Diao Qi knocked over the besieging men in black one by one and fell to the ground. He was panting from exhaustion.
Jiang Yong rushed into the Earth Temple. Seeing this scene, he looked around and found that Kang Yanning was not there. He hurried to Diao Qi's side and said, "Brother Diao, where is the lady?"
"Huh...huh..." Diao Qi tried hard to calm down his exhausted body. He pointed at the back of the land statue, "There is a secret passage behind it. The princess...the princess went along the secret passage."
Jiang Yong followed the direction indicated by Diao Qi and rushed over, only to find that there was no secret passage behind the Earth Temple, let alone an entrance.
He shouted to Diao Qi, "Brother Diao, there is nothing here."
Diao Qi slowed down, propped himself up with his left hand and walked toward the secret passage. Then he was stunned, and there was indeed nothing left.
While touching the bricks on the wall behind the Earth Temple, he explained, "It was here just now. There is an opening here, but I don't know when and how it was opened. This opening can accommodate about one person.
"
After touching for a long time, he still couldn't find any mechanism on this wall. Diao Qi asked helplessly, "All the secret passages should lead to the outside. Uncle Jiang, can you still go down the mountain now?"
Jiang Yong shook his head, "The way down the mountain is blocked by huge rocks. We don't have enough manpower, so we can only pass through it bit by bit."
"It's okay." Diao Qi comforted him, "The princess had the foresight to send two maids to go down the mountain separately. If it's quick, Mr. Kang should be going up the mountain soon."
The snow gradually became heavier.
Wei Jialing stood in front of the window, looking at the vast expanse of white that was about to cover the earth, and frowned slightly.
Huo Hua pushed the door open and entered. Seeing Wei Jialing with the window open and coughing slightly, he stepped forward worriedly and said, "Your Highness, it's windy outside, so it's not advisable to blow in the wind."
Wei Jialing turned around, coughing slightly due to the wind, took out a small porcelain bottle, held a pill in his mouth, and asked in a low voice, "Is there still no news about Yan Ning?"
Huo Hua shook his head, "The road on Qiantang Lake Mountain was blocked by huge rocks for some unknown reason. Our people lost contact. We don't know what happened now."
Wei Jialing's eyebrows furrowed even more tightly, "Is Huo Qian back?"
"Your Highness!" Just as he was saying this, Huo Yan hurried back. Huo Hua's heart skipped a beat. Huo Yan had always been very polite. It was rare to see him be so irritable. He was afraid that something big had happened.
"Your Highness. Mr. Kang sent someone to report, and the princess's maid sent back the news. A moment ago, someone planned to murder the princess in the Tutu Temple in Qiantang Lake. Please help the prince."
Huo Yan picked out the most important thing first. Sure enough, before he finished speaking, he saw His Highness the Crown Prince standing up immediately and wanting to go there in person. He quickly lowered his voice and said, "There is one more thing, Your Highness."
"Speak." Wei Jialing kept moving and ordered Huo Hua to prepare the carriage and horses, take the people with him, and strode out.
"A large number of people came in and out of the Third Prince's Mansion today. A moment ago, the Third Prince also brought more than ten people out of the mansion in disguise. Our spies reported that the Third Prince did not inform about the relevant matters, but the destination seemed... to be Qiantang Lake.
"
Wei Jialing had already climbed onto his horse. He reined in the horse's head after hearing the words. After thinking for a moment, he turned the horse's head decisively. "This matter has something to do with him. Ask the spies to report their location at any time, take people with them, and follow the third prince. Wait until they are almost at the entrance, and then give him some advice."
The third prince is causing some trouble."
"Yes." Huo Yan and Huo Hua obeyed.
Heavy snow had already fallen in the mountains, and a few hexagonal crystal-shaped snowflakes swayed in the winter wind, slowly flying down and landing on the nose of the woman lying on the ground with her eyes closed.
"cough..."
Kang Yanning choked and coughed a few times, then slowly woke up.
Cold...pain...
Kang Yanning opened her eyes, and the sky was full of snowflakes rolling up in front of her eyes. Her eyes were still a little blurry. Kang Yanning closed her eyes and opened them again.
Still...in the mountains. It seems she is not dead yet.
Kang Yanning lay on the ground and smiled silently. It was God's will that his life should not be cut off.
She covered her chest with the knife still inserted in one hand, and put her other hand on the ground, trying to push her body up to sit upright.
This was Yanqiu's first time to do such a thing. When he inserted the knife, he was fierce at heart. No matter how cruel he said, when the knife was handed to him, he didn't dare to raise his head. He could only stab it into the ribs, not far from the heart.
A few inches away.
Just as Kang Yanning was trying to sit up, she suddenly felt the sound of drums coming from the ground. She lowered her head and listened to the vague and non-existent sound of horse hooves.
She didn't know whether the person who came was good or bad, so she could only get up first while caressing her wounds, staggering a few times, holding on to the bare tree trunks at the edge of the forest, looking for a suitable cover.
Kang Yanning marched in the opposite direction to the sound of horse hooves for a long time, and the wound on her chest kept bleeding. Kang Yanning leaned against the tree in pain, stopped to rest for a moment, and inadvertently looked up, and found that there seemed to be a cave deep in the trunk of the tree.
She took a deep breath, one step deeper and one step shallower, and walked toward the cave.
Kang Yanning pushed aside the weeds at the entrance of the small cave and leaned inside. It was pitch black inside. Listening to the sound of horse hooves getting closer and closer, she dived in.
After the third prince cleared the roadblock at the foot of the mountain, he led people up the mountain from the side. He turned to his cronies and asked, "Has she written a letter?"
The confidant nodded, "What the lady said has been done. Kang Yanning has been forced into the cave by us. Now we and the lady will go to surround her and kill her."
"Okay!" The third prince Wei Jiaxiao smiled brightly, "As expected of her! She can make Kang Yanning suffer this loss!" Thinking of the loss he suffered at the hands of Kang Yanning, he said viciously, "Today we will catch the turtle in the middle, and Kang Yanning will definitely die."
In my hand."
"Fight!" The third prince raised his whip and spurred his horse on, speeding up his journey.
When he arrived near where Kang Yanning was hiding, he saw her waiting for him not far away. She was wearing a rabbit fur coat, which made her face look innocent and harmless.
Being able to strangle Kang Yanning today made the third prince feel very good, so he dismounted and went to meet him.
"Okay! As expected of you, you can be said to be the best among women! You can actually defeat Kang Yanning by yourself."
The woman bowed slightly and said, "The third prince is so complimentary. Today's game has indeed gone through a lot of hoops to get to this point."
The third prince waved his hand, "What's the matter? Now that she's trapped here, that's what you're capable of. Let's go." His face was extremely cheerful, "Let's see if the person who turned this Kyoto upside down can still survive."
I can’t laugh."
Kang Yanning lowered her eyebrows. What fell to the ground was the sharp blade originally inserted in her chest. The blood on her chest no longer flowed, and there was a faint white powder on the wound.
But she was still very weak. Kang Yanning leaned on the big rock in the cave and struggled to take out a safety buckle from her arms. Every time she made a pulling movement, she had to slow down for a long time, but she still insisted on taking it out from her arms.
She took out the safety buckle and looked at it carefully for a moment. Then she stretched out her fingers and fumbled back and forth, as if she was missing something.
Noisy footsteps suddenly sounded outside the cave, but Kang Yanning turned a deaf ear and continued to caress her carefully.
"But Princess Kang?" The third prince sounded outside the cave with a relaxed and teasing tone, and Kang Yanning was not surprised at all.
"The Third Prince has just arrived, so he is not afraid that I will run away."
The third prince glanced hesitantly at the woman next to him. Didn't he say that she was seriously injured now? Why did his voice sound a little weak, but he still had the strength to speak harshly.
The woman next to him was also startled, and then shook her head. She must have been holding on.
"You are quite proud." The third prince continued, "It's already come to this point, and you still speak harshly." He flicked his clothes, "You know who my highness is, so you should understand that you can't go out today. But.
Your Highness loves talents, so you still have two options."
"Oh?" Kang Yanning's voice came from the cave, seeming a little muffled. "I'd like to hear the details."
"My Highness can spare your life, as long as you write a letter to Prince Kang, telling him that you want to marry my Highness."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Don't want to?" The third prince seemed to have heard some ridiculous story. "Then Princess Kang would go on an outing with her little sister today. How could she expect that there was an earth dragon on this mountain, and she actually..."
His tone was yin and yang, full of regret, "I actually died in Qiantang Lake Mountain."
When Kang Yanning heard this, she was not angry but smiled, "I would like to ask the Third Prince for advice, why are you so persistent with Yan Ning?"
"Oh, are you obsessed with me?" The third prince's tone outside the cave suddenly became cold. It seemed that Kang Yanning couldn't hold on any longer, so he simply vented his anger.
"Are you worthy?" His eyes were gloomy, as if looking straight through the cave to where Kang Yanning was. "You have teased the eldest princess over and over again, and are disrespectful to His Highness. I'll chop you ten times, even if it's too much."
"If you weren't the daughter of Prince Kang, do you think that His Highness would indulge you until now?"
Kang Yanning heard what she wanted to hear and curled her lips, "So, what you always want is the military power of my Kang family?"
The third prince was extremely arrogant, "My Highness has always wanted a big position. The military power of your Kang family? Oh, when I ascend to the throne, the whole world will belong to Your Highness. What does your Kang family mean?"
It’s just that my father always favors your father, and I must win Prince Kang’s support. Otherwise, do you think I can tolerate you for so long?”
The past events seemed to become more and more clear in the words of the third prince. Kang Yanning was like a bystander, recalling the scenes of his previous life.
In the previous life, Kang Yanning regarded use as cherishment, pulling her family into the quagmire of fighting for power, and pushing her close relatives into the fate of death, all for the sake of power.
Slowly, Kang Yanning let go of her body and mind and leaned on the stone. She seemed to no longer hate her, and she no longer struggled with why.
Now she has her family, is doing what she likes, and has discovered that there is a better man in the world.
Whether it is the person I loved in the last life or the ferocious person outside the cave in this life, they are not human beings, they are just running dogs in human form. He was obsessed with profit and has long lost his humanity.
Kang Yanning said calmly, "Today's game is one step after another, and you? You don't have this ability."
Kang Yanning's voice came from the cave, and it seemed distant and long: "My dearest sister, is this the person you have chosen?"