Time flies like a white horse across a crevice, stones strike fire, dreams reside in the body…

In a nameless, echoing void, Chen Ji didn’t know how long he had been drifting in darkness. It was as if he had been trekking through an ice river for a century, constantly unable to push aside the mist before him.

Yet, this darkness also seemed to last only for a moment, like the sparks that burst from stones striking each other, incredibly brief.

Chen Ji couldn’t control his body; he could only listen.

The sound of wind, the sound of rain, even the sound of boat oars stroking the water’s surface, as if someone was carrying him through a sea of black clouds in a small boat.

Chen Ji wanted to break through the darkness, but everything around him was sticky like glue, making him unable to struggle free.

Outside the darkness, someone suddenly said in a light tone: “Lord Zhou, we wouldn’t have come to your door ourselves without full certainty. The moment you see us, you either cooperate well to catch the Jing Chao spies in Luoyang, or we’ll make you wish you were dead. There are no other choices.”

Then he heard a middle-aged man angrily say: “I don’t know what crime I’ve committed that you two would commit such slaughter in my residence. I don’t know any Jing Chao spies!”

The earlier light voice said: “On the twenty-seventh of last month, you hosted Lord Li, the Supervisor of Craftsmen, for drinks at Famous Bamboo Garden in White Clothes Lane in the East Market. At the banquet, you redeemed the girl Cui Huan from Famous Bamboo Garden and gifted her to him. However, this girl Cui Huan is precisely a Jing Chao spy. She has already confessed about you… I don’t need to continue, do I?”

“What does the girl Cui Huan being a spy have to do with me? I’ve had no dealings with her before!”

“Do you want evidence?”

“Yes!”

In the room, a girl laughed: “When our secret intelligence department kills a spy, do we need evidence?”

The interrogated Lord Zhou no longer spoke. The room fell silent, save for the sound of heavy breathing.

In the room, porcelain lay shattered all over the ground. The antique shelf that held decorations was also broken, like a pile of ruins.

In the ruins, seven or eight corpses lay twisted. Only a middle-aged man remained, sitting on the ground with disheveled hair and a wretched appearance.

In front of him was a young man wearing neat, tight-fitting black clothes, with a light, relaxed, and playful demeanor. Not far away, a black-clothed girl with a graceful figure was squatting on a grandmaster’s chair, watching the scene unfold.

These two black-clothed young people, who appeared to be only around twenty years old, had killed a room full of people.

In the darkness, Chen Ji suddenly felt that these words sounded like a hand grabbing him as he was sinking into the abyss, pulling him back from hell to the human world.

“Lord Zhou, which other colleagues do you have in Luoyang? It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to tell the truth now; we still have an entire night to waste,” the young man said with a smile. “Wait a moment, we’ll bring your family members who are hidden in Chai Wood Lane, and then we’ll see if you’re willing to speak…”

The next moment.

In the room, a corpse suddenly sat up!

Hiss!

Chen Ji suddenly gasped, like a drowning person regaining life, breathing greedily. His breathing sound was particularly harsh in the quiet, breaking the stuffiness of the room.

Chen Ji sat up from the floor, feeling his head spin.

He subconsciously touched the knife wound on his waist, but there was nothing there at all.

The girl squatting on the grandmaster’s chair suddenly turned her head: “Eh, Yun Yang, your technique is clumsy. How can you kill someone so messily?”

Yun Yang argued: “Impossible. It must be that his heart grew crooked!”

“You missed, just admit you lost face?”

“Then what should we do?”

“Kill him again.”

At this moment, Chen Ji had too many doubts in his heart: Why did he rebirth, and to where? Could he still find his way home? If something as miraculous as rebirth could happen, then could he still see his relatives again?

He opened his eyes: “Wait, I have something to say…”

As soon as the words fell, footsteps sounded outside, drawing everyone’s attention.

They saw more than ten men wearing the same black tight clothing, pushing seven or eight people into the courtyard, as well as two children, one boy and one girl, who were eight or nine years old.

Taking advantage of this gap, Chen Ji quickly surveyed the surrounding environment. The room wasn’t big. To the left was a rosewood desk, and in the middle were two grandmaster’s chairs and a table.

Books, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone were scattered, making a mess on the ground.

Transmigrated?

Is this the dream world that Li Qingniao spoke of?

He seemed to have transmigrated into the body of a person who had just died, but he didn’t know the identity of the deceased before.

Chen Ji really wanted to stop and think about his situation, but the current crisis happened too quickly, giving him no opportunity to think.

As he thought, the more than ten men in black tight clothing pushed Lord Zhou’s family members to the ground and made them kneel. One of them cupped his fists and reported: “All of Zhou Chengyi’s hidden family members have been brought. This woman was redeemed by him from White Clothes Lane ten years ago. The two children are their flesh and blood, one boy and one girl. The people beside them are the housekeeper and maidservants.”

These more than ten men in black had determined faces, and each had a sheathed long knife hanging behind their waist.

Yun Yang smiled and squatted in front of the woman: “Madam, do you know that Lord Zhou is a Jing Chao spy?”

The woman tightly hugged the little boy in her arms and fearfully shook her head: “I don’t know. We don’t know anything!”

Yun Yang drew a slender silver needle from his sleeve and lightning-fast stabbed the woman’s chest once. The woman didn’t make a sound and tilted over to the ground.

Dead.

A sound of wailing echoed in the room. The housekeeper asked in a hoarse voice: “Old master, what is this matter, old master?!”

Zhou Chengyi didn’t answer, only looked at the scene with a gloomy face.

Yun Yang looked at him, then squatted in front of a maidservant: “Do you have anything you want to tell me?”

The maidservant stammered: “I… my master only comes two or three times a month. We want… it’s difficult to see him even once.”

Yun Yang stabbed the silver needle over. The maidservant wanted to dodge, but the silver needle was simply too fast to dodge. She could only watch with wide eyes as the silver needle stabbed into her chest.

Chen Ji subconsciously touched under his chest.

Yun Yang killed his way through, until he reached the little boy. He smiled and squinted, squatting down, but didn’t look at the little boy. Instead, he stared directly at Zhou Chengyi: “Little child, what did your dad tell you?”

Zhou Chengyi’s face twitched once: “Your Ning Chao established the country with books and rites, yet you want to abuse and kill a child?”

Yun Yang coldly laughed once: “This spring, the Jing Chao cavalry rode south and killed how many innocent people in my Ning Chao. Do I need to talk about poetry, books, and rites with you? Furthermore, last year you bought a ten-year-old girl and raised her at home, and later sent her to the Luoyang prefect. Wasn’t she also a child? Lord Zhou, if you don’t confess again, your child may just die.”

“Dad, save me!”

However, Zhou Chengyi only slightly turned his head away, not listening to the child’s plea for help.

Yun Yang blew a whistle: “So cruel. It seems we’ve caught a major spy of the Hai Dongqing level and above. It’s truly shameful that you could lurk under our noses for so many years.”

Stab.

The boy died and fell down.

Chen Ji watched silently. The child’s eyes had not yet closed in time, staring wide at him.

Zhou Chengyi’s forehead veins throbbed.

At this time, the girl named Jiao Tu came to the little girl and squatted down, saying softly: “Just now your mother only hugged your younger brother, did you see?”

The little girl nodded fearfully.

Jiao Tu said again: “If you are willing to follow me, call me ‘sister’, and I won’t kill you.”

But the little girl didn’t agree, only looked towards her father, blankly at a loss and afraid.

“In this world, weak girls will suffer many hardships,” Jiao Tu smiled and hugged the little girl into her arms: “Don’t be afraid, it will be very quick.”

She drew out a silver needle from her hair, the same as Yun Yang’s, and personally stabbed it into the little girl’s back neck. The little girl instantly slumped softly in Jiao Tu’s arms, no longer breathing.

Chen Ji’s pupils slightly shrank.

Yun Yang looked at this scene completely unfazed. He came to the only remaining housekeeper and Chen Ji: “Young man, you were lucky just now. Since you survived by chance, I’ll give you another opportunity. Let’s play a game. The two of you, whoever is the first to speak and give intelligence, can live.”

The housekeeper immediately crawled forward on his knees, crying with snot and tears: “Two lords, I’ll speak, I’ll tell you everything you want to know! Let me live!”

Yun Yang was amused: “I just like this kind of betrayal of one’s master for glory!”

Beside him, Chen Ji also opened his mouth: “I have no intelligence, but give me two quarters of an hour, and I’ll help you find the intelligence.”

The housekeeper quickly explained: “He’s just a medical hall apprentice. What intelligence could he know? Listen to me!”

Yun Yang looked at Chen Ji, his face sincere: “I have to wait two quarters of an hour for your intelligence, and I’m not even sure if you have it or not. So, I’m very sorry… ah, you!”

He was just teasing, but then he saw Chen Ji suddenly pounce on the housekeeper, pressing him firmly to the ground.

In a flash, a piece of broken porcelain was somehow hidden in Chen Ji’s hand, cutting open the housekeeper’s neck. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much killing experience, and the first time he didn’t cut the main artery.

Neither Yun Yang nor Jiao Tu made a move to stop him.

In a panic, the housekeeper lay on the ground and hit Chen Ji’s face hard with his fist, but Chen Ji didn’t dodge or avoid. He gripped the porcelain piece tightly again and cut down.

This second time he slit the throat, the housekeeper’s neck artery was finally cut open, and fresh blood spurted out like a fountain.

The housekeeper died.

Chen Ji slowly rose. The corner of his eye was broken by the housekeeper’s punch, and his palm was also cut because he gripped the broken porcelain piece too tightly. Fresh blood dripped onto the ground, drop by drop.

Jiao Tu’s eyes brightened slightly.

Yun Yang also became interested: “You really want to live?”

Chen Ji breathed: “I have no intelligence, but give me two quarters of an hour, and I’ll find the intelligence for you.”

“Oh?” Yun Yang raised his eyebrows: “Deal, but I’ll only give you one quarter of an hour.”