Only at this moment did everyone see that the stone had a moth’s corpse stuck to it. Earlier, because Yunyi had placed it directly face-down in the man’s palm, they hadn’t noticed. Not only him—when the other few looked at the stones in their palms, they also discovered similar moth corpses.

Du Ruhui asked in confusion, “What exactly is going on?”

Yunyi smiled and said, “I don’t know magic, but these stones did indeed test whether they were telling the truth or lying. Just now I clearly said that they must grip tightly and not hold loosely. If they had done so, the moth corpses stuck to the stones would definitely have been crushed out of shape, with their juices staining their palms. But there was nothing, which means that although they appeared to grip firmly, they were actually holding the stones loosely the whole time. As for why, naturally it’s because they have guilty consciences.”

She had just happened to notice several small moths resting on a nearby tree. At this time of year, the weather was cold, and since it was daytime, the moths’ movements were sluggish. So under the pretense of collecting stones, she secretly caught these few moths, processed them slightly, and stuck them to the bottoms of the stones. Since she did all this with her back turned to them, no one noticed, thinking she was just picking up some stones.

Duan Zhihong looked at Yunyi with admiration, then stared at those men and said, “Even now, you still won’t tell the truth?”

Those men had thought that as long as they didn’t grip the stones tightly, nothing would happen, but they didn’t expect this very action to fall right into Yunyi’s trap, leaving their lies with nowhere to hide. One of them stared at Yunyi and said hatefully, “Indeed, you’re cunning and full of schemes. No wonder you could stir up so much trouble in Honghua Prefecture back then.”

Duan Zhihong shouted, “Enough nonsense! Confess honestly—was the fire set by you or not? Was it the Crown Prince who instructed you and Liu Wen to do this?”

Hearing this, those few people’s faces all changed. The man who had spoken earlier shouted, “Don’t talk nonsense! This matter has nothing to do with the Crown Prince!” After a pause, he said, “The Crown Prince sent us here to protect the Second Young Master, but the Second Young Master’s actions truly make us unconvinced. Such a person is not worthy of the Li surname!”

Duan Zhihong said sternly, “Insolent! How dare you speak of the Second Young Master this way?”

The man sneered, “Did I say anything wrong?” As he spoke, he pointed at Yunyi and said, “This woman caused the Third Prince’s death, killed Feng Li, and nearly caused the general’s death too. Such a woman with a heart like a snake and scorpion, who is also the dog emperor’s daughter, deserves to die. Why should so many of us risk our lives to save her? The Second Young Master is bewitched by feminine beauty, but we are not. So we few conspired with Liu Wen and decided to teach you a lesson while killing this demoness.”

Li Shimin narrowed his eyes and said, “So Liu Wen went to notify Yuwen Zhiji?”

“That’s right. Only by letting you suffer a crushing defeat would you realize how utterly wrong you are. Li Shimin, you won’t be so lucky every time. Just now, if anything had gone slightly wrong, these two thousand brothers would have perished alongside you at Yuwen Zhiji’s hands.”

Duan Zhihong said coldly, “Your excuse is full of holes. You don’t care about the lives of these two thousand soldiers at all—you just want to complete the task assigned by your master and put the Second Young Master to death!”

“No!” the man said excitedly. “No one instructed us—this was all our own idea. Don’t slander the Crown Prince here.”

“I didn’t even mention the Crown Prince—why are you so agitated?” Duan Zhihong smiled coldly. “When we return, you can explain yourselves to the general and see if he believes you.”

Just as Li Shimin was preparing to leave, the man suddenly said, “Li Shimin, if I tell you the truth, will you spare me?”

As soon as he said this, the others immediately panicked but were constrained by Li Shimin and the others nearby. They could only hint obscurely, “Don’t talk nonsense and harm people.”

The man ignored them and stared at Li Shimin, saying, “How about it?”

“As long as what you say is indeed the truth, I can spare you.” Hearing this, the man nodded. “Good. Given your status as Second Young Master, you shouldn’t go back on your word. Actually, the reason we did this was because…”

Just as everyone was listening intently for him to continue, he suddenly raised his right hand, and a sleeve arrow shot out from his sleeve, aimed directly at Li Shimin’s chest!

“Watch out!” Duan Zhihong urgently shouted this warning, but it was already too late. The sleeve arrow was swift as a meteor, reaching Li Shimin’s chest in an instant. The incident happened too suddenly—the latter had no time to dodge. If this strike hit, Li Shimin would truly die here.

At this critical moment, someone nearby forcefully pushed Li Shimin aside, causing him to fall to one side and narrowly avoid this deadly arrow. But the person beside him wasn’t so fortunate—unable to withdraw their hand in time, they were struck by the sleeve arrow in the forearm, and blood immediately flowed out.

Seeing that Li Shimin was unharmed, Duan Zhihong and the others breathed a sigh of relief and quickly moved forward to subdue the person who had fired the hidden arrow, firmly pressing him to the ground. The hidden arrow tube concealed in his sleeve was also removed.

The person who had just pushed Li Shimin aside was none other than Yunyi. She was now frowning tightly, with the sleeve arrow embedded in her right forearm.

Li Shimin quickly supported her swaying body and said to Du Ruhui nearby, “Quickly go get a physician! Hurry!” After Du Ruhui left, he said to Yunyi, “Bear with it a little—the physician will be here soon. You’ll be fine.”

Yunyi was too weak to speak and could only nod. But even this tiny movement caused her to break out in a cold sweat. How strange—when she was injured in Honghua Prefecture before, those wounds were much more serious than this, yet she hadn’t been so weak that she couldn’t even speak. Something… seemed not quite right…

Thinking this, she struggled to look down and saw that blood was trickling continuously from the wound. The color of that blood… was much darker than normal, as if… she was poisoned!

At this moment, Li Shimin also noticed the abnormality. He immediately tore off a piece of clothing and bound it tightly around the upper part of Yunyi’s arm to prevent the poisoned blood from continuing to spread. Then he forcefully pulled out the sleeve arrow—indeed, the iron arrowhead glinted with blue light in the sunlight.

Although much poisoned blood had been squeezed out, the situation was still not optimistic. In just this short time, Yunyi had already lost consciousness. Seeing that the physician still hadn’t arrived, Li Shimin gritted his teeth and lowered his head to forcefully suck at Yunyi’s wound, drawing out the poisoned blood mouthful by mouthful. Only after the blood’s color returned to normal did he stop. At this time, the army physician had also arrived. Li Shimin quickly said, “Physician Sun, please examine her quickly. She was struck by an arrow in her arm, and the arrow was coated with poison. Although I tried my best to draw out her poisoned blood, I’m afraid some still remains in her body.”