The moment Xu Shenming and his men appeared, the Ghost Swordsman abandoned Lin Xiao at once and swung his sword toward Xu Shenming instead.

Although Xu Shenming and the others were skilled fighters, in the end they were ordinary mortal flesh, with no treasured weapons to protect them. If that blow from the Ghost Swordsman landed, even if it didn’t kill them, it would take a layer of skin off.

Lin Xiao swung his blade up to knock aside the tip of the pitch-black sword, while Qin Yao directed the fire dragons in front of Xu Shenming.

Sensing the danger, Xu Shenming drew on his energy and leapt backward, dodging the icy, sinister aura bearing down on him from the Ghost Swordsman.

Retreating to the side of the entrance, Xu Shenming kept Lin Xiao’s earlier order in mind and didn’t dare delay any longer. He turned and quickly led his men away to protect the Emperor. Qin Yao let out a quiet breath of relief — he was, after all, the son of a military family, and had spent years training in the Imperial Guards. Whether in reaction speed or adaptability, he was first-rate, and would not let anyone down when it mattered most.

But it turned out the Ghost Swordsman’s attack had only been a feint. Seizing the moment when Lin Xiao and Qin Yao’s attention was divided, he suddenly let out a low growl, slowly raised one leg, and stamped down heavily. The stomp seemed to carry the weight of ten thousand jun — the moment it landed, the ground beneath Qin Yao and Lin Xiao’s feet shook violently, and dirt began raining down from the cave ceiling.

Amid the shaking earth, a long, narrow crack suddenly split open beneath the Ghost Swordsman’s feet, spreading with astonishing speed, shooting like lightning from beneath his feet straight toward Qin Yao’s.

Qin Yao quickly rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the bizarre crack in the earth.

Lin Xiao’s attention was drawn entirely to Qin Yao. Seeing the ground still shaking beneath them and dust raining ceaselessly from above, fearing falling rubble might strike her, he thrust his sword at the Ghost Swordsman with all his strength, forcing him back two steps, then closed the distance in a single stride and pulled Qin Yao into his arms to shield her.

In no more than the blink of an eye, when they turned back, the Ghost Swordsman had vanished. The crack in the earth, which had been steadily widening just moments before, sealed itself shut right before their eyes, the ground smooth again as though it had never split open at all. The cave fell quiet once more.

This was already the third time the Ghost Swordsman had vanished right before Qin Yao’s eyes. She stood stunned for a moment, then crouched down and felt around the ground, finding it perfectly smooth, without even the faintest dip or hollow. “No wonder Master said this thing has the ability to burrow through earth,” she said, astonished. “He must have escaped underground the same way the last two times too. I don’t even know what kind of evil thing could transform itself with such an ability—”

Before she could finish speaking, Lin Xiao pulled her back into his arms.

Qin Yao looked up and saw Lin Xiao staring at her steadily, his gaze clearly carrying a raw, pained edge. She had never seen Lin Xiao look so worn down before. Her chest tightened, and the tears spilled over before she even expected them to.

Seeing Qin Yao’s tears, Lin Xiao quickly reached out to wipe them away, his throat tight with emotion. After a long silence, he said hoarsely, “As long as you’re all right. Otherwise I—”

He could not bring himself to finish the rest of that sentence, no matter how he tried.

Qin Yao’s heart wrenched painfully, and the tears fell faster than ever, like a string of beads cut loose. There wasn’t much time — she had to seize the chance to tell Lin Xiao something of what had happened tonight. Rising on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed, “I didn’t fall off the cliff on my own — someone pushed me—”

Lin Xiao froze at her words, then his gaze sharpened. He gripped Qin Yao’s shoulders and stared at her intently. “Someone pushed you off the cliff?”

Though he had already suspected something was wrong, hearing the confirmation from Qin Yao’s own mouth felt no different from taking a heavy blow to the chest.

Qin Yao nodded firmly, and was just about to explain the night’s events to Lin Xiao as concisely as possible when Chang Rong and the others came pouring in, saying urgently, “Young Lord, Young Lady, the camp has fallen into total chaos — demons everywhere, the road down the mountain is sealed off. General Xu and General Liu are leading men in a desperate effort to protect His Majesty, but he’s still trapped in the camp for now, and many soldiers have already been badly wounded!”

Both their expressions turned grave at once — the situation was even worse than they had imagined. There was no more time to lose.

Lin Xiao turned and pulled Qin Yao toward the exit, gripping her hand tighter than ever before — clearly unwilling to let her out of his sight for even a moment.

Qin Yao wiped away her tears and did her best to untangle the chaotic thoughts in her mind, saying to Lin Xiao, “Those demonic creatures couldn’t have appeared at a worse time — they must be either followers of the Ghost Swordsman or creatures summoned by him. Remember that roe-deer spirit we caught a while back? You guessed right about it — it really had been sent on the Ghost Swordsman’s orders to buy medicine for an injured girl. Just now, when I woke up in the cave, I heard one of the women he’d imprisoned begging a minor demon to stop applying medicine to her wounds. I don’t know what he’s abducting these people for, or why he’s feeding and housing them so well, even sending out specifically to buy medicine when they’re hurt.”

Lin Xiao said, “I don’t understand the affairs of demons and spirits, but to command so many demonic creatures to obey him, his cultivation must be extraordinary. Even fighting him alone right now is a struggle, let alone the other creatures as well. Tonight is bound to be a brutal battle. I don’t know if Xu Shenming managed to send someone down the mountain to find Yuan Jue.”

At the mention of the name Yuan Jue, Qin Yao suddenly remembered the words her master had once said about him, and the doubts in her heart resurfaced. But thinking carefully back over everything that had happened since she’d begun dealing with Yuan Jue, she hesitated again — could it be that she was simply overthinking things?

They made their way out of the cave, and a bone-chilling wind blew straight at them. Not even ten steps ahead lay a chasm so dark she couldn’t see her own hand in front of her face.

Qin Yao paused in surprise — so they were still only halfway up the mountainside.

Lin Xiao, holding her hand, led her in a turn to the right along the cave entrance, and a narrow path immediately appeared beside the cliff face, wide enough for two people to pass through together. Looking up, the path wound its way up along the rock face, lined the entire way with Imperial Guard soldiers. Seeing the Young Lady emerge safe and sound, they all bowed their heads in unison.

Earlier, when Lin Xiao had led his men halfway down the cliff, Chixiao had suddenly grown extremely restless. His heart had pounded — he’d guessed Qin Yao was likely nearby — and he’d hurried down the narrow path, where he had indeed found a cave. Since the cave was narrow, Lin Xiao, worried there wouldn’t be enough room to fight with too many people inside, had ordered his soldiers to wait outside and gone in alone to search for Qin Yao.

The moment he stepped through the entrance, several young women had come running toward him, one of them Chen Yuqi, who had vanished along with Qin Yao. At the sight of him, she had burst into sobbing pleas, begging him to save her. This had only further confirmed for Lin Xiao that Qin Yao was inside the cave. He had ordered Xu Shenming, who was behind him, to quickly lead the women back to the clifftop, while he himself pressed on with sword in hand. As it happened, just as he reached the innermost stone chamber, he had arrived in time to see the Ghost Swordsman swinging his sword at Qin Yao.

Earlier, Xu Shenming had already followed Lin Xiao’s orders and pulled a large contingent of Imperial Guard soldiers to go protect the Emperor at camp, leaving this remaining group behind to await Lin Xiao’s further orders.

With every second precious, Lin Xiao gave his order in a low, urgent voice: “Go to the camp at once and protect His Majesty.”

The men acknowledged the order and retraced their path back.

Since this stretch of path led up the cliff and was narrow, with a sheer drop on the left and rock face on the right, the demonic creatures presumably had no room to maneuver, and they didn’t encounter a single one along the way.

After climbing for a while, they reached the top of the cliff, where Lin Xiao turned and hauled Qin Yao up, half-lifting, half-cradling her.

Once she was steady on her feet, Qin Yao looked around and indeed saw a thick, inescapable haze of demonic energy hanging over everything. Screams rang out from every direction, and people stumbled and ran this way and that, chased by all manner of grotesque creatures.

Looking more closely, Qin Yao saw that most of the creatures causing havoc were low-level demons. Though terrifying in appearance, they were being held off by the weapons in the Imperial Guards’ hands, unable to slaughter freely as they pleased.

Qin Yao immediately summoned the fire dragons and sent them toward where the demons were thickest. The two of them then hurried forward, intending to find the Emperor as quickly as possible — but a sharp gust of wind whistled past their ears, and a pair of massive claws lunged at them.

Lin Xiao sidestepped, spun, and thrust out his sword. An eerie, infant-like wail rang out, and something heavy plummeted out of the air to the ground.

The two of them looked down and saw a creature entirely blue in color, its body coated in mucus, with a large head and bulging belly, its limbs stubby but its feet webbed — somewhat resembling a toad.

As they pressed forward, creatures like this kept lunging at them, either ambushing Lin Xiao or charging at Qin Yao with snapping jaws. The married couple fought in perfect coordination, blade rising and falling, cutting through their attackers without resistance.

By the time they finally made their way to the very center of the camp, the chaos there had grown completely uncontrollable.

In truth, whether Imperial Guard soldiers or officers of the Garrison Command, all of them had fought on battlefields before and seen no small amount of the world. But monstrous things as hideous as these, they were facing for the very first time tonight, and in close combat with them, fear and shock inevitably crept in, dragging their combat effectiveness down considerably.

As for the young women from the academy and the palace attendants, there was no need to even mention them — many had already fainted dead away one after another before the demons even reached them.

Qin Yao stayed close behind Lin Xiao, directing the fire dragons to burn through the demonic creatures while keeping an eye out everywhere for Pei Min and the others.

After searching for a while, she spotted, in front of one of the tents, Wang Yingning and Liu Bingyu clutching each other, their faces already drained of color in fear. Pei Min was beside them too, her hand held tightly by Xu Shenming, who was busy swinging his sword at a black rat demon nearly half a man’s height tall in front of them.

Qin Yao quickly directed the fire dragons to incinerate the black rat demon.

Xu Shenming turned his head and gave Qin Yao a grateful smile.

Pei Min and Liu Bingyu cried out together, their voices choked with tears, “Qin Yao!”

Qin Yao said to Lin Xiao, “I’ll be right back.”

Lin Xiao was busy fending off several python demons that had lunged at him all at once, yet he still refused to let go of her hand no matter what.

Qin Yao said urgently, “They’re some of my classmates, it’s not far, I’ll be right back.”

Lin Xiao paid this no mind at all, slicing off the glowing green heads of several of the python demons in one stroke, then pulling Qin Yao along with him toward Pei Min and the others.

Half-laughing, half-exasperated, Qin Yao let herself be pulled along. Once they reached Pei Min and the others, she bit open her finger and drew a talisman on the ground in each of the four cardinal directions around them, then stood and said to Pei Min and the others, “This formation can keep ordinary demons out. As long as you all stay inside it and don’t come out, none of those creatures will be able to get near you.”

Wang Yingning and the others had always trusted Qin Yao completely, and nodded at once. “All right, we won’t go outside.”

Even as they spoke, a wildcat spirit lunged at Wang Yingning from behind. Pei Min saw it, and though she knew Qin Yao’s formation would surely stop it, she still couldn’t help letting out a frightened gasp.

But it was as though an invisible barrier had suddenly appeared behind Wang Yingning — the moment the wildcat spirit lunged in, it yelped and fell to the ground. It tried several more times to break through the formation afterward, but was blocked out each time, unable to advance even an inch.

Qin Yao waved her hand and had the fire dragons burn the wildcat spirit to ash.

All fear gone now, Pei Min turned and said to Xu Shenming in a low voice, “You don’t need to worry about me anymore. Go and protect His Majesty.”

“All right.” Xu Shenming bowed his head and looked seriously at Pei Min, paying no mind at all to those standing nearby, and said in a low voice, “I’m leaving now. I took first place in this year’s autumn hunt — I’ve already asked His Majesty to grant our marriage. You… wait for me to come back.”

Pei Min’s eyes grew hot, and she nodded silently.

Xu Shenming smiled and was just turning to leave when Qin Yao stopped him. Using her fingertip blood, she drew a Hell-Breaking Curse onto his sword and said, “With this curse to strengthen it, you’ll find it much easier to kill demons from now on.”

This was the same technique she had learned by watching her master work on Chang Rong and the others’ swords before.

Xu Shenming said to Qin Yao gratefully, “Young Lady, thank you and the Young Lord for saving my life again and again. I will never forget this great kindness as long as I live.”

While they spoke, Lin Xiao had already killed several more creatures that had surged at him, but still hadn’t caught any sight of the Emperor, and he was growing anxious.

The group fought their way forward, killing as they searched, splitting off to deal with the demons from different directions, gradually carving out a bloody path.

Lin Xiao moved the fastest, and after a hard push finally reached the entrance of the Emperor’s tent — only to see several women come bursting out in a panic, chased by a long-furred, half-man, half-ape creature.

The one in the lead burst into tears the moment she saw Lin Xiao. “Eleventh Brother!” She hunched over and scrambled to hide behind him — it was Kang Ping.

Behind her were three other women: Qin Yuan, Chen Yuqi, and Xia Yuan.

Lin Xiao raised his sword to deal with the long-furred creature, and demanded of Kang Ping, “Where is His Majesty?”

Kang Ping shook her head through her tears. “I don’t know!”

Seeing how much the demons seemed to fear the sword in Lin Xiao’s hand, Qin Yuan and the others felt as though they had finally glimpsed dawn in the dark of night, and hurried to hide behind him just as Kang Ping had. Xia Yuan, it seemed, had already been frightened out of her wits, and clung pitifully to Lin Xiao’s belt, refusing to let go no matter what.

Lin Xiao, fully focused on fighting the long-furred creature, hadn’t expected his belt to be grabbed. His face went pale with irritation, and he snapped in a low voice, “Let go!”

Xia Yuan flinched, as though finally coming back to her senses, her face a mix of shame and embarrassment. She didn’t dare say a word, but still stayed close behind Lin Xiao.

Watching this from where she stood, Qin Yao felt a surge of irritation. She waved a hand, summoning the three fire dragons to separate Xia Yuan and the others from behind Lin Xiao.

Although the fire dragons would not harm ordinary mortals, Xia Yuan and the others, suddenly confronted with such a divine creature, still went pale with fright.

Qin Yao hurried to Lin Xiao’s side and said, “You focus on fighting the demons. I’ll set up a formation to protect them.”

Once Lin Xiao had moved a few steps ahead, Qin Yao simply stood there, watching the trembling, terrified Xia Yuan and the others, making no move for a long while.

Kang Ping said urgently, “Sister Eleven, hurry and set up that formation of yours for us!”

Qin Yao glanced behind the group and saw a mountain demon with sharp fangs and vicious claws come flying in. Xia Yuan turned to look and went pale as gold-leaf paper, her eyes rolling back, on the verge of fainting dead away — only then did Qin Yao, taking her time about it, finally direct the fire dragons to shield them all.n