Before his three thoughts could finish forming, the world turned upside down in the next instant. His head filled with blood, his stomach was compressed, and the flowers and grass on the ground magnified and rushed into his vision.
He was hoisted up head-down, thrown over someone’s shoulder.
The person carrying him spoke steadily but urgently: “Where? Lead us there!”
Li Yuncheng’s mind went blank.
He hadn’t said anything yet—how did this person guess?
Murong Yi snorted with disdain.
These pampered young masters had no idea that their Crown Princess was truly forged in mountains of blades and seas of fire. From just a few traces, she already knew what was happening.
But seeing that kid being carried by Tie Ci didn’t sit well with him no matter how he looked at it. He stepped forward, pointing in one direction and saying, “This kid came from that direction,” while snatching Li Yuncheng over and throwing him heavily onto his own shoulder.
Li Yuncheng let out a grunt, nearly having his breath knocked out.
“I can walk… I can walk…” he struggled.
He didn’t want to successfully deliver the message only to be killed first in these two big shots’ person-throwing game!
“You’re too slow!” Murong Yi ignored him.
But Tie Ci suddenly remembered something and asked Li Yuncheng: “You came into the forest looking for me and were ambushed, right? Didn’t Tan Dunzhi relay my order for everyone to return to camp first?”
“…No, when we entered the forest, His Majesty was still waiting for you…”
Tie Ci’s expression changed.
The moment she saw the disheveled Li Yuncheng, she knew the real killers had been waiting here.
Last night’s assassination was merely a diversion to make her lower her guard and think the crisis was over.
One of their real targets was this group of easily ignited noble young masters.
These young masters were mostly descendants of her political enemies. If she hadn’t guessed wrong, they would create an “accident” to kill this group. In the end, these people would have died because she had specifically chosen them to accompany her, making all responsibility fall on her.
Whether several died or they were wiped out entirely, it would cause the recently stabilized court to collapse, make her political enemies fight her even more desperately, and prevent the originally wavering neutral faction from daring to pledge loyalty to her.
An extremely vicious scheme.
To prevent her from continuing to gain power, to stop her Yannan journey, they were willing to use the lives of nearly half the court officials’ children as stakes.
And worse still, Tan Dunzhi hadn’t relayed the order—Father was still waiting for her.
Whether still in the field or just heading back due to rain, now was an excellent opportunity for a surprise attack.
And Pingzong was still in the traveling palace with stomach problems…
Right, Pingzong’s poisoning wasn’t to remove obstacles for last night either, but to facilitate today’s assassination of Father!
Tie Ci’s heart burned with anxiety.
She wanted to rush back to the field herself. With her teleportation at full power, she could guarantee saving Father.
But obviously that group of bastards over there was in more urgent danger. Without her—the fastest—going there, that group would definitely die.
For a moment, she thought: Let them die—who could be more important than my father!
Li Yuncheng kept watching the Crown Princess.
He knew that at this moment, only the Crown Princess could save those companions.
However, he saw that after the Crown Princess said those words, a flicker of hesitation passed through her eyes, and her heels slightly turned backward.
He suddenly reached out and grabbed the Crown Princess’s sleeve: “Please, save us!”
Not daring to speak of future loyalty, he only said: “His Majesty has a great army and guards, but Feng Huan and the others are about to die! Your Highness, if you don’t save them, can you live with yourself for the rest of your life!”
Murong Yi, watching her expression, suddenly said: “I’ve also arranged people at the field. Even if there are assassins, we can be prepared.”
Tie Ci hesitated only briefly, then reached out and again lifted Li Yuncheng from Murong Yi’s shoulder.
“You go back!” she said. “Murong Yi, I trust you! Go protect my father and mother consort!”
She hoisted Li Yuncheng onto her shoulder again with a thud. Li Yuncheng’s stomach took another heavy blow, and he retched up some clear water, pointing weakly in a direction. He felt Tie Ci’s body sway, then his stomach lurched heavily, another sway, another lurch.
Li Yuncheng couldn’t vomit anymore.
He had no energy left to feel any emotion about this humiliating position.
He felt that before Feng Huan was rescued, he would definitely be bounced to death first.
…
Feng Huan felt he was already dead.
And he must have descended to the eighteenth level of hell.
Otherwise, why would it be so painful, cold, wet, and hard to breathe?
He just didn’t know which level of hell—seas of fire weren’t this cold, mountains of blades weren’t this suffocating. In his short life, besides teasing a few women and beating a few people, he hadn’t committed any great sins. He played around but maintained the bottom line of not causing deaths—how had he ended up in such a state?
There were scraping sounds nearby, like something being dug, the cutting sounds sharp and making one’s scalp tingle.
Half his body was underwater, and he was almost floating.
Just as he was about to say something, when he opened his mouth, a clump of earth fell from above, filling his mouth.
And someone heavily stepped on his head, right on his cheek wound, causing Feng Huan to scream in pain and curse: “Which bastard is stepping on me even as a ghost!”
Chang Qianmo’s voice came from above: “Old Feng, did I step on you? Bear with it—if we don’t hurry and dig, we’ll really become ghosts!”
Feng Huan: “I’m not dead yet?”
Chang Qianmo had no time to deal with him, grunting as he dug while muttering: “The Crown Princess is really stingy—rewarding a Deep Iron dagger that’s not even palm-sized!”
Feng Huan rolled his eyes. In the Crown Princess’s view, they were useless—how could she bear to waste precious Deep Iron on them? Wouldn’t it be better to save it to arm a few more warriors?
If Tie Ci were here, she would probably praise: Though you’re useless, you have good self-awareness.
Feng Huan endured the pain and looked up, vaguely feeling there were several more people above, all struggling to brace against the cave walls, competing to breathe air through that one crack at the entrance. He, the injured one, was pressed at the very bottom, soaking in water, barely breathing, with people even stepping on his shoulders.
Feng Huan cursed loudly, telling people to make room for him, but in this cave everyone was fighting for their lives—who cared about him?
Feng Huan soon couldn’t curse anymore. Looking down, he was horrified to discover that the water, which had just reached his knees, now reached his waist!
Only then did he belatedly realize that with the rain continuing, more and more water was pouring in, and he at the bottom would be the first to drown!
Feng Huan began screaming, ignoring his arm scrapes and desperately trying to push the people above him. Not only couldn’t he move them, but he was stepped on and pushed down further, making him curse again in anger.
It was still Chang Qianmo, busy digging at the stones, who reached down to pull him up a bit and carved out a small hole for him to stick his feet into. Using this precarious position, Feng Huan barely managed to brace against the wall, his arms aching and legs trembling as he watched the faintly glowing water level slowly rise, covering his thighs, reaching his crotch…
Whether from the difficulty of the position or approaching despair, this pampered young master suddenly started crying.
“Wuu wuu wuu, I was wrong…”
“Wuu wuu wuu, whoever can come save me will be my father, my real father.”
Someone above heard and started crying too: “…Wuu wuu wuu, whoever comes to save us, I’ll give them whatever they want, point east and I won’t dare go west!”
Someone else cursed irritably: “How come that bastard Li Yuncheng hasn’t come yet? He didn’t run away and is too afraid to tell anyone because he doesn’t want to take responsibility, did he?”
With this terrifying possibility raised, the cave fell into deathly silence.
Everyone’s hearts sank into despair.
But at this moment, the person at the very top suddenly felt his head turn cold as heavy rain poured down.
He was stunned, then understood and let out a cry of wild joy.
…
Tie Ci finally arrived at the direction Li Yuncheng had pointed to before he was bounced to death. Tie Ci reached out and gently lifted Li Yuncheng, and he felt like a sack being set down on the ground.
For the ten-thousandth time, he sighed inwardly—how had he agreed to that terrible idea of ambushing the Crown Princess?
Forget encountering treachery—even without encountering treachery, even with a hundred more people, the Crown Princess couldn’t possibly fall into their mechanism trap.
The rain was getting heavier, and this area was an open space below a hillside. In the overwhelming rain curtain, Li Yuncheng couldn’t bother wiping the water from his face and pointed ahead: “Right there, under a large stone…”
His voice suddenly stopped.
Before them, scattered all around, large and small, countless stones were everywhere—it was impossible to distinguish which was the large stone at the cave entrance!
His gaze slowly moved up to the hillside beside them, where a large chunk had been cut away.
Heavy rain washing the mountain—this area had experienced a small landslide!
The landslide had occurred at this very moment. Even the usually slow Li Yuncheng grabbed his hair and spun around three times frantically.
He felt like he was going mad.
He shouted: “Make some noise! We’re here! Rescue has arrived!”
But the wind, rain, and mountain forest swallowed all noise. Forget sounds from underground reaching up—even his own voice was immediately scattered by the wind.
Tie Ci remained calm.
Since they couldn’t distinguish, they’d use the most basic method to search.
Hopefully, there was still time.
Li Yuncheng suddenly saw a blur before his eyes.
The Crown Princess had vanished.
The next moment she appeared three zhang away, appearing so suddenly as if she had been there all along.
She looked down, her gaze sweeping over the large and small stones before her, seeing beneath them.
Finding nothing, she moved to search the next area.
Heavy rain like a wall—Li Yuncheng could barely make out a slender figure appearing and disappearing, sweeping past each stone at a speed his eyes couldn’t follow.
He hazily remembered the Crown Princess’s teleportation and X-ray vision.
Once again marveling at their good fortune.
Tie Ci wiped the water from her face—her vision was somewhat blurry.
Since her teleportation had repeatedly malfunctioned before and Rong Pu had advised her to use it less, she had recently been diligently practicing martial arts and rarely used her innate abilities. Using both teleportation and X-ray vision extensively now, especially in heavy rain and dark weather that severely strained eyesight, she could feel her internal energy draining at several times the usual rate. The suffocating feeling in her chest returned, and her vision was gradually becoming unclear.
She didn’t pause.
But she couldn’t help feeling anxious—what if her teleportation and X-ray vision failed before she found them?
A dark shadow flashed before her eyes—this was a condition she’d experienced before. She passed it by.
She suddenly stopped and returned.
Before her was a large stone. She concentrated her sight and looked again. Sure enough, in the pitch darkness, she vaguely saw some pale things.
That dark shadow from before wasn’t her blurred vision, but the tops of those people’s heads.
She bent down and heard faint cries for help.
Found them!
The next moment she lifted her foot.
The large stone was kicked away by this kick, rolling and smashing countless small stones as it went.
The cave entrance appeared, and people scrambled to poke their heads out.
But at this moment, Tie Ci heard an extremely faint sound in the wind and rain.
Surrounding the city to attack the reinforcements!
She dodged to one side and raised her hand, forcefully pressing down the two heads that had poked out first!
The next instant, two black arrows passed through the gap between her arms and whooshed into the darkness.
If she had pressed down a moment slower, those arrows would have hit the emerging people right between the eyebrows.
The people below hadn’t realized what happened yet and were still desperately pushing outward. Those on top wanted to surface, those in the middle wanted to climb up, and Feng Huan at the very bottom was stepped on again. Already trembling with weak arms and legs unable to hold on, he immediately fell with a splash into the deep water that had filled half the cave.
But at this moment, everyone was busy seeking rescue—no one paid attention.
Above ground, arrow rain accompanied the storm, and in the dark chaotic rain, it was impossible to distinguish anything.
Those heads were still trying to pop out.
Tie Ci suddenly kicked, and a stone smaller than before rolled over, once again thunderously covering the cave entrance.
Since they were so disobedient, they could stay in the cave a bit longer to reflect!
The people below: “…”
The next instant, Tie Ci’s figure flashed as she grabbed Li Yuncheng away from his original position.
“Thud”—an arrow embedded where Li Yuncheng had just been standing.
Tie Ci shouted angrily: “Find somewhere to hide! I don’t have time to keep saving you!”
Li Yuncheng unhesitatingly rushed into the bushes and dropped to the ground.
In the pitch-black forest, even Tie Ci couldn’t see him now.
Tie Ci turned around, sensing the direction the arrows came from, hearing distant thunder rumbling.
She extended her hand.
A white light pierced heaven and earth, splitting through the dense forest, connecting the thunder clouds above to her snow-white fingertip below.
For a moment, everything around was snow-bright.
In that bright light’s glimpse, Tie Ci had clearly seen those black figures crouching in trees, hiding behind trunks, concealed in grass.
The next moment she spun around.
Her sleeves billowed, creating spiraling rain lines. Accompanying the splashing crystal raindrops was a Deep Iron dagger the same color as heaven and earth.
The Deep Iron dagger, thin as raindrops, flew lightning-fast around the mountain forest in a circle. Wherever it passed, grass leaves and flesh were shredded together, blood and rainwater flowed as one.
There were no screams, only the breaking sounds of bodies falling from trees and snapping branches along the way, creating ghostly shadows in the flickering lightning.
Though wind was fierce and rain heavy, all around seemed to suddenly quiet.
Li Yuncheng lay in the soaking grass, stuffing his hands in his mouth to control his chattering teeth.
He didn’t know if he felt fear or excitement.
He loved reading and had a reputation as a talented scholar, but disdained imperial examinations and court intrigue. He also looked down on his father for following behind the Xiao clan and waving flags, yet was too lazy to do anything about it.
For someone like him from a prominent family, when he came of age he would naturally receive hereditary position in court. If he didn’t want to serve in court, he could live comfortably his whole life anyway, since he wasn’t the heir.
He could live his whole life leisurely like this, with books as companions.
But encountering life-and-death danger tonight, he learned that some people in the world lived completely differently.
It wasn’t because of the Crown Princess’s brave and divine martial prowess—he had heard legends about the Crown Princess before and hadn’t paid attention. In fact, hearing about it couldn’t compare to the shock of witnessing it personally.
What shocked him more was the Crown Princess’s prediction of danger, her reaction to danger—swift yet calm, unmoved from beginning to end.
Clearly, only after experiencing all kinds of storms could one regard everything as ordinary.
She was only just seventeen.
A woman.
She had walked the most difficult path in the world without complaint or retreat.
Before her, he suddenly realized he was unworthy of being a man.
…
After Tie Ci’s strike, no more arrows came.
The enemies seemed all dead.
Tie Ci didn’t waste time checking, kicking the stone away again and shouting: “Those on top move aside! Get the injured out first!”
Probably shocked by her bizarre behavior of covering them with stones earlier, this time no one dared scramble up, all obediently helping move the injured from below.
Tie Ci caught each one as they were brought out. At this time she set off fireworks for reinforcements.
She hadn’t dared before, fearing to expose their location, but now obviously the assassins knew she was here. Alone, under assassin surveillance, it would be very difficult to protect so many people safely back to camp—she could only call for support.
This cluster of fireworks also meant to inquire about the Emperor’s safety.
After a moment, a string of fireworks shot up into the distant sky.
Tie Ci’s heart leaped with joy.
Just as she was about to tell everyone to hurry and leave, walking toward the fireworks would be the way back.
But suddenly she heard Young Master Chang from Grand Secretary Chang’s family say: “Eh, seems like someone’s missing.”
Tie Ci was startled. She didn’t know what the count should be. The others looked at each other, and someone said: “Feng Huan hasn’t come up yet!”
“Wasn’t he bracing against the wall!”
“Could he have… fallen down?”
Everyone’s faces were pale, looking at the surging water that had filled half the cave.
No one dared go down, no one wanted to return to that nightmare.
And rescuing someone from deep water was extremely dangerous to begin with.
Tie Ci was soaking wet all over. A flash of lightning illuminated her snow-white face.
She said nothing, stripped off her outer garment. Inside was tight-fitting clothes that outlined her figure.
She wore long robes over tight-fitting clothes for easy combat at any time.
Everyone stared at her blankly. At this moment no one would have improper thoughts—they were all thinking: No way? She’s not going down, is she?
The Crown Princess coming alone to rescue them was already fantastical enough—was she really going to risk going underwater for Feng Huan?
Li Yuncheng ran over, and before he could say “I’ll go,” Tie Ci had already said: “Watch them!” She turned and leaped.
She entered the water like a fish entering a pond, without a splash. Everyone stared at the instantly calm water surface, panic in their hearts.
Suddenly everyone heard a faint rumbling sound.
People turned back to see a boulder even larger than before rolling down the slope ahead, heading straight for the cave entrance.