After her mind was read, the spoiled brat became the darling of the whole group.

"Her, she is..." As the concubine spoke, her eyes suddenly turned cold. With a flick of her wrist, a dagger appeared in her hand and slid straight toward Song Ci'an.

Song Ci'an slipped and fell, wincing in pain as he moved his hand away.

The beautiful concubine laughed and jumped away, and in the blink of an eye she was several meters away from Song Ci'an.

Song Ci'an squinted at the beautiful concubine: "You know martial arts?"

The beautiful concubine snorted coldly: "I didn't want to expose myself originally, but who knew you would go too far."

"Are you asking about the woman who cheated on His Highness three times?" The concubine covered her lips and chuckled twice. "She did run away, leaving our Highness furious, but she never expected that her lover would come."

"If I capture you and hand you over to our prince, he will surely like me even more."

"Nonsense!" Upon hearing the words "lover," Song Ci'an was filled with rage and shouted angrily.

The concubine's eyes hardened, and she attacked Song Ci'an again with a dagger.

The beautiful concubine moved nimbly, and Song Ci'an, ignoring the injury on his arm, began to fight with her.

This person had previously acted as if she were weak and frail; no one would have guessed that she actually knew martial arts, and quite well at that.

He wielded a dagger with great skill, targeting Song Ci'an's weak points.

"Brother Song!"

When Song Ci'an's elite troops spotted this area, they shouted and immediately grabbed their weapons to help him.

Upon seeing this, the remaining elite soldiers immediately drew their bows and shot at the beautiful concubine.

Seeing this, the beautiful concubine stopped fighting Song Ci'an to the death. After blocking a few arrows, she felt that she was no match for him, so she leaped onto the roof and disappeared without a trace.

"Brother Song!" Several elite soldiers put away their bows and arrows and came towards Song Ci'an. Just as they were about to give chase, Song Ci'an stopped them.

"Stop chasing. Leave the manor immediately and go to support the young general and his men."

Now that Xie Xing has escaped, and he can't find Xie Xing in a short time, the most important thing now is to win this battle.

Here, Xie Mingzhu finally managed to break free from the guards' control, but unexpectedly, she ran into the escaped concubine. As soon as the concubine saw her, she immediately came to Xie Mingzhu's side, grabbed her clothes, restrained her, and led her out of the mansion to the north gate of the city.

Xie Mingzhu was stunned.

She had finally managed to escape, and even if Song Ci'an and the others didn't save her, she was determined to get there no matter what. But she never expected to be stopped halfway there.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

Xie Mingzhu slapped her concubine's hand, struggling with her whole body.

The concubine was already getting impatient. She took out a dagger and held it against Xie Mingzhu's neck, saying coldly, "If you move again, I will kill you."

Xie Mingzhu froze, too afraid to move.

And the other side.

The city gate.

As the bearded general led his iron cavalry to encircle and kill Xie Tongchen and his men from behind, the battle situation changed in an instant.

"Young General, there are enemy troops behind us!"

"Young General, what should we do?!"

The Shun family's original lineup was disrupted. Xie Tongchen looked back and saw that the bearded man's iron cavalry had arrived and started fighting in the army behind him.

On the city wall, Chao Le smiled.

He stared coldly at Xie Tongchen, "Today, you're dead. And I'll take back all the humiliation from last time!"

"Guards! Throw stones!"

At Chao Le's command, the stone-throwing soldiers behind him immediately began to move, aiming the large stones at the spot where Xie Tongchen was.

Bang bang bang!

Huge stones were thrown down, crashing to the ground and raising huge clouds of dust. Anyone hit by a stone was instantly turned into a pool of bloody mud.

This is truly a pincer attack.

Xie Tongchen gritted his teeth and said, "Hold on! Hold on until our people arrive!"

If Song Ci'an launches a sneak attack from behind and manages to restrain Chao Le, they will win this battle.

Here, Jun Lanjin rode on horseback, Xie Xing sat in front of him, looking at the smoke of battle ahead, his heart filled with shock.

This is war.

Countless people died in this war; the blood flowed like rivers in this one battle alone.

Her expression was somewhat dazed.

In front of so many people, she and Jun Lanjin appeared incredibly small, their human strength extremely insignificant.

Xie Xing couldn't help but grab Jun Lanjin's hand, turning around to ask, "Your Highness, what use are we to you?"

Jun Lanjin sat on his horse, stopping not far from the battlefield. After watching for a while, he said, "Some people are missing."

"We have no chance of winning if we go from the north of the city."

Jun Lanjin pulled on the reins, turned around, and ran towards the south of the city.

The two quickly arrived at the South City, and sure enough, they found that the South City had already been captured.

Jun Lanjin rode his horse into the city from the south, then headed north, finding a good spot to stop.

"Draw the bow." Jun Lanjin's voice came from behind Xie Xing.

Xie Xing was stunned for a moment. Following Jun Lanjin's instructions, she picked up the bow and arrow and drew the bow with both hands in a very professional manner.

Seeing this, Jun Lanjin embraced Xie Xing from behind, grasped Xie Xing's hands as he drew the bow and arrow, and raised his hand, the arrow pointing directly at the soldiers on the north city wall who were throwing stones.

With a pull and a release, the arrow left the bowstring and instantly pierced the heart of the soldier who was throwing stones.

Xie Xing's heart skipped a beat.

Behind her was Jun Lanjin's steady heartbeat; his breathing was perfectly steady. He simply pressed Xie Xing's hand, pulled up her bow, and the second arrow was swiftly released again.

all hit.

Xie Xing's eyes widened: [Wow, that's amazing!]

Jun Lanjin borrowed Xie Xing's strength so that he could save a lot of his own strength.

After only pulling two arrows, Xie Xing's arm and the space between his thumb and forefinger were already a little sore.

Before being discovered by the Southern Kingdom army, Jun Lanjin glanced down at Xie Xing, then took out all the arrows from the quiver and fired three arrows at once.

shhhhhh!

An arrow, seemingly from nowhere, struck the soldiers beside Chao Le with deadly accuracy.

Chao Le finally realized that someone was attacking her from behind.

His expression turned cold, and he immediately turned to look in the direction from which the arrows had come.

Not far away in the city, a man and a woman sat on horseback. The woman was wearing the armor of their Southern Kingdom soldiers and held a bow and arrow in her hand. The man, who looked handsome and noble but was extremely ugly, sat behind the woman. His hands were casually placed on Xie Xing's hands, and he controlled her to draw the bow. With a twist of her hand, the arrow went straight to Chao Le's forehead.

The man looked over from afar, raised an eyebrow at Chao Le in a provocative manner, then released the arrow, which flew swiftly towards Chao Le.

Chao Le: "..."

He was instantly enraged and caught the arrow with his bare hands, just one millimeter away from his brow.

However, this arrow was not so easy to catch. Just by gripping it tightly, the force it carried tore Chao Le's hand, leaving it bleeding profusely.

Blood flowed down Chao Le's palm, dripping, and the pain in his palm went straight to his heart.

Chao Le's hands were trembling.

He gritted his teeth and shouted angrily, "Guards!"

While he was giving the orders, Jun Lanjin had already turned around and fled with Xie Xing.

The two arrived at a pharmacy in the city.

The shopkeeper didn't recognize Jun Lanjin at first and was about to shoo him away when Jun Lanjin took out a jade pendant from his pocket.

"Your Highness?" The pharmacy owner looked shocked and quickly invited Jun Lanjin over.

Jun Lanjin took the box containing the Tianshan Snow Lotus that Xie Xing had kept for a long time and said, "Send a message to Master and tell him to come here now."

"This is..." The shopkeeper opened the box, and upon seeing the herbs inside, his face lit up with joy. "This is... Heavenly Snow Lotus?!"

Xie Xing looked at the old man.

Seeing that she was looking at the old man, Jun Lanjin said, "This person is from Medicine King Valley. Since the Heavenly Snow Lotus can cure all poisons, it can naturally cure the Half-Moon Poison in your body as well."

With the medicine available, preparing it is not difficult.

"Is today the fifteenth?" Jun Lanjin asked Xie Xing.

Xie Xing was stunned: "Your Highness, how did you know?"

Jun Lanjin raised an eyebrow and said, "Luo Hanfeng said it to my face in the passageway, how could I not know?"

Xie Xing opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but then she thought that if Jun Lanjin was really the Ghost King, then it was normal for him to know.

"The medicine that the Ghost King gave me..."

Jun Lanjin didn't want to mention his identity as the Ghost King, but seeing how this girl was terrified every month after he casually fed her a candy, he said, "What I fed you was a candy."

"It's not a poison that requires an antidote every month."

Xie Xing: "..."

She even felt sorry for herself, having been poisoned by two kinds of drugs. It turned out she had been eating candy.

"What I fed you afterwards was a specially prepared antidote for you," Jun Lanjin added.

Xie Xing was stunned; she stared blankly at Jun Lanjin.

Jun Lanjin sat wearily in a chair, propping his chin up. He looked up and met Xie Xing's gaze, then slowly said, "I knew long ago that you were poisoned by the Half-Moon Poison; I could tell just by taking your pulse."

z

"The poison has damaged your body for half a month. Your master has prepared an antidote for you. Although it is not as good as the real antidote, it will make you feel better and less painful after the poison takes effect."

Xie Xing stood there for a long time.

She couldn't understand.

"why?"

If she considered Jun Lanjin and the Ghost King as one person, she realized that she seemed to owe Jun Lanjin a great deal.

If Jun Lanjin is indeed the Ghost King, then all the excessive things the Ghost King did to her before can be forgiven, and even the Ghost King's repeated rescues of her afterward are things she owes him.

If Ghost King and Jun Lanjin are the same person, Xie Xing doesn't know how much he owes Jun Lanjin.

It seems that ever since she met Jun Lanjin, she has been receiving help from him.

But why is that?

Xie Xing raised his head and looked at Jun Lanjin with some confusion: "Why is Your Highness helping me like this?"

Actually, judging from the system's favorability rating, Jun Lanjin's favorability towards her wasn't very high either.

But whether Xie Xing knew about it or not, everything he did was to help her.

Jun Lanjin rubbed his forehead and listlessly raised his eyes. "You ask why I helped you?"

Jun Lanjin was both amused and annoyed. A normal woman should have realized something by now, but in front of Xie Xing, he was really throwing his flirtatious glances at a blind man.

"Think for yourself." Jun Lanjin closed his eyes, too lazy to look at her again. He felt that if he looked at this person again, he would be driven crazy by her.

Xie Xing: "..."

She spoke cautiously, "Could it be..."

Xie Xing looked cautious, but dared to guess: "Could it be that the prince has some other use for keeping me alive?"

Jun Lanjin: "..."

He was speechless.

Jun Lanjin opened his eyes, his thin lips parted, and he said in a cold voice, "You guessed right, but you missed the point."

"Guess why I treat you differently?"

Xie Xing had no idea.

Of course, she dared not even guess that Jun Lanjin liked her; the biggest illusion in the world is the illusion that the other person likes her.

Someone as exceptionally talented as Jun Lanjin, with excellent looks, family background, and character, would probably be the kind of woman who admires strong, independent women, just like those in those female-centric novels.

How could he possibly like an ordinary person like her?

That's right. Xie Xing considers herself ordinary and average. She's just a woman who's a bit lucky and has some self-awareness. She doesn't have any great abilities.

Perhaps if it were someone else, this task would have been completed long ago.

After all, she's just a villainous supporting character attracting hatred. Who else can do what she did, attracting hatred and making the other person fall in love with her?

After thinking it over and over, Xie Xing could only say, "I can't guess anymore, but Your Highness must have been moved by my fervent loyalty!"

"His Highness is a good man!"

Xie Xing's eyes curved into a smile.

[If I had known the prince was so kind, next time I'd say nice things, I would have actually done something useful instead.]

I still feel a little sorry for the Prince.

Jun Lanjin: "..." Ha!

He was so angry he almost laughed.

Jun Lanjin closed his eyes briefly, then took Xie Xing's hand and pulled him closer. He leaned forward slightly, his peach blossom eyes meeting Xie Xing's.

His voice was deep: "If I were idle, would I be standing so close to you?"

"Xie Xing, don't you understand the distance between men and women?"

"Or is it that you like Luo Hanfeng more?"

"So many things happened between the two of you without my knowledge. You have truly surprised and delighted me."

Xie Xing's heart skipped a beat.

She met Jun Lanjin's gaze. Strangely enough, Jun Lanjin no longer had that handsome face; his face was covered with pustules she had treated, making him look even more disgusting up close.

But right now, Xie Xing had no time to pay attention to any of that. She was only focused on Jun Lanjin's deep, dark eyes. His deep, pleasant voice came from beside her ear, like a male demon bewitching a nun beneath an ancient Buddha statue, asking her:

"Xie Xing, don't you feel even the slightest bit of romantic love for me?"

"Then what about your previous coveting of my lips?"

"Is it the same feeling when you kiss me willingly, or when Luo Hanfeng forces you to kiss me?"

A soft, gentle, and tender questioning voice rang in Xie Xing's ear, his warm breath brushing against her ear, and his cool fingertips gently caressing her.

Xie Xing felt a sudden surge of heat.

Her eyes widened, and she took several steps back, looking at Jun Lanjin in shock.