Longevity Amid the End of Dharma

The Fourth Prince had grown up within the palace walls and had seen plenty of matters far more sinister and filthy than this. By all reason, the black-dressed woman's tragic ordeal should not have stirred much emotion in him.

Yet as he watched crystalline tears trace across her jade-white, porcelain-smooth cheeks, leaving faint marks; as he heard the threads of desolation in her clear, gentle voice shake his heart; as he saw her helpless, furious hands clench into fists and sway lightly, as though striking at the fortress around his heart, Nameless Wrath and deep pity suddenly surged within the Fourth Prince, impossible to suppress any longer.

"What a pair of dog men and dog women!" the Fourth Prince said through gritted teeth. "No wonder they asked whether layer upon layer of shackles and obstacle upon obstacle had ever been cut away!"

From the merchants and travelers he had observed earlier, he had already learned of the conversation that had taken place.

Li Bufan and the many guards at his side saw the Fourth Prince's fury and shared his hatred. Seeing none of his usual cold composure, they not only found nothing strange or sinister about it, but felt the same way. They nearly wished they could pull the Fourth Prince aside and properly cherish that peerlessly beautiful, pitiable woman themselves.

A look of delighted surprise appeared on the black-dressed woman's face, still streaked with tears like pear blossoms in the rain. She reached out, caught the Fourth Prince's sleeve, and asked excitedly yet timidly, "Young master, have you seen my older sister and that heartless man?"

"I saw them a little over a quarter hour ago. They killed quite a few people in the street." The Fourth Prince had already abandoned all thought of recruiting those two. He wished