Chapter 193: We have no way out

Tuo Ba Yu never expected things to have come to this pass; Gu Jiu Ling hadn't left yet, and was actually treating Xiao Yin's wounds in this shabby house. He flared up in anger and strode toward the house where Gu Jiu Ling lived, only to be blocked by the dark guards of the Rui Wangfu stationed at the door.

Tuo Ba Yu drew his waist sword with a swish, and the killing intent he had been suppressing instantly spread over his body.

"Are you looking to die? Dare you block this prince? Get lost!"

The head of the dark guards stared at him coldly, not at all intimidated by Tuo Ba Yu's icy killing intent; following his master's earlier orders, he did not draw his sword against Tuo Ba Yu, but simply stood in front of the door and watched him silently.

Tuo Ba Yu, instead, didn't know what to do, when he heard Gu Jiu Ling's faint muffled voice from inside the house.

"Thank you, Your Highness, for saving my husband; I, Gu Jiu Ling, will keep this favor in my heart. After our grudges are settled, the rest is my affair with the imperial family—it should not involve Bei Di. Your Highness, please return!"

"You..." Tuo Ba Yu turned white with anger, "What do you mean it's none of my business? Come back to Shang Jing with me right now; if those behind catch up, you and your unborn child won't survive."

"I can't leave; my lord's life or death is unknown, and if he isn't treated here, even a delay of a day or two will leave no hope of recovery."

"Life or death, I, Gu Jiu Ling, stake it all on tonight; the promise I made to Your Highness before, I'll repay in the next life."

"How could you not care for the child in your womb?" Tuo Ba Yu had just clashed with the Southern Qi royal family's iron guards, and knew their force was overwhelmingly strong.

"I also don't know how Xiao Yin managed to hold on; it's practically a near-death situation, and even with the Red Scorpion he's been holding up for a while, he's already finding it exhausting."

Thinking of this, Tuo Ba Yu couldn't help recalling the Xiao Yin he had bumped into at the valley entrance—bloodied all over yet clinging to a breath, refusing to fall—and his heart gave a slight tremor.

He suddenly felt torn; if he wanted to take Gu Jiu Ling away, as long as Xiao Yin lived it would be impossible.

But if he were to kill Xiao Yin, tonight would be the only suitable time.

Tuo Ba Yu's pair of clear violet eyes actually flickered with a hint of frost, not realizing that the woman inside seemed to sense his intention.

Gu Jiu Ling coldly laughed: "Your Highness, let me say this one last thing—he dies, I die; he lives, I live; I will never live alone."

Tuo Ba Yu's face fell to the utmost ugliness; if any other woman had said that, it would seem affected, but the woman inside was Gu Jiu Ling—who could overturn the capital of Shang Jing, who had saved his life and given him warmth.

He clenched his teeth and whispered low: "Hope you still remember the oath you swore before me! Hmph!"

Tuo Ba Yu turned and walked toward the courtyard gate, his face grim, his eyes icy, his heart in turmoil, not knowing where to put it; the only thing he could now use to restrain her was her lukewarm oath.

Tuo Ba Yu stood firm at the courtyard gate, and Cheng Ming and Lin RuJun stepped back in unison.

Tuo Ba Yu coldly laughed: "The pursuers will catch up soon; I hope you can hold out tonight, for even if the royal family wants to silence witnesses, they can only act at night—once it's daylight and we're out of the valley, it'll draw the populace's attention."

He paused, then continued slowly: "Whether you survive tonight depends on your fate."

After Tuo Ba Yu finished speaking, he recalled that he had just brought back several severely wounded men from the valley—all of Xiao Yin's death warriors—and ordered them dragged into the courtyard and dumped straight at the house door.

Jiu Yue sat crying in the corner with her knees drawn up; Ling Feng hadn't returned with the prince, and was likely in grave danger.

Not wanting to hear the commotion in the courtyard, she suppressed her heart-rending pain and hurried over, seeing several blood-soaked bodies lying on the ground.

The Red Scorpion people were thrown straight in, and they tossed down a sentence.

"People of the Rui Wangfu, look after yourselves!"

Jiu Yue instantly recognized that familiar figure, her head spinning, her heart nearly leaping out of her throat; she barely managed to stay on her feet, unable to believe what she saw.

She then rushed forward a few steps and knelt before a person whose wounds were severe, a jagged sword slash cutting across his sharply defined cheek from the nose bridge downward.

Blood seeped from everywhere on his body, wounds piled upon wounds, and he looked like a blood-soaked gourd.

"Ling Feng! Ling Feng!!" Jiu Yue clung to the unconscious Ling Feng and wept with joy.

Tuo Ba Yu, standing at the courtyard gate, blinked slightly; among the few he had just picked up, there was actually a close aide of Xiao Yin's—no wonder he had blocked so many royal iron guards for Xiao Yin; this was risking his life to help his master escape, truly loyal.

Just now it made sense why this kid clung so tightly to his horse's leg, his will to live so fierce—turns out he also had a woman in his heart; heh, when a man has a woman in his heart, he has a weak point.

Jiu Yue dared not disturb the princess consort treating the prince's wounds inside the house; fortunately, Zuo Feichen hadn't been with the master earlier, so she had followed him nearby to tend the sick and learn a thing or two, though she was a layperson.

She hurriedly fetched another medicine box from the carriage, ordered the attendants who had returned with Zuo Feichen to help, and carried the wounded into the other half-collapsed room on the side.

Jiu Yue squatted beside Ling Feng to apply medicine and dress his wounds; after finishing, she also bandaged the injured Red Scorpion men, and for a moment the courtyard was quiet yet the atmosphere remained heavy and tense.

The atmosphere inside the house also froze to an extreme; when Gu Jiu Ling opened Xiao Yin's abdomen, her hand froze in place, and even the well-informed Zuo Feichen, seeing the interior, was greatly shocked.

"This..."

Zuo Feichen didn't know what to say, even lowering his head unwilling to look further; how much sheer willpower must a person have to endure such agony, which ordinary people could never overcome.

Gu Jiu Ling's hands trembled slightly; she had seen many patients, but this was the first to make her heart ache to the point of being unable to breathe.

His internal organs were almost completely devoured by the parasitic worms; how could he possibly endure it?

Suddenly a fierce clatter of hooves came from outside, then shouts of killing erupted at the gate; Zuo Feichen's face darkened further, yet he did not disturb Gu Jiu Ling.

Tonight they either all die here, or they all survive intact.

Gu Jiu Ling inhaled, her voice steady.

"Oxygen mask!"

"Two shots of adrenaline!"

"Give me the tweezers!"

"Prepare to remove the first worm sac—careful! Hold it down! Don't let those parasites swim into the organs!"

"Good! Lift up! Press down! Press down!"

Cheng Ming's cursing rang loud, piercing Gu Jiu Ling's eardrums.

"I'll fight it out with you lot!"

"Kill!!"

"Kill!"

Gu Jiu Ling's hand jerked, the tweezers fell, but Zuo Feichen caught them midair and placed them back in her hand.

"Princess Consort! You know that too!"

Zuo Feichen stared firmly at Gu Jiu Ling: "We of us, each one counts—we're all bound to the prince; if he lives we live, if he dies we'll have offended the imperial family and lost the prince's protection, and sooner or later we'll die at their hands."

"We have no way out……"

Gu Jiu Ling nodded heavily.