Chapter 512 - 512 509 Just Wishing for a Swift Death_1

Chapter 512: Chapter 509: Just Wishing for a Swift Death_1 Chapter 512: Chapter 509: Just Wishing for a Swift Death_1 Bai Qingyan, who had removed the iron sandbags from her body, felt as light as a swallow. She pushed Bai Jinzhi aside, her eyes deep and solemn. She didn’t avoid the sudden blade, and with her longsword drawn, its cold light flashed. In an instant, blood sprayed, and the person’s head rolled down the slope, face twisted and eyes bulging.

Shen Yanzong had been prepared, but he hadn’t expected the Xiliang assassins to move so fast. As soon as the Xiliang assassin made a move, the Shen family guards immediately drew their swords.

“Eldest Young Lady, step back!” Bai Jinzhi swiftly drew her sword to protect Bai Qingyan.

The scent of blood permeated the moonlit forest. A thin cloud slowly covered the bright moon, and the surrounding light and sounds gradually faded, leaving everything in silence.

The lead assassin looked at his bloodstained longsword dripping with blood and saw Bai Qingyan, with a calm and murderous gaze, quickly protected by Bai Jinzhi and the guards. Even someone slow-witted would sense that Bai Qingyan was prepared for them. Today, Bai Qingyan had exposed herself merely to set a trap for them.

The lead assassin was terrified and knew it was bad. However, since they had been discovered and reached this point, fleeing without completing the task meant death, while completing the task meant a chance for the others to live.

Resolute, the lead Xiliang assassin whistled and engaged with the Shen family guards.

There were sounds of blades clashing everywhere, and the shadows of swords flickered all around.

Bai Jinzhi held her longsword, keeping Bai Qingyan behind her. Soon, all the assassins mixed in with the team capturing the mountain bandits returned, and the Bai family guards rushed up.

Bai Jinzhi protected Bai Qingyan, retreating constantly. Bai Qingyan placed a hand on Bai Jinzhi’s shoulder and said calmly and steadily into her ear, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid. You can protect Eldest Young Lady.”

Yes, Bai Jinzhi was afraid—not of getting hurt or dying, but of failing to protect her eldest sister.

Standing side by side with her sister again, facing the battle, she couldn’t help but think of the night at Qiushan Pass when she saved her ninth brother Bai Qingyun. If it weren’t for Xiao Ruojiang protecting her, she would have already been beheaded.

She also remembered Huoshen Mountain. If her eldest sister hadn’t arrived in time, she feared she would have perished in the flames.

“Eldest Young Lady!” The Bai family guard shouted, throwing Bai Qingyan’s Sun-shooting Bow to her.

Bai Qingyan caught it, grabbed arrows from the quiver on Bai Jinzhi’s back, and nocked one to the bowstring.

Shen Yanzong, who was entangled with a Xiliang assassin, felt the cold arrow whistling past his ear. He saw only a blur before hot blood sprayed over his face. The Xiliang assassin in front of him, who had raised a knife, had his neck penetrated by the arrow, which nearly passed through a tree. The arrow’s trembling sounded right beside his ear.

Knowing the power of Bai Qingyan’s Sun-shooting Bow was one thing; seeing it in person was another. Shen Yanzong was shocked.

Before Shen Yanzong could react, more arrows whistled past from behind. Every arrow hit its mark, taking lives without fail.

The Shen family guards, hearing arrows whizzing by, were all anxious. The Bai family guards fought fiercely, not worried at all that their Eldest Young Lady’s arrows might hit them.

The Xiliang assassin leader, seeing Bai Qingyan’s position, took a blade to his chest from a Bai family guard and threw a hidden weapon at Bai Qingyan, shouting, “Retreat!”

He had brought his brothers. If he could exchange his life for a chance to kill the Princess of Zhen, his brothers would return alive. Otherwise, they would all die here today.

Bai Qingyan, extremely sensitive to danger, instinctively grabbed Bai Jinzhi’s collar and pressed her head down while spinning around a tree. A slight whistle grazed Bai Qingyan’s hair.

A dozen needles with a greenish hue stuck firmly in the tree. Had Bai Qingyan and Bai Jinzhi been a moment slower, they would have fallen to the poison needles.

The assassin leader, pierced through the chest by a Bai family guard, saw Bai Qingyan dodge his only hidden weapon and shoot another arrow, taking another life. He felt hopeless, spat out blood, and fell to the ground in disgrace.

The cloud covering the moon slowly drifted away, leaving the bright moonlight to illuminate the ground and cast shadows of trees everywhere.

The shouts of battle on the mountain grew louder, startling the birds in the deep forest. The bandits’ hideout became chaotic like a boiling pot.

In the middle of the mountainside, corpses lay everywhere, blood spreading in rivulets.

The Bai and Shen family guards captured one person each and brought them back, pushing the bloodied men to kneel before Bai Qingyan.

“Eldest Young Lady, the poison hidden under the tongue has been removed. They can be taken back to the manor for interrogation,” a Bai family guard said, clasping his hands before Bai Qingyan.

A panting Shen family guard also stepped forward and said to Bai Qingyan and Shen Yanzong, “Princess of Zhen, Young Master, the poison in this person’s teeth has also been removed.”

“Princess of Zhen, if you trust me, I can interrogate these two and uncover everything,” Shen Yanzong, eager to earn merits before Bai Qingyan, stepped forward and offered.

“No need to interrogate.” Bai Qingyan took the cloth Bai Jinzhi handed to her and wiped the blood off her face. “Were you sent by Princess Li Tianfu of Xiliang?”

The two men knelt, heads down, remaining silent.

“Besides that Princess Li Tianfu, no one in Xiliang would do something so foolish!” Bai Jinzhi said coldly, not forgetting the attempt on her eldest sister’s life made by that damned Xiliang princess at the Crown Prince’s wedding banquet for his side consort. If she weren’t a princess, Bai Jinzhi would have killed her.

Shen Yanzong glanced at the two kneeling men. “Since the Princess already knows their origin, there’s no need to keep them alive. It’s better to kill them.”

“I’m giving you a choice. Either your heads fall today, or I send you to the Crown Prince in Dadu City. You confess that Li Tianfu sent you to kill me. Naturally, I’ll have someone remove the poison that Xiliang’s death soldiers take, which acts up once a month and kills in six months.”

As Bai Qingyan finished speaking, the two men seemed to hesitate, struggling for a moment. One of them then raised his head and said, “Just kill us. Enough of your nonsense!”

As soon as the man finished speaking, he nodded to Shen Yanzong. Shen Yanzong swiftly beheaded him, causing blood to spray.

“And you? Are you as tough?” Bai Qingyan asked the other man.

“Just want a quick death!” the man replied.

“You are a brave man. Rest assured, I will bury you together.” After speaking, Bai Qingyan turned and walked down the mountain.

Without hesitation, Shen Yanzong killed the man, wiping out Li Tianfu’s death soldiers completely.

The mountain was bustling, with Jiuqu Alley’s Wang family, who were not considered elite, sending non-top-tier experts. Though they had some skills and acted as bandits, they were collapsing against the trained and numerous new soldiers.