Chapter 2: Fighting for Life, Caught!
"Since Your Highness has already set an ambush here, why should I waste my energy?" Qi Xin's voice was as fragrant as orchids, but there was a cold light in her eyes.
He Lianzhu glanced at her with a playful look in his eyes.
Qi Xin glanced at him sideways, her eyes full of sarcasm: "It is really thanks to your Highness's good subordinates that I now know the benefits of being a Superior Zero Blood!"
He Lianzhu was speechless, but a slight ripple appeared between his relaxed brows.
Qi Xin didn't know what He Lianzhu had urged, but he only felt that the blood in his body was slightly agitated again, and there was a faint voice in his mind urging him to do something.
She secretly controlled her breathing, suppressing her inner anxiety, and then spoke calmly, "I believe Your Highness must have put a lot of effort into cultivating this superior zero-blooded person like me. With such great effort, could it be that your country is unable to fight again and has to find another way?"
He Lianzhu was furious and said, "What nonsense!"
Seeing this, Qi Xin secretly pondered the sudden movement of the blood pill and said confidently, "Therefore, this concubine's new weapon is still in the running-in stage with Your Highness. It would be a waste to kill it here."
He Lianzhu was shocked when he heard this, and shouted, "Qi Xin, don't take yourself too seriously!"
Qi Xin smiled. What he knew was a mixture of truth and illusion, but it was also true that being able to express a conjecture was better than actual gold. At this moment, He Lianzhu's defenses had collapsed. It was time to seize this opportunity.
In a flash, she exerted her strength suddenly, elbowed the prince's guard beside her, ducked to avoid the sword's inertia, pulled out the whip from her waist, and swung it hard at the tall horse waiting beside her.
The horse was frightened and charged straight at He Lianzhu who was at the city gate. He Lianzhu's eyes were wide open and he couldn't dodge in time and was thrown over.
Qi Xin stepped on the stirrups and staggered onto the back of another horse.
With a whip, the horse rushed out whistling.
She had lost her lightness skill and her wrist veins were still broken, so she had to hold the horse's neck tightly with her forearms, which barely prevented her from being thrown off.
Qi Xin had been well versed in horsemanship since childhood, so the horse, under her training, quickly galloped in a certain direction. Unfortunately, she had never visited the Moon Kingdom before and did not know the way, so she had to run around aimlessly.
It was precisely because of her aimless running that she abandoned her horse halfway, took off her golden crown, removed her outer robe, rolled on the ground, and pretended to be a beggar.
Afterwards, she hid in a crowded place. After the prince's guards had searched her, she used the silver she had stolen while escaping to buy a horse and successfully got rid of the guards.
But in order to avoid their new round of surprise searches, she ate a few bites of naan and then galloped away on her horse.
The night was slightly dark, and Qi Xin saw a cluster of lights in the distance.
Guessing it looked like an inn, she dismounted, tightly grasped the last golden hairpin in her hand, hid it in her wide sleeves, and approached the inn with bated breath.
The Border Inn was indeed deserted. Qi Xin peered through the crack in the door for half an incense stick, and after confirming that there was only one female patron in the inn, he waited for his opportunity to act.
After a while, the female customer came to the door after cleaning, and Qi Xin rushed in at that moment. One arm tightened around the female customer's neck, and with the other hand, he pressed a golden hairpin against her temples, saying coldly, "Don't move!"
Surprisingly, the female customer didn't scream or struggle. She raised her hands high and said softly, "Young... Young man, young man, it's okay, it's okay, just spare my life."
Qi Xin looked down on people in his heart: The people of Yue Kingdom are all cowards who are greedy for life and afraid of death.
But she had no time to dwell on it. Besides, the horse she had just bought was already exhausted and needed a new one. She ordered bluntly, "Prepare a fast horse. You drive it and take me to the ferry crossing between Sheng and Yue."
Then, she leaned over to the female customer's ear and said in a deep voice, "Don't try to play tricks, or I'll make you unhappy. I'll poke a few bloody holes in your delicate neck, which wouldn't be good, don't you think?"
"I am a weak woman, I just want to live. I will take you away now."
Qi Xin held the female customer hostage throughout the entire process, not daring to slack off for even a moment. After seeing the familiar ferry, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After the two men dismounted, the female guest took a step back, knelt down, bowed politely, and said solemnly, "Her Royal Highness Princess Jialing."
Qi Xin felt a chill on his back, gripped the golden hairpin tightly, turned around and stabbed the female customer's throat fiercely.
But when she turned around, she found that the female customer was kneeling in a solemn ceremony. Her attack deflected, leaving a long and narrow bloody mark on the side of her neck.
The female customer's eyelashes didn't even flutter as she continued, "Your Highness, there's no need to doubt me. This place is safe for now. If I wanted to harm you, I would have done it long ago and wouldn't have brought you here."
Qi Xin was a little suspicious: "You are not a spy from the Yue Kingdom, how do you recognize this princess?"
"Those whose blood pills enter the marrow will develop red streaks in their pupils when the attack occurs. Presumably, Your Highness is the rumored successful recipient of Superior Zero Blood. When the blood pills fuse, there's a high probability of sudden death. Therefore, those who successfully fuse will be controlled by the Moon Nation court, while those who die suddenly will be left exposed in the wilderness."
"Then you know quite a lot." Qi Xin's tone was so sinister that it made people shudder. She recalled the young women who had died in the prison at the hands of wolves.
"I was also abducted and brought to the Moon Kingdom as a test subject for the Blood Pill. Although the fusion was successful, I only had 50% of it. However, they have rarely developed a person with more than 50% of the Blood Pill. Therefore, Your Highness is a priceless treasure to the Moon Kingdom."
"Oh? Then how did you escape?" Qi Xin asked.
"When I was young, I learned some skills to hold my breath and feign death. I was trapped under a corpse and carried out of Yuedu, and only then did I save my life. The power of my 50% blood pill can still protect myself. I thought I could save someone anyway, but it's like an ant trying to shake a tree."
"You are indeed a talented woman." Qi Xin's voice was full of sarcasm.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the neighing of war horses and the cry of cranes rushed into his cochlea.
"What a great show!" He Lianzhu rushed to the ferry with his army, clapping and cheering, "Look, my beloved, I and you are on the same path."
Qi Xin's back was slim and he smiled sinisterly, "Oh, you're worthy of this?"
He Lianzhu was somewhat helpless: "My beloved concubine really has a deep misunderstanding of me."
Qi Xin's black hair was scattered like raindrops, and she smiled a bloody smile. Her cold voice echoed by the river:
"The world is unfair, and heaven will not tolerate me. I would rather follow the blood pill into the underworld than share the mountains and rivers with jackals!"
Before she could finish her words, she jumped into the raging waves.
Then, the female customer plunged into the river without hesitation.
A salty smell of algae penetrated her nostrils. Qi Xin endured the intense discomfort and swam forward. The vine-like plants under her feet kept entangled with her, and she struggled hard to move forward.
After a while, she looked around and found that the female host and the pursuers behind her had disappeared.
She wondered: Do I really have such superb swimming skills?
Before she could fully recall the past, Qi Xin realized that she had been able to hear and see clearly since entering the water, and could even breathe underwater! She was astonished and completely examined the power of the blood pill.
Just now, judging from He Lianzhu's attitude, Yue Kingdom was really unable to fight again, but it was still unwilling to give up, so it tricked itself into coming to Yue Kingdom to conduct this shameful blood pill experiment with the Sheng Kingdom women it met in prison that day.
I am really lucky to be alive today.
Even if she were a princess, they would just come up with a random excuse to get away with it, like, for example, the princess missed her homeland, became depressed and died in a foreign land. My father, for the sake of the greater good, probably wouldn't pursue the matter.
Besides, Sheng State has always valued civil power over military power, and in recent years has relied on the old Duke Jingguo to fight and maintain peace. After the old Duke died in battle, it was the missing Duke Jingguo who had a chance to fight.
Since Chen Yu had the ability to inflict such heavy damage on the Yue Kingdom, how could he turn against the enemy in an instant?
The power of the blood pill is confusing and there is no telling when the war in Sheng State will break out again. Finding Chen Yu in the face of this unknown crisis is urgent.
As she was thinking about this, Qi Xin discovered that there was an extra sandalwood token on the inside of her inner garment. She stroked it and it was indeed a cloud-thunder pattern carving method and gold-stamping craftsmanship unique to Sheng State. Two words were clearly written on it - Frost Descent.
Is this the name of the female customer? Did she drop it accidentally?
This name is one of the 24 solar terms? How could someone come up with such a name?
But who would be so idle as to carve their name into a plaque and carry it with them?
Qi Xin was surprised and suspicious:
This is more like some kind of code word, but it was designed to suit the farming season and should not arouse suspicion.
Could it be that my father's training of the Shadow City Guards in recent years has made me nervous and everything I see seems to be some kind of secret organization?
But then again, if that is true, whose power would it be?
After a few minutes, she felt a sudden squeeze all over her body, water rushed back into her throat, and she felt suffocated.
It turns out that the power of the blood pill will eventually run out, and after that, not only will his body be no different from that of an ordinary person, it will even become weaker.
There is such a time bomb in my body, and I don’t know how long it can last.
She tried desperately to surface, but she felt a pair of invisible hands pulling her down, and her hands and feet gradually became weaker and weaker.
We are almost downstream.
The border of Sheng State is just around the corner, she can't give up now.
The surrounding scenery changed rapidly. Qi Xin forced himself to go ashore despite the dizziness. He had no idea that the border of Sheng State would be so desolate.
The sounds of stringed instruments disturb the ears, cuckoos cry and monkeys howl, overgrown trees grow, and wild grass is withered and silent.
There are only a few temples scattered across the entire wasteland, but they are covered with moss and are deserted.
Qi Xin stumbled and searched, feeling hungry and thirsty like a ghost.
At this moment, she faintly heard a few dog barkings, and then she ran towards the source of the sound as if she had a last glimmer of hope, and sure enough, she saw a village.
The house is warm and the smoke is rising.
She tried to push the gate gently, but she didn't know that the farmer was so careless that he still hadn't locked the gate at three o'clock in the morning.
Qi Xin entered quietly.
Although her clothes were soaked and covered in mud, she was still worried about being recognized. She left behind a gold hairpin and the sandalwood token, changed into the farmer's clothes that were drying in the outer courtyard, and then threw her extra clothes into the large brazier burning in the courtyard.
There was a rustling sound of people getting up at night in the house. Qi Xin, who was about to look for the kitchen, stopped and tried to dodge in panic.
For a moment, she didn't know what she stepped on, and she fell into a cold place with a "bang", smashing a jar, and a rich aroma of plum wine spread all over the place.
Falling from a height of half a meter, her already broken body became even more shattered.
She covered her bleeding forehead, and the night before her eyes became increasingly hazy.
At the same time, a cry came from the top of the cellar:
"who?"
Upon hearing this, Qi Xin looked towards the entrance of the cellar on top and saw an indigo figure covering the sky and the moon.
She was secretly shocked:
Oh no, we’ve been discovered. We must leave as soon as possible.
But before she could stand up, her vision went dark and she passed out.
The author has something to say:
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The subsequent chapters are already in draft form, and I hope my supporters will continue to pay attention!
Regarding the setting of the blood pill, its power and side effects are waiting to be explored.
What do you all think of Qi Xin? (Just me—the more I write about her, the more I want to cry.)
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