Chapter 159: Worthy Of The Imperial Guards
Lin Xin and Chu Yu had consumed a great deal of both physical strength and mental energy after this battle, so after walking a distance, they decided to rest first. After all, no one knew when the next wave of attacks would come, and it would be disastrous if they were exhausted by then.
“Here, eat something!” Lin Xin handed six cold buns and a bamboo tube filled with silver ear lotus seed soup to Chu Yu outside the horse carriage.
“Hey, Miss Lin, you’re so well-prepared, thanks!” Chu Yu happily took them and thanked her.
After walking this distance, he had figured it out. From the beginning, Lin Xin hadn’t done anything to harm them, and she had wholeheartedly taken care of Your Highness for three years. He could feel that she truly treated Your Highness no differently than her own younger brother, even being a bit kinder to Your Highness due to the age difference. So what did he have to worry about?
Moreover, her combat power was so high that he was practically reduced to dust in comparison. Now he finally understood why Mo Ziyuan had him take Lin Xin on the road alone—it was handing him a tremendous merit!
Lin Xin smiled without saying anything. She could feel that Chu Yu’s attitude toward her had returned to how it was in the village, and her heart felt a bit lighter.
Although she didn’t care much about these things, she knew they had more than one tough battle to fight before reaching the capital city. Chu Yu changing his attitude at this time was obviously beneficial for both of them—at least they could focus on the enemy without guarding against each other.
With Lin Nan waking up, their rest time came to an end. After taking care of physiological needs for the two little ones, hastily washing up, and giving them a simple breakfast, the group of four set off again.
Originally, Lin Xin thought that since it was daytime now, those people wouldn’t dare to launch such brazen attacks on them. However, she had still underestimated how persistent a prince of this era was about the throne.
Looking at the dense crowd of no less than several hundred people in front of her, Lin Xin nearly wanted to curse.
Chu Yu’s expression was also extremely unpleasant. Although these people were all wearing identical black clothes, he still spotted the embroidery on the sleeves, face coverings, and collars of more than a dozen among them—those were the marks of the Imperial Guards. Every prince gained his own Secret Guards after age ten, and it was clear these people belonged to the Third Prince.
“Miss Lin, these people this time are very formidable. I’ll hold them off first—you take Your Highness and Nan Nan and find a chance to leave!” Chu Yu lowered his voice and said to Lin Xin in the horse carriage.
Lin Xin raised an eyebrow, holding Lin Nan and Lin Tao, who had turned pale from facing a pursuit for the first time, one in each arm. “How formidable?”
“There are over a dozen Imperial Guards among them, each capable of taking on ten alone. The rest probably aren’t much worse than the previous ones either. After all, the capital city is just dozens of miles away—if they can’t take us down now, they won’t have another chance.” Chu Yu stared intently at the large force ahead, answering in a low voice.
“Imperial Guards? How did you spot that?”
“There are patterns on their sleeve cuffs, collars, and face coverings.”
“Oh!”
Lin Xin looked at the people in the crowd with a clump on their face coverings, then assessed her own supernatural ability situation. She figured that if they stayed still like this, she could take down about half with one move. But if their strength was as formidable as Chu Yu said, she wouldn’t have a chance to unleash another big move.
“Sigh! There are still too many left!” She sighed softly, then lowered her voice to Chu Yu: “I’ll start with a big one. Their formation should be in chaos after that. Leave the remaining Imperial Guards to me. Hold off the others as long as you can—but you must guard the horse carriage. I’m entrusting the two children to you.”
“Miss Lin!” Chu Yu wanted to stop her, but he knew deep down that her plan was the most reasonable. If he went against the Imperial Guards, he wouldn’t have the slightest chance of winning.
“It’s settled. Get ready—I’m about to make my move.”
“······Alright!” Chu Yu shifted his body back slightly, making space for Lin Xin.
The Third Prince was a very cautious person, especially after first experiencing the assassination of his maternal uncle Feng Xing, then the Emperor’s high-profile but ineffective investigation, which pushed his suspicious and cautious nature to the extreme. Not only did he re-vet the people around him, but he even checked those who had already declared support for him. During the Late Emperor’s funeral, he didn’t hesitate to use his body double as a backup plan.
Therefore, after receiving the message by carrier pigeon, he arranged for two-thirds of his Secret Guards to come along, while raising Lin Xin’s threat level to the highest.
When Lin Xin appeared in everyone’s view, the Imperial Guards’ hearts sank in unison. The Third Prince’s intelligence had been too conservative—this woman wasn’t just highly skilled in kung fu; most critically, she had a killing aura comparable to generals who had emerged from battles amid thousands of troops and horses. Moreover, she carried a trait extremely familiar to them: indifference to human life.
They had undergone rigorous training from childhood—kill or be killed—which gave them this trait. So where had Lin Xin’s trait come from?
Before they could figure it out, Lin Xin’s water blade had arrived. This time, Lin Xin aimed to kill, showing no mercy. Immediately, more than half dropped their weapons, clutching their necks in agony as they fell, including seven Imperial Guards.
Originally, Lin Xin had accounted for all the Imperial Guards in her move, but about ten of them anticipated the danger and barely dodged just before the water blade reached their necks. Though they avoided the fatal strike, none escaped injury.
Lin Xin had no time to concern herself with their shocked inner turmoil. After landing the strike, she gripped her curved saber without pause and charged into the crowd, tossing only one sentence to Chu Yu: “Guard the horse carriage well!”
Thanks to the deterrence of that initial strike, Lin Xin reaped lives like entering an uninhabited realm while they were stunned. Her strikes were ruthless, almost always fatal, and her movements lightning-fast. Before most could react, she had taken down nearly a third more. Unfortunately, the Imperial Guards reacted much faster than the others—her burst only worsened their wounds without killing them as intended.
“Worthy of the Imperial Guards—truly agile, with a beast-like instinct for danger. Not much worse than me. Looks like it’ll come down to a hard fight!” Lin Xin thought regretfully.
But she didn’t know that her performance had nearly scared the wits out of almost everyone on the other side—they were on the verge of losing the courage to face her.
Thanks to Mmy Dang for the votes, thanks to caroletu for the tip, thank you for your support, thank you!
