“You are someone I dug out from a pile of corpses, and when I was a child, surviving meant going through tragedies that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine.”

“Lily Spencer, you must always remember this: we have suffered so much, so much... we’ve even risked our lives just to keep living in this world. Since it was so hard for us to survive, we can’t just die so easily.”

After saying this, Adam Spencer didn’t explain any further. He sheathed the sharpened broadsword, tied it with several loops of straw rope, checked that the fit was just right, and slung it over his back.

Lily Spencer didn’t ask anything more either. She quietly began packing up, using her small hands to check the straightness of each arrow. She knew that the moment night fell would be the time to flee into the vast Min Mountains with Adam Spencer. She wasn’t afraid, because as a child, she had crossed through such dark mountain forests countless times on Adam Spencer’s back.

Just then, Adam Spencer’s hand holding the sword sheath stiffened slightly.

The flap of the shabby tent was lifted by a hand, and the maid entered. The smile on her delicate face instantly turned to ice.

She had originally come to chat with Lily Spencer, but unexpectedly saw the master and servant packing their things, and easily guessed they were planning to leave.

“What are you trying to do?” She stared coldly at Adam Spencer’s face and said, “At a time like this, your actions are bound to arouse suspicion.”

Adam Spencer was silent for a moment, then smiled, preparing to explain. Suddenly, his ear twitched, the dimples on his cheeks vanished, replaced by a rare seriousness. He quickly slung three swords over his back, rudely brushed past the maid, and strode out of the tent.

The camp was outside the northern mountain pass, with no dense forest for cover, bathed in the last light of dusk, warm and comfortable. But at this moment, it seemed stained with a layer of blood-red.

A wind swept through the forest, just awakening in spring, howling and moaning like wandering spirits weeping. Adam Spencer frowned, gazing into the depths of the woods, listening intently to the details within those wailing sounds, then suddenly shouted, “Enemy attack!”

The faint discord in the wind finally revealed its truth—a feathered arrow shot out from the forest like lightning, wailing mournfully as it flew straight toward the luxurious carriage in the convoy!

Chapter 9: Guards with Hearts of Stone

Thud—a muffled sound!

It was as if a sharp metal spike had pierced through dozens of sheets of wet paper stacked together. The arrow struck the chest of a guard beside the luxurious carriage. The young man, sporting a full beard, clutched his bleeding chest and collapsed.

The moment Adam Spencer shouted “enemy attack,” the princess’s well-trained guards reacted instantly. This guard bravely leapt onto the carriage shaft, blocking the window of Her Highness’s carriage. He didn’t know where the arrow would strike; he only knew that Her Highness inside was surely the enemy’s primary target, and he could not allow her life to be threatened.

The brave guard had made the right gamble, at the cost of his own young life.

“Enemy attack!”

“Protect Her Highness!”

“Raise shields!”

The guards’ furious, shocked shouts rang out urgently.

Countless arrows rained down from the depths of the forest like a torrential storm, whistling through the air, instantly drowning out the sound of the wind and making the scene all the more terrifying.

Adam Spencer, still some distance from the circular carriage formation, immediately dropped to the ground, and as he fell, he didn’t forget to pull down Lily Spencer and the maid who had followed him out of the tent.

They crashed heavily onto the forest floor, but thanks to the centuries-old layer of decaying pine needles from the northern mountain road, it didn’t hurt much. His face pressed against the cool leaves, Adam Spencer listened to the dense whistling of arrows ahead, and to the occasional arrow whizzing over his head, silently calculating the number of enemy archers and their arrow usage.

All around the northern mountain pass, the air was filled with the angry, anxious shouts of the guards, their orders for defense, and the heavy thuds of shields being raised. The makeshift shields, fashioned from carriage boards, were forcefully wedged by the guards at the edges of the carriage shafts, proving extremely effective.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Arrows slammed into the crude wooden shields, producing a drum-like, muffled pounding, even more intense and terrifying than the wildest war drums. Occasionally, an arrow would slip through a gap in the shields and strike a guard, eliciting a muffled groan, while the unfortunate horses hit by arrows, unlike the tough men of the empire, would collapse, rolling and screaming in pain.

The whistling of arrows, the thuds of arrows hitting shields, the groans of men, the screams of horses—all these sounds mixed together, turning the camp, once warmed by laughter and the glow of dusk, into a living hell.

Whoosh!

An arrow struck the ground less than half a foot in front of Adam Spencer, sending dirt and gravel flying into his face, leaving a red mark. His expression didn’t change at all. He lay quietly on the pine needles, his gaze piercing through the gaps in the leaves, past the arrow shaft, looking toward the distant southern end of the northern mountain road.

The enemy hadn’t chosen to ambush from the forest along the northern mountain road, nor had they chosen a night attack. Instead, they struck at dusk, just as the convoy reached the mountain pass. Even though Adam Spencer had a natural instinct for danger since childhood, he hadn’t anticipated this.

Dusk is when people are most likely to relax and let their guard down, and with the convoy about to meet up with the reinforcements from Gushan County, it was only natural to be less vigilant. The enemy must have been counting on this.