Lin Guogong, having just reached the palace gates and intending to return to his manor, heard a sharp voice call from behind, "Lin Guogong, Lin Guogong, please wait a moment."
He turned to see Xiao Anzi, a eunuch from the Empress's palace.
"Xiao Anzi, what is it?" Lin Zhenfei asked with a puzzled expression.
"Lin Guogong, Her Majesty the Empress wishes to speak with you at Fengqi Palace."
Lin Zhenfei nodded and followed Xiao Anzi to Fengqi Palace.
Inside, the Empress, lying on her phoenix bed, looked gaunt and had lost the imposing aura she once possessed. Her high fever had only just begun to recede after taking the medicine prescribed by the imperial physician.
"Sister, how did you become so ill?" Lin Zhenfei asked, his brow furrowed with concern.
"It's all because of Yao'er's matters. I've been utterly vexed."
"Alas..."
Lin Zhenfei sighed. What kind of fate did he and his sister share, to have given birth to such scoundrel sons?
"I sent for you this late because I want to discuss something with you. That Leng Ruo Li cannot be kept. She has ruined too many of our plans." The Empress's gaze turned exceptionally sinister as she spoke.
"Then Sister, you mean..." As he spoke, Lin Zhenfei made a throat-slitting gesture with his hand.
The Empress let out a cold laugh and nodded at him.
Following this, the Empress cast a fierce glance towards the figure behind her screen. "Come out."
A tall, middle-aged man emerged from behind the screen. Lin Zhenfei's eyes widened slightly upon seeing him. Hadn't this man been lurking at the General's manor all along? How had he managed to get into Fengqi Palace today?
"Sister, why is Lin Feng in the palace?"
"His shameful deeds with Liu Ruyi were discovered by Leng Jinyu and his daughter. He escaped from General Leng's manor last night and returned to my palace," the Empress closed her eyes.
"Lin Feng admits his fault!" Lin Feng bowed his head respectfully and cupped his hands towards the Empress.
"Today, you will lead the first batch of assassins to assassinate Leng Ruo Li and atone for your mistakes," the Empress said icily.
"Yes, your subordinate accepts the order!" Lin Feng accepted the Empress's mission and sped out of the palace.
***
Leng Ruo Li emerged from the palace gates by moonlight and boarded the carriage arranged for her by Eunuch Li. It slowly made its way towards the General's manor.
Halfway there, a cold arrow shot out from the darkness with a whistling sound, piercing the coachman's heart. The coachman died instantly, bringing the carriage to an abrupt halt.
Immediately after, a volley of arrows rained down, turning the carriage Leng Ruo Li was in into a hedgehog in an instant. She was fortunate to have a personal system space; when encountering such danger, she could retreat into it to hide. Otherwise, her small life would have been forfeit.
Damn it! Who had she offended to deserve this?
When the rain of arrows stopped, Leng Ruo Li reappeared inside the carriage. The carriage she was traveling in was now riddled with arrows scattered haphazardly, utterly ruined.
Suddenly, another wave of intense killing intent attacked from all sides of the carriage. Leng Ruo Li quickly retrieved a surgical knife and a handful of poisoned needles from her system space. The enemies were slowly closing in on her.
"Boss, the carriage is riddled like this, that woman inside must be dead, right?" said a killer outside the carriage.
"Whether she's alive or dead, we must open the carriage and check before reporting back," the one called Boss said in an extremely cold tone.
However, hidden within the carriage, Leng Ruo Li recognized the voice of the person who had escaped from General Leng's manor last night. She thought, Hmph, only one day has passed, and he's already a boss of assassins. His background is certainly not simple!
"You two, come and open this carriage door," Lin Feng ordered two assassins.
"Yes! Boss." The two assassins replied in unison.
Hearing the conversation outside the carriage, Leng Ruo Li felt a surge of nervousness. Then, the two designated assassins stood on either side of the carriage, cautiously pulling the door handles. With a sudden yank, the carriage door swung open. Leng Ruo Li flung out the poisoned needles in her hand. In an instant, several assassins were struck by her needles, collapsing immediately, frothing at the mouth, and convulsing as they died.
"Holy crap!"
This woman wasn't dead! And she had killed several of their brothers with hidden weapons.
"Everyone be careful. This woman is cunning and carries lethal poisoned needles," Lin Feng warned the crowd.
Leng Ruo Li leaped into a somersault and threw another handful of poisoned needles. A few more unfortunate assassins fell victim, meeting their demise. At this point, she had successfully escaped the enemy's encirclement and was swiftly weaving through the alleys. As there were too many assassins, a head-on confrontation would put her at a disadvantage. She could only resort to guerrilla tactics to eliminate the enemy.
She casually counted; there were about thirty-odd assassins. She wondered who had sent them to assassinate her. They really thought highly of her, Leng Ruo Li, to spend so much to kill her.
Seeing two assassins rapidly closing in on her, she quickly ran into a secluded alley and darted into her personal system space. Using the system's penetration mirror, she carefully observed the situation of the two assassins outside. With her will, she controlled the system space to move beside the two assassins, then flashed out behind them, each wielding a surgical knife in her hands. With a swift slash across their necks, the two assassins died instantly.
Following this, Leng Ruo Li used the same method to deal with six more assassins. However, just as she was about to change battlegrounds, another assassin's figure emerged from the alley. Leng Ruo Li turned and fled. When she had created distance from the assassin, she retreated into her space again.
In the blink of an eye, the assassin caught up. Leng Ruo Li, through the system space's mirror, stared intently at this assassin and realized he was the leader of those assassins, the Lin guard who had escaped from General Leng's manor.
Damn it! I absolutely cannot let you off tonight.
Leng Ruo Li followed the same method as before, controlling the system space with her will. She moved behind the Lin guard, then flashed out of the system space, holding her surgical knife, and lunged at the Lin guard. Unexpectedly, the Lin guard nimbly dodged her attack, grabbed Leng Ruo Li's arm, immediately pressed her acupoint to paralyze her, and sent her surgical knife flying with a palm strike.
"Ha—" The Lin guard let out a cold laugh. "I didn't expect young lady's martial arts to be quite good. You've killed over a dozen of my brothers from Lin Feng in such a short time."
"However, no matter how good your martial arts are, now that you've fallen into my hands tonight, you won't survive. Haha—" As the Lin guard finished speaking, he gathered internal energy throughout his body and channeled it into the palm that gripped Leng Ruo Li's arm. Instantly, Leng Ruo Li felt a piercing, tearing pain. The arm that Lin Feng gripped turned black, the darkness spreading up her arm from her hand.
"Ah—" "It hurts so much! Lin, what did you do to my hand!"
But Lin Feng ignored her, concentrating on transmitting a stream of black energy into her arm. Just as Leng Ruo Li thought she was about to die, a gust of palm wind struck Lin Feng, hitting his chest and causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. Upon seeing who had arrived, he immediately released Leng Ruo Li's hand and fled in a panic.
"Miss Leng~"
"Ruo Li~"
After glancing at Jun Mohan and Leng Jinyu, Leng Ruo Li immediately fainted. Jun Mohan released her paralyzing acupoint and, faster than Leng Jinyu, embraced Leng Ruo Li. He then glanced at her darkened right hand, his expression immediately turning grim. "General Leng, Ruo Li has been poisoned by the Iron Palm."
Hearing this, Leng Jinyu's face also grew heavy.
"Let's go, quickly back and force Ruo Li's Iron Palm poison out..."
Before he could finish, Jun Mohan, carrying Leng Ruo Li, took to the air and vanished into the alley.