Chapter 72
Chapter 72
Ji Yan’an said, “I’ll send someone to investigate tonight.”
“However, you may need to lead the way.”
Jiang Yunsui puffed out her little chest. “Okay, I’ll take them there.”
She had wanted to sleep. She was so sleepy.
But when she thought of those girls crying so miserably, she decided she could hold on a little longer.
Ji Yan’an actually wanted to go as well, but he understood his current physical condition better than anyone. If he went, he would only be a burden.
Ji Yan’an deployed all of his hidden guard.
Jiang Yunsui did not have to walk herself. Ji Si carried her in his arms, using qinggong to fly back and forth through the forest.
“Wow…”
“I want to fly around too. Si Si, will you teach me when we get back?”
Ji Si said, “It’s very hard.”
Jiang Yunsui almost blurted out that she wasn’t afraid of hardship.
But then she remembered the sorry state she was in whenever she ran laps in the courtyard.
Uh…
“I still have to try first.”
What if she managed to stick with it? This was flying around, after all. To Little Mushroom, it was far too tempting.
“Over there! It’s over there!”
When she saw the mountain stronghold, Jiang Yunsui pointed toward the place where firelight flickered in the darkness, her little voice somewhat excited.
“How did we get here so fast?”
When she had come here before, it had taken her an awful lot of effort. Her legs had trembled several times, and she had only managed to treat her shaking, weak little legs with great difficulty using Imperial Flowing Essence.
The mushroom had been squeezed dry.
Little Mushroom glanced at tonight’s moon.
Mm. It was time for her to go moonbathing.
So, after Ji Si and the others went down to the bandit stronghold to investigate, Jiang Yunsui requested to wait for them here.
In any case, Jiang Yunsui’s main task right now was to lead the way for them.
“Don’t run around.”
Ji Si patted Jiang Yunsui’s tiny head, then vanished into the night with the others.
Jiang Yunsui chose herself a good spot, took a tree branch, stuck out her little bottom, and began digging a hole. Then she squatted inside to moonbathe, absorbing Moonlight Essence and converting it into Imperial Flowing Essence.
She did not know how much time had passed when movement suddenly came from not far away.
She thought Ji Si and the others had returned, and had just been about to speak when she realized something was wrong.
The language was wrong.
Little Mushroom hurriedly hid herself.
She poked her head out from behind a tree and saw several people emerging from a cave entrance in the mountain wall.
They were not speaking the language of the Central Plains, but the language of the Barbarians.
Jiang Yunsui had heard a little of it before at the teahouse.
She could not understand it, so she had no idea what they were saying.
Jiang Yunsui was so anxious she wanted to scratch her ears and cheeks.
She could only see people carrying several chests of things out of the cave.
Jiang Yunsui thought she should move closer and take a look.
After all, they could not see her.
After cheering herself on, driven by curiosity and her hatred of the Barbarians, Jiang Yunsui slowly approached.
This also allowed her to see clearly what was inside those chests. They were all weapons.
“Eighth Prince, should we take these weapons back now?”
Yelü Can nodded. “Be careful. Don’t let that dear imperial father of mine or my royal brothers find out.”
Suddenly, Yelü Can’s sharp gaze snapped toward a certain spot.
“Who’s there?”
He signaled to two of his subordinates with his eyes.
Jiang Yunsui held her breath. That man had shouted in her direction. Had she been discovered? Impossible!
While Jiang Yunsui’s thoughts were still in a jumble, Yelü Can’s two subordinates had already grabbed someone and dragged him out.
Jiang Yunsui stared blankly and thought, So it wasn’t me. Good thing I didn’t run.
“Third Chief, Third Chief, spare me! I… I didn’t hear anything!”
Yelü Can looked down at the person kneeling on the ground. “You’re one of the Second Leader’s men, aren’t you?”
He said this in the language of the Central Plains, so Jiang Yunsui understood it.
So that man was the mysterious Third Chief.
Yelü Can smiled cruelly. “Kill him. Aren’t there bears in the mountains? Toss him out there.”
In the next instant, the man lost his life.
Jiang Yunsui clamped both hands over her mouth, barely daring to breathe.
Please, please don’t let them find me.
Perhaps because he had been discovered, Yelü Can was afraid some other mishap might occur, so he ordered his men to hurry and take the weapons away.
As for him, he took two subordinates and looked around the area. Only after confirming there was no one nearby did he return to the secret passage.
He left just one man behind to bury and disguise the exit to the secret passage before departing.
Once everyone was gone, the woods fell quiet again.
Jiang Yunsui carefully stood up and went back to the little pit she had dug.
When would Si Si and the others come back?
Jiang Yunsui curled up in the little pit, pushed aside all those messy thoughts, and focused on absorbing Moonlight Essence.
Once she began absorbing it, she fell asleep.
While she slept, Ji Yan’an’s men were fleeing for their lives.
“Ji San, where the hell did you provoke all these hornets from?!”
Ji San shouted, “Don’t ask that right now! Just shake them off first!”
“Head for the bandit stronghold!”
And so the group led the dense swarm of hornets straight into the bandit stronghold.
They were dressed in night-walking clothes and their qinggong was excellent, so the sentries in the stronghold couldn’t detect them at all.
However, the stronghold also contained the Eighth Prince of the Barbarians, and at his side were death warriors similar to hidden guards.
The two sides attacked almost the moment they met.
Ji Si and the others had no interest in getting bogged down in a fight. After luring the hornets into the stronghold, they ran off in another direction.
Screams soon rang out from the stronghold.
“Hornets! How are there so many hornets?!”
“Quick, use torches! Smoke them out!”
It should have been the hour for sleep, yet the whole stronghold had descended into chaos.
And the people who had brought about all this chaos had long since vanished.
Taking advantage of the confusion, they also managed to get a rough sense of how many people were in the stronghold.
After Ji Si and the others withdrew, they headed straight for the village where Ji Yan’an was staying.
“Hiss… Why the long face? You were the fastest runner, kid. What, did a hornet sting you on the ass?”
Ji San, clutching his face, which had swollen up like a pig’s head, shot Ji Si a glance and grumbled furiously.
Ji Si frowned. “No. I just feel like we forgot something.”
But for the moment, he couldn’t quite remember what it was.
Not until they returned to the Young Master.
Ji Yan’an swept his gaze over them. “Where is Jiang Yunsui?”
Ji Si: …He remembered what they had forgotten.
Ji Yan’an had not expected that after sending out a whole group of people, every single one of them would come back swollen here or there from hornet stings.
And they had even lost someone!
Worse still, it was already daybreak.
Ji Yan’an pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling his headache flare up again.
“Go find Shen Qingzhu for some medicine first. Rub it on, then go bring her back!”
Meanwhile, Jiang Yunsui woke up to find her whole world collapsing.
Because the bandit stronghold had been attacked by hornets, and because outsiders had broken in-and a group of experts at that-they had sent people out overnight to search the mountain.
Three waves of people had already passed by the place where Jiang Yunsui was hiding.
She had been woken by the noise too. When she opened her eyes, she discovered she wasn’t lying in bed, but in the little pit.
So… it was already dawn. Where were Ji Si and the others?!!!
Little Mushroom was still worried that they might have run into danger in the stronghold, so she sneaked in to eavesdrop.
Only to hear the bandits say those people had run away. Run away!
They had run off without taking her. QAQ
Jiang Yunsui was so furious that she slipped into the bandits’ kitchen, found a bunch of food, and ate it all while grinding her teeth.
Mm. Mainly, though, she was hungry.