Palace Coup 51

"Ah—"

Blood gushed profusely from the instep of Xie Yuan's foot, and he collapsed to the ground instantly in agony.

With a look of utter disgust, she wiped the tip of her blade against Xie Yuan's clothes.

She sheathed her sword!

Having fought a thoroughly satisfying battle, she immediately felt the muscles and bones throughout her body relax.

"My lord, aren't we going to step forward and help the young mistress?"

When Xie Yuan was leading the ambush against Xie Miaoxuan, Xie Yuandong had already arrived with the remaining retainers.

With a single glance, he had seen right through the fact that the men brought by Xie Yuan were all flashy showpieces devoid of any real competence, which was why he had restrained Xie Xiao's eager impulse to charge down into the fray.

Watching Xie Miaoxuan, accompanied by merely a dozen people, command the battlefield with effortless ease, she scattered, disrupted, and eventually subdued a force of over a hundred men.

Her movements were orderly and comprehensive.

Faintly, she had become the sharp spearhead of her formation.

Unadulterated admiration filled his eyes; it had taken her only a short span of time to transform from someone who could only hide behind his back into a person capable of standing entirely on her own.

His gaze flickered. "Let's wait a little longer. If the young mistress hasn't called out for us, it means she can handle this."

Xie Miaoxuan had already noticed them watching from a distance, yet she hadn't called out, which meant she had her own plans and only required them to wait and see how the situation unfolded.

Looking at the cluster of people bound together, Xie Miaoxuan leisurely paced around them in a circle, her eyes curving into the shape of crescents. "What should I do with you all? How about I just silence every last one of you and be done with it once and for all?"

Xie Yuan, who was nearly fainting from pain, contorted his face. Having served as clan head for all these years, he knew that if he let Xie Miaoxuan see his fear right now, she might genuinely slaughter him. He tightened his jaw, the veins on his forehead bulging fiercely.

"I am the head of the Xie clan. Once anything happens to me, the clan will surely find out. Besides, we haven't concealed our tracks along this journey; it would be effortless to trace back and discover we were ambushed by you. By then, the entire capital will know of your unprovoked slaughter, and the imperial court will not sit idly by."

"Do you intend to make an enemy of the entire Xie clan and the imperial court?"

Madam Xie tightly embraced Xie Hanhan, her gaze sweeping past Xun Ming. "Young Master Xun is the legitimate son of the Marquis of Qucheng, and his elder brother is none other than the Commandant of the Imperial Guards. We were able to find you only because the heir apparent leaked the news. If you aren't afraid of being hunted down and exterminated by the Imperial Guards, go ahead and do it."

Clap, clap, clap—

Xie Miaoxuan applauded. "Madam Xie is indeed far more fearless in the face of death than Lord Xie. Impressive, truly impressive!"

Xun Ming shivered violently, swallowing hard as he harbored a flash of resentment toward Madam Xie for dragging him into this. Yet, he was genuinely terrified; seeing Xie Miaoxuan's ferocious brutality twice in a row had left an indelible shadow upon his heart.

Now, as he looked once more at that brilliant, blazing face, she looked to him like a vengeful ghost reincarnated.

He was truly terrified that Xie Miaoxuan might suddenly, on a whim and without regard for consequences, slaughter him right here.

"I am innocent! If Madam Xie hadn't begged me to track you down, I wouldn't even know who you are. There is no grudge between us. Let me go, and I will pretend nothing ever happened. I'll take a detour every time I see you in the future, and I swear I won't breathe a word to my father or elder brother."

"Besides, you haven't suffered any losses, have you? We are the ones who are injured..."

His voice trailed off into a timid murmur.

Xie Miaoxuan laughed in amusement. "I wasn't injured because I am capable. Given your malice, if I weren't strong, I'd probably have been kneaded and flattened by you long ago. That is hardly a credit to your mercy."

Still, they weren't entirely wrong. It was still a time of relative peace, and slaughtering such a large group of people outright was unrealistic; she was merely putting on an act to terrify them.

Now that they had reached the negotiating table, frightening them first was the most convenient way to carve a substantial piece of flesh out of them.

Therefore, she said, "Since I was able to travel thousands of miles north, I am fully capable of executing you all right here on the spot and leaving immediately with my people. The heavens are high and the emperor is far away—who is genuinely going to avenge you?"

"As long as I hide away in some desolate place and weather out three to five years, tell me, who will even remember you by then?"

Xie Yuan, Xun Ming, and the others had never expected Xie Miaoxuan to harbor such a plan.

It sounded utterly barbaric, as if she cared nothing for her own future.

Yet, upon careful reflection, her scheme actually seemed viable. A barefoot person has no fear of someone wearing shoes, and the ruthless are always terrified of the desperate.

If she truly carried this out—let alone three or four years—perhaps after a few months, once the capital's novelty and gossip settled and public opinion faded, the Xie clan would simply write off their branch of the family, and no one would be willing to spend a fortune greasing palms to hunt Xie Miaoxuan down.

The Marquis of Qucheng had numerous sons. While Xun Ming held the status of a legitimate son, he was not the only legitimate heir. If Xie Miaoxuan truly hid deep within the mountains and forests, they would never find her.

Seeing them all struck dumb and gazing at her with thinly veiled terror, Xie Miaoxuan looked around. Xie Hanhan, seeing her father and mother's faces drained of all color, let out a wail of terror and burst into tears. As a sheltered young lady whose daily worries rarely extended beyond embroidery needles, threads, and the tiny courtyard of her chamber—or at best, the family she might marry into—when had she ever witnessed such a scene?

"Shut your mouth! You're giving me a headache with all that noise. If you don't stop, you'll be the first person I carve up!"

"Hiccup—" Xie Hanhan let out a startled sob and hurriedly clamped both hands over her mouth.

"If you want me to spare your lives, it's not entirely out of the question. As long as each of you signs a debt contract for ten thousand taels of gold as compensation for the fright you've caused me today, I will pretend today's events never occurred."

Ten thousand taels of gold?!

And that was *per person*?

Darkness danced before Xie Yuan's eyes. In disbelief, he blurted out, "There are a hundred and thirty people here! How could I possibly have one million three hundred thousand taels of gold?! That's impossible."

He simply didn't possess that kind of wealth. If he had that much money, he wouldn't have been eyeing Xie Miaoxuan's immense fortune in the first place.

"Lord Xie, if you don't have the money, you can simply forgo these retainers. Gift these retainers to me, and I guarantee I'll leave them alive. You bear the surname Xie, and I bear the surname Xie—whose service is truly different?"

When it came down to it, they were of the same clan. Transferring retainers from the senior branch to the secondary branch was merely a matter of a single word from the family head.

Yet, it was obvious Xie Yuan was reluctant to part with them.

Cruelly, Xie Miaoxuan upped the stakes. "If you neither wish to transfer these men to me nor are willing to pay their ransom, keeping so many people with me will only spell trouble. Don't blame me for being ruthless and sending them off to the netherworld directly. After all, these men would be dying solely because of your stinginess."

With a wave of her hand, the retainers behind her pressed the edges of their blades against the necks of the men Xie Yuan had brought.

A vicious glint flashed in Xie Yuan's eyes. If he couldn't take these men back to serve as future daggers pointed against her, he might as well let Xie Miaoxuan slaughter them. As for the ten thousand taels debt contract she spoke of, once he returned, he would simply find a way to claim she had murdered them in a highway robbery and extorted him.

As Xie Yuan's eyes darted, Madam Xie, who had shared his pillow for half her lifetime, knew instantly what he was thinking.

She clutched at his sleeve. "My lord, you must not."

"She is bluffing! She has no intention of killing these men at all. She is deliberately trying to trick you into saying you want them killed so that these retainers will completely turn their hearts against you. That way, she can take these men into her own pocket without spilling a drop of blood!"

"My lord would be better off agreeing to the ten thousand taels debt contract for now and leaving these men behind. Once we return, we can simply refuse to honor the debt and drag the matter out. Furthermore, leaving these retainers here will plant our eyes and ears right beside her."