If Xiao Huayong’s people could infiltrate the guards provided by the Youning Emperor, others likely had too. These people might be connected to those behind the grave robberies, perhaps knowing about this hideout even before she did.

“Hong Yu, we must go up the mountain – Mo Yuan and the others might have fallen into a trap!” Shen Xihe grabbed Hong Yu, who was trying to pull her in the opposite direction.

If these people were indeed working for the same master as the grave robbers and knew about this hideout before her, they were waiting for her to make a move. Once she did, they wouldn’t let her or her people leave alive.

“Princess, Mo Yuan, and Sister Zhenzhu will be fine. We can’t go up the mountain,” Hong Yu pulled Shen Xihe toward the carriage but discovering it had been tampered with, she had to lead Shen Xihe toward the village instead.

As Hong Yu and Shen Xihe ran onto a small path, they saw someone standing ahead with his back to them, holding a great sword planted in the ground. When he turned at the sound of their approach, it was none other than the guard captain himself!

“Princess, why meddle in affairs that don’t concern you?” The guard captain’s normally righteous demeanor was gone, replaced by a cold gaze.

“Who is your master?” Shen Xihe remained calm, showing no trace of panic.

“Princess, why don’t you go ask the King of Hell!” The guard captain wasted no more words, drawing his blade and charging at Shen Xihe.

Hong Yu twisted her waist, drawing her flexible sword to meet his attack.

Shen Xihe raised the bone whistle she’d been holding and blew. In the empty wilderness, the whistle’s sound rang clear and bright. The first to arrive wasn’t the gyrfalcon, but Duanming.

Among Shen Xihe’s maids, all knew martial arts, but only Moyu was a specialist. The others weren’t weak, but neither were they particularly strong. While they could easily handle three to five ordinary men, against someone like the guard captain who had earned his fifth-rank military position through solid martial skills, they quickly found themselves at a disadvantage.

Just as the guard captain’s great sword knocked aside Hong Yu’s flexible sword and swept directly at her head, Duanming leaped past the back of his head, forcing him to turn and swing his blade at the cat instead.

“Duanming!”

The guard captain’s blade was too fast. Shen Xihe only saw a white flash pass over his sword. Her gaze followed Duanming as it landed, rolled, and quickly sprung up to run back to her, finally allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

The guard captain could have killed Hong Yu with that strike, but Duanming’s intervention not only saved her but also allowed her to slash his waist with her sword.

However, the guard captain’s movements were too nimble – he dodged so quickly that the sword only left a slight bloody scratch.

At that moment, a high cry split the night sky as a huge dark shadow swooped down from the mountaintop, reaching Shen Xihe in the blink of an eye.

Seeing the gyrfalcon flying toward her, Shen Xihe realized that while she could summon it with the whistle, she didn’t know how to command it as Xiao Huayong could. The bird seemed to only know to protect her. She called out: “Hong Yu—”

Hong Yu’s sword flashed in a flourish as she twisted back toward Shen Xihe. The guard captain pursued, but before his blade could fall on Shen Xihe, a massive shadow engulfed him. Though he was fast, the gyrfalcon was faster. Before he could complete his spinning slash, the bird swooped past his head.

Sharp talons ripped open half his face. His piercing scream made Hong Yu involuntarily touch her left cheek.

Taking advantage of the guard captain rolling on the ground in agony, she darted forward and knocked him unconscious with a knife-hand strike.

Duanming immediately rushed forward, scratched the right side of the guard captain’s face, then called to the circling gyrfalcon: “Meow— Meow—”

Shen Xihe and Hong Yu: …

This finally caught the gyrfalcon’s attention. It dove at Duanming like lightning, frightening Shen Xihe into reaching for her whistle, but before she could blow it, the gyrfalcon’s talons passed over Duanming’s head and flew straight toward her.

Shen Xihe felt herself knocked down by the gyrfalcon as several arrows whistled past where her head had been.

Rolling over on the ground, Shen Xihe watched the gyrfalcon soar upward and sighed in relief, having feared it might have been hit by an arrow after pushing her aside. She could never find another bird as magnificent as this one to compensate Xiao Huayong.

With archers joining the fight, the gyrfalcon couldn’t protect Shen Xihe at close range. While some shot arrows at them, others charged forward with drawn blades.

Every time the gyrfalcon tried to fly close, arrows drove it back. Shen Xihe held down Duanming, who wanted to rush to protect her, and rolled down the slope, both avoiding arrows and evading their pursuers.

However, these people were determined to take her life. When Shen Xihe reached the bottom and looked up, she met a flash of steel. She raised her prepared wrist and triggered the mechanism, sending a tiny needle precisely into the attacker’s brow.

The gyrfalcon flew over again now that she was in an area temporarily out of arrow range.

Her gaze quickly scanned the area before she hid behind a large tree. She removed her cape and used Duanming’s claws to tear open the lining, revealing several small medicine packets containing gunpowder. She propped up the cape against the tree roots with branches, then quietly moved to a new position with Duanming.

She had barely hidden when their pursuers and the archers came running down. They saw only the cape behind the tree roots, appearing as if someone was sitting there. Though the exposure was obvious, they remained cautious, approaching slowly.

Listening to their movements, Shen Xihe estimated their distance, her eyes still calm without any trace of tension or panic.

When she heard them step on the branches she’d left, Shen Xihe decisively lit the fire steel and blew hard. The moment it ignited, she leaped diagonally away with Duanming in one arm, throwing the fire steel with her other hand.

As she fell to the ground, the fire steel landed on the packets in the cape. The paper, already oiled, ignited with a boom upon contact. By the time these people realized and tried to retreat, flames shot skyward with an ear-splitting explosion.

In the explosion, a fragrance dispersed along with the gunpowder.

The massive tree was shattered. Though few were injured by the blast, before they could stand, the sweet fragrance entered their nostrils, making their heads spin as they collapsed again.

Xiao Huayong rode hard, traveling for a day and two nights, changing horses four times to reach Shen Xihe’s location as quickly as possible. From afar, he saw the gyrfalcon circling, and the skyward flames reflected in his bloodshot eyes as the explosion that made the horses neigh struck like thunder in his heart.

“Youyou!”

His expression was as cold as an asura emerging from the underworld.