Second Prince gave a sneering laugh, “Are you and Sixth the only ones who are 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!”

Ning Yi listened attentively, nodded, and said with a smile, “Second brother has really improved.”

“Are you still trying to save face by ridiculing me?” Second Prince didn’t get angry. He stared at Ning Yi and chuckled arrogantly. Dragging a stool over, he sat down opposite Ning Yi, “This whole boat, up, middle, down, including all areas surrounding the reed pond, are all controlled by my men. Even the bottom of the water is covered with nets. You can’t escape even if you dive. I know you like to hide your true intentions among a bunch of false information and that both the Changying Guards and the Jianghuai Navy are waiting not far away on the river. However, to hide your whereabouts, you did not let them follow you too closely. By the time they received word and come rushing over…” He grinned, “Official Tao’s boat had accidentally fallen into the reed swamp and had caught on fire from the wildfire burning on the shore… Ning Yi, Wei Zhi, you two never thought of dying in such a strange manner, have you? — to burn to death in the water?” 

“No matter how you die, it’s just death.” Ning Yi replied in an unconcerned tone, “I am just sorry for causing Second brother so much trouble.” 

“I too have troubled you much.” Second Prince sneered, “You hid behind the scenes, but you ordered all your dogs to bark nonstop in front of our father all day and all night. You also burned Shuyu Villa but made it look like I did it myself so Father would suspect that I have an ulterior motive and finally decided to take action against me— you are the ruthless one. Over these last few years with one brother taken out one after another, which one did not have your hand behind it? How hateful is it that Father has been deceived by you and allowed you to get rid of one brother after another!”

“You had ulterior motives first and that’s why others were able to use it against you.” Ning Yi said emotionlessly, “If you served the emperor wholeheartedly, then would can touch you?”

“Nonsense.” Second Prince laughed loudly, “Ulterior motive? You have the gall to say that to me? If we really want to talk about which one of us brothers has the blackest heart, then it has to be you!” 

Ning Yi smiled and leaned leisurely against the table, the corner of his eyes rising as imperceptibly as the spring breeze, “So what if I am?” 

Second Prince gritted his teeth and said with a smile, “So if His Majesty won’t deal with you then I will!” He waved his hand, and several people behind him slowly walked up. 

“Gu Nan Yi.” Second Prince said coolly, “I heard that you could be counted as the best fighter in this world, but even a strong man is afraid of crowds. I have a few masters here from afar, are you willing to give them some advice?”

Gu Nan Yi had not looked at him this whole time, nor did he listen to their conversation but had been focused on picking out the better-looking shrimps to set aside. Hearing Second Prince’s words now, he flicked his fingers and the red-stained fishing line was snapped back, the red light flashed through the air. “Tao Longxin” fell with a crush, falling right at the feet of Gu Nan Yi. Although he was seriously injured, but due to his high martial arts skills and quick reaction, he was able to prevent Feng Zhi Wei’s dagger from completely submerging into his back. Yet, now that he is lying by the foot of Gu Nan Yi, “Tao Longxin” is only able to let out a few “ah ah” sounds, unable to say anything or move. 

A layman wouldn’t be able to tell what Gu Nan Yi did, but it caused Second Prince’s masters to look at each other with shock. With one snap of the fishline, Gu Nan Yi had obviously in that instant, used the fishline to tap “Tao Longxin’s” acupoints. (acupoints- in these novels, if you were to tap the right acupoints with the right force on a person, you could take away their ability to speak or move.) 

Acupoints are already an immensely difficult thing to master in martial arts, let alone to be able to do it with something like a fishline that is long and extremely light. Yet, Gu Nan Yi was able to use the fishline like he was using his own finger. That sort of precision and internal strength is enough to intimidate anyone. 

However, Second Prince just glanced at Gu Nan Yi with indifference– He had already consulted with experts and found a way to deal with Gu Nan Yi. Instead of trying in vain to find someone with a higher level of martial arts, the key is the manner of their attack, they must aim for their enemy’s weakness. 

These few masters he invited are from all different places with all different sorts of weird attack styles. A sinister smile appeared on the corner of Second Prince’s mouth– since he was going to deal with Ning Yi and Wei Zhi, then how could he forget Wei Zhi’s famous guard? 

With a wave of his hand, several people ran by like smoke and surrounded Gu Nan Yi. 

Two of them suddenly took off their loose linen clothes, revealing colorful thin smooth tights underneath. Their bodies were slim and their waists were as smooth as a snake. They were women but their faces were still tightly covered. It looks like they knew Gu Nan Yi’s indifference to what would affect most men so they had no plans to go the route of seduction. There was also no sense of beauty to the five-colored clothes. The color combination was extremely weird and ugly, and the edges of the colors were broken and protruding, making people quite uncomfortable with just one look. 

Feng Zhi Wei frowned as well when she saw the colors but it just looked displeasing to the eye but then she immediately felt some anxiousness from Gu Nan Yi who up to that point had just stood stoically by her. 

His agitation is different from other people’s. Anxiousness in other people would be manifested through rapid breathing or agitated movements but when Gu Nan Yi is agitated, he would simply pinch the walnuts in his hands. Normally, he would shatter the shell but not hurt the nut itself but at that moment, his pinch crushed the walnut, unable to control the force of his hand. 

Feng Zhi Wei looked at the walnuts shattering in his palms and felt a bit uneasy. She knew that few things fitted Master Gu’s liking and he was also resistant to many things, including some taboos when it comes to colors. For example, the color he finds easiest to accept is the cyan color of the sky and water, never changing, it can’t even be a bit darker or lighter. Other than that particular color, he is more receptive to plain and cool colors. People who often appear around him, such as Ning Yi, Zhong Chen, Feng Zhi Wei, and others, all are fans of cool colors so she has not noticed anything unusual previously. 

But judging by the current situation, it looked like the other party came well prepared. They seemed to be planning to defeat him through color?

Four women in colorful clothes approached closer, and four men in sackcloths raised their hands in unison. Each had a weapon in hand, but they were flute, cymbal, and sheng. There was an even stranger instrument of suona (an extremely loud instrument).  

Second Prince backed away with a cold sneer, as a large number of guards rushed forward, surrounding Feng Zhi Wei and Ning Yi’s guards who were on the deck. 

Because the space on the ship was limited, Ning Yi only brought Ning Cheng and a few guards. Feng Zhi Wei also only brought two token ordinary guards. With Gu Nan Yi around, it didn’t matter if others were around or not. However, by this point, the huge difference in the number of the two sides is clearly shown. The deck is filled with their enemies, with layer upon layer of guards. 

Ning Cheng had been standing on the other side of the ship. He was about to rush over but was stopped by one glance from Ning Yi. Having served Ning Yi for many years, Ning Cheng instantly understood Ning Yi’s meaning. Ning Cheng reached a hand inside his robe to pull out the signal flare but his hand had just moved when a dazzling cold wind came right at his face along with dozens of long swords aiming for his heart. 

Ning Cheng’s eyes widened as he screamed, “Shameless! So many on one!”. He flipped backward and was about to pull out the signal flare again when a splashing sound came and several people suddenly stood up out of the shallow water, each holding long pointy hooks, aiming straight at Ning Cheng’s back. Ning Cheng yelled again “They are also in the water!” Kicking against the boat, he flipped again. At that moment, there were long swords on top aiming for his heart and long hooks below aiming for his back, he was caught like prey caught in a web. In the chaos, he forcefully moved his body to the side but there was a ripping sound as a long hook tore open his robe, causing a bunch of stinky unwashed socks, sweat towels that had not been changed for a month, squashed jujube cakes sort of things, along with the flare signal mixed in fell with a plop into the water. 

None too gracefully jumping back onto the boat, Ning Cheng glared at the group of swordsmen surrounding him and cursed angrily, “Despicable! Shameless! Scum!” 

Feng Zhi Wei saw this whole scene clearly and her eyes narrowed. Ning Cheng’s martial arts is only second to Gu Nan Yi yet even he is cornered to such a sorry state to the point that he wasn’t even able to pull out the signal flare. Certainly, his sloppiness contributed to the result a bit but one could still tell that Second Prince really did pull out all the stops and is determined to keep them forever in this reed swamp. 

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