Jing Hengbo’s breathing was somewhat rapid, her gaze burning. Yong Xue stared at her with some surprise.

“Ah, tonight’s dinner seems a bit unclean—my stomach is starting to hurt.” Jing Hengbo clutched her stomach and called out to the guards outside, “Hey, I need to relieve myself.”

The several guards remained unmoved, as if they hadn’t heard, with only one guard standing further away turning to glance at her.

Jing Hengbo found this guard somewhat familiar and cast him a flirtatious look. The young guard’s face immediately turned red, and that familiar expression made Jing Hengbo vaguely recall that this boy had recently been one of her door guards, whom she had taken advantage of, and hadn’t seen appear before her since. It seemed he’d been reassigned to watch Cui Jie and Jing Jun’s carriage.

Halfway through her flirtatious glance, she spotted Gong Yin suddenly turning his head in the distance. Jing Hengbo immediately remembered his sharp-tongued “stroke prophecy,” and her seductive look instantly lost all enthusiasm.

The young guard’s face showed an excited flush of red. He hesitantly stepped forward, and Jing Hengbo’s eyes lit up as she reached out through the carriage window to grab him. “Please! Help me report to the lord that my stomach hurts and I need to relieve myself. If you don’t let me out, I’ll… I’ll…”

Her eyes glanced sideways at the carriage, clearly implying “I’ll solve it right here.” The young guard hesitated for a moment, then ran to tell Gong Yin something. After a while, Gong Yin came over personally.

Under Jing Hengbo’s excited, expectant gaze, he tossed a chain to the young guard.

“Secure her to the carriage,” Gong Yin said. “Her brain is too light—she might get blown away.”

“Gong Yin!” Jing Hengbo’s shrill voice couldn’t even be torn apart by the wind. “Are you going to force me to solve it in the carriage?”

“No matter,” Gong Yin replied. “You’ve never done anything dignified anyway.”

He walked away calmly, directing the guards to secure the carriages and belongings, arranging the defenses, leaving behind Jing Hengbo and her creatively varied, non-repetitive national curses.

“Your brain is heavy, your whole family has heavy brains! Your whole family’s brains are filled with pig offal!” Jing Hengbo cursed from his entire family to his entire clan. Er Gouzi struggled to poke his head out from the front carriage to listen carefully, a tuft of red fur and green feathers drooping pitifully over his eyelids in the wind.

The young guard hesitantly climbed into the carriage with the chain.

Jing Hengbo, who had been cursing until her face was red and neck thick, suddenly leaned her body closer.

“Darling! You can’t treat me like this.” She breathed fragrance as she leaned against the young guard’s shoulder, pointing at the chain. “So thick, so big, so scary!”

“Um… this…” The inexperienced young boy was immediately dazed, his eyes showing spiral patterns, the chain clanking as it shook in his hands.

“Darling…” Jing Hengbo smiled sweetly as she reached out to touch his face. “You’re so cute, I love shotas the most, muah… can you let me play with this chain?”

The last sentence was suddenly spoken very quickly, and then she snatched the chain from the young guard’s hands.

With a clap, the sleeping powder hidden in her palm struck the young guard’s face, and he fell unconscious.

Jing Hengbo jumped up. Her third action was to take the key to the front carriage from the young guard’s belt.

“Yong Xue, run!” She only had time to say this, not waiting for the girl to react, and jumped out of the carriage with the key. Taking three steps as two, she rushed forward. “Er Gouzi!”

Er Gouzi jumped onto the crossbar and gracefully extended one claw.

Jing Hengbo threw the key up, and Er Gouzi lifted his leg high, hopping on one foot following the key’s trajectory. With a clang, the key caught on its claw.

“So heavy! I’m dead!” Er Gouzi tumbled backward into the carriage with a thump, dragged down by the heavy key.

“Open the chains and escape through the window!” Jing Hengbo shouted loudly.

Ahead, a white figure flashed, cutting through the gray-yellow wild wind—Gong Yin had already swept over.

Jing Hengbo hesitated no more and turned to flee. She had no time to rescue Cui Jie and Jing Jun; she could only steal the key for them.

Gong Yin might release the now-useless Cui Jie and Jing Jun after she escaped, or he might kill them in a rage. She had no guarantee and could only do this much.

At this moment, Cui Jie and Jing Jun hadn’t yet reacted, but in the instant she left, she seemed to hear a faint voice in her ears.

“Be careful of traps…”

Jing Hengbo’s heart jumped—this was Yong Xue’s voice, who rarely spoke!

Why would she say this out of nowhere?

Suddenly, with a “crash,” a bolt of dark gold lightning struck down from the black sky, seeming to split the wilderness in half. Blue light flashed repeatedly at the horizon’s end, each flash bringing a turbid gust of wind.

Almost instantly, hailstone-like raindrops began pounding down fiercely. Between heaven and earth, rain and wind merged into a screen flickering with crystalline light.

In the screen, Jing Hengbo’s figure flashed once and disappeared.

Heavy rain fell violently, connecting heaven and earth. Rainwater splashed on Gong Yin’s shoulders, creating misty vapor. Gong Yin stood in the rain without seeking shelter, only quietly gazing in the direction where Jing Hengbo had vanished.

“Want to leave…” he suddenly said softly, his tone as cold as raindrops, as icy as celestial water.

…

Jing Hengbo teleported through the rain.

The rain curtain was like gray cloth, billowing in the wind. Her figure was a faint shadow in the swaying rain curtain, ghostlike, appearing sometimes left, sometimes right.

During her rapid consecutive teleportations, she still managed to pull out a handkerchief from her bosom—embroidered with a route map showing her movement directions.

This was what Yélu Qi had given her.

That night during their brief negotiation, this was what he had left behind.

In the plan, he required her to find a way to leave the group when they reached this northwestern Shandong wilderness, drawing Gong Yin to chase her.

Of course, she couldn’t run randomly. The route map directed her to rush toward a certain direction. As long as she could guarantee reaching that place, the rest wouldn’t be her concern—she just needed to enjoy her subsequent freedom.

Jing Hengbo had an inducer placed on her by Gong Yin; wherever she went, he could follow. And Yélu Qi wanted exactly this step-by-step pursuit.

Jing Hengbo didn’t resist this plan because it didn’t require her to personally harm Gong Yin—it only asked her to run toward her freedom. Moreover, with her fleeing at full strength, Gong Yin would surely be on guard when pursuing, making it difficult for Yélu Qi to do anything to him.

For some reason, she inexplicably had confidence in Gong Yin.

Taking one last look at the map, she wasn’t far from the target.

Jing Hengbo’s figure flashed continuously through the rain curtain, gasping for breath.

The rain was too heavy, drowning out all sounds with its roar. She didn’t dare look back, not knowing if Gong Yin had already caught up, but she felt he must be nearby.

During the next teleportation interval, she tentatively looked back and saw through the misty water curtain that there seemed to be a white shadow flashing in the distance. The first flash was still far away, but with another blink, it was almost behind her.

This ghostlike movement startled her into running faster, almost thinking Gong Yin was also a supernatural being.

No good—if this continued, she would definitely be caught.

Then she looked up and felt joy in her heart.

A tree appeared ahead!

…

Yélu Qi’s instructions from that night echoed in her ears.

“We will launch our operation at the northwestern Shandong border. After you lead Gong Yin out, keep heading south. When you see a straight tree, you’ll be almost there. When you see the tree, pay attention—about three zhang in front of the tree, we’ll have raised a red marker. That’s a safe zone. You rush over… yes, go all out in one attempt, don’t delay, you must reach that red marker in one go… after that, you’ll be safe, and you won’t need to worry about anything. Everything that follows will be ours to handle…”

Now, that tree was right before her eyes.

Jing Hengbo raised her wet face, struggling to find that red marker in the pouring rain.

Found it!

Three zhang behind the tree, a red substance like smoke or silk ribbon wavered uncertainly. Even in this torrential rain, it remained clearly visible. In the flickering lightning, that strand of red deepened and lightened, as if winking at her.

Jing Hengbo was overjoyed, then felt a chill at her back.

Gong Yin was almost here!

Jing Hengbo didn’t hesitate. She stepped forward, toward that strand of hopeful red, and teleported!

Freedom and safety.

Here! I! Come!

“Whoosh.”

In mid-air, she stepped into nothing.

Only in that final instant did Jing Hengbo see that the strand of red before her wasn’t some safe solid ground at all, but merely a wisp of particularly dense dark red smoke suspended in the air!

…

Damn!

Such!

A!

Trap!

The designated arrival point was actually above a cliff!