Tao Zhu:
“He left the city gates a quarter of an hour ago. I don’t know when he’ll be back. I couldn’t find out.”
She didn’t know when he’d be back?
If he were to be gone for another month or two… Lin Ting immediately closed the fabric store’s door, pulled Tao Zhu into the carriage, and chased after him out of the city.
At first, Tao Zhu thought Lin Ting was returning to the Lin residence, but when the carriage passed through the city gates after being inspected by the guards, she realized they weren’t heading home, they were leaving the city to chase after Duan Ling.
The carriage moved quickly, and the ride was bumpy.
Tao Zhu held onto the window ledge to steady herself: “
Seventh Miss, are you going to see Lord Duan off again?”
Lin Ting held onto the other window ledge:
“No, I want to ask Duan Ling when he’ll be back.”
Tao Zhu was puzzled:
“If it’s just to ask that, you could also go to the Duan residence and ask Third Miss Duan. As Lord Duan’s sister, she should know when he’ll return.”
“If you couldn’t find out, it means the Northern Imperial Guard Bureau doesn’t want outsiders to know this time. She won’t know either. I have to catch up with Duan Ling and ask him myself.”
Whether he would tell her or not was another matter.
Lin Ting urged the coachman to go faster.
Suddenly, the coachman pulled the horse to a stop and drove into a hidden spot, lowering his voice:
“Seventh Miss, something’s happened up ahead.”
Lin Ting lifted the curtain and looked outside.
Ahead was a dense bamboo forest, with bamboo leaves rustling and falling, swirling in the air before landing on the body of a dead horse.
A few steps away, Duan Ling was surrounded by a dozen men in black.
For some reason, Duan Ling didn’t resist and was tied up with ropes by the men in black.
Tao Zhu also saw this and turned pale with fear.
She reached out to pull Lin Ting back, terrified:
“Seventh Miss, let’s go back to the city and report this to the authorities.”
The coachman, who didn’t know martial arts, also urged:
“Seventh Miss, Tao Zhu is right. We should go back to the city and report this. There are too many of them. If they find us, the consequences will be unthinkable.”
Lin Ting made a silencing gesture.
The leader of the men in black stepped closer to Duan Ling:
“You’ve been poisoned with a muscle-weakening drug. For the next twelve hours, you’ll be
powerless, like a cripple.”
Duan Ling slowly looked up at him, then glanced at the dead horse on the ground, his lips moving slightly:
“Were you sent by His Highness, the Prince of Liang?”
The man in black sneered but didn’t answer, ordering his men to take Duan Ling away.
Lin Ting jumped out of the carriage and told the coachman and Tao Zhu to go back to the city and report to the authorities:
“You go back to the city and report this. I’ll follow them and leave marks along the way so you can find us.”
She also needed to prevent the men in black from killing Duan Ling.
If they all went back to report it, by the time the authorities arrived, it would take time to search for them.
Who knew if Duan Ling would still be alive by then?
If he died, the task would fail, and she would die too.
If she followed them and saw that they were going to harm Duan Ling, perhaps she could buy some time until help arrived.
Lin Ting wasn’t skilled in martial arts, but she was good at tracking people.
She had no choice but to take this risk for Duan Ling: “Hurry back to the city and report this.”
Tao Zhu refused, grabbing Lin Ting tightly:
“No, it’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Tao Zhu still wouldn’t let go:
“I can’t let you put yourself in danger, Seventh Miss. Please, I beg you, come back to the city with us and report this.”
Lin Ting knocked Tao Zhu unconscious with a chop to the neck and placed her in the carriage, instructing the coachman:
“Uncle Chen, take Tao Zhu to the Northern Imperial Guard Bureau and tell them their Imperial Guard commander is in trouble.”
She had heard Duan Ling said he suspected that the men in black were sent by the Prince of Liang.
In that case, if they reported it to the local authorities, it might be suppressed, and no one would come to investigate.
Reporting it to the Northern Imperial Guard Bureau was the safest option.
Uncle Chen gripped the reins tightly, uneasy:
“Seventh Miss, are you really not coming back to the city with us to report this?”
He thought Seventh Miss had gone mad, risking her life for a man.
Lin Ting took out the dagger she carried for self-defense:
“I’ll leave this to you, Uncle Chen.”
Uncle Chen knew he couldn’t change her mind and turned the carriage around:
“Seventh Miss, be careful. I’ll rush back to the city and report this immediately.”
In the blink of an eye, it was dark.
The night was as black as ink, and the vast forest was shrouded in darkness.
The evening wind swept through like a ghost, causing the shadows of the trees to sway and emit sounds akin to weeping.
A light figure moved silently through the branches, disappearing into the gloom.
Lin Ting’s lightness skill was decent.
She stopped outside a wooden cabin backed against a cliff, used the knockout drug she carried to subdue the two men in black guarding a window, and then gently pushed the window open to look inside.
Inside the cabin, Duan Ling was tied to a wooden chair, his hand pinned to the armrest by a sharp dagger, the blade buried deep in his flesh, blood continuously dripping and staining the ground beneath his feet.
The Prince of Liang sat in another wooden chair, free and uninjured.
He twirled the dagger:
“Commander Duan, as long as you hand over all the evidence you have against me, I’ll spare your life.”
Previously, the Prince of Liang had treated Duan Ling well at his residence because he had learned that Duan Ling possessed evidence of his secret iron mining.
He had tried to win Duan Ling over, hoping he would voluntarily surrender the evidence.
But Duan Ling had stubbornly refused, unyielding to both kindness and threats.
Since soft methods didn’t work, the Prince of Liang had resorted to force if Duan Ling didn’t hand over the evidence, he would die.
The Prince of Liang couldn’t believe that as a prince, and a favored one at that, he couldn’t kill a mere Imperial Guard.
The Prince of Liang stood up and pressed the dagger against Duan Ling’s neck:
“Commander Duan, I’ll give you one last chance. Will you hand it over or not?”
Outside the window, Lin Ting’s heart was racing.
Duan Ling looked up at the Prince of Liang, his tone calm:
“The Imperial Guards are loyal only to His Majesty.”
“What a loyal Imperial Guard you are. I wonder if you’ll still say that when you’re in the underworld.”
The Prince of Liang laughed in anger and raised his hand to slit Duan Ling’s throat, sending him to his death.
Just as the blade cut into Duan Ling’s skin, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he prepared to pull out the dagger, pinning his hand to the chair and stabbing the Prince of Liang.
But someone acted first.
Seeing that the Prince of Liang was about to kill Duan Ling, Lin Ting burst through the window, rushed over, and kicked the Prince of Liang hard, knocking the dagger from his hand.
The Prince of Liang, like his father, was paranoid and didn’t want others to overhear the matter of his secret iron mining, not even his own guards.
So when he saw that Duan Ling was severely injured and unable to resist, he had dismissed his guards, leaving only the two of them in the room.
This gave Lin Ting the opportunity to intervene.
Duan Ling stopped all movement and simply looked at Lin Ting:
“Miss Lin Qi?”
“It’s me.”
After kicking the Prince of Liang down, Lin Ting knocked him unconscious to prevent him from calling for help.
She then ran to Duan Ling, quickly untied him, and gently pulled out the dagger, pinning his hand to the chair.
“Bear with it.”
Duan Ling continued to watch Lin Ting, sweat dripping from her pale chin.
He instinctively reached out to catch it, the warmth landing in his palm.
“How did you end up here?”
Lin Ting, afraid of touching the wound on Duan Ling’s hand, held his wrist and helped him jump out of the window before the Prince of Liang woke up:
“I’ll tell you after we get out of here alive.”
The area was remote, located high in the mountains.
Escaping wouldn’t be easy.
As soon as Lin Ting left the cabin, she pulled Duan Ling along and ran.
Soon, the Prince of Liang’s guards, the men in black-realized something was wrong and started chasing them.
With no place to hide, they could only keep running.
Duan Ling let Lin Ting pull him along, his gaze fixed on her profile, a hint of confusion in his eyes:
“Aren’t you afraid of death?”
Lin Ting’s legs ached from running, but she didn’t dare stop:
“Of course I am.”
“Then why did you come to save me?”
She panted:
“A life is at stake. Lord Duan, could you stop talking to me? I’m about to run out of breath.”
“Whoosh!”
An arrow with a cold glint shot past their feet.
The men in black had started using arrows.
Lin Ting had no choice but to look back occasionally to gauge the direction of the arrows and avoid them.
At that moment, an arrow shot through the darkness, heading straight for her.
Lin Ting was about to dodge when a hand reached out from beside her and grabbed the arrow directly.
The iron tip cut into the palm, and blood dripped down the shaft.
Lin Ting’s heart skipped a beat as she followed the hand to see a strikingly handsome face.
Duan Ling didn’t seem to care about the blood, as if he were used to it.
He threw the arrow back, hitting one of the men in black in the throat, then snatched the sword from the man’s waist and pointed it at the others.
After being knocked unconscious and waking up, Prince Liang followed the black clad men, shouting,
“Kill them all for me!”
As soon as his words fell, blood blossomed across the mountainside.
The heavy stench of blood filled the air, and scattered limbs lay on the ground not a single intact corpse remained.
However, it was the black-clad men who were slain, while Duan Ling remained alive.
Lin Ting was stunned.
Just moments ago, Prince Liang, who had been clamoring to kill, now stood with weak legs, his teeth chattering.
“I-I am the prince of Great Yan! You’re just a royal guard! How dare you kill me? Do you have a death wish?”
The knife in Duan Ling’s hand still dripped with warm blood, yet his jade-like face remained serene, as if he hadn’t been the one to kill.
“What are you talking about? I never intended to kill the prince of Great Yan. I only killed some bandits.”
Before Prince Liang could finish speaking, Duan Ling severed the tendons in his legs.
“Duan Ling! Y-you insolent wretch! I will have my father exterminate your entire clan!”
Duan Ling then cut the tendons in Prince Liang’s arms.
“Do you really think you caught me today? It was I who lured you out of the city. Killing outside the city walls is indeed convenient, don’t you think?”
Prince Liang suddenly understood.
No wonder Duan Ling hadn’t resisted when he was taken to the wooden cabin, even when his hand was pierced by his own men.
He had been waiting for Prince Liang to show himself.
Finally, Prince Liang begged for mercy:
“Please, spare my life. I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”
Duan Ling methodically sliced off pieces of Prince Liang’s flesh, as if performing a slow execution.
Prince Liang’s cries of pain rose and fell.
After a while, he babbled incoherently,
“Duan Ling, you’ll die a horrible death! Please, spare me! I’ll give you anything you want, anything!”
Duan Ling’s hands, once as smooth as jade, were now covered in blood as he cut flesh and scraped bone.
While Prince Liang was still conscious, he gouged out his eyes.
Now there are two bloody holes on Prince Liang’s face, and the pain was unbearable, making him wish for death.
“Ahhh!”
The blood-slick eyeballs slid out, their pupils still reflecting the terror of their owner.
Yet Duan Ling’s expression remained gentle, as if he were doing something entirely ordinary.
He expertly wrapped the eyeballs in something, then finally slit Prince Liang’s throat.
The cries of pain ceased, and the mountainside returned to silence.
Suddenly, Duan Ling seemed to remember something.
He stood up and looked at Lin Ting, who was still frozen in place.
He walked toward her and smiled softly,
“Miss Lin Qi.”