Changling didn’t know that the iron-masked man’s heart had been shaken three times over by her. Seeing time was pressing, she crouched down to unlock his hand and foot shackles, then circled around him twice, giving up the impractical idea of removing the iron skull.
She pulled out a black cloak from her bundle and gave it to him, saying: “I know you don’t trust me. If you still want to get out, follow me. If not, just pretend you didn’t see me. I can’t possibly drag someone who has no will to escape out of Mu Wangbao.”
After saying this, Changling immediately turned and left the dungeon. She deliberately didn’t mention Chu Tiansu and didn’t give Azhou a moment to think—she was betting on his survival instinct. Sure enough, that person thought for an instant, put on the black robe, and followed. Following Changling through winding paths, they quickly circled out of the dungeon and arrived at the prison’s main gate.
Changling observed from behind the door for a moment. When the soldiers patrolling the path ahead passed by, she quickly opened the prison gate and darted out. The iron-masked man followed closely behind, only then noticing that three sentry soldiers stood at the prison gate, one sitting on the ground as if asleep.
He instinctively clenched his fists, then carefully discovered that although those three people were standing, their bodies were rigidly leaning against the wall. His heart relaxed as he followed Changling into the forest, hearing her say softly: “The patrol just now didn’t notice anything unusual. When they patrol the second round and discover they’re still maintaining this posture, naturally they’ll realize someone has escaped from prison.”
The iron-masked man’s heart was filled with uncertainty—whether it was this young “man’s” skills or composure before him. He was very clear about the defense strength at several checkpoints of Mu Wangbao. With just the two of them, escape was absolutely impossible. He followed Changling silently, wanting to see what backup plans and allies she had.
However, facts proved he was really overthinking.
Along the way, Changling led him dodging and hiding, jumping up and down until they reached the ice river at the foot of Yan Huishan, then said to him: “Jump down.”
Iron-masked man: “…”
So she wanted him, with several jin of iron skull on his head, to jump into a lake—what was the meaning of this?
Changling stripped off the military uniform and armor she wore piece by piece, leaving only a black tight-fitting outfit. She dove into the water first. Before long, she surfaced and pulled out a row of long wooden planks from the water grass by the river. The planks were connected with hemp rope, allowing one to easily hold on and float on the water surface. Changling’s gaze shifted slightly. “Come down. This river can lead outside.”
Behind them in the not-too-distant sky, a heaven-shaking gong sounded. Someone shouted loudly: “Escaped prisoner—”
Seeing he had no choice, the iron-masked man no longer hesitated. First, he hid Changling’s military uniform from the shore in the bushes, then leaped into the river. His hands gripped the wooden planks tightly to keep himself from sinking. Unexpectedly, the wood’s buoyancy could barely keep him floating above and below the water surface. Occasionally surfacing to take a breath was enough for him to swim a distance.
By now, the night was deep. Below the lake, it was hard to distinguish east from west, south from north. The iron-masked man didn’t know where to swim and could only let Changling pull the planks and lead the way ahead. At first glance, this river seemed like just a small inland river, visible from end to end, with no apparent winding path outward. But after the iron-masked man dove blindly in the darkness for a while, when he surfaced again and looked back, he surprisingly discovered that the entire Yan Huishan had already fallen behind him.
“Below Yan Huishan, there’s a section of karst cave. The river water connects through that cave with the outer river current, so I said,” Changling said, “the river at Yan Huishan is not an inland river.”
The iron-masked man turned his head, looking at Changling in amazement.
Probably no one in the entire Mu Wangbao knew that beneath Yan Huishan, there was actually a passage leading outside.
As for Changling… the first time she heard from Chu Tiansu’s mouth “I fished you out by the ice river below Yan Huishan,” she had already guessed this. So when she told Chu Tiansu this idea, she asked: “Old Lady, how do you think I drifted from outside into Mu Wangbao back then?”
Chu Tiansu immediately had the impulse to prick herself with a needle a hundred times.
Early spring in the third month—the water below was still ice cold.
The two soaked underwater for most of an hour and were already chilled to the bone. When they drifted ashore, Changling’s entire body was numb—she could only crawl and roll to reach land. After resting for quite a while, she shakily sat up and extended her hand, wanting to help him up.
The iron-masked man was about to take her hand, but when he raised his head, he was completely stunned.
A few strands of hazy moonlight filtered through gaps in the clouds and fell down. Her soaked single garment clung tightly to her body, her curvaceous figure revealed completely. Her hair bun had been washed away underwater; now her dark tresses cascaded down softly. The black mud smeared on her face had long since washed clean—her skin fair as jade, her eyes like a pool of clear water, indescribably bright and moving.
His heart pounded wildly, and his mind was even more chaotic as a pot of porridge.
He couldn’t understand how there could be such a beautiful woman in this world, much less how such a woman could end up at Mu Wangbao. Recalling that last night in the dungeon he had nearly strangled her to death, he suddenly felt he didn’t need to come ashore at all—he really should soak in the lake for all eternity.
Changling couldn’t see the myriad conflicts beneath this person’s iron mask. Seeing him motionless, she couldn’t be bothered to pay him any mind and stood up on her own to pace forward and survey the terrain.
“We’re now standing at the back of Beiyu Mountain. The mountain paths at the front of this mountain are all heavily guarded. To reach the top, besides climbing this cliff face, there’s no other way.” Seeing the iron-masked man turn over and come ashore, Changling pointed with her finger at the iron chain bridge between Beiyu Mountain and Luming Mountain. “After crossing this bridge, we’ll have left Mu Wangbao’s territory.”
The iron-masked man looked up and couldn’t help but secretly admire Changling. How many people had painstakingly tried—whether breaking through in groups, hiding silently in boxes, or even using gunpowder—yet no one had ever escaped from Mu Wangbao. This young woman appeared no more than sixteen years old—where did she get such courage and insight to find such a pathway?
At this moment, a black shadow suddenly flashed through the bushes. The iron-masked man trembled slightly and instinctively blocked in front of Changling.
“Azhou, it’s me.” An aged figure stepped out from the shadows—who else could it be but Chu Tiansu?
The iron-masked man’s entire body stiffened, his fists clenched tightly.
True, his expression couldn’t be seen through the mask, but one could feel his breathing quicken. Changling felt somewhat fortunate this person couldn’t make sounds; otherwise, if he couldn’t control himself and let out a roar like “What are you doing here?” or “Leave,” tonight’s plans would have fallen through at the last moment.
Chu Tiansu carefully approached her grandson, wanting to touch the wounds on his body but not daring to. “You’ve suffered… Azhou, do you still recognize your grandmother?”
The iron-masked man’s Adam’s apple moved. Changling couldn’t tell whether he was moved or restraining himself from striking the old woman, so she said: “Old Lady, this place isn’t safe to linger.”
Only then did Chu Tiansu remember the current crisis-filled situation. She pressed her eye sockets with her sleeve and took out a pouch of golden needles from her bosom. “I must first unseal Azhou’s mute acupoint.”
Changling said curiously: “How do you know he struck a mute acupoint rather than being poisoned mute?”
Chu Tiansu: “If his voice was ruined, seeing me, he should at least curse a few times. But he hasn’t made a single sound—if it’s not a sealed acupoint, what else could it be?”
Changling: “…”
Iron-masked man: “…”
Having said this, without waiting for the iron-masked man to express any opinion, Chu Tiansu’s fingertip pressed to seal his body’s major acupoints, then picked up several silver needles and without hesitation fiercely thrust them into her grandson’s body.
Changling had tasted the Nanhua needle technique herself. She watched from the side with lingering fear for a while. When Chu Tiansu finished administering the needles, seeing that Azhou only let out a muffled groan at the end without blinking an eye, Changling couldn’t help but ask: “Is the mute acupoint unsealed just like that?”
Chu Tiansu was also somewhat uncertain. “Try it—can you make a sound?”
The iron-masked man slowly stood up, coughed lightly, and with barely perceptible nod said: “Mm.”
“…”
So sparing with words—at this juncture, whether his acupoint was unsealed or not probably made no difference to him.
Fearing this grandmother-grandson pair would dawdle further, Changling turned and pulled on the vines below the cliff: “Hold all words for now—speak after we escape.”
They were all people who knew martial arts.
Even with one old, one injured, and one unable to use internal power, climbing vines over walls wasn’t too strenuous for them. In just half an hour, they had climbed to the mountainside.
The cliff face ahead grew steeper and steeper, with no footholds beneath their feet. To reach the summit, they had to rely entirely on arm strength. At such times, the aged inevitably showed signs of fatigue. Seeing this, the iron-masked man climbed a few steps faster, flipped to the top, then exerted himself to pull Chu Tiansu up. When he wanted to pull Changling, she exerted force with her wrist, did a reverse leap, and landed easily on the ground.
Changling: “If I hadn’t been worried about you slipping, I would have come up long ago.”
The iron-masked man suddenly felt that having a mask covering his face wasn’t so bad after all.
Above the cliff, cold wind howled.
Ahead, a small path wound up to the mountain peak—at the summit was the chain bridge leading to Luming Mountain.
The three had only taken a few steps when Changling suddenly felt something was wrong. Her eyes glanced ahead. “Wait, there’s an amb—”
Before the word “bush” fell, the sound of iron implements erupted loudly. A group of officers and soldiers emerged with a rustle from the pitch-black bushes, revealing glinting crossbows, instantly surrounding them so tightly not even water could leak through.
Two people stepped out from the crowd. One was a middle-aged man wearing black armor. Beside him was precisely the young man who had shot and injured Azhou with a crossbow at the foot of Yan Huishan.
That middle-aged man held a long sword, his eyes narrowing. Chu Tiansu shielded the iron-masked man behind herself, looking at him in disbelief. “Cang Yun… why are you here…”
The one called Cang Yun’s mouth curved into a cruel smile. “Old Lady Chu, excellent methods…” He glanced at the young man beside him. “If not for Tao Feng’s insight, having us rush to this place, we might really have let you escape.”
Tao Feng said expressionlessly: “Fort Lord flatters me. Tao Feng dares not claim credit—everything was Young Master He’s brilliant calculations.”
So this person was the legendary Mu Wangbao Fort Lord.
Changling’s brow furrowed slightly.
This Young Master He in his words—could it be the same person as the “He Jinzhi” mentioned by that person in the prison? She just didn’t know how this so-called Young Master He had “brilliantly calculated” their impromptu prison break.
Cang Yun swept his gaze around them, finally settling on the iron-masked man. “I never imagined that one day you would fall into my Mu Wangbao, Mingyue Zhou.”
The iron-masked man was silent for a moment, then spoke: “I never imagined it either.”
This was the first time Changling heard his name, and the first time she heard him speak. Although his voice was slightly hoarse, it was unexpectedly pleasant to hear.
Only, this name Mingyue Zhou—why did it sound somewhat familiar?
“If I’d known earlier, I’d definitely boil your flesh and cook your bones into soup to drink.” Cang Yun spoke bloody words while still smiling at the corners of his mouth. “But drinking it a bit later doesn’t matter either.”
Hearing this, Mingyue Zhou alertly stepped back, one hand behind his back making a “you retreat” gesture to Changling. Changling and Chu Tiansu were slightly shocked. Mingyue Zhou glanced at Tao Feng, then said to Cang Yun: “The Cang Yun of those days was at least a famous general of Great Yan. How is it that now you’ve become Eastern Xia Kingdom’s dog?”
Hearing this, Cang Yun smiled. “As long as I can kill you, what does it matter whose dog I become? Years ago, you killed my son. I swore to heaven that if you don’t die in this life, I’ll never rest.”
Mingyue Zhou: “Your son slaughtered a village for personal desires. I still felt his single life was hard to compensate for the lives of a hundred innocent villagers.”
Cang Yun immediately flew into a rage. “Mingyue Zhou, the souls who died under your blade are not few either! Dare you say every one of them was utterly evil? You kill people, my son killed people—both are killing, what’s the difference in status!”
When Cang Yun said this, Changling’s entire body went cold.
Eleven years ago, beneath Fulong Mountain, someone had said to her facing the corpse-strewn Yue Family Army in this same tone: “You kill with swords, we kill with schemes—both are killing, what’s the difference in status?”
Changling stared at Cang Yun in a daze. This ferocious-faced person before her inexplicably overlapped with Shen Yao from years ago. She involuntarily clenched her fists as that hatred buried deep in her heart uncontrollably spilled out.
The good people in this world were always varied in their kindness, but shameless and venomous people like this were uniformly nauseating.
Seeing that Changling and Chu Tiansu had no intention of leaving, Mingyue Zhou grew anxious and cast urgent glances at Changling.
Seeing something unusual, Cang Yun feared missing this opportunity and finally stopped wasting words. He raised his hand, signaling the soldiers behind him to draw their bows and nock arrows, then laughed maniacally at Mingyue Zhou: “I originally intended to spare this delicate and charming young lady’s life, but seeing how anxious you are about her, I’ll send you all to the Yellow Springs together!”
With that, his long arm swept down. In an instant, a thousand arrows flew like swift wind, densely shooting forth!
Such dense crossbow bolts and arrows—no one present could possibly dodge them, especially since they had fled hastily at night without even half a weapon to block with.
Just at this moment, just at this time, a figure suddenly leaped into the air like a suddenly rising hurricane, blocking in front with the momentum of one man holding the pass against ten thousand.
As if the mountain wind stopped, as if the stars froze, Changling’s sleeves swept like surging waves ten thousand zhang long. With a spread of her arms, in an instant, the thousand arrows reversed their course!