Li Siyuan!

Xuanjing Tian herself had no idea how she had fallen asleep.

When she woke, she found herself lying on the bed with a thin blanket draped over her. Beneath it, however, everything was a mess.

Xuanjing Tian hurriedly sat up and realized it was Zhu Youning's bed. Zhu Youning was gone, and Miaocheng Tian was standing beside her.

"Big sister, what brings you here?"

"I came in this morning to wake you, but I couldn't. It's already noon. You can't keep sleeping like this."

"It's already noon?"

Xuanjing Tian furrowed her brows. Thinking back, she could only recall what seemed like a dream. She sat there in a daze for a while.

Miaocheng Tian lifted one corner of the blanket and frowned. "Get up. This blanket needs replacing. Zhu Youning didn't do anything to you last night, did he?"

The moment the words left her mouth, Miaocheng Tian regretted asking. The marks on the blanket already said everything.

It certainly didn't look like nothing had happened.

Remembering last night, Xuanjing Tian was assailed by a jumble of emotions: resentment, unwillingness, helplessness, and even a hint of lingering pleasure.

She shook off the chaos in her mind, got dressed, and tidied herself up. Her back and waist ached, her legs trembled, and she felt as if all the strength had been drained from her. Sitting on a stool, she said to Miaocheng Tian, "Big sister, have someone heat some water. I want to bathe and change."

Miaocheng Tian nodded and left the room to tell someone to heat the water.

After a while.

Miaocheng Tian looked at Xuanjing Tian, who had washed and dressed but still seemed exhausted. For a moment, she didn't know what to say, so she simply said, "Little sister, you've suffered."

"It's nothing."

Xuanjing Tian fell silent for a moment, then changed the subject. "Big sister, did you find anything yesterday?"

Miaocheng Tian nodded. "I discreetly asked the servants and guards yesterday. They didn't seem to know Zhu Youning very well. He apparently doesn't like interacting with people and spends most of his time alone in his room. When something needs doing, he simply tells his deputy, Wu Yi, to handle it."

Xuanjing Tian guessed, "Could he be plotting something, spending all that time alone in his room?"

As she spoke, she glanced around and started to get up to search. After all, this was Zhu Youning's room.

"Don't bother. I searched it all this morning. There's nothing unusual."

Miaocheng Tian pressed Xuanjing Tian back onto the stool, wanting her to rest properly. Then she added, "I also found out that Zhu Youning has been buying up large quantities of medicinal herbs lately. That isn't hard to explain, since he was injured not long ago. But strangely, after the herbs are delivered to his residence, they vanish without a trace. I suspect there's a secret room in his residence."

"But if there is a secret room, why use it to store medicinal herbs?"

"That's something we'll have to investigate ourselves."

Jin State, beyond Taiyuan City, at the headquarters of Tongwen Hall.

Hidden among dense, lush woods was a mysterious place.

Buildings stood in orderly rows. At the center lay a pit about ten meters deep, crawling with hundreds upon hundreds of poisonous snakes, along with the ghastly white bones left behind by their prey.

The snakes' incessant hissing sent chills through the air.

At the edge of the pit, three Tongwen Hall disciples, clad entirely in white and wearing strange masks, knelt on the ground.

The man they knelt before was a refined-looking, middle-aged man in white, wearing a tall crown.

He had an unusual appearance: his ears hung down to his shoulders, and his broad face was square. His manner was calm and composed, and he looked gentle, courteous, and refined—rather like Liu Bei, the benevolent and loyal Emperor Zhaolie of the Three Kingdoms period.

But appearances could be deceiving. To judge him a benevolent and loyal man by his face alone would be a grave mistake.

For this was Li Siyuan, the current Holy Lord of Tongwen Hall, the adopted son of Prince of Jin Li Keyong, and the foremost of Jin State's Thirteen Taibao.

Tongwen Hall had been specially trained by Jin State as an organization of assassins. Though its members observed the custom of "courtesy before force," it was, in the end, a terrifying assassination organization. And its leader could hardly be a paragon of benevolence.

At that moment, Li Siyuan gently waved an exquisite Wen-Cultivating Fan, its "Wen" emblem woven from a hundred flowers, as he listened calmly to his subordinates' report.

"You're saying Ninth and Tenth have gone missing?"

The Tongwen Hall disciple at the front clasped his fists. "Reporting to the Holy Lord, the two sect leaders of the Loyal Sect and Filial Sect vanished after setting out for Luoyang. I sent people to search everywhere for three days and three nights, but we found nothing."

Li Siyuan swept his gaze over the disciple, his expression utterly unreadable.

Then he stretched out his right hand and clenched it in the air. A surge of blue-white energy burst from his palm.

At once, the Tongwen Hall disciple seemed to have an invisible hand clamped around his throat. His whole body lifted into the air as he struggled violently.

"You failed to do your job, and you still had the nerve to come back?"

Killing intent showed in Li Siyuan's eyes. He gave a slight push with his right hand, and the Tongwen Hall disciple was struck by an invisible force.

The force was so powerful that it sent him straight into the pit.

In an instant, the pit rang with the hiss of snakes.

The Tongwen Hall disciple let out one bloodcurdling scream, then fell silent.

The other two disciples trembled all over, their heads bowed low.

They were both drenched in sweat, and cold perspiration had even soaked through the white masks on their faces.

Watching the snakes devour their prey below, Li Siyuan gently shook his head and clicked his tongue, wearing an air of sorrowful compassion.

"I didn't want things to turn out this way, but Tongwen Hall has its rules. Those who fail in their duties must be punished. Wouldn't you agree?"

The two remaining disciples didn't dare say anything. They kowtowed again and again. "The Holy Lord is right! The Holy Lord is right!"

Li Siyuan nodded faintly, apparently satisfied, and looked at the two disciples. His eyes were cold and menacing as he said, "I'll give you another half month. If you can't find the two sect leaders, there'll be no need for you to return."

"Yes!"

Having received the answer he wanted, Li Siyuan gently waved his hand. Only after the two disciples had bowed and carefully backed away did he let a trace of troubled melancholy show on his face.

The disappearance of Li Cunzhong and Li Cunxiao truly had Li Siyuan on edge.

His adoptive father, Prince of Jin Li Keyong, had always favored Tenth, Li Cunxiao.

If Li Cunxiao's whereabouts remained unknown, Li Keyong might come out of seclusion and demand answers. Then Li Siyuan, as Holy Lord of Tongwen Hall, would have no way to evade blame.