Yao Ji had no intention of letting him die knowing the truth. He twisted his wrist, and a faint sound of flesh tearing rang out. Before Ji Dian could spit out a mouthful of blood, Yao Ji had already yanked Mo Lin free.
Without Mo Lin to support him, Ji Dian’s entire body went limp and collapsed to the ground, sending dust billowing everywhere.
Yao Ji’s breathing was slightly unsteady. The Ji army’s great general was indeed formidable. Dealing with a saber weighing dozens of jin was no easy task.
Watching Ji Dian’s body twitch incessantly, his eyes wide and round, Yao Ji could see the hatred and unwillingness in them clearly even in the dim firelight.
Yao Ji gave a cold laugh. Hatred?
What right did invaders like them have to hate?
Bang!
The door to the bedchamber was kicked open by Yun Chengxuan.
Wu Ke’s pupils contracted. The first people he saw were not Yun Chengxuan and Jiang Jin at the front, but Chu Qing and the others behind them, covered from head to toe in blood and grime.
“You—you!”
Chu Qing ignored him and swept his gaze around the room, his expression turning grave. “Ji Duoyan isn’t here!”
Jiang Jin saw it too. She waved her hand. “Search!”
The Dragon Shadow Guards immediately split up and searched the bedchamber and the various courtyards.
Wu Ke roared, “Stop them!”
The guards beside him immediately charged at the Dragon Shadow Guards.
With a series of whooshes, the Dragon Shadow Guards fired the Dragon-feather crossbows in their hands almost simultaneously.
At such close range, the guards had no time to react before they fell one after another.
Wu Ke’s pupils trembled violently. He instinctively raised his saber to block the incoming bolts.
The violent impact in his palm told him how much force those bolts carried. This was the first time he had faced the Jinyang Army’s repeating crossbows head-on. Their power was astonishing!
In a matter of moments, the bolts stopped flying. Other than Wu Ke, not a single person remained standing beside him.
Chu Qing continued inward with his men. Wu Ke cried out anxiously, “Stop!”
Chu Qing merely swept him a cold glance and continued walking. Their first priority was to find Ji Duoyan.
Seeing that Chu Qing was about to pass him, Wu Ke took a large step forward to block his path.
Yun Chengxuan raised the bloodstained Fo Xin and brought it down. “Do you take me for nothing?”
Clang!
Wu Ke hurriedly raised his weapon to meet the attack, but after one blow, his knees buckled.
Before he could recover from his shock, Yun Chengxuan’s second strike came crashing down.
Boom!
The enormous sound reverberated through the bedchamber.
Wu Ke, one of the Ji army’s ten great generals, did not even have a chance to block the second strike before Yun Chengxuan split him in two with a single slash.
Blood stained the floor red.
To his dying moment, Wu Ke never learned the name of the man who killed him.
Jiang Jin stepped over the blood and corpses strewn across the floor and continued inside, with Yun Chengxuan and Dongzhi flanking her.
Chu Qing and the others searched every corner of the bedchamber, but found nothing.
His expression turned grim. “My lord, there’s nothing here.”
Jiang Jin frowned. The entire Grand Chanyu’s residence was now under her control.
Since no sounds of fighting had come from outside, Ji Duoyan was either still hiding somewhere in the residence, or had escaped through a secret passage.
She was more inclined to believe that the residence contained a secret passage and that Ji Duoyan had fled through it.
Just then, a commotion came from outside. The Dragon Shadow Guards had captured quite a few people from the rear courtyard, including a number of Han women.
These people were Ji Duoyan’s “consorts” and palace servants. When they were brought into the bedchamber and saw the corpses and blood covering the floor, they all trembled in terror.
Luo Ah-di hurried over to report. “My lord, we found no trace of Ji Duoyan in the rear courtyard.”
Jiang Jin frowned and looked toward the shivering group. “Does anyone know where the secret passage or hidden chamber in Ji Duoyan’s bedchamber is?”
“I do!”
Several voices rang out at almost the same time.
Jiang Jin: “…”
She had thought they would need to persuade them—or perhaps torture them—before anyone would speak. But she had not expected this.
Besides, weren’t these supposed to be secret passages and hidden chambers? How did so many people know about them?
She gestured to Dongzhi, Chu Qing, and the others.
They immediately took those who claimed to know away in different directions and questioned them separately.
“No! You can’t reveal the Grand Chanyu’s secrets!” a Ji tribeswoman suddenly shouted.
She was Ji Duoyan’s empress and had always enjoyed absolute authority in the rear palace.
But no one listened to her now.
The woman grew frantic and rushed after the people being led away. “Stop! You can’t tell them! The Grand Chanyu has always treated you so well. How can you be so ungrateful?”
One of the eunuchs who had already walked several steps away finally could not bear it any longer. He turned around and glared at her viciously.
“Well?”
“You call it ‘treating us well’ when he had us castrated? Not just me—even my two elder brothers were castrated, and both of them died!”
They had been the sons of a merchant from Chongzhou. Their mother had been bought as a concubine by that merchant and was exceptionally beautiful.
The three brothers had inherited their mother’s looks and all had faces as handsome as jade.
Later, Ji Duoyan took a fancy to them and had all three brothers castrated. His two elder brothers failed to survive.
He had hated Ji Duoyan, but he had endured and remained undercover, gradually rising to a position where he could come into contact with certain secrets.
He had never imagined that the information would truly come in handy today.
He said no more. Turning to Dongzhi, he said, “I not only know where the secret passage is, I also know how to open it. Come on, hurry. If we’re too late, he’ll get away.”
Dongzhi: “…”
Just then, another voice spoke up. “That’s right. I also know how to open the secret passage. I’ve even been inside it. There are three branches inside, each leading in a different direction.”
The speaker was a slender, beautiful woman in her early twenties.
“Consort Han, how dare you!” the Ji tribeswoman shrieked, her eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.
Jiang Jin frowned. The Dragon Shadow Guards at her side were quick to understand. One of them stepped forward and punched the woman, knocking her unconscious.
Only then did Jiang Jin look at Dongzhi and the others. “Question them briefly.”
She already believed most of what they had said. However, the hidden chamber was of great importance. If there were mechanisms inside, anyone who entered might never come out alive. They had to proceed cautiously.
The questioning went smoothly. In little more than a dozen breaths, they had learned everything, and all the answers matched.
“I can lead you there,” Consort Han said firmly.
Jiang Jin studied her for a moment before nodding. “Very well.”
The group soon reached the inner part of the bedchamber. The eunuch who had spoken first hurried forward and pressed a certain spot on the bed twelve times in a special sequence.
A series of clicks sounded. Part of the curved outer shell of a round pillar behind them suddenly sank downward, slowly revealing a pitch-black opening.
“This is the entrance to the secret passage,” the eunuch said, his face flushed with excitement.
Two Dragon Shadow Guards immediately led the way down.
Jiang Jin was about to follow when Chu Qing hurriedly bowed and stopped her. “My lord, we’ll go ahead.”
Jiang Jin understood what he meant. A wise man did not stand beneath a dangerous wall; Chu Qing was worried that something might be wrong with the passage.
She stopped and waved her hand.
Only then did Chu Qing lead his men swiftly into the secret passage.
Yun Chengxuan asked curiously, “Aunt, aren’t we going?”
Jiang Jin looked at him. “Do you want to go?”
Without the slightest hesitation, Yun Chengxuan replied, “Wherever you are, Aunt, that’s where I’ll be.”
West Gate of Wenxia City.
Looking at the Ji army surging toward them from the distance, Lu Ping’s expression grew solemn. The Ji army had reacted quickly indeed. These troops must have come from a nearby garrison.
Sun Bu narrowed his eyes. “There must be at least twenty thousand of them, right?”
