Chapter 933

You Xingchen, having dog food forcibly shoved into his mouth, turned his face dark.

"In any case, take care of yourself. I heard you went to Penglinjiequ—how's the situation there? Do you need reinforcements?"

"Xingchen Shu, Penglai…"

"…"

Fang Yue saw him merely twitch his lips, offering no objection to the title, and continued: "In Penglinjiequ, the leadership of the rebel Black Moon organization has been eradicated; the remaining stragglers are being handled by the Blue Guards who arrived. Though the battlefield was extremely brutal, right now, no additional reinforcements are needed."

You Xingchen nodded, acknowledging, asked a few more questions, then hurried away.

The moment You Xingchen left, You Sisi's tense body instantly relaxed, and she let out a long breath.

"You seem pretty afraid of him?"

"Except for Grandpa, nearly all major affairs in the You Family are handled by Xingchen Shu. My parents died early, and I was raised under his casual supervision—he was very strict with me."

You Sisi tried to keep it brief, but from her tone, it was clearly more than ordinary strictness.

A genius isn't just about talent—it's also about greater-than-average effort and access to teaching resources.

Clearly, You Sisi's rise above her peers owed much to You Xingchen's efforts, yet their relationship seemed tense.

"Actually, Xingchen Shu taught me for only a short time. After a certain period, he suddenly stopped entirely and handed my Martial Arts training over to others. I was confused—why switch teachers when he had no urgent matters? I always thought I'd done something to upset him, until I gradually realized it was because I'm a girl."

Fang Yue blinked: "What do you mean?"

"To get married!" You Sisi rolled her eyes at him.

In big families, if a girl doesn't achieve something on her own to change gender perceptions, she'll most likely end up as a political bride.

Perhaps even then, Grandpa and the other You Family elders had already secretly decided her fate.

That's why You Xingchen withdrew—no point wasting more time on a girl destined to become a political bride.

Even so, You Sisi still achieved what she has now through her exceptional talent and diligent effort.

Though she can't compare to monsters like Fang Yue, or prodigies like Tail, or Mu Liu.

But compared to ordinary peers, she's outstanding, worthy of pride.

Unfortunately, she still failed to gain the family's recognition, and couldn't escape the fate of political marriage.

This was the limit of her stubborn struggle—yet to those in the family, it was just a farce.

"What are you thinking about?" Fang Yue asked, puzzled as he saw You Sisi staring blankly.

But You Sisi only shook her head and smiled sweetly: "Nothing."

The moment she finished speaking, You Xingchen—who had just left—returned, his face as dark as water.

He clearly saw the two of them, yet walked past without stopping, leaving only one sentence that left them frozen in shock.

"Newest message from the front: the Sixth and Seventh Princes died in Qi Huang Fu. The situation has spiraled out of control. You are not to leave the house even a single step for now."

The "you" here naturally referred to You Sisi.

After You Xingchen passed by and joined You Xu, Xu Shu's eyes widened, his mind went numb, and he instinctively glanced toward You Sisi.

The Seventh Prince… dead?

Then the You Family's political marriage arrangement… was it ruined?

Even Xu Shu, who trusted You Sisi so deeply, briefly entertained the thought that she might have done it.

But at this moment, You Sisi and Fang Yue hadn't reacted yet—they were still stunned by the news.

"The Sixth and Seventh Princes died? Both killed in Qi Huang Fu?"

"How could this happen? Was it the Fifth Huang Nu? No—based on her reaction then, though she wanted to eliminate the Seventh Prince, she feared retaliation and had no intention of acting herself. So these two princes' deaths are suspicious."

The Fourth Prince was already killed by the Fifth Huang Nu; now the Sixth and Seventh Princes are dead too.

Of the Nine Great Princes, three have died at once.

The pace of change in Jingcheng was far faster and more violent than he'd imagined.

While Fang Yue was still reeling from the news of the two princes' deaths, in the training yard, Lin Ling felt a surge of power within him—the force hidden inside him for so long, the power of Lord Han, began to stir, threatening to burst free.

"Just a little more, just a little more!!"

…

Qi Huang Fu.

It had been only a few days since his last visit, yet now, returning here, he found a scene like hell.

Though some cleanup had been done, the horrifying piles of corpses and the blood-soaked ground still made one feel nauseated.

On the way, Fang Yue recognized some familiar faces—servants he'd occasionally met while living in Qi Huang Fu.

Now, all of them lay dead, motionless on the ground.

"Xingchen Shu, do you know who did this?"

Fang Yue asked, puzzled.

At this moment, Fang Yue was alone, accompanying You Xingchen and the others from the Blue Guard.

After all, officially, he was still a Red Clothes of the Blue Guard; accompanying You Xingchen to the scene was part of his duty.

As for You Sisi, it wasn't convenient—she was essentially under house arrest.

She was forbidden to leave the You Family compound for now.

With princes being murdered, nowhere in Jingcheng was safe; better to stay inside the You Family, protected.

As for the Seventh Prince's marriage arrangement, they'd have to wait for the Emperor's return.

"When it happened, someone escaped alive from Qi Huang Fu and said many shadow-like creatures emerged in the mansion—they attacked the Sixth and Seventh Princes and killed them both."

Fang Yue frowned: "That's too absurd. And if strange entities infiltrated Jingcheng, why was there no reaction at all? The Black Moon organization before, and now these shadow entities—same silence."

Logically, Jingcheng's detection arrays for strange entities should be the strongest in Qing Guo.

"In a way, Jingcheng's detection methods are actually behind other towns, because when the arrays were built, they used the most advanced technology of the time, with massive resources poured in."

Later, technology advanced and array techniques improved, but updating Jingcheng's arrays became too time-consuming and labor-intensive. Delayed again and again, it became a historical problem—now they only do periodic checks for malfunctions and make slow, partial, regional upgrades."

He paused, then You Xingchen said, "As for the matter of Qi Huang Fu, I too am puzzled. Although the two princes are not as powerful as the clan elders of the Four Great Families, their strength has always been considerable—they simply rarely fight. How could they be deliberately killed by merely a dozen unknown Shadows? Could it be that these Shadows are strange, each possessing strength around the Li Level?"

(End of Chapter)