In a moment of impulse, I forcibly kissed my brother's best friend.

The two men outside the tent, who were staggering about, suddenly stood up when they saw Cui Yutang come out, and bowed respectfully together with Bao Yu.

Cui Yutang didn't look at them, but looked directly at Baoyu: "Call Jingqiu and Zhixia over."

"Yes." Baoyu accepted the order and hurried away.

Cui Yutang turned around, his eyes fixed on his military tent, still ignoring the two people beside him.

Wei Shuo and Luo Meng were terrified, sweat beading on their backs. They would rather the commander-in-chief scolded them.

Soon, Jingqiu and Zhixia arrived at the scene.

Cui Yutang instructed, "You two go in and keep watch. Don't disturb her rest, and don't let anyone near her."

"Yes."

The two responded and quietly entered the tent.

Cui Yutang then turned around and glanced at Wei Shuo and Luo Meng, signaling them to follow.

The two were as if they had been granted a pardon.

They stopped at the edge of the woods.

The moonlight was shrouded in mist, with only a few thin rays of white light showing through. The dense forest not far away was eerily quiet tonight.

Cui Yutang stopped, looked at the two of them, and spoke in a calm voice.

"Tell me, what happened?"

Luo Meng was well aware of his own inability to express himself clearly and rudely, so he tugged at Wei Shuo.

Wei Shuo had no choice but to step forward and explain in a few words what had happened in the woods.

After listening, Cui Yutang remained silent for a long while.

"You mean, with the help of the giant worm, you killed eight assassins and saw two children who look like my wife and I's? And they were sitting on the giant worm?"

"It's not just suspected, I think it's definitely your child." Luo Meng couldn't help but interject, his voice loud, as if afraid Cui Yutang wouldn't believe him.

Cui Yutang didn't respond; this was utterly absurd.

"Could you have entered an illusion?" He thought of the incident at Chenzhu Village.

Wei Shuo and Luo Meng exchanged a glance. Wei Shuo said, "General, the assassin's body is still in the woods. You can come with us to take a look."

He stared intently at the two of them for a moment before calling out into the darkness, "Come out."

As soon as he finished speaking, two men in black silently flew out from the shadows and bowed in greeting.

Wei Shuo and Luo Meng were both startled. They hadn't noticed anyone following them at all, and Luo Meng almost threw his iron mace.

Cui Yutang instructed, "Eighteen, go and tell Vice Generals Cheng and Li that I'm going into the woods. Tell them to keep an eye on the camp and be prepared to react to any situation."

"Nineteen, go and guard my tent, and ensure her safety."

"Master, what about you?" Nineteen hesitated for a moment.

"With the two of them here," Cui Yutang glanced at Luo Meng and Wei Shuo.

One sentence made both of them beam with joy. Luo Meng immediately said smugly, "With the two of us protecting the Commander-in-Chief, what are you worried about!"

It's still unclear who's protecting whom; you two are both defeated opponents of the Great Marshal. Cui Shijiu suppressed his inner grumbling but dared not show it on his face, only bowing and saying, "Master, please wait a moment, I'll have Baoyu come and accompany you."

Cui Yutang nodded.

Cui Shijiu bowed, and then, together with Shiba, they disappeared silently into the night.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Cui Yutang, Bao Yu, Wei Shuo, and Luo Meng infiltrated the Misty Forest.

The fog had actually thinned out quite a bit tonight, and moonlight was filtering through the gaps in the branches and leaves, making it barely possible to see where I was standing.

Led by Wei Shuo and Luo Meng, the group quickly arrived at their destination.

But they were instantly dumbfounded—there wasn't a single corpse in that place.

There was no sign of a struggle, let alone a corpse.

Luo Meng scratched the back of his head, still a little dazed: "Wei Shuo, did we really see a ghost just now?"

Wei Shuo was also stunned. He squatted down and touched the ground, but there was no blood at all.

"You two didn't see a ghost, someone's playing tricks on you." Cui Yutang squatted down and examined the scene. "The signs of a fight have been covered up. The vegetation here is less, so bloodstains must have been pulled up. And the soil here is fresh."

He reached out and brushed away the loose soil, and sure enough, there was a patch of dark brown blood underneath.

Wei Shuo lightly touched the ground with his toes and jumped to the tree where he had gotten his arrow caught earlier. He examined the trunk and said, "General, there are bowstring marks on the tree. I left them just now. It was definitely done by someone."

Cui Yutang's expression suddenly turned cold: "This means that more than one group of people came tonight." He turned sharply to look in the direction of the camp, a sudden panic gripping his heart.

"We need to get back quickly; the camp is in danger."

If there are other assassins tonight, then my own military tent will definitely be the biggest target.

Yi Ge, his Yi Ge is still inside.

He turned around and quickly used his lightness skill to rush towards the camp, with Bao Yu, Wei Shuo, and Luo Meng following closely behind.

However, after only traveling a dozen or so feet, a sound of air being torn apart suddenly arose.

A burst of fine, hair-like silver needles shot out from the treetops on both sides like a sudden rain, gleaming faintly with a blue light under the pale moonlight.

Cui Yutang reacted extremely quickly, tearing off his cloak, channeling his inner strength, and with a sudden swing, most of the poisoned silver needles were deflected and knocked off, clattering and falling to the ground.

"Fuck your ancestors! How dare you plot against me!" Luo Meng drew his pair of iron maces from his waist, wielding them with ferocious power, knocking away all the needles. "What gang are you from? Show yourself!"

Before they finished speaking, more than a dozen men in black flew out from the shadows and surrounded the four of them.

Cui Yutang glanced around, his voice cold and deep: "Let's finish this quickly."

He suddenly drew his soft sword from his waist. With a flash of cold light, the two closest assassins hadn't even seen which direction the sword was coming from before they felt a chill in their throats and fell to the ground.

"Boss, we've struck gold! This guy looks like that General!" a man in black shouted, his voice brimming with barely suppressed elation.

When Cui Yutang committed the murder, a sliver of moonlight shone through the blade, and the reflection from the sword allowed his facial features to be clearly seen.

"Take his head." The leader spoke coldly, twirling his curved blade in his palm, the tip pointing directly at Cui Yutang's throat.

"Go to hell with your bullshit!" Luo Meng charged forward, his iron mace whistling through the air as it slammed down on his head. "You'll have to ask my iron mace if it agrees!"

The two groups of people instantly became entangled in a fight.

Wei Shuo and Bao Yu protected Cui Yutang on either side, while Luo Meng let loose and launched attacks everywhere.

"Wei Shuo, don't protect me. Go up." Cui Yutang's cold light flashed again as he dealt with the two people blocking his way and went straight for the black-clad leader's vital point.

The leader in black blocked with his curved sword, sparks flying and the impact made his hand go numb.

Upon receiving the order, Wei Shuo lightly touched the ground with his toes and hung on the tree.

He drew his bow and fired three arrows in quick succession, and the three men in black fell to the ground, each arrow piercing their throats.

But the man in black who said he'd "struck by luck" wasn't one to be trifled with. He hurled two throwing knives at the tree. Wei Shuo dodged quickly, fell from the tree, and rolled on the ground.

Two skilled fighters immediately surrounded the leader in black, and the three of them joined forces to completely encircle Cui Yutang.

The three worked in perfect harmony, forming an ingenious triangular trapping formation. Their three sides simultaneously blocked any escape routes, and layers of sword light converged on the center, creating a net-like trap that temporarily confined Cui Yutang within the formation.

Bao Yu's heart was in his throat. He kept staring at the gap in the array's core, and just as one of them was completely focused on Cui Yutang, his back revealed a flaw.

Bao Yu silently plunged a short knife into the man's back.