assassination
The three of them agreed to cooperate.
After that, the two of them stayed at Xiao Wan'er's house and discussed the specific action plan several times. Liu Mingyin was living at home and naturally noticed something.
On this day, when the specific action was being finalized for the last time, Liu Mingyin pushed the door open and walked in.
Mingshu immediately cast a spell towards the door. If Xiao Wan'er had not intervened in time, Liu Mingyin would have been hit.
"This is my junior brother. Please be patient," Xiao Wan'er immediately said to comfort him. Then she asked Liu Mingyin, "What brings you here?"
Mingshu and Qingyang remained vigilant, but ultimately refrained from attacking again. They were wary of both Liu Mingyin and Xiao Wan'er, waiting for a reasonable explanation from Liu Mingyin but also worried that the two would take them all and send them before the Emperor.
"I want to participate in your action." Liu Mingyin's answer made them surprised and unbelievable.
"This fellow Daoist...should know our purpose?" Qingyang asked tentatively.
"You intend to assassinate the Crown Prince, and you've even dragged my senior sister into this," Liu Mingyin volunteered. "I'm also in the Transcendent Realm. If I join you, I should be able to be of some assistance."
Seeing that someone with a reliable identity had taken the initiative to join, Mingshu and Qingyang both took him in without hesitation, completely ignoring Xiao Wan'er's face which could not be any darker.
Liu Mingyin saw it clearly from the side, and after Mingshu and the others left, he stayed in the room very consciously, pretending to allow Xiao Wan'er to criticize him.
Seeing him like this, Xiao Wan'er couldn't say anything too harsh.
She sighed helplessly, "I intentionally didn't tell you about this, so why did you insist on getting involved?"
"Senior Sister, I am also under Princess Taiping's command," Liu Mingyin replied, "If the princess truly fails in the end, nothing good will happen to me either."
"Okay." Xiao Wan'er accepted his joining.
With one more person added to the assassination team, the four of them took some time to plan again, and then they were ready and waiting for action.
The time to take action is at the beginning of the new year.
On the evening of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the four men, armed and equipped, set out towards the Eastern Palace using a technique known as invisibility. To avoid detection, they traveled in mid-air, their feet never touching the ground until they had crossed the Eastern Palace's walls.
During the New Year, when civil and military officials were supposed to be on vacation and the Eastern Palace's defenses were vulnerable, the four planned to storm the interior as soon as they entered the palace. However, upon entering the palace, they saw the Crown Prince and a group of monks guarding the courtyard, led by Pei Yingguan.
The four people's plan was leaked through some unknown means.
The place where the prince was standing was surprisingly a formation. He gave the four people a disdainful smile, and then the formation flashed, and he disappeared with most of the cultivators, leaving behind only Pei Yingguan and the three cultivators who had secretly learned the Biyun Temple's mental skills and were forcibly recruited by the prince into the Biyun Temple.
"Leave these four people to me, and you continue to look for the prince!" Xiao Wan'er made a quick decision.
The formation was extinguished after the prince disappeared. In this situation, there was no time to hesitate. The three of them immediately accepted Xiao Wan'er's order and headed deep into the East Palace.
The three figures quickly disappeared from sight. Xiao Wan'er faced Pei Yingguan and his group alone, showing no fear at all. With a flick of her fingers, powerful magic roared towards the four.
Logically speaking, this should be a battle without any suspense - although Pei Yingguan is in the Transcendent Realm, his strength is far inferior to Xiao Wan'er, and the remaining three have not even reached the Transcendent Realm, and may not even be able to withstand a single move from Xiao Wan'er.
But they just took it.
Xiao Wan'er's magic was blocked by Pei Yingguan and two others, and the remaining one was even able to pull his hand away to fight back.
It was only then that Xiao Wan'er discovered that the three people who had just entered the Dao realm had already ascended to the transcendent realm.
"What exactly did you do?" she asked Pei Yingguan in shock.
On the other side, Liu Mingyin and the other two were also in a very difficult situation.
Ming Shu looked at the Transcendent Realm cultivator blocking their way and immediately said to Liu Mingyin, "Fellow Daoist Liu, Qingyang and I will hold these people back. I'll leave the Crown Prince to you!"
"Are you okay?" Liu Mingyin hesitated.
It's no wonder Liu Mingyin hesitated. There were five Transcendent Realm cultivators standing in front of the three of them. Even if they fought together, it would still be difficult for them to defeat this unmanned opponent. If one of them left, the fate of the remaining two would be uncertain.
"We can hold on," Qingyang urged. "As long as we can kill the prince, everything else will be easy. Go now!"
Upon hearing this, Liu Mingyin's swordsmanship remained unchanged, while he secretly concentrated all his spiritual energy on his feet. He took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, exerted force with his feet, and before the enemy recovered, he had already rushed to a place where they could not catch up.
The five people watched Liu Mingyin escape right under their noses, their hearts burning with anger. When they looked at Mingshu and Qingyang, their eyes became even more sinister.
"Since Captain Liu has run away, you should stay."
Mingshu and Qingyang quietly clenched their fists, both exerting all their spiritual energy and concentrating on guarding against these five people.
By this time, Xiao Wan'er had already exchanged several blows with Pei Yingguan and his group. Despite being one against four, Xiao Wan'er surprisingly held her own, engaging the four men in a relentless back-and-forth. While this was certainly due to Xiao Wan'er's far superior strength, there were also other, perhaps unusual, factors at play.
At this moment, Xiao Wan'er heard Ming Shu's voice transmission.
"Deputy Commander Xiao, all the cultivators in the East Palace are in the Transcendent Realm!"
After receiving this message, Xiao Wan'er was completely sure that there was something wrong with these people's promotions.
"Master Pei, the three people behind you didn't advance to the Transcendent Realm through normal means, did they? In other words, in this Eastern Palace, except for you and the four of us, all other Transcendent Realm cultivators were promoted through improper means, is that right?"
Pei Yingguan did not answer, but one of the three people spoke up first.
"What do you mean by improper means? Only geniuses like you are allowed to become strong, but ordinary people like us can't find ways to become stronger?"
Xiao Wan'er found this absurd. "Anyone can become stronger. Cultivators have longer lifespans than ordinary people. Isn't that enough time for you to cultivate properly? And yet, do you really think you possess the strength to reach the Transcendent Realm? You're wrong. You're like a tree forcibly grafted with branches from other trees. It may appear lush, but what doesn't belong to you will never be yours. You only possess the Transcendent Realm, but you can't truly unleash the power of a cultivator there."
"So what?" the other party disagreed. "With our talents, it would take us a lot of hard work to reach the Transcendent Realm. Now that the shortcut is right here, why not take it? We don't ask for much, just to be stronger than the cultivators at the Entry Stage."
Seeing that she couldn't communicate with him, Xiao Wan'er asked Pei Yingguan directly.
"So, what's the price?"
All powerful forbidden techniques come with a price. Xiao Wan'er had previously weakened Wei Anshi for ten days by causing him to live out his life in a dream and die silently. What price could this obvious forbidden technique, which could elevate a person's cultivation level out of thin air, have?
"For cultivators who use this technique to raise their cultivation to the Transcendent Realm, their lifespan will remain the same as that of cultivators at the Entering Dao Realm, and their strength will not improve at all in the future," Pei Yingguan replied.
An expected and reasonable price.
"Where did the prince get the forbidden technique?" Xiao Wan'er asked.
Pei Yingguan replied, "This technique belongs to the Li family of Longxi."
Xiao Wan'er cursed in her heart, it was another aristocratic family.
"One last question, how did the prince know that the four of us would be coming?"
"Why did you know we would come today?" At the same time, Ming Shu asked the enemy during the fight.
"Why? Don't you know why?" The enemy was shocked back by her, realizing that the situation was not as they expected. The five of them killed the two of them with ease. After hearing Ming Shu's question, they smiled maliciously, "Because someone leaked the secret."
The frustration he'd been feeling after so long finally found a way to vent. He maliciously beckoned Ming Shu, "Guess who the leaker was? Was it your collaborator, or a fellow disciple?"
On the other side, Qingyang saw Mingshu beginning to lose consciousness, so he forcibly withdrew his attack and killed one of the monks who besieged him, exchanging his injury for his life. After that, he held on for a breath, flashed to Mingshu's side, and contained the spiritual energy in his voice, shouting at her.
"Mingshu, wake up!"
The spiritual voice awakened Mingshu. At the same time, the monk who wanted to seduce her suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
Ming Shu, who had woken up, took advantage of his illness to kill him. She took the opportunity when he was being attacked back and used the strongest sword move she could make, killing him directly with her sword.
In just a few moments, only two of the five men remained. However, Qingyang was also clearly injured, and any further fighting would surely result in irreparable damage.
Both sides wanted to call a truce, but at this moment, Ming Shu received a message from Xiao Wan'er.
"Among those who intercepted you, there is someone who practices divination."
Mingshu suddenly realized what was going on and drew her sword again, charging towards the three people who had come to stop them. Qingyang didn't understand why, but in order to keep himself and Mingshu at a good level, he also used his magic to support them.
"Junior sister, I have told you the reason for the leak truthfully. Can you please stop as I say?" On Xiao Wan'er's side, Pei Yingguan answered every question and even revealed all the secrets of his own sect to Xiao Wan'er.
Xiao Wan'er did indeed withdraw her attack.
"I can't control the people who came with me, and I certainly won't take action again."
The five people present just stood there, waiting for the results elsewhere.
Liu Mingyin felt as if he were lost in a seemingly endless corridor. He opened door after door, but could not find the Crown Prince. He had tried to search for him with his mind, but the walls of the East Palace held him captive.
When he had almost forgotten how long he had been searching, he pushed open another door. The space behind the door still did not contain the prince, but instead contained a formation.
He stared at the formation for a while, and after a moment, a look of horror appeared on his face.
Mingshu and Qingyang fought tooth and nail, finally defeating all who tried to stop them. Mingshu sat on the corpse, panting heavily. Qingyang, wounded even more severely, pulled out the healing pills from his personal space with trembling hands and threw them all into his mouth.
"I wonder how things are going with Fellow Daoist Liu..."
As Mingshu was speaking, a terrifying pressure descended upon the East Palace, and Mingshu and Qingyang's faces changed drastically in an instant.
Xiao Wan'er's urgent voice immediately rang in their ears: "Retreat quickly!"
Liu Mingyin didn't receive the voice transmission. He had just walked out of the room where the formation was set when a terrifying pressure loomed over him, preventing him from even running.
At the same time as Xiao Wan'er sent out the telepathic message, she suddenly jumped up and killed the one who practiced divination among the three people behind Pei Yingguan, and then fled from the East Palace as quickly as possible.
After returning home, she waited in the yard for half an hour, but only Mingshu showed up.
"Where is Fellow Daoist Qingyang?" she asked Mingshu.
Ming Shu's face turned grim: "He died in battle to protect my escape."
This is really a double whammy.
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