The Truth Behind It All

Chen Fan stared at the absurd scene before him, at a loss for words.

The trap was simple, crude, and yet fatally effective.

He walked to the bedside and looked down at the woman, whose face was streaked with tears. Her body trembled slightly, and her pretty eyes were full of fear and pleading.

Without hesitation, Chen Fan reached out and pulled the wad of cloth from her mouth.

"Cough, cough... cough!"

The princess consort coughed violently, greedily gulping down air.

"Who did this?" Chen Fan's voice was rough and deep, revealing neither joy nor anger.

The princess consort stared at him in terror, instinctively shrinking back until her back pressed against the cold stone wall and she could retreat no farther.

"It... it was Su Xin!" She uttered the name with a tremble. "It was my maid, Su Xin!"

Chen Fan showed no particular reaction, merely listening in silence.

"She... she's a devil from the White Lotus Sect! She abducted me and wanted to use me to frame you, forcing you into conflict with the Prince of Xiushan's Residence so the White Lotus Sect could seize the chance to stir up trouble in Xiushan Province!"

As though she had grasped her last life-saving straw, the princess consort poured everything out.

"Being captured by your men on the road before was all arranged by her too! She originally wanted you to... to violate me, so she could use it to control you and make you risk your life for the White Lotus Sect!"

"But you... you let me go and ruined her plan..."

"So she came up with this vicious scheme! She drugged me unconscious and sent me to your bed, then lured the residence's personal guards here... when that happened, you... you wouldn't have been able to clear your name even with a hundred mouths!"

The White Lotus Sect.

Su Xin.

So that was how it was.

In Chen Fan's mind, all the scattered clues finally came together at that moment, forming a single, complete thread.

From the seemingly coincidental capture that first brought her up the mountain, to Zhou Tong of the Yellow Robe Army and his pointed attempt to recruit Chen Fan, and finally to this "romantic fortune" delivered to his door.

It was all a setup.

A vast conspiracy that used his Black Wind Mountain as a chess piece to stir up the winds and clouds across all of Xiushan Province.

From beginning to end, he had been nothing more than a piece on someone else's chessboard.

What a nuisance.

The kind of trouble he hated most was the kind that left him unable to control his own fate.

But Black Wind Mountain was just an ordinary bandit den. Was it worth scheming against like this?

Just then, an even more cloyingly sweet strange fragrance entered his nostrils.

Chen Fan frowned. He saw that something was very wrong with the woman on the bed.

Two unnatural patches of red had appeared on her cheeks, her breathing had grown rapid, and her body twisted restlessly on the tiger skin.

"So... so hot..."

The princess consort moaned unconsciously, her hands beginning to tear at her already disheveled clothes.

She soon ripped a large opening in her brocade dress, exposing a broad expanse of snow-white skin.

An aphrodisiac.

A potent one at that.

Chen Fan was no green youth ignorant of such matters, and he instantly understood what the strange fragrance was.

That woman called Su Xin had devised a truly vicious scheme.

Not only did she want to create a scene of adultery caught in the act, she also wanted to make sure the "affair" became an accomplished fact.

With his princess consort violated by a bandit chief, even if the Prince of Xiushan wanted to let the matter rest, he could not.

This grudge would not end until one side was dead.

"Hot... I feel terrible..."

The princess consort had completely lost her reason. Like a fish out of water, she rolled and writhed on the bed, letting out moans that made the blood surge.

Her hazy eyes fixed on the only man by the bed.

It was the look of a desert traveler who had spotted an oasis.

Struggling, she crawled toward Chen Fan.

Chen Fan stood where he was, unmoving.

He watched as the woman shed every layer of her noble exterior and revealed her most primitive instincts.

In all fairness, her body was beautiful.

Any normal man would probably have found it hard to restrain himself in such a situation.

A primal heat also surged through Black Wind Baleful Intent's body.

But Chen Fan's mind remained perfectly clear.

Take advantage of her plight?

A gentleman might appreciate beauty, but he was not lecherous. Though he had a heart that loved beauty, he had not sunk so low.

Besides, touching this woman would make the accusation stick for good. It was far too dirty.

Watching the princess consort crawl to the edge of the bed, about to fall off, Chen Fan sighed.

He reached out, not to embrace her, but with his five fingers pressed together to form a hand blade.

Without the slightest tenderness for her, he brought it down cleanly on the smooth back of her neck.

"Ugh!"

The princess consort gave a muffled grunt, her body going limp as she collapsed over the edge of the bed and lay still.

By doing this, the poisoned princess consort would be unable to find release, and her body would suffer considerable harm.

But that was none of Chen Fan's concern. Bodily harm was far better than losing her chastity.

The stone chamber fell silent in an instant.

Only the two bandit chief's wives on the floor and the unconscious princess consort on the bed remained.

Chen Fan shook out his hand, considering how to deal with this mess.

Throw her straight down the mountain? That probably would not do. In the princess consort's current state, there was a good chance someone would take advantage of her helpless body.

Leave her here? That would leave evidence of his supposed crime.

That demonic woman of the White Lotus Sect really deserved to die!

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Someone pounded on the heavy stone door from outside, making it boom.

"Chief! Chief! Something terrible has happened!"

It was Smiling Tiger's voice, filled with unprecedented panic and urgency.

Chen Fan walked over and pulled the stone door open.

Smiling Tiger's fat face was deathly pale, without a trace of color, and his forehead was covered in beads of cold sweat as large as beans.

"What are you shouting about?" Chen Fan's tone remained calm.

"C-chief!" Smiling Tiger panted, pointing toward the foot of the mountain, his voice cracking.

"Soldiers! Soldiers everywhere! Down the mountain... the foot of the mountain is full of torches, and they've surrounded our Black Wind Mountain so tightly that not even water could get through!"

"An officer leading them has been shouting through a tin megaphone..."

Smiling Tiger swallowed and looked at Chen Fan as though he had seen a ghost.

"He's shouting... telling you... telling you to hand over the Prince of Xiushan's princess consort!"

Chen Fan frowned, thinking that what had to come had finally come.

The White Lotus Sect's holy maiden had notified the Prince of Xiushan's Residence long ago, then sent the princess consort up the mountain.

"Make preparations. The soldiers won't let this go. Tell the brothers to get ready to fight to the death."

Chen Fan spoke calmly.

Now that things had reached this point, what else was there to say?

Even jumping into the Yellow River wouldn't wash him clean now, so he might as well fight the soldiers.

Of course, fighting would end only in death.

For those who had come this time were not county soldiers like Zhao De's motley collection of rotten fish and shrimp, but the imperial court's true elite troops!

"Send men to escort the two madams away through the back of the mountain. Whether they survive will depend on their own fate."

Chen Fan gave his final instruction.

After all, they had shared some intimacy. The two women would be of no use remaining on the mountain; they would only be waiting for death.