Hearing this, Luo Wanqing’s expression changed slightly.

Qin Jue stood behind her, glanced at her sideways, and poked her shoulder with a tree branch he had grabbed, reminding her: “Did you hear? He said Kill them all—you can’t escape.”

Luo Wanqing glared at him coldly. Qin Jue immediately showed a zipped-mouth expression and hid behind Luo Wanqing without saying another word.

Luo Wanqing gripped the blade she had just seized, feeling somewhat nervous.

Aside from Jiang Shaoyan, she had never thought of deliberately killing anyone.

In prison, there were jailers to control things, so no matter how fierce the fighting, it was still just brawling. But now these people carried killing intent—one careless move and she would lose her life.

Most importantly…

If even one person here escaped today, Fengyu Pavilion would immediately know her strength, and her identity as Liu Xiniang would be in immediate danger.

She not only had to kill them, she had to kill them all.

But how could she accomplish this?

Luo Wanqing’s breathing became slightly unsteady. She began trying to circulate the internal energy Liu Xiniang had left her, but as soon as this energy passed through her meridians, it was extremely painful.

Luo Wanqing endured the pain and raised her blade. In the moment of confrontation, just as the people around her moved, she touched the ground with her toes and quickly retreated!

Killing them all was difficult, but if she could escape, there was still a chance.

She retreated extremely fast and without warning. Everyone was stunned. Qin Jue reacted first and hurried to catch up, calling urgently: “Xiniang, why are you running?!”

Luo Wanqing ignored him and used all her strength, trying to shake off the people behind her.

Qin Jue’s lightness skill didn’t look very good—he half-flew, half-ran—but strangely, he consistently followed her without falling behind.

Seeing them fleeing, the lead assassin behind them whistled. As soon as Luo Wanqing heard the whistle, she knew something was wrong. Liu Xiniang had taught her various Fengyu Pavilion signals, and this sound was calling for people—there must be more people ahead!

Luo Wanqing immediately turned toward another direction, but it was already too late. Three groups of people came from the other three directions simultaneously, joining with those pursuing them to surround them.

“What should we do?” Qin Jue stood back-to-back with Luo Wanqing, surrounded by a crowd, and sighed as if watching a show: “So many people.”

What should they do?

Luo Wanqing had no time for idle chatter. She was immediately faced with a dense array of blade light.

She held her breath and purely on instinct slashed out with her blade, crossing with the incoming blade edge, the shock numbing her arm.

Qin Jue glanced at her, made a disgusted “tsk” sound, bent down to dodge, and the blade swung toward Luo Wanqing.

Sensing the blade coming from behind, Luo Wanqing lifted her foot to kick, quickly breaking out of the encirclement attacking from both sides, trying to maintain a forward-facing position while continuously meeting the opponents’ attacks.

She didn’t dare use too much internal energy—using it caused pain—but without internal energy, she realized she had no chance of winning.

These people were all too experienced as assassins. The physical instincts cultivated in death row could only keep her alive.

She couldn’t continue this stalemate.

Luo Wanqing steeled herself and instantly channeled all her internal energy into her arm. In an instant, the skin on her hand seemed to crack and bleed. Blood fell on her blade. She roared and slashed down from above with tremendous force!

Her movement was too fast and fierce, with momentum like a mountain flood. The blade wind cut straight through the front. The opponent had no time to react—his blade shattered with a harsh sound, and then a deep furrow nearly three zhang long appeared on the ground.

This move stunned everyone. Luo Wanqing gasped and looked up at the motionless person before her, becoming uneasy.

Why no reaction? Was he not dead yet?

But before she could test further, the person in front suddenly spurted blood and split in half, falling to both sides.

Blood splashed on Luo Wanqing’s face. Her body suddenly tensed as she stared wide-eyed.

In that moment, a call rang out: “Liu Xiniang!”

Luo Wanqing instinctively turned back and saw a blade falling. She blocked it horizontally and saw Qin Jue sitting high in a tree, hands cupped around his mouth, loudly reminding her: “Don’t space out while killing—you need to focus on your work!”

Luo Wanqing frowned, unable to figure out how this person had gotten up there, but she had no time to think about it. Blade lights came one after another around her. She endured the pain of her meridians bursting and met them blade after blade.

Qin Jue watched her from afar, his gaze slightly heavy. After a moment, he reached up to pluck a leaf. A melodious, gentle tune arose, instantly soothing the pain caused by the overly turbulent internal energy in Luo Wanqing’s meridians.

Luo Wanqing looked up to see the young man leaning against the tree trunk in the moonlight, blowing on the leaf, turning to give her a raised-eyebrow smile.

She immediately understood that it was Qin Jue’s music helping her.

Without the pain constraining her, Luo Wanqing no longer held back. Relying on the internal energy Liu Xiniang had given her, she brutally slashed at those around her.

She didn’t know exactly how strong Liu Xiniang was, but just half her internal energy made these people completely unable to withstand her attacks.

She had no martial arts forms—all were fighting techniques learned through brawling with people. But combined with Liu Xiniang’s internal energy, her wild slashing made these assassins completely unable to defend themselves.

She pressed the last person against a tree, blade at his throat. The opponent gripped Luo Wanqing’s blade with his hands and couldn’t help saying: “Liu Xiniang, someone has already gone to notify the Pavilion Master. Are you crazy to go this far?”

Luo Wanqing paused. The opponent immediately kicked toward her vital point. As he moved, Luo Wanqing didn’t hesitate and pressed down with all her strength, driving the blade into his throat and severing his entire head.

Blood splashed all over Luo Wanqing. She stood in place, maintaining a defensive posture without moving.

Until someone lightly flicked her shoulder with a tree branch, she instinctively swung her blade.

The blade edge was sharp, but the young man neither dodged nor avoided. Luo Wanqing saw his face clearly, and the blade suddenly stopped.

“Oh my,” Qin Jue reached up to pinch the blade in Luo Wanqing’s hand, looking at the blood-covered person before him, then glanced around at the corpses littering the ground with a smile: “Such heavy killing intent?”

He steadily moved the blade away from his throat, then grasped Luo Wanqing’s hand and unhurriedly guided the blade into the scabbard he had retrieved.

As the blade slid inch by inch into the sheath, Luo Wanqing felt her sharpened heart also seemed to slowly retract.

The young man’s voice was very peaceful. In the rustling wind and leaves, it carried a reassuring stability as he said slowly: “If you can draw a blade, you must be able to sheathe it. It’s easy to sharpen but hard to dull. A blade you can’t control is better not wielded.”

The blade was completely sheathed. Qin Jue looked up, his eyes smiling: “How do you feel?”

Luo Wanqing said nothing. As she calmed down, she thought about tonight’s events.

She wasn’t sure if the person before her knew the meat was poisoned, and she wasn’t sure if he knew he was being hunted. But regardless, she was certain of one thing—

Tonight’s disaster was brought by this walking calamity.

Thinking this, she turned around without hesitation, carrying the blade toward the inn, walking and saying angrily: “Go wherever you want—don’t follow me.”

“But…”

“I said don’t follow…”

Before she finished speaking, Luo Wanqing felt the world spinning, and everything went black as she collapsed.

Qin Jue stood behind her and said helplessly: “But you’ve damaged your meridians so badly for my sake—how could a great benevolent person like me let you go?”

He walked forward and scooped up Luo Wanqing horizontally, seeming extremely helpless: “Let’s go. Consider it this young master’s good deed for the day.”

Luo Wanqing didn’t know what had happened. She just felt some jolting and drowsily seemed to fall into dreams.

In the dream, it seemed to be when she was sixteen, when she and her mother first went to the countryside for free medical treatment. That village was full of old, weak, sick, and disabled people, and she heard there were often bandits from the surrounding areas robbing wealthy households.

She had been somewhat worried, but Jiang Shaoyan comforted her, saying that with him there, she could go anywhere.

So she rode in a carriage with Yao Zelan, leaving Yangzhou City for the village full of patients.

That day went very smoothly without any obstacles. She treated patients while Jiang Shaoyan waited at the door. When she finished seeing a roomful of patients and walked out, she discovered Jiang Shaoyan was nowhere to be seen.

She led people to search for him. When they reached an alley, she smelled a heavy, bloody scent. As soon as she stepped forward, she stepped into blood.

She cried out in alarm, alerting the people in the alley.

Jiang Shaoyan was pressing a blade against someone’s throat. Hearing her voice, he looked up in shock, but his hands didn’t stop as he simultaneously drew across the other’s throat, then said somewhat frantically: “Miss?”

“Stand back!”

Luo Wanqing reacted and quickly stopped the servants who had followed. She looked at the corpses in the alley, at a complete loss. Those corpses all held weapons and wore short clothes—clearly bandits who robbed houses.

She instantly understood that this journey hadn’t been smooth at all. Rather, Jiang Shaoyan had cleared all obstacles, so it was smooth.

The two faced each other silently in the alley. Luo Wanqing had one foot stepping in blood. After a long while, she finally calmed down and said with controlled trembling, “I found Young Master Jiang. You may withdraw.”

Hearing this, the servants withdrew. Jiang Shaoyan pressed his lips together, sheathed his blade, and walked out of the darkness.

He stood before Luo Wanqing, seeming to organize his words. Luo Wanqing looked down at his hands, still dripping blood, and finally said: “You’re not injured, are you?”

Jiang Shaoyan was stunned, then seemed to react with some happiness, though he suppressed his emotions and only said: “No.”

Noticing she had stepped in blood, he quickly turned around, crouched down, and said softly: “Let me carry Miss back to change clothes.”

Luo Wanqing climbed onto his back. He carried her back to the house arranged in the village, knelt to change her shoes, then went to fetch water to wash her feet.

She quietly watched the youth kneeling before her and hesitated for a long time before saying, “In the future, if things are this dangerous, just tell me and I won’t come anymore.”

“How could that be?” Jiang Shaoyan shook his head, scooping water from the hot water basin beside him to add to her foot basin.

As the water warmed, Jiang Shaoyan’s voice became as warm as the water: “Shaoyan hopes Miss can go to all the places in this world she wants to go, and I will pave all roads for Miss.” Jiang Shaoyan looked up seriously: “Nowhere can she go, nothing she cannot do.”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing was stunned. Jiang Shaoyan lifted her feet and dried them with a cloth.

“Today, letting Miss get stained with blood was this subordinate’s fault. Miss, rest assured—as long as this subordinate is here, you will never touch these dirty things again in this lifetime. In the future, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. You live your best life, and Shaoyan will always guard you.”

Getting stained with blood was his fault.

He would always guard her.

In an instant, before her eyes was a person cut in two, blood spattering.

She screamed in the dream, cursing and crying out.

Where are you?

Jiang Shaoyan, where are you?

Jiang Shaoyan…

“If you dare come, I will surely kill you.”

The resolute words suddenly rang out, and Luo Wanqing’s eyes snapped open.

She gasped violently, her whole body aching severely, but her wounds had been treated and were all wrapped in bandages.

She lay flat on the ground with the vast starry sky falling into her eyes. When she blinked, she felt a tear that had accumulated in the corner of her eye slide down.

Beside her was an abnormal warmth with the crackling sound of bursting charcoal.

Then a slow voice arose with some helplessness: “Finally awake?”

Hearing this, Luo Wanqing propped herself up and turned her head to see that they were in an open field. Not far away was a small river, and beside it was a fire pit. “Qin Jue” wore exile prisoner clothes and sat on a rock by the fire, turning two birds roasting over the flames.

The birds were perfectly roasted, appearing golden-brown with mouth-watering aroma.

“You were crying badly in your dream just now,” the other said half-seriously, “and I’m not good at comforting girls. Thinking my roasting skills are decent, I specially caught two magpies for you.”

The young man handed her one of the birds with a smile: “Eat such an auspicious bird—feel happier?”

Luo Wanqing said nothing. She looked down at the oversized bird body before her, then at the bird feathers in the distance, and stated honestly: “Magpies aren’t this big.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s probably a crow.”

Qin Jue paused, held up the bird on the wooden stick, looked at it seriously, and frowned: “Isn’t it the fatter type of magpie?”

Hearing Qin Jue trying hard to prove it was a magpie, Luo Wanqing didn’t argue. She looked down and took the roasted bird, saying quietly: “Then let’s call it a magpie.”