The sage was determined to die.

"Is the person dead?"

"He's dead."

Chen Ji looked down at the corpses on the ground and suddenly sneered, "You really underestimate me, sending such worthless wretches to launch a sneak attack."

The other scholars from Chen State couldn't help but laugh along.

They were walking along peacefully when suddenly several suspicious-looking people appeared in front of them. They looked at them with panic as if they had seen ghosts.

Chen Ji, with his sharp eyes, immediately recognized that this was not someone from their Chen Kingdom.

With hands moving faster than eyes, several scholars from the State of Chen rushed forward, and with a few swift strokes, the assassin died.

Chen Ji was a fraction slower, and he missed out.

They didn't even leave him one; this is a rebellion! That was Chen Ji's first thought.

A bunch of brutes, how can we question them if we don't leave them alive! This was Chen Ji's second thought.

"Tang Er, who sent this?"

Chen Ji casually glanced at the smartest person under him. He didn't remember the person's name, only that the person was ranked second in the Tang family.

Tang Er didn't hesitate much and said directly, "It should be someone from Ji Bai's side."

Chen Ji nodded, then showed off his wisdom at the opportune moment: "That's right, it seems you've noticed it too. These people look furtive and are dressed in a mess; they're obviously from the Beggars' Sect."

Tang Er was a little embarrassed and whispered, "...Actually, I've seen these people with Ji Bai before."

Chen Ji: "..."

He patted the other person on the back as encouragement.

"Good eyesight."

They didn't expend too much energy on the corpses. Chen Ji wanted to just throw the bodies away and leave, but Tang Er stopped him, and the group waited there for a while.

Then the corpses vanished into thin air, leaving only a few bone skewer on the ground.

Tang Er picked up the bone slip. It was very smooth to the touch, about the width of a finger and the length of a palm, as thin as a cicada's wing, and had no writing on it.

He handed the object to Chen Ji, who took it, examined it, and asked, "What is this thing?"

Tang Er shook his head and suddenly said, "I think I've seen something similar before."

The more Chen Ji touched it, the more familiar the feel became. After a moment's thought, the two of them almost said in unison:

"Is this a bookmark?"

"It might be a bookmark."

Chen Ji put the bone skewer away and pondered, "If it really is this, it's not that strange. I once saw one in my grandfather's study. The old man said it was useless and just an ornament."

"However," Chen Ji glanced at the corpses along the way and suddenly said, "at least there's something related to books now."

Tang Er nodded: "Since we came in, we haven't encountered any other teams, but there have been many fake corpses along the way."

"Yeah, right," Chen Ji scoffed. "This place is incredibly stingy."

Tang Er shook his head, pointed to the bookmark in Chen Ji's hand, and said, "Could this thing be related to those fake corpses?"

Chen Ji casually stepped on the hand of a fake corpse by the roadside; the feel was quite different from that of a real corpse.

The corpses they saw along the way were all in different ways. Although seeing his own face on a corpse was really unlucky, Chen Ji could not possibly show such a terrified expression.

"These corpses look like they died as if they were fleeing a disaster," Chen Ji said.

Tang Er was a smart man, but his reaction wasn't particularly fast. His eyes were fixed on the corpse that Chen Ji had guessed. If the corpse was a real person, it must have died very suddenly, with a panicked and hurried expression, and it was holding a bundle in its arms.

"Perhaps," Tang Er suddenly said, "they all died in the war."

"Died in the war?"

Chen Ji remained silent for a moment, then suddenly sneered, "With the five great families involved, would they allow such a large-scale war?"