Chapter 346: Soul‑Switch Technique! Who Exactly Is She?

Indeed, they are all assassins of the Night‑Killing Gate.

Just by looking at the numbers, they must have all arrived.

Zheng Mama, who had just hurriedly chased after them, was startled by the sight of such a crowd.

"Miss, what is this…?"

Li Qingluo: "Mama, please settle them all in the front courtyard first, and after I return handle the rest of the arrangements."

"Also, arrange beds for them; don't let them just stand there dumbfounded."

Then she casually pointed to two of them, telling them to follow her.

The Night‑Killing Gate assassins stared at each other, and only after Li Qingluo left quickly with the two did they look up toward the doorway before them.

Xiuli Jiangjun Fu.

They… can really stand openly in the light and still have beds to sleep on?

On the way to Prince Su's residence, Leng Dian recounted the whole matter.

"Miss, Po Feng was injured a bit."

Li Qingluo: "How was he injured? From their looks, the Qin Ling couple don't seem to know any martial arts, do they?"

Moreover, Po Feng's martial skill is the best among the Four Great Guards, how could he be so easily harmed?

Leng Dian: "Yesterday, Po Feng took men to the Qishan Medicine Lodge to capture that pair of jackal‑wolf couple."

"But we didn't expect—when we went, Miss, guess where she saw whom?"

Li Qingluo's heart hammered in her chest.

"Who?"

Almost supernaturally, she blurted a name: "Ku Lianqiao?"

Leng Dian looked at her in surprise: "How did you guess, Miss?"

She really hasn't died!

Li Qingluo's mind instantly became a swirl of countless thoughts.

She hadn't slept all night, so she spent a long time reading the notes Zaina left her and organized them.

When she first obtained these items, Li Qingluo thought they were only some poison formulas that Zaina had spent years perfecting.

A few special notes, however, were things she had discovered over many years in DaLiang that were absent in their MiaoJiang.

For example, rare toxins and the principles of mutual generation and overcoming.

Like the Rakshasa centipede.

But as she examined them one by one last night, she discovered there were also some bafflingly bizarre and secret witchcraft techniques.

The more Li Qingluo read, the more she was shocked into a cold sweat.

She carefully bound the notes, knowing they might prove truly useful to her in the future.

"Just a guess."

"Ku Lianqiao used to serve Princess Qin Yu; since she truly hasn't died, what she's looking for must be someone she knows."

"If she still wore her former face and dared to parade around, she probably couldn't even enter Jinling."

"So, she went to find Qin Ling's disguise?"

Leng Dian gave a slight smile: "Your guess is correct, Miss."

"Ku Lianqiao is lying in a room, and Qin Ling is disguising her now."

"When Po Feng took men there, our people surrounded the medicine lodge. Ku Lianqiao released a swarm of poisonous insects; many were harmed."

"Po Feng was bitten by a poisonous snake while trying to capture Qin Ling."

"However, once Qin Ling was captured, Li Yunchu didn't flee; the couple were both taken back."

Arriving at Prince Su's residence, Li Qingluo glanced at the princess's residence whose gate was shut tight.

That day Qin Yu was gravely wounded by herself; it's unknown whether she is now convalescing in that princess's residence.

No white mourning banners were raised, and no death notice arrived; it seems she is still alive.

Deng Mama is gone.

The perpetrator, however, still lives.

How unjust and yet ridiculous is the world?

Thinking of how she has fought her way here, even though she has taken revenge and broken the deadlock of her previous life.

Yet under these imperial powers, she is still merely an ant that people look down on and manipulate.

But on what grounds?

She is a princess of two nations, lofty and powerful, capable of turning clouds with a hand and rain with a flip, possessing grand schemes to overturn the court—does that give her the right to despise others' lives and treat every life beneath her rank as a stepping stone for her ambition?

She preaches fairness, liberty, equality.

False benevolence, false righteousness, a hypocritical façade!

One day, she will tear off her utmost hypocrisy, exposing the true face that, while spouting moral righteousness, is actually full of selfish, insidious motives!

Li Qingluo's eyes gathered deep hatred.

She followed Leng Dian, quickening her pace into Prince Su's residence, while on the other side the princess's residence also received news.

"Princess, Qin Ling… Qin Ling was captured by Po Feng, the guard of Prince Su's residence."

The maid approached the bed, trembling as she knelt.

In the disaster at the Spring Banquet Tower, four of their sisters died, leaving only three maids by the princess's side now.

Everyone was deeply sorrowful, but fortunately the princess had awakened.

Yet a string of bad news kept coming.

"Also… Blessed Full Tower, in the past two days it has been boycotted by every restaurant in Jinling, and Zhuangzi, who supplies us with the source ingredients, has also encountered successive mishaps."

Besides this…… several other shops also experienced various mishaps.

Qin Yu's injury this time is very serious.

She had a large gash on her body; although it didn't pierce her abdomen, she almost died from infection and excessive blood loss.

This is the first time she has suffered such a serious injury since coming to this world.

She had almost walked through the gates of hell.

Today, she finally came to.

Just moments ago she was still forcing herself to drink the bitter, hard-to-swallow black medicine; hearing this news, she felt only a buzzing in her head.

Everything else is nothing; they're trivial little matters.

Only Qin Ling can make this scar on her body heal completely, leaving no trace.

If Qin Ling is gone, isn't her life basically over?

This is ancient times!

For a woman, an extra scar is a matter of life and death.

How can she still become the future empress of DaLiang?

Qin Yu angrily knocked over the medicine bowl.

What's going on!? He was fine, why did Duan Rongshi arrest him!?

Could it be just to take revenge for my scheming against his beloved?

The maid trembled, afraid to reply.

Qin Yu's heart burned with anger.

Li Qingluo, that wretched thing!

I haven't even settled the score with her for burning my Spring Banquet Pavilion and killing my personal maid, yet she dares to seduce Prince Su and have him target me!

Qin Yu's eyes filled with dark hatred; if she weren't restrained from stirring her liver fire, she would love to personally take a sword and kill that wretched thing!

Your Highness, why stir up such great anger?

With a voice coming, a familiar figure entered Qin Yu's sleeping chambers.

Seeing the person, Qin Yu finally showed joy: 'Lian Qiao!?'

Lian Qiao, where exactly did you go!?

I have searched everywhere for you; don't you know I was nearly driven mad with worry!

Saying this, she again scolded the maid: 'Bold, Lian Qiao has returned, why didn't you report to me?'

The maid lowered her head, and Lian Qiao stepped forward: 'Your Highness, don't blame her. I told her not to say.'

However, Your Highness, your Lian Qiao is actually already dead.

Qin Yu stared in shock: 'What are you saying? I can't understand you; aren't you perfectly fine right in front of me?'

Lian Qiao knelt on one knee, slowly lifted her head to look at Qin Yu, a hint of sorrow in her eyes: 'Because... I am not the real Lian Qiao at all.'

Prince Su's mansion.

Duan Rongshi: 'You mean Lian Qiao is actually Zuliya?'

Zuliya used poisonous witchcraft to transfer herself into Lian Qiao's body?

How is this possible? The world actually has such a soul‑swapping technique—wouldn't the whole dynasty be thrown into chaos?

Li Qingluo: 'Your Highness, according to Zha Yina's notes, this technique comes from the Western Regions; it is their secret art, its use extremely stringent, not something just anyone can do.'

Both sisters come from the Western Regions, having inherited both witch doctoring and MiaoJiang Witchcraft Technique, which is why they are so formidable!

In the garden, everyone around had been dismissed.

Only Li Qingluo and Duan Rongshi sat amidst the spring surrounded by fluttering blossoms.

Before them lay many pastries she loved, plus a pot of flower tea.

Duan Rongshi sat cross‑legged opposite her, listening to her low, hoarse voice slowly speak……

Their maternal aunt, Zha Yina's, had long ago married a man from MiaoJiang.

Later, when the aunt returned to the Western Regions to visit relatives, Zha Yina's and Zuliya's parents died accidentally in a turmoil.

They were then taken to MiaoJiang and exposed to Witchcraft Technique.

According to Zha Yina's notes, the sisters, being outsiders, had been ostracized and bullied for years.

They therefore worked especially hard; ultimately the sisters did not disappoint their aunt's hopes, becoming outstanding among the MiaoJiang witch maidens.

They became disciples of Cloud Valley; Zuliya was steady and introverted, while Zha Yina was lively and active, so she set out to travel south and north, to see the world.

When she grew up, she returned to the Western Regions and avenged her parents.

Before leaving, she by chance met a Western Regions witch doctor, and in an accident learned this secret technique.

At that time, the witch doctor, to save a noble's son, swapped his soul into the body of the noble's foolish younger brother.

Zha Yina witnessed it on the spot and was terrified, not realizing the world still held such an evil technique.

But this also sparked her love of learning and strong interest, so she followed that person for two years, trying every means, until she finally understood what this secret technique really was.

The so‑called soul‑returning technique is not infallible; it requires favorable timing, location, and people to succeed.

Moreover, there is a great chance of backlash, causing both to lose their lives instead.

Also because it is overly nefarious, it is explicitly banned in the Western Regions; anyone caught using this method by a witch doctor is immediately hanged.

Thus, this technique is nearly extinct in the Western Regions.

First, one must have a blood‑relative relationship and must not be beyond the five degrees of mourning.

Second, the two must have compatible eight characters (birth signs).

Third, the one whose soul is to be replaced must die with immense resentment, then ingest talisman‑blood water to seal the soul.

Otherwise, the swapped‑soul person, after death becomes a vicious ghost; if it then attacks the host, the host's soul becomes unstable and can easily lose the body again.

"Fourth, after a soul swap, one must also drink the spiritual‑talisman blood water for forty‑nine days to stabilize one's own body."

Li Qingluo said it herself, and she shivered violently.

"Zha Yina also said that after she returned to MiaoJiang, she told this evil technique to Zu Li Ya."

"However, she considered this method extremely sinister, so although she once thought of giving her daughter a new body, she later did not harm any of the Pei family's descendants, and she only recorded the technique in her notes."

Although Zha Yina is not a good person either.

but Zu Li Ya is many times more evil and ruthless than her.