Ying Jian sprawled on the boulder, incessantly rubbing at it as he scrutinized it over and over.

  Subsequently, he discovered in disappointment that it was just an ordinary boulder. Because the glacial pond water washed up against it over the years, it simply seemed like it was emitting a hint of chilly air, in addition to being darker than the rocks that he normally saw.

  Ying Jian released a long sigh. Afterwards, he laid down beneath a huge, crooked old tree.

  He looked up at the dense, old tree branches blocking his sight; however, the overlapping layers of luxuriant foliage blocked the sunlight from above, not letting even the slightest bit of sunlight seep through.

  He released a signal tool to inform his subordinates to come meet up with him. Afterwards, he was overwhelmed with sleepiness from his body’s fatigue, and he unwittingly fell asleep underneath the old tree.

  Not long after Ying Jian fell asleep, however, a pointy-nosed rat with sparse hairs suddenly scuttled out from behind the bushes and observed Ying Jian with its small red eyes.

  After a series of squeaks.

  Hundreds upon thousands of small, pointy-nosed rats swarmed out from behind the bushes, covering the ground entirely as they excitedly surrounded Ying Jian.

  Ying Jian was startled awake from the pain of having his skin bit at. When he opened his eyes, he felt his eyelid hurt, as if his eye socket was bit by something, and he shrieked out loudly in panic.

  “Squeak, squeak, squeak!” On the other hand, the colony of rats were euphoric. By this time, nearly ten thousand rats had madly surrounded Ying Jian.

  Unable to see anything, Ying Jian made a determined effort to strike out two palms of mystic energy, but how was it that easy for him to dispel a colony of ten thousand rats?

  After hitting several dozen, the remaining several ten thousand swarmed over once again, basically not giving him any chance to catch his breath.

  Suddenly, they engulfed his entire body.

  Looking down from the sky, one could see that Ying Jian’s body was completely covered by the dense swarm of black rats. In the blink of an eye, his four white and chubby limbs had been gnawed on to their bones.

  Very soon, Ying Jian’s screams were drowned out in this colony of rats.

  After nearly an hour, when Ying Jian’s subordinates found their master’s location according to the signal tool, they saw nothing other than a thick carpet of branches and leaves.

  After the several people exchanged strange gazes, they automatically scattered to search in the surrounding areas, as well.

  —-My Qiao’s section break—-

  Three days later.

  Ying Fa, Fan Qiuming, and Hong Bawei were also forcibly transferred out of the secret realm.

  In survival of the fittest, the victor was king.

  Qiao Mu was unaware that a big incident had occured in the outside world that shocked all quarters, even alarming the Six Prefectures’ hidden forces!

  Inside the bedchamber of the royal city’s Eastern Palace.

  Mo Lian woke up as usual, but when he raised his arm, he creased his brows as he silently looked down at his slightly stiff left fingers.

  Even though he had consumed many antidote pills during these past few days, and even though had also used his medicinal power to treat it, it didn’t seem to be that effective.

  However, Ding Tingding was too naive in thinking that he could poison him to death within a few days.

  With a flicker of his eyes, Mo Lian used concentrated medicinal power to enswathe his left arm. After treating it for several minutes, his stiffness symptom improved.

  However, he also knew that this stiff sensation would get worse the next day. It seemed like his medicinal power could only alleviate and not completely cure this poison.

  Not long after he got up, Huifeng’s worried voice came from the window. “Your Highness.”


  Huifeng had accompanied him for so many years already, so Mo Lian knew Huifeng’s temper very well.