After deceiving the villain, I was forced to love him.

Chapter 164 The Man Behind It All

Now that someone has eliminated the threat for them, the Prefect of Shucheng has no intention of letting Wang Qingyan live any longer.

So while others were clearing out the hostile forces throughout the city, he also took his confidants to wait for Baili Sanniang outside the western dungeon.

But no one came.

Later, when someone was sent to investigate, it was discovered that the scoundrel garrison commander of Jicheng had betrayed them and was leading men to obstruct Baili Sanniang.

"Are you sure?" the Prefect of Shucheng asked again, albeit symbolically.

The servant who went to investigate said, "It's absolutely true, sir! I personally witnessed the guards of the Baili family fighting with those soldiers from Jicheng!"

"They're still shouting that once they rescued the Wang family head, they'll enjoy endless riches and glory!"

"Fine!" The Prefect of Shucheng gritted his teeth in anger. "That bastard! He actually tried to stab me in the back!"

His eyes narrowed, and the ruthlessness in his bones immediately surfaced. "He's heartless, so I'll be unjust!"

He immediately went to the dungeon to activate the mechanism. Fortunately, he had been on guard against that old rascal, the garrison commander of Thorn City, and had prepared a backup plan in advance!

"Boom boom boom..."

The heavy stone walls and doors began to move rapidly, pressing inward from both sides, while a row of stone slabs at the top opened with a series of thuds, filling the increasingly narrow cell with poisonous smoke.

After a brief, piercing scream, the sound of flesh, bones, and other debris being crushed followed...

As dark, purulent blood seeped from the cracks in the lowest wall, staining the end of the passageway, Prefect Fang of Shucheng laughed, brandishing his sword.

"Hahaha......"

"Wang Qingyan! No matter how powerful you are, you still fell into my hands!"

Awesome! That's so awesome!

"Uh..." As he turned around, a claw pierced through his chest.

Looking ahead in disbelief, the last thing the Prefect of Shucheng saw in the passageway was a pile of corpses.

as well as--

With a sizzle, Wang Qingyan withdrew his hand with a smile.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere and fell to the ground.

He gracefully released his grip, and the bloody mess was returned to the Prefect of Shucheng.

The next moment, Wang Qingyan's ears perked up.

I dodged to the side, "Clang!"

Using the wall for leverage, he spun around to face the exit of the passageway, watching as the dagger was driven into the wall.

Seeing that the flying dagger had missed him, Baili Sanniang moved swiftly and slashed down with her sword.

"Crack!" The blade that cut through the wind grazed Wang Qingyan's shoulder and struck the stone wall, creating a deep chasm.

Small pebbles flew in all directions, and the blade, swiftly swung to the right, left several scratches on Wang Qingyan's face.

Wang Qingyan grabbed Baili Sanniang's wrist, but before he could exert any force, she easily broke free by wrapping her arms around him and sweeping her leg across him.

Wang Qingyan raised his arm to block the blow, then struck with his elbow. He leaped up, turned around, and kicked Baili Sanniang back several steps. He then grabbed a knife and began to clash with her with it, "bang bang bang..."

Amidst the sparks flying, Wang Qingyan clearly saw Baili Sanniang's appearance.

Baili Sanniang also saw his eyes, which were no different from those of the Gu guards.

It was dark and lifeless, yet objects could still be seen.

But she didn't intend to run away like Seventeen!

With a loud clang, a heavy blow sent Wang Qingyan staggering back several steps.

"Is Auntie trying to kill me on our first meeting?" Firmly maintaining his composure, Wang Qingyan carefully observed every flaw in Baili Sanniang's defenses.

If Baili Sanniang hadn't seen how grotesque and terrifying those corpses were, she would have truly believed his dignified and respectful demeanor.

Unfortunately, a monster will always be a monster.

"Clang—" Baili Sanniang forcefully turned the knob in the middle of the sword hilt, and the sword instantly split into two!

With his left hand, he used a sword to deflect Wang Qingyan's knife, and with his right hand, he swiftly drew a cross.

Wang Qingyan's eyes widened slightly, and he instinctively withdrew and retreated.

Even so, his aura was broken and the tendons in his hand were injured.

Even more surprisingly, the sword energy left a bloody mark on his neck.

The knife in her hand was also knocked away behind Baili Sanniang.

"Heh..." Touching the blood on his neck, Wang Qingyan's pupils reflected Baili Sanniang, who was unleashing her power and slashing through the air again.

I haven't been this excited in ages!

"..." The sword wind swept down.

Already injured, he was already unable to use his movement techniques freely in this narrow space, let alone with Baili Sanniang having trapped him in a dead end.

However, at the moment the protective aura shone upon her, Baili Sanniang was taken aback by the strange smile on Wang Qingyan's lips.

But there was no room for the sword to turn back.

Therefore, she was dragged into a living hell by her own mistake.

“…” Wang Qingyan caught her two swords with his bare hands.

"Tell me, when she arrives, will she choose you or me?"

He grabbed his twin swords and kicked through the air!

Neither of them let go.

"Crack! Bang!" Two sounds rang out almost simultaneously.

One of them was that both swords were broken in two.

One of them was Baili Sanniang, who flew out and crashed among the corpses.

"..." A fishy, ​​salty taste rose in my throat.

Baili Sanniang instinctively threw out a broken sword, knocking away the tip of Wang Qingyan's flying sword. "Clang!"

It then spiraled up again, but halfway up, Wang Qingyan teleported in front of it even faster and used his broken sword to slice off the front half of its left hand.

He then pulled her face back, slashing it.

"Ah—" Just as she was in extreme pain, he swept her down to her knees in one swift motion, broke her leg bone with one foot, and nailed her right hand to the ground.

With a heart-wrenching scream, Wang Qingyan was about to twist her head off.

However, his breathing suddenly became stagnant, and he was unable to circulate his internal energy.

"You..." He staggered a few steps, then leaned against the wall and sat down limply. Within moments, he was unable to move.

Damn!

What exactly did he overlook?!

"Ouch..." Baili Sanniang was sweating profusely from the pain, yet she laughed heartily, "Hahahaha..."

"You don't actually think I'm here to die, do you?" She's not some idiot who would die for her ideals.

Meeting their triumphant gazes, Wang Qingyan pondered for a moment... the doubts in his eyes completely dissipated, "So... that's what you were thinking."

He tortured Aqi to extract a confession because he had genuinely believed that Baili Ce had a way to control Chaosheng.

The Prefect of Shucheng and Steward Li were aware of this, which is why they planted poison needles in Aqi's body and then lured him into the dungeon.

He knew these people would tamper with things, but he also wanted to see how far they would go.

After all, when slaughtering a pig, you always need to estimate how much it weighs in order to decide when is the best time to kill it.

What he didn't expect was that the eight poisoned needles that entered his body because they were too close together were actually combined with the poison that Baili Sanniang had applied to the sword.

At this moment, the two poisons combined, which rendered him unable to use any internal energy at all!

Once the poison needle is implanted in the body, to release it when the person is off guard, not only does the person need to use their internal strength to drive it, but the needle must also be implanted at just the right depth.

If it were simply hidden in the lining of a sleeve and activated with a clever trick, he would have discovered it early on during his interrogation, and it would have been easy to evade.

It can be implanted inside the body, but only with the full cooperation of Aqi himself.

So the eight needles actually had nothing to do with Manager Li and the others; they were buried by Aqi himself.

But an important spy like her, who had been secretly operating in the three cities for many years, had long become a top priority in the Baili clan's intelligence network.

It's impossible that a random message from above would make her risk her life.

Therefore, it must have been Baili Ming who instructed her.

This explains why Baili Ce's fish-patterned jade pendant was found on A Qi by sheer coincidence.

The two fake Lu Jian and Baili Ming that he killed at the wedding were not meant to sow discord, but simply to provoke him.

So that from that time onwards, he began to focus on guarding against Baili Ce. Later, with the addition of greedy officials like the Prefect of Shucheng to confuse the public, he naturally stopped suspecting others.

The real Baili Ming and Lu Jian may have actually been present at the banquet, or they may have mingled among the other guests.

Furthermore, the fact that the Prefect of Shucheng could think of the unexpected idea of ​​installing poisonous smoke in the mechanism...

"Taking advantage of the 'Gu Guards being out of control,' those scum who betrayed me were just a facade. The real mastermind behind all this was Lu Jian?"

After a while, Baili Sanniang finally got used to the excruciating pain. "There are still many people you look down on."

The Investigation Division, the starving people... and her.

People should never underestimate others.