Chapter 17

“Hehehe… Chu Qingning, I told you that day, didn’t I? If you let me leave, you would surely regret it in the future.” As soon as that clear voice rang out, the people surrounding us all stopped attacking and consciously opened a path. The female assassin slowly walked over, even arrogantly removing her face covering to reveal that face full of pride.

Tsk. A flower with thorns.

I silently shifted a little behind a hidden guard beside me, attempting to use his head—which, after a bout of fighting, had become several times larger because his hair was loose and messy—to hide my face. Unexpectedly, just as I moved, that voice rang out again.

“It’s you?!”

As soon as she said this, I felt everyone’s gazes gather on me.

Her eyes were really sharp!

This was all the princess’s fault for pulling off my face covering. Now things were troublesome… I braced myself and looked up, only to see the female assassin staring at me with wide eyes.

But I did not know whether it was my imagination—there seemed to be a hint of joy in her expression. Only, when she noticed that I was standing beside the princess in a protective posture while holding a bloodstained sword, her face immediately darkened, and she scolded coldly, “Heh, I didn’t expect this. That day, I misjudged you!”

…The way she said that made it sound as though I had used some despicable method to deceive her.

I instinctively glanced at the princess beside me. Sure enough, I saw her brows furrow slightly. Her beautiful eyes slanted toward me with a probing meaning, as well as something else… something I could not figure out for the moment. As for the hidden guards, their expressions relaxed slightly, and some of the suspicion they had just felt faded.

The saber man opposite us seemed to have imagined some dramatic story on his own. The expression on his face changed again and again, and finally, unauthorized copyhe tentatively asked, “Young Mistress, you know her?”

The female assassin pursed her lips and said nothing. She only stared coldly at me, her hand tightening around her sword. A faint bluish-white color appeared around her fingers.

The corner of my mouth twitched. Even if I had hidden my martial arts that day, did she need to hold such a grudge? It seemed she definitely would not let me go today. This person’s martial arts were only slightly inferior to Dafang’s. Add in the abbot’s lover and that saber man, and if we fought head-on, our chances of winning were not high.

I wiped away cold sweat and smiled awkwardly. “Hehe, I didn’t expect you to still remember me.”

“Hmph, how could I not remember you? You were the first person who touched me!” she blurted out. Everyone around us gasped in shock. I felt all those furious gazes falling on me instantly turn into sharp arrows, as though they wished to pierce holes through me.

Saber Man: “You actually ruined our Young Mistress’s innocence! Brothers, cut her down!”

He raised his saber and roared, and his subordinates responded and followed. Thus, the fight that had only just paused was triggered again. Blades and swords clashed with clangs. Seeing that the situation was not good, I hurriedly shouted at the female assassin, “Don’t say such misleading things, all right? That time, I only touched your chest, and I didn’t even tear open much of your clothes!”

Tear open much! Open much! Much! Much…

“…” Unexpectedly, this shout actually echoed layer upon layer through the forest.

I clearly felt the surrounding fight pause for an instant. Many assassins froze as if struck by lightning. At this moment, the hidden guards no longer cared about minor details and hurriedly attacked while the assassins’ emotions were fluctuating and they were dazed. Very quickly, they dealt with more than half of them, and the situation immediately reversed.

The silent princess at the side looked at me with an indescribable gaze.

“Princess, don’t misunderstand. It [unauthorized copy]isn’t what you think. Listen to me explain…” Wait, why was I explaining?

“You—you still dare spout nonsense!” After the female assassin reacted, her face flushed red. Seeing that her subordinates were looking at her somewhat differently, she flew into embarrassed anger and drew her sword forward. “I softened my heart and let you go before. Now you are seeking death yourself!”

After saying this, she charged straight at me. A few subordinates tried to come help, but she shouted them back. Her sword tip thrust over fiercely, and I hurriedly raised my sword to block while protecting the princess behind me. It would be great if Dafang were here. There were so many assassins in the temple. I wondered if she could break free now. She must not fall into those people’s hands.

Ah, I was truly too kind. Even at a time like this, I was still worrying about others.

While exchanging moves, I thought of countermeasures in my heart and kindly advised, “Hey, what I said just now was unintentional. I didn’t mean anything else. Why be so petty?”

“Shut up!” the female assassin gnashed her teeth. Right now, her anger had attacked her heart, and almost every move aimed for a vital point. I was starting to have difficulty blocking her fierce offensive.

But fortunately, she was impatient at the moment. I deliberately used words to anger her, then revealed a few small openings. Sure enough, the person in her rage did not notice my intention and pressed straight forward. Since the female assassin was the leader of that group, when they saw that she was forcing us to retreat step by step and seemed to have the upper hand, they did not dare interfere and turned to deal with the other three hidden guards. This way, the princess and I smoothly moved out of the encirclement.

I secretly glanced toward the forest behind us and exchanged a look with the princess. Then, seizing the opportunity, I sprinkled a handful of flour toward the female assassin’s face and quickly threw out a smoke bomb I had conveniently taken from one of the assassins not long ago.

“You!” She covered her eyes in shock and anger and started coughing from the smoke. Seeing this, her subordinates immediately ran over, but the smoke stung their eyes and made it hard to see. They could only fumble around and shout, “Young Mistress! Cough, cough. Young Mistress, how are you?!”

“Run!” I lowered my voice and said to the princess. I could no longer care about those hidden guards. Taking advantage of the chaos, I pulled her toward the forest behind us.

After running quite a distance, I looked back and saw the saber man bringing a few assassins after us. I found it somewhat strange. The abbot’s lover’s martial arts were clearly stronger than all these people’s, so why had he not really moved? From beginning to end, he had seemed to be watching from the side.

Something was not right… I hurriedly sped up. Fortunately, although the princess did not know martial arts, she was calm, nimble, and had good stamina. She was not delicate and weak like other noble young ladies. Perhaps she had experienced such dangerous scenes of running for her life too many times since childhood. I wondered who had been by her side protecting her the last time.

As I ran with her like this, a strangely inappropriate sense of delight actually arose in my heart.

The dark clouds in the sky grew thicker and thicker, gradually showing signs of rain. The forest was pitch black, and its silence was chilling. I had investigated this forest over the past few days and was rather familiar with the terrain. Now, using the cover of night, naturally I could widen the distance between us and those people. As long as we shook them off, passed through this forest, and continued down the mountain for half an incense stick’s time, there should be some villages. Once we got there, we would be safe.

But at this moment, the princess’s speed clearly slowed.

“Princess, your skirt is too cumbersome. Lift it and tie it up. Otherwise, running will be tiring, and you’ll easily fall,” I said.

She furrowed her brows and actually answered with complete seriousness, “I am a princess. How could I disregard my image like that?”

Mm, it did seem rather inelegant… But what time was this?!

“Escaping with your life is more important, Princess!” Seeing those people catch up again, I said anxiously. Although if an accident happened, I could escape alone and would not be in any danger, if the princess were captured by them, it would be hard to get her back. Just think of the female assassin’s deep hatred!

After working so hard for so long, how could I let the duck that was about to be placed in my pot get scooped away by someone else? Not to mention, this duck had saved my life earlier. I owed her a favor and had to repay it!

Gritting my teeth, I was wondering whether to directly pick up the princess and use qinggong, but in the next moment, my wrist suddenly tightened. She had actually pulled me toward another direction.

“How could I be captured so easily?” She raised her brows and smiled. In the faint light, the curve of her lips could be seen. Calm and unrestrained, as though everything was under her control.

This was bad. That warm sense of security was spreading up again… My heart inexplicably thumped for a while. Only then did I notice that she was heading toward the windward side. When bailiantales.com I saw her take a small porcelain bottle from her sleeve, I immediately understood.

“Haha, where else do you think you can run?!” The saber man chased after us with a sinister laugh. When he was almost near, the princess suddenly pulled out the stopper and threw the bottle behind her.

The moment the bottle left her hand, there was a sharp hiss, and a large amount of white powder surged out of it, comparable to the smoke bomb I had used earlier. At this time, we were upwind, and a strong gust happened to rise. With the powder scattered like this, it all flew into those people’s faces. Caught off guard, they inhaled quite a bit through their mouths and noses. They immediately collapsed weakly and cried in shock, “Poison? Is it poison?!”

“Muscle-Softening Powder?” I stopped and leaned close to the princess’s ear to whisper.

“This is far stronger than Muscle-Softening Powder.”

“Hehe, Princess, if you had this kind of medicine, you should have used it earlier…” Before I could finish, my nose suddenly stung, and I sneezed. Then my whole body went limp.

The instant I fell, countless images appeared in my mind. I thought of my handsome senior brother when we were young, holding a medical book in obsession while explaining the wonders of poison arts to me. He said the most powerful use of poison was invisibility. One form was colorless and odorless, so people would not notice it. Another was cleverly borrowing the right timing, so people could not guard against it.

I also thought of Master kindly placing Mingfeng into my hands while telling me that, when walking the jianghu, people’s hearts were dangerous… And finally, only the princess’s coldly smiling face remained in my mind. In truth, she had long since noticed my identity, right? This time, not only did she intend to eliminate that group of assassins, she also planned to burn the bridge after crossing it and take care of me along the way? Once I collapsed, she would laugh sinisterly, pick up a blade, and chop us down, right… Ah, so despairing!

However, what I never expected was that when I fell, the princess actually fell with me!

Even more despairing, all right! Princess, what is going on? Explain yourself! Do not think an innocent face is enough!

I lay limply on the ground and looked resentfully at the princess sprawled over me. Truly impressive. Even after falling, she did not forget to find someone to cushion her.

“The wind direction changed too quickly. This kind of powder disperses slowly,” she said [stolen content]calmly, turning her gaze away faintly.

“…” No wonder she had not used this medicine earlier. This was simply taking a risk. Still, after knowing she had not meant to harm me, my heart seemed to feel somewhat more comfortable.

“Hahaha! When one brings disaster upon oneself, one cannot live! Four-sided mountain winds, do you understand? In mountain forests, the wind direction easily changes. The powder was blown back, wasn’t it? Hahaha, you deserve it!” Not far away, the saber man wore a mocking expression. The several people lying behind him laughed along.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Save your strength. The amount of powder you inhaled is much greater than ours. Later, we’ll see who recovers first. Let’s see how you’ll keep laughing then. Don’t end up crying and begging for mercy.”

“You!” The saber man panted and shouted, “Hmph, don’t think our Young Mistress and the others won’t find us. Just wait! Ah Liu, hurry and fire the signal flare!”

The person behind him called Ah Liu weakly replied, “I can’t, Hall Master. I… I have no strength.”

“Useless!”

“Hall Master, don’t you have a whistle on you…”

“You—you talk too much!”

I stared at the situation on their side while asking in a low voice, “Princess, how long will this medicine last?” I had only inhaled a little, yet I had no strength at all. The drug was so powerful.

“At least two hours.”

“That long! Then, Princess, do you have an antidote?”

“Only one pill.” She paused and said heavily, “It is in the hidden pocket on the left side beneath my collar. Take it, then bring me away.”

She leaned against the hollow of my neck, and when she spoke, her breath brushed against the side of my neck, making it itch. I could not describe what I felt in my heart at this moment. I said, “You trust me?”

“If I wrongly trust you, then my fate is thin—”

“All right!” Before she could finish, I used all my strength to lift my hand and reach into her collar. But I could not control my movement and just happened to bump into a certain soft place.

“…” My mind buzzed. It was over. Would my hand be chopped off now?

“Hurry and take the antidote!” The person in my arms urged coldly. Although I could not see her face, there was a trace of suppressed shame and anger in that cold tone. Hearing this, I hurriedly came back to myself and continued fumbling. Unfortunately, because of the angle, and because my hand was truly too weak and sore to obey me, I searched back and forth for a long time. Only when the other party’s aura was so cold it was almost freezing into ice did I finally touch that hidden pocket.

After taking the antidote, I quickly recovered my strength. I hurriedly straightened the princess’s collar and helped her lean against a tree nearby, feeling somewhat guilty and not daring to look at her.

“Hey, is she worth protecting with your life like this?” the saber man shouted when he saw this.

“Soon, our Young Mistress and the others will find us. How far can you run?” He was furious and unwilling. “Although we do the business of killing, we value loyalty and trust the most! Help us capture her, and we will guarantee your life. We will also give you ten thousand taels of gold, letting you live in luxury and freedom from now on! How about it? Isn’t that much better than being a servant of Prince Jin’s Manor and risking your life for her?”

My first reaction after hearing this was that these assassins were very rich, and the mastermind who hired them was even richer.

Immediately after, I actually imagined the beautiful life of grabbing the princess, tossing her to them, taking the gold, retiring from the martial world, buying fields, building a house, keeping a pretty boy, and traveling through mountains bailiantales.com and rivers… Although it was very tempting, but, but how could I be the kind of person who betrayed trust and righteousness and ignored the dignity of my sect!

Enduring the pain of cutting off this temptation, I slightly raised my head toward the horizon and said deeply, “Ten thousand taels of gold, fine clothes, and luxurious food—in my eyes, none of them are as important as the princess’s life.”

“You! You refuse the toast and…” He had no strength and kept panting. I gave a cold laugh and walked over, not noticing the princess’s stunned expression in that instant, nor the ripples gradually rising in her eyes.

I sealed their acupoints one by one and conveniently searched out two silver notes from them. My special acupoint-sealing method was very difficult to break. Even after the drug wore off, it would still keep them from moving for one stick of incense. But after thinking about it, I still felt that was not enough. To be safe, I grabbed a handful of flour and sprinkled it into their eyes so they would not remember the direction the princess and I left.

“Ugh, my eyes! Too despicable!”

“Hehehe.” I laughed wildly. Halfway through laughing, however, I felt a chill along my back. Turning around, I was astonished to see the princess covered in white powder. Cough. I had forgotten she was currently downwind.

I shivered and hurriedly took out a small handkerchief to wipe her face. “Princess, are you all right?”

A certain princess said each word in a tone cold enough to freeze three feet of ice. “Quickly carry this palace away, and this palace will spare you from death.”

I laughed unkindly. At that moment, it was as though I saw a corner of the mask on her face being peeled away.