Chapter 115

Xue Jin'an had decided on a hiding place, and the next thing to do was to take Batu Na there. However, this guy was now like a rabid dog with rabies. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on Xue Jin'an, and whenever he got close enough, he would stretch his neck and open his mouth to bite, drooling as he did so.

Xue Jin'an intended to knock Batu Na unconscious, but whether it was because the man was being controlled and his senses were malfunctioning, or because he was naturally too strong to resist, Xue Jin'an's tried-and-true "carotid artery pressure brain hypoxia fainting method" failed him. He pressed for a while, and although the man's eyes were indeed somewhat unfocused, he still didn't faint. After sensing his position, he opened his mouth and bit him.

However, the lack of oxygen caused him to lose his aim, and he ended up biting into a mouthful of air.

Seeing that he was about to continue, Xue Jin'an pulled out a piece of wood stuck in the ground and stuffed it into his mouth. Batu probably thought the wood was his leg, so he clenched his teeth and made a tooth-grinding sound.

Fortunately, apart from being a little taller and bigger than normal, Batuna was otherwise quite normal. His teeth couldn't bite through the arm-thick piece of wood, so all that could be heard was the crunching sound of him grinding his teeth against the wood.

The fourth prince felt a chill run down his spine and unconsciously took two steps back, distancing himself from them.

Suddenly he seemed to hear a sound, frowned, looked alertly into the bushes, and hissed, "Who's there?"

No one answered.

The fourth prince had doubts and wanted to go check, but then he thought that Xue Jin'an, who was much stronger than him, had not reacted at all. Maybe he was too nervous and misheard.

However, Xue Jin'an had already noticed someone there when he was fighting Batu Na. With the commotion Batu Na made as a cover, the other party's initial movements did not attract Xue Jin'an's attention. However, as the distance between the two sides continued to shrink and they entered his full range of perception, Xue Jin'an quickly discovered him and even immediately guessed his identity—the Fifth Prince.

After the Fifth Prince was knocked unconscious by Xue Jin'an, he was also taken away by the Imperial Hospital. The method Xue Jin'an used was more like physical hypoxia shock than knocking him unconscious. However, the shock did not last long, and the Fifth Prince's willpower was strong enough that he woke up almost as soon as he was carried into the Imperial Hospital.

Fortunately, he remembered that he was competing with the Rongdi envoy in misery. Even after waking up, he did not leave the Imperial Hospital immediately. He even pretended to be unconscious for a while and used his internal energy to disguise his pulse, making the people in the Imperial Hospital think that he was really unconscious. Even the head of the Imperial Hospital, Hu, did not notice. He hurriedly prescribed medicine and prepared the medicine for him. The Rongdi envoy who came with him saw that their anxious appearance did not seem to be faking it, so he believed that he was really unconscious.

When it comes to faking one's pulse, it's one of the Fifth Prince's specialties. After all, his former personal eunuch, Xiao Dongzi, was killed by Xiao Shu after being discovered handling the poison. The reason the Fifth Prince was able to keep it a secret for so long and make no mistakes in the pulse diagnosis was precisely because of his unique skill in faking one's pulse with internal energy.

It was precisely because the Fifth Prince was lucid that he was able to immediately notice the strange situation at the Imperial Hospital. In order to find out what Batu, who had suddenly sat up in shock from his deathbed, was up to do, he cautiously followed him. However, he never expected that Batu had come to kill Xue Jin'an.

Honestly, the Fifth Prince knew the Rongdi people were bold, but he didn't expect them to be this audacious, directly attempting to assassinate a prince in the Great Qi Imperial Palace. It was like slapping the emperor's face repeatedly; this provocation and arrogance was simply too much! He suspected that the Rongdi wanted to use this opportunity to start a war with Great Qi, so they could find a reason to raid cities in the south.

The Fifth Prince was indignant, but he wasn't worried at all about what would happen to Xue Jin'an, who was being targeted for assassination. Instead, he approached cautiously with a secret excitement to watch the spectacle—this was Xue Jin'an's entertainment, something that was rarely seen.

Admittedly, the Fifth Prince's steps were already quite light, and he even coordinated them with the footsteps and movements of the two fighting. Even ordinary martial arts masters might not be able to detect him immediately, but Xue Jin'an was no ordinary person.

His five senses are different from other people's. Even if his battery doesn't last long now, and he adjusts all the software to the lowest power consumption mode, which would be criticized online as being as power-consuming as a landline, he can still easily surpass humans. After all, even if the 12 million pixels are halved, it's still 6 million pixels.

In addition, Xue Jin'an did not rely solely on his five senses to collect data. His extensive data analysis capabilities allowed him to deduce from subtle changes in details whether someone was there or not, as the sound of the wind blowing was different.

Humans can control the sound of their footsteps and breathing, but they can't control their heartbeat no matter what; without a heartbeat, a person dies. However, once Xue Jin'an sensed something amiss in the sound of the wind, he only needed to carefully analyze the recorded sound data to pinpoint the heartbeat and arrive at his conclusion that he was in this location.

As for why Xue Jin'an was certain that the person who followed was the Fifth Prince, it was mainly because he only knew one other person who would secretly come to watch the commotion—the Fifth Prince. As it turned out, he was right. Afterwards, he calculated the person's approximate height and weight using various data, and by comparing it with an electrocardiogram, he confirmed that the probability of it being the Fifth Prince was as high as 97%.

The Fifth Prince remained hidden there, not moving an inch, and showed no intention of paying attention to the Fourth Prince. Although the Fourth Prince felt that he might be too nervous and overreacting, he still wanted to go over and check. However, he only took one step before stopping again, as his entire attention was drawn to Xue Jin'an's actions.

Xue Jin'an stood up and suddenly kicked Batu Na in the head. The force was so great that Batu Na turned his head and spat out the wood in his mouth. Then, with his eyes wide open, he fell silent.

"What are you doing?!" The Fourth Prince was startled by his sudden outburst and almost thought that Batu had been beaten to death.

“It’s obvious I’m giving him a rest,” Xue Jin’an replied matter-of-factly.

The fourth prince looked at the unconscious Batuna and asked with difficulty, "...Are you sure it's rest and not fainting?"

Xue Jin'an: "There's no difference, as long as he's asleep."

The fourth prince was speechless and could only remain silent. Looking at the fierce and terrifying Xue Jin'an, he really wanted to turn around and run away.

Xue Jin'an ignored him and instead focused on the second step of taking Batu to their hiding place: getting Batu away. The guy was too big; Xue Jin'an could adjust his strength to lift him, but carrying such a large person would seriously hinder his subsequent movements.

Xue Jin'an pondered how to take him away.

So when the Fourth Prince regained control of his instinct to escape, he looked up and saw the ferocious and terrifying Xue Jin'an thoughtfully gesturing with the soft sword in his hand at Batu's body, eagerly preparing to strike, like a butcher choosing where to cut the pig and bleed it.

The fourth prince swallowed hard, unable to resist any longer, and asked cautiously, "What are you doing?"

“I’m thinking about what method to use to disassemble him,” Xue Jin’an pondered. “Humans have 206 bones, twelve main meridians, and 639 muscles. Which one do you think I should start disassembling?”

With each of the three methods having its advantages and disadvantages, Xue Jin'an was caught in a dilemma.

Fourth Prince: "..."

The fourth prince felt like he was hearing a horror story. He clutched his head and couldn't help but let out a sharp, explosive cry, "Killing someone is just a matter of a head falling to the ground. What grudge could you possibly have to torture someone like this? And... and—"

The Fourth Prince took a deep breath before softening his tone slightly as he advised, “I know you have a grudge against the Rongdi envoys. They not only defied the Emperor's authority but also dared to openly attempt an assassination in the palace. Their behavior was extremely heinous and shameless, deserving of a thousand deaths. However, you must consider your own safety. If you were to resort to such cruel methods, the court officials would undoubtedly become even more disgusted with you and impeach you. If that were all, it would be one thing, but I fear… I fear they might unite to petition the Emperor to demote you to a commoner…”

Xue Jin'an didn't care much about his threats, and simply said, "I will remember the steps to disassemble him. I will also remember the order and position of each part that was taken off his body. I will put it back together exactly as it was, making sure that not a single part is missing."

Is this a matter of missing parts? Does piecing together a dead person make them come back to life? What a joke!! The Fourth Prince was so choked up that he could only roar in his heart. After a long while, he finally spoke again. He knew he couldn't persuade Xue Jin'an, so he decided to go all out and take a forceful approach: "No, you can't do this."

Xue Jin'an didn't understand why he was so agitated. He had already promised to restore it exactly one-to-one, but he wouldn't let him do it. His data analysis led him to the conclusion that the Fourth Prince was very likely targeting him.

Xue Jin'an thought for a while and decided not to listen to him, saying, "You can't be trusted."

"??? Why?" The fourth prince felt that he was being ostracized.

Xue Jin'an, however, had his own explanation: "Assuming what you said about being deposed as a prince is indeed a possibility, you and I have a blood feud over the murder of our mothers. Logically speaking, you should be gloating over such an outcome, so why are you trying to stop me? And..."

After analyzing the situation, Xue Jin'an concluded, "You're lying to me."

The fourth prince choked for a moment, and it took him a long time to say, "I failed to repay what happened before, so it doesn't count. What I owe you hasn't been settled yet. Consider this reminder as me paying off my debt..."

"What happens after you pay it back? What you did won't just disappear, and I won't forgive you. Why do these meaningless things?" Xue Jin'an asked sincerely, very curious about this.

The fourth prince misunderstood his words, thinking he was being mocked. After a moment of stunned silence, his voice faltered, filled with deep pain and a hint of collapse, "What else do you want? You killed my mother, erased all traces of her existence. I want revenge for my mother. Is it wrong for me to want to kill you? I just want to kill you, I—"

"Just take revenge, why add a condition?" Xue Jin'an was unusually itchy to do something. He opened the message page, clicked on the Fourth Prince's chat box, and sent him an emoji that said, "I'll hit you whenever I want, do I have to pick a day?"

Xue Jin'an was genuinely curious about the human process of revenge, and he was reflecting on whether he had skipped too many steps in his revenge against Chu Wenwan.

Unexpectedly, the fourth prince was stunned and remained silent for a long time.

The fourth prince suddenly realized his weakness. He had been trying to paint a rosy picture, and he was exactly the coward and useless person the fifth prince had described, utterly hopeless. For a moment, he was both crying and laughing, his expression quite strange.

It took him a while to recover from his broken expression. The Fourth Prince stared at Xue Jin'an and said in an extremely serious tone, "Xue Jin'an, I hate you so much. I want to kill you."

"Oh," Xue Jin'an replied calmly, "I don't like you either."

Xue Jin'an ultimately did not dismember Batu Na because he only had a soft sword. Soft swords are always somewhat difficult to use when performing moves other than slashing. Xue Jin'an found the sword too useless, as it resembled its owner, so he stopped for the time being and planned to drag Batu Na away directly.

Anyway, he uses a shady map and takes secluded roads, so no one will notice.

When Xue Jin'an walked up to the Fourth Prince, he suddenly thought of something, reached out and punched him in the stomach. It wasn't a light punch, but it wasn't hard either, but the Fourth Prince still bent over and gagged for a while. "Wait, why did you suddenly hit me?"

“Robbery! I’ve temporarily taken your sword.” Xue Jin’an gestured to the longsword in his hand.

"You!" Upon learning the truth, the fourth prince's face turned green. He forced out the words through gritted teeth, "Why can't we talk things out instead of resorting to fists!"

“Even if you don’t agree, I will still hit you. We can skip the pointless steps in between,” Xue Jin’an stated, presenting the conclusion drawn from his data analysis.

The fourth prince opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

Xue Jin'an is right. This soft sword is a keepsake left to him by his mother. It would be fine to lend it to Xue Jin'an temporarily when his life was in danger, but now that the other party wants to take it away, he would refuse this unreasonable request without hesitation.

The fourth prince wanted to say something, but Xue Jin'an dragged Batu Na away, holding the sword he had "snatched."

"Pfft—" A laugh came from the direction of the bushes, and the laughter gradually grew to an exaggerated level. The Fifth Prince walked out from inside, clutching his stomach and laughing so hard he couldn't straighten up. "Hahaha, sorry, sorry, I really couldn't help it. Your conversation was too funny, hahahahaha."

The fourth prince was surprised to find the fifth prince hiding there. Thinking back on what he had just said, his face turned completely red with embarrassment and anger.

He looked around for something to hit him with, but couldn't find anything. Seeing that the Fifth Prince was still laughing, he raised his foot and kicked him, saying, "Xue Junjue, that's enough! Eavesdropping on other people's conversations has absolutely no manners!"

"Yes, yes, yes, it's my fault, hahaha~" Under the Fourth Prince's gaze that seemed to want to skin him alive, the Fifth Prince finally stopped laughing. After the laughter stopped, the sudden silence in the environment felt strangely cold and desolate.

Batu was probably frozen, his pupils vaguely focused, locked onto Xue Jin'an and opened his mouth to bite, but was kicked unconscious by the latter again.

The Fifth Prince took in all of this, looking at Xue Jin'an, but speaking to the Fourth Prince, "Fourth Brother, have you ever heard the saying, 'Hate lasts longer than love'?"

"Fourth Brother, I've said before, if you're not prepared, just be a cowardly good-for-nothing, there's no shame in that." The Fifth Prince laughed, his tone ambiguous, whether mocking or warning. "Don't overthink it, you'll only make things worse for your already limited intelligence. Wouldn't it be better to stay in your turtle shell and live a good life?"

"What do you mean, Xue Junjue?" The Fourth Prince's face turned cold.

Xue Jin'an seemed to understand the hidden warning in the Fifth Prince's words: the Fourth Prince should not get involved in the struggle for the throne. Since Chu Wenwan's death, the Fourth Prince had become closer to the First Prince and had essentially been identified as a member of the First Prince's faction.

The Fifth Prince has always been someone who loves a good show, creating drama even when there isn't any. Yet now he's warning the Fourth Prince not to get involved. How sincere is he, and how sincere is he? Or perhaps he sensed the Fourth Prince's hesitation in his previous actions and words, and is deliberately trying to provoke him?

Remarkably, the two possibilities are evenly matched. The character model of the Fifth Prince seems to have undergone some minor changes, so minor that they are barely noticeable without careful examination.

The Fifth Prince didn't argue with the Fourth Prince anymore. He just curled his lips and said, seemingly uninterested, "As expected, it's still not very interesting."

He turned to leave, but the Fourth Prince spoke up at that moment, "It's not easy for you to leave with such a big person by yourself. Why not leave your fifth brother with you? You can use him as you please once you've beaten him into submission. After all, it's a world of survival of the fittest."

The Fourth Prince used all his rare flashes of wisdom to trick the Fifth Prince, truly embodying the saying that hate lasts longer than love.

The Fifth Prince froze.

Xue Jin'an glanced at the bulky Batu Na and revealed a thoughtful expression.

Seeing Xue Jin'an's eagerness to try, the Fifth Prince took the initiative to surrender, but couldn't help but say to the Fourth Prince in a sarcastic tone, "Fourth Brother, please don't follow us. We are all enemies. I'm afraid you'll see something and tell others, and deliberately frame us."

"I don't care!" The fourth prince gritted his teeth, his original desire to follow completely suppressed. Feeling ashamed to stay any longer, he turned and left.

The Fifth Prince had only mentioned it casually, guessing that Xue Jin'an intended to hide Batu Na to fish for him. However, he never expected that after they had taken a series of unconventional routes, they would have bypassed the main gate and quietly sneaked into the familiar palace.

The Fifth Prince couldn't help but glance at Xue Jin'an, wondering: Is this really a coincidence? Or... does he know something?

The Fifth Prince wanted to test the waters, but he didn't want to expose himself, so he ultimately chose to remain silent.

Unexpectedly, Xue Jin'an glanced at him and said in a natural and certain tone, "There is indeed something strange about this place."

Fifth Prince: "..." So what exactly is he keeping silent about?