CH 73

In the dead of the night when the capital became completely plunged into darkness and silence. At this time, on a certain path leading outside the city gates, in the dark shade of the trees, Fu Yichen’s white clothes, which appeared consistent for thousands of years, looked a little ethereal and gloomy. If someone saw him at this time, he would have been regarded as a ghost.

This was the meeting place that he had agreed upon with Su Zhan. No matter how high-handed and arrogant the National Teacher was, he couldn’t just let the Emperor wait for him.

Fortunately, Fu Yichen didn’t need to wait too long before he heard the sound of horseshoes. He turned his head towards the direction where the sound came from and spotted a figure riding a horse towards him on the dim path. The rattling sound became louder and louder and the figure of the man and the horse changed from a blurry outline to a clear picture.

It was probably due to the influence of the Second Male’s excellent martial arts and profound internal strength that Fu Yichen could feel that his hearing and eyesight improved in an unscientific manner. For example, on such a night with only dim moonlight as their source of light, he could clearly see Su Zhan looking around.

He could see Su Zhan holding the reigns tightly with both of his hands. But his eyes were constantly looking around the woods on both sides of the path, obviously trying to find Fu Yichen. With a turn of his head, he happened to spot a white cloth in the darkness under the shade of a tree.

Fu Yichen could see the man on the horse suddenly pull back the reins as if he was frightened. He had to steady his horse around by circling in place twice. After confirming that the white cloth was not a ghost but the person that he had been looking for, he trotted all the way up there.

As always, a little scaredy-cat Film Emperor Su. Fu Yichen couldn’t help but laugh. But after noticing Su Zhan approaching him, he immediately put away his smile and in the blink of an eye, he had the standard expressionless face of the National Teacher once more.

“Turns out Guoshi has already arrived.”

Su Zhan was no longer dressed in the Emperor’s iconic yellow robes, but had changed into a light and elegant youthful attire. Of course this was just how Baili Wuji was1, but at this time Su Zhan really played him well.

Lifting a leg, he turned over and got off his horse in a neat manner while having a natural-looking smile on his face. It couldn’t be seen that he was frightened to the point that he almost lost his composure just now.

“The Emperor has also arrived early.” Fu Yichen’s voice sounded cold, but at the very least it wasn’t as cold as before.

“Then I’ll be relying on the Guoshi throughout this journey.” The two of them seemed to be joking with each other as if they were friends instead of those that had just been acquainted with each other, without sounding alienated. There wasn’t much estrangement between the pair of monarch and minister.

Therefore, Fu Yichen said with a smile, “It’s Chen’s honor.” After he said that, the two got onto their respective horses at the same time and Fu Yichen took the lead to step on the path. But he didn’t expect Laji to sound out after he had blocked it a while back.

[Succesfully prevented the first meeting of the Male and Female Lead.]

[Successfully prevented the Male and Female Lead from going to Jiangnan alone.]

[The second part of the novel has been unlocked.]

[Does the host want to receive information?]

Fu Yichen’s initally calm eyes darkened, ‘Receive.’

As soon as his words fell, a lot of information flooded into his mind. Fu Yichen kept his face expressionless but quickly had a general understanding of the new plot in his mind. It can be roughly summarized as the various dangers and encounters of the Male and Female Lead on their trip to Jiangnan. As well as the changes and the improvement of the relationship between the two of them during this time and even the upcoming assassination plot.

In the original plot, Baili Wuji secretly brought the Female Lead to Jiangnan after only three days of ascending his throne. Not to mention his unstable foundation, this was just sending himself to death. For those princes that were eying the throne like tigers, his absence was just right for them. Wasn’t this a chance for them to develop their power? A shaky powerhouse that’s giving his enemies a chance to gather their power? In addition, there were countless foreseeable dangers along the way, but Baili Wuji had only brought a few shadow guards with him which was obvious enough to show how careless the author’s thoughts were.

Moreover, in the original text, Baili Wuji had snuck out of the palace under the pretext of ‘catching cold wind so he’s unable to attend early court’. But he was ambushed shortly after he left the city gates on the night that he left the palace. This showed that the news of him leaving the palace was leaked out. So why couldn’t the princes ‘eyeing the throne’ take such a big opportunity that the Emperor left for them to pry the Emperor’s dragon chair away and try to assassinate him?

The sound of hooves was neither fast nor slow, but it was just right for adding a bit of vitality to the dead silence of the night.

The brisk sound of horseshoes brought Fu Yichen back to his senses and made him laugh speechlessly. It’s not that he had never seen such braindead settings from Mary Sue authors. From another perspective, the simpler the author’s settings, the better it was for him and Su Zhan. Otherwise, if they had really fallen into the vortex of a real ancient imperial power struggle… Well, given the fact of them being people from modern times, they might really be manipulated to death without having a whole body for burial.

So although Fu Yichen felt that the settings were absolutely ridiculous, he still went into a state of alertness. If Fu Yichen’s guesses were correct, even if the plot of the Male and Female Lead leaving together was avoided, they still couldn’t avoid the assassination they will face once they step outside the city gates.

“It’s not easy to walk around at night, the Emperor must follow Chen closely.” Fu Yichen turned his head slightly to say this to the person behind him.

Even though he knew that Su Zhan was someone who was familiar with the plot, he was still worried. He had already sensed the several so-called hidden guards of the Emperor the moment Su Zhan appeared. In the plot that he had just received, Fu Yichen learnt that Baili Wuji had kept his secrets well hidden. It was only in the process of being assassinated that he revealed his martial arts skills which were higher than Dongfang Ningzhi, the Second Male. After all, he was the Male Lead. But Fu Yichen still couldn’t help but remind him. After all, this wasn’t them acting in a filming crew, but an actual assassination. If they weren’t careful, someone might die.

But then again, Baili Wuji was really strong. What did Su Zhan mean by pretending to be weak and seeking protection from him? Thinking about it this way, Fu Yichen felt that it was quite interesting.

He didn’t get a response from the person behind him, but a +1 favorability reminder sounded in his mind. The corners of Fu Yichen’s mouth raised unscrupulously.

At this moment, the two of them needed to pass through a dense forest. It was probably because the Second Male’s body was always on alert, Fu Yichen’s heartbeat rose in an instant. At the same time, his grasp on the reins tightened as he slowed down his horse. At this moment, Su Zhan caught up with him and was around five meters behind him.

In fact, as the Male Lead with the protection of the protagonist halo, Su Zhan’s alertness couldn’t be worse than Fu Yichen’s. The moment he stepped into the dense forest, his body unconsciously became alert on its own. But what moved him was the sudden slowing down of the person in front of him.

When passing through a dense forest, this person slowed down instead of speeding up, which showed that this man deliberately slowed down to wait for him. Maybe he had done it not out of concern, but responsibility. But in Su Zhan’s eyes, this was a careful man who was cold on the outside and hot on the inside. So for a moment, as he stared at the slightly fuzzy figure of the person in white, his heart warmed up and he felt some indescribable feelings.

But exactly at this moment, several strong killing intent suddenly surrounded them from all directions in the dense forest.

Fu Yichen’s face turned cold and he said “Be careful” to the person behind him without turning back. In the next second, he heard rustling and a few cold-emitting items flew directly towards Fu Yichen. In the blink of an eye, sharp arrows flew through the dense forestation, going straight towards Fu Yichen.

For a moment, Fu Yichen’s face remained unchanged and with a little force from his feet, he jumped up from his sitting position on the horse’s back, did a beautiful spin in the air and landed firmly on the ground behind him.

At the same time, ten to twenty masked men dressed in black wielding knives suddenly emerged from the dense forestation. And at the exact same moment, the six shadow guards also appeared around Su Zhan to protect him.

For a moment, the two frightened horses neighed and ran around in panic. As soon as Fu Yichen landed, he turned his head to look at Su Zhan.

Although Fu Yichen knew that this person’s martial arts skills were stronger than his own, but this sense of worry for him seemed to be instinctual, an uncontrollable impulse. After seeing several shadow guards, Fu Yichen subconsciously breathed out a sigh of relief. It was at this moment that a group of well-trained masked men rushed towards him.

All of a sudden, swords fell left and right in the narrow and dark forest. Fu Yichen didn’t have a weapon in his hand, but luckily the Second Male had profound internal strength and excellent martial arts. The masked men couldn’t even get close to him. Even though they were all illusory NPCs, but as a modern person, he couldn’t kill people with peace of mind. So Fu Yichen just used his internal strength to knock them out as best as he could.

But even so, the sound of painful cries came after the flash of a sword. The sound of a sword piercing through the human body made Fu Yichen feel a little horrified. No matter how illusory or fictional, to him and Su Zhan, this was a real murder.

In the blink of an eye, Fu Yichen had already knocked out five to six people and on Su Zhan’s side, there were already three to four people lying on the ground which also included the Emperor’s shadow guards.

It can be seen from this that these assassins weren’t some random people. But what made Fu Yichen feel dumbfounded was that he only now realized that Su Zhan was still sitting on the back of a scared horse. Although his face couldn’t be seen clearly in the chaos, but from his complexion, it could be seen that he was definitely not feeling good.

Fu Yichen was immediately surprised. Su Zhan, who was supposed to be stronger than him, didn’t move? But he wasn’t given much chance to think too much. At this moment, a man in black had cut down a shadow guard with the knife in his hand. At the same time, a man in black flew behind Su Zhan and was about to stab the back of his head with a knife.

Fu Yichen’s eyes dimmed and the next second he flew over towards them like a sharp arrow. Just when the knife was about to fall on the back of Su Zhan’s head, he kicked the assassin more than ten meters away.

At the same time, Fu Yichen spun in the air and in the blink of an eye, he sat behind Su Zhan. His hands quickly passed through the sides of Su Zhan’s body to hold onto the reins. This movement was all done in one go.

Immediately, the horse which had been kicking around in fright, was reined in. With a hiss, its two front hooves hung in the air.

The two people sitting on the back of the horse immediately fell backwards. Su Zhan directly crashed into Fu Yichen’s arms. But Fu Yichen’s arms were strong and he had worked hard to film a horse riding scene before. So his horse riding skills, for which he had already practised hard on, were by no means for nought. They came in handy at this time.

The body that was being hugged at the moment was obviously still in a state of panic and even after being hugged, he was still unconsciously frozen. Just at this moment, light flashed from swords and several men in black stabbed at them at the same time.

Fu Yichen was immediately angered by this and exerted a little force on the hand that was still holding onto the rein. He directly hugged Su Zhan and flew up. Several swords missed them as they sat back on the horse’s rear. Fu Yichen suddenly swept his legs over and quickly kicked a few people away. When the men’s bodies landed on the ground, so did the horse’s front hooves.

The two sat firmly on the back of the horse.

“Don’t be afraid.” Fu Yichen, who was hugging Su Zhan, whispered in his ear. It wasn’t the cold voice of the National Teacher, but Fu Yichen’s own voice. Fu Yichen only felt that the person in his arms soften slightly before feeling Su Zhan’s stiff back press closer into his arms.

Fu Yichen held Su Zhan in a tight embrace with both hands and clamped onto the horse’s belly when the men in black rushed up towards them again. At the same time, he grasped the rein hard. In the next second, the horse shot out of the scene like an arrow off the string.

The horse that suddenly shot out knocked down two people and the other men rushed to catch up with the two who were on the horse’s back. They were immediately stopped by the four remaining shadow guards. Not to mention, how could the Emperor’s horse be compared to ordinary horses? It goes without saying that it was very fast. In the blink of an eye, Fu Yichen had rushed out of the dark and dense forest with Su Zhan in his arms.

It wasn’t until now that Su Zhan, who was still a little stunned, slightly came back to his senses. Unlike Fu Yichen’s experience in the multiple previous worlds, before this, Su Zhan hadn’t truly experienced the dangers of this world.

Novel, game, fantasy… All these were his unconscious definition of this world. Although he knew that if he failed to complete the task, he might not be able to go back. He might stay trapped in here or he might even die or disappear. That was all possible. But just a few moments ago, he actually felt the threat to his life. He even watched a person being stabbed right in front of him as blood flew in the air.

Honestly, Su Zhan was definitely scared at this moment. He originally wasn’t a very courageous person.

He was now even more frightened.

This body had strong martial arts skills. He had also made precautions at the beginning and had even planned on making a move. But the scene that came into his eyes immediately shocked him. He, who had lived a good life in modern times, felt a little panicked for a while. His hands and feet froze and he was unable to make a move.

Truthfully speaking, it was dangerous. Several people died in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t that Su Zhan didn’t feel the danger approaching him from behind. But just as he was about to escape, he saw a white shadow flying towards him. So for some unknown reason, Su Zhan just waited for the other person to come and rescue him.

But what Su Zhan didn’t expect was for this person to directly sit behind him and even hug him from behind. Although this person was probably trying to hold onto the reins, for a moment, Su Zhan couldn’t help but fall into a trance while still in danger of being harmed by swords.

It has to be said that if it weren’t for the person behind him, he might’ve been able to fight all twenty people alone. But now, he had no desire to make a move at all. He had fallen into a trance-like state while in the arms of another person regardless of life or death.

His mind was full of the firm chest that he could feel touching his back. The hot temperature and powerful arms passed between his underarms. His mind could no longer think as he then heard a gentle voice say in his ear, “Don’t be afraid.”

In an instant, Su Zhan felt his whole body warm up.

a young man