Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Du Yinsui Had Detected… Friendliness.

If the enemy didn’t move, she wouldn’t move first.

The murderous intent downstairs hung thick in the air, yet no action came. As noon slipped away, Du Yinsui even began to wonder if dragging things out until nightfall might let her seize an opportunity to strike first.

Before, uncertainty had held her back. Now, knowing the visitors meant harm, she had to find a way to eliminate them—even if they hesitated.

Just as they started seriously discussing a backup plan by evening, the old adversaries hadn’t shown themselves upstairs. Instead, fresh trouble arrived.

"By order of Prince Cheng, you are invited to relocate to Yizhou."

Du Yinsui hadn’t expected these five passersby, who smelled like martial artists, to be targeting them too. Since the newcomers showed no obvious malice, and her focus remained fixed downstairs, she only paid them mind when they entered the inn and headed upstairs.

Unexpectedly… they were Prince Cheng’s people. So those reeking of bloodlust downstairs must be from the Capital—though whether sent by the Emperor or another prince remained unclear.

Du Yinsui detected resistance from Jiang Wu. Indeed, setting aside the "arrangements" during their exile, what was there to see in a father who had long known the truth yet allowed Sun Xinang to feed the Empress’s malice, tormenting his own daughter?

Still…

As the old saying goes: "When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman profits."

Even without conflict, the five showing no overt hostility would be easier to handle than the six downstairs radiating killing intent.

Du Yinsui wasn’t alone in grasping this. The others understood too. Jiang Wu nodded. No one else spoke.

The five newcomers were in a hurry. Despite the late hour, they refused to rest overnight at the inn, clearly intent on traveling through the night.

The group packed up, followed the five downstairs, and exited the inn. The six killers never showed their faces.

No clash. A pity.

One of the five took over driving Du Yinsui’s carriage. The other four mounted tall horses, positioning themselves around the carriage, "guarding" it from every angle.

After traveling a stretch from the inn, their leader steered them off the official roads onto a smaller path.

Just as Du Yinsui anticipated, the six killers hadn’t struck at the inn. But shortly after their departure, the six were tailing them.

The chance for the snipe-and-clam scenario still existed.

Before opportunity could knock, however, a new scent—a messenger pigeon—landed near the six pursuers.

The fierce murderous aura trailing them instantly dissolved, replaced by a chaotic tangle of panic, confusion, and other strange, conflicting emotions…

This odd state didn’t last. Soon the strange aura vanished. The killing intent returned, fiercer than before.

Du Yinsui: "…" Changing their expressions for fun?

With the driving handled by one of the five, Qin Chongli had joined them inside the carriage. It was cramped, but easier to share information quietly.

Du Yinsui circled her hand before the group, then clasped her left hand over her right before sharply separating both palms.

After escaping the cannibal village, they’d devised silent signals against pursuit. This gesture meant: pursuers detected; prepare to scatter and hide when the chance arises.

The group traveled together and experienced many events, becoming somewhat coordinated by now. When Du Yinsui moved, Qin Chongli and Chu Xiulan immediately checked the small pouches on the children’s waists and took out their own, shaking them briefly. The pouches held herbal powders Du Yinsui prepared, which she changed often to keep the scent fresh. As planned earlier, if they got separated, they would sprinkle the powder on trees at intervals to help Du Yinsui find them again.

Jiang Wu didn’t take out his pouch but gripped Du Yinsui’s hand tightly, refusing to let go. Du Yinsui squeezed back, not rejecting him. As the tension in the carriage built for a chaotic escape, the six pursuers with killing intent finally caught up. Both sides seemed like trained fighters, but in actual combat, the gap was clear. The five newcomers, though large and strong, were quickly overpowered. They didn’t even announce their names before the four guarding the carriage died. The one on the carriage lasted a bit longer, but only because the attackers wanted to seize control and took extra steps.

Du Yinsui thought, "What useless people did Prince Cheng send? Truly incompetent!"

Inside the carriage, they held blades in one hand and tightened their grip on medicine pouches with the other, ready to shift from scattering to fighting. But as the deadly air outside vanished suddenly, Du Yinsui’s grim expression turned puzzled. When the last of the five had his throat slit and was kicked off, the intense killing intent disappeared instantly. The carriage slowed smoothly and stopped steadily. Du Yinsui sensed… friendliness. No one lifted the curtain inside or out. After a moment, someone outside broke the awkward silence with a cough: "Prince Cheng Jiang Yikun rebelled yesterday. His proclamation listed long reasons, one being that Emperor Jiang Qiqian and former Empress Liu Baozhu killed his wife and stole his daughter, violating family bonds, and posed a daughter as a son to deceive the late Emperor for the throne. Another was that Emperor Jiang Qiqian selfishly had his daughter live as a boy for eighteen years, then exiled her after using her, causing her suffering. If Prince Cheng’s soldiers took you back, you’d become pawns in his fight with the Emperor. And now, you don’t look like you’re suffering…" The rest went unsaid: if Jiang Wu were to appear publicly, it would have to seem that way.

Du Yinsui could tell the speaker behind the curtain spoke truthfully, with genuine concern. If she hadn’t sensed their strong killing intent at the inn earlier, she might have thought them kind-hearted now. Well, by their current scent, they were. When the voice stopped, Du Yinsui said, "Thank you for your help. May I know your names, so later—" "No thanks! We’re leaving now," a voice outside cut her off sharply. Then the presences vanished swiftly with the horses, as if the detailed words about Prince Cheng never came from them. Even as Du Yinsui lifted the carriage curtain fast, she only saw fading figures and dust from the hooves. The sudden arrival and departure of killing intent and kindness left questions. Who were these six who killed without meeting? "What now?" Qin Chongli emerged, taking the horse’s reins skillfully. He frowned at the blood and bodies around. "This place isn’t safe to stay." "Let’s go. We must hurry to Jin Kingdom," Du Yinsui said, sensing those presences were far away, her desire to see her teacher growing stronger. In the apocalypse’s later stages, ordinary mutants couldn’t match power-users. Even as a top scent mutant, Du Yinsui was only support. Here, after the antidote, her body was several times stronger than a normal person’s, but without martial arts training, she stood little chance against the skill those six showed. Besides, she had people to protect… Prince Cheng rebelled and found their trail. Du Yinsui felt finding someone to teach her poison from scratch might be too slow.

She urgently needed a chemistry teacher to produce explosives or similar materials for her.

Prince Cheng’s men had come once, instantly tightening their nerves. Their mental state seemed to revert to when they’d just escaped the exile convoy.

No more delicious food.

No more staying at the inn.

Exposure meant nothing—they raced ahead whenever possible. Had their horses not required rest, they would have run non-stop day and night.

Thus, they slashed nearly half off their original two-week journey to Jin Kingdom, reaching the border between Western Desert and Jin in just eight days.

They owed this to those six peculiar individuals who’d warned them of Prince Cheng’s rebellion. That intel made them abandon their plan to skirt Yizhou’s borders and instead cut straight through Western Desert to Jin.

Had they lacked that warning and still lingered near Yizhou, Prince Cheng’s pursuers—or even Yizhou’s tense situation—would’ve prevented their smooth arrival.

Both Western Desert and Jin Kingdom bordered Zhao Kingdom. Unlike Jin, which mostly maintained friendly ties with Zhao, Western Desert clashed constantly with Zhao’s western Liangzhou region and held deep hostility toward Zhao’s people. Even Zhao’s merchant caravans rarely ventured there.

But with Du Yinsui guiding them, traversing the sparsely populated Western Desert while avoiding its inhabitants proved effortless. Using Jiang Wu’s near-perfect forged travel passes supplemented with silver bribes, they crossed into Jin’s territory within another day or two.

Yizhou bordered Jin, and Prince Cheng had already detected their trail. Only compelling reasons brought them to Jin—otherwise, they’d have chosen another destination. After all, ancient times held no concept of "crossing borders to evade pursuit."

Yet whether Prince Cheng’s scouts died before reporting or he’d become embroiled in war with the imperial court, his men didn’t reappear during those ten days. Nor did Du Yinsui catch the six strangers’ scents again.

She hoped these troublesome figures would stay away longer—at least until she met Wen Junzhi.

Though Du Yinsui believed the End Times Saga storytelling was 99% Wen Junzhi’s cross-time invitation targeting her specifically, she now had people to protect. Upon reaching Jin’s Capital, she insisted Jiang Wu and the Qin family remain at the inn despite his protests, while she alone pursued the clues from the tale.

Yes, clues.

End Times Saga was crafted cautiously: its protagonist blended her and Wen Junzhi’s experiences, and its meeting points were conveyed through layered hints.

A lightly buried wine jar in a desolate old house.

Knife marks from a fish-cleaning blade on a dead-end wall.

A sandalwood piece wedged in a temple tree…

Each clue forced Du Yinsui to relocate her companions near the next site, keeping them within her scent range for safety. To avoid suspicion from frequent moves, three clues consumed three days.

Holding the sandalwood hint for the next location, Du Yinsui was both amused and annoyed.

"Too cautious, Teacher!"

She’d retrieved the sandalwood from Qingning Temple in Jin’s Capital. With no nearby inn, Jiang Wu and the Qin family lodged separately in temple quarters.

Now, clutching the wood irritably, Du Yinsui turned back—then suddenly detected a strange scent in Jiang Wu’s courtyard.