Gao Yuexing took a wooden gourd from his waist, tossed it backward to a comrade, and said, “Take the medicine, first protect your heart meridian.”
The man poured the medicine out of the gourd and found the pills crudely made, each as large as half a chicken egg, quite different from the usual pills.
One was ugly, the other had an unpleasant smell.
It seemed as though a few herbs had been randomly pressed together. When chewed, it was bitter and astringent, harder to stomach than grass.
Fortunately, the burly men weren’t picky.
The injured among them reluctantly divided and ate the pills.
The medicine Gao Yuexing carried was meant for emergencies, so the quantity was limited. A few lightly injured individuals, unwilling to waste resources, carefully stored the gourd for later.
The rain of arrows ceased because their quivers had been emptied.
On the battlefield, an experienced general could deduce the configuration of a unit’s archers based on the number of arrows fired.
Gao Yuexing heard Li Fuxiang mutter, “Approximately a hundred men…”
Li Fuxiang’s hand seemed to have grown attached to Gao Yuexing’s waist. Gao Yuexing wanted to say that her stamina was still holding up, but when her gaze fell on Li Fuxiang’s expression, she couldn’t utter a single word.
Gao Yuexing couldn’t describe how she felt inside—like muffled thunder trapped within layers of dark clouds, brewing a torrential downpour.
The memory of Li Fuxiang’s image seemed to drift further and further away.
But at this moment, they were impossibly close.
Gao Yuexing asked herself: In her past life, having been the Princess Consort of Xiang and the Crown Princess for so long, did she truly understand her husband?
Her world had been confined to the capital, to the few square inches of the inner courtyard, and to the red walls and green tiles of the imperial palace.
The youthful vigor Li Fuxiang displayed when she went to the western frontier donned in armor—Gao Yuexing had only ever heard about it in tales but had never witnessed it herself.
He had been injured on the battlefield, but by the time he returned to the capital, the wounds had already healed.
He had also suffered life-threatening illnesses, but whenever she saw him, there was no trace of it.
Even the minor cases of cold he caught during winters in the capital were enough to keep her up at night, so how much worse must it have been on the perilous battlefield?
People grow, and they change.
But Gao Yuexing knew that the bond between them had only just begun to entwine.
At this moment, they could not separate, and from this day forward, they never could.
—
They widened the distance between themselves and their pursuers.
Gao Yuexing wasn’t sure how far they had gone. Walking in the forest, it seemed they could discern their direction without a compass. This required talent, not something that could be learned through practice. Gao Yuexing herself lacked this gift; she had spent four years honing her skills in the mountain forests of the Medicine Valley, yet still got lost as soon as she entered the woods and dared not venture out alone.
Gao Yuexing looked up and asked, “How much further?”
Li Fuxiang looked up at the position of the sun.
Gao Yuexing said, “I’m not tired. I’m just worried that their injuries need tending. If we delay too long, it might worsen.”
Li Fuxiang surveyed the surroundings. “No, it’s still dangerous. Let’s wait a bit longer.”
Gao Yuexing and the group eventually made it through the forest. Ahead, there was a path, but Gao Yuexing caught a whiff of a strong, unmistakable scent of blood carried by the wind.
The smell was overpowering, impossible to ignore.
Emerging from the woods, their view opened up, and Gao Yuexing finally saw the road.
However, the sight before her left her stunned.
On the mountain road stood a carriage—the very same one she and Li Fuxiang had taken when heading up the mountain.
Around the carriage lay numerous scattered corpses. They were dressed in coarse, simple clothing, looking like ordinary mountain villagers, but villagers wouldn’t typically rob carriages with weapons in hand.
Gao Yuexing heard a noise from inside the carriage and couldn’t resist wanting to check.
Li Fuxiang blocked her path with his blade, holding her by the waist and pulling her back. Then, with the tip of his blade, he lifted the curtain on the carriage door, letting her see clearly.
Inside, tied up in a circle, were the fake monks captured earlier at Qingliang Temple. Only a few of them were still alive, all crammed into the carriage.
After hijacking the carriage, those attackers realized it didn’t hold the people they were actually after. They turned back to pursue Gao Yuexing and her group, only to find themselves looping back to this very spot.
The carriage belonged to the Gao family.
Seeing the carriage eased Gao Yuexing’s worries a little. While they were running low on medicine, there were supplies in the carriage. Li Fuxiang climbed into the carriage, kicked aside the fake monks, and handed her the medicine box.
Gao Yuexing went to tend to the most severely injured person first.
The injured soldier, seeing she was an unmarried young lady, avoided looking directly at her, visibly embarrassed. He turned his head slightly and said, “Thank you, Miss. Just leave some medicine for me, and let the others help me.”
Gao Yuexing gently reassured him, “If it were just a minor injury or illness, I wouldn’t intervene. But since your wound is on your back, let me take a look.”
Someone beside him nudged him with an elbow. “Why so shy? Don’t you know? Miss Gao here spent several months with Commander Zheng in the Hucha Sea. During countless battles, many of our brothers only survived thanks to her.”
The man was startled, stole a glance at her, then quickly lowered his head and bowed. “Pardon my ignorance. I failed to recognize such an accomplished person.”
Several others nearby burst into laughter. “Hey, you’re just a rough guy—how come you’re suddenly talking so fancy? Doesn’t it hurt your teeth?”
Gao Yuexing instructed him to lie down in a safe spot and cut open the fabric of his clothing at the back. The arrowhead had pierced through from the left side of his spine and gone straight in. From what she could see, the wound didn’t appear to be off-target.
Li Fuxiang crouched beside her when he saw the location of the wound. “What’s the plan?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “It’s tricky. The wound is in a difficult spot. I’ll have to cut it open to remove the arrow.”
Li Fuxiang frowned. “That’s not going to work here.”
Gao Yuexing took his pulse and determined that, despite the severity of his injury, his condition wasn’t critical. Feeling somewhat reassured, she said, “Hmm… It’s not impossible. The sooner we remove it, the better. If we wait until we’re back at camp, who knows how long it will take.”
Li Fuxiang glanced around and pointed to the hilltop behind them. He instructed the others to carry the injured man up there.
Gao Yuexing followed, climbing up the slope. She casually glanced down toward the lower ground.
That single glance made her realize something was amiss.
There was wind in the mountains.
When the wind blows, grass moves.
The wild grass and shrubs at the end of summer could grow up to half a person’s height. The path they had just taken had already been difficult to traverse.
Now, near the carriage, a large area of ground appeared trampled flat, as if pressed down by countless footsteps. At a glance, there was no cover at all.
If the pursuers forced their way to this spot, they would become perfect targets.
Didn’t Li Fuxiang consider this?
Gao Yuexing was filled with doubt and suspicion. Or perhaps he had another plan?
Noticing that she kept staring in one direction, Li Fuxiang walked down the slope and looked up at her. “What’s wrong? Do you need something?”
Gao Yuexing shook her head and said, “Nothing, I’m just a bit worried…”
Li Fuxiang replied, “Don’t worry. Trust me. No one will get close to you.”
With just that one sentence from him, Gao Yuexing immediately felt at ease. She smiled and said, “Alright.”
She quickly treated the injured soldier’s wound, applied medicinal liquor, and then took a small knife, as wide as a finger, from the medicine box. After sterilizing it over a flame, she tested it by comparing its size to the wound.
The soldier asked uneasily, “Was the arrow poisoned?”
Gao Yuexing said, “Judging by the color of the blood, it doesn’t seem so.”
The soldier let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I didn’t die back when I was cornered by the Fox Hu clan, nor when I ventured into the Hucha Sea. If I were to die at the hands of these bandits today, I’d have no face even in death.”
Gao Yuexing didn’t respond to his words. She rubbed her fingers together, a little nervous.
The soldier, however, kept talking. “Miss Gao, judging by your skillful preparation, you must be very experienced at this, right?”
Gao Yuexing hesitated for a moment before replying, “Do you want the truth or a lie?”
The soldier immediately felt uneasy. “Wha… What do you mean by that, Miss Gao?”
He couldn’t see her expression as he was lying on his stomach, but he sensed her pause, and her words seemed to carry a hint of amusement. “Sorry, this is actually my first time doing this myself.”
The soldier stammered, “I…”
Gao Yuexing tried to reassure him. “Don’t worry. My fundamentals are solid. It’s just that, in the past, I always had senior brothers and sisters around. They knew I was timid and raised in comfort, so they always shielded me when things happened. But senior brothers and sisters can’t always stay by one’s side forever. Everyone has to part ways someday.”
She hadn’t seen her fellow disciples from the Medicine Valley for a long time since leaving.
Suddenly, Gao Yuexing began to miss those days in the western frontier.
It was a strange sentiment—growing tired of it after staying too long, yet longing for it when far away.
Her casual remarks unexpectedly touched a nerve for the wounded soldier. He gritted his teeth and said, “Who hasn’t experienced that…? My father and brothers all died on the western frontier years ago. When they left, I was barely ten years old. It was Commander Zheng who sent people to take me into the army and raise me there. Ah! Ah! Ahhh—!”
A scream, sharp as the sound of a pig being slaughtered, drew the attention of everyone below. Startled for a moment, they quickly burst into unrestrained laughter.
“Old Xiang! Haha, look at you! So much for bravery!”
Gao Yuexing apologized sincerely, “I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you before making a move.”
The soldier’s face scrunched up like a steamed bun, and after a long pause, he managed to catch his breath. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Gao Yuexing’s apology, however, was merely superficial. She had deliberately taken him by surprise to seize the moment for the incision. She only partially understood the reasoning, but it was how her senior brothers and sisters had taught her in the Valley and what she had read in medical texts, so she followed it to the letter.
Gao Yuexing swiftly cut through the texture of the soldier’s flesh, removed the arrowhead, cauterized the wound with kerosene, and sprinkled medicinal powder over it.
Everything was done smoothly and efficiently, like flowing clouds and water. After dressing the wound and instructing the soldier to stay still and avoid unnecessary movement, she was about to check the injuries of the others—but there was no time.
The pursuers who had been relentlessly tailing them finally caught up.
The mountain path ahead stretched out wide and unobstructed. The pursuers, their minds clouded by bloodlust, didn’t suspect a thing. Seeing their prey, their eyes turned red, and they charged recklessly, intending to slaughter indiscriminately.
The soldiers accompanying Li Fuxiang, however, remained utterly unperturbed. Some even leaned lazily against rocks, too idle to move.
Seeing their demeanor, Gao Yuexing began to understand the situation.
She heard the sharp whistle of arrows slicing through the air, dangerously close behind her. Turning, she saw Ji Wei and the soldiers of the Xiaoqi Battalion standing ready just a few steps away at the top of the slope.
The area, previously quiet and empty, was now teeming with soldiers as if they had descended from the heavens. Gao Yuexing hadn’t noticed when they had appeared.
The sound of war drums seemed to resonate in time with her heartbeat.
The panicked pursuers, realizing the ambush, tried to retreat and flee into the forest. But before they could truly escape, the Feiyuwei of the Jinyiwei descended from above, claiming the heads of those at the front of the retreat.
Even in the trees, Jinyiwei were lying in wait.
Their movements were clean and precise, leaping down with their blades like sparrows spreading their wings.
From the moment they appeared to the moment they finished dealing with the remnants of the enemy, it took no more than the time it takes to burn an incense stick.
Ji Wei, seeing the situation was under control, placed his broad saber horizontally in front of the carriage and called out to Li Fuxiang, “Your Highness, come on! Take the high ground!”
Li Fuxiang stepped onto Ji Wei’s blade, using the support to propel himself onto the top of the carriage.
At that moment, Gao Yuexing finally understood what it meant to be utterly captivated.
In that instant, she felt as though she wanted to shatter her heart into pieces, crush it, and fiercely love him with all her might.