Although they dressed as ordinarily as the others and looked rather unremarkable, such movements had seemingly become ingrained in their very bones, executed with extreme smoothness and naturalness, like walking or running. It was clear that these men were not ordinary common folk.

“Uncle Ping, I want to spar with them!” Bai Jinzhi spoke with an innocent and naive expression.

“We are crude men—how dare we spar with the Princess!” One of them quickly spoke up. “If we accidentally injured the Princess’s precious golden body, even ten thousand deaths couldn’t atone for our crime!”

Bai Jinzhi’s eyes sparkled with amusement: “Shen Yancong, you’re quite something—the people you recruit even know idioms! Among ordinary families, those who can read are few. Since you’ve studied… why didn’t you take the imperial examinations?”

Seeing that Bai Jinzhi was settling in for a heart-to-heart talk with these men, Shen Yancong glanced toward Lu Ping. Seeing that Lu Ping remained silent, he too stood obediently to the side and smiled: “What a coincidence! What a coincidence!”

“I studied for a few days, but… I’m not cut out for scholarly pursuits! So I stopped studying!” that man replied.

Bai Jinzhi turned her head to glance at Lu Ping. Lu Ping understood her meaning and suddenly launched an attack at that man without warning.

The remaining men clenched their fists, their entire bodies tensing up, unsure whether they had been discovered.

“Hey, hey, hey! Uncle Ping! We agreed that today I would test the recruits’ skills… How come you made the first move?” Bai Jinzhi called out to Lu Ping, then turned to look at the others. “You… who wants to try with me! If you beat me, when we go bandit-hunting soon, you can protect my elder sister!”

Having said this, Bai Jinzhi also made her move.

Upon hearing this—protecting Bai Qingyan—those men thought this was like someone bringing them a pillow when they were sleepy! It would make killing Bai Qingyan even more convenient. So the one fighting Lu Ping and the one sparring with Bai Jinzhi immediately perked up, their moves becoming fierce and filled with killing intent.

Lu Ping’s side was locked in intense combat. After several dozen moves with Bai Jinzhi, when she was slightly off guard, someone locked their arm around her throat. Bai Jinzhi’s body stiffened, and that person quickly released her and knelt on the ground to beg forgiveness: “This commoner acted carelessly! Please punish me, Princess!”

Red marks had already appeared on Bai Jinzhi’s neck. She couldn’t help but marvel to herself… what formidable techniques!

Looking over at Lu Ping’s side, the man fighting him was extremely skilled. His movements were agile, every move a deadly strike that left no room for mercy—this was like the techniques learned by death warriors raised by noble families and the imperial house. The purpose of such techniques was solely to complete missions, leaving no room or escape route for the enemy.

Bai Jinzhi gently touched her neck, her gaze sweeping over the dozen or so men who looked tense, and called out to Lu Ping: “Uncle Ping! That’s enough! These men have good skills!”

Hearing this, Lu Ping withdrew his moves, and that man also stopped.

“Who would have thought… You men from Nan Jiang have such good skills!” Shen Yancong said with a smile. “You were holding back, too—if everyone could learn such excellent techniques, they might be able to save their lives in the future!”

The man who had just sparred with Lu Ping seemed to be the leader of this group. He cupped his fists and bowed to Shen Yancong: “Living in Nan Jiang territory all year round, one must always learn some skills to resist the occasional raids by Xi Liang soldiers!”

Lu Ping nodded seriously: “That’s certainly true! However, with skills like yours… it would be a waste to be ordinary soldiers. How about this, Young Master Shen… what if we let each of them lead a team for training? The Princess doesn’t need over a dozen people protecting her. Before we set out to hunt bandits… we can have the teams fight each other two by two. Whoever leads the winning team gets to stay by the Princess’s side to protect her. Of course… those who protect the Princess and ensure her safety can also earn ten gold pieces!”

As soon as Shen Yancong understood Lu Ping’s meaning—to force these dozen men to teach everything they knew—he nodded repeatedly: “I think this is an excellent idea! They should all want to protect the Princess up close, after all… staying by the Princess’s side is safe, and they can earn gold too! You all need to work hard!”

After saying this, Shen Yancong went with Lu Ping and Bai Jinzhi to inspect other areas.

Those dozen men huddled together. Seeing Bai Jinzhi, Lu Ping, and the others walk away, someone said: “Boss, should we just charge over and take that Princess Zhenguo’s life? This matter would be settled, and we’ve already been delayed here for so long. If we don’t return soon… I’m afraid…”

“Yes! And this poison attacks every month, causing unbearable pain. After half a year, it will take our lives. I’m afraid we won’t make it back in time—we’ll all die in Jin!”

“If we charge over like that, how many of us could survive? We might all die here. Although we are death warriors, when there’s a chance to live, who doesn’t want to live? That little pain from the poison is nothing compared to death!” The leader wiped the sweat from his forehead, his calm and deep eyes gazing in Bai Qingyan’s direction. He rewrapped the cloth strips on his hands and wiped the sweat from his nose. “Since I brought you all here, I want to take you all back! Let’s wait a few more days… After we go up the mountain, we’ll eliminate the Princess Zhenguo and return to Xi Liang! If we still can’t eliminate the Princess Zhenguo, it won’t be too late to resort to mutual destruction!”

With the leader’s command, the others finally returned to formation and continued training together.

Shen Yancong moved quickly. After Bai Qingyan’s group left, he divided the new recruits accompanying the mountain bandit-hunting mission into twelve teams, having his own people train the new recruits alongside those Xi Liang assassins, waiting to select who would guard the Princess Zhenguo before heading up the mountain.

·

Bai Jinzhi rode her horse beside Bai Qingyan, slowly recounting the day’s events at the training ground: “I observed those men’s skills—every move was a killing technique! This is the way of death warriors! Moreover, although those men tried hard to disguise themselves, when they bowed, their postures were identical, clearly having been trained by someone. They aren’t ordinary commoners!”

Now, Bai Jinzhi was becoming increasingly mature, preferring to think things through carefully when encountering situations, no longer as impulsive and acting on whim as before. Bai Qingyan was very pleased.

She reached out to pat Bai Jinzhi’s head: “Well done. Those men are assassins from Xi Liang, probably coming for me. But it doesn’t matter—now that we’ve placed them in the military camp to let them teach those recruits, we’re making the best use of everything!”

“But this is too dangerous, Elder Sister!” Having briefly sparred with those men, Bai Jinzhi knew that each one possessed extraordinary skills.

With such abilities and harboring ill intentions toward Bai Qingyan, how could Bai Jinzhi not worry about her elder sister’s safety?

“If they wanted to fight to the death, they wouldn’t have entered the military camp in the first place—they would have directly attacked the Bai mansion! Don’t worry… this matter is still under control, nothing will happen!” Seeing Bai Jinzhi’s furrowed brow, Bai Qingyan’s heart softened a bit, and she comforted her further: “Besides, in the military camp, Shen Yancong manages everything meticulously. Even if they wanted to come to the Bai mansion to assassinate me, they couldn’t get out!”

As the sisters were talking, they arrived at the Bai mansion’s entrance.