Jailbreak (I)

Within Heavenly Desire Palace, candle shadows swayed crimson, and a faint fragrance drifted through the air.

Desire Zenith Sovereign reclined sideways on a gilded couch, her phoenix eyes red from weeping. The gauze handkerchief in her hand had long been soaked through with tears. She suddenly hurled her teacup to the floor—porcelain shards flew everywhere, and scalding tea splashed across the gold-threaded carpet, rising in wisps of pale steam.

"It's all that Nangong Yue's fault!" She gritted her teeth, her voice thick with tears. "If she had acted sooner, how could my Li Er have... have..."

Illusion Zenith Sovereign stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the blood moon beyond the window. His knuckles tapped out dull thuds against the sandalwood table. "Madam, if you had not indulged him so outrageously all these years, how could he have brought about such a disaster?"

"What a heartless man!" Desire Zenith Sovereign sprang to her feet, the pearls and jade in her hair tinkling. Her moon-white gauze robes trembled faintly with rage. "What kind of soul-bewitching potion did that little slut feed you? And now you turn around and blame me!" She collapsed against the brocade screen and sobbed bitterly, her delicate shoulders shaking without pause like a tender flower about to be toppled by wind and rain.

"Enough!" A streak of golden light suddenly shot from Illusion Zenith Sovereign's sleeve, slicing the bronze lampstand in two like a blade. The candlelight went out, and the hall dimmed at once. "What matters now is rescuing Li Er, not crying and making a scene here!"

Before his words had faded, faint footsteps sounded outside the hall. A maid entered with lowered eyes, holding a letter sealed in scarlet wax in both hands. She respectfully placed it on the table, then quickly withdrew.

Desire Zenith Sovereign's fingertips trembled as she took out a jade hairpin, dipped it in a secret concoction, and lightly drew it across the letter. Ink slowly emerged, red as blood.

"That little wench sent word..." She suddenly clenched the letter, her crimson-painted nails digging deeply into her palm. "Li Er has been transferred to the Ministry of Justice Prison!"

"Absurd!" Illusion Zenith Sovereign shot to his feet. The jade pendants at his waist collided with a crisp chime. "The Warden's Martial Suppression Talisman is still in place. How could the Ministry of Justice Prison be so easily breached?"

"It was broken long ago!" Desire Zenith Sovereign slammed the letter onto the table, and the black-jade paperweight cracked in response. "The war in the northern desert is pressing, and the Warden has personally gone there to hold the line. The Ministry of Justice is nothing but an empty shell now! Besides..." She suddenly leaned close to her husband's ear, breathing out like an orchid, though her voice was cold as ice. "In the contest between Heavenly Desire Palace's two holy maidens, our stance is the winning token. Would she dare play tricks?"

Illusion Zenith Sovereign stared at the candlelight flickering in his wife's eyes. At last, he let out a long sigh and slowly nodded. Yet as he turned away, Desire Zenith Sovereign clearly saw the tortoiseshell hidden in his sleeve seeping threads of blood that foretold calamity, and her heart clenched.

At noon the following day, the blazing sun scorched the earth, yet outside the Ministry of Justice Prison, it was cold and damp, as though cut off from the world.

Four black shadows sped along the rouge marks Nangong Yue had left behind. The leader was agile in build, with a curved saber hanging at his waist, its cold gleam razor-sharp. He abruptly halted, his gaze flashing like lightning as he looked through the iron bars toward the depths of the prison—

The once dashing and elegant Jade Faced Fox was now curled atop moldy straw like a rag doll. His clothes were tattered, his face deathly pale. He had clearly endured every kind of torment.

"Young Master Li!" the saber wielder shouted in a low voice.

At the call, that pale face jerked up. His cracked lips trembled as he rasped, "Quick... they use Power Dissipation Powder every day... I can't hold on much longer..."

A cold glint flashed through the saber wielder's eyes. His curved saber came slashing down, and the black-iron chains snapped at once!

Yet at that very moment, a bronze gong suddenly exploded in the distance!

"Prison break—" The warning had barely begun when the saber wielder struck backward. A flash of cold light passed, and the jailer's throat had already been cut open, blood spraying out. But it was too late. The entire prison instantly boiled over, the clash of armor, pounding footsteps, and furious roars weaving together into a deathly symphony.

"Kill our way out!" the saber wielder roared. His body flickered like a ghost, and wherever his blade-light passed, three charging jailers dropped instantly. A warm, bloody mist spread through the air.

Yet when they rushed out of the prison, the people on the long street had already scattered in panic. More despairingly, a grim military formation had long been arrayed beneath the market archway, the points of their cold iron spears glimmering blue beneath the blazing sun—they had clearly been steeped in deadly poison!

"The Young Duke cast this net beautifully." Liu Xian's shrill voice tore through the stagnant air. Eastern Depot agents surged from the alleyways like a black tide, surrounding the four men. He stroked the sharkskin scabbard of the Heart Severing Sword, then suddenly raised an orchid finger and chuckled sinisterly. "Leave this one a whole corpse for this servant!"

A chaotic battle erupted!

Though Heavenly Desire Palace had only four deathsworn guards, each was a sixth-rank expert. Their saber techniques were ruthless and tricky. With every flash of cold light, severed limbs flew, and blood dyed the blue stones of the long street red.

Yet they were outnumbered. One deathsworn guard had his left shoulder torn open by a poisoned spear, blood pouring forth in streams, but he gritted his teeth and refused to retreat. With a backhand slash, he severed an enemy soldier's head and roared, "Take the young master and go!"

Seizing the chance, another man hoisted Jade Faced Fox up and broke toward the mouth of the alley. Yet the city defense troops' heavy shields pressed down like an iron wall. On the third impact, the deathsworn guard finally spat out a mouthful of bloody foam and crashed to his knees.

Just as Jade Faced Fox was about to be dragged into the prison cart—

Boom!

The entire long street shook violently! Glazed roof tiles rained down like a storm, and everyone present felt their eardrums ache, as though an invisible pressure had crushed down over their bodies!

"Who dares touch my son!"

A furious roar exploded like thunder. Illusion Zenith Sovereign stepped out of thin air, his black cloak billowing without wind, his protective aura surging around him like raging waves! His palms whirled, and the city defense troops thirty yards away suddenly began bleeding from all seven orifices, as though invisible hands had crushed their internal organs to pulp!

Li Chen Zhou's pupils constricted sharply. The aura of his Golden Bell Shield erupted in an instant and collided with that force, producing a roar like great bells and mighty chimes! He staggered back seven steps, each one stamping spiderweb cracks into the blue stone beneath his feet. In the end, he dropped to one knee, blood trailing from the corner of his lips.

"The big fish took the bait." He wiped away the blood and sneered, only to see that Liu Xian was in even worse shape—the Heart Severing Sword had been forcibly shattered into three pieces. He was flung backward, his official cap rolling away as his hair came loose, leaving him utterly disheveled.

Illusion Zenith Sovereign's figure suddenly blurred into an afterimage. His true body had already flashed to the prison cart, his fingertips about to touch the iron cage—

Clang!

Two sword lights, like soaring rainbows, slashed down from the clouds!

"Heavenly Sovereign, what towering anger you have." Jin San, one of the Brocade Guard's Thirteen Grand Protectors, stood in the air, dragon-shaped energy coiling around his Embroidered Spring Blade. Meanwhile, Flying Eagle, commander of the Eastern Depot, tapped out a sky full of starlike glints with his judge's brush, sealing off every route of retreat!

Under the combined assault of two fourth-rank experts, even Illusion Zenith Sovereign had no choice but to avoid their edge for the moment!

Taking advantage of the opening, Li Chen Zhou and Liu Xian had already led their men in pursuit of the fleeing Jade Faced Fox. Behind them, the entire long street collapsed beneath the clash of masters. Amid the swirling dust, Illusion Zenith Sovereign's enraged face could be faintly seen.