AUBTN -Chapter 392 One of Our Own

Deep in the night, the Great Wei Imperial Palace was shrouded in darkness.

Inside the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the bright yellow candlelight flickered violently in the wind.

The little emperor suddenly slammed his palm down on the imperial desk.

“Prison break? You’re telling me that Shen Jue was taken away?”

The little emperor’s face was livid. His eyes, which still retained a trace of childishness, were now filled with gloom and fury.

“The Ministry of Justice prison is heavily guarded, with a large number of troops stationed there. And yet you actually let someone swap a prisoner right under your noses? Where is Lu Yan? Where is my Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard?”

The little emperor was so furious that he had completely forgotten that Lu Yan had already been stripped of his position as Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!

The Minister of Justice kneeling on the ground was trembling all over, cold sweat pouring down like rain. He did not even dare to raise his head.

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger… Lord Lu was dismissed from office long ago. Moreover, I—I have just confirmed that the person who carried out the prison break… was most likely Lord Lu himself! He used Zhao Zhou, a Thousand-Household Commander of the Eastern Depot, to switch Shen Jue out of the prison. They have now fled toward the outskirts of the city!”

“Lu Yan…”

The moment the little emperor heard that name, his body jolted violently. Then he let out an angry laugh that sounded almost self-mocking.

“Good. Very good! They’ve both rebelled. The two of them actually joined forces!”

The little emperor suddenly drew the precious sword hanging on the wall and brought it down with all his strength, cleaving the imperial desk in front of him cleanly in two.

“Convey my imperial decree! Mobilize the Imperial Guards and the light cavalry of the Imperial Army. Pursue them out of the city immediately! Set up checkpoints and conduct strict searches within a hundred-li radius! Whether they’re dead or alive, drag them back to the capital and tear them limb from limb!”

“This subject receives Your Majesty’s decree!”

The little emperor sank despondently into the dragon throne.

He had previously remembered that Lu Yan and Shen Jue had once saved his life and supported him when he was in power. He had never truly intended to take their lives.

He had merely been afraid that their influence would grow too great and wanted them to rein themselves in a little.

But he had never expected them to overturn the table and challenge his bottom line!

In an instant, the silent capital was torn apart by the thunderous sound of galloping hooves. The cavalry charged wildly through the night, roaring toward the South City Gate.

The rain continued to pour down in torrents.

On the ancient Ling Mountain post road, mud rose above the horses’ hooves.

Lu Yan was drenched from head to toe, his whip practically becoming a blur as he swung it again and again.

The carriage jolted violently over the scattered rocks and deep mud.

Inside the carriage, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was almost suffocating.

Shen Jue lay on his back on the soft couch, his face as pale as paper and his forehead burning hot.

With every jolt of the carriage, the wounds on his body tore open once more, and dark-red blood seeped continuously from them.

The clean gauze that Su He’wan had painstakingly wrapped around his wounds was stained red again.

“Shen Jue, hold on…” Su He’wan gripped the carriage wall tightly with both hands. Her knees were already aching painfully from kneeling on the floor, but she had no time to care about that. She could only press her cold hand firmly against Shen Jue’s forehead.

The ancient Ling Mountain Road was the shortest route from the capital to the canal wharf, but the mountain road here was narrow, with dense forests on both sides. Once they were surrounded, it would be a dead end.

Given the little emperor’s temperament, once he discovered that he had been deceived, he would inevitably send out his most elite light cavalry.

The light cavalry of Great Wei could cover ten li in the time it took to burn a stick of incense. Their carriage, however, was carrying too much weight. At most, they had another two quarters of an hour before the pursuers caught up…

Just as Su He’wan was thinking about this, a faint, bone-chilling rumble suddenly came from outside the carriage window.

It was the sound of hundreds, even thousands, of warhorses trampling through the mud, galloping and roaring!

“Hold on!” Lu Yan’s cold voice came through the wind and rain from outside the carriage, carrying an unprecedented gravity.

“It’s the Imperial Guards! Their horses are faster. They’ve already caught up with us!”

Yu Qing had originally been slumped in the corner. Upon hearing this, she was so frightened that she nearly jumped to her feet.

“My god! Do they have to be this fast?! There are four of us—one wounded man, two women who can’t do anything, and only Lu Yan left who can fight! How are we supposed to deal with this?!”

“Lu Yan, can you shake them off?” Yu Qing shouted desperately, her voice almost breaking into tears.

Lu Yan gritted his teeth and replied, “I’ll give it a try!”

The moment his words fell—

“Whoosh—!”

A sharp sound suddenly tore through the air!

A feathered arrow tore through the torrential rain and slammed viciously into the wooden frame of the carriage window.

“Ahhh—!!”

Yu Qing let out the highest-pitched scream of her entire life.

Su He Wan’s expression darkened. She suddenly lunged forward and shoved Yu Qing down onto the floor of the carriage.

“Get down!”

Outside the carriage window, flames suddenly blazed brightly.

Countless torches formed what looked like a fiery dragon winding along the mountain road, rapidly closing in on them.

The Imperial Guard Commander’s savage roar could already be heard clearly:

“Rebels ahead, listen up! His Majesty has issued an edict! The traitors Shen Jue and Lu Yan are to be captured, dead or alive! Fire!”

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!!”

A dense rain of arrows, carrying the force of wind and thunder, came hurtling toward the carriage from all directions.

Lu Yan’s eyes turned cold. He reined in the horse with one hand, while his left hand instantly drew the blade from his waist.

The gleaming blade flashed through the torrential rain, weaving into an impenetrable curtain of light that struck down arrow after arrow aimed at the carriage.

However, there were simply too many enemies.

“Pfft!”

A stray arrow grazed Lu Yan’s shoulder.

He grunted, his body swaying slightly, yet he did not even blink. He continued to guard the carriage door with all his might.

“Lu Yan!”

Hearing the muffled grunt from outside, Yu Qing’s eyes immediately reddened with panic. She grabbed onto the carriage door and shouted:

“Are you hurt? Don’t you dare die!”

A trace of tenderness flashed through Lu Yan’s dark eyes. He immediately called out reassuringly:

“I’m fine. Don’t worry. Stay down!”

Gritting his teeth, he was just about to risk everything and drive the carriage toward the narrow mountain pass ahead—

When, at this critical moment!

A clear, ringing battle cry suddenly erupted without warning from the dense forest on the right side of the mountain road.

“Kill—!!”

Following that cry, dozens of black figures seemed to descend from the heavens. They slid and leaped directly down the steep mountainside, plunging diagonally into the ranks of the pursuing Imperial Guards!

At their head was a woman.

She wore a sleek, form-fitting black night outfit, her long hair tied high behind her head. In her hand, a soft sword moved like a silver snake emerging from its lair, carving vicious arcs through the darkness.

“Who are you? How dare you interfere with the Imperial Guards carrying out their orders?”

The Imperial Guard Commander was horrified and hurriedly reined in his horse to meet the attackers.

The woman in black sneered. She did not bother wasting words on him. Her soft sword transformed into a shower of silver light as she shouted crisply:

“I’m your daddy!”

“Change formation! Bring out the thunderfire bombs!”

Several violent explosions erupted within the Imperial Guard formation.

Rolling clouds of smoke and the pungent stench of sulfur filled the air. The warhorses, startled by the blasts, whinnied and bucked wildly. In an instant, the Imperial Guards were thrown into chaos, men and horses tumbling over one another, while their originally orderly charging formation was forcibly split into two.

Inside the carriage, Su He Wan heard the commotion and struggled to prop herself up to look outside.

When she caught sight of the jade pendant hanging from the waist of the woman in black, a look of ecstatic joy finally appeared in her usually calm and unruffled eyes.

“It’s Tang Lingyue… Aunt Lin’s people!”

Su He Wan murmured to herself.

Back when she had left Southern Xinjiang and returned to the capital, Aunt Lin had always felt that the capital was a den of danger. She had insisted on secretly sending an elite group of death warriors to accompany Su He Wan and protect her, in case anything unexpected happened.

At the time, Su He Wan had rationally analyzed the situation and believed that in a capital where imperial power was so concentrated, secretly maintaining an armed force would not only be of little help—

it could instead leave behind evidence that others could use against them.

She had therefore strongly tried to dissuade Aunt Lin, believing that she was simply making unnecessary preparations.

But now…

Watching that small black-clad squad fighting their way in and out of the Imperial Guards, tearing open a path of escape for them with their own hands, Su He Wan curled her lips into a self-mocking smile.

“No matter how rationally you calculate and deduce things, you can never outcalculate fate. Aunt Lin, this time, it’s Wanwan who has to thank you!”

“Lu Yan! Don’t stop! Keep going!”

Su He Wan stuck her head out and shouted at Lu Yan.

“The people who came are our own! Go!”