Lu Qingwan looked at Li Su, who nodded, "This matter is too bizarre. The Consort should indeed be careful."
Lu Qingwan scanned the nearly three hundred people, all looking at her with sincere eyes and no objection to Shen Qingzhou's claims of administering medicine.
She raised her hand, revealing the King of Ten Thousand Phoenixes on her wrist, "I am the Matriarch of the Xuanjia Army. I will not hesitate to save you. Anyone who dares to betray will be dealt with according to military law. If it were known that the Xuanjia Army had to resort to drugs to ensure loyalty, wouldn't it be a laughingstock?"
After speaking, seeing that Shen Qingzhou and the others still wanted to say something, she preempted them, "Are you not going to save them yet? Did I take such a big risk to save you just so you could kowtow to me? Do I lack a few people to kowtow to me?"
The soldiers immediately got up, grabbed their swords and spears, and began to dig. Having taken so many things from the spatial laboratory, she wasn't afraid of one or two more.
Lu Qingwan took out an entrenching tool and joined them, digging and asking Li Yang, "Do you know who those archers were who ambushed you on the mountain ridge just now?"
Li Yang dug through the snow with his sword and replied, "Your subordinate doesn't know who they were. The Four Camps of Feng, Lin, Huo, Shan, and the Northern Prefecture Iron Cavalry were surrounded in the snow mountain purely due to the misjudgment of General Qin and the four generals of Feng, Lin, Huo, and Shan. The Prince was forced into this by those people. Their purpose is unclear. They had been forcing the Prince up the mountain since before you arrived at Beixiao Pass. If their intention was to harm the Prince using the harsh environment of the snow mountain, they have already succeeded halfway."
...
More than three hundred people dug for a day and a night without rest, finally finding Feng Xiwu. However, everyone was shocked by Feng Xiwu's appearance.
"This, is this the Prince?" The Xuanjia Army's Tianzi Camp soldier who dug him out first couldn't believe that the man in such a tragic state could be their god-like Prince.
"Where? Let me see..." Lu Qingwan crawled over, using her hands and feet, and froze completely.
In the snow pit before them were two bodies in vastly different states. Lu Zhenting, in silver armor, was clean and tidy. If not for a clear bloodstain on his neck, an uninformed person would have mistaken him for merely sleeping. And less than a foot away from him lay a corpse wearing Feng Xiwu's distinctive golden armor, its helmet and head crushed beyond recognition. The entire body was soaked in blood, a sea of red. His features were indistinguishable.
"No, it can't be. The Prince is highly skilled in martial arts and can enter and exit the snow mountains as easily as his own backyard. This can't possibly be the Prince," Li Yang cried out hysterically, grabbing Li Su's arm and saying, "Consort, believe me, this is not the Prince, this is absolutely not the Prince!"
"But he's wearing the Prince's armor!" a small soldier next to Shen Qingzhou whispered.
Then, someone added, "The jade pendant hanging from the Prince's waist seems to be the dragon jade pendant bestowed by the late Emperor..."
Following this, a group of people, one after another, identified the unrecognizable corpse. The conclusion they reached was none other than that the person was indeed Feng Xiwu. Li Su also did not want to believe such a cruel fact, but the evidence presented by her colleagues gave her no excuse to comfort Lu Qingwan by saying it was fake.
"Consort..." Having followed Lu Qingwan all the way here, Li Su undoubtedly knew best how much effort Lu Qingwan had put into saving Feng Xiwu. To have such an outcome now, Li Su could hardly imagine how Lu Qingwan would accept this cruel reality.
Unexpectedly, Lu Qingwan calmly pulled open the collar of the corpse and personally saw the wound left when she had removed the蠱 for Feng Xiwu. Lu Qingwan touched the wound she had personally inflicted with disbelief. Her trembling fingers couldn't accurately locate the small, thumb-sized wound. Suddenly, Lu Qingwan withdrew her hand. "No, he is not Feng Xiwu, he is not..."
As she spoke, she suddenly turned around. A silver ball hit the mountain ridge above. "Twelve Months, pursue!" Twelve Months immediately chased out. Lu Qingwan turned back to Li Su, "Take them back for me. Wait for me to bring Xie Shiyu and Cheng Jiuxiao's heads as their farewell gift." After speaking, she disappeared into the snow mountain like a nimble snow leopard, leaping a few times.
"Consort!" Li Su cried out and tried to chase after her, but was pulled back by Li Yang. "Forget it. The Twelve Months beside the Consort are each worth ten of you. It is our duty to take the bodies of Marquis Lu and the Prince back for the Consort. We should focus on that."
"No, Marquis Lu entrusted the Consort to me. I must find the Consort and bring her back to the capital safely," Li Su said resolutely. "I entrust the bodies of the Prince and the Marquis to you. Li Yang, take the Prince home and wait for me and the Consort to return." Saying this, she ran in the direction Lu Qingwan had gone, regardless of Li Yang's agreement.
Meanwhile, Lu Qingwan's side. A smoke bomb exploded, revealing over thirty tails of various appearances. Thanks to the slight anesthetic in the smoke bomb, Lu Qingwan and Twelve Months easily caught up with them. Lu Qingwan attacked without a word, aiming for fatal blows. Seeing her relentless assault, Twelve Months also did not hold back, cutting down all the tails that tried to approach Lu Qingwan with each move. Only when three remained did Lu Qingwan speak, "Leave them alive."
Duan Yue held two people in one hand, and Ru Yue held one. They said in unison, "Mistress, how should these three be dealt with?"
"Take them down the mountain and find a place to interrogate them before killing them," Lu Qingwan said, picking up a tail and heading straight down the mountain. Twelve Months followed not far behind. Seeing Li Yang and the others descending the mountain in the distance, she did not stop. She bypassed the Wolf's Fang Pass, took a turn to avoid the eyes of the soldiers from the three kingdoms, and directly sought out a deserted wilderness.
Duan Yue dropped the people she was holding and said to Lu Qingwan, "This is a lawless zone between the three kingdoms and the Tianxuan Sect. It's very safe. No one should chase after us. Mistress, rest for a while. I will report to you after the interrogation."
"No need," Lu Qingwan said, taking out a steel whip as long as she was tall. She opened each joint, and the three-edged刺 at the tip of the whip pierced the ankle of one of them. "I know you are all tough. You can endure it. I also want to know how tough your bones are that you dare to kill my people." Saying this, she pulled out the three-edged刺 and fiddled with it, then plunged it in again.
The person, who had been able to endure, convulsed from the pain and curled up like a shrimp. Lu Qingwan still asked nothing, pulled it out, and fiddled with the three-edged刺 again. Just as she was about to plunge it in again, the person blurted out, "Ask whatever you want to know, I promise to tell you everything. Don't stab anymore, it hurts too much, damn it..."
The steel whip in Lu Qingwan's hand hung in the air. "It's easy. What country are you from, who instructed you, and why did you bring Feng Xiwu to the snow mountain? Explain clearly, and you will be freed."