The more quick-witted disciples had already taken off like their lives depended on it, sprinting toward Gu Wangchuan’s study to report what was happening. If no one came soon, these two young ladies were going to tear the entire Hundred Herb Garden apart!
Seeing Shao Yutong chasing Cheng Yao toward an area riddled with invisible threads—threads that would trigger poisoned needles the moment they were touched—the disciples hiding nearby could no longer remain concealed. They hurriedly used a special technique to quietly disable the mechanisms in that section ahead of time.
The two women continued their chase, and the traps along their path were dismantled one after another in a frantic effort to clear the way.
Cheng Yao keenly sensed the threatening energy fluctuations rapidly disappearing and weakening. She was so thrilled that she nearly burst out laughing!
Even as she ran, she did not forget to keep provoking Shao Yutong from behind.
“Shao Yutong, is that all you’ve got? Besides relying on that pretty face of yours, what else can you do?”
“You once said Gu Li was the love of your life, and now you’re throwing yourself at the Valley Master. What do you take him for—a substitute?”
“Does the Valley Master know what a shameless, fickle woman you really are?”
Every one of her words was like a poison-coated needle. They stabbed Shao Yutong into a near frenzy, driving her to chase even harder and wreak even greater destruction along the way.
Just as Cheng Yao felt she had had enough fun and ought to stop while she was ahead, her powerful senses caught a familiar yet formidable presence rushing toward them at incredible speed.
Gu Wangchuan was coming!
A gleam flashed through Cheng Yao’s eyes. She pretended to run out of strength and slowed down, allowing Shao Yutong behind her to almost catch the hem of her clothes.
“You wretch! Let’s see where you can run now!” Shao Yutong snarled viciously, reaching out for Cheng Yao’s back.
At the instant her fingertips were about to make contact, Cheng Yao turned aside in apparent panic. Her foot “happened” to catch on a clump of raised roots, and with a startled cry, she stumbled toward a flowerbed that looked perfectly ordinary but was in fact filled with hidden mechanisms.
Click!
A faint sound of gears turning rang out.
A massive net covered in barbed iron spikes, each one gleaming with an eerie blue light, suddenly shot up from beneath the flowerbed like a venomous snake lying in wait. It dropped toward Cheng Yao’s head.
The hooks were razor-sharp, and the ghostly blue sheen clearly meant they had been coated in poison.
This was a true netherworld snare. Even if she had wings, there was no way she could escape!
“Miss Cheng!”
The two maidservants screamed in terror.
As Cheng Yao watched the poisonous net hurtle toward her, her face filled with fear and despair. She instinctively closed her eyes.
In truth, she was only acting—but she was so nervous that her fingernails dug viciously into her palms.
At the critical moment—
A moon-white figure flashed into view like a specter, moving so quickly that the naked eye could not follow.
A powerful arm instantly wrapped around Cheng Yao’s waist and yanked her backward.
At the same time, the newcomer casually swept out a sleeve. An invisible yet overwhelming surge of energy slammed into the poisonous net.
Pfft—
Like dead wood crumbling before a gale, the iron net covered in barbs and deadly poison disintegrated into a shower of dust less than three inches from Cheng Yao’s face. The fragments drifted down through the air.
Cheng Yao opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Gu Wangchuan’s handsome, refined profile—now covered in frost.
He had come!
She had bet correctly!
The moment Cheng Yao relaxed, her entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.
She was terrified.
If Gu Wangchuan had failed to arrive in time, that iron net would have pierced her full of holes.
She had spiritual spring water and wouldn’t die, but the thought of thousands of iron hooks stabbing into her flesh was enough to make her shudder.
She had been too reckless!
Damn it. From now on, even if someone offered her ten thousand taels of gold, she would never use herself as bait again!
Gu Wangchuan held her tightly around the waist, shielding her in his arms. His other hand remained raised from the strike, and a terrifyingly oppressive aura radiated from him.
“V-Valley Master, please spare us…”
The four maidservants were already scared out of their wits. They dropped to their knees, their entire bodies shaking like sieves.
Shao Yutong had just arrived as well. When she saw the scene before her—especially the way Gu Wangchuan was protecting Cheng Yao so completely—she felt as though she had been struck by lightning. Her face turned as pale as paper.
Only one thought remained in her mind.
It was over!
She had fallen straight into that wretched Cheng Yao’s trap!
Overwhelming fear and panic swallowed her in an instant.
In a flash of inspiration, she let out an “Ah!” and crumpled to the ground. Clutching her ankle, she gazed at Gu Wangchuan with tear-filled eyes, her voice trembling with sobs.
“My ankle hurts so much. I think I twisted it…”
This was her usual trick whenever she wanted to play the poor, helpless victim. It had worked every time before, always earning Gu Wangchuan’s sympathy.
But this time, Gu Wangchuan did not pick her up and comfort her gently as he normally would.
He slowly released Cheng Yao from his arms.
Cheng Yao stepped back at just the right moment. Her eyes were red, and she looked shaken and frightened. In contrast, she appeared all the more pitiful.
Gu Wangchuan turned around. His deep, icy eyes shot toward Shao Yutong like twin blades.
His voice was not loud, but every word was clear and cold.
“Shao Yutong, why are you in the Hundred Herb Garden?”
His question was like a basin of ice water poured over her in the dead of winter, chilling Shao Yutong from head to toe.
Looking at the utter lack of warmth in Gu Wangchuan’s eyes, she forced down her panic. Tears rolled down her cheeks like beads falling from a broken string.
She lifted her face, so similar to Shen Xiyue’s, and stammered incoherently, “Valley Master, I was waiting for you to have breakfast with me this morning, but you never came, and I grew worried. I heard one of the maids say that you were accompanying Cheng Yao through the Hundred Herb Garden… But you clearly promised to spend time with me first! I—I’m not jealous or anything. I was only worried about you. Cheng Yao is good at disguising herself and as cunning as a fox. I was afraid she might deceive you, so I couldn’t help coming to look for you…”
Her voice rose and fell dramatically. She appeared to be a lovesick woman whose heart was entirely devoted to her beloved, unfairly hurt and aggrieved.
Gu Wangchuan watched her performance without expression.
“Looking for me? So you came to the Hundred Herb Garden? And in the process, trampled all these precious medicinal herbs?”
His gaze swept over the flowerbeds that had been crushed into a chaotic mess, and pain and anger flashed in his eyes.
These plants represented years of painstaking work.
Shao Yutong felt a chill crawl through her heart under his gaze. She hurriedly pointed at Cheng Yao and defended herself. “It was Cheng Yao! She deliberately provoked and humiliated me, then ran away and made me chase her! I lost my temper and accidentally stepped on some of the plants… Valley Master, this is all her fault!”
Gu Wangchuan did not believe her in the slightest.
He could tell that Cheng Yao might be cunning, but she feared him—and feared death even more.
How could she possibly run through the Hundred Herb Garden, a place filled with mechanisms, on his own territory?
Did she not value her life?
And what would she gain by doing such a thing?
It was impossible.
Perhaps the two women had quarreled, and Shao Yutong had been provoked into chasing her.
He looked at Shao Yutong’s tear-distorted face, filled with calculation and panic. Then he compared it with the eyes he remembered—those always carrying a trace of melancholy, yet clear and pure as water.
An indescribable disappointment welled up in his heart.
Xiyue had always been considerate, gentle, intelligent, and gracious. She was nothing like the spoiled, hot-tempered, foolish Shao Yutong before him.
This face might resemble hers, but beneath the skin, they were worlds apart.
“Enough.” Gu Wangchuan was impatient with Shao Yutong’s sobbing complaints, his voice cold. “I’ve indulged you too much, which is why you’ve become so utterly unreasonable—how dare you run wild in the Hundred Herbs Garden? For the next few days, you are not to go anywhere. Stay in your room and reflect on your actions.”
Shao Yutong’s whole body trembled. Was she being confined?
“Brother Shao…”
She gazed at Gu Wangchuan imploringly, her tear-filled eyes like a limpid pool. Her slender fingertips caught hold of the hem of his robes and gave it a gentle tug.
“You’re being so mean to Yutong…”
