She stared coldly at Feiyu, who leaned against the mountain wall, nonchalantly spreading her hands, saying, “What, blaming me? Or do you plan to play the hero? Fine then, go ahead. With your current state, you could probably withstand two moves—one the child blocks, one your neck blocks. But there’s another problem: with these two moves, who exactly do you plan to save? Save Dongde’s family or the garlic-stealing family? And what about the lives of everyone else in the village—you don’t care about them?”

Her tone was sharp and mocking. Tie Ci fell silent, seeing at the foot of the mountain a black shadow had already leaped into Dongde’s house, the blade in hand flashing coldly.

Then she shoved the child into Feiyu’s arms and turned to leave.

As she walked, she pointed at Dongde’s house, pointed at the sky, then at the ground, finally pointing at her own heart.

This time it was Feiyu who fell silent.

She understood her meaning.

No need for so much hesitation and difficulty.

Save Dongde’s family—on the premise of ensuring she didn’t die herself, save as many as she could. Don’t demand too much or blame herself, just live up to heaven, earth, and her own conscience.

The lean figure strode downward, boots splashing in the muddy water with clicking sounds.

Feiyu suddenly grabbed Tie Ci’s collar.

Tie Ci tried to push her hand away, but her grip was strong and wouldn’t release. She whispered, “Don’t rush… just watch.”

Tie Ci’s heart stirred and she stopped.

The next instant, Dongde’s house, closest to them, suddenly erupted with a tremendous crash.

Then with a crashing sound, Dongde’s wooden window frame exploded into a rain of wood chips in the rainy night. Flying out with the wood chip rain was also a large black figure, soaring a full three zhang before landing with a thud like a dead fish, heavily hitting the muddy ground and splashing mud water half a zhang high.

Tie Ci: “…”

Her vision wasn’t clear, but the commotion below was too great—like dragons coiling and tigers roaring.

Before she could react, another crash came as the firewood gate of the garlic-stealing family was smashed open. The auntie who had walked slowly that morning was dragging out a man a head taller than her with thunderous rumbling. That person trembled like a broken rag doll under the auntie’s fists, being pummeled by a storm of mother tiger punches and hammered into the mud pit.

A tall, thin figure flashed out through Dongde’s broken window like a graceful swallow, drawing a smooth arc in the heavy rain as it intercepted two panicked fleeing black-clothed men. Twin blades flashed—swish, swish—two heads fell to the ground. Looking at the blade shapes, wide and short, they were actually two kitchen cleavers.

In the evening, Tie Ci had heard those knives chopping vegetables like falling rain—she hadn’t expected they’d be even more efficient at chopping people.

A scream rang out as a fireball rolled out from one household—someone doused in lamp oil and set ablaze, screaming and rolling on the ground. In the storm, a ball of fierce fire was a heart-stopping sight.

A great shout came as an old man charged out his door, both hands raising high a struggling black-clothed person, then smashing him hard against the ground with a crisp crack.

Whoosh, whoosh—another household also shot out a hail of arrows. Two black-clothed men had just passed by their window when they silently collapsed.

The rain-soaked ground visibly darkened another shade—blood spreading everywhere.

Tie Ci stood frozen halfway up the mountain, staring at the commotion below, her whole body numb, forgetting to breathe.

By the time that group of black-clothed men had instantly lost more than half their number, they fled in terror without choosing their path, running up the mountain—straight toward them.

Tie Ci turned back to hide in the cave, only to discover it was extremely small, only big enough for one person. Feiyu pushed her into the cave, smoothed her hair, pointed at the child, indicating she should just hold the child properly.

Tie Ci had wanted to let her enter the cave, but the person inside would need to hold the child well, and this person didn’t even know how to hold children, so she had to give up.

This cave entrance was above the spring water, surrounded by densely growing trees, vines, and thorns with nowhere to hide. Tie Ci gestured for Feiyu to move farther away.

But Feiyu shook her head and quietly slipped into the spring water. With no cover in the spring, she casually picked a large leaf to put over her head, pretending to be a lotus flower.

Tie Ci almost laughed out loud at this tense moment.

What a wonderful person indeed.

Fortunately, in the rainy night on the deep mountain with lush trees and dim visibility, these defeated dogs fleeing all over the mountain would have difficulty discovering them.

Urgent footsteps approached as those few people frantically ran up the mountain, then passed over the cave without stopping.

The mixed footsteps were about to fade when suddenly the child in Tie Ci’s arms burst into loud crying!

Tie Ci never expected the baby to suddenly wake and cry loudly—by the time she tried to cover his mouth, it was too late.

That group of people had already been terrified by the mountain village below. Hearing this cry and thinking it was an ambush, they silently turned and charged together, blade light like snakes piercing through the cave entrance vines, stabbing straight at Tie Ci’s heart.

Tie Ci’s vision was unclear—she could barely distinguish things by light during the day, but at night she was half-blind. With the mountain wall behind her, there was nowhere to dodge.

She didn’t even open her eyes, shoving the child into the corner behind her and raising both arms in defense. Internal heat flow reversed and surged violently—Great Diamond Hands struck left and right with fierce horizontal chops!

Crack, crack—two blades were shattered by her bare hands, hitting the mountain wall and fragmenting inch by inch!

But there was still one blade that, taking advantage of the rain’s cover, slid toward her ribs.

Tie Ci could dodge—if she did, that blade would fall on the infant’s head.

Tie Ci gritted her teeth, preparing to take the hit directly.

But the blade suddenly went limp and drooped, the person silently falling. The blade was immediately knocked away by Tie Ci’s horizontal elbow strike.

The knocked-away blade shot into the chest of one of the men who’d lost his weapon.

The other weaponless man suddenly screamed and tumbled onto the mountain path.

And the person whose blade had been knocked away—the splash of him falling into the spring only reached them now.

Rain threads continued endlessly.

In the pitch-black spring water, a figure slowly stood up, a broad leaf on her head, a small knife between her teeth. The knife was snow-bright and thin, yet not as cold as the killing intent in her eyes.

The scene and person were both heart-stopping in that instant.

Feiyu came ashore dripping wet, not forgetting to drag out the person who’d fallen into the spring. All three were covered in mud and blood, a chaotic mess where features couldn’t be distinguished.

Feiyu tied the three people together with vines and, taking advantage of the slippery muddy mountain path, kicked them step by step like footballs, kicking them all the way down while keeping her hands tucked in her bosom, too lazy to take them out.

After a while, Tie Ci vaguely heard continuous thudding sounds—those people seemed to have been kicked into a nearby mountain valley.

After a while Feiyu returned, carrying several black garments—the clothes those black-clothed men had worn. She said, “Those people were all slaughtered by the villagers. The corpses are thrown at the mountain pass ahead. I took the opportunity to strip off a few cleaner ones—we can wear them after drying them by the fire.”

Both their clothes had been burned by fire, soaked by rain, and torn by thorns until they were in terrible shape.

Fortunately, the rain finally stopped. Feiyu found a drier spot by the cave entrance to build a fire. The child was crying from hunger again. Feiyu produced a brass water pouch from her bosom like magic, heated it over the fire, pulled out the stopper, and rich milk fragrance wafted out—it was actually goat’s milk.

Feiyu took the child and fed him the goat’s milk.

“Where did the milk come from?”

“The house next to Dongde’s raises goats—several mother goats producing milk,” Feiyu said. “I borrowed some before sleeping.”

“Borrowed” was presumably a euphemistic way of saying “stole.”

Tie Ci examined that vaguely tall figure by the firelight, thinking the courtesan really wasn’t a simple courtesan.

“You knew beforehand about the skilled fighters throughout this village?”

“You half-blind person naturally couldn’t see—though these people controlled their aura to seem like ordinary folk, every one had bright eyes and thick knuckle bones with calluses from years of martial practice. It’s not strange for able-bodied men to be like this, but when old women and wet nurses are the same, something’s wrong.”

After the child drank his fill, Tie Ci took him and held him upright against her shoulder, gently patting and rocking. After a while, the child burped contentedly and comfortably blew a milk bubble at Feiyu from Tie Ci’s shoulder.

Tie Ci had once had a younger brother and had watched wet nurses burp babies, though sadly the boys in the palace couldn’t survive. Consort Jing had also injured her health after that incident.

Watching this, Feiyu’s lips couldn’t help curving slightly. “Young Master Mao, you don’t look like a young master now—you look like a high-class wet nurse.”

Feiyu hadn’t said “Young Master Mao” for a long time. Now saying it, her tone was light and floating, also like teasing.

“Wet nurse is wet nurse—where does high or low class come from?”

“Oh, this servant deserves punishment—how could I compare the young master to those lowly wet nurses?”

“If my master were here, he’d probably refute you. People are born equal—it’s just occupational distinction. Where does high and low, noble and base come from?”

“This argument is unprecedented. Does Young Master Mao also think this way? Then may I ask you to be my child’s wet nurse in the future?”