Although they were already accustomed to marching through wild mountains and forests, every time they climbed to a high point, they could still see the torches of the large group of pursuers, like vengeful ghosts relentlessly biting at their heels, giving them no time to rest briefly or choose an escape route. They could only flee toward the dense forests and steep mountains that were difficult to cross.
By the time they finally managed to temporarily shake off those people, the sky had completely darkened, and they had lost their way, unable to discern the direction to Zhenhuang.
The night was cold and misty. During the first half of the night, there was even light rain, causing the temperature to drop rapidly. To prevent being discovered, they didn’t even dare to light a fire. Chu Qiao and Li Ce sat in a patch of dense low shrubs. The frail girl leaned against a tree trunk, her bones feeling as if they were falling apart. Blood continued to seep from multiple wounds on her body, causing unbearable pain. The arrow wound on her shoulder was especially severe; even the slightest movement caused excruciating pain. Excessive blood loss made her feel extremely weary and powerless, almost wanting to lie down and sleep.
But years of training and experience told her that this moment was the most critical time in their escape. If she collapsed now, she might never have the chance to wake up again.
“Qiaoqiao?” Li Ce’s voice sounded beside her ear as an outer robe was draped over the girl’s shoulders. Chu Qiao frowned and raised her head to see the man crouching beside her, still smiling as he said, “My clothes are dry.”
Li Ce’s clothes no longer had any fragrance, having been soaked in river water for half a day and then fleeing through the forest. They were wrinkled like a rag, and the bright red garment was covered with dark red stains, probably the blood of some unfortunate assassin.
Chu Qiao moved slightly, causing blood to immediately seep from her shoulder. Li Ce was startled, the smile vanishing from his pale face as he hurriedly pressed on Chu Qiao’s wound, saying anxiously, “It’s bleeding again, what should we do?”
“It’s nothing,” Chu Qiao furrowed her brow, tore off a corner of her clothes, hastily bandaged it, and said solemnly, “Sit down first.”
“Huh?” Li Ce widened his eyes, questioning in confusion.
“Sit down first!” The woman impatiently frowned, her voice somewhat weak but full of authority: “We don’t have much time, let’s rest while we can.”
“Oh,” Li Ce obediently sat down, thought for a moment, and suddenly asked, “Qiaoqiao, who were those people? Do you know?”
“If you have so much energy, you’d better run a few more steps later. If you dare to complain about needing rest again, I’ll kill you first to prevent you from holding me back.”
The Crown Prince of Bian Tang fell silent like a cicada in winter, sitting on the ground with his neck tucked in, though his eyes darted around restlessly.
Of course, she also wanted to know who was behind this!
But the target was too big, making it difficult for her to grasp the core of the matter at the moment.
If Li Ce were to be assassinated outside Zhenhuang City, Bian Tang would certainly be the first to take offense, and war between Da Xia and Bian Tang would be inevitable. Once the two greatest powers of the time went to war, from a national perspective, those who would benefit first would be Huai Song, which was situated along the eastern coastal region; Da Huang in the southern frontier; and the Quanrong beyond the northwestern border. Huai Song in particular, with its prosperous trade and abundant food reserves, would immediately become the object of strong courtship by both countries. Huai Song would also leap from being a militarily weak country to occupying a powerful strategic position.
Looking at the internal politics, if Li Ce died, the Bian Tang royal family would have no successor, and the collateral relatives of the ancestral temples would have the opportunity to inherit the throne. The several brothers of Tang Yuanzong would naturally become the heirs in line, getting a share of Bian Tang’s vast territory.
From Bian Tang’s perspective, those with the capability to do this, apart from the Da Xia royal family, would be the various major clans and aristocratic families. After all, now that the Muhe clan had just fallen, and Yan Xun had used others to eliminate Muhe Xifeng and Wei Shuyou one after another, the various great families would inevitably develop a sense of “when the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold” and “when the rabbit dies, the fox grieves.” The stability of Da Xia’s regime had always come from the balance of power between the royal family and the aristocratic families. Once one side became too heavy, it would inevitably trigger a series of bloody political coups. With the cunning of people like Wei Guang, Zhuge, Mu Qing, and others, they would not fail to see the crisis hidden beneath the prosperous exterior of their families. Taking preemptive action to instigate turmoil, forcing the Emperor of Xia to rely on the power of the aristocratic families, and seizing the opportunity to take back military authority—these were things they were certainly capable of doing.
But what Chu Qiao was most worried about was that this matter was directed by Yan Xun and carried out by people dispatched by the Datong Association. If that was truly the case, then her current situation would be quite awkward.
Perhaps in the entire Zhenhuang City, only Chu Qiao truly understood Yan Xun’s strength. From Yan Xun’s perspective, eliminating Li Ce would not be a bad strategic plan. Once Li Ce died, Zhenhuang City would immediately fall into chaos, the trust between the various great families and the royal family would instantly shatter, Bian Tang and Da Xia would draw swords against each other, Huai Song and Da Huang would seize the opportunity to act, and the Quanrong would rise in the northern territories. The entire Western Mongolia would immediately be plunged into a chaotic fire of war. At that time, the Emperor of Xia would certainly not spare any effort to deal with Yan Xun, and might even rely on the forces of Yan Bei to confront the northern Quanrong. Yan Xun would instantly be in an invincible position, occupying complete initiative.
If this was truly Yan Xun’s doing, should she immediately find a way to expose their whereabouts, devise a method to kill Li Ce, and then cleverly divert the blame, splashing the dirty water onto the heads of the various great families?
If it was not Yan Xun’s doing, but she had already seen how the outcome of this matter benefited Yan Bei, should she, looking at the big picture, go along with the plan and follow the current?
The special agent’s code: at any time, look at the big picture and spare no sacrifice to gain the maximum benefit for one’s own side.
The girl’s palm slowly tightened, the dagger at her side emitting a cold, piercing glint, almost cutting into her skin. She didn’t want to think about how she had reached the shore after she had just fainted, didn’t want to think about Li Ce’s profile as he staggered through the forest carrying her on his back, didn’t want to think about the urgency and concern in his voice as he called her name again and again.
If it weren’t for me, he would certainly have died in the previous assassination attempt.
One good turn deserves another; heaven is fair.
Chu Qiao slowly narrowed her eyes, her fingers sliding toward the dagger at her side. Her calm mind quickly erased those impractical emotions from before. She had always known what she should do, just like carrying out a mission. For the past eight years, she had been constantly thinking about returning to Yan Bei. Besides that, nothing else mattered.
Dark patterned engraving, forged from cold iron, the blade thin and small, wrapped in cotton cloth—considering the current iron forging technology, it was already a high-tech product ahead of its time. The moment Chu Qiao touched the weapon, her mind instantly became clear. All emotions that shouldn’t exist suddenly vanished, immediately restoring her to a qualified, iron-blooded special agent.
The middle finger and index finger pinching the blade, drawing the knife, rotating, gripping the handle, striking!
Everything happened in an instant. Li Ce’s body suddenly leaped through the air, his face panicked as he shouted, “Qiaoqiao, watch out!”
A huge hunting dog suddenly pounced from behind Chu Qiao, instantly biting Li Ce’s wrist as he shielded her. From where Li Ce’s body moved away, an even larger hunting dog leaped out. The cold dagger, unchanged in direction, stabbed into the hunting dog’s carotid artery in one smooth motion—stab, rotate, horizontal pull!
Blood splattered! A howl of pain arose!
She turned and kicked the other hunting dog in the waist. The dog immediately let out a pitiful yelp and fell to the side!
Six masked men in black clothes flashed out from the forest, their eyes fierce, their steps steady—clearly masters of martial arts. Chu Qiao slowly stepped forward, pulling the rather impressive Li Ce, who was enduring the pain without crying out, behind her. She slowly drew the Broken Moon longsword from her waist and coldly looked at the six men opposite her.
When masters confront each other, speed always reaches its peak. Six sword-drawing sounds rang out simultaneously—swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. Under the cold moon’s reflection, the two men closest to the left front suddenly soared into the air, letting out a fierce shout, and pouncing toward the petite girl with imposing momentum. As their bodies reached the highest point, the battle swords in their hands drew two eerie, cold arcs as they slashed down with thunderous force!
Chu Qiao’s body was half-bent, in a standard Japanese sideways stance, one hand protecting Li Ce and the other holding the sword at an angle. However, just as the opponent’s sword shadow covered her head, the girl suddenly sprang up. Their bodies quickly intersected in midair. The Broken Moon sword was unstoppable, instantly splitting the two men’s battle swords, swiftly cutting into one man’s shoulder. Her right foot followed, kicking hard at the man’s groin, while her left hand formed a claw, firmly gripping the opponent’s neck.
With a crisp sound of bones dislocating, the man didn’t even have time to scream before he fell softly to the ground, becoming a corpse.
In an instant, one dead and one injured—her combat power was extraordinary.
At this moment, the other four men had already rushed forward, two attacking Chu Qiao and the other two surrounding Li Ce.
Chu Qiao quickly turned back, wanting to go forward to protect Li Ce. Her body barely dodged the sword’s glare. Just as her body intersected with the two opponents, Chu Qiao caught a glimpse of an assassin swinging his sword at Li Ce. She immediately frowned, throwing the Broken Moon sword. The precious sword whistled through the air, carrying a thunderous wind. With her hands freed, she quickly divided them, instantly ghostlike, touching the backs of the two assassins’ heads, and forcefully slapped them!
In the blink of an eye, a huge bone-breaking sound erupted. The swift and violent attack came in an instant. Before the two assassins could react, their vision went black, blood splattered, brains burst, and their bodies fell, twitching briefly before they could no longer move.
At the same time, a scream suddenly came from in front of Li Ce. The man who was about to swing his sword at him was about to succeed when a sharp sword suddenly attacked, with a swoosh piercing through his chest, bloodily penetrating his heart, the sword tip pointing forward, stopping steadily in front of Li Ce.
Li Ce’s face turned pale, quite frightened. Before he could scream, the last remaining assassin pounced forward.
In a flash, before the man with the sword in his body could fall, the girl’s body suddenly swooped up like a whirlwind, pulling the Broken Moon sword from the man’s body. Bodies intersected, slid apart, blades crossed, at the peak of speed!
A professional assassin’s killing opportunity is always in that brief instant. As the blades met, sparks flew! Strike, grab the wrist, the sword cutting diagonally, double attack!
Break the wrist, twist, break the elbow, seize the blade, turn, and cut the abdomen!
The movements were swift and flowing. The next second, the originally fierce assassin was already wide-eyed, with a huge wound in his lower abdomen, blood flowing steadily, before falling to the ground with a thud!
At this moment, the girl had just turned back from her jumping posture. The cold wind slowly blew past her, her hair strands stained with blood, dripping down drop by drop.
From the moment of the ambush until now, it had only been the blink of an eye, but what was being tested was the courage, eyesight, speed, and skill of both sides. The facts proved that in this respect, Chu Qiao, the super special agent from the 21st century, had a slight edge.
“Qiaoqiao!” Li Ce hurriedly came forward, hugging her, and excitedly shouted, “You’re amazing!”
Chu Qiao, expressionless, slowly pushed him away, her gaze coldly looking toward the depths of the forest, and said in a chilling voice, “Everyone come out!”
Li Ce was stunned, his face immediately turning cold. He turned to look and saw four black-clothed men, dressed the same way, slowly walking out from the dense forest. Their swords were not yet drawn, clearly having just arrived.
Looking at the thin girl, the four men felt their scalps tingling. They were only a few dozen steps away from the six men in front, and in just these few dozen steps, five of their comrades were dead and one was injured. How powerful was the combat ability of this girl who seemed like she could be blown over by a gust of wind?
Chu Qiao’s expression was haughty as she coldly looked at the four men opposite her, her manner contemptuous. Suddenly, she coldly snorted and said, “Will you come one by one, or all together?”
The men cautiously didn’t speak, but slowly drew their battle swords, held them at an angle in front of them, yet didn’t dare to attack recklessly.
Chu Qiao snorted coldly, throwing away the Broken Moon sword in her hand, and said with disdain, “Dealing with you few, even bare-handed would be this young lady bullying you.”
The four men were immediately startled, and then all four pairs of eyes simultaneously burst with wild joy. They thought to themselves that this girl was talking nonsense and had lost her mind, actually wanting to fight them bare-handed—truly not knowing life from death. They had seen fools before, but never one as foolish as this. They were all assassins, to begin with, and there was no need to talk about any code of honor in the martial world. With a shout in unison, they suddenly attacked, afraid of losing the initiative, ruthlessly pouncing forward!
The blade was sharp, the sword’s aura overwhelming, the cold glare almost pressing against Chu Qiao’s pores. However, the girl still stood coldly, her expression calm, a cold smile at the corner of her mouth, seemingly not taking the men seriously at all.
The four men were immediately delighted, seizing the opportunity to establish this number one military achievement, no longer hesitating to charge forward, their momentum astonishing, explosive like thunder!
However, at this moment, Chu Qiao suddenly made a move. She flicked her wrist, and four sharp throwing knives suddenly appeared as if by magic, the blades smooth, polished like mirrors, looking like a work of art.
But the four assassins now had no leisure to appreciate the artwork. Their expressions suddenly changed, and their eyes immediately opened wide with terror. In the face of killing weapons that were faster than swords and had more tricky angles, no one would be without worry and fear. But it was too late to retreat. The girl’s wrist flicked, immediately throwing the four flying knives that instantly seemed like the summons of death, fiercely attacking forward. At such close range, there was nowhere to hide. The four flying knives seemed to have grown eyes, simultaneously piercing the throats of all four men. Blood gushed, voices hoarse, unable to even clearly shout “We’ve been tricked.”
Seeing the four assassins all settled in the blink of an eye, Li Ce’s face turned ashen, taking a long time to come back to his senses. After being dumbfounded for a long time, he finally uttered a complete sentence:
“Qiaoqiao, you’re despicable!”
It was unclear whether this sentence was praise or sarcasm. Chu Qiao coldly glanced at him sideways, suddenly feeling powerless all over, her body softening and falling.
“Oh no! Your wound is bleeding again!”
Chu Qiao no longer had the strength to deal with him. Looking at the wounded black-clothed assassin still lying stiffly in the distance, she instructed the physically inactive man, “Go, kill him.”
“Sure!”
Li Ce cheerfully agreed, rummaged all over the ground for a while, and finally, being quite nostalgic, picked up a stone and walked toward the assassin who had fainted from blood loss.
“Hmph, dare to ambush this Crown Prince, this Crown Prince will now send you to heaven.” With that, Li Ce immediately raised his hand, lifting the stone to strike the man.
“Ah!” A scream immediately rang out. Chu Qiao frowned tightly, and Li Ce’s face didn’t look good either. It turned out that his confident strike not only failed to kill the man but woke him up. The assassin, feeling the pain, screamed and wailed loudly, the sound traveling far away. It was believed that enemies from miles away would be summoned by this scream.
Chu Qiao’s gaze could no longer be described as angry. Li Ce frantically tried to cover the assassin’s mouth, while his other hand waved the large stone around. Before long, the assassin’s head had turned into a mess of pulp, unbearable to look at, with features indistinguishable.
Looking at this, Chu Qiao couldn’t help but feel it was not worth it for the assassin. He was considered skilled in martial arts but unexpectedly died at the hands of such an idiot, and in such a tragic way.
“Qiaoqiao,” Li Ce rubbed his hands together, walked back embarrassedly, and said ingratiatingly, “Can you still walk?”
Chu Qiao coldly looked at him and stood up leaning on her scabbard.
The sound of a waterfall cascading reached her ears, flames filled the horizon, enemies were all around, and the emperor’s rescue personnel were in an unknown direction. Nothing could be taken lightly.
“Qiaoqiao, that move you just used was amazing, can you teach me?”
“Qiaoqiao, do you think those people just now were killed by the flying knives or scared to death by you? I saw that two of them died without closing their eyes, they must have died with regrets.”
“Qiaoqiao…”
“Shut up!”
The woman angrily shouted, concentrating her mind as she carefully scouted the path ahead. She seemed to have forgotten her thoughts from just a short while ago, temporarily postponing the idea of killing Li Ce. She remembered the hunting dog from before, and the wound on Li Ce’s wrist was now more than an inch long.
Forget it, consider it interesting, and let him live a bit longer.
At this moment, Li Ce, following behind, was completely unaware that the hunting dog had saved his life. He looked at the hideous wound on his fair wrist with indignation, grumbling gloomily, “I have a pack of large dogs in my palace, any one of them could easily handle ten or eight of those.”
The night mist was desolate, the future difficult to predict, and strange rocks protruded everywhere. Li Ce carefully followed behind the girl. The Crown Prince of Bian Tang, who had never suffered any hardship, frowned glumly, “Will the Emperor of Xia send people to rescue us?”
The girl didn’t speak. Li Ce hadn’t expected her to chat with him, and after a while, he continued to grumble about how the Red River Plateau was too cold and not a place for people to stay.
“He will.”
A low but confident voice suddenly sounded. Li Ce was stunned, raised his head, and asked in confusion, “What did you say?”
Those people didn’t recognize her; they weren’t from Datong. So at this moment, Yan Xun must be on his way to rescue her.
“He definitely will.” Chu Qiao said firmly, her eyes determined, flashing with brilliant light.
At that time, Li Ce perhaps didn’t understand what that light was called. By the time he finally understood many years later, he discovered that he had already forever missed the opportunity to receive such a gaze.
There is a kind of feeling that, regardless of good times or bad, regardless of wind, rain, water, or fire, regardless of mountains of swords or seas of flames, will not be crushed by worldly affairs, will not be worn down by time. Its name is Trust.
“Young Master!”
A Jing reined in his warhorse, looked at the man in black clothes surging forward, and said with concern, “The Xiao Cavalry Camp and the Green Camp Army are just ahead. Should we be more careful?”
“Hyah!” The man didn’t utter a word, whipped his horse’s flank, clothes fluttering, cloak flying. The Young Master of Yan Bei, who had not left the city alone for eight years, now risked great danger by leaving Zhenhuang City, galloping into the vast grasslands.
“A Chu is waiting for me.”
In the darkness, the man’s voice was low as he slowly said, “I must go.”