Outside Cangyuan Marquis Manor.
Guan Shanxue, dressed in night clothes, flashed out from a nearby street alley and lightly leaped onto a locust tree.
She quietly gazed toward Cangyuan Marquis Manor. The entire manor was peaceful and quiet, with only a few dim yellow lanterns lit in the courtyards and corridors.
"Why are the guards at Cangyuan Marquis Manor so lax?"
Under the hazy moonlight, Guan Shanxue surveyed the situation within the manor but saw no night watchmen or servants attending to the master's household moving about.
"Something's wrong. Cangyuan Marquis Manor has close ties with the Taiyin Yuan Sect. There must be experts stationed within the manor. I cannot let my guard down."
Guan Shanxue furrowed her brows slightly. Before dragging out Cang Yinyue who was hiding inside, she couldn't let the experts in the manor catch her, or tonight she would definitely be unable to avenge her humiliation.
Thinking of this, Guan Shanxue ran quickly along the manor's outer wall, coming to an inconspicuous corner of the back garden far from the houses and residences, then leaped up to scale the high wall.
She had thought that infiltrating the manor from such a remote location would not be easily detected by the experts within.
But to Guan Shanxue's surprise, in a flash she suddenly saw from afar a figure also dressed in night clothes appear in the back garden of the manor.
Taking advantage of the night, the other party used movement technique to quickly pass through the corridors, came to a corner of the back courtyard, and climbed over the wall.
Guan Shanxue, crouching on the outer wall, lowered her body, letting the tree shadows beside the wall conceal her form.
She watched that figure quickly disappear into a nearby alley, lightly furrowing her delicate brows, "Sneaking out of Cangyuan Marquis Manor at night, could it be Cang Yinyue?"
She had heard from constables at Six Doors today that this woman had somehow gone mad and actually reneged on her marriage arrangement with Fu Yu, which was truly extremely absurd.
This late at night, it wasn't impossible that the other party wanted to secretly escape the marriage.
Guan Shanxue glanced at Cangyuan Marquis Manor, hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to quietly pursue in the direction that figure had departed.
"I'll follow and see first. If it really is Cang Yinyue and I catch her and give her a beating, the Cangyuan Marquis would probably thank me."
A cold smile appeared on Guan Shanxue's cool face.
The movement technique she cultivated was learned from Divine Constable Guan Tianqian, called "Golden Goose Thirteen Forms." It made no sound when stepping on the ground and moved gracefully like a startled goose. It was naturally quite extraordinary, and even in the entire martial world, it was an extremely superior martial movement technique.
Therefore, although she was delayed for some time, before long she caught up with that figure.
Moreover, the other party was completely unaware that she was following behind.
…
Zhuyan Ward.
At the end of a bluestone path in the back courtyard of a large residence, an elegant and beautiful pavilion sat among verdant trees and flourishing flowers.
Candlelight burned on the second floor of the pavilion. At the vermilion window sill, a beautiful young woman held a sandalwood comb and combed her head of jet-black hair in front of the bronze mirror on her dressing table.
Her face was delicate and petite, gentle and graceful like a lady from a humble family. An incense burner burning in the room emitted a faint fragrance. Bed curtains hung softly beside the carved wooden bed, and as a breeze passed by, it gently stirred the gauze curtains by the window.
"Miss, it's time to retire."
A maidservant said softly with lowered head, walked to the window to glance outside, and raised her hand to close the open window.
Soon, the scene inside the room was obscured, leaving only the hazy window paper faintly showing the shadows of people moving.
Before long, the candlelight in the room was extinguished, and the entire pavilion was left in pitch darkness.
At this time, a masked figure in black clothes quietly arrived, landing on the tree crown outside the pavilion.
With a light flick of the hand, a foreign object instantly penetrated the window and flew into the young woman's boudoir. In the blink of an eye, a wisp of pale green smoke rose in the darkness.
A moment later, the figure in the tree lightly leaped. Palm wind swept through the air, silently shattering the second-floor window, and the figure took advantage of the momentum to slip into the room.
"This... isn't right!"
Guan Shanxue, who was following from behind, immediately sensed something was amiss.
Cang Yinyue naturally couldn't be breaking into a young woman's boudoir in the middle of the night, and clearly had even used sleeping smoke.
This was clearly a flower thief!
At this moment, Guan Shanxue suddenly recalled vaguely hearing constables at Six Doors discussing something.
They said that recently in three wards of Shangyang City, a lecher had appeared harming unmarried young women in their boudoirs.
Moreover, this thief not only defiled the women's chastity but also killed them by piercing their skulls with a strange claw technique, methods that could be called extremely cruel.
Thinking of this, a trace of killing intent immediately surfaced in Guan Shanxue's eyes.
Without another word, she lightly stepped down with her foot and, like a flying goose, also followed that figure into the room in the pavilion.
At the same time, cold ice true qi rapidly gathered beneath her hand, and her strike was the killing move "Cold Ice Divine Palm."
The Cold Ice Divine Palm was the divine technique that made Flying Snow Sect famous throughout the martial world. Not only was its power extremely strong, legend said that when cultivated to the ultimate level, a single palm strike could freeze rivers and break their flow.
Guan Shanxue used her ultimate move right from the start, clearly having the thought of directly slapping this flower thief to death with one palm.
Boom!
The next moment, a tremendous sound erupted in the dark room of the pavilion. The vibrating true qi aftermath shattered all the surrounding doors and windows into powder.
The flower thief was extremely alert. When the danger of Guan Shanxue's killing palm strike descended, he immediately reacted and thrust out a claw filled with sinister yin energy.
Thus, the two clashed with one move in the dark room.
At this moment, under the hazy night, one side of the entire pavilion was shrouded in frost, while the other side was piercingly cold.
But clearly, the flower thief's strength was superior. Guan Shanxue was knocked back several zhang, floating down to the tree crown outside the pavilion before barely stopping.
"Cold Ice Divine Palm? You're Guan Shanxue."
In the dark room of the pavilion, a cold voice rang out. This person's palm circulated true qi rapidly, dispelling the frozen stiffness of his fingers, and looked toward Guan Shanxue outside the pavilion with a sinister gaze.
Guan Shanxue grunted and a trace of fresh blood spilled from the corner of her mouth. She lowered her head to look at her own palm, which was wreathed with wisps of green yin energy.
The other party's martial cultivation was higher than hers. If she hadn't relied on the strength of the Cold Ice Divine Palm, plus her ambush while the other party hastily responded and couldn't display even fifty percent of his strength.
She would probably have been severely injured by that claw strike just now.
"You're Cang Yuning?" Guan Shanxue narrowed her eyes slightly.
As the third son of the Cangyuan Marquis and now his only remaining son, plus his mother's relationship with Imperial Consort Ji in the palace.
Therefore, among the many noble offspring in the imperial capital, he was somewhat famous. Guan Shanxue had seen him a few times at some occasions before, so she recognized his voice.
Hearing this, killing intent flashed in Cang Yuning's eyes. Now that his identity was exposed, naturally he could only kill to silence her.
But just at this moment, a figure suddenly and silently landed beside Guan Shanxue.
Its withered claw-like fingers wreathed in yin energy, it bent its fingers and scratched at Guan Shanxue's back. Guan Shanxue's eyes rolled back and she fainted.
"Fortunately, the young miss had this old servant follow along to watch over the young master, otherwise something would have almost happened."
The withered-faced old woman held Guan Shanxue and spoke in a ghostly voice.