Surprise was followed immediately by relief-relief that the Silver-Thread Gu Bracelet was in her hands.
Still, even she only had three of these Puppet Gu.
Now everything was ready. All that remained was to wait for the other party to show their hand.
Xue Fuyao hid atop a ceiling beam, watching for movement outside.
A short while later, she sensed that the formation she had set up outside had been breached, but not by force. It was like a locked door: opening it with a key was different from kicking it open.
Someone had just opened her formation with a key. Under these circumstances, the formation produced almost no fluctuations. Had Xue Fuyao not been awake, she probably would not have noticed.
Then the door slowly opened, and someone walked in from outside.
The man wore a cloak, so Xue Fuyao could not make out his face. Judging by the fluctuations of spiritual power around him, however, his cultivation should have been at the Golden Core Stage, about the same as hers. She could fight him.
The man came to the window and looked at the person who was still sleeping. A talisman glowing faintly green appeared in his hand.
He placed the talisman in front of the Xue Fuyao lying on the bed and waited a while, but it still showed no reaction.
"Strange. Why isn't it reacting? Did I find the wrong person?" the man muttered.
He tried for a while longer, but there was still no reaction. Only then did he put the talisman away again.
"Even if I found the wrong person..."
A dagger gleaming with cold light appeared in his hand. His movements were clean and decisive: first he slit her throat, then drove the dagger through her chest. As though worried she might still