“You don’t need to explain anything to me. I’m taking you back to dress your wounds.”

Feng Jiu’er already knew what Yanu wanted to say — even though he could not actually say it.

The Feng Jiu’er of the past had known no martial arts, yet her movements now were clearly far from lacking.

The two guards could only watch helplessly as Feng Jiu’er unbound Yanu from the wooden rack.

“Ninth Miss, Yanu stole the Eighth Miss’s belongings. There are witnesses and evidence — he cannot deny it.”

One of the guards finally managed to catch his breath. Clutching his severed right hand, he spoke through gritted teeth, his voice seething with resentment.

“Ninth Miss, if you insist on taking him away, aren’t you afraid that the Master and the Grand Master will hold you accountable for something you can’t bear the weight of?”

Moreover — why did this Ninth Miss before them seem no different from a perfectly normal person?

Even more remarkably, those dark, cloud-like eyes of hers seemed to glimmer with a sharp, discerning brilliance.

Was she not supposed to be a simpleton?

“Is that so?” Feng Jiu’er, with one arm supporting Yanu, glanced down at the guard on the ground. Without warning, the corner of her lips curved into a faint smile.

She was smiling — yet that smile was laced with a cold chill, as though it had been steeped in ice.

“Whether this Miss can bear the weight of it is hardly your concern.”

Then, her eyes darkened, and with a flick of her wrist —

A flash of silver light. The guard on the ground instantly let out a wail, and this time, he passed out cold from the pain on the spot.

“You all knew full well that Yanu was innocent, yet you still intended to force a confession through torture. Aiding and abetting such wickedness — those hands of yours are nothing but a source of harm!”

With a clatter, Feng Jiu’er dropped the blood-stained sword to the floor, took hold of Yanu, and strode out of the cell in broad, unhesitating steps.

The one guard who was still conscious looked over at the other guard’s ruined hands — tendons severed and useless — and was so terror-stricken that his face drained of all color. He did not dare utter another sound.

To think that the Ninth Miss had become this terrifying. It was simply unbelievable.

Was she truly a simpleton, or only feigning one? Was she so reckless because her wits had gone and left her without a sense of limits — bold enough to injure even the Eighth Miss’s guards?

Or was she not simple-minded at all, but rather… audacious beyond measure?

At last, after Feng Jiu’er had led Yanu far enough away, the guard raised his voice and cried out: “The Ninth Miss has taken Yanu away! Someone come! Quickly notify the Eighth Miss — someone come!”

……

Yanu’s body was covered head to toe in a dense criss-cross of whip marks.

When Feng Jiu’er helped him remove his outer garment, he flushed deeply, his resistance evident.

It seemed that from the time he had grown old enough to understand such things until now, he had never undressed before a young woman.

Even Feng Jiu’er — whom he had served for so long — had never once seen his body.

“Can’t you just treat me like a physician? I won’t take advantage of you.”

Feng Jiu’er pinched his collar and gave it a firm but measured tug. “I’m only tending to your wounds. Don’t overthink it.”

Yanu’s face turned an even deeper shade of red. Despite the scars covering his features, the flush of color was still clearly visible.

Men of this era truly were conservative enough, she thought. It wasn’t as though she had said anything about removing his trousers.

If this were the modern world, taking off a few layers of clothing would mean nothing at all.

His upper garment was stripped away, and the whip marks covering Yanu’s body were laid bare before Feng Jiu’er’s eyes.

Mark upon mark, criss-crossing in every direction — every one of them still seeping with blood, the fresh crimson staining a wide expanse.

What was most infuriating of all was that the tips of those whips had been fitted with barbed hooks. All across the chest before her now, the areas surrounding each whip mark were riddled with fine, ragged cuts left by the scraping barbs, the wounds oozing with blood — a sight utterly harrowing to behold.

Even Feng Jiu’er, who had seen wounds large and small countless times before, could not help but draw a sharp, cold breath at the sight of the injuries covering Yanu’s body.

Such formidable endurance — just how had it been cultivated?