Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Xi Yueli's breathing became completely disordered. When he closed his arms, his palms were burning hot against her waist. When his chin rested in the hollow of her shoulder, his brow bone pressed against the most sensitive spot on the side of her neck.

She tried to break free, but when she raised her hand, it landed on his arm that was wrapped around her waist, and her fingers curled up.

Helian Jing lowered his head and lightly touched the skin behind her ear with his lips. The touch was brief and restrained, but his breath brushed against her neck, burning her already burning earlobe even more.

She closed her eyes briefly in his arms, and in that instant she felt her whole heart tilting toward him. She suddenly opened her eyes.

"Your Highness," she managed to squeeze out between her teeth, her voice trembling with a hint of panic and uneven breathing, "...Let go."

Helian Jing looked down at her reddened earlobes and the skin on her neck that was stained by his breath, and the corners of his mouth curved slightly before he slowly loosened his grip on her arm.

When he released her, he paused for a moment before his fingers left her waist, his fingertips brushing against the folds of her fabric.

After he let go, Xi Yueli took a half step forward, widening the distance between them, and turned around to face him.

The flush from earlier still lingered on her face, but her lips were already pursed tightly, and her usually clear, dark eyes were trying hard to meet his gaze, as if she was using all her self-control to pull herself out of the warmth of his embrace.

"Your Highness," she began, her voice slightly higher than before, the end of her sentence carrying a hint of unnatural tension, "have you finished speaking? If you're done, please leave. I need to rest."

Helian Jing looked at her stubborn and tense expression, and a string in his heart was gently plucked. There was a light burning in her eyes, even brighter than before, but she did not admit anything. Her lips were tightly pursed, as if she was afraid that if she said another word, she would surrender.

He took two steps towards the door, then stopped, turned his head, and looked at her still slightly flushed face. "I'm leaving. Will you be able to sleep tonight?"

"I can sleep as soon as Your Highness leaves," she answered quickly and curtly.

Helian Jing's lips curved slightly: "Alright, then I'll be going."

Before stepping across the threshold, he turned his head one last time, the moonlight casting a silvery-white outline on half of his silhouette. His gaze fell on her. "Xi Yue Li, you closed your eyes briefly in my arms just now, and I saw it."

The door closed behind him, and the sound of his footsteps faded into the distance along the corridor.

Xi Yueli stood there listening to the footsteps disappear at the end of the courtyard wall. She slowly bent down, placed her hands on the edge of the table, and buried her face in her palms.

Her ears were still burning hot, so hot that she could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat, fast and erratic, even with her eyes closed.

Before dawn the next day, the sound of horses' hooves pressed in from the direction of the town entrance, dense and orderly, like a drumhead being slowly stretched to its fullest extent.

The instant she sat up, the door to the next room creaked open, and Helian Jing was already standing in the courtyard, his short blade drawn, facing the alleyway.

The guards silently emerged from the woodshed in the backyard and took their positions on both sides of the courtyard wall. Liu San Niang flipped down from the eaves, the blade of her long sword revealing a thin, cold blue line in the morning light.

Liu San Niang's voice was very low, "Fifty riders, the town entrance is sealed off, and they are searching house by house."

Helian Jing glanced back at the east wing. Xi Yueli had already pushed open the door and come out. She was wrapped in a black robe, her hood was not yet pulled up, and her long hair was loose over her shoulders. Her calm gaze looked over the courtyard wall toward the alley entrance.

Xi Yueli walked to his side and stood still. "The Empress knows that Fu Yuan is no longer at Cien Temple. Qixia Town is the nearest place he can stay. They can't possibly let him go."

Helian Jing looked at her. The morning light rose from behind her, gilding her slender figure with a pale gold edge. Her expression changed, gradually revealing the composure she had cultivated in the court for thirteen years.

When she stood beside him, her shoulders were straight, and her gaze swept across the layout of the entire courtyard as if she were flipping through a map she knew by heart.

"Let's go," Xi Yueli said. "The Dark Pavilion men will seal off the left alleyway, and the Heavenly Pivot Division will seal off the right alleyway. I'll go out through the main gate to distract them. Liu Sanniang will lead Fu Yuan around through the dry well in the backyard. Helian Jing—"

She turned her head to look at him, and there was no hesitation in that glance. "Come with me through the main entrance."

Helian Jing looked at her and suddenly felt a gentle tap on his heart from her words. When she said, "Come with me through the main gate," her tone was so natural, as if they had walked this path together many times before.

He bowed his head and replied, "Okay."

The sounds of searching at the alley entrance grew closer. Xi Yueli pulled up the hood of her black robe and reached out to press the short blade that Liu Sanniang had given her the night before at her waist.

The blade was three-tenths narrower than a regular dagger, and it was entirely black, a style commonly used by Ye Lan, the leader of the Dark Pavilion.

When her fingers touched the indentation on the hilt of the knife that had been repeatedly worn, her entire arm felt as if it were being injected with a familiar force, and her posture became a little more stable for that instant.

But she knew that was just a memory, an instinctive reaction etched into the bones of the Dark Pavilion Master's combat experience. Her frail body was far from keeping up with the intensity of those movements. Her hand holding the knife was steady, but her legs could not withstand more than a few rounds of charging.

She glanced at Helian Jing's profile, kept those words to herself, and didn't say them aloud.

"Let's go." The two walked out of the pharmacy's main entrance side by side.

The morning light bathed the main street of Qixia Town, and the stone pavement was moistened with the dew of last night, turning it into a dark gray.

The direction from the town entrance was filled with the gleam of armor, and the leading cavalryman had already spotted two figures emerging from the alleyway. They wore black robes and hoods with dark blue tight-fitting clothes, one on the left and one on the right, their steps steady, as if they had known they would come.

The cavalry commander reined in his horse, his gaze falling on the woman in black. His pupils contracted sharply. "Charge! Capture her alive!"

Just before the cavalry charged, Helian Jing had already taken a half-step to the side, blocking Xi Yueli's path.

His short blade was held horizontally in front of him, its surface gleaming coldly in the morning light. The first charging horse was forced to stop half a step in front of him, its front hooves trembling as it neighed.

In that brief moment of respite, Helian Jing spun half a circle to the side, his blade precisely severing the straps on the side of the saddle.

As the rider fell off his horse, his left hand grabbed Xi Yueli's wrist, pulling her half a step to his side to avoid the second horse charging from the left.

"Stay close to me." His voice came from ahead, steady and short.

Xi Yueli knew that if she forced herself to act, she would only become a burden to him. She let him take her by his side and move with his pace, but her eyes quickly scanned the layout of the entire main street during the gaps in the cavalry charge.

"There's half an iron fence behind the door of the third shop on the left front." She whispered this to Helian Jing from behind, "Lead that horse in that direction in two breaths."

Helian Jing's short blade grazed the side of the second charging horse, causing it to veer to the left in pain. The horse's front hooves struck the iron railing, and the rider fell off the saddle.

Xi Yueli mentally completed the next three steps after that one. The cavalry, forced to stop, blocked the charge route of the two horses behind them. The cavalry formation in the middle of the main street was stuck for half a breath at this small gap.