AUBTN -Chapter 149 A Close Call

The smile on Zhao Jieyu’s lips grew deeper and deeper, a frenzied gleam of triumph flickering in her eyes.

As long as she obtained the signed confessions from these two men—and those two severed arms—she would not only escape unscathed…

She could even use them to blackmail two of the empire’s most powerful officials and rise again!

“Is it done yet?” she urged, her voice trembling slightly with excitement.

Shen Jue slowly straightened. His pale fingertips held the thin sheet of rice paper.

He lifted his eyes and looked at Zhao Jieyu.

“It’s done.”

At the very instant Zhao Jieyu reached out to take it—

“Now!”

A furious shout burst from Lu Yan, who had remained silent all this time.

Shen Jue’s wide sleeve swept sharply through the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three faint blue streaks shot out like meteors, striking the rotating axles of the mechanism that held the ropes suspending Yu Qing and the others.

Two drug puppets were standing there controlling the ropes.

Silver needles pierced straight into their skulls, laced with deadly poison.

The two didn’t even have time to scream—their bodies stiffened instantly before collapsing with a heavy thud!

The ropes slipped out of control. The two girls who had been hanging high in the air plummeted straight down!

“Lu Yan!”

Shen Jue didn’t need to say another word—his figure had already become a blur as he dashed forward.

Lu Yan, Commander of the Imperial Guards, possessed peerless lightness skills. At the moment he shouted, he had already launched himself forward like an arrow released from a bow. Before anyone could react, he firmly caught the falling pink figure in his arms.

She felt light in his grasp—yet chillingly cold.

“Mmm…” Yu Qing groaned faintly in pain, half-conscious as her head slammed heavily against Lu Yan’s chest.

So hard… is it a rock…?

Hearing that broken inner thought, Lu Yan’s heart—suspended in his throat—finally settled.

Thank goodness. She was still breathing.

On the other side, Shen Jue steadily caught Su Hewan.

The woman in his arms was as light as a feather. Her face was pale as paper, and the marks on her wrists from the ropes were so deep the bone nearly showed—her flesh torn and bloody.

Su Hewan forced her eyes open. Through her blurred vision, she saw that familiar devilishly handsome face.

Shen… Shen Jue… I knew… you’d come… You’re… the variable in history…

Then her head tilted to the side, and she lost consciousness completely.

Shen Jue’s arms tightened sharply around her. A storm of blood-red fury surged into his eyes.

“Kill!”

The elite agents of the Eastern Depot and the Imperial Guard, who had long been lying in ambush around the abandoned residence, surged in like a black tide. With thunderous battle cries, they smashed through the walls and rushed inside!

The situation reversed instantly.

“Useless! A bunch of useless trash!”

The triumph on Zhao Jieyu’s face shattered in an instant.

She had never imagined that the two men who had just been speaking humbly for the sake of those women would act with such ruthless decisiveness the moment they struck!

“Attack! Stop them! Take those two women back!”

She screamed, frantically shaking the small bell in her hand.

The mutated drug puppets, who had been standing blankly before, instantly turned their eyes blood-red at the sound of the bell and roared as they charged toward Shen Jue and Lu Yan.

These drug puppets had thick skin and tough flesh. They feared neither blades nor swords, and their strength was monstrous. When ordinary weapons struck them, the sound was like metal clashing against stone.

“Take them and go!”

Shen Jue handed Su Hewan to one of his trusted subordinates and drew the flexible sword from his waist in a single motion.

The sword’s light gleamed like snow—yet at this moment it was the scythe of death.

“Trying to leave? In your dreams!”

Seeing that the situation was lost, Consort Zhao cast a venomous glance at Su Hewan and Yu Qing as they were escorted away. Suddenly, she smashed a black sphere in her hand onto the ground.

“Bang—!”

Thick purple smoke instantly spread through the air.

“Hold your breath! It’s poisonous!” Lu Yan swung his Xiuchun saber, sweeping it across as he beheaded a medicinal puppet that tried to launch a sneak attack.

By the time the smoke cleared, Zhao Jieyu had already vanished.

Only a trail of blood remained on the ground, stretching toward a nearby branch of the moat.

“The painted boat!”

The Jinshui River — the Wangyou Pleasure Boat.

That was her stronghold, and also her final escape route.

“Lu Yan, clean this place up. Leave no one alive,” Shen Jue said as he wiped a drop of blood splashed on his cheek. A bloodthirsty smile appeared on his stunningly handsome face.

“I’ll go after her.”

Lu Yan cleaved another medicinal puppet in half and sneered. “You think you can order me around? Cut the nonsense—let’s go together! That madwoman’s life is mine!”

The two men exchanged a glance, each seeing the same relentless madness in the other’s eyes.

Tonight, if a god stands in their way, they’ll kill a god. If a Buddha stands in their way, they’ll kill a Buddha.

Along the banks of the Jinshui River, flames soared into the sky.

The once decadent Wangyou Pleasure Boat, a place of endless revelry and indulgence, had now been riddled with countless flaming arrows like a pincushion.

The Jinyiwei’s powerful crossbows and the Eastern Depot’s fire oil had turned the enormous pleasure boat into a floating inferno.

“Boom!”

Shen Jue and Lu Yan leapt down one after the other, landing on the deck.

Corpses of medicinal puppets lay scattered everywhere across the deck. And at the deepest part of the sea of flames—

On the pavilion at the top deck, Zhao Jieyu stood there.

She had changed into a wedding dress as red as blood, her face painted with an extremely seductive, demonic makeup.

Amid the roaring fire, she looked like a dying vengeful ghost.

“Governor Shen, Lord Lu—you still came after all.”

Holding a cup of wine, Zhao Jieyu looked at the two men approaching her. There wasn’t a trace of fear on her face. Instead, she burst into shrill laughter.

“What? Still unwilling to let me go?”

Sword in hand, Shen Jue advanced step by step, the firelight reflecting in his dark, sinister eyes.

“You hurt her. So you must die.”

“Die?” Zhao Jieyu threw her head back and drained the wine in her cup in one gulp.

“I am the Saintess of Eternal Life. How could I die? I’m merely going to another world, to follow my former master!”

“Eternal Life?” Lu Yan frowned.

“That’s right!” Zhao Jieyu suddenly spread her arms wide, the large red sleeves of her wedding dress fluttering wildly in the heat.

“You think I’m just a discarded concubine? Hahaha! I refined those medicinal puppets not to compete for favor—but to overthrow this rotten Li imperial dynasty!”

She pointed toward the direction of the palace, her voice hoarse with hysteria.

“This world has long since rotted! The Empress Dowager manipulates the court, the imperial relatives are full of ambition, the new emperor is weak and useless, and the people are forced to eat their own children! Only Eternal Life—only by turning everyone into ignorant, painless medicinal puppets—can this world achieve true bliss!”

Shen Jue looked at her coldly, without the slightest ripple in his gaze.

“Your bliss doesn’t interest me. I only know one thing—”

“You touched my people. So you’ll pay the price.”

Before his words had even finished, sword energy flashed like a rainbow.

Shen Jue’s figure vanished instantly from where he stood.

Zhao Jieyu didn’t even attempt to dodge.

Looking at the sword thrusting toward her, a strange expression of relief appeared on her face.

“Shen Jue… you’re a pitiful man too… Do you think you can protect that little palace maid? Beneath imperial power, everyone is just an ant… I’ll wait for you in hell… hahaha!”

“Puchi—”

The sound of a blade piercing a heart was especially clear amid the crackling of the flames.

Zhao Jieyu’s body trembled as blood soaked through her wedding dress.

Yet she staggered and began to dance within the blazing fire, until the flames completely devoured her body.

The enormous pleasure boat groaned under the strain and slowly sank into the icy river.

Shen Jue sheathed his sword, glanced once at the gradually dying flames—

Then turned and walked away.