"What... what inside story... This princess doesn't know!" Princess Yunxi's eyes flickered slightly, and her pupils darted around. She replied in a somewhat flustered voice.
Bai Zheng took a step forward, approaching Princess Yunxi. She stared intently into the princess's eyes, her voice rising slightly. "Oh—really?"
"Why would I lie to you!" Princess Yunxi retorted.
"Then why are you getting so worked up, Princess?" Bai Zheng raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a half - smile. "Whether I'm worthy of the Marquis of Dingyuan has nothing to do with you, does it?"
Who do you think you are to interfere?
Hearing this, a flash of hatred crossed Princess Yunxi's eyes. "Because the marquis belongs to me! If you're smart, I might spare your life. But if you're not..."
Watching Princess Yunxi's face turn more and more ferocious as she spoke, Bai Zheng's heart skipped a beat. She asked warily, "If I'm not smart, what will you do, Princess?"
"Of course, I'll make you—" Princess Yunxi curled her lips slightly. Her eyes fixed on Bai Zheng were as cold as ice. Suddenly, without warning, she reached out both hands and gave Bai Zheng a hard push.
At the moment of falling, Bai Zheng caught the last word she said—
"Die."
But Bai Zheng didn't have time to dwell on it. She was pushed by Princess Yunxi behind a camphor tree. The huge trunk completely blocked Bai Zheng's slender body, so no one passing by in the distance noticed anything amiss.
At the moment of almost hitting the ground, Bai Zheng nimbly turned to the side, so she didn't fall too painfully.
Just as she was about to get up, she saw a flash of cold light in front of her.
Bai Zheng shuddered all over.
It was a knife!
She quickly rolled on the ground and barely managed to dodge the attack. Then she casually grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and unhesitatingly threw it at the masked man holding the knife.
From childhood to adulthood, whether it was Ye Qin in her previous life or Bai Zheng in this life, she had never encountered such a critical moment.
She gritted her teeth and tried to calm herself down.
Although she had no power to fight back, this was the imperial palace after all. As long as she could stay alive and run a little further, someone would surely come to rescue her.
Thinking of this, Bai Zheng took advantage of the moment when the masked man was covering his face with his hand to get up from the ground. She tore her throat and shouted while running.
"Help—"
She should have run to the front of the camphor tree, where there were the most people and the most excitement. But now that direction was blocked by the masked man, so she had to run towards a small rockery behind her.
The masked man waved away the flying sand and chased Bai Zheng into the rockery.
The rocks in the rockery were huge and jagged. After running around in circles for a few times, Bai Zheng found that she had lost her way.
Strange.
Bai Zheng couldn't help but feel suspicious.
The imperial garden wasn't very big. Moreover, Bai Zheng had taken a look before entering. It was just a small hill made up of a few rockeries.
Why, since she entered, had she turned so many corners and there was still no sign of reaching the exit?
Bai Zheng carefully recalled that she hadn't seen an exit along the way.
Could it be...
The uneasiness in Bai Zheng's heart grew.
She looked up. The weather was gloomy today, and now it was completely covered by dark clouds, making it impossible to tell the direction of the sun.
She closed her eyes and listened carefully to the sounds outside.
It was completely quiet.
Bai Zheng frowned slightly. Was this place so remote that the bustling voices from the nearby lake couldn't even reach here?
No, Bai Zheng's frown deepened. Something was wrong. It was too quiet here. It seemed to be missing something.
Why... wasn't there even the sound of birds?
She suddenly opened her eyes.
No good!
Bai Zheng looked around. During the time she had her eyes closed, the surrounding rockeries had indeed changed their positions.
It was Bai Sheng. It was her formation!
Bai Zheng pressed her cherry - colored lips tightly together. Her eyes were filled with coldness.
So this is where you've been waiting for me.
No wonder the guards sent by Feng Linyuan hadn't appeared in time. No wonder she had run for so long and shouted for so long, but no one had come to rescue her.
It turned out that she had run into the formation set up by Bai Sheng.
Bai Zheng looked around coldly and tried to calm her thoughts.
Princess Yunxi and Bai Sheng must be in cahoots. According to Princess Yunxi's intention, this time Bai Sheng's move was probably to kill her.
Could it be that Bai Sheng wanted to use the formation to kill someone?
No, Bai Zheng quickly dismissed this idea.
They had staged so many plays before. If they really wanted to kill her, nine times out of ten they wanted to pin the blame on Zheng Yan, who was jealous.
But Zheng Yan's foot had been injured by them today. She could hardly even stand up. How could she have harmed Bai Zheng?
Bai Zheng felt that she had met a tough opponent for the first time. At this point, she still couldn't figure out Bai Sheng's intention.
This is really interesting.
Thinking of this, the corners of Bai Zheng's mouth curved slightly. Since she couldn't guess, she might as well take it one step at a time.
First, break this formation.
Although Bai Zheng didn't know much about formations, she knew that in the end, it only surrounded the four sides and couldn't surround the top and bottom.
Now Feng Linyuan must have already known that she was missing and sent people to rescue her. She just had to find a way to let Feng Linyuan's people determine her location.
Fortunately, she had made enough preparations today.
Bai Zheng waved her hand, and a sleeve arrow flew out of her long sleeve towards the sky.
"Boom!" The sleeve arrow exploded in mid - air, emitting a bright light. Against the dark sky, it was especially eye - catching.
Bai Zheng looked up at the sky, and the curve of her lips deepened.
Just as she was about to hide in a small cave nearby, she heard a "whoosh!" A whistling sound passed by. Bai Zheng instinctively squatted down. She saw a long knife with a cold silver glow stuck in the rockery stone in front of her.
Damn it! She had forgotten about the masked man.
Bai Zheng didn't even bother to look back. She got up and fled forward desperately.
The masked man chased after her relentlessly. Using his light - body technique, he quickly caught up with Bai Zheng and struck out with a palm.
Bai Zheng couldn't bear the blow and was pushed back several steps. Her back hit the rock directly. Before she could even cry out in pain, she saw the masked man's fingers form claws and reach for her waist.
Bai Zheng's pupils shrank suddenly. She suddenly saw a few bamboo plants nearby. She grabbed one of the bamboo trunks and swung it at the masked man.
The masked man caught the other end of the bamboo with one hand and snapped it off. Then he reached out his hand towards Bai Zheng's waist again.
In a flash of inspiration, Bai Zheng covered the jade pendant on her waist with one hand and shouted loudly, "Stop! Or I'll destroy it!"
Sure enough, the masked man's hand stopped in mid - air.
"Either let me out, or I'll go down with it!" Bai Zheng took off the jade pendant that the Imperial Concubine Yi had rewarded her with and shouted coldly.
"Do you think you can?" The masked man narrowed his dark eyes sharply and said hoarsely, "You're looking for death."
"Really?" Bai Zheng's eyes flashed coldly. She raised the hand holding the jade pendant and said in a cold tone, "Let's see who's really looking for death."
"Overestimating yourself." The masked man obviously lost his patience and directly reached out to grab the jade pendant.
Knowing that she was no match for him, Bai Zheng simply made up her mind. She loosened her hand and threw the jade pendant high into the air.
"Slut!"
The masked man's eyes were bloodshot with rage. He raised his palm high.
Bai Zheng felt a killing intent like never before rushing towards her.