658 Inner Palace and Outer Palace (3)

Swish!

Nan Hua easily dealt with the assassins sneaked into the courtyard. Those were only the lower ranked who could only sneak by relying on the other who moved from other locations. There were also various assassins' organizations that she managed to recognize from their movements.

'It's clear out here.'

Those with enough skill would have already entered the inner compound by now with their capabilities. There was no way they could possibly linger outside when their goal was clearly the Emperor's head.

Nan Hua looked into the inner palace then swiftly made her way inside.

She could clearly remember reading this part many years ago. The assassins were coming to get Emperor Yang Zhou. Long Qian Xing stayed with him and killed everyone who stood on his way, making sure that there was no one who could possibly get close to His Majesty.

General Lan, or could be called as Prime Minister Lan, dealt with the others and sent reinforcement in the end.

…

Slash!

"How many are there?" Emperor Yang Zhou asked with a frown. They were getting nearer to the safe passage that was already prepared beforehand. However, the number of enemies kept on increasing.

It was as if there were so many people inside the palace who actually wanted to take his head yet no one knew about them.

"Haven't you been cleaning your palace regularly?" Long Qian Xing asked while swinging his sword to cleanse the blood.

"I have."

"There are still a lot of rats around."

"Can't be helped. The one who hold the highest power until recently is Empress Dowager Mei. I can't interfere that much in terms of selecting the staffs into the palace." Emperor Yang Zhou pursed his lips.

How could he not know who could possibly plant these people around him? Aside from those who were working behind, they had to make sure they bypassed his mother's watchful eyes. If his mother didn't participate herself, those people just had to make sure she didn't know.

"Do you suspect her?" Long Qian Xing asked with a chuckle.

"I don't know."

Emperor Yang Zhou shrugged, his gaze indifferent.

When talking about Empress Dowager Mei, he never looked like he was talking about his own mother. In fact, it looked as if he was talking about a stranger with no significance in his life at all.

If talking about Empress Dowager Mei, Emperor Yang Zhou could only remember the days when his mother beat him up. She never wanted to enter the palace and become the Imperial Concubines. But because of the arrangement from her previous lover, she had no other choice but to enter.

And having a child then the child become the Crown Prince meant that he was the only lifeline for her.

No matter how much she hated him, she couldn't kill him because once Yang Zhou died, Empress Dowager Mei would die. She didn't care for him and only do enough to make sure that he would stay alive until the very end.

Now that she had become the Empress Dowager, she never visited him even once.

She didn't even want to look at him.

"Alright."

Long Qian Xing didn't want to inquire too much about Emperor Yang Zhou's private life. He himself had things he didn't want to say when talking about his family members since not everyone has loving family.

Emperor Yang Zhou looked at Long Qian Xing's back as the man continued to lead them down the corridor. He opened his mouth and spoke slowly, "If there's anything I learn from being part of the Imperial Family, that will be indifference."

Indifference towards many things.

Because if he didn't become indifferent, he would be hurt and might not be able to stay firm in his position.

Long Qian Xing nodded. "You have it tough."

"Heh."

At this moment, Long Qian Xing stopped as he looked at the group of assassins in front of him. He furrowed his eyebrows. There were at least five of them standing not far from the safe passage that was already prepared.

Could he deal with five of them at once?

"How's your skill?" Long Qian Xing looked at Lan Qiu, who was following them all this time and guarded their rear.

"I'm worse than you…" Lan Qiu's face flushed in shame.

All this time, Long Qian Xing had been able to deal with the assassins by himself along the way. He didn't do anything but stand guard beside Emperor Yang Zhou, acting as nothing more than a decoration guard.

Long Qian Xing looked at Lan Qiu. "Do you think you can deal with them?"

"If it's only one, I should be able to."

"Good."

Lan Qiu waited patiently for his turn as he watched Long Qian Xing readied his weapon. The distance to the group of assassins was still quite far.

But before Long Qian Xing could make a move, he turned around abruptly. Several people had turned across the corner behind them, clearly chasing after them.

"Three people."

"The person in the middle should be the target."

Long Qian Xing's sword tightened. 'Eight people in total. And I have failed to launch a sneak attack.'

The situation was not getting any better.

Emperor Yang Zhou was also looking at the two groups. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the difference in their marking. The two groups came from different organizations, but they somehow agreed to come together this very night?

Who was the one pulling the real string to pull them all together?

"Leave them to us," the one at the front of the door shouted as they walked closer. It didn't take long for Long Qian Xing and his group to be placed in the middle where each side had people who were waiting to kill them.

"That couldn't do. We found them first." The other three clearly didn't want to give up.

Emperor Yang Zhou suddenly spoke up, "Why are the Night Rat and the Black Gulf here together?"