In a flash, she went from hope to despair. At first, hope was like fireworks all over the sky, blooming brightly. In an instant, the fireworks burned out, and the colors faded, leaving only the silent night sky. Prosperity returned to desolation.

In her field of vision, there was nothing but the dust raised by the horse's hooves.

With tears burst, Gu Yunxi, at this moment, only felt that her heart was so wretched that all her hopes went up in smoke...

Master.

Why.

Her filled heart was weak and dried up, and it gradually became fragmented with time.

She lost all her strength to support her numb body and collapsed in the corner of the carriage.

"Hahaha..."

Next to the carriage, Ming Lan narrowed his sharp eyes with a baleful look inside.

His smile became more sinister.

"Do you give up now? Do you think he is rushing to Ming's Mansion to save you? You are wrong.

Tonight, the Eastern Depot gathered five squads to come out of the Capital to suppress bandits, and Leng Qingtang did not think about saving you."

"No... I do not believe..."

Despite the extreme pain in her heart, Gu Yunxi still held on to her last tenaciousness and widely opened her eyes with clear tears.

"Master Leng won't... He won't give up on me..."

Ming Lan rolled his eyes and coldly glared at her, retorting fiercely in a sharp voice.

"How many times do I have to tell you?! You are just a pawn that he discarded! He doesn't care about your life or death at all. The only thing he cares about in his heart is always his Eastern Depot!"

The only thing he cared about in his heart was always his Eastern Depot.

This sentence was like a long and sharp nail, cruelly piercing into her fragile heart.

The beating soft spot immediately palpitated sharply, obviously unable to bear the indescribable pain.

"He won't... He won't..."

Gu Yunxi's heart got torn apart, and her pale face full of sadness and frustration got covered by tears and sweat. She wanted to shake her head but couldn't move her paralyzed body at all.

Her lips parted as if she felt unable to breathe, and she twisted her head stiffly at a strange posture.

Her appearance caused Ming Lan to moderate his sharp gaze suddenly. With his sleeves flowing up, he flung his arms around her waist, trapping her in his arms.

"Now, the only person you can rely on is me. Yunxi, be obedient. Enter the palace and take care of the Imperial Noble Concubine. I will look for opportunities to beg for making you be with me, and I will spoil you as much as I can."

Ming Lan raised his eyebrows and gazed at the girl in his arms, who lost all her ability to resist. He playfully hooked his fingers and gently stroked her delicate cheeks.

Gu Yunxi felt panicked and only heard Ming Lan say the words "enter the palace."

She got into total confusion.

At this moment, Ming Lan's enchanting face in her eyes turned into several overlapping blurs, each of which was approaching her with an evil smile.

Gu Yunxi felt that her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, and her desire to fall asleep became more and more intense...

She was crying in her heart.

"No... I don't want to be violated by him again... Who can come to save me...? Don't approach me..."

Suddenly, there was an explosion, and the carriage violently bumped as if ascending into the sky.

Gu Yunxi immediately blacked out...

In the open road, four men in black jumped to the ground from the tree's top. The fire crossbows on their right arms were burning with smoke.

The four slowly approached the carriage's black wreckage after looking at each other, their faces with stern expressions holding sufficient vigilance.

Just now, it was the four who attacked Ming Lan's carriage.

Although the fire crossbows they carried were only half the arm length, the matching metal projectiles had unparalleled power.

When they shot the egg-sized projectile at the target within one hundred feet, the impact's force could trigger the saltpeter powder in it, thereby causing an intense blasting.

Just now, when the four saw Ming Lan's carriage coming into range, they raised their crossbows and attacked aimed at the middle of the road in front of it.

At this moment, the men in black stepped on the flames and stopped in the place in a mess.

Glancing at unconscious Ming Lan as well as the coachman and two guards accompanying him, one of the men in black asked.

"He is the master of the Western Depot. Why don't we take the opportunity to solve him?"

One person looking like the leader, lowered his eyes and shook his head.

"If the master wanted to kill this eunuch, he would order us to attack his carriage with fire crossbows directly.

No matter how bad he is, at least he can pin down the Eastern Depot one or two times. Our top priority is not to deal with the Western Depot but to seize back the girl."

While talking, the man turned his sparkling eyes to look at Gu Yunxi lying on her back.

The man in black stepped forward and leaned over to carry her on his shoulders, saying to the other three.

"Let's go back soon and report to the master!"

When they turned around and were about to leave, they saw a short-legged man against the rough tree trunk widely opened his eyes in horror and blankly staring at them.

Beside his trembling figure was a landing pole and various fresh vegetables rolling out from the front and back baskets and scattering everywhere.

The four did not attack the short-legged man but galloped and drifted away in the silent night.

...

Gu Yunxi felt that she had slept for a long time. In the meantime, the dreams she had one after another repeated in cycles, sweet or sad.

She dreamed of Master Leng. She dreamed that she was in the Master's Mansion, while Master Leng was standing in the room with a red paper in his hand.

He said to her very excitedly.

"Girl, this is the wedding contract. Come here quickly and write your name on it."

His handsome face, radiant and shining, looked incredibly charming coupled with his genuine and pure smile.

With smog lingering, her dream changed.

She saw her sister Gu Yunyao again, who gazed at her with a face filled with disappointment and said in a sad expression.

"In the end, you chose him and abandoned me..."

Gu Yunxi shook her head sadly and opened her mouth to explain. But her throat seemed to be blocked by cotton, and she worked hard but couldn't make any sound.

While she was in a hurry, the figure in front of her flickered. Ming Lan stood there and slowly stretched out his slender fingers at her, laughing softly and maliciously.

"You can never escape from my palm. You can never escape."

Gu Yunxi stepped back in horror. She missed one step and fell into the endless dark world...

With eyelashes trembling, she opened her eyelids slowly and narrowly.

The harsh light immediately pierced her eyes and blinded her.

Uncontrollably, she closed her eyes again.

"Am I still alive?"

"Where am I?"

Gu Yunxi didn't know where she was at the moment but only heard some slight voices of dialogue from somewhere.

"She's inside. Medical sage, thank you for your help."

The man's low and slow voice confused people about his age.

Medical sage.

Gu Yunxi heard it clearly and felt overjoyed.

The medical sage was just the master of Imperial Doctor Jiang that detoxified Master Leng with high skills!

Then an older voice sounded in an angry tone without any concealing.

"I've been the doctor to heal the wounded and rescue the dying all my life. Even if you forcibly abducted me here, I will not get controlled by you to do anything harmful and terrible!"

The stranger let out a hoarse laugh and then said.

"Medical sage, don't worry. This matter is not harmful. The girl has predestined doom. Now, you can regard it as helping her out of the sea of suffering."

After a moment of silence, it seemed that the medical sage kept a determined attitude and still didn't agree. The stranger's voice became a bit gloomier.

"Even if you don't think about yourself, you should consider the only son for three generations of Tantai Family."

"You…"

The medical sage suddenly raised his voice, and he sounded to be extremely angry.

After a long while, he sighed helplessly.

"Okay. I will do it!"

"Well, that's fine. This way, please."

Hearing that someone opened the door, Gu Yunxi hurriedly pretended not to be awake and lay on her back on the bed, stiffly motionless.

The footsteps stopped in front of her bed, and then it became silent for a moment.

While Gu Yunxi was panicking, she heard the shocked voice of the medical sage in her ears.

"Ah? Is she?"

Then, a strange cool fragrance poured into her nasal cavity, and it smelled like sandalwood or mint.

With her head tilted, Gu Yunxi became completely unconscious again...

...

At night, there was a crescent moon high above in the sky shining with silvery lights.

Mount Ruyi was surprisingly quiet.

There were pairs of eyes in the shadow of the trees and bushes, looking like the eyes of the beasts waiting for the moment to take the attack and suppressing bloodthirsty madness.

Many people came from afar from the north and south of the mount and gathered on the middle's open flat ground.

Their heads formed a dark cloud, and the lights reflected by the weapons in their hand under the white moonlight looked bright and cold.

The air was still, and it seemed that even the river got frozen in an instant. There was an atmosphere of great hostility and tension in the cold air.

Leng Qingtang hid behind a cluster of bushes high on the ridge, next to Xiao Xiaoshen, the close guard protecting him.

Not far away, behind the stele hid the people of Bai Qiying, the Fourth Captain.

Leng Qingtang secretly looked down over the people, finding that the number of the two gangs of the martial-arts circles was more than a thousand people.

Among them, a man in a rough-cloth long gown hurried forward and greeted the man in a black cloak,

"Brother Shui, long time no see."

"Brother Huo..."

The man in the black cloak greeted back and was about to say something, but suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something and became watchful, his eyes sweeping over the upper part of the ridge sharply.

Just at this moment, Leng Qingtang widely opened his eyes and raised the Qingshui Liuyun sword in his hand to directly point to the sky, which reflected a cold light under the moonlight.

Immediately, with loud howlings, countless guards gushed out from the east, west, south, and north of Mount Ruyi and besieged the two gangs of the martial-arts circles in the flat ground.

They fought fiercely in the dense forest. Leng Qingtang showed complete confidence in this operation's success involving the teams of Guard Four to Guard Eight of the Eastern Depot.

Surrounded by the smell of blood, Leng Qingtang watched the tragic fight in the dense forest in concentration and kept calm on his thin white face.

The swords and blades and the blood-stained clothes flicked across the luxuriant branches in the dark.

Abruptly, he felt a chilly wind hitting from behind with great murderous aura.

Leng Qingtang shouted, "Disperse!"

At the same time, he used the skill of levitation and rose high into the air. While he bent back and jumped away after his toes tapped against the branches and leaves, dozens of cold silver lights whistled past above his nose.

On that side, Xiao Xiaoshen and a dozen guards swung their weapons to ward off all the hidden weapons one after another, and fortunately, they did not get injured.

How dangerous it was!

Xiao Xiaoshen dropped his hand that held the broadsword. His broad chest heaved, and sweat formed on his forehead when he panted slightly.

Leng Qingtang landed on the ground at this moment. He raised his head and squinted angrily to a higher place.

He saw a man in white standing under the cold white moonlight, with a silver mask reflecting metallic lights covering most of his face.

Glancing at the broadsword hilt carved with patterns and inlaid with jewels slanted emerging from the man's behind, Leng Qingtang smiled slightly.

Suddenly, Leng Qingtang jumped into the air with levitation and swung his sword straight at the man in white, and he vertically chopped the blade before he got close.

A sword light hit towards the white-clothed man and penetrated the heavy air with a sharpness that no one could ward.

When the man hurriedly backed up, a person suddenly jumped out from behind a tree, fending off Leng Qingtang's attack with a spear.

With a sharp clash reverberating the dense forest, the spear and its user were split in half by the sword's strength.

The blood sprayed all over the floor.

After another cracking sound, the white-clothed man's mask even got shattered by the remaining sword's strength and then dropped down, revealing Lu Qiange's young and handsome face.

He frowned slightly, and blood flowed from the thin wound on the edge of his hairline, dripping across his eyebrows, and condensing into red dots on one cheek.

Leng Qingtang rushed to Lu Qiange and directly attacked with his sword.

Lu Qiange dexterously sidestepped, and after dodging the attack, he quickly pulled out the serrated broadsword on his back and slashed to Leng Qingtang's left shoulder.

Leng Qingtang warded with his sword.

With a clash, the flash of lights caused both of them to close their eyes slightly.

Then Leng Qingtang had his long sword erected, sharply piercing at Lu Qiange's broadsword.

Lu Qiange looked up in shock and held his broadsword horizontal to fend off the attack.

With a clash of the collision between the sword edge and the broadsword blade, Lu Qiange felt his wrists numb and couldn't help but back three steps to keep balance.

A look of surprise showed in his eyes. Lu Qiange felt that today Leng Qingtang was much stronger than the one he fought against in the woods outside the Eastern Depot at that time.

Staring intently into Lu Qiange's purple eyes lighted by the light of blades, Leng Qingtang asked solemnly.

"You are not from the Central Plains?!"

After a silent smile, Lu Qiange didn't answer his question but asked.

"Where is Yunxi? I thought you would tie her to your body at any time and keep inseparable with her."

Something suddenly flashed through Leng Qingtang's mind, and he replied casually.

"She was taken away by Ming Lan..."

"What?"

As what Leng Qingtang expected, Lu Qiange's face immediately clouded while he heard it. Lu Qiange looked away and gritted his teeth fiercely, with his eyes burning with the fierce fire of anger.

"Ming Lan..."

Lu Qiange galloped down Mount Ruyi suddenly. Facing anyone who attacked him, he directly killed with his broadsword, crisp and cruel.

A dozen people behind him hurriedly followed, shouting.

"Mister, what about the Clan of Swords and the National League? Should we interfere then?"

"That's your business!"

Lu Qiange snapped without looking back.

"Don't ask me. I'm in a hurry."

Leng Qingtang watched Lu Qiange rush away. Seeing that the white figure got swallowed by night, he cured his lips and made a crafty smile.

If it weren't for Yunxi, he would undoubtedly arrest Lu Qiange today.

As he appeared at the mid-night secret meeting of the two martial arts gangs in the Central Plains, it was sufficient to prove that the Clan of Swords and the National League had colluded with the western tribes.

After all, both the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot were the government agency of Da Yi. No matter how many conflicts the two Commanders-in-chief had in private, their fight could not be too blatant.

So, why not take advantage of this hotheaded master this time?