Hearing this voice, Ning Yi’s eyebrows jumped slightly. Feng Zhiwei set down the teacup in her hands.

This voice was very familiar, yet shouldn’t appear at this time in this place.

The boat shook and stopped – it had run aground on a mudflat. To the left was a reed marsh. The third-month reeds had just sprouted, a patch of lush green. Beyond the reed pond, a large batch of soldiers had silently appeared at some unknown time.

The person who had just spoken, demanding Ning Yi hand over the tiger tally, was striding up from below deck, followed by several masked men in hemp clothes. Some had dragon-like strides and tiger steps, others moved with light grace. Judging by their eyes and footwork, all were masters.

Ning Yi smiled, his attitude leisurely and indifferent, greeting him.

“Second Brother.”

“Didn’t expect me here, did you?” The Second Prince gazed coldly at them, a smile at the corner of his lips deeply malicious. “Thought I was at the Tiger Majesty Garrison? Wanted to take the water route from Li Lake straight down to Luo River crossing to encircle from the waterways? Sixth Brother, you calculated well, but you didn’t know – when wolves want to encircle me, I instead wield the whip to chase wolves!”

Feng Zhiwei leaned against the ship’s rail, turning to look around. Three sides were water, the only walkable side – the reed marsh – was already heavily surrounded.

“Second Highness also calculated well.” She pointed at the reed marsh. “Using the stratagem against itself, feints within feints. You said you were at the Tiger Majesty Garrison but actually were here all along waiting like a hunter by a tree stump. Admirable, admirable.”

The Second Prince let out a sinister laugh. “You and Sixth Brother can secretly collude to stir up wind and rain, but others aren’t allowed to fight back a little? You want to catch this Prince like a turtle in a jar – you have to see if this Prince is willing!”

He pointed all around: “Why would I rush to the Tiger Majesty Garrison to wait to be surrounded? I wait for you here, kill you, seize the tiger tally – I can still incite the Tiger Majesty Garrison, surround the capital and control the palace! As long as you Ning Yi die, the Prince Chu faction will be leaderless. The Changying Guard and Nine Gates Infantry remain neutral – the capital will be mine!”

Ning Yi listened attentively, nodded, and smiled: “Second Brother has truly made progress.”

“Still putting on airs to mock me now?” The Second Prince wasn’t angered. Watching him with a sinister laugh, he boldly dragged over a stool and sat down across from him. “On this boat above and below, the reed marsh on all four sides – all my people. Even the water bottom has nets laid. Even if you jump in the water you can’t escape. I know you also use feints – the Changying Guard and Jianghuai naval forces are deployed not far on the river surface. But to conceal your tracks, you didn’t have them follow you closely. By the time they get news and rush here…” He grinned. “Magistrate Tao’s official boat has inadvertently gotten stuck in the mudflat reed marsh, where wildfires burning wasteland on shore will spread… Ning Yi, Wei Zhi, have you thought about this peculiar way to die – being burned to death in water?”

“However one dies, it’s just death.” Ning Yi said lightly. “Just troubling Second Brother with such effort – truly apologetic.”

“You’ve also troubled me greatly.” The Second Prince laughed coldly. “You hide behind the scenes but set all your dogs in motion, barking before Father Emperor day and night. You even burned Shuyu Manor but made it look like I burned it myself, making Father Emperor think I have ulterior motives and determined to move against me – you’re ruthless. These years our brothers fell one by one – which didn’t have you causing trouble behind the scenes? Hateful that Father Emperor was deceived by you, letting you eliminate blood brothers one after another!”

“Your own thoughts were improper first – that’s why others had openings to exploit.” Ning Yi said indifferently. “If you wholeheartedly served the ruler, who could move against you?”

“Enough.” The Second Prince suddenly laughed loudly. “Improper thoughts? You have the face to say that to me? If we really discuss which brother has the most improper thoughts, I say it’s you first!”

Ning Yi smiled, leaning casually against the table edge, his upturned eyes light as spring wind: “So what?”

“Nothing much.” The Second Prince smiled through gritted teeth. “His Majesty won’t punish you – I’ll do it!” He beckoned with his hand. Several people from behind him slowly stepped forward.

“Gu Nanyi.” The Second Prince said coolly. “I hear your martial arts can be considered first under heaven. But even heroes fear numbers. I have several foreign masters here – willing to exchange pointers?”

Gu Nanyi had never looked at him, nor listened to their conversation, focusing on picking out the better shrimp skins to place aside. Hearing this phrase, his fingers trembled. The bloodied fishing line whistled back with a whoosh. Red light flashed in mid-air. “Tao Longxin’s” heavy body fell with a thud, landing right at Gu Nanyi’s feet. Though his injuries were severe, because of his high martial skills and quick reactions, Feng Zhiwei hadn’t completely stabbed into his back. But now falling at Gu Nanyi’s feet, he could only make “ah ah” sounds, unable to speak or move.

Laymen couldn’t see anything from Gu Nanyi’s move, but several masters exchanged glances, their faces changing with shock. Clearly when Gu Nanyi had just pulled back the fishing line in that instant, he’d used it to seal the opponent’s pressure points.

Sealing pressure points was already profound martial learning. The fishing line was such a light fluttering thing, and long too. Yet Gu Nanyi used it like his own fingers, sealing points as he wished, accurate in identifying points and sharp in internal force. Such ability inevitably startled people.

The Second Prince glanced at Gu Nanyi unconcernedly – he had consulted masters and already found a way to deal with Gu Nanyi. Martial skill level was secondary. The key was the method of attack – must attack the enemy’s weakness.

The several masters he’d invited included Western Liang martial arts grandmasters. Western Liang bordered Minnan – they also had their share of strange tricks. A sinister smile appeared at the Second Prince’s lips – since dealing with Ning Yi and Wei Zhi, how could he forget Wei Zhi’s famous guard?

With a wave of his hand, several people floated over like light smoke, surrounding Gu Nanyi completely.

Two of them suddenly removed their wide hemp clothes. Inside were tight-fitting clothes in five-colored patterns, thin and smooth. Their bodies were graceful, waists soft and slippery as snakes – actually women. Yet they still densely covered their faces. Apparently understanding Gu Nanyi’s indifference, they didn’t plan to take the route of using beauty to disturb his mind. Moreover, those five-colored garments had no aesthetic appeal. The color combinations were extremely strange and ugly, the edges between colors fractured and abrupt. One glance made people uncomfortable.

Seeing those colors, Feng Zhiwei also frowned, but just found them unpleasant to the eye. However, she immediately felt that Gu Nanyi beside her, originally unmoved as a mountain, seemed somewhat agitated.

His agitation differed from others. When others were agitated, their breathing quickened and they couldn’t sit still. When he was agitated, he crushed walnuts. Normally he crushed shells without harming the meat, but now one crush turned them to powder – he couldn’t control his strength.

Feng Zhiwei watched the walnuts crumbling to powder between his fingers and palms, feeling somewhat uneasy. She knew Young Master Gu’s preferences were scarce. He resisted many things and had taboos about colors. For instance, what he accepted most was his own sky-water blue, never changing – a shade deeper or lighter wouldn’t work. Besides this, he had higher acceptance for plain tones and cool tones. People who often appeared around him like Ning Yi, Zong Chen, Feng Zhiwei and others were all plain-cool tone enthusiasts, so normally nothing particularly abnormal was noticed.

But in the current situation, it seemed the opponent truly came prepared, apparently planning to attack him through colors?

Here four colorfully-dressed women closed in. There four hemp-clothed men all raised their hands. Between their hands appeared weapons – flutes, pipes, cymbals, mouth organs – musical instruments of the eight sounds. One was even more peculiar – actually a trumpet.

The Second Prince sneered and stepped back. Below, a large batch of guards surged forward, surrounding the original guards of Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei on deck.

Because the boat’s space was limited, Ning Yi only brought Ning Cheng and a few guards. Feng Zhiwei also symbolically brought two ordinary guards. With Gu Nanyi present, whether others were there wasn’t a big problem. Now the huge difference in numbers showed. The entire deck was filled with enemies, surrounded three layers deep.

Ning Cheng had been standing on the other side of the ship’s rail. Now wanting to charge over, he was frozen by one glance from Ning Yi. After years of master and servant understanding, he immediately grasped Ning Yi’s meaning. Raising his hand to reach into his bosom for signal flares, his hand had just moved when brilliant light flashed dazzlingly with cold wind striking his face. Dozens of long swords scissored down toward his chest.

Ning Cheng’s eyes bulged. Crying out strangely: “Shameless! Group attack!” He suddenly leaned backward, flipping down from the ship’s rail. In mid-air, flipping his body, he reached for the flare again. But with a splash, several people wearing water vests suddenly stood up in the shallow water below the boat, holding long hooks with curved pointed ends, hooking toward Ning Cheng’s back. Ning Cheng cried out again strangely, cursing loudly: “In the water too!” His foot kicked against the boat’s hull and he flipped up again. Now he had long swords shooting at his chest above and long hooks scratching his back below. Caught in the middle like in a net from heaven and earth, he sucked in air and shifted his body in extreme busyness, forcibly moving aside a section. Just as he flipped up, with a ripping sound, his lapels were torn by the long hooks from the water, dropping a whole pile of messy things – unwashed stinky socks, sweat cloths unchanged for a month, flattened jujube cakes and such. The signal flares were mixed among them, falling into the water with a plop.

Ning Cheng jumped back onto the boat in extreme embarrassment, glaring at the group of swordsmen surrounding him, angrily cursing: “Despicable! Shameless! Scum!”

Feng Zhiwei saw this scene clearly. Her eyes narrowed. Ning Cheng’s martial arts were second only to Gu Nanyi. Now actually forced into such embarrassment, unable to even take out a signal flare – though he himself was careless, it also showed the Second Prince had brought out all his resources today, determined to keep them in this ten-li reed marsh.

The Second Prince sat laughing coldly in the heavy protection of the crowd. Suddenly he raised his hand in a signal.

The four colorfully-dressed women surrounding Gu Nanyi suddenly began spinning rapidly. Those messy colors spinning made people’s eyes even more dizzy and hearts irritated, chaotically like thorns stuffed in the heart. One of them, while spinning, suddenly flashed cold light, shooting out a short blade glowing blue from under her armpit at a strange angle!

Feng Zhiwei watching from the side saw clearly. Fearing Gu Nanyi’s discomfort would make him lose focus, she’d long drawn the soft sword from her waist and was waiting. Just as she was about to act, Gu Nanyi snorted coldly. Reaching out, he grabbed her sleeve and pulled her behind himself. Then his fingers flicked, a gust of force shot out. With a snap, that short blade changed direction, flying back toward those women faster than before. The women, seeing the blade return, all showed great panic and rapidly dodged. Sure enough, that blade shook in mid-air and exploded with a bang, shooting out several smaller flying knives that all fell on empty spaces.

Feng Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief, delighted that though the color was annoying, it apparently couldn’t make Gu Nanyi’s mind chaotic or discount his martial arts. Suddenly she saw those scattered women exchange glances and close in again. Their forms unfolded. Feng Zhiwei’s vision blurred. Looking again, a layer of thin colorful clothes had fallen on the ground. The clothes on their bodies had already changed color – from ugly five colors to blazing dazzling bright red.

As the clothes’ color changed, the women drifted over ghost-like again, joining hands advancing together. Their posture of extending five claws and pouncing looked like a large mass of moving sticky blood, approaching with floating black hair, looking nauseating. Vaguely there was actually heavy blood stench spreading. Gu Nanyi seemed even more agitated, but his hands weren’t slow. With a flick of his sleeve, a gust of wind rose from flat ground, like dusting away dirt, dusting away that mass of “flowing blood” together. Several people couldn’t stand steady on the ground and crashed into a pile. One even hit the ship’s side, her head breaking and bleeding, truly dyeing herself with fresh blood.

Those women climbed up, exchanged glances, let out a low sharp whistle. Their bodies spun. In the blink of an eye they’d changed clothes color again. This time an earth-like color, but not pure – vaguely with some light red, dark purple, pale white colors mixed in, like land after a great battle – drinking full of fresh blood and white bones, filled with rotting flesh and limbs. Compared to that earlier blazing red, it had even more visual impact.

Gu Nanyi’s breathing quickened a bit. Feng Zhiwei looked at him worriedly, protecting his back, watching those women closely. Her attention would be on Gu Nanyi. Suddenly from the front side came a low whistle. A cold arrow shot rapidly – swift as lightning, about to reach her back!

White light and blue shadow flashed. Two pairs of hands simultaneously reached out – one pinching the arrowhead, one pinching the arrow tail. They exchanged glances. Each used force. “Crack” – the arrow broke.

Feng Zhiwei, listening to that crisp breaking sound right by her ear, watching those two men’s gazes meeting, shivered for no reason.

Ning Yi patted her shoulder, saying softly: “Don’t worry about others. Protecting yourself is most important.” Without turning his head, his hand raised. Half the broken arrow shot down electrically. With an “Ah,” a man who’d just surfaced trying to ambush him from underwater was hit squarely in the crown by this arrow from heaven, instantly sinking. On the water surface bloomed a layer of thick bright blood flowers.

But Gu Nanyi raised his hand and threw his broken half. That arrow actually had eyes, turning left and right, bypassing the crowd straight at the Second Prince. The Second Prince hurriedly stood up retreating repeatedly. Only after retreating several steps did the arrow’s momentum cease. With a clang it pinned his robe corner to the deck.

“Change! Change!” The Second Prince forcefully pulled out his robe, waving his fists and roaring.

Feng Zhiwei hadn’t understood the meaning of these words when the women across moved again. In an instant their forms were like snakes. Those thin soft tight-fitting colorful clothes were the skins shed by snakes, layer after layer. From red turning yellow, yellow turning brown, brown turning green. Each unfurling of form was a color. Each color change involved attacking Gu Nanyi. After being beaten back they weren’t discouraged and changed again. In an instant streaming light flew and danced, unfurling like banners. The ground piled with layers of ultra-thin colorful clothes. Heaven knew how they wore so many layers of clothes on their bodies, and how they changed in an instant. Judging by their posture, they seemed determined to find a color Gu Nanyi absolutely couldn’t accept before giving up.

Feng Zhiwei was dazzled, frozen there – what was this called? Changing clothes?

Gu Nanyi’s breathing grew increasingly rapid. After so many color changes, he seemed finally provoked into inner fragmentation and agitation. He already had a special constitution. The smooth glassy heaven and earth in normal people’s eyes, when he looked at it, was already fractured – sounds grating, colors chaotic, fabrics rough, making him agitated and pained. This pain, after being with Feng Zhiwei, was gradually worn smooth by her gentle persistent grinding, approaching roundness and breadth, acceptance also higher. But it couldn’t withstand such chaotic violent provocation. The fingers hidden in his sleeves gradually seeped with damp hot sweat.

The women had now changed to another color – yellow-brown like dead leaf butterflies, indistinguishable whether fallen leaves or butterflies, coiled with strange messy patterns, making one think of the dense forest’s gloomy yellow sunlight, with large swathes of demon butterflies flying up from corpses.

Gu Nanyi’s body suddenly shook.

The heaven and earth that had been calm for so long seemed struck heavily by some external force, shattering that reinforced protective shield, exposing the inner heaven and earth with its cracks, fragile and bare.

“Clang!”

Almost precisely when Gu Nanyi was finally provoked into the disgusting chaos that disturbed him, those men who’d never moved, only waiting to test colors while holding musical instruments, suddenly all made their instruments sound!

Made sound, not blew sound.

In an instant the trumpet was ear-piercing, cymbals clamorous, flute sound sharp, pipe sound broken. Several instruments that could originally be played beautifully were forcibly destroyed by great force, using friction and striking to ensemble a strange tune that made one dizzy upon hearing!

Simultaneously, these people while emitting ear-splitting strange sounds, while displaying disgusting colors, charged toward Gu Nanyi.

And with the Second Prince’s order, the elites on deck all swarmed attacking Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi.

Gu Nanyi suddenly lifted Gu Zhixiao down. He didn’t hand her to Feng Zhiwei, but placed her in a nearby bucket. There was water in the bucket. His placing motion was absolutely not gentle. With a bang, water splashed everywhere. Feng Zhiwei thought the pampered Gu Zhixiao would surely cry, but this child made no sound. She wiped clean the fishy water on her face, biting her lips, eyes wide open, curling herself in the bucket. Apparently very clear her father faced danger – she knew she couldn’t help but wouldn’t let herself cry loudly and become a burden.

Feng Zhiwei’s heart tightened – Gu Nanyi always attacked with his Gu Zhixiao. At any time he had confidence to protect Zhixiao well. Yet now he put her down.

Sure enough, she saw those people forming an array charging over. Gu Nanyi’s attacks were clearly slower by several parts. He couldn’t close his eyes to fight – that clamorous instrument sound had already covered all sounds of movement.

After over ten moves, vaguely with a ripping sound, a section of sky-water blue sleeve fluttered down. The Second Prince watching from afar excitedly stood – this was Gu Nanyi’s first time being approached closely. This moment was a sleeve – the next moment could be his hand!

As long as Gu Nanyi was resolved, none of these people would escape alive!

That section of sleeve slowly floated down, grabbed by Gu Zhixiao staying in the bucket. The little girl stared blankly for a long while, then suddenly grabbed the basket beside her containing shrimp and threw it at one hemp-clothed man holding a trumpet. That person didn’t guard against this bean-sized child also daring to act. Suddenly only seeing a patch of white things flying at his face, thinking it was some deadly hidden weapon, he hurriedly retreated. Retreating without method, he happened to bump near Ning Yi. Ning Yi without a word smoothly slashed. That person hurriedly used the trumpet to block. The trumpet broke in half. That ear-piercing sound immediately improved somewhat.

Feng Zhiwei also saw that fluttering fallen sleeve and immediately injured one of her enemies with a sword. Her footsteps sliding, she was about to join the battle. Her shoulder was suddenly grabbed and turned. Ning Yi acted to pull her back.

“Don’t join the battle.” Ning Yi said. “Master Gu cares about you. Your joining will only make him more distracted.”

Feng Zhiwei was silent for a moment, having to admit Ning Yi was right. Her concern caused chaos – she’d already somewhat lost composure.

She bit her lip, looked at those dead leaf butterfly-like women, then suddenly shifted her shoulder avoiding Ning Yi’s hand. Grabbing a nearby water bucket, with a whoosh she flipped down the ship’s rail.

Ning Yi was alarmed, raising his hand to grab her. She’d already passed his fingers straight to below the boat. Immediately over ten black-clothed men stood up from the water, long hooks in their hands gleaming as they hooked toward her. Feng Zhiwei was prepared early. In mid-air her leg lifted. With a clang, the boot tip actually ejected a dagger. She raised her leg and swept. In mid-air she traced a smooth semicircle. Amid ding-ding sounds, those curved hook points fell into the water. Those people froze there. She’d already stepped on those long hooks without looking back, crossing the boat hull straight to the front mudflat.

Before everyone could react to what she was doing, Feng Zhiwei had already landed in the mudflat. Bending down, she scooped a full bucket of sludge and quickly ran back. Carrying a bucket of mud, she displayed her best lightness skill. In a flash she’d returned to original position. Her feet hadn’t even stabilized when the bucket of mud had already been thrown at those women.

With a splash, the thin mud all fell on the women, immediately covering that dead leaf butterfly color that made Gu Nanyi uncomfortable. Feng Zhiwei was delighted, glad her method worked. But she heard those women giggle and laugh. Their bodies spun slickly. That mud actually couldn’t stay on that slippery fabric – it all slid down, piling on the deck. That annoying color was still bright as new. Feng Zhiwei stared blankly, her nose crooked with anger.

“I see they’re too idle!” The Second Prince watching coldly gave a sinister smile. His hand waved. “Finish them off for me!”

The masters he brought instantly all moved, surrounding Ning Yi, Feng Zhiwei and several guards. Everyone instantly plunged into chaotic battle. The most elite were blocked by Gu Nanyi alone. The rest each person was in the battle. On deck, group after group engaged in tangled combat. Constantly angry shouts and blood flowers splattered simultaneously, mixed with those shuttling ugly colors and explosive brain-piercing demonic sounds, making hearts depressed to the point of vomiting. Feng Zhiwei thrust her sword, swept her sword, shot her sword, flew her sword. In snow-light bouncing she watched fresh blood bloom in clusters like dahlias. She felt her surroundings were like performing a chaotic battle play – all performers confused and chaotic, doing what others couldn’t do themselves.

Her opponents were a group of capable black-clothed men, probably martial experts the Second Prince hired at great expense. Each person’s true strength was abundant, spirit complete and energy sufficient. Their moves were tricky, martial arts strange. Though in single combat they weren’t her match, swarming together was enough to give her trouble. Feng Zhiwei was after all a woman. After fighting a while she somewhat lacked strength. Having just kicked down one person, before she could catch her breath, one person’s body bounced – actually shooting out a blade from between his legs.

The blade emerged from between legs, shooting toward her lower body. Feng Zhiwei reacted swiftly, falling backward and lying down. But behind her she was blocked by someone – the deck was too crowded.

This blocking made her slow by a step. Seeing the blade light reaching her leg – those weapons were all poison-coated. Once the blade hit, what was injured wasn’t the leg but life. Feng Zhiwei’s heart turned cold. Seeing Ning Yi had already been forced back to the other side of the ship’s rail by over ten people, Ning Cheng was desperately killing a bloody path to join him. Both their current directions had backs turned to her. They absolutely couldn’t see her dangerous situation. And Gu Nanyi in this situation being able to receive those eight people was already strained – clearly she couldn’t count on anyone now.

In an instant finally experiencing the taste of despair, the first words that surfaced were actually “ambitions unfulfilled.” Before Feng Zhiwei’s bitter smile could surface on her lips, she suddenly felt emptiness behind her. Her already half-tilted body immediately fell down. Then blood-red and cold-white light flashed. Above her head a rain of blood splashed violently. With a clang something fell, hitting her abdomen. She reached out and caught it – precisely the blade that was going to cut off her leg just now.

In the busyness she couldn’t examine the blade carefully. Rolling and leaping up, she saw Gu Nanyi’s jade sword pull back in mid-air with light trailing like a shooting star – just now he’d disregarded having someone entangling him in battle and acted to save Feng Zhiwei.

And with this distraction, immediately a blue blade popped from a flute pipe, stabbing down toward his back!

At this time Gu Nanyi had extracted himself from his battle group. His entire back was sold to the enemy. His move was used up, body half-tilted. Wanting to protect his back – already absolutely impossible.

At this time Feng Zhiwei was still on the ground. Wanting to leap up to block that blade was also too late.

Feng Zhiwei suddenly reached out forcefully, fiercely pulling Gu Nanyi.

With a bang Gu Nanyi fell on her. Feng Zhiwei immediately embraced him and rolled. The blue blade tip with a snap stabbed into the deck.

That person tried to pull it out. Feng Zhiwei kicked the blade body. The blade pulled from the ground. Blue light flashed. With a cry that person’s five fingers were already cut off.

Feng Zhiwei breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly feeling someone struggling on her body, only then realizing she was holding Young Master Gu very tightly. Just now too tense, only thinking of saving him, the strength used was such that even Gu Nanyi couldn’t struggle free.

Her face reddened. She quickly released her hands. But Gu Nanyi seemed somewhat dazed. Suddenly rubbing his face against the side of her neck, he raised his head looking somewhat confused and thinking, then climbed up and continued fighting.

Feng Zhiwei quickly got up, touching her own neck. It felt burning hot – surely it had reddened completely. Thinking of how that fellow rubbed against her just now, fortunately it was in the battle with no one noticing. If it were normal times, the reputation of cut-sleeve would probably be pinned on again.

This wasn’t the time for deep sighs. She’d just climbed up when her vision blurred with blade light striking her face. She quickly gathered her spirits and continued.

Over there the Second Prince watched, vaguely somewhat anxious. Several people’s martial arts all exceeded his expectations. Even that civil official Wei Zhi had quite formidable martial arts, yet the outside had never heard of it. He originally thought the batch of first-class masters he brought today, hired at great expense, would be enough to annihilate these people completely. Unexpectedly they could persist until now and many of his own people had died. Even surrounding Gu Nanyi, only two men and four women remained.

He pondered, stroking his chin, recalling some rumors he’d once heard, involving legends about Ning Yi, Wei Zhi and Gu Nanyi. Like that cut-sleeve thing, like Wei Zhi highly valuing Gu Nanyi, and a half-joking suggestion someone gave him. Originally thought it absurd, but now seeing Wei Zhi and others’ performance in the battle situation, he felt it was highly feasible.

The Second Prince’s eyes revealed iron-blue cold color – today was nothing but you die or I live. Any method was worth trying!

He made eye contact toward a certain direction.

At this time because of the battle group’s movement, Ning Yi and Gu Nanyi were already very close, the two almost side by side resisting enemies. Feng Zhiwei had her back to them in their diagonal front. They could see Feng Zhiwei’s battle situation at a glance. But Feng Zhiwei needed to turn her head to see the two of them.

Feng Zhiwei was fighting intensely when she suddenly heard someone behind her give a muffled groan.

This sound vaguely seemed like Gu Nanyi’s. She suddenly turned back and saw in a mass of chaotic dead-leaf-butterfly-like colors, something flashed from the crowd then vanished. Then Gu Nanyi suddenly silently fell down!

Like a thunderbolt striking overhead, Feng Zhiwei was so shocked her face deformed. She kicked down the enemy before her, desperately rushing backward. Before she arrived, she saw the people who’d been attacking Gu Nanyi had already scattered. In the crowd Gu Nanyi leaned against the ship’s rail, hand pressing his heart. Between his fingers protruded a section of blue small crossbow bolt!

Feng Zhiwei saw that crossbow bolt. Even her eyes reddened. She punched and kicked charging over. Before reaching Gu Nanyi, from the corner of her eye she suddenly glimpsed something. In mid-air she suddenly turned her head. Her gaze swept around, then suddenly fell on Ning Yi’s sleeve cuff.

There, a corner of dark light faintly flashed.

Ning Yi stood beside Gu Nanyi, frowning, gripping his own sleeve cuff, seeming somewhat unable to react. Feng Zhiwei had already rushed over, grabbing his sleeve and flipping her hand.

A deep black crossbow fell into her hand. The crossbow still had arrows, emitting pale blue forest-cold light in her snow-white palm.

Feng Zhiwei froze there, somewhat difficultly slowly turning her head. Nearby, in a place extremely close to Ning Yi, the arrow in Gu Nanyi’s chest was identical to the small arrow on that crossbow.

“Haha!”

Gu Nanyi struck by the arrow but not moving, Ning Yi holding the crossbow in a daze, Feng Zhiwei’s face deathly pale – in an instant the solemn, oppressive, strange atmosphere among the three spread. Everyone involuntarily stopped fighting. All around fell into deathly silent silence. Only the Second Prince’s unbridled laughter abruptly rang out.

“Seems this Prince needn’t bother exterminating you at all.” The Second Prince laughed delightedly. “You yourselves are quite skilled at internal strife. Haha, Prince Chu is romantic – Prince Chu is truly romantic. This Prince long heard Sixth Brother had intentions toward Minister Wei, but was repeatedly unable to succeed due to Guard Gu’s obstruction. Now… has your wish finally been fulfilled?”

He patted his knees gleefully, laughing wildly and sarcastically: “Sixth Brother’s protective crossbow bolts – how did they accidentally shoot into a companion’s body? Is it that you long wanted to remove this thorn in your eye, but his martial arts were too high? Seeing today’s rare opportunity, momentarily excited, you finally… accidentally killed by mistake?”

His last four words were pronounced lightly, yet full of viciousness.

“Ning Yi—” Hearing his words, Feng Zhiwei who’d been trembling all over suddenly stopped shaking. She took a deep breath. Voice heavy, palms clenched tight into fists, she slowly stepped toward Ning Yi frozen there.

“You did it intentionally, didn’t you?”

“No, I…”

Not waiting for Ning Yi to answer, Feng Zhiwei suddenly fiercely pounced over.

“If you dare kill him, kill me first!”