Chapter 899: Please preside over the conclusion (1/2)

How can this be?

If it was just Ning Cheng missing, then it was likely he’d gone to search for a poisons doctor to treat his eye. But his guards were lying poisoned on the ground. What was going on?

It was impossible for even Bai Yanqing to escape in such a short amount of time. There was no way the old man had doubled back on his tracks, so who poisoned these men? Had Ning Cheng been kidnapped?

“Baili Mingxiang, call over Xu Donglin to send men to search the mountains immediately!” Long Feiye ordered.

Baili Mingxiang had long wanted to check on the status of Blacktower, so she left in an instant.

Han Yunxi treated Ning Cheng’s guards without another word. These two couldn’t die! If they did, her misunderstanding with Ning Cheng would only grow. She quickly had them swallow down antidote until she was sure they were fine, then exhaled in relief. Fortunately, they’d rushed back in time before the pair died. Her sins would be too heavy for even the Yellow River to wash out then.

The two guards quickly regained consciousness and recoiled in panic at the sight of them. But soon enough, they were kneeling before Han Yunxi.

“Princess, please save Master Ning! He can’t go blind, ah, he still needs to lead our brothers on the battlefield!”

“Princess, you...you can’t do this! How could you…” the guard didn’t manage to finish before Long Feiye’s chilly gaze scared him back. He fell silently and began to kowtow repeatedly for Han Yunxi’s help.

Han Yunxi’s heart was full of misery as she replied. “Just then was an accident. I didn’t want to kill him. See now, haven’t I come back to save him? Where is he?”

Where was he?

The two guards only then realized that Ning Cheng was gone and fell into a panic.

“Master Ning sent archers to chase after Bai Yanqing. He was standing right here just then, and we couldn’t coax him away no matter how we tried.”

“This subordinate...how could this subordinate have been sneak attacked?!”

“Just what happened here?” Han Yunxi demanded as she began to grow agitated too. Ning Cheng never left. Was he waiting for her to save him?

“This subordinate was guarding Master Ning. After his poison spread, he collapsed to the ground. This subordinate wanted to take him away, but somehow...that’s right, someone must have sneak attacked us!” the guard exclaimed in disarray.

Han Yunxi exhaled. At this moment, Baili Mingxiang rushed over. “Your Highness, princess, something’s happened! Xu Donglin’s been poisoned!”

Long Feiye immediately brought Han Yunxi over to the scene of the crime. At Blacktower, they saw Xu Donglin and his shadow guards collapsed amongst the ruins, all of them unconscious.

“They’ve been afflicted with the same poison,” Han Yunxi quickly took out some antidote for Baili Mingxiang to treat the guards. After a while, the men gradually woke up.

“Your Highness, this subordinate brought men here but was about to dig around the crossbeams when we got poisoned. We never got inside the building.” Xu Donglin reported hastily.

“Bai Yuqiao? She’s not dead?” Han Yunxi wondered.

“Where’s little Yu’er?” Baili Mingxiang asked anxiously.

Long Feiye personally helped the guards move aside a few large crossbeams and multiple huge boulders. They saw many bodies of other guards inside, as well as the dead figures of the two shadow guards that had acted as agents within Blacktower. But after searching multiple times and even digging into the ruins, neither Xu Donglin nor his men could find Bai Yuqiao or Su Xiaoyu’s bodies.

Without a doubt, Bai Yuqiao had set the poison and kidnapped Ning Cheng!

“That girl was lucky to escape death,” Long Feiye remarked coldly.

Han Yunxi was both surprised and relieved. At least little Yu’er wasn’t dead, and at least someone who knew poisons had taken Ning Cheng away. Although she had hypertoxic poisons in her needle, Bai Yuqiao’s skills were enough to cure it. If anyone else had taken Ning Cheng away, he’d certainly die. Han Yunxi’s heart settled back in her chest and tensed over the previous events. Her needle had been on impulse after seeing Ning Cheng trying to use the Pear Blossom Rain needles. She didn’t give it a second thought, or else she would have stopped herself!

Poison needles were completely ineffective against Bai Yanqing! Coincidentally, he had evaded Ning Cheng’s nonexistent attack at the same time she shot her projectile. Since the poison needle hadn’t caused Bai Yanqing any injury, it wasn’t automatically absorbed into his poison storage space. A single misstep had caused a massive misunderstanding.

Back at Tianning’s palace, Ning Cheng had witnessed her breaking through Bai Yanqing’s defenses firsthand and understood how the poison storage space worked. Any toxins used against either her or Bai Yanqing would be useless. No wonder he had suspected she was targeting him all along, and no wonder he’d asked her, “Princess, is this the extent of your disappointment in me?”

Yet despite all his doubts, he had stood waiting for her to come back. How disappointed he must have felt when she didn’t show up? When she saw the two guards she’d saved running towards them, Han Yunxi wasn’t sure how much these witnesses could justify her actions in Ning Cheng’s eyes anymore. But there was no time to worry about that now, because they had to find their people first.

“Xu Donglin, hurry and send men to search the mountains, quick!” Long Feiye said coldly.