At midnight, Xi Qingyue lay on the roof of her room, gazing at the stars overhead.
The moonlight was perfect—a fine time for killing.
Xi Weilan lay beside her, rubbing her eyes. She was so sleepy that she could barely keep them open. “Big Sis, why haven’t those people come in yet? I’m getting sleepy.”
“Lan’er, why don’t you rest first? Maybe they won’t come tonight.”
Xi Qingyue was helpless. The moment this little sister heard that there might be a fight or some killing, she became excited. As soon as she heard that people suspected to be Prince Kang’s subordinates might come in the middle of the night, she had eagerly refused to sleep. Yet they had waited until midnight without seeing a single person.
Sometimes Xi Qingyue wondered whether her little sister would grow up to become a demoness. She was only three years old, after all.
When Xi Weilan heard that she was being told to sleep, she hurriedly shook her head. “Big Sis, I’m not sleepy at all! I’m wide awake. I want to wait and watch them fall into the trap and get stabbed into porcupines.”
As she spoke, a delighted smile spread across her face.
To her, Prince Kang was the enemy who had killed her mother, and his subordinates were her enemies as well.
“All right, then. We’ll wait,” Xi Qingyue said with a smile, patting her on the head. She then handed her a bowl of spirit spring water.
Since she refused to sleep, a little spirit spring water would help keep her alert.
Xi Qingyue had considered simply killing the suspicious people directly, but she was afraid they might not actually be Prince Kang’s men. Accidentally killing the wrong people would be troublesome, so it was better to wait for them to come to her willingly. That way, she could kill them without the slightest burden on her conscience.
Listening to the sisters’ conversation, Mu Jin and the others nearby pressed their lips together to hide their laughter. They had never seen such a violent child before.
Another quarter of an hour passed before there was finally some movement outside the residence.
Xi Qingyue grabbed Xi Weilan and vanished. The next moment, they had appeared in a courtyard.
Outside the courtyard wall, six men dressed in black were flying toward it from a distance, long swords in hand.
Xi Qingyue set Xi Weilan down, then walked over to the stone table in the courtyard and sat down. She had even placed several bottles of milk tea on the table.
Xi Weilan picked up a bottle and began drinking, her eyes fixed expectantly on the courtyard wall.
The black-clad men moved swiftly. With a whoosh, they flew in from outside.
In the darkness, they paid no attention to what lay beneath their feet. As far as they were concerned, no one in the residence could possibly have noticed their arrival.
The instant their feet touched the ground, the men were suddenly alarmed. Not only had they spotted Xi Qingyue and her sister, but they had also sensed something strange about the earth beneath them.
Two of them failed to react in time and instantly fell into the trap. Their screams rang throughout the entire residence.
The others flipped in midair, attempting to change their positions. Suddenly, a strange gust of wind swept toward them. They lost their balance and fell once more—straight into the traps.
Xi Qingyue clapped her hands with a smile. “Excellent. I’ve been waiting for you. You wasted my sleeping time, and you’re so useless on top of that.”
Mu Jin, Nan Yun, and the others rushed over just in time to hear this. They rolled their eyes.
Are you sure these people are the useless ones?
Xi Weilan happily ran over and crouched beside one of the traps. But it was too deep, and the bottom was pitch-black. She shouted toward Xi Qingyue, “Big Sis, hurry! Give me a flashlight. I want to see whether they’ve turned into porcupines!”
Xi Qingyue walked over, took out a searchlight, switched it on, and handed it to her. She then gave one to Mu Jin, Nan Yun, and the others as well.
The screams continued. There were simply too many earthen spikes inside the traps, densely packed together and stabbing the men until they looked like sieves.
Xi Qingyue walked over to one of the traps and waved down at the person inside. “Hey, are you still alive?”
She crouched down and peered below with a beaming smile, her mood exceptionally bright.
No matter how skilled these people were, they had no choice but to obediently fall into the traps in front of her. Anyone who sneaked into the residence in the dead of night was an enemy, and enemies could be killed.
Beside her, Xi Weilan’s little face was filled with anger. “Big Sis, they’ve made the traps dirty! There’s so much blood. Can we still use them?”
Xi Qingyue waved her hand dismissively. “It’s fine. If you think they smell bad, I’ll clean the blood out later.”
The six men, impaled like porcupines, glared furiously upward. They would never have imagined that they could be captured so easily—or in such a humiliating manner.
At that moment, the several experts were no more than meat on a chopping block, meat covered in spikes at that. They were in so much pain that they were on the verge of passing out, while blood continued to flow from their bodies.
Suddenly, Xi Qingyue seemed to think of something.
She extended both hands, palms facing upward, and casually flicked them into the air. Several half-dead men were flung out of the traps, spraying fresh blood a great distance.
Then Nightshadow’s figure appeared out of thin air before everyone’s eyes.
Nightshadow still looked completely dazed. Xi Qingyue had locked him away in some unknown place, and aside from the livestock, the only people he had seen were Xi Weilan and Xi Qingyue.
He had been sound asleep in the middle of the night, only to be inexplicably thrown somewhere. Now he was staring at several blood-soaked corpses.
No—those weren’t corpses yet. They were still breathing.
While he was lost in confusion, Xi Qingyue’s icy voice rang out. “Nightshadow, take a good look at these people. Is either of them someone who went to Willow Village and killed my mother? If so, point them out. If you don’t, you’ll end up just like them.”
At those words, Nightshadow’s body immediately trembled. He knew it—there was never anything good waiting for him.
The half-dead men also glared hatefully at Nightshadow. One of them even began cursing him. “You traitor! You actually betrayed the Prince! You’ll die a horrible death!”
The instant he finished speaking, Xi Qingyue sent several earthen spikes shooting toward him. They pierced straight through all four of his limbs, pinning him firmly to the ground.
She gave a cold laugh. “You still have the strength to talk? Looks like your injuries aren’t serious enough.”
Nightshadow swallowed nervously. Terrified that he would be tortured next, he hurriedly examined the men as carefully as he could.
Mu Jin and the others cooperated by shining their lights directly onto the men’s faces, making every detail perfectly clear.
After a moment, Nightshadow pointed at two of the black-clad men and spoke excitedly. “It was those two! They both went to Willow Village. One released the snakes, and the other used pebbles to strike your mother’s wrists and knees. They were the ones who killed her.”
The moment he finished speaking, Xi Weilan rushed forward and began punching and kicking the two men.
“You killed my mother! I’m going to beat you to death! I’ll beat you to death, you bad man! I’ll beat you to death…”
As she cursed them, she kicked one and punched the other, alternating between the two. Her eyes were red with fury, but she deliberately avoided their heads and didn’t kill them with a single blow. She wanted to land as many punches as possible.
Xi Qingyue sighed and pulled her away. “Lan’er, stop. Killing them like this would be letting them off too easily. Tomorrow, we’ll hang them outside the city gates. We’ll sprinkle salt on their wounds and leave them exposed to the sun. Then we’ll put insects and ants on their bodies. Or perhaps we’ll have someone cut off a few pieces of flesh each day. When they’re almost dead, I’ll revive them. We’ll hang them there for a month and let them die in agony. Only then will they have paid for what they did to our mother.”
At those words, the two black-clad men rolled their eyes and fainted. They had only a thread of life left.
The other black-clad men trembled in terror as well. What kind of people had they provoked?
Nightshadow was even more frightened. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his entire body was shaking. He was terrified that, once he was no longer useful, he would suffer the same fate.
This was simply too brutal.
Mu Jin had already stepped forward to check the men’s breathing. When she found that they were still alive, a smile appeared on her face.
“Commandery Princess, they’re fine. They’ve only fainted. As long as we use some ginseng to keep them alive, they definitely won’t die.”
After hearing that, Xi Qingyue tossed her a ginseng root. “Mu Jin, it’s in your hands now. This is a five-hundred-year-old ginseng root, so don’t be stingy with it. We can’t let them die all at once.”
She had plenty of ginseng; there was even a whole patch growing in her space.
Spirit Spring water and her supernatural abilities could save them, but there was no need for that.
Most importantly, ginseng could keep them clinging to life without lessening their pain in the slightest. That was exactly what she wanted.
