After walking for about half an hour, County Magistrate Qin saw bright red flames rising from the mountain slope ahead in the night, and cried out in alarm, “This is terrible, it looks like there’s a fire!”

Li Shimin also saw this scene, “The weather has been dry recently, and mountainous forest areas are extremely prone to fires.” After saying this, he called over Duan Zhihong, “While the fire isn’t too big yet, quickly take a team of soldiers to extinguish it, don’t let it spread elsewhere.”

Duan Zhihong acknowledged and led his men toward the mountain forest, while Li Shimin and the others continued toward the Governor’s Mansion. They had barely walked for long when they saw Duan Zhihong and his men, who had just left, running toward them in panic, shouting urgently, “Second Young Master, dodge quickly, hurry!”

Before his words had finished, Li Shimin already heard the loud and chaotic sound of running beside his ears. In the next moment, countless wild foxes, wolves, and jackals came rushing toward them, and there were even two leopards. Two soldiers behind Duan Zhihong were running slightly slower and were already knocked to the ground by those madly surging animals. Immediately after, countless animals ran over their bodies. Faced with the tide-like mass of animals, even if others wanted to help, there was no way to do so.

Li Shimin reacted extremely quickly, swiftly pulling County Magistrate Qin beside him to dodge, but the soldiers and constables behind him didn’t have such fast reactions. Many couldn’t dodge in time and collided head-on with those animals. For a moment, the situation was quite chaotic!

At this time, Duan Zhihong had already reached Li Shimin’s side. While protecting him, he said vigilantly, “Second Young Master, this fire started strangely. Please be careful!”

Li Shimin didn’t answer, because at this moment, by the light of the blazing flames, he saw a figure that shouldn’t have appeared here – Wu Laosan. The latter was running on the mountain slope not far from them, his face appearing particularly eerie under the firelight.

Li Shimin glanced at the obviously chaotic troops behind him. The two soldiers holding Shen Yunyi were frantically dodging the animals in panic. He immediately said, “Go bring Shen Yunyi over here immediately!”

“But…” Duan Zhihong hesitated. Animals were already beginning to attack due to the soldiers’ obstruction, and he feared that if he left Li Shimin, those animals might harm the latter.

“The most urgent thing right now is not to let the assassin escape. Go quickly!” Under Li Shimin’s urging, Duan Zhihong acknowledged and quickly headed toward where Yunyi was. Just as his hand was about to touch Yunyi’s shoulder, he heard Li Shimin’s call in his ear, “Be careful!”

Before Duan Zhihong could react, he had already received a heavy blow to the back of his head. However, he didn’t fall down. He slowly turned his head and saw the person who had attacked him and that frightened, fearful face full of wrinkles, but that was all. In the next moment, he collapsed to the ground dejectedly and lost consciousness.

Seeing Duan Zhihong fall, Wu Laosan breathed a sigh of relief. He had really been scared just now, thinking that strike with the stick hadn’t worked. Fortunately, it wasn’t the case.

“How dare you!” Faced with Li Shimin’s stern rebuke, Wu Laosan paid no attention. Instead, he raised his stick and used all his strength to strike at the two soldiers holding Yunyi. Those two soldiers were already exhausted from the endless stream of animals, and never expected Wu Laosan to suddenly appear. For a moment, they were caught completely off guard. However, they were after all well-trained soldiers, not comparable to Wu Laosan who only had brute strength. One of them seized an opportunity and tightly grasped Wu Laosan’s stick, preventing him from pulling it back!

“Thinking of rescuing the assassin from our hands, not a chan…” Before he could finish speaking, that soldier received a heavy kick to his jaw and was sent flying on the spot!

After kicking that soldier away, Yunyi, whose hands were bound, immediately leaped up and used her legs to strangle the other soldier’s neck, causing him to suffocate and lose consciousness.

Wu Laosan knew they didn’t have much time. While the other soldiers were still dealing with those animals and hadn’t surrounded them yet, he quickly picked up a knife from the ground and cut the rope on Yunyi’s hands.

Li Shimin wanted to go over but was blocked by two gray wolves that had become enraged due to the soldiers’ driving. His face turned iron-blue as he shouted, “Wu Laosan, if you stop now, there’s still time. Otherwise, you’ll be treated as an accomplice!”

Wu Laosan completely ignored his words. After cutting the rope, he handed the knife to Yunyi and said, “Quickly go into the mountain, I’ll hold them off!”

Yunyi never expected that Wu Laosan would once again risk his life to save her. She suppressed the sourness at the tip of her nose and shook her head vigorously, “If we’re leaving, we leave together!”

Wu Laosan said urgently, “Girl, listen and go quickly!”

Yunyi didn’t speak, only joined him in blocking the soldiers who were beginning to gradually rush up. Seeing that she absolutely refused to leave, the latter said helplessly, “Fine, let’s go into the mountain together. Be careful!”

When they retreated to the foot of the mountain, the soldiers also understood their intention and shouted loudly, “Stop them, don’t let them enter the mountain!”

At this time, most of the animals had either fled or been killed, leaving only a few enraged animals still entangled with the soldiers.

Seeing Wu Laosan completely ignore his words, Li Shimin’s expression became increasingly ugly. After soldiers rushed over to block those two gray wolves, he seized a longbow from an archer’s hands, nocked an arrow and drew the bow. The arrow tip was aimed directly at Yunyi!

As he prepared to release the bowstring, all sorts of past memories unexpectedly flooded his mind. His hand holding the bow trembled slightly, his fingers unable to let go for a long time, while pain also spread bit by bit from his chest to his limbs. At this moment, he finally knew that his feelings for Yunyi were not merely fondness. His elder brother had guessed correctly – he liked Yunyi, liked that Yunyi who had pretended to be Meixue. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have defended her so strongly in front of Wang Wei, wouldn’t have tried every means to help her as soon as he heard she was in trouble!

He had trusted her so much, helped her so much, and the result… it was all lies. She had even… ruthlessly killed Xuanba!

Thinking of Li Xuanba who had been burned to look like charcoal, Li Shimin bit his teeth tightly. He couldn’t be soft-hearted. This woman had killed so many people and had always wanted to harm his father. He must capture her and bring her to justice, absolutely cannot let her escape again!

Thinking of this, he stopped his hands’ trembling and released the bowstring that had been drawn to look like a full moon in his agonized gaze.

“Whoosh!” The sharp arrow flew toward Yunyi with a piercing sound through the air. The latter was already prepared and swung her knife to deflect it before the arrow reached her body, but the crisis hadn’t passed. Arrow after arrow shot toward her, leaving her overwhelmed.

Although Wu Laosan didn’t know martial arts, his years of hunting life had given him keen judgment about crises and situations. He knew that if this continued, they would sooner or later be captured again. The only way was to flee into the mountain and use the complex and intricate mountain forest paths to shake off these pursuers.

Thinking of this, he seized the gap before the next arrow was shot and grabbed Yunyi to run into the mountain. Soon, the sound of arrows cutting through air came continuously. Yunyi retreated while blocking the arrows flying toward them, but the pressure she faced was growing greater and greater, because at this time, it was no longer just Li Shimin alone shooting. The soldiers had recovered, divided into several groups – some blocking animals, some pursuing them, and the remaining ones stood beside Li Shimin, shooting arrows at them together with him.