Although the woman’s face was bloodied, she appeared to have no obvious external injuries. Shao Mingyuan reached out to test her breathing, and his cold, stern face rarely showed a look of relief.

She was still alive!

Not knowing whether the woman had injuries elsewhere on her body, he didn’t dare use too much force, carefully lifting her and moving outward bit by bit.

The woman furrowed her brow and suddenly opened her eyes.

“Who are you?” She stared motionlessly at Shao Mingyuan, asking in a daze.

Before Shao Mingyuan could answer, the confusion in her eyes faded, and a flash of recognition appeared: “I remember now, you’re Marquis Guanjun. That day… that day in the heavy rain…”

That day in the heavy rain, Marquis Guanjun had been there too, and his clothing had been used to bandage her wound…

“Your Highness need not say more. This subject will take you out.” Shao Mingyuan held Princess Zhenzhen with one hand and supported himself with the other, slowly crawling outward.

Princess Zhenzhen indeed fell silent, her beautiful eyes firmly fixed on the man’s cool, jade-like profile, as if wanting to imprint this person’s appearance into her heart.

“Your Highness must not move carelessly.” Seeing they were about to crawl through the narrowest section, Shao Mingyuan cautioned.

The two were close together, and Princess Zhenzhen could even smell the faint, crisp scent emanating from him.

“All right.”

However, although Princess Zhenzhen agreed, she was, after all, someone of noble birth. When a protruding sharp stone cut through the skin of her leg, her leg instinctively contracted. This contraction touched the fragile stone wall, immediately causing a shower of stones to fall.

Shao Mingyuan flipped his body to shield Princess Zhenzhen from the stone shower.

“Marquis—” Seeing the person blocking above remain motionless for a long time, Princess Zhenzhen couldn’t help but call out, then saw the traces of blood at the corner of Shao Mingyuan’s mouth.

She became greatly alarmed and raised her hand to touch his lips: “You’re injured?”

Shao Mingyuan hurriedly avoided her touch, saying with calm indifference: “It’s nothing serious. Your Highness had better not move carelessly.”

“All right, all right, I won’t move.” Hearing his tone that was so bland and even somewhat impatient, Princess Zhenzhen somehow didn’t feel angry at all.

After the stone wall stabilized again with no more debris falling, Shao Mingyuan continued crawling forward with Princess Zhenzhen.

They finally reached the opening, where a personal guard bent down to receive Princess Zhenzhen, but she couldn’t help scolding: “Stop!”

“Take the princess away.” Shao Mingyuan said flatly.

Hearing the general’s command, the personal guard naturally didn’t hesitate to carry Princess Zhenzhen out.

“What are you doing?” Princess Zhenzhen looked back and saw that Shao Mingyuan was retreating inside, asking involuntarily.

Shao Mingyuan didn’t answer her, but slowly retreated along the original path. Not long after, he reappeared carrying the male corpse.

He crawled out and stood upright, not bothering to shake off the mud covering his entire body, and came to Princess Zhenzhen’s carriage: “Your Highness, this subject wishes to ask you something.”

“What is it?” Lying in the carriage, Princess Zhenzhen finally felt pain throughout her body, with not an ounce of strength, waves of dizziness assaulting her. However, hearing that person’s voice, she still lifted the window curtain.

“Was Your Highness traveling together with Miss Li?”

“Miss Li?” Princess Zhenzhen had a clever and sensitive heart. Although the young general before her showed no emotion on his face, his profound gaze made her heart tighten, and she raised her eyebrows: “So what if I was?”

Shao Mingyuan felt a sharp pain in his heart.

He believed that if Miss Li was buried underneath here, Chen Guang’s performance would be no worse than that guard who had protected the princess. Perhaps both of them were still alive…

“I wonder what position Miss Li was in relative to Your Highness at the time – was she in front or behind, or to the left or right?”

Knowing where Princess Zhenzhen had been buried, he could more quickly deduce their approximate location.

“At the time, everyone was desperately fleeing for their lives. How could this princess pay attention to so many details?”

“Then this subject understands.” Shao Mingyuan asked no more questions, turned, and headed toward the pile of stones.

“Stop right there!” Princess Zhenzhen was momentarily anxious and showed her princess temper. Although her voice was weak, her bearing was commanding, but unfortunately, that man didn’t pause even for a moment.

“She fell from there!” Princess Zhenzhen petulantly pointed to the upper part of the blocked mountain road.

Shao Mingyuan turned around and looked in the direction Princess Zhenzhen indicated, seeing a stretch of cliff face.

The side of the mountain road had originally been built with guardrails for pedestrian safety, but now they had been smashed beyond recognition by falling rocks.

Shao Mingyuan withdrew his gaze and said calmly: “She wouldn’t.”

Chen Guang was someone he had personally trained. Even if the landslide had been too sudden for people to react, out of instinctive response, Chen Guang would never have run toward the opposite dead end.

Moreover, Chen Guang had sent out a distress signal, proving he was still alive at that time. And if Miss Li had fallen off the cliff, Chen Guang would have chosen to jump down with her.

Chen Guang was his subordinate. He had entrusted Miss Li’s safety to Chen Guang, so Chen Guang would execute this without compromise.

Shao Mingyuan no longer looked at Princess Zhenzhen. He casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, climbed onto the pile of mud and stones, and began digging with his bare hands.

Princess Zhenzhen forced herself to lean out the window, her gaze falling on Shao Mingyuan’s blood-stained hands, her expression particularly complex.

Western District Commander Jiang Cheng stepped forward: “Your Highness, let this subject escort you back to the palace first.”

Princess Zhenzhen withdrew her gaze and frowned as she glanced at Jiang Cheng.

Although she didn’t want to leave, she couldn’t entirely follow her whims. She could only reluctantly nod, her gaze falling on Shao Mingyuan once more.

“Marquis, at the time, Miss Li’s coachman took her running toward the mountain slope in that direction. As for whether anything happened afterward, this princess doesn’t know.”

“Thank you for informing me, Your Highness.” Shao Mingyuan nodded to Princess Zhenzhen in acknowledgment, then, with a leap of his body, he flew like an eagle spreading its wings toward a protruding section of the mountain wall.

Despite the recent rain making the mountain wall more slippery than usual, he steadily grasped a vine, then using his toes to push off the mountain wall, borrowed this reactive force to spring up more than a zhang higher, quickly disappearing from everyone’s sight.

Although the personal guards wanted to follow, knowing they lacked the general’s skills, they could only work even harder at moving and digging earth and stones.

A flash of wonder appeared in Princess Zhenzhen’s eyes. Reluctantly, she lowered the carriage curtain, her vision went black, and she softly collapsed.

Shao Mingyuan bypassed the section buried by mud and stones, returning to the mountain path leading to Dafu Temple, ascending step by step.

He stopped at one spot, crouched down to observe for a moment, then left the mountain path heading toward the diagonal slope.

Because it had just rained, scattered footprints gradually appeared on the slope. Shao Mingyuan carefully examined them, and his icy expression finally began to thaw.

The ground showed footprints of two people – one set slightly smaller, clearly left by a woman, the other set being male footprints.

Shao Mingyuan could be certain that the male footprints were left by Chen Guang.

He followed the footprints upward, and when he was nearly at the mountain peak, he discovered another set of female footprints – this set even smaller than the previous female footprints.

Chen Guang, Binglu, and… Miss Li.

Shao Mingyuan felt somewhat relieved, then continued following the footprints to track their figures. When he reached a steep slope, his expression couldn’t help but change dramatically.