Ye Jingyu stood quietly atop the tallest building in the small town, clad in white robes, the obsidian iron saber strapped across his back. His tall, straight silhouette was mirrored on the face of the moon, appearing grand and formidable, like a peerless blade master awaiting his adversary.

However, Ye Jingyu seemed utterly devoid of the awareness of a peerless blade master. He merely stood there, his gaze sweeping over everything around him, his ears straining to catch every sound of the night. Yet, save for the chirping of crickets and the croaking of toads, there was almost no other noise.

At the town’s entrance, Nangong Shang held the Qishen blade, seated atop a fine steed. His gaze, cold as ice, surveyed his surroundings. This was their first mission since taking over the Yunwei guards; failure to complete it meant being unable to face the Emperor. Moreover, Han Muxi was here; given Ye Jingyu’s temperament, who knew what amusement might unfold.

Beside him stood one hundred fully armed elites. Every single one had successfully achieved the realm of a Xiantian Martial Master—an undeniably formidable force. One hundred Xiantian Martial Masters attacking simultaneously could easily slay a Grandmaster.

These were the absolute cream of the crop, the remaining elite fighters salvaged from those thousands of Iron Army soldiers. All of them had now been assigned by Ye Jingyu to the Seven Orders. Of course, the Seven Orders comprised a total of one thousand men; these one hundred were merely the strongest among them.

Zhu Ruo and Han Muxi were also awake, though Zhu Ruo, leading a group of black-clad swordsmen, had long since vanished into the shadows of the night. Han Muxi, unnoticed by anyone, had slipped into an ordinary civilian residence in the center of the town.

No one knew why he had come here, nor did anyone know who resided within.

"Rap, rap, rap, rap, rap, rap, rap…" Seven knocks echoed in succession. Han Muxi stood silently, waiting.

"Rap, rap, rap, rap, rap…" Five answering knocks sounded from inside.

"The bright moon shines high, the fallen leaves drift down." Han Muxi softly recited a completely irrelevant line of poetry.

"Blood flows into rivers and channels, corpses pile upon the cold mountain valley." A matching, equally irrelevant poetic line returned from within.

"I am Han Yan." Reaching this point, Han Muxi gave his designation—a name known only to the Crown Prince, his childhood moniker, one that predated his arrival in Yunjing.

The door opened. The one who greeted Han Muxi was a young servant dressed in a cyan robe.

"Lord Han, please…" The servant performed a cupped-fist salute toward Han Muxi before stepping slightly aside. Han Muxi entered without ceremony.

The servant then leaned his head out the main door, observing his surroundings closely. Only after confirming he was not being followed did he shut the gate.

Led by the servant, Han Muxi navigated through layers of corridors until he reached a rockery. The servant gently knocked upon the structure exactly nine times before pausing. With a soft hiss, the rockery split down the middle, revealing a pitch-black passage. Without a word of hesitation, Han Muxi slipped inside.

After walking for about half an hour, he arrived in an underground secret chamber. The room was constructed entirely of stone walls, but the floor was covered in a crimson carpet. Various precious gems were inlaid into the surrounding stone, glittering brilliantly. Most significantly, placed in the very center of the stone chamber was a magnificent coffin.

Carved from fine Nanmu wood and etched with exquisite patterns, it was bordered with gold inlay. As if aware of Han Muxi’s arrival, the lid of the coffin slid open automatically, revealing a corpse within—or rather, a vampire.

He possessed golden, curly hair and a terrifyingly pale complexion, dressed in a pristine tailcoat. A naturally radiating, sinister charm permeated the air.

"Lord Han, you have arrived…" The blond man opened his clear blue eyes and spoke with chilling indifference. His pronunciation was identical to that of the people of Jiuzhou.

"Prince Adams, whether you can propagate your descendants in our country depends entirely on your performance today…" Looking at the pale Western man before him, disdain flickered in Han Muxi’s eyes. He was nothing more than a monster sustained by drinking blood.

"Lord Han need not worry. I will certainly execute the matters commanded by His Highness the Crown Prince. Our House of Adams shall see the great resurgence of the East," the man called Adams stated with deep confidence.

"I must remind you, the person you are meant to lure away is a super expert who embodies a Spirit Manifestation Master, a sixth-level Warrior, and the peak of the Grandmaster realm. To kill him, the Crown Prince has deployed five Grandmasters and one Spirit Manifestation realm Soul Master. If you fail to draw him to the ambush site, you know the consequences…" Han Muxi let out a cold snort.

Those murders, those dried corpses—all were part of the ambush orchestrated by the Crown Prince, aimed at luring Ye Jingyu out and wiping him and everyone around him off the map.

"My Lord need not worry. Though my combat strength might be inferior to his, when it comes to speed, I am confident no one at this level can match me," Adams replied, a confident smile gracing his lips.

"Let us hope so. In half an hour, everything proceeds according to plan." Han Muxi snorted coldly again. A Vampire Clan Prince, only at the Grandmaster realm—while this placed him at the apex in the West, Han Muxi held him in contempt.

While Han Muxi and Adams were speaking, atop the highest building in the town, Ye Jingyu still stood coldly. Soon, a figure was rapidly approaching.

Ye Jingyu glanced over, then leaped down from the roof, landing on the third floor, where a desk had been set up.

Seated at the table was another man, dressed in a white long robe.

"How was it? How does it feel to have your rooftop chilled by the wind?" Zhuge Yishi smiled faintly, his eyes fixed on a book in his hands.

"Very cold, very cold," Ye Jingyu stated curtly. The room door opened again, and Ying Xiaoxiao, clad in black, walked in.

"What news?" Ye Jingyu asked impatiently.

"Everything is exactly as Teacher Zhuge predicted. Han Muxi truly has ulterior motives. I tracked him all the way to a courtyard residence, but I sensed danger lurking everywhere there. Fearing I might startle the snake, I dared not venture closer," Ying Xiaoxiao said gravely.

"Startle the snake? You were probably just afraid of getting skewered yourself," Ye Jingyu retorted without mercy. Ying Xiaoxiao offered a wry smile and shifted his gaze toward Zhuge Yishi.

"My initial thought was this: since Han Muxi belongs to the Crown Prince, why was he so earnestly trying to show us the potential truth behind those two dried corpses? That’s when I felt something was amiss. Now it seems this is all a conspiracy," Zhuge Yishi set down his book, his brow furrowing slightly, the wisdom in his dark eyes beginning to gleam.