Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

The carriage drove through three streets in the night and stopped in front of an inconspicuous teahouse.

Liu San Niang helped Xi Yue Li down from the carriage. She stepped aside to lead the way, pushing open a hidden door disguised as a shelf on the back wall of the tea shop, revealing a winding stone staircase leading downwards.

Xi Yueli followed Liu Sanniang down the steps, turned three corners, and suddenly the view opened up before her.

A spacious and astonishing underground stone chamber, with wooden shelves crammed densely packed with files and booklets from floor to ceiling, the air thick with the smell of old paper, ink, and rust.

In the very center was a long table, on which lay a hand-drawn map of the entire city of Beijing, marked with dozens of densely packed dots in vermilion.

Liu San Niang pulled out a chair behind the table for her. "All the relevant files from the Xi family have been retrieved."

Xi Yueli sat down, her gaze sweeping over the files and booklets crammed onto the four walls, which were almost overflowing. She raised her hand and pressed her temple.

She didn't actually remember what she wanted Liu San Niang to check, but she still gritted her teeth and took a file to open.

The densely packed handwriting began eleven years ago and contained all the shady dealings Fang had handled since entering the Xi family.

Embezzling funds meant for the central government, setting up private banks, and lending money at exorbitant interest rates in Xi Mingyuan's name—every single instance was meticulously documented, including the date, the person in charge, and the amount of silver involved.

The second volume covers the period before Fang married into the Xi family. It includes records from her maternal family, the Fang family's, account books, the abortion medicine in Willow Lane, the people she secretly contacted, and the promises those people made to her.

Especially that secret letter from her memory, the handwriting, the paper—it was exactly the same, as if she had seen it with her own eyes, and now that paper was in her hands.

But how could she, a woman confined to the inner courtyard of a secluded mansion, have seen the secret letters from the Dark Pavilion?

Xi Yueli leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, clearing her mind of all distractions. There were more important things to see now.

The third volume was the thinnest, but Xi Yueli stopped halfway through reading it. Xi Mingyuan had worked in the Ministry of Revenue for more than ten years and had handled several transactions of money with dubious origin.

Some of these funds were used to facilitate transactions for high-ranking officials; the amounts were small, but enough to cause a Ministry of Revenue official to lose his official position before the Censorate.

In case Xi Mingyuan pushes her out to take the blame in order to protect his official position, she will at least have a shield to protect her life.

She pushed the three volumes of files aside and flipped through the recent sales records of the Dark Pavilion. Sure enough, she found the case of Fang hiring a murderer.

The record reads, "Order No. 174, accepted. Employer: Fang, Handler: Zhang. Deposit: Fifty taels of silver. Reason: Killing the eldest daughter of the Xi family." A line of red annotation follows: "Personally instructed by the Pavilion Master: Order cancelled. Order No. 174, live."

After reading it, Xi Yueli closed the record book, tapped the cover lightly with her fingertips, and then looked up at Liu Sanniang, who was standing by the table with her hands at her sides.

"I can't attend to the affairs of the Dark Pavilion for the time being." She withdrew her hand from the file and tucked it into her sleeve, her posture relaxed yet carrying a sense of propriety that made people dare not act rashly.

"I am injured, so you take care of things for me. Send a secret report to Jinxian Courtyard every three days, and I will burn it after reading it."

Liu San Niang knelt down on one knee: "Yes."

"Can you keep things under control with the elders?"

"We can keep it under control." Liu Sanniang raised her head, the lingering fear and awe in her eyes still present. "The elders all saw what the Pavilion Master did at the headquarters three nights ago. Those two traitors have been imprisoned in the dungeon, and the rest... are behaving themselves."

Xi Yueli nodded. She didn't know what she had done the night before, but the light in Liu Sanniang's eyes when she mentioned the words "headquarters" made her sure that she had done something thorough enough that night.

"Get up," she said. "From now on, report only what you need; there's no need to kneel before me otherwise."

When Liu San Niang stood up, her gaze lingered for a moment on Xi Yue Li's pale face. The Pavilion Master's demeanor was completely different from that of the night three days ago.

Last night, the Pavilion Master was decisive and ruthless, his eyes so cold that even the blade seemed to gleam. But now, the girl sitting under the lamp looked more like someone who had just recovered from a serious illness. Her fatigue was evident in her eyes, but her clarity and determination remained unwavering.

Having worked in the Dark Pavilion for twenty years, Liu San Niang was quite certain that the person in front of her was not the Pavilion Master, but the same spirit of someone who had tasted blood on the edge of a knife was still there. Since she had the token and the means, the Dark Pavilion was not at a loss in her hands.

"Master," Liu Sanniang said, taking a bamboo tube about the thickness of a little finger from her sleeve and handing it to him. "This is for emergency communication. Unscrew the tube; there's a signal flare inside. Once fired, the hidden agents within a three-mile radius will arrive within the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. Please carry this with you at all times."

Xi Yueli took the bamboo tube and weighed it in her hand. It was light and small; she could barely feel its weight when tucked into her sleeve. "Okay."

She stood up, and before leaving, glanced one last time at the row of files on the west wall. "Keep these files for me; I need to access them whenever I want."

Helian Jing sat behind his desk in the secret chamber of the Tian Shu Division, twirling a newly opened secret report between his fingers.

The candlelight flickered across his profile, casting the shadow of his brow bone deep into his eye sockets. Those usually lazy and aloof eyes were now staring intently at the few lines of text on the paper, motionless.

The secret report was delivered from an undercover agent in the southern city at dusk: "The assassins of the Dark Pavilion are besieging Xi Yueli. Liu Sanniang bows respectfully and addresses her as 'Pavilion Master.' Xi Yuefu has been sent to the government office on charges of hiring a murderer."

Helian Jing read the secret report several times from beginning to end. The first time he skimmed through it, he thought he had misread the line. The second time, he broke down each word and found it unbelievable.

The third time, he folded the secret report and placed it on the table, then leaned back in his chair and stared at the dark beams above his head for a long time.

The Dark Pavilion Master, the woman who controls the largest and most secretive intelligence and assassination organization in the entire world, the woman for whom he once used the Dark Web of the Heavenly Pivot Division to search through the Three Realms without finding a trace.

It turned out to be that sickly eldest daughter of the Xi family, who was ridiculed as a "madwoman" by the entire household in the backyard.

She acted out so many dramas right under his nose—being beaten, kidnapped, having her engagement broken off, performing a soul exorcism, and dealing with assassins—and each time he just happened to "pass by" or "just happened to" be there.

He always thought she was a key figure connected to the person he was pursuing. He had guessed that she was a dual-soul entity, and that she contained fragments of a master's consciousness, but he had never associated the words "Sect Master of the Dark Pavilion" with her.

Because he had seen her tied up and put on a mule cart, seen her being forced onto a prayer mat by an old woman and having talisman water poured down her throat, and seen her curled up on the blue brick floor, biting her wrist and refusing to make a sound.

The Lord of the Dark Pavilion should not be in such a sorry state, being trampled underfoot. He should be like the woman he saw that night from the rooftop, with broken porcelain in hand, calm and precise, defeating the enemy with a single blow.

Yet these two faces appear alternately on the same person, blending together seamlessly into one.

"Xi Yueli..." He murmured the name on his tongue, tapping his fingertips lightly on the edge of the table twice.

That "dissociative identity disorder" was a perfect cover-up.

Who would be wary of a madman who can't even remember yesterday? Who would associate the cunning and manipulative master of the Dark Pavilion with the sickly, bullied girl in the backyard of the Xi family mansion?

As the head of the Heavenly Pivot Bureau and the sharpest blade hidden in the Emperor's shadows, he never saw through it even once.

He slowly sat up straight, brought the secret report on the table to the candle flame and burned it. The paper curled, yellowed, and turned into a clump of ashes that fell into the copper dish, with a wisp of very faint blue smoke rising.

"Xi Yueli." He repeated the name again, this time softer, as if weighing its weight on the tip of his tongue, "You've deceived me so thoroughly."