In the end, Qiao Mu stepped aside to open a path. Feng Jiu’er returned to the front of the carriage and leapt up onto it. “Move out!”

Huo Yan immediately led the troops forward.

Qiao Mu watched them enter the gorge. One of her subordinates came over and said quietly: “Chieftain, we still have over a hundred brothers on both sides of the gorge.”

The implication was that if the Chieftain was unwilling to give up this opportunity and still wanted to seize the Ninth Prince and bring him up the mountain, they still had a chance.

“Are you asking me to be a person who goes back on her word?” Qiao Mu shot him a sharp look.

That subordinate shrank back, retreated two steps, and did not dare say another word.

Qiao Mu watched the carriage up ahead, her gaze deep and distant.

The Ninth Prince’s martial arts were exceptional. Even with over a hundred brothers still in the gorge, at most they could only slow the group’s passage and inflict some injuries on their brothers.

But as for capturing the Ninth Prince and bringing him up the mountain — that was easier said than done.

Besides, right now, she seemed to no longer feel that pressing urge to take him.

It was not that she no longer liked the Ninth Prince. Rather, she wanted to like him in a different way.

Feng Jiu’er had been right. If she liked him, she had to have the standing to do so — to like him openly and with dignity.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She turned to the subordinate who had just spoken to her and called out in a clear voice: “Gather a hundred of our most skilled brothers — set out immediately!”

“Chieftain…”

“You stay behind. While I am away, manage the stronghold for me.”

Qiao Mu leapt up, and pulled from the cliff wall of the gorge the silver dragon tongue spear she had driven into the rock face earlier.

With a resounding clang, brilliance scattered in all directions, an icy chill radiating outward.

She closed her hands around it, and to her surprise, this seemingly cumbersome silver dragon tongue spear turned out to be a retractable spear — she collapsed it in an instant, leaving only the length of a sword.

The silver spear hung at her waist. Qiao Mu gave chase. “General Feng, please hold!”

Feng Jiu’er tugged on the horse’s reins and came to a stop. She looked down at Qiao Mu who had caught up to the carriage, and frowned.

“Chieftain Qiao, what is the meaning of this?”

“Before our match, I said that if I lost, I would do as you say.”

“And so?”

“And so, I have decided to follow under General Feng from now on, and go with you to Phoenix City together — to rescue the people from their suffering!”

An unusual excitement shone in Qiao Mu’s eyes. This Qiao Mu, having shed the cold and rigid air about her, seemed as though a layer of sunlight had been draped over her entire being.

She had grown up in the stronghold from childhood. The previous chieftain had been her father; after her father passed away from illness, the stronghold had been left in her hands to manage.

She had no brothers or sisters, and inheriting the stronghold had seemed like something fated from the heavens. Before this day, she had not even once stopped to think about whether she actually liked the life she was living.

But in this moment, she had suddenly come to understand — compared to being the ruler of a mountain stronghold, she preferred the sky out in the wider world.

She preferred having people like these around her, people who did not place her on a pedestal, who were not always thinking of how to flatter and fawn over her.

“Chieftain Qiao.” Yet Feng Jiu’er seemed almost a touch reluctant. “You are someone of the green forest ways. Perhaps you have never heard a certain saying from the military…”

“Military orders are as immovable as a mountain!” Qiao Mu’s gaze grew serious, earnest. “I will absolutely follow General Feng’s command.”

She had been the one to say it — that the loser would be at the winner’s disposal. Now she had lost, and she had nothing to say.

“Very well. In that case, you will come with us to Phoenix City.”

“Wait — I have also selected a hundred brothers whom I wish to have escort the Ninth Prince along the way.” The Prince was traveling with far too few men this time. With so many people keeping a predatory eye on the Prince along this road, if she did not send more hands along, she would be worried.