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

The hall was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Tuoba Lie's face turned from red to white and then from white to green. His imposing figure swayed twice as he stood in the center of the hall.

When the names of those who handled the matter were read out one by one in front of the entire court of civil and military officials, three civil officials shrank by half a head, while two military officers began to sweat profusely.

When she turned to the last page, she closed the booklet and placed it on the table. She looked up and her gaze swept over Tuoba Lie's face, which had turned purplish-red. Her voice was even softer than before.

"The Regent said that I am a naive young girl who doesn't understand military supplies. I really don't understand, and I don't intend to understand. But where did the 230,000 taels of silver from the Military Supplies Department go? I can see the accounts clearly, and the officials in the hall also have clear accounts in their hands."

"If Your Majesty thinks I have made a mistake, please point it out in public: which date is wrong, which amount is not right, and which name I made up."

Tuoba Lie stood six zhang away from her, the sunlight casting a play of light and shadow on half of his face. He squinted, his eyes flashing with venomous resentment.

All eyes in the hall shifted back and forth between him and her, and the direction of those gazes had completely changed.

The day before yesterday, when he questioned Xi Yueli's "no name or title," the military officers who echoed him all lowered their heads, while the three civil officials whose names were called wished they could shrink into their court robes.

The queen sat on her throne, the young emperor suppressing a smile deep within her lips. Her right index finger rested steadily on the armrest, the tip tapping lightly twice.

The autumn nights in the Northern Shuo royal court grew colder quickly than in Daying; the wind pressed in from the northern wilderness, and the night was already deep.

Only one lamp was lit in the Imperial Preceptor's bedroom. Xi Yueli sat behind her desk, with the handwritten copy of the military supplies account from earlier that day spread out in front of her. She had already mentally reviewed the seventeen instances of embezzlement circled in red four times. She closed the last page and rubbed her temples.

Her fingertips rested on her brow, her ear slightly turned toward the window. The wind was still blowing, passing through the branches and leaves of the old locust tree outside the window, but she caught a glimpse of something else mixed in with the rustling sound.

The subtle creaking sound of a tile under pressure is slightly heavier than a cat stepping on it, but slightly lighter than a person's normal footstep.

People got onto the roof, and more than one.

She lowered her fingers from between her eyebrows and placed them naturally on the table. She casually touched the hilt of the short blade in her hidden pocket, then placed her palm against the cord wrapped around the hilt, feeling the indentation that had been repeatedly rubbed against it with her fingertips.

The slight movement on the roof stopped, and the extremely fine blade tip probed along the gap in the window frame, precisely prying open the window bolt inside. The wood made an extremely slight "click" as it was pushed open.

Moonlight streamed in through the cracks in the window, spreading a narrow, silvery-white band of light across the floor.

A dark figure silently vaulted through the window, landing on its knees without making a sound. Immediately afterward, a second dark figure vaulted in through another window, followed by a third. The three figures, each occupying a different position in the moonlight, converged in a triangular formation towards the desk.

Xi Yueli sat behind her desk, her gaze still fixed on the closed account book cover, as if she were really looking at something important.

She had already clearly seen the positions of the three dark figures out of the corner of her eye: one directly in front, one slightly behind to the left, and one slightly in front to the right, with a distance of about ten feet between them.

The man directly in front moved first. His dagger slid out of his sleeve, the blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight. He aimed for Xi Yueli's throat. The movement was swift and ruthless, without the slightest hesitation, clearly intended to kill her.

At the very moment he thrust out his dagger, Xi Yueli shifted half an inch to the left from her chair, narrowly avoiding the trajectory of the blade. At the same time, she drew a short blade from under the desk with her right hand.

Using the momentum of her sideways movement, she pushed the tip of the blade towards the inside of the man's wrist where he was holding the knife. The angle was tricky and the force was precise. The moment the tip of the blade pierced the flesh, she twisted her wrist, and the man's dagger slipped from his hand and became embedded in the wooden edge of a bookcase not far away.

At the same time, the man on her left thrust his short blade at her side, aiming straight for her waist and ribs.

Xi Yueli knew she couldn't dodge this. Her body's memory told her she should take a half step back and block with her left arm, but her physical strength couldn't keep up with the speed of her memory.

Her parry was a beat too slow; the tip of the short blade grazed the fabric at her waist, leaving a thin gash under her ribs. The fabric tore, and blood seeped out, soaking the white silk lining her black robe.

During that half-beat interval, she took a half-step back, her back touching the wooden board of the bookcase.

The man directly in front of her had his right wrist crippled, but he had already drawn a second short blade with his left hand. The man on her right also moved, and the three of them closed in from three directions simultaneously, forming a triangular shape that blocked all her escape routes.

The window was smashed open from the outside in that instant, and Liu San Niang's long sword swept in first, the blade turning a cold blue arc in the moonlight, accurately intercepting the second attack from the person directly in front of her.

The two blades struck each other, producing a short, metallic clang that caused the lamp flame on the desk to flicker violently.

The assassins from the Dark Pavilion pressed in simultaneously from three directions: outside the window, under the eaves, and through the door crack. Their movements were swift and decisive, like a silent net unfolding, separating and surrounding the three assassins.

Xi Yueli leaned against the bookshelf, her back pressed against the cold wooden board. Blood had soaked through a layer of her inner garment and was seeping down her side.

After forcing the assassin back, Liu San Niang turned her head and glanced at her, her gaze falling on the bleeding gash. Her knife was three times faster than before, and with a flick of the blade, she knocked the assassin's left-hand short blade away.

The three assassins were subdued in less than ten breaths under the siege of the six members of the Dark Pavilion. Two daggers were kicked into the corner of the wall, and the three men were pinned to the ground with their hands tied behind their backs, the blades of narrow-bladed knives held across their necks.

Liu San Niang approached Xi Yue Li, her gaze lingering for a moment on the gash under her ribs. She quickly and gently took out a roll of clean white cloth and a small bottle of hemostatic powder from a hidden pouch at her waist.

Xi Yueli took the white cloth and medicine powder, pressed the wound and applied the medicine herself. When the white cloth was wrapped around her waist, she bit her back teeth and did not make a sound. After wrapping it, she pulled her outer robe back up to cover the tear, and looked up at the three people who were restrained on the ground.

"Take her away and hand her over to the Left Chancellor." Her voice was not loud, and she finished her sentence steadily. "Don't disturb the King; she has to attend court tomorrow morning."

Liu San Niang responded and waved her hand, and the men from the Dark Pavilion dragged the three assassins off the ground and carried them out.

As one of the assassins passed by Xi Yueli, he turned his head and glanced at her. The moonlight shone on his face, and his eyes were filled with confusion and bewilderment.

When he thrust out that knife, the seemingly frail young national advisor slashed his wrist, crippling him. The precision and decisiveness of that movement didn't seem like a last-minute response, but rather like someone who was used to having their throat slit from the shadows.

Xi Yueli met his gaze, tilted her head slightly, and the assassin felt a sudden tightness in his back as she stared at him. He turned his face away and was pushed out the door by the people from the Dark Pavilion.

The bedchamber fell silent again. Before leaving, Liu Sanniang paused at the threshold, glanced back at her, and said, "Sect Master, I will increase the number of guards tomorrow."

Xi Yueli nodded. "The day after tomorrow will be the same, and the day after that will be the same. Tuoba Lie will start taking action from the day the military supply accounts were searched. Tonight is the first wave, not the last wave."