Women disguised as men went to the battlefield and the emperor bowed down in submission.

Ling Ye arrived at the back garden of the city lord's mansion, where he unexpectedly ran into Ouyang Xuri.

Ling Ye thought to himself, "I was just looking for you, and I didn't expect to run into you here."

Ouyang Xuri sat on a swing set, recalling the image of Lin Ruoshui curled up on the swing, basking in her tears.

Ling Ye swaggered over, and when Ouyang Xuri saw him, he immediately stood up excitedly, his heart pounding uncontrollably, and said, "Yingying, you're here! You look so beautiful today! I never imagined you would look so charming in women's clothing!"

Ling Ye sat casually on the swing and said, "Push me."

Ouyang Xuri beamed with joy and said, "Great!"

Ling Yezai looked closely at the tall man standing in front of him and asked, "What were you thinking about just now?"

Ouyang Xuri scratched his head and said, "I was thinking about how you looked curled up on the swing."

Ling Ye said, "Oh, you're confessing so directly. Aren't you ashamed? What's with all this 'thinking' stuff? I only like Ling Ye. You have no chance, you hear me? Hurry up and pull back from the brink, so you don't make things difficult for me."

Ouyang Xuri felt as if his heart had been ripped apart. He clutched his chest and asked, "Yingying, you said you like Ling Ye?"

Ling Ye said, "Yes, I like Ling Ye, not you, and I will never like you. Just give up on that idea."

Ouyang Xuri was extremely saddened, feeling a dull pain in his chest.

Ling Ye continued, "Ling Ye and I fell in love with each other the first time we met. We are childhood sweethearts now, and our love is stronger than ever. No one can interfere."

Before he could finish speaking, Ouyang Xuri rushed over and forcefully touched his face.

Ling Ye panicked and said, "What...what are you doing?"

Ouyang Xuri said, "Are you wearing a human skin mask? You're not Yingying at all, are you?"

Ling Ye felt a little guilty, but he wasn't afraid. He said, "How could that be? I'm the real deal."

Ouyang Xuri didn't believe it and kept trying to peel off his mask.

When Xiu Yi and Lin Ruoshui arrived, they saw the two of them arguing. Lin Ruoshui pursed her lips and rubbed her forehead.

She thought to herself, "I can't bear to look, I can't bear to look!"

Xiuyi came to the two people and separated them.

Lin Ruoshui said, "Stop fooling around."

Ouyang Xuri looked at Lin Ruoshui and said, "What are you doing here? Get out of here."

Lin Ruoshui pursed her lips and swallowed her anger.

She thought to herself, "I've been roasted twice today with Ling Ye's face on my back. Look at his popularity, tsk tsk tsk."

At this moment, Baili Heng and Yunmo also arrived. Baili Heng went to Yunmo's courtyard.

Upon learning that Lin Ruoshui had strangely said the same thing to them, the two men felt there must be something fishy about it, so they came looking for her.

Lin Ruoshui came up to Ling Ye, grabbed his wrist, and led him away.

Ling Ye pretended to be shy and timid.

Baili Heng stopped Lin Ruoshui and asked, "Where are you taking Yingying?"

Lin Ruoshui thought to herself, "Of course I'll go and exchange it back."

Ling Ye used his mind-reading ability to say, "Why switch back? I don't want to switch back. I think things are great as they are now."

Lin Ruoshui glared at Ling Ye fiercely, as if she wanted to devour him.

Ouyang Xuri grabbed Lin Ruoshui's shoulders and said, "You should release Yingying right now. Why are you looking at her like that?"

Lin Ruoshui shrugged and dodged Ouyang Xuri, saying, "I have something to discuss with him; you don't need to follow me."

Baili Heng said, "No one is leaving until we make things clear."

Lin Ruoshui asked, "What do you want?"

Baili Heng said, "Yingying told Yunmo and me today that she likes you, did you know that?"

Lin Ruoshui looked at Ling Ye in disbelief.

Ling Ye nervously stammered a few "ahs".

Lin Ruoshui didn't say much. She gathered her inner strength, and the energy flowed around her.

Xiuyi quickly stopped her, saying, "Yingying, this is your body."

Lin Ruoshui immediately deflated like a punctured balloon.

Ouyang Xuri said, "I knew you weren't Yingying. Take off your mask now."

Ling Ye laughed loudly, "I am her, and he is me!"

Everyone was confused.

Without saying a word, Lin Ruoshui grabbed Ling Ye and left.

Xiu Yi stood behind them and said to the others, "You don't need to chase after them. I'll explain."

Xiuyi recounted the events of two days ago to the three of them in detail, and also told them about the soul swap and the soul-fixing lock.

Baili Heng was extremely anxious. He said, "Ling Ye is a man who is both righteous and evil. Yingying has swapped souls with him, and I don't know how much she will suffer. We must find the Soul Lock as soon as possible."

Xiu Yi said, "Yingying has already sent her secret guards to Aoda Kingdom to inquire about the whereabouts of the Soul-Fixing Lock."

Baili Heng said, "There's another way!"

Ouyang Xuri asked, "What method? Tell me quickly!"

Bai Liheng said, "Take over the Feng River, break through the ice, and retrieve the Soul-Stabilizing Lock."

Xiu Yi said, "This method is not a wise move now. When spring comes, we can send people to retrieve it."

Baili Heng said, "When will that be? I don't want Yingying to have anything to do with that shameless scoundrel."

Ouyang Xuri said, "Isn't there a third way?"

Xiu Yi said, "Nothing for now."

After Lin Ruoshui and Ling Ye switched bodies, Lin Ruoshui went back to her room to change her clothes.

Xiuyi and the others also rushed over.

Baili Heng asked cautiously, "Yingying, is that you?"

Lin Ruoshui said, "It's me, we've switched back."

After hearing this, Ouyang Xuri turned around and went to find Ling Ye.

Ling Ye climbed out of the bathtub with a lovesick look on his face, only to be met with a series of punches from Ouyang Xuri.

Knowing he was in the wrong, Ling Ye did not put up a strong resistance.

Blood trickled from his nose. He wiped it away and said, "Consider this my apology for what happened earlier. If you come back, I won't hold back either."

Yunmo stood outside, coldly watching Lingye. Just as he was about to speak, Lingye noticed him and reached out to stop him from speaking.

Ling Ye said, "Yun Mo, please don't say anything."

Yunmo said, "You've done such outrageous things, do you still expect to be forgiven?"

Ling Ye said, "I'm talking about a fact that will happen sooner or later. Right now, Yingying and I are in the same boat. If you hurt me, it will be Yingying who suffers."

After saying that, he burst into laughter.

In Yunmo's eyes, Lingye was like a peacock, arrogant and conceited.

He flicked a pill into Ling Ye's mouth, who was laughing loudly.

Ling Ye swallowed the pill directly into his stomach.

Lingye asked, "What did you give me to eat?"

Yun Mo said, "Muscle-Lowering Powder." No sooner had he finished speaking than Ling Ye collapsed to the ground.

Yunmo said, "Carry him to the bed and give him one muscle-softening powder every day until we find the Soul-Fixing Lock."

Ling Ye said weakly, "You can't treat me like this."

Ouyang Xuri felt that Yunmo had come up with an excellent solution.

He said with a wicked grin, "Give me all the medicine, and I'll come and serve him his medicine every morning."

Ling Ye couldn't believe that after just two days of showing off, he had been subdued.

When Ouyang Xuri arrived at Lin Ruoshui's room, Baili Heng was still trying to come up with a solution with Xiuyi.

Ouyang Xuri said, "Yunmo gave Lingye a muscle-relaxing powder, and I will come over every morning to feed him the medicine from now on."

That way, we won't have to worry about Yingying being taken advantage of.

Baili Heng said, "This is indeed a good idea, otherwise who knows what outrageous things he might do."

Lin Ruoshui sat on the bed, hugging her knees, her eyes reddening.

Seeing their beloved women like this, the men felt terrible.

The next day, Ouyang Xuri did not come to give Ling Ye his medicine in the morning as he had promised.

Early in the morning, after Lin Ruoshui and he switched identities in the bathtub, the person who came was Yun Mo. When Ling Ye saw Yun Mo, it was as if he had seen a jinx.

Ling Ye said, "Come back and give me the medicine. Just don't talk to me, even if I'm begging you."

Yunmo sat down with an ethereal, otherworldly air.

Ling Ye said, "Why don't you hurry up and leave?"

Yunmo said, "I'll leave after you take your medicine."

Ling Ye said, "Then hurry up, I don't want to be with you for even a second longer."

Seeing that Ling Ye obediently took the medicine, he turned and left, then came back and said, "I heard that an old woman will be hired today to take care of your daily life."

Ling Ye's face turned green, and he shouted, "Can't we get another girl?"

With a bang, the door slammed shut from the outside.

Lin Ruoshui and Baili Heng were studying the river-crossing operation plan in their camp.

Lin Ruoshui said, "Our first step is to destroy one hundred catapults."

The second step is to eliminate the Gu people.

The best solution I can think of right now is to drop the explosives from a hot air balloon.

Baili Heng asked, "Would their catapults be able to hit the hot air balloon?"

Lin Ruoshui said, "There are too many catapults; it's very likely they'll hit us."

Xue Tingfeng said, "We can take advantage of the darkness to go to the other side and destroy those catapults."

Lin Ruoshui said, "The Gu people are not afraid of the cold. They are all lying on the riverbank. If we go there, we will definitely be discovered."

The strategist Wang Wenjing suggested, "Why don't we divide our forces into three groups?"

Lin Ruoshui became interested and asked, "What are your thoughts, sir?"

Wang Wenjing said, "We will divide our forces into three routes, with 500,000 men deployed on each of the left and right routes. The left route will detour over the snow-capped mountains, while the right route will cross the Minghai Sea."

When the two groups of troops arrived at the enemy's rear, the rear troops launched an attack to draw their attention.

Meanwhile, the central forces used artillery and explosives to attack the catapults and the Gu people.

We attacked them from three directions, from both sides. I don't believe they have any chance to fight back.

Meng Tuo asked, "Then why not have the entire army bypass Minghai and launch a general attack directly behind enemy lines?"

Wang Wenjing said, "If all two million of our troops were to detour through Zhiminghai, it would take at least a month to cross the sea by boat. In addition, by attacking them from both sides, catching them off guard, our chances of victory would be much greater."

Furthermore, our central force, while awaiting the arrival of the left and right flanks, must launch daily raids across the river. This is not to ensure the raids succeed, but rather to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, allowing us to launch a final, unexpected attack.

Lin Ruoshui said, "I think your plan is good, sir. It just needs some refinement. I wonder what the new emperor thinks?"

Baili Heng said, "This plan is excellent. Let's proceed accordingly."

Lin Ruoshui said, "Then I will lead 500,000 people to climb the snow mountain. Ouyang Xuri will lead 500,000 people by land and sea. You, the new emperor, will lead the central route."

Baili Heng said, "No, you will be in the middle, and I will be on the left to climb the snow mountain."

Baili Heng leaned close to Lin Ruoshui's ear and whispered, "If you go to the snow mountain, there definitely won't be any bath tubs."

Lin Ruoshui said, "You're right, I almost forgot about that."

Lin Ruoshui thought about how she and Ling Ye had to do this every morning... and she had a terrible headache.

She recalled the look in Lingye's eyes every time she stepped out of the bathtub, and she felt terrible all over.

Lost in thought, she slammed her fist on the table, startling the generals around her.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She stormed out of the tent, determined to give Ling Ye a piece of her mind.