Little Pink Starfish

The Princess Says We Can’t Give Up the Fight

“I want off this cart!” Tian Xingzi shouted at Yu Xiaoxiao. Sure, he wanted to kill Mo Wen—but to kill Mo Wen, he had to stay alive first! If they had the strength to take him on, would the dignified cultivators of the Tianji Sect be reduced to wandering the streets, scamming gullible housewives with fortune-telling?

Yu Xiaoxiao said, “If you’re a real man, you’ll come with me.” After finally finding someone who might team up to take down Mo Wen, how could she possibly let this old Daoist go?

Wuhuan asked, “Princess, do you think Tian Xingzi is powerful?”

Yu Xiaoxiao said, “He called Mo Wen a beast, didn’t he?”

Tian Xingzi snapped, “If that undead freak isn’t a beast, what is?”

“You see?” Yu Xiaoxiao turned to Wuhuan. “Even my dad’s scared of Mo Wen, and this guy’s not.”

Tian Xingzi nearly fainted. Who said he wasn’t scared?! Can’t he vent a little with his mouth?

Wuhuan explained, “Mo Wen labeled the Tianji Sect heretical. That’s why Tian Xingzi has wandered the land ever since. He couldn’t even protect his sect back then—he’s even less likely to stand against Mo Wen now.”

But Yu Xiaoxiao clearly had a different interpretation. She looked at Tian Xingzi again and said, “So Mo Wen tore down your house, huh? If you don’t avenge that, are you even a man? Come join our resistance group.”

Tian Xingzi leaned toward Wuhuan and whispered, “Is this princess mentally ill?”

“I’m not mentally ill,” Yu Xiaoxiao answered herself.

Heavens! She heard that? He’d spoken so quietly! What kind of creature was she?! Tian Xingzi stared at her in disbelief.

“So tell me,” Yu Xiaoxiao asked him, “aside from spouting nonsense, do you know any real martial arts?”

Tian Xingzi enunciated clearly, “I. Want. Off. This. Cart!”

Wuhuan tried to intervene. “Princess, don’t make it difficult—”

He didn’t get to finish. Yu Xiaoxiao raised her hand and knocked Tian Xingzi unconscious with a swift chop.

Laying the old Daoist across the back of the cart, she told Wuhuan, “I think he’s a hidden master.”

Wuhuan twitched. “And what makes you think that?”

Yu Xiaoxiao replied, “Real masters always act pretentious. This guy talked nonsense the first time I met him, and he’s still doing it—talking about defying heaven and rewriting fate. Feels like I’m reading a xianxia novel.”

Wuhuan: …

Yu Xiaoxiao confidently said, “Trust my instincts. Anyone who can recognize Mo Wen’s a beast has to be something.”

“Princess…” Wuhuan sighed. He really needed to talk her out of relying so heavily on instinct.

“Don’t worry,” she said, patting his shoulder. “When I saw you last night, I knew you weren’t a bad person. My instincts have never been wrong.”

Wuhuan took a while before replying, “Thank you.”

Yu Xiaoxiao grinned. “Heh, no need.”

Could this conversation go on any further? Wuhuan seriously doubted it.

By then, they had reached the city gate. Wuhuan pulled the cart to a stop.

Yu Xiaoxiao climbed onto the roof of the carriage and scanned the area within a hundred meters of the gate. Then she hopped back down beside Wuhuan and said, “Let’s go. There are a lot of monks here.”

Wuhuan wanted to say that not every monk belonged to Yongsheng Temple.

But Yu Xiaoxiao added, “One of them looks a lot like that old monk Se-what’s-his-name in the cart.”

“Where?” Wuhuan asked.

Yu Xiaoxiao pointed to a tea stall near the gate. “Over there. The one wearing the hat. I couldn’t tell he was a monk just from that hat, you know.”

Wuhuan looked. Though the man’s face was obscured, the burn scar on his left hand—stretching from the base of his index finger to his wrist—gave him away. “An elder from the Discipline Hall,” Wuhuan said.

“I told you to trust my instincts!” Yu Xiaoxiao exclaimed. “So are we turning back or busting our way through?”

Wuhuan turned the cart toward the west gate.

That day, Yu Xiaoxiao accompanied Wuhuan in circling all four gates of Fengtian City—only to find that each was guarded by high-ranking monks from Yongsheng Temple.

“How many top disciples did your master bring to kill you?” Yu Xiaoxiao asked.

Wuhuan pulled the cart to a stop near the north gate and said, “Looks like I’ll have to go see Mo Wen.”

“You mean, to die?” Yu Xiaoxiao said.

Wuhuan smiled faintly. “I might not die.”

“You’re already poisoned. You think you can take a beating from Mo Wen and survive?” Yu Xiaoxiao shook her head. “That’s a dead end.”

“Princess, thank you for walking all four gates with me,” Wuhuan said. “It’s a pity we haven’t known each other longer.”

Yu Xiaoxiao felt like he was saying his last words. Glancing at the crowds coming and going through the gate, she grabbed the whip from Wuhuan’s hand and said, “We can’t give up yet. I’m taking you somewhere.”

“Princess?”

Without hesitation, Yu Xiaoxiao cracked the whip, showing no mercy to the horse.

Though carriage horses were usually docile, even the gentlest steed couldn’t endure Yu Xiaoxiao’s strength. The mottled horse neighed in pain and reared up, but with Yu Xiaoxiao holding the reins tightly, it couldn’t break free. It had no choice but to bolt forward at full speed.

“Hold on,” Yu Xiaoxiao said to Wuhuan.

Pedestrians in the street saw the runaway cart and panicked, shouting and scattering.

Wuhuan clutched the edge of the cart, horrified as people scrambled out of the way. Was she really going to kill someone at this rate?

Yu Xiaoxiao, on the other hand, was quite pleased with herself. “This is my first time driving a cart. Didn’t think it’d be this easy.”

Wuhuan: …

The monks stationed near the gate recognized Wuhuan and tried to intercept him. But thanks to Yu Xiaoxiao’s car-racing skills turning the street into chaos, the monks couldn’t break through the crowd—and Mo Wen had forbidden them from revealing themselves. With no rooftops nearby to leap from, they could only watch helplessly as Wuhuan sped away.

Tian Xingzi, jolted awake by the violent bumping, opened his eyes to find the world spinning. “Wh-what’s going on?!” he cried, grabbing Wuhuan’s clothes. “We’re not dead already, are we?!”

Wuhuan could only tell him, “Hold on.”

Tian Xingzi said, “Where are we going? I don’t want to see your master!”

Wuhuan was speechless. Truth was, he didn’t know where they were going either.

Yu Xiaoxiao didn’t say anything—just like how a driver should focus on the road, she focused on steering.

The Big Boss gaped as Yu Xiaoxiao raced past with the cart like a gust of wind. He turned to Xiao Wei and asked, “Did I just see that right? Was that the princess?” Why would a princess be the one driving the cart? What kind of dumb mess had this one gotten into now?! She was flying down the street like a madwoman—does royalty not need to answer for murder?!