Qi Yuan held her bow steady, she didn’t even blink as she loosed five arrows in a row at Qi Wang.
Qi Wang was so furious it felt like he was going to shatter his molars from clenching his jaw.
He reflexively remembered how Qi Yuan had once fired at him like this when she was chasing him down for the Xie family, multiple arrows in rapid succession, knocking him off his horse and breaking his leg.
Speaking of legs… it was starting to ache again now.
But if it broke again this time, there would be no Divine Doctor Xue to miraculously heal it. No Daoist Li to track down miracle medicine from the Western Regions.
He gritted his teeth, bore the pain in his back, and staggered a few steps backward. His personal guards surged forward to shield him and hurriedly retreated.
One after another, bodies began to fall.
Qi Yuan’s mounted archery was top-tier; within mere moments, five or six elite guards had already been shot down.
Xiong Liangyong was terrified out of his wits, he felt as if his heart had been seized by fear. As more and more guards collapsed beside him, he stumbled, his legs nearly giving way.
Just then, an arrow whistled past his ear like a meteor.
For a moment, he forgot how to breathe and shrieked hoarsely, “Your Highness!”
Qi Wang instinctively dove forward. The arrow sank deep into a guard’s shoulder, driving him several steps ahead before he collapsed to the ground.
Xiong Liangyong stood frozen in shock.
Where did they find such a terrifying archer?!
In disbelief, he turned to look, only to see that young woman pulling out another handful of arrows from her quiver.
His soul nearly fled his body.
“Run! Run, quickly!”
He never imagined in his worst nightmares that he, the dignified Prefect of Jiangxi, would end up fleeing like a criminal.
No more political maneuvering, no more clever games, this was a clean and brutal execution.
She fought like a bandit, wild and direct.
By the time they reached the tunnel and shut the exit behind them, Xiong Liangyong was drenched in sweat. His back was soaked through.
He coughed a few times before he could speak again: “Your Highness… who is she, really?”
Qi Wang’s expression was dark and unfathomable, either he hadn’t heard or simply didn’t want to answer.
Eunuch Feng rushed to check on him.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
He was trembling too, after all, this was his first time going through something like this.
Especially when Qi Yuan said she’d read the blueprints in the study. Didn’t that mean she knew both the entrance and exit of the escape tunnel?
Of course she knew. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been lying in wait.
Thinking of Qi Yuan’s terrifying skills and the chaos in the estate before they escaped, Eunuch Feng was close to breaking down: “Your Highness, what do we do now?”
They couldn’t stay in the tunnel forever. If Xiao Yunting’s men surrounded one end and Qi Yuan blocked the other, they’d be trapped like fish in a barrel.
At that thought, Qi Wang’s face suddenly darkened, he’d clearly realized the same thing.
Xiao Yunting had brought his troops and nearly burned down the estate, while Qi Yuan had staked out the tunnel’s exit.
He honestly didn’t know which side would be better to face.
Or rather, he didn’t know whose hands he was going to die by.
Those filthy adulterers!
He suddenly turned to Eunuch Feng, who looked like a panicked ant on a hot plate, and calmly asked, “There’s gunpowder in this tunnel, isn’t there?”
Eunuch Feng jumped, then quickly nodded: “Y-Yes! A few crates of unfinished fire lances…”
Qi Wang let out a low grunt and suddenly sat down against the wall.
“Then we wait.”
Wait?
Eunuch Feng stared at him in panic, unable to guess what he meant.
Xiong Liangyong, meanwhile, was still scrambling for ideas: “Your Highness, we still have a few dozen guards left, let’s fight again!”
He took a deep breath.
“We won’t go back, we charge out! With this many people, surely we can beat one woman! Right? What happened earlier doesn’t count, we were just caught off guard!”
Qi Wang sneered: “This many people, and we really can’t beat her. Unless…”
Xiong Liangyong looked at him in confusion, waiting for him to finish.
Qi Wang’s face darkened.
“Unless we all go down together.”
He stood up and ordered someone to pile the defective gunpowder near the tunnel entrance. His voice was icy: “Open the door. Don’t worry about me. I only want that woman dead.”
Nothing else mattered now.
Even death didn’t scare him anymore.
Things had gone too far. Xiao Yunting had torched his estate. Qi Yuan had already taken the secret letters.
There was no path to victory left.
Even if he survived, it would be a shameful, crawling existence.
And he would not spend the rest of his life groveling beneath others.
If he was going to die, he’d drag them all to h*ll with him.
Xiong Liangyong reached out to stop him, but Qi Wang flung him aside and walked calmly toward the tunnel exit.
Xiong Liangyong turned to his legal aide in a panic: “What is His Highness trying to do?!”
The aide was pale as death, his voice shaking: “My lord… I fear His Highness intends to die… and take them all with him.”
Just as he spoke, a massive explosion roared from the tunnel entrance.
Xiong Liangyong barely stayed on his feet, clutching the wall in shock.
“Was that His Highness?! Is he okay?!”
Qi Wang stood there, face like iron, staring at the tunnel entrance. Pain pulsed behind his eyes, pounding at his temples, making him want to scream.
Eunuch Feng grabbed him and shouted, “Your Highness, run!”
With a thunderous crash, the tunnel gate collapsed, burying all the gunpowder crates beneath it.
Outside, Xiao Yunting stood calmly, watching the dust settle. He greeted him with mock surprise: “Royal Uncle, what are you doing here?”
Qi Wang glared at him, the corner of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.
Then, in a flash, he lunged at Xiao Yunting with a blade.
Xiao Yunting flipped through the air and kicked Qi Wang square in the shoulder. The blade nearly flew from Qi Wang’s hands. He barely managed to regain balance, shaking his aching arm and giving a cold, mocking laugh: “It’s fine. As long as I’ve got you with me, I haven’t lost.”
Then he smirked, eyes drifting toward the soldiers behind Xiao Yunting.
Qi Yuan and Xiao Yunting could guess anything, but they’d never suspect there was a traitor among Xiao Yunting’s troops.
