Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Jiang Pengji did not show any mercy. Although he was still alive, he was basically crippled.

According to the common practice of the three tribes in the Northern Borderline, crippled people would end up being abandoned in the wild, forced to fight for their lives among the beasts. On the Northern Borderline, where resources were scarce and the environment was harsh, that was a more suffering ending than death itself.

“You’re not answering? Well, I’ll chop off both your arms.” She could not wait to wield the big knife in her hands.

At that moment, the sound of armor colliding and a series of heavy, running footsteps came in from the courtyard.

“Wait a second!”

She had to wait simply because that person said so. It made her look bad. Jiang Pengji sneered. He was a step late, however. She raised her hand and the knife landed upon the man, chopping off his bloody arm.

Jiang Pengji lifted her head and looked to the courtyard coldly. Two lines of soldiers who were clad in armor from the Northern Borderline came rushing in, holding shiny weapons in their hands. All of them looked murderous. They looked just like crouching beasts and radiated an oppressive feeling.

“You actually…” A man dressed in clothes from the Northern Borderline came out from the crowd and looked at the Northern Borderline warriors lying on the ground. His face was grave.

“I axed him with my ability. How dare you make me stop?” Jiang Pengji moved her foot away from his face and kicked him away. She then immediately looked at the person who had just arrived with a stern look on her face. “You’re the one to blame. You’re too slow. How can you blame me for acting too quickly?”

She dominated the enemy by striking first and did not give him a chance to make a punitive expedition against her. “This is Dongqing, not the wild and uncivilized Northern Borderline. Go back to your own place if you don’t want to obey the rules. If you want to marry into the royal family, please show your sincerity in making peace.”

Jiang Pengji had beaten the man up and chopped off his arm in front of the Northern Borderline soldiers. The situation could no longer be reversed. After all, she did all that because she stood up for him. How could Feng Jin possibly hold her back?

He breathed heavily, endured the pain in his arms, and said with a pale face, “You’ve severely injured the son of one of the important ministers in the palace and humiliated the young scholars of Dongqing. Is this what you call your ‘sincerity in making peace?’ What happened today can’t end like this. The Northern Borderline has to give us an explanation!”

If these people toyed with ordinary citizens and students from poor families, then Dongqing could only put up with it even if they were displeased. After all, they had to put the interests of the whole above everything else. However, what about the outcome?

Feng Jin was the one who was most severely injured among the crowd. He was the second son born of the legal wife of the Feng family, one of the four biggest and wealthiest families in Dongqing. He was the son of Feng Ren, the head of the secretariat!

If the bruises on his face were not treated with top-grade vulneraries, they would not heal in half a month’s time. Besides, his right arm was cut and fresh blood kept flowing out. With his right hand injured, it meant that he could not write, which would affect him in the upcoming assessment.

In order to stand out in the assessment, a student had to work hard. Feng Jin would miss the assessment, which meant that the efforts that he had put in previously were all in vain. Even the plans that he had made earlier were all disrupted.

Who would compensate for such a huge loss? Feng Jin had suffered an injustice. Was he willing to be beaten up by someone for nothing? Would Feng Ren leave the matter at that? Would the Feng family let the incident slip?

For a respected gentry that had been around for thousands of years, they could lose their lives, but their faces could not be beaten up.

Seeing how Jiang Pengji and Feng Jin echoed one another with arrogant attitudes, the face of the man from the Northern Borderline stiffened.

Jiang Pengji added fuel to the fire by saying something again. “If you don’t have the intention of making peace, then say so. Today, you’ve deliberately humiliated the son of one of the important ministers in the palace. This matter must be reported to the officials. It’s better for you to go back and ask your master how to settle this matter instead of glaring at me!”

After being infuriated by Jiang Pengji like this, they were fuming with rage.

A few warriors from the Northern Borderline were looking for trouble, which someone had instructed them to do. They were not afraid of hurting someone. By then, someone would naturally stand up for them. Dongqing was used to being weak. Even if it was for the sake of the “larger interest,” they had to endure the unfair treatment.

However, they never imagined that the warriors from the Northern Borderline, who came to look for trouble, would not succeed in bullying people. Instead, they were trampled upon on the ground.

The man from the Northern Borderline was the Northern Borderline general, who escorted the princess. He had some status among the three tribes in the Northern Borderline. He had brought his soldiers there arrogantly with the intention of making a punitive expedition against the people of Dongqing, but he had been defeated by a teenager.

“Who are you? You’ve injured our warriors from the Northern Borderline, and you should pay the price. Capture all of them.” The man from the Northern Borderline made up his mind and intended to capture the people first and secretly get rid of the witness. The dead could not bear witness.

As long as they insisted that they were at a loss, according to the behavior of the Dongqing Royal Family, who had always been weak, the Northern Borderline would not suffer any losses.

The “son of the important minister in the palace” was not a thing. As long as they did not hit a snag, the Dongqing Royal Family would not dare to shed all pretenses of cordiality when the marriage was already finalized… Therefore, there was a murderous look in the eyes of the man from the Northern Borderline when he looked at Jiang Pengji and Feng Jin.

As it turned out, they had not hit a snag. They had hit an iron wall!

“Wu Liba, who are you trying to catch?” At that moment, Liu She’s voice was heard amongst the crowd.

The man from the Northern Borderline did not expect that someone would know his name. He could not help but look in the direction of the voice.

“My son is right. This is Dongqing, not the Northern Borderline. If you wish to return, you better behave yourself by tucking your tail between your legs. Otherwise, no matter how the old fools try to save you, I, Liu Zhongqing, won’t let you walk out of the city gate of Shangjing!”

Feng Ren, who was one step behind, looked at his shabby son with a grave expression on his face. He then looked at the arrogant people from the Northern Borderline. He sneered coldly. Instead of berating the envoys from the Northern Borderline, he chose to ignore them and asked someone to call a doctor over.

“Bandage your wounds and go to the palace with me later to see the Emperor.”

With a pale face, Feng Jin nodded.

Wu Liba could not back down now. His face was red like a pig’s liver.

They had originally traveled there to humiliate people, but they were now being humiliated instead. One of the warriors had even been thrust onto the ground and then trampled upon.

“Go out with a brain next time. If you’d like to show severity and power, you should see if the other party is a cat or a tiger.” Jiang Pengji stepped forward and made clicking sounds with her tongue. She ignored his bitter facial expression and said, “It’s fine if there’s no problem with Huaiyu’s arm. If something goes wrong that makes him unable to hold a pen properly in the future, Wu Liba, I won’t take your cheap life as a compensation. Be smart and apologize by chopping off both of your arms…”

Wu Liba’s face was grave and looked at Jiang Pengji with a murderous gaze. An ordinary person would have been frightened out of his wits, but she was Jiang Pengji. To put it bluntly, the number of people she had killed was greater than the grains of rice he had eaten in his lifetime.

“In this case, you’ll have to see if the Dongqing emperor agrees to this or not.” After that, Wu Liba left with his people and did not care about the warrior from the Northern Borderline that was half dead on the ground.

Watching their backs, Jiang Pengji swiftly slashed the side of the rockery.

Liu She then sighed. “You may think that Wu Liba is a brainless coward. In fact, he’s one of the smart generals, which is rare for the Northern Borderline.”

“In other words, Huaiyu has suffered a loss this time. Is it very difficult for him to find his place again.” Jiang Pengji took a deep breath and soon understood the important points. “So, the four factions of Nanman have conquered Nansheng, and Nansheng has also dispatched an envoy to Dongqing to request for help… It’s no wonder the three tribes of the Northern Borderline are so arrogant. If the injured was not Huaiyu this time but someone else, I’m afraid that someone would die…”