At the command, several guards drew their swords and surrounded Lang Jiuchuan’s carriage.

Jiangche was stunned for a moment, then its fur bristled with indignant fury. Treacherous humans — truly despicable. Crying thief while being the thief. Shameless wretches!

In an instant, its fierce and domineering king’s energy erupted outward like ice spikes, shooting in all directions.

The several guards were caught full in that savage energy. An icy cold swept through their bodies. Their legs turned to jelly, trembling violently. Their faces went deathly white. The hands that gripped their swords went stiff and rigid — all strength drained away — and they could no longer hold their blades.

Clang.

The swords struck the blue stone bricks of the road and rang out with a clear, crisp sound.

Everyone wore expressions of shock, staring at the carriage before them as though they had seen a ghost.

What was happening?

Jiangche gave a cold snort.

Had it not wanted to avoid stirring up greater trouble, it would have snapped their hands off entirely.

From the overturned carriage, out crawled first a nanny, then a maidservant, and then — steadied by their hands — a young woman dressed in a gold-threaded, peony-embroidered jacket and skirt, draped in a great cloak of purple sable, wearing a full matched set of red gemstone and gold-gilt hairpieces.

If one overlooked the fact that her headpieces and hair were already askew, and that a red, swollen bruise had bloomed across her forehead, the entire ensemble would have drawn admiring, envious gazes from anyone who laid eyes on it.

As it was, she was in an utter state of dishevelment.

Qi Xinyu had not expected that on her way back to the capital after visiting her elder sister, she would overturn her carriage before even making it home — and sustain an injury on top of it.

This was the greatest humiliation of her life.

Her pair of slanted phoenix eyes swept over the people around her. Murderous intent surged within her gaze.

Every last one of them deserved to die.

The guards and the driver had all fallen to their knees before her, pleading for forgiveness, cold dread running down their spines.

The County Mistress of Guiyang was extremely doted upon by her elder sister. With her returning to the capital and suffering this kind of accident, they had little hope of being spared.

Qi Xinyu looked at the horse lying on the ground, convulsing, and at the guard who lay senseless and unresponsive — utterly without feeling. Her voice was cold and flat. “You have all failed to protect me. You all deserve to die. Hack that crazed horse into a hundred pieces and throw it to the dogs. As for you all—”

The people around her shook with fright, their eyes filled with terror and despair.

Lang Jiuchuan stepped down from her carriage. Her hand rested on the Dizhong at her waist. She looked toward Qi Xinyu, her eyes holding a chill that cut to the bone.

Jiangche crouched on her shoulder and said coldly, “This woman is even more arrogant and vicious than you.”

“Steeped in karmic debt. Her death would be no loss,” Lang Jiuchuan said with cold indifference, her gaze falling upon the string of Five Emperor Coins hanging at Qi Xinyu’s waist as a skirt-weight ornament. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

The string of Five Emperor Coins was a finely crafted piece — a protective talisman capable of warding off evil and ill-fortune. But that was all it could do.

A talisman could protect the body, but if a person continued to commit evil, even the finest talisman could not preserve her life. And this talisman was not even of the highest quality — merely strung together, consecrated with a ritual technique, and empowered. It could not protect her life in the end.

When Qi Xinyu met Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze, she felt as though a bucket of ice-cold water had been dumped over her entire body. Her heart lurched wildly, pounding as though her chest had been cracked open — that frantically beating heart on the verge of leaping out. Every muscle in her body went taut, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Snowflakes drifted coldly from the sky. Yet cold sweat seeped across Qi Xinyu’s forehead. She was trembling faintly, her face drained white.

“She… she…” Qi Xinyu’s upper and lower teeth knocked together.

Who was this person? She looked frail enough to snap in the wind, yet her presence — it was like facing a thousand armored soldiers, an unstoppable force bearing down. It made one’s very courage shatter.

The lead guard who had initially given the order glanced toward Lang Jiuchuan’s carriage, then at his comrade lying on the ground with no sign of life, and quickly said, “County Mistress, the guard Luo Dacheng was merely trying to drive that carriage to one side. By some unknown cause, his whip turned back and struck his own horse instead, causing the animal to panic and charge into the County Mistress’s carriage.”

Jiangche laughed coldly and said to Lang Jiuchuan, “Better their own ally suffer than themselves. Deflecting blame onto others — this dog certainly has a talent for the trick.”

Being utterly unreasonable while twisting the truth — this was nothing but pushing the blame elsewhere.

Lang Jiuchuan could not be bothered to pay them any attention. She turned to go. “Let us leave.”

She moved to get back into the carriage, but Qi Xinyu — finding some reserve of strength from who knew where — planting her feet and shouting furiously, “Stop right there.”

Lang Jiuchuan’s footsteps did not pause. She mounted the carriage with unhurried ease.

“Stop where you are, you short-lived wretch — do you hear me?” Qi Xinyu screamed with sharp fury. “Come, someone — block her!”

The guards, stripped of all strength, had no way to stop anyone. They could not even move their own legs — whether from the cold or from fear, it was hard to say.

Qi Xinyu strode quickly forward and stood in front of the carriage, glaring up at Lang Jiuchuan. “Was it you who startled my horse?”

The murderous intent in her eyes was entirely undisguised.

Lang Jiuchuan’s gaze was cold as ice. “Move aside.”

Qi Xinyu glanced at the carriage, her eyes landing on the Lang family crest. “You are from the Lang family? Do you know who I am?”

“What do you intend to do?”

Qi Xinyu paused. What did she intend to do?

Yes — what exactly did she intend?

Qi Xinyu raised her head. The other woman stood within the carriage, looking down at her from above, as a celestial being might, lowering her gaze to survey those crawling far below — towering and remote, looking down upon all creation.

Qi Xinyu gave a sudden start and stepped back two paces.

This woman’s presence was even more overwhelming than that of the young master of the Rong family, whom she had once glimpsed from afar — an untouchable remoteness that brooked no approach.

The realization of her own retreat made Qi Xinyu’s face flush hot with shame and fury.

Ever since her elder sister had become the young mistress of the Rong family, even among many daughters of the highest noble houses, she had never once felt her own bearing falter like this — let alone stepped back.

And now she had been frightened back two steps by some nobody of a short-lived wretch.

Lang Jiuchuan regarded her and spoke with cold calm. “If you do not wish to die early, accumulate more virtue. Stop casually bringing death upon others. Otherwise, not even that string of Five Emperor Coins of yours will protect you.”

Qi Xinyu stared, her eyes going wide. She followed the other woman’s gaze downward, and instinctively clutched at the string of Five Emperor Coins hanging at the corner of her skirt. “Insolent,” she snapped. “Who do you think you are, speaking to me this way? How dare you insult me?”

Lang Jiuchuan gave a thin smile — one that did not reach her eyes — and her voice took on a cold, sinister edge. “Why don’t you try and see?”

Qi Xinyu shuddered and stepped back another pace.

Lang Jiuchuan lowered the carriage curtain and knocked on the carriage wall. “Back to the residence.”

The driver startled, cracked the whip, and called the horse forward.

The guards that had ringed the carriage — by some inexplicable turn — found their strength had returned, and parted of their own accord, letting the carriage pass without obstruction.

Jiangche said, “She is still staring after you. Want me to dispel that counterfeit talisman of hers and let her taste what it feels like to be wrapped in vengeful and malevolent energy?”

“The unrighteous will bring about their own ruin. No need to dirty our own hands.” Lang Jiuchuan gave a cold smile. “If she can bring herself to spare those people, then so be it. If she cannot — she will die without fail.”

Blood karmic debt would corrode and defile that protective talisman she wore. When that happened, no one would be able to save her. As for “short-lived wretch” — it was actually a fitting description for herself.

“I heard someone say just now that she is from the Qi family. Let me go and find out what sort of thing this family is.” Jiangche cracked its knuckles with anticipation and said, “Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. I can see she is no good-natured sort — she is certain to come after you. Let me go and get the measure of her background.”

Lang Jiuchuan closed her eyes without a word, content to let it roam freely. That woman was no decent sort — but then again, was she, Lang Jiuchuan, any less formidable?