Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Behind him, the civil officials lined up like wheat fields bent by the wind, gradually lowering themselves, while the military officers knelt on one knee in unison at the same time, their armor clanging together with a heavy metallic sound that echoed through the empty hall.

"Your Majesty, we respectfully request that Your Majesty assume personal rule."

The sound echoed from the direction of the palace gate all the way to the throne, like the tide rising over the stone platform, wave after wave, landing heavily on the gold-brick-paved ground in front of Tuoba Zhao.

Tuoba Zhao stood in front of the throne, the hem of her dark blue royal robe hanging over the edge of the steps. The jade beads on her twelve-tassel crown swayed slightly as she lowered her eyes, making a soft clinking sound.

She looked at the kneeling civil and military officials, and with a composure slowly honed from ten years of silence, she said, "Rise, my lords."

The rustling of fabrics and the clanging of metal armor filled the hall. Civil and military officials stood up and saw that the young king's usually solemn face now held an air of authority as he ruled the country.

Shen Qingya knelt in the middle of the military officers' line. When he stood up, he was a beat slower than the others. His gaze passed over the backs of the officials who were crowding the hall and landed on the dark blue figure in front of the throne.

She stood there, her shoulders straight and her back ramrod straight, her posture like that of a cypress tree that had been weighed down by frost and snow for too long, finally shaking off all the snow one day, revealing the wood beneath that had been polished smooth by the years.

As Shen Qingya stood up, her heart pounded heavily against the wall of her chest.

That blow was heavier than the one when I bowed and touched the ground while kneeling, and more urgent than the one I made yesterday when I stood under the corridor of the Imperial Guard barracks looking at the silhouette of the window paper of the Hall of Diligent Governance.

He saw her standing there, and the gazes of all the civil and military officials in the hall were filled with a reverence they had never felt before.

Shen Qingya tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword at his waist. He loosened his knuckles and pressed his palm against the rope binding the hilt, feeling a thin layer of sweat there.

On the border between Beishuo and Daying, an inconspicuous blue carriage slowly traveled along the official road. The curtains were drawn tightly, with only the corners occasionally being lifted by the wind, letting in a few flakes of snow.

The driver changed twice, and now the one driving was Liu San Niang's most clever bodyguard. The short knife at his waist was hidden under his thick cotton-padded coat, and no trace of it could be seen.

Xi Yueli leaned back on the soft cushion on the left side of the carriage, wrapped in a thick black cloak, the collar turned up to cover half of her face, revealing a pale chin and slightly closed eyelashes.

On the day she left Xichen Pavilion in Shuojing, she claimed to be "seriously ill and needed to rest," but in reality, taking advantage of the winter snow sealing the gates of Xichen Pavilion, she changed her clothes that night and left the city through a small path in the back mountains.

Four days after leaving the Northern Shuo Royal Court, her complexion was actually better than when she was in Shuojing. Although the nerve in the back of her head would still feel slightly tight on moonless nights, she drank the two bowls of medicine every day under the watchful eye of Helian Jing, and her body was slowly recovering.

Helian Jing sat opposite her, his moon-white robe replaced with a dark blue outfit, and his silver-gray mask replaced with a half-black iron mask, revealing only his eyes.

His appearance was much more neat than when he was at the Shuojing Royal Court. At first glance, he looked like a guard hired by a wandering swordsman. But at this moment, he was holding a warm handkerchief and handing it over across the small table to wipe the thin layer of sweat that had seeped from her forehead.

"We've arrived," Helian Jing said, lifting a corner of the carriage curtain to look out. The twilight had painted the distant cliffs into a dark golden line, and the snow on the cliff tops gleamed a cold white in the last rays of sunlight.

"Mufeng Cliff".

Xi Yueli opened her eyes and sat up straight. She lifted the collar of her cloak and looked out the window. The cliff was steeper than any she had ever seen in Fu Yuan's memory, with the stone walls almost vertical.

"Shi Xuanji lives in a place like this?" Xi Yueli lowered the carriage curtain, her voice slightly hoarse from the journey.

Helian Jing put away the handkerchief, leaned against the carriage wall, one leg bent and resting on his knee, his posture as relaxed as if he were chatting in his own study: "He claims to be the best in the world, so his place of residence is naturally not ordinary."

"There is only one narrow path to the top of this cliff. The other three sides are sheer cliffs. Even his own men have to use ropes to climb up."

Xi Yueli watched him describe someone else, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly: "Does Your Highness have a relationship with him?"

"Six years ago, outside Qixia Pass, the Tian Shu Division's spies ran into his men. He threw my men three zhang away in front of me and said, 'The Tian Shu Division's spies are too bad at light footwork.'"

Xi Yueli's lips curved into a deeper smile: "And then?"

"Then I fought with him." Helian Jing reached out and took her hand, which was resting on the small table, into his palm, and slowly rubbed his thumb around her knuckles.

Looking at his expression, which showed no sign of winning or losing, Xi Yueli suddenly found it amusing. She reached out and grasped his hand in return. "If we can't win, let's leave now."

Helian Jing looked at her, his eyes, hidden beneath the black iron mask, curved slightly, a hint of softening from her proactive touch: "Now, it's the Grand Preceptor who needs to find someone, and I'm running errands for him. I don't need to win."

The carriage stopped at the foot of the cliff in front of a sheltered rock face. The driver jumped off the carriage and whispered, "Master, there is no road ahead. The cliff is too steep. This is the only way the carriage can go."

Helian Jing got off the carriage first, then reached out to help Xi Yueli down. When the tips of her boots touched the frozen mud, she wobbled slightly, and his arm immediately wrapped around her to support her lower back.

He looked up at the almost vertical cliff in the twilight, the snow on the cliff top gleaming coldly in the last rays of sunlight, at least ten feet above the ground.

Several rows of iron nails were embedded in the stone wall, with irregular spacing. Some of them had been eroded by wind and snow and were only half left. It looked like someone had nailed them in when they had nothing to do. There was no pattern to it, but each one was driven very deep.

"Shi Xuanji!" Helian Jing shouted towards the top of the cliff, his voice carried by the winter wind, echoing briefly among the rocks before dissipating.

A moment of silence fell over the cliff top. Then a lazy voice drifted down from above, as if someone sunbathing on the cliff edge had been woken up: "Who is it? Disturbing my peaceful sleep."

Helian Jing tilted his head slightly and raised his voice by half an octave: "An old member of the Tian Shu Division, the one I fought with outside Qixia Pass six years ago."

There was a brief silence at the cliff top, then the lazy voice rang out again, this time closer, as if someone were peering down from the edge: "...Helian Jing? Weren't you dead?"

"I faked my death," Helian Jing replied briefly.

"Tsk." A cryptic sigh came from the cliff top, followed by a thick hemp rope dangling down, its end secured with an iron hook that nestled firmly into a crevice in the rock face, near an iron nail. "Climb up yourself. Don't expect me to come down and get you."

Helian Jing turned his head to look at Xi Yueli, who was looking up at the cliff top where the rope was hanging down. The twilight fell on her face, making her almond-shaped eyes slightly translucent.

He reached out to her waist, gently pulling her half a step closer to him, and whispered, "I'll carry you up. The rope isn't stable; you'll easily fall if you try to climb it yourself."

Xi Yueli's eyebrows twitched. She opened her mouth to say that she could climb, but when she met his eyes, which shone brightly in the twilight, her stubborn words softened before she could even utter them.

She paused for a moment, then turned around, her back to him, and whispered, "Please make sure Your Highness carries me steadily."