Everything before Qin Yining’s eyes seemed to slow down to slow motion.

The hand gripping hers transmitted warmth continuously in the winter cold. She was pulled behind him for protection, and Qin Yining could only see his tall figure blocking her view, using his own strength alone to shield her from all the bloody scenes, allowing her to see only his back.

She couldn’t see his expression, nor could she clearly make out his extremely swift movements. She could only see cold blades repeatedly slashing toward him, only to be cleverly and skillfully deflected time and again by his ingenious methods.

He truly wasn’t a merchant! What ordinary merchant would possess such fierce and skillful martial arts, or have such calm composure and imposing presence in the face of danger? Who exactly was he?

These assassins showed him no mercy either—every strike aimed to kill, clearly intending to eliminate all of them. Without him blocking their path, the guards she had brought would be no match at all, and they might all be dead already!

Qin Yining realized she had misunderstood him. Though his identity remained mysterious, he wasn’t in league with the assassins.

Qin Yining tried to retreat into the room while protecting the Duchess and Sun Shi, but the assassins had obviously anticipated this and blocked their escape route. Qin Yining could only settle for the next best option, protecting them as they shrank toward the corner of the wall.

Pang Xiao and the four guards blocked the path before the women, but he alone had to fend off more than twenty men with considerable martial skills, while also dodging cold arrows and considering the angles of incoming arrows—if he dodged, he feared she might be injured behind him. Even with his superior martial skills, he worried about being unable to manage everything at once.

“Huzi!” Pang Xiao immediately shouted, glancing toward the wall.

Huzi immediately understood, abandoning the protection of the women to grab a steel sword from the ground and break through the encirclement, attempting to take down the two archers.

Moreover, Pang Xiao had already determined the origin of these assassins.

Initially, he had guessed that Emperor Zhou harbored murderous intent toward him, had tracked his movements, and wanted to kill him on Great Zhou territory by having his own people wear his military uniforms—no one would suspect Great Zhou had arranged this.

But upon actually fighting them, he discovered that these people’s martial arts techniques were identical to those of the Tatars who constantly invaded Great Zhou’s northern borders!

Even though these people were dressed and appeared like Great Zhou soldiers, their tall stature and the distinctive smell that came from years of grassland living made it impossible for him to ignore!

The Tatar Khan was extremely cunning. Knowing that Great Zhou was waging war against Great Yan and that the Huben Army was fully committed to Great Zhou’s southern borders, he would certainly increase his raids on Great Zhou’s north.

Ji Zeyu was probably exerting all his strength just to withstand the Tatar invasion, buying him time to reconquer Great Yan.

He hadn’t expected this group of Tatar barbarians to cross Great Zhou’s entire territory and penetrate deep into Great Yan’s southern capital to carry out assassinations!

Wearing Great Zhou military uniforms to do their dirty work—this strategy of misdirection was indeed clever!

Though Pang Xiao’s thoughts raced, only an instant passed in reality.

Huzi had already fought his way to the wall, leaping up to slash at one archer with his blade.

The other archer, seeing his companion under attack, neither provided support nor fled, but seized the time to try killing a few more people.

Seeing that his arrows couldn’t harm Pang Xiao, he turned his attention to the women huddled in the corner under protection.

He fired three arrows in succession and was preparing to continue when Huzi attacked him, forcing him to jump down from the wall.

Meanwhile, seeing cold light whistling toward them again, Qin Yining only had time to turn and embrace Sun Shi, who was right behind her.

Sun Shi was already crying and sobbing in terror. Seeing more cold light shooting toward them, she thought she was done for, but Qin Yining held her tightly, blocking her and the Duchess.

Sun Shi was both moved and terrified, pushing Qin Yining while shouting incoherently.

The Duchess’s eyes nearly split with rage as she cried: “Yi Jie’er!”

Seeing three streaks of cold light shooting rapidly toward them, in this critical moment, Pang Xiao used all his strength to break the neck of the assassin blocking his path and flew toward Qin Yining.

But the arrows were extremely fast. Though he swung his blade to deflect them head-on, he could only block two of the three. The remaining arrow was beyond his reach no matter what. In that instant, without time to think, he could only extend his arm to block it.

Qin Yining heard the sounds of weapon collision and arrows falling behind her, followed by a muffled “thunk” of a blade piercing flesh.

Qin Yining turned around in panic, still seeing the tall man’s back, but his right side was stained red with blood, and the sharp arrowhead had actually pierced through his shoulder, protruding from below his shoulder blade!

Qin Yining drew in a sharp breath and couldn’t help but exclaim: “Young Master Yao!”

She knew he had saved her yet again!

Pang Xiao turned back to glance at her quickly, still having the mood to raise an eyebrow and smile. Without hesitation, he snapped off the arrow piercing his shoulder and threw it to the ground, then resumed fighting the attacking assassins!

Blood scattered and stained half his garments. Just watching made Qin Yining ache for him.

But somewhere in her heart, she felt an inexplicable tremor.

Qin Yining blinked in confusion, then shook her head vigorously, trying to drive that incredibly handsome and wild smile from her mind.

Sun Shi was already holding Qin Yining and crying torrentially: “Yi Jie’er, are you all right? Are you all right? You scared me to death!”

Qin Yining came to her senses and quickly patted Sun Shi’s back comfortingly, then smiled reassuringly at the Duchess, whose face showed tension and concern.

The Duchess nodded with tears in her eyes.

The assassins were being systematically slaughtered by Pang Xiao and Huzi, with more than half already dead, when another round of loud shouts came from outside.

This time, it was the people from the Five Cities’ Military Commissioner’s office that Qin Yining had sent word to summon.

Only six assassins remained, all wounded. Surrounded by the Military Commissioner’s men, they exchanged glances, their bodies shuddered, black blood flowed from the corners of their mouths, and they collapsed to the ground with a “thud.”

Pang Xiao covered his shoulder and let out a cold laugh.

All Tatar death warriors.

Though they hadn’t succeeded in killing him or eliminating the main targets, wearing Great Zhou military uniforms to cause misunderstanding and friction between Great Zhou and Great Yan had certainly been achieved.

Huzi rushed to Pang Xiao’s side, first lifting his clothing to examine the arrow wound that had pierced through, then glaring fiercely at Qin Yining.

A femme fatale—she was nothing but trouble!

“Master, are you all right?”

Pang Xiao shook his head: “I’m fine.” He moved his bloody shoulder: “Mm. No damage to tendons or bones, just flesh pierced through.”

“But Master, you’ve lost so much blood.”

At this moment, footsteps sounded at the courtyard gate. A man in black military uniform respectfully led a tall, handsome middle-aged man in a black sable fur cloak into the courtyard—it was Xu Mao, the Eastern Command Military Supervisor of the Five Cities’ Military Commissioner’s office, escorting Qin Huaiyuan inside.

Qin Huaiyuan was breathing heavily. He first surveyed the carnage in the courtyard, then fixed his gaze on Qin Yining and Sun Shi. Seeing them safe and sound, he finally let out a long breath, and his deathly pale complexion began to improve slightly.

Upon seeing Qin Huaiyuan, Huzi’s fists clenched tightly with a grinding sound.

Pang Xiao’s gaze also instantly turned cold.