Having received his orders, the commander led all his men in a search of the surrounding area, using the side hall as the center.
The commander himself returned to the palace through the side hall's teleportation array and reported the news to the person seated at the head of the main hall.
"Your Highness, those men failed in their duty and allowed Xu Chunniang to escape. I have already sent people to search for her."
Hearing this, Third Highness, seated above, was not surprised in the slightest.
On the contrary, if those guards had truly managed to bring her in, he would have found that strange instead.
"So she escaped. She made quite a commotion, didn't she? How many did she kill?"
The commander answered truthfully, "Only one."
"One?"
Third Highness Luo Qi shot him a rather surprised glance. "When you sent people to invite her over, she didn't make trouble?"
"According to the commanding officer's report, she was quite cooperative at first. It was only after reaching the outside of the side hall that she suddenly attacked and killed the guard leading the way. By the time those stationed in the side hall noticed something was wrong, a quarter of an hour had already passed."
Luo Qi idly toyed with the string of beads in his hand.
"I had intended to use those guards to test her true capabilities. A few squads of guards were never enough to hold her anyway."
"This..."
The commander came to a sudden realization, his face full of shame. "This subordinate was incompetent and botched the matter."
"No matter. The fact that she could kill the guard leading her and slip away without alerting anyone else is enough to show that she is no weakling."
Luo Qi gently stroked the beads on the string.