An Arrow Comes from the Sacred Capital (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote and Follow!)

"His Honor specifically instructed that Madam bring 'that thing' along as well, lest it fall prey to the rebels." In the small courtyard, puppet Li Shun kept his head deeply lowered, his tone respectful yet urgent.

"That thing?" The beautiful woman froze at his words, but a flicker of understanding flashed through her eyes.

Her brows drew together. The voice that had carried a trace of relief and seduction suddenly turned cold. "Wait here."

Without waiting for Li Shun's response, she whirled around and strode swiftly into the inner room.

Before long, the woman stepped back out. Yet in her arms, she was clutching a long, narrow brocade case as if her life depended on it. The case seemed neither wood nor jade, its surface covered in a faint sheen of frost.

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the brocade case tightly. "Let's go."

Even through that peculiar sealing material, Li Shun still caught the trace of an incomparably pure aura emanating from within the case—an aura sharing the same origin as the Cold Mountain Grass.

Cold Mountain Venerable!

"With bandits running rampant outside and so many eyes around, it would be far too conspicuous for Madam to carry it like that. Better let this humble one conceal and protect it on his person." As he spoke, Li Shun unhurriedly pulled a piece of gray cloth from his robe, held it up with both hands, and respectfully offered it to her.

The woman halted, suspicion flashing through her eyes. In the end, she shook her head and said coldly, "No need. This item is precious. It is safer in my own hands. Give me the cloth; I'll wrap it myself."

Li Shun obediently lowered his head without the slightest insistence and extended the gray cloth forward with both hands.

The instant the woman reached out to take it, just as her fingertips touched it—

A ghostly radiance flared in Li Shun's lowered eyes. That seemingly stiff arm suddenly shot out like a venomous snake, seizing the long brocade case at an unbelievable angle and speed!

However...

The case did not budge in the slightest! The woman's reaction had been swift as lightning as well; she clamped down fiercely on its other end.

"I knew something was wrong! That heartless bastard is selfish and cold-blooded. When disaster struck, when had he ever cared so much about whether I lived or died?!" The seductive woman snapped sharply. A not-insignificant surge of power faintly erupted around her. "You little thief..."

Just as she was about to strike, her breathing suddenly caught.

Without warning, she felt the sky above her abruptly darken.

The woman involuntarily looked up—

A golden streak of light, so brilliant it stabbed painfully into her eyes, was racing toward them from the uttermost edge of the heavens with the terrifying momentum of space being torn apart!

In an instant, that golden radiance utterly eclipsed the blazing sun overhead. Under that extreme contrast of light, all other colors in heaven and earth seemed to have been drained away, plunging the world into an eerie dimness.

The streak crossed a thousand miles in an instant, arriving above Cold Mountain County in the blink of an eye!

"What is..." Even merely looking from the corner of her eye made the woman's soul tremble. A suffocating sense of impending catastrophe rose within her, as though she would be utterly crushed the very next instant.

Boom!

The golden light erupted directly above the Cold Mountain County yamen, turning into a rain of gold that swiftly scattered and vanished.

The woman, stunned by that immense power, abruptly came back to her senses—only to feel her hand grow light.

She looked down in horror and focused her eyes.

There was nothing before her! The ill-intentioned "thief," along with the long case containing [Cold Mountain Venerable] that she had been clutching tightly, had vanished into thin air without a trace!

Only that rough piece of gray cloth remained, spinning through the air like a withered leaf as it drifted slowly downward through the empty courtyard.

Like a silent mockery.

"Where did he go?!" The woman was horrified beyond measure. She hurriedly scanned her surroundings and even swept the entire courtyard with her power, yet she could not catch the slightest shadow or aura of his departure.

She was completely dumbfounded, as though she had seen a ghost in broad daylight. "How is this possible?!"

Everything was so absurd it felt like an illusion, as though that thief had never existed in this world from the very beginning.

Still unwilling to give up, the woman searched the entire courtyard and even the roof, but found no trace whatsoever.

She stood in the courtyard for a long while, her expression changing drastically several times.

By then, the thunderous cries of battle and uproar in the county city were subsiding at an unbelievable speed. It seemed that those ferocious rebels had been suppressed one after another in an extremely short time.

The woman drew a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

Resolve flashed in her eyes as she turned and darted back into the room. A moment later, when she pushed the door open again, she was not only wearing a cloak and carrying a bundle, but her originally seductive face had transformed into that of an utterly ordinary middle-aged woman!

Before the chaos had fully settled, she hurried into a dark alley and fled without a trace.

Time rewound to not long before.

Under the wanton bombardment of Xiong Jin's eight-armed demon god, the defensive formation around the Cold Mountain County yamen had become riddled with cracks. Its light had dimmed to the extreme, as though it would collapse completely at the next moment.

At that critical juncture.

The tightly shut gates of the yamen were slowly pulled open from within. County Magistrate Fang Xun, dressed in an official robe of deep black, stepped over the high threshold alone and walked out with an unruffled expression.

Xiong Jin raised a brow in midair, halting his assault as he looked down below. "A mere scholar, yet you have quite the nerve. Hand over Cold Mountain Venerable, and I may show mercy and leave you an intact corpse!"

Fang Xun's expression remained as still as an ancient well. Staring directly at Xiong Jin, he said calmly, "Cold Mountain Venerable may be a rare treasure seen only once in a century, but it is of no benefit whatsoever to an Insight Profound expert like you. You seek it for a junior?"

He dusted off his sleeve, his gaze gradually sharpening. "For you Xiang Kingdom remnants to make such a grand display, even going so far as to assault a Great Qian government office..."

"It seems that junior who needs this Cold Mountain Venerable to break through holds no small place in your heart. Perhaps... they even possess Xiang Kingdom imperial blood?"

Xiong Jin's expression changed abruptly, his pupils contracting.

He had never imagined that Fang Xun, merely from his demand for the treasure, could peel back the cocoon and draw out the threads, guessing almost everything in an instant!

"You seek death!!"

Xiong Jin flew into a rage. Crimson flames surged around him as all eight arms of the demon god formed seals at once, ready to erase the yamen and Fang Xun from this world completely.

Yet just as he was about to deliver the killing blow, he suddenly sensed an extremely strange discordance.

There was not even the slightest trace of fear in Fang Xun's eyes.

On the contrary, the seemingly frail scholar-magistrate was quietly watching him with the cold, detached gaze one reserved for prey.

The instant Xiong Jin's movements faltered and alarm bells rang wildly in his heart!

A golden light carrying the majestic might of heaven arrived in an instant from the horizon a million miles away!

"An arrow?!"

Xiong Jin's heart convulsed. That thought had only just surfaced in his mind, and before he could even move to evade it, the golden arrow-light that had crossed the entire skies of Great Qian tore through the phantom of the eight-armed demon god like dry wood and rotten weeds, striking him squarely in the chest!

There was no earth-shaking explosion, nor any spray of flesh and blood.

Instead, countless slender yet indestructible golden threads burst forth from the arrow wound. As if alive, they intertwined and wound around each other in an instant, transforming into an airtight golden cocoon that locked Xiong Jin down layer upon layer.

Within the golden cocoon, Xiong Jin seemed to have had all his power sealed away as he plummeted heavily from the sky.

With a sweep of Fang Xun's great sleeve, dozens of constables holding specially made chains filed out behind him. As though facing a formidable enemy, they surrounded the golden cocoon and bound it tightly.

At the same time, Fang Xun respectfully straightened his robes and cap, then bowed deeply toward the distant Sacred Capital. "Many thanks to Martial Uncle for your divine arrow, protecting the borders of Great Qian!"

"Guard him strictly. The Black-Clothed Envoys will arrive tomorrow."

A vast, majestic voice, yet one seemingly devoid of any emotional fluctuation, rode the lingering resonance of the arrow-light from the distant Sacred Capital and boomed above the Cold Mountain County yamen.

"This disciple understands." Fang Xun maintained his half-bowed posture until that voice, as deep as an abyss and vast as the sea, completely faded between heaven and earth. Only then did he slowly straighten up, an irrepressible smile curling his lips.

Cold Mountain Prison.

Li Shun, suspended from a net, had just successfully recalled his puppet with his main consciousness and securely stored the long case containing [Cold Mountain Venerable] into his pocket dimension.

Just as he was about to examine it closely, he suddenly heard the heavy, disorderly sound of iron chains dragging across the ground from afar.

Li Shun barely managed to open one swollen red eye and looked toward the source of the sound.

Then his pupils shrank.

A group of constables was laboriously carrying a massive "golden cocoon" bound in layer after layer of chains. Panting heavily, they entered and then threw it into the cage at the deepest end of the torture chamber.

Through the cracks in the golden cocoon, the twisted face of Xiong Jin, the chief bandit of Great Xiang, could vaguely be seen, contorted by extreme humiliation and rage.

At noon, there will be two more chapters.

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