"Fifteen years ago, didn't you and your mother burn to death in your hometown of Qingzhou?" Upon hearing Shen Lixue's answer, the man was slightly surprised, and a glint flashed in his deep eyes, so fast that no one could see it clearly.
"My mother managed to escape with me in her arms and settled near the old house until three months ago when she passed away. I then went to the capital and found the Prime Minister's residence!" Shen Lixue smiled gently. This matter had already spread throughout the capital a month ago, so why didn't he know? Was it because he rarely saw people and was out of touch with the world, thus not having heard of it?
The man gave Shen Lixue a deep look, then remained silent, something fiercely battling within his sharp eyes.
The sounds of fierce fighting rang out. Dongfang Heng frowned, pulled Shen Lixue along quickly, and in an instant they were more than ten meters away. Black-clad, masked assassins, wielding long swords, were fighting fiercely with the guards. Noble young men and women screamed and fled in all directions, and the entire Xiangguo Temple was in chaos.
The women gathered in the corridor, their faces pale and trembling. Shen Lixue thought of Qiuhe and Yanyue, who had been separated from her. Zimo should have found them by now. With him protecting Qiuhe and Yanyue, there was no need to worry.
Suddenly, a black-clad man with a cold glint in his eyes, wielding a blood-stained longsword, charged viciously towards the women. The women screamed and scattered like birds and beasts, crying and shouting as they fled. The two young ladies who were the slowest to run were stabbed through the chest by the black-clad man, their deaths were extremely gruesome.
"Help! Help!" The pitiful cries for help pierced through the clouds and echoed through the sky. Zhuang Kexin and Su Yuting, their faces streaked with tears, looked pitiful. Shen Lixue stopped in her tracks and whispered a few words to Dongfang Heng. Dongfang Heng waved his hand, and a black-clad guard quickly left.
"Help! Help!" Zhuang Kexin and Su Yuting cried and ran through the chaotic scene, searching for a shelter. A man in black flew into the air, his long sword gleaming coldly as he stabbed them hard in the back.
"Ouch!" Zhuang Kexin tripped and fell to the ground, pulling Su Yuting down with her. The man in black's longsword missed its mark, the sharp wind of the sword sweeping across their necks. Zhuang Kexin and Su Yuting rolled away, dodging the danger once more. They stood up, grabbed a longsword, and wildly swung it at the man in black, shouting, "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"
Zhuang Kexin's sword swings were chaotic and dazzling, causing the man in black to momentarily freeze. Su Yuting seized the opportunity, grabbed a wooden stick, and struck the man in black hard on the back of the head. The man in black quickly dodged, but was still hit on the shoulder, slowing his movements considerably. Su Yuting pressed her advantage, swinging the wooden stick even faster. The man in black was beaten so badly that he could only parry and had no power to fight back.
"Kexin, come help! Let's fight together!" Su Yuting's beautiful face was beaming with a smile of revenge.
"Alright!" Zhuang Kexin abandoned her longsword and picked up a wooden stick to fight. Two more men in black jumped out from the side, their swordsmanship sharp and their killing intent intense. Su Yuting and Zhuang Kexin could not withstand the attack and fled quickly, with the men in black in hot pursuit.
Shen Lixue's cold eyes narrowed slightly. Zhuang Kexin and Su Yuting dodged the attacks of the men in black one after another. Was it a coincidence or intentional?
"Sister, help me... Sister..." A familiar call rang out. Shen Lixue looked up and saw Shen Yingxue running and crying, her clothes disheveled, her hair messy, and her hem fluttering high, revealing her delicate little feet. Uh, she had lost one of her embroidered shoes.
A fierce wind swept in from behind. Shen Lixue narrowed her eyes and leaped forward quickly, landing right in front of Shen Yingxue.
"Sister, there's an assassin!" The man in black was incredibly fast, making it impossible to dodge. Shen Yingxue panicked and grabbed Shen Lixue's arm tightly, pushing him towards the man in black's longsword with all her might. A hint of triumph flashed in her beautiful eyes, followed by a cold smile.
Shen Lixue snorted coldly, and just as the long sword was about to pierce her body, she suddenly turned to the side. The chill brushed past the hem of her clothes and pierced Shen Yingxue's arm hard.
Blood instantly stained the pale yellow sleeves. Just as the man in black was about to draw his sword, Shen Lixue knocked him unconscious with a flick of her wrist.
With her arm injured and bleeding profusely, Shen Yingxue stared blankly at Shen Lixue, her beautiful eyes filled with grievance: "Sister, why did you hurt me? My arm is injured, injured..."
Shen Lixue sneered: "Shen Yingxue, if it weren't for me, you would have been killed by now. To harm you? I saved you, lost an arm, but in exchange for your life, it was worth it!"
"That sword was aimed at both of us. You hid yourself and made me block the sword. What else could it be but harming me?" Shen Yingxue's beautiful eyes blazed with anger as she glared fiercely at Shen Lixue.
"This arm injury must hurt a lot!" Shen Lixue didn't argue anymore. With a slight smile, she suddenly reached out and pinched Shen Yingxue's wound hard, much to Shen Yingxue's surprise.
"Ah!" A scream pierced the clouds and echoed through the sky. Shen Yingxue's sleeves were stained red, fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her face was deathly pale. She quickly took a few steps back, pointing at Shen Lixue, too angry to utter a complete sentence: "You...you actually..."
"Since my sister says her arm was injured because of me, I should do something to solidify her guilt!" Shen Lixue smiled, a smile that was indescribably cold. It was clearly Shen Lixue who pulled her to shield her from the sword and accidentally got injured, yet she turned around and said that Shen Lixue pulled her. Shen Lixue was truly shameless to the extreme!
"You...you..." Shen Yingxue backed away, her eyes filled with anger and fear. Shen Lixue, you are ruthless and vicious!
"Help! Help!" Two more familiar cries for help rang out. Shen Lixue's eyes flashed slightly, and she threw a pebble at Zhuang Kexin and Su Yuting's ankles.
The two women fell to the ground with a thud, pursued by the men in black. Su Yuting rolled away to avoid them, while Zhuang Kexin was tackled to the ground by one of the men in black. Panicked and screaming, she pounded on the man in black like a shrew, yelling, "Get away! Get away..."
Shen Lixue frowned. In this life-or-death emergency, they still didn't use martial arts. Did they really not know them, or were they hiding their skills too well?
"You bunch of assassins, how dare you act so wildly in front of me! Take this!" Dongfang Yu'er shouted angrily, and lashed out with her long whip, creating a sharp gust of wind in the air. Several men in black were injured or fell down.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!" The long whip lashed out, leaving no room for escape. A figure in red stood out from the many black-clad assassins, her slender figure exuding unrestrained and flamboyant style, her passion burning like fire.
"Who is causing trouble at Xiangguo Temple?" Dongfang Hong and Dongfang Zhan walked over under the protection of their trusted guards. Their eyes were sharp and angry. They looked at the guards and men in black fighting fiercely, but their expressions did not change. A cold smile appeared on their lips.
"Kill all assassins without mercy!" At Dongfang Hong's command, dozens of guards surged out from all directions and attacked the black-clad assassins. With their addition, the original guards were relieved of their pressure and became more spirited, fiercely counterattacking with their longswords.
Two incense sticks later, all the black-clad assassins were killed, their bodies littering the ground and blood flowing like a river.
"Amitabha!" Master Yan Hui stood in the middle of the corpses with his hands clasped together, silently reciting the Rebirth Mantra: "Such a sin has been committed in this sacred Buddhist site! What a terrible sin!"
“Master, the assassins attacked first. We killed to protect ourselves!” Dongfang Yu’er walked over and retorted in disagreement, still holding her long whip in her hand, always on guard.
Master Yan Hui sighed softly and said nothing more.
The uninjured guards quickly cleaned up the bodies.
The daughters of prominent families stood in the corridor, weeping softly. Some had minor injuries, while others were unharmed. They were terrified by this ordeal and were still in shock.
"Miss, Miss..." Qiuhe and Yanyue rushed over anxiously. Seeing that Shen Lixue was safe and sound, they breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, thank goodness, Miss is alright!"
"Are you both alright?" Shen Lixue looked Qiu He and Yan Yue over, noting that they showed no signs of injury.
"With Brother Zimo protecting us, we are unharmed!" Qiuhe and Yanyue smiled innocently.
"Prince Zhan!" Shen Yingxue narrowed her beautiful eyes. When she looked up again, a few steps away, her eyes, brimming with tears, met the gentle eyes of Prince Zhan, Dongfang Zhan. Tears streamed from her wide-open eyes, down her jade-like cheeks and smooth chin, slowly seeping into her clothes. A gentle breeze blew her black hair, causing it to flutter and her disheveled clothes to flutter around her, making her look even more pitiful.
“Miss Shen!” Dongfang Zhan’s smile was gentle and warm.
Shen Yingxue sobbed, covering her bleeding wound with her hand, and quickly walked to Dongfang Zhan's side. Her gaze, intentionally or unintentionally, glanced at Shen Lixue: "Just now, I was on the verge of death. I thought I would never see the prince again."
"What happened?" Dongfang Zhan frowned slightly as he looked at Shen Yingxue's half-sleeve stained red.
"It has nothing to do with my sister. She was only trying to protect herself and was in a hurry, so she dragged me to block the sword!" Shen Yingxue covered her face with a silk handkerchief and cried miserably. Her eyes looked at Shen Lixue through the semi-transparent handkerchief, cold and bloodthirsty.
All eyes immediately turned to Shen Lixue. It's only natural to want to save one's own life after being assassinated by a man in black, but using someone else as a shield to save one's own life is simply unacceptable.
Shen Lixue looked at Shen Yingxue and sneered: "Shen Yingxue, in front of everyone, the man in black was chasing you, not me. I am just a weak woman and have no way to save you whole from the man in black."
“You hurt your arm and you hate me, I can understand, but I am your sister and your savior. If your way of repaying me is to falsely accuse me of taking a sword for you, that would be too inhumane!” Shen Lixue emphasized the last sentence, as if she was heartbroken and desperate for her younger sister.
"No, Prince Zhan, it's not like that. She really wanted to pull me to take the sword..." Shen Yingxue gritted her teeth in hatred and continued to slander Shen Lixue. "You bitch, you still dare to argue."