"Let go!"
Rong Zhi vigorously slapped Li Hao, but couldn't break free.
Internal energy surged within her. Rong Zhi swung a palm, but the opponent had already dodged it.
With a bang, the palm hit the wall.
A large pit appeared in the wall. Li Hao crouched on the ground, holding his head. His face gradually turned red, and the veins on his forehead bulged, becoming increasingly prominent, as if his blood vessels were about to burst.
Even Rong Zhi, who had seen much, found this scene utterly bizarre.
No injuries, no poisoning, which only strengthened a suspicion.
Possession.
But why would this happen?
Li Hao began to roll on the ground, screaming for a while. He suddenly opened his eyes, and whatever he thought of filled them with terror.
"Seven Kill Blood Array! It's the Seven Kill Blood Array!"
He looked at Rong Zhi and suddenly lunged at her, pulling a dagger from his chest and thrusting it towards her throat.
He wanted her dead!
Rong Zhi dodged the attack and kicked open the door, running out.
In this situation, she wasn't confident she could win.
If you can't fight it, you can flee.
She used her Qinggong, pushing herself to her limit, and ran a considerable distance.
Strangely, the person behind her didn't pursue. He paused midway and then turned into a small alley.
Rong Zhi breathed a sigh of relief, but then a thought struck her: in his frenzied state, if he encountered defenseless civilians, wouldn't he harm the innocent?
Thinking of this, Rong Zhi couldn't help but curse and turned back to chase.
The further she pursued, the more Rong Zhi realized that Li Hao wasn't heading towards residential areas, but towards the distant city gates. Furthermore, ahead of Li Hao, someone seemed to be deliberately leading him in that direction.
Passing through an alley, two identical figures suddenly appeared on either side.
Two Li Haos?
Rong Zhi rubbed her eyes. The one on the right had already vanished, while the one on the left was a step slower.
She had no choice but to pursue the one on the left, but he too disappeared.
Rong Zhi lunged at empty air, standing stunned on the spot.
What was going on? Had her Qinggong deteriorated to this extent?
She couldn't even keep up with one person?
Just then, someone suddenly patted her shoulder.
"Who's there?" Rong Zhi instinctively spun around and delivered a palm strike, but her wrist was caught.
"What's wrong? Trying to murder your husband?"
"Whose husband are you?" Rong Zhi flung his hand away, feeling somewhat agitated.
"If I marry you, wouldn't I be your husband?" Chen An smiled with a devil-may-care air.
"What are you doing wandering around outside late at night? Are you looking for me?"
Rong Zhi recalled the matter with Chen Yan Yan earlier and suddenly realized a problem: there was someone from the Blood Drinking Pavilion planted in the Chen Manor. Did Chen An know about this?
"Do you know the background of the maidservant beside your sister?"
"You mean Meihua? She seems to be..."
"Her name is Jasmine!" Rong Zhi's lips twitched.
"Oh, Peony..."
"Jasmine!" Rong Zhi felt he was doing it on purpose.
Chen An chuckled: "Just teasing you. Isn't she just a maid? Yan Yan said that when she was out playing, she encountered danger, and that little girl saved her. She felt sorry for the little girl and brought her back as a maid."
"Don't you find it strange? A maid with such high martial arts skills. Didn't you investigate her background?"
Chen An was about to speak when he suddenly felt something was amiss.
"Why are you so interested in my family's affairs? And how do you know so much?"
"Of course I know, because your sister and Jasmine took a strange man to the villa earlier, and that Jasmine stayed to take care of him. It looks like they have an unusual relationship."
"Probably it's a man Yan Yan is keeping outside. She sees me keeping women outside, so she's following my example and keeping men outside."
He seemed indifferent, as if he didn't think it was a big deal for his sister to be with a man.
Rong Zhi watched him for a long time but saw no signs of lying.
Could it be that he really didn't know there was someone from the Blood Drinking Pavilion in his household?
Now Li Hao was lost, Chen An was planning to create chaos tomorrow night, and she didn't know what the General's Mansion was up to.
Rong Zhi was vexed.
She suddenly felt very powerless. In her previous life, with her medical skills, she had helped many people and disciplined many others. She had never felt such a profound sense of frustration.
The most painful time was when she couldn't find the antidote for the Seven-Day Poison in time, resulting in the deaths of several soldiers sent to seek medical help from Medicine King Valley.
But in the recent period, she had experienced many things: the corpse-controlling technique, the corpses outside the mass grave, the secret of her own reincarnation – all of them made her feel incredibly powerless.
She simply didn't know how to resolve them.
"Chen An, can you stop your plan? You can't involve innocent civilians."
Her tone held a hint of pleading.
Chen An spread his hands: "But if we don't make some commotion, how can we lure out the National Preceptor?"
"Then there's no need to make sacrifices of innocent people. You could send the corpse tide outside the Qianji Pavilion."
"Oh? Elaborate," Chen An's eyes showed interest, his gaze even brightening a few points.
This girl had quite the nerve to directly scheme against the Qianji Pavilion.
"If you lure the corpse tide outside the Qianji Pavilion, where the guards are strictly stationed, those guards will definitely come out to fight. But even if they can defeat the corpse tide, they won't be able to handle them properly, and the National Preceptor will have to appear. We'll hide near the Qianji Pavilion, and as soon as the National Preceptor comes out, we'll capture him!"
The more Rong Zhi thought about it, the more she felt this was a good idea. The Qianji Pavilion was located outside the imperial city, about three to four li away. If the corpse tide were lured there, it would avoid involving the imperial city's civilians.
Moreover, the guards outside the Qianji Pavilion were all highly skilled in martial arts, and it wouldn't result in too much casualties.
Chen An nodded in agreement: "You have a point. But the National Preceptor isn't that easy to capture. Let alone how many people are guarding him, the National Preceptor himself is a peerless master. What if we fail?"
"If a frontal assault won't work, we'll use strategy. You can find a way to get me injured, the kind only he can resolve. When he comes to save me, I'll knock him out with a packet of sleeping powder and take him to a secluded place to interrogate him as much as I want."
In fact, apart from fearing collateral damage, Rong Zhi wanted to know the secret of her rebirth more than anyone.
Chen An tapped his head with his fan: "How did I not think of that? Then it's settled."
"Thank you." Rong Zhi cupped her fists.
"However, if we want to divert the corpse tide, we'll need to make some arrangements. Let's go outside the city."
Chen An took Rong Zhi outside the city.
Along the way, Rong Zhi specifically looked for any trace of Li Hao, but found nothing.
It seemed she had completely lost him.
Meanwhile, Li Hao was being cornered by a group of hidden guards onto a desolate street.
There were almost no residents here, only many abandoned houses. Li Hao's body was red, as if blood was about to seep from his skin.
Chen Xing looked back, relieved that his lady hadn't followed.
"Everyone, restrain him. We'll release him when his energy is almost depleted!"
The Seven Kill Blood Array had been activated. Li Hao could only survive by killing 72 people, but if they depleted Li Hao's energy beforehand, he wouldn't have the strength to kill anyone, but it would cause chaos in the imperial city.
As long as the disturbance was significant enough, it would surely lure out that person.
Outside the imperial city, Rong Zhi and Chen An walked around the place where they had tied the red thread last time. Rong Zhi watched Chen An place seven copper coins outside each red thread, with the coins pointing towards the Qianji Pavilion.
"What is this for?"
"A guide," Chen An said. "To lead whatever is buried underground to the Qianji Pavilion."
Rong Zhi looked in the direction of the Qianji Pavilion, never expecting it to be so simple.
Thinking of tomorrow's plan, Rong Zhi's excitement grew.
If everything went smoothly, the truth of what happened back then could be revealed.
Overcome with excitement, Rong Zhi didn't go back to sleep that night. She stayed with Chen An at the mass grave, keeping watch for a day and a night, until the next evening, when night fell.
A faint crunching sound emanated from underground. The sound was familiar, as she had heard it not long ago when Xia Jin had used it against her.
What followed was as she had predicted.
With that sound, countless white bones were exposed from the ground. Corpses of varying degrees of decomposition began to emerge from the earth, slowly moving towards the Qianji Pavilion.
To reach the Qianji Pavilion, they had to pass through the imperial city. Rong Zhi had been wondering how they would enter, whether by climbing or jumping. She never expected that as they approached the city walls, they would slowly burrow back underground.
"Earth-burrowing?"
Rong Zhi was somewhat surprised.
"Taking a detour would be too far," Chen An explained casually.
Indeed, the imperial city was so vast. If they didn't want to alarm the patrolling guards, earth-burrowing was the only option.
"Let's go."
Chen An pulled Rong Zhi along. Along the way, Chen An stopped and started, seemingly sensing the movement underground.
Rong Zhi could also hear the crunching sounds from below.
The thought of countless corpses walking beneath her sent shivers down her spine.
She suddenly remembered the Three Sheep Mountain Five Ghosts; that short man had also used the earth-burrowing technique.
Halfway there, Rong Zhi passed by the General's Mansion.
She instinctively pricked up her ears, wanting to hear if there was any activity inside, but heard nothing.
She didn't know what Xia Yun Ting was doing inside.
Never mind, he was so clever; he would surely protect himself. Why should she worry about him?
The imperial city was vast. They walked for a full half-hour before finally exiting the imperial city. After walking another three to four li, the corpses emerged from the ground and shambled towards the Qianji Pavilion.
"Do you find something unusual?"
Chen An suddenly remarked beside her.
"What?"
"There seem to be more than before."
Rong Zhi then realized that when they were in the outskirts, there hadn't been so many corpses.
Now, they were dense, seemingly endless, making a crunching, bone-on-bone sound in the dark night.
Moreover, by the moonlight, Rong Zhi noticed that many of the corpses that hadn't fully decomposed had faces identical to hers.
The scene was as horrifying as it could get.
"How can this be?"
"The corpses from other places were also attracted by this aura. They emerged on their own."
"Even so, there shouldn't be this many."
Rong Zhi was surprised. And she could see that the identifiable ones were all female corpses; not a single male corpse was present.
"It's not strange. It's rumored that in the past, all four city gates outside the imperial city were mass graves," Chen An's voice grew somber.
His voice in the dark night sounded particularly desolate.
"How is that possible?"
What ruler would turn the areas outside the imperial city into mass graves? Didn't they find it ominous?
However... the corpses before her were strong evidence. Rong Zhi had no choice but to believe it, even if she didn't want to.
A rustling sound of bones on the ground receded into the distance. Not far away, the Qianji Pavilion was hidden in the darkness, like an impenetrable fortress.
Tonight was destined to be an extraordinary night.