This Lady Is Trying to Kill Me

Chapter 192 - 192: Meeting on a Narrow Path (2)

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The two lanterns were ten steps apart as they moved forward in the long tunnel.

It was extremely quiet in the tunnel. After suppressing their footsteps, they could even hear each other’s heartbeats.

Thump! Thump!

Ye Jingtang walked in front with his saber and carefully sized up the details on the ground. He kept feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn’t tell exactly what.

Dongfang Liren was holding the lantern in her hand and hugging the empress dowager’s shoulder while slowly walking behind Ye Jingtang. Perhaps she was infected by his increasingly cautious appearance, she didn’t say anything and only carefully observed the surroundings.

The empress dowager was a little nervous because of the two of them and because she had gone too far. The fear of the unknown lingered in her heart, making her want to retreat, but she couldn’t say it clearly. She could only hold Liren’s sleeve and look left and right.

After they walked like this for a while, Ye Jingtang suddenly stopped and raised his hand.

Dongfang Liren and the empress dowager held their breaths and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

Ye Jingtang frowned and squatted down. With the lantern illuminating the stone bricks on the ground, he could see some traces of mud on the stone bricks. Although it was already dry and hard, it was definitely less than 200 years old.

“There’s something wrong with this place. Others have been here recently.”

“Huh?” When the two women heard this, they naturally became nervous. The empress dowager asked, “Are they humans or ghosts?”

Dongfang Liren felt that humans were scarier than ghosts and raised her hand slightly. “Shh!”

Ye Jingtang frowned. He was surprised, but after he thought about it carefully, it wasn’t strange.

He had found The Secret History of the Romantic Empress in the Prince of Wu’s heir’s study. The Prince of Wu’s heir had read the content about the tunnel. If someone had come here recently, there was a high chance that this person had something to do with the Prince of Wu’s heir.

Ye Jingtang deliberated for a moment and looked ahead with the lantern. After taking a few steps, he found a brick wall blocking the tunnel.

The brick wall was newly built, and there were obvious differences in the color of the materials and tunnel bricks. Judging from the traces, it had been at most a few months.

Dongfang Liren walked over with the empress dowager in her arms, and her eyes turned serious. “Someone found the tunnel. Why is it blocked here?”

“The other party’s target is most likely not the palace. They’re just using this tunnel to approach a certain place in the city. They don’t dare to move forward after reaching this point. They probably know that the tunnel will enter the Imperial City and are afraid of being exposed.”

As Ye Jingtang spoke, he pulled out his saber and silently stabbed it into a gap in the brick wall. “It should be two walls with straw, blankets, and other soundproof items between them so that the sound over there won’t spread too far and be discovered by people in the Imperial City.”

The empress dowager didn’t expect to encounter such a thing. She thought for a moment and said, “Doesn’t this mean that the other party is plotting something on the other side of the wall?”

Ye Jingtang felt that there was a high chance of this. Moreover, there were likely people on the other side of the wall. He immediately raised his hand slightly and gestured for the two women to retreat slowly and not make a sound…

On the other side of the wall…

The white-robed old man silently arrived 100 feet away from the sealed wall. He squatted down with one hand on his knee and placed his palm on the ground.

Cao Aning and Xu Bailin followed behind him. They even held their breaths and asked in an extremely low voice, “Is there someone here?”

The white-robed old man sensed for a moment and nodded slightly. “Three. They’ve already discovered the abnormality here and are escaping. What are you going to do?”

Cao Aning didn’t know who the other party was, but for them to walk over from that end, they must be related to the palace. If this place were exposed, all their plans would be ruined. He thought for a moment and said, “The tunnel has been discovered. It’s useless to silence them. We can only bring forward the plan. The other party came in from the other end without checking the exit, so they must not know where it leads. Think of a way to collapse and block the tunnel so that they can’t figure out the exact direction and delay them for a day or two.”

At this point, Cao Aning looked at Xu Bailin. “There’s no need to look for the load-bearing points. Let them directly pour the dissolving oil.”

Hearing this, Xu Bailin retreated silently.

The white-robed old man stood up and scanned the rock-solid tunnel to study the structure. Then he stepped forward and raised his palms, and a breeze appeared in the underground tunnel.

Seeing this, Cao Aning slowly retreated and distanced himself.

Whoosh!

The white-robed old man clasped his hands together, and his robe didn’t even move in the breeze. His hands moved for only an instant before he extended his palms and slapped the sealed brick wall.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion suddenly sounded in the silent tunnel.

On the other side…

Ye Jingtang retreated carefully. When he heard a slight movement in the distance, his heart sank.

Just as he was about to bring the women to fly back in retreat, the brick wall dozens of feet away swelled into a semicircle and then exploded. A sharp wind instantly passed through the tunnel, and thousands of pieces of shattered bricks shot toward the three of them like a swarm of locusts.

Ye Jingtang’s expression changed drastically. With the Prince of Jing and the empress dowager behind him, he couldn’t dodge at all, and there was no room to maneuver in the long and narrow tunnel. He gritted his teeth and jumped backward. The long saber in his hand spun like a windmill, and he used his body and saber to shield the two women behind him.

Ding, ding, dang, dang!

The sudden explosion made the empress dowager scream in fright. Dongfang Liren’s reaction was relatively swift. She turned around with all her might and hugged the petite and exquisite empress dowager in her arms.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

In an instant, thousands of pieces of broken bricks whizzed past the three of them. Countless bricks and stones were minced into powder by the saber. Dust instantly covered the tunnel and shattered the swaying palace lanterns.

Ye Jingtang used his saber to block with all his might. His upper body wasn’t hit, but the robe and shoes on his lower body were riddled with holes by sharp flying gravel, and bloodstains appeared on his legs.

The same happened to Dongfang Liren’s dress and the empress dowager’s phoenix dress, but with Ye Jingtang blocking in front of them, their situation was much better.

“Go!”

What Ye Jingtang had to block was not only the flying rocks. Although it was dark and he couldn’t see anything, he knew that the powerful opponent who suddenly appeared must have followed behind the rubble. Before he could completely sweep away the rubble, he held his saber with both hands and advanced forward to slash..