A Way Out of Despair, Clues Emerge from the Jade Pendant

The instant the copper shard slapped into the groove in the well wall, a piercing scrape tore through the night sky. It did not sound like an explosion, yet it was enough to make the encircling assassins instinctively freeze and take a half-step back. In that brief half-breath, a thought exploded in Chen Wuya's mind—the image of two foreign warriors arguing in low voices in the corner of the tavern abruptly surfaced.

"Clan-Guarding Jade Pendant... If not a confidant of the Third Prince, who would be worthy of wearing it?"

His pupils contracted as his gaze swept swiftly across the seven people before him. Around the neck of the assassin standing at the center directly ahead hung a blue-gray jade pendant, silent and still. Its shape was ancient and unadorned, its surface shimmering with the faintest dim light, like stone veins soaked in blood and then dried by the wind.

This thing should not have been here.

Yet it was right before his eyes.

Tuoba Lie stood at the outer perimeter, his curved saber unmoved, but his gaze had already locked onto Chen Wuya. Chen Wuya knew that if he made the slightest unusual move, that man would strike personally, and there would be no more lucky escapes.

He could not wait.

"Your Third Prince can't even hold on to a jade pendant, and he still wants to fight for the throne?" He suddenly threw back his head and laughed, his voice hoarse but every word clear.

Several assassins halted at once, their gazes involuntarily flicking toward the jade pendant. Even an instant was enough.

Chen Wuya suddenly lunged forward and fell, as though exhausted and out of control, slamming straight into the assassin on the left. The man raised an instinctive block, only for Chen Wuya to seize his