Chapter 188 Attack

As soon as dawn broke, the Regent's Palace convoy was ready and set off in a grand procession toward the city gate.

Shen Qingci sat solemnly inside the carriage in front.

The corpse, which had already been disguised as Chu Jichen, was placed separately in a more spacious and comfortable carriage in the back, under the pretext that "the prince is unconscious and needs to lie down and rest."

As expected, the convoy was stopped by the guards on duty as soon as it arrived at the city gate.

"I am ordered to leave the city! Who dares to stop me?"

Shen Qingci abruptly lifted the carriage curtain, holding the bright yellow imperial edict high in her hand, her phoenix eyes filled with power, her voice cold and piercing!

The garrison commander was intimidated by her imposing manner. He was taken aback at first, but then he braced himself and stepped forward, bowing to the carriage: "Your Highness, please forgive me! This humble general... this humble general is only acting under orders and needs to... verify something."

As he spoke, he reached out to lift the curtain of the carriage behind him.

But before his hand could even touch the curtain, a cold longsword was already silently placed across his neck!

Yuanbao's figure had appeared beside him without him noticing.

The captain was so frightened that his whole body stiffened, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back!

He subconsciously lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, and with just one glance, he saw the Regent inside the carriage, who was "pale-faced and unconscious"!

He dared not conduct any further inspection, so he quickly lowered the carriage curtain, scrambled to the side, and shouted, "Let them through! Let them through now!"

The carriage slowly started moving again and drove out of the city gate.

Inside the carriage, "Wanqing" seemed to breathe a long sigh of relief, patting her chest and saying, "That was close! That was close! I was really scared to death just now!"

Shen Qingci smiled and calmly poured herself a cup of tea.

"This kind of open and aboveboard inspection is hardly dangerous," she said slowly. "It's just that by virtue of one's status and imperial decree, one can gain an advantage over others."

“The truly dangerous ones,” a cold glint flashed in her eyes, “are those…unseen enemies lurking in the shadows.”

As if to prove her words, the caravan had just left the city and traveled about a mile or two when it entered a secluded, dense forest.

A royal guard suddenly appeared outside the carriage window like a ghost!

"Your Highness!" His voice was filled with unprecedented urgency and panic. "Something terrible has happened! The escort team... the team escorting the Prince has been attacked!"

Shen Qingci's face turned deathly pale in an instant!

The fake "Wanqing" beside her also changed her expression!

"What exactly happened?!" Shen Qingci's voice trembled.

The guard, panting heavily, hurriedly reported, "Just now, the funeral procession was ambushed when it reached the 'One Line Sky' valley, three miles outside the city!"

"We only heard a loud bang, and then... someone blocked the way from both sides of the valley with rolling stones and launched an attack!"

"Stones kept rolling down the mountain, making it impossible to proceed. My men immediately leaped up to clear them away. Little did they know... this was a trap to lure us away from the mountain!"

"As soon as our people went up the mountain, down below... immediately someone below released a large amount of poisonous smoke!"

"The valley was narrow, with only one path. We immediately turned back, preparing to retreat through the entrance, only to find that the entrance we had just passed through was blocked. The brothers escorting the prince had nowhere to escape, and they were all... poisoned!"

"This isn't over yet!" The guard's voice was filled with deep-seated hatred. "There are even secret passages and caves hidden on both sides of the valley!"

"By the time our men saw what was happening below and hurriedly turned back from the mountaintop, the bandits hiding in the cave had already taken advantage of the chaos to... carry the prince's coffin into the cave! They even left several assassins to cover their retreat at the cave entrance!"

"By the time we finished off all those assassins and rushed back into the cave, they had already vanished!"

"How could... how could this happen?!" Shen Qingci's body trembled violently uncontrollably, her eyes filled with disbelief, terror, and despair. "My arrangements... were so meticulous, why... why did this still happen?"

“Your Highness,” the guard’s voice grew heavier, “the other teams we used to mislead the enemy are all safe and sound. Only… only the team escorting ‘the Prince’ was ambushed.”

"The fact that the other side laid such a meticulous trap clearly means... they had already received accurate information about our plan!"

"The news... has leaked!" Shen Qingci's eyes instantly turned icy cold!

She clenched her hands tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.

Her voice trembled slightly: "Who? Who kidnapped the 'Prince'? And where is he now?"

As she spoke, her eyes never left the fake "Wanqing" beside her.

Wanqing's face was also filled with shock and horror, and beneath her tightly furrowed brows, there was a hint of confusion and panic that even she herself did not notice.

This isn't the message her master gave her!

Where did the plan go wrong?

Or is it... the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind? Has someone else gotten there first?

She quickly recovered from her shock and, seeing Shen Qingci's bewildered expression, stepped forward and asked anxiously, "Your Highness! What... what should we do now? Should we... should we continue to Medicine Valley?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Qingci seemed to have all her strength drained away, and slumped down onto the soft couch.

"Go to Medicine Valley...what for?" Her voice was filled with endless sorrow and despair.

"The escort team was originally there to cover the prince. Now... the prince is missing, his fate unknown, so... what are we still going to Medicine Valley for?"

She remained silent for a long time before slowly raising her head, a final stubbornness flashing in her bloodshot eyes.

"move on!"

"I must go...to the valley where the prince had his accident, and take a look!"

"Perhaps we can find some clues."

Upon hearing this, a subtle, unusual glint flashed in Wanqing's eyes, but she said nothing more and could only agree.

Shen Qingci immediately stopped delaying and hurriedly urged the coachman, leading a group of guards from the Prince's Mansion, to speed towards the "One Line Sky" valley.

The carriage bumped along the rugged mountain road for nearly an hour before the narrow, deep valley, as if cleaved by a giant axe, finally came into view.

Just as the guard had said, the entrance to the valley was completely blocked by countless boulders of varying sizes, leaving only a scene of utter devastation.

A faint, pungent smell, similar to sulfur, still lingered in the air.

Wanqing frowned: "This is...using explosives?"

Shen Qingci nodded, took a deep breath, and gave a solemn order to the guards behind him:

"Someone! Move these stones away!"

"yes!"

The guards immediately obeyed and stepped forward. They were all elites trained by Chu Jichen, each with extraordinary skills and immense strength. Even so, they still expended a great deal of effort to face the mountain of boulders.

Finally, after nearly an hour, the tightly blocked stone wall was cleared, creating a narrow passage that one person could pass through.