Decades of steps away, Daoyixiang was surrounded by Jiefanwei and Mijian, with the clamor of firefighting, horse hooves, and shouts as they drove away the onlookers.

In the alley, Lu Shi on the rooftop listened to the sounds outside, unmoved, like a patient owl.

Inside the main house under the gray tiles, it was quiet, with only flames constantly sweeping and smoke swirling chaotically. The people inside seemed to have guessed that someone was lying in ambush outside, and were reluctant to come out.

The two Xundao Realm officials knew that a confrontation meant life or death.

So they competed in patience, cunning, and courage, calculating everything they could calculate.

Chen Ji stood in the alley, his eyes fixed on the front door of the house without blinking, while the woman who had previously been repelled by Lu Shi slowly woke up, knelt down again, and silently kowtowed to Chen Ji repeatedly.

Three silent people, a silent house, silent gray tiles.

The eerie scene was as if someone had drained the sound from this alley.

The next moment, twelve gray-clothed, masked dead soldiers turned out from the end of the alley, clutching twenty-two-inch short blades with chilling gazes.

Attracted by the fire, they came to silence the witnesses. Upon seeing Lu Shi on the rooftop and Chen Ji in the alley, they immediately charged.

Lu Shi had originally intended to help, but she suddenly noticed that there was no fear in Chen Ji’s eyes in the narrow alley, so she crouched down again.

Chen Ji stood in the alley without dodging or retreating, quickly thinking that these people were neither Jiefanwei nor Mijian.

Could they be the Crown Prince’s people? Or from the Chen family’s second branch?

Were they here to kill him? Or to kill Liao Zhong?

Chen Ji couldn’t tell.

But now, with two Xundao Realm experts about to make their move, Chen Ji didn’t want inexplicable people to emerge and startle Liao Zhong inside the house, nor did he want the sounds of fighting and weapons to attract Jiefanwei and Mijian.

White walls, gray tiles, narrow alley.

The dead soldier swung his short blade and chopped down. Chen Ji collided into his embrace, curling his right index and middle fingers to strike the Adam’s apple with his knuckles.

Simple, direct.

With a click, the dead soldier’s Adam’s apple shattered and inverted into his trachea, making his face turn crimson with suffocation.

The dead soldier’s short blade fell from his hand, and as it left his grasp, the hilt was firmly caught by Chen Ji in mid-air. Chen Ji, still pressed against the soldier, used a backhand upward slash to cut open the dead soldier’s chest and abdomen.

The dead soldier tried to cry out in pain, but could only manage a hoarse gasp.

Chen Ji ignored him, pushing his head aside and actively moving towards the next person. The dead soldier slowly fell, trying to grab Chen Ji’s clothes, but his hand met empty air.

Lu Shi’s eyes flickered on the rooftop.

She had killed before, so she knew that killing was not easy. Not that taking a life was difficult, but rather, a normal person would not kill unless absolutely necessary.

In her memory, Chen Ji was still the child who would come home covered in mud from playing, the kind child who wouldn’t fight back when bullied.

Only at this moment, seeing Chen Ji emotionlessly cut open someone’s chest and abdomen, did she finally realize that the child in her memory had grown up.

And in the process of growing up alone, who knew how many “absolute necessities” he had experienced to become who he was today.

The second dead soldier swung his blade horizontally, aiming for Chen Ji’s throat. Chen Ji had a blade in his hand, but he didn’t use it to parry, because he didn’t want the clang of metal to be heard here.

Chen Ji pressed forward again, and as he reached the dead soldier, he suddenly ducked, narrowly avoiding the blade that slashed over his head.

The short blade in his hand cut across the inside of the dead soldier’s knee, severing the ligament in one swift motion.

The dead soldier’s leg gave out, and he involuntarily fell sideways. Chen Ji rose, pulling the soldier’s head into his embrace, as if the man had intentionally fallen into his arms.

Chen Ji blocked the dead soldier’s mouth with his chest, along with the cry of pain that was already at his lips. With a slight twist of his hand, the dead soldier’s head snapped unnaturally to the side, broken.

The dead soldier didn’t even have a chance to cry out in pain or agony.

Lu Shi crouched on the rooftop, watching silently. Chen Ji’s fighting style was clean and precise, in a series of swift movements, the weapon in his hand was like a butcher’s knife, flowing smoothly without hindrance.

No wonder he said that killing with fists and feet was too slow.

In less than half an incense stick’s time, all ten-plus dead soldiers in the alley lay dead, with only Chen Ji still standing.

Chen Ji’s forearm had a cut, blood flowing down his wrist to his hand, then dripping onto the packed earth road.

Lu Shi watched him steadily tear off a piece of his garment, wrapping it simply around the wound twice to stop the bleeding. Then, he turned and smiled at her on the rooftop, signaling that everything was taken care of.

Just then, the sound of horse hooves from Daoyixiang approached.

Liao Zhong seemed to finally lose his patience. The door beneath Lu Shi was suddenly flung open, and thick smoke billowed out along the beams, swirling skyward.

The male owner of the residence coughed as he rushed out of the house. The first thing he did was survey his surroundings, then looked up at the rooftop: “On the rooftop!”

Before he finished speaking.

Lu Shi stretched and backflipped, a chair flying straight out of the house, smashing the roof where she had been standing, sending shattered tiles scattering.

After throwing the chair, Liao Zhong, carrying Ping’er, rushed out of the main house.

He could no longer stay here; the fire would burn down the house and attract the eunuchs, leaving him no place to hide.

He didn’t know who was on the rooftop, nor their realm, but he must not linger in battle.

As he ran out, he low-roared to the man: “Only if you hold off the person on the rooftop can Ping’er live!”

Liao Zhong ran out, leaving the man to face Lu Shi alone.

After backflipping to avoid the chair’s ambush, Lu Shi landed lightly on the ridge of the roof. She didn’t pause, instead rushing down, stepping on the tiles.

The man looked back at Ping’er in Liao Zhong’s arms, gritted his teeth, pulled out a dagger, and leaped into the air from a table in the courtyard, heading towards Lu Shi.

But his movements were too slow. As he leaped into the air, Lu Shi, like a swift in mid-air, spun and kicked his wrist, breaking bone and tearing sinew.

When Lu Shi twisted back, she stepped on his head and lunged towards Liao Zhong, who was further away.

At this moment, Liao Zhong had just reached the courtyard gate.

The instant he exited, he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound approaching. Chen Ji, hidden outside the gate, slashed at his chest and abdomen, forcing him back into the courtyard!

“You’re asking for death!” Liao Zhong roared in fury.

But by the time he tried to rush out of the courtyard again, Lu Shi had already leaped over his head, her slender arm like a back-spinning spear, twisting back to strike his head with a palm.

The force of this palm was immense, with the Bagua Yin-Yang fish symbol suddenly appearing on the outer edge of her palm. The eight trigrams—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Gen, Dui, Li, Xun, Kan—rotated in sequence, finally settling on Zhen, glowing brightly.

“Who are you?!” Liao Zhong’s face changed, not daring to meet the strike head-on. He immediately flicked his sleeve, donning a red-faced, fanged mask, transforming into a cloud of black smoke, carrying Ping’er, and flying backward.

In a flash of lightning.

“Stay!” Lu Shi cried out, reaching out and grabbing Ping’er’s ankle, pulling Ping’er out of the black smoke by sheer force.

She threw the child out by the ankle: “Catch!”

“Thank you, my lord, thank you, my lord!” The previously injured woman caught the flying child with both hands, hugged the child, and ran out. But before she could leave the alley, she collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. She looked down and saw that the child in her arms had already lost all its facial features.

The “Yeshengxiang” technique stole people’s faces; there was no cure, no way to break it.

The woman’s cries echoed from afar, and the man in the courtyard looked ashen.

Liao Zhong transformed into a cloud of black smoke and shot skyward, attempting to fly over the rooftop, but the man suddenly lunged at the black smoke, blocking its path with his body.

The black smoke passed over the man, wriggling as if drawing something out of his body. In just three breaths, the man’s corpse emerged from the black smoke, all his facial features gone, and the black smoke continued to fly towards the rooftop.

But by now, Lu Shi was already waiting on the rooftop, blocking Liao Zhong’s path.

Chen Ji instinctively warned, “Be careful!”

Lu Shi’s face remained unchanged, calm as a mountain.

“Die!” Liao Zhong, swirling with black smoke, enveloped Lu Shi.

The next moment, Lu Shi drew the Bagua Yin-Yang with both hands, pressing down sharply, her palms imprinted on the oncoming black smoke. A mighty, invisible force erupted from her palms, actually pressing the invisible black smoke back down into the courtyard from mid-air.

Liao Zhong was incredulous.

In the distance, Jiefanwei arrived. As soon as they reached the alley entrance, they saw Lu Shi on the rooftop, unhooked their waist crossbows, and fired.

Lu Shi ignored the crossbow bolts, chasing Liao Zhong back into the courtyard to kill him.

She landed lightly beside the black smoke, drawing a Yin-Yang fish symbol with her feet, circling the black smoke.

Her steps were like wading through mud, her waist rotated like an axle, her palms moved in spirals, her body like a swimming dragon.

With every step she took, she unleashed a palm strike at the black smoke. With a clang, her palm meeting the black smoke sounded like a great bell.

The instant her palm collided with the black smoke, the Bagua Yin-Yang fish symbol reappeared on the outer edge of Lu Shi’s palm, then vanished.

Before it vanished, Chen Ji saw the Xun trigram on the Bagua glow like stars.

He then looked at Lu Shi’s steps, as if each step she took corresponded to a different trigram, North being Qian, South being Kun, moving as if the stars were turning!

Lu Shi’s palm wind was incredibly fast, making time seem to slow down before her.

She struck the black smoke with a palm infused with the Xun trigram, and Liao Zhong’s roar of anger came from within the black smoke.

Xun is wind, wind and thunder bring benefit, heaven and thunder are without fault.

After one palm strike, a shadowy figure of Liao Zhong actually flew out of the black smoke, a figure that did not resemble Liao Zhong himself, but was entirely gray and black.

Lu Shi struck the black smoke with a second palm.

The Bagua Yin-Yang fish symbol reappeared faintly on the outer edge of her palm, and the Li trigram shone brightly.

Li is fire, fire over a mountain is travel, heaven and fire are fellowship.

After one palm strike, another shadowy figure of Liao Zhong actually flew out of the black smoke, its face pale, its expression weary.

The third palm.

Zhen is thunder, thunder and water bring relief, lake and wind bring excess!

After this palm strike, another shadowy figure flew out of the black smoke, its face terrifyingly hideous.

With each palm Lu Shi struck, her hand collided with the black smoke, and the Bagua Yin-Yang fish symbol would appear faintly at the point of impact. With each palm strike, Liao Zhong let out a wail from within the black smoke.

In the blink of an eye, six palms were unleashed, sending six shadowy figures of Liao Zhong flying in six completely different directions.

These six palm strikes from Lu Shi had actually dispersed Liao Zhong’s six魄 (Po) souls – the Shī Gǒu, Fú Shǐ, Què Yīn, Tūn Zéi, Fēi Dú, and Chú Huì – from his body, leaving only three魂 (Hun) souls and one魄 (Po) soul in the black smoke.

With a thud, Liao Zhong’s body fell from the black smoke, collapsing heavily onto the ground, eyes tightly shut, his life uncertain.

Chen Ji looked surprised, stepping forward to test for breath with his fingers forming a sword.

He was still breathing.

Lu Shi gasped for breath: “The six魄 (Po) souls have scattered, but the three魂 (Hun) souls and the ‘foul lung’ are still there; he won’t die. After sunset, the six魄 (Po) souls will return to his body, and he will wake up on his own, so it won’t delay interrogation. Let’s go, Jiefanwei and Mijian are coming.”