Although no one in the Northern Rong delegation was injured, they were still frightened.

Yuanjue called the officials of the post station and asked them to send the delegation back to the post station for custody.

The official said in embarrassment: "If we detain the Northern Rong people without reason, what will we do if they become restless?"

Yuan Jue took out the confessions of his personal guards and Zhu Luyun and sneered: "Let them do whatever they want. With these things, even if Wakhan Khan comes to the holy city in person, these people will still be locked up!"

Seeing that he was confident, the official replied yes.

All the bodyguards were tied up and taken away. They found that each other's hands were intact and realized that they had been deceived. They started to clamor and said that Yao Ying had tortured them and their confessions could not be counted.

The official lifted the guards' robes and took a look, then said coldly, "You haven't even a scratch on your skin, how can you be tortured to extract a confession? This is a holy city, and the Buddha will not tolerate your cunning excuses!"

In front of the courtyard gate, Yao Ying walked slowly down the stairs surrounded by her personal guards, put on her veil, and mounted her horse.

Zhu Luyun rushed up with her skirt lifted up: "Qiniang... Li Xuanzhen he..."

Before she could go forward, the guards stepped forward to stop her. The scabbard blocked her lightly, and she swayed and fell backwards on the snow.

Yaoying sat on the horse's back, holding the reins tightly with one hand, and looked back at Zhu Luyun lying on the ground.

"Princess Fukang, have you forgotten what I just said?"

Zhu Luyun raised her head, an expression of humiliation and unwillingness on her face.

Yao Ying said word by word: "Princess, remember to stay away from me in the future. It's best to walk around me. My personal guards will not always be so polite."

The personal guard stepped forward and made a gesture of drawing his sword.

Zhu Luyun took a look at the long sword in the hand of her personal soldier and shuddered.

Yao Ying drove his horse forward a few steps, lowered the whip in his hand, and with a snap, he hooked Zhu Luyun's arm and pulled her up.

"Zhu Luyun, do you remember it?"

Zhu Luyun waved her arms, trying to break free from the whip, her face gloomy.

A crisp friction sound slowly rang out, and the long swords in the hands of the personal soldiers were unsheathed, and a cold air was pressing.

Zhu Luyun stopped struggling, gritted her teeth, and nodded.

Yao Ying said calmly: "What do you remember?"

Zhu Luyun suddenly raised her head and glared at Yaoying.

Yao Ying looked down at her, her face covered by a scarlet veil, revealing a pair of bright and calm pupils.

An inexplicable feeling of shame surged in her heart, and Zhu Luyun's face turned pale. She said angrily, "I will not pester Qi Niang anymore. When I see Qi Niang, I will stay away from you."

Yao Ying smiled and said, "You must remember this."

Zhu Luyun breathed a sigh of relief.

Yao Ying glanced at her and suddenly changed the subject: "Are you trying to say that Li Xuanzhen would avenge you? Just like that Mid-Autumn Festival when Li Xuanzhen killed my puppy to vent his anger for you?"

Zhu Luyun's body trembled, her lips pursed tightly, and her face turned pale.

That was a few years ago.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it was the hunting season. Young men in Wei County went hunting in groups in their fine clothes and on their horses. The girls also rode on their horses to join in the fun and enjoy the magnificent scenery of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the mountains. When Zhu Luyun saw the rich and powerful young men in gorgeous clothes galloping on the plains, she thought of the tragic decline of the Zhu family and was overwhelmed with sadness. She had an argument with the girl from the Li family. She was sad and angry at being ridiculed for living under someone else's roof. She left her followers and rode into the forest. She ran into Li Yaoying, who was out with Li Zhongqian to relax. She was frightened by her puppy and fell off the horse, injuring her hand.

Later, Li Xuanzhen came and drew his bow and arrow in front of Li Yaoying, and shot her puppy to death with his own hands.

Zhu Luyun was filled with grief and sorrow at the time. She only remembered that after her injury healed, she quarreled with Li Xuanzhen and ignored him for several months. She had long forgotten about the puppy.

It's just a dog.

Only when Li Yaoying mentioned it did Zhu Luyun remember the dog.

She looked very pale.

Yao Ying used her hands to pull Zhu Luyun to the front of the horse, leaned over, and looked her in the eye: "Zhu Luyun, when you see Li Xuanzhen, tell him that I am waiting for him to avenge you."

There has to be a conclusion between them.

Zhu Luyun slowly widened her eyes. Li Yaoying was not afraid of Li Xuanzhen?

Yaoying let go of the whip, turned the horse around.

Behind her, Zhu Luyun staggered a few times and fell to the ground.

Before she could get up, Yao Ying's personal soldiers walked up to her and glared at her coldly: "Madam Zhu, we heard what you said just now. Stay away from our princess in the future, otherwise, we will beat you every time we see you! We are rough people, and at most one life for another!"

Having said that, he slapped Zhu Luyun with the long knife in his hand.

The knife was fierce and Zhu Luyun was thirsty for human blood, and her heart was pounding with fear.

The tip of the knife, flashing with a cold light, stopped abruptly just inches away from her nose. The soldier sheathed the knife, sneered, turned around and strode away.

Zhu Luyun sat in the snow, still in shock, unable to recover for a long time.

The official of the post house came forward and motioned for Zhu Luyun to go back to the post house with him: "Princess, please."

Zhu Luyun looked around.

Since arriving in Yizhou, all the attendants she brought from the Central Plains were transferred away by her aunt. The guards who escorted her to the royal court were all her aunt's men. There was no one useful around her.

No one really cared about her, only Li Xuanzhen was obedient to her.

Zhu Luyun bit her lip, helpless and could only follow the officials and leave.

Deep in the long street, a few furtive figures poked their heads out, looked around, and whispered to each other.

"Hurry back and report to the princess!"

One person responded and ran towards the posthouse.

…

Before leaving the shop, Yao Ying picked out a few pieces of Persian brocade with linked bead patterns and asked her personal soldiers to deliver them to Wei Chi and his sister.

Yuchi Damo's two children were placed in the caravan. The siblings were now the nephews and nieces of a Persian merchant, and the people in the caravan did not know their true identities.

In the first few days after leaving Gaochang, Yao Ying received several letters from Yang Qian, but then they lost contact. The two places were separated by a desert full of gravel and a large area of ​​quicksand. It was very difficult to find the direction in the ice and snow. The only way was to use animal bones and camel dung as road signs, making it inconvenient to travel and difficult to communicate.

Now the most reliable way to deliver news is by caravan, but the caravan moves too slowly and the situation changes rapidly, so it takes them two or three months to deliver the news.

So Yao Ying still doesn't know what happened in Beirong these days.

For better or worse, Wakhan Khan must have blocked the news.

Yao Ying frowned in thought.

Yuan Jue followed her and saw that her brows were furrowed, so he didn't dare to say anything.

The team walked out of the long street and slowly headed north.

The voices faded away, the roadside was deserted, and a long wall stretched across the undulating rocks. Yao Ying came back to her senses from her thoughts and found that the rows of two-story buildings in the city were no longer visible around her.

She turned around and asked Yuan Jue: "Where are we going?"

After getting the confession, she prepared to go directly back to Wangsi.

Yuanjue replied, "Go to Shayuan."

"What is Sand Garden?"

Yuan Jue kept it a secret: "You'll know when the princess goes there."

Yao Ying raised her eyebrows.

Yuan Jue asked a few royal guards to return to the royal temple first to report the news, and took Yao Ying to continue heading north. They rode up the high earth cliff and came to a steep cliff. There was a flat earth platform on the cliff, covered with white snow and howling in the wind.

Yaoying wrapped herself tightly in her cloak and shivered from the cold.

Yuan Jue pointed to the valley below the earth cliff and said, "Princess, look, that's the sand garden."

Yaoying looked in the direction of his finger. There was a river flowing below the cliff. There was still a thick layer of ice on the river surface. There was a large open and flat snowfield on the river bank, with many undulating and neatly arranged conical piles of stones scattered across it.

"What is that?"

Yuan Jue said, "Those are eagle stumps. Old eagles only build their nests on cliffs and are difficult to tame. These are stone stumps for eagle chicks to rest their wings and look out. Now the eagles haven't returned to their nests yet. In the evening, these stumps will be filled with eagle chicks."

Yao Ying looked longing.

Yuan Jue continued, "Princess, Sand Garden is where the Royal Guards train hawks and falcons. The best hawks and falcons in the entire Congling Mountains are all here."

He paused and looked at Yao Ying.

"You can pick a hawk."

Yao Ying widened her eyes.

…

Half an hour later, Yao Ying returned to Wangsi with an eagle.

She held her anklets tightly all the way, fearing that she would accidentally let the eagle she had chosen run away.

She was worried about how to convey the message to Yang Qian and Wei Chi Damo. With this carrier eagle, she could solve the problem that was bothering her.

Yuan Jue was at a loss for words and said, "Princess, don't worry. The eagles in the sand garden are well-trained. Even if you loosen the shackles, they will fly back."

Yao Ying thought about it, but still didn't dare to let go of her fingers holding the eagle's ankle. She touched the eagle's wings and whispered, "What if this eagle doesn't like me and really flies away?"

Her expression was serious.

Yuanjue was stunned for a moment, then realized that she was really worried, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Yao Ying knew that he was making fun of her. She curled her lips slightly and smiled, feeding the eagle on her shoulder a piece of dried meat.

She had chosen this eagle herself. Its feathers were dark black with an inky sheen, and there was a touch of soft golden feathers on each of its wings. The bottom of its wings was snow-white, and when its wings were spread, its sharp claws and beak made it look majestic.

When Yuanjue took her to choose a carrier pigeon, she picked this one at first sight.

Several people returned to the royal temple from the side door guarded by the Guards. The eagle on Yao Ying's shoulder attracted a lot of attention.

Jinwei led Yaoying and Yuanjue to see Tanmarajiva.

A tall figure was wandering in front of the corridor. When he saw Yaoying, he came towards her. His eyes fell on the black eagle on her shoulder and he was stunned.

"General Ashina!"

Yaoying quickened her pace, walked over to him with a smile, and let him see the eagle she had chosen.

"Thank you, General, for your generous gift of the eagle."

Yaoying smiled and said that Yuanjue had told her that the Sand Garden and the Beast Garden in the Holy City were both under the jurisdiction of Bisu, and that this eagle was a gift from Bisu to her.

Ashina Bisha looked bewildered.

Yuanjue stood behind Yaoying, pointed at the eagle, then pointed at the top of his head, and made a gesture of putting his hands together. He kept winking at Bisha, blinking his eyelids so much that his eyes almost rolled out.

The king had ordered that the princess need not be told that the eagle was given by him.

Bi Suo narrowed her eyes slightly, understood, raised the corners of her mouth, and said with a smile: "As long as the princess likes it."

There was a hawk stand under the front porch. Yao Ying put the black hawk on it, tied its legs, and fed it dried meat.

Ashina Bisu stood beside her, stretched out his hand to tease the black eagle, and just as he raised his arm, he sighed.

Yao Ying glanced at him and saw that he was not pretending, so she asked with concern: "I heard from Yuan Jue that the general was injured a few days ago. Is the general feeling better now?"

Bi Suo smiled and patted her arm: "I accidentally scraped a little skin, but it's almost healed now."

He raised his other hand and touched the black eagle.

"Has the princess named it yet?"

Yao Ying pointed at the dazzling golden color on the eagle's wings and said with a smile, "When it rises, we'll call it General Jin."

Bisa laughed, thinking that the princess would give herself an elegant name like "Chasing the Wind" or "Ling Yun".

Yao Ying remembered something and asked, "What does the wizard's eagle call?"

She seemed to have never heard Tanmaraka call his eagle out loud.

Bisha replied, "The king did not give the eagle a name, but the central army guards and the people of the royal court privately called it Kalura."

Yao Ying chuckled. Kaluga was the king of birds in legend, and Tanmaragha's eagle was a divine bird in the eyes of the people.

As the two were talking, there was a sudden commotion in the front yard. The monk-soldier was entangled with someone, and the sound of their footsteps was chaotic.

The quarrel became louder and louder, and a guard walked quickly through the corridor with a serious look on his face.

Bi Su called him, "Who is making noise outside?"

The guard trotted over to him and whispered something.

Bi Suo's expression changed slightly, he frowned and glanced at Yao Ying.

"Princess, please go to the side hall and sit down. The king has important matters to attend to."

He signaled Yuanjue to take Yaoying away.

Yao Ying didn't ask any more questions and immediately took Black Eagle out.

She had just turned around the corridor when a large group of people came from the other end. Judging from their clothes, they all seemed to be royals and nobles.

Bi Su walked towards those people and asked them something in a low voice.

The faces of those people were excited, and they didn't bother to talk to him in detail. They all said in unison: "Where is the king? We want to see the king!"

"Don't let anyone stop me!"

"There is no time to waste. We are just waiting for the king's order!"

"Is the king afraid? If the Sultan dies, the king will be unable to shrink back?"

Bi Suo couldn't hold back the crowd and his face became gloomy.

A group of people rushed forward, opened the felt curtain, and rushed into the main hall.

The monk soldiers in the corridor did not step forward to stop them.

Yaoying withdrew her gaze and followed Yuanjue to the side hall.

The side hall and the main hall were separated by a courtyard with several layers of solid stone walls. However, Yao Ying, who was sitting by the fireplace in the house, could still hear the noise coming from the main hall.

For a full half hour, the sounds of quarreling, cursing, and yelling passed through the wall and echoed in the empty courtyard.

Yuan Jue looked worried and would stand up and look outside from time to time.

Seeing that he was restless, Yao Ying said, "I'll wait here and not go anywhere. Go to Fozi and see if you can help."

Yuan Jue shook his head: "The king asked me to protect the princess. I cannot leave the princess without the king's order."

He looked nervous, with a sword in his hand, and walked back and forth in the room. After walking for an unknown number of times, the noise gradually died down.

After a while, there was a knock on the door.

The monk soldier with a sword walked into the room and gestured to Yaoying: "Princess Wen Zhao, General Ashina invites you to come over."