That wretched vixen has disguised herself as my wife!

Jiang Jingming raised his hand and patted her head lightly.

"Ok?"

Aqing was slightly taken aback, wondering why he said that.

Jiang Jingming smirked, his expression serious:

"You're one of my people, why should you do hard labor for them?"

"It can't be considered manual labor..."

Before Aqing could finish speaking, he was interrupted by him in a very unreasonable way.

"That's not OK."

Jiang Jingming pinched her cheek and solemnly emphasized:

"Aqing, no matter what others do, you are only allowed to listen to me."

"..."

Looking at his expression, Aqing couldn't tell if he was serious or just teasing her.

After a moment's thought, she nodded seriously:

“Aqing understands.”

"Good that you understand."

Jiang Jingming then withdrew his hand with satisfaction.

Aqing lowered her head, her eyelashes obediently drooping, and the lines of her profile were as beautiful as a piece of uncut jade.

At times like this, Aqing is just like a silly little sparrow.

Jiang Jingming was about to laugh when he suddenly caught a glimpse of something flashing by at the back of the wall behind her.

In the blink of an eye, Jiang Jingming had already flipped to his feet and drawn his sword.

He stepped off the wall, bracing himself to swing his blade. Wu Jiu's blade flashed closely, chasing the dark figure with a sharp, piercing sound.

The shadowy figure moved extremely fast, but the blade flashed even faster.

The distance between the two closed in an instant, and just as the tip of the knife was about to graz the shadow, Jiang Jingming suddenly spun around and used the momentum to slash down.

This strike was imbued with immense power, and the wind it generated in an instant caused everyone present to be so overwhelmed by its pressure that they couldn't even lift their heads.

This way of wielding the sword went against the swordsmanship he had practiced; it was neither sharp nor fierce enough, yet it exuded a murderous aura, as if splitting Mount Hua in two.

This is something Jiang Jingming learned from Jiang Wuwang.

The demon hadn't specifically taught him anything; he'd only casually shown off a move during sparring sessions.

The demon slashed with ease, his killing intent palpable, while Jiang Jingming was caught off guard and his hands went numb from the impact. If the demon hadn't held back, he would have almost lost his grip on the sword.

The reason Jiang Jingming chose such a ruthless move from the very beginning was because he sensed a great danger from the dark figure.

An indescribable sense of crisis, like a snake crawling over a person, a chilling, eerie feeling.

The blade, which was originally half an inch away, suddenly closed in due to his sudden change of direction, slashing fiercely at the waist of the dark figure.

But he struck empty air.

Jiang Jingming quickly turned around and sheathed his sword, his brows furrowed.

This strike should not have missed. Why?

"Gah-"

A very short and harsh crow caw suddenly rang out in the air.

As it turned out, his strike did not miss.

The dark figure was actually empty; it was just a black robe on the wall, running away like a person.

The instant Wu Jiu slashed down, black raven feathers fluttered from his black robe, creating a bizarre scene that was hard to believe.

The one who reacted the fastest among them was Aqing, who was closest to him. She quickly drew her knife, stood beside him, and gazed at the crow feathers fluttering in the sky.

She should have been more alert than Jiang Jingming, but his meddling had completely thrown her into disarray.

"what happened?"

Chen Sha strode over and asked in a deep voice.

Before Jiang Jingming could explain what had just happened, a sudden gust of wind arose, dark clouds gathered, and the sky darkened in an instant.

He tilted his head slightly back, looking at the dark and eerie sky.

......

Xie Yunqi sat in the rattan chair, rubbing his eyes in a daze.

She wasn't fully awake yet, murmuring a childhood nursery rhyme.

"It's getting dark; it's going to rain."

"Xiao Qi has heard this nursery rhyme before."

Fang Zhiyi stood beside her and smiled slightly.

Xie Yunqi hummed in agreement and looked up at her.

Fang Zhiyi, dressed in white, stood serenely in the apocalyptic sky, a few crow feathers drifting past her.

At that moment, Lu Zhao stumbled in from outside the door.

"Vice Envoy Chen!"

Just as Chen Sha was about to scold him for his flustered and unruly behavior, he noticed a dark red bloodstain on his clothes.

"The brothers outside the manor, all of them..."

Lu Zhao's face was ashen, as if he had witnessed some kind of nightmare.

He didn't need to say the remaining half of the sentence; the deathly silence outside the villa had already said it for him.

Chen Sha took a deep breath, but his tone remained calm:

"Enemy attack! Alert!"

The ambush outside the manor failed silently, but most of the elite troops were hiding inside the manor.

At his command, a series of clear sounds of swords rubbing together rang out all around.

Lu Zhao looked up at Jiang Jingming, who was holding a knife in one hand.

"Jingming!"

"Ah."

Jiang Jingming responded and jumped down from the wall.

What's happening outside?

“After I went out just now, I lined up the brothers in the surrounding ambush positions one by one, but I didn’t see a single person. It was eerily quiet everywhere.”

Lu Zhao's face was deathly pale, and the veins on his hand gripping the sword were bulging.

"After I had circled around the whole time, I suddenly heard a strange bird call overhead. I looked up and saw dozens of corpses that had been cut in half at the waist, hanging on the trees."

"..."

What a bizarre scene.

Jiang Jingming listened quietly, but couldn't help feeling a chill run down his spine.

"One of the brothers still seemed to be breathing, so I rushed over and saved him, only to see that the bird had pecked out both of his eyeballs..."

Lu Zhao's voice trembled slightly; this was probably where the bloodstains on his chest came from.

For him, each corpse was a brother he knew well, and the impact of such a scene was unimaginable.

Jiang Jingming lowered his eyes and gently patted Lu Zhao's shoulder.

"Cheer up."

He's never been good at comforting people, but the only way to make him feel better right now is to kill the murderer himself.

"Since this visitor's gift to us is the killing of so many of my brothers, then there is no doubt that he is an enemy."

Chen Sha's steps were heavy as he walked to the altar, his voice booming like a bell:

"You petty scoundrels, if you want my head, Chen Sha, come and take it! Why put on this ghostly act?"

His voice echoed around with the sudden gust of wind, making the huge manor seem like an empty valley.

Jiang Jingming turned the hilt of his knife and looked up to meet A Qing's gaze.

Aqing used the tip of her knife to pick up a crow feather, and with a gust of wind, it scattered like charcoal ash.

"It's probably some kind of smokescreen."

"A masterful illusion. No matter how I looked at that dark figure, I felt it was a living thing."

Jiang Jingming rolled up his sleeves and slowly wiped the knife.

"Perhaps it was a living thing to begin with."

Fang Zhiyi also came over at some point. She waved her hand to brush away the crow feathers that were about to drift in front of her.

"This is not real raven feathers, but a material used to create clones. It is so effective that it can be mistaken for the real thing."

As if in response to her words, the same sharp bird calls suddenly rang out from all directions, making one's heart tremble.

Xie Yunqi covered one ear, pulled out Fushuang with his other hand, and his brows furrowed with anger.

"Is that really a bird call?"

"Not like."

Jiang Jingming shook his head and listened intently with a frown.

"It sounds like... someone is laughing."

The more Xie Yunqi heard him say this, the more convinced he became that it was true, as if there were people making hoarse and unpleasant laughs all around.

"..."

She turned around in fright, holding the Frost Sword horizontally in front of her, the dust stirred up by the gale was forced away by the frost.

On the walls of Tingpu Villa, countless people dressed in black robes stood densely packed together.

Beneath the black robe lay a grinning fang. Xie Yunqi was so frightened that he took two steps back and bumped into Jiang Jingming's chest, where Jiang Jingming caught him.

Chapter 142 Fang Zhiyi's Unexpected Circumstances

Jiang Jingming also saw the same scene as Xie Yunqi.

Countless dark figures stood densely packed on the walls of Tingpu Villa.

These shadowy figures, like the ones he had just slashed with his knife, upon closer inspection, were all clad in simple, empty black robes. However, given the dim light, they resembled a sinister and terrifying humanoid form.

"What... exactly are these things?"

Xie Yunqi steadied himself, held his breath, and gripped the hilt of his sword warily.

"Do these clones only serve as a deterrent and have no real killing power?"

Jiang Jingming turned the hilt of his knife and turned to look at Fang Zhiyi.

Although I don't know why she even knows about such bizarre things, she always seems to know everything, so it's not surprising.

"Generally speaking, yes."

Fang Zhiyi curled the corners of her lips, listening with great interest to the hoarse cawing of crows in the sky:

"But his true form is hidden within it. The clone is used to confuse the audience, while the real body hides inside, waiting for an opportunity to kill. That is the ingenious use of this illusion."

"Who on earth devised such a cunning technique!"

Xie Yunqi said indignantly:

"They deliberately made it so scary!"

“This time it has nothing to do with my father.”