You should at least act a little shy.

The branches and grass at the mouth of the cave were pulled away, the stones were moved, and the light of torches instantly illuminated the interior. The cave was not deep, and almost instantly, someone inside could be seen!

Without waiting for the other party to react, Shen Fuyu directly threw the golden melon seeds she was holding!

The golden melon seeds streaked through the air, and with a few whooshing sounds, directly struck down the first few people. In just that brief moment, the assassins also reacted quickly, pushing aside the corpses of their companions and charging inside, while simultaneously exposing their position!

Instead of using fireworks for signals, they used a somewhat eerie wolf howl as a signal. Shen Fuyu's ears were extremely sensitive, and she naturally heard the footsteps approaching from all directions!

This must be what they call having a crow's mouth.

Shen Fuyu almost gave herself a slap on the face!

Why did you have to run your mouth back there!

The cave was not very wide, only accommodating two or three people walking abreast, which severely limited the space for movement. Fighting bare-handed, Shen Fuyu knocked down two people, but on Qin Zhiyi's side, because he could not dodge in time and had nowhere to hide, a dagger stabbed directly into his shoulder!

"Damn it! You bastard!" Shen Fuyu was furious! With a kick, she directly sent the man flying, used force in her hands to slam the assassin's head against a stone, and then reached out to catch Qin Zhiyi!

Weren't these assassins supposed to come kill her? Why were they attacking her precious anger-generator!

Pissed to death!

There were clearly far more than just a few dozen people outside. Although she had learned martial arts from the spatial realm, possessing skills superior to the top fighters of this world, her body was still human. Even if she could endure a battle of attrition, Qin Zhiyi wouldn't necessarily hold up after being stabbed!

Moreover, once a single assassin escaped, Jing Lanxi could still use that surviving fish slipping through the net to turn things around and frame them upon returning!

"Quick! Over there!"

A group of assassins rushed toward the cave entrance. From a distance, the stench of blood could be smelled. Everyone drew their weapons to block the entrance, and three men stepped out of the ranks holding torches to peer inside.

The empty cave was devoid of figures, with only the corpses of their own men lying on the ground.

After inspecting the wounds of the dead, the man holding the torch said, "It was definitely the target who did this, but we arrived too late—they've escaped!"

"Search! They're injured too, they can't have run far!"

"Also, guard every single place that leads upward with your lives! If they escape, all of us will die!"

...

"The Emperor and the Noble Consort have yet to return..."

"Still no news?"

"People have already been sent to look, but no trace has been found yet..."

The Emperor and the Noble Consort had been taking a stroll on the mountain when they suddenly vanished, and the team of imperial guards following them hadn't returned either. Everyone had returned from hunting at nightfall, never expecting such a major incident to occur!

"This matter is no trivial affair. First, report the disappearance of the Emperor and the Noble Consort back to the capital and inform the Empress Dowager," Prince Ping took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility, pacifying the crowd while dispatching imperial guards to search the mountain.

On the other hand, with Shen Fuyu absent, the female consorts had to be looked after by Lady Zhao and Cui Yingsu.

"I wonder how Elder Sister is doing right now," Cui Yingsu sighed. "Out of nowhere, how could she just disappear..."

"Who knows," Lady Zhao sat in a chair, looking somewhat tired. Her brow furrowed as she took a cup of tea, took a small sip, and whispered very softly, "It would be best if she died."

"Did Zhao Sister say something just now?" Cui Yingsu asked with some confusion, "This younger sister didn't hear clearly."

"You heard wrong." Lady Zhao rolled her eyes in speechlessness. What was so great about that bitch Shen Fuyu? This little bitch Cui Yingsu actually clung to her and fawned over her like that!

Yet after searching bitterly all night, there was still no trace of the two of them, and everyone began to panic.

Ling Sheng Mountain covered an extremely vast area, but the terrain was relatively gentle. Especially before every autumn hunt, people were specifically dispatched to clear the hunting grounds precisely to prevent any ferocious beasts from appearing.

Surely the Emperor and the Noble Consort couldn't have run into some ferocious beast, could they?

Or could it be... that the imperial guards at some post had been lax in their watch, allowing someone with malicious intent to sneak in?

Regardless of which possibility it was, the prognosis was grim.

Prince Ping could only use the excuse that Ling Sheng Mountain was too vast to temporarily pacify the precarious anxieties of the crowd.

"Slurp... slurp..."

Qin Zhiyi was licked awake.

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Qin Shit-Yellow, who was just as harboring malicious intentions as its master. Qin Zhiyi pushed the dog away with utmost disgust, and when he tried to wipe his face with his sleeve, he discovered that he was lying on the ground completely naked.

Subconsciously, he touched his injured shoulder, only to feel smooth skin. Looking down, he could only see a faint red scar, proving that everything that had happened was real.

As for the other minor injuries on his body, they seemed to have vanished without a trace.

Where was this?

Qin Zhiyi stood up. Perhaps from sleeping on the ground for too long, his body felt somewhat stiff. Looking around, his eyes were met with peach blossoms as far as the eye could see—a house, a field, a stream, and beyond that, nothing but peach blossom groves.

How could peach blossoms be blooming in the autumn? Could such a place exist on Ling Sheng Mountain?

And where was Shen Fuyu?

"Ah, Your Majesty, you're awake," Shen Fuyu appeared from behind Qin Zhiyi, gnawing on a peach. "How shy, you're not even wearing clothes."

Subconsciously covering himself with his hands, Qin Zhiyi said with a dark face, "This couldn't possibly be something I stripped off myself!"

"And you should at least show a bit of modesty!"

Shen Fuyu blinked.

Modesty about what? After living for so many years, what hadn't she seen, right?

However, Qin Zhiyi was above average, which was indeed quite rare!

"Oh, well, that's not important. Are you hungry?" Shen Fuyu took another bite of her peach, then offered another peach from her arms toward him.

Qin Zhiyi was indeed somewhat hungry, but this peach...

"What is this place?" Qin Zhiyi felt nothing but bizarreness in his heart. To be honest, he didn't believe this was a place that could exist in the Great Xun; it looked much more like somewhere out of a play or a strange tale.

"This is my place," Shen Fuyu took another crunching bite of her peach. "You took that slash far too seriously; you probably wouldn't have lasted until I brought you back to the palace to see an imperial physician. I had no choice."

"What do you mean, your place?" The more Qin Zhiyi listened, the more bizarre it felt. "You... are you even human?"

"...I suppose I don't have to be," Shen Fuyu smiled sincerely. "When has this concubine ever done anything human?"

Qin Zhiyi retreated a few steps.

Yet Shen Fuyu flashed directly behind Qin Zhiyi like a demon. The spatial realm was hers, and she could appear anywhere within it. Seized by a sudden urge to play, she teased, "Your Majesty... are you scared?"

"Actually, this concubine is a demon. I've held back for a long time, and you smell so utterly delicious. May I eat you?"

Qin Zhiyi felt an urge to run, but Shen Fuyu's ability to move at will truly made her look like a demon. Panic and a whirlwind of thoughts churned in his heart—fear of the demon mixed with his own conscience...

"Can you wait until I pacify the Great Xun before you make your move?" Qin Zhiyi's face had actually turned pale. "You've helped me a lot. Once I've finished everything, I'll give you my life."

And then, out of sheer terror, Qin Zhiyi pitched forward face-first onto the ground.