How strange—the torches had been lit for quite a while, the commotion grew louder and louder, yet the surroundings seemed deathly silent, not even a dog barking. Those swords were indeed very fast, fast enough to chill the heart, fast enough to prevent people from uttering final words to the mortal world. But after all, there were many people, and some were frightened enough to cry for their mothers and fathers.
However, the ink-black cold night seemed to have become an unbreakable dome, isolating this inexplicable slaughter from everything else.
The bandit leader’s eyes reddened with shock. He suddenly turned and glared at Mo Zi, that rusty iron blade pointing at her nose. “You really were toying with us!” He thought she had gone back on her word and killed people while they were off guard.
Mo Zi shook her head. “It wasn’t me. Rather, you were used by someone who had you block my carriage. Now that they see I’ve spared you, they’re turning to bite you instead. In any case, they want to frame me with the infamy of killing you all.”
The leader wasn’t stupid. Mo Zi’s words awakened him to something, and his face showed an expression of painful regret. He turned his blade just as quickly, roaring furiously as he slashed at those swords.
“All brawn but seeking death.” Ding Gou’s words were cold.
“Zan Jin, Ding Gou, go help that man. We can’t let them kill everyone and then blame it on us.” Mo Zi’s ears were filled with the sound of swords piercing human flesh, yet her own voice remained very calm.
The two nodded and leaped into that circle of flashing blades and bloody shadows.
But Zan Jin ran back. “Brother Mo, may I unsheathe my sword?” The killers were very fast with their swords—if he didn’t draw his blade, it would take too long to deal with them.
“You may.” Those two short words granted him permission to take the opponents’ lives, and Mo Zi didn’t think the other side would consider fleeing. To preserve their secrets, they should perish together with those common civilian bandits. Only then would she be unable to clear her name, bearing the infamy of indiscriminately killing civilians. Therefore, she only needed to preserve the civilians’ lives, not the assassins’ lives.
Zan Jin gave a laugh and reentered the chaotic battle.
“A’Hao, you go too. A’Yue staying with me is enough.” Behind Mo Zi were also quite a few assassins’ swords, but Ding Gou and Zan Jin temporarily couldn’t divide their attention.
A’Hao hesitated but refused. “I’m only responsible for protecting you.”
“You preventing these people from being killed is protecting me. Otherwise, I’ll probably be interrogated to death.” So this official position really wasn’t easy to hold.
A’Hao glanced at A’Yue. The latter nodded lightly to her, as if making a pledge to fulfill her duty loyally, and only then did she jump down from the carriage.
Mo Zi’s quick adaptations caused the assassins’ swords to slow considerably, gradually showing signs of being unable to hold out.
But if she had one plan, the other side had two.
From somewhere flew a pitch-black arrow. If not for A’Yue’s quick perception, it would have pierced through Mo Zi’s body.
“There are hidden archers!” A’Yue cried out in alarm.
The intent to kill her—was it because this plan had failed, and they simply wanted her life outright? Mo Zi naturally wouldn’t sit and await death. She sat down on the carriage platform, grabbed the reins, and with a great shout urged the horses into a frantic gallop.
Whoosh—whoosh whoosh, three more arrows. A’Yue swung the longsword in her hand, blocking two. The other embedded itself in the wheel’s edge, nearly shooting Mo Zi’s calf.
The feeling was just like that time when she fled with Dou Lu, evading pursuit. These arrows, coming from unknown locations yet with her as their sole target, brought death’s breath so fresh it bred fear.
Mo Zi shouted urgently, driving the carriage toward the Imperial Palace direction. They wanted her dead? Then let’s find more eyewitnesses!
“Miss, people on the rooftop!” A’Yue had just finished shouting when she saw three arrows from left and right break through the cold wind like lightning, with two more arrows flying straight at them from the front.
Multiple expert archers on the other side, but she was only one person—what could be done? A’Yue bit her teeth, preparing to become a human shield.
But at this moment, Mo Zi disappeared.
In her astonishment, A’Yue hastily jumped backward, evading the arrows from both sides while simultaneously creating two sword flowers with her blade to knock down the two frontal arrows. Only then could she focus to find the person, discovering that Mo Zi had actually jumped onto one of the horses.
Mo Zi raised her hand and brought down the blade, cutting through the binding ropes in several strokes, separating the horse from the carriage. She turned back to A’Yue and said, “Mount up!”
Without a second thought, A’Yue kicked off the carriage floor, mounted the other horse, and like Mo Zi, swung her hand to cut through all the ropes, following close behind.
The horses, freed from the burden of the carriage, stretched their four legs and ran joyfully. The clip-clop of hooves startled lamplight from many households along the route.
At least they couldn’t bribe everyone in the entire city. Mo Zi thought this but didn’t dare relax, having no whip and only able to urge with her palm.
After a good while, no more hidden arrows came flying.
A’Yue, jostled breathless by the horse, said, “It seems we’ve shaken them off.”
No! Mo Zi had just wanted to speak when she saw a carriage flash past at the end of the main street. Various thoughts spun through her mind, and she finally decided to risk believing that carriage was unrelated to those who ambushed her. She turned to A’Yue and said, “Catch up to that carriage just now—it seems to be an official one, probably also going to court!” In that hasty glance, the carriage’s specifications seemed similar to hers, both distributed by the Ministry of Personnel.
Her ears heard the sound of a bowstring being drawn. Looking up at the rooftop, three dark shadows stood condensed against the gradually breaking dawn, facing her, so gray and cold. This might be their greatest killing intent, yet wasn’t it also her greatest chance at life?
Thud thud thud thud—three short, heavy muffled sounds, three long arrows saturated with malice.
All missed their mark.
She didn’t like riding horses, but who knew the equestrian skills her father forced her to practice in her girlhood could be used again and again in the process of fleeing for her life?
Mo Zi hugged the horse’s neck tight, kicked the ground, flipped back onto the horse’s back, and turned the corner.
That carriage in the near distance had stopped. Someone stood on the driver’s seat holding up a lantern, looking backward. Clearly hearing such urgent hoofbeats at this hour felt rather wrong.
That person was Huayi!
That carriage was Yuan Cheng’s carriage!
Mo Zi heard her own heartbeat reach her throat, overjoyed beyond expectation, shouting loudly, “Yuan Cheng!”
Thinking back afterward, this shout was idiotic to the extreme.
That man who always displayed black clothing with incomparable elegance—both feet touched the ground.
His gentle complexion, whether due to the lantern’s effect or not, was snow-white as paper. Only that pair of jet-black eyes burned together with the lamplight.
But Mo Zi didn’t see this. Because of the five people ambushing her, she’d shaken off three, but two remained. One left, one right, on the high rooftop tiles, eyeing her like tigers, arrows nocked to bows.
She turned her head to look while urging the horse forward, seeing Yuan Cheng’s carriage was only several zhang away.
Whoosh—
An arrow hit the horse’s neck and actually pierced through.
Instantly, a jet of blood sprayed all over her hands. Seeing the opportunity in time, before the horse crashed thunderously to the ground, she propped with both palms and leaped forward in a vaulting motion.
Yuan Cheng’s face suddenly enlarged before her eyes. She didn’t know when he had come to stand there. In any case, unable to stop her momentum, she cried out for him to move aside and closed her eyes, not daring to look. She feared such impact force would knock this refined and cultured official dizzy with internal bleeding or something.
A miracle occurred?
No! She really did collide head-on!
Though her eyes were closed, she could feel him falling backward from her collision, while her elbow was tightly caught by him. Because he became a pitiful human cushion, she didn’t hurt at all.
Wrinkling her face, she stealthily opened one eye. Everything still looked blurry, but he rolled over and covered her. She reflexively was about to push him away when he propped himself up with both hands.
“Don’t move around.” He was even smiling.
Hot liquid dripped onto her face. She wiped it, her palm full of vicious red. Was it the earlier horse blood? In her puzzlement, she heard the clash of blades and swords. She turned her head to look, seeing Huayi fighting with a masked archer, while A’Yue was entangled with another.
“Yuan Cheng, let me get up—there are still three more.” They couldn’t lie on the ground wasting time.
Yuan Cheng slowly rose.
Mo Zi quickly scrambled up, her eyes scanning all over the rooftops. She had some criticism for his leisurely manner. “I say, at such a life-or-death moment, could you be a bit more tense?”
His smile was lightly clear. He retreated backward to lean against the carriage shaft, raised his right arm, and made a strange gesture.
Instantly, several dark shadows rose from shadowy corners and dispersed in all directions.
Mo Zi raised an eyebrow. “Oh? These are your—”
Black clothing didn’t show bloodstains, but that pitch-black arrow shaft embedded in his left rear shoulder, no matter how one looked at it, didn’t resemble a decorative item.
“Yes, I took an arrow.” His tone, that expression—as if the arrow were stuck in someone else’s body.
But Mo Zi’s expression looked as if that arrow had shot into her own body, breathing through her mouth from the pain.
She immediately jumped onto the carriage, wanting to pull him but not knowing how to do so without worsening the injury. “Get in the carriage, I’ll take you to find Physician Hua.”
“For now… stay here. Huayi weakened the opponent’s force. It’s just a flesh wound.” Exerting himself made him gasp sharply. Yuan Cheng clenched his right fist, breathing urgently. “What exactly happened?”
“Now isn’t the time to discuss this.” Though she knew he had high pain tolerance—back when Zan Jin had reset his arm, he hadn’t made a sound either—still, “Yuan Cheng, if it hurts, crying out will make it feel better.”
“If I cry out, will the arrow fall out? Will the blood stop flowing?” Sweat began to bead on Yuan Cheng’s forehead.
“Why what?” Yuan Cheng hung his head, his body leaning slightly forward because he was resting against the carriage.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t save me with your life?” Just now, he had pushed her down because he saw that arrow!
“I didn’t save you with my life. Mo Zi, no one dies from an arrow to the shoulder.” First there was some laughter in his voice, then it faded. He raised his eyes to look at her. “However… perhaps my body is more… honest… flexible than I thought?”
“Hm?” What did that mean?
Mo Zi was completely confused, but she also knew that if she didn’t explain things clearly, this person wouldn’t leave the front line. So she hastily gave a rough account of the events.
“Alright, now we can go.” She really feared he’d pass out, so she simply jumped down from the carriage to support him.
At this moment, an extremely familiar male voice said coldly, “What are you two doing?”
Xiao Wei and several of his subordinates on horseback looked down from their elevated position.
“Junior General Xiao arrives at just the right time. Rebel civilians attempted to ambush and kill us both. Please quickly mobilize the metropolitan garrison for alert.” Yuan Cheng deliberately displayed his arrow wound in the lamplight.
Though Xiao Wei couldn’t agree with Yuan Cheng’s way of doing things, he was after all an upright person. Seeing his arrow wound wasn’t light, and seeing Mo Zi’s body and face covered in bloodstains, he immediately realized the severity. He called his personal attendant officer to take his military tally and go summon the metropolitan garrison, while simultaneously ordering him to take his guards up to the eaves to help Huayi and A’Yue.
With many people and great momentum, before long they had captured those two archers and brought them down. However, as soon as they landed, those two became corpses, having died by taking poison.
Meanwhile, Zan Jin and the others finally caught up and told Mo Zi that all the assassins were dead.
The sky brightened.
The blood had not yet dried.
The slaughter had just begun.