“Nothing… I… I just felt… that I’ve let everyone down…”
There was so much she wanted to say, but in that instant, Lin Mengya choked at her words and was unable to say anything.
Her eyes became red, but she tried hard to keep the tears from falling down.
“Alas— I’m not blaming you, don’t be upset.”
Long Tianyu reached out his big hand and lightly caressed her forehead.
In spite of feeling angry, Long Tianyu could not bring himself to vent it at this moment.
Moreover, while he was a little upset with Lin Mengya, he was even more upset with himself for not being able to protect her.
Now, seeing that she was about to cry, his anger vanished completely.
All that was left was his tender love towards her, which he was too shy to express in words.
“It will be good if you remember this lesson. Just be careful from now on.”
Long Tianyu groaned inwardly. If it were in the past, no one who had committed a mistake could escape his berating.
What was wrong was wrong. No matter how reasonable the excuses sounded, nothing could cover up mistakes.
However, he could not bring himself to say anything harsh when it came to dealing with Lin Mengya.
Perhaps she was the only exception in his life.
“Yes, I will be careful going forward.”
She held on tightly to Long Tianyu’s coat like an obedient kitten.
It was not every day that she was so quiet and adorable. Long Tianyu, feeling satisfied with her answer, held her tightly in his arms.
The large coat had wrapped tightly and securely around her slender body. All Long Tianyu wanted to do was to encircle her in his world so that she did not have to see any more of this cruel and dark world.
Finally, the night passed and the gentle rays of sunlight penetrated the sky from the east and lit up the entire land.
Liu Xuan and Ling Ye, who were ahead of them, were approaching the dungeon.
As they stared at the entrance which was an opening that could only accommodate a person at a time, Ling Ye and Liu Xun exchanged looks and leaped in one after another and disappeared into the hole quietly.
The noise made by the mechanisms was no longer as loud as when Lin Mengya came out from the dungeon some time ago.
Lin Mengya could not help but took a step close. Zhu Yan was still holding up in there with much effort. Although the mechanisms were able to keep Ambassador White Dragon and Shadow Slave at bay, she could not possibly sacrifice Zhu Yan.
“Zhu Yan! I’ve gotten help to come to save you!”
In order to protect Liu Xuan and Ling Ye from harm, Lin Mengya could only crane her neck and shouted into the opening.
Thereafter, the sound of sword fighting could be heard coming out from the dungeon.
Lin Mengya was tempted to go over to check out on Zhu Yan, but Long Tianyu tightened his grip around her hands and refused to let her go.
Long Tianyu stopped her impetus resentfully and Lin Mengya gazed timidly at Long Tianyu and said, “Zhu Yan is the amulet Qinghu left for me. This is too important and I can’t allow any harm to befall him.”
The mechanisms and snares inside the dungeon were much more intense than outside.
Therefore, Lin Mengya had left Zhu Yan to control the mechanisms on his own so she could find the opportunity to go out and get help.
Long Tianyu gave her a glance, but his intention was unclear to her. He quickly got in front of her to block her.
When the group of them entered the dungeon, they saw Liu Xuan and Ling Ye fighting fiercely with a dark figure.
Not only were the two men highly skilled in martial arts, but they were also very intelligent, nimble, and quick to react. Nevertheless, they were entangled with the dark figure in a fight.
“I’m right here!”
Zhu Yan, who was in the mechanism well, had thought that he would die in there.
To his surprise, just when all the mechanisms had been activated and used, two men had rushed in. Shadow Slave, who was after his life was immediately entangled in a fight with them.
In addition, Lin Mengya’s cry had reassured him that help was on the way.
Little did he expect that the moment he let down his guard, the shadow of a figure, whom no one noticed, suddenly appeared before him.
A dejected-looking Ambassador White Dragon threw himself ferociously on Zhu Yan.
He was not stupid and knew that the situation was hopeless for him. If he did not get hold of Zhu Yan, he could well die in here.
“Watch out!”
Lin Mengya cried out in anxiety. From her understanding of Ambassador White Dragon, she knew him to be a very cunning person.
If he got his way, Zhu Yun and Qinghu would get into a dangerous situation!
At this critical moment, a ray of light flashed onto Ambassador White Dragon’s waist.
Behind that mask was pair of eyes that were wide opened from the pain. They were gazing at the arrogant and ruthless looking youth with shock.
Never did he expect that at this moment in time when his life was in danger, Zhu Yan had stabbed him with the machete that he barely parted with and he did it without any hesitation.
“You…”
The ferocious strength with which he pounced at Zhu Yan had become one of the reasons he wanted to seek death now.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to take your life.”
Zhu Yan let go of the machete in his hand with disgust and in that instant, Ambassador White Dragon collapsed to the floor.
Lin Mengya, standing behind Long Tianyu, was taken aback for a moment. In turn, she suddenly remembered the scene when she first met Zhu Yan.
It was no wonder that Zhu Yan had entrusted him to Lin Mengya.
If such a talented kid were to fall into the hands of Candle Dragon Cult, there would be one more brutal killer in the society after a decade.
“Your master is dead. If you keep resisting, he would lose his life.”
Zhu Yan trampled on Ambassador White Dragon’s head and spoke arrogantly.
Shadow Slave’s strength was spent perhaps because his heart was tied to his master, or that he had been resisting the mechanisms over a long period of time.
The fierce attacks gradually slowed, and the weak points occurred more frequently now.
Ling Ye and Liu Xuan worked together with much rapport. After a dozen more moves, they chanced upon a gap and they quickly wielded their weapon at Shadow Slave.
In that instant, the agnails on the leather whip together with Ling Ye’s long sword resulted in blood being splattered all over.
Shadow Slave began to stagger and eventually, he fell into the pool in the middle.
The faint red from his blood began spreading out in the water. This battled had finally ended with Lin Mengya’s party gaining the victory.
“Escort this man and have Zuo Qiuyu personally take care of him.”
Although the two had worked together, the commander was obviously Long Tianyu.
He instructed for Shadow Slave to be brought outside and Ambassador White Dragon to be led away. After which, Long Tianyu wanted Zuo Qiuyu to tend to Ambassador White Dragon’s injuries personally.
Outside, the servants were clearing up the corpses without being instructed to do so.
By now, the large courtyard outside was already piled up with rocks thrown out by the mechanisms as well as corpses.
Hongyu and Xiu emerged from their hiding place with the other girls.
Although all the people went through the daunting experience, there were no mishaps.
There was nothing much Lin Mengya could do to help in terms of clearing up the mess.
Under the watchful eye of Long Tianyu, she, followed by Xiu and Zhu Yan obediently boarded the horse carriage waiting outside the gates.
“We were not expecting Princess Anle to be such an ornamental person. Are you really so fearful of your husband?”
Inside the spacious horse carriage, the three passengers were spent.
Nevertheless, Zhu Yan had seized the opportunity to be sarcastic to Lin Mengya.
After all, he would not be getting many opportunities to humiliate her.
“Nonsense! It’s because my master doted on my big sister, the princess. What do you know, being a little kid?”
Naturally, Lin Mengya was not bothered about Zhu Yan’s attempt to provoke her, but Xiu was the one who would not give in.
Despite feeling exhausted, they seemed to find the energy to argue with each other with vigor.
There seemed to be a fire in their argument, but the content of their argument was completely useless.
Lin Mengya just let them be. After all, they needed to relax after such an exciting episode.
However, at this moment, she was more interested in the statement Zhu Yun made about the music score for the green stringed instrument being the crux for defeating Candle Dragon Cult.
She had roughly gone through the music score for the green stringed instrument in the past days and had search keywords relating to the Candle Dragon Cult. However, she had yet to find any leads.
Could the secret be hidden in the original copy of the music score for the green stringed instrument?
Fortunately, not only did she managed to attract the attention of most of the targets but before she left, she had also instructed Yunzhu to send a number of trained men to protect the people in the courtyard.
She believed there should not be a problem with the original copy.
She wondered what kind of secret was hidden in the pages of this ‘useless’ book filled with blotches of dark ink.
While she pondered, Lin Mengya dozed off without knowing what time it was.
By the time she opened her eyes, what came into sight was the ceiling of the still-swaying horse carriage.
“I… are we not there yet?”
Lin Mengya, not aware of how long she had been asleep, realized that someone had put on a new set of clothes on her.
She was wearing a pastel blue outfit made of yarn, which felt extremely comfortable. Only that the material was a little too thin.
She was about to get up when a head of long hair smelling like fragrant jasmine appeared before her.
Lin Mengya pushed herself up and realized that it was Long Tianyu, who had also changed into a sapphire blue outfit embroider with the pattern of a dragon. At that moment, he was smiling helplessly at her.
“Did you sleep well?”
Long Tianyu asked with a tender voice in his usual doting tone.
Lin Mengya fiddled with her puffy hair and nodded.
Thereafter, she conveniently pushed aside the curtain of the horse carriage and realized that the sky was already dark and dotted with stars.
The cool night breeze forced her to let go of the curtain and shrink back into the blanket.
“You have been asleep for a day. It was Hongyu and Xiu who helped clean you up and changed your clothing.”
Long Tianyu explained to her when he saw her puzzled expression.
What? Had she fallen that deeply into unconsciousness? She had even troubled Xiu and Hongyu to clean her up and change her clothing!
In that instant, Lin Mengya wished that she could find somewhere to hide.
She was more like a dead pig than just a person who had fallen asleep!
“Where are we…. headed?”
She did not want to continue in the same topic of conversation, supposing that she had made herself a spectacle today.
Blushing, Lin Mengya quickly changed the topic of conversation.
Her sudden change of topic was awkward, but Long Tianyu was not really bothered.
He put down the scroll in his hands and moved closer to Lin Mengya.
“We are— going back.”
Lin Mengya blinked. Her mind was filled with question marks.
Going back? What did Long Tianyu mean? Were they going back to Dajin?
Why? Why did it have to be so soon？
She supposed the business regarding the Pavilion of Herbs was not over yet.
