Hand Yanzi over to her? And negotiate peacefully, too?

Even without Yingzi having informed her of Jun Beiyue’s situation, Ziqing would never have agreed to such an absurd request!

What was there to negotiate peacefully about, anyway?

For Xijing to have peace, the only way was to hand Yelu Qianqian over to Xiliang—but that was something Ziqing simply could not do.

Before all these schemes had come to light, no matter how reluctant she’d been deep down, Ziqing had still supported Yelu Qianqian’s decision to sacrifice herself and marry far away. She hadn’t even told Situ Haonan about it.

But!

Marrying her off far away was itself a scheme!

The peace bought by that marriage was meant to sow the seeds of an even greater conflict!

If war was inevitable, if it could not be extinguished, then it had to be contained to the western edge of Longyuan—between Xijing and Xiliang!

Crown Prince Wanyan Lie of Xiliang had indeed been quite domineering just now, warning not only Yelu Chenyi but Great Zhou as well. But that muscle-bound, simple-minded crown prince surely hadn’t thought things through that far.

Xiliang’s strength was only enough to match Xijing evenly; no matter how savage or reckless they were, they could never reach all the way to Great Zhou.

Yelu Chenyi didn’t even know where Yanzi was, or what she’d been doing!

Hearing what Ziqing said, he felt a flicker of alarm inside, yet kept his composure, snorting coldly. “Han Ziqing, understand this clearly—this is Akbachu, not the capital of your Great Zhou.”

In other words: this wasn’t a place she could search however she pleased.

“So what?” Ziqing shot back coldly, a mocking smile curling her lips as she strode forward brazenly. The guards blocking her path all instinctively stepped aside to clear the way.

Yelu Chenyi stood rooted in place, his gaze flicking over the mercenaries beside Ziqing. Though he said nothing, his mind was racing at full speed.

If he couldn’t lure this woman away from her mercenaries, then there was only one option left—use his men as a human wall, sacrifice a batch of guards to buy himself time.

“Yi’er, do you know where Yanzi is?”

The Emperor of Xijing’s face had gone completely pale with anxiety. If he’d known things would turn out like this, he never would have agreed to let his son do this in the first place—he would have handed Yanzi over long ago!

“Father, don’t worry. The altar needs you to preside over matters of justice there. This… is merely a misunderstanding.”

As he spoke, Yelu Chenyi shot a glance at several of his personal guards, and immediately a group of them rushed off after Ziqing.

“My lady, they’re making their move!” Yingzi said in a low voice. Their gunpowder supply was running low—if Yelu Chenyi truly committed to an all-out fight, they would be the ones to lose.

If only the prince were here right now!

“It would be strange if he didn’t.” Ziqing had already anticipated this, and without missing a beat, continued walking forward.

Suddenly, at that very moment, all the guards surged forward at once, splitting into groups, cutting off the five mercenaries closely guarding Ziqing from her side.

Dozens of men surrounded each mercenary. Though they dared not act rashly, they had at least succeeded in separating them from Han Ziqing.

Still not satisfied, Yelu Chenyi shot another glance, sending in yet more reinforcements.

But Ziqing remained utterly unmoved, continuing forward. And without her command, the mercenaries stayed perfectly still as well.

Ziqing kept walking. Yelu Chenyi, cleverly enough, understood that her greatest bargaining chip was the mercenaries—but he wasn’t quite clever enough to realize that the mercenaries’ greatest bargaining chip was, in fact, her.

At last, Yelu Chenyi stood directly in front of her, drawing his sword to block her path. “This prince will give you one last chance—either come back to the palace with me and we’ll talk this through properly, or I won’t mind trading you for Yanzi instead.”

Ziqing said nothing, glancing around at the mercenaries now tightly encircled on all sides.

Seeing this, Yelu Chenyi smiled coldly. He said nothing more, but his meaning was surely clear enough to Han Ziqing—Akbachu’s main army might be stationed outside the city, but the guards within the city were hardly few.

Before this human wall could be completely blown apart, he was more than capable of capturing Han Ziqing.

In this brief moment of silence, several well-trained guards silently positioned themselves beside Yingzi—clearly meant to restrain her.

In a direct comparison of martial skill between Yelu Chenyi and Han Ziqing, without her sound-based qin attacks, Yelu Chenyi could easily overpower her in an instant.

Yet Ziqing merely gave a wild, mocking laugh, snorted lightly, and turned to sidestep Yelu Chenyi’s blade, continuing to walk forward.

This caught Yelu Chenyi completely off guard—he had expected the mercenaries to act, but they made no move at all!

Excellent!

“This prince would like to see just how long you can keep up this arrogance!” Yelu Chenyi said coldly, his sword lunging forward as he closed the distance, twisting the blade aside at the last moment—his hand shot out instead, gripping Ziqing’s shoulder!

But at that same instant, Ziqing’s other hand produced, from who knows where, a small black sphere—this was her homemade gunpowder, small and compact, easy to carry, yet devastating in power.

Yelu Chenyi, of course, had no idea it was gunpowder, but it was exactly what Bingchan had pulled out earlier, which was what had made him back off.

But Han Ziqing didn’t have the armor the mercenaries wore—she had no way to protect herself.

Realizing this, Yelu Chenyi abruptly pulled her close, wrapping his arm around her neck from behind, his sword aiming to knock the black sphere from her hand.

Ziqing let him hold her, her gaze turning icy, dark clouds gathering over her hideously ugly face. With her head lowered, if one looked up at her face from below, she looked every bit like a demon.

“Yelu Chenyi, I forgot to warn you—the moment this thing is touched, it will immediately…”

Her voice was low and eerie, as though rising from the depths of hell itself, and then, without warning, came a “boom” that sent a jolt of terror through everyone nearby—even Yelu Chenyi couldn’t help his heart skipping a beat.

“Put that damned thing away, or this prince will take your life right now!” Yelu Chenyi bellowed.

“If I die, what will you use to feed the human gu then?” Ziqing shot back.

“You think I wouldn’t dare kill you?” Yelu Chenyi said coldly, pressing the edge of his blade against Ziqing’s throat, fury blazing in his eyes.

But Ziqing remained utterly at ease, saying softly, “You… don’t dare.”

Yelu Chenyi roared with fury, “Then watch and see if this prince dares!”

With that, he tightened his grip on the blade—but at the same instant, Ziqing’s voice rang out louder than his, sharper, fiercer, more commanding, “Yelu Chenyi, take your filthy hands off me this instant, or this consort will take you down with me!”

As she spoke, her other hand pressed down on the black bomb, triggering some mechanism—the fuse ignited on its own.

In an instant, the entire scene fell utterly silent—true, absolute silence, with only the hissing sizzle of the burning fuse, as though the world had emptied of everyone but them.

Everyone seemed under a spell, every eye locked on that steadily shortening fuse, hearts pounding faster and faster—”boom! boom! boom!”

“You…” Yelu Chenyi was speechless with shock, unable to utter a word.

“I dare,” Ziqing said simply, just those two words, a mocking smile curling at the corner of her lips—a smile that scorned the whole world, fearless, unafraid.