Tie Ci galloped all the way.
Western Rong had been devastated by war and was extremely desolate. Especially in towns that armies had passed through, nine out of ten houses were empty, with starving corpses frequently seen roadside. Calling it a living hell would not be an exaggeration.
As a semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural country, winter was always difficult to endure. Having lost support and with war added on top, Western Rong would struggle to recover its vitality for ten years.
Tie Ci thought it was good to give Dan Ye a mess to clean up. People shouldn’t become complacent or idle, otherwise who knows what thoughts would spin in their heads.
She traveled swiftly all the way, wondering what the situation in Yongping was now.
She had worked hard to take Western Rong precisely to use a stable Western Rong to demand loyalty from Di Yiwei and gain military authority. If something had happened to Di Yiwei and someone else had plucked the fruit of Yongping’s army, then all her efforts would have been wasted.
Worse yet, they might use Yongping’s army to block her retreat. How could Tie Ci not be anxious?
The hardships along the way need not be mentioned. In many places, the common people themselves couldn’t eat their fill. She had to run far to hunt, trading excess meat with civilians for grain, and at night randomly finding an empty house to spend the night.
She traveled day and night for a long time, finally entering the Hanli Khan Desert on the seventh day. She sent out signals, and the sun-darkened Qi Yuansi and Da Wu came to meet her.
Qi Yuansi and several others had remained in the Hanli Khan Desert, traversing that plain and even climbing snow-capped mountains. They conducted detailed field surveys of the surrounding terrain, topography, soil, and environment, recording countless valuable data on wooden boards. When they came to see Tie Ci, everyone carried enormous bundles.
What came next couldn’t be accomplished by just a few people. They needed to return and find a group from the academy, mobilize talent from across the country for development, relocate Yongping Guard’s civilians, and so forth. Additionally, Tie Ci planned to suggest after returning that future exiled criminals should all be banished to Hanli Khan, contributing to the development of this region.
The group replenished food and water at the oasis and set off again. Three days later, they saw the towering mass of Fu Mountain finally appear on the horizon.
Looking at mountains can kill horses from running—Tie Ci wasn’t in a hurry now that she’d reached this point, ordering them to make camp and rest first.
After all, if there was still a fierce battle at Fu Mountain’s pass, they absolutely had to conserve their strength now.
In the evening, when she took out the bear meat she’d been carrying to roast, she involuntarily thought of Feiyu.
He still hadn’t returned.
Was everything going smoothly?
For some reason, a vague unease lingered in her heart.
She was somewhat distracted.
Then she burned the meat.
Food couldn’t be wasted. She peeled off the charred parts and once again thought of the meat Feiyu roasted—the fat crystalline and succulent, the lean meat fragrant and crispy.
He always did everything perfectly.
Suddenly someone handed her a piece of roasted meat—fat crystalline, lean meat deep red. Her heart jumped, but looking up she saw Qi Yuansi.
Qi Yuansi had darkened and thinned, but his meat-roasting skills had improved considerably. Apparently during this period of camping in the open in the desert, crossing snow mountains and yellow sands, while developing calluses, he had also honed the survival skills of a wealthy young master.
He handed over the meat but didn’t look at her, awkwardly saying: “This piece is leaner.”
Tie Ci smiled and accepted it, thanking him. Qi Yuansi lowered his eyes to look at her slender fingers, uncomfortably sitting back a bit, yet unwilling to leave, eating meat slowly and methodically beside her.
Tie Ci ate while asking about his survey results. When it came to this topic, Qi Yuansi became energized, moving over that pile of wooden boards and pointing things out to her. Tie Ci sometimes posed questions too, making Qi Yuansi even more focused. He sat closer to explain, and they sat closer and closer together. From a distance, it looked like an intimate posture with heads together.
Da Wu was already fast asleep nearby, snoring like thunder.
While chatting, Tie Ci suddenly looked up and glanced around.
Qi Yuansi looked up at her in confusion.
“Did you hear any sounds?”
Qi Yuansi shook his head.
“It seemed like… crying? And maybe hoofbeats?”
Qi Yuansi turned to look around. The surroundings were pitch black and vast, wind howling like a whistle. He shivered and instinctively moved to block in front of Tie Ci.
When Tie Ci listened carefully again, there was nothing. She thought it was probably just wind sounds—the wind was too strong in this open desert.
Da Wu’s snoring beside them suddenly stopped.
Then he suddenly sat up and shouted: “Failed! Killed someone!”
This voice was shrill and eerie, making even someone like Tie Ci break out in goosebumps. Looking at the pitch-black night, she went forward to shake Da Wu awake: “What dream were you having again!”
“Ice lake… killing… blood… prison… arrows…” Da Wu said a few sentences with a blank expression, then suddenly snapped awake, rubbing his face: “I seemed to dream of someone crying, wandering around us…” He turned to look at the dark, vast desert.
“What ice lake? What prison?” Tie Ci’s heart jumped inexplicably. Seeing that Da Wu didn’t mention this, she couldn’t help but press him.
But Da Wu looked completely bewildered: “What ice lake and prison?”
Obviously he had already forgotten what he’d just said. Those were intuitive sleep-talking words in the moment of waking—once fully conscious, he’d forgotten them.
Tie Ci had to give up, but for some reason, her heart kept tightening with an indescribable discomfort.
She thought for a moment, said they should sleep, and after those two fell asleep, she got up and walked into the darkness.
Her heart felt hollow and empty. Following the direction she’d sensed earlier, she spurred her horse into a wild gallop. The hoofbeats clattered on the sandy ground as she looked up at the merciless, colorless moon hanging in the ink-blue sky.
Not knowing how long she’d run, she finally sighed and slightly dispelled the oppression in her heart, planning to turn her horse around.
But at this moment she heard sharp wind sounds. She raised her hand and caught an arrow shaft.
In the darkness, someone came galloping on horseback. The moonlight vaguely outlined the silhouette of someone running while weeping.
That silhouette looked somewhat familiar.
Behind him were pursuers with blades and bows, dressed in black and fierce.
Without time to think, Tie Ci charged forward and suddenly appeared on a pursuer’s horse.
After Rong Pu’s needle treatment, at least recently her innate abilities were working well again.
Only after she mounted did the person react to someone behind him. His reaction was fairly quick—without turning back, he struck with a backhand blade. But immediately his wrist was in severe pain, the world spun, and he crashed to the ground with a bang.
Tie Ci had broken his wrist and caught his flying blade with one hand. The blade was long and slender with clean, flowing lines and a slightly curved grip—somewhat in the style of Liaodong weapons.
She grabbed this blade and mounted a second horse, slashing off the opponent’s head. Then she spurred her horse to trample the chest of the first man who hadn’t gotten up yet.
In an instant two were dead. The pursuers behind were alarmed. Someone ordered her surrounded, but with Tie Ci’s innate abilities restored, she excelled at killing by surprise. No one knew when she would appear or disappear—in this dark night, she was death incarnate harvesting lives.
Tie Ci teleported while counting the number of times. After consecutive frequent use, she found herself experiencing that sluggish feeling again, so she stopped teleporting.
The last person found her location and chopped down fiercely with his blade.
Unexpectedly, electric light flashed before his eyes, blinding him with white light. In this moment of brief blindness, his chest went cold.
Tie Ci withdrew her hand, looking at the fallen corpse.
These past few days she’d been testing the limits of her innate abilities. If calculated by energy, teleportation consumed the most energy, followed by lightning, with perspective using the least, and others falling between.
Lightning worked best in rainy, thunderous weather. In clear weather its power was limited and could hardly kill. In the dry desert, it was basically just a flashlight.
She no longer looked at the corpses at her feet and looked ahead. That person tearfully turned back, looking at her with complex eyes.
It was indeed Zhao San.
The moment she saw Zhao San, she had moved to kill the pursuers. These pursuers were Liaodong people—she didn’t want Liaodong people to know about her innate abilities.
She dropped the blade and looked at Zhao San. Her heart was pounding. Countless questions surged to her lips, but her lips seemed glued shut and unable to open.
Immense fear welled up in her heart, and her whole body actually felt somewhat weak.
His personal guard—why was he crying and fleeing at night on the desert’s edge, still being pursued by Liaodong people?
Before she could ask, Zhao San had already rushed over, falling to his knees in the sand with a thud and crying out miserably: “Young Master Ye! Young Master Ye! Miss Ye! Please save my master!”
Tie Ci’s heart suddenly settled as she stepped back.
She had been too tense just now and momentarily felt dizzy.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
He needed saving, which meant he was still alive.
“What happened?”
“My master got into trouble in Liaodong and was captured, thrown into Prince Da’an’s prison… I received the news and rushed to Liaodong. Mu Si and the others were all captured. I couldn’t get close. I circled the prison for several days but was discovered by the great king’s imperial guards… I had nowhere to go, so I ran toward the border between Fu Mountain and Hanli Khan, figuring that if you were returning to Da Qian, you’d definitely pass through here… Originally I thought I’d already shaken off the pursuers, but they never gave up looking for me. Just now they found me again… Thank you for saving me… But please hurry and save my master… They, I heard they flayed his skin…”
Tie Ci’s heart suddenly contracted.
Her fingers pressing on Zhao San’s shoulder trembled. Zhao San looked at her somewhat apprehensively.
His eyes held inquiry and unease, but Tie Ci’s mind was in chaos at the moment and she didn’t notice.
“What exactly did he go do?”
“He went to assassinate the eldest prince… succeeded, but the great king was waiting in the wings…”
“Why assassinate the eldest prince?”
Zhao San swallowed and looked at Tie Ci again.
This was the Crown Princess.
After receiving the secret report that his master was in trouble and rushing back to Liaodong, he had urgently ordered all of his master’s subordinates remaining in Da Qian to withdraw, intending to gather together and rescue his master.
So he had waited on the road for that group, and only then learned that they had already discovered Ye Shiba’s identity and sent word to his master by carrier pigeon. But afterward his master had no reaction. Naturally, those conveying messages wouldn’t ask why their master had no reaction, so they set the matter aside.
Only when meeting with Zhao San and casually asking whether the master’s predicament was related to the Crown Princess did Zhao San learn they had missed such a critically important piece of information.
But by then he couldn’t possibly notify his master. He took people to Xining Pass but couldn’t enter that estate heavily guarded by armies. He also couldn’t contact any Embroidered Guards. He understood in his heart that since the Embroidered Guards hadn’t been exposed yet, it meant his master hadn’t been completely revealed. At this time, the Embroidered Guards definitely had to lay low and couldn’t have any more involvement.
So he could only fight alone with those people. After several attempts to break in, they had suffered heavy losses.
The last time he had actually gotten close to where the prison was located, but was ultimately discovered and pursued by the great king’s imperial guards. Those people stuck to him like maggots on bones. Along the way, the last few people had also died in battle.
He had finally shaken off the pursuers and seen Tie Ci from afar. In his wild joy, he was about to seek help when he saw her very intimate with Qi Yuansi.
This immediately made him heartbroken for his master and cry out loud, which actually attracted the persistent pursuers and triggered another round of chase.
At that time he was still far away, the desert wind was strong, and shouting was useless. In the wind and sand, after a chaotic escape, he had actually gotten farther from Tie Ci.
He hadn’t expected this Crown Princess to actually pursue alone in the deep night and save him when he was almost in despair.
This gave Zhao San hope.
Ye Shiba—no, the Crown Princess—was truly benevolent and noble. She would definitely go save the young master.
But his master’s identity… could he tell?
If he told, it would inevitably involve the Liaodong royal court. The Crown Princess would understand she was going up against Prince Da’an.
Though the Crown Princess had excellent character, she had always prioritized the world and the greater good. Liaodong was an important frontier region. With her status, interfering without authorization—even Zhao San could imagine the consequences.
How could the Crown Princess not have concerns?
What if she sacrificed the young master for the sake of the world?
Zhao San didn’t dare take this risk.
So he quickly said: “Because our young master was humiliated by the royal family in his early years. His family’s property was even seized by people sent by the eldest prince. He wanted to reclaim his family property, so he allied with others and has been opposing the royal family. The other party promised him that as long as he could kill several princes, they would return his family’s property and arrange a future for him.”
“Allied with whom?”
“I don’t know either, but I guess it should be one of the other princes. After all, if several more princes die, the remaining ones have a better chance of ascending to the throne.”
“He doesn’t seem like someone who would take risks just for mere family property. Since he can kill princes, he must have considerable power. Why wade into these muddy waters?”
Zhao San muttered to himself—he knew he couldn’t fool this Crown Princess who had been immersed in royal affairs since childhood.
He raised his hand and swore: “My young master really killed those stupid pigs for his rightful family property! You must know, my young master isn’t someone who can suffer wrongs. When others seized his family property, how could he not retaliate? I swear on my life!”
It was originally family property.
When the Liaodong King annexed the Sun family, the national treasury grew by half.
Not to mention the private treasury piled up like small mountains.
Wasn’t the throne also the young master’s family property?
He swore without feeling guilty at all.
Tie Ci glanced at him, having no mind to probe deeper. She suddenly stood up: “Let’s go!”
Zhao San was overjoyed and got up to lead the way. Suddenly two people galloped from the distance, the first one shouting from afar: “Shiba, where are you going!”
Tie Ci stopped.
Only now did she suddenly remember—inside Yongping Pass, there was still great chaos. Di Yiwei had been implicated because of her. She had to return quickly!
When she stopped, Zhao San turned back, his eyes full of anxiety.
Looking back again, Qi Yuansi’s eyes were also full of worry and unease.
Tie Ci was stunned, enormous difficulty welling up in her heart.
Both sides were urgent as fire, yet both sides were far apart.
One side was the domestic situation, the military authority she had worked so hard for, and the general who had been framed because of her.
The other side was her heart’s desire—the one she cared about was suffering.
How can the world achieve both—not failing the state nor one’s love?
Author’s Note: End of the month! Dig around for monthly tickets! They expire and can’t be pickled to eat. Really.