Two days later, accompanied by Murong Xue, Shan Tingxian and others, the Shengtang Crown Prince Li Bing began his first tour since he was in charge of the country. The destination of their trip was Bianzhou, which is more than 400 miles away from Luoyi, the eastern capital, where the head of the river affairs office is located.
Since it was rare to leave the palace, Li Bing wanted to spend a few more days on the road and visit the customs and local government affairs along the way. In this way, the entire team set off ten days earlier than originally planned, and according to the prince's request, Murong Xue and Shan Tingxian led a team of twenty imperial guards with high martial arts skills to accompany him on his journey in civilian clothes.
Five or six miles in front of them were a thousand Xuanjia Legion cavalry responsible for clearing the way; while the East Palace honor guard, including a mess of officials, eunuchs, maids, etc., was left behind by them for more than ten miles. .
Li Bing wore a white satin hero scarf on his head, a pure white warrior uniform, tied sword sleeves, a red silk ribbon around his waist, and a light blue double-breasted cloak. He was sitting on a sweat-blooded horse brought as tribute from Western Xinjiang and said, Endlessly charming and heroic.
Murong Xue was dressed like a young gentleman. The sapphire blue round-neck robe, paired with a black gauze knitted headband, has a gentle and elegant charm. On the gold-sprinkled hook on the side of his saddle, there is also an iron bow; on the other side is an arrow pot, which contains twenty black-feathered goose feather arrows.
Shan Tingxian and his guards were dressed in short clothes as was customary for Jianghu people. They either had a sword on their back, a sword hanging on their waist, or a spear in their hands, following closely around the prince.
Everyone was following the horse's reins all the way, talking and laughing, quite relaxed and at ease.
While walking and chatting, Li Bing suddenly pointed at Murong Xue's iron bow and joked: "This big bow of yours looks very heavy. Could it be that you brought it from the imperial capital?"
Murong Xue responded with a smile: "Yes, Master. This bow was given by my mentor and has never left my body for ten years."
"I see," Li Bing deliberately pretended to be thoughtful and said, "So, this was the one that was pointing at me at the Mingde Gate of the Imperial Capital?"
Murong Xue was slightly stunned when she heard this. She didn't expect the prince to suddenly mention this matter, and couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Huh? Haha, this... this... I was so offended at the beginning, please forgive me, please forgive me."
"Hey, I'm joking with you, don't be nervous. The person you aimed at was Di Xian, not me." After saying that, Li Bing turned around on the horse and smiled at Shan Tingxian and others who were following behind: " You may not know something, even though Murong looks like a weak scholar, as long as he has a bow in his hand, not even General Di dares to act rashly."
Shan Tingxian nodded and smiled, and said meaningfully: "What you said is true. Shan has already experienced Mr. Murong's clever methods."
Li Bing was a little surprised and quickly asked the reason.
Shan Tingxian took advantage of the prince's interest and recounted the past martial arts competition between him and Murong Xue at the dinner party at the Taifu's Mansion. When Li Bing heard from Shan Tingxian that Murong Xue actually hit him on the forehead with a grape and thus won, he couldn't help being amused and laughing.
He raised his finger and pointed at Murong Xue with a smile: "You kid, this is a scam. You are clearly bullying someone else's honest old man."
Murong Xue was a little embarrassed by Li Bing's smile, and nodded quickly: "Young master is right. Brother Shan is very strong in martial arts and can only compete with swordsmanship. Naturally, I am not his opponent. If I didn't use some tricks at that time, I would probably He beat me up and vomited blood on the spot."
The guards behind him laughed when they heard what he said was interesting.
Li Bing laughed with everyone for a while, then looked at the mountains in the distance, and suddenly said leisurely: "You have skills and strategies, and you are all good men of our Shengtang. If you can work together with one heart and one mind, we can help you with all our strength. Why should I worry that I won’t achieve a great career in the future?”
After hearing this, Murong Xue and Shan Tingxian glanced at each other in unison, and then turned their gazes away as if nothing had happened.
Murong Xuexin thought: His Highness the Crown Prince is trying to remind us. As far as His Highness is concerned, we are all his ministers, with flesh on our palms and backs. Naturally, we hope that everyone can unite sincerely. But how could he know that for Shengtang’s Jiangshan Sheji, Xie Guang and I, together with them, have already It's a different furnace than ice and charcoal.
Li Bing, Murong Xue and Shan Tingxian each had their own concerns and were speechless for the time being. They could only move forward slowly. Suddenly, the mountain scenery on the roadside seemed to have lost its color and was no longer so attractive.
After a while, Prince Li Bing noticed that everyone was silent and the atmosphere was a little dull. He didn't like this disappointing scene, and just when he was about to find another place to talk, he suddenly heard a sharp whistle from the forest not far away.
Murong Xue and Shan Tingxian shouted almost simultaneously: "There is an assassin, be on guard!"
Before the two men shouted, dozens of arrows were shot out from the dense forest on both sides of the road.
Without hesitation, Murong Xue picked up the iron bow beside the saddle and swung it in front of Li Bing, instantly blocking the flying arrows and barely saving the prince from being hit by the arrows. Shan Tingxian was further back, so he had no time to block Li Bing's arrow, so he had to reach out with his big hand, grab the prince's back collar, and pull him off the horse with such force that the flying arrow missed his target.
The guards at the back were also targets of attack. Some who reacted quickly were able to barely draw out their weapons to defend themselves; the seven or eight who saw the opportunity late were shot into hedgehogs on the spot and fell to death.
After a round of sneak attacks with arrows, the attackers did not bend their bows again, but broke out of the dense forest and fought in close quarters. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of armed men appeared in the forest, holding swords and guns high, and surrounded them from all directions.
Murong Xue held the iron bow in her hand and fired arrows in succession. In an instant, she knocked down several assassins who were rushing forward. At the same time, she turned to Shan Tingxian and shouted: "Northwest corner!"
Upon hearing this, Shan Tingxian didn't even hesitate at all, and immediately dragged Li Bing and rushed to the northwest. The four guards nearby followed closely to protect the prince. The remaining guards who were still alive did not hesitate to fight with the enemy in order to buy time for Li Bing to break out.
Murong Xue didn't wait until she had shot all the wild goose feather arrows she had with her, then she urged her injured horse to turn around and chase Li Bing and the others.
Within a few breaths, Murong Xue had already caught up to him, and saw Shan Tingxian fighting with all his strength, desperately rushing forward to clear a bloody path. At the critical moment of life and death, this martial arts master no longer held anything back. Shan Tingxian used his unique skills, like a mad tiger, and every move of the sharp sword in his hand brought out a dazzling bloody light. Any assassin who stands in front of him will die in the blink of an eye.
Of the four guards who were originally guarding the area, only one was left. He supported Li Bing and followed Shan Tingxian while struggling to resist the assassins' furious attacks.
Suddenly, a spear came from the side and stabbed the guard in the abdomen. The guard screamed and stumbled to the ground, almost knocking Li Bing over with him.
The assassin with the spear succeeded in one move and turned around to attack Li Bing. Murong Xue quickly accelerated her sprint and rushed to the front in time, knocking the assassin several feet away.
The other assassins subconsciously stopped moving forward because of the interference from their war horses.
Taking this opportunity, Murong Xuefei dismounted and supported Li Bing, who was about to fall. Shan Tingxian turned around and shouted: "Hurry, we are about to rush out!"
Murong Xue and Li Bing followed the sound and watched, and were shocked to find that after several assassins in front were knocked down by Shan Tingxian, there was no one blocking them from the northwest, which showed that they had broken through the enemy's encirclement.
And behind them, there are hundreds of killers, who are rushing towards them crazily.
Not daring to hesitate any longer, the two of them used all their strength to follow Shan Tingxian into the dense jungle in the northwest.
The piercing shouts of killing could not help but come from behind. Murong Xue gritted her teeth and followed Shan Tingxian, running forward desperately.
At this time, you can see the difference in skill between the two.
Shan Tingxian was almost carrying Prince Li Bing and ran forward, leaping and jumping all the way, walking on flat ground in the dense forest, as if it was effortless. But Murong Xue felt more and more strenuous, her legs seemed to be filled with lead water, and she was too heavy to move forward.
If there weren't a large number of killers and assassins chasing after him, he really wanted to lie down on the ground at this moment, gasp for air, and rest for a while.
However, his reason told him that if he stopped now, there would be only death.
Until this moment, Murong Xue still couldn't understand the situation in front of her.
Where do these killers come from and who do they work for? How dare they openly assassinate the crown prince of Shengtang in broad daylight? The assassin was lying in ambush here for a long time, but why didn't the thousand Xuanjia troops who were responsible for exploring the way ahead not notice it?
Murong Xue's heart was filled with a lot of doubts, and she felt increasingly restless. He couldn't help but feel a shiver in his heart, knowing that this was due to the huge loss of internal energy, which in turn caused the precursor to going crazy.
no! The situation is critical now, we must not mess up! Murong Xue secretly reminded herself that the most urgent matter at hand was not to explore those questions, but to ensure the prince's safety.
While adjusting the rhythm of his running pace, he tried to calm his inner breath, and at the same time tried his best to get rid of all the chaotic and complicated thoughts in his mind. After a few breaths, the internal energy in Qihai's dantian gradually regrouped, and his mood became much more stable.
Murong Xue applauded in her heart, then she raised her breath and sped up to catch up with Shan Tingxian and Li Bing.
But he never expected that Shan Tingxian, who was running in front, suddenly stopped when he ran a dozen feet and was about to catch up with the two of them.
Immediately afterwards, Li Bing exclaimed.
Murong Xue was taken aback, worried that the prince was in danger, so she rushed forward without any hesitation, and rushed to Li Bing's side in a few steps.
He was about to ask the prince what was wrong, but he subconsciously followed Li Bing's gaze and looked forward, and immediately felt that the blood in his body was cold.
In front of them, there was a cliff!
