AUBTN -Chapter 23 The Overseer Takes the Arrow

Su Hewan’s face turned deathly pale, her hands still clutching the rubbed-out deployment map, her breathing uneven. “Go—now! Those are Prince Ning’s deadly disciples, not ordinary martial artists!”

Before her words had even fallen, the black-clad hidden guards appeared like phantoms along the eaves and behind the treetops. Their crossbows and bows gleamed with a sinister, bluish sheen in the sunlight.

“Looks like there’s no escaping today,”

Shen Jue glanced at Lu Yan beside him. A bloodthirsty smile flickered across his pale face, and a few silver needles poised at his fingertips, ready to strike.

Lu Yan snorted coldly, drawing his sword with a metallic clang, killing intent radiating off him. “Overseer Shen, you’d better take care of yourself. Don’t die in front of me—that would be unlucky.”

Though these two were arch-enemies who would normally have killed each other given the chance, in this life-or-death moment, they displayed an uncanny coordination.

Each slash from Lu Yan carried the force of thunder, while Shen Jue’s movements were unpredictable, weaving through the flurry of blades with vicious precision—every strike deadly.

Su Hewan and Yu Qing crouched behind a massive ornamental rock, their hearts pounding so hard it felt like they’d leap out of their throats.

Yu Qing clutched Su Hewan’s arm, trembling, her teeth chattering. “Oh my god… is this really live-action filming of a top-tier historical drama? This is insane! Lu Yan’s strike was so cool… but I don’t want to die!”

Su Hewan forced herself to calm down. “It’s okay… we won’t die.”

She tried to reassure Yu Qing.

At that moment, a hidden archer seized the brief distraction as Shen Jue and Lu Yan were locked in combat. The bowstring was drawn to its limit, the arrow aimed straight at Su Hewan—completely unarmed.

“Wanwan! Watch out!” Yu Qing screamed in terror.

The arrow was too fast. Su Hewan barely had time to shove Yu Qing out of the way. She couldn’t dodge herself.

She watched in despair as the glinting tip of the arrow seemed to expand in her vision, and instinctively shut her eyes.

“Puchi—”

The sound of the blade piercing flesh came, but the expected pain never arrived.

Su Hewan trembled as she opened her eyes, only to see the man—always sardonic, always radiating murderous intent—standing like a mountain in front of her.

Shen Jue grunted, his body jerking violently.

The poisoned arrow had struck directly into his back, three-tenths of an inch deep.

“Overseer!”

Su Hewan’s mind went blank.

A trickle of black blood escaped the corner of Shen Jue’s mouth, making his pale face look even more ghostly, almost otherworldly.

He swung his palm back with explosive internal force, sending the ambushing archer flying, organs shattered. Then his body went slack, collapsing backward.

He actually… saved her?

That ruthless, cold-blooded Shen Jue—the man who treated human life as worthless—actually used his body to take an arrow meant for her, a mere expendable pawn?

“Shen Jue!” Su Hewan panicked, catching his sliding body. Her palm touched a warm, sticky liquid—it was his blood.

Lu Yan turned his head, his pupils narrowing, the Xiu Chun Blade in his hand tracing a deadly afterimage. He roared, “Take him! I’ll clear the way!”

“Qingqing! Support him!” At this moment, Su Hewan’s strength surged, and she and Yu Qing lifted Shen Jue from either side.

Lu Yan, eyes blazing with fury, tore open a path through the copper-and-iron-like encirclement.

“Move!”

The four of them fled from Ciyun Temple in utter chaos, seizing two fast horses. Under pursuit from the hidden guards, they galloped all the way back to the capital.

Dongchang, secret chamber.

The heavy stone door shut out all sounds from outside, leaving only the thick scent of blood lingering in the air.

Shen Jue lay sprawled on the cold jade bed, his back soaked with black blood—a shocking sight.

Lu Yan left him there and hurriedly took Yu Qing away. He still had loose ends to handle.

In the cold, dim chamber, only Su Hewan and Shen Jue remained.

Su Hewan’s hands continued to tremble uncontrollably.

She was a museum researcher, having repaired countless damaged ancient texts and relics. Her hands had always been steady.

But now, holding the scissors as she cut open Shen Jue’s clothing, she couldn’t stop the trembling at her fingertips.

The skin around the wound had already turned a shocking purple-black—a sign that the deadly poison had attacked his heart.

“Don’t… don’t be afraid…” Su Hewan stammered, trying to reassure him.

Shen Jue, who had awakened at some point, suddenly found it somewhat amusing.

“Which one of us is really afraid?” His voice was weak, yet it still carried that infuriating, nonchalant tone.

Su Hewan, holding the scissors, didn’t dare move, and glared at him in response.

Shen Jue acted as if nothing was wrong.

“I… am tough. Even the King of Hell… wouldn’t dare take me.”

Tears instantly streamed down Su Hewan’s face, falling one by one beside his wound.

“Shut up!”

She bit her lip, her voice choking, and resolutely cut open the back of his clothing.

Then her movements became quick and precise.

Cleaning the decayed flesh, removing the poisoned blood, applying medicine, bandaging.

Every step, she performed with the utmost care.

【You have to survive… Shen Jue, you madman, you have to survive.】

At that moment, Su Hewan’s thoughts had never been clearer.

Shen Jue lay there, sweating coldly from the pain, yet the corner of his mouth curved into the faintest trace of a smile.

So this was what it felt like to be worried for someone.

Su Hewan watched as she emptied one basin of blackened liquid after another, her eyes on the man’s face—pale as paper, yet breathtakingly handsome—and a fear she had never known surged within her.

It wasn’t fear of death.

It was the fear of losing him.

She had always thought of herself as a transient from another time, a calm observer, surviving merely by staying alive.

But the moment Shen Jue stepped in front of her without hesitation, she realized something.

This man, painted in history as a heartless eunuch whose faction brought disaster to the nation, had unknowingly occupied the most important place in her heart—a heart that had always been rational to the point of coldness.

“Shen Jue,” Su Hewan whispered, holding his icy hand.

“As long as you live, whatever old case you want to investigate, whatever person you want to kill, I’ll help you.”

【Even if it means standing against the whole world, I will be the sharpest blade in your hand.】

Shen Jue lay on the cold jade bed, his eyes, once clouded from blood loss, now fixed incredulously on this frail woman before him.

What did she just say?

Be the sharpest blade in his hand?

Shen Jue scoffed inwardly, though his eyes stirred with emotions he had never felt.

This woman must be crazy.

To stand against the world for a reviled eunuch faction?

He wanted to mock her, but in the end, he only wearily closed his eyes, hiding the sudden thrum in his chest.

“Do as you wish.”

At the same time, in the Northern Zhenfu Division of the Jinyiwei…

“Ah—gentle! Gentle! That’s still flesh!”

Yu Qing sat in the redwood Grand Tutor’s chair, grimacing in pain, completely unladylike.

Lu Yan knelt before her, holding medicated ointment and gauze. His normally icy, child-soothing face was tense, his brows furrowed deeply.

His movements were clumsy.