Chapter 180 Turning and Leaving
In the blink of an eye, the dozen or so assassins fell one after another in the snow.
In the end, only Shen Churong and Chen Yanqing remained, each holding one person hostage.
They pressed their knees firmly against each other's backs, held their heads down with one hand, and held a knife to their necks with the other.
To prevent them from biting their tongues and committing suicide, their jaws had already been removed.
At this moment, Li Yuanzhao slowly emerged from behind the shadows of the trees on the other side.
She walked step by step to the assassins who were pinned to the ground, looking down at them.
"Speak, who sent you?"
"Ugh... Ugh!"
The two kidnapped assassins made muffled struggle noises, but neither of them responded.
They are highly trained assassins who, from the moment they accept a mission, hold the belief that "it's all or nothing," and will never allow their master's identity to be revealed.
Seeing this, Li Yuanzhao only glanced at Shen Churong indifferently.
Shen Churong understood immediately, pressed down on his assassin's head and slammed it into the snow, while simultaneously swinging his longsword in his other hand.
With a "splatter" sound, fresh blood spurted out instantly, splashing onto the snow.
His technique was extremely swift; he severed the other man's head in the blink of an eye.
The body fell heavily to the ground, while the head slowly rolled to Li Yuanzhao's feet.
Its eyes were wide open, which was terrifying.
Li Yuanzhao raised his foot without changing his expression and stepped directly on the head, then turned to look at the other person.
The assassin was terrified by the bloody scene before him, his body trembling violently, his teeth chattering, and he mumbled incoherent pleas of "No... Don't..."
Li Yuanzhao stepped on the head and slowly bent down, getting close to him. Looking into his violently trembling pupils, he asked about each name one by one.
“Cui Shiliang? Consort Cui? Zheng Wenkai? His Majesty? Li Yuanyou?…”
Her eyes were fixed on the assassin's reaction.
But the assassin seemed to be terrified, his eyes unfocused and devoid of any emotion.
His pupils contracted almost imperceptibly only when Li Yuanzhao uttered the last name.
That subtle reaction happened to fall into Li Yuanzhao's eyes, giving her the answer.
A cold smile curled at the corner of Li Yuanzhao's lips.
She straightened up, no longer looking at the person, and said calmly, "It seems I underestimated my younger sister."
Upon hearing this, Chen Yanqing knew that His Highness had gotten what he wanted, and the dagger sliced directly across the assassin's throat.
Blood gushed out, the assassin groaned, and then died.
Shen Churong stepped forward, looked at the corpse on the ground, and frowned slightly.
"Your Highness, is it really the Third Princess? Why would she target you?"
In his memory, the Third Princess Li Yuanshu was just a spoiled little girl with no presence in the court. How could she have the audacity to send assassins to kill the Eldest Princess?
Li Yuanzhao sneered and kicked away the head at his feet. "I'm afraid her ambitions are greater than you and I can imagine."
Shen Churong felt a chill run down his spine and immediately understood.
It seems that this third princess no longer just wants to help her brother, but rather wants that position herself.
Under the cover of night, the three of them took advantage of the dense forest and, within two hours, unexpectedly eliminated most of the assassins.
Dawn was breaking, and the sun was slowly rising.
Li Yuanzhao looked up at the brightening sky, a hint of impatience flashing across his brows. "Why haven't your men arrived yet?"
She had no interest in continuing to play along with this group. Now that she knew who was behind it all, the rest of them were no longer of any use to her, so she might as well just kill them.
Shen Churong looked ashamed.
As agreed, the deputy general should have arrived with elite troops to provide support long ago.
Two hours have passed now, and regardless of the reason, it is a dereliction of duty.
It seems I'll have to give it a good talking-to when I get back.
Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly realized that he had tripped over something.
The next moment, Li Yuanzhao's expression changed drastically. He grabbed him, suddenly turned sideways and lunged to the side, hiding behind a tree.
Almost simultaneously, a whooshing sound suddenly came from the forest.
Traps had been set up among the branches of trees above the forest at some unknown time.
The rope they had just tripped over was the fuse of the mechanism.
The moment the mechanism was triggered, dozens of taut short arrows rained down on them like a storm.
The arrows covered the area where they had just stood, leaving no room to dodge.
Chen Yanqing, who was originally standing to Li Yuanzhao's right, was caught off guard and was instantly pierced through the thigh by a sharp arrow.
The force was so great that he was pulled forward and fell heavily onto the snow.
As he fell, he saw clearly that in that critical moment, Li Yuanzhao reached out to pull Shen Churong, not him.
After the rain of arrows stopped, Shen Churong saw Chen Yanqing lying in the snow behind a tree. His expression changed drastically, and he wanted to pull him up.
Li Yuanzhao simply said, "Let's go!"
The trap has been triggered, and the assassins already know their location.
If they bring along an injured person like Chen Yanqing, none of them will be able to leave.
Besides, he might not even die.
No sooner had he finished speaking than four assassins in black suddenly emerged from the woods ahead.
The assassins lay in ambush here all night, and finally, their efforts paid off.
Everyone stood ready, and all four crossbows were drawn simultaneously, their arrows aimed directly at them.
The lead assassin clearly knew that delay would lead to trouble, so without any further words, he directly ordered: "Fire the arrows!"
Before anyone could react, four long arrows were already flying towards them.
It all happened so fast that there was no time to react.
Shen Churong felt his blood freeze instantly, and almost instinctively, he tried to step in front of Li Yuanzhao to block him.
But there was someone who was faster than him.
It's unclear how Chen Yanqing, who was just lying on the ground, suddenly rushed out.
His movements were incredibly fast, like a shadow that suddenly appeared. He pounced straight at Li Yuanzhao, spreading his arms without hesitation and firmly blocking him.
Immediately following was the sound of several arrows piercing flesh one after another.
"Puff—puff—puff—"
One sound after another sent shivers down one's spine.
When Shen Churong came to her senses, she saw Chen Yanqing still standing steadily in front of Li Yuanzhao.
Four arrows had already pierced through his back and then emerged from his chest.
Blood was dripping down the arrow, staining a large patch of snow beneath his feet red.
Chen Yanqing didn't even glance at his own wounds, his eyes fixed on Li Yuanzhao in front of him with a complex expression.
Shen Churong stood frozen in place, staring at the scene before him, his mind blank for a moment.
Li Yuanzhao did not pause for a moment. Taking advantage of the moment when the assassins were changing their arrows, he directly drew four arrows from the quiver on his back and steadily nocked them on the bowstring.
Using Chen Yanqing as cover, she squinted, aimed, and released her finger—
Four arrows accurately pierced the throats of several assassins on the other side.
The four men in black didn't even have time to scream before they fell straight down, their crossbows clattering to the ground in the snow.
Only after confirming that all the assassins had been dealt with did Chen Yanqing finally give in, his legs buckled, and he collapsed backward into a pool of blood.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but could only cough out a breathy sound mixed with blood and foam.
Li Yuanzhao sheathed his bow, turned around, and left without even glancing at Chen Yanqing lying in the snow.
"This place is not safe to stay any longer, let's go!"
With such a commotion, staying here will only attract more assassins.
Shen Churong glanced at the dying Chen Yanqing and hesitated for a moment.
If we leave him here, he's definitely going to die.
In the end, he gritted his teeth, turned around, and followed Li Yuanzhao.
The two figures quickly disappeared into the depths of the dense forest, leaving Chen Yanqing alone lying on the snow.
The biting wind swirled snowflakes, which landed one by one on his pale face, but he could no longer feel the cold.
It turns out that in her heart, she not only could never be as good as Shen Churong, but she didn't even have the right to make her turn around and look at her.
His vision began to blur, but his eyes stubbornly remained fixed on the direction Li Yuanzhao had left, even though they were so blurred that he could no longer see anything clearly.
Chen Yanqing slowly closed his eyes. Before his last shred of consciousness dissipated, he seemed to see again the days and nights he spent by her side.
At that time, he naively thought that he could at least occupy a tiny place in her heart.
It turns out that it was all just wishful thinking on his part from beginning to end.
The snow started falling again, gradually covering the bloodstains on the ground, and also gradually covering the motionless figure lying in the snow.
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