Shen Sheng’s gaze fell upon Anu’s face. The Emperor’s elixir refining would damage her body?
She lay beside the bed, looking at this seemingly omnipotent woman before her, trying to wake her: “Jiang Wan, Jiang Wan.”
Helpless, she turned to have someone fetch a physician. But then she reconsidered. If the other party was truly an Immortal, a mortal physician would be useless.
If she did nothing, it would also be a wasted effort. She thought for a moment and still decided to send for a physician.
After the physician was invited in, he checked the pulse and declared there was nothing amiss.
Hearing this, Shen Sheng knew this physician had diagnosed nothing at all.
After the physician left, Buyan and Buyu returned. They had been eating sweets, and crumbs still lingered at the corners of their mouths.
Shen Sheng had servants take them to sleep in the neighboring room for the night, planning to buy and set up a bed for them tomorrow.
The two were very obedient and left with the maidservants.
Shen Sheng sat alone on the footrest, bored, staring at Anu’s features.
She watched like this all night. The patient recovered on her own, her complexion improving, a hint of blood returning to her lips.
Seeing this, Shen Sheng ordered ginseng soup to be prepared for her, then hurriedly prepared to go out herself.
Anu leaned against a bolster, surveying the room’s decorations. Shen Sheng was not an elegant person. Given a choice between peonies and peach blossoms, she would choose peach blossoms.
Because peach blossoms bear fruit, it can be eaten.
Peonies cannot satisfy hunger.
After a simple rest, Anu got up and walked around the courtyard. Servants were carrying a bed into the neighboring room.
Buyan and Buyu circled the servants, chattering endlessly.
Not long after, a toddling little girl also came over, hopping and skipping, calling out: “Buyan, Buyu, Buyan, Buyu…”
Anu’s expression immediately changed, her gentle, watery eyes studying the tiny girl. Similarly, Zhuzhu stopped in front of her, grinning, “Buyan…”
Just then, a voice drifted in from outside, “Zhuzhu, she’s your older sister. Don’t call her by name directly, it’s impolite. You should call her Older Sister.”
Zhu Fan stopped in her tracks. The woman opposite her was draped in a fox fur cloak, her skin fair as snow, a red silk ribbon strikingly visible among her hairpins.
Zhuzhu had already run off ahead of her, continuously mumbling “Buyan Buyu Buyu”.
“Little Five has a guest here, how presumptuous of me.” Zhu Fan first apologized to the guest.
Anu shook her head, “The Young General has gone out. Young Madam, please make yourself at ease.”
Zhu Fan smiled, but she kept scrutinizing the woman’s features. Her features were exquisite, her brows and eyes as cold as ice and snow, her entire aura imbued with an ethereal quality. It had to be said, anyone standing beside her would be eclipsed.
“You are…?”
“Jiang Buwan,” Anu replied.
Zhu Fan’s expression shifted, her heart involuntarily tightening. Just then, Buyan and Buyu came over leading Zhuzhu. Zhuzhu was tugging on their sleeves, mumbling something non-stop. Her little mouth just wouldn’t stop, but no one could understand what she was saying.
After Buyan and Buyu spotted Anu, they instinctively looked behind her. “Where is she?”
“She left,” Anu’s tone was indifferent. “Do you want to go home?”
“Don’t want to.”
“As you wish. Just don’t get yourselves kicked out,” Anu said calmly, then lifted her foot and left.
Shen Sheng, leading a squad of guards, galloped towards the designated rendezvous point. However, five li outside the city, she encountered men in black.
The two sides clashed, and Shen Sheng swung her sword, hacking at her opponents.
Passersby were all frightened into fleeing in all directions. Shen Sheng, fearful of harming innocent bystanders, fought the enemy while also escorting those who had collapsed by the roadside away.
“Hurry up, go! Quickly, ah…”
Shen Sheng shouted with all her might. The hand holding her sword was already stained red with blood, yet her eyes remained clear and clean, not even caring that protecting the passersby would bring greater danger to herself.
She was like a cloud in the sky, somehow fallen into the mortal dust, stained by filth.
A woman in the distance, seated on horseback, watched the figure ceaselessly swinging her sword and curled her lips into a cold sneer.
The assassins multiplied, like an unyielding darkness. For every one that fell, a horde more would appear, unkillable, unable to be dispersed.
The sword in Shen Sheng’s hand was cleaved from her grip by an assassin’s blade. She nimbly sidestepped to evade. Watching the guards who had followed her all lying fallen, a hatred surged up fiercely within her.
She didn’t know why the other party wanted to kill her so desperately.
She agilely flipped her body, seizing the chance to pick up a blade, gritted her teeth, and fought back with ferocious slashes.
The assassins circled her, multiple swords hacking down. She raised her blade horizontally to block. The impact of the force made her grunt, sending her tumbling to the ground.
At that very moment, within the Cinnabar Peak Palace, flames roared within the cauldron. Anu before the cauldron suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Yet, within her eyes was excitement. The hatred caused the flames within the cauldron to burn even more fiercely.
After spitting out the blood, soreness wracked her entire body. She didn’t move, instead closing her eyes to rest.
Shen Sheng would not die. Her body had been cleansed in her blood, no longer an ordinary mortal form. She couldn’t die.
Just as Anu had anticipated, Shen Sheng rose from the ground time and again. She spotted the woman in the distance, and clutching her blade, charged out of the encirclement, rushing straight at her opponent.
With one slash, the rider on the horse turned, attempting to flee.
Under the biting winter snow and cold, Shen Sheng used all her strength to cleave through the horse’s leg. The rider was violently thrown from the horse.
Like a wolf pouncing on its prey, Shen Sheng lunged forward and stabbed her blade into the opponent’s chest. Capture the ringleader first to control the bandits.
After the blade was embedded, the remaining assassins seemed stupefied. They dropped their blades and fled. A few loyal ones still swung their swords, hacking at Shen Sheng.
Shen Sheng, having crawled and fought her way through battlefields, how could she not sense someone attacking from behind? She nimbly flipped her body over, grabbed a blade, and hurled it, then quickly scrambled away.
The remaining assassins, seeing this, fearfully fled. But they didn’t get far before being caught up with and finished off with a single stroke.
Zhou Ying, upon witnessing the scene before her, was frightened out of her wits. The time she had agreed upon with her family to meet had long passed. In the freezing cold, she could only keep moving while heading out to meet her family.
Nearing the Imperial Capital, she saw her younger sister-in-law driven to a desperate end by assassins. Without a second thought, she drew her blade and rushed over.
Shen Sheng was like a puppet, raising her blade, hacking… only when all the men in black were lying on the ground did she numbly release her blade.
She walked over to the woman, tore off the black cloth masking her face, and the suspicion in her heart was confirmed.
It was Princess Anle.
Zhou Ying rushed over, also recognizing Princess Anle, and stumbled back in fright. The Emperor’s most beloved daughter.
After a brief moment to catch her breath, Zhou Ying decisively said: “Change the Princess’s clothes. Remove the black garment and put on a brocade robe. Quickly…”
The Shen family entourage hurriedly changed the Princess into the brocade clothes originally prepared for Shen Sheng, fabricating a scene of assassins killing, with the Shen family coming to the rescue.
After the hasty arrangement, members of the Shen family disguised themselves as passersby to report the crime. The others from the Shen family returned the way they came, pretending they saw nothing. Zhou Ying raised her hand and knocked Shen Sheng unconscious, throwing her amongst the corpses for the officials to find.
After setting everything up, Zhou Ying quickly withdrew.
The Capital Magistrate rushed to the scene after receiving the report. Corpses covered the ground. Guards from the Shen family were faintly recognizable. Just then, Zhou Ying arrived.
Zhou Ying was the eldest daughter-in-law of the Shen family, a noble status. After her husband died, he was posthumously honored, and her own rank rose accordingly.
Seeing the horse carriage, the Capital Magistrate stepped forward to salute. Before Zhou Ying could speak, he already pointed out they were Shen family guards.
Suddenly, someone cried out: Princess Anle.
The Capital Magistrate’s expression changed at the sound. Ignoring Zhou Ying, he hurried over. With just one glance, he was so frightened he collapsed, paralyzed on the ground.
Zhou Ying feigned stepping forward to check for breathing, her face turning grave as she uttered: “No breath left.”
“This… what can be done now…” The Capital Magistrate scrambled up from the ground, trying to use Zhou Ying as a shield. “First Madam Shen, you see, we arrived together.”
This statement was exactly what Zhou Ying wanted to hear. She nodded: “Naturally, I will testify for you, Sir. Only, my Shen family men have also met with misfortune.”
“Young General, Young General, First Madam, it’s the Young General…”
Hearing this, the Capital Magistrate’s eyeballs nearly popped out. A breath caught in his throat, and he almost fainted.
Young General Shen was also gone?
Finished, finished. A major calamity was about to unfold.
Then, someone cried out with pleasant surprise: “She still has breath! Quickly, return to the city and find a physician.”
Zhou Ying apologized to the Capital Magistrate and, without further explanation, had the person carried onto the carriage to be taken home first.
The Capital Magistrate finally breathed a sigh of relief; he dared not linger. He ordered his men to carry the corpse of Princess Anle back to the capital to report to His Majesty.
Princess Anle was the sole Legitimate Princess, her status exceedingly noble and deeply favored. To die so suddenly… the Capital Magistrate trembled with fear the entire journey.
Upon returning to the capital, he didn’t go to His Majesty first, but went to the Cinnabar Peak Palace to find the State Preceptor.
Upon seeing the State Preceptor, the Capital Magistrate burst into sorrowful tears. The State Preceptor, however, was casually massaging the back of her own neck.
For some reason, the back of her neck hurt terribly. A soreness throughout her whole body was one thing, but what was this pain in her neck about?
Had Shen Sheng been struck on the back of the neck?
After listening to the Capital Magistrate’s tearful account, the State Preceptor slowly raised her head, her tone deep: “Dead is dead. She loved to leave the city to play; you couldn’t control that. Investigate where these assassins came from. If it truly cannot be helped, first appease His Majesty’s anger.”
“State Preceptor, perhaps… you could go and speak?” The Capital Magistrate fell directly to his knees, his face pale with fright, beseeching repeatedly, “His Majesty is enraged. This humble official’s head cannot be kept safe.”
Anu clicked her tongue twice, looking rather helpless: “I would like to go too, but for some reason, my neck hurts severely. You must make this trip yourself.”
After refusing the Capital Magistrate, Anu left the Cinnabar Peak Palace. Without realizing it, her steps led her to Shen Manor. Remembering her two little terrors were still at Shen Manor, she immediately sent someone to notify them.
It was time to go home.
However, the people at Shen Manor were busy calling for physicians and paid her no attention.
She seemed to understand what was happening. She didn’t even bother picking up the children. She changed direction and went to a coffin shop, requesting the finest coffin from the shopkeeper.
After paying the silver, she had it hauled to the Shen family.
By the time she sauntered back to the Shen family, the coffin was parked at the entrance, drawing many passersby to stop and watch.
Anu stood at the entrance, took out some money, found a few passersby, and gave each some silver to cry in front of Shen Manor. Just cry about the Young General dying young, a talent envied by heaven, dying to save the Princess.
Watching the commotion and getting free money? A few people happily accepted the generous payment.
Moments later, the sound of weeping filled the area in front of Shen Manor.
Anu leaned against a wall, leisurely enjoying the drama unfolding before her.
Very quickly, another major player arrived on the scene: Zhou Yi led his men, riding up in haste.
Behind him followed guards from the Princess Manor. Zhou Yi jumped off his horse, shouted to disperse the wailing women, and stepped forward, intending to pry open the coffin.
Anu casually stepped forward, pushing through the crowd. “Prince Consort Zhou, what a coincidence. Have you come to watch the excitement?”
