A military dispatch?
How could there possibly be a dispatch?
General Ouyang’s wailing cut off abruptly. Trembling, he unfolded the report, and the moment he read it, the blood drained from his face.
This was a dispatch from the White Tiger Army. On the very night the news from Xijing had first arrived, Jun Beiyue’s men had sent an urgent message, traveling eight hundred li a day, to the White Tiger Army stationed nearest the Xijing front. The White Tiger Army had sent out only ten scouts, who immediately confirmed the truth: Xijing had no army of a hundred thousand bearing down on them at all — it was merely a force of ten thousand, putting on a show of strength. And the claim that Gudu Xianyun had personally led three thousand elite troops as the vanguard, mere fifty li from the western pass, was pure fabrication.
Gudu Xianyun was, in fact, far off in the kingdom of Xiliang, west of Xijing — still on his way home even now!
The moment General Ouyang saw the dispatch, he went blank with shock. The western frontier was under his own command, and by rule no other garrison could interfere with its intelligence reports. Once Jun Beiyue died, all military authority in Great Zhou would fall into his hands — everything would be decided by him alone.
He’d never imagined the White Tiger Army would investigate the intelligence so quickly. Nor had he imagined that even if Jun Beiyue hadn’t died, he would return so soon.
This evidence of falsified military intelligence alone was enough to bring the entire conspiracy into the light.
His hands fell limp at his sides, General Ouyang’s eyes hollow with despair. He offered no further excuses.
Only then did Jun Beiyue pick up the dispatch and present it to Emperor Tianhui. “Father, the truth lies right here.”
Emperor Tianhui unfolded it hastily, scanning it in a glance. His brow furrowed sharply, his chest heaving with such fury that it took him a long moment to catch his breath. He slammed his palm on the table and rose to his feet. “Ouyang Yibo, how dare you! Do you think my imperial house has no one left in it?”
General Ouyang startled violently, snapping back to himself, and immediately prostrated himself on the ground, striking his head against the floor with resounding thuds. “Your Majesty, this old servant knows his crime, this old servant deserves ten thousand deaths. I beg Your Majesty to pass judgment — but I beg you, for the sake of the Second Prince, spare my entire clan. This old servant is willing to bear any punishment alone!”
Never mind the attempt on the Emperor’s life, never mind the plot against Prince Yao, never mind the seizing of military authority through deception, never mind the framing of the Chancellor — the crime of falsifying military intelligence alone was enough to warrant the extermination of his entire clan to the ninth degree.
Emperor Tianhui slammed the table again with a resounding crack. “The Second Prince? You dare bring up the Second Prince to me now? I entrusted him to your tutelage — look what you’ve made of him! All talk and no substance, and he still had the nerve to volunteer for the western campaign, when Dugu Xianyun was clear off in Xiliang! Who exactly did he think he was going to fight?”
“Your Majesty, this old servant knows his crime. This old servant was blinded by the wolfish ambitions of those Xijing beasts, misled by their slander into such foolishness. Your Majesty, I beg you, for the sake of this old servant’s years of loyal service, spare my entire household. This old servant is willing—”
Before General Ouyang could finish, Emperor Tianhui cut him off coldly. “Guards!”
At that very moment, the doors of the Xuanwu Hall finally opened. Eunuch Yin was just stepping in when Yingzi rushed past him, moving so fast he nearly collided with Jun Beiyue.
“What is the meaning of this?” Emperor Tianhui demanded furiously.
Yingzi, disregarding all protocol, spoke urgently. “Your Highness, the Princess of Prince Yao has been abducted!”
“What!” Emperor Tianhui gasped in shock. Before he’d even finished speaking, Jun Beiyue had already vanished. Yingzi rushed out after him, leaving Emperor Tianhui staring blankly.
Han Ziqing, taken — by whom…
At a cave mouth on a cliffside, a trail of blood led from the entrance deep into the cavern. Jun Beiyao had been waiting outside for a long while. The moment he saw Xuanyuan Lige finally step out, he snarled furiously, “I’m going to kill her right now!”
But Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes turned cold, and Jun Beiyao fell silent, though visibly resentful.
“Go back. It’s not good for you to be away from the palace at a time like this,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly. His white robes were stained with blood, his arm wrapped in white cloth — a wound from a grazing arrow blast.
“Why did you save her?” Jun Beiyao asked, uncomprehending.
Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes went colder still, and though furious, Jun Beiyao didn’t dare press further. He turned to leave, but hadn’t gone more than a few steps when a flat, indifferent voice sounded behind him. “Seventh Prince. If you’re scheming for the throne, remember the word patience. General Ouyang is a lesson worth heeding.”
Jun Beiyao stopped in his tracks, and after a long moment, said coldly, “I’ll say this plainly. Whatever your reasons for saving Han Ziqing, once this prince ascends the throne, she’ll either die, or marry me and live out her days a widow in all but name!”
Only two fates awaited a woman who dared threaten his manhood!
With that, he stalked off. Xuanyuan Lige paid the warning no mind, turning instead to walk back into the cave.
Deep within the treacherous cave, Ziqing lay unconscious, her wounds already bandaged. Her once-fine white riding attire was now in ruins. She’d held on for so long — now that she’d finally collapsed, no one could say when she’d wake.
Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes were lowered, betraying no expression, as he gently examined the wound on her leg where a wolf’s fang had torn through her flesh. The wound had already been cleaned and treated, but from the violent fighting it had reopened, seeping a trace of blood.
He pressed lightly, drew a bit of the blood onto his finger, and lifted it beneath his nose for a light sniff. His eyes darkened sharply.
Poison. A deadly poison from Nanzhao — Crimson Begonia.
This poison was typically smeared on the claws and fangs of ferocious beasts. Once someone was clawed or bitten, the toxin would seep deep into the bloodstream through the wound, and within ten days, death was certain.
If his judgment was correct, this poison must have come from that pack of Xijing wolves — and it had already been four or five days since that day.
The antidote needed to be found quickly, or the longer it lingered, the harder it would be to cure.
Just as Xuanyuan Lige was deep in thought, a strange, faint fragrance suddenly drifted through the air — something between the scent of flowers, medicinal herbs, and incense.
Xuanyuan Lige tensed at once, but quickly realized it wasn’t a sleeping drug — the scent was coming from Han Ziqing herself.
What was this?
Could it be some kind of natural body fragrance, slowly released after intense exertion?
His brow furrowed slightly. He leaned down slowly, his fine nose brushing lightly against her skin as he inhaled carefully.
It was indeed coming from her, from head to toe. The strange fragrance grew steadily stronger, gradually taking on a bewitching, mesmerizing quality — the kind that made one want to draw closer, to lose oneself in it the longer one breathed it in.
Xuanyuan Lige’s hand drifted unconsciously to rest on her arm — and in that instant, he snapped back to full alertness, the words bursting from him: “Enchantment Fragrance!”
This woman had been poisoned with Enchantment Fragrance!
But he couldn’t understand how that was possible. First, Enchantment Fragrance was a long-lost drug from Nanzhao. Second, if she had truly been poisoned with it, there was no way it could have waited this long to take effect!
Could the Enchantment Fragrance have been hidden dormant within her body all this time, only now triggering?
Enchantment Fragrance was called the world’s most fearsome drug precisely because there was no cure for it — the only way to pass it on was through intimate contact between a man and a woman!
Just as Xuanyuan Lige stood there in stunned realization, Ziqing, half-conscious, let out a pained, hazy moan, as though desperate to grasp hold of something!
Suddenly, she seized Xuanyuan Lige’s hand and yanked him down hard.
Caught completely off guard, Xuanyuan Lige toppled forward, falling onto her — and in that instant, he felt something within his frozen heart crack wide open with a resounding “crack.”