The night was dark as ink. The bandits’ stone fortress was built against the mountainside, like a stubborn rock embedded in the mountain itself.
The men Qin Lan had chosen for Li Shuang were all her guards. Though Qin Lan had wanted to accompany Li Shuang, she had been ordered to remain at the Changfeng Camp to maintain command.
Now, Li Shuang led ten soldiers dressed in black stealth clothes, concealed on a mountaintop hundred paces from the stone fortress. Under cover of darkness, they observed the situation within.
In the distant fortress, the main hall was brightly lit. However, the most heavily guarded area was a small courtyard in the southwest corner. Just at the entrance stood five or six guards, and adding those on the rooftop and in the walkways, over twenty men were guarding this tiny courtyard. Each was a robust, trained warrior wielding a tiger-head broadsword. The reflection from their blades was visible even from this distance.
Li Shuang felt confident – that must be where the bandits were holding Li Ting.
With a few hand gestures, she communicated her intent. Her guards, having followed her for years, understood without words. Like swift wind, they vanished from the mountaintop.
Reaching the fortress gate, they efficiently broke the necks of the unprepared gatekeepers – silently, without even disturbing the flames of the torches.
The ten split up according to Li Shuang’s commands: three headed to the main hall to create a diversion, and three infiltrated the kitchen to set fire to the grain stores. When the flames erupted, chaos broke out in the east. Li Shuang led the remaining four directly to the southwest courtyard while the enemy was still confused.
On the battlefield, Li Shuang was nicknamed the Jade-faced Yama. Though a woman, when the situation called for ruthlessness, she was no less fierce than the most savage wolf from beyond the frontier. Now, with the east ablaze, she entered the courtyard and immediately ended the life of the bandit who rushed to meet her. Her blade, stained with blood and backlit by the flames, made her truly appear like Yama emerged from hell, striking terror into all who saw her.
She strode directly into the courtyard as her guards engaged the rushing bandits in combat. Li Shuang moved forward with unwavering focus, her cold blade carrying a murderous aura – anyone who blocked her path met a dire end.
Reaching the small building’s entrance, Li Shuang kicked open the door.
But at that moment!
The door’s opening triggered a mechanism, and several poison arrows with an eerie blue glow shot out from within. Li Shuang’s eyes narrowed, but before she could react, she felt an arm wrap firmly around her waist, pulling her into a scorching embrace.
With a series of clinks and clangs, she glimpsed the rapidly approaching poison arrows being knocked to the ground.
Who had saved her?
Li Shuang froze, placing her hands against the man’s chest to push him away and get a better look at his face. However, as soon as she applied force, the arm around her waist tightened like steel, pressing her against his chest where she inhaled his masculine scent.
“You–!” Amid this bandit’s den, she couldn’t afford any carelessness. Just as she was about to rebuke him, she felt a rush of wind by her ear as an arrow grazed past the back of her head.
If not for the man’s embrace just now, that arrow would have pierced through her skull.
He was saving her.
Realizing this, her anger at being handled so boldly instantly vanished. When Li Shuang pushed against him again, he loosened his grip slightly, though his hand remained gently supporting her lower back, keeping her within his protective reach.
It gave Li Shuang an inexplicable feeling – this person possessed an overwhelming sense of possessiveness, though Li Shuang couldn’t understand… why he would want to possess her…
Sir Hero, we don’t know each other, do we?
Li Shuang looked up to study him, only to find he wore a black half-mask. His jaw was sharp and defined, his Adam’s apple prominent, and below that was his bare chest, muscled and firm. On his left chest was a striking flame-like marking, red as blood, that extended upward past his neck and jaw, disappearing beneath his mask. Where his eyes were visible, Li Shuang saw the flame pattern finally fade at his eye corner. Yet it seemed to have burned into his very bloodline, turning his eyes a terrifying crimson.
And in that sea of red, she saw only her reflection.
His hands and chest burned hot to the touch, far higher than normal body temperature. Even in this frozen frontier wilderness, he showed no sign of feeling the cold.
This person was quite strange.
Moreover… Li Shuang glanced at the broken poison arrows on the ground. Had this man just broken these arrows with his bare hands? Using internal energy? If so, his inner cultivation must be truly extraordinary…
“Who are you?” Li Shuang asked solemnly.
At her voice, the masked man didn’t respond, but a muffled cry for help came from inside – it was Li Ting’s voice!
Li Shuang immediately turned her head, listening carefully. The sound came from the western room inside.
This was no time to waste on this mysterious man!
Li Shuang raised her sword and was about to step forward when the man blocked her path, saying in a deep voice: “Don’t move. Wait for me.” With that, he vanished like lightning, entering the small building before Li Shuang could react.
Though this man had just saved her, Li Shuang didn’t know his true identity – how could she trust he meant Li Ting no harm? She immediately followed, ignoring his words.
Entering the side room and going around the screen, Li Shuang found Li Ting bound hand and foot on a crude bed. The usually well-dressed young master was now dirty and disheveled, his eyes filled with fear and anxiety.
The masked man was untying Li Ting, and when Li Ting saw Li Shuang, he finally seemed to relax completely. His eyes reddened, and though his gagged mouth could only make “mm-mmph” sounds, they clearly expressed his excitement.
Seeing that he wasn’t missing any limbs, Li Shuang also felt somewhat relieved.
The man finished untying Li Ting, who immediately spat out his gag and rushed to get off the bed, ignoring the man’s warning of “Careful.” He just anxiously pushed past the masked man, stepping onto the bed board, and called out: “Sister–”
Before he could finish, there was a sharp crack! The floorboard beneath Li Ting’s feet and where the masked man stood suddenly gave way!
Another trap!
Li Shuang watched helplessly as Li Ting and the masked man fell into the trap together. Her pupils contracted as she rushed forward, and just as she reached the edge, Li Ting was thrown up like a small toy.
Li Shuang barely managed to catch him.
“Take him and go first.”
A calm, steady voice came from the dark pit below.
In the darkness, Li Shuang couldn’t see the situation below, but judging from the man’s composed voice and his earlier display of skill, escaping from here should be no problem for him. Besides, Li Ting’s safety was her top priority right now.
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Shuang grabbed Li Ting and dragged him out of the room.
Outside, her soldiers had almost finished eliminating the courtyard guards, but the bandits who had gone to fight the fire in the east had discovered something was wrong and were now gathering forces to come this way.
Li Shuang made a hand signal ordering retreat, and one soldier immediately pulled out a bamboo tube and launched a bright red signal into the sky, where it burst in the cold night.
The bright signal seemed to snap Li Ting back to his senses. He grabbed Li Shuang’s hand, eyes wide: “Sister! The bottom of that trap is full of blade spikes. That brother was injured saving me… I… I don’t know if he’s okay…”
Hearing this, Li Shuang’s gaze darkened. She looked at the four soldiers gathering before her, glanced back once, then pushed Li Ting into one soldier’s arms: “Take him back.”
The soldiers followed Li Shuang’s orders absolutely, immediately responding: “Yes, Commander!”
Li Ting, terrified with tears in his eyes, shouted: “Sister, what about you…”
“Show some backbone!” Li Shuang turned to glare at Li Ting: “I’ll deal with you when I get back.” With that, she turned and re-entered the small building, leaving Li Ting to be carried away by the soldiers.
She trusted in her soldiers’ abilities – they would get Li Ting safely back to Changfeng Camp. As for this mysterious man trapped below, though his background was unknown, he had first saved her and then saved Li Ting. As children of the General’s mansion, they couldn’t be ungrateful.
Li Shuang grabbed a torch from the wall, raised it, and returned to the small room. Reaching the trap’s edge, she called out: “Still alive?”
After a moment’s silence came the response: “Mm.”
“Watch out for the torch.” Li Shuang warned before throwing the torch into the pit. As the light fell, illuminating the well-like darkness, she finally saw the situation. The trap was dug four or five zhang deep, shaped like a funnel with no foothold at the bottom, and filled with upward-pointing spikes like the teeth of a tiger’s maw. The sides were also lined with blades – if an ordinary person fell in, there would be no chance of survival.
The masked man was now gripping a blade on the pit wall with his left hand. Though the blade had cut into his palm and blood was flowing, this wasn’t the worst of it. His right arm hung limply, and on his back, near his right shoulder blade, was what appeared to be a deep gash, flesh torn open. Besides the blood, the wound had a blackish tint – likely from poison on the blade.
Given his skills, he shouldn’t have been injured – it must have happened when he threw Li Ting up to safety. Li Shuang pressed her lips together and apologized on Li Ting’s behalf: “I’m sorry, my brother was too panicked just now, causing you to be injured.”
The man, hanging by one hand from the blade, just looked up at her. The torchlight dancing in the pit reflected in his red eyes behind the black mask, creating an otherworldly beauty. Though his situation was dangerous and awkward, he showed no anxiety, just staring steadily at Li Shuang with pure eyes, as if just looking at her was enough to satisfy him: “It’s nothing.”
Li Shuang said no more – time was short. She turned, tore the bedding into strips, twisted them into a rope, tied it to the bedpost, and lowered it into the pit: “Hold on, I’ll save you.”
The man remained silent, watching as Li Shuang grabbed the rope and jumped down, avoiding the blades on both sides to reach his side. In the increasingly narrow trap, they stood pressed against each other, surrounded by threatening spikes.