“I have something to show you,” the little girl said directly.

“Oh, have you finally learned embroidery?” Jing Hengbo happily followed her, but Yong Xue actually led her out of the palace gates.

“Why did you bring me here?” A quarter-hour later, Jing Hengbo stared blankly at the building before her. Wasn’t this the original Queen’s bedchamber?

The Queen’s bedchamber had originally been far from Gong Yin’s Jing Ting. She had abandoned this chamber and moved next to Gong Yin’s quarters. Now, looking at this grand palace building, she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

“Follow me.” Yong Xue took her hand and entered the door.

The Queen’s bedchamber had its own regulations. The courtyard and chamber layout were similar to where Jing Hengbo currently lived, except they were larger.

The bedchamber was empty, with no one inside. The palace servants who did daily cleaning hadn’t arrived yet.

Yong Xue expertly led Jing Hengbo straight to the bedroom, stopping before the vanity table in the inner room.

Jing Hengbo didn’t ask questions now, crossing her arms with great interest to see what tricks Yong Xue was up to.

The little girl spoke little and was quiet—she would never do anything meaningless.

Then her eyes widened.

Yong Xue climbed onto the vanity table, opened a drawer, and found a comb. The comb was an unusual pure black color with warm luster, curved with vague wear marks, showing its age.

Then Yong Xue looked at the bronze mirror on the vanity table. Both sides of the bronze mirror had decorations—usually carved patterns in various woods. This bronze mirror’s inlay pattern looked ordinary: a phoenix on each side, each phoenix with three tail feathers swaying inward left and right, surrounding the bronze mirror.

Jing Hengbo looked at the comb’s shape, then at the three grooves carved by the tail feathers, and her heart stirred.

Yong Xue took the comb and placed it against the phoenix tail feathers. Sure enough, the comb fit perfectly into the feather grooves.

Yong Xue inserted it three times on each side.

“Click.” A soft sound, and Jing Hengbo turned around.

Eh, nothing moved on the walls.

Yong Xue sighed and pulled her sleeve, pointing to the bed.

Jing Hengbo blinked. Eh, nothing moved on the bed either.

Yong Xue sighed again, stepped on the footstool, and with a swoosh, pulled away the brocade coverlet on the bed.

Jing Hengbo stared dumbfounded as the bed board slowly opened like a great door.

No, it was more than just the bed board.

After the bed board flipped open, instead of revealing a tunnel as she had imagined, it revealed the floor beneath the bed. At the same time, the floor also began to separate. Jing Hengbo stared down in amazement, seeing a line slowly splitting apart from beneath her feet, like an earthquake’s epicenter creating a huge deep crevice from under her feet…

If Yong Xue hadn’t been prepared and quickly pulled her aside, she would surely have fallen underground in a split position.

Yong Xue pulled her close to the vanity table. The floor beneath the vanity table was actually fixed—normally unnoticeable, but now that the entire floor was opening, Jing Hengbo realized that under each piece of furniture in the room, that patch of floor was fixed, ensuring that after the entire floor opened, beds and utensils wouldn’t fall into the passage.

Now before them, at the end of the stairs, was a massive underground door. Golden phoenix totems soared with wings spread, surrounded by rising flames. Within the flames were fourteen strange patterns that Jing Hengbo realized, after thinking, were maps of the Six Kingdoms and Eight Tribes.

“Whose handiwork is this…” she murmured in amazement. “The entire bedchamber floor is actually a giant door. I never imagined there could be such an awesome tunnel entrance in the world. Is such grandeur really necessary…”

A long, wide staircase led straight underground. Looking at those stairs, Jing Hengbo easily thought of tomb-raiding novels with mechanism trap stairs, but Yong Xue was already pulling her hand and running down step by step.

“Hey, hey, watch out for traps—” Before Jing Hengbo could finish shouting, she was already pulled all the way to the bottom by Yong Xue.

Nothing happened.

Jing Hengbo laughed self-mockingly. The ignorant truly are fearless.

Yong Xue pulled her to stand before the great door and looked at Jing Hengbo, who looked back at her.

“Open the door,” Jing Hengbo urged after waiting a moment.

But Yong Xue shook her head and said softly, “I only know how to get here. The door won’t open.”

Jing Hengbo was dumbfounded, looking up at the door before her. The entire door was seventy percent gold, with all colored areas inlaid with gems. The use of gold and gems was astounding—wealthy and brilliant. Even if moved to the main hall of Yuzhao Palace, it would be no less magnificent.

In fact, Yuzhao Palace wasn’t extravagant. It was said that from the fifth generation onwards, Yuzhao Palace had abandoned the gem-studded, overwhelmingly gorgeous decorative style of the past, moving toward a dignified and solemn style. This style had flourished under Gong Yin, who preferred clean simplicity. Now, except for Jing Hengbo’s own bedchamber, Yuzhao Palace rarely displayed excessive gold and gems elsewhere.

This decorative style proved that this door, and indeed this entire underground structure, couldn’t be the work of the recent five generations of royalty.

Jing Hengbo noticed that all the carvings on this door protruded outward. She experimentally raised her hand and pushed, finding they could indeed all move.

Could it be as simple as arranging the map of the Six Kingdoms and Eight Tribes?

“Yong Xue, help me out.” She tentatively had Yong Xue support her while she moved the two kingdom emblems closest to her according to her memory of the Six Kingdoms and Eight Tribes’ arrangement.

As soon as she finished moving them, she heard a “bang” from overhead.

Jing Hengbo cried “Oh no!” and without time to look up, grabbed Yong Xue and dodged.

“Crack.” A flower stand that had been suspended overhead fell down, landing heavily right where she had been standing. If she hadn’t dodged quickly, her head would surely have been split open.

“This is possible too?” Jing Hengbo was once again dumbfounded—the furniture in the room was part of the trap mechanisms?

Earlier she had only marveled at and wondered about such a design—the entire room’s floor being a door, with furniture positions specially fixed, seeming somewhat unnecessarily elaborate. Now she felt the mechanism designer must have had a very special personality—wild, casual, and unexpected. Anyone opening the mechanism would only guard against traps coming from inside the door—who would think of furniture overhead?

Somehow, Jing Hengbo also felt that the person who designed this mechanism seemed to be a woman. Perhaps only a woman would think to use furniture as part of the design.

She secretly felt fortunate that she hadn’t moved the Six Kingdoms’ emblems, or what might have fallen could have been the bed?

“This path won’t work.” Jing Hengbo pinched her chin thoughtfully. “It’s not according to the current map.”

As expected, it wasn’t that simple.

If it was according to an old map, that would be complicated. The Six Kingdoms and Eight Tribes had been in constant turmoil and war, continuously fighting over resources and territory. Almost every few generations, territorial changes would occur. The history of map changes in Dahuang filled an entire thick book—who knew which generation’s map to use?

Jing Hengbo could remember only limited maps, mainly those Gong Yin had forced her to memorize—primarily the current map and the founding map.

She looked at the door and surrounding architectural style. The door was very new, seemingly not ancient, though little use could also keep it new. As for style, any period before the fifth generation was possible.

Finally she clapped her hands. “I’ll gamble!”

According to her memory of the founding Empress’s era map, she carefully moved the patterns again, constantly asking Yong Xue nervously, “How’s overhead? How’s overhead? If something’s wrong, tell me to dodge quickly—”

“Click.” The founding era map was completed, and indeed no furniture fell. Jing Hengbo breathed a sigh of relief, beaming with joy. “Done… eh? Why won’t the door open?”

She stared blankly at the door that remained completely motionless. No falling furniture, no opening door—what did this mean?

“Are we missing some step?” she asked Yong Xue.

Yong Xue blinked, also trying hard to remember.

She suddenly began moving, slowly walking a circuit following the original room’s layout while looking up at the furniture positions overhead.

She first walked to the bed’s position and stood there, then to her dressing room position and stood there, then came out of that small room and stood in the room’s center, finally walking to a certain position under the vanity table.

The entire route seemed like casually wandering around the room.

But when she finally stopped under the vanity table, her foot suddenly sank down, and simultaneously Jing Hengbo heard a soft “click.”

She turned around and exclaimed with joy, “Success!”

When the door opened, it wasn’t as dark as imagined.

Jing Hengbo and Yong Xue stood at the doorway, looked up, and were stunned.

…

Sunlight passed through several more days.

These past few days, Jing Hengbo seemed somewhat distracted, as if contemplating something. From time to time she would rummage under her bed, take something out to look at, then put it back.

These days she always wanted to visit Jing Ting but was always stopped. She didn’t want to teleport over—Gong Yin had his difficulties, and she didn’t want to make things hard for him. Sometimes she would summon A Shan to learn her disguise techniques. Most of the time she was bored and thought about finding an excuse to leave the palace for a look. Before she could walk out the palace door, Zirui suddenly came to say that Tie Xingze had come to pay respects to the Queen.

Recently Tie Xingze often entered the palace and occasionally came to see her. His contact with Jing Hengbo was specifically permitted by Gong Yin, and everyone was happy to see it happen.

Everyone also liked Tie Xingze. He was magnanimous and cheerful, frank and sincere, and understanding. When at Jing Hengbo’s place, he was extremely proper and respectful, never discussing major political affairs, mostly talking about local customs, market rumors—things everyone loved to hear. When he came, the serving maids in Jing Hengbo’s palace were especially diligent with tea and water service.

Jing Hengbo was also happy to hear he had come. This was her first male friend since coming to Dahuang. Yelu Qi was half an enemy, Yi Qi was all talk about wives without being serious—no one felt as reliable as Tie Xingze.

“Today I presumptuously request an audience with the Queen because there’s a novel curiosity in Dige Market, and I’ve come specially to invite Your Majesty to take a look.” Tie Xingze immediately invited Jing Hengbo out to play.

This was exactly what Jing Hengbo wanted. She also had business today—she had sent both Yong Xue and Cui Jie out and was planning to go out for a look herself.

“Prepare the carriage! Let’s go shopping!”

The carriage and horses left Jing Ting.

A white figure suddenly appeared at the window of Jing Ting’s study, watching the Queen’s carriage and horses depart.

“Master,” Meng Hu quietly appeared behind him, “the Queen shouldn’t leave the palace recently…”

He remained silent, his breathing quietly hitting the window paper, light and fine.

“If confining her for life is what it takes to ensure stability,” he finally said after a long moment, “I would rather give her dangerous freedom.”

Meng Hu silently withdrew. Walking to the door, he heard him say softly again, “I think she would wish it so as well.”

…

“Your Majesty, once we’re out of the palace gates, I’ll address you casually.” Tie Xingze walked to Jing Hengbo’s carriage to help her down, looking up with a smile.

“Of course, of course. Just call me Xiao Jing. I’ll call you A Ze too.” Jing Hengbo eagerly poked her head out, lifted the gauze veil on her hat, and looked around. “What good place have you brought me to… eh, this feels familiar.”

“This is Mingqu Street, and further in is Xige District,” Zirui reminded, her expression somewhat strange.

Jing Hengbo suddenly understood and patted her hand. “Xige District is your place of sorrow. Your injury only recently healed—if you feel uncomfortable, just stay in the carriage and don’t come down.”

“It’s fine, it’s all in the past.” Zirui smiled warmly and stood beside Jing Hengbo.

The Queen was like this—seemingly casual and carefree, but actually delicate and considerate. Zirui felt very fortunate to be able to follow her.

“Speaking of which, your wound healed very quickly,” Jing Hengbo remembered this matter. “The palace medicine is indeed excellent.”

“Your Majesty wouldn’t know this, but it was Young Master Tie who gave me medicine that helped my tongue wound heal quickly.” Xia Zirui smiled as she thanked Tie Xingze, who waved his hands repeatedly and laughed heartily, “Such a small matter—you’ve already thanked me once, Official Xia. Why thank me again?”

Xia Zirui lowered her head slightly, her cheeks seeming somewhat flushed.

Jing Hengbo looked at these two and thought that Zirui wouldn’t have feelings for this young master, would she? Standing together, they truly made a golden couple. Though Tie Xingze was a hostage, his status wasn’t low, and he had friendship with Gong Yin, so the possibility of safely returning in the future was high. If Zirui married him, on one hand it would be a good match for Zirui, and on the other hand, Tie Xingze might inherit the tribal leader position in the Chentie Tribe in the future. If this could create a close connection with her and Gong Yin, it would be like gaining another reliable ally.

Jing Hengbo always felt that in the ironclad political situation, her ability to help Gong Yin was limited. If she could make her personal female official become Tie Xingze’s wife, it would also help bind Tie Xingze more tightly to their side.

Unfortunately, Tie Xingze already had a fiancée and seemed determined to marry no one but her. But looking at how Tie Xingze regarded Xia Zirui, there seemed to be something different about it. Jing Hengbo was puzzled and wanted to test, saying, “Hey, hey, I think your injury isn’t completely healed yet, Zirui. Your speech still seems somewhat unclear.” She pushed Xia Zirui toward Tie Xingze. “How about letting A Ze take another look?”

“Not healed yet?” Tie Xingze immediately became serious. “Should I get you another dose of medicine?”

Pushed by Jing Hengbo, Zirui, being a sensitive young woman, immediately understood half the situation. When she raised her head again, her face was already flushed, and her voice had lowered. “Actually… it’s quite alright…”

She couldn’t openly say Jing Hengbo was lying, nor could she embarrassingly pretend her injury wasn’t healed. Halfway through speaking, her face lowered again. Now even her neck was red.

This blush made Tie Xingze, being a clever person, immediately understand most of it. He stepped back awkwardly, glancing at Jing Hengbo, then at Zirui.

Jing Hengbo smiled while stroking her chin.

“Miss Jing,” Tie Xingze, probably unable to withstand her thief-like gaze, quickly changed the subject, pointing to a wall ahead. “Look at that painting!”

Jing Hengbo looked up and was startled.

On the wall at the mouth of the alley ahead was posted a painting half a person’s height. The painting style was exquisite, depicting a background of continuous green shade and distant azure sky, but the center of the painting was left blank, with only vague outlines sketched. It gave the feeling that the painting was unfinished.

On the side of the painting, in beautiful calligraphy, was written: “Eternal beauty, momentary magnificence.”

Below the painting, red paint formed lightning bolts pointing toward the depths of the alley.

People constantly passed by the painting, stopping in puzzlement at the blank space, peering inside, then walking in.

Jing Hengbo burst into laughter, making Tie Xingze confused. “What is it, Miss Jing? Do you find this painting amusing?” He shook his head. “You might find this half-painting strange now, but I suggest you follow along a bit and you’ll see the cleverness.”

“Exactly, exactly, we must follow along a bit.” Jing Hengbo nodded repeatedly.

Tie Xingze looked at her strangely and led her in the direction of the lightning arrows. Sure enough, at the next alley entrance, they saw another painting, more exquisite than the previous one, still with the blue sky and flower shadow background, but this time with added pavilions and towers, showing what seemed to be a vast estate or palace.

People gathered below the painting to study and guess what the blank space depicted, while others didn’t think twice and simply followed the trail.

“Miss Jing, please follow me.” Tie Xingze led the way with a mysterious smile like someone showing off a treasure.

Jing Hengbo bit her lip to suppress her laughter and followed.

At the next alley entrance, there were even more people pointing and poking at the painting. Some rushed past underneath, saying urgently, “I heard they’re opening today—hurry up and get in line! If we’re late, we won’t get a turn!”

“Master said we must be in the top three—absolutely cannot let that Eunuch official beat us!”

This painting showed dappled flower shadows, a clear azure sky, exquisite pavilions, and elegant towers. At the end of the continuous rooftops appeared simple buildings with black tiles and white walls—dignified and elegant with a majestic air.

Someone murmured beneath the painting, “This scene looks familiar…”

“Does Your Majesty find this scene familiar?” Tie Xingze moved closer to Jing Hengbo and whispered, “Have you guessed?”

Jing Hengbo glanced at Tie Xingze’s triumphant expression and held back laughter until her stomach hurt.

She pretended to think, “It does seem a bit familiar…” Suddenly she clapped her hands. “Oh my, isn’t this Jing Ting?”

“Quiet!” Tie Xingze said. “I suspect this might be the work of someone from the palace, but this is quite bold—it might cause trouble.”

“Oh?” Jing Hengbo blinked.

“You’ll understand if you keep looking.” Tie Xingze continued being mysterious.

“Oh.” Jing Hengbo turned away, desperately suppressing a mischievous smile. Zirui shook her head helplessly.

At the next alley entrance, there was indeed another painting. This time, a window had been added to the black-tiled, white-walled Jing Ting study, with a faint human figure visible through the window. The figure was barely perceptible, showing only refined outlines, making it even more intriguing.

This artist’s skill was a level higher than the previous ones, painting the ghostly figure with a graceful bearing. This time there were actually several veiled women gathered beneath the painting.

Hahaha, fangirls! Jing Hengbo laughed wildly in her mind.

“This painting is really good!” Her eyes sparkled with pride at how her unique advertising had indeed achieved the effect of drawing people in. “Let’s look at the next one!”

At the next alley entrance, there were even more people. They could vaguely see a queue that had already extended out of the alley. On the wall was another painting—this time it was complete: dappled flower shadows, pavilions and towers, green tiles and white walls, a small building with elegant windows, and within the window, a white-robed figure standing alone in the wind, noble and graceful, distinguished and aloof. Though the face wasn’t depicted, the surrounding elegance seemed ready to leap off the paper.

This time Jing Hengbo couldn’t laugh, because she heard a woman actually instructing her maid in a low voice, “Go queue up. Whether we get a painting done doesn’t matter—just make sure to find out who that man in the painting is!”

Stop asking, for crying out loud!

“Following the trail to finally see the complete picture—this portrait studio’s ingenious concept is amazing.” Tie Xingze was beaming with excitement. “Using paintings with continuous blank spaces and continuous additions to draw people in—so much better than hawking on the street! All those market bosses should come learn from this!”

“Just average, just average.” Jing Hengbo waved her hand proudly.

“But the most wonderful painting isn’t this one. I saw the one at the portrait studio entrance that truly stunned me, but…” Tie Xingze suddenly smiled mysteriously, “I just hope this portrait studio won’t be shut down quickly.”

“Oh?” Jing Hengbo asked knowingly, “Why?”

“You’ll see when you look.” Tie Xingze pointed ahead. “The face of the person in the painting is revealed there.”

He smiled mysteriously, and Jing Hengbo smiled even more mysteriously. They followed the long line forward, walking quite far before reaching the portrait studio entrance. All along the way, crowds of people queued up, loudly discussing the weather and their masters’ health. The first few sat on small stools looking dispirited—looking closely, their hair was even beaded with dew. Jing Hengbo thought in shock—they couldn’t have queued all night, could they? My goodness, even crazier than Apple fans at a product launch!

“This is a newly opened portrait studio called ‘Instant.'” Tie Xingze introduced her. “Those paintings have been posted there for some time, making people curious and following the trail, but it never opened for business. They announced today as the opening day, and some people brought stools to wait since yesterday. Because this portrait studio is very peculiar—they say they’ll only sell three portraits per day at most, and may close at any time. In all my years in Dige, I’ve never heard of a business that doesn’t want customers and threatens to close at any time. Look at these people—half are queuing for portraits, half are just curious, wanting to know if this business will really only sell three portraits and really close at any time with such good business.”

“Of course only three portraits, of course they’ll close at any time.” Jing Hengbo muttered, “I used too much on little Yin-yin, so I don’t have much photo paper left. Make it bigger, make a killing, because what I really want to open is a women’s mall…”

“What are you saying, Miss Jing?” The voices were as loud as a marketplace, and Tie Xingze didn’t hear clearly.

But Jing Hengbo wasn’t paying attention to him either, suddenly looking up with burning eyes.

There were people maintaining order at the portrait studio entrance, but they couldn’t stop a group of women who came to fangirl without queuing. Various body types surrounded the door completely, with shrill inquiries constantly coming: “Excuse me, young man, is the person in this painting real? Where is he now? What’s his name…”

“Don’t know, don’t know!” The men hired to maintain order waved brooms to shoo people away. “Make way! Make way! If you want to queue, then queue—if not, don’t block others!”

A crowd pushed and shoved, when a woman in short clothes, dressed like a martial artist or street performer, suddenly said angrily, “Just asking about this person’s whereabouts—why be so secretive? If you’re going to be secretive, why post this portrait at the entrance? Won’t tell me, is that it? Then I’ll tear it down and ask everyone in Dige—someone will recognize him!”

Before she finished speaking, someone leaped up, saying, “If you tear it, I’ll tear it! If you ask, I’ll ask!” and reached to tear down Gong Yin’s photo.

From the voice, it was actually a man.

The martial woman was furious and shrieked, “Get lost!” reaching to snatch it.

Suddenly a figure flashed, and someone appeared in front of the photo, slapping a hand against it with a bang and roaring, “All of you get the hell away from me!”

Jing Hengbo stood defiantly, fighting the martial world.

“Rip.” The man reaching for the photo grabbed Jing Hengbo’s bodice instead. He froze, then suddenly flipped backward out of the crowd, continuously shaking his hands and cursing, “Damn! It’s actually a woman! Ah! So disgusting! Disgusting!”

Jing Hengbo’s face turned livid—what the hell? Disgusted by me? There’s actually someone in this world disgusted by me? And disgusted by what I’m most proud of?

How refreshing!

The martial woman moved more slowly, heading straight for her. Jing Hengbo, from her elevated position, kicked her away with one foot. “Off you go!”

The girls surrounding the photo screamed and scattered. Jing Hengbo turned back to Cui Jie and Yong Xue, who had heard the commotion and rushed over, “Take down the photo and put it away—never bring it out again! Ah, whose stupid idea was it to hang it at the entrance?”

“Yours!” Cui Jie answered without ceremony, looking painfully at the sea of people before them.

Jing Hengbo raised an eyebrow and turned to face Tie Xingze, who stood on the steps below, dumbfounded.

“You… you…” The usually eloquent Tie Xingze stammered a bit.

“You guessed right.” Jing Hengbo smoothed her hair and gave him a charming smile. “The creative mind behind the advertisement, the owner of Instant Portrait Studio, is none other than this humble beauty here.”

Tie Xingze was stunned, then burst into hearty laughter.

“I’m really stupid.” He slapped his forehead. “I should have guessed—who else but you could come up with such ingenious ideas? I’ve been your entertainment all along.”

“You probably didn’t participate in my welcoming ceremony,” Jing Hengbo said. “Those who were present and ranked high that day actually saw this portrait.”

“I was slightly unwell during that time, recuperating at home, and took leave from the ceremony. After recovering, I went back to my hometown.” Tie Xingze said, “Otherwise I wouldn’t have failed to recognize such a divine portrait’s owner in person.”

“I feel bad about fooling you,” Jing Hengbo waved her hand, “Let me paint you a portrait as compensation later.”

“Your portraits are worth ten thousand gold—how could I waste one?” Tie Xingze hastily declined.

Suddenly someone approached, saying, “Ah, this young master, you’re also quite handsome and distinguished. Could you become acquainted with me? I’m from the Daimao Tribe, known as Flying Hawk. I’m talented beyond measure, learned beyond compare, with unmatched martial arts, handsome and dashing. I wish to befriend all beautiful and accomplished men in the world… May I ask your honored name…”

“Bang.”

A fist connecting with a nose made a loud sound.

The man trying to chat up Tie Xingze’s eyes went straight, his neck stiffened, and after a moment, two streams of blood slowly flowed down.

“Bang.” He fell.

Tie Xingze expressionlessly withdrew his fist.

“I am Tie Xingze,” he said. “Iron as in steel, Star as in seeing stars when I punch you, Ze as in the Black Water marsh where I’ll send you if you try that again.”

Jing Hengbo nearly spit out laughing.

This guy is so cool!

The Flying Hawk on the ground was quite tough, rolling and getting up with half his face already swollen, the blood streaks making it colorfully attractive. He seemed shocked by Tie Xingze’s move. When Tie Xingze looked over, he quickly walked around him, circling to the front of the door. Looking up wistfully at where Gong Yin’s photo had been, he said loudly, “Master Tie, I have no interest in getting to know you now. You look ordinary and have a big temper. Far inferior to the one in the painting just now. Ah, beauty like flowers in the clouds, snow-white skin and flower-like features, noble and otherworldly—surely a gentle and refined, perfectly tempered, peerless and graceful gentleman…”

Jing Hengbo rested her chin on her hand, thinking: Perfect indeed. If you actually met him, it wouldn’t end with just one punch—he’d probably send you to a perfect reincarnation.

The photo had been taken away, leaving only the crystal case that protected it. Flying Hawk wistfully caressed the crystal case, seeming to want to see some trace of the beautiful man.

He touched and touched…

Touched and touched…

Jing Hengbo raised an eyebrow—touching the crystal case was nothing, but the problem was this guy was fantasizing about her boyfriend!

This could not be tolerated!

Just as she was about to call someone to throw this gay man out, she suddenly froze.

The crystal case suddenly began to shatter!

Just from that guy touching it a few times, it actually crumbled under his fingers!

Though crystal wasn’t as hard as diamond, it was still extremely difficult to shatter. Jing Hengbo watched the crystal case turn to dust under that guy’s hands and stepped back.

Tie Xingze also noticed the anomaly and stepped forward to shield her.

The atmosphere around them suddenly became tense. Everyone had seen Flying Hawk knocked down by Tie Xingze’s punch and thought he was just a down-and-out third-rate wanderer, but this display revealed he was actually a hidden master.

“That’s quite a skill you have there,” Jing Hengbo poked her head out from behind Tie Xingze. “Such a master—how did you get knocked down with one punch earlier?”

“What’s the point of using good martial arts against men?” The guy scoffed. “As long as a man has even a halfway decent face, I can’t bear to hit him.”

Hearing this strange logic, Jing Hengbo blinked. “So you only hit women?”

“Right!” The guy said as if it was perfectly natural. “I hate and envy women the most! Why can they wear two-piece skirts, arrange beautiful hairstyles, wear all kinds of exquisite jewelry, and cuddle with men sharing romantic dreams! Especially ones like you!” He gritted his teeth. “It’s not fair!”

Everyone showed strange expressions—a madman?

“You could just dress like a woman too,” Jing Hengbo said with a smile. “With your martial arts skills, no one would stop you.”

“I should have been a woman! I’ve dressed like that since childhood!” Flying Hawk said hatefully. “My mother gave birth to me wrong! How detestable that all these years they refuse to acknowledge it! They even call me crazy! I’m not crazy! They gave birth to me wrong and still despise me! I wanted to kill them, but an old man stopped me. The old man said I was indeed meant to be a woman in my destiny, just occupied by a man’s body. If I wanted to return to being a woman, I had to do good deeds and accumulate virtue… Bah! I should have been a woman—why do I need to do good deeds to achieve that? What does doing good deeds mean? Can’t I kill people? Huh?”

Tie Xingze shielded Jing Hengbo and stepped back. Yu Chun emerged from the crowd, directing guards to block in front of Jing Hengbo.

They had thought he was a madman, then discovered he was a madman with high martial arts, then realized this person was a cruel and violent madman who would even kill his own parents. And he was so hostile to women—clearly dangerous.

Flying Hawk seemed to have been touched in a painful spot, his expression gradually becoming insane. Tie Xingze and Yu Chun watched him alertly.

But Jing Hengbo understood a bit.

This guy seemed to have gender identity disorder!

He might have been raised as a girl for some reason when young. Over time, gender identity confusion developed, truly believing himself to be a girl and becoming accustomed to being one. When his parents realized something was wrong, it was too late—he was unwilling to be a man.

His parents naturally wanted him to correct this, but how easy was it to forcibly change established consciousness? Having grown accustomed to being a woman, from psychology to physiology all had female habits—how could he adapt to male identity?

Over time, conflicts and contradictions naturally arose. Long-term suffering bred hatred, gradually turning a “normal girl” into a “perverted man.”

Such people were also quite pitiful.

Jing Hengbo examined this guy’s appearance and sighed—even with rouge and powder, he couldn’t become a fake woman.

Though he constantly claimed to envy and hate women, his actions weren’t particularly feminine, only occasionally showing strange looks in his eyes. Having mixed in the martial world for so long, he had probably adjusted somewhat.

“Why? Huh? Why?” Flying Hawk became agitated, frothing at the mouth and advancing step by step. “Why can you always be women, dress however you want? Be with whatever man you want? Why can’t I? Why can’t I after being a woman for so many years? Why do you say I’m not, and then I’m not!”

“Stop!” Yu Chun watched his jumping around, gradually approaching steps, and shouted sternly.

“Why should I stop? Huh? Why!” The half-crazed guy swept over like wind. Everyone around felt the air tighten, a flash before their eyes, and suddenly lost sight of him.

The next instant he had crossed the human wall, appearing three feet in front of Jing Hengbo. Waves of guards rushed over, wanting to block Jing Hengbo again. Without even looking, he just waved his sleeves.

The wind suddenly became like steel plates, slapping hard. With several muffled bangs, several bystanders were instantly swept up, screaming as they were smashed against walls.

“All get lost!” The guy waved his sleeves, raising both hands to the sky. “All get lost!”

Strong winds howled, and with two more “smacks,” Yu Chun and Tie Xingze, who had rushed up from left and right, were both sent flying.

Suddenly there was no one in front of Jing Hengbo.

Flying Hawk in his crazed state pounced forward.