NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Thirteenth Princess
Chun Fei's alertness was very high. When Lin Ping released her acupoint, the first thing she did was to retreat backward and acted as if she was ready to commit suicide.
She had a strong personality and was not afraid of death. However, she did not want to be ravaged by Black and White Impermanence and die without dignity!
Thus, she would rather commit suicide than suffer the humiliation of being raped.
However, she soon discovered that the situation seemed to be different from what she had expected.
She was not kidnapped by Black and White Impermanence, and she was still in the courtyard of Changmen Palace.
On top of that, Black and White Impermanence seemed to have gone away, and the one who stood opposite her was Lin Ping instead.
"Lin Ping? Why are you here? Are you alright?!
"Where are Black and White Impermanence? Where did those two devils go?" Chun Fei asked anxiously.
Lin Ping pointed to the ground not far away. Under the dim light of the Changmen Palace, she could barely see the figures of Black and White Impermanence lying there.
Seeing this, Chun Fei hurriedly walked over. After checking and confirming repeatedly, she raised her head in disbelief and asked, "Black and White Impermanence are… dead?"
Lin Ping merely nodded in response.
"How did they die? These two were famous grade-8 devils in the Jianghu! When they cooperated, even a grade-9 great grandmaster would be unable to kill them! "Chun Fei exclaimed incredulously.
She was usually a calm and sturdy person, and was not inexperienced and ignorant.
However, the sight of the dead Black and White Impermanence had left too great of an impact on her, making it difficult for her to calm down.
After that, Chun Fei seemed to have thought of something and quickly looked towards Lin Ping and asked, "Who killed Black and White Impermanence? It couldn't have been you… Lin Ping, right?"
"Er…"
Lin Ping was a little embarrassed. He frowned and wondered how he was going to explain it.
Beforehand, he had underestimated his own strength and overestimated Black and White Impermanence's capabilities.
After all, he had been cultivating unobtrusively for the past six years and had never fought against anyone the entire time.
And thus, he had unleashed a bit more strength just to be safe.
Secondly, he actually didn't want to fully expose his strength.
He wanted to be as low-key as he possibly could be and enjoy a peaceful life.
After all, he didn't want to fight to become a king or for hegemony. He just wanted to check in silently, and hopefully, be able to recover his lost limb and be reborn as a real man one day.
If he could avoid revealing his true strength, he would gladly do so.
The stronger one was, the more troubles one had to deal with!
And Lin Ping wanted less trouble to come to him.
Chun Fei of course didn't know of Lin Ping's inner thoughts. Seeing Lin Ping's embarrassed face, she quickly seemed to understand something. She became sorry and apologized, "I'm sorry, Lin Ping. It's me who was abrupt and whimsical. Individually, Black and White Impermanence are already grade-8 grandmasters. Together, they can even compete in strength with a grade-9! I shouldn't have asked such a question.
"Of course, if you were to face only one of them, you should be able to deal with them. However, if they joined forces, you are naturally not their opponent.
"I was in a coma just now and therefore didn't know what had happened. Could it be that when Black and White Impermanence fought Luo Feng, the commotion they made was so big that it attracted a mysterious grade-9 great grandmaster in the palace who personally killed them?"
Chun Fei spoke very tactfully, taking into account Lin Ping's pride and dignity.
She had stated very clearly that Lin Ping could not deal with the combined forces of Black and White Impermanence as they had outnumbered him.
However, in her heart, she had thought that no matter which of the duo Lin Ping faced, their strength would be far superior to his!
Lin Ping merely had a cultivation base of a grade-7.
Even Luo Feng, the chief of the Directorate of Palace Seals, who had broken through to become a grade-8 was powerless in front of them.
Luo Feng had merely faced off against the younger brother, the White Impermanence. Yet, he was fully suppressed and could hardly fight back.
Not to mention Lin Ping.
And thus, Chun Fei started to think of the various possibilities that could have happened and started forming a sequence of events in her own head.
"Could it be that it was the imperial family's guest elder, the grade-9 great grandmaster Yan Bugui, that had acted? I heard that Yan Bugui is a gray-haired old man who is easy to identify. Was it him?" Chun Fei asked in shock and curiosity.
"Um…" Lin Ping continued to frown and said, "It shouldn't have been Yan Bugui."
"It was not Yan Bugui?" Chun Fei's eyes became larger as she was surprised. "In the imperial palace, besides Yan Bugui, there are actually other grade-9 great grandmasters? This…"
Chun Fei was a little speechless, and her expression became complicated.
She was currently very disgusted with the Grand Xia Imperial Palace and Emperor Xia Jianshen. She had even thought that it would be best for the Grand Xia Dynasty to rot to death.
Unexpectedly, the hidden power of the Grand Xia Dynasty was greater than she had imagined. There was even another grade-9 great grandmaster hidden within the palace.
Moreover, this grade-9 great grandmaster had saved her life and prevented her from being subjected to a life worse than death itself.
This resulted in her having such complicated thoughts.
After a while, she sighed and decided not to think about it anymore for the time being.
After the death of Black and White Impermanence as well as the death of the Directorate of Palace Seals' Chief Eunuch in her Changmen Palace, perhaps the Empress would become cautious and not send anyone else to trouble her for the time being.
What was originally a disaster had turned into a blessing.
Lin Ping laughed blankly at this. He didn't expect Chun Fei to have misinterpreted what he had said and come up with her own version of the story.
It was better this way. He would not need to explain anymore, which saved him a lot of trouble.
Anyways, he had spoken nothing but the truth.
Black and White Impermanence were not killed by Yan Bugui, and there was indeed another grade-9 great grandmaster hidden in the imperial palace.
However, what Chun Fei didn't know was that this mysterious grade-9 great grandmaster lived with her in her Changmen Palace.
The corpses of the three grade-8 grandmasters didn't need to be handled by Lin Ping and Chun Fei. They were thrown outside the Changmen Palace as usual. Someone would come to deal with them tomorrow.
Chun Fei quickly woke Yun Su up without any trouble.
But when she woke up the two other girls who were kidnapped by Black and White Impermanence, Chun Fei became a little dazed.
This was especially so when she was waking up the girl who wore a gorgeous blue long dress with long-sleeves. A trace of reminiscence could be seen in Chun Fei's eyes when she was waking her up.
"Where am I? Ying'er, Ying'er!" The girl yelled in panic when she woke up.
"Princess, don't panic. Princess, your maid is here!" After the maid Ying'er woke up, she crawled to the princess's side. Although she was also very scared at this time and didn't know what had happened, she still bravely guarded her and looked around nervously.
The princess and the palace maid did not seem to have practiced martial arts before and were just ordinary people.
Thus, they didn't even manage to react when they were taken away by Black and White Impermanence. When they woke up, they found that they were in a strange and deserted yard.
"Are you… the thirteenth princess?" Chun Fei looked at the girl princess's face and asked uncertainly.
"I'm the thirteenth princess of the Grand Xia Dynasty. Who are you? Why did you bring me here?" The princess shrank and hid behind the maid, only poking her head out, and asked in a low voice.
"Jing'er, it's really you! I'm your aunt!" After confirming the identity of the girl, tears suddenly filled Chun Fei's eyes. She walked over and hugged the girl.
It turned out that the thirteenth princess was the daughter of Li Guifei, who was Chun Fei's sister.
Concubine Li Guifei gave birth to a son and a daughter in the past, namely the seventh prince and the thirteenth princess.
The last time Chun Fei had seen the two was more than ten years ago, when the thirteenth princess was merely two years old.
After she was sent to the cold palace, she never managed to see them again.
Although with Chun Fei's cultivation, she could sneak out of the Changmen Palace to find her niece and nephew, she didn't do so.
This was because she was in the midst of investigating the truth behind her sister's death all these years. This was a very dangerous affair, and if she came into contact with this niece and nephew of hers, it would likely land them in trouble too.
"Aunt?" The thirteenth princess, Xia Jingjing, was at a loss at first, but after seeing Chun Fei let out her true feelings, crying and then soon laughing, she bit her lip and said, "Are you Chun Fei, my aunt?"
Although she was only two years old the last time she saw her aunt and this aunt of hers had never looked for them these years, the thirteenth princess had listened to the many stories told to her by her brother, the seventh prince.
"Jing'er…"
"Aunt…"
Lin Ping didn't expect things to be so coincidental. Among the other two women abducted by Black and White Impermanence, one of them turned out to be Chun Fei's niece, the thirteenth princess!
However, he was not interested in the scene of reunion and soon turned around and went back to his room to silently cultivate the "Return of the Ten Thousand Swords", which he had received when he checked in today.
…
…
In the Changchun Palace.
After arranging for Luo Feng to head to the cold palace to take the life of Chun Fei, the Empress did not immediately sleep.
She was so angry that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep until she heard the news of Chun Fei's death.
But even after a long wait, which had far exceeded the duration Luo Feng would need, Luo Feng still didn't report back to the Changchun Palace.
It wasn't until the sky was lit that a eunuch from the Directorate of Palace Seals came to report the news while trembling…
"Where's Luo Feng? Let him come to see me in person! Could it be that he failed to take the life of the slut, Chun Fei?" the Empress yelled angrily.
She had thought that Luo Feng didn't dare to see her after he had failed his mission.
The little eunuch lowered his head and replied with a trembling voice, "Reporting to the Empress, Manager Luo… Manager Luo has died!"
"What?"
The Empress stood up in disbelief, her eyes bloodshot. With panic and anger hidden in her, she said hoarsely, "How could Luo Feng die? Even if the mysterious master hidden in the cold palace is a grade-8 grandmaster, Luo Feng would have no problem safely retreating! Could it be that there is a grade-9 great grandmaster in the Changmen Palace?
"How was this possible?!"