The moment Yelu Qianqian fell silent, Situ Haonan immediately identified it—the roar of a wild beast.

Without a word, he grabbed Yelu Qianqian and turned to leave, but Yelu Qianqian, far from frightened, grew excited instead. “Should we team up and hunt it together, what do you think?”

“Idiot!” Situ Haonan snapped at once, fiercely.

Yelu Qianqian froze in shock. Seeing this, Situ Haonan had no choice but to explain. “That kind of beast can’t be captured without harm or killed—it’s simply impossible. Even if you wound it, it’ll fight back regardless. You’d have to kill it outright!”

The whole point of the hunting ground’s “no killing, no harming” rule was precisely to encourage everyone to flee from such dangerous beasts rather than provoke them.

Killing a beast like that wouldn’t even count toward the hunt at all—it would be entirely thankless, dangerous work for nothing.

And with Yelu Qianqian’s laughably weak martial skills, Situ Haonan felt even less at ease about the situation.

Yelu Qianqian finally understood, turning to leave at once. But just then, the Second Beast Young Master’s voice rang out again.

“Princess Consort, where exactly are you?”

“Princess Consort, don’t tangle with that leopard—run, and don’t let its blood touch you, it’s poisonous!”

…

Situ Haonan and Yelu Qianqian had no time to hear whatever else the Second Beast Young Master shouted after that. The moment they caught the words “Princess Consort,” both of them turned and bolted forward without hesitation!

But after covering some distance, Situ Haonan finally came to his senses and shoved Yelu Qianqian back. “Wait here, don’t come any closer!”

Yelu Qianqian grew anxious—if anything happened to Han Ziqing, she’d never forgive herself for the rest of her life. Han Ziqing had only agreed to come on this hunt for her sake!

“Stay put!” Situ Haonan said fiercely—this was the first time Yelu Qianqian had ever seen him truly serious, truly angry.

Yelu Qianqian actually stopped, pouting. “I promise I’ll just watch from a distance, I won’t get in your way. An extra pair of eyes might help, in case…”

“There’s no ‘in case.’ Just be careful yourself!” Situ Haonan had no time to spare for further argument—if something happened to Han Ziqing, how would he ever explain it to Jun Beiyue?

The two of them raced off, one after the other, toward the source of the sound. Meanwhile, Ziqing was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the leopard!

The leopard had already taken two blade wounds from Ziqing, but its speed was extraordinary, its reflexes remarkably sharp—Ziqing had been unable to land a solid strike anywhere vital. Still, the leopard had only torn her sleeve and the back of her clothing, leaving her otherwise unharmed!

Now, the two of them—woman and beast—faced each other down. Ziqing sheathed Liuguang and unleashed a bare-handed wind blade instead. The leopard immediately dodged, yet even as it evaded, it kept drawing closer to Ziqing!

Ziqing had no intention of killing it—whatever happened, this was still meant to be a hunt.

They’d agreed on the rules beforehand: the bottom line was to wound, never to kill!

Killing wasn’t an option, only wounding—but for a beast this fierce, unless it died outright, it would never stop attacking!

Ziqing had only one path left: wound it enough to find an opening to escape!

Wind blades alone could injure the leopard, but not gravely enough—because if Ziqing applied too much force, there was a real risk of killing it outright, and she wasn’t willing to take that chance yet.

The moment she paused, the leopard lunged at her. Ziqing quickly dodged, leaping up into a tree, but the leopard scrambled up after her in just a few bounds, darting along the horizontal branches and lunging straight at her again!

Ziqing immediately dropped back down, the leopard close behind. As they raced along, Ziqing wiped away the blood that had gotten on her hand—this blood was poisonous, though it had no effect on her, and she couldn’t let the Second Beast Young Master see that—while reaching for the bow slung across her back.

This was the only way now. With the same amount of force, a bow’s power far exceeded that of a wind blade—she could control it precisely enough to inflict a severe wound without killing.

But seeing Ziqing draw her bow, the leopard seemed genuinely wary of it, hesitating a moment before lunging again. Ziqing seized the opening, spinning around abruptly—with a sharp “whoosh,” she loosed the arrow at full draw!

The leopard immediately tried to dodge, but in a contest of pure speed like this, the slightest distraction, the smallest hesitation from either side, would spell total defeat!

This shot from Ziqing finally struck true—not a fatal vital point, but one that would at least stop the leopard’s rampage. The arrow pierced straight through the wound Liuguang had already opened in its belly, punching clean through to its back, the arrowhead flying out and disappearing into the forest beyond.

The leopard, still airborne mid-leap, froze for an instant, then crashed to the ground with a thunderous thud!

Ziqing landed safely in the tree, finally letting out a breath of relief. Thinking it over carefully, the only way to truly subdue that leopard had been the arrow after all.

She was just about to climb down when, suddenly, a terrifying scream erupted from the forest not far away. “Someone, help!”

That voice!

Situ Haonan!

How could… Ziqing didn’t even dare think further. Whatever the reason, for Situ Haonan to make such a horrifying sound meant something terrible had happened—and something major, at that.

Without a second thought, Ziqing rushed toward the sound at once. Just then, the Second Beast Young Master, equally anxious, burst out from the underbrush behind her. “Princess Consort, what’s going on? Wait, don’t go, wait for me!”

Ziqing had no time to spare for him, quickly locating Situ Haonan and the others. The moment she saw the figure cradled in his arms, in that single instant, she felt as though everything inside her had been hollowed out, leaving nothing but an empty shell.

Her arrow, having pierced clean through the leopard, had struck Yelu Qianqian—so, so close to her heart!

Situ Haonan, holding the unconscious Yelu Qianqian, was utterly stunned the moment he saw Ziqing arrive with her bow. Perhaps he himself hadn’t realized just how terrified he’d been the instant this girl collapsed, or how horrifying his own scream had sounded.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t noticed it himself—and Yelu Qianqian certainly hadn’t heard it either.

Ziqing snapped back to her senses and cried out at once, “Don’t touch the arrow—the beast blood on it is poisonous!”

At these words, not just Situ Haonan, but Ziqing herself was struck with horror. The arrow had passed straight through the leopard’s body, its arrowhead coated entirely in the leopard’s poisonous blood—and right now, that arrowhead was buried deep in Yelu Qianqian’s flesh!

Which meant Yelu Qianqian wasn’t just wounded by the arrow—she’d also been poisoned! And heaven only knew what kind of poison this was!

“Second Beast Young Master!”

Ziqing and Situ Haonan spoke almost simultaneously. Ziqing immediately turned to search for him—he was nearby, and she dragged him over at once. After hearing the full situation, he suddenly looked utterly lost.

“If the leopard’s beast venom isn’t cured within three days, death is certain!” the Second Beast Young Master said, his lips trembling, as if he’d never encountered anything like this before. Without waiting for Ziqing or Situ Haonan to respond, he said urgently, “We need to head back immediately—back to the capital. Let my father find the antidote, and quickly summon a physician!”

“No!” Situ Haonan immediately objected. This wound had been Ziqing’s doing, and if word got out with Jun Beiyue absent, plenty of people would seize the opportunity to make trouble over it—not for any other reason, but because Yelu Qianqian and Ziqing had already clashed openly at the envoy’s residence before, leaving nearly everyone assuming the two women didn’t get along.

If they’d only represented themselves, it wouldn’t have mattered much—people could say whatever they liked. But the critical issue was that they each represented their own nations behind them!

Right now, everything at the Western Three Cities was proceeding smoothly. If someone exploited this incident to sabotage the relationship between Jun Beiyue and the Western Jing royal family, no one could say how badly things might spiral out of control!

And setting all that aside—something this catastrophic had happened, and surely Jun Beiyue ought to step forward and address it in person. But right now, there was no way he could possibly make it back in time!