Wind and thunder surged as the Steward and the Chiliarch clashed.

Surrounded by a hundred armored Imperial Guardsmen, Yuan Zhen calmly watched the two men exchanging blows. His gaze was as indifferent as if he were watching two crickets fight, utterly devoid of interest.

Seated on his horse, he said in a flat tone, “You’ve sparred with Li Shen before and never won once. What gives you the audacity to try to assassinate me?”

The Steward had no time to answer.

Again and again, he tried to get close to Yuan Zhen, but each time he was blocked by Chiliarch Li Shen.

Initially, he was only seven paces from Yuan Zhen, but after a few breaths of combat, he found himself ten paces away.

As he retreated, layers of Imperial Guardsmen filled the ten-pace gap, like closing a series of massive gates.

Yuan Zhen slowly recalled, “When you were captured as a scout back then, I spared your life because I valued your talent. I knew even then that your submission was feigned, because you were too calm when you were branded. So calm, it was as if you had prepared for it. You probably don’t know that even the most timid person would shed tears of humiliation when branded, but you didn’t.”

Yuan Zhen suddenly sighed with emotion, “Initially, I kept you only to see what that fellow Qing Wentao was up to, so I could turn his plans against him. Who knew that not long after, he would die at the hands of your own people from the Southern Dynasty? After his death, you drank yourself into a stupor every day in Fengsheng Prefecture, without any concealment. Thinking you were loyal, I harbored the idea of bringing you to my side. I thought that given enough time, you would eventually serve me.”

“Later, you did many things for me and killed many people. I sent you back to Guyuan to lie low, and you indeed provided a lot of useful intelligence. Over the years, I promoted you to Centurion and then Chiliarch, thinking that this way you would truly submit to me. But I never imagined that you, like this Guyuan, would be so stubborn and unyielding.”

“I was too overconfident.”

By this time, the Steward was gradually losing ground in his fight with the Chiliarch. Chen Ji watched silently, his face betraying no emotion.

Yuan Zhen, too bored to watch any longer, waved his hand dismissively and said, “Take him down.”

Within the Imperial Guard, an official practitioner, disguised as a regular guard, suddenly drew the plain blade from his waist and leapt from his horse.

The strike was incredibly swift and direct, aiming to cleave the Steward’s head.

But just as the blade descended, the Steward moved with ghostly agility, narrowly dodging the edge, letting the blade slice down his back and cut into the shadow beneath his feet.

Strangely, from the dust stirred up by the blade, the black shadow writhed like thick smoke, instantly transforming into a six-legged, four-winged flying serpent. It flapped its wings, soared into the night sky, and then dove towards Yuan Zhen.

The Chiliarch was startled. “Feiyi! It’s the Mandala Secret Seal!”

Chen Ji heard this with surprise and subconsciously turned his gaze to Xiao Man, but Xiao Man’s expression was as calm as ever, as if she had known all along.

As the Feiyi dove, the Chiliarch tried to defend, but the Steward clamped his arm tightly under his armpit. The Imperial Guard practitioner tried to defend, but the Steward gripped the blade firmly, refusing to let go even as his palm was cut open.

The Imperial Guard practitioner abandoned his blade, but it was already too late.

The six-legged, four-winged Feiyi arrived before Yuan Zhen and opened its gaping maw.

Another person in the Imperial Guard suddenly drew his saber, but Yuan Zhen sneered, “No need.”

The ferocious six-legged, four-winged flying serpent swooped down, its massive wings, condensed from black smoke, obscured the sky, almost completely engulfing Yuan Zhen. But a sudden anomaly occurred: the instant the Feiyi touched Yuan Zhen, it transformed into a wisp of smoke and dissipated, as if it were merely an illusion.

It had vanished.

The Steward froze on the spot, muttering, “How can this be?”

Yuan Zhen sat unmoving in his saddle and burst into hearty laughter. “This commander is a second-rank official of the Jing Dynasty! With the dynasty’s fortune protecting me, how can such petty tricks harm me!”

Chen Ji’s pupils contracted. He remembered how Commander Lin Chaoqing of the Jiefan Guard had once told Yun Yang and Jiao Tu, “This official holds a fourth-rank position in the Great Ning, so don’t bring out such petty tricks to make a fool of yourselves.”

So, the official rank of both dynasties truly could repel all evil!

Isn’t this also a path for practitioners?

As he pondered, the Imperial Guard practitioner pressed a palm onto the Steward’s chest. Instantly, the armor on the Steward’s back and chest shattered simultaneously, armor plates flying everywhere. He spat out a mouthful of blood and fell heavily to the ground.

The Steward struggled to his feet, grimacing, “No, even a second-rank official should have been injured…”

He hadn’t finished speaking when the Steward watched Yuan Zhen calmly take an imperial decree from his sleeve and say lightly, “Second rank isn’t enough, but adding an imperial decree personally written by His Majesty is sufficient.”

The Steward slumped back to the ground. “So that’s how it is.”

Yuan Zhen put away the imperial decree and gazed at the Steward, who was sitting on the ground. “You betrayed a crown prince just to gain an opportunity to get close to me. But you also know that from that distance, you couldn’t actually kill me… Since you chose to endure, why didn’t you endure until the very end?”

The Steward sat slumped on the ground, saying nothing.

He just looked up, watching the dust stirred by the fighting slowly settle, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

Yuan Zhen then asked softly, “The Zhu family doesn’t care about Guyuan, and they don’t care about you. Is it worth risking your life for the Southern Dynasty?”

The Steward coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood foam. “I didn’t sell my life to the Zhu family; I sold it to this Guyuan.”

Yuan Zhen paused, then looked up and sighed with emotion, “Guyuan… I’ve dealt with Guyuan all my life, and you’ve dealt with me all your life. We’ve all wasted away here. What’s the point? Why throw away your life for this city?”

The Steward grimaced and gave a bitter laugh. “I said there was no chance to kill you during the Battle of Quwu Mountain in the 25th year of Jianing, but some didn’t believe me; I said I was sent by the general, but they didn’t believe me either. It seems that once you’ve been a spy for even a day, you become a ghost. Your enemies don’t trust you, and your own people don’t trust you. There’s no meaning in living. I won’t live anymore. Today, I’ll go down to the underworld and ask the general why he chose me specifically, he was too biased.”

Yuan Zhen was silent for a moment. “Give him my regards… Kill him.”

Chiliarch Li Shen, holding his long spear, approached the Steward and brutally thrust it through his heart.

The Steward didn’t look at the Chiliarch, nor did he lower his gaze to his wound. He quietly watched the distant city walls, as if trying to engrave the undulating battlements into his mind.

Chen Ji silently watched the Steward slowly close his eyes, the light from the torch swaying gently across his face as the wind blew.

He was not well acquainted with the Steward, and there would be no opportunity to become so.

Yuan Zhen no longer paid attention to the Steward. He turned his horse and continued north. His trusted aide whispered beside him, “Commander, the vanguard just encountered an elite infantry unit at Duoku Square to the north. I’m concerned there might be more ambushes there.”

Yuan Zhen calmly asked, “Have the scouts from the west returned?”

The aide replied, “They have returned. It’s completely empty over there, as if a path has been deliberately cleared for us.”

Yuan Zhen smiled. “What is Hu Junxian trying to achieve with this act? If he wants to keep me, Yuan, in Guyuan, then he should lay all his cards on the table. Why all the theatrics?”

The aide remained silent.

Yuan Zhen’s expression gradually became arrogant. “I don’t believe the hidden troops in this city can stop my Jing Dynasty’s cavalry, famed throughout the land. We’ll break through the northern defenses and fight our way out through the North Gate.”

The aide quietly asked, “Commander, during the charge, the people accompanying the Ning Dynasty’s Crown Prince might become a burden. Which ones should we take, and which should we leave behind?”

Yuan Zhen looked back at the Crown Prince, Chen Liqin, Chen Wenxiao, Zhang Xia, Zhang Zheng…

He suddenly said, “Leave the Crown Prince behind, and take everyone else. Don’t consider them a burden; these individuals will be very useful.”

The aide was startled. “Commander, not the Crown Prince? We finally captured him; why leave him behind now? Among this group, he’s the most important!”

Yuan Zhen burst into laughter. “A Crown Prince who has been cast aside – what could we gain by taking him? Leave him. Let him remain in the Ning Dynasty. A Crown Prince with hatred in his heart will be of great use. He must live, live to return to the Ning Dynasty court.”

With that, he cracked his whip and spurred his horse, charging north, guarded by the Imperial Guard.

Chen Ji felt a surge of surprise and doubt. Yuan Zhen’s way of thinking was truly different from ordinary people’s. Had he really let go of the Crown Prince he had captured?

He nudged his horse forward, blending in with the Tiance Army cavalry, and approached Chen Liqin and the others. The Tiance soldiers dismounted and bound the hands and feet of all the captives with ropes, preparing to take one captive per horse.

Chen Ji’s gaze swept over the captives. Which one should he take? He wanted to save Chen Wenzong, Zhang Xia, Zhang Zheng, and Xiao Man, but he had to save Xiao Man first.

Xiao Man was a practitioner; if chaos erupted later, she could coordinate with him.

But just as Chen Ji was about to go for Xiao Man, he turned his head and saw a Tiance soldier already stepping forward, binding Xiao Man’s hands and feet with hemp rope.

Chen Ji frowned, wondering what to do, when the Tiance soldier turned his head to look at Chen Ji and nodded slightly.

Li Xuan.

After taking the Tiance soldier’s corpse, Li Xuan had actually changed into the armor and infiltrated the group during the Steward’s assassination attempt.

Chen Ji felt a little relieved. Without a word, he calmly approached Zhang Xia and took the hemp rope from his saddle. Zhang Xia silently closed his mouth, allowing his hands and feet to be bound, merely gazing quietly at the person before him.

As Chen Ji bound Zhang Xia’s hands, he saw the other man’s hands trembling slightly.

He straightened up and whispered, “Don’t be afraid.”

With that, he hoisted Zhang Xia onto his shoulder and laid him across the saddle.

Before leaving, Chen Ji looked back at the Steward, who was slumped on the ground. He saw the Steward clutching a handful of yellow earth from the ground—the soil of Guyuan.

He took a deep breath and swung himself onto his horse.

The Tiance Army cavalry took all the captives, leaving only the Crown Prince alone in the dark night.