31: The Truth Behind Chapter 31

Chen Fan looked at the absurd and bizarre scene before him, speechless for a moment.

This trap was simple and crude, yet lethally effective.

He walked to the bedside and looked down at the tear-stained woman.

Her body was trembling slightly, and her beautiful eyes were filled with fear and supplication.

Chen Fan did not hesitate; he reached out and tore away the cloth gag stuffed in her mouth.

"Cough, cough... cough!"

The Princess Consort coughed violently, greedily gasping for air.

"Who did this?" Chen Fan's voice was rough and deep, revealing no emotion.

The Princess Consort looked at him in terror, her body instinctively shrinking back until her back pressed against the cold stone wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

"It... it was Su Xin!" She trembled as she spat out a name. "It was my maid, Su Xin!"

Chen Fan didn't react, just listened quietly.

"She... she is a demon of the White Lotus Sect! She kidnapped me, wanting to use me to frame you, forcing you into enmity with the Xiushan Princes Mansion so that their White Lotus Sect could take the opportunity to incite chaos in Xiushan Prefecture!"

The Princess Consort, as if clutching at a final straw, poured everything out.

"Being captured by you on the road earlier was also masterminded by her! She originally wanted you... wanted you to defile me, to use that to control you and make you work for the White Lotus Sect!"

"But you... you let me go, disrupting her plan..."

"So she came up with this vicious scheme! She drugged me and sent me to your bed, then lured the Princes Mansion's personal guards here... By then, you would... you would have no way to defend yourself!"

White Lotus Sect.

Su Xin.

So that was it.

In Chen Fan's mind, all the fragmented clues finally connected into a complete line at this moment.

From that initial, seemingly coincidental capture up the mountain, to the suggestive recruitment by Chiliarch Zhou Tong of the Yellow Robe Army, and now this "amorous encounter" delivered to his doorstep.

Everything was a trap.

A massive conspiracy that used his Black Wind Mountain as a pawn to stir up turmoil across the entire Xiushan Prefecture.

From start to finish, he had merely been a pawn on someone else's chessboard.

Truly troublesome.

What he hated most was this kind of uncontrollable trouble.

However, was Black Wind Mountain, just an ordinary bandit den, worth such elaborate scheming?

Just then, a sweeter, stranger fragrance drifted into his nostrils.

Chen Fan frowned. He saw that the woman on the bed was in a very strange state.

Her cheeks flushed with an unnatural crimson, her breathing became rapid, and she was writhing restlessly on the tiger skin.

"So... so hot..."

The Princess Consort moaned unconsciously, her hands beginning to tear at her already disheveled clothes.

The silk dress was soon ripped open by her own hands, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin.

Aphrodisiac.

And a potent one at that.

Chen Fan was not some naive boy ignorant of worldly affairs; he instantly understood what that strange fragrance was.

That woman named Su Xin truly had a vicious scheme.

She not only wanted to stage a scene of catching an affair in bed, but also to ensure this "illicit affair" became an established fact.

A Princess Consort defiled by a bandit Chief—even if the Prince of Xiushan wanted to let the matter rest, he couldn't.

This enmity would be irreconcilable.

"Hot... I feel so uncomfortable..."

The Princess Consort had completely lost her reason. Like a fish out of water, she rolled and writhed on the bed, emitting groans that made one's blood boil.

Her hazy eyes locked onto the only man by the bedside.

It was the look of a desert traveler seeing an oasis.

She struggled and crawled towards Chen Fan.

Chen Fan stood in place, not moving.

He watched as this woman shed all her noble veneer, revealing her most primitive instincts.

In all honesty, this body was beautiful.

Any normal man, facing such a scene, would likely find it hard to restrain himself.

Within this body of the Black Wind Demon, a primitive surge of heat also welled up.

But Chen Fan's consciousness remained perfectly clear.

Taking advantage of someone in distress?

A gentleman may appreciate beauty but not be lecherous; although he had a heart that appreciated beauty, he hadn't stooped so low as this.

Furthermore, touching this woman would be equivalent to confirming the charges, and it was just too dirty.

Watching the Princess Consort, who had crawled to the edge of the bed and was about to fall off, Chen Fan sighed.

He reached out, not to embrace her, but with his five fingers joined together, forming a hand blade.

He struck down cleanly and decisively at the woman's smooth nape, without a shred of tenderness.

"Ugh!"

The Princess Consort let out a muffled grunt, her body went limp, and she collapsed completely on the edge of the bed, motionless.

By doing this, the poisoned Princess Consort would not get release, and her body would suffer significant damage.

But that had nothing to do with Chen Fan; physical damage was far better than losing one's purity.

The stone chamber fell silent instantly.

Only the two bandit wives on the floor and the unconscious Princess Consort on the bed remained.

Chen Fan shook his hand, calculating how to deal with this mess.

Throw her down the mountain? Probably not; in the Princess Consort's current state, the chance of her being taken advantage of by scavengers was high.

Leave her here? That would be leaving behind evidence of his own guilt.

This White Lotus Sect demoness really deserved to die!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The heavy stone door was pounded from the outside until it resounded.

"Chief! Chief! Something big has happened!"

It was the voice of Smiling Tiger, filled with unprecedented panic and urgency.

Chen Fan walked over and pulled open the stone door.

He saw that Smiling Tiger's fat face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, with beads of cold sweat on his forehead.

"What are you shouting about?" Chen Fan's tone remained flat.

"Ch... Chief!" Smiling Tiger gasped for air, pointing in the direction of the foot of the mountain, his voice cracking.

"Government troops! All government troops! Down the mountain... the foot of the mountain is full of torches, they have completely surrounded our Black Wind Mountain!"

"A captain leading them has been shouting with an iron megaphone..."

Smiling Tiger swallowed hard, looking at Chen Fan with an expression like he had seen a ghost.

"He is shouting... telling you... to hand over the Prince of Xiushan's Princess Consort!"

Chen Fan furrowed his brows, thinking that what was meant to come had finally arrived.

The Saintess of the White Lotus Sect must have notified the Xiushan Princes Mansion long ago, and only then sent the person up.

"Get ready. The government troops won't let this go easily this time. Tell the brothers to prepare for a fight to the death."

Chen Fan said calmly.

Things having reached this point, what else was there to say?

He couldn't wash himself clean even if he jumped into the Yellow River, so he might as well fight the government troops.

Of course, the outcome of fighting would only be death.

Because those who came this time were not the riffraff county soldiers like Magistrate Zhao De's, but real imperial elite troops!

"Send someone to take the two bandit wives away from the back mountain. Whether they can survive depends on their own fortune."

Chen Fan ordered finally.

After all, there had been some intimacy; keeping the two women on the mountain served no purpose, they were just waiting to die.