Xue Yao lightly tapped the ground with the tip of his foot, his body swift as a swallow, fully focused as he darted rapidly, narrowly evading the arrows slicing through the air.
The wind whistled past his ears, seeming to carry with it an extremely faint call.
That voice was so light it was almost torn apart by the wind, yet it still brushed past his neck, carrying a barely perceptible warmth.
Xue Yao could not hear it clearly, nor did he have the time to spare attention to ask.
He retreated swiftly all the way until his back felt the damp chill of the river, only then stopping. Lowering his head, he looked at the person in his arms.
Lu Dantao was pressed tightly against his chest, her almond-shaped eyes widened round with fright.
“Injured?” Xue Yao’s voice was low, his gaze quickly sweeping across her face.
He still had matters to ask her. At this critical moment, he absolutely could not let anything happen to her.
The undisguised concern in his eyes made Lu Dantao pause slightly. She shook her head blankly. “No.”
Xue Yao frowned, as if he did not quite believe it. With one arm, he drew her slightly out of his embrace, his gaze carefully sweeping across her back.
Only after confirming that she was indeed completely unharmed did he pull her back again and shield her behind him, while he himself turned to face the figures in the forest that were steadily approaching.
Lu Dantao was already completely stunned, her mind filled with the rapid changes in emotion she had just seen in Xue Yao’s phoenix eyes.
That concern, almost spilling over, had instantly frozen into coldness the moment he turned around.
This was the first time she had seen, with her own eyes, the concern in Xue Yao’s gaze that he could not conceal.
It was also the first time she had witnessed the biting killing intent hidden in his eyes.
She could not help but think that if looks could kill, then Xue Yao right now would probably turn into a bristling wild boar.
Covered in spikes, with just a shake of his body, he could pierce through everyone present.
And all of this was because of her.
Because he was worried that she might be struck by the sudden arrows.
Lu Dantao slowly closed her eyes, trying to suppress the turmoil surging in her heart.
Her emotions right now were complicated, difficult to put into words.
To be honest, she could truly understand Xue Yao’s state of mind.
At an age full of vigor and promise, he had encountered the false accusation of his family being confiscated and annihilated, falling in an instant from a favored son of heaven to a prisoner beneath the steps.
He had thought that his life would remain forever trapped in darkness, yet at the lowest point between life and death, he met her, a kind-hearted, bright, and beautiful fairy-like girl. By being with her, by being saved by her, he found redemption.
It was only natural that he could not help but be moved.
And burdened with the blood feud of his family, and with her being the original host, the fiancée of his enemy, he had no choice but to suppress those feelings deeply, hiding them in his heart. That too was perfectly reasonable.
It was just that she…
She could not quite bear such intense and restrained love.
And this time made it the third, did it not?
The third time he had used his flesh and blood to stand in front of her, taking the blade, taking the arrows, in her place.
Today once, once before entering the mountains, and also… that time at the apothecary.
Lu Dantao lifted her head. Before her was still Xue Yao’s straight back, still that ponytail that hung down to his waist, swaying lightly with his movements.
At this very moment, it was just like that moment back in the apothecary.
She unconsciously bit down on her lower lip. Could it be that as early as that time in the apothecary, his feelings for her had already been so deep?
But.
She truly had no intention of being in a relationship right now.
Lu Dantao thought with a hint of regret.
Xue Yao was very good-looking and highly capable in combat.
His physique was also excellent. When he had changed clothes before, she had secretly taken a look. Eight-pack abs, sharply defined.
At his age, he was definitely at his physical peak. In certain aspects, there would certainly be no need to worry about satisfaction.
But she, Lu Dantao, was a bird without feet.
Before transmigrating, she had been someone who did not believe in marriage. She was unwilling to be bound by family and marriage, and she was also afraid that she was not mature enough and might end up ruining a child’s entire life.
And now that she had transmigrated, she had even less desire to marry and have children.
How could one transmigrate once and so easily abandon modern, progressive ways of thinking?
Her heart was very small, holding only herself.
Her heart was very large, unable to hold only one man.
Precisely because of this, after transmigrating, she had taken the initiative to save the Long Aotian male lead first, so that in the future she could secure the title of a prince with a different surname, enjoy boundless wealth and glory, and indulge in men across the world.
But how had she ended up entangled in this emotional debt with Xue Yao of all people?
Was it that outstanding women were always like this?
He liked her so deeply. If she were to reject him rashly, would he completely lose his mind?
The more Lu Dantao thought about it, the more her head ached. Would it not be better for everyone to just be allies?
Men really do tend to think with their lower bodies.
No.
Lu Dantao shook her head vigorously.
She had to have a proper talk with him.
After they got through this group of assassins, she would definitely have a proper talk with him.
Quickly sorting out her thoughts, Lu Dantao quietly peeked out half her face from behind Xue Yao.
What first came into view were arrows densely covering the grass.
If Xue Yao had not dodged in time, the two of them would probably have already been turned into pincushions.
She pressed her lips together and swiftly glanced at Xue Yao in front of her, letting out a deep sigh.
The thoughts of a young man were truly this heavy.
How should she put it so that she would not hurt him, and yet still maintain their alliance?
She glanced around again. Shadows of black-clad figures flickered throughout the forest. Turning to look across the river, it seemed the opposite bank was also filled with pursuers.
Pei Di had this many subordinates?
But Pei Di himself did not seem to be present.
That meant the main force should be nearby.
“Notify the master.” Directly ahead, a man holding a pair of hammers gave a hoarse order.
Lu Dantao’s heart tightened. She hurriedly grabbed Xue Yao’s sleeve and whispered urgently:
“We can’t let them report this!”
“They’re Pei Di’s men. If Pei Di finds out, we’re finished.”
As soon as her words fell, the surroundings suddenly sank into dead silence.
The man with the large hammers split his mouth into a grin, letting out a sinister laugh, his voice hoarse as if it had been scalded by boiling water. “Miss, rest assured, this subordinate won’t be leaving.”
With that, he raised one hand, and a signal firework shot straight into the sky.
With a loud “bang,” the explosion echoed endlessly through the valley.
Lu Dantao: …
‘Oh, so you lot are pretty impressive after all.’
She quietly edged closer to Xue Yao, her fingers tightly clutching his sleeve. “What do we do? Which way do we run?”
Xue Yao said nothing.
His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly swept his gaze across the surroundings. The riverbank and the forest were both heavily encircled by layers of dark figures.
With so many assassins, and with only himself, while also having to bring along Lu Dantao, who knew no martial arts and whose actual usefulness was about the same as the two stone lions at the gate of the Defender Duke Residence…
There was simply no way to force their way out.
He looked toward the opposite bank again, only to see shadows flickering there as well, figures densely gathered.
The Eagle Guard’s signal flare had already been released earlier, which meant Pei Di was already nearby. That being the case…
There should be reinforcements around here.
If those on the opposite bank were reinforcements, then rashly using lightness skill to cross the river would be no different from walking straight into a trap.
And there was no way back on this side either. If they delayed any longer, once Pei Di arrived, it would likewise be a dead end.
Looking at it this way, there was only one last path to survival left.
Xue Yao lowered his phoenix eyes slightly and cast a glance behind him—
The water route.
If they were to take the water route, the only variable lay with Lu Dantao.
After waiting for a moment without hearing his response, Lu Dantao lifted her head and met his downward gaze.
In the faint morning light, a trace of hesitation seemed to flicker across his usually arrogant face.
Xue Yao… actually showing hesitation?
Seeing this, Lu Dantao felt a little uneasy. “What’s wrong?”
Xue Yao looked at her deeply, then glanced toward the black-clad burly man charging forward with a hammer. With a push of his foot, a pebble shot out at high speed, striking straight toward the man’s face.
“Can you swim?” he asked rapidly.
Lu Dantao did not react in time. “Huh?”
Xue Yao frowned, thought for a moment, then changed his wording. “Can you swim?”
This time she understood and quickly nodded. “Yes.”
But why was he suddenly asking this?
Before she could think further, she saw a smile swiftly curve across Xue Yao’s arrogant face.
It was the first time Lu Dantao had seen him smile so brightly, like the morning sunlight, brazen and unrestrained.
Her heart began to pound wildly, and an inexplicable sense of foreboding buzzed in her mind.
“What are you goi…”
“Good.” Xue Yao gently interrupted her, his tone seeming almost relieved.
Lu Dantao: ???
What do you mean good??
In the next instant, her waist was suddenly seized by a strong arm. Her entire body was lifted off the ground, pulled tightly into Xue Yao’s embrace as he plunged straight into the river with her.
The river swallowed the two of them in an instant.
Lu Dantao choked on the water, unable to speak, her mind exploding with censored curses:
‘What the hell ahhhhh!!!!’
‘Damn you! Xue Yao, you lunatic!! This river is full of corpses!!’
“That bastard surnamed Xue!”
On the bank, the hammer-wielding man flew into a rage. He rushed to the river’s edge, only to be so disgusted by the bloated corpses floating all over the water that he came to an abrupt halt.
“Is this guy out of his damn mind?!” he panted heavily, roaring, “Shoot! Shoot the arrows for me!”
One of the black-clad men hesitated slightly. “But the master gave orders not to harm Miss Lu…”
The hammer man curled his lips into a cruel sneer. “Xue Yao has escaped, and we can’t capture Miss Lu either. Do you think you and I will still be alive??”
“Didn’t you see what happened to Xiong Da and Xiong Er?”
The black-clad man recalled the horrific sight of those two being beaten into a bloody mess yesterday. His whole body shuddered. No longer hesitating, he waved his hand and shouted sharply, “Release the arrows!”
*
Beneath the surface of the river, the currents surged in hidden turbulence.
Lu Dantao was held tightly at Xue Yao’s side, struggling to avoid the constantly rising, grotesque corpses. All the while, he dragged her downward, straight toward the riverbed.
She felt like she was about to faint.
Back when she read tomb-raiding novels, what she feared most were the volumes about the forbidden corpse women and the hanging corpses of the South Sea. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would have to experience something like this herself.
As they dove deeper and deeper, the blurred silhouettes of corpses in her field of vision only grew more numerous. Her whole body went numb.
No, no. She had to get to the surface.
She had to get to the surface!
Lu Dantao hurriedly grabbed Xue Yao by the collar, pointing toward the river above, her eyes filled with urgency.
Unexpectedly, Xue Yao looked at her deeply, then slowly shook his head, his finger firmly pointing toward the deeper riverbed.
Lu Dantao: …
She understood.
And she was shocked.
This lunatic! He actually wanted to force his way against the current, diving through the outflow of the undercurrent into an underground passage at the riverbed!
An underground passage at the riverbed.
Of course Lu Dantao wanted to go in.
She had dreamed of it.
Because only by entering could she encounter the Long Aotian male lead, make use of her analytical foresight as someone who had read the story, and achieve her original goals.
Power, wealth, never forget the original intention!
These ten words had always been engraved in Lu Dantao’s mind.
But that did not mean she was willing to enter through an outflow filled with corpses like this!
Setting aside issues like water density and resistance.
Just the fact that it was at the riverbed alone made it extremely difficult.
The water pressure required to dive that deep, the lack of oxygen, the location of the undercurrent’s outlet, and whether there might be uncontrollable factors at the exit, all of these needed to be taken into consideration.
She glared fiercely at Xue Yao, trying with all her strength to pry open the arm clamped around her waist, only to be pulled even tighter into his hold.
She was truly at her wit’s end!
This illiterate brute.
Lu Dantao even had the urge to twist his head off. Once they got out of here, she was definitely going to teach him a proper physics lesson.
She tugged at his hand again, struggling to gesture a large cross with both hands.
But this time, Xue Yao directly dragged her away.
She stumbled in the water, and before she could steady herself, she saw Xue Yao suddenly reach out and precisely grab hold of an arrow that had shot into the water!
Lu Dantao’s heart jolted. She abruptly looked up.
Above the water’s surface, several bright beams of light pierced through the rippling water, shooting straight toward the riverbed. What followed was a dense rain of arrows.
Lu Dantao was truly about to be driven mad.
Was Pei Di a Sagittarius? How could he shoot so much?
Now there was truly no other choice. They could only continue diving deeper.
She turned her head to look at Xue Yao, only to see that he had his back to her, his head seeming to droop slightly.
What was wrong with him?
Xue Yao swiftly dodged the arrows, but when he pushed Lu Dantao away, he accidentally choked on a mouthful of water.
In an instant, he felt his chest constrict as if it were about to burst, his vision darkening in waves, his consciousness being swallowed bit by bit by the icy river water.
Everything around him seemed to begin to blur.
Even his body seemed to grow lighter.
At the very moment he was about to completely lose consciousness, he seemed to feel a hand turn his body over and touch his face.
That hand was small, and not very strong. After patting his face a few times, it quickly withdrew.
Then, as his consciousness was already drifting away,
a trace of warm, soft breath gently pressed against his cold lips.