Chapter 40 Blood Hibiscus: Letter
I will protect you
As dawn broke, the four had already prepared themselves. Because it was a secret mission and Xie Xingzheng had been stripped of his military power, they could not make a scene and had to leave the capital discreetly.
Therefore, only a very ordinary carriage was prepared for this trip, with an interior that was neither luxurious nor comfortable. Only two horses were tied to the front of the carriage, and three people had to squeeze into the small compartment. However, Xiao Fangliang, who was usually very picky, did not utter a single complaint today, and Tang Yu couldn't help but make a couple of jokes.
Wang Shanyue was in charge of driving the car, and before it was fully light, the group quietly drove out of the city gate.
However, Xu Lian, the deputy general who was supposed to be guarding Zhongjing, rode up to catch up with them shortly after they left the city.
"Young General, Young Master Su." He clasped his hands in a salute and took out an unopened secret letter from his pocket. "The Wangyuan Escort Agency received this letter almost immediately after you left."
According to Xu Lian, when Wang Yunxi received the letter, she initially thought it was addressed to someone in the escort agency. However, the letter had no seal, only a tiny red stamp in the corner. After examining it for a long time, she finally recognized it as the character "Tang". Feeling that the letter might be related to their trip, she specifically asked Xu Lian to deliver it.
Tang Yu took the envelope, but a strange feeling arose in her heart.
Isn't this timing too coincidental?
The wheels rolled smoothly along the official road on the outskirts of Beijing, but as she opened the letter, she inexplicably felt a little dizzy.
She recognized the handwriting at a glance; it was indeed written by the Tang Clan leader himself. However, it contained only six simple characters:
The condition has changed; return home immediately.
The words were short, yet she stared at them for a long time. Her fingertips traced each word carefully, repeatedly checking the letter and envelope. Finally, her gaze fell on the edge of the seal, on a faint mark almost invisible to the naked eye.
She brought the letter close to her nose and sniffed it carefully; it smelled like rust, similar to blood.
Seeing his somber expression, Xiao Fangliang asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the letter?"
Tang Yu's tone showed little worry or tension, but rather a hint of doubt: "The poison suppressed in my younger brother's body seems to be showing signs of flare-up... It's just strange, why was this letter sent to Wangyuan Escort Agency?"
"Is there something wrong with the messenger?" Xie Xingzheng turned his head to look, but because he was blind, he could not pinpoint her location.
Tang Yu shook his head, then remembered that he was blind and explained, "It's not the person, but the method. If the Tang Clan had an urgent summons, wouldn't it be faster to send someone to find us? Why rely on just a letter? Moreover, if it was delivered by someone from the sect, why didn't they show themselves and travel back to Shu with us?"
She folded the letter and put it back in her bosom, then looked up at the shady branches of the trees, feeling an indescribable heaviness in her heart.
"They even sent it to the Wangyuan Escort Agency. Isn't that a bit too precise?"
Tang Yu's question wasn't out of doubt about the Tang Clan's intelligence capabilities, but rather because she knew her own people too well. The Tang Clan would never hastily summon her back with just six words without informing her of her brother's situation. Nor would they naively believe that simply recalling a junior like her could resolve Tang Yang's sudden illness.
This letter was as if someone knew she possessed hibiscus petals that could cure all poisons.
Xie Xingzheng asked in a deep voice, "You suspect that this letter did not come from the Tang Clan?"
“The handwriting and the paper match.” Tang Yu breathed a sigh of relief, looked up and his expression had returned to normal, and he even smiled. “Right now, we should head to Sichuan first, and then everything may be resolved.”
Xie Xingzheng pondered for a moment before suggesting in a low voice, "On this trip, we should try to avoid the main roads and take the side roads instead."
Xiao Fangliang tapped the car door with the umbrella handle.
Wang Shanyue immediately responded, "Okay."
He became serious, flicked his wrist, tightened the reins, and the carriage sped up a bit.
*
Three days later, after crossing a ridge, the group entered a dense forest path. Here, the trees were hundreds of feet tall, their trunks covered with thick moss. The sunlight was dim, the fog obscured their vision, and the cold, damp air seemed to penetrate every inch of their skin.
This is Sichuan, a place with more rain than sunshine; one could even jokingly say that "Sichuan dogs bark at the sun."
Although I've been traveling along side paths these past few days, none of them have been as teeming with insects and beasts as this forest, many of which I've never seen before. Occasionally, strange cries could be heard, making even the mountains and hills feel uneasy, so I slowed down my driving.
"Is this road... really passable?" he couldn't help but ask in a low voice.
Tang Yu lifted the carriage curtain, her gaze piercing through the layers of forest shadows, and in the distance, she could see undulating mountain lines faintly visible in the depths of the mist, with the shape of Yunling Mountain in mind. An overwhelming longing for home welled up within her, and her eyes became slightly moist.
Immediately, he softly uttered two words: "Naturally."
All of this was commonplace to her, because she grew up here.
However, as the carriage ventured deeper into the forest, the damp, cold wind that greeted them carried a faint, undetectable fishy odor, like the rotten mud at the bottom of a river where the sun never shines.
It was an aura of death.
Tang Yu, who had been slightly relieved because of the safe journey, became alert again at this moment.
She immediately rose, lifted the curtain, and gestured for Wangshanyue to be quiet. She then sat down to the side, intently observing the movements in the woods.
Suddenly, I noticed the grass blades swaying slightly; it was a glistening silk thread, glistening with dewdrops, drifting slowly in the wind. Following the thread, I saw a black spider, about the size of a red bean, crawling at the end of it.
One, two... no!
Tang Yu's pupils contracted sharply; there were far more than just a few. The grass on both sides of the road was densely covered with these small black spiders, leaving spider silk all along the way.
The spiderwebs crisscrossed, as if weaving a dense net, and within the net were the four people in the carriage.
The murderous aura suddenly arrived, and Tang Yu, almost without thinking, abruptly reached out and pushed Wang Shanyue away.
The next instant, a silver light pierced the sky!
A silver Miao sword flashed out from the forest, narrowly missing the two men, and slammed heavily into the front railing of the carriage. The front of the carriage was split open, wood chips flew everywhere, and the frightened horse neighed and reared up. Even though Wang Shanyue tried his best to control the reins, the carriage still lurched violently and almost overturned.
In that critical moment, Xie Xingzheng, though blind, instantly sensed the murderous intent and reacted with astonishing speed. He grabbed Xiao Fangliang and pulled him safely out of the car, using the wrecked vehicle as cover to shield him behind him.
Several dark figures suddenly appeared in the woods. Tang Yu's eyes darkened, and her brows furrowed.
Those dark figures were less like people and more like puppets bound in black cloth. Their eyes were empty and lifeless, filled only with a chilling deathly aura; their exposed skin was pale and withered, like the bark of a dead tree, the epitome of utter exhaustion. Yet they moved with the speed of ghosts, rushing forward with Miao swords in hand.
"What the hell..." Wang Shanyue cursed under his breath, then drew his sword to meet the attack. A flash of cold light, and the blade clashed with the strange man's weapon.
Tang Yu immediately raised his hand and flicked his sleeve, sending several hidden weapons flying out and accurately piercing the vital points of those dark figures. Strangely, they only paused for a moment, then seemed to feel no pain or sensation, and continued their attack.
Tang Yu's heart skipped a beat: Something's not right! These aren't living people at all!
Almost simultaneously, Xie Xingzheng caught the sound of the wind with his hearing, swung his sword to block the dark figure that suddenly appeared behind him, and the longsword pierced the enemy's chest with a sharp slash. Black blood splattered out, but the dark figure remained expressionless and was even able to raise his sword to counterattack.
Xie Xingzheng was clearly caught off guard and hurriedly pulled Xiao Fangliang aside, only to sense another murderous aura suddenly approaching from his left. Caught in a pincer attack, he had only one sword in his hand!
Xie Xingzheng frowned, intending to forcefully break through the meridians sealed by Tang Yu and use his internal energy to repel one of them.
"Control the front!"
Tang Yu's cold, sharp voice instantly dispelled the dangerous thoughts in his mind.
Xie Xingzheng raised his sword and swung it through the air, knocking away the black figure rushing towards him, sword and all. The sword that should have landed on him missed, failing to harm him in the slightest.
The instant she cried out, Tang Yu immediately flipped over, spinning in mid-air as if suspended in mid-air, and deftly pulled a long, gleaming whip from the hem of her clothes. The whip was inlaid with extremely fine iron wire, which shimmered with a chilling light in the interplay of light and shadow.
The whip flashed like a silver snake, deftly wrapping around the waist of the dark figure to Xie Xingzheng's left. Tang Yu flicked her wrist, tightening the whip sharply. The dark figure was instantly pulled off course, and the Miao sword naturally missed its mark.
The combined force of the whip pulled the shadowy figure toward Tang Yu, while she also crashed into the shadowy figure.
In the instant the two crossed paths, Tang Yu freed one hand and swiftly tore a strand of dark hair from her head. Her movements were swift and ruthless; in a flash, it wrapped around the Gu man's neck, just as she had single-handedly killed the giant lizard at the Beauty Ruins, using the momentum to tighten her grip!
Using the momentum, the black silk thread pierced deep into the flesh, cutting into the bone. Blood seeped from the severed neck, but surprisingly little. She retracted the whip and kicked out with the force of the kick. The black figure was instantly decapitated, its head and body falling into the grass on either side.
Tang Yu landed gracefully beside Xie Xingzheng, her movements elegant and composed.
The strange man's headless limbs could still move, but he struggled for only a moment before losing all life. The head in the grass, however, remained expressionless and lifeless on its pale face.
Tang Yu's heart sank. If killing even one person required such effort, they feared they would perish here today.
Even though she thought this way, she still whispered a promise: "I will protect you."
Xie Xingzheng was taken aback upon hearing the sound.
He did not doubt the truthfulness of her words, after all, she had just protected him.
Even though he was blind and could only hear the sound of whips and wind, he could still imagine how she, with her clothes fluttering, wielded a long whip and stopped all the murderous intent for him.
If he could see it, who knows what kind of heart-wrenching message it would have.
"Seal their throats!" Tang Yu shouted, alerting Wang Shanyue, who was not far away.
He immediately understood, and with a flash of sword light, his longsword plunged straight into the shadowy figure's throat. Sure enough, the strange creature swayed a few times, then collapsed to the ground like a puppet without its strings.
Wang Shanyue then leaped to the side of the three, and worked in perfect harmony with Tang Yu. Using the throat-sealing technique, they killed several more strange men in an instant.
Before they could catch their breath, Tang Yu suddenly realized that more and more black spiders were appearing around them, swarming in and spinning silk along the branches.
As the number of spiders increased, the silk became more visible. Tang Yu was then horrified to realize that her initial thought that the silk was a dense web that had captured them was completely wrong. The thread stretched deep into the forest, forming a road sign pointing directly to their location.
We can't stay here!
Tang Yu's heart, which had just relaxed slightly, jumped again. She immediately made a decision, grabbed Xie Xingzheng's hand, and shouted towards Wang Shanyue, "Take the men and leave quickly!"
Wang Shanyue was puzzled, but he cooperated perfectly, picking up Xiao Fangliang in his arms, and the four of them split into two pairs and fled.
Initially, the four fled in the same direction. However, Wang Shanyue was not familiar with the mountain path and they strayed from each other several times, but soon reunited with Tang Yu.
It was this occasional, brief separation that made Tang Yu suddenly realize the problem:
Those spiders seem to be only chasing this side!
A chill ran through her heart, and her mind raced.
Is it an iron box? Or the Gu poison within Xie Xingzheng's body? Or perhaps...?
Is it her blood?
[Author's Note]
Tang Yu (laughs): A beauty saves the hero!
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