AUBTN -Chapter 148 Threat

The hand that had always been as steady as a mountain was now trembling uncontrollably.

On the other side, Shen Jue’s face was just as pale.

He bent down and picked up a shattered white jade hairpin from beneath the body of a maid.

It was the one he had personally placed into Su Hewan’s hair that very morning.

“Good… very good.”

Shen Jue murmured in a low voice, his tone laced with madness and a desire for destruction.

“I’ve lived more than twenty years, and never has anyone dared to touch my people right under my nose!”

Just then, a gust of night wind swept through. A piece of parchment nailed to the red pillar of the waterside pavilion by a dagger rustled loudly in the wind.

Lu Yan tore the parchment down.

Two lines of glaring vermilion characters were written on it:

【Ten li outside the city, the abandoned house on Lone Mountain. Only the two of you may come. If you bring even a single soldier, prepare to collect the corpses of these two beauties immediately!】

“Prepare the horses!”

Lu Yan’s eyes were bloodshot as he turned and strode toward the exit.

“Commander, you mustn’t!”

The deputy commander of the Jinyiwei, who had just arrived, dropped to his knees with a thud and clutched Lu Yan’s leg tightly.

“My lord! This is clearly a trap set by the enemy! If you go now without a plan, both you and the Chief will surely face certain death! I will immediately mobilize the Three Thousand Camp—”

“Get out of my way!”

Lu Yan couldn’t care about any of that.

Word by word, as if squeezing them through clenched teeth, he said, “I said prepare the horses! Anyone who dares to stop me again will be executed on the spot!”

The deputy commander stared in horror.

He had followed Lu Yan for so many years, yet he had never seen this iron-faced commander—who always placed the greater good and imperial authority above everything—completely lose his reason for the sake of a woman.

Shen Jue didn’t look at anyone.

He walked straight outside, mounted his horse in one smooth motion.

“All members of the Eastern Depot, hear my order. Seal off the inner city. Without my signal, no one is allowed to leave the city.”

Shen Jue tightened the reins. His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, and in their depths lay an unfathomable abyss.

“Today… is my personal vendetta.”

“Hyah—!”

The two horses galloped toward Lone Mountain outside the city with reckless speed.

Along the way, Lu Yan and Shen Jue exchanged not a single word.

Yet the terrifying killing intent radiating from both of them intertwined, so chilling that even the birds along their path scattered in fright.

There was only one thought in their minds:

They must be alive.

They had to be alive.

Ten li outside the city, the abandoned house on Lone Mountain.

It was an old princely residence from the previous dynasty, deserted for decades.

“Whoa—!”

Shen Jue and Lu Yan reined in their horses and kicked open the crumbling gates of the estate.

In the center of the courtyard stood a massive, withered old locust tree.

Su Hewan and Yu Qing were bound with coarse hemp ropes, their hands tied behind their backs, hanging high from the dead branches of the tree.

Their clothes had been shredded by branches and the claws of the drugged soldiers, torn to rags. Blood dripped from the hems of their hanging skirts, falling—drop by drop—onto the dry earth below.

Yu Qing’s mouth was smeared with blood. Her eyes were tightly shut, and even her breathing had become extremely faint.

Su Hewan wasn’t in much better condition. Her face was deathly pale.

Hearing the commotion, she slowly lifted her head.

Through her blurred vision, she seemed to see Shen Jue.

【It hurts so much…】

【Shen Jue… you bastard… you said you’d protect me… don’t come… there’s an ambush…】

That faint inner voice pierced Shen Jue’s mind like countless needles.

Shen Jue’s heart suddenly clenched, and a sharp pain unlike anything he had ever felt surged through every limb of his body.

Those eyes of his—eyes that had never even blinked in the face of the harshest torture—were now tinged with a crimson sheen of moisture.

【Lu Yan… Miss still hasn’t spent the five thousand taels… I’m about to die… Don’t let that old witch trick you…】

Yu Qing’s faint, intermittent thoughts echoed in Lu Yan’s ears at the same time.

Lu Yan stared fixedly at Yu Qing, who was hanging lifelessly in midair. His chest heaved violently, and the fingers gripping the hilt of his blade had turned ghastly pale from the force of his grip.

“Hahaha! Lords, you arrived quite quickly!”

Accompanied by a coquettish yet venomous laugh, Zhao Jieyu slowly stepped out from the shadows of the hall.

Beside her stood more than a dozen mutated drug-men, even larger than before, their bodies reeking of a foul stench. The monsters bared their blood-filled mouths, low beast-like growls rumbling from their throats.

“Lord Shen, Lord Lu. Seeing your beloved ladies reduced to this state—does it pain you?” Zhao Jieyu toyed with the poisoned dagger in her hand, her resentful gaze sweeping across the two men.

“Release them.”

Shen Jue’s eyes were glued to Su Hewan’s pale little face.

When he spoke, his voice was eerily calm—so calm it sent chills down one’s spine.

“Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Let her go.”

Lu Yan stepped forward.

“Zhao Jieyu, we’ve already uncovered your background. After going to such lengths, all you want is to save your own life.” Lu Yan stared at her coldly.

“Let them down. I swear I’ll destroy every ledger related to the Wangyou Pleasure Boat, withdraw the Imperial Guards from the Jinshui River, and leave you a path to escape the capital alive.”

Zhao Jieyu froze for a moment—then burst into wild laughter, laughing until tears nearly spilled from her eyes.

“Hahahaha! The mighty Director of the Eastern Depot, the Commander of the Imperial Guards! And you’d really ignore an imperial order just for two lowly girls? You’d even give up such tremendous merit?”

Her smile vanished abruptly, and her eyes turned vicious.

“Fine! Since you’re both so devoted, then show me your sincerity!”

Zhao Jieyu raised her hand and pointed at Shen Jue and Lu Yan.

“I want the two of you to immediately write a signed confession with your own hands. Not only must you admit that the Wangyou Pleasure Boat case was fabricated by you to frame me, but you must also hand over all the profits and the formula for the Qingxin Pills to me!”

“After you finish writing, sever one of your own arms. Then I’ll release them!”

Lu Yan and Shen Jue fell silent for a moment.

Killing intent erupted around them.

“Not agreeing?”

Zhao Jieyu sneered, suddenly swinging the dagger in her hand.

“Whoosh—!”

A throwing knife shot out and sliced through half the rope suspending Yu Qing.

With a tearing sound, the already fragile rope split apart even further. Yu Qing’s body suddenly dropped half a foot, and a pained muffled groan escaped her lips.

“No!” Lu Yan’s eyes split wide in fury, his heart feeling as if it had been clenched in a crushing grip.

“Stop!” Shen Jue roared hoarsely, the madness in his eyes nearly spilling out.

He slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them again, all the violence, killing intent, and madness had been forcibly suppressed beneath those bottomless black eyes.

He and Lu Yan exchanged a quick glance.

A glance between lifelong rivals—yet in this moment, it carried perfect understanding.

No matter what, they had to save the girls first.

“…Alright.” Shen Jue’s voice was hoarse as he slowly raised his hand and removed the command token at his waist.

“I agree to your terms. But if you dare harm even a single hair on their heads again…”

Shen Jue suddenly lifted his gaze.

“Even if I must chase you to the eighteenth level of hell, I will grind your bones to dust.”

Zhao Jieyu shuddered under that gaze, but seeing the two men already cornered into desperation, she lifted her chin smugly.

“Bring the brush and ink! My lords—please, begin!”

Meanwhile, within the crisscrossing shadows of the trees, Shen Jue’s left hand—hidden beneath his wide sleeve—silently clasped three silver needles glowing with a faint blue light.