But in the very next second.
Lu Dantao saw Pei Di, who looked like a deity, lift one hand and wave it.
Dozens of assassins clad in armor leapt out, charging straight toward them!
Lu Dantao’s eyes widened so much they almost popped out.
The big villain really was going to silence her!!!
She abruptly turned her head and shouted toward Xue Yao off to the front side, “They’re coming after us!”
Hearing her voice, Xue Yao turned his head slightly. His gaze swept across her eyes, filled with anxiety and panic, before finally settling on Pei Di, who sat calmly and unhurriedly atop his horse in the distance.
Their gazes collided silently in midair.
A cold arc curled at the corner of Xue Yao’s lips. ‘This Pei bastard, his pretentious act is as consistent as ever.’
Pei Di slowly closed the map of the Shouzhou region in his hand.
Ting Feng urged his horse forward. “Master, although the terrain of Xiaomao Mountain is vast, it is not particularly steep. If we deploy more men, within three days we will certainly be able to…”
Pei Di slightly raised his hand, cutting him off mid-sentence, his gaze shifting toward Huang Youcai, who stood nearby, visibly uneasy.
Ting Feng followed his line of sight, a trace of barely perceptible pity flickering through his eyes.
Huang Youcai remained completely unaware. Seeing the two of them look over, he immediately plastered on a fawning smile and hurried forward.
“Your Excellency, is there a problem with the map?” He had been waiting quietly at the side for quite some time. When he saw Pei Di drag those rebels out of the dungeon, he had been overjoyed, thinking Pei Di would truly set fire to the dungeon, which would also bury the evidence of his abuse of young girls.
Who would have expected that after stepping out of the dungeon, Pei Di would directly demand the map of Shouzhou from him, and then immediately lead his forces straight toward the dungeon’s sewage outlet.
There was no sewage outlet marked on the Shouzhou map. Clearly, he had already been thoroughly familiar with the situation inside the dungeon.
“There is no problem.”
“Then what is it?”
“Lord Huang mentioned in the dungeon earlier that these two had appeared in Shouzhou City two days ago.”
“Yes, yes!” Huang Youcai lifted his eyes. Under the flickering firelight, Pei Di’s profile appeared dim and unreadable. His gaze was slightly lowered as he quietly examined him.
In that instant, Huang Youcai suddenly felt that Lord Pei’s bearing and demeanor bore an inexplicable resemblance to that young man from earlier.
“My steward saw them at an apothecary last night,” he answered with utmost deference, yet a faint unease inexplicably swept through his heart.
“Where is your steward now?”
Huang Youcai hesitated, that sense of unease abruptly intensifying. But the pressure bearing down on him was too great, so he could only brace himself and say, “At… at this official’s residence.”
“Oh~” Pei Di’s trailing tone drifted down lightly, as if in understanding.
In the next instant, a chill suddenly sliced across his throat. “In that case, you are of no further use.”
Searing pain struck first. He stared in disbelief at Pei Di on horseback, then belatedly clamped his hand tightly over the gash at his throat.
He let out a choked whimper as he collapsed to the ground. His vision was swallowed by the pitch-black night sky, where a few faint stars flickered above.
At his ears, the voices of Pei Di and Ting Feng sounded as though separated by a heavy curtain, blurred and indistinct:
“…Report it as Huang Youcai colluding with mountain bandits, abducting innocent women by force, stirring up public outrage in Shouzhou. This official has already executed him to appease the people’s anger.”
So he had known.
So Pei Di had known everything!
Huang Youcai’s head lolled weakly to one side, his gaze tilting toward Pei Di, who sat upright on horseback, lifting his eyes toward the depths of the forest. His thoughts drifted in the chaos of impending death. ‘If only I had said just now that I saw it with my own eyes… that would have been better…’
The flickering firelight cast itself upon Pei Di’s face, outlining an especially dark and sinister profile.
“Conduct a thorough investigation of the Eagle Guard. Find out who released Xue Yao, and get it clear. And…” His voice was icy as he paused, as if forcibly suppressing immense emotion.
“Have Wen Yu get the hell over here from the capital. Immediately!”
“Yes.” Ting Feng lowered his head to accept the order, silently lighting a candle for Wen Yu in his heart.
Just how had he searched the bottom of the cliff? Had he not said Miss Lu was dead?
*
Lu Dantao truly felt that she was about to die.
In the pitch-black forest, she was being dragged along by Xue Yao in a frantic run. The wild grass on both sides, taller than half her height, lashed fiercely against her arms and neck.
Every breath she took felt like swallowing knives. Her throat burned, and her chest burned as well.
Since tonight…
No!
Since last night, ever since she entered that government office, that dungeon, she had been constantly running!
Running!
Jogging to escape inside the dungeon! Crawling through the sewers to escape! After getting out of the dungeon, still desperately running into the mountains!
She looked at Xue Yao ahead of her. His hair tips fluttered in the night wind, his youthful figure lean and slender. Holding a blade in one hand, he charged forward, swiftly cutting down the wild grass blocking their path.
Wasn’t he tired?
How was he not even breathing heavily?
But she was already completely exhausted.
Lu Dantao felt as though her lungs were about to burst, darkness flickering before her eyes. She tugged hard at the wrist that Xue Yao was gripping, forcing him to stop.
Xue Yao’s figure paused slightly. He glanced back at her, yet showed no intention of stopping. Instead, his grip tightened, and he practically dragged her by force into an even denser patch of grass before finally letting go.
Lu Dantao felt as if all the bones in her body had been pulled out. Staggering, she grabbed onto a nearby tree and bent over, gasping for breath in great gulps. Through her blurred vision, she caught sight of the fine beads of sweat seeping from Xue Yao’s temples, and felt a tiny bit more balanced inside.
“You walk on your own,” Xue Yao said, rotating his wrist.
“Huh?” Lu Dantao’s mind went blank, thinking she had misheard. “On my own? Out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Yes.” Xue Yao nodded.
“Then what about you?”
His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly as he cast a vigilant glance behind him. Lu Dantao saw the tip of his ear twitch, and instinctively imitated him, nervously looking back as well—
But all she could see were towering ancient trees, dense wild grass, and darkness so thick it seemed impossible to dissolve. There was nothing at all to be made out.
Xue Yao withdrew his gaze and jerked his chin toward the direction behind Lu Dantao, instructing, “The pursuers will arrive any moment. Run that way and find a hidden place to hide. I’ll go draw them away and buy you some time. Run faster.”
With that, he turned without hesitation, about to dash off in the opposite direction. After taking just one step, he seemed to think of something and added, “…Head toward the rear left. Don’t run the wrong way.”
“Wait until the forest quiets down before coming out.”
“Wait!” Lu Dantao grabbed his sleeve. “There are so many of them, and you’re only one. Can you really manage?”
Xue Yao paused, lowering his eyes to look at the hand clutching his sleeve, his tone indifferent. “There are many enemies. To shake them off, absolute sense of direction is required. Even the slightest mistake would be walking straight into their blades.”
Lu Dantao: “?” What did he mean?
Xue Yao said, “Aside from a sense of direction, my ability to protect myself is fairly decent. It’s much faster for me to get away alone than dragging someone along.”
“…?” Oh, so he was saying she was a burden.
Lu Dantao quickly wiped the expression off her face, released his sleeve, wrinkled her nose at him, and tossed out a “You’re really annoying!” before turning and sprinting toward the rear left without looking back.
Xue Yao’s gaze swept over her legs, which looked like they might give out and drop her to her knees at any moment. The corner of his lips moved ever so slightly as he leapt up.
Since she had nothing to do with Pei Di, he had no intention of continuing to entangle himself with her. He would draw all the pursuers away for her and let her leave safely, taking it as repayment for saving his life.
From here on, they would part ways.
For the rest of his life, he did not want to see this troublesome and noisy Lu Dantao ever again.
Lu Dantao had barely run far when she heard the sound of clothing slicing through the air behind her. She hurriedly turned her head, just in time to see Xue Yao move, stepping lightly against a tree trunk a few times before springing over to the other side.
“Wow.” Lu Dantao gave a flat remark of admiration. ‘That’s amazing. If I knew martial arts, I’d be bouncing around like that every day too.’
In the next instant, the tightly packed sound of footsteps rapidly closed in on Lu Dantao. Her scalp tingled in alarm. How could she dare let her mind wander any longer? Gritting her teeth, she plunged straight into the deepest part of the wild grass.
Deep within the forest, the rustling of birds and insects filled her ears. Ahead were the looming silhouettes of tall trees, while behind her came the relentless footsteps of assassins in pursuit.
Lu Dantao even felt like that woman in a TV commercial being chased by a cheetah. She really wanted to shout: Why are you chasing me!
Wasn’t the male lead supposed to draw the pursuers away for her?
Why did it feel like this group was still coming straight at her?!
Suddenly, her foot struck a stone, nearly twisting her ankle.
Lu Dantao frowned tightly. No! She couldn’t keep running like this. Either she would be caught by these overpowered martial artists and cut down with a single strike, or she would collapse from exhaustion and die on her own.
She glanced around quickly and locked onto a large rock not far away, sidling over and pressing herself against it.
Almost the moment she hid herself, heavy footsteps surged past.
Holding her breath, Lu Dantao watched as more than a dozen fully equipped figures ran straight by her.
She curled her lips. Was that really necessary? To kill a weak rookie like her who couldn’t even truss a chicken, and they still sent this many people.
Only after the surroundings fell silent again did Lu Dantao let out a breath of relief. She slowly edged further behind the rock and, using its cover, sat down.
This trick of “hiding in plain sight” was something she had learned as a child in her hometown, when she played large-scale hide-and-seek with the other kids.
Back then, her parents were busy struggling to build their business. Shouting, “If we’re holding you, we won’t have hands to carry bricks,” they simply tossed her over to her grandfather in the countryside.
The small rural town wasn’t big. Five streets made up her entire world. Watching her parents’ car speed away in a cloud of dust, her tears had not even fallen yet before she was dragged off by the neighbor’s kids to join their beginner version of a running game that used the entire town as its playground.
At the time, she had been foolish. After living in the city for so long, she not only couldn’t run as fast as them, she also didn’t understand how to adapt. She only knew that once she was spotted, she had to run for her life, so she was always the first to be caught.
It was only when one of the kids grabbed her, panting, and told her, “They’re too fast. We can’t outrun them. If you can’t outrun them, then you have to hide. They move fast, so their eyes are fixed straight ahead. If we hide in small gaps off to the side like this, they won’t see us at all.”
She hadn’t expected that it would end up saving her life at a moment like this.
A night breeze swept through, rustling the leaves overhead. Lu Dantao clenched her fist and pounded her legs, which had long since gone numb and lost all sensation. She lifted her head, staring blankly at the night sky, fragmented by the crisscrossing branches.
She wondered if the night sky here… was the same as the one back home. She also wondered whether the male lead had managed to escape safely.
Although he was arrogant and she found him annoying, she still did not want him to get hurt.
After all, Pei Di had sent so many people mainly to kill her. The male lead had been dragged into this because of her, taking the hit for her. If he died…
What could she possibly do alone in this godforsaken place?
Lu Dantao hugged her knees tightly, resting her chin on them, enduring the faint, lingering stench on her body. Just as she was thinking about whether to go out and look for Xue Yao, those life-threatening footsteps suddenly returned!
Her heart leapt into her throat, her body going rigid.
The footsteps lingered nearby, as if they had lost their target.
After a moment, she heard someone’s cold voice come from behind the large rock: “How did that Xue Yao run so fast, like a rat?”
‘Xue what? Xue Yao?’
Lu Dantao frowned tightly. She wasn’t called Xue Yao.
No, wait, what was even going on? Why did these killers always like discussing secrets right behind her back?
“Has that Miss Lu been found?”
“Not yet.”
“This is so damn irritating!” The man with the cold voice suddenly turned irritable.
Immediately after came a loud “Boom—”!
A deafening crash exploded right beside Lu Dantao’s ear!
Startled by the sudden noise, Lu Dantao’s eyes flew wide open, a scream nearly spilling out of her throat. She quickly clamped both hands over her mouth, her whole body trembling uncontrollably.
That very tremble caused her to roll off to the side.
In that instant as she tumbled down, countless thoughts flashed through Lu Dantao’s mind. She thought of many things,
What if she got disfigured, what if she damaged her brain, what if she did not end up crippled, would she somehow return to her original world after falling?
But in the end, only one bold line remained in her mind—
‘I’ll go to your damn uncle!!! Damn your ancestors! Do you think you’re Sun Wukong?!’