate her life’s blood to.

Crumbled before her eyes.

So the kindness had ulterior motives, so the support concealed deception, so the teaching harbored malicious intent, so in the end what her master wanted was the world she would protect with her life and everything.

Finally, she watched with her own eyes as Dan Shuang, who had accompanied her since childhood like a sister, caught between her master and herself, was forced to take her own life.

So after struggling and striving for so long, wanting to master the freedom of her own life, she discovered in the end that she was still a puppet.

Just thinking about it made Pingzong feel suffocated.

Earlier, seeing Tie Ci quickly regain her composure, she had thought the emperor had been tempered by experience—even such a tragic event was immediately calmed.

However, at this moment, watching Tie Ci silently shedding tears while moving forward without stopping, Pingzong’s usually heartless disposition also felt an indescribable wrenching pain.

She thought in a daze.

This imperial throne—how many people pursued it desperately? Opening history books, those who competed and bled for it were everywhere.

But if those people knew they would have to pay such a terrible price for it, would they still be willing?

She had no answer, only knowing that at this moment, enormous weariness with this life surged in her heart.

Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things as straw dogs.

…