That shock nearly undid Jian Yi — had he not spent so many years as an assassin, long accustomed to handling every manner of sudden change, his footing would surely have been thrown into chaos.

The little thing was nothing more than a shard of shattered white jade from a cup, yet what came hurtling toward him was far more than a mere fragment — it was undeniably a killing force of inner energy!

Before the shard even reached him, that formidable inner energy spread out like a heaven-spanning net, enveloping him completely.

Had Jian Yi’s own movement arts and inner energy not also been of the finest caliber, he might not have been able to dodge that shard at all.

Yet even having dodged it, his breathing had already been thrown into disorder by the opponent’s inner energy.

By the time Qing Ye’s longsword arrived at his face, Jian Yi’s vital pulse was in complete turmoil, leaving him nearly powerless to evade.

It was his innate instinct for avoiding danger that carried him — before his own conscious mind had even registered the threat, his feet had moved a step ahead of thought, driving him swiftly backward.

Qing Ye’s sword swept past him by the narrowest of margins. With a tearing hiss, the sword wind sliced through the fabric at his shoulder.

Jian Yi dared not be careless. With a sharp ring, his longsword at his waist was drawn, its blade gleaming like flowing water beneath the moonlight, without the slightest hesitation.

It was an instinctive sword technique — the hardened brilliance of so many years of real combat.

The swordsmanship was fierce and razor-sharp, the sword wind cold as frost, the sword energy hard as steel. With a resounding slash, it actually forced Qing Ye to retreat several hasty steps.

Such formidable swordsmanship — even Qing Ye had never encountered anything like it.

This person’s only shortcoming was that his inner energy cultivation was inferior to hers. But this sword technique could absolutely compensate for that deficiency in inner power.

What was more, he was only outmatched in inner energy compared to Qing Ye — yet even his inner cultivation was beyond ordinary people. Coupled with his peerless and unrivaled swordsmanship, one feared he would encounter very few true adversaries wandering the martial world.

Having so easily been forced back by her sword, by the time she thought to pursue him again, the black-robed man had already slipped far away.

The sounds of their clash had alerted the shadow guards nearby. Without needing Qing Ye to give the order, several among the dozen or so shadow guards had already given chase.

Outside, commotion erupted quickly. The palace’s imperial guards were roused, and with so vast a guard force, even with the man’s superb movement arts and swordsmanship, slipping out of the palace safely was not so easy a thing.

Qing Ye cast one more glance outside, then drew in her sword light and in an instant retreated to the doorway of the chamber, pushing the door open and stepping inside.

“My Lady.” Qing Ye came to stand before the veiled consort and said in a low voice: “A man with very formidable swordsmanship. About twenty-three or twenty-four years of age.”

“There is actually a man in the palace with swordsmanship this remarkable?” Someone had broken into the courtyard, apparently attempting to spy on her movements, yet the veiled consort did not seem angered.

Only — it was a pity to have wasted a perfectly good white jade cup.

“My Lady, I shall go and fetch you a new cup right away.” Qing Zhi felt a little guilty — someone had broken in from outside, and she had been completely unaware.

Had her mistress not crushed the cup and flung its shards outward, she would not even have known anything had happened.

Qing Ye too had been the first to react, immediately giving chase — though in truth she had been a little slow on the uptake herself.

As for Qing Zhi’s little self-consciousness, Qing Ye naturally understood. But since she was ten years Qing Zhi’s senior no matter what one said, it was not anything remarkable that her reaction had been a touch faster.

What truly shook one most was still their mistress’s inner power. She had originally assumed that with their mistress’s legs injured for so many years, her inner power must surely have diminished — yet it had not declined in the slightest. If anything, it had grown even more formidable.

Their mistress had been circulating her inner energy all these years — a fact that even Qing Ye had not been able to detect, having thought all along that she had simply been resting and recuperating.

“My Lady, shall I go out personally to investigate and get to the bottom of this?”

A man in the rear palace was already an outrageous matter in itself. And yet this man possessed exceptional martial skill and remarkably powerful swordsmanship, and had even attempted to spy on her mistress. Without rooting this person out, who could say what trouble he might cause in the future.

The veiled consort closed her eyes, as though resting: “Emperor Qiwen will naturally send people to investigate. What need is there for you to go?”

Qing Ye dipped her head: “Yes, My Lady. Then I shall go and prepare the medicine.”

Feng Jiu had left behind a prescription when she departed, and Qing Ye personally prepared the decoction every day, never entrusting that task to anyone else.

Since her mistress did not wish to pursue the matter, this affair would be left for Emperor Qiwen to look into.

Her mistress had apparently not taken the intruder to heart at all — she herself had been overthinking it.

Still, Qing Ye could not set her mind at ease quite as readily as her mistress. A man of such formidable skill lurking in the rear palace was surely in some degree of collusion with one of the consorts. If this person was not thoroughly investigated, he would inevitably prove a threat to her mistress in the future.

But what exactly would Emperor Qiwen be able to uncover?

……

That night, fire blazed high above the rear palace. The consorts, knowing nothing of what had occurred, only knew that it seemed an assassin had caused an uproar somewhere within.

As for which person the assassin had targeted, no one knew.

His Majesty had not come to the rear palace that night — he was in his Yuxiao Hall.

Come to think of it, His Majesty seemed to have not visited the rear palace for quite some time. Word that filtered back was that he had not summoned any consort to Yuxiao Hall for a long while either.

Only Noble Consort Qing could still frequently visit Yuxiao Hall to see His Majesty these days. As for the other consorts, they wished to go — but dared not.

Yuxiao Hall was not a place just anyone could enter. Those consorts without much standing could not even get through the doors — before they had even stepped inside, they were chased away by the little eunuchs within.

So then — who had the assassin actually come to target?

Or could it be that the assassin had fled from the direction of Yuxiao Hall?

Everyone was unsettled and full of dread, yet also dying of curiosity. Not a few consorts sent their little eunuchs and little maids to gather news. In the end, all they learned was that the assassin had entered Xuanhua Hall.

Xuanhua Hall — that was the residence of the former Empress, now Noble Consort Rong!

“Insolent!” Consort Qin’s senior maidservant glared at the guards who had barged in and cried angrily: “Is Noble Consort Rong’s residence a place you lot can simply storm into as you please? Get out this instant!”

Even if Noble Consort Rong’s standing in the palace was not what it once was, she still had the Nanmeng clan as her powerful backing!

Were every last one of these people blind? How dare they claim to have seen an assassin flee into Xuanhua Hall?

“Greetings to Noble Consort Rong.” The guard captain stepped forward. Late at night as it was, he did not dare to stare openly at His Majesty’s consort, so his gaze did not land directly upon Noble Consort Rong.

Yet the guard captain’s manner was firm: “Your Ladyship, your subordinates did indeed witness with their own eyes the assassin fleeing into Xuanhua Hall. For Your Ladyship’s safety, please permit your subordinates to conduct a thorough search of the hall.”

“What do you mean by this? Could you actually be implying that our lady has been harboring some assassin?” The senior maidservant was furious.

These people — every last one of them used to not dare utter a word in her lady’s presence. Now that her lady had been stripped of the position of Empress and demoted to consort, they dared to be so impudent?

Even if the Nanmeng clan’s military power had indeed been halved, was there not still the other half?

What was more, Noble Consort Rong was the Crown Prince’s birth mother — who would dare to be so brazen?

Nanmeng Rong cast a sidelong glance at the guard captain, gave a cold snort, and said with disdain: “On what grounds do you presume to search this consort’s Xuanhua Hall?”