Therefore, she stripped the equipment from this pitiful wretch and put it on herself. Although the clothes were slightly large, tightening the belt and armor made them passable. Using a shape-changing Gu to transform into his appearance, outsiders couldn’t detect anything amiss in the rush.

However, this fellow’s last bath was at an unknown time. Feng Miao Jun despised the male odor coming from the clothes and specifically blocked her sense of smell.

The three words “smelly man” were not without reason. Fortunately, Yun Ya not only loved cleanliness but also had a touch of germophobia, so his scent was always pleasant.

Ah, pah! She spat at herself. The Imperial Garden was filled with chaotic killing, none of the people she sought were in sight, and an unconscious Yao soldier lay beside her, yet she had the leisure to daydream.

She quietly slipped out of the dark corner, melting into the night and the slaughter.

The Wei people had set up sentries and lookouts throughout the garden, as well as floating eyes. If enemies climbed over the wall, alarms would sound below before they could jump in. Feng Miao Jun had also seen a type of gray beetle the size of a fingernail, called White Sheath. Though unimpressive in appearance, normally perching on trees or flying slowly, appearing harmless, when they acted as a swarm, they became terrifying man-eating insect monsters.

Right before her eyes, a nest of these monsters demonstrated their ability to devour a living person. Hundreds of beetles landed on a Yao soldier, the strange gnawing sounds drowned out by screams. From a strong, vigorous man to a skeleton, it took only a brief fifty breaths!

She listened with hair-raising horror.

Insect monsters were a very special type of demon in the world. Individually insignificant, only as large as the beetle in the commander’s palm, or even smaller. But they would act in swarms of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands, could form human shapes, speak, and possess intelligence—swarm intelligence—and were not afraid of ordinary fire.

The Yao cultivators who came with the army used true fire to burn them. These creatures appeared in groups almost every ten zhang, deployed by the Wei people for reconnaissance and to repel enemies. For the Yao army to charge into the garden, they had to clear the path with their bodies.

Feng Miao Jun carefully avoided them. As long as she extended her protective energy, these creatures ignored her and didn’t cause trouble, perhaps because her spiritual power was of the same source and quality as Yun Ya’s.

The buildings in the Imperial Garden were scattered throughout, nestled among the woods, but the palace complex was in the southeast corner, which was also the main direction of the Yao army’s attack. Feng Miao Jun had seen the light from cultivators’ divine abilities ahead, but the Wei cultivators were few and unwilling to be surrounded by enemies, so they retreated toward the palace while fighting, with some shouting: “Do you not care about your king’s life? This is rebellion, and you’ll all die afterward!”

Perhaps due to the use of inner force, these shouts were like mind-penetrating demonic sounds, echoing repeatedly throughout the Imperial Garden. The Yao soldiers originally just followed military orders, but hearing these, their hands involuntarily slowed.

As more and more people gathered ahead and the path grew narrower, Feng Miao Jun had no intention of continuing with the crowd. Using the cover of trees, she slipped away from the main force and moved toward the rear of the palace.

The urgent matter was to find Yun Ya. With Wei people not having the advantage in numbers, they must have retreated to the main hall. As their territory shrank, their ability to resist and defend would inevitably grow stronger, just as the pressure on a ball increases its rebounding force.

She wasn’t arrogant enough to think she could enter places the Yao cultivators couldn’t, so she had to cross the line before the Wei defensive circle formed.

Walking here, she also found it strange. According to the intelligence she had just heard, the Yao people believed the invaders were “of unknown exact number, probably not exceeding one hundred people.”

At the time of chaos, who could count the Wei intruders’ exact numbers? They could only estimate.

This differed from the “two hundred people” in the intelligence Feng Miao Jun had received, and she had wondered whether the Fang Cun bottle could contain so many people. Now hearing this, it seemed not.

This meant that the number of elite forces under Yun Ya’s command was half of what she had originally estimated. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bring more people, but that the Fang Cun bottle, unlike Golden City, had a lower capacity limit.

Such a small number meant the defenses must be weak. This was the Imperial Garden, spacious enough that even with three or four thousand people it would be sparsely populated, let alone with just a hundred Wei cultivators. How could they control such a vast area?

Of course, earlier, the Yao soldiers had been reluctant to launch a strong attack because their king was in enemy hands. It wasn’t until Zhao Ru Shan arrived that they charged in regardless.

In fact, in this garden, the palaces where the royal family stayed were relatively concentrated. If Feng Miao Jun were Yun Ya, she would only order to guard these places well, which would also help concentrate forces to support each other. Why did they try to control the entire garden?

Yun Ya was meticulous and cautious in his actions. Was there some deeper mystery here? She pondered while continuing to move, like a gentle night breeze in the forest.

She extended her protective energy, so the numerous beetles and floating eyes she encountered along the way all ignored her.

Rounding the low trees, a shimmering body of water appeared ahead—she had reached the lakeside.

She had only entered the royal garden twice during the day and wasn’t familiar with its layout, as if she had taken a wrong turn. With dim light all around, since there was no path ahead, she planned to change direction.

However, at that moment, from the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed a figure crouching by the rocks, so she paused and hid behind a tree.

This person wore black clothes and was playing a small bamboo flute with a mournful sound.

The sound was like a three-year-old child blowing a leaf whistle, low and hoarse, without any rhythm or aesthetic appeal. But to Feng Miao Jun’s ears at this moment, it was an extremely high frequency, almost spreading across the water surface, audible throughout the entire water area.

This technique had also been demonstrated by Mo Tizhun of Jin Kingdom at White Elephant Lake, so Feng Miao Jun deduced he was summoning some kind of creature.

This person kept looking up at the sky, his face showing anxiety.

She knew that the Yao people were pressing forward step by step, already very close to this place. Yet this Wei person was still unwilling to retreat, indicating that what he was waiting for was valuable and possibly useful to the current situation.

So Feng Miao Jun paused, accompanying the black-clothed man in waiting for quite a while.

Dawn was approaching, and the Yao army was launching another major assault. His comrades fighting nearby couldn’t buy much more time; he had to complete his mission quickly.

Fortunately, he didn’t wait long. As the first light of dawn appeared in the east, a large fish suddenly jumped out of the lake, transforming into human form upon reaching the shore.

Looking closely, the fish demon was holding a person in its hand and said to the black-clothed man: “Caught her.”

The captured person was a woman who cried out sharply as soon as she left the water: “Return my child to me!” She struggled desperately, but her hands were bound behind her back.

She was soaked, and though her clothes were luxurious, her wet hair hung down in strands covering half her face, appearing quite miserable. But Feng Miao Jun stared at her intently, recognizing her immediately just from her voice:

Princess Han Yue!