Stop showing off at a time like this!

"You!"

Qin Zhiyi was almost choked by a mouthful of feathers. As he pulled the dead bird away from his face, Shen Fuyu snatched the bird right out of his hand. Just as his anger reached its boiling point, he saw Shen Fuyu pull a slip of paper out of the bird's leg.

Qin Zhiyi snatched the note, and his expression changed instantly!

Shen Fuyu shrugged innocently.

The imperial guards standing guard nearby arrived a step too late. Seeing the two of them safe and sound, one of them looked at the dead bird and said, "Consort Xian has quite the skills. Leave this prey to this subordinate to dispose of."

After handing over the dead bird, Qin Zhiyi dropped the note onto the ground right in front of the guards.

Shen Fuyu brushed off the dirt and stood up, a handful of pearls she had just dismantled from her hair ornaments ready in her hand. In a flash, the atmosphere changed abruptly. The imperial guard who was holding a sword suddenly drew it and lunged at Shen Fuyu!

Her slender fingers exerted force instantly, and a pearl shot out from her fingertips. Before anyone could even react, the pearl pierced straight through the attacker's heart. Shen Fuyu snatched the sword and kicked the corpse away in one fluid motion. The very next second, all the imperial guards drew their weapons and sprang into action!

"How dare you!" This happened so fast that Qin Zhiyi didn't even have time to react!

"Catch!" Shen Fuyu tossed the sword directly to Qin Zhiyi. "Jing Lanxi truly is capable, actually managing to slip this many people among the imperial guards."

At this moment, the guards who had dutifully stood by their sides had all turned into enemies. Most of them lunged straight toward Shen Fuyu. Qin Zhiyi swung his sword to knock down one man, then parried another's blade. As their swords clashed, he applied force to his wrist and shook the blade, using the momentum to bypass the enemy's defense and thrust straight through!

"Nice moves, Your Majesty!"

Shen Fuyu's voice rang out right beside his ear. Six pearls, as fast as the wind, shot out from behind Qin Zhiyi. Shen Fuyu's hands moved like lotuses; her flower-picking finger technique resembled a dance, perfectly demonstrating how things of greater beauty could be all the more lethal!

Running out of pearls, she spun around and swept several flowers from the ground. The soft petals turned magical in her hands, flying out to disrupt the enemies around them just as Qin Zhiyi swung his sword!

From out of nowhere, a group of figures dressed in black flooded in from all directions, each moving with agility and wielding daggers, looking every bit like grim reapers seeking lives!

Qin Zhiyi swept his sword horizontally to beat back a wave of attackers and hurried to Shen Fuyu's side. "There are too many of them!"

"Nowhere to retreat anyway." Shen Fuyu remained unhurried, tossing all the hairpins and accessories from her head and clothes like weapons. "Your Majesty, do you happen to carry any gold nuggets on you?"

With a flick of his sword, Qin Zhiyi yanked the pouch from his waist and tossed it to Shen Fuyu, then swept the area in a wide arc to buy her some time!

Shen Fuyu's hands moved at lightning speed. The greatest advantage of her flower-picking technique was that anything small and compact could be utilized. Plucking flowers while spinning required too much movement, but these gold nuggets were neither too big nor too small—they were simply perfect!

Her bizarre yet dazzling hand movements carried several streaks of golden light straight toward the vital points of the incoming attackers. The speed was so fast they had no way to parry; even holding their weapons horizontally in front of their chests was useless, and the luckiest among them were simply blasted backward by the sheer force.

The gold nuggets pierced through flesh and embedded themselves straight into the trees. Wherever Shen Fuyu went, lives were instantly claimed!

Only at this moment did Qin Zhiyi fully realize just how powerful Shen Fuyu truly was. No wonder she could scale walls to commit mischief without leaving a single eyewitness!

"Damn it, what is this woman's background?"

The leader of the assassins had one hand crippled by a gold nugget, blood streaming from the wound as he cursed furiously, "How can a delicate imperial consort possess this kind of martial arts?"

"Well, yes, didn't expect that, did you?" Shen Fuyu moved as fast as a gale, knocking down several assassins surrounding her in succession. "This consort is just that formidable."

"Stop bragging at a time like this!" Qin Zhiyi slashed with his sword, blood splashing across his face as he began to show signs of physical exhaustion.

While continuing to kill, Shen Fuyu quickly retreated to Qin Zhiyi's side. "You're really falling apart here, Your Majesty."

Damn it all! In the middle of a life-or-death crisis, he was still being mocked. Could he please just stab Shen Fuyu first?

"Attack!"

The leader gave the order!

Shen Fuyu was holding up fine, but Qin Zhiyi was indeed reaching his limit. After all, human endurance had its limits; handling so many high-level martial artists all by himself meant that physical exhaustion and attacks from all sides could happen at any second.

"There are simply too many of them." Shen Fuyu traded blows with hands and feet without mercy, occasionally flicking out a few gold nuggets to deal with those lunging at them. Retreating step by step while noticing several birds still circling above their heads, Shen Fuyu gritted her teeth and said, "There's no end to them. We can't kill them all."

Yet the escape routes all around had been completely sealed off; trying to run back the way they came was practically impossible!

Whenever their enemies fell, new ones took their place. Not only were there only two of them, but one of them was already physically spent.

"This is getting tough, Your Majesty." Shen Fuyu reached out to steady Qin Zhiyi. Fighting dozens alone made Qin Zhiyi exceptionally skilled among ordinary men, but hardly anyone's stamina could hold out much longer than this. "Looks like we can't run."

"Can you look even a little bit nervous?" Qin Zhiyi drove his sword into the ground. "Go back the way we came—is there any chance?"

"Not really looking good, more people are coming from that direction." Shen Fuyu shook her head.

"Then we jump." Qin Zhiyi's mind raced. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed Shen Fuyu and sprinted toward the cliff!

Shen Fuyu was startled. In a flash, she was dragged by Qin Zhiyi into a direct leap off the cliff! Several arrows instantly whizzed toward them. She raised her hand and flicked out gold nuggets, deflecting the arrows with loud clangs, and was then pulled into Qin Zhiyi's embrace. The cliff was not particularly high, and a few trees below served as a buffer. Their clothes were definitely beyond saving, but after snapping several tree trunks, the two of them tumbled down from the trees!

After rolling a few times, Shen Fuyu sat up, her bird's-nest hair littered with twigs and leaves. Qin Zhiyi looked significantly worse off, having cushioned the fall beneath her. When he tried to get up, his whole body appeared quite strained.

"Not bad, you're still in one piece."

"Right now, I want to leave you in pieces." Qin Zhiyi hissed softly. He had sustained numerous scrapes from the fall, along with a few sword cuts on his arms and legs; though not deep, they were throbbing with a dull, piercing pain.

In contrast, other than ruined clothes and messy hair, Shen Fuyu was completely unharmed.

Having cheated death, Qin Zhiyi panted heavily, but Shen Fuyu pulled him straight back up. "Let's go, Your Majesty. They'll catch up."

Qin Zhiyi didn't say much more, letting Shen Fuyu support him as they walked step by step. After a short while, he said, "Let's find a hidden spot. It's going to be difficult to get out of here."

"What was that?" Shen Fuyu knitted her brows.

"The Lingsheng Mountains sink in the middle. It's easy to go down, but hard to climb back up." Qin Zhiyi was already finding it rather laborious to walk. "I think I might have injured my leg when we fell."