Feng Jiu’er had not imagined she would truly fall into the hands of those men in black.

It was thanks to the body of Ninth Miss Feng — a body that had been fed poisons since childhood — that she had some measure of resistance, much like her own body from the twenty-first century. Most toxins had little real effect on either of them.

Still, this particular poison was no trifle. She had lost consciousness shortly after being struck.

But she woke far earlier than they had counted on.

She did not know where they had brought her. Jiu’er tried to move her fingers — and found, to her surprise, that she had not been bound.

It seemed they had far too much confidence in their poison.

“You stay here and watch her. I’ll go inform the master.” Though she had not opened her eyes, she heard one of the black-clad men say.

“Understood.” The man who had been carrying Feng Jiu’er gave her a careless toss and dropped her onto the ground.

So rough, as always — the impact jolted through her like her lungs might burst, yet she could not make a single sound.

Her strength had not fully returned — she had genuinely been poisoned, and though it was not life-threatening, it was still working on her.

Her fingers felt slightly numb. But she decided not to wait any longer. If that so-called master arrived, her chances of escape would vanish entirely.

She slowly opened her eyes. Sure enough, the black-clad man keeping watch had his back to her, gazing out toward the mouth of the cave.

The poison she had taken was clearly no light matter. And more importantly, the dart that had struck her in the chest — that truly ached with a pain she could barely contain.

If not for a stubborn, brutal determination to hold on, she would have already blacked out when they threw her to the ground just now.

Her hand crept slowly toward her chest — until her fingers found the dart. She clenched her teeth, steeled herself, and pulled it free.

The pain turned her face deathly pale. Drops of sweat the size of beans fell in a steady stream.

While the black-clad man remained fixed on the cave entrance, she suddenly slammed a palm against the ground — and the force launched her upright in an instant.

The black-clad man heard the movement and spun around immediately. Without needing to see clearly, he thrust a palm straight toward her.

What he did not expect was that Feng Jiu’er made no attempt to dodge. She took the blow head-on.

The black-clad man was startled. Thinking she was perhaps too deep in the poison’s grip to be thinking clearly, and afraid of killing her with a full strike, he hastily pulled back seven-tenths of his palm’s force.

This hideous creature — she had to be kept alive. Those were the master’s orders.

Yet what he could not have foreseen was this: the Feng Jiu’er who appeared to have not an ounce of strength left — her eyes, in that single instant, turned ice-cold and razor-sharp.

Taking his palm full-on, she simultaneously drove her right hand hard into his body.

A muffled groan — the black-clad man felt the shock of it, and realized in horror that the poisoned dart had just been driven into his own chest.

He recoiled in alarm, frantically attempting to seal his own acupoints — but another palm was already flying at his face.

The black-clad man, dart now buried in his chest, had no way to avoid it. With a resounding impact, Jiu’er’s strike sent him crashing into the stone wall. He slid down and crumpled to the ground.

He coughed up a mouthful of foul blood — and could not rise again.

Feng Jiu’er gave him no further thought. She walked toward the mouth of the cave.

Though the cave was cut into a sheer cliff face, at least it was not suspended in midair. She could make her own way out.

She shifted her footing and was about to leap up from the cave entrance.

But in the very instant she sprang upward, it was as if the sky and earth suddenly changed color — an overwhelming surge of ice-cold inner force came crashing down upon her.

Jiu’er felt something press against her with tremendous force, slamming her straight back down. With a resonant thud, she struck the ground just inside the cave mouth.

In an instant, the blood and energy in her chest surged and churned. She could hold on no longer — her mouth fell open, and a mouthful of fresh blood came pouring out. She had not a shred of strength left to rise.

In her fading vision, a tall, slender silhouette descended with effortless ease. He wore a mask. Black eyes fixed on her — and at the corner of his lips was a cold smile, the kind that sent chills crawling through every bone.