“Xuanyuan Lige!”
Ziqing cried out in alarm, never expecting Xuanyuan Lige to collapse like this.
Was it fury overwhelming him? Or some underlying illness that had always been there?
He’d fainted right beside her, and Ziqing had no idea what had caused it. Just as she grew anxious, two figures dropped down urgently — a pair of maidservants dressed in blue.
“Your Highness, we’ve fallen into an ambush! Only thirty thousand of our fifty thousand cavalry made it back — the gorge road is sealed, there’s no way through at all!”
“Your Highness, Jun Beiyue isn’t in Western Chu — he’s personally leading thirty thousand White Tiger troops right up to our Eastern Qin border, demanding we hand over the Princess of Prince Yao!”
…
The maidservants rushed in anxiously, and upon seeing Xuanyuan Lige collapsed beside Ziqing, both froze in shock — though startled, they didn’t panic. They seemed remarkably practiced at this, moving in quick strides to shove Ziqing aside; one lifted Xuanyuan Lige up, while the other produced medicine from his sleeve and administered it to him at once.
Ziqing watched, suspicious, secretly startled. This man carried medicine on him at all times — clearly, this underlying illness had been there from the start, and judging by their practiced handling, it was a chronic condition, long endured.
Every prince of Eastern Qin’s royal house died before the age of ten — could this illness of his be connected to that curse somehow?
The maidservant had mentioned fifty thousand cavalry — Ziqing had overestimated the force earlier. For Eastern Qin, this battle was clearly meant to be the war to restore Great Qin, everything they had, poured entirely into this single effort. In other words, Eastern Qin truly was as weak as rumored.
A mere fifty thousand troops — and yet, for this, how much time, how much of his own heart and effort had this man poured into it?
Even after taking the medicine, Xuanyuan Lige remained unconscious, blood still trickling steadily from the corner of his mouth.
One maidservant supported him upright while the other cradled the Blood Zither, both turning to glare furiously at Ziqing.
Strangely, neither asked after Xuanyuan Lige’s condition at all — instead, they demanded, “Did you damage the Blood Zither?”
Ziqing didn’t answer, countering instead, “What exactly is wrong with him?”
“You don’t need to know. Han Ziqing, come with us quietly, or the innocent lives of our Eastern Qin soldiers will be yours to repay!” the maidservant snapped coldly.
“And if I don’t?” Ziqing challenged, her voice level. Talking to her about innocence, of all things — never mind that there was no such thing as “innocent” on a battlefield; if there were, surely she herself was the most innocent one here.
The maidservant immediately set Xuanyuan Lige down and said coldly, “That’s not your choice to make!”
“Aren’t you afraid your Eastern Qin crown prince might bleed to death?” Ziqing countered. Blood continued to seep steadily from Xuanyuan Lige’s pale lips — though she had no idea what illness this was, she knew instinctively that if this continued much longer, this man wouldn’t survive.
The maidservant paid her no mind at all, drawing her sword immediately. Ziqing sidestepped, kicking a loose stone up with her foot and hurling it with brutal force straight at the maidservant’s vital point.
“Ah!” The maidservant cried out, caught completely off guard, never expecting Ziqing to possess such formidable combat skill. She tensed immediately as the other maidservant rushed to draw her own sword in support.
“Han Ziqing, don’t push your luck. I suggest you come with us quietly — once our princess arrives, you’ll wish you had,” the maidservant warned coldly.
Princess?
Ziqing sneered inwardly — so there was someone else behind all this. She sidestepped the incoming blade, then darted along its length straight toward the maidservant, one hand sweeping aside the second attacker’s incoming sword despite the danger of the blade’s edge, the other closing around the first maidservant’s throat, yanking her close.
A month had passed, and her knees had long since fully healed. If not for her still-injured abdomen, she wouldn’t have wasted so much time tangling with these two at all.
She was well-versed in Chinese martial arts — her weakest skill was lightness technique, her strongest was close-combat grappling. These two maidservants were clearly no match for her at all.
“Take me to the Three Realms Territory, or…”
Before Ziqing could finish, the maidservant sneered arrogantly, “You can’t get down from here anyway. Ha, so you don’t know lightness skill after all? Otherwise, what — you’d kill me?”
Was this supposed to be a threat? Acting so arrogant right in front of her?
A cold smirk touched Ziqing’s lips. Without warning, she stepped backward — both the captured maidservant and the one about to attack froze, unsure what she was about to do.
Then, Ziqing deliberately stepped off the edge, one foot landing squarely on the cliff’s rim. The captured maidservant froze, not daring to move at all — had this woman lost her mind? What was she planning? Didn’t she realize that without lightness skill, one wrong move would send her plunging to her death, dashed to pieces?
“Can you climb back up? Your lightness skill should be decent, right?” Ziqing mused thoughtfully, showing no concern whatsoever for the danger of the moment.
The maidservant froze, still not fully grasping what was happening, when Ziqing suddenly yanked her backward — pulling her right off the cliff edge with her!
“Ahh…!”
The captured maidservant screamed in terror, while the one still on the cliff stood frozen, utterly dumbfounded, unable to process what had just happened.
Han Ziqing — what kind of woman was this? Where did she find the nerve to throw herself backward off a bottomless cliff without even blinking?
The howling wind rushed up from below, whipping Ziqing’s clothes and hair wildly through the air — matching perfectly the wild, unrestrained defiance written across her face in that moment.
This kind of jump was, to her, no different from bungee jumping — something she’d once genuinely enjoyed — except without a safety cord. And the maidservant clutched tightly in her grip? She was that safety cord.
“Take me to the Three Realms Territory, or… I’ll kill you right now!”
Only then did Ziqing issue her warning. The same words, spoken at a different moment, carried an entirely different weight.
She didn’t even need to act — if this maidservant didn’t channel her strength to stabilize both their combined weight, didn’t deploy her lightness skill immediately, at this falling speed, within moments, her life truly would be over.
Ziqing was gambling — but she’d clearly calculated the odds correctly.
Sure enough, the maidservant abandoned all pretense, urgently channeling her power to steady herself, gradually slowing their descent, nearly in tears with fear. “Let go of me! I can’t get proper leverage if you keep holding on!”
Only then did Ziqing release her, keeping just one hand braced against her back. The maidservant immediately twisted sideways, urgently pushing off against the cliff face for leverage, and slowly, they descended toward the grassy field below.
The moment both landed, their eyes hardened simultaneously. The maidservant lunged to struggle free, and Ziqing immediately reached for her throat again.
But without warning, a wind blade shot out from the right, striking Ziqing’s hand with perfect precision, the pain forcing her to release her grip.
Her other hand immediately caught the maidservant again, holding her as a shield, as she looked up sharply — and saw, not far off, a woman in purple robes watching them coldly. Tall and slender like Chu Feiyan, she carried a certain seductive allure that Chu Feiyan lacked, along with less of her spoiled arrogance.
“Princess, save me!” the maidservant cried out.
The purple-clad woman paid her no mind at all, her sharp eyes studying Ziqing intently. “You’re the Princess of Prince Yao, Han Ziqing?”
“And you’re Eastern Qin’s Princess Xuanyuan Zhaoxi?” Ziqing asked in return.
“Indeed I am. Your husband wishes to see you — come with me,” Xuanyuan Zhaoxi said coldly.
“And if I refuse?” Ziqing countered. The moment the words left her mouth, Xuanyuan Zhaoxi’s hands, held loosely at her sides, suddenly snapped upward — and just like Xuanyuan Lige, she too conjured several wind blades out of thin air. Though not as devastating as her brother’s, the force behind them was still considerable.
Ziqing immediately used the maidservant as a shield, but Xuanyuan Zhaoxi showed no mercy at all, letting the maidservant’s desperate cries for mercy go unanswered. She simply said coldly, “Useless thing. What use do I have for you?”
With that, a wind blade struck the maidservant squarely between the eyes, and only then did she stop. At the same moment, a squad of elite guards surged forward from behind — clearly skilled fighters.
A cold smile touched Ziqing’s lips. She tucked her dagger discreetly into her sleeve, pressed against her palm, released the maidservant, and strode boldly toward Xuanyuan Zhaoxi. “Let’s go then. If it means Eastern Qin withdraws its troops, it would be this princess’s honor.”