Chapter 442: Pass on my order to take her down (5k)
The spring sunset hung on the upturned corner of the palace eaves, shining on Xiao Ran's indifferent face.
"Cold Palace..."
Xiao Ran was not surprised that her "Aunt" was banished to the cold palace. During the Xuanmen coup, the Xiao family rebelled and the entire clan was beheaded.
In comparison, it was a good result for my aunt, who was a "royal concubine", to be able to keep her life, and it was even more impossible for her to expect to maintain a wealthy life.
However, having this expectation in mind is one thing, but seeing with one's own eyes the dilapidated and deserted cold palace, which seemed to be forgotten in a corner by the entire imperial palace, is another thing entirely.
Xiao Ran took a deep breath and did not cut the iron chain on the door. Instead, he jumped over the wall of the cold palace and landed in the courtyard.
The courtyard of the cold palace was as desolate and dilapidated as ever.
The only difference from the last time Zhao Duan came was the green on the ground and the tender buds and flower buds on the trees in the yard.
Xiao Ran said nothing, and walked towards the most eye-catching main building in his cloth boots, stepping on the uneven, dilapidated stone floor covered with dust and small stones.
After turning the corner of the house, she suddenly stopped and her eyes fell on the figure of a woman under the eaves.
The foolish and silly Concubine Xiao was wearing a simple palace maid's dress and was sitting alone on the steps under the eaves.
She put her legs together, clamped a peach blossom between her legs, and was gazing at it with a dazed look, picking petals one by one with her slightly dirty hands.
Every time he picked a piece, he would mutter something:
"return."
"Not coming back."
"return."
"Not coming back."
…
She was so focused that she didn't even notice Xiao Ran approaching.
The steps beside her were already covered with peach blossoms, and there were also bare peach branches that she had broken and picked.
Xiao Ran stared blankly at the woman's haggard and silly face, messy hair, and loose and ill-fitting dress.
She tried to compare the woman in front of her with the graceful and doted imperial concubine in her memory, but no matter what, she could not make the two images overlap.
"aunt……?"
Xiao Ran's eyes were first misty, then filled with tears, and she almost choked as she called out this long-lost title.
At this time, Concubine Xiao finally picked the last peach blossom:
"return."
Then, the foolish woman laughed, turned her head to look at the uninvited guest Xiao Ran, and said happily:
"He will come back, he will come back again..."
Xiao Ran walked closer, slowly squatted down, and placed the scabbard in his hand on the ground.
She called softly: "Auntie, don't you recognize me?"
Concubine Xiao said happily: "He will come back again..."
Xiao Ran was stunned for a moment, then asked tentatively, "Who is he?"
"Jianwen... my child..." Concubine Xiao was like a robot, triggered by the key words, and said in a dreamlike voice:
"I dreamed of him, he came back..."
Then his expression became gloomy again: "But he left again, and woke up from the dream..."
Xiao Ran's heart sank. She reached out her hand, wiped her tears, pulled Concubine Xiao's shoulders towards her, and said with red eyes:
"Aunt, who turned you into this? Was it that Xu Zhenguan? Or someone else?"
Concubine Xiao, immersed in her own world, did not answer her. Instead, she tried to struggle like a child, but failed. She was suddenly terrified:
"Let me go...don't hit me...don't hit me..."
As she was tugged, the collar of her loose palace maid's uniform was torn open, revealing faint dark red marks on her dirty body.
Xiao Ran's face changed and he pulled half of her shirt off with force. He saw red marks on the woman's back, which should have been as white as mutton-fat jade but was now thin and rough.
With Xiao Ran's keen eyesight, he could tell at a glance that it was left there by someone beating with a thin bamboo pole or similar wooden stick.
Her face quickly turned cold, and her eyes almost spitted out anger:
"Auntie, who hit you? Tell me, tell me."
Concubine Xiao was just struggling, when suddenly, there was a "bang bang" sound outside the cold palace, and someone was approaching the gate.
"She's coming... she's coming..."
Concubine Xiao seemed to be under stress, with a look of fear in her eyes and trembling.
He struggled to run, but seemed afraid to do so.
Xiao Ran's sharp gaze swept towards the locked door and he heard the sound of it unlocking.
Then the door opened, and an elderly palace maid with a sinister face, wide-set eyes, and narrow brows walked in carrying a food box.
Judging from the clothes she was wearing, she was obviously a palace servant under the "Shangshan Bureau" and was obviously the lowest-level servant in the palace who was responsible for delivering meals to Concubine Xiao.
When the palace maid saw Xiao Ran, she was obviously stunned for a moment, then her eyes widened, she took a few steps back, and was about to shout:
"There's a thief..."
The next second, a sword was pressed against her throat.
The Qingshan heroine, wearing a bamboo hat, had a cold look in her eyes:
"If you dare to scream, I will kill you and dump your body."
The maid was sweating profusely, her legs trembling, when she heard the daring "assassin" suddenly ask, "Who gave you the permission to assault Concubine Xiao?"
The maid was startled and subconsciously passed the buck:
"I didn't want to hit her. It was the order of the female official above me... A few days ago, the emperor came and ordered the female official in charge of the cold palace to be punished... So..."
She didn't know the assassin's origins, and out of fear of death, she revealed everything.
The "superior" she mentioned was actually just a low-level female official in the huge slave system of the palace, a small figure who could not even see Mo Chou.
The last time Zhao Duan and Xu Zhenguan came here, they saw that Concubine Xiao's clothes and living quarters were very poor. The empress casually instructed the people around her to make some improvements and then paid no more attention to it.
The empress's words, after being passed down through layers of palace personnel, became a punishment when they reached the lower levels.
The punished slaves were filled with resentment, thinking that it was the crazy Concubine Xiao who had complained to the Empress, so they beat her in retaliation.
The palace maid also enjoyed it. Given her lowly status, the pleasure she felt when she beat the former imperial concubine was indescribable.
But at this moment, he cleared himself of all responsibility.
Xiao Ran listened quietly, as if believing it. He sheathed his sword, relaxed a little, handed the food box to the hungry and frightened Concubine Xiao, and said softly:
"Eat slowly, I'll take care of it."
Then he signaled the older palace maids to leave the cold palace and wait for the door to be closed.
Xiao Ran calmly asked the palace maid to tell her the name of the female official who she said ordered the beating, as well as her location and residence.
"Yes, I like obedient people."
Xiao Ran reached out his hand, patted the maid's shoulder, and said with a smile:
"You should know how to do it, right?"
The mean maid rolled her eyes and said hurriedly, "I haven't seen you today."
"Let's go." Xiao Ran said with a smile.
The palace maid felt relieved and hurriedly ran away along the narrow and empty alley outside the cold palace.
I don’t know if it was because of fear or the late spring cold, but the older palace maid felt cold all over and her feet were numb.
With her mere mortal vision, she naturally didn't know that when Xiao Ran patted her shoulder just now, a stream of rich energy had already entered the palace maid's meridians, and in the blink of an eye, it cut off the energy flow of her internal organs.
About six hours later, the palace maid will die suddenly, and outsiders will not be able to notice anything wrong.
Xiao Ran's smile slowly faded, and he waited until the palace maid ran far away before he chased her towards the end of the alley, scabbard in hand and wearing a conical hat.
Of course, she didn't believe the address the maid gave, so she planned to follow her there and use similar methods to kill everyone involved in the incident and prevent the news from leaking out.
…
…
The setting sun has already sunk into a corner of the sky.
The blood-red glow of the sunset shone obliquely into the alley, cutting the mottled red palace wall into two distinct parts.
The heroine Xiao Ran was walking in the alley and suddenly stopped.
"What a cruel method! A disciple of Qingshan, a martial artist with perfect divine skills, would embarrass a small person like this. I'm afraid this can't be considered the method of a reputable and upright sect."
A scattered voice floated down from above.
Xiao Ran raised his head suddenly, and his pupils shrank into a small dot.
I saw a young man squatting on the glazed tiles of a high palace wall on one side. He was wearing clothes offered by the royal family, and his handsome face was bathed in the light of the setting sun, appearing bronze.
"It's you!?" Xiao Ran gripped the scabbard tightly.
Zhao Duan, squatting on the wall, looked calm and said with a smile:
"Miss Xiao, you finally recognized me. We didn't have the chance to talk much this morning at the martial arts training ground, but I didn't expect to run into you now."
Xiao Ran felt like he was facing a formidable enemy:
"You're following me?!"
No... My people were following you. I came here after hearing the tip... Well, that method I learned from Old Xu of using the rosy glow to conceal your aura is indeed quite advanced. I squatted on the wall and looked out for a while without being noticed...
Zhao Duan muttered in his heart, with two dimples on his face:
"Miss, what you said is not true. As a palace attendant, I have the duty to inspect the imperial palace. But you... seemed to have done something out of line just now."
Seeing that he was the only one around, Xiao Ran calmed down and retorted:
"Out of line? If you cared about that servant's status, why didn't you take action just now, but instead just stood by and watched? Now you're here to uphold justice."
“No, no, no…”
Zhao Duan stood up slowly, jumped down from the wall, and blocked the path that the heroine had to pass. He stretched his body, and his joints cracked.
"I'm not a good person, nor do I bother to uphold justice. It's just that the young lady didn't rest in the imperial city and sneaked into the harem... Hehe, come with me?"
Xiao Ran sneered: "What if I don't go?"
"Then it's not up to you."
Zhao Duan sighed softly, and then without any warning, his spine opened like a dragon, and a stream of energy like fried copper beans rushed along the tailbone to the tip of his outstretched right fist, making a crackling sound.
While closing the distance with a sudden body attack, he punched fiercely towards the heroine's plump chest!
If they disagree, they will start fighting!
Xiao Ran had no expression on her face, and was not at all surprised. The moment Zhao Duan threw the punch, her slender and light figure leaned back slightly, her cloth boots left the ground, and she retreated violently like a willow in the wind!
It seems extremely slow, but it is actually extremely fast.
One person punches, the other steps back.
In the blink of an eye, she had already chased several feet away. Xiao Ran was rapidly approaching a palace wall behind her, and the shadow cast on the wall was about to overlap with hers.
Xiao Ran suddenly twisted his body in a way that almost violated the laws of physics, flipped in the air, and stomped his boots hard on the palace wall.
The man rushed towards Zhao Duan like a cannonball, and at the same time, the dark scabbard of the rapier in his hand slipped off.
"Buzz—"
As the soft sword, which was extremely suitable for women with small frames, was unsheathed, the extremely flexible blade bent and vibrated, making a strange sound.
The sword blade, as bright as the moonlight, bent into a dangerous arc that was almost a semicircle, and then rebounded rapidly.
The sharp tip of the sword pierced straight into Zhao Duan's fist.
Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows, retracted his fist and stopped while running, a dim blue lotus mark appeared between his eyebrows, and the strands of energy around him condensed into an illusory golden bell, covering his entire body.
Rumbling and spinning.
"bite!"
The soft sword pierced the rotating golden bell, splashing a string of sparks.
After the power of this sword was weakened by the Buddhist Golden Bell Cover, they canceled each other out, and Zhao Duan extended his left fist again.
Xiao Ran shook his wrist, and the soft sword was like a giant python, following Zhao Duan's straight fist and wrapping around his arm, using softness to overcome hardness.
The flexible and tough rope was like a rope, binding his arm and suddenly tightening, trying to strangle his arm into a pulp.
The rays of light flowing across the surface of the arms turned the flesh and blood into gold, making it indestructible.
"Sealing spell!"
Zhao Duan let out a low shout, made a hand gesture with his right hand, and a "卍" shape expanded into ropes that wrapped around and chased after Xiao Ran.
"Are you a descendant of the royal family, or a monk from the Shenlong Temple? What the hell is this?"
The female hero Qingshan frowned and cursed in her heart, but she decisively dropped her sword and retreated backward. A dagger slipped from her sleeve and she cut the ropes that were wrapped around her one by one.
The soft sword left behind was like a maggot on the heel, still firmly binding half of Zhao Duan's arm. He raised his eyebrows, and the Golden Crow Flying Knife also slipped out of his right sleeve.
Twist your wrist and never miss the target!
"go!"
The air in early spring made a sharp whistling sound. The Golden Crow Flying Knife was as powerful as the Taoist flying sword within a hundred steps. It almost left an afterimage, and only a ripple was reflected in the sunset light.
However, the flying knife, which was always effective, was hit on the side by the dagger in Xiao Ran's hand as it approached her.
If the picture is slowed down at this moment, you can clearly see a strand of hair scattered from Xiao Ran's temple slowly passing by the corner of her eyes and her nose.
This woman, who came from a powerful family and was sent to the East China Sea to study as a disciple at a young age for unknown reasons and could only go home a few times a year, caught the trajectory of the flying knife with unpredictable speed at this moment and gently hit the weakest part of the flying knife with her dagger.
"bite!"
The picture suddenly returned to normal flow rate.
The flying knife that left an afterimage was like a fly. Xiao Ran twisted its trajectory, brushing past her side by a foot, and with a turbulent current, it slammed into the old palace wall, and embedded itself into the crack of the wall with a "puff" sound.
Zhao Duan tried to recall the flying knife, but found that the energy in it had been dispersed by the collision.
The setting sun slowly sank into the horizon, and its shadow was about to cover the two people facing each other in the alley.
At this moment, Zhao Duan used almost all his tricks except those hidden cards that were inconvenient to be exposed, and Xiao Ran used his exquisite martial arts to break them from beginning to end.
"It's stronger than the rumors say, but still vulnerable."
Xiao Ran held the silver dagger in her hand. Under her bamboo hat, her pretty face was filled with disdain.
"If you can still strike the sword with the same force as in broad daylight, I will surrender."
Qingshan is indeed a sacred place for martial arts masters, renowned for their profound knowledge. If a disciple at the Divine Chapter Realm possesses such a profound and solid foundation, how powerful must Wu Xiankui be? Perhaps even a single move from him would be enough for martial artists to master for their entire lives.
Zhao Duan was secretly surprised and had a clear understanding of the martial arts ability of this descendant of the Xiao family.
powerful.
Very strong.
Compared with Tang Zhao, who is also a female warrior in the Divine Chapter Realm, she is more than one level stronger.
Of course, this does not mean that Duke Tang's daughter is inferior, but that the two are good at different things. Tang Zhao's strengths lie in battle formations and military talents. He is also a horseman among thousands of troops with a big spear.
However, this girl from the Xiao family is proficient in martial arts. Like Qi Ye, she has honed certain martial arts skills to the limit of her current realm.
"Oh, if you want me to kill you, I will do it. Wouldn't that be very embarrassing?" Zhao Duan was stubborn and stubborn.
Xiao Ran looked at him with disdain, holding a dagger, and stepped towards him:
"If you try to stop me again, it won't just be your flying knife that will be removed."
"You dare to touch me?" Zhao Duan was "fierce on the outside but weak on the inside".
Xiao Ran raised the corners of his lips slowly and said:
"From today onwards, the fifteenth day will be the time for the Imperial Palace's worshippers and my Qingshan lineage to spar with each other. During the sparring, if you get injured, it's not against the rules."
Zhao Duan's mouth curled up, and he slowly stepped back a few steps, saying lightly:
"That's right. In that case, let's all come out."
Xiao Ran was stunned, and then his pupils dilated. He saw eunuchs jumping up from the high palace walls on both sides of the narrow alley.
At a glance, there were dozens of people.
They jumped into the alley at the same time. In an instant, dozens of palace masters protected Zhao Duan behind them and surrounded Xiao Ran.
The two eunuchs in the lead were Tang Jinzhong, who was in the secular realm, and Song Jinxi, who looked like a monkey.
"Sir, shall we capture this thief immediately?"
Song Jinxi put on a flattering smile and asked for instructions.
Zhao Duan remained calm and nodded slightly. Through the dense crowd of people, he looked at Xiao Ran, whose eyes were filled with shock and a look that read "How can a person be so shameless?"
He smiled and said, "Miss Xiao said that the next fifteen days are all for sparring, so this official led the Martial Arts Hall to spar with Miss Xiao. It makes sense, right?"
"You...you guys..." Xiao Ran's face turned ashen with anger.
Facing the group of eunuchs surrounding and approaching him, he suddenly felt very powerless.
There was a moment of silence.
With a "clang", she dropped the dagger to the ground and surrendered calmly.
Since I am sure I can't win, it's better than being beaten up by these eunuchs in the name of sparring.
Very clever... Zhao Duan looked disappointed, removed the soft sword wrapped around his arm, and waved his hand:
"Take him back to the Martial Arts Hall and lock him up. Humph, trespassing into the harem, do you really think our Imperial Guards are just here to eat and do nothing?"
A eunuch came forward with a grim smile and took Xiao Ran away.
Tang Jinzhong, who was taciturn and was considered the best in the martial arts hall after Eunuch Hai, whispered:
"Sir, we knocked the maid unconscious and left her nearby. Look..."
Zhao Duan put his hands behind his back and said indifferently in the gradually darkening sky:
"Lock them up and let them fend for themselves. Humph, if I hadn't arranged for people to keep an eye on Concubine Xiao, I never would have thought that this group of insignificant palace maids would do so many things that violated the rules. Concubine Xiao is not the first, nor the last.
Inform Mo Zhaorong of the entire matter. Liushang is under her jurisdiction, so we shouldn't overstep our authority. Let her worry about the specifics."
"Yes." Tang Jinzhong nodded.
This master of the inner palace in the secular realm was as submissive as a minion in front of Zhao Duan.
"By the way, send someone to the Imperial City and tell Chai Keqiao that her senior sister has been captured by me. If you want her, come and redeem her in person. Otherwise... let Xiao Ran stay the night in the Martial Arts Hall."
"Yes, sir."
——
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(End of this chapter)
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