At Qi Wang’s mansion, Qi Wang once again furiously shouted at Divine Doctor Xue, the divine healer: “What kind of divine doctor are you? It’s been so long—what disease have you even treated for me? I’m still not healed!”
His patience had long since collapsed after repeated failures.
Every day he comforted himself, thinking maybe in a couple of days he’d recover. This is a divine doctor, the best physician! He should recover soon, soon be able to walk again.
But every time his hopes were met only with deeper disappointment.
He was utterly unable to endure it. Even when Duke Chu, dragging his sick body, came to strongly persuade him, he couldn’t stop himself from raging.
Divine Doctor Xue was also losing patience. He scratched his already dry, tangled hair, irritably saying, “I’ve done all I can! Acupuncture, massage—tried everything. But your leg is broken, the bones shattered, the meridians damaged. It’s really not so easy to heal…”
He never once promised he could cure him.
In fact, at the start, he said the leg probably couldn’t be cured!
But these nobles didn’t understand a word, now threatening that if it can’t be healed, he should die with him.
He’d rather stab him with a needle and be done with it.
Qi Wang refused to listen, especially when hearing it wasn’t so easy to cure, he flew into a greater rage, grabbed a nearby vase and threw it at Divine Doctor Xue.
Divine Doctor Xue dodged hurriedly.
Qi Wang, furious beyond control, pointed at him: “I’ll kill you, kill you, you quack!”
Just as the chaos was escalating, Eunuch Xu cautiously knocked on the door and entered, face pale: “Your Highness, something’s happened! Something’s happened!”
Qi Wang could no longer tolerate hearing “something happened.”
Lately, he wondered if he was cursed—he heard “Your Highness is in trouble, Your Highness something happened” more than anything else.
“Something happened, something happened!”
His bloodshot eyes snapped: “What happened? Your father died?!”
Eunuch Xu immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed.
Trembling, he said, “Your Highness, at our old residence in Baoding Prefecture, a fire broke out and burned it down.”
Baoding Prefecture was where they raised and trained the secret guards.
They took in orphans with no homes, fed them, trained them in martial arts from childhood, and trained them to kill.
The sick or weak were left to die on their own.
Only those who survived and graduated could become secret guards.
That place was called the Old Residence by Duke Chu and them.
After the recent attempts on Qi Yuan, the secret guards were almost wiped out.
Only a few trainees remained, and now with this fire…
Qi Wang’s vision darkened; he almost fell, clutching the table tightly to steady himself.
Of course, he didn’t believe this fire was accidental.
After all these years, no accidents happened—how could it coincidentally catch fire at such a critical time?
Qi Yuan!
No doubt, this was connected to Qi Yuan!
She truly was his nemesis!
Eunuch Xu carefully looked at Qi Wang: “Your Highness, local officials reported first, saying this must have been an accident…”
If they wanted to investigate, first they’d need to find out why all those orphans gathered together.
That house wasn’t a charity—it shouldn’t have so many unidentified orphans.
Why were there so many weapons, bows, and even some gunpowder inside?
…
Qi Wang ground his teeth and sneered coldly: “What about Qi Jin?! No news from her yet?!”
Useless!
He gave her so many resources, even hidden darts, yet no news after so long!
Before Eunuch Xu could speak, Jinbao rushed in with a pale face.
He didn’t even knock, just knelt and kowtowed: “Your Highness, Qi Jin—Qi Jin was found hanging at our mansion’s gate!”
Qi Wang was about to drink tea, but upon hearing this, crushed his teacup.
Not just the teacup—he felt his teeth nearly shattered.
What was going on with Heaven? Was Qi Yuan Heaven’s own daughter?
How did she always win?!
Did Heaven’s surname happen to be Qi?!
Jinbao saw blood trickling from between Qi Wang’s fingers, growing more frightened: “Your Highness, she must have been hanged in the middle of the night. When found this morning, the body was stiff, the face blue. Many people saw it…”
He mourned: “We dared not delay and immediately dragged her inside, but…”
He didn’t finish, but Qi Wang understood.
Now it must be a huge scandal.
Qi Wang’s mansion was plagued with trouble.
First dragged into the corruption case of the grain transport, then the brothel fire involving Zhan Wenhui, and the would-be Qi Wangfei Han Yue’e died on the street right after her marriage was granted.
Now, a woman found hanging at his mansion gate.
Maintaining a good reputation was hard—requiring accumulated good deeds and constant praise.
But to ruin a reputation, it took only one shocking event.
Now his reputation was undoubtedly ruined.
In a furious rage, Qi Wang flipped the table.
Everyone in the room dropped to their knees.
“Qi Yuan!” Qi Wang snarled the name through clenched teeth, wishing he could strangle her.
At this moment, Qi Yuan was drinking tea not far from Qi Wang’s mansion, calmly sipping as rumors about a girl hanging herself at the mansion spread early that morning.
A faint smile appeared at her lips.
Xiao Yunting clapped his hands and entered, clicking his tongue: “You sure know how to use me. You only need me when it comes to destroying evidence.”
Now their conversations were more casual.
Xiao Yunting no longer called himself “Ben Wang.”
Qi Yuan smiled: “What’s wrong? Doesn’t the Lord like this job? I thought you’d be pleased, since you handled Second Master Liu and Cheng Wang so smoothly back then.”
Mentioning Second Master Liu and Cheng Wang, Xiao Yunting cleared his throat and sat opposite Qi Yuan: “Alright, the job is done. Now can you tell me what really happened?”
“Remember when we killed Cheng Wang, and I told you someone was in the bushes?” Qi Yuan was concise: “That was Qi Jin. She’s not dead—Qi Wang took her in and probably sent her to train martial arts. But a person without roots can’t quickly become powerful. She lacked the skill to kill me, so she took an indirect approach—she went after Qi Yunting.”
She raised an eyebrow coldly: “She tried to poison me by inciting Qi Yunting, planning to break my leg and send me to a brothel. But I never suffer losses—especially with Qi Yunting annoying me like a fly, so I just helped him out and broke his leg myself.”
…
Xiao Yunting could imagine the scene.
He instinctively rubbed his own knee.
