Tang Shan took a few quick glances. There was darkness underneath his eyes.

It seemed that Feng Ruqing did not see his eyes. Her eyes turned toward the members of the Iron-Blooded Troop.

"Those who are injured may take an herbal fruit from me."

If the herbal fruit could heal the injuries of Tang Zi"s caliber, it would work even better on the others.

But they too knew the value of an herbal fruit. The master could have kept them for her own future use, wouldn"t it be a waste to give it to them?

As such, the members of Iron-Blooded Troop were a bit hesitant. No one dared to take the fruit.

Feng Ruqing gently closed her eyes. "You are all my girls. Our number shall never change from the day you girls pledged your allegiance to me, not one less. As valuable as herbal fruits are to me, they don"t even come close to your lives!"

She did not dawdle any longer. She knew that they would not take the fruits. Therefore, she took out more fruits and placed them in Tang Zi"s hands.

"Take these and feed them. Give priority to the wounded. Today, everyone must leave here without a single scratch! Don"t even bring a single scar back to the city!"

The crowd trembled. The young girl"s crisp but unshakable voice was like a hand tugging at the strings in their hearts.

She said that the value of herbal fruits didn"t come close to their lives!

Even in those days when the empress brought them down to the battlefield and stuck by their side, she had never said such things before.

Ling Yun looked blankly at the young girl. Only then she realized that she had undergone a major transformation in the short period of six months.

She had become so brilliant that it was hard to look her in the eyes.

"What is your relations.h.i.+p with Tang Zi?" Tang Shan"s eyes fell on the herbal fruits in Feng Ruqing"s hands. Wickedness filled his eyes.

Feng Ruqing looked back at Tang Shan, smiling coldly. "She"s mine."

"Don"t you know that Tang Zi was a traitor?! She had betrayed the Tang family before, she will betray you in the future as well!"

Tang Shan"s voice was like a sledgehammer pounding on Tang Zi"s heart.

She anxiously lifted her head to look at Feng Ruqing.

Her eyes were filled with tension, sorrow, and despair.

At first, everyone in the Tang family did not trust her just because of a person"s words.

Those who had promised to protect her too did not trust her at all.

Everyone treated her like a traitor.

If it weren"t because the elder wanted to spare her life, those people would have never let her leave the Tang family.

But still, those people laid their hands on her during her exile from the Tang family and injured her. That had taken a toll on her cultivation.

She was afraid… afraid that Feng Ruqing too would abandon her.

That she would treat her as a traitor and throw her out of the imperial city. 

She knew very well the spits and nails that came with being accused as the traitor. If she could not prove her innocence, she would be a traitor in everyone"s eyes.

Feng Ruqing calmly looked at Tang Shan.

Her eyes were serene, but deep inside, she was burning with anger.

Traitor…

So that was what Tang Zi had to go through all these while.

Even now, those who did not believe her and accused her, still dared to find her?

"I do not know what happened to Tang Zi last time, but…" Feng Ruqing smiled cynically⁠—ridicule in her smile. "If I condemned her just by listening to your few words, wouldn"t that be too pitiful on her part?"