Wu Long chuckled as he shook his head. It was true that the twins were very dangerous as opponents but their main strength lay in assassinations, and a direct confrontation was only secondary. The other factor that led to this outcome was that they misread their opponent.

The twelve swords she had from the beginning were uniform, created by one artisan most likely in times before the Great Calamity struck this world. The weapons she took out after were of different types and designs, some of them daggers and some of them sabers. The only thing they shared with the sword set was the quality of the weapons, which was roughly the same for all of them. Wu Long reckoned that these were among the finest weapons in the Imperial Treasury.

It was clear that while she could control the twenty-four weapons she preferred the set of twelve swords, and only took out the rest when she needed them since there was less cohesion in the weapons and thus the coordination of attacks was less perfect.

In the background, Butler Bang and Old Yen fought off the men attacking them who were aiming for Nie Changsheng. But seeing the twins in trouble the attackers took a step back and thus silence returned to the chaotic throne room.

“Your Majesty, you cannot kill or detain them” 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺

Wu Long finally said with a smile as all eyes turned to him.

“Are you kidding me?”

Nie Xiwang raised her eyebrow with an incredulous expression as she could not believe that he was advocating for the assassins.

Hong Yue looked with confusion at Wu Long and Hong Ye’s eyes slightly widened and then a tinkling laughter resounded in the room.

“Haha, sister, I think I am not the one in love, hehehe”

“Be silent, can’t you consider the situation?”

Hong Yue sighed while touching her forehead with her hand.

“I am merely speaking of their identity, you might have no problem executing Bahshi Assassins since they dared to move in your territory but these two are Prime Demons…”

Wu Long did not express much reaction to how his words were taken both by the empress and the twins and shrugged his shoulders as he explained in a light tone as he spread his hands in a gesture of ‘what can be done?’.

Nie Xiwang’s eyes widened and she looked at the twins, the older of the two slowly nodding with an uncomfortable expression as it was a little humiliating to receive help from a random stranger, who knew more than he should to top it off.

The Blade Empress also noted that Wu Long’s knowledge went past what a person of his stature should, as even the senior government officials of this country did not know the intricate relationships between their Imperial Family and such organizations as the Bahshi Assassination Group.

“And just like that I am supposed to let them go?”

“You know full well that if you either kill or capture them you will start a war with the Bahshi assassins, and that war cannot be won without the involvement of your backer. Which is probably why they were so confident in sending them in the first place”

Wu Long spoke like a bystander simply stating the truth, which was even more irritating for Nie Xiwang since he technically was warning her about the possible consequences of her actions and not directly standing on the side of the assassins, and yet his words explicitly shielded them since she was sure that he knew she would not dare to move after he said them.

She looked at his ‘innocent’ smiling face with narrowed eyes for a few moments and finally sighed as she could do nothing but stay her hand.

“However, while these two are out of the question due to their status…”

At the moment Hong Yue sighed as it seemed that the situation was getting resolved, Wu Long’s smile became a little different as Nie Xiwang followed his logic and her gaze turned to the other assassins who came with the sisters.

“Tch, retreat!”

“Too slow”

As Hong Yue gave out an order the weapons of the Blade Empress accelerated and reaped the lives of the assassins that were earlier fighting with Old Yen and Butler Bang.

“Haha, Wu Long… right? You’re quite ruthless”

Hong Ye was not at all fazed by the death of their subordinates as she looked at Wu Long with intense interest while Hong Yue looked at him with a cold stare.

“Well, while I do have to thank you for meddling the last time we met those people have nothing to do with me”

Wu Long simply smiled confirming Nie Xiwang’s suspicion that he deliberately was shielding the twins while staying technically neutral.

“Kehehahaha, I am not blaming you, I like it”

The black-haired twin delightedly laughed while her sister shook her head.

“I am warning you, I will let you go because of your identity, but do not take it as if this is over as your organization will get a formal complaint over this. Now scram”

The Blade Empress said as she was not interested in hearing this ‘flirting’ talk any longer and Hong Yue took her sister’s forearm, taking her away.

“Aaaw, what a pity… I will see you again, Wu~ Long~…”

Hong Ye winked at Wu Long who chuckled as he casually waved his hand at the beauty disappearing into a cloud of black smoke.

“You are quite the ladies’ man”

Nie Xiwang chuckled as the weapons beside the golden swords disappeared into her spatial ring and her figure floated down to the floor.

“Why, are you jealous?”

“Hah”

He grinned at her and she simply scoffed as she turned and headed for her throne. Wu Long chuckled and turned to leave the room as well.

“Don’t think I forgot that you helped them get away”

She said to his receding back as she sat on the throne in a similar proper pose that she was in when he came into the room.

“Oh don’t be so fixated on the little things. I did remind you of a way to keep your authority did I not?”

He said without turning back as he passed the corpses of assassins who served as the sacrifice to the dignity of the Imperial Crown. Nie Xiwang made a light ‘hmph’ as she looked to the side, refusing to acknowledge it out loud but not arguing with it either.

“Besides, think about it. Whoever is behind this man was willing to hire Bahshi assassins to shut him up. That means they really do not want you to hear what he has to say and thus makes my gift to you that much more valuable”

He then added and the Empress continued to sit in silence, but there now appeared curiosity in her gaze that shifted to the man sitting on his knees in the center of the throne room.

The door opened and the guards who were apparently told not to disturb even if there was a commotion in the room looked with astonished eyes at the floor littered with corpses while Wu Long and his subordinates passed through.