The mist was thick and dense. She could no longer see clearly the situation on the cliff opposite.

“Your Highness, Your Highness, are you ready? Your Highness…”

“Keep making noise and I’ll kick you down.”

Feng Huan shut his mouth. Tie Ci took a breath and commanded the man and monkey, “Follow my rhythm, climb up.”

“Your Highness, Your Highness, this cliff goes straight up and down…”

“Fine, then just stay here. The air is good, the scenery is nice, and when you’re tired, just jump down. Green mountains as your tombstone, thick earth to bury you—how perfect.”

The insects dispersed considerably but didn’t leave. They lingered about three feet around Tie Ci, still continuously reinforcing their numbers. Unable to stay on the cliff wall but unwilling to leave, they stacked layer upon layer, piling higher and higher. These insects were mainly black with some white ones mixed in, and from a distance looked like a chocolate cream cake.

Though much more disgusting than a chocolate cream cake.

But there was something even more disgusting.

Feng Huan glanced sideways and his eyes widened—the Crown Princess grabbed a large handful of crushed insect corpses from the cliff wall, squeezed her five fingers to extract green juice, then smeared this juice on her clothes.

Her body immediately emanated a smell that both gods and humans would despise. Feng Huan turned his head and vomited into the wind.

After vomiting, he admiringly turned to look at Tie Ci, wanting to ask how she could do something so disgusting while keeping a straight face. But when he saw that besides the green juice on Tie Ci’s clothes, there were also some yellowish-white unidentified substances, he twisted his head and vomited again.

His vomit sprayed onto those insects, and the insects heroically plummeted down the cliff.

Tie Ci’s face was pale green—from being nauseated by the smell.

So stinky, it covered up her natural body fragrance. This shouldn’t worsen Murong Yi’s poison anymore, right?

Tie Ci carried Murong Yi on her back, holding the monkey with her left hand and Feng Huan with her right, retreating step by step up the cliff. Feng Huan cried, “Can I walk by myself? Please don’t drag me, okay? What’s that yellow stuff on your sleeve? Is it shit from the insects’ bellies? Ahhhh Crown Princess, if you keep this up I really won’t be able to love you anymore ahhhh no, I’m going to vomit again…”

Tie Ci simply placed her sleeve across his nose, successfully knocking him unconscious with the smell. The world became quiet.

Tie Ci’s ears kept buzzing continuously. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, and feverish. There were too many insects, everywhere, and she still got ambushed a few times. These insects had black armor covered with sticky fluid, sharp double-layered mouthparts, and long tail stingers or hooks. When their double wings vibrated, they scattered grayish-white powder—any of these features could be deadly.

Retreating back to the cliff top took half an hour. The mist grew thicker and thicker. Through the mist came the shouts of Chi Xue, Dan Shuang and others, saying they had all chosen to ride monkeys. Though the insects hadn’t retreated, they weren’t injured either, and they wanted to come find her.

Tie Ci stopped them. This was an isolated peak with a very narrow summit, unconnected to any other peaks. Though the distance seemed short, actually crossing over would require a very long detour and climbing steep cliff walls. She and Murong Yi could make it across relying on hooks and ropes forged from Yuan iron and their naturally superior lightness skills, but the others lacked this ability.

The peak was so narrow it was probably only the size of two tables, bare with nothing but a few large rocks that could seat people. Feng Huan didn’t dare move, standing in such a narrow place with emptiness on all sides and clouds floating around. He felt panicked and instinctively looked down, only to see through the clouds and mist that the mountain cliff had no visible bottom. Just one foot below the mountain wall were densely packed insects, appearing and disappearing in the white mist, with countless sesame-sized little eyes flashing green light…

Feng Huan’s eyes rolled back and he retreated backward.

Tie Ci crouched at the cliff top, about to carefully examine Murong Yi’s condition, when suddenly her ears twitched.

“So many insects… can’t stand it… so many!”

From somewhere unknown, as if from a very distant place, a hollow echoing voice drifted over, vaguely familiar.

Beside her came rapid thumping sounds. Feng Huan was so frightened he retreated several steps. Tie Ci’s gaze instinctively followed his retreating steps and saw the rock he was about to bump into. Her gaze suddenly fixed on the bottom of that rock as she shouted, “Stop!”

But it was already too late.

Feng Huan’s boot heel struck that rock with a thud.

Click.

This familiar sound made Tie Ci’s scalp tingle. Under normal circumstances, she could either use lightness skills or instantly teleport and still make it in time, but now with emptiness on all sides and clouds obscuring her vision, where could she move to?

She instinctively jumped toward the edge of the cliff top while holding Murong Yi, but the next instant the ground beneath her feet disappeared, and the entire mountain top vanished.

She only had time to hold Murong Yi tightly before her body involuntarily slid downward. The weightless sensation of falling made her scalp tingle. The wind sounds in her ears and Feng Huan’s screams merged into a tremendous roar. She seemed to crash from one darkness into another darkness. Except for the wildly dancing stars before her eyes, she could see nothing. She felt this downward slide seemed endless, making her heart race wildly. Could this slide penetrate through the entire mountain? The mountain was so high—wouldn’t sliding to the bottom mean certain death? But the next moment her body suddenly turned, the slide changed direction, and the enormous inertia made her feel as if her internal organs had been thrown to one side. All she could do was desperately hold onto Murong Yi while calculating the height and drop in her mind. Sure enough, before long there was another sharp turn, but the sliding speed decreased.

This mountain was actually hollow inside, with nine twisting turns forming a huge slide. She couldn’t imagine how much manpower and resources it would take to excavate this… Before this thought finished, there was a muffled splash and water spray flew as she and Murong Yi slid into the water bottom.

Tie Ci was prepared and had stored up a breath beforehand. After entering the water, she separated from Murong Yi due to the impact force. She swam urgently to search for him. After swimming in the water briefly, she saw that Murong Yi had already awakened and was also anxiously searching for her in the water. When their gazes met, both brightened instantly. They hurriedly swam up together hand in hand, breaking the surface with a splash.

Tie Ci wanted to help Murong Yi to shore, but Murong Yi waved his hand and walked to the other side by himself. The two of them collapsed wetly on the riverbank, gasping for breath.

This place looked bare, except for a circle of trees of varying heights at the edges. The ground didn’t even have grass, nor any stones, though the ground was fairly flat.

Tie Ci held her head and looked up at the narrow strip of sky overhead, laughing, “Your timing in waking up was too perfect. I thought I could rescue a beauty from the water and take the opportunity to transfer breath. Master said one of the three classic soap opera scenes is underwater rescue with breath transfer and kissing.”

Murong Yi asked lazily, “What about the others?”

“Slow-motion magical power of love spinning in circles.”

“And the other?”

“Accidentally falling and landing unfortunately right on the other person’s lips.”

Murong Yi savored this for a moment and said happily, “Wasn’t our first meeting exactly that magical power of love spinning in circles?”

It really was. He fell from the tower and Tie Ci caught him perfectly. To cushion the impact, Tie Ci really did hold him and spin half a circle.

“The classics truly don’t deceive,” Murong Yi sighed.

Tie Ci chuckled and said ominously, “Friendly reminder, our first meeting was actually on the Bright Sea, where you extorted a jade pendant and jade pot from me, stole my personal seal, and even fought with me.”

Murong Yi blinked, “Did I?”

“Didn’t I? Shouldn’t you return my personal seal? I heard you even used it. How did you open it?”

Murong Yi: “Eh, why aren’t there any of those insects here?”

Tie Ci glared at this fellow who was avoiding the subject, sat up and looked around. The surroundings were still lush with trees, but no insects or monkeys could be seen.

She sat there, staring at the water surface, suddenly feeling like she had forgotten something important. At the same time, Murong Yi also murmured, “I feel like we’ve forgotten something. When we fell down I woke up and seemed to hear someone calling behind us…”

Tie Ci: “…We haven’t fished Feng Huan up yet!”

A moment later, splash—the lovesick Crown Princess jumped into the water.

Another moment later, Tie Ci surfaced, dragging Feng Huan like a dead dog to shore. After squeezing water out of him on the riverbank for quite a while, Feng Huan finally woke up with an “eh” sound.

Upon waking, Feng Huan opened his eyes to see the Crown Princess’s wet face. He was moved beyond measure, not caring that the Crown Princess still had rotten insect guts on her, forgetting his earlier declaration that he wouldn’t love the Crown Princess anymore. He hugged the Crown Princess’s leg and cried “wuwuwu,” thanking Her Highness for never abandoning him and risking her life to save him. He felt he had fallen in love with Her Highness again.

Tie Ci kicked him away with one foot. She kicked quickly—otherwise Murong Yi would have had a rock in his hand.

Feng Huan continued gratefully wiping tears, expressing that he would repay Her Highness’s second life-saving grace by crushing his bones to dust. Tie Ci looked at him thoughtfully, thinking this wasn’t the second time but clearly the third.

She glanced at Murong Yi. Ever since coming ashore, though he spoke and laughed as usual, he had been lying there without moving.

From somewhere, a ray of sunlight shot through, refracted by the forest into dim and shadowy light that fell on Murong Yi’s face. Murong Yi raised his hand to block the light. His hand was snow-white, fingers slender, so white they were transparent. His voice, hidden under his palm, also seemed lazy and faint, as if it would drift away with the wind: “There’s actually sunlight. Don’t disturb me, let me bask in the sun for a while…”

Tie Ci: “Don’t sleep! Get up!”

Murong Yi didn’t respond to her. He lay there quietly. This was the first time he showed no reaction when she spoke to him. Tie Ci stood there, suddenly feeling as if her entire body had been filled with ice and snow, cold from head to toe. The narrow strip of grayish sky overhead was cut up by the forest, narrow as heaven’s blade, piercing coldly into her eyes.

Her whole body was ice cold, yet her eye sockets felt hot. She bit her teeth and looked up at the sky for a long while before forcing back the scalding liquid that was about to gush forth.

No, this wasn’t a dead end yet. Don’t be afraid, don’t cry, don’t just wait here.

She strode over and took out the glass bottle containing the yin-yang mushrooms from her bosom. When the bottle came out, it stained her hand with bright red.

The glass bottle had been placed against her body. During the violent impact earlier, it had shattered, and the fragments had pierced into her skin.

Feng Huan cried out in alarm, “Your Highness, this bottle will hurt people. Why didn’t you put it somewhere else?”

Tie Ci said nothing.

Placed against her body, if it broke it would only hurt her. If placed elsewhere and it broke, his antidote would be gone.

Chi Qingbo had said that yin-yang mushrooms also had requirements for containers—ordinary boxes wouldn’t work.

Some glass fragments were embedded in her skin. Tie Ci couldn’t be bothered to remove them. She put on gloves, grabbed the mushrooms, and planned to feed them to him first.

She knew that if handled improperly, these mushrooms might also be poisonous. She also knew that even if this was the main ingredient for an antidote, it should be mixed with other herbs to moderate its properties before use. Taking it alone might kill him even faster. But there was no time left now.

Don’t look ahead and behind, don’t think about terrible possibilities.

If she made a grave mistake, after resolving the people and matters that must be resolved, she would go accompany him.

Just as she took out the mushrooms, suddenly there was violent shaking from above.

Tie Ci had sat on a slide from the mountain top through the mountain belly rolling toward the mountain bottom. What she came out of was a cave opening. The cave opening connected to a slope, and following the slope all the way down she had slid into the pond. At this moment, tremendous sounds rumbled like muffled thunder from that cave opening, shaking the high and narrow mountain body so that it seemed to tremble.

The rumbling sound grew closer and closer, roaring like a waterfall, as if a huge water flow was rushing wildly through the mountain body. Tie Ci said “not good” and carried Murong Yi on her back, running toward higher ground.

But this was a valley floor—there was no high ground at all. Tie Ci carried Murong Yi on her back, grabbed Feng Huan, and in two or three steps leaped onto the nearest and thickest tall tree. The next moment, with a tremendous crash, the entire ground shook. From the cave opening ahead suddenly gushed forth a black flow, accompanied by the metallic sound of shell friction. The black flow continuously rolled and gushed out, mixed with some grayish-white colors, flowing more and more, faster and faster, devastating everything in its path. The weaker trees it passed were broken and toppled.

A dense layer floated on the pond water. On the ground it piled higher and higher, soon reaching Tie Ci’s feet. Tie Ci carried the two men, leaping and dodging, constantly moving higher up the tree. But that black tide seemed endless, rolling ceaselessly. Only when it reached her feet could she see clearly that it was actually insect corpses. Those insects that had covered the sky earlier were all dead, dumped like garbage from the mountain top, now piling up layer upon layer beneath their feet, threatening to bury them.

For that instant, Tie Ci suddenly understood—this place was actually a large garbage bin.

And she was about to become the first imperial heir to die in a garbage bin, suffocated by garbage.

There was no time to think anything else. She threw Feng Huan onto the highest tree branch, stepped onto the tree top herself, and held Murong Yi up with both hands as high as possible, higher, even higher…

The next second, with a thunderous crash, the great tree was crushed by the rushing flow of insect corpses. The stench hit her head-on, and Tie Ci’s vision went black.

The deep valley returned to silence.

…

Outside the mountain valley, on various peak tops.

Dan Shuang, who had been fighting insects with her mouth and nose covered for half the day and whose torches had burned out, drew the soft sword from her waist, preparing for hand-to-hand combat with the endless insect army.

On another peak, the fire circle burning around Chi Qingbo and his wife was also gradually extinguishing. Xiao Xueya stood on a monkey’s head, whipping the monkey as it passed by them, telling them to quickly mount the monkey and run. Chi Qingbo finally helped A’li Fu mount the monkey with difficulty. That monkey suddenly leaped away to escape. In desperation, Chi Qingbo grabbed the monkey’s tail. The monkey actually carried A’li Fu while dragging him away like the wind. Xiao Xueya just turned his head and his view was blocked by a sea of insects—he couldn’t see where those two had been taken at all.

Xiao Xueya turned again and saw that Chi Xue had already been forced to the cliff edge by the insects. He jumped down from the monkey, drew his sword, and his sword energy rolled forward like white waves. Before his eyes he plowed open a path of flying broken limbs and fragments in blue-black colors. Countless insect corpses splashed stickily onto his snow-white boots. Xiao Xueya’s expression was very calm—he didn’t even lower his eyes to look.

Ever since he had walked through the muddy roads mixed with chicken shit and human filth in Huang Prefecture’s slums, he no longer cared so much about worldly filth.

A gentleman is not enslaved by external things—enslaving the heart is sufficient.

As soon as he jumped down, the monkey fled as if granted amnesty, shrieking to call its companions to escape, refusing to come near him even unto death.

Countless insect tides surrounded them like water from sky and earth.

Chi Xue didn’t thank Xiao Xueya, nor did she scream. She only asked Xiao Xueya softly, “General, can Her Highness survive?”

Xiao Xueya said calmly, “Yes.”

“What about us?”

Xiao Xueya was silent for a while. His hands didn’t stop. He gazed at his sword—his beloved, carefully maintained long sword was now covered with insect corpses and poisonous juices, making even swinging it somewhat difficult. His sword light swept across the black mist before his eyes as he said lightly, “I have unfulfilled ambitions.”

Chi Xue cooperatively scattered her last handful of poisonous powder behind him.

“But I will not die by insect mouths.”

Chi Xue fell silent behind him, understanding his meaning.

Someone as proud and pure as Xiao Xueya would not allow himself to be buried in the mouthparts of those filthy creatures.

Behind them was a sheer cliff, with fierce wind.

Chi Xue glanced at the abyss beneath her feet.

She knew that when the insect tide came, the position Xiao Xueya was in at that time—the insects still hadn’t passed there, and Deputy General Zhu was still safely waiting for him there. He could have left safely.

But she didn’t thank him for staying.

For someone like Xiao Xueya, such a choice was his instinct and character. Therefore, deliberately thanking him would actually be an insult to him.

Chi Xue was willing to do her utmost to respect him.

She only said, “I’ll accompany the General.”

Xiao Xueya didn’t look at her. His gaze looked toward the deep and shallow undulating darkness ahead. Tie Ci wasn’t in that darkness—she was behind him, where there was light.

With this, he had also repaid the debt he owed her.

The insects suddenly seemed startled, all violently beating their wings in unison, causing a tremendous buzzing sound in the air that made eardrums ache. Then that black tide twisted like a huge cloak in the wind before covering the two of them.

On the opposite cliff, Dan Shuang’s strength was exhausted. Her soft sword fell to the ground with a clang. Looking at the black sky covering them, she closed her eyes.

Xiao Xueya gripped his sword tightly, one foot already stepping into empty air.