Murim's Weakest Princess

Chapter 307: Front Line, Last Line

After Anji’s first successful attempt at undoing the brainwashing hairpin curse, the Rainbow Alliance celebrated. It was not a huge celebration, but the morale was at an all-time high. With the talented youngest daughter of the Celestial Dragon Sect, who was also the recognised ninth successor of the Mystical Qilin Sect, God was on everyone’s side.Mingshen had only briefly returned to report and rest, but soon, he had to leave for Luoyang again, this time with more people so they could establish a stronger foundation and dig deeper into the enemy’s headquarters. As he was the head of a merchant group officially, Mingshen had to go personally to settle the business expansion there. Hong Nian Niang explained that most of the Red Palace’s business administration and strategies were founded by her brother. She merely provided the entertainment and aesthetics.

Hearing this, Anji could not help but feel proud of her brother while also worrying that he was shouldering too much. Her brother was definitely of marriageable age and considered a young adult. However, she still thought he was pushing himself too much. Even if he were fully recovered thanks to Yihao’s Extreme Yang Energy and extremely smart, Mingshen was doing everything alone with nobody to watch his back.

"Don’t worry," Hong Nian Niang told Anji, who was briefly back at the Red Palace. "I sent capable help with him."

Capable help? Anji tilted her head in confusion until Hong Nian Niang informed her that Gu Ying had also left. Only Lizi remained in the Red Palace with a temporary palace servant pass to visit her whenever she was residing with Liu Guiya.

It wasn’t only Mingshen who was extra busy. Anji herself had been swamped to the neck with spells, checks and new things that required her expertise. Now that she was finally out of the Mystical Qilin Sect, she had more time to assess the ground situation and came up with more miasma cures. While her miasma magnet talisman was great, it was not a foolproof solution and would only work for less potent attacks. Real casualties still existed, and not all of them made it back to the Mystical Qilin Sect alive for treatment.

Anji was not a naive fool. This was war. And she was one of the best weapons the Rainbow Alliance had. It was time to turn the tide of this war with her on the front line while her shifu held the last line.

Her schedule was packed to the brim with barely enough time to catch naps, not that Anji needed them. However, it was the first time she envied her past self with a sealed cultivation core, who needed the excuse of sleep to function.

"You should worry about yourself more," Hong Nian Niang suggested. "Your brother is a grown man who knows his limits. But he would be heartbroken to see the younger sister he loves looking so worn out."

Indeed, Anji knew she looked rather haggard. Although nothing appeared wrong physically, thanks to her cultivation level, even when suppressed, her mind was chaotic.

From morning to evening, there were things to do at the Imperial Palace. After the sun went down until the sun came up, she spent her time at the Red Palace researching spells and developing new anti-curse devices. It had barely been a week since she truly started pulling her weight in this murim war. But already, exhaustion was seeping into her soul.

How did everyone else tough it out for years while she was undergoing training at the Mystical Qilin Sect?

Patting Anji softly, Hong Nian Niang’s eyes softened. Although Anji often seemed very wise and mature, there were moments when her youth and innocence showed. She was truly capable like her shifu. Yan Ping trained her well. However, it was still too much for a child who still had not had her period to be shouldering this much responsibility, even if they sent Anji to the safest place known to them in this war to contribute from the command and control centre of this war.

As the only person capable of rewriting the ancient array for the four guardians, Anji spent her long nights travelling with escorts to revisit the gates. The Red Palace had permission and excuses to inspect them up close, and Anji tagged along, disguised as the accounting scribe’s assistant, every night to secretly fix the spells and install new ones.

Pu Jianming was a flag array master. However, that did not mean Anji lacked confidence when dealing with him. Two could play at the game, and Anji was determined to invite him to her turf to play once her second brother found out where they were hiding in Luoyang.

For now, this was all Anji could do. Yihao was still busy rotating shifts with Liu Guiya in the palace as the royal couple’s secret bodyguard. During his off-duty hours, he was busy charging the never-ending supply of gemstones.

Anji tried using the charged stones to approach the ancestral hall, but the yang energy in them depleted so quickly that she was glad she did not send her third brother to investigate. With that level of potency, Yihao would have been turned into a dried husk in no time and could have been affected by the soul wither poison.

They needed more time to approach it carefully. As such, there was not much Anji could do on that aspect. She could only fix the other parts that she could see and contribute where she could.

Liu Guiya worked hard as well. Anji recalled that the Noble Consort resolved the entire brainwashing hairpin nonsense within a few days, right after Anji developed the anti-curse. There had to be at least a hundred of those in circulation, but Liu Guiya, with the help and permission of the Empress, sorted it out within a few days by declaring a compulsory attire and inventory check decree.

Of course, the suddenness of this check also exposed several other things, including the attempted smuggling of illegal goods, stolen wares and even information to minor corrupted ministers who were swiftly dealt with by the Emperor.

Just like that, with the sheer busyness that blurred weeks into days, a few months flew by, and Anji woke up one morning to see red stains on her bed.