In just a fleeting glimpse, he only saw the woman’s face covered in blood. Prince Ping’s heart was also somewhat bewildered. At this moment, the water pavilion was collapsing, stone pillars were falling askew, and due to the crisscrossing of the stone pillars and the tumbling of the pavilion’s furnishings, the underwater scene was chaotic. Although bright luminous pearl lights had been specially installed, it was impossible to see everything clearly.

This water pavilion had been specially designed and never used in normal times. The stone pillars underneath were hollow, making them easy to break. The underwater luminous pearls were meant to clearly observe every movement of people at the bottom. This water pavilion was originally prepared by Prince Ping to secretly harm someone, though the target would depend on the situation. Now, because he wanted to test Jing Hengbo, it was activated early. His plan was to break the pavilion’s support pillars, making her fall into the water. With lights underwater, her every action after entering the water could be seen clearly. He destroyed the nearby lotus boats to see if the guest would wave their hand to summon distant shore boats from afar. Whether the opponent used teleportation or object manipulation to escape, as long as they escaped easily, their identity could be immediately detected.

The plan was perfect, even at great cost, but now it seemed the answer wasn’t what he had expected.

The “assassin” had already dragged Prince Ping near the shore, where Prince Ping’s guards naturally rushed forward to “fight and rescue their lord.” Needless to say, after putting on a show of fighting for a while, the “assassin” would abandon the drenched Prince Ping and flee. Prince Ping crawled up on the shore, shouting in panic, “Save them! Save them!”

Everyone looked toward the center of the water. The water pavilion was slowly sinking underwater, koi fish were frantically scattering everywhere, and countless stone pillars jutted out from the water surface at odd angles. But where were the people?

…

At this moment, Gong Yin was still in the water.

He watched as a human figure flashed past in the water, then saw another figure swimming over gracefully. The latter swam right next to a stone pillar that was about to topple. In the brief moment between the pillar’s collapse, she quickly took a prepared leather pouch from around her neck and slapped it on her face.

In the water, everyone’s clothes and hair had spread out. Both figures were slender and graceful, and with their backs turned, no one could tell them apart for the moment.

A trace of amusement flashed through Gong Yin’s eyes as he reached forward to grab. A human figure swam up from beneath a nearby stone pillar and smiled at him.

It was Jing Hengbo.

Meanwhile, the woman who appeared in Prince Ping’s field of vision, struck “bloody-faced” by the falling stone pillar, was turning her head to show her bloodied face to Prince Ping.

That was naturally Yong Xue.

The young woman had now grown up with a well-developed figure. Today she had deliberately worn a dress of different material but similar style to Jing Hengbo’s. From a distance, they truly looked almost identical.

The moment they saw the water pavilion’s setup, Jing Hengbo and Gong Yin had already determined what the opponent planned to test. It was simply a matter of turning the tables.

Gong Yin reached out to receive Jing Hengbo, preparing to give her air and send her ashore from another angle Prince Ping couldn’t see. She still needed to find Meng Hu.

Jing Hengbo was smiling. In the water’s ripples, the pearl light swayed, making her smile appear brilliantly radiant.

That smile suddenly froze, and then Jing Hengbo’s hand suddenly slapped away Gong Yin’s hand and swung fiercely.

At the same time, Gong Yin’s body slid forward, and with a reverse hand motion, waves surged.

In the surging waves, a human figure fell backward with the waves, hitting a table floating on the water surface with a bang.

Jing Hengbo was already beside this person, reaching out to grab their throat. After looking at this person’s face, she sneered coldly, turned back to make a gesture to Gong Yin, and vanished in a flash.

In another flash, she appeared on a deserted shore surrounded by decorative rocks and many flowering trees, enough to conceal a person’s form.

She threw that person at her feet with a heavy thud.

Moonlight illuminated this person’s face – pale as death, with the particularly vivid lip rouge on her lips already dissolved by water, staining the edges of her lips, making her look like a terrifyingly grotesque bloody mouth.

It was Miss Ji.

She wore a sharkskin water vest and held a water-piercing awl in her hand. From her appearance, she had clearly been prepared and lying in ambush underwater.

Jing Hengbo looked at the water-piercing awl – exceptionally sharp, a tool for bloodletting. Even more peculiar was that Miss Ji held a water pouch in her other hand.

There was no need for a water pouch underwater unless it was used to store something.

Connecting this to her earlier actions and her provocation at the city gate, was this person’s target Gong Yin?

To draw Gong Yin’s blood?

Miss Ji had first received Jing Hengbo’s strike, then Gong Yin’s blow, and finally crashed into the table. Now she had a large bump on the back of her head and remained unconscious.

Jing Hengbo’s gaze fell on her fingertips. Once this young woman’s makeup and powder were washed away, one could see that her entire body was bloodless, even her nails were pale blue-white, making her look like an ice-snow person.

Moreover, Jing Hengbo had already seen the broken ice fragments seeping from the edges of her nails.

This noble lady from Meng Kingdom also cultivated ice-snow system true qi? Did she belong to the Heavenly Gate or the Dragon family?

The latter possibility wasn’t great. The Dragon family had no one wandering outside, but if she were a registered disciple of the Heavenly Gate, her foundation seemed too poor.

There was no time to investigate her origins now. Jing Hengbo slapped her awake with one palm and pressed the water-piercing awl against her throat.

Miss Ji had just opened her eyes when she felt the sharp pain on her neck and heard a laughing, lazy voice: “Speak, where is Meng Hu?”

…

When the water pavilion collapsed, an alarm rang out from the prince’s mansion, and many guards flew toward the lakeside to rescue the prince.

Prince Ping’s plan to test Jing Hengbo naturally wouldn’t be told to everyone, so these guards assigned to watch Meng Hu naturally had to follow normal protocol and rush to where the alarm sounded. The remaining people couldn’t help but be shaken, their attention diverted.

Meng Hu had already noticed this.

He was under house arrest in an inconspicuous courtyard in the back of the prince’s mansion. After entering, he had wanted to commit suicide, but Prince Ping was meticulous and had long anticipated his plan. He was watched extremely closely, all weapons and sharp objects were confiscated, his martial arts were sealed, and he had never found an opportunity.

This was the perfect chance. The guards were leaping onto high places to observe, but the water pavilion was far from here, and they couldn’t make out any details for the moment.

Meng Hu sneered coldly and walked to the basin stand where the washbasin was usually placed. The basin stand was made of iron rods coiled into flower shapes to support the basin.

Meng Hu reached out to bend and straighten it. Although his martial arts were sealed, the strength of a martial artist couldn’t be sealed. The iron rod was immediately straightened. Meng Hu pushed with his knuckles on both sides, and the wide end of the iron rod was squeezed into a triangular shape with a sharp point.

Those who truly wanted to die would always find a way.

He would rather die than endure humiliation, would rather not be used as leverage to drag his family into the abyss.

The guards on all sides were already returning. There wasn’t much time.

Meng Hu closed his eyes and thrust the iron rod toward his throat like lightning.

At that very moment, he suddenly heard a loud shout: “Meng Hu!”

The voice was familiar. At the same time, Meng Hu’s hand trembled, and the iron rod left his grasp.

Meng Hu’s eyes flew open wide – in this world, only one person could do this from such a distance!

He suddenly rushed to the window and shouted with all his might, “Don’t come in!”

Jing Hengbo stood on the wall, gazing at that room from afar. Earlier, she had coerced Miss Ji to lead the way to avoid wasting time. But this little girl had a sinister nature and deliberately led her wrong the first time. Jing Hengbo had severely punished her before she got it right this time. When she reached the wall, she saw Meng Hu’s hand raised through the half-open window. Without time to think, she first shouted loudly, then adjusted her position to knock away Meng Hu’s iron rod.

This shout would inevitably expose her target. She saw that the guards in the courtyard hadn’t rushed out but had taken their positions, staring at her intently.

There must be an ambush in the courtyard, which could be figured out with one’s toes.

However, would an ambush be useful?

“The courtyard seems to have many arrangements,” she asked the people below with a smile.

Everyone looked up at her, truly unable to understand why she was saying such boring things while on the wall at this time.

Someone quietly reached for their sleeve. Jing Hengbo raised her hand, and a stone struck his arm. The man cried out, and a signal flare fell from his sleeve. Jing Hengbo beckoned with her hand, and the flare came to her. She looked at the flare, smiled, waved her hand, and the flare flew toward the distance, then burst into the sky with a “pop” at another courtyard dozens of zhang away.

Footsteps could be heard faintly in the distance. The emergency rescue team in the prince’s mansion naturally headed in that direction.

Everyone in the courtyard looked at each other in dismay. When had they ever seen such methods?

A leader-like person glanced at Miss Ji, who was bound and gagged on the wall by Jing Hengbo, and snorted coldly, signaling his subordinates not to act rashly.

“Send the person out,” Jing Hengbo pointed at Meng Hu.

After a moment of silence, Jing Hengbo smiled and waved the dagger in her hand. Miss Ji’s body shook violently, and a small white object fell.

“That was one finger. I’ll count to ten, then it’s one hand. Count to ten again, then it’s one leg.” Jing Hengbo smiled. “If your future princess or queen becomes disabled because of you, I wonder if you can still live smoothly.”

She glanced at the struggling Miss Ji and thought what a pampered young lady – just scraping a bit of flesh from her fingertip, was it necessary to shake like this?

She had no interest in randomly maiming people. What she threw down was just a section of peeled tree branch from the wall – merely a trick of the eye.

However, Miss Ji’s blood seemed a bit strange. Jing Hengbo saw those few drops of blood on the wall – extremely pale in color, flashing with faint light, then disappearing.

There was a commotion in the courtyard. The guards naturally knew this young lady’s identity and future status in the prince’s mansion. No one could bear such responsibility.

Meng Hu was sent out. The guard captain gritted his teeth. He had originally thought that even if the opponent held Miss Ji hostage and advanced step by step, the arrangements in this courtyard would have a chance to trap the opponent. Who knew this woman was so cunning?

Jing Hengbo nodded to the slowly approaching Meng Hu. Meng Hu looked up at her, gritted his teeth for a long while, then hung his head and said, “I’m useless, actually making you come personally to rescue me…”

“You are useless,” Jing Hengbo nodded. “Even capable of the most cowardly act of suicide – truly disappointing. But I’m too lazy to scold you. Your real master will naturally give you punishment later.”

Meng Hu suddenly raised his head, his eyes joyful, his lips moving several times but saying nothing. Jing Hengbo knew his meaning and nodded with a smile.

A white shadow flashed behind her – Gong Yin had arrived. He first looked at Jing Hengbo, then at Meng Hu. Meng Hu was about to kneel in joy but was stopped by his gaze.

Then Jing Hengbo pulled out Miss Ji’s hairpin and stuck it in the ground outside the courtyard, handed Miss Ji to Meng Hu, and signaled him to leave first. Someone would meet them outside the prince’s mansion. Meng Hu nodded, knowing this wasn’t the time for catching up. He grabbed Miss Ji and vanished into the night.

“Why did you come over?” Jing Hengbo asked Gong Yin. She was a bit worried. The two had originally planned to rescue Meng Hu without exposing their identities as much as possible. Looking behind him, she asked again, “Where are Yong Xue and the others?”

“An incident occurred at the lake center, so naturally all guards had to go underwater to rescue people. The water pavilion made the lake bottom chaotic, making search and rescue very difficult. Yong Xue and the others are all good swimmers – they found a place to hide. The others will keep Prince Ping busy for a while.”

While speaking, Gong Yin walked around the courtyard wall in a circle.

Then in that courtyard, first a large pit collapsed with a rumble, revealing a black hole at the bottom. Several guards couldn’t react in time and fell in.

As Gong Yin passed a large tree, a large net suddenly fell from the tree, wrapping those trying to leap up and smashing them back into the pit.

The net bounced in the pit, bringing out strips of black, mud-like substances. When Gong Yin walked near the room where Meng Hu had been imprisoned, he flicked his finger and the threshold shattered. A line of sparks shot out from within the threshold, quickly extending along the net’s edges, instantly blazing into countless thin fire dragons. Between the fire dragons, pale green gas emanated.

The gas was ghostly green, condensed like a solid substance, resembling a green giant snake winding through the courtyard.

Countless people rolled and fell from wall corners and trees, struggling and writhing between the red fire and green gas. All the courtyard’s arrangements were exposed by Gong Yin, and even those not exposed were destroyed by triggered mechanisms.

The courtyard seemed to have become hell. Many people writhed and struggled, covering their faces with both hands as the skin on their faces peeled away piece by piece until white bone showed, yet there was no blood and no sound. The green gas seemed to strangle people’s throats and drain their blood. One could visibly see those people’s throats contracting, twisting into a grotesque angle like twisted dough.

Jing Hengbo had long covered her own and Miss Ji’s mouth and nose and began retreating. Seeing from afar, a chill rose in her heart. This virtuous prince’s methods were truly vicious. Moreover, his conduct and character were indeed similar – he liked killing people like grass without a sound, so that so many people struggling in hell couldn’t make any sound, fitting his preferences for “low-key, composed, non-bloody, non-violent.”

But Jing Hengbo felt he was much more cruel than the tyrannical, murder-loving Prince Li. No wonder Prince Li died early.

Gong Yin finally cut through the burning net with an ice sword, raised his hand and flipped it, covering the house with the net. Those flames silently extended down the wall surface. In no more than a quarter-hour, a great fire would ignite.

Gong Yin swept down into the courtyard, found a corpse with a build similar to Meng Hu’s, took out a mask that closely resembled Meng Hu from his bosom, stuck it on that person’s face, and threw the corpse into the house.

The master of disguise, the Great King of Yi Kingdom, was under his command. Years ago, he had prepared several masks of each of his close associates. When Meng Hu was captured this time, Gong Yin sent a message by flying pigeon to Yi Kingdom. Fortunately, Meng and Yi Kingdoms weren’t far apart, so Yi Shan immediately had someone deliver the mask by fast horse.

Jing Hengbo was busy sticking fake scars on her face. Grabbing Gong Yin’s hand, after several flashes, they reached a secluded lakeside and dove into the water.

After a while, someone in the lake shouted loudly, “Found them! Found them!” Then the water surged, and guards surrounded Gong Yin. Gong Yin held a person in his arms, and the group rode the waves toward shore.

Prince Ping waited anxiously on shore, looking at the lake, then at where the flare had shot up earlier, then at where Meng Hu had been held. Tonight’s events were strange. The Ji Kingdom princess had fallen into the water, been injured, and then disappeared. One group of her guards went down to rescue her, while another group pestered him, insisting the princess’s accident at his mansion was his deliberate harm, his intention to start war with Ji Kingdom. They wanted to drag him before the Great King for judgment and send fast horses to report to the Ji Kingdom Queen. Before he could break free from this group, guards reported that people had been rescued.

He hurriedly pushed through the crowd to look. Indeed, he saw Jing Hengbo “unconscious” in Gong Yin’s arms, her face pale with a scar on her forehead. The blood had presumably been washed clean by water, but the scar looked quite frightening.

He was stunned and hurried forward to inquire and comfort her. Just then, Jing Hengbo “moaned” and “slowly awakened.” Seeing Prince Ping’s face close before her, she was startled, then touched her own face and felt the “scar.” She was shocked, then her expression changed drastically.

Gong Yin looked down at her. He was naturally cold as ice and snow, needing no deliberate pretense of anger – people would still think his coldness was due to being in great rage. At this moment, seeing Jing Hengbo’s series of actions and expressions, he couldn’t help but smile inwardly.

This girl’s acting skills were becoming more and more refined. Her singing, acting, reciting, and fighting were all excellent. She portrayed the emotions and expressions of a woman who had suffered great change, fallen into water and just awakened to find herself injured and disfigured on the face so well that even he almost believed it.

So Prince Ping’s expression was also somewhat awkward. He was about to move closer to show care and ask after her health when Jing Hengbo had already screamed “Ah!” and cried, “I’m disfigured! I’m disfigured!”

While crying about being disfigured, she “struggled” up from Gong Yin’s arms and lunged at Prince Ping, grabbing his collar and clawing at his face with both hands. “What kind of guests did you invite? What kind of apology did you make? What kind of pavilion that collapses at the first gust of wind did you build! You’re deliberately trying to harm me! Harm me! You made me disfigured! How am I supposed to live after this!”

While clawing, her knee secretly pressed against a certain spot and thrust hard.

“Ah—” Prince Ping was struck by her again. Before his scream could escape, Jing Hengbo reacted quickly and slapped him across the face with a resounding smack, crying loudly, “You made me disfigured! My life is ruined!”

This series of actions was swift and decisive – so swift that no one saw the knee strike, only the earth-shaking slap afterward. Only after that slap did the guards react, surging forward to break up the fight and provide support. Someone also wanted to take advantage of the chaos to strike Jing Hengbo, but she nimbly jumped up, avoiding all the sneak attacks, spun around, and “weakly” fell toward Gong Yin, clutching her heart and crying mournfully, “Husband, I’m disfigured. Will… will you still want me…”

Yong Xue and the guards immediately bowed their heads deeply. Even Gong Yin’s face twitched as he quickly caught her, gritting his teeth and using the gentlest voice he could manage: “Princess, rest assured. No matter what you become, I will never abandon you.”

“My dear, you’re so good…” Jing Hengbo murmured “movingly and weakly,” rolled her eyes, and collapsed in his arms.

She had performed the full act of spitting blood, clutching her heart, and fainting. Gong Yin quickly carried her outward while guards and maids hurriedly and frantically went to find a doctor, sternly refusing Prince Ping’s mansion’s offer to call a doctor for them. They stated that Prince Ping’s mansion harbored ill intentions and they absolutely wouldn’t stay any longer. They would seek justice from Prince Ping before the Great King later. The group pushed through the guards domineeringly and headed out. Prince Ping’s staff looked at him for direction – should they let them go or forcibly detain them? Prince Ping lay on the ground, eyes rolled back, weakly saying, “Detain… detain… detain…”

Everyone stared at him expectantly. Was he saying to detain them or that detention was impossible? What should they do?

“…Detain… detain… detain… detain them!” When Prince Ping finally caught his breath and roared out this sentence, everyone chased after them, but Gong Yin’s group had already left the gates.

Prince Ping lay on the ground soaking wet, stroking his twice-injured vital parts and his wounded heart. His mind was in complete chaos. He had lost the water pavilion, wasted manpower and resources, conducted this test, but the final result was still complete bewilderment. He couldn’t confirm anything, yet his important parts had already suffered trampling. What was wrong with this world…

When it rains, it pours. Before his fresh wounds had healed, he saw guards coming in batches with panicked expressions, bringing report after report.

“Report to Your Highness, the Baoxi Courtyard mechanisms activated and caught fire. All guards are dead!”

“Report to Your Highness, Miss Ji has disappeared!”

“Report to Your Highness, Commander Meng was burned to death in Baoxi Courtyard. His body has been found.”

“Report to Your Highness, Miss Ji’s hairpin was found in the grass outside Baoxi Courtyard!”

…

Bad news hit Prince Ping one after another. At this moment, the world was full of malice.

“Poof.” Prince Ping spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.