“Heh.” Changling couldn’t help but scoff at these words.
She flipped her palm, intending to directly strike down this young man. Unexpectedly, her force dissipated like deflating air and was easily blocked by the other party. Her heart grew alert. “Intoxicating incense?”
Looking back, she finally noticed the arrow tail lodged in the carriage wall smoking with green vapor. Her vision began to blur. Changling thought darkly, “To drug someone to this extent in an instant, the dosage must be quite heavy.”
The young man, seeing she had fallen for the trick, chuckled softly. “Your Highness the Princess should rest for a while.”
After speaking, he didn’t spare any more attention, lowered the curtain, and focused all his energy on dealing with what was outside.
Unfortunately, Changling wasn’t someone who would let people relax. Fighting with her remaining consciousness, she groped in her inner pocket for silver needles—left by Chu Tiansu. She hadn’t expected they would come in handy so quickly.
She picked up a needle with her fingertips and precisely and swiftly pierced it into her Shenting acupoint. As that lost consciousness instantly surged back, she then pierced the Shaofu, Hegu, and Chengshan acupoints respectively, pricked her fingertips, and slowly circulated her energy to force out the drugged blood from her body.
This set of movements was a fundamental technique from the Nanhua Needle Method, emphasizing the word “fast.” When someone had just been poisoned, the toxicity was often still floating at the surface. As long as one deployed the mental technique at the first moment to slow the flow and promptly expelled the toxin, naturally one wouldn’t be controlled by the drug’s effects.
After finally expelling the intoxicating drug from her body, the young man hijacking the carriage had already driven it far away, leaving the Yan Army behind.
Changling had earlier felt staying in the carriage was too dangerous, but now she looked at him with some newfound respect.
This uninvited guest looked to be only in his early twenties. Since he stepped onto this carriage, more and more soldiers came to attack, yet those blades, spears, swords, and clubs couldn’t harm him in the slightest. He casually picked up the horse whip and with one sweep knocked down a batch. In the blink of an eye, the carriage rolled over unstoppably—he truly carved out a clear path.
He was confident the Yan Army wouldn’t dare act rashly for fear of harming the person in the carriage.
Changling had originally planned to kick him off the carriage.
Just as she lifted her foot, she saw the whip in his hand flick like a snake’s tongue to deflect flying arrows. This move was familiar—in her youth, she often saw her martial uncle perform it. One shake and one wrap, quite marvelous. The ordinary horse whip was as nimble as a living creature.
“Immeasurable Whip?” She thought to herself, “Could he be from the same sect?”
Changling’s master was from the Bodhi Dharma lineage. Her master Jiaye was the type of wandering monk who wished to never stay home. She was often dragged around traveling east and west with him. To encounter someone from her sect was truly rare—if this young man was really her junior martial brother, then following him might allow her to find traces of her master’s whereabouts.
She had been separated from the mortal world for over ten years. Now that she had finally grasped a small tail connecting to the past, how could she easily let go?
With this thought, the carriage happened to cross the gorge. The mountain on both sides of the valley mouth rumbled, many boulders and logs rolled down, blocking the road completely. Over a thousand Black Iron cavalrymen were forcibly stopped and could only stare helplessly as the carriage drove away into the distance.
Changling didn’t mind. She pillowed her head and lazily leaned back against the cushion to rest with closed eyes, sorting through the whole affair from beginning to end.
From the conversation she’d overheard in the carriage, it seemed Mingyue Zhou and his sister Mingyue Fei had recently stirred up bloody chaos in the Eastern Xia martial world. Not only had they poisoned many people, but they had also captured quite a few sect leaders of high status and authority and imprisoned them in Yan Kingdom.
However, just as they were plotting their next strategy, an accident occurred. Yan Kingdom’s Second Prince Mingyue Sheng colluded with outsiders and secretly sent Mingyue Zhou to Mu Wangbao overnight, attempting to kill him without anyone noticing—
During this time, Mingyue Fei had secretly transferred those sect leaders and summoned the Black Iron Battalion to rescue Mingyue Zhou in time. From this, one could imagine that though this little princess was young, she was a shrewd person with meticulous thoughts. That she could command military generals to bow to her orders showed her status was extraordinary.
So… was this why the Eastern Xia martial world took such a risk to arrange this carriage hijacking?
Speaking of which, this hijacking was executed beautifully. Unfortunately, they mistook her for Mingyue Fei.
The more Changling pondered, the more helpless she felt. She saw the curtain flutter and slightly raised her eyes, glancing at the young man concentrating on driving the carriage.
How did the Central Plains martial world conduct their affairs? They actually sent someone who had never seen Mingyue Fei’s true appearance to kidnap Mingyue Fei?
She had intended to remind him, but speaking would be pointless. If she made the young man panic to the point he couldn’t even drive properly, that would be troublesome. Once they reached their stronghold, someone would naturally recognize she wasn’t Mingyue Fei. She could explain then.
The sky outside darkened. The mountain road twisted and turned east and west until she felt dizzy and disoriented. Since there was nothing to do for the moment anyway, she simply calmed her mind, closed her eyes, and conserved her energy.
She didn’t expect this nap would last until nightfall.
When she was awakened by a commotion outside, the carriage had slowly stopped. She heard someone outside speaking in a rough voice. “Young Master Ye, is the person inside? Drag her out for us! This old man wants to see if this Yan Kingdom demon woman really has three heads and six arms!”
She heard the young man say, “She was hit with Drowsy Essence Powder and shouldn’t wake up for a while…”
Before he finished speaking, his voice abruptly stopped, because the person in the carriage lifted the curtain and expressionlessly looked at them.
“…”
That man who called himself “this old man” had a physique matching his voice—both burly—but he looked not too old. Presumably his experience was still shallow. Seeing Changling suddenly appear before him, his expression changed dramatically. “Young Master Ye… didn’t you say she was hit with Drowsy Essence Powder?”
“Uh… this…” This Young Master Ye awkwardly scratched his head. “Perhaps she wasn’t hit too deeply?”
After speaking, he stole another glance at her. When hijacking the carriage earlier, he’d only seen an outline. Now he could see clearly—though dressed in gorgeous and colorful garments, her features were clear and uniquely distinguished. He had never seen her before, yet felt as if he had seen her somewhere.
Changling ignored them. With one hand supporting herself, she leapt down from the carriage board and surveyed the surroundings—she saw a large crowd of people standing in a dark mass around the carriage front and back. Each held swords and blades, their garments fluttering. They were especially incongruous in this abandoned village.
She thought to herself, “So many people came at once—aren’t they afraid of being wiped out by the Yan Army?”
Those people, seeing her hop out of the carriage, were all startled and gripped their weapons tightly. When they looked carefully at her appearance, they were even more shocked. Someone thought secretly, “Rumor has it that Yan Kingdom’s little princess has a beautiful face like flowers and moon. I didn’t expect she’d be born so exquisitely stunning… Truly a femme fatale with a viper’s heart.”
At this moment, someone in the crowd stepped forward, raised his sword toward Changling, and said, “Never imagined, did you, Mingyue Fei, that you too would have a day of falling into others’ hands!”
Changling looked toward the voice and saw the speaker was about forty-something years old, wearing a purple yang cap—clearly a Daoist priest in appearance. Among this group of people, he could actually be considered one of the older ones. When he spoke, the others quieted down and unconsciously gathered toward the Daoist. Seeing Changling completely indifferent, he spoke again. “Hmph! No use looking around—this time there’s no one who can save you!”
Firelight illuminated all around. Changling glanced faintly at the Daoist and said, “The Daoist has mistaken the person. I am not Mingyue Fei.”
Unexpectedly, the Daoist burst into cold laughter at these words. “You think we’d still fall for your tricks?”
Changling frowned as she surveyed them. “No one has seen Mingyue Fei’s appearance. Aren’t you afraid of getting the wrong person?”
Everyone present looked at her as if facing a great enemy, completely disregarding her words. The Daoist looked at her with heavy eyes. “Mingyue Fei, when my sect master’s martial uncle captured you that day, you said the same thing. Have you forgotten what you did afterward!”
“Ah, what did she do?” She was also curious about what that little girl had actually done.
Changling’s puzzled question appeared to these people like a provocation. The Daoist huffed with bulging eyes. “Not only did you poison my sect master severely, you also poisoned everyone present that day. That’s right—not a single person here today can recognize you, because everyone who has seen you, except for those you abducted, all the others have gone blind!”
As soon as his words fell, someone in the crowd finally couldn’t contain themselves and shouted at her, “Demon woman! Quickly hand over the antidote! Quickly release my master!”
“Right! If she doesn’t hand it over, we’ll gouge out her eyes!”
“How is that enough! We must also slash her face and cut her flesh!”
“Right!”
Curses rose and fell one after another. The scene became uncontrollable for a moment. Suddenly someone coughed lightly and advised with kind words, “Everyone, please calm down. Getting agitated won’t solve the problem. Anyway, this princess… oh, this demon woman can’t escape for a while. We can always think of a solution.”
The speaker’s voice was pleasant to the ear. It was precisely that remarkably handsome young man who had hijacked the carriage. He smiled as he extended his hand in a calming gesture, then turned to Changling. “Your Highness, as they say, grievances have their source and debts have their owner. For us to invite you here like this was somewhat rash, but after all, you harmed these eight sects’ disciples, causing their senior brothers’ eyes to go blind, and snatched away their sect leaders. You should at least have some explanation, shouldn’t you?”
Unlike the others who came to denounce her, when he spoke it was in a reasonable and consultative manner, his face completely like a spring breeze. If they weren’t in this desolate wilderness, he could serve tea at any moment.
Changling looked at him rather strangely. “True, for doing such evil deeds, one indeed cannot be easily forgiven. But I am not Mingyue Fei. Even if you dismember me into eight pieces, it will be of no use.”
The young man was stunned by these words. The burly man beside him said impatiently, “Ye Qi! Why are you still wasting words with her! Young Master He invited you to help us capture Mingyue Fei, not to treat her with courtesy!”
That person called Ye Qi gave an awkward smile. “Brother Yu Ping, this is called courtesy before force. Some things must be asked clearly. If we truly wrong a good person, then…”
Yu Ping said angrily, “Courtesy what! Look at her attire, then look at the ring on her hand. Even if Mingyue Fei wanted to find a substitute, how could she possibly joke around with the gilded gold ring that commands the three armies!”
Gilded gold ring? Commands the three armies?
Changling looked at the ring on her hand in puzzlement. Wasn’t this Mingyue Zhou’s earring?