From Jinling to the border, Xie Wei traveled with her. The excuse they used was that he was helping Jiang Boyou bring her back to the capital. Yet just now, the carriage that had taken the forked road was Xie Wei’s carriage, while Xie Wei himself had silently hidden in her carriage.

In just an instant, Jiang Xuening could judge—

No matter who the people in the shadows were, they all seemed to be coming for Xie Wei.

Inside the carriage was extremely quiet.

Half the horses had followed Xie Wei’s carriage, and even Jianshu, who was driving, hadn’t gotten down from the carriage.

Outside were the sounds of horse hooves treading as usual on the official road, along with the low conversation of the accompanying guards. She could also hear the fragmented sounds of the carriage wheels passing through wild grass, and even Xie Wei, so close to her—his breathing carefully suppressed and lightened…

As well as her own heartbeat!

Time seemed to stretch in this extremely tense silence.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t even clearly say how much time had passed.

She only felt her whole body had gone numb when she heard Daoqin outside quietly approach the carriage compartment and say in a low voice: “They seem to have been lured away. No one is following for now.”

Xie Wei’s brows were tightly furrowed, but his tensed body did not relax.

Jiang Xuening’s lips moved as she wanted to speak.

But in the earlier urgent situation, Xie Wei had been afraid that in her moment of panic she might cry out and reveal a flaw. So when he reached out to cover her mouth, he had done so quite firmly, his palm pressed against her lips. Now when she wanted to speak and her lips moved, they pressed against his palm.

It was a soft sensation.

Pressed against the vulnerable part of someone’s palm, it added several degrees of moist and ambiguous intimacy.

Xie Wei only felt his palm tingle as if electricity had passed through it, going slightly numb.

He looked back at her and slowly withdrew his palm.

Only then did Jiang Xuening take a big breath. She hurriedly sat up leaning against the carriage wall, raising her hand to press her chest that rose and fell with her violent heartbeat, urgently whispering: “What’s going on?”

Originally a carriage for one person, now it held two. Especially with Xie Wei’s tall and slender frame, sharing the space with her made the compartment seem even smaller, actually revealing a sense of crowding.

He sat cross-legged in the carriage.

He only answered: “Luring the tiger from the mountain.”

Jiang Xuening almost rolled her eyes at him.

Who didn’t know this was a strategy of luring the tiger from the mountain?

But the question was—what tiger, and where had it come from!

She took a deep breath, sorted through the clues from these days, and suddenly recalled what she had heard at the Tai’an Prefecture inn. A flash of inspiration struck: “The Celestial Teachings?”

Some moist traces remained on his palm—a shallow cherry pink color.

In the narrow space, there was a faint sweet fragrance of cosmetics.

Xie Wei’s fingers trembled slightly, his eyelid also twitched. He took a silk handkerchief from the side and slowly wiped it, but his brows were furrowed extremely tight: “More or less.”

Jiang Xuening instinctively wanted to ask again—why would the Celestial Teachings pursue and try to kill him?

But when she raised her eyes, her gaze touched upon Xie Wei who was close by. She only felt that his posture with lowered head had a kind of stagnant depth and danger. So she suddenly recalled the previous life. At that time, the Celestial Teachings had even dared to assassinate the Emperor!

What did it matter to make a move against a close minister to the Son of Heaven like Xie Wei?

It was truly all too normal.

She sighed: “This gang of martial world bandits certainly has audacious courage. However, on this official road, I imagine they wouldn’t dare be too blatant, and their numbers shouldn’t be too many either. Teacher anticipated the enemy beforehand with strategic planning—there’s no need to worry about them.”

Jiang Xuening had confidence in Xie Wei.

But Xie Wei kept a stern face and didn’t speak.

Thus, Jiang Xuening’s heart sank with a thud, vaguely feeling that this incident was probably not so simple.

Sure enough, the two of them hadn’t been sitting quietly in this carriage for even two quarter-hours when Daoqin suddenly shouted outside: “Stop.”

Everyone urgently reined in their horses.

The carriage also stopped.

The surroundings thus fell into complete silence.

This official road was already very far from Tai’an Prefecture, near a mountain hollow. On both the east and west sides were continuous mountain ranges. Almost no households could be seen anymore. It was so quiet that even the sound of wind blowing through the forest could be heard clearly.

And looking far back toward the direction they had come from—

A flock of cold crows actually startled up from the forest. Faintly and indistinctly, the sound of horse hooves drew near!

Daoqin’s pupils immediately constricted sharply. Almost instantly, he drew the long blade tied to his saddle and cursed something under his breath, saying to the driver ahead: “They’ve caught up—go quickly!”

The driver cracked his whip with a “snap” on the horse.

The horse raised its four hooves and immediately charged forward, running violently.

This was much more bumpy than before.

Jiang Xuening, caught off guard, tumbled forward.

Fortunately, Xie Wei was quick-eyed and fast-handed, prepared in advance. He timely cushioned her forehead with his hand, avoiding her head smashing into the window frame and ending up disfigured.

Jiang Xuening couldn’t spare time to cry out in pain. Covering her head, she said: “Could it be that Jianshu’s side has already been exposed?”

Xie Wei’s voice was extremely heavy: “It won’t be that fast.”

Half the people had split off to Jianshu’s side. Though it didn’t seem like many, every single one was a skilled fighter worth ten men. Even if discovered and fighting broke out, those chasing them couldn’t possibly resolve the situation in such a short time and still turn back to catch up with them!

Between lightning-fast thoughts, another ominous premonition suddenly crept up.

Xie Wei lifted the carriage curtain and went out, shouting coldly: “Daoqin, the horse!”

Daoqin was startled, but relying on years of experience and tacit understanding following Xie Wei, without a word he slapped the saddle beneath him. His whole person flew up, directly yielding the horse beneath him, landing himself on the carriage shaft.

Xie Wei directly mounted the horse with a flip.

Then he shouted toward the carriage: “Ning Er, come out!”

Jiang Xuening’s heart jumped with alarm. She had no time to think about what new development had occurred. She hurriedly crawled out of the carriage.

Before she had even steadied herself, her waist tightened.

Her vision blurred. She only felt the world spinning. Her whole person had already been scooped up by Xie Wei onto the horse, seated in front of him, embraced in his arms!

Almost simultaneously, the sound of horse hooves behind them had become clear.

Vaguely, it seemed someone was shouting.

Immediately after came “whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh”—a series of air-splitting震sounds. Actually dozens of feathered arrows broke through the air!

“Thunk thunk!”

The rear half of the carriage compartment almost immediately turned into a pincushion!

Daoqin slashed two arrows with one blade strike and was actually shaken until his hand went numb. Immediately somewhat alarmed and horrified, he said to Xie Wei: “There’s absolutely no way the Teachings could have such formidable archers!”

Arrows flew in chaos. In the night, it was unclear.

A murderous aura suddenly arose in Xie Wei’s heart.

A sound of wind splitting the air came by his ear. His brow became sharp as ice and frost. In a flash of lightning, he only flicked his fingers toward the darkness beside him!

“Snap!”

The arrow speeding through the darkness was immediately deflected.

Jiang Xuening only felt a coolness sweep past in front of her cheek—it was actually that arrow brushing past her ear, extremely dangerous!

The pursuing soldiers hadn’t appeared, but the arrow rain arrived first!

Without thinking, one could know how many people were behind them.

Xie Wei’s fingers gripped the reins tightly. He looked toward the deep mountains and dense forests to the west, quickly considered, his voice nearly frozen, decisively saying: “You all continue forward!”

Daoqin immediately responded: “Yes!”

Jiang Xuening’s soul still hadn’t settled when, before she could figure out what Xie Wei’s words actually meant, she saw him turn the horse’s head and actually ride with her charging toward the deep, dark forest beside them!

Heavy tree shadows, layered darkly in the sky and wilderness.

The horse, frightened, ran extremely fast.

Rather than carrying them into the forest, it was more like this deep, quiet forest was rushing toward them. The oncoming cold wind drowned out Jiang Xuening’s words, making her have to shrink between Xie Wei’s arms and tightly close her eyes.

Soon from behind came the sounds of close combat.

Occasionally mixed with people’s screams and shouts.

But it was too chaotic to judge the battle situation.

Xie Wei didn’t look back even once.

His calmness bordered on cruelty.

The horse ran straight toward the depths of the mountain forest.

Though the arrows from those assassins had arrived earlier, they were still some distance away. In the darkness, they couldn’t immediately determine that the two had left the carriage, nor could they confirm whether one horse was missing from the group—

This was where the greatest chance of survival lay!

Who knew how long they had charged forward—the forest ahead became denser and denser, low thorny bushes began appearing on the ground, and the mountain terrain sloped downward. The horse couldn’t descend the slope well and gradually refused to go forward.

Xie Wei then dismounted and extended a hand toward Jiang Xuening: “Get down.”

Jiang Xuening instinctively placed her hand in his palm.

He exerted force, his other hand supporting her waist, helping her down from the horse. After she had steadied herself, without time to say anything, he only took the arrow quiver hanging from the saddle and slung it on his back, then gripped his bow and forcefully struck the horse’s rump.

The horse, feeling pain, neighed. Its front hooves rose up, and it galloped swiftly into the forest.

All along the way, it broke tree branches and trampled rotted leaves.

Behind it, obvious traces remained.

But Xie Wei didn’t go in that direction. Instead, he went down the mountain slope ahead.

Jiang Xuening’s head was fuzzy: “We’ve escaped, but what about Daoqin’s side? And Jianshu!”

Xie Wei didn’t turn his head: “They won’t die.”

Jiang Xuening’s heart trembled ceaselessly. Finding it somewhat difficult to follow him, she suddenly felt this miserable situation had an indescribable familiarity. So she laughed once, with a somewhat self-mocking flavor: “I’ve discovered that following you, Teacher, there are no peaceful days. We’ve only traveled together three times total, and every single time has been unlucky. Back then we were ambushed, now assassination—my little life is completely tied to the knife’s edge!”

“…”

Xie Wei’s steps suddenly stopped.

Jiang Xuening, not paying attention, bumped into him, just knocking against his straight spine. She couldn’t help grimacing in pain and looked up: “Teacher?”

Xie Wei looked back at her. In the mountain forest, there was only some fragmentary starlight pouring down through the gaps in the branches and leaves, falling on his shoulders. His silent figure seemed to merge with this dark forest into one.

Jiang Xuening immediately became somewhat nervous: “I didn’t mean…”

Xie Wei silently turned around and only said: “You’re right.”

Following me leads to no good end.