657 Inner Palace and Outer Palace (2)

Those were not exactly the most important matter right now.

As they crossed the corridors, Long Qian Xing raised his hand, signaling for Emperor Yang Zhou and the other guard to stop. He furrowed his eyebrows as he took a glanced outside and noticed three unfamiliar people were checking the rooms.

The inner palace was huge.

It was only natural that there were a lot of rooms inside. If they wished to be able to find Emperor Yang Zhou's room, they had to go through a lot of hassles. Not to mention, there were several guard stationed in front of empty rooms in order to distract those people who were searching for Emperor Yang Zhou.

Their fight would also alert the others, giving them chances to prepare themselves should it be necessary.

"There are three people, skills unknown." Long Qian Xing looked at the three assassins and silently wondered just how lax the palace has been ever since he went to the battlefield. He was sure that he had given the warning to those people about the importance of having enough guards.

Emperor Yang Zhou nodded. "Can you deal with them?"

"I'll try. Lan Qiu, protect His Majesty."

"Yes, Sir!"

At this moment, Lan Qiu realized that the person in front of him was not part of the Imperial Guards. Heck, if he was part of the Imperial Guards, there was no way he dared to act in such familiar way with Emperor Yang Zhou.

In the entire Fei Yang Kingdom, there was only one youth who would dare to do so.

Young Commander Long, Long Qian Xing.

Thus, Lan Qiu knew that Long Qian Xing somehow exchanged place with the Imperial Guard who was supposed to be guarding Emperor Yang Zhou tonight. It was also because of this that Lan Qiu decided to follow whatever order Long Qian Xing gave to him.

"Now."

Swish!

Long Qian Xing charged when the three people were close. They were caught off guard as the closest one was immediately killed by Long Qian Xing. His sword moved swiftly towards the second one before the sound of metal hitting could be heard.

Clang!

'Knife.'

Switching his stance, Long Qian Xing kicked the other party. He didn't have any qualms about how to defeat his enemies. In the battlefield, any type of weapon could become a weapon. There was no restriction that said he could only use his sword in order to attack his enemies.

The second assassin was caught off guard and staggered. The third one took out a row of knives and threw them towards Long Qian Xing.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Slash!

Evading the barrage of knives easily, Long Qian Xing cut the distance between him and the third assassin. His sword moved and cut through the assassin into two.

Right after that, he turned around and slashed his sword towards the incoming second assassins. The second assassin, who thought that he could catch Long Qian Xing off guard, was killed on the spot before he could even do anything.

"Clear."

Long Qian Xing looked into the dark corridor as his gaze turned somber. For them to be able to enter this deep, there had to be either someone who was opening the door from inside or for them to cause diversion and sneaked or… they have been here for a long time.

Either one was possible.

Lan Qiu's mouth was opened wide as he watched Long Qian Xing killed those assassins as if he was cutting tofu. He didn't even care about the bloody mess as he could only think that Long Qian Xing's movement was so fast that he nearly couldn't follow it.

With such difference in skill, how did he worthy to be the Imperial Guard?

Emperor Yang Zhou nodded as he looked at Long Qian Xing's movement. "You have grown better."

"I have to." Long Qian Xing looked at Emperor Yang Zhou. "Let's go. Prime Minister Lan should be dealing with the rest by now."

"Right."

The three of them continued to traverse that quiet corridor.

…

<Outer Palace>

Nan Hua's waiting was not in vain. She noticed that there was a maidservant who sneaked around and then opened the side door. It seemed that she had been waiting for this chance for a long time.

At the same time, Nan Hua could hear some commotion coming from the other outer side of the palace. It was clear that the night wouldn't be as peaceful as it seemed. The commotion was not big, but it was enough to lure the shadow guards.

Klek.

As the door opened, Nan Hua scrutinized the people in front of her. She looked at their marking and recognized them instantly.

'Skull Liu Assassins Organization.'

It was a rather small assassination organization that focused on the area not far from the Capital City. Nan Hua had heard about them because she reviewed the other organizations in order to know their methods.

"Let's go inside."

The group had just walked into the courtyard when they suddenly paused.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Several people fell to the ground.

"Who's there?" one of them shouted but before he could say anything else, he felt pain on his forehead and lose consciousness. It was incredulous but until their death, they didn't even see who their enemy was.

Swish!

Nan Hua appeared not far from them after she had finished dealing with these people. She looked at the dead maidservant and took the key from her. With the key, she locked the door once more, preventing any of those assassins from entering the palace so easily.

'Next, west area.'

Instead of going into the inner palace, Nan Hua chose to deal with these assassins at the outer palace. If she went inside, she knew that she would meet Long Qian Xing and Emperor Yang Zhou.

Even if she hadn't met them with this identity before, she didn't want to take the risk of them finding out her real identity. It would be better if she could just do this task from a distance away.