The men were calling out with strange gibberish sounds.
Chu Lian’s brows furrowed together. Her expression turned grave and she immediately turned to Wenlan, “Be careful, Wenlan, these people are Tuhuns!”
They hadn’t even reached the northern border and they were still within the territory of the Great Wu Dynasty. How had the Tuhuns set an ambush for them here?
Although Wenlan didn’t know how Chu Lian had been able to tell that these people were Tuhun, she had always put her full trust in Chu Lian.
Wenlan gripped Chu Lian’s wrist tightly and forcefully pulled Chu Lian onto a horse.
She held the reins as she looked up at Chu Lian and said, “Third Young Madam, run away first! This servant will hold them back!”
After saying so, without waiting for Chu Lian to speak, she slapped the horse on the rump. The red chestnut horse reared up in fright and cried once before taking off.
Chu Lian quickly held grabbed the reins in fright. She crawled forward as far as she could on the horse’s back and grabbed onto its neck.
With the howling of the wind in her ears, Chu Lian could hear the sounds of battle getting further and further. After a moment, she could hear hoofbeats.
Chu Lian grabbed tightly onto the horse’s neck. The cold wind was cutting her face as she wailed inwardly.
Wenlan had been too concerned with protecting her that she had forgotten to ask if her master even knew how to ride a horse! This was great. Even if she somehow evaded capture by the Tuhuns, she was going to be half-dead after falling off the horse!
As the horse charged out of the forest, the hanging branches of the trees forced Chu Lian into a sorry state. Before she could relax and try to control the horse, the sounds of hoofbeats from behind her increased in pace, as if someone had come chasing after her.
Chu Lian’s nerves tightened and she tried her best to hug the horse’s neck with the reins in her grip. She balanced herself properly on the horse’s back and turned around to look behind her.
With that one glance, she took in a gasp of cold air.
Those two Tuhuns had come after her.
When she had glanced back, the Tuhuns were actually not more than twenty metres away from her!
A chill snuck down her spine. Chu Lian knew that she wouldn’t meet a good end in the hands of the Tuhun. Even if she managed to survive in the Tuhuns’ grasp and returned to the Great Wu Dynasty alive, her reputation would be ruined.
Even though the Great Wu Dynasty was more open-minded, they were still a feudal society and females were on the losing end.
Furthermore, going by how crazy He Sanlang was towards her even when her reputation was just fine, once she was kidnapped, he would probably write a divorce contract on the spot!
She forced herself to calm down and stop thinking of anything irrelevant to her situation. She gritted her teeth and plucked a hairpin from her head before stabbing the horse’s rump viciously.
The horse had already started slowing down; after getting stabbed, it went crazy and started sprinting forward again.
Chu Lian couldn’t care about anything else any longer. The only thing she could do was hug the horse’s neck in a death grip and do her best to stay on the horse’s back as she was jolted around.
The winter winds beat on her face like icy knives. The Tuhuns behind her seemed to be angered by her move. They shouted in gibberish she couldn’t understand, but their tone was clearly scolding.
Even though Chu Lian couldn’t understand, she didn’t dare to look back and stuck closely to the horse.
After the chasing Tuhuns realised that screaming angrily at her was useless, one of the Tuhuns spoke again and pulled out the bow he carried on his back.
He drew out a sharp arrow from his quiver and notched the arrow to his bow. The large bow was pulled into the shape of a full moon. The Tuhun shut one eye and aimed his arrow at Chu Lian’s back!
Li Xing and Li Yue battled against the attacking barbarians with some other guards in their party for a long moment. Although the barbarians didn’t know martial arts, they had strength that the Great Wu people did not.
Even though Li Xing and Li Yue were skilled at martial arts, they still couldn’t hold back the combined attacks of so many strong barbarians at once.
Soon, Li Xing blocked a blow for his sister and sustained a heavy injury.
The barbarians were divided into two groups. One group was in charge of besieging the men that Chu Lian had brought along, while the other group was stealing away the party’s supplies and luggage.
The luggage from the carriage was all shifted onto horseback.
Wenqing was tripped by a middle-aged barbarian. Just as that thick sword was about to land on her chest, Wenqing still shut her eyes in fright despite having been trained in martial arts at a young age.
Even though she was filled with fright and the refusal to concede defeat, Wenqing was still worried for the escaping Third Young Madam. However, at this moment, she could only pray to the gods to protect Third Young Madam’s safety.
She had thought that this would be the end of her life. However, the clashing of metal rang out in front of her and that broadsword was stopped. The tip of the sword lost its original course and stabbed into the tree behind her.
Before Wenqing could recover from her brush with death, she heard an icy yet familiar voice. “Where’s your Third Young Madam!”
Wenqing abruptly opened her eyes and looked up, only to see a slender man dressed in black armour standing before her… with a huge beard…
Wenqing’s eyes almost popped out. She called out with uncertainty, “Third… Third Young Master?”
He Changdi’s expression was stormy as he shot a cold glare at Wenqing. “I asked you, where’s Chu Lian!?”
Wenqing immediately came to her senses and ignored her injuries as she replied, “The situation was critical just now, so Wenlan took Third Young Madam to escape in that direction! Third Young Master, please hurry!”
Right after Wenqing finished speaking, she could barely catch He Changdi from the corner of her eye as he darted out in the direction she had pointed in.
