Chapter 609

Batur's face lit up with delight, and he placed a hand on his chest: 'Yes, young master.'

Zhui Yu and Sha Yi exchanged a glance, each feeling resentment toward the other yet also a hint of worry for Li Qingluo.

Watching the young lady and that Batur enter the door, Sha Yi glared fiercely at Zhui Yu, full of resentment, gritting his teeth: 'It's all your fault; if you weren't always competing with me for the young lady's attention, she wouldn't be vexed.'

Sha Yi is annoyed with a person.

This Zhui Yu is second to none!

If Zhui Yu weren't that person's personal bodyguard, I would really wish to kill him every dark, windy night.

Zhui Yu embraced his sword, a sneer on his face: 'Who exactly is causing the young lady's vexation? Some people know it in their own hearts.'

'I've known the young lady far longer than you have!'

'When the young lady first returned to Jinling, I had already shown my face before her!'

'My friendship with the young lady is absolutely beyond your comparison!'

Sha Yi, unwilling to yield, sneered back: 'Friendship? You dare bring up friendship?'

'Who is your master?'

'Your heart can be split in two; we, the Sha clan, obey only the young lady's command!'

'Our loyalty is the one and only thing before the young lady——'

Zhui Yu: 'Stop sowing discord here!'

'The young lady and Your Highness are one entity, they——'

Before the words finished, a loud 'bang' echoed from inside the house.

Then came Batur's anguished cry: 'Young master!'

By the time Zhui Yu, Sha Yi, and Sha Three and Sha Four, who had been watching from behind, rushed inside, the room was already in utter chaos.

Batur and a richly dressed man lay on the ground, while the gorgeous maids were sprawled helter-skelter.

And where was Li Qingluo's figure to be found inside?

Sha Yi stepped forward, hauled Batur up, and shouted: 'Where is the person?!'

Batur pointed in terror at the shattered window on the other side: 'The young lady has been abducted!'

Sha Yi: 'Chase!'

Having said that, he led Sha Three and Sha Four out through the broken window.

Zhui Yu then turned his gaze to Batur and the richly dressed man.

'Who is he?'

'What exactly happened?'

Batur, his face still pale with shock, replied: 'This person is naturally Lord Arikun.'

The young master and Lord Arikun were speaking when suddenly two masked figures leapt down from the sky.

They seized the young master and fled.

'What on earth is this? We hadn't even reacted.'

'Could it be that the young lady's identity has been discovered?'

Zhui Yu: 'What status does the young lady have? She's merely the young master of the Tianfeng Trading House; why would someone specially come to abduct her?'

'Batur, are you still lying?'

As Zhui Yu spoke, his sharp sword was already drawn.

He is not one of the Sha clan's stubborn blockheads.

Following Duan Rongshi all the way here, he's certainly no pushover.

The sharp sword pressed against Batur's neck, and only then did his complexion change.

'What, what nonsense are you spouting?'

'Young guard, why don't you hurry to rescue the young master? Lingering here, if anything happens to the young lady, how will you answer to the old master?'

Zhui Yu: 'Fine, then I'll first kill the culprit!'

Zhui Yu turned and thrust his sword through the throat of Arikun, who was just trying to rise from the ground.

As the servant screamed and was about to crawl out to shout, Zhui Yu flashed his blade a few more times and slew everyone in the room.

Then he swiftly shut the door tight!

The sword tip was still dripping blood.

Zhui Yu turned, his face fierce and icy, staring at Batur.

'If you don't tell the truth, it'll be your turn next.'

Batur trembled all over from fright.

The Zhui Yu before him seemed like a rakshasa demon.

It left him unable to utter a sound.

'This, this is…… Lord Arikun……'

'You, you're mad……'

'You dare kill Lord Arikun…… you dare open a slaughter here…… do you know the consequences of your actions?'

'We of this group won't even think of walking out of Eagle City alive!'

Zhui Yu held his sword sideways, wiping the blood onto the cuff of his sleeve.

'What a local bully.'

'To abduct someone in his own home, they must be in league with him; they certainly deserve death.'

'Or they are just worthless trash, deserving death even more.'

'And you, Batur.'

"It was you colluding with others, trying to harm my family's young lady, wasn't it?"

Speaking, the sword flashing with cold light pointed again at Ba Tu Er.

Ba Tu Er, frightened, kept retreating: "You've gone mad, but don't recklessly bite innocent people."

"If I were a traitor, how could I have led you through the desert and safely arrived at Eagle City?"

"Back then during the Sand City raid, I could have just left you behind, right?"

"Now that the young master is missing, you take out your anger on me and even killed Lord Alikun; the trouble this will bring is beyond your imagination!"

"I think you're the real traitor!"

After Ba Tu Er finished shouting, a rumbling vibration came from outside the door.

Zhui Yu's murderous movement finally attracted the mansion's guards.

A cold look appeared on Ba Tu Er's face: "You won't escape today!"

But Zhui Yu showed no sign of fear.

Instead, she lifted Ba Tu Er and leapt out the back window.

Soon they scrambled out of the mansion.

Ba Tu Er couldn't keep up with Zhui Yu, and a panic rose in his heart.

These guards hadn't displayed any particularly impressive skills along the way.

He also thought they were just ordinary guards!

But now doubts began to surface in his mind—could the one before him truly be just an ordinary guard?

"You can't escape—"

"You killed Lord Alikun; his subordinates will chop you into a thousand pieces to feed the wolves!"

Zhui Yu: "Enough nonsense, shut up!"

He slashed the person unconscious with a hand‑knife, then tucked them under his armpit and sprinted.

If the young lady hadn't given orders, he would have wanted to kill the person right away!

Meanwhile, Li Qingluo was taken to a stone cave outside Eagle City and gently placed on the ground.

She had been feigning unconsciousness all the way; now she kept her eyes tightly shut, leaning against the stone.

There seemed to be the sound of water nearby.

Is there a pool here?

Then she heard voices.

What gave her a headache was that the two were speaking the Western Region language; she didn't understand a single word.

Just as Li Qingluo steadied herself and kept listening, a voice in Chinese interjected.

"We have also captured a person; what shall we do next?"

Only then did those two switch to clumsy Chinese.

"We wait for Ba Tu Er to come; we say we can't waste her beauty, so we will sell her into the hook cage."

"How beautiful could she be that even Ba Tu Er praises—"

Speaking, the hand lifted the veil from Li Qingluo's face.

Seeing her beauty, two astonished shouts sounded nearby.

"So this is the young master of the Tianfeng Trading House?"

"Just an Ayi Guli, what's there to fear? They even forced us to perform this play."

"Such beauty sold into the hook cage would be a waste, wouldn't it? If we present her to King Bazha, perhaps we can trade for mining rights over at the mines?"

"Exactly. This Han woman is Lord Bazha's favorite; we don't have to listen to Ba Tu Er at all—what he says counts for nothing!"

A few people got excited and were speaking when a clear, cold voice suddenly rang out.

"Who is Lord Bazha?"

Someone answered: "Of course, he is the ruler of Eagle City, also the king of our Eagle Kingdom—"

The excited voices abruptly stopped.

Three pairs of incredulous eyes met a pair of clear, bright eyes.

Then a chorus of cries erupted.

When Li Qingluo, covered in blood, stood up, the person on the ground who could speak Chinese clutched his arm and kept retreating backward.

"I… I will say everything."

"I know the young master is no ordinary person, so I— I deliberately made them speak Chinese just now."

"Please, young lady, have mercy—"

When Sha Yi, Sha San, and Sha Si hurried in, Li Qingluo had already cleaned her dagger in the pool.

On the ground, a Han man in Western Region attire knelt upright, daring not to move.

Seeing the three enter, he seemed to sigh in relief?

Sha Yi walked over, knelt with an apologetic face: "Young lady, we arrived late."

The terrain of Eagle City and the desert environment allow these Western Region people to escape freely and hide their tracks.

Thus, the tracking techniques Sha Yi and his companions trained in became completely ineffective here.

They almost completely lost their master.

This made all three of them feel deep shame.

Li Qingluo: "Not late, just right."

She had intended to come along this time.

It turned out to be somewhat rewarding.

She stood up, slipped the short knife into her cuff, and threw the blood‑stained outer garment onto the ground.

Sha San hurriedly presented the bundle he had been carrying.

"Miss, all clean."

No wonder the miss ordered Que'er to prepare a clean set of clothes for her today; did she already anticipate that she would kill someone?

Li Qingluo draped the clean outer robe over herself, gave it a shake, and continued to put on the veil.

"Ba Tu Er is not only colluding with Ya Li Kun, but also has ties with the Eagle City's lord Ba Zha."

"Both Nanping and master's whereabouts vanished the moment they reached Eagle City, and there's no news of them from Hala Imperial City either."

"The master didn't mention it, but his movements are linked with A Na Er."

"Yet the Nanping wedding escort party, numbering over a hundred Han people, could not simply disappear without cause."

"However, not a single citizen in the whole city knows anything about it; there isn't even a clue."

"Unless the escort party never actually entered the city and vanished beforehand."

"In this matter, Ba Zha is definitely involved."

"The city lord's mansion also warrants a visit!"

"Quickly inform Zhui Yu and have him bring a living Ba Tu Er to see me!"

After speaking, Li Qingluo was the first to walk out of the cave.

Sha Yi lowered his head, looking somewhat glum.

Sha Si lifted the Han man on the ground and together walked out of the stone cave.

Li Qingluo turned back, looked toward the massive stone cave and thought: This is indeed a good hiding place.

However, at present this spot isn't safe; it's easily exposed to Ba Tu Er's forces.

Li Qingluo did not return to the city immediately.

Instead, she stopped at a farmhouse outside the city.

This farmhouse is also the home of the Han who surrendered.

He locked his family in the back courtyard and cleared the front yard entirely for Li Qingluo.

He also brewed clear tea for Li Qingluo and her party.

Before long, Zhui Yu arrived driving a carriage.

"Miss, the person has arrived."

Ba Tu Er was tightly bound and tossed into the carriage.

Li Qingluo rose, went over, looked herself, and first asked, "How is Ya Li Kun's side?"

Zhui Yu: "I have taken care of it, miss, rest assured."

"I killed Ya Li Kun and silenced everyone inside the house."

"Just before I left the city, I spread the news that Ba Tu Er plotted the murder, claiming he wanted to seize everything belonging to Ya Li Kun."

"Now the whole city is hunting Ba Tu Er."

"And they still haven't suspected us."

Li Qingluo snorted coldly, "After all, I'm the one who was bound."

"For safety's sake, let everyone leave the city as soon as possible."

Zhui Yu: "Miss, rest assured, I sent a carrier pigeon back. Que'er and Zheng Mama have seen it and will act immediately."

Li Qingluo no longer worried about the city, but looked at Ba Tu Er in the carriage.

"Wake him up."