Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 441 - 439

Xiao’er arrived outside the Imperial Palace of Xiyue, saw fires flaring up in several corners of the palace. Indeed, the palace of Xiyue Country had fallen into utter chaos.

As the architect of the plan to create chaos and rescue the captive by setting fires, Xiao’er naturally knew the layout of the palace and the safe escape route they had deliberately set up via their arson activities.

She climbed up a large tree. The tree was about three feet away from the city wall, but she was still confident that she could jump onto the wall.

The corners of the hidden guards’ mouths twitched uncontrollably.

The tree was rather tall, providing a partial view of the palace. There were numerous people bustling back and forth with buckets of water around the areas on fire. Xiao’er wondered whether Zhao Yong and Yang Mei had managed to rescue the hostages successfully.

An Shisi glanced at An Shier, "If Miss enters the Imperial Palace, it will become even more dangerous."

Their master had ordered the four of them to ensure the safety of the Marquis of Rui’an County, leaving other matters to be handled by others.

In the absence of anyone else to assist them, An Shier had no choice but to appear in Xiao’er’s tree and say, "Miss, let me lead the master out. Don’t go in there yourself."

Xiao’er nodded after hearing his words, assuming that the bodyguards of the Xiyue Imperial Palace were not well versed in martial arts. If they lacked inner strength, she was confident she could handle them. If they did possess inner strength, her presence would only slow things down.

"Wait, wait for Zhao Yong and Yang Liu to rescue my father and brother, then go to rescue Brother Shangguan."

First, they had to rescue Shen Chengyao and Shen Jingrui, then concentrate their efforts to deal with amnesiac Shangguan Xuanyi. If they tied up Shangguan Xuanyi first, Shen Chengyao and Shen Jingrui would be even harder to rescue. The Xiyue people weren’t fool, and they would tightly guard these valuable hostages, and even use them to threaten Xiao’er.

An Shier raised no objection, so the few of them looked toward the Xiyue Imperial Palace, waiting for familiar figures to appear.

Xiao’er stared at a strikingly ugly building in the distance, wishing that she could set it on fire.

She gave the layout of the palace a thought, decided that it wouldn’t affect the overall plan, and said to An Shier, "Shier, do you see that extraordinarily hideous building over there?"

Shier nodded.

"Go and set it on fire!"

Just as Shier was about to refuse, Xiao’er snapped, "If you don’t go, I will!"

Shier felt like there was a stampede in his heart. With a darkened face, he quickly disappeared into the night.

When Princess Xiyue heard about the fire in the palace, she sent a maid to gather information. The maid returned, reporting that fires had started in numerous courtyards. Clearly, it was premeditated.

Do the palace guards eat nothing but vegetables? Princess Xiyue fumed inwardly. An assassination had taken place last night, and tonight, there was a fire. If word of these events got out to other countries, they would all be laughing their heads off!

She pulled out a map of the palace and marked the locations of the fires.

After taking a critical look, she quickly grasped the intentions of their enemy. Fires were set to create chaos, forming her an ideal escape route. Had the person not been her enemy, Princess Xiyue would have praised the plan as ingenious.

The arsonist seemed to be familiar with the Imperial Palace of Xiyue! Could this arsonist be the same one who swiftly learned the layout of the palace last night?

Princess Xiyue shook her head. The assassin was gravely wounded, and he wouldn’t be able to draw the layout of the palace even if he somehow survived. Who in the world had leaked the layout of the Imperial Palace?

"Princess, it’s terrible! The Love Spell Tower has caught fire too! There’s a huge fire!" One of the maids stumbled in, panic written all over her face.

What! Princess Xiyue was shocked to her core. Her prized possession!

"Put out the fire! Quick, put out the fire!" Princess Xiyue was so frantic that she almost jumped up.

How outrageous, how utterly outrageous! How dare anyone create such a disturbance in the Imperial Palace and destroy her Love Spell Tower! That was punishable by death, ten thousand deaths wouldn’t be enough!

Princess Xiyue rushed out to see her Love Spell Tower almost entirely submerged in the sea of fire.

It’s all gone! Everything was gone!

"What’s going on! Why isn’t anyone putting out the fire? How could the fire get so big! Hurry up and put out the fire!" Princess Xiyue was on the verge of going insane. Over a decade’s worth of efforts was going up in flames!

Princess Xiyue thought of Shangguan Xuanyi.

Whoever dared to set her Love Spell Tower on fire would suffer a fate worse than death, torn apart by infighting. Princess Xiyue was driven mad by rage.

It was time to see if her Love Spell worked successfully!

Princess Xiyue, driven on with anger, rose to go to where Shangguan Xuanyi was.

Shangguan Xuanyi was standing by the window at this moment, gazing at the roaring flames outside with a look of abstraction.

Hearing the slightly hurried footsteps of Princess Xiyue walking in, he turned around and asked indifferently, "Do you need help putting out the fire?"

"No, Brother Shangguan, some criminals have escaped. They are spies from the Eastern Jin Dynasty who have infiltrated Xiyue for many years and know a lot of secrets. We cannot let them escape, or else the consequences will be dire. Could you help me catch them?" Princess Xiyue seemed very anxious.

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Xuanyi nodded and immediately left the room.

A ruthless gleam flashed across Princess Xiyue’s face. After days of influencing him, Shangguan Xuanyi had warmed up considerably to her. The people who had dared to burn her Love Spell Tower were about to pay the price.

Let them die! She initially didn’t want to kill them! Now, they would all have to pay for the destruction of her precious possession!

By now, Shangguan Xuanyi was thoroughly familiar with the Imperial Palace of Xiyue.

What Princess Xiyue could decipher, he, of course, understood perfectly well.

Although memories related to Princess Xiyue lingered in his mind, for some reason, he didn’t feel any natural intimacy towards her. Regardless of her act of saving his life, this was a debt of gratitude he couldn’t leave unrepaid. He didn’t like being indebted to others.

Yang Liu quickly rendezvoused with Zhao Yong. Zhao Yong was escorting Shen Chengyao, while Yang Liu was escorting Shen Jingrui. Swiftly weaving through the shadows to avoid the guards, the foursome rushed towards the closest city wall.

When Xiao’er saw their figures, she said anxiously to An Shier, "Quick, help Zhao Yong and Yang Liu get my father out of there!"

Without any objection, An Shier and An Shisi vanished instantly.

One by one, they carried both hostages, quickly climbed the city wall, and jumped outside the palace.

"Run!" Xiao’er jumped down the tree as she saw the bodyguards of Xiyue were heading their way.

The group hadn’t gotten very far from the palace when the approaching footsteps of many bodyguards rang ever closer.

Damn it, why weren’t they putting out the fire instead of chasing them? It seemed like next time, they’d have to set more fires to keep them completely occupied. Zhao Yong thought to himself.

"I’ll go and lead those bodyguards away. Miss, you and Marquis Yang Liu and the rest run quickly! We’ll meet at the agreed place!" To prevent any discontinuation of their progress, Zhao Yong spoke up.

"Alright!"

The guards caught up very quickly. Zhao Yong waited until they glimpsed only a corner of his clothes before disappearing into the night at breakneck pace.

Carrying Xiao’er, Yang Liu, the two hidden guards, each carrying Shen Chengyao and Shen Jingrui, with the remaining two hidden guards covering their rear, ran at full speed.

Finally, they managed to escape to a secluded forest in the suburbs. All four hidden guards and Yang Liu were drenched in sweat. Just as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, they saw the figure of Shangguan Xuanyi, drenched in the moonlight, emanating a chilling aura as he stared at them with ice-cold eyes.