Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

236. The Reunion

Translator: Bryan

The subordinate kept his head down, not daring to speak. He had been helping Ashina Yi deal with matters concerning Du Chuxuan all along, so he was fully aware of Ashina Yi’s intentions towards Du Chuxuan. This was clearly a gooden opportunity which had presented itself in front of Ashina Yi. If he had to let it slip through his fingers, there was no telling what Ashina Yi would react.

Ashina Yi lowered his head. It was a long while before he said coldly, “It’ll take them three full days to get here from the capital. I doubt he has what it takes to travel non-stop for that long.” After giving it some thought, he asked concernedly, “Do we have anybody in nearby areas who can take him away?”

Naturally, Ashina Yi received no affirmative reply. These were the borderlands and there had always been restraints on the development of his influence. After so many years, he had only made some minor achievements, which were nothing compared with those of Manlou who had the imperial clan at their backs. Ashina Yi’s anger flared up further at the thought of that.

Du Chuxuan sat in the tent alone. He felt drained of energy. There was no way he could rescue Luo Er and escape from this place, but he wondered what Ashina Yi had meant by those words. Was Ashina Yi keeping something back from him, something about his health condition?

He was deep in thought when he heard the sound of something heavy thudding to the ground outside. He promptly stood up on the alert. Ashina Yi’s trusted men were everywhere in this encampment. Was one of Ashina Yi’s political rivals coming to make trouble for him? Du Chuxuan was wondering when the tent flap was abruptly lifted.

All the intruders were masked, but after a searching glance at them, Du Chuxuan found that their figures were typical of Shenlan people. It was always rainy and windy in Turk, which was why seldom any natives were slim-figured. The soldiers in this encampment were all thickset. The two peoples were very different.

“Sect Chief!” At the sight of Du Chuxuan, they all dropped to their knees. The one at their head quickly pulled a token from his bosom. “We saw the distress signal and are here to rescue you.”

Not until Du Chuxuan saw the token in the man’s hand clearly was he relieved. He quickly wrote some words on the paper. “Is there anybody else? Luo Er’s locked in the dungeon.” The one at the front was Luo Wu. He was somewhat amazed to see that Du Chuxuan couldn’t even speak, but he didn’t waste any time.

“Another team has gone to rescue Commander Luo Er. Our task is to get you back to His Highness safely.” Then they began to do their job with high efficiency. Before coming here, they had guessed that Du Chuxuan had probably been subjected to inhumane torture, and that he might not even be able to walk.

Therefore, they had never expected that Du Chuxuan would be in a fit state to flee the encampment without any trouble. Now it turned out that the situation was much better than they had anticipated, which made it more convenient for them to carry out their plan. Du Chuxuan, naturally, was willing to cooperate. After pondering for a moment, he quickly left a note for Ashina Yi before leaving.

No matter what, Ashina Yi used to be his fellow apprentice. For that reason alone, Du Chuxuan wouldn’t really hold grudges against Ashina Yi. Luo Wu’s team fulfilled their task smoothly, but the other team was not so lucky.

The team responsible for rescuing Luo Er was headed by a captain. His name was Luo Xing. He was one of the most capable members of Sect Luo. At this time, they had sneaked into the dungeon and downed many guards one by one, but they still hadn’t found Luo Er. Luo Ling thought about the news she’d heard.

Then she said confusedly, “Something’s wrong. All the messages we received suggest that he’s locked in this dungeon. We’ve checked all the cells. Besides, this is a makeshift dungeon. There’s no other cell.”

“Which means there’s only one plausible explanation.” Luo Xing’s eyes flashed in the direction of the front gate. “He’s been transferred.” Everybody was concerned by that possibility. This not only made it more difficult for them to carry out their plan, but it was also possible that Luo Er had been tortured.

“Captain, should we split up?” They all left the dungeon. Turkish soldiers came to patrol this place every hour to make sure that everything was fine. Soon the next patrol would come, and the risk of their cover being blown was increasing.

Luo Xing was hesitating when suddenly someone slunk over and said, “Luo Wu sent me here to tell you that earlier this morning he overheard something at a tent near the edge of the encampment. Those were Ashina Fei’s men. If you can’t find Commander Luo Er here, you may go there to try your luck.”

As chance would have it, it had been after seeing Du Chuxuan leave a note for Ashina Yi that Luo Wu recalled that matter. Feeling that Luo Xing and the others were probably still near the dungeon, Luo Wu had decided to send a man to inform them.

Luo Xing let out a sigh of relief. “Have you rescued our sect chief?” After hearing an affirmative answer, Luo Xing was relieved. Now they could act more boldly, given the situation. “Go to the northern perimeter as quick as you can, all of you. Kill anybody who gets in your way.”

“Your Highness!” Ashina Yi was in his study when a shout came from outside, “A group of intruders have been spotted. We’re trying to capture them.”

On hearing the report, Ashina Yi promptly shoved the soldier out of his way and rushed back to his tent. Looking at the empty tent, he was torn between relief and dejection. Naturally, he glimpsed the notepaper on the table. He knew without thinking who had left that.

He grabbed the letter paper but didn’t unfold it. After stowing it into his inner pocket, he instructed coldly, “Kill all those who dare murder my men, but if you see anybody who’s carrying a man on their back, do not harm them.”

The soldiers outside did not quite understand the order, but the instructions from the second prince were always like this. All they needed to do was obey. It was above their pay grade to ask about the reason, considering their ranks.

Having noticed that his subordinate on the side seemed to have something to say, Ashina Yi snorted coldly, “Do not breathe a word of this to anybody. Just pretend it never happened. But tell those physicians I want every pill they make, and they’re to write down the formula word for word.”

“But Your Highness, that’s–”

“Have I not made myself clear enough?”