Ye Xingjue's face darkened. He had a man's body, but a woman's soul lived inside it.

Countless times he'd wanted to turn himself completely into a man, and countless times he'd tried. Maybe it was all in his head, but he'd never managed it!

So he and Kang Baobao were the same. They looked normal, but neither of them was. They were both he-shes.

He turned her down coldly. "Not interested!"

The old woman curled her lip. "Pity!"

Ye Xingjue frowned. "Enough talk. Hurry up and do it. The longer we wait, the more can go wrong."

The old woman's eyes darkened a little. She didn't like his attitude one bit, but in the end she said nothing more. She turned toward one of the rooms and headed for it.

Ye Xingjue hesitated, then followed her.

The old woman, walking in front, suddenly blanched and sidestepped.

Two cold gleams were streaking through the air at them.

The old woman dodged.

But Ye Xingjue, behind her, didn't, and he screamed like a pig on the block.

He looked down in terror. A sharp sword had gone clean through the top of his foot and pinned it to the ground.

What the old woman had dodged was a peachwood sword.

Its blade had sunk almost entirely into the ground. That was how hard it had been thrown.

She didn't dare give the wooden sword another look. Her head snapped up.

Two people were standing on the roof.

One wore a gray robe, the other black brocade.

They were Liu Baiyi and Ning Chen.

Liu Baiyi always went about in white. To follow Ye Xingjue unseen, he had changed into gray scholar's robes.

The old woman's pupils shrank to points.

Her first instinct wasn't to run. It was to rush to Ye Xingjue.

At the same moment, Ning Chen and Liu Baiyi leapt down from the roof and landed squarely in front of the room she'd been about to enter.

And all at once, row upon row of archers rose up beyond the courtyard wall.

Every one of them had his bow drawn…