Yue Congyun shuddered and turned with an effort to look at Lei An.

Lei An's thrust had been vicious. It had all but ended her life.

"Wh-why?"

Yue Congyun forced the words out.

When she opened her mouth, bright red blood welled up at the corners of her lips.

Lei An's face was twisted, his eyes savage. "Staff Officer Long was right. Standing in the way of a man's glory is the same as slaughtering his whole family.

General Yue, if you want to be loyal to your sovereign and love your country, that's your business. Just don't stand in the way of our fortunes.

We worked ourselves half to death fighting on the battlefield, and in the end we got banished to this place where even the birds won't take a shit. We won't stand for it.

Her Majesty is harsh and ungrateful. She was the first to do wrong by us, so she can't blame us for breaking faith."

Yue Congyun stared hard at Lei An's contorted face. "You, you ungrateful dog. Without the prince, you'd be nothing.

And now you'd betray the Great Xuan for wealth and glory. Let's see how you face the prince when you're dead."

Her eyes moved to Yuan Long. "When I get to the other side, I'll tell the prince everything you've done..."

"Shut up..."

Lei An roared, yanked out the dagger and plunged it into Yue Congyun's back again, a dozen-odd times in a row.

Yuan Long couldn't watch anymore. "Enough!"

Only then did Lei An stop.

Yue Congyun collapsed into a pool of blood.

Lei An looked down at Yue Congyun's body and seemed to wake suddenly from a nightmare. Horrified, he dropped the dagger.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I didn't mean it. You were asking to die. I just didn't want a lifetime's work to go to waste. You were the one standing in the way of our fortunes..."

Yuan Long looked down at her and said nothing, grief written on his face.

Qu Shao watched it all with the smile of a schemer whose plot had worked. He…