Chapter 475

Just as everyone was discussing countermeasures.

Suddenly.

A sound of clashing blades was heard from outside.

When Cheng Cheng Shifei, Shangguan Haitang, and the others rushed out, they saw Grand Secretary Fu Fu Tiecheng and several guards already lying in a pool of blood.

Cheng Cheng Shifei and Guihai Yidao immediately joined the fray, tangling with the black-clad assassins.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Shangguan Haitang seized the opportunity to throw a handful of phosphorus powder at the leader of the assassins, who possessed the highest martial arts. Seeing the situation turn against him, the leader used light-body techniques to escape, while Shangguan Haitang pursued the trail left by the assassin leader.

She chased all the way to the door of Duan Tianya and his wife's room.

The door suddenly opened, and Yagyu Piaoxu walked out anxiously.

"Sister-in-law!" Shangguan Haitang called out.

"Shangguan Haitang!" Yagyu Piaoxu grabbed Shangguan Haitang's hand tightly.

"What's wrong?"

"Lang'er has been taken away." Yagyu Piaoxu was extremely panicked; Lang'er was the child of her and Duan Tianya.

She said that several ninjas had broken in and taken her child, and Duan Tianya had already gone to chase them, adding that if she hadn't crippled her own martial arts, she would definitely be able to help right now.

Shangguan Haitang comforted her, saying that Lang'er was a good person and would surely be safe.

Yagyu Piaoxu then asked Shangguan Haitang what she was doing here.

Shangguan Haitang said she had tracked a ninja here but had lost the trail.

Upon hearing the word "ninja," Yagyu Piaoxu's face changed drastically. She was very panicked, suspecting that it was the Yagyu Shin-kage school coming to avenge her father, Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami. As she spoke, Yagyu Piaoxu looked pitiful and terrified.

Shangguan Haitang told her not to overthink it and promised to investigate everything. After speaking, Shangguan Haitang helped Yagyu Piaoxu back into the house.

"Then I'll be going." Shangguan Haitang said goodbye.

"You must be careful." Yagyu Piaoxu said with concern.

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

Both Shangguan Haitang and Yagyu Piaoxu were beautiful and very pleasing to the eye.

Many viewers even started shipping them as a couple.

But on Earth, countless viewers rewatching this show would leave comments like "High energy ahead," "I dare not watch anymore," "Childhood trauma," "Shangguan Haitang, promise me, don't look back, okay? 563," "Run away," and so on.

As Shangguan Haitang walked away from Yagyu Piaoxu, step by step, her expression seemed to be deep in thought. When she reached the door, she stopped, her eyes widening with what looked like tears, as if she had guessed something.

To verify her suspicion, a long silver needle appeared in her hand.

In an instant, the needle flew from her fingertips, accurately hitting the wick of the candle in the room and extinguishing it.

The room was plunged into darkness.

At the same time, a breeze blew, stirring Yagyu Piaoxu's hair. She turned to look at Shangguan Haitang, and the previous panic, fear, and pitiful look had all vanished. In their place were cold eyes and the phosphorus powder clearly visible on her icy, pretty face.

The phosphorus powder emitted a faint white glow in the dark night, like stars in the sky—beautiful and dreamlike—but it made countless viewers' hair stand on end, a chill rushing from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads!

At this moment.

The comments suddenly became very quiet; for the first time since the show started, the screen was empty.

Countless people were in disbelief.

Countless people were shocked beyond measure.

No one expected that Yagyu Piaoxu, who had crippled her own martial arts and married Duan Tianya, was actually a major villain!

They just didn't know that the tear-jerking nuclear bomb was entering its countdown and was about to detonate!

"Oh my god!"

"The plot twist is too scary!"

"Yagyu Piaoxu is actually a master schemer, hiding all this time; she never crippled her martial arts at all!"

"The Divine Marquis personally verified that Yagyu Piaoxu crippled her martial arts. With his skill, it's impossible he didn't discover it. In other words, this was a trap set by the Divine Marquis from the very beginning; Yagyu Piaoxu is his person!"

"Just now, when killing Fu Fu Tiecheng, Yagyu Piaoxu used 'Dominating the World'!"

"It's terrifying to think about. The person who killed Master Jie used 'Dominating the World.' Could it have been Yagyu Piaoxu?"

"Horrifying!"

"Shivering!"

"Every pore on my body is saying it's scared."

"The world of these schemers is just too terrifying. If I traveled into 'World's Number One,' I probably wouldn't survive one episode."

"You overestimate yourself."

"By the way, Yagyu Piaoxu's martial arts must be higher than Shangguan Haitang's, right?"

"Definitely! Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami once said himself that Yagyu Piaoxu had received his true teachings!"

"Holy crap, Shangguan Haitang, run!"

"..."

At this moment.

Countless viewers became nervous for Shangguan Haitang.

However, not many were truly worried, as Shangguan Haitang was the most likable female character in the entire show; how could she be killed off?

And on the screen.

Shangguan Haitang asked Yagyu Piaoxu in disbelief: "Why? Why is it you?"

Yagyu Piaoxu did not answer directly but asked in return: "Why did you have to expose me? Wouldn't it have been better to play dumb?"

Shangguan Haitang shook her head sadly: "I was almost fooled by you just now. You said you severed one of your meridians, but when I held your hands, your pulse was normal, with no damage at all."

Yagyu Piaoxu's voice was extremely cold: "That's right, I killed Fu Fu Tiecheng. My martial arts were never lost."

"Why do you know 'Dominating the World'?"

Yagyu Piaoxu did not hide it, blinking her beautiful large eyes as she explained: "That wasn't 'Dominating the World.' It was 'Killing God One-Blade Slash' combined with one-third of 'Dominating the World,' which is why the victim's wounds looked so much like 'Dominating the World' and 'Asura Three Blades'."

"It was you who killed those people and framed Guihai Yidao!" Shangguan Haitang finally uncovered the truth. Before this, she had felt it was very suspicious. Guihai Yidao was clearly removing his inner demons at Shuiyue Nunnery, yet people in the martial arts world and the capital were still being killed by 'Dominating the World.'

Now she knew that all of this was most likely done by Yagyu Piaoxu.

"Yes!" Yagyu Piaoxu remained calm and composed.

But the calmer she was, the more terrified the viewers felt, their heartbeats accelerating.

At this moment, Yagyu Piaoxu being so calm and confessing everything was truly eerie.

"Why did you do this?"

Yagyu Piaoxu slowly uttered four words: "Orders are like mountains."

All along, she had no choice.

"I could be ordered to marry Tianya, so what else could I not do?"

"Whose orders?"

"My father's."

"Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami, he didn't die?"

"No."

"So you and your father teamed up to deceive my big brother?"

"That's right." Yagyu Piaoxu replied: "We have always been deceiving him. We have been using a flawless plan to deceive him, but there was one error in this plan that I didn't calculate: I truly fell in love with Tianya."

"Why? What exactly is the purpose of your plan?"

Yagyu Piaoxu said calmly: "To help the Divine Marquis seize the throne and eliminate the Eastern Depot."

Shangguan Haitang's eyes widened in immense shock: "Even foster father is part of the plan? Did he arrange all of this?"

"From the day you stepped into the Giant Whale Gang, you have been walking step by step toward our plan. It was a trap set by the Divine Marquis, a heaven-shaking trap."

"We are all just pawns." Shangguan Haitang could no longer hold back; her emotions collapsed, and tears fell.

She never expected that despite her loyalty to her foster father, in the end, she was nothing but a pawn on his chessboard.

"Why tell me these things?"

This time, Yagyu Piaoxu did not answer.

Clang!

A sound of a blade being drawn suddenly rang out.

A flash of light passed over Yagyu Piaoxu's beautiful, charming, yet ruthless and cold eyes.

— Author's Notes —

PS: The "World's Number One" storyline ends tomorrow.