exit

This new cave was completely different from the previous one. It had no ghostly aura whatsoever; instead, it was filled with candles, which were encased in glass jars. On the uneven stones on the walls hung thousands of manuscripts, some with inscriptions, others with essays, all written in a vigorous and powerful style, befitting the crisp autumn air.

Xie Lingxi was amazed when she saw the signature. The scroll was signed by the Prince of Pingnan, followed by the date. Most of the manuscripts were from twenty years ago.

No wonder the paper is yellowed.

The further I looked, the closer the date got. The once elegant handwriting had been damaged by some unknown change, and it became like a chaotic mess of demons, incomprehensible. It never recovered and instead went in a narrow and gloomy direction from which it never returned.

Regardless, these calligraphy scrolls were carefully preserved. Some fragile pieces of paper were meticulously glued together with rice glue and carefully stored in a tall cabinet standing to the side of the cave. Despite their age, they remained intact, demonstrating the owner's great appreciation for them.

Xie Lingxi followed the faint footprints on the ground, searching for the mechanism. She found an inconspicuous sandalwood box crouching in the corner. She reached out and touched it, and in an instant, hidden arrows shot out from the stone walls on both sides. While everyone was scrambling to dodge, a thin arrow still struck her in the arm.

It is so deep.

The arrow's intent carried him back two or three meters, then violently propelled him forward.

Mo Shen was wearing the roughest cloth shoes, the soles of which were worn thinner and thinner. He couldn't stop himself, and in a daze, he saw sparks fly from his heels. The shoes were probably completely ruined.

Xie Lingxi rushed over to check on the man's injuries, only to see the frail old man tremble in fright. After regaining his senses, he smiled at everyone and said, "I'm fine, haha."

He deftly pulled out the arrow, along with several wads of cloth. "My wife knows I'm afraid of the cold, so she made me wear an extra coat before I went out. Look at this cotton cloth, all crammed together, just right!"

Xie Lingxi lowered her eyes: "It was my carelessness."

Mo Shen was startled by the feint and broke out in a cold sweat, but still magnanimously patted Xie Lingxi on the shoulder, "I told you it's nothing—where do we go now?"

Liu Xu also came over and just saw Mo Shen gently pat Xie Lingxi's injured shoulder, then look down at his own bloodstained arm and fall silent for a while.

My arm really suffered...

He pulled Ran aside. "Tell me, which way do I go?"

"I don't know! I remember there should be a spiral staircase leading up to the ground. But I really don't know where the mechanism is..."

Liao Ran lowered his head, tugging at the hem of his clothes, his voice growing softer and softer, "Why don't we take a look at what's inside this box? Maybe we can find some clues."

He was about to open the box when the crowd rushed forward to stop him, shouting, "Hey!"

"You want to die, but I don't want to be buried with you!"

Mo Shen shouted, even blurting out his hometown dialect in his haste, "You silly boy! Get out of the way, I'll do it!"

He straightened his neck and stepped forward, seeing the surroundings filled with flying ink and paper, and hanging directly in front of him were several poems that Yan Li had copied from tattered scrolls—

"The great road is as clear as the blue sky, yet I alone cannot escape it. I once sang songs and spoke of swordsmanship, but now my face is streaked with tears."

"I heard that Emperor Taizu was busy in Yan when he was hiding his books, and now I am returning to my old friends after wandering in exile."

"I wish I had a sword thirty thousand feet long, to help my pen traverse the two Kunlun Mountains."

...

Mo Shen: "This kid..."

At this moment, he seemed to have unlocked his full potential, and his ambition and body were greatly enhanced. He no longer addressed Liu Xu with the respectful title of "Your Highness" and instead called Liu Xu over, saying, "Good young man, lend me a hand."

At this moment, Liu Xu also realized something. Together with Mo Shen, they pulled down the banner that read "A Long Sword Thirty Thousand Feet". Sure enough, they saw the surrounding stone walls rotate, and in the gap, a huge object slowly appeared, raising dust several feet high. Just as Zhang Liaoran had said, it was a large circular staircase that went straight up into the clouds.

The structure is grand and resembles a Bagua plate from Taoism. Standing on top, one has a wide view. Looking up, one can blend in with the world; looking down, one can enjoy the freedom of writing and wielding a sword. The words "wielding a sword against the wind" are prominently displayed on the steps, and the exit is suspended at the very top.

The scene was truly breathtaking. Xie Lingxi stood there for a long time, already considering several ways to replicate it, when Liu Xu pulled her wrist, saying, "Let's go, Third Sister!"

Before her lay lush greenery; she leaped up and came upon a vibrant, thriving woodland.

As dawn broke and the sun slowly rose from the east, the wooden ladder beneath their feet crashed down with a thud after the last person stepped onto the ground, along with the calligraphy that had guided their path, which plummeted into the earth.

Xie Lingxi finally collapsed to the ground. Despite her exhaustion, she maintained her elegant and dignified demeanor. She sighed, "Finally, I made it up."

Liu Xu, who had somehow found some water, was washing her wounds. Seeing Xie Lingxi's anxious expression, he naturally sat down next to her. "If you like, we can go for a stroll again next time."

Xie Lingxi turned her head, giving a rare glare: "Assassins often linger at crime scenes. I am not one of them."

She straightened Liu Xu's clothes, took the strip of cloth she had torn off and bandaged him. She noticed that the blood inside had congealed a little, and his clothes were stained with blood and flesh. She gently brushed it aside and heard the young man say something strange: "Even beauties often linger in the midst of splendor."

"Are you praising me or insulting me?"

Xie Lingxi found it strange, so she pretended to lift her hand, forcing Liu Xu to repeatedly show weakness, "Alright, alright, it was just a casual remark, please don't take offense, Third Sister."

...

This place is in a dense forest outside the temple, a place that ordinary people don't like to come to, but it is familiar to Liaozhao.

After resting for a while, he led everyone towards the back gate of the temple to avoid encountering anyone with ulterior motives. Suddenly, he remembered the poison he had recently ingested—

"The antidote! Young lady!"

He clutched his throat with both hands, collapsing as he cried out, "Could it be that an hour has already passed?"

Seeing Xie Lingxi wave her hand, his face turned ashen. "I don't want to die..."

Xie Lingxi was ignorant of pharmacology, so even if she carried poison, it would be useless. In the stone cave, it was initially a compromise, and later she just wanted to tease him, but Zhang Liaoran took it seriously. Before she could even speak, Liu Xu seemed to know what she was thinking, "You won't die."

Liao Ran: "?"

Liu Xu smiled and repeated, "You won't die. You'll just start spouting nonsense if you lie again."

Liao Ran: "Huh?!"

That sound was really loud, and it startled several baby birds that were still dozing off.

Xie Lingxi frowned helplessly and said calmly, "He's lying to you. You'll be fine. What I gave you wasn't poison."

These words made Liao Ran feel instantly relieved, and she happily skipped forward, "Really? That's great!"

After spinning Mo Shen around a few times, she finally remembered to ask, "So what did I eat?"

"A pill to prolong life? A miraculous medicine to prevent all diseases? An elixir of immortality?"

The Xie family has so many good things; he might just end up eating them!

Xie Lingxi knew exactly what he was thinking. She thought to herself that when it came to medicine, apart from the Lu family of Boyang, who dared to claim the title of number one? She explained sincerely, "I'm afraid you'll laugh at me, but the pill you ate wasn't a medicine at all. It was just some dirt I casually dug up from under the Prince of Pingnan's bed. If we're talking about any effect, perhaps eating it will make you as smart as the Prince of Pingnan."

"you--!"

Liao Ran rolled his eyes and started vomiting again, but it was no use. He could only stick out a bright red tongue and his face turned ashen, like a ghost.

Xie Lingxi added, "The soil on the ground doesn't seem very clean; it's covered in damp green moss. I wonder if eating it will cause diarrhea?"

Zhang Liaoming, without a strong dose of medicine, how can he suddenly repent?

She was about to give up when she heard Liu Xu say calmly, "Not to mention that the Prince of Pingnan is a madman who loves to skin people alive. Who knows, the blood of those masters on the wall might still be flowing on the ground?"

One sentence after another, he became increasingly distraught. Although he did not know his origin or name, he was a delicate person by nature. The fact that he had accidentally eaten the soil that was contaminated with filth was like a bolt from the blue for him.

He clutched his head and cried out, "Senior brother! Senior brother, save me!"

They disappeared in no time.

Just then, Mo Shen, who had just been released by Liao Ran, leaned against a tree to catch his breath, when he heard Xie Lingxi's clear and calm voice, "You weren't captured and taken to the stone cave, were you?"

Even the most dull-witted person would understand everything after hearing the words of the Prince of Pingnan and his servant.

On one hand, Yan Ji captured the chief foreman and ran away.

The person who was captured and taken into the cave was Zhang Liaoran, who was mistaken for Mian Niang's child.

Ah Cai had never met Mo Shen, yet he presumptuously blamed Ah Qian's death on those who had mistakenly entered the cave and on Zhang Liaoran. Mo Shen moved through the darkness as if wearing an invisibility robe.

If it weren't for the interconnectedness of each link, she would have believed this inspector.

Sure enough, Mo Shen sighed and said, "Third Sister is indeed intelligent. My surname is Mo, my given name is Shen, and my courtesy name is Jueqian. I was one of your father's former students. I even held you when you were little."

Does he know me?

Xie Lingxi was startled, and her attitude became much more respectful: "May I ask how old you are this year?"

Mo Shen looks the same age as her father, so how could he be her father's student?

"I'm thirty-five. Third Sister, I just look a little older."

Mo Shen sighed: "What happened last night is a long story. The foreman is from my hometown. Last night, he suddenly came and knocked on my door, speaking incoherently, begging me to save him. I am just a minor official, with little influence, so I comforted him and told him to give it a try. We walked and talked to his house, but before we even entered, we were tied up with sacks. When I woke up, I was in a separate courtyard."

Liu Xu asked in confusion, "How could the Fifth Prince not recognize you?"

Mo Shen stroked his beard. "I was puzzled too, but then I realized he did it on purpose. Rather than saying they didn't care who I was, it's more accurate to say he never intended to hand over the defense map to the Prince of Pingnan."

"So you ran away?"

"Well, at first I just hid behind the door and watched, but I saw the eunuch who tied me up run out in a hurry. I was suspicious, so I followed him all the way to the foot of Fragrant Hills. Later, I was accidentally discovered by the eunuch, and in the struggle, we ended up here."

That's why Xie Lingxi and the others saw that scene when they first went in.

At this point, Mo Shen pursed his lips and looked at Xie Lingxi with a complicated expression, "Third Sister, when did you learn to kill?"

That's a good question.

Xie Lingxi of this year doesn't know, but in her previous life, as the empress, even though Yan Ji initially vowed to marry only her, there were quite a few women sent in by noble families and nobles in order to curry favor with the emperor. At first, it was just minor trouble, but later it got too embarrassing and involved the previous dynasty, so people were bound to die.

The first person Xie Lingxi killed was a girl who had been abandoned by her family.

She watched the young woman lose her chastity, killed her lover, and finally burned down the family ancestral hall. Those seated in the high hall were clearly relatives, yet they seemed more like enemies. In the end, the poor girl knelt before her, thanking her for her mercy and for her secret help—

"Your Majesty, I know my sins are grave. The Sun family is guilty, and I am willing to die in their place. Please grant me this wish and grant me the punishment of beheading at the Meridian Gate!"

The Sun family committed a grave crime of disrupting the royal bloodline, a crime that should not be borne by a young girl.

Without blinking, Xie Lingxi pulled out the hairpin from her hair and swiftly plunged it into the girl's neck, seemingly wiping away tears before she closed her eyes.

You are completely innocent.

She said.

...

Xie Lingxi snapped out of her reverie and smiled, "When things get urgent, you'll naturally learn."