Chapter 282: Volume 1 Chapter 282 Empress x Top Courtesan (12)

Half an hour later.

After changing the medicine and wrapping the wound with clean gauze, Jiang Zhi's fingers felt slightly sore, she tightened and loosened them, saying: 'All done.'

Just as she was about to take away the used gauze, she caught sight of the boy's sleeping face lying on the bed.

She involuntarily extended her fingertip, brushed aside a strand of his black hair at his forehead, touched his warm forehead; the skin was soft and delicate, his eyelashes long, thick, and curled, casting a faint shadow beneath his eyes.

Having experienced so many worlds, Jiang Zhi does not deny her fondness for Yun Jin; gradually, she inexplicably favors his soul fragments.

Even if he does not know her in each world, having changed identity and personality, Jiang Zhi still recognizes him immediately and does not care whether he will remember her.

Quick transmigrators can forget love and affection anywhere; feelings fundamentally require sincerity in exchange—if one does not love the mission target, no matter how well one plays the original host, one is merely an empty shell.

But liking and changing one's views are two different matters.

Yun Jin has his own path, which is completely different from hers; no matter how much Jiang Zhi likes him, she will not betray her original intention—this is her bottom line.

She lowered her body, pressed her lips to the boy's forehead, and gave him a light kiss.

【Villain corruption value decreased by 7 points, remaining 76 points.】

——

Wen Ci stayed at the guard residence for nearly a month to recover from his injuries; she often left early in the morning, returned at noon to bring him a meal, then hurriedly left again, only coming back at night.

During this month, whenever the first personality emerged, Jiang Zhi would talk with him more and also teach him sword practice to train his body.

When the second personality appeared, she rarely spoke with him; most of the time he himself was unwilling to speak, wearing a stern face as if others owed him money.

Infuriatingly arrogant.

The good news is that the corruption value has dropped below 50 points, victory is within sight.

It's just that the male side character Yan Yao often loiters in front of her, many times delivering Wen Ci's meal late; the first personality says nothing, but the second personality gets angry and may not speak to her all day.

Especially tonight, Yan Yao entered her sleeping chambers without being summoned.

"Ah Zhi!"

Before he entered, Jiang Zhi quickly stuffed the guard uniform into the bedding.

She felt helpless, her gaze falling on the solemn, stern face of the young chancellor, she paused for a moment and asked: "What is it?"

What's wrong with the usually calm and composed Yan Yao tonight? He is so anxious.

Yan Yao: "I received a secret report that the Leng Fu and Xu Jia have allied, gathering troops to rebel."

Jiang Zhi's movements abruptly halted; she pretended to be furious, but inside she was greatly surprised.

"How did this plot advance so early?"

777 said: "Because the host let the male lead Xu Rui spend the night and humiliated him, the female lead accelerated her scheming to seize power."

In the true storyline, the female lead Leng Qianyan had lain low for a long time, preparing for five full years, and only when she felt confident did she raise troops to attack the imperial city.

But she overlooked the villain, consequently narrowly avoiding capture; ultimately relying on the female lead's halo, she brought the male lead Xu Rui to flee Jiang State, occupying a city to recuperate.

This time the plot advanced early; the female lead Leng Qianyan took a deviant path, colluding with the enemy and betraying the nation, cooperating with other states, borrowing troops to directly assault the imperial palace and behead the empress.

Jiang State took the lead, its troops strong and horses sturdy; the other two countries trembled with fear, afraid that the original host, this madman, would attack them, so upon receiving Leng Qianyan's trade invitation, they agreed without hesitation.

With inside and outside cooperation, the unprepared Jiang Zhi will not survive tonight.

As the male side character, how could Yan Yao obtain the female lead's information? He likely also got the news as quickly as possible and came to find her at once.

After Jiang Zhi's fury subsided, she calmed down, issued orders, sent reinforcements outside the capital, then gathered the imperial palace's inner and outer guards to defend the city gates.

"Yan Yao, notify them immediately."

But all she did was in vain.

Since the original host could be called a tyrant, naturally many people resent her, wishing her dead; now that there is an opportunity, how could she let it pass?

After Yan Yao left, Jiang Zhi hastily changed into guard uniform, disguised herself, and ran toward the guard residence.

To her surprise, the residence was empty; Wen Ci was nowhere to be found.

Jiang Zhi could not conduct a conspicuous search; she could only look for him nearby herself.

In the imperial palace, unknown how they obtained the news of Leng Fu's rebellion, the palace servants scattered and fled toward the outer palace as if escaping for their lives.

Tonight, the entire imperial palace was unusually noisy.

Not far away, palace servants stumbled while running, their arms full of looted jewelry and gold, in utter chaos.

This is merely the situation in the side halls; as one approaches the main hall, it becomes even more tumultuous, with screams and wails intertwining, extremely piercing.

Jiang Zhi, dressed in guard uniform, saw a fleeing guard ahead who, seeing her moving nearby, kindly came forward to warn her.

"Run quickly, the Leng family has rebelled; I heard tens of thousands of troops are marching toward the imperial palace—if we don't flee now, they'll kill us all."

Jiang Zhi calmly replied: "Thank you, but I still have an older brother in the palace; I want to go rescue him—you run first."

Upon hearing that, the person said no more and quickly vanished into the night.

Jiang Zhi heard the distant morale-boosting cries echoing to the clouds, her heart tightened.

"Brother Seven, can you tell me where the villain is?"

777 hesitated: "I can, but each time I use my ability, host, you will suffer side effects."

"It's fine, give me his location." Jiang Zhi had already planned to completely eliminate the villain's corruption value tonight; side effects be damned—once the mission is done she will leave.

777 sighed: "Okay."

Before Jiang Zhi's eyes appeared a near‑transparent panel, flickering with a faint light in the darkness, clearly displaying a map marking her and the villain's locations.

She followed the prompt, stepping forward step by step.

Halfway there, she stopped, eyes fixed on the map.

Wen Ci's location was exactly her sleeping quarters.

So he left the guard residence to assassinate her?

In the plot.

The villain Wen Ci gradually gathered the power left behind by the fallen state. In fact, the country he was born in occupied a very small area, built in a remote forested mountain region, looking more like a clan, named the Boundary Dark Clan, which mainly focuses on assassination and intelligence gathering.

The clan members are spread across the entire continent, their abilities outstanding; whether it's assassination or intelligence gathering, their skills make all countries wary.

As the sole son of the clan chief, Wen Ci possesses great talent and is the next clan chief.

The clan is hidden, easy to defend but hard to attack; the three great states all sent troops to attack them, but never succeeded.

Only when the original protagonist personally led troops to encircle and suppress them was the entire clan wiped out.

Meanwhile, most of the Boundary Dark Clan's members hid in various countries; the sole survivor, Wen Ci, dispatched personal assassins from within the palace to kill the commanders of each army unit, then used the gathered intelligence as bargaining chip, gradually expanding his power, easily opposing the army brought by the female lead, and finally completely took control of Jiang State.