The light of excitement blazed in Qiao Mu’s eyes. To get this senior to follow along with her in this madness — how difficult must that have been? She had even thought Xue Gu would listen to Yang Qin.

“Good!” Qiao Mu too leapt upward, racing swiftly toward the wooden stake where Xiao Yingtao was bound.

A commotion broke out through the crowd. The procession was thrown into a brief moment of disarray by two would-be rescuers who appeared out of nowhere, but very quickly returned to its rigorous order, ranks sharp and disciplined.

They had long anticipated that someone would come to intercept the prisoner — and so no one in that procession was in the least bit surprised to see Qiao Mu and Xue Gu appear.

With the arrival of these two, over a hundred people surged out from within the crowd — each and every one of them a fighter with specialized training.

Watching the two figures below, who had been intercepted by guards and were now plunged into close combat, Xiao Yingtao’s blurred vision gradually sharpened.

Looking down at the flash and clash of swords, her eyes very quickly filled with hot tears. They traced a path down the corner of her eye and fell, carrying with them all the bitterness within.

She had known they would come. In the moment she saw them, her heart ached.

She had not wanted them to come — she had known that coming would only bring danger. And yet, when she saw them casting everything aside to come rescue her, she felt such peace. Such deep, moving gratitude.

No one had abandoned her. Even now, when she had already been wounded to this state, they still came, still cared.

That was enough.

“Go. Go quickly.” Xiao Yingtao’s voice was hoarse beyond recognition, as though her throat had been seared with a branding iron, her speech barely coherent.

But still she kept working the cracked, parched corners of her lips, looking at the two figures below, her voice rasping with desperate effort: “Go quickly — it’s a trap. It’s a trap — go, go quickly.”

Having seen them, she could leave this life without regret. Go — if you do not go now, it will be too late.

“Please, go quickly. Go find them — find them, quickly… go.”

Jiu’er and Xing Zizhou had not come. She knew — something must have happened to them as well.

Though they had not been together long, Xiao Yingtao’s trust in Jiu’er was absolute.

If nothing had gone wrong, Jiu’er would never have not come. If Jiu’er did not come, then Jiu’er herself was certainly not safe.

“Find her… help her… go, go quickly, leave—” A sharp pain struck her shoulder, and all her ability to speak was cut off entirely.

“Ha. So only two of you? Where are your other companions? Do they need to see even these two women arrested before they are willing to show themselves?”

A slender figure came to rest at her side. With a press of a long finger against her shoulder, Xiao Yingtao instantly lost the ability to speak.

Tuoba Keyan fixed his gaze on the two figures below, tangled in close combat with the guards, and gave a cold smile: “Nothing but women, all of them. Who exactly is the master behind you? Is it Zhan Qingcheng?”

Xiao Yingtao paid him no mind. Tuoba Keyan smiled: “I forget that you cannot speak right now. But no matter — once those two are captured, the remaining people will surely show themselves very soon. Don’t you think?”

She despised this man to the very core of her being. He was wicked beyond any limit of reason.

She wanted Qiao Mu and Xue Gu to leave as quickly as possible, but by now even Qiao Mu and Xue Gu had been drawn into the encirclement of the guards. With two to three hundred guards surrounding them inside and out, leaving was far from easy.

They truly should not have come. No matter how strong one’s martial skills, one person could not stand against an army. If this went on any longer, their strength would eventually be exhausted — and they would either be executed on the spot, or taken alive.

“Mmph… Mmph, mmph…” Xiao Yingtao was so agitated that her face had turned purple. She had no idea where the strength came from, but in a single wrench she snapped the ropes binding her arms, and hurled herself at Tuoba Keyan.

Tuoba Keyan had not anticipated that the girl still had strength enough to do this. Though there was something wrong with that rope — even a sturdy man might have struggled to break it. Otherwise, that should not have been possible.

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So someone was helping them from the shadows. Could it be his second imperial brother?

Seeing Xiao Yingtao about to reach him, a flash of revulsion crossed his eyes, and he stepped back — ensuring that not even the hem of his robe would be touched.

Xiao Yingtao had no strength left. Having failed to reach Tuoba Keyan, her own momentum carried her forward, and she began rolling off the side of the flatbed cart toward the ground below.

Her body was already riddled with wounds. If she fell directly onto the ground from this height, even she did not know whether she would have any chance of survival.

But at the very last instant, a figure suddenly cut across from within the crowd, slanting through the air, and caught her limp and powerless body just before it hit the ground — landing steadily on their feet.

Ten-odd guards surged forward immediately. But in the same moment, the sky above churned with sudden wind, and a great black mass — like a storm cloud rolling in to blot out the sun — completely cut off all light falling upon that spot.

What on earth?

Everyone tilted their heads upward, momentarily forgetting that they were supposed to be apprehending the intruders.

That black mass came plummeting downward, and only when it drew close did anyone realize — it was a swarm of bats.

Where had all these bats come from? And moreover, these bats were launching a direct attack upon the guards.

Tuoba Keyan shouted in fury: “Capture the intruders!”

He fixed his gaze on the one who had descended from above to catch Xiao Yingtao. Finally — a man had appeared. This one, he intended to capture himself.

Just as he was moving to descend, a figure suddenly flashed before him — and with a hiss, a slash cut toward him, its blade-wind already at his face.

Tuoba Keyan stepped swiftly back. The blade-wind skimmed past his face with a hair’s breadth to spare. He looked — standing before him was a girl of perhaps fifteen or sixteen, yet the cold and piercing air she carried about her was something no ordinary young girl could possess.

“Who are you?” Tuoba Keyan narrowed his eyes, and only then did he see her face clearly.

She clearly had the look of someone who had rushed here in haste, travel-worn and tired, her face and hair none too clean — not merely dusty, but with a scattering of dried leaf fragments clinging to her.

And yet her face was the most beautiful he had seen among all the women he had ever encountered.

Her eyes, too, were bright and luminous — clear and full of light, suffused with an air of sharp intelligence.

This young girl — she might well be the leader among this group. But why a young girl?

A young girl had managed to stir up such a sweeping storm of upheaval in the capital — it was simply unacceptable.

“Who is directing you in all of this? Is it Zhan Qingcheng?” He was unwilling to accept that everything had been orchestrated by this girl herself. How could he possibly have lost to a young girl?

“Jiu’er, is Xiao Yingtao not going to make it?” Below, Xing Zizhou called out in urgent alarm.

Xiao Yingtao had clearly sunk into a half-conscious state, both eyes closed tight, as though the breath leaving her held no answering breath drawing in.

She had to begin treating Xiao Yingtao immediately. Otherwise, Xiao Yingtao’s life truly might not hold.

“Yinan!” Jiu’er swung her hand upward and flung a handful of powder at Tuoba Keyan.

Tuoba Keyan instinctively stepped back in guard, sweeping his long sleeve to disperse the powder. When he looked again, that young woman had already descended from the flatbed cart and landed beside the injured prisoner and the man.

Tuoba Keyan was about to give chase, when suddenly a swarm of bats came shooting toward him like arrows, circling and wheeling around him in a whirlwind, completely tangling his footsteps.

Blast it all! These thieves could even command bats — what kind of dark and wicked sorcery had they been practicing?