After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

…………

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The bell rang.

The clock tower at the northernmost point of Di'anmenwai Street was responsible for announcing the time in Beijing at night.

A red wooden drum tower.

A clock tower made of gray bricks and stones.

The two were only thirty or forty feet apart.

Every night at the first watch and the fifth watch of the next day, the water clock doctor arranged by the Imperial Observatory would indicate the time, and the captains of the Imperial Guard would first beat the drum and then ring the bell, one hundred and eight times each time.

During the second, third, and fourth watches of the night, only bells were rung, not drums.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, Beijing has been accompanied by such bells to fall asleep and to wake up.

The hour of Chou (丑时) is the fourth watch of the night.

Having grown accustomed to the bell and drum towers of Nanjing, Mr. Ning was naturally no stranger to the sound of bells in Beijing.

When the distant sound of bells could be heard.

He held his breath and blew out the light in the room.

…………

"Clang!"

The vermilion gate was kicked open by the two men.

In an instant, their figures flashed, and the two disappeared into the darkness on either side.

"Who?!"

The two guards standing outside the door were immediately taken aback.

Clang! Clang!

The two men reacted incredibly quickly. The instant the door behind them creaked open, the two furious men drew their swords and whirled around.

Thump, thump, she took two steps back, staring in surprise and uncertainty at the dark room with its open door.

Apart from the two, all the guards in the courtyard raised their hands and gripped their sword hilts, their slight drowsiness instantly dispelled.

A flash of cold light appeared.

The sound of swords being drawn filled the air.

The swords of all the men were imperial treasures, each three feet long, one inch wide, and weighing three pounds and two ounces. The blades had three blood grooves, and each one was a finely crafted sword.

The scabbard is made of sharkskin covered with gilded bronze, exquisite and luxurious.

The handle is inlaid with rubies and emeralds.

The torches stuck in the wall shimmered under the moonlight.

Everyone in the courtyard turned around, their gazes, like those of ferocious wolves, fixed on the room.

It was almost at the same moment when everyone was on high alert.

"boom!--"

An explosion was heard in the distance!

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Shouts of battle came from afar.

The guards in the courtyard were all shocked!

It was at this moment.

Bang! A black figure suddenly leaped out of the east window.

Because it is adjacent to the main courtyard of the Prince's Palace, there are only four guards on the east side.

Clang clang clang!

Upon seeing the cold glint, the guard on the east side immediately shouted, "Ning Baixuan is here! His blade!"

The short, concise instructions came from the mouths of several guards.

Although we don't know where the other party got the knife, this is not the time to dwell on that.

Although the guards from the other three directions were taken aback, they did not slow down. As soon as they started walking, they drew their swords and rushed towards the east.

The red-feathered hats on everyone's heads were made of iron, and they wore cotton armor under their yellow riding jackets.

However, since they were not on a battlefield, the armor was quite inconvenient. The iron plates mixed in with the cotton armor on everyone's body were not many, weighing only about ten pounds.

It's not the kind of cotton armor that weighs thirty or forty pounds, like the kind used on the battlefield.

But everyone present was a top-notch fighter handpicked from the Eight Banners; even without armor, they were the elite of the elite!

Moreover, he was holding a precious sword and wearing fine armor at this moment.

The black-clad figure held a knife in each hand.

When he leaped out from the east, two guards were standing by the window, about three feet away from him.

Clang!

As the guard on the left drew his sword and shouted, the old spy, now dressed in black, opened his eyes wide, his gaze flowing like water, and in an extremely fast and brief moment, he looked at the other party with no way to avoid it.

It flowed away with it.

They were the two gleaming blades of an old spy.

With a thud, a footstep moved, and the left-hand knife thrust out first, intercepting the opponent's right-hand knife. The left-hand blade was at its maximum size in the opponent's pupils.

The old spy plunged the knife into the man's neck with his right hand.

In his youth, he was ambitious and sought to learn everything, studying a wide variety of techniques. He started with the Xinyou sword technique from "Jixiao Xinshu" and then learned all fifteen sword techniques from "Jiangnan Jinglue".

Later, he became an apprentice and learned Yu Dayou's "Sword Classic", Tang Shunzhi's "Selected Martial Arts", Wang Yuyou's "Thirteen Knife Techniques", as well as various internal and external martial arts styles.

But after so many years of killing, espionage, fleeing, and then heading north, he had long forgotten all his various knife, staff, sword, and fist techniques. Apart from teaching his disciples, he had long since stopped practicing any internal or external martial arts.

He can no longer remember the "Double-Blade Watching and Moving Techniques," "Five-Character Formula," and "Seven-Character Formula" that these martial arts masters taught him in his early years.

From head to toe.

All that's left is his ability to kill.

The knife pierced the other person's neck, and from the moment it was pulled out of the flesh, it took no more than half a breath.

The other person's eyes were still filled with disbelief.

The old spy's left hand, which wasn't wrapped in cloth, had already drawn the knife back, flicked it, and gripped it in a reverse grip.

when!

He caught the sword that the guard on the right swung down without hesitation.

The opponent held a rare and precious imperial sword.

Fortunately, he had paid enough gold, and Zhang the blacksmith at Fuchengmen had used plenty of materials. His fine knife withstood the blow from the other's precious sword, but judging by the feel of it, he sighed and realized that there must be a nick in it.

The moment the sound of metal and stone resonated.

The guard on the right hadn't even had time to draw his sword and strike again.

The old spy flipped his wrist, his left hand smoothly turning the knife to his right, and cleanly plunged it into the opponent's neck.

"You're not Ning Baixuan! Who are you?!"

Footsteps came from the other three sides.

In the blink of an eye, the two remaining guards on the east side drew their swords and slashed at each other, while simultaneously recognizing each other's faces by the moonlight and firelight, and roared.

The unarmored old spy lowered his stance with both swords, lunged forward, reversed his grip on the sword in his left hand, slashed across one man's ankle, dodged another man's horizontal slash, then spun around with his body, and with his right sword, slashed across another man's knee from right to left.

The movements were fluid and graceful, with the two strikes occurring very close together.

The two screams were close together, but just as they uttered their cries, the old spy, who had just turned around, plunged his right-hand knife into the neck of the guard on the left.

With a backhand stroke, he swiftly sliced ​​the neck of the guard whose knee had been chopped off.

Blood blossoms bloomed under the moonlight.

"kill!"

Even though they were wearing heavy padded armor weighing over ten pounds, the guards moved extremely fast, and shouts of battle suddenly came from both sides.

Someone roared, "Even if it's Ning Baixuan, I'll cut his Achilles tendons!"

…………

As the menacing swords charged eastward...

Ning Nan gritted his teeth and, just like the old spy, swung his knife with one hand in a forehand strike and the other in a backhand strike. "Clang!" "Bang!" He jumped out of the west window.

There were originally ten people guarding the west side, but several of them ran off to either side.

Upon hearing the noise from the west window, the guards who were lagging behind on the north and south sides were immediately taken aback.

The gate to the courtyard is on the south side.

Ning Nan's forehead was covered in sweat. Thump, thump, thump, his cloth shoes left footprints in the mud as he circled southward.

The guards who lagged behind on the south side recognized him and immediately roared:

"Ning Baixuan!..."

hiss.

The snow-white blade slashed down at the approaching person without hesitation.

They were all veterans who had killed people on the battlefield. When their lives were at stake, their reaction was mechanical and did not require any thought.

Nobody cares about whether to leave anyone alive or cut their Achilles tendons... just cut them and bleed them out first.

"when!"