Sending a woman to you before you die

Inside the Zhengde Palace, by the time Guan Shiyin ran back, the fake crown prince Ji Pingshi had already pinned Wei Rufeng under his foot.

Wei Rufeng lay on the ground, barely breathing, utterly bewildered as to how Ji Pingshi had learned Crown Prince Li Yincheng's techniques to absolute perfection. Without using a single scrap of his old moves, the man had taken him down completely.

All the civil and military officials of the imperial court, except for Guan Qinghuai, had been knocked out, including Yan Yide. Wei Rufeng closed his eyes in despair; could it truly be that evil triumphed today?

Ji Pingshi glanced at Wei Rufeng with disdain, tapped the tip of his foot down, and with a muffled cough, Wei Rufeng vomited a mouthful of blood before finally closing his eyes for good.

Only then did Ji Pingshi retract his foot with a sense of relief and walk toward Guan Qinghuai. "Elder Guan, I hold you in the highest regard! Yet you stood by and watched the entire time without offering help. That truly breaks my heart."

Guan Qinghuai's expression remained unfazed. "His Highness the Crown Prince possesses peerless martial arts. How could an old man like me presume to show off?"

"Aren't you afraid that if I were to die, your son would be buried with me?"

"The Crown Prince harbors grand ambitions, and his noble aspiration to ascend the throne remains unfulfilled. Surely Your Highness would not cast aside your life so easily."

"The elder certainly understands my style quite well."

"I wouldn't dare. It is simply that this old man believes since the Crown Prince stated last night that this would be handled according to Jianghu rules, the integrity to not perish easily before the transaction is completed should still hold."

"Is the elder reminding me that the time has come for me to fulfill my end of the bargain?"

"In Jianghu customs, courtesy demands reciprocity."

"Very well. I never intended to swindle you out of this trade anyway." Ji Pingshi walked over to Luxi, who had been struck dead by Wei Rufeng with a single palm strike. He nudged the body with his toe, looking regretful. "You really shouldn't have stood by idly just now! If you had made the first move, Luxi wouldn't have been killed by Wei Rufeng's palm. Look closely at who he is."

Ji Pingshi felt behind the fake Luxi's ear, grabbed a corner of the disguise skin, and with a fierce yank, revealed the true face underneath—Guan Yihe!

"He'er!" Guan Qinghuai leaped forward to Guan Yihe's side, his fingers instantly pressing against the youth's pulse. However, the absolute lack of a pulse confirmed that it was too late to save him.

"You actually killed He'er!" Guan Qinghuai raised his hand, hurling a flying dart straight at Ji Pingshi.

"It was your failure to intervene that caused your son to die right before your eyes, though you were too blind to realize it." Ji Pingshi dodged aside and engaged Guan Qinghuai in combat.

"I will have you pay for my son's life with your own!"

"Provided you have the ability to do so!"

Hiding to one side, Guan Shiyin saw that his grandfather did not appear to be at a disadvantage for the moment, which dispelled his urge to step in and help. His grandfather had brought the Imperial Seal into the main hall earlier—where was it now?

He quietly moved toward the dragon throne. Beneath the seat that had been shattered by Wei Rufeng's palm, he spotted the yellow package. He reached out, but fell just short, blocked by a pile of collapsed wooden fragments.

He glanced back at his grandfather and Ji Pingshi, who were now fighting mid-air. Convinced his grandfather was safe for the moment, he channeled his internal energy into his palm and struck downward. The wood fragments shattered further into fine powder. Reaching deep into the debris, he scooped out the package.

He squeezed it: it was square-shaped and rigid. This had to be the Imperial Seal. He brushed off the sawdust and moved to tuck it into his robe, but paused abruptly. No, checking it was the only way to be certain.

He opened the package, and *poof*—a cloud of smoke struck him directly in the eyes. He closed his eyes tightly and jerked his head away, but it was already too late to avoid it completely. A stinging pain pierced his eyes, accompanied by a heavy ringing in his head.

He had fallen into a trap once again!

Daring not to remain in the spot any longer, he retreated backward, relying on his memory that a wall should be directly behind him. He needed to ensure his back was covered against a pincer attack.

The moment his back pressed against the wall, he sensed a murderous aura hurtling toward him from the front.

Guan Shiyin's immediate instinct told him it was Ji Pingshi. Without a second thought, he thrust his palms forward in the direction of the incoming threat.

The sound of his palm strike hitting its target rang out, but Guan Shiyin felt no joy, for he also heard a faint, stifled groan—a groan that belonged to his grandfather.

"Grandfather!" He opened his eyes to verify, but his poisoned vision revealed only a blurred, indistinct crimson fog, through which he could barely distinguish outlines. The outlines appeared to be two figures.

Two figures: one horizontal, one vertical. Which one was horizontal? Which one was vertical? Questions flashed through Guan Shiyin's mind, while his heart refused to confront the answer that was already painfully clear.

Bracing himself against the wall, he struggled to an unsteady, defensive stance. "Ji Pingshi, what did you do to my grandfather?"

Ji Pingshi kicked Guan Qinghuai's prone body aside and laughed with manic triumph. "What did I do? Exactly the same thing that poisoned you!"

Guan Yihe—such a convenient and versatile hostage. How could he possibly use him only once! Threatening Guan Qinghuai into stealing back the Imperial Seal for him was the first objective. The second was applying poison to Guan Yihe's neck while peeling off his disguise skin. After all, the first instinct of any martial artist checking for life was to feel the carotid pulse. That way, Guan Qinghuai could never escape. It was only because the poison had affected Guan Qinghuai's hands rather than his eyes that his symptoms manifested a bit later than Guan Shiyin's.

Still, the timing had worked out rather nicely.

"How does it feel to kill your own family member with your own hands?" Ji Pingshi stepped across Guan Qinghuai's corpse. "Every single one of you deserves to suffer what I endured back then, so my decade of hiding in the shadows won't have been in vain!"

"Grandfather—!" Guan Shiyin let out a tortured roar. He knew how much internal energy he had poured into that palm strike. If his grandfather had indeed been poisoned first and then struck by him, there was little hope of survival.

Ji Pingshi advanced toward Guan Shiyin. "Did you really think that once the Imperial Seal was in my hands, I would carelessly let it leave my grasp? Leaving it there was a trap to lure you in and poison you! Commander Dai—ah, no, Guan Shiyin, it turns out your brain is nothing special after all!"

"Ji Pingshi!" Guan Shiyin clenched his fists, gathered his qi, and lunged toward the approaching figure.

Ji Pingshi easily sidestepped the attack and countered with a kick.

With impaired vision, Guan Shiyin managed to avoid a fatal blow, but took a heavy strike to his thigh. Losing his balance, he plummeted from the air.

Ji Pingshi pulled the genuine Imperial Seal from his tunic and waved it at Guan Shiyin, triumph dripping from his tone. "So what if you seized it ahead of time? In the end, it still fell into my hands! It seems this object was destined to belong to the Ji family after all!"

Guan Shiyin spat bitterly, "You finally dare to admit you are Ji Pingshi, the remnant of the Ji family who committed treason ten years ago!"

Ji Pingshi flung his arms wide and spun around with arrogance. "Why wouldn't I dare admit it? What is there for me to hide? Is there anyone left who dares defy me? The Imperial Seal is in my hands, and how much longer you live depends entirely on my whim! Guan Shiyin, what other tricks do you have left? The Second Prince?"

Ji Pingshi glanced at the officials sprawled across the palace floor. "He must be hiding among them, I suppose. You all planned to stall for time inside the main hall to subdue the outer imperial guards, have the Second Prince step forward to expose my identity, and then lawfully execute me under the charge of treason?"

"Hahahaha," Ji Pingshi burst into a wild, arrogant laugh. "I used tricks like this more than a decade ago! The only reason I didn't strike earlier was to use your preoccupation with palace layouts as a distraction while I made my move on the Seal! Now that the Seal is mine, haha, Guan Shiyin, do you think anyone in this hall, including the Second Prince, has any reason to stay alive?"

Guan Shiyin struggled to push himself up from the ground. "You couldn't possibly mean..."

"That's right! To ensure no other stubborn old ministers obstruct my ascension in the future, not a single official currently in this hall will be left alive!" Ji Pingshi took two strides to the side, coming to a halt beside one of the palace pillars. He reached out and pressed a specific spot, revealing a bronze ring. Without hesitation, he hooked his finger through the ring, turned it half a circle, and pulled—*click, click, click*, the sound of a mechanical contraption activating echoed through the room.

Immediately afterward, Guan Shiyin heard objects snapping outward from the bases of all four walls. He strained to locate the source of the sound, but his blurry vision failed him, though his nose was hit with a pungent, familiar odor. "Hemp ropes soaked in tung oil!" It was the exact same scent he had smelled at Qitian Taoist Temple months ago.

Ji Pingshi leisurely produced a flint lighter from his tunic, flicked it rapidly in the air, and a flame flared to life. "You're not entirely stupid, but unfortunately, it's too late!"

The moment the final word left his mouth, the flint was hurled forward, landing precisely on the oil-soaked ropes, which instantly erupted into roaring flames.

At the same time, Ji Pingshi leaped into the air and dashed toward the rear exit of the hall. "Guan Shiyin, I'll watch from outside as every single one of you burns to ashes!"

"Ji Pingshi, don't you dare leave!" Guan Shiyin lunged in pursuit, only to be beaten back by a palm strike from Ji Pingshi mid-flight.

Maintaining his backward momentum, Ji Pingshi offered Guan Shiyin one last parting blessing with a cheerful grin: "Your Guan family's Tianxiu Embroidery Workshop—His Majesty will gladly confiscate that as well..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly sensed a murderous intent closing in from behind.

Who is it?

Ji Pingshi twisted around mid-air to find Shian charging directly at him with a drawn sword aimed straight at his face. Behind her, the Sixth Princess Li Yiru was also rapidly approaching at the head of a squad of imperial guards.

"With your paltry skills, you dare challenge me?" Ji Pingshi sneered disdainfully. He pinched the blade firmly between his index and middle fingers, arresting its momentum instantly. Pulling the sword toward himself, he lashed out with his free hand.

Instead of letting go of the weapon to dodge the blow, Shian grasped the hilt with both hands. With a sharp tug, the single sword split into two separate blades. Ji Pingshi was forced to let go to avoid having his fingers shorn off.

The moment he released his grip, Shian's dual swords curved inward and slashed simultaneously from both sides.

"Hmph, mere parlor tricks!" Ji Pingshi's expression remained unchanged as he leaned his torso to the side, slipping through the narrow gap between the two blades. Once behind Shian, he spun around and delivered a swift kick.

Shian was slower than him; the kick struck her square in the chest. She tumbled out of mid-air and rolled across the floor toward Guan Shiyin.

"Guan Shiyin, I've treated you well. I'm sending a woman to accompany you on your final journey," Ji Pingshi laughed wildly. Without pursuing them further, he bolted toward the rear exit. He needed to escape before the fire grew out of control.

***

*Author's Note:*
Still suffering from a headache, though not from illness, but rather from sheer frustration.
This all started because of a friend last night. Since the novel is nearing its end and the main plotline is clear, I asked them to have a web-novel writer friend "diagnose" the story. With the noble goal of self-improvement, we agreed beforehand to hold nothing back. The resulting critique came down like a deluge of bricks, practically shattering my bones!
I was gloriously wounded and felt like giving up on romance forever, because they bluntly told me: "Just treat this as a hobby and play around with it..."
Well, playing around was indeed my original intention. But as my emotional bond with this story has grown day by day, I've long since stopped viewing it merely as a casual hobby! I want to cultivate it into a lifelong, intimate companion! Are our privately contracted VIP chapters destined for tragedy? *Yamete-*
Here is the main point: my brain is still failing to process everything properly, so tomorrow's update length will be uncertain, but I will definitely not miss a daily update! Even if the story isn't to others' tastes, I could never bear to go a day without seeing it! That's all for now.