Qing Zhuo, Han Feng, and several other young Daoists who always followed Zhou Weizhao closely had just arrived. They formed a protective circle around them and retreated backward.

The hunting grounds were in complete chaos and disarray, yet Song Chuyi suddenly felt not so afraid—in the past when she had nothing, she still wasn’t afraid. Now she actually had people around her willing to risk their safety to help her.

She thought that Heaven ultimately wasn’t so unfair to her. In her previous life, it had made her suffer unspeakably, but in this life it had compensated her to some degree. Even if the future was truly as Master Yuanhui said and she was born under the Star Illumination fate, she wasn’t so afraid anymore. At least in this life she hadn’t dragged down all her loved ones before departing.

Ye Jingchuan hurriedly caught up. Seeing Song Chuyi’s pale lips and the considerable amount of mud on her clothes, he couldn’t help but ask worriedly, “Can you walk on your own?” Though that stretch of road just now was short, he had seen with his own eyes how heart-stoppingly Song Chuyi had run. His heart suddenly filled with an indescribable panic. He had never seen a girl as strong as Song Sixth Miss. He had always thought girls’ strength was limited, but Song Sixth Miss was always even stronger and more fearless than he imagined. Just moments ago, she had even been mindful enough to pull a girl who was nearly struck by a stone to safety.

Song Chuyi nodded without hesitation. All these years she had diligently practiced horsemanship—wasn’t it precisely so she wouldn’t become a burden to anyone at critical moments? If she couldn’t overcome even this obstacle, these years of rebirth would have been lived in vain.

She searched anxiously everywhere for signs of the Yulin Guard, filled with insoluble urgency and anxiety: “My elder brother is probably also their target. Right now they clearly don’t just want my life alone. Your Highness, you’d best be careful too.”

If they could also kill the Crown Prince Grandson, for someone as conscienceless and mad as Prince Duan, it would be an unexpected windfall. Even if he died, he would probably die laughing.

Zhou Weizhao had already realized this when the boulders rolled down from the mountain. Prince Duan and Chen Xiang clearly intended mutual destruction. He had always known this Prince Duan was stubborn to the point of being nearly obsessed. Now that such a huge scandal had erupted in his inner chambers, and the connections in Yangzhou and beyond the passes had also been dug out, for someone like him, the first reaction wasn’t to beg Emperor Jianzhang but to come kill people—this was very much in line with his way of doing things.

“Don’t panic,” he said concisely to Song Chuyi. “We had already made preparations then. Though there were some unexpected situations, we have enough people. The Yulin Guard are on the north side, the Jinwu Guard on the mountain, and though the Imperial Guard are in the middle, the most chaotic moment has passed. After all, they’re not Chen Xiang, they’re not death warriors…”

Song Chuyi calmed down somewhat. Sure enough, after the startled horses were cleared, Jinwu Guards poured through the north gate like bamboo shoots after spring rain and began taking control of the situation.

Chen Mingyu also stood still, her soul not yet settled, leaning against a tree. Her expression alternated between dark and bright as she looked at Song Chuyi, and some regret actually welled up in her heart—if she had used more force to hold back the Crown Prince Grandson then, Song Chuyi would probably be a soul beneath the blade by now.

Old Madam Du stood up trembling with others’ support, feeling her calves shaking like sifting chaff. She had never imagined encountering such an unwarranted disaster. These people were truly too lawless beneath the feet of the Son of Heaven.

After all, she had the most seniority. At this time, the Jinwu Guard were all men, making it inconvenient for them to comfort the injured female family members. She could only do her best to steady her mind and pulled Madam Yu and several others with a sincere expression: “Encountering such an incident, we elders bear inescapable responsibility… Now this situation is chaotic, and the Jinwu Guard probably don’t dare let people in casually. We won’t be able to find other servants to use for the time being. Let’s just make do with the few people we each brought ourselves. How about everyone take charge of some people to help gather up the injured children?”

These were families with some connection, and even without connections, there was no reason to watch people injured without helping. Madam Yu and the others naturally had no reason to refuse. They all nodded, and after discussing for a while, they separately led people to first help up those girls who were injured and crying for help.

Fortunately, though all had fallen heavily, none had immediately expired. Madam Yu’s heart first relaxed with relief. Only now did she truly feel afraid—if today they hadn’t listened to Song Chuyi and had come down with these people, they too would have ended up half-dead. Though they still had breath, with legs and feet crushed, who knew if they could recover in the future?

The tide of long blades from earlier had long been scattered across the ground. Zhou Weizhao glanced at the black-clothed men lying in disarray on the ground and exchanged a look with Song Chuyi.

No matter what, fortunately they had kept an extra eye out beforehand and deployed more people. Otherwise, today they would have only been lambs for slaughter—Emperor Jianzhang was in the palace, and the Imperial Guard and Jinwu Guard had most of their forces there. Because no one had guarded against people charging out from within, the hunting grounds were only guarded by a portion of the Yulin Guard and the regularly rotating Imperial Guard and Jinwu Guard.

But Song Chuyi’s escape truly had a component of good luck. If her reaction had been any slower then, she would either be a frightened soul beneath a horse or already crushed to death by stones. She looked at the chaotic hunting grounds, unable to say whether her heart held more lingering fear or more joy—the bigger the commotion, the more miserable Prince Duan’s end would be.

Shen Qingrang saw Song Chuyi from afar standing there safe and sound. He first breathed a sigh of relief, then wanted to go forward but involuntarily stopped—somewhat inopportunely, he recalled the fate pattern Master Yuanhui had analyzed for her. Just the day before the fate reading, today such a major incident had occurred. Though it couldn’t all be blamed on Song Chuyi, who knew if it was truly related to her so-called Death Star of Solitary Fate pattern? Previously he had thought these things were just what people said to make them sound ominous, but now with the matter at hand, he didn’t dare so absolutely believe that fate pattern theory was just meant to fool people.

He hesitated for a while and ultimately didn’t go forward to ask if anything had happened. He turned back to search for Shen Huiyi—though Shen Huiyi had a sharp tongue, her courage wasn’t great. Encountering such an incident, who knew what state she’d been frightened into?

However, Shen Huiyi wasn’t as disheveled as he expected. Though her courage wasn’t great, she knew to follow people and hide, always running with others. Because she was busy hiding and had run far away, she hadn’t suffered much or been particularly frightened. If Shen Qingrang hadn’t pointed out the long blades and horse corpses on the ground to her, she wouldn’t even have realized they’d been attacked.