Free Web NovelChapter 187: Chapter 187: Better to Kill by Mistake Than to Let One Go
Ji Qingwu slowly approached and crouched down.
Upon closer inspection, she found that some branches had been violently severed by a sharp weapon, leaving behind clean, flat cuts.
’I wonder who was here.’
Ji Qingwu stood rooted to the spot, her heart pounding with lingering fear. She wanted to back away.
Just then, the distinct sounds of a fight drifted in from outside the courtyard, along with the clang of crossing weapons.
Ji Qingwu carefully inspected the rest of the garden and discovered that even the medicinal herbs she had so painstakingly planted had not been spared. A large patch of them had been trampled flat.
She took a deep breath.
The air seemed to still hang heavy with dust kicked up by the fight.
Ji Qingwu choked and coughed several times.
This was the last straw! She couldn’t take it anymore.
Expressionless, Ji Qingwu walked back inside and went to the inner room. In her wardrobe was a locked, red-lacquered pearwood box. After unlocking it, she took out a small, elegant blue bottle.
Then, she thought for a moment. ’That’s not enough.’ She took out two more.
Ji Qingwu returned to the courtyard. The sounds of fighting outside had grown even more intense.
She looked at the red brick wall, which was twice her height, and sized it up with her hands before heading back to the storage room to find a wooden ladder.
Outside the wall, three men were locked in a fierce battle.
One of them was none other than Wei Ting.
After crushing the dried flower petals, he had felt restless and irritable, unable to focus on anything. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
He had decided to go out to clear his head, but had unintentionally found himself outside the walls of the Ji Mansion.
Gazing at the high wall, he acted on an impulse and vaulted over it.
The moment he landed, he saw the young man who had been hiding in the tree the other day. The youth held a short blade, lunging at him with ruthless moves.
Wei Ting hadn’t originally intended to fight him.
While his skill at concealing his presence might not match Si Hai’s, when it came to unarmed combat and other skills, Si Hai was no match for a General who had fought in real battles with real weapons on the battlefield.
He was feeling irritable and needed someone to practice on to vent his frustration, so he humored him for a few moves.
Si Hai was young and impetuous. Provoked by Wei Ting, he grew impatient, and every strike of his short blade aimed for a vital point.
Wei Ting didn’t want to continue tangling with this life-or-death fighting style. If he made a single mistake, the loss would far outweigh any gain.
Seizing an opening, Wei Ting subdued Si Hai, snatched the short blade from his hand, and pointed it at his throat.
At that moment, another person suddenly leaped from the trees.
This person’s mental method for concealing his presence was even more impressive; Wei Ting hadn’t sensed him there at all.
Taking advantage of Wei Ting’s distraction, the man struck him directly on the back with his palm.
If Wei Ting hadn’t dodged in time, he would have lost half his life right then and there.
The man was also dressed in black. His martial arts style was the same as Si Hai’s, but his Inner Strength was far deeper. They must have come from the same lineage.
’Where in the world did Ji Qingwu find so many skilled fighters?’ Wei Ting gritted his teeth in frustration.
The group’s entanglement moved from inside the courtyard to the outside.
At the height of their battle, Ji Qingwu climbed up the ladder she had set.
The three men were highly skilled martial artists, able to keep an eye on their surroundings even while exchanging blows.
Therefore, when Ji Qingwu’s head had just peeked over the top of the wall, this sudden splash of bright color instantly caught their attention.
All three of them looked over.
She was still in her magnificent morning attire, her eyes bright and captivating. Her crimson gauze sleeves swayed gently in the breeze.
Wei Ting thought they had more backup and almost threw the dart in his hand. But when he saw her face, he abruptly stopped and pulled it back.
He even cut his own palm in the process.
When Si Hai and the other man saw Ji Qingwu, they also quickly stopped fighting.
Ji Qingwu held onto the ladder, standing on top of the wall and glaring at the three men. If she knew any martial arts, she would have jumped down and joined the fray herself.
Her eyes were astonishingly bright as she shouted in a resentful tone, "What have you all been doing in my courtyard?!"
The man beside Si Hai was Sanchuan.
Because of the previous incident where Wei Ting had snuck into the courtyard, the Emperor had also dispatched Sanchuan, who had been on another mission.
He had given an order: if Wei Ting was ever seen at Wutong Garden, they were to attack him on sight, without courtesy.
That was why they had just attacked General Wei Ting without hesitation.
Sanchuan didn’t know why she was angry and was trying to figure it out. Si Hai was even more clueless.
Wei Ting, however, just watched her, his narrow eyes squinting as he wondered what she was thinking.
When no one answered, Ji Qingwu thought of the innocent flowers and plants in her garden that had been destroyed, and the branches and flower buds scattered all over the ground.
Her anger flared even hotter.
’Fine, if you’re not going to talk, then I don’t need to ask.’
The culprit had to be one of them, or perhaps all of them were responsible.
’Better to punish the innocent than to let a single one escape.’
She pulled three small porcelain bottles from her sleeve, her slender fingers moving nimbly.
With a flutter of her wide gauze sleeve, Ji Qingwu flicked her wrist, using a clever motion to scatter the contents of the bottles downwards.
The motion was as elegant as a goddess lightly sprinkling divine dew from a sacred vase.
The men below the wall had no idea what it was.
Sanchuan and Si Hai hadn’t expected Ji Qingwu to attack so suddenly and stood there, completely unprepared.
A colorful powder fluttered down, glittering faintly in the sunlight.
Seeing the powder drift down, they quickly held their breath, but it still settled on their bodies.
Because Ji Qingwu had drugged him with a paralytic last time, Wei Ting reacted quickly. He was also farther away, so he didn’t get much on him.
The one who got it worst was Si Hai. He was the closest, and the powder practically rained down on his head.
After she was done, Ji Qingwu shook her fist at them.
She yelled angrily, "What do you think this place is?! Your family’s backyard garden? A martial arts training ground?!"
Ji Qingwu had never really had a concept of ’home’ before.
But now, she already considered Wutong Garden her own little home. Every corner of it was something she had meticulously designed and cared for.
This was especially true for her medicinal herbs. Not only were the seeds rare, but it was incredibly difficult to cultivate them in the soil of Beili. A few of the stalks were priceless.
Now, they had destroyed most of them. It was no different from them trampling all over her children. How could she not be furious?
Ji Qingwu threatened viciously, "If you dare fight in my Wutong Garden again, I’ll turn you into flower fertilizer and use your skulls as planters!"
"Did you hear me?!"
The seemingly gentle and delicate Miss Ji was actually quite terrifying when she got angry.
Sanchuan and Si Hai, stunned into silence, nodded like wooden chickens.
Wei Ting had never seen Ji Qingwu so ferocious and aggressive. For a moment, he was too stunned to react.
Ji Qingwu pointed a slender finger at him and snapped, "You over there!"
Wei Ting: "...I heard you."
Having vented her anger, Ji Qingwu felt much better.
She was about to climb back down the ladder to see if any of her medicinal herbs could be salvaged.
She glanced down out of the corner of her eye.
The sight startled her so much that her body swayed, and she nearly fell off the ladder.
Wei Ting heard her cry out in alarm and wanted to go check on her. He took a single step, but Sanchuan and Si Hai immediately blocked his path.
Just then, Wei Ting suddenly felt his body grow hot, as if he were being scorched by flames.
Looking at the two men opposite him, he saw the skin visible around their masks also beginning to turn red. They were apparently having the same reaction as he was.
A wall apart.
Two other people were also in a standoff.
