Chapter 1659 — The Might of the Heaven Rank: Bing Tang Seethes — Have I Become Your Wife's Guard? Yet She Must Protect Those Two in the Carriage, One Her Own Sister and One Her Junior Disciple — Both Equally Important.

"No need to ask," Bing Tang said flatly. "The Bloody Robe Yellow Springs Sect — I know them, a gang of bastards who do any job for money. Small fry like these are merely the ones who carry it out; they wouldn't know a thing about whoever hired them."

"Oh?" Wei Zhao frowned. So they were a gang of bastards — no wonder he had never heard of them. He had assumed he had offended them somewhere; now it seemed someone had simply hired them.

By now Xiao Qing, having heard the three of them out, dared not decide the matter herself. She turned and walked back toward Wei Zhao's car, meaning to ask the Ice Palace Mistress what should be done.

But before Xiao Qing had taken more than a few steps, the Ice Palace Mistress had already rolled down the window and spoken a single word, light as a breath: "Kill."

"Yes." Having received the Ice Palace Mistress's command, Xiao Qing spun on the spot — and in the next instant, the three Mystic Rank adepts, each at the peak of the late stage, were headless, their eyes still wide with death! They had not even understood what was happening; before they could register that single word "kill," they were already finished!

It truly matched their sect's name: at that moment their clothes had become blood-soaked garments, and they had indeed gone down to the Yellow Springs.

And it was only after Xiao Qing made her move that Wei Zhao could make out the weapon she had used — a mere strip of silk gauze, nothing more than a little ornament on her cuff! Yet not a drop of blood stained it. Her speed must have been too great, or she had wrapped the gauze in true qi!

Xiao Qing's methods sent a sudden chill through Wei Zhao's heart. It seemed that last time at the Ice Palace, the Mistress and Xiao Qing had plainly been holding back — they had actually given him the chance to "frighten" them with his energy bombs!

Thinking back on it now, how ridiculous he had been. If Bing Tang and Xiao Qing had truly wanted to kill him, he would have died long ago, without the slightest room to resist! At that time Wei Zhao had only been at the late Mystic Rank, and these three adepts before him, each at the peak of the late Mystic Rank, had been beheaded in an instant, dying without even knowing how.

"Let's go." Paying no mind to the corpses of the three from the Bloody Robe Yellow Springs Sect on the ground, Bing Tang gave Xiao Qing her order.

"Yes!" Xiao Qing climbed back into the front car. By now Tang's mother and father were frightened witless — they had never imagined that Xiao Qing, who seemed so mild, could take three lives in the space of a single gesture!

"Th-this... just now..." Tang's mother was so terrified she could barely get the words out.

It was Xiao Ming, however, who had seen a thing or two of the world during these years at the Hidden Tang Family, and was not so panicked as Tang's mother.

"It's nothing — just three bandits," Xiao Qing said lightly. "Pay them no mind. Their deaths are no loss."

"Oh..." Tang's mother nodded, frightened.

"They're from an ancient sect — in feuds like theirs, death is unavoidable..." Tang Jucheng was shaken too, but he did his best to reassure her.

As for Wei Zhao, he felt nothing much — only that whoever had hired assassins to kill him had wasted their money. Cultivating three adepts at the peak of the late Mystic Rank was no easy feat, yet they had been wiped out in an instant. What a wretched fate!

It could not help but remind Wei Zhao of the two Yellow Rank adepts he had met when he first came to Songshan City, whom he had sent tumbling down a ravine to their deaths. At the time, Li Cihua and Zhao Qibing must have felt like weeping.

The Bloody Robe Yellow Springs Sect had assassins devoted solely to killing, and naturally it also had men devoted solely to tidying the scene and disposing of bodies. These men usually waited for a signal from the assassins before going to clean up the battlefield — but this time they waited and waited, and no signal came.

They at once sensed that something might be wrong and hurried to the scene. Sure enough, there was no sign of the enemy's corpses — but their own three men had been beheaded and were long since dead beyond doubt.

Seeing this, the leader among them immediately called his superior. Such a thing had happened before, but three men dying at once, all beheaded, was rare indeed!

"Well? Is the mission done?" When the call connected, a gloomy voice came from the other end.

"Brother Neng, the mission failed. All three assassins are dead, beheaded. It looks like they were killed in a single move — judging from the scene, it was at least an Earth Rank adept!" The leader briefly described the situation, without any trace of emotion.

They had seen such things many times. Even assassins had their failures.

"Bring the bodies back," the man called Brother Neng said after a moment's silence, ordering the leader on this end.

"Yes..." The leader hung up, had his men load the corpses into a car in the distance, and quickly left the scene...

By now Wei Zhao and the others were already nearing the territory of the Hidden Tang Family...

"So the Hidden Tang Family invited Tang Yun's family entirely because of you — they want to latch onto you, Bing Tang, the Ice Palace Mistress?" Arriving before the main gate of the Hidden Tang Family, Wei Zhao looked at the imposing, grand estate, stopped the car, and asked.

"What do you mean, latch onto me? That sounds so crude!" Bing Tang's face flushed slightly, and she said in annoyance, "Could you watch your mouth a little?"

"As long as you get the meaning," Wei Zhao said with a shrug.

"More or less." Bing Tang was so exasperated by Wei Zhao that she had no temper left and nodded. "But from what I see now, Father and Mother don't much care for the Hidden Tang Family, and neither does Auntie. So I'll have to reconsider how the Ice Palace and the Hidden Tang Family stand with each other."

"That's up to you. I've no fondness for them either way." Toward a family that had nearly thrown Tang Yun away, Wei Zhao felt a deep-seated dislike. If Tang Yun had not been switched out by Uncle Da back then, she might well have frozen to death in the snow!

On this matter, Wei Zhao still felt somewhat guilty toward the Heaven Rank girl. After all, she had suffered in Tang Yun's place. If not for her Pseudo Ice-Heart Jade-Bone constitution, she might have frozen to death as well — and there would be no Ice Palace Mistress today!

"Let's see what Father and Mother mean to do first," Bing Tang said with a nod.

"You go in. Tang Yun, Xiaoxiao, and I won't be staying here — we'll stay at a hotel outside. What day is the birthday banquet? I'll come by then." Wei Zhao had no fondness for the Hidden Tang Family and naturally did not want to stay on their territory.

"The day after tomorrow. There may be a great many guests." Bing Tang said, "If you don't want to stay here, then so be it."

Bing Tang did not press the matter. To be honest, if her present identity were not that of the Ice Palace's master, she might well have thrown a tantrum and refused to give the Hidden Tang Family the time of day. But since the Ice Palace had chosen the Hidden Tang Family as its eyes and ears, she could only maintain this relationship for the time being.

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