Shen Qingzhu gritted her teeth and nodded, spurring her horse to charge up the steep slope.
Sitting atop her fine steed, Bai Qingyan watched the fierce horses carrying the Huying Battalion and Dong family death warriors galloping up the mountain. She tightened her reins like an anchor, standing firm at the middle-lower position of the mountain slope.
From the high slope, a hundred arrows were released, flying from behind Bai Qingyan toward the front. Wherever they reached… Xiliang soldiers screamed and fell in droves.
·
Li Zhijie’s group hadn’t yet reached Qiushan Pass when they heard thunderous battle cries from within the city, with what appeared to be towering flames.
The Xiliang general leading the advance immediately ordered the troops to halt, then rode swiftly to Li Zhijie’s carriage and shouted: “Your Highness… there seems to be a situation inside the city! Please allow me to take men to investigate!”
When the formation suddenly stopped without entering the city, Lu Tianzhuo sensed something was wrong. He glanced at Li Tianfu, who had cried herself to sleep, then lifted the carriage curtain and rode frantically toward Li Zhijie’s carriage: “Your Highness! Has something happened?!”
Having heard there was trouble in the city, Li Zhijie had already alighted from his carriage. Just as he was about to investigate the situation with the Xiliang military supervisor, he saw Lu Tianzhuo riding over and mounted his horse: “Let’s go see together!”
As soon as the city gate opened, Li Zhijie’s death warriors, who had been trapped inside and unable to leave, rushed forward: “Your Highness, someone kidnapped the prisoner!”
Li Zhijie’s hand gripping the reins tightened: “Who?!”
“Bai family army, Huying Battalion!”
“Where are they?! Did you stop them?!” Li Zhijie’s eyes widened, the veins on his hand gripping the reins standing out prominently.
Li Zhijie hadn’t used that Bai family son in the peace negotiations precisely to use him as bait to kill Bai Qingyan. But if this Bai family son was rescued or died, then bringing him all this way would lose its meaning.
“This subordinate doesn’t know!” Li Zhijie’s death warrior bowed his head. “Master Yan Da told this subordinate to report to Your Highness, but… Qiushan’s city gate wouldn’t open, so this subordinate… couldn’t get out!”
Lu Tianzhuo breathed heavily. Without waiting for Li Zhijie’s orders, he spurred his horse and galloped toward the inn where the Bai family son was imprisoned.
Li Zhijie gritted his teeth and led his troops rapidly toward the inn.
Before they even approached, they could see towering flames and smell the thick scent of blood hitting them head-on. Xiliang crossbow archers crouched at the foot of the mountain, continuously taking turns shooting arrows toward the high slope.
Li Zhijie charged to the bottom of the mountain, pulling hard on his reins. His spirited horse reared up and stopped, its hooves pawing the ground as if wanting to charge up that slope and fight to the death with the mounted figure commanding from above.
He gripped his reins tightly, restraining his fierce horse beneath him. His rippling, deep peach blossom eyes stared wide at the mountain direction – it was Bai Qingyan!
How did she know the Bai family son was here?! How could she personally come to rescue him? And arrive so quickly!
When they had just parted, he had personally watched Bai Qingyan leave with the Jin Crown Prince. How could she reach Qiushan Pass before him?!
Li Zhijie suddenly thought of that maid called Qianzhou. Could that maid be a spy Jin had planted in Xiliang?!
No… that wasn’t right!
Even if that maid was a spy, how would she know he had hidden the Bai family son? How would she know where the Bai family son was?! And how would the Jin Crown Prince let Bai Qingyan come rescue the Bai family son? It would be good enough if he didn’t have someone secretly kill the boy!
Li Zhijie’s heart pounded violently. He seemed to feel Bai Qingyan’s gaze looking toward him, cold and bloodthirsty.
Thinking of Xiao Jiu’s injuries, Bai Qingyan wished she could dismember Li Zhijie, returning the humiliation and torment he had inflicted on Xiao Jiu a hundredfold.
Under the bright round moon, the proud and aloof Bai Qingyan pointed her Sun-Shooting Bow toward Li Zhijie’s direction. Though there was no arrow… the killing aura like a hellish asura came rushing like breaking wind. Li Zhijie’s mount, sensing the cold murderous intent, actually retreated two steps.
Bai Jinzhi sat behind Bai Qingyan, her hands tightly gripping Bai Qingyan’s waist. Looking at the Xiliang soldiers futilely shooting arrows below and Prince Yan Li Zhijie, who had ridden to the foot of the mountain, she said: “Elder Sister, let’s go!”
Hearing Xiao Si’s voice and thinking of her injuries, she lowered her Sun-Shooting Bow and pulled hard on the reins…
Li Zhijie’s chest rose and fell violently. He could only watch helplessly as Bai Qingyan’s fierce horse neighed beneath her and galloped away with raised hooves.
Lu Tianzhuo gritted his teeth hard and turned his horse around: “Your Highness! Give me a hundred soldiers and I’ll pursue them!”
Li Zhijie closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his peach blossom eyes were calm and deep: “Even if you caught up, you couldn’t kill Bai Qingyan. You’d only be sending more heads to her! Ah Zhuo… you must stay calm. Know that right now, I want to kill this Bai Qingyan even more than you do. If this woman remains… when the two countries go to war in the future, she’ll be Xiliang’s great calamity!”
Lu Tianzhuo’s heart pounded as he looked back at the high slope: “But…”
“Pursuit won’t work! We must use other methods!” Li Zhijie’s face was iron-blue as he looked at the corpses scattered on the ground – among them were both ordinary Jin death warriors and Huying Battalion members. He narrowed his eyes: “I don’t believe Bai Qingyan dares to tell the Jin Crown Prince about coming to rescue the Bai family son! She must have secretly brought people here! Collect all these Jin death warriors and Huying Battalion corpses! Now… I’ll take these bodies and go demand an explanation from the Jin Crown Prince.”
Having said this, Li Zhijie bent down and pulled a Huying Battalion short blade from an Xiliang soldier’s corpse, then forcefully stabbed it into his shoulder.
“Your Highness!”
“Your Highness!”
The Xiliang soldiers were shocked.
Li Zhijie gritted his teeth hard and pulled out the sharp blade, handing it to Lu Tianzhuo. He raised his hand to cover the wound, blood seeping continuously through his fingers, the pain making the veins on his forehead bulge.
“Call the military physician! A doctor!”
Li Zhijie said coldly to Lu Tianzhuo through gritted teeth: “Carry the corpses of these Jin soldiers and follow me to Youhua Road! Ask what Bai Qingyan and the Bai family army’s Huying Battalion intended by coming to assassinate me after the peace treaty was signed!”
Since he hadn’t mentioned detaining and hiding the Bai family son during the peace talks, he couldn’t mention it now either! So if Bai Qingyan didn’t come to Qiushan Pass to rescue someone, what else could she have come for? She could only have come to assassinate him… Prince Yan Li Zhijie of Xiliang!
The two countries had just signed a peace treaty, yet Jin’s Bai family army Huying Battalion secretly launched a night assault on Qiushan Pass to assassinate Prince Yan of Xiliang. What would the Jin Crown Prince think when he learned of this?!
The trust between Jin’s ruler and subjects was already precarious and tottering. The Jin royal family had always used and guarded against the Bai family.
Wouldn’t they think that Bai Qingyan, fearing the confiscation of her military seal and loss of military power, was trying to provoke war between the two countries again?
Even if the Jin Crown Prince didn’t punish Bai Qingyan today, he wanted to plant a thorn in the Jin royal family’s heart, letting them know that today, with only ten thousand Bai family troops remaining, Bai Qingyan dared to mobilize the Bai family army behind the Crown Prince’s back to assassinate a Xiliang prince who had signed a peace treaty with Great Jin! Tomorrow, when the Bai family army grew strong, she would dare to do what the Jin royal family feared most.