Previously, one of the four commanders of the Inner Supervision, Zhong Liang, was ordered to deliver clothes to Gu Lan. In truth, Rong Jing was well aware of Zhong Liang’s character and intentionally used him to test Gu Lan—Zhong Liang indeed became infatuated, and she swiftly killed him.

And at that time, two death warriors disguised as palace maids appeared alongside Zhong Liang.

When she killed Zhong Liang, a trace of gratitude flashed through the calm eyes of those two female death warriors.

Gu Lan thus became even more certain that Zhong Liang deserved his fate.

And at this moment, the death warrior, who placed the Soft Muscle Powder by Gu Lan’s bedside and locked eyes with her, was one of those two palace maids from that day.

The death warrior did not speak but simply stared fixedly at Gu Lan.

Gu Lan opened her mouth, but also did not speak.

The death warrior covered her face with a handkerchief, revealing only her dark eyes, which showed a hint of struggle.

After a while, she reached out and extinguished the burning Soft Tendon Incense, grinding it into powder.

Gu Lan was stunned, but the person before her had already stood up and left.

She was merely a death warrior, her life hanging on her master’s whims. However, the girl before her had killed Zhong Liang for her and extinguished the incense; this was the only way she could repay the girl.

Gu Lan watched the death warrior’s departing figure, not having had the chance to explain to her that the incense actually had little effect on her, otherwise, how could she be awake and staring at her now.

She sighed, got up to fetch a distant palace lantern, held her breath, ignited the powder, allowing the heap of powder to become real incense ash, and then lay back on the bed to continue sleeping.

That night, when Gu Lan closed her eyes, all she saw were the deep black eyes of the death warrior.

They were a pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes.

She wanted to ask her what her name was.

When Gu Lan woke up, she found the hall unusually dark; the bright lights from before had mostly been removed, leaving only two dim palace lanterns in the distance, casting faint light.

She rubbed her eyes to wake up and saw that apart from the bed she slept on, the hall’s other arrangements were completely different from the night before.

Beside the bed was a small cluster of "burned-out" incense ash. Gu Lan lowered her eyes, remembering the death warrior from last night.

She steadied herself, pretending to be weak, still lying on the bed with her eyes closed to rest.

In the next moment, the familiar cold fragrance arrived!

It turned out that unknowingly, a newly placed incense burner was in the middle of the hall, releasing strands of Heart-devouring Incense.

Indeed, if not Soft Muscle Powder then Heart-devouring Incense; if not Heart-devouring Incense then Soft Muscle Powder.

Gu Lan furrowed her brows, remaining silent, she merely curled her body into a ball, forcing her eyes wide open.

After all, she had been exposed to the Heart-devouring Incense for a month; she had to adapt and look like she was almost getting used to it.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn passed, Rong Jing came in.

Having not seen him for many days, the man before her wore a black robe embroidered with dark red dragon patterns, his face expressionless.

As he lowered his head, looking down at Gu Lan, his narrow peach blossom eyes showed an enigmatic shadow of sinister qi, enchanting and bewildering; a few strands of ink-black hair swept across his eyelids, casting a shadow beside his nose bridge.

"Stop pretending, I know you should be used to this scent by now." Rong Jing’s voice was as magnetically deep as always.

"I have gotten used to it," Gu Lan blinked, then propped herself up to sit, her face indeed showing no pain, yet still using a weak tone to ask, "But you mixed something else in this time, didn’t you?"

Rong Jing glanced at the incense ash beside him, saying, "Just Soft Muscle Powder, you inhaled it all night."

Gu Lan thought: actually, your death warrior extinguished it.

Of course, Rong Jing was not alone. Zhang Fengcai was absent, replaced by a middle-aged eunuch in a red robe named Miao Ci.

Like Zhang Fengcai before, Miao Ci also had an anti-poison sachet hanging from his waist.

Following behind him were two women, dressed as palace maids but expressionless, one with a delicate face, the other ordinary-looking. They must both be death warriors by Rong Jing’s side.

Gu Lan could immediately tell; the ordinary-looking female death warrior had a pair of very beautiful almond-shaped eyes. She was the one who extinguished the Soft Muscle Powder last night.

Last time, when Gu Lan faced Rong Jing alone, the three black shadows protecting him were also present here, standing like three black stele at the hall door.

"Heart-devouring Incense with Soft Muscle Powder, are you so afraid of death?" Gu Lan mocked, "Even removing all the hard items here overnight, are you afraid I’ll smash a tea cup and slit your throat?"

Rong Jing shook his head, saying, "I’m not afraid of death, but I don’t want to die at your hands."