Deep in the night, the waning moon passed over the mountain quarters, bringing a chill to the northern windows as people slept.
A gentle, clear breeze swept across the window frame. The half-open window was fixed in place and unable to budge, but the tree branches outside shook back and forth, rhythmically producing a rustling sound as they repeatedly poked through the gaps in the window.
In such a serene night, Ji Hengge lay quietly upon the bed, waiting for Yan Lingyi to flip through the window.
The night slowly bled through the windows. Ji Hengge had extinguished the lamps early, arranging for Wu Qiang and Taxue to keep watch in the neighboring room so as not to interfere with Yan Lingyi’s performance.
This wait was entirely different from the previous two times.
The first time, he was defensive and wary of Yan Lingyi. Her approach felt like a fierce flood or raging beast, making him instinctively grip his sword to defend himself. The second time, a sense of interest stirred within him toward her, and he wanted to spar with her.
This third time, he began actively waiting for her to draw near.
His heart slid restlessly up and down within his chest, his person and his heart twisted into a knot. If anyone had asked him what he was anticipating at that moment, he probably would have remained silent for a long time before finally squeezing out a single sentence: “I want to see.”
He wanted to see whether Yan Lingyi would ultimately choose him or the Empress Dowager.
If Yan Lingyi were merely a hypocritical woman who only spoke empty words and paraded the lofty rhetoric of patriotism and defending the nation, she would never obtain anything from him.
His thoughts drifted gradually into the distance, until at a certain moment, a rustling disturbance sounded from outside the window: someone was stepping on tiptoe onto the rear window sill.
Simultaneously, the sound of subtle footsteps drifted from the tiles overhead.
With someone climbing onto the roof and the rear window at the exact same time, this individual was definitely not Yan Lingyi.
In the pitch-black night, Ji Hengge opened his eyes and flicked his wrist to send a flying dart shooting outward. The dart struck from the bed toward the tiles, producing a crisp sound that was exceptionally clear in the quiet of the night.
Wu Qiang and Taxue in the next room spun around in a flurry and charged inside, arriving just in time to see several assassins storming into the room. While fighting, Wu Qiang roared at the top of his lungs: “Come here! There are assassins!”
The roar, imbued with internal energy, instantly pierced the clouds and reverberated through the surroundings.
At that moment, Yan Lingyi had already reached within a hundred paces of the side chamber.
Ning Yue had been feeling gloomy all day and had turned in early after returning to her quarters. Yan Lingyi had seized the opportunity to change into a set of night-walker garments and was cautiously making her way through the dark when she suddenly spotted a dozen or so individuals clad in brightly colored, mottled cloth skirts charging directly toward the Prince Regent’s side chamber.
Assassins!
This was the Prince Regent’s side chamber, so the target of the assassins went without saying. Most crucially, the Prince Regent had consumed her tea today.
The medicinal dose she administered to the Prince Regent today remained extremely heavy, rendering him unable to wake up. If anything happened to him at this juncture, how could she ever face the Prince Regent?
Overcome by a sudden surge of heat in her brain and a rush of internal energy, Yan Lingyi crashed and smashed through the wooden window of the side chamber.
Amidst shattering wood, Yan Lingyi vaulted directly into the room.
Chaos reigned within the chamber. Wu Qiang and Taxue were locked in a fierce group battle with the assassins, while Ji Hengge had already dragged himself to the edge of the bed and was fumbling beneath the mattress for his sleeve arrows.
He lacked martial arts and internal energy, but that did not mean he was dead. Though he could no longer draw a blade to slaughter enemies, he could still covertly release cold arrows from the shadows.
Yet, just as he picked up the sleeve arrow, he witnessed Yan Lingyi smash her way through the window.
Ji Hengge’s hand gripping the sleeve arrow froze instantly.
If he were to pick up the sleeve arrow and slaughter the enemy indiscriminately at this moment, it would be no different from telling Yan Lingyi to her face: Your medicine had no effect, and I have known all along what you were plotting.
In truth, if this matter were exposed, the one who ought to feel lingering fear, shock, and awkwardness was Yan Lingyi, seeing as it was she who wanted to pull down the Prince Regent’s trousers rather than the other way around.
However, the instant Ji Hengge caught sight of Yan Lingyi’s figure, his palm reacted faster than his brain.
He swiftly shoved the sleeve arrow back beneath his pillow, flopped flat onto the bed, and pretended to have been knocked unconscious by the poison, still fast asleep.
Wu Qiang had originally been keeping a close eye on their Prince and had just been about to utter “His Highness’s blade is as sharp as ever” upon seeing him prepare to release an arrow. Who could have imagined that the moment Yan Lingyi flipped inside, their Prince would softly collapse right back down!
Your Highness! There was no need to commit quite this thoroughly to the act!
Meanwhile, Yan Lingyi swept her gaze across the room. Ignoring the other fighting assassins, she flipped forward, snatched a saber from a fallen, deceased assassin on the floor, lunged straight to the bedside, hoisted Ji Hengge onto her back, and fled on the spot!
The assassins scattered throughout the room were equally dumbfounded: Where on earth did this fellow competitor come from? They hadn’t heard any mention of this before setting out!
Several assassins instantly wanted to give chase to Yan Lingyi, but Wu Qiang and Taxue intercepted them midway, leaving only two individuals to trail directly behind the fleeing Yan Lingyi.
As Yan Lingyi escaped out toward the high terrace with a person on her back, she noticed to her astonishment that not a single Imperial Guard had run over to protect the Prince Regent up to this point.
That shouldn’t be the case. Even if a detachment of Imperial Guards had entered the forest, plenty of guards were stationed outside the high terrace. Could something else have happened?
Yan Lingyi had no time to ponder further because two assassins were already closing in.
Carrying the Prince Regent, she bolted into the forest, finally depositing the unconscious Prince onto a tree branch before dropping down to the ground below and drawing the assassin’s saber.
Up in the tree, Ji Hengge slowly opened his eyes.
The cold blade flashed a fierce, gleaming light under the moonlight, reflecting Yan Lingyi’s crisp, sharp brows and eyes.
When Yan Lingyi stripped away those cumbersome, restrictive long gowns and grasped her bow, arrows, and long saber, the sharpness unique to Yan Lingyi alone truly began to manifest. The moonlight of Mount Wutai bathed her hair in a lustrous sheen. At this moment, the mountains and the moon silently watched her: a woman both powerful and magnificent.
When her gaze stared directly into the eyes of her enemies, when her hands gripped her blades tight, even her adversaries would be struck with wonder and admiration.
No one can fail to love Yan Lingyi.
While Yan Lingyi engaged those two assassins in the forest, the vicinity of the high terrace was also plunged into utter chaos.
The hundred-odd individuals dispatched by the Empress Dowager were not all assigned to assassinate the Prince Regent; a portion of them were tasked with fishing in troubled waters to create a diversion.
Some went to launch surprise attacks and set fires in the quarters housing the other officials, slaughtering a dozen or so ministers, while others struck the quarters assigned to Emperor Wenkang.
This was the Empress Dowager’s brilliant strategy.
Though the Prince Regent suffered from chronic illness, his foundation within the court remained unshaken, and a statue of the Prince Regent still stood along the borders of the Beizhao Kingdom. Countless military generals in the court were loyal followers of the Prince Regent. If the Prince Regent were assassinated and died under mysterious circumstances, it would easily provoke turmoil.
Consequently, the Empress Dowager never dared to harm the Prince Regent openly. This time, to assassinate him, she had detained all the military generals in the court, leaving only frail, elderly civil officials to accompany her into the mountains, ensuring there would be no formidable resistance when the assassins made their move.
On this occasion, the Empress Dowager had chosen the mountains as her venue and ordered a hundred men to simultaneously assault the civil and military officials along with everyone else, purely to drag every single person into this quagmire.
When everyone was simultaneously ambushed by assassins clad in Beizhao attire, outsiders would not suspect the Prince Regent had been targeted by any sinister conspiracy; instead, they would shift their hatred directly onto the Beizhao Kingdom.
Aside from the Prince Regent, certain individuals were bound to perish in this assassination plot, but the Empress Dowager cared not. For the eternal consolidation of the Dajin realm, losing a few lives mattered little.
In fact, the Empress Dowager felt that the more people died, the better. The more deaths occurred, the fewer eyes would fall upon the Prince Regent. Drowning this conspiracy in a massive sea of blood was, in the Empress Dowager’s eyes, entirely worthwhile.
Those who achieve great things do not sweat trivial details, and the Empress Dowager had never once believed herself in the wrong.
Yet eight or nine out of ten things in this world do not go as desired. Even with the Empress Dowager’s meticulous scheming, disobedient individuals were bound to pop up.
Like Emperor Wenkang, who recklessly flung herself into danger for the sake of love; like Ning Yue, who was thrust into the fray against her will; like Yan Lingyi, who wanted to pull down the Prince Regent’s trousers in the dead of night; and like the Prince Regent, who stubbornly refused to die obediently. Each possessed their own sharp edges, stitching together a chaotic Mount Wutai on this single night.
That night.
Assassins attacked the high terrace, and the timber beneath the terrace was ignited by wildfires.
No assassins had been laid in ambush on Emperor Wenkang’s end; the assassins sent there merely served to set fires and put on a show without genuinely charging in to kill.
The Empress Dowager could not bear to let her precious son sustain injuries, but a semblance of performance had to be maintained. If the Prince Regent were hacked to death while you, the Emperor, remained completely oblivious, it would hardly look justifiable.
Thus, the Empress Dowager ordered fires to be set around the perimeter of the high terrace. Although the flames spread swiftly, the Emperor was surrounded by Imperial Guards, ensuring no actual harm could befall him.
True to the Empress Dowager’s expectations, the moment the flames encroached, the Imperial Guards immediately rushed over to protect Emperor Wenkang.
The night was thick and heavy, and the crowd surged forward. Woken from a deep slumber, Emperor Wenkang snapped her eyes open to discover a dozen Imperial Guards blocking the head of her bed.
Horrified, Emperor Wenkang clutched frantically at her trouser waistband: “You guys, don’t come over here!”
She hadn’t tied her radish back on yet!
The Imperial Guards outside merely assumed the Holy One had been startled by their sudden intrusion and gave no further thought to it, bowing deeply instead: “Reporting to Your Sovereign, assassins have infiltrated the hunting grounds. This place is extremely dangerous right now, and your humble subordinates are anxious to rescue Your Majesty. Pray, forgive us.”
Amidst her racing thoughts, the Imperial Guard glanced left and right around the room, asking, “Where is the Empress?”
Ning Yue had hurriedly pulled the curtains shut at that moment, frantically hunting all over the bed for her radish.
When sleeping, she had found the contraption irritatingly stiff and casually untied it. Now look at this! She couldn’t find it anywhere across the entire bed!
The more Ning Yue searched, the more panicked she grew, tossing the bedding into the air. Amidst the fluttering quilts, Ning Yue felt an urge to roar at the top of her lungs: Where on earth did my dragon root go!
A mere little dragon root, bah, a massive dragon root, how dare you defy Us! What brazen coyness!
We command you to leap out on your own and hang yourself back around Our waist!