“There is still one who has fled. Go pursue quickly — leave this one to me.” As Lingling pressed forward, she drew her longsword.
“Yes!” A good number of guards responded in unison.
After a chase this long, who wouldn’t want to complete the mission quickly?
Feng Jiu’er let out a cold laugh. Even from the considerable distance between them, those in the forest could still hear her laughter with perfect clarity.
“Are you certain you are any match for me?”
Even as she spoke, Feng Jiu’er had the medicinal powder already readied in her hand.
The guard captain seemed to spot something and shouted loudly: “Spread out, everyone!”
At his command, several hundred guards scattered simultaneously, each heading in a different direction.
Pierced by Feng Jiu’er’s bone-chillingly cold laughter, Lingling could not help but give an involuntary shudder.
“Ready the bows and arrows — kill her!”
“You must not!” The guard captain said in a heavy voice. “Chief Qingyun has ordered that both people are to be brought back alive. Their lives must not be harmed!”
“Insolence! If anything happens to the child that Noble Consort Qing carries, how are we to answer to His Majesty?” Lingling snapped in a low, fierce voice.
“Furthermore, Feng Jiu’er is the enemy’s commander. If she is given the chance to return, our army’s casualties will certainly be enormous.”
“Who is to bear that responsibility?”
“Chief Qingyun’s words represent—”
“Say no more!” Lingling harshly cut off the guard captain’s words. “Ready the bows and arrows! Shoot and kill Feng Jiu’er.”
“If His Majesty lays blame, I alone will bear it!”
Feng Jiu’er swept a cold look at the woman who had spoken and changed direction, heading toward the area with the most people.
Whatever else one might say, that lead guard had still managed to buy her a little time.
An eerily moving wind swept through, and before many could even make out the woman’s silhouette, wave after wave of medicinal powder rained down before their eyes.
“Caution! The powder is poisonous!” The guard captain shouted in a heavy voice.
Arrow after arrow, glinting with the sheen of poison, was fired toward wherever Feng Jiu’er passed, yet she still dodged them with ease.
The enemy’s numbers were far too great — she truly could not overpower them by force. All the more so since Jian Yi, in his current state, was no match even for a perfectly healthy man with no martial arts at all. Feng Jiu’er dared not be careless.
Compared to their poison arrows, her medicinal powder was nothing remarkable.
At worst those who were struck by it would have their entire bodies weakened and limp for a month, unable to fight — they would not die.
She had been carrying the medicinal powder for several days already. If it proved effective, she would definitely need to produce it in large quantities.
A good number of the affected guards collapsed to the ground. Those with formidable inner power, by holding their breath, could escape its effect without much difficulty.
Like an immortal, like a specter, Feng Jiu’er moved ceaselessly through the forest until every last bit of the powder in her hands had been used up.
The moment Lingling finally caught a clear glimpse of Feng Jiu’er’s figure, she called out coldly: “Kill her! Kill her!”
From Feng Qingyin, Lingling had learned some things about Feng Jiu’er’s situation.
Yet she could not have imagined that Feng Jiu’er’s actual abilities looked nothing like what she had been told.
Lingling drew out a small vial, applied a layer of dark liquid to her sword, made a nimble leap, and landed on a tree branch not far from Feng Jiu’er.
Below, chaos still reigned because of the medicinal powder. Those who hadn’t been hit, or those less deeply affected, were gradually making their way out from the area where the powder had fallen.
The amount of medicinal powder Feng Jiu’er had prepared was insufficient. After the guards had scattered, a portion of them had escaped the powder’s effect entirely.
Before long, under the guard captain’s lead, every guard still able to sit on horseback had an arrow nocked and aimed at Feng Jiu’er.
“Feng Jiu’er, what poison did you use on my brothers? Hand over the antidote immediately!” the guard captain demanded in a heavy voice.
With several hundred guards, at least half had been poisoned and fallen to the ground, and the condition of the rest was unclear. It was impossible for the guard captain not to be worried.
“And if I hand over the antidote — will you spare my life in return?” Feng Jiu’er looked at the guard captain, her elegant brow furrowing slightly.
As long as she had enough time to let Jian Yi get away, her confidence in shaking off these people was still quite high.
“Don’t even think about it!” Lingling cut coldly into the exchange. “Someone like you, who will not even spare a pregnant woman — what right do you have to negotiate with us?”
“First you harmed Noble Consort Qing, and then you used such despicable methods on our people. Feng Jiu’er, don’t imagine we will ever let you go!”
“So then, you don’t even care about the lives of your own brothers?” Feng Jiu’er met Lingling’s gaze and let out a cold laugh.
“Hand over the antidote, and I give you my word I will let you go today.”
“You must not!” Before the guard captain’s voice had even fully fallen, Lingling’s voice cut in: “She must not be allowed to leave!”
“Hand over the antidote. I give you my word I will let you go today!” The guard captain said it once more.
Feng Jiu’er let out a light sigh, sat down on the tree branch, and swung her long, slender legs idly.
“So many brothers traded for my one life — you figure out what to do.”
Watching the figure perched in the treetops, looking completely at ease, Lingling’s mood grew even heavier.
“Once we’ve seized her, need we still worry about having no antidote?” She let out a cold snort. “Brothers, ready the bows and arrows!”
“You must not!” The guard captain raised a hand. “What if she doesn’t have the antidote on her person? Then what?”
He looked back at the people on the ground, their faces twisted in pain, and his own expression was grim.
It seemed all the guards were the Crown Prince’s men.
Yet in recent days, how many of the Crown Prince’s people had already been secured by Feng Qingyin — that, even Zhan Yuheng himself probably did not know.
Some guards had already readied their bows, aimed at the figure in the treetops; others were somewhat helpless, temporarily not daring to make any move.
Lingling’s brow furrowed as she clenched her fist, grabbed a tree leaf, and flung it hard at the guard captain.
“Are you actually the enemy’s spy?” She let out a cold snort, raised her longsword, and aimed it at Feng Jiu’er.
The guard captain stepped sideways, dodging the leaf as it hurtled toward him.
What had looked like a soft, limp leaf cleaved cleanly through a tree trunk the thickness of an arm.
The sheer force made every one of the guards tremble.
“If we do not kill Feng Jiu’er today, the number of brothers we will sacrifice in days to come will be far greater.” Lingling’s low, heavy voice rang out.
“She is only trying to stall for time — trying to let her companion escape. Brothers, don’t fall for it!”
“But—”
“Brothers, ready your bows and arrows!” Lingling gave the guard captain no chance to speak at all.
Seeing the situation had come to this, Feng Jiu’er instantly sharpened to full alertness.
“Release!”
On Lingling’s command, even those brothers not yet fully prepared fired together the moment they were ready, every arrow aimed at Feng Jiu’er and coated in poison.
Feng Jiu’er, who had been ready all along, pressed her palm against the tree trunk and launched herself upward, drifting lightly into the air.
Dodging the volley of poison arrows, she traced a wide arc through the forest and, short knife in hand, closed in swiftly on Lingling.
Lingling reacted with a sharp start, yet Feng Jiu’er’s force still pressed her back a step.
Managing with great effort to find a suitable branch to pivot on, she leaped nimbly to one side, only barely avoiding a fall to the ground.
In the span of a single breath, the two women were locked in close combat.
Seeing their own comrades caught up in the fighting circle, the guards didn’t dare release their arrows carelessly.
The wind of sword and knife grew colder and colder. More and more dead branches and fallen leaves were sent whirling up around them.
Those outside the fighting circle could not make out what was happening inside at all. Even those who wanted to help had no opening through which to do so.