An instant after Yuelong's angered strike, a voice came from outside the carriage.

"My Lady, is everything fine?"

Tianfei gave Yuelong a ponderous look before calmly replying, "Yes, everything is fine. Thank you."

The voice outside quietened, not asking anything more.

Inside the carriage, Feng Tianfei clasped her hands and softly explained, "Your fury is understandable. That said, the course that I took ensured minimal losses and maximum results."

Her expression then grew severe and grave as she continued, "This is no longer a game, Yuelong. There is no safe, controlled environment that will see us come out with no sacrifices." A short pause later, she said, "This is the real world."

"I know!" hissed Yuelong. "I know that this is real and that is exactly why I'm furious!"

Pointing his finger at her, Yuelong accusingly asked, "Tianfei! Do you dare touch your heart and tell me that you feel sorry for the men that have fallen? Do you dare say honestly that you saw them as anything more than mere 'numbers' that had to be tallied? Do you dare!?"

Tianfei derisively chuckled. "Need I remind you who it was among the two of us that ended up in such an embarrassing situation? If you had done a decent job in leading your troops, then perhaps this situation that warranted my help would have been completely avoided."

"Do not project your incompetence and failure onto me, Yuelong. Unlike the women of the Mu Household, I will not stand quietly and bear all the blame that men throw at me."

"You! How dare you speak of my family that way!?"

"Well, am I wrong?" Tianfei wore a mocking smile on her face. "Tell me. Were any of my words wrong?"

Yuelong burned with fury yet found no words to rebut her. Tianfei's words were true. It was his incompetence that resulted in his forces landing in such a precarious situation.

"Also, you speak that I have wronged your men. However, have you considered my own?" continued Tianfei. "Why must I sacrifice the blood and flesh of my Heavenly Spirit Empire to save yours? Because we are 'allies?' Please! Don't be so naïve."

"Allies are allies only when it is convenient to the interests of both parties."

Yuelong's face paled and fists loosened when he heard her harsh words. Her words were cruel but it was the truth.

With a cold expression and heartless tone, she said, "Remember this. The only reason why I even bothered to come back and save you was because of your status as my 'fiancé.' Had it been anyone else, I wouldn't have even bothered."

Yuelong's breath hitched. His face grew even paler. A minute of silence later, he couldn't help but ask. "Tianfei, do you… no, have you ever loved me?"

At his sudden question, Feng Tianfei's expression grew strange. She then chuckled and answered, "Why bother asking something that you already know the answer to?"

Yuelong's gaze grew lost and his fists tightened. A profound sense of pain filled his heart.

Once again, it was like she said; he knew the answer.

---

Sometime later, someone knocked on the window of the carriage. A small slit opened on the door next to Tianfei, out of which a sealed letter arrived. Tianfei received the letter, broke the seal, and immediately glanced at the contents.

Exhaling a sigh, she solemnly said, "Port Somei has fallen to the enemy. Our supply lines have been cut."

Yuelong looked startled. "It fell? How?"

Tianfei showed him a weird glance before explaining with a sigh. "I received word that a company of Hielanders breached the city, killed the guards and administrators and assumed control over the populace."

"They laid a siege? But how could the city fall so quickly!?"

"They didn't. It appears that they were invited into the city." Before Yuelong could voice his question over this matter, Tianfei explained. "The Hielanders possessed a letter that stated that they were allies of the Heavenly Spirit Empire faction. It also stated they had some special mission to carry out within the city and therefore, required entrance."

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"And your people believed that?" asked Yuelong, stupefied.

Giving him another look, Tianfei softly said, "The letter was signed and stamped with the seal of the Mu Household's Governor-General."

Yuelong fell into a daze. It took him an instant to understand her words. Then, he immediately screamed with disbelief. "My seal!? That's impossible! How could the letter bear my seal!?"

Tianfei shrugged her shoulders and handed him the letter. "That's what's written here."

Grabbing the paper from her hands, Yuelong desperately scanned its contents. It described the exact matters explained by Tianfei.

"No. It cannot be! How could it be my seal!? My seal is locked inside a hidden safe within the mayor's office in Lorden City! How could the Hielanders gain access to--!!!" Yuelong suddenly felt his thoughts come to a halt. A startling revelation appeared within his mind.

His anxiety and hurriedness disappeared as a chilling feeling filled his heart and limbs. His fiery thoughts cooled as calmness returned to his mind. In a calm voice, he asked Tianfei, "When did Lorden City fall?"

"The day after you departed. It was also overtaken by the Hielanders; also without any major battle taking place. I couldn't believe it myself when I read the report honestly," replied Tianfei, his sudden calmness and expression confusing her. A curious expression overcame her face as she asked, "Why do you ask?"

Yuelong realized the truth. He understood exactly who was behind the Hielanders. He did not have any evidence and honestly, his suspicion appeared quite ludicrous. However, his gut feeling told him that this was the truth; that it was this person who had so brilliantly orchestrated this entire sequence of events.

"Wuzhi…" Yuelong quietly uttered this name. An indescribably complex look appeared in his eyes.

Sitting close to him, Tianfei clearly heard Yuelong utter this foreign name. A brilliant light shined in the depths of her eyes as unknown thoughts formed and disappeared within her mind.

Without asking Yuelong for any explanations, she closed her eyes and gently rested against her seat cushions.

---

At the same time, in a different location.

"Wait, so you tricked the leaders of Port Somei to allow the Hielanders entry by using a fake letter signed and stamped with the seal of the Mu Household's Governor-General?" repeated Baixue, utterly shocked. "How did you get your hands on the seal!? Did you steal it?"

"Heavens no!" answered Wuzhi. "How could I steal the seal from Yuelong when I'm simply but a powerless scholar?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"How did you get it then?"

At that question, a brilliant smile appeared on the young scholar's face. "I simply waited until he left before taking it out from the safe that was hidden within his office."

"You took it from the hidden safe after he left? How did you know that it was hidden inside a safe? Or where the safe was? Or the combination to the safe?" Unable to keep her question to herself, Baixue fired them one after the other.

"Hold on, hold on. One question at a time," said Wuzhi. He then released a weary breath and said, "Let us sit down first and have a break first. I cannot climb any more when my legs are killing me."

Snorting at his complaints, Baixue bitingly said, "I wonder who it was that asked me to slaughter our horses out of the blue, crippling our only form of transportation?"

Wuzhi weakly chuckled at her accusations and did not reply. He sat upon a mountain rock and massaged his aching legs. Baixue took a seat near him and worriedly asked after a few minutes. "Do you want me to do something?"

Without the smallest trace of proprietary or shame, Wuzhi immediately asked, "Can you massage my legs?"

Baixue held herself back from hurling an icicle at his face. She did, however, condense a large ice cube in her hands and threw it to the scholar. "Use this. It will help with the swelling."

"This humble scholar thanks Fairy for her magnanimity," he joked.

After icing his legs and gathering his breath, Wuzhi proceeded to answer her queries one after the other. "How did I know that it was in the safe? It's simple. He told me that himself. The answers to the two following questions are also the same; he told me."

"He told you where the seal was and also the combination to the safe?"

"Indeed," replied Wuzhi, brilliantly.

"You are lying. Why would he do something that would jeopardize his mission? Unless," Baixue hesitated for an instant, "he is an idiot?"

At her words, Wuzhi directly broke into laughter. He laughed to the point that tears appeared at the rims of his eyes. "I do not know the answer to that question."

Wiping the tears from his eyes, he said, "As for why he told me; isn't it because I asked nicely and he felt bad for me?" A sneaky, mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"There!" Baixue suddenly exclaimed. "You have that bad smile again! I knew it! You ARE lying to me. Tell me, how did you do it?" She sat at the edge of her seat and leaned in close toward the scholar.

Wuzhi leaned back and looked away; the smiles on his face growing ever more brilliant. He did not tell Baixue the complete truth because that would force him to explain to her some of his deepest secrets.

'How could I tell her that I induced him to have a cultivation deviation and used the 'Heart Calming Sutra' to weaken his psyche and fish out a few answers from his unconscious?'

Back when Wuzhi met with Yuelong and the latter suffered from a cultivation deviation and Heart Demon formation, it wasn't out of coincidence. {AN: Refer Ch63}

On the contrary, it was Wuzhi who consciously guided Yuelong to suffer from the attack and used the opportunity while allaying the damage to receive a few answers from Yuelong's weakened psyche; the location of the Governor-General's seal and the combination of the safe that held it included.

Wuzhi had originally planned to sneakily and smoothly accomplish this task. Against the odds, however, he ran into some trouble during the process when he realized that Yuelong's subconscious possessed some defensive mechanisms left in there by his Sovereign father. The injuries that Wuzhi suffered during the treatment were precisely the result of accidentally triggering a few of these defensive countermeasures.

In the end, while he couldn't ask a few sensitive questions for the risk of triggering a more severe countermeasure, Wuzhi was quite happy with his gains. And the best part of this whole ordeal was that Yuelong could not remember any of this ever occurring!

This was the threat and advantage of a newly founded Path.