The two of them mounted their horses and stood at the starting line.

At this moment, the cold wind was even more piercing, with tiny bits of snow mixed in, hitting faces like icy needles piercing the skin, the cold penetrating to the bone.

But colder still was Lei Yu’s heart.

She had never feared competing in horseback archery, being from a military family. Her archery skills were stronger than many men; even here on the grasslands among the most skilled Turkic archers, she felt no fear.

But today, the archery skills used to protect herself and her family must decide a friend’s life or death.

Is there anything more absurd in this world?

Lei Yu felt like laughing, yet couldn’t; she turned her head to look at Shang Ruyi who sat steadily on horseback, someone who had once braved life and death with her, sharing a true bond. Facing the cold wind on horseback, she seemed unaffected, maintaining her usual calmness, with no trace of emotion in her almost transparent eyes.

She said she could die, but couldn’t lose.

Am I really going to watch her die?

Thinking of this, Lei Yu reached out to touch the cold longbow hanging on the side of the saddle, and at the same time, a flash of fire appeared before her eyes as one of Ashina Shali’s men raised a torch beside them. At this moment of thousands watching, the raised torch was swung down forcefully—

"Begin!"

The two immediately spurred their horses, and the steeds beneath them, long unsettled, charged forward like arrows released from a bow.

For the first time, Shang Ruyi faced such cold wind riding on the grassland, but she quickly found a familiar feeling in her memory—icy wind like a blade cutting into exposed skin as if slicing it inch by inch, swiftly chilling one’s entire body, freezing even the blood.

She recalled how her father had once wrapped her in his thick clothing and raced on horseback.

But back then, she cried to chase the moon. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Time has changed; she no longer has her father’s protection and doesn’t pursue that elusive beauty. As the knife-like wind howled past her ears, it reminded her evermore.

Life and death in a moment!

Thinking of this, she summoned her spirit, looking ahead at the burning wooden pillar which suddenly appeared in view, flames roaring as if rising to the sky.

That may be her life’s endpoint.

But even at the endpoint, even in death, she must be as fierce as those flames!

Thinking of this, she reached back to grab the longbow hanging at her saddle with one hand, while the other hand drew an arrow from the arrow tube hanging on the other side of the saddle. Though riding on the uneven horse’s back, she pressed her legs forcefully against the horse’s sides to stabilize herself, pulling the bowstring taut.

Simultaneously, Lei Yu, riding parallel to her, also notched an arrow onto her longbow.

Both pulled their longbows, the bright arrow tips aimed at the burning wooden pillar ahead.

At this moment, along with the wind whistling by and the pounding hooves below, came the earth-shaking shouts from the crowd on either side, the Turkic people shouting continuously—

"Little Princess, you can’t lose!"

"Yeah, we Turkic can’t lose to this Han person!"

"What are you saying? Such a woman should just die!"

"That’s right, kill her!"

Upon hearing these words, Lei Yu’s already frozen hands began to tremble involuntarily.

Would she really lose to Shang Ruyi, let her choose to die?

Could she truly watch her choose death, not only failing to stop it but aiding her in this path?

Could she really?

In that moment, her tangled thoughts enveloped her like a net, suffocating her, when suddenly a cold light shot forward!

It was Shang Ruyi!

Biting her lip just as the taut bowstring was about to snap her fingertips, she suddenly released, feeling a burst of wind whizzing by, and a bolt of lightning shot from her fingertips.

Hit!

Shang Ruyi clenched her teeth, her heartbeat pausing for that instant.

The next moment, a crisp sound of "thump" rang out, the arrow having hit the burning wooden pillar solidly!