Seeing Fan Xian enter with a somber face, a dazed Hong Zhu scrambled up from the ground and knelt before him, head lowered, without uttering a word.

At that moment, there was no one else in the Eastern Palace chamber. Only Fan Xian stood, while Hong Zhu knelt. The faint light from outside seeped in, casting their shadows on the wall, creating a somewhat eerie scene.

Fan Xian stared at Hong Zhu's blank face, his hand clenched into a fist at his side, then slowly released. He spoke with a hint of fatigue, "I need an explanation for this."

Hong Zhu raised his head to look at him, his eyes filled with apology and deep self-reproach. But he simply lowered his head again and kowtowed, offering no explanation.

Indeed, Hong Zhu was Fan Xian's greatest asset within the palace. Fan Xian's audacity in storming the palace with just two hundred men and seizing control of the Guanghan Palace relied on his complete mastery of the palace's situation, his understanding of the imperial guards' distribution, and the daily routines of various nobles.

All of this was information that Hong Zhu had risked his life to transmit to the outside world over the past two days. This rapidly rising young eunuch had originally been transferred to the Guanghan Palace, but after the Crown Prince returned to the Eastern Palace, he had been reluctantly requested back.

Since the Empress Dowager favored the Crown Prince's succession, she naturally wouldn't object to this minor request. Thus, Hong Zhu became the most unique person in the palace. He had once held memorials in the imperial study, served the Empress Dowager in the Guanghan Palace, and spent two months in the Eastern Palace, relying on the Empress.

Remarkably, all the nobles appreciated and liked him. Fan Xian was no exception.

However, no one ever knew that Hong Zhu was Fan Xian's eyes and ears within the palace. The reason why the patrolling guards along the route from the palace gate straight to the Guanghan Palace were mysteriously poisoned and unable to raise an early warning was entirely due to this eunuch's efforts.

Hong Zhu was crucial to Fan Xian's successful palace raid. However, at that moment, Fan Xian's gaze upon him was not gentle, and he needed an explanation.

How could the Crown Prince and Empress, within the Eastern Palace and under Hong Zhu's very nose, have reacted to such a thunderous palace raid and escaped before Fan Xian's sword arrived?

Fan Xian's fist clenched tighter, and an ominous voice seeped out from between his teeth. He sneered, "Did you tip them off?"

Hong Zhu didn't dare to meet Fan Xian's cold gaze and nodded heavily.

Fan Xian gasped, staring at him in disbelief. "Do you know what you're doing? We're staging a rebellion, not playing a game!"

He didn't raise his voice, fearing that others in the Eastern Palace would hear, but the emotions within him were gradually escalating into rage.

"What's wrong with you? Feeling soft?" Fan Xian's brow furrowed tightly. He spoke in a rapid, chilling tone, "Your soft heart will doom the entire Qing Kingdom!"

He spat on the ground near his feet, cursing angrily, "I went through so much trouble to get into the palace, and you pulled this stunt. If you don't want to live, fine, but what about the people in the palace? You're forcing me to prepare to run away before dawn!"

Fan Xian rarely became so angry, because he couldn't understand how such a meticulous plan, mobilizing the spies he had spent countless hours and effort hiding in the palace, could have gone so wrong for reasons he couldn't comprehend!

Why? Why! Fan Xian stared at Hong Zhu's face, his eyes flashing with dark fire.

"The Crown Prince has been extremely kind to this servant." Hong Zhu knelt before Fan Xian, suddenly bursting into tears. Tears streamed from the corners of his eyes, running down his young face and into his robes. "Her Majesty the Empress is very pitiful. I thought and thought, but in the end, I couldn't bear it."

Hong Zhu wept loudly, snot and tears streaming across his face. "Kill me, Your Grace, I don't want to live either. Xiu'er was killed by me, and I don't know how many more people I will kill... It's all my fault... my fault."

……

……

Fan Xian took a deep breath. Although he had already cursed, he hadn't imagined that Hong Zhu's reason for letting the Crown Prince and Empress go was actually... a soft heart!

"What about the Guangxin Palace?"

"I don't know."

Fan Xian's eyes twitched, and his heart felt a chill. Looking at the eunuch kneeling before him, he suddenly said, "Stand up."

Hong Zhu remained kneeling, afraid to rise.

"Stand up!" Fan Xian roared in a low voice.

Hong Zhu hesitantly stood up, but suddenly felt a pain in his crotch and cried out in agony. Fan Xian slowly withdrew his hand, his face filled with extremely complex emotions. He looked at Hong Zhu without saying a word, and after a moment, he simply shook his head and sighed.

Hong Zhu's face was pale, and he looked at Fan Xian in terror. But then he thought that since he had secretly informed the Empress and Crown Prince to escape before the incident, his life was probably already forfeit. Now that things had come to this, what was there to fear?

So he straightened his body, looked at Fan Xian without saying a word, but the deep sense of guilt in his eyes lingered.

To his surprise, Fan Xian said nothing, nor did he draw his sword in a fit of rage and chop off his head. Fan Xian simply sighed, waved his hand, and walked alone towards the outside of the Eastern Palace, his back looking somewhat lonely and desolate.

Hong Zhu stared blankly at Fan Xian's back, and for some reason, he began to cry again.

……

……

Fan Xian walked out of the main gate of the Eastern Palace and could no longer hear Hong Zhu's cries. The anger dissipated inexplicably, but his heart felt somewhat empty.

He waved and summoned a subordinate, ordering him to take all the palace maids and eunuchs in the Eastern Palace and Guangxin Palace to the cold palace area near the Chen Corridor for collective supervision. Then he walked alone into the darkness of the palace.

Hong Zhu's momentary soft heart had caused irreparable damage to his plan. In that instant, the angry Fan Xian did have the impulse to kill, but that impulse immediately vanished when he heard the word Xiu'er.

When he was in Hangzhou, he had thought about what impact the death of that palace maid would have on Hong Zhu's state of mind. Because from the beginning, he knew that Hong Zhu was not an ordinary eunuch. He was a righteous and compassionate eunuch; otherwise, Fan Xian wouldn't have dared to entrust so many important matters to him.

However, Fan Xian didn't expect Hong Zhu to be so sentimental that he would have a soft heart even during a major palace coup.

This showed that the Crown Prince was truly a generous and affectionate person. Moreover, Hong Zhu, harboring secrets, had spent several months relying on each other in the Eastern Palace with the extremely pitiful Empress during the Crown Prince's exile to Southern Zhao, and perhaps some different emotions had developed.

Hong Zhu was a sentimental eunuch, affectionate towards Fan Xian, so he risked everything to incite a palace rebellion and help him enter the palace. He was affectionate towards the Crown Prince and affectionate towards the Empress, so he let them go at the last moment. People were inherently complex creatures, especially Hong Zhu, an eunuch who was more like a scholar than a eunuch.

"Perhaps I am too unfeeling to imagine that people could be so affectionate."

He thought to himself, unconsciously associating it with Xu Maochai in the Jiaozhou naval force, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips.

Xu Maochai and Hong Zhu were the two deepest stakes he had driven into the Qing Kingdom's court, but it was during this earth-shattering upheaval that these two stakes had their own ideas and brought great harm to Fan Xian's plan.

But if it hadn't been for Xu Maochai, Fan Xian would never have been able to escape from the deep sea beneath Mount Dong. If it hadn't been for Hong Zhu, Fan Xian wouldn't have been able to enter the inner palace. So he knew he had no right to blame these confidants for anything.

He couldn't bear to kill Hong Zhu, couldn't bring himself to blame Hong Zhu, and could only think helplessly that the Crown Prince had cultivated the art of moving people with emotion more powerfully than he had – the Crown Prince occasionally had genuine emotions, while he would be hypocritical to the end of his life.

……

……

The Imperial Guard had already, with the help of the Supervisory Council’s personnel, purged the inner palace, and all the imperial guards had been captured, so they shouldn't be able to cause any more trouble. Fan Xian, with a somber face, returned to the Guanghan Palace, but didn't go inside to see the Empress Dowager or comfort the Old Third and his family. He only whispered a few instructions to Jing Ge, who was guarding outside the palace.

Jing Ge's expression changed slightly, as if he hadn't expected that His Grace, even in the midst of this great victory, was already considering the possibility of failure. But he didn't ask anything, pressed his right palm tightly against the silver mask on his face, knelt on one knee to receive his orders, and left the palace with some of the Black Riders experts from the two hundred men who had entered the palace.

From that moment on, the security control of the Guanghan Palace was handed over to the Imperial Guard.

The two masterminds of the Qing Kingdom's first palace coup met on the high imperial city walls, about half an hour after the smoke flare had soared into the sky.

Fan Xian gave a silent bow to the First Prince, who was clad in full armor. The First Prince’s face was grave, and although he was wearing armor, he still returned the bow in earnest. The night wind suddenly picked up, causing the First Prince's scarlet cloak to flutter wildly, and stiffening Fan Xian's black Supervisory Council uniform.

The Imperial Guard soldiers tensely patrolling the imperial city watched this scene and couldn't help but be impressed. In the first year of the Qingli era, the First Prince led his troops on a western expedition, his reputation growing with each victory. And since Fan Xian had taken charge of the Supervisory Council, he had become virtually Chen Pingping the Second, only more radiant and brilliant than the old Director Chen.

With these two Princes working together, like the war robes they wore – the scorching crimson and the icy black – with light and darkness joining forces, how many people in this world could resist?

Fan Xian and the First Prince straightened up. Without saying anything, they walked to the outside of the corner tower, gazing at the calm plaza beneath the high imperial city walls. In the distance, the faint sounds of fighting and the eye-catching glow of several fires could be heard.

The two didn't need to say anything. To be precise, they hadn't seen each other or spoken since the Mount Dong affair broke out, yet they had orchestrated today's palace coup.

This relied on their trust and confidence in each other. This tacit understanding wasn't rooted in self-interest, but in history. Both of these Princes had been the part of the Emperor's family that had been insulted and ignored. Their mothers and elders had once fought side-by-side, and today, these two younger generations were finally fighting side-by-side as well.

Of the three thousand Imperial Guards, one thousand were stationed in the palace, one thousand were on the city walls, and another thousand-strong contingent had already ridden off to penetrate the depths of Kyoto, determined to control the entire Kyoto before dawn. One thousand men was indeed too few to control Kyoto, but it would be much easier if they were aided by the more than one thousand Supervisory Council officials that Fan Xian had deliberately left outside the palace.

"They must be caught before dawn," the First Prince said coldly. The 'they' he was referring to were naturally the Crown Prince and his mother, as well as the Eldest Princess, Li Yunrui. Among the thousand Imperial Guards responsible for sweeping the city, at least three cavalry squads were desperately searching for those who had escaped from the palace along the route near the Laundry Bureau.

Fan Xian remained silent. As soon as he learned that the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess had escaped from the palace, he had already issued orders. The Supervisory Council's secret agents and swordsmen were now also doing their best in Kyoto. But he knew that, just as it had been extremely difficult for the Eldest Princess to catch him when he was hiding in the vast sea of houses in Kyoto, it would also be extremely difficult for him to catch her.

This required luck, and what was extremely unfavorable to Fan Xian and the First Prince was that they only had the three hours before dawn.

"Everything is fine in the Guanghan Palace." Fan Xian didn't respond to the First Prince's question, but looked at the soldiers under the imperial city and said, "The Empress Dowager is fine."

The First Prince's brow furrowed, but he didn't say anything.

The First Prince had always been a boorish but kind-hearted and filial man, so he couldn't do the things that Fan Xian could do. Even hearing the name of the Empress Dowager made him feel downcast and somewhat uncomfortable.

Fan Xian smiled at him, as if seeing through the shadow in his heart, and said, "The struggle for imperial power has always been a matter of life and death. We are only executing His Majesty's posthumous edict. History will give you the evaluation you deserve."

"I don't care about that." The First Prince shook his head and said softly, facing the night wind on the high city wall, "There's no need to say more. Since Father has ordered you to handle this matter entirely in the posthumous edict, I believe you can handle it well. I have confidence in you."

If he hadn't had confidence, the ever-filial First Prince certainly wouldn't have dared to risk Concubine Ning's life and raise an army in revolt.

"But can you give me confidence?"

Fan Xian sighed, looking at the Imperial Guard soldiers, who seemed rather sparse compared to the vast imperial city. At that moment, there were only a thousand soldiers in front of and behind the imperial city, which couldn't provide a strong sense of psychological support.

The First Prince understood what he was worried about. After a moment of silence, he said, "Father took away one detachment of the Imperial Guard when he went to Mount Dong, and another part has been lost tonight. But don't worry, it's always one against three for guarding a city, especially a place like the imperial city. It can even be one against four."

"But the imperial city is very large, so it's difficult to take care of everything." Fan Xian lowered his head and calculated, "If the Eldest Princess and the Crown Prince really manage to escape from Kyoto and meet up with the Kyoto Garrison, how many troops can the Old Qin Family transfer to Kyoto?"

"The Kyoto Garrison has ten thousand men." Since the First Prince had raised an army, he was naturally very clear about the military strength inside and outside Kyoto. "With our combined forces of five thousand men, we should be able to hold them off."

"My men can't be used to guard the palace." Fan Xian shook his head and pointed his right arm at the dark Kyoto residential area, "They only have strength in there."

He turned to look at the First Prince's profile, and said with a slight worry, "And you've forgotten one thing. The Second Prince isn't in the palace. He's quick-witted, and he may have already secretly slipped out of the city. Don't you need to consider the people under Ye Zhong? What's more, the Qin Family's army isn't just the Kyoto Garrison."

The First Prince's eyes twitched. If the Ye and Qin families really joined forces to attack, even if three thousand more Imperial Guard soldiers suddenly appeared in the imperial palace at that moment, he wouldn't have much confidence.

"Moreover, the imperial palace is an isolated palace, unlike a large commandery which stores food and supplies. If we're surrounded by a large army, how many days can we hold out?"

The First Prince suddenly turned around, stared into Fan Xian's eyes, and said, "What exactly are you trying to say? Of course I know that the imperial palace is difficult to defend, but why should we defend the palace instead of defending the city?"

"Defend the city? Do we have any of the Thirteen City Gate Bureaus in our hands right now? We don't even know which of the nine city gates the Eldest Princess will lightly knock open… Just like I knocked open the doors of the inner palace."

"Don't hide anything from me." The First Prince said, "You can't possibly ignore the City Gate Bureau. Your people have already gone to the City Gate Bureau. The spies that the Eldest Princess planted in the City Gate Bureau last night have already been killed by you."

Fan Xian smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "The Supervisory Council isn't a celestial being. It's impossible to dig out all of the Eldest Princess's spies. And we must make the worst-case scenario. If the Empress Dowager's decree can't subdue that Commander Zhang of the City Gate Bureau, then you and I must prepare to be trapped in the palace by a large army."

"I just want to know how many days it will take for the Qin Family's army to enter Kyoto. Ye Zhong received the imperial decree to return to Dingzhou. Even if he stops halfway, it will still take some time to reach Kyoto."

"If we only count the Kyoto Garrison, they will arrive in one day," Fan Xian said calmly. "The Qin Family's main force will probably arrive in about four days, and Ye Zhong's time to return to Kyoto will be about the same."

The First Prince didn't ask Fan Xian why he knew so much about the Old Qin Family's deployment, because he believed that the Supervisory Council must have spies in the Qin Family's army, just like in the Imperial Guard. If Fan Xian hadn't identified the targets in advance during the previous purge, it wouldn't have been so easy.

"You can control the City Gate Bureau." The First Prince looked into Fan Xian's eyes and suddenly said, returning to the previous topic. "If you couldn't, you wouldn't have dared to make a move at all. So I'm very curious, what considerations are you making by telling me all this now?"

Fan Xian fell silent.

"Earlier, Jing Ge led your council order and came to me to requisition two hundred horses, and then left the palace without a trace." The First Prince looked at him coldly and said, "Don't tell me you don't have any ideas."

Fan Xian suddenly laughed and said, "Actually, what I wanted to say was... let's run away."

……

……

With a muffled thud, the extremely angry First Prince slammed his palm on the green bricks of the imperial city and said in a low voice, "Run away? Are you crazy!"

Fan Xian smiled wryly and said, "I seem to be crazy indeed... Where can we escape to? It's just a joke, don't get so excited, okay?"

"Why are you still joking at a time like this?"

"Everyone's emotions are so tense. What's wrong with me telling a joke to ease the tension?"

Fan Xian's words were not just a joke. If it had been before, when this situation was about to reverse, he might have already run away for his own safety. Because this conversation made it very clear that if the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess slipped out of Kyoto, the seemingly bright situation would be ruined.

The First Prince suddenly sighed and patted him heavily on the shoulder, saying, "You've never led an army and never seen what a real battlefield looks like, so it's not surprising that you have such thoughts."

As if to give Fan Xian some confidence, the First Prince said in a steady voice, "With your people helping to control the City Gate Bureau, I can hold Kyoto for ten days even with four thousand men!"

Below the imperial city, Supervisory Council officials were escorting a row of carriages closer to the palace gate. The First Prince squinted his eyes to look, watching those ministers who had been tortured to the point of extreme misery by the Crown Prince get out of the carriages, and said, "With these ministers here, how can you and I escape? How can we bear to escape?"

Fan Xian remained silent, nodded, and said, "According to your words, we will hold a grand court assembly today, declare the posthumous edict, and depose the Crown Prince."

The First Prince frowned and said, "Send a message to all directions, ordering the four armies to return to rescue us at full speed."

"The three armies are far away on the border and cannot return to Kyoto within ten days. As for the nearest Yanjing Garrison, if you and I send a message to recall the troops…" Fan Xian's heart turned cold, "...I'm afraid you and I may become the sinners of the Qing Kingdom."

What Fan Xian was worried about wasn't anyone else, but the unfathomable Little Emperor of Northern Qi. The world's information transmission was too slow right now, but Fan Xian knew that the Great General of the Conquering North Army had been killed by him, and the five thousand personal guards were missing under Mount Dong, If the imperial city was in great chaos at this time, and he, in the name of the state supervisor, mobilized the army stationed in Yanjing to return, he was afraid that he would fall into the calculations of the Northern Qi Little Emperor.

The Yanjing Garrison must not be allowed to return to the capital in time to suppress the Ye and Qin families, and then the Northern Qi's mighty army would march south!

After experiencing so many things, Fan Xian knew that the Northern Qi Little Emperor was the most powerful character in the world. Since he had secretly communicated with the Eldest Princess and participated in the inside story of Mount Dong, then he would never let go of such a great opportunity.

Therefore, the Yanjing Garrison must not be moved!

The First Prince's face also became heavy, knowing that Fan Xian's worries were very reasonable: "Ten days... We can only hold out for ten days at most. If we can't transfer troops back to Kyoto to protect the Emperor..."

He suddenly laughed, looked at Fan Xian, and said, "It seems like what you said makes sense. Our best choice is indeed to run away earlier tonight."

As soon as these words came out, Fan Xian was stunned, and then the two looked at each other, and laughed heartily for no reason.

The laughter spread far from the imperial city, startling the two Grand Secretaries, Shu and Hu, at the palace gate below to look up. They could vaguely distinguish that it was the First Prince and Fan Xian. The two Grand Secretaries couldn't help but feel a little relieved, thinking that the two of them could still laugh so happily at this time, so it seemed that the overall situation was settled.

But no one knew how much helplessness and bitterness there was in Fan Xian and the First Prince's laughter. The two of them had a tacit understanding and didn't mention the matter of abandoning the palace and withdrawing. Yes, times had changed, and since the two of them had already stood on the imperial city, there was no reason to run away.

"Today, we will establish the great rule, transmit the posthumous edict to the streets and alleys of Kyoto to stabilize the people's hearts, and issue a clear decree to all provinces." After the laughter stopped, Fan Xian looked at the First Prince and said with a smile, "Use the Empress Dowager's decree to stabilize the City Gate Bureau and then control it. You said you could block the army for ten days, so I will give you ten days."

"I will definitely be able to block them for ten days." The First Prince gripped the sword at his waist, his face firm, but in his heart, he was thinking that the imperial palace would eventually be breached after being surrounded for ten days. Why did Fan Xian value this time so much?

"You must win this ten days for me."

Fan Xian coughed lightly twice, took out a pill with a somewhat pungent smell from his arms and swallowed it, and said with a calm face, "Although I have never commanded an army, I also know that the most important thing in the army is the generals at all levels. Just imagine, if the generals, from the commander-in-chief to the deputy general to the colonel... all died, what would this rebel army become?"

"A complete mess, defeated without even being attacked." The First Prince frowned slightly, looked at Fan Xian, and thought that if the rebel generals died mysteriously one after another within ten days, this Kyoto would naturally be able to be defended. But... even if the Supervisory Council was very skilled at assassination and you were very knowledgeable about poisons, there was no way to accomplish such a heaven-defying thing in the midst of thousands of troops.

Fan Xian didn't answer his doubts, and continued to say calmly, "If even the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess suddenly died, what reason would this rebel army have to exist?"

The First Prince looked at him with a puzzled expression, thinking that Fan Xian wouldn't be sick, would he?

Fan Xian smiled and said, "The reason why I'm not running away and am willing to defend this isolated city with you is not because I have such great courage, but because I have never lost confidence. However, after this incident, I'm afraid I won't have a good life."

The First Prince didn't understand, and he naturally didn't know what Fan Xian was talking about. If Fan Xian really sacrificed the heavy sniper weapon, who knew how history would go in the future.

At that moment, there was a sudden commotion at the palace gate. A team of cavalry arrived in a cloud of dust, and seemed to have caught someone. The First Prince fixed his eyes and looked over, only to see that the person who had been captured was a woman. She was too far away to see her face clearly, but she seemed to be wearing ordinary palace maid clothes.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes and said quietly, "Our luck has always been so good. Look, the Empress has already been caught by us. Are the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess still far away?"

After saying these words, he turned around and walked down the imperial city, walking down the wide stone steps, preparing to greet those old ministers who had suffered, preparing for tomorrow's grand court assembly, secretly pondering what kind of crimes should be arranged for the Crown Prince and the Eldest Princess, and at the same time preparing to comfort that poor, stupid, and unlucky Empress.

"Should I lock the Empress and Hong Zhu together?" A strange idea suddenly popped up in Fan Xian's mind, thinking that he was actually quite affectionate.

Walking on the stone steps, his coughing became more and more violent, and more and more serious. It seemed that the pill with the pungent medicinal smell that he had taken earlier had not worked. He leaned against the wall next to the stone steps, slowed down his mind, and took out another pill from his arms, put it in his mouth, chewed it twice, and swallowed it into his stomach.

That pungent smell was the smell of ephedra leaves. This pill, after Fan Xian and his fellow disciples from the Third Bureau developed it, was only the second time that someone had taken it in the world. Because the medicinal power of this pill was too overbearing, ephedra leaves were similar to stimulants, which could easily make people's minds become trance-like and make people's True Qi become disordered.

The first time someone had taken this medicine was also Fan Xian, which was a few years ago next to the Xishan Cliffs in Northern Qi, before facing the combined offensive of Wolf Peach and He Daoren.

Fan Xian gasped heavily a few times and calmed his mind. After escaping from Mount Dong, he was grazed by Ye Liuyun's sword intent, and was chased by Yan Xiaoyi for hundreds of miles. Finally, he took an arrow to the heart, and his injuries were extremely serious. He was unable to get good rest, and his whole body had reached the end of its rope.

Although he had rested for a few days in Miss Sun's boudoir, his current realm was only eighty percent of its peak. In order to storm the palace, he had no choice but to take this extremely harmful medicine again in order to ensure that his powerful strength could be fully displayed.

The first time he took this medicine was for Xiao En, for the secret of the temple in the old man's mouth. The second time he took this medicine was for storming the palace, for the great country of Qing. There are many things in this world that are more important than health, Fan Xian thought, walking downwards with a slightly pale face.

————————————————

Kyoto was in great chaos. Compared to the Ministry of Justice and the Kyoto Prefecture's victory without a fight, the attack on the Eldest Princess's mansion was caught in a bitter battle from the start. The few clusters of fire that Fan Xian and the First Prince saw on the city wall were the vicious schemes that the Supervisory Council had been forced to use during their forced attack.

Fortunately, the Eldest Princess was not in the mansion. Yuan Hongdao, the chief advisor of Xinyang who should have been in charge of the defense, also seemed to have been frightened by the offensive. So the experts and palace maids in the mansion, after paying the price of dozens of Supervisory Council corpses, were finally shot into hedgehogs by crossbow bolts, and turned into zombies by poison.

Supervisory Council officials stormed in. Mu Feng'er, the leading clerk of the First Bureau, had a deep gash on his left arm, and blood was flowing freely, but his face showed a nonchalant expression as he viciously held his short sword against Yuan Hongdao's neck.

He was Mu Tie's nephew, and a direct descendent of Fan Xian's First Bureau. In this kind of life-and-death struggle, it was impossible for him to have any soft heart.

What surprised him was that the advisor of the Eldest Princess's mansion who was being held under his control didn't have much fear, but instead was filled with panic.

Yuan Hongdao looked at Mu Feng'er anxiously and said, "I have important matters to report to the Lord of Danbo!"