The moment Ziqing landed at the bottom of the cliff, she immediately ran into Yingzi and the others, who were just heading back up.

Startled, Ziqing asked sharply, “Where is she?”

Yingzi was quite astonished that his lady had woken up so quickly, but he had no time to dwell on it and reported at once, “They’ve escaped — within the last hour!”

He’d already searched the cave; judging by the extinguished firewood on the ground, the group hadn’t been gone long.

“Don’t go up. Search ahead!” Ziqing decided instantly. There were only two ways out of the cave — forward, into the forest ahead, or up over the cliff.

Since they’d left not long ago, there was only one real possibility — they’d fled into the forest up ahead.

Ziqing led Yingzi and the shadow guards straight toward the small mountain forest ahead. At the forest’s edge, she stopped. “Yingzi, you—”

She’d originally meant to have Yingzi stay behind to guard the entrance, but on second thought, she reconsidered — she still hadn’t fully recovered, and she’d already been caught off guard by Nanny Qin once before. This time, she couldn’t afford to be careless.

“You few, stay here and wait for His Highness. Everyone else, come with me!” she commanded coldly, gesturing for Yingzi to stay close by her side.

The group entered the forest and immediately split into several routes, joining the shadow guards who had already arrived earlier to conduct a thorough, sweeping search.

Having come this far, Ziqing knew she had to find Yelu Qianqian as quickly as possible, no matter the method — because if Nanny Qin was pushed too far, that old woman might very well kill to silence any witnesses.

And to them, Yelu Qianqian dying or being smuggled off to Xiliang would be equally disastrous.

She wouldn’t allow either to happen.

The forest was small, and with several hundred shadow guards conducting a sweeping search, it wasn’t long before the entire woods stirred with activity.

Beside a massive snowball, Baili Weisheng poked his head out cautiously, glancing around before sniffing the air. Though he tried to appear calm, the fear and tension in his eyes were impossible to hide.

Suddenly, he turned his head and spotted Ziqing’s figure in the distance. His brow furrowed sharply, and he stepped out with a low growl, “You wretched girl, what are you doing tracking us all the way here? Who cares if Yelu Qianqian lives or dies! Go back, hurry up and go back!”

But almost immediately, he withdrew his foot, sniffing the air faster and faster — that scent he feared, the scent of poison, was drawing closer and closer.

He had no choice but to flee!

In this life, there was nothing he feared — except one old Xiongnu woman.

He shot Ziqing one last worried glance, then abruptly spun around and leapt into the ravine behind him. In an instant, his figure vanished into the mist.

At that moment, both Ziqing and Yingzi tensed, sensing that someone was nearby.

Suddenly, with a sharp “whoosh,” a multicolored venomous lizard darted out from the snowdrift, streaking right past Ziqing’s face.

“What is that thing!” Yingzi exclaimed, instinctively pulling his lady behind him.

“It’s highly poisonous! Be careful — it’s those Xiongnu people!” Ziqing said, pushing Yingzi behind her instead, her voice low with warning.

Where poison was concerned, she had an instinctive sensitivity.

The multicolored lizard perched on a rock not far off, its scarlet tongue flicking as it stared fixedly at Ziqing.

“What’s it after?” Yingzi was tense. A creature like that — one bite and it would be over for him.

“I don’t know either. That group of Xiongnu doesn’t seem to be after Qianqian at all,” Ziqing said quietly, on guard just as Yingzi was. Though she was immune to ordinary poisons, she had no resistance whatsoever to medicinal poisons.

Ever since being taken captive by Yanzi, she’d begun studying medicinal poisons whenever she had a spare moment.

This strange, mutated venomous lizard seemed like some kind of gu creature, though not quite typical of one — she had to be cautious.

After watching it for a moment and seeing the multicolored lizard remain still, Ziqing began backing away with Yingzi.

They had no time to waste dealing with a lizard — they still had someone to find.

But just as Ziqing and Yingzi turned to leave, an old woman came walking straight toward them — none other than the Gu Nanny herself.

Seeing her approach, Yingzi immediately tensed, ready to strike — but Ziqing subtly stopped him.

The Gu Nanny was the Xiongnu’s chief priestess, responsible only for ceremonial matters. She had no involvement in, nor any authority to know, state affairs — she certainly wasn’t here for Yelu Qianqian.

She didn’t even know who Yelu Qianqian was.

She had simply been led here by the multicolored lizard, tracking her own gu creature.

She recognized Ziqing — the very girl she’d seen unconscious in the small northern town before. But she said nothing more, merely shot Ziqing a deeply meaningful glance, and walked right past them.

Yingzi, held back by Ziqing’s restraining hand, made no move either. Both sides passed without incident. Ziqing paused, unable to shake an inexplicable sense of unease every time she looked at that multicolored lizard and this old woman.

As the Gu Nanny drew near, the multicolored lizard seemed to grow afraid of her, abruptly turning to dart toward the cliff up ahead. The Gu Nanny smiled with satisfaction and was about to leave when Ziqing spoke up. “Nanny, please wait a moment.”

“What is it?” the Gu Nanny asked without turning around, her tone far from friendly. She was so close to finding her gu creature now — being interrupted made her especially irritable.

“May I ask if you’ve seen a group of men in black in this forest?” Ziqing asked politely.

“No!” the Gu Nanny said, moving to leave again — but Ziqing spoke once more. “Nanny, please wait. I wonder if, on your way here, you happened to—”

Before Ziqing could finish, the Gu Nanny cut her off impatiently. “Fine, fine. That group’s not far ahead — turn right after about a hundred paces, there’s a cave.”

The Gu Nanny, worried Ziqing might keep pestering her, and even more afraid she might follow along and ruin her own plans, vanished in an instant just like her multicolored lizard, the moment she finished speaking.

Ziqing and Yingzi were both overjoyed. Setting aside the old woman’s strangeness for the moment, the two of them immediately gave chase, gathering all the shadow guards along the way.

Meanwhile, Nanny Qin and her group were indeed hiding in that very cave.

The guard standing watch outside had already noticed the commotion in the forest and was rushing in to report.

“Nanny, there’s a lot of activity out there. What do we do? It seems like they’ve found us!”

Hearing this, two of Nanny Qin’s personal guards immediately stood up. “Might as well fight our way out! Han Ziqing couldn’t even handle us before — what chance do a few shadow guards have?”

Nanny Qin shot them a cold, sharp glare, and they shrank back sullenly.

“You think it’s only one or two shadow guards coming?” Nanny Qin scolded, displeased, glaring at them for a long moment before her gaze slowly drifted to Yelu Qianqian.

She wondered — if there was no escape, why not simply finish it and kill the wretched girl now?

Yelu Qianqian’s eyes remained shut. She hadn’t woken since falling ill days earlier, kept barely alive only by Nanny Qin occasionally forcing water down her throat.

Whether she was truly conscious somewhere inside, or genuinely lost to the world, no one could say.

Watching her, Nanny Qin murmured almost to herself, “Girl, your life was never really in my hands — it’s in the hands of your dear friend Han Ziqing. If she pushes this old woman too far, don’t blame me for showing no mercy with this blade.”

As she spoke, she drew the dagger tucked in her boot and began wiping it clean, inch by inch…