"Kill! Kill! Kill---!" By the time Ivy Shen burst onto the palace scene, she found Lanny, Pinkie, and Colin leading their troops and the palace household guards in a wild, all-out life-and-death brawl against the palace’s own elite defenders. (Honestly, it looked like a group cosplay turned murder mystery dinner.)
"Courting death!" The Soaring Phoenix Realm’s top-trained elites had all been stationed here. Each one was dozens of times stronger than ordinary soldiers—and their methods were vicious beyond belief.
"Ugh...!" Pinkie yelped as his arm got slashed open by one of those ferocious palace soldiers. He immediately clutched the wound, thinking, Seriously? My beautiful skin! If this leaves a scar, I’m suing fate for emotional damages.
"Pinkie, watch out!" Lanny leapt to his side, quickly helping him off to safety.
"I’m fine!" Pinkie declared, tearing off a strip of cloth and tying it around his arm with theatrical flair. In the very next second—without a hint of hesitation—he charged right back into the chaos, like a hero in a soap opera who refuses to die before his big scene.
"Bastards! You want to die?" Nina Xu radiated rage, her sword already drenched and dripping with blood. (Honestly, if looks could kill, half the palace would’ve dropped dead before she even swung.)
Ivy Shen scanned the battlefield, then—without pausing—sprang up onto the palace wall. Yvonne Li spotted her and immediately vaulted after.
But Yvonne hadn’t expected the chaos inside: the moment some men tore off their eunuch uniforms, bright yellow robes showed underneath. Each one had a razor-sharp glare and moved with deadly precision.
"Mistress!" The crowd saw Ivy Shen land and instantly shouted in unison.
Ivy just gave the crowd a lazy, sideways nod. "Good work, everyone! Try not to die, okay?" she tossed out, half teasing, before dashing onward like the main character who’s already read the script and knows she’s not dying in chapter 320.
Yvonne blinked, then realized these were all Ivy’s people. Her respect for Ivy deepened yet again. Of course, she didn’t pause—she just kept running forward.
Ivy knew that even if she had a ton of Shadow Guard allies, the palace still had way more people. The palace guards might not be martial arts experts, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming—dozens of times more than her side. No matter how strong you were, after slaughtering hundreds, you’d be totally spent.
So she knew—the only way to stop this bloodbath and cut down on deaths was to capture the king first!
But the king was hiding deep in the palace, and catching them wasn’t easy. Watching the endless stream of new guards, Ivy felt her head ache.
Do these idiots even have brains?
"Out of my way!" Yvonne swung her sword, hacking fiercely at the reckless guards swarming her. She didn’t hesitate—every strike was ruthless.
Ivy dove into the melee too, blades flashing as she cut down palace guards without hesitation.
Anyone who blocked her—dead!
With every move, Ivy struck to kill—decisive, ruthless, no hesitation. Step by step, she forced her way toward the palace depths, cutting down anyone in her path.
But the sheer number of palace guards, soldiers, and eunuchs was mind-blowing. Who knew the palace could hold so many people? Behind her, the bodies were piling up like mountains, but the enemies ahead just kept coming—like an endless tide.
Time slipped away bit by bit as the battle raged on.
Winter days are always short, and the nights drag on forever. Before anyone noticed, darkness fell and the moon crept quietly into the sky.
All kinds of fighting continued. Flames burned throughout the city, and the coming of night didn’t bring any peace.
******
With a loud "Bang!" Caleb Miles kicked a silver-clad man hard onto a pile of gold. Instantly, a chorus of agonized screams rang out.
No surprise—the treasure chests were all coated in venom.
Caleb snorted, "Told you—I don’t touch dirty money! Since you love it so much, I’ll just give it all to you!"
Every jewelry chest had a few black-clad corpses draped over it. The moment anyone touched the treasure, their faces rotted away and they died instantly—the poison was just that strong.
He dusted off his hands, wiped the blood from his still-bleeding wounds, and glanced up at the moon. Caleb was getting anxious—how did things get so delayed?!
But really, it wasn’t his fault—the fight started with fifty or sixty black-clad enemies, but as more Soaring Phoenix soldiers joined in, he couldn’t escape at all. After checking the mountains of corpses around him, Caleb didn’t waste another second. He leapt onto his horse, grabbed the reins, and shouted, "Hyah!"—racing straight for the palace.
Elsewhere—
"You... you..." The cold-faced man just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. So many Sword Clan experts, and yet... all of them...
"I told you not to get in my way!" Adrian Night sheathed his sword, shooting a cold glare at the last man still breathing.
"No... impossible... You’re hurt too..." The man stared at Adrian’s arm and back—his clothes were sliced open, blood visible. But why hadn’t he collapsed?
Adrian snorted, "These little scratches? Are you just tickling me?" Ignoring his wounds, he swung onto his horse, grabbed a fallen sword, and—without hesitation—hurled it straight into the man’s throat.
He squeezed his legs, cracked the whip, and his horse took off at full speed.
In a dark alley—
"Starfall Bloom!" Lucian Vane turned his head, sat cross-legged, and tossed a handful of silver needles skyward. Thousands of razor-sharp needles rained down, piercing straight through every enemy mask.
Of course, he wasn’t spared—countless silver needles struck his shoulders, head, and body too.
"You... you want to die together?" The only unmasked man collapsed to his knees, staring at Lucian in shock—he couldn’t believe Lucian would go this far, even against himself.
Lucian Vane gave a cold smile, wiping blood from his lips. Of those hundred attackers, more than forty were true poison masters from elite families, each one nearly his equal. Sure, he’d dealt with sixty of them easily, but with so many and so many poisons flying, even he couldn’t escape unscathed.
[End of this chapter. Click next page to continue reading!]
Now, every enemy wore armor and masks—clearly hoping to block his poisons. But did they really think Vane Manor’s toxins were so easily defeated?
That move—Starfall Bloom—each silver needle was sheathed in Ice God’s ice spikes. On a winter night, they wouldn’t melt at all. Because of that, the needles hit with dozens, even a hundred times more force than normal. When they fell, not even iron skin could stop them.
"Ahhh!" The forty masked men writhed on the ground, clutching their faces and howling in agony. How could this be? How could the needles pierce their armor and thick masks?
But before they could figure it out, the poison on the needles kicked in. Each one started foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling back, limbs convulsing—already on the brink of death.
"You... there’s no antidote!" The unmasked man really did know the most out of all of them. But what did it matter? He was poisoned too.
His mouth had been stitched shut by Lucian’s silver needle earlier. Even after he managed to undo it, his lips were swelling—only then did he realize the thread itself was poisoned. Lucian Vane was toxic from head to toe!
"That’s right—there’s no antidote!" Lucian frowned at the dying men, using all his strength to force out the remaining needles from his body.
Seeing this, the other man hurried to copy him, trying to force out the needles too.
"Heh, it’s pointless. You might as well stop struggling." Lucian Vane used his sword to support himself, slowly stood up, and sneered at the man.
"How... how can this be?" Suddenly, the man began foaming at the mouth and trembling uncontrollably. As a poison master, he knew exactly what was happening—if he didn’t act fast, he’d be dead in seconds.
"Congratulations. You’ve already got one foot in hell." Lucian’s expression was nothing but cold.
"You... you’re poisoned too..." The man fought to control the toxins, unwilling to accept it. If they were both poisoned, why could Lucian still stand?
Lucian just laughed. "Didn’t anyone tell you? Heirs of Vane Manor are the antidote themselves." With that, he turned and walked away without a trace.
"You..." Hearing that, the man crawled desperately to where Lucian had stood, found a patch of Lucian’s blood, and tried to drink it—hoping for a cure. But the moment he swallowed, his pupils dilated, his mouth went numb, and the next second his body convulsed violently. He died instantly.
"Almost forgot—my blood is both antidote and poison." Lucian’s words echoed eerily in the empty alley.