Yama

(O_o)??

"Me?" Ning Qingqing's pupils trembled slightly. Disbelief covered her face as she pointed a finger at herself.

"That's right!"

"Senior, I can't do it. Please find someone else!"

Alarm bells blared in Ning Qingqing's heart. Sensing danger with sharp intuition, she hurriedly waved her hands in refusal.

"Hm?"

Su Qingyang glanced sideways at her, his expression somewhat unfriendly. "This is the first time I've invited someone. Miss Ning wouldn't disappoint me, would she?"

"Senior, you're forcing the impossible on me!" Ning Qingqing was nearly in tears. She felt as though she were about to board a pirate ship.

"I never force people." Su Qingyang placed his right hand on Ning Qingqing's shoulder and casually stepped into the air.

Ning Qingqing froze. Then she saw the familiar courtyard vanish from her sight in the blink of an eye, while the scenery around her raced backward.

Only after she reacted did she realize that Su Qingyang was carrying her along at an unimaginable speed.

Ning Qingqing was instantly horrified. The next moment, her vision blurred, and when it cleared, she seemed to be high above the clouds, ten thousand miles in the sky.

"Th-this... y-you..."

The bright moon hung in the deep blue heavens, its snow-white radiance seeming close enough to touch.

Only then did Ning Qingqing realize that she truly was ten thousand miles in the air. The enormous moon filled the sky, so vast and magnificent that it struck her with unimaginable awe.

"Y-you're a Grandmaster!" she asked.

"Will you join me?" Su Qingyang asked with a faint smile.

Ning Qingqing fell silent for a long while, then raised her eyes to look at the young man bathed in moonlight.

"Why me?"

"I saw you. That's all!"

"I have no reason to refuse!!"

"Then, Senior, what is our organization called?"

"? Oh!"

"You haven't thought of one yet, have you?!"

"It'll be called [Yama]!"

Su Qingyang stood above the ninth heaven, his gaze sweeping over all of Taihe Imperial City. Countless auras lay bare beneath his eyes, and moments later, he locked onto that familiar presence.

His figure flickered.

He descended soundlessly into a courtyard and confirmed the aura.

Liu Qingni was in one of the rooms within the courtyard.

However,

she had clearly not noticed Su Qingyang's arrival.

"What an exquisite little courtyard. It seems Miss Liu is quite wealthy."

With his hands behind his back, Su Qingyang looked around at the pavilion, flowers, and trees in the courtyard, unable to help letting out a sigh.

In this imperial city, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, buying such a small courtyard must have cost a fortune.

At that moment, the person in the room finally reacted upon hearing Su Qingyang's voice.

A shadow drifted noiselessly out of the darkness and appeared behind Su Qingyang in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, a pitch-black longsword reflected a snow-bright gleam beneath the moonlight and silently rested against Su Qingyang's shoulder.

"Miss Liu, it has been a long time. This way of greeting someone is certainly rather unique."

Su Qingyang chuckled softly, slowly turning around and extending a finger to brush the blade from his shoulder.

"Young Master!"

Liu Qingni was startled, then delight flashed through her eyes. With a flick of her wrist, the black sword slipped back into its sheath like a nimble serpent and vanished into her sleeve in an instant.

"How did you find this place?"

Confusion surfaced on Liu Qingni's face again.

"Haha, naturally, I have my methods." Su Qingyang smiled but did not explain further.

Then, he took a corpse from his storage ring and tossed it before Liu Qingni.

"Miss Liu, do you recognize this person?"

Liu Qingni's delicate brows furrowed as she carefully examined the corpse at her feet.

"Could he be the assassin who escaped from Purple Pavilion Manor during the day?"

Although the Six Doors and the Secret Bureau had promptly sealed off the news of what happened at Purple Pavilion Manor, they could not hide it from her, a core secret agent of the Secret Bureau.

However, though Liu Qingni had heard that assassins had attacked Purple Pavilion Manor, she had not worried. In all the world, only she knew just how unfathomably terrifying the young man before her truly was.

"That's right. It's him."

Su Qingyang nodded, then briefly recounted what had happened after Yan Shengheng escaped.

Once he finished, he went straight to the point. "I interrogated the name Blood Shadow Tower out of him."

"Miss Liu, have you heard of Blood Shadow Tower? Is it also an assassin organization? Why would they throw dirty water onto Lovesickness Tower?"

Hearing this, Liu Qingni lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment before saying,

"Blood Shadow Tower is an assassin force that appeared out of nowhere within the last ten years. They usually keep a low profile and have always been insignificant nobodies. They cannot be mentioned in the same breath as an old-established assassin organization like Lovesickness Tower."

"The only incident that made the world remember them was five years ago, when they overestimated themselves and sent someone to assassinate Lord Finger Pointing.

"It was said that when Lord Finger Pointing encountered the assassin who had come for his life, he did not even resist. Yet after the assassin exhausted every means at his disposal, he was ultimately shaken into a pulp alive.

"That incident became a laughingstock throughout the court and martial world for a time."

"Why have they appeared again?"

"And they even infiltrated Purple Pavilion Manor to ambush a prince candidate. Could it be that they want to make a name for themselves in one stroke through a major case involving the assassination of royalty?"

Liu Qingni frowned.

"No. If they wanted fame across the land, why did they use Lovesickness Tower's name?"

Su Qingyang slowly shook his head.

"Moreover, since they use Lovesickness Tower's name for this sort of thing, then for even more unspeakable dirty work that could easily draw the court's full-scale extermination campaign,

"could Blood Shadow Tower have been pinning it all on Lovesickness Tower?

"Like a venomous snake hidden beneath Lovesickness Tower, they sit back and reap the benefits while silently growing stronger!!"

Liu Qingni's brows knitted even tighter. In recent years, Lovesickness Tower had become increasingly rampant and drawn most of the Secret Bureau's attention.

They had never considered

that perhaps even more assassins, after carrying out their deeds, had casually claimed Lovesickness Tower's name.

After all, Lovesickness Tower would never come out to clear its name!

Nor could it possibly clear its name cleanly!

And that gave Blood Shadow Tower the perfect opportunity to hide itself!

"Young Master is right. This concerns an attempt on a prince's life; it is no small matter. I will report it to the Secret Bureau at once and thoroughly investigate Blood Shadow Tower's background."

"They dared to assassinate a prince!"

"We absolutely cannot spare these skulking wretches."

Liu Qingni's expression turned solemn, and a chilling killing intent flashed through her eyes.

"Oh, right, Young Master!"

Liu Qingni lifted her eyes toward Su Qingyang and asked,

"Oh, right, Young Master, I heard that Su Huai died mysteriously the day before yesterday. The Secret Bureau has already sent people to examine his body, and the results were rather strange. It did not seem as though he died at an assassin's hands."

"Young Master, did you happen to notice anything about the matter that day?"

"Oh, I was just about to tell you about that." Su Qingyang nodded.

"His death had something to do with me."

"Uh?! Ah?"

"Why, Young Master?" Liu Qingni blinked. She did not think Su Qingyang was someone who killed indiscriminately!