Lin Youyou spoke softly, “Mother, if this hadn’t happened to me personally, I wouldn’t dare believe it either. But now, we don’t have time to verify any of this.”
“W-What?” Madam Xu’s mind was still in complete chaos, unable to process anything clearly.
“Since assassins have already come for us, and failed this time, there will definitely be a next time. We can’t stay here any longer. Our only way out is to return to the capital.” Lin Youyou’s voice grew slightly heavy.
Madam Xu was kind-hearted, but she was not foolish. Hearing Lin Youyou’s words, she quickly understood.
Yes. Their only chance of survival was to secretly rush back to the capital as fast as possible. As long as they returned to the capital openly and appeared before the gates of the Lin residence where everyone could see the mother and daughter together, the danger on the surface would at least temporarily subside.
After figuring this out, Madam Xu gradually calmed down and said firmly, “We’ll return to the capital. As quickly as possible.”
Coming back to her senses, Madam Xu looked at the corpses scattered across the ground and shrank back nervously before asking again, “What about these people? If they’re left here and the villagers discover them, they’ll definitely report it to the authorities. Then we’ll become fugitives.”
“Mother, I’ll handle this place. Go pack our things. We only need a few changes of clothes—the important things are dried food and money.” Lin Youyou supported Madam Xu back toward the room while giving instructions.
“Alright.” Madam Xu took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
Lin Youyou returned to the courtyard once more. There were five corpses. With one hand she dragged two bodies by the legs, and with the other she dragged the remaining three. One by one, the five bodies were hauled out of the courtyard and into the forest behind it.
If someone had witnessed this scene, they would have been terrified out of their wits. Just how much strength did this girl possess? Calling her merely strong would be an understatement—this was downright horrifying.
After leaving the courtyard and going deeper into the woods, Lin Youyou drew her sword and sliced across her own hand without hesitation. Blood flowed down her palm, yet she showed no fear of pain. She let a drop of blood fall onto a bracelet she had worn since childhood.
The bracelet flashed, and the blood instantly disappeared.
A smile slowly appeared on Lin Youyou’s lips.
Just as she thought…
In her previous life, when she died, her blood had accidentally dripped onto the bracelet. When she transmigrated into the twenty-first century, the bracelet had followed her there as well. It had turned out to contain a hidden space.
This time the blood hadn’t accidentally landed on the bracelet, so she simply did it herself. Seeing the space activated by her blood, Lin Youyou smiled happily.
Closing her eyes, she sensed that the space still contained the items she had stored there during her life in the twenty-first century. Her mood immediately improved. Taking out a glass bottle, she chuckled lightly.
“This saves me quite a bit of trouble.”
As she spoke, she stacked the five bodies together and poured out the liquid from the bottle onto them.
Instantly, the clothing began to dissolve under the corrosive liquid, followed by flesh and skin. A sharp, nauseating odor spread through the air.
Covering her nose, Lin Youyou retreated two meters away and watched from afar as the five corpses gradually dissolved before her eyes until they vanished completely.
Not a single trace remained on the ground. Even the foul smell slowly faded away. Only after every sign of the corpses had disappeared from the world did Lin Youyou leisurely head back.
Returning to the courtyard, she rolled up her sleeves and meticulously cleaned the entire place from inside out. When she entered the room afterward, she saw that Madam Xu had already finished packing everything.
Outside, the sky was beginning to brighten with the gray light of dawn.
They lived in a remote area—the place where the Lin family had once resided before becoming wealthy.
The Lin family’s ancestors came from Peach Blossom Village. Though this place counted as the ancestral residence, it was only slightly better than the other homes in the village: the courtyard was larger and the house somewhat nicer.
The servants who had originally come with them had all left one after another using various excuses.
There was still an elderly couple remaining, but they were advanced in years and villagers of Peach Blossom Village themselves. Since they had their own house in the village, they did not stay overnight here. They only came during the day to help care for Madam Xu and her daughter, receiving monthly wages for their work. Thus, they had not been present the previous night.
For the lawful wife of a household to end up in such a state—worse off even than a concubine—it was clear just how neglected her mother had been by that father of hers.
The two women did not rush to leave immediately. They waited until full daylight, and after the old couple arrived, they informed them that they were returning to the capital and asked them to continue looking after the residence.
Under the elderly couple’s reluctant gazes, Madam Xu and Lin Youyou set off slowly in the family’s only horse-drawn carriage.
Once the village could no longer be seen behind them, Lin Youyou lifted the curtain of the carriage and said, “Mother, I’m going to speed up now. Be careful. If you can’t endure it, tell me.”
“Alright.” Madam Xu nodded from inside the carriage.
To make her mother more comfortable, Lin Youyou had lined the entire carriage with thick blankets so she could lie down and rest whenever she became tired. The carriage was also stocked with food, water, and daily necessities. Aside from occasionally stopping at towns to replenish dried provisions, they barely needed to halt during the journey.
“Hyah!”
The horse surged forward at high speed, kicking up clouds of dust.
Traveling from Peach Blossom Village to the capital normally took ten days. The two women traveled nonstop during the day. At night, whenever they reached a town, they stayed at inns to rest. If they failed to make it into a city before dark, they continued traveling through the night.
They stayed on the official roads. Though longer than the smaller paths, they were easier and safer to travel.
Whenever exhaustion became unbearable, they would stop briefly to rest before continuing once they had recovered their strength.
After eight days of relentless travel, shortly after leaving a small town and entering an area with no villages ahead and no inns behind, a group of assassins suddenly appeared.
Lin Youyou did not stop the carriage and attempted to pass through, but the assassins blocked the road.
In icy voices they said, “Hand over the people, or die.”
Gripping her sword tightly, Lin Youyou replied coldly, “Those assassins sent by that woman again?”
“Seeking death.” One assassin snorted and immediately attacked with his sword.
Lin Youyou’s heart tightened.
These assassins were on an entirely different level from the last group. Their attacks were ruthless and precise—true professional killers.
She did not dare relax in the slightest and met them with her sword drawn.
Though she knew that against so many assassins she would sooner or later die at their hands, utterly outmatched, she still resolved to hold them off for as long as possible. No matter what, she could not allow them to harm her mother.
The assassins attacked all at once. Although Lin Youyou’s martial skills were excellent, two fists could not overcome four hands, especially when she also had to divide her attention to protect the carriage behind her.
Forced back step by step, she struggled desperately.
Seeing the assassins about to reach the carriage, Lin Youyou prepared herself to be wounded—perhaps even gravely injured—as she forcefully blocked the sword strike slashing toward her.
But she could not stop another assassin’s sword thrust from the side.
Her face turned pale.
Could it be that after finally being reborn, she would die here before even truly beginning her new life?
She was unwilling.
Before the thought had fully formed, the two assassins before her suddenly froze in place.