“Thud.” With a muffled bang, Ming Zhen slammed his fist into the wall. The blazing flames in the distance cast a fiery glow on his face, making it impossible to read his expression. Once again, he had arrived too late—the room where Qiu Huan had been staying was already empty, leaving behind only a still-warm corpse. And besides that body, there were obvious traces of blood on the floor, though the amount wasn’t great. By then the fire was already raging, leaving him with far too little time to carefully examine the room for any other clues, nor could he tell which direction Qiu Huan and the others had fled.

His subordinates pondered for a moment before stepping forward to report: “My lord, shall we dispatch men to track down Master Bai Xiao’s whereabouts?”

Ming Zhen remained silent for a long while.

His subordinates thought they might have said something inappropriate, beads of cold sweat breaking out on their foreheads. Even though the searing heat of the flames made the air much drier than usual, they still felt as if they were plunged into an ice cellar, trembling all over.

Time seemed to stand still. After what felt like an eternity, Ming Zhen let out a light laugh, turned around, and vanished in a flash of light martial arts—leaving only his order lingering in the wind: “Go all out to investigate the mastermind behind the assassination attempt, keep a close eye on the movements of Hui Yuan and Wu Jiu. As for Bai Xiao, stay out of it; I’ll handle this myself.”

“Ah Mo, is Yun He really okay?” Qiu Huan, drenched in sweat, was held tightly in Yuan Mo’s arms as the two of them rode together on a black cloud horse named “Xiao Xue.” Her voice was already very faint; if Yuan Mo hadn’t kept a close watch on her at all times, he surely wouldn’t have been able to make out those words.

“Her injury isn’t to a vital spot. Once we’re far enough from the valley, we’ll find a place to bandage her up—she’ll be fine.” In fact, right now Duan Yunhe was riding her chestnut-red horse, closely following them. Although she had a shoulder wound, it wasn’t life-threatening and wasn’t very deep either. Given how precarious everyone’s situation was, if Wang Laohu, Dong Qing—or whoever was pulling the strings behind the scenes—still had other lethal tricks up their sleeves, they’d be in grave danger. So after a brief discussion, Qiu Huan decided to leave the valley first, just to avoid giving Hui Yuan another chance to strike when they were already vulnerable.

Earlier, Wang Laohu had hurled two throwing knives—one straight at Duan Yunhe’s left shoulder, the other aimed squarely at her heart. The situation was extremely urgent, but both Qiu Huan and Yuan Mo were powerless to intervene, forced to watch helplessly as the daggers sank into her body. Yuan Mo immediately drew his sword and put an end to Wang Laohu’s life, while Qiu Huan, though shaken and disoriented, couldn’t stop worrying about Duan Yunhe’s safety and stubbornly stood her ground. Just then, they heard the clatter of metal striking wood—Yuan Mo must have sensed something amiss—and quickly turned to look at Duan Yunhe. First, they saw a brilliant splash of blood blooming on her shoulder; then, to their astonishment, the knife aimed straight for her heart had actually been deflected!

It turned out that Duan Yunhe had been carrying a small wooden box made of ironwood all along. By sheer luck, the knife had struck the box instead, saving her life. Ironwood is known as “iron wood” precisely because it’s as hard as metal. Though Wang Laohu’s final attack was delivered with all his might, Yuan Mo had managed to absorb some of the force, so it was only natural that the wooden box would block the blade.

The wound wasn’t deep, but Qiu Huan suspected the weapon might have been poisoned—and neither she nor Yuan Mo had much expertise in poisons. Yuan Mo did occasionally use poison during his early missions, but that was only because Cheng Jingtian, the Valley Lord of Star Valley, wanted to test a new drug and asked Qiu Huan to deliver it to him. Neither of them really understood the ingredients or effects of such poisons. That’s also why Cheng Jingtian could be rather mischievous, always looking for opportunities to tease Yuan Mo, claiming it was amusing to see the “facial paralysis” fail. On one occasion, he even gave Yuan Mo a fake death potion, nearly causing him to fail a mission.

Since they weren’t experts on poisons, it made more sense to let someone who specialized in the field take a closer look. After a quick assessment, Qiu Huan decided to bring along the very knife that had been deflected. Fortunately, Duan Yunhe now looked perfectly healthy, showing no signs of poisoning whatsoever—so it seemed she’d be fine.

After galloping for a while, the three of them had already left the heart of the valley and were now on its outskirts, right at the border with Xinxiang. Ideally, if they wanted to find a safe place, they should have gone even farther from the valley—preferably avoiding Xinxiang altogether. But given Qiu Huan’s current condition, there was simply no way she could hold out until they reached a safer area, so Yuan Mo had no choice but to seek out a remote, uninhabited house where they could treat her injuries.

Duan Yunhe stayed outside to tether the horses. Her mount was called “Chi Xiu,” a chestnut-colored female Mongolian horse with strong legs, which was just enough to keep up with Xiao Xue. Still, after this leg of the journey, Chi Xiu was starting to tire, and Duan Yunhe gently stroked her neck while Chi Xiu responded with soft whinnies. Once both horses were settled, Duan Yunhe finally entered the house. To be honest, she wasn’t entirely comfortable with intruding into someone else’s home while the owner was away, but since this place was essentially lawless and Qiu Huan urgently needed treatment, she reluctantly swallowed her discomfort—though she couldn’t help feeling a bit uneasy about it.

Inside the bedroom, she saw Yuan Mo helping Qiu Huan restore her qi. Although Duan Yunhe was deeply worried about Qiu Huan’s condition, she didn’t know how to assist, so she just started bandaging herself.

But she was left-handed, and with an injury to her left shoulder, it was really inconvenient. Yet asking Yuan Mo to help wasn’t ideal either—Qiu Huan was barely holding herself together—so Duan Yunhe could only awkwardly manage on her own.

Once the bandaging was complete, Duan Yunhe went to check on Qiu Huan, only to be gently “shooed” back to rest by Qiu Huan’s weak voice. There was nothing she could do—Qiu Huan looked so fragile that Duan Yunhe didn’t dare argue, even though she really didn’t want to. Still, she planned to get a little sleep and then come back to take care of Qiu Huan, especially since Yuan Mo also seemed to be injured—though she didn’t pay as much attention to him as she did to Qiu Huan, she just noticed that his movements were a bit slower than usual and assumed he’d suffered internal injuries—she couldn’t possibly let him keep vigil all night.

Seeing Duan Yunhe leave, Qiu Huan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the tension that had been building up for so long finally slipped down her chin. Upon seeing this, Yuan Mo’s hands trembled uncontrollably.

End of Chapter 15: Nothing Above the Heavens