“No,” Shen Yao Xing held her forehead, then remembered she had just grabbed a chicken leg and her hand was greasy. She quickly put it down, gesturing tiredly: “Even if there are some unspeakable dealings, it’s none of your business, right? Why do you have to go and get involved!”

Meng Xin Yi didn’t want to say more to her, using her sword hilt to push the black clothes in front of her: “Are you going or not?”

What could Shen Yao Xing do? If she didn’t go, she was afraid the other would end up lying there covered in bloody holes, unable to get out.

The perimeter of the Four Directions Association was heavily guarded. The two waited for the right moment during the guard change to sneak in. But once inside, a new problem arose – this Four Directions Association was as big as a maze, how would they know which room the managers were in?

Just as Shen Yao Xing felt this was unfeasible and was about to persuade her to go back, she saw Meng Xin Yi pull out a cloth map from somewhere.

“What’s this?”

“A layout map of the Four Directions Association.”

“…Where did you get it?”

“Bought it from a wandering magician.” She replied matter-of-factly.

Shen Yao Xing held her forehead, truly ready to kneel before her.

Let’s not even discuss whether this map was accurate or not, in the middle of the night it was hard to distinguish which building was which and which room was which. Shen Yao Xing had already given up and could only follow her as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

This place seemed to be composed of various large and small pavilions, with winding paths. To be honest, even in broad daylight she wouldn’t be able to find her way around, let alone at night.

After searching for quite a while under the moonlight, Meng Xin Yi stopped on the roof of a pavilion. She turned back to signal the young girl to be quiet, then crouched down and removed two tiles from under her feet. A beam of light shone on her face, clearly indicating they had found the right place.

Shen Yao Xing shrugged, turning towards another direction. She spread her arms and stood on tiptoe. The young girl’s body was agile and light as she jumped over to sit on the main ridge of the roof, legs crossed, leisurely looking at the full moon above, occasionally glancing at the woman who was engrossed in eavesdropping.

Sigh, how nice it would be to sleep at this late hour, instead of sneaking around here.

As she was thinking, Shen Yao Xing narrowed her eyes and yawned, catching sight of a dark shadow not far away in her peripheral vision. Startled, she hiccupped, quickly covering her mouth and pointing it out to Meng Xin Yi who looked over.

Meng Xin Yi looked in the direction she pointed. They saw a black cat standing on the upturned corner of the eaves, its glowing cat eyes staring intently at them.

Shen Yao Xing put her index finger to her lips, which were covered by black cloth, gesturing to the cat to be quiet. She slowly moved towards it, but suddenly the black cat launched an attack on Meng Xin Yi who was eavesdropping. A cat’s cry tore through the silent night.

“Who’s there!”

A stern shout came from below the eaves.

Shen Yao Xing quickly grabbed Meng Xin Yi’s arm and ran. More and more footsteps could be heard from below, and they could even see shadowy figures jumping on the rooftops like them. Shen Yao Xing hurriedly pulled her to jump down from the eaves, running along the bluestone path.

There were people on the roofs and people below. The two ran in circles, as if in a maze. The glow of torches was approaching from all directions. Shen Yao Xing cursed under her breath and pulled the other behind a shadow-filled rockery: “Stay here, I’ll go lead them away. You watch for an opportunity and get out of here, got it?”

“No! What about you?” Meng Xin Yi held her back.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Shen Yao Xing kicked her back: “You’d die before I would. When I tell you to go, just go quickly. It’s easier for me alone.”

Without waiting for a response, she jumped directly onto the roof, intentionally passing over the heads of the approaching searchers. The crowd was successfully led away from their direction. Shen Yao Xing was especially grateful at times like these that she had focused on mastering the skill of lightness.

After successfully evading those people, Shen Yao Xing discovered a serious problem – she was lost.

She really wanted to curse.

Thinking this was already unlucky enough, the next moment something even more unfortunate happened. The originally solid roof tiles crumbled under her angry stomp.

Shen Yao Xing fell from the roof into the room, landing steadily in a cool pose. She couldn’t help but raise her hand to vainly brush her hair, thinking that since she started practicing martial arts, she hadn’t fallen like this.

Then Shen Yao Xing noticed there was a lot of smoke in the room. At first, she thought it was dust from her fall, but she quickly dismissed this idea because the smoke also carried a damp feeling. She casually waved her hand in front of her face, squinting to survey the situation in the room.

When she turned and saw that scene, Shen Yao Xing was completely petrified.

Only then did she realize this was actually a bathing room, and what floated around her wasn’t smoke but mist. In front of her was a bath pool about ten square meters in size. The water level was just high enough to cover the man’s hips, hiding the view that would make one’s eyes sore. His fair skin was flawless, his waist and abdomen without a trace of excess fat, slender yet well-defined. Undried water droplets slid down along his contours, even more alluring in the hazy view. Above that was that bewitchingly handsome face.

The misty air added a mysterious quality to him, like a god from a fairyland, staring at her with a terrifying expression…

Shen Yao Xing stiffly turned her back, but before she could speak, a piercing chill swept towards her. The strong killing intent from behind made her suddenly bend down, narrowly avoiding it. The tips of her flying hair were cut off. She stomped hard on the ground, spinning away to distance herself.

“Wait…” I really didn’t mean to look!

Shen Yao Xing wanted to say this to him, but the person didn’t give her a chance. His thin white clothes fluttered as he advanced step by step, striking out viciously as if wanting to chop off her head. Shen Yao Xing had no weapon in hand and couldn’t even counterattack if she wanted to, she could only keep retreating to dodge.

Jiang Ming Yue’s cold eyes fixed on that slender white neck. Only by chopping it off could he resolve the hatred in his heart. He swung horizontally towards the woman’s direction, the icy sword qi cutting a deep pit in the wall.

“Hiss,” Shen Yao Xing drew in a cold breath. It was good she dodged quickly, otherwise her head would have been relocated.

Seeing the man’s sharp blade approaching again, Shen Yao Xing quickly spat on her hands, clasped them together, and forcefully clamped down on the incoming sword. Taking advantage of this moment, she hurriedly explained: “I fell down by accident, it wasn’t intentional!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw ice crystals forming on her hands. The bone-chilling cold made her want to let go of the sword but she couldn’t. The sharp blade turned between her two hands, instantly cutting her palms.

The freed sword stabbed straight towards her head. Shen Yao Xing instinctively tilted her head, but was still a second too slow. The sharp blade left a bloody mark under her eye. Her foot quickly swept towards the man, but he easily avoided it with a backward leap.

Shen Yao Xing tremblingly touched below her eye. The stinging pain made her unable to hold back from cursing: “Fuck! You dare to ruin my face?!”

Jiang Ming Yue held the long sword, coldly looking at her, with quite an air of looking down from above.

Shen Yao Xing covered her face with her bloodied hand, so angry her teeth hurt. Although she wanted to retaliate and go slash his face, it was clearly not possible now. Her other hand secretly touched her waist, where there was a bag of flour she had stolen from the inn’s kitchen before coming. It was for use in this kind of situation!

“Chua!”

Shen Yao Xing suddenly threw the flour towards the man, even making a sound effect with her mouth.

Jiang Ming Yue clearly hadn’t expected this move from her. He suddenly raised his sleeve to cover his face. In the blink of an eye, the person before him had disappeared.

Realizing he had been tricked by a small trick, Jiang Ming Yue’s face turned extremely ugly. He suddenly swung his sword, the sharp sword qi forcing towards the pool, splitting a deep crack in the blue bricks on both sides.