Chapter 968: Various obstacles on the road, Su Ye’s plan!
"Your Highness, we are going to Hengzhou to find the Duke of Zhenguo."

He said softly, trying to make his voice sound calm.

Si Jinxuan paused, as if trying to digest this information. Although he was young, he could vaguely feel the changes in his family and the turmoil in the country.

"Duke Zhenguo? Who is he?"

Si Jinxuan blinked and asked curiously.

"Your Highness, do you remember that when the previous emperor was in power, he sent three princesses, your aunts, to Hengzhou to marry the Duke of Zhenguo? The Duke of Zhenguo can now be regarded as the son-in-law of our Daqian Dynasty."

"As long as we can find him, with the favor of the three princesses, he will definitely be willing to protect Your Highness."

Zhao Xiao smiled slightly, and although his heart was full of bitterness, he tried his best to explain in a calm tone.

"So...can we meet the aunts?"

Si Jinxuan's voice began to sound somewhat expectant, as if at this moment, the three aunts he had never met had become the warmest support in his heart.

"Of course, Your Highness, we will be able to meet your aunts when we get to Hengzhou."

"They will be glad to see you."

Zhao Xiao smiled slightly, and even though his heart was full of bitterness, he still nodded.

When Si Jinxuan heard this, a light flashed in his eyes, as if he finally saw a ray of light in this endless darkness.

"Then we will definitely find him, right, General Zhao?"

He nodded, with a hint of childish determination in his voice.

"Of course! Your Highness, rest assured. Zhao Xiao will escort Your Highness to Hengzhou safely even at the cost of his life."

Zhao Xiao was shocked, but still nodded vigorously.

As he spoke, he swung the Qiankun Sword in his hand again, cut off the thorns blocking the road ahead, and led the team to move forward.

Along the way, they also encountered many stragglers of the Yellow Turban Army, but as the most elite Taoist soldiers of the Daqian Dynasty, they might have no power to resist a beast like Li Cunxiao who had extremely strong internal energy.

But facing these ordinary Yellow Turban Army, these Qiankun Guards are like fathers to them!

Basically, every time they encountered ordinary Yellow Turban Army in the wild, the Qiankun Guards could disperse them in an instant with the force of thunder and lightning.

The night was as dark as ink. In the camp outside Qianling County, Su Ye sat upright in his tent, the candlelight crackling in the copper lamp, and he was playing with a green jade Pixiu seal in his hand.

He had just changed out of his dusty battle robe, with a few grains of grass still stained in his hair. At this moment, he was stirring the medicinal soup on the table with a silver spoon - it was a soothing soup specially prepared for him by the army physician, claiming that it could dispel the fatigue from days of traveling.

"Your Highness, Luowang has urgent news."

Jingwei's voice sounded outside the tent, carrying the coolness of the night breeze.

Su Ye paused his wrist slightly, and ripples appeared in the medicinal soup.

"Come in."

Su Ye didn't even raise his head, and tapped lightly on the edge of the desk with his fingertips.

Jingwei lifted the curtain and walked in. The wax on the secret letter in his hand was printed with a ferocious spider totem, which glowed blue under the candlelight.

"Si Yunzhang led the prince to break through?"

Su Ye's fingers suddenly tightened as he opened the secret letter, and the edge of the letter paper wrinkled into bitter ripples in his palm.

"Three hours ago, they broke through the south gate of Qiandu. Li Cunxiao personally led the Flying Tiger Cavalry in pursuit, but at Luofengpo, Si Yunzhang used most of his Qiankun Imperial Guards as his death squads to lure the tiger away from the mountain."

Jingwei was silent and lowered his head.

"Lure the tiger away from the mountain? Si Yunzhang is so kind, he is so willing to do so!"

"He even gave up most of the elite Taoist soldiers like the Qiankun Imperial Guards without hesitation, using them as death squads to hold back Li Cunxiao, and led the prince to the southeast."

Su Ye chuckled and threw the letter into the charcoal brazier. When the flames rose, the dark gold emblem flickering in his eyes was reflected.

Jingwei's pupils shrank slightly. The southeast direction of Qiandu was exactly where Gu Changqing's army was stationed. If the prince were to meet up with the national guardian pillar... she suddenly understood why Su Ye summoned the Yin-Yang family's people overnight.

"Do we need to mobilize all the elite Luowang troops from the counties surrounding Qianzhou to intercept and kill them?"

Jingwei stood in the shadows with his head down, the pink Jingwei sword at his waist glowing coldly in the dark.

“No need to make a big fuss.”

Su Ye's slender fingers slid across the map on the table and drew a circle at a location southeast of Qiandu. "Where is the Moon God of the Yin-Yang Family?"

When Su Ye stood up, the map on the desk was blown open by his sleeves, revealing seven ferry crossings circled in cinnabar.

"I'm waiting outside the tent."

Jingwei looked outside the tent expressionlessly.

"My Lord, the Moon Goddess observes the celestial phenomena at night..."

The Moon Goddess, who was in opposition to Dongjun Feiyan from the Yin-Yang School, brought in a tent full of starlight when she lifted the curtain. She had wide sleeves hanging down like clouds, and a jade crown in her hair was inlaid with silver ornaments of the Big Dipper.

"Don't talk to me about the stars."

Su Ye tapped Luoxia Ferry on the map with his finger.

"The leader of the Qiankun Guards, Si Yunzhang, is coming here with the Crown Prince of Daqian. I want you to set up the Nine Palaces Star Array at the ferry."

"The river is narrowest here, and reeds grow thickly on both sides. It's a perfect place to set an ambush."

He traced his fingertips across the winding river on the map.

"The Nine Palaces are the key to Yin and Yang. With the help of the Yin-Yang family's newly refined 'Seven Evil Soul Locking Nails', a powerful celestial being has arrived..."

The Moon Goddess was silent for a moment, tightened her hands in her sleeves, and whispered.

"I don't necessarily want to kill people."

Su Ye suddenly stopped talking, and the candlelight cast a mixture of light and dark shadows on his profile.

"The prince can live, but he must not live to see Gu Changqing."

"Understand?"

He turned and looked outside the tent, as if he could see the starry sky through the tent.

"Understood. We will embed the 'Magic Chaos Spell' into the center of the formation, making that child... lose his soul forever!"

The Moon Goddess was stunned for a moment, and her heart trembled.

"very good."

Su Ye nodded, and the hourglass on the desk started to tick.

"Jingwei, tell Luowang to kill Si Yunzhang's troops along the way. Remember——"

"We must not let the Crown Prince safely reunite with Gu Changqing!"

He suddenly lowered his voice, as if afraid of disturbing the conspiracy in the night.

When Jingwei took the order and retreated, he happened to see the Moon Goddess taking out seven bronze nails from her wide sleeves. The nails were engraved with twisted talismans and glowed with a strange green light under the moonlight.

"If this nail enters the body, his three souls and seven spirits will be like trapped beasts, no matter how powerful his martial arts are..."

The Moon God of the Yin-Yang School whispered.

"I want to be absolutely sure."

Su Ye had a blank expression on his face, his eyes penetrating the tent and falling into the distance.

There, the sound of horse hooves of Si Yunzhang and other Qiankun Guards were tearing through the night, startling countless crows.

……

At the same time, Luoxia Ferry.

The river water shimmered silver in the moonlight. Si Yunzhang reined in Mo Yunzhui. The few hundred or so Qiankun Guards left behind him were all injured. The blood scabs on their armor rustled in the night wind.

The young prince was wrapped in fox fur, his face was pale, but he pursed his lips and said nothing.

"This place is less than twenty miles away from Grand Tutor Gu's camp."

Si Yunzhang wiped the blood off the Qiankun Sword, and the blade was shining green in the moonlight.

"After we cross the river..."

Before he finished speaking, seven green lights suddenly rose from the river surface and shot up into the sky.

Si Yunzhang's pupils suddenly shrank - the arrangement of stars could be vaguely seen in the green light, it was actually the famous Nine Palace Formation among the various schools of thought!
(End of this chapter)