Murong Feiyan sheathed her sword and galloped out of the woods. Just before she left the trees, she glanced back and found that the entire gang had vanished without a trace. To her surprise, Hu Xiaotian had not taken his four servants far away. He was peering around outside the woods.
Seeing Murong Feiyan return unharmed, Hu Xiaotian beamed and went to meet her. "Feiyan, you're back!" he said warmly.
Murong Feiyan rolled her eyes at him irritably. "Are we that close?"
Hu Xiaotian nodded, then pointed into the woods. "Have all the mounted bandits gone?"
"They've gone," Murong Feiyan said.
"You didn't capture a single one alive?" Hu Xiaotian asked.
"Every last one was as timid as a mouse, but they certainly knew how to run for their lives." As she spoke, she cast a cold gaze at the servants.
The servants all hung their heads in shame, though inwardly they thought that with so many attackers, they would have been cut down long ago if they had not run fast enough.
Hu Xiaotian peered into the woods again, then started forward. Although Hu Xiaotian had given Liang Dazhuang a hard punch earlier, Liang Dazhuang showed not a trace of resentment now, displaying a personal servant's loyalty to the fullest. "Young Master, it's dangerous!"
Hu Xiaotian ignored him. The moon slowly rose into the night sky, spilling watery moonlight over the imperial road. From this end of the woods, he could see all the way to the other. A few weapons that the attackers had not managed to take lay scattered on the road, along with several shoes lost in their frantic flight. Apart from those, not a soul was in sight.
Li Jinhao and Shao Yijiao followed him too. "Could there be an ambush?" they asked cautiously.
"Ambush,