A Hero's Heart - Chapter 12

Zhao Yihuan and I changed into servant’s clothes.

Pampered young lady though she was, perhaps my words had given her the will to survive. She was now able to stand and walk on her own.

I told her to keep her head lowered and follow closely behind me.

“Why are you all just standing there? Hurry and go in to fetch him!” I copied the masked man’s voice.

Then I changed my voice and answered, “Yes, Master.”

I led Zhao Yihuan out of the room and closed the door behind us.

The people outside kept their heads down. Not one of them suspected anything.

Zhao Yihuan’s breathing was unsteady. She was still seriously injured.

We had not gone far when her legs gave way.

I caught her and shouted, “Why are you all staring? The master will punish us!”

Everyone looked away at once.

I did not dare remain there. Supporting her, I hurried forward.

There were several possible ways out.

One was the pit through which I had fallen, but its entrance had been sealed. The other was the route Seventeen had used to lead us to the wall.

Even if the pit were not sealed, Zhao Yihuan and I could not climb out of it.

That left only the second route.

Wearing servant’s clothes, with our heads bowed and our faces hidden, we passed through the corridors without arousing suspicion.

“Is he really going to chop them up and feed them to the dogs?” At a fork in the passage, I heard voices from the other side.

“The master hates handsome men most of all. Being handsome would be bad enough, but he even dared to eat the master’s rabbit. Feeding him to the dogs would be letting him off lightly.”

They were talking about Lu Zichen.

I had thought they might already have killed him. I had not expected to find that they had yet to act.

“What about the blind man?”

“Kill him first. The master might want him one day…”

The two men were so absorbed in their conversation that I came up behind them and knocked one unconscious with a single palm strike.

I untied the other man’s belt, tied him up, stuffed his mouth, and only then pinched him awake.

When he saw me, his eyes widened. He tried to speak, but the stone in his mouth muffled every sound.

I pressed the hairpin against his throat and ordered, “Open the door.”

The door after the passage was the one where Seventeen and Lu Zichen had been left.

When the man tried to resist, I stabbed the hairpin into his thigh. He burst into tears.

At last, he opened the door.

Several hours had passed. Lu Zichen was lying on the ground in a miserable state.

Seventeen, by contrast, sat safely in the corner. Only a little dirt marked his black robe.

I could not see his expression, but for some reason I thought he looked handsome even like this.

Hearing our footsteps, Seventeen turned toward me.

“I came to rescue you. We’re leaving.”

At the sound of my voice, Lu Zichen opened his eyes.

Tears filled them.

He looked like one of the pigs at my sect that had gone hungry for several days and finally seen someone bringing food.

I had originally planned to disguise them both as the two unconscious servants and lead them out, but Lu Zichen looked too battered for that to work.

So I told the four of them, in the masked man’s voice, “The master wants to see them.”

No one questioned it.

Before long, the four of us reached the wall blocking the exit.

Lu Zichen covered his aching head and asked, “Aren’t you good at opening locks? Why don’t you do it again?”

…

I could not be bothered to answer.

Seventeen suddenly caught my hand. His cold fingertips traced a character across my palm.

Use inner force to break it open.

I sighed. “There are guards everywhere in this forest. I can’t use my inner force.”

After I said that, he placed a pill in my hand.

I stared at him. “What is this supposed to be?”

He gave me a look that clearly meant: Eat.

I blinked, then swallowed the black pill.

It tasted like medicine.

But I trusted him. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and tossed it into my mouth.

The cold medicine slid down my throat and settled in my stomach. Then it spread through my meridians.

“There really are no guards nearby. Take them down!”

The shout came from behind us, followed by a piercing cry.

When I turned, several people were charging toward us.

Lu Zichen hurried in front of us. He tried to draw his sword, then remembered that it had already been taken away.

I pushed him aside and began gathering qi in my palm.

Then I struck the group of men and sent them sprawling.

Before anyone could react, I struck the stone wall again and shattered it.

Lu Zichen stared in astonishment. “I had no idea you were this powerful.”

I grabbed Zhao Yihuan with one hand, hauled Seventeen up with the other, and ran for the opening. “Move, idiot!”