It was night, and there was a slight chill in the air.

In one corner of the camp, a man slipped furtively out of his tent.

A female apprentice sleeping in a corner suddenly opened her eyes, and in the next instant, she too had vanished from the tent.

The man moved stealthily, slipping out of the war camp without drawing attention, heading toward a patch of woods.

Feng Jiu’er, disguised as the female apprentice, casually shed the clothes she’d borrowed from the real apprentice, leaving only her night-travel garb underneath.

Trailing the man, besides her, was Jian Yi, who appeared from another direction.

The man was one of the physicians. He seemed unaware he was being followed and soon disappeared into the thicket.

After a while, as the man hurried back from the woods looking somewhat anxious, he ran into Feng Jiu’er, dressed in her night-travel garb.

“Mi— Miss Jiu’er, why are you here?” the man asked softly.

“Shouldn’t that be the question I’m asking you?” Feng Jiu’er looked at the man, her tone growing somewhat cold.

“I came out to relieve myself. Miss Jiu’er, this is…” the man blinked.

“Enough nonsense. Come back with me!” Feng Jiu’er let out a cold snort.

The moment her words fell, Jian Yi appeared before the man, sword drawn.

“Miss Jiu’er, I really just came out to relieve myself. What does this mean? Am I not even allowed to relieve myself?” The man looked rather flustered.

“Move!” Jian Yi turned his blade, his voice low and cold.

The man’s face filled with fear, and he had no choice but to follow Jian Yi forward.

Watching Feng Jiu’er turn to head back, the man’s voice grew so anxious it turned hoarse.

“Miss Jiu’er, I truly did nothing wrong, I only came out to relieve myself. If you don’t believe me, you can send someone into the woods to check.”

“I… I really didn’t do anything bad, I’ve been wrongly accused, I…”

“Shut up!” Jian Yi glared coldly at him. “If you don’t want to lose your tongue, go on talking!”

The man glanced at Jian Yi, took a deep breath, and didn’t dare say another word.

The three returned quietly to the main camp tent, and the man, terrified, immediately dropped to his knees before Feng Jiu’er.

“Miss Jiu’er, I really haven’t done anything? Why are you arresting me?”

“I only went to relieve myself, truly only that, nothing else — I don’t understand why you’ve brought me here.”

Feng Jiu’er kept a stern face, saying nothing.

The kneeling man kept babbling pleas for mercy, looking utterly servile.

“Miss Jiu’er, you can have the brothers go check, I really only went to relieve myself. Miss Jiu’er, how can I make you believe me?”

“Miss Jiu’er, you must believe me, I really haven’t done anything…”

“He really hasn’t done anything,” a woman’s voice suddenly called out from outside.

“That’s right.” The man looked overjoyed and turned to look.

But it wasn’t just one person who entered.

“You haven’t done anything, because your person has done everything for you,” Qiao Mu snorted coldly, throwing down the person she’d grabbed by the collar, right beside the man.

“Master,” the apprentice called out, trembling.

“What have you done?” The man grabbed the apprentice’s collar forcefully and flung her aside.

The apprentice fell to the ground, burying her head, not daring to look up.

“Speak. What exactly is going on here?” Feng Jiu’er looked at the person on the ground and asked in a deep voice.

“I don’t know, Miss Jiu’er, I really don’t know anything!” The man kept kowtowing to the ground as he spoke.

“Qiao Mu, what did you find?” Feng Jiu’er looked up at Qiao Mu.

Qiao Mu held out her hand and passed over a slip of paper.

“This was intercepted from the apprentice’s hand. It’s a letter to Nanmeng Zhuo, saying the plan failed and another way must be found.”

Feng Jiu’er unfolded the note, glanced at it, and let her gaze fall onto the apprentice.

“Plan? What plan?”

The apprentice said nothing, trembling, not even daring to lift her head.

The man turned to look at the apprentice, his face full of fury.

“Who exactly are you? Speak up! Don’t drag me into this!”

The apprentice remained silent, motionless, kneeling and prostrate to the side.

Just as the man lunged at the apprentice again, Feng Jiu’er swept out her long leg.

With just that simple motion, the force of her kick sent the man flying.

Before the man could even cry out, his arm was seized and pinned behind his back by someone.

Two dark-tinted silver needles appeared before everyone’s eyes, held in his hand.

“Trying to silence her so there’d be no evidence left — wasn’t that a little too slow of you?”

Feng Jiu’er pressed hard against the man’s wrist, and the two poisoned silver needles dropped to the ground.

With two quick strikes — “pa, pa” — she struck two pressure points on the man’s body, and instantly he could no longer move, not even able to open his mouth to speak.

She took out a handkerchief, picked up the two poisoned silver needles from the ground, and returned to stand before the apprentice.

Startled by the sudden burst of motion just now, the apprentice looked up, her body rigid with fear.

“He wanted to take your life and pin the blame on you, and you still wanted to protect him?”

The man, now with his pressure points sealed, stared at the apprentice, unable to utter a single word.

Looking at the silver needles in Feng Jiu’er’s hand, the apprentice turned to look at her master, her eyes welling up with tears.

“Miss Jiu’er, I truly don’t know what happened.”

“Master told me to take the letter into the woods. He said there was a tree there with a small red strip of cloth tied to it.”

“He said I only needed to leave the letter at a certain spot on the tree and then I could come back. He didn’t say anything else.”

The man, his pressure points sealed, flushed red in the face but still couldn’t speak.

“How long have you been with your master?” Feng Jiu’er asked in a deep voice.

“Four years. My master and I are both from Crow Wood City, from the same town.” The apprentice said.

“Is it far from Nanmeng Manor?” Feng Jiu’er’s voice rang out again.

The apprentice blinked and shook her head.

“Not far. But I’ve never seen my master have any contact with the Nanmeng family.”

“Good.” Feng Jiu’er nodded. “What else do you know? Speak.”

The apprentice met Feng Jiu’er’s gaze, composed herself, and shook her head again.

“Nothing else, Miss Jiu’er. I have no plan, truly I don’t, please believe me!”

The moment she finished speaking, the apprentice kowtowed three times to the ground, and on the last one, she didn’t raise her head again.

“Take him away and lock him up for now.” Feng Jiu’er said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes.” Qiao Mu hauled the apprentice up.

Following the pull of her grip, the apprentice stood, bowed to Feng Jiu’er, and was led away.

Feng Jiu’er sat back down behind the low table and took a sip of tea from her cup.

Looking at the man slumped on the ground, unable to move, she flicked a drop of tea from her cup.

The droplet struck the man’s pressure point like a shard of ice.

“Ah!” The man let out another scream of pain.

“What exactly is the conspiracy between you and Nanmeng Zhuo? Was Nanmeng Zhuo’s surrender never sincere at all?” Feng Jiu’er’s low voice rang out in the tent.

The man stared unblinking at Feng Jiu’er, and suddenly, his expression darkened.

With a “thud,” a cup still holding tea struck the man, and he collapsed stiffly to the ground.