428: Chapter 428 The Fourth Princess Returns to the Palace, Restoring Order!

She knew Jiang You's temperament too well; she knew that if she kept pushing him now, this block of stone might truly lose his temper.

"Oh! Fine!"

The Fourth Princess was very sensible and did not bring up that matter again, instead taking the opportunity to back down.

She clasped her hands behind her back, deliberately drawing out her tone, and agreed in a pitiful manner, though a hint of victorious cunning was hidden in her eyes.

Jiang You breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not turn back to acknowledge The Fourth Princess's pitiful expression, instead forcing himself to maintain his composure and coldly issuing his final order:

"Alright, everything that needed to be said has been said. It's getting late; let's prepare to depart."

The Fourth Princess also brushed the dust off her skirt, walked to a spot two steps behind him, poked out her little head, and asked curiously:

"Alright. Then how are we going to get there?"

"It's over a thousand miles from the imperial capital, you know. Do you want me to go get two fast horses?"

"No need."

Jiang You shoved his hands into his pockets, and at that moment, the shadow beneath his feet suddenly boiled violently like boiling water!

"If you can't stand steady, grab onto my clothes."

Before The Fourth Princess could react, two streaks of black mist, so thick they seemed to drip with ink, instantly surged up from the ground!

The black clouds, like two roaring, furious dragons, instantly wrapped tightly around the bodies of Jiang You and The Fourth Princess.

"Swish!"

The space within the entire cave emitted an unbearable groan.

Her vision plunged into absolute darkness, and The Fourth Princess only felt a sharp sonic boom tearing through the air beside her ears. Her body felt as if it had been stripped of all weight in an instant, thrown into a directionless void tunnel!

Just as The Fourth Princess couldn't help but want to scream due to the feeling of weightlessness.

"Hum!"

The darkness before her eyes instantly faded away.

Blinding sunlight, the noisy sound of the wind, and an aura of iron-blooded slaughter so suffocating it took one's breath away, all flooded into her senses at once.

The Fourth Princess swayed, a bit unsteady on her feet, and subconsciously grabbed onto Jiang You's sleeve.

When she opened her eyes and saw the scene before her, her beautiful, large eyes instantly widened, and even her breathing stopped.

Golden glazed tiles, vermilion palace walls reaching dozens of zhang high.

In front of that massive palace gate, inlaid with eighty-one pure copper studs, stood hundreds upon hundreds of fully armed Great Zhou Imperial Guards!

This is... outside the main gate of the Great Zhou Dynasty imperial palace!

From the wilderness over a thousand miles away to the very center of Great Zhou imperial power, it had taken only a single breath of time!

The Fourth Princess gasped, staring blankly at Jiang You beside her.

At this moment, she finally truly witnessed what kind of terrifying, unreasonable Innate Divine Ability this man before her possessed!

Ignoring a thousand miles of spatial distance and instantly teleporting with a living person—in the several hundred years of Great Zhou's martial arts history, this was simply a fantasy!

"Who goes there?!"

Outside the imperial palace gate, the hundreds of Great Zhou Imperial Guards who had been patrolling in formation were startled by the black mist that had appeared out of thin air.

When they saw the two people walk out of the black mist, the expressions of all the soldiers changed drastically. They all drew their steel blades from their waists with a "swish," the blade light cold and chilling, pointing directly at Jiang You and his companion!

"It's The Fourth Princess! The rebel, The Fourth Princess, has returned!"

"Quick, sound the alarm! Notify the Imperial Guard Commander!"

On the gate tower, the alarm bell rang out continuously, its dull tolling instantly shattering the tranquility of the imperial city.

Countless armored and armed soldiers swarmed out from every corner of the city wall, crossbows drawn, a dense forest of arrows aimed at the two below.

Facing this array of thousands of troops, there was not the slightest ripple on Jiang You's cold face.

He still had his hands casually shoved into the pockets of his black trench coat, took a step forward, and firmly blocked The Fourth Princess behind him.

Taking a deep breath, the blood energy within Jiang You's body surged frantically through his meridians like a waking, furious dragon.

He raised his head, his eyes coldly sweeping across all the Imperial Guards on the city wall.

"The Great Zhou Crown Prince, New Emperor Jiang Hantian, colluded with foreign rebels, murdered his father to usurp the throne, and plotted against the late Emperor!"

Jiang You's voice was not loud, but bolstered by his vast, ocean-like blood energy, this simple sentence sounded like a thunderclap rolling down from the nine heavens, exploding over the imperial palace gate and throughout the entire Great Zhou imperial palace!

"Today, The Fourth Princess returns to the palace to right the wrongs!"

"You all must quickly open the city gate and assist The Fourth Princess in exterminating the rebels! Anyone who obstructs us is voluntarily colluding with that regicidal traitor!"

"Kill without mercy!"

Once these words were spoken, it was like a heavy bomb thrown into the Imperial Guard camp.

The city wall, which had been filled with murderous intent, instantly fell into a deathly silence, followed by an irrepressible uproar and discussion.

"The Crown Prince murdered his father to usurp the throne? This... how is this possible?"

"But the case of the late Emperor's sudden death does have many suspicious points! At the time, the Crown Prince ordered the news to be sealed, not even letting the imperial physicians get close!"

"The Fourth Princess is a supreme genius with an Innate Divine Ability, and the late Emperor loved her the most while he was alive. What reason would she have to poison the late Emperor?"

After all, New Emperor Jiang Hantian had been on the throne for too short a time; his foundation was not yet stable, and combined with his ruthless methods, the morale of the troops beneath him was already fractured.

At this moment, Jiang You ruthlessly tore away this fig leaf in front of everyone, causing many Imperial Guard soldiers' hands to tremble. They subconsciously lowered the crossbows in their hands, their faces showing hesitation.

No one wanted to bear the eternal infamy of colluding with rebels and traitors.

Just as morale was wavering and the defensive line was about to collapse.

"Nonsense!"

In the center of the gate tower, an Imperial Guard Commander wearing dark golden heavy armor and sporting a full beard strode onto the tower with several deputy generals.

He shoved aside the retreating soldiers beside him, drew the long blade from his waist to point at Jiang You below, and let out a violent roar with bloodshot eyes:

"Where did this madman come from! How dare you spread rumors here and slander His Majesty!"

This Imperial Guard Commander was a loyal confidant of New Emperor Jiang Hantian and possessed the formidable cultivation of the early Fifth Stage.

He stared fixedly at The Fourth Princess standing behind Jiang You, a glimmer of greedy killing intent flashing in his eyes.

As long as he could take The Fourth Princess's head today, he would surely be promoted and granted titles!

"The Fourth Princess is rebellious and committed the ugly deed of murdering her father to usurp the throne, yet she dares to collude with an outsider and run back here to seek death!"

The Imperial Guard Commander raised his long blade and roared frantically at the soldiers around him who were still hesitating:

"Someone! Bring out the Demon-Slaying Crossbows from the palace! Today, I must have these two traitors shot into a hornet's nest..."

However, this imposing clamor of his was only shouted halfway.

"Hum!"

Jiang You, standing below, didn't even take his hands out of his pockets. In the depths of his eyes, which reflected the gate tower, a deep, ghostly blue light suddenly brightened to the extreme!

A beam of ghostly blue light erupted directly from Jiang You's eyes!

The speed of that light beam was unimaginably fast, leaving not even an afterimage as it instantly crossed the distance of dozens of zhang in the air!

"Puchi!"

On the gate tower, the Imperial Guard Commander's head was struck solidly, as if by an invisible, ten-thousand-ton giant hammer!

A crimson, eye-piercing flower of red and white blood bloomed explosively above the city wall!

That blue beam of light pierced directly through his entire skull, its momentum undiminished, even blasting a two-meter-wide hole straight through a sturdy defensive turret behind him!

The headless corpse stood stiffly on the city wall for half a second, and the long blade in its hand fell to the ground with a "clang."

Then, the corpse's knees went soft, and it collapsed straight onto the blue bricks of the city wall, blood spraying like a fountain all over the faces of the deputy generals nearby.