The Counterfeit Madam Hou Chapter 42

Tang Zhibo believes Xue Mu is true to his words .

He quietly lean backwards and after seeing Xue Mu not advancing forward, he breaths a sigh of relief . Xue Mu shut his eyes and s.h.i.+eld his long sword, before giving orders to Peng Peng and Nuo Yan behind him .

” Search inside . ”

Tang Zhibo’s eyes gleam but Xue Mu keep his head straight on him . He tightly purse his lips, and does not help out even at the screams of the priests inside asking for help .

Inside the secret tunnel, Liu Qinghuan is still looking for the way out .

Following the path according to her memories, she finds out that, as she thought, the tunnels have changed . The path that was supposed to have been there is now a dead end, block by a wall, while other paths open up .

She frowns, and slow down . It seems like the traps in here have been activated and every step need to be taken with caution .

Then, she hear familiar footsteps coming from behind her, and her brows scrunch up even further . These guys are like flies, chasing after her relentlessly . And from the sound of the footsteps, there’s enough people to form a small group .

Looking at the unfathomable wall in front of her, she steel her heart and head into the left path . She don’t have the time to be too cautious . She would rather die by traps then to be captured and tortured .

She fear pain when she was young and that haven’t changed till now .

The footsteps grow nearer and the people chasing after her seems to have noticed her as they shout .

” Du Juan, you’ll never get away! If you don’t want to die by the traps triggering, stay still and don’t move! ”

The deep voice sound even deeper in the tunnel, and somewhat pressurizing . Liu Qinghuan feet never once stop moving . She knows that being in their hands might not necessary be better than dying by the traps and if they used her to threaten Xue Mu, that would be even worst .

After turning around a corner, the chasers finally get a glimpse of Liu Qinghuan . The person leading the group take a look at the path she is heading and immediately shout .

” You can’t go any further, stop if you don’t want to die! ”

Seeing that Liu Qinghuan have no notion of stopping, he frowns and lift his right hand towards the guards behind him .

” Shoot! ”

Hearing that word, Liu Qinghuan finally stop in her tracks . The arrows rain upon her, pa.s.sing right by her ears . Although her qing gong is quite good, one arrow still manage to strike pa.s.s her waist, drawing blood .

She clutch at her waist, the huge pain almost causing her to tear up . She have always use her brain more than her body, and haven’t really been injured before . The last time she took 3 needles for Xue Mu, she fainted straight after . This time, not only she can’t faint, she still have to drag her wounded body and escape .

Making use of this chance, the guards behind chase after and exchange blows with Liu Qinghuan . Bearing with the hot searing pain on her waist, she dodge with a few turns and step onto a b.u.mp on the floor . A few arrows then burst out of the walls .

This hidden arrow trap come on too suddenly and a few of the guards got hit . The leader frown, thinking ‘d.a.m.n you, Du Juan, to use the trap against them’ . The arrows from the traps are different from theirs, it’s all smeared with poison .

Liu Qinghuan did thought of using the traps to work against them . But that shot just now is just a stroke of luck, as she have no idea where the traps are . Seeing 3 guards fell down, she grab her waist, grit her teeth and ran ahead .

Seeing Liu Qinghuan run off, the leader panic . If she continues, either she’ll run out to the exit or get hit by a trap and fall into G.o.d-knows-where .

” Ah! ”

Just when the leader is thinking up to that point, he heard Liu Qinghuan scream and her figure go downwards as she disappears in front of him .

………… .

Looks like luck is not on her side and she fell .

Although they did not captured her and they can’t answer to their head, but at least she’s injured and got into a trap so most likely her survival is slim .

Peng Peng and Nuo Yan, with their troops, search one round inside the temple and found nothing . They would only force themselves to go out and report to Xue Mu .

” Marquise, we found nothing . ”

Tang Zhibo heart jump with joy as he look calmly at Xue Mu .

” Marquise, look like you got it wrong . ”

Xue Mu frown . The Emperor and him have long since suspect there are hidden chambers within this temple and it looks like they are right . If Qing Qing is being keep inside the secret chambers, then it wouldn’t be easy to find her .

Thinking of this frustrate Xue Mu even further . Seeing his change, Tang Zhibo silently takes a step back .

” Stay here, Peng Peng . Nuo Yan, you come with me to search another round . ”

Saying that, Xue Mu dash inside as Nuo Yan and his troops follow closely behind .

Xue Mu is very attentive in his searching, not leaving any crook or corner untouched . Realizing that there might be a secret chamber, the rest of them starts searching carefully .

Someone touched someplace and a rumbling sound up within the room, as the the tiles on the floor begin to move to the side . In the middle of the room, stairs leading down appears . Eyes gleaming, Xue Mu walk up to take a closer look .

The stairs are long and the end is hidden by darkness . After thinking for a while, he order Nuo Yan .

” Get Tang Zhibo here . ”

Once Tang Zhibo see Nuo Yan walking out alone, he have a bad feeling . He heard some rumbling noises coming from inside so he’s afraid that the hidden chamber have been discovered .

Without a word, Nuo Yan hold onto Tang Zhibo and lead him inside . Once inside, he see Xue Mu, with his head lowered, studying the hole in the floor .

” Marquise . ”

Nuo Yan said and Xue Mu lift his head up, his gaze landing on Tang Zhibo . The head priest that have been making noises outside is let in too, and once he sees the hole in the floor, he fall silent .

Xue Mu walk over to Tang Zhibo, asking .

” How many entrances are there in total? ”

Tang Zhibo’s heart skip a beat as he look surprisingly at Xue Mu . This temple indeed have multiple entrances . The one he lead Du Juan in is at another entrance .

The entrance in front, rather than entrance, it more like the gate of h.e.l.l . Once you go in, no matter how good your martial arts is, you would most likely die inside .

” Since this door looks dangerous, I’ll let Brother Tang lead the way . ”

Xue Mu said . Tang Zhibo once again look surprisingly at him, this time surprised by his shamelessness . After staring at Xue Mu for a while, Tang Zhibo finally found his voice back .

” Marquise, I am but a lowly citizen and my life cannot be hold up to yours but you can’t let me court death like this, can you? ”

Xue Mu snort and look at him .

” You’re not a citizen, you’re a trouble . And trouble only have this bit of value . ”
” ……… . ”

Is this the grand Chang-An that he is living in? He takes a deep breath, and remind Xue Mu .

” Marquise, there’s law in Chang-An . ”
” If there isn’t, you’ll be hack to death by me a long time ago . ”
” ……… . . ”

Having no more patience to run his mouth with Tang Zhibo, Xue Mu simply grab hold of his hands and push him in front of himself like a meat s.h.i.+eld . Nuo Yan brings along the troops, following behind them .

Seeing this, the head priest run away in a hurry . The soldiers inside the room ignored him, like he doesn’t exist .

Being forced to stand in front of Xue Mu, in just a few steps in, Tang Zhibo is already drench in sweat . The sweat flow into the wound on his neck, causing him to flinch from pain .

Ignoring him, Xue Mu continue using him to s.h.i.+eld his front, as he look around cautiously . The steps are in a spiral, and can cause one to lose their bearings easily so every step must be taken with care . Only when they reach the bottom, does Tang Zhibo let out a sign of relief in his heart .

Looks like the head priest does have the brains to use the machinery to move them to a safe tunnel . After a stretch of tunnel, a courtyard belonging to a mansion enter their view, causing the soldiers behind to gasp .

Xue Mu smirk behind Tang Zhibo, his voice low .

” Brother Tang must be my lucky star . With you leading the pack, the path sure is smooth . ”

Tang Zhibo purse his lips and stay silent as Xue Mu order his troops to search the place, while he, dragging Tang Zhibo along, walk into the room inside the secret chamber to search . The more they approach the area where Liu Qinghuan escape to, the more uneasy Tang Zhibo feels . He have been with Xue Mu the entire time and there is no chance for him to get in contact with his subordinates so he have no idea what the situation is .

There is suddenly a ruckus in front and soon, a soldier come running, reporting .

” General Xue, we found a large pool of blood up ahead! ”

Xue Mu’s heart jump wildly and he almost twist Tang Zhibo’s arm out of it’s socket . Tang Zhibo goes pale with pain and yell out .

Xue Mu take a deep breath, and growl .

” Bring me there . ”
” Yes! ”

The soldier turn and run ahead as Xue Mu grab the pale Tang Zhibo, tightly following behind .

The long narrow tunnel have a few candles on it’s side . The pool of blood on the ground have already start to coagulate, giving off a weird black color . Xue Mu’s heart tighten . The blood is poisonous .

” General Xue, there’s more blood here . ”

The soldier point to the side and Xue Mu’s gaze follow over . The blood there is of a normal color, and keep going forward . Grabbing Tang Zhibo, they follow the trail of blood but it stop suddenly at an area .

” There’s a trap here? ”

He turn Tang Zhibo around to face him, his hand tightly gripping his sleeve . Being tortured for so long, Tang Zhibo is at his last breath but still he stubbornly said .

” I-I don’t know… ”
” You don’t? ”

Xue Mu eye’s dim and just when he is about to break Tang Zhibo’s wrist, a soldier accidentally step on the trap and fall through it .