His extended hand was formed in the shape of a tiger claw, the fingers snapped open. The fingernails were extraordinarily long, curling slightly at the front tips with something sparkling. It wasn’t difficult to guess that there must be weapons hidden in the fingernails. With just one flick of the fingers, Ning Yi would not be able to avoid it. 

Tao Long Xin’s fingers had just snapped open when he suddenly felt a pain in his back.

He let out a yelp, no longer focused on killing Ning Yi, his back muscles contracted, sliding past in an instant, and his body balled up in a strange ball, soaring through the rain of blood. In mid-air, he glared back with hatred and saw Feng Zhi Wei nonchalantly pulling back a blood-stained dagger. While she was at it, she even moved her tea cup to prevent the blood from falling into it as she explained with a smile, “Wouldn’t do to waste a good cup of tea.”

Tao Long Xin was so speechless that he almost spit out a mouthful of blood mid-air. Gritting his teeth, he spread his body wide, hooked his toes on the ship’s mast to spin around, and was ready to pounce down on Feng Zhi Wei from above.

But there was a flash of something white and sharp, penetrating the air, whizzing at a speed that was even too fast for the eye to follow with a soft swishing sound, 

Tao Long Xin’s furiously attacking figure abruptly stopped.

Fixed on the mast like a sculpture. 

A sculpture that sweats.

At some unknown point in time, a fishing line had been wrapped around his waist. It was transparent and tough, trembling in the wind. The fishing line was extremely taut and straight. One could imagine that if someone on the other end of the fishing line were to give a hard pall, Tao Long Xin would be brutally cut in half. 

An ordinary pointy green bamboo fishing rod was also at the same time pointing steadily at his throat. 

At the other end of the fishing rod, Gu Nan Yi was concentrating on putting the freshly caught shrimp from the golden monkeys into the basket. Looking at the fishing line with a grin, Gu Zhi Xiao was seemingly planning to give it a hard tug, but her plump hands were repeatedly slapped away by her father. 

The blood on his back flowed silently, dyeing the fishing line red. Tao Long Xin’s gaze slowly made a round between Ning Yi, Feng Zhi Wei, and Gu Nan Yi before he said with a defeated smile, “Good! Good! What an impressive method to kill in silence!” 

Feng Zhi Wei stood up with the tea cup in hand, leaned against the side of the ship, looked up at him, took a sip of tea, and said with a smile, “Official Tao…let’s call you Official Tao. Not only were you too confident in your acting ability, but you also underestimated His Highness and my abilities.” 

“You knew I am not…” Tao Long Xin stopped abruptly.  

“Tao Long Xin. He was awarded the title of imperial scholar in the third year of Tiansheng. Two years later, he was assigned as the magistrate of Lecong County, Shanbei Province. He had outstanding political achievements and received outstanding merit examinations for three consecutive years. However, he was demoted to Shannan because of a case of elderly abuse by descendants during his tenure. From then on, for the next ten years, he had nothing to show for. In the tenth year of Tiansheng, he returned to the Capital to report on his work and sat on the sideline for a year. After spending countless amounts of money, he finally received this assignment as the magistrate of Luoshui County.” Ning Yi didn’t spare a single glance in Tao Long Xin’s direction as he recounted the resume of a humble insignificant official, “With a life experience like that, to come to this point, you must be extremely cautious and nervous all the time, how would you be so at ease and calm?”

“This government ship is not new but it has been painted recently. It has been raining continuously in the past few days, so it is unsuitable for painting. Why were you in such a hurry to paint this ship?” Feng Zhi Wei took a sip of her tea and smiled as she continued where Ning Yi left off. 

“Tao Long Xin’s assignments have all been inland. He has never been to the South, so why would he be so familiar with the area that he would know the name of an inconsequential port?” Ning Yi flicked his slightly damp sleeve.

“When a vacancy arises in the South Sea Yamen Department, it is always filled by someone chosen by the South Sea Yamen themselves. They are usually not assigned by someone from the Imperial Court. Tao Long Xin has been an Imperial Court Official for several years already, how would he not know this?” Feng Zhi Wei wiped off the dagger with a piece of dry cloth and loosened her hand. The cloth flew towards the water, like the rolling water birds passing by. 

“Tao Long Xin” listened to the two’s sing-song words, with their back-and-forth perfect coordination, finally smiled miserably after a moment of silence and nodded, “Indeed…I underestimated you…Prince Chu is unreadable, Marquis Wei is ruthless…a pair of peerless gems…your fame is well deserved.”

Feng Zhi Wei raised an eyebrow, wondering inwardly which guy was bored enough to come up with this name of “peerless gem”? In contrast, Ning Yi seemed quite pleased with the name and smiled for the first time. Finally sparing “Tao Long Xin” with a cold glance, he said, “Tell me your identity and who is behind this, then I will leave your corpse whole.” (It’s a big deal for a dead body to not be “whole”. Not saying this is actually something modern-day Chinese people believe although burial has always been an important matter (especially if you think about the fact that cremation is actually pretty popular in Asian countries) but we generally all agree this is an important thing in novel worlds. This is an important side note to point out that there are certain things in novels that are based on actual Chinese cultures, things that might have been true in the olden days, and there are things that we all have “an understanding” to be true in novel worlds.) 

Before his voice faded.

The ship’s body jerked. 

Then someone’s sharp voice sounded.

“You leave behind your life, hand over the Tiger Talisman, and I will leave your corpse whole as well.” 

Hearing the voice, Ning Yi’s brows twitched slightly, while Feng Zhi Wei put down the tea cup in her hand. 

The voice is very familiar but not one that should have appeared, not here, not now. 

The ship jerked, then stopped but it was stranded on a tidal flat. On the left was a reed marsh. In March, the reeds had just sprouted, and they were lush and green. Yet, outside on the reed pond, at some unknown point, in silence, there had already appeared a large number of soldiers. 

The man who had just spoken and told Ning Yi to hand over the Tiger Talisman was striding up from below the deck, followed by several masked men in linen clothes. Judging by the way they walked and the lightness of their footsteps, they were all master fighters. 

Ning Yi smiled and greeted him casually. 

“Second brother.”

“You didn’t expect me to be here, did you?” Second Prince stared at the few people in front of him coldly with a bloodthirsty smile, “Thought I was in Huwei camp? Trying to flank me by taking the waterway from Li Lake? Sixth, you had a good plan, you might be the wolf ready to attack but I have already got my whip to beat the wolf!” 

Feng Zhi Wei leaned against the side of the boat and turned to look at the surroundings. They are surrounded by water on three sides, the only exit– the reed pond, has already been surrounded by a large number of men. 

“Second Prince is also good at calculating.” She pointed at the reed pond, “You went along with the plan, sending out false information, letting people believe you were at Huwei camp but in fact, you were waiting here all along. You have my admiration, my admiration.” 

Second Prince gave a sneering laugh, “Are you and Sixth the only ones who were allowed to collude together to cause trouble but others are not allowed to fight back? Even if you want to lay a trap for me, you’ll have to see whether I am willing or not!”

He pointed around and said, “Why should I rush to Huwei camp and wait to be surrounded? I just needed to wait for you here, kill you all, take the Tiger Talisman. This way, I can still mobilize Huwei Camp to surround the Imperial Palace and take control of it! As long as you Ning Yi die, your men will be left without a leader, Changying Guards and the Nine City Army will remain neutral, then the Imperial Capital is mine!”

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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