The series of movements were smooth, clean and neat, and the moves were fatal. Before anyone could react, the two bodies had fallen to the ground.
Lan Shuang pulled out the dagger, and the guard's blood splattered all over her. One drop landed squarely on the corner of her eye, looking strangely gorgeous.
"You—" The Second Prince gasped. Before he could say anything, Lan Shuang slowly raised her head and smiled, "Why did someone else save me instead of me saving myself?"
"You don't think that I can sit firmly on the throne of the Nine Thousand Years Old because of my looks, do you?"
The Second Prince and the Imperial Concubine choked and looked at each other. They really just thought of her as the Emperor's dog and didn't take it seriously at all. How could they have imagined that she had such superb martial arts skills?
Hope ignited in the old emperor's eyes, and he shouted at the top of his voice, "Quick, take down these traitors!"
He now believed that Lan Shuang had a trick up her sleeve and was no longer afraid.
The Imperial Concubine was the first to come to her senses, and she shouted, "What are you waiting for? Kill her for me! No one should be left alive. I and the Second Prince have come here to purge the emperor's court. Whoever takes Lan Shuang's head will receive a reward of ten thousand taels and be granted a title of nobility!"
"kill!"
This sentence aroused the ambition and desire of the guards present, and they looked at Lan Shuang as if they were looking at a moving ton of gold.
Lan Shuang laughed angrily, "If you want my head, you have to be alive to take it—"
She turned her head to avoid the long knife, grabbed the guard's hand with her backhand, and threw him backwards, knocking down a group of people. While the people behind her didn't react, she swung the dagger like a dart, killing another one, snatched the knife, and started fighting with the group of guards.
Where had the Second Prince and the Imperial Concubine ever seen such a scene? They watched and retreated for a moment, and the Imperial Concubine's face turned pale.
The two men retreated to a corner, with the old emperor right next to them. When the second prince reached out to grab it, a teacup suddenly fell over. The second prince instinctively retracted his hand, and the old emperor immediately ducked and ran away.
"stop!"
The second prince wanted to chase after them, but Lan Shuang overturned the table to block them, grabbed the old emperor's hand and ran out with him.
The old emperor was terrified, his vision blackening. "They're the ones outside. I... cough cough cough cough - if I run out, won't that just mean I'm courting death?"
"Who said everyone outside is theirs?"
Lan Shuang suddenly asked back, and the old emperor was stunned: "What?"
"Catch them—" The Second Prince was halfway through his words when the Imperial Concubine suddenly interrupted him, "No need to catch them, kill them right here! Leave no one alive!"
The Second Prince's eyes trembled as he turned to look at her, but the Imperial Concubine ignored him, only giving him a cold and stern side profile. "If you want to ascend the throne and become an emperor, you can't be soft-hearted. The imperial edict is just for the sake of course. Not having one doesn't mean it's impossible. With your mother here, your grandfather will definitely support you with all his strength. You don't need that imperial edict."
Hearing this, the second prince stopped talking and his eyes gradually became firm.
The surrounding soldiers and guards rushed forward and surrounded Lan Shuang and the old emperor.
Although this is what they said, ordinary people would still be instinctively afraid when facing the emperor, and would not be able to get over the hurdle and attack the emperor for a while.
The imperial concubine urged impatiently: "What are you waiting for? Kill!"
"Let's see who dares?!"
Lan Shuang stood in the crowd, showing no fear at all. She bent her fingers to her lips and blew a long and sharp whistle.
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. What was going on?
The next moment, a group of people suddenly climbed up from the roofs of the surrounding palaces, lined up in a row, each holding a bow and arrow in their hands, aiming at the people below.
With just one order, they can all be pierced like a sieve.
The people below were suddenly shocked.
"What's going on?" The Second Prince looked up at those people, his eyes widening. "The Imperial Guards are here?"
No wonder they didn’t see him when they entered the palace before. They thought they had all gone to the altar to worship the sky, but they didn’t expect him to be waiting here.
"Protect the emperor!"
The voice came suddenly. Lan Shuang looked over in surprise and saw the fifth prince striding towards her with a group of palace soldiers.
Why is he here?
888 spread his hands: "Well, it's the male protagonist's halo effect. He received the news later than the eldest princess, but he entered the palace first."
Lan Shuang twitched her lips, "Oh."
He used to be the male lead, but not necessarily now.
She escorted the old emperor back to a safe place. The Fifth Prince immediately caught up with her and asked with concern, "Father, are you alright? I'm late in coming to your rescue. I hope you'll forgive me."
The old emperor shook his head: "You...you came at the right time."
The fifth prince held the old emperor's hand and looked at Lan Shuang. Seeing that she was covered in blood, his face turned cold. "Are you injured?"
Lan Shuang glanced at him and smiled, "Other people's blood."
The fifth prince looked at it suspiciously for a few more times before he felt relieved.
He stepped forward, standing between Lan Shuang and the old emperor. He glared at the Second Prince and questioned, "Second brother, as a prince, you are unfilial to your father, disrespectful to your ruler, and committing treason and rebellion. You deserve death! You are foolish."
The Second Prince sneered, "I was wondering who it was, it turned out to be you. You're really a biting dog that doesn't bark. For so many years you've been hiding in the dark with your tail between your legs. I thought you had no interest in the throne, but I didn't expect you were holding it back. I underestimated you."
"Stop talking nonsense." The imperial concubine sized up the Fifth Prince and said in a domineering tone, "You've come here today for the throne, haven't you? You only brought these two people with you. Do you think you can save him?"
She pointed at the old emperor, whose face turned ashen and his teeth were about to break.
The fifth prince was about to speak when a voice, neither male nor female, suddenly came from behind.
"If he can't do it, then I can't do it either?"
When Lan Shuang heard the voice, her brows relaxed and a smile appeared in her eyes.
The others, however, looked as if they had seen a ghost, their necks almost broken, and they also looked towards the direction of the temple gate.
The Second Prince was dumbfounded, and it took him a long while to find his voice: "Jiang Mu? Why are you here?"
Jiang Mu walked in with a bloody smell. His white brocade robe was stained with blood, but it didn't look dirty. Instead, it looked like a blooming flower, decadent and dangerous.
His long hair fluttered in the wind, brushing across his stern face, making people shudder.
After just a few steps, the blood from the tip of the knife formed a line on the ground.
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