C183

People couldn't figure out the direction they were heading towards as they walked through the stony forest. When they looked around, they could see mottled rocks.

From time to time, he would turn around and see the bones of the lost person hidden by the yellow sand lying on the ground behind a stone pillar.

Nan Yang was originally walking at the front, but seeing her being so brave, she was especially afraid of the rotten bones that suddenly appeared. After walking for a while, she grabbed onto Lin'er and hid behind Gao Lang, bringing Chang An to the front.

It would take at least one day and one night to get out of the leopard forest. If he walked a bit slower or was lost in the forest, he wouldn't be able to get out for three days and three nights.

As soon as the sky darkened, the bandits that were lying in ambush behind the stone pillars began to stir, and their surroundings were filled with a sense of crisis.

Gao Lang found a relatively flat piece of land, and had everyone sit down to rest, and eat something to replenish their energy. Since they had to be careful not to expose their location, they could not start a fire and could only eat cold food. Gao Lang took out a sachet from his arms and handed it over to Jin Xiaolou.

After this day of running, Jin Xiaolou's waist and back were already aching, the sand on the Gobi Desert was like knives, not only did it make one feel cold, it also made one feel pain.

Once the warm biscuit was eaten, all his limbs and bones began to feel comfortable.

Seeing that the sky was getting darker, Gao Lang decided to make the best use of this time to continue walking forward.

According to the leader of the merchant group, they were close to the edge of the Leopard Forest, and it would be best for them to stay the night after leaving the Leopard Forest.

Otherwise, it was very likely that the night would devour all the living creatures in the leopard forest, and a bonfire at night would easily attract the plotting bandits.

After standing up and walking past a rock hill, Jin Xiaolou heard a light bang sound coming from behind a rock hill not far away.

Chang An immediately took out his sword, extended his hand out and made a gesture, causing the four of them to stay where they were, and Chang An went ahead by detour around the half cliff alone.

Just as Chang An's figure disappeared, he heard a soft exclamation.

Gao Lang frowned, he hurried to catch up, with Jin Xiaolou and Nan Yang following closely behind.

Walking to the side of the stone mountain, Jin Xiaolou could smell a dense smell of blood, it was like the stench of rotten meat mixed together with the stench of high tide, it was extremely disgusting.

He raised his eyes and saw a person half of his body was nowhere to be seen, lying behind a stone mountain.

Jin Xiaolou covered her mouth, suppressing the impulse to have her stomach churn.

Look at those jagged wounds, they were most likely bitten by wild beasts.

"Madam, stop looking!" Nan Yang walked over and supported Jin Xiaolou as she walked forward.

Who knew that after taking two steps forward, the scene before their eyes would cause them to tremble even more?

Dozens of badly wounded, badly mutilated corpses lay on the ground. Even their faces could not be identified.

Nan Yang raised her hand to cover Lin'er's eyes as she turned her back to his.

Jin Xiaolou forced herself to take a closer look, beside those corpses, there were cloth bags filled with tea scattered on the ground.

The fresh green tea rolled in the sand and rocks, stinging Jin Xiaolou's eyes.

"It's them." Jin Xiaolou said.

This group of people were precisely the caravan that was walking in front of them. According to the pace of the caravan, they should have left the leopard forest long ago.

"I wonder how many times they have traveled on this journey, how come something happened to them this time?" Chang An muttered to himself.

"I'm afraid the people who killed the caravan are all coming for us." Jin Xiaolou saw that Dao Ba and the fatty had also died here, "I think that not only did they want to harm us, they also didn't know that we had separated from the caravan, causing so many innocent lives."

After hearing that, Chang An squinted his eyes, then squatted down to carefully examine the wounds of the dead person: "It's an arrow wound, but the arrow had already been pulled out. Other than the arrow wounds, each of them had several knife wounds on their bodies. It seems that even after they shot people, they were still worried.

"Looking at the thickness of the blade, it does not look like a criminal act committed by bandits. It is indeed as Madam said; they have indeed come prepared, and want to exterminate them all." Chang An looked around, "Most of them are the empress's people."

Gao Lang nodded.

Indeed, if the bandits came for the goods, there was not the slightest lack of goods right now. Those people were only there to kill.

Fifth Bro's men will be more cautious, before taking action he will definitely find out if the person they want to kill is not in the group. Only Empress will give the order to kill, and her subordinates will follow the order to kill, not leaving a single person alive.

"If they miss, they might linger around this place to make their move again. Seventh Elder, we should leave this place as soon as possible." Chang An rushed towards Gao Lang.

Just as Gao Lang nodded his head, he suddenly thought about it and opened his mouth: "If we die here, not only will we not need to go back to Jiang, we can escape from their pursuit."

"Madam, what nonsense are you spouting!" Nan Yang panicked.

Gao Lang's eyes congealed for a moment, and then indicated for Jin Xiaolou to continue speaking.

"Don't be in such a hurry." Jin Xiaolou walked towards Nan Yang, "What I mean is … "Fake death."

"Fake death?" Nan Yang raised her eyebrows.

"That's right." Jin Xiaolou slowly walked over, "There are both men and women in the caravan, all of them are unrecognizable now, if we were to change their clothes, those people who wish to make a move on us, might mistake us for dead here."

"But …" Nan Yang was a little perturbed, "Where else can we go if not Jiang Hui?"

"To the Gong Bian." Gao Lang lifted his head, his bright eyes looking straight ahead.

Hu Shan was currently at the Gong Bian. Although he had been retracted back into the army, the soldiers that were close to him and his trusted aides were all there, and as long as he had the troops, he would have hope and hope.

Now that the twelfth prince was about to ascend the throne, he was still young and needed the Queen to hold court from behind the screen.

The imperial harem interfered with the imperial court. As time went by, there would definitely be controversy. The Twelfth Prince was not the empress's biological son, and the empress would probably be even more unwilling to let him go.

Furthermore, the Fifth Prince was watching them from the side.

Behind them, the capital was in a state of turmoil.

If Gao Lang "died" on the road to the west, it would be extremely good news to the people in the capital.

For Gao Lang himself, this was a good opportunity to hibernate and nurture his Qi. He only waited for the tides to surge in the capital, and then he and Hu Shan's feathers would be full, and they would rise again.

There were hundreds of benefits and no drawbacks to going to the Gong Bian.

The Gong Bian and Jiang Huan were at the border with Xi Yu, so if one wanted to go to Gong Bian, they had to go back into the Mi River and head south.

"But …" Nan Yang looked at the corpse on the ground, but was still a little hesitant, "Would they believe it?"

After all, if the people in the caravan undressed and checked carefully, they would definitely be able to tell that they were not from Seventh Prince.

"Even if they don't believe it, they have to." Jin Xiaolou laughed slyly, "If you can't complete your mission and return empty-handed, you will end up in a bad mood when you meet Master. If worse comes to worse, you might even lose your head, why not make the mistake?"

After choosing the four bodies closest to the four of them and changing their clothes, Jin Xiaolou and the rest started walking back in the dark. Because they were on the same path they came from, Chang An remembered them very clearly, they did not even start a fire, they only touched the stone pillars and walked.

Along the way, apart from the occasional howling of wolves, they didn't encounter any other dangers.

Who would have thought that the person they were waiting for would actually turn around and walk away?

It wasn't until dawn that they finally left the leopard forest and returned to the riverbank of the Mi River.

The Lin'er slept soundly in Nan Yang's embrace. Chang An called the boat home, and after crossing the river, they headed towards the southwest.

As soon as the sky brightened, seven well-built men in black jumped down from the leopard forest and stone mountain.

The group of men in black had been waiting ahead for the whole night, but no one came. They couldn't wait any longer, so they looked back to expand the search range.

Who knew that as soon as they arrived near this mountain, the person at the front would be stunned.

Yesterday evening, they were the merchant caravan that had ambushed the people here, but after they finished shooting the people, only then did they realize that Seventh Prince and the rest were not among them.

But at this moment, looking again, there were four people dressed in Seventh Prince's robes.

For a moment, he even wondered if he was seeing things. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, then jumped off the mountain. He didn't even have time to catch his breath before he ran towards the four corpses.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the same as Seventh Prince and the rest, just that they were lacking a child.

"Boss, what's wrong?" The person behind him asked curiously, "Someone killed him first?"

"Are you blind? These are the people we killed last night! " The person at the front frowned, "You don't recognize me if you change your clothes?"

"Then... Didn't Seventh Prince and the rest already run away? " The person behind him was a little anxious. "Master has already said it, you can either bring their heads back, or take our heads back …"

"What are you panicking for!" The leader turned around, his cold gaze sweeping across the people following him one by one.

The six people behind him were all his trusted aides.

None of them wanted to die.

"If you don't tell me, or I don't tell you, who knows who's dead?" The man in the front gritted his teeth, bent down, and cut each of the four men's heads off. "Bring the box and send the horses back to the capital."

He had expected that since the Seventh Prince had come to change, he had decided to fake his death to live a life of incest. As long as Seventh Prince did not appear again, what difference was there between that and death?

"This …"

"What is this!" The man in the front bellowed, "Even if we do not take action, the people behind us will still think that Seventh Prince is dead when they see this scene. Rather than letting them take all the credit, it would be better for us to swallow it ourselves."

"Yes sir!" The person behind him said in unison, "The Seventh Prince is already dead, we have all seen it with our own eyes!"