Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

The shadows lurking inside the palace were already prepared. The carriage stopped in the inner city of the palace, still a long distance from Xuanwu Gate.

On his way here, Shen Yu made a point of looking around. Tonight is the day His Majesty will draw blood, and some of the secret guards will be ordered to accompany Li Yongquan to Kunning Palace. At the same time, the number of eunuchs and guards supervising the journey is nearly half that of the past.

They didn't encounter any palace maids along the way. Shadow Seventeen's route was well-concealed, avoiding key sections of the palace's search area.

Shen Yu walked at the back, his pace gradually slowing. As he passed a corner of the palace wall, he glanced inside. It was completely dark on all sides; the light from Kunning Palace was left behind. They had already left that place.

Shen Yu withdrew his gaze and followed the group forward for nearly seven or eight hundred meters until he saw the carriage stopped in the middle of the intersection. The carriage was ornately decorated, with the Black Eagle, the exclusive emblem of the Dark Guard, deeply engraved on the top.

Shadows were already waiting there. Shen Yu glanced at the shadows guarding both sides and stepped back to let the prisoners from Chengyuan Mountain go first.

There were quite a few of them, and three carriages in total. Ying Shi had Mu Yu Yuan's pass in his hand. He stuffed the mask and black clothes he was going to change into into the carriage, preparing to rush out of Xuanwu Gate under the pretext of urgently capturing escaped prisoners.

Shen Yu stood at the back, waiting until everyone else had boarded the carriages before he himself stepped into the third, less-than-full carriage. Shadow Seventeen guarded the front, while he was responsible for bringing up the rear.

Ling Yun was also in the last carriage. She was seriously injured, but she still managed to keep a straight face. After getting into the carriage, she put on a mask and wore black clothes, resting her forehead against the corner of the carriage without moving.

Shen Yu glanced at him, then reached out and pulled up the shadowy figure who had been waiting by the carriage. The shadowy figure's hands were icy cold, with a thin layer of calluses on his palms.

Shen Yu secretly pinched the skin with his fingertips, and the guard looked up at him, hooking his knuckles in his hand.

Shen Yu raised his eyes slightly and pulled the shadow guard into the carriage, letting him sit in a seat near the inside. Wen Yu's movements were swift and flawless. After getting into the carriage, he sat on the inside like the other shadow guards, without uttering a word.

As Shen Yu had expected, although Wen Yu had not left Kunning Palace in the past two years, he was very familiar with the outside layout. Given a chance, he could quietly escape Kunning Palace—just like Shen Yu was able to escape Kunning Palace during the chaos of war when the Yue Kingdom was destroyed in his previous life.

Now that Wen Yu still has her eyesight and her mind is clear, leaving this magnificent prison will only be easier for her.

Shen Yu pulled down the carriage curtain, and the thick, pure black cloth plunged the entire carriage into darkness. Shen Yu sat at the very edge, looking down into the darkness at the cowardly creatures emitting a purple light in the air.

Perhaps influenced by the tense atmosphere, the brightness of the body on the body of the creature flickered, and the data on the body kept flashing and rolling.

The carriage soon left this secluded corner. Shen Yu sat inside, feeling the rough and hard texture of the wheels pressing against the ground as they rolled.

"By order of His Majesty..."

The sound of a coachman talking to a guard could be heard from ahead. The guard responsible for guarding Xuanwu Gate relaxed his tone after seeing the token, but still insisted on searching the inside of the carriage as usual.

Since the people hiding inside the carriage were all secret guards who were to be dispatched on missions, the guards at the door only lifted the curtain and glanced at them briefly before stepping aside to let them pass.

Shen Yu kept an eye on the situation outside. When the curtains were lifted, the shadows inside looked like sculptures. They didn't move at all. The guards looked for two or three seconds and then lowered the thick curtains again.

"Let go."

After the sound faded, the carriage continued its journey. Shen Yu sat inside the carriage and glanced at Wen Yu, who was silent on the inside, out of the corner of his eye. He then reached out and gripped the scabbard of the long sword at his waist for no apparent reason.

"Bam—"

"Bam—"

"Bam—"

Several fireworks exploded suddenly in the sky, and Shen Yu's nerves tightened. He sat up straight and saw that the shadows behind him were all bent over, ready to pounce.

"Catch them! Don't let them get away!"

"They are all imperial spies, shoot them all!"

"By order of His Majesty, shoot them on sight—"

The order from outside pierced the air, shaking the city walls. The soldiers guarding Xuanwu Gate paled at the sight. They hurriedly blocked the way to close the gate, but when they looked up, they heard several horses neigh and then gallop past the guards towards the gate.

"Stop them!"

Shen Yu gripped the handle inside the carriage. He sat at the back and, through the gaps in the thick cloth, saw the hundreds of guards surging behind them. The archers at the top had already drawn their bows, the tips pointing directly at the center of the carriage.

Shen Yu said to the people behind him, "Everyone, get inside. There are wooden planks underneath..."

Before he could finish speaking, more than a dozen arrows shot in from outside. A shadow at the edge had an arrow pierce his arm; he groaned and swung his sword, severing the arrow in the middle.

Seeing this, Wen Yu immediately stepped out from the inside. Since the people on Chengyuan Mountain had no power to fight back, Wen Yu simply stood in front of them and broke the arrows that were constantly being shot in from the outside.

They have now reached Xuanwu Gate, breaking through this boundary. There should still be shadows from the Shadow Studio waiting for them outside. The marketplace is not like the palace; there are many narrow paths and dense jungles. Even if the imperial guards pursue them relentlessly, it will be difficult to capture them all.

Wen Yu's gaze swept over the familiar faces behind her, finally settling on Shen Yu.

They were just one step away... They had already stepped out of the palace gates, and only one last step remained.

Shen Yu pulled out the long arrow that had pierced into the carriage with one hand. These guards could not see the number and faces of everyone in the carriage, and each shot was slightly off-target, as if they were deliberately avoiding the vital points of the people in the carriage.

Xuan Lin wanted to capture them alive.

The carriage shook violently a few times. Shen Yu, who was standing at the back, saw the guard who had somehow climbed to the top of the carriage and was now standing upside down. He reached out and grabbed Shen Yu's sleeve.

Shen Yu's eyes turned cold. Without moving, he drew his dagger the instant the guard reached out. The guard screamed as Shen Yu severed his tendons, kicked him in the chest with his right foot, and sent him flying out of the carriage.

After a heavy thud, another guard stepped on the body of the person in front of him and, disregarding his own life, used the momentum to jump towards the carriage.

Shen Yu showed no mercy. His methods of killing zombies in the apocalypse were even more ruthless. He grabbed the guards by the neck and, with a few snaps, killed them all.

Wen Yu's mask was stained with specks of blood. He shielded his fellow disciples behind him with one hand, frowning as he stared intently at Shen Yu. The shadows around them all jumped out of the carriage and engaged in fierce combat with the pursuing guards.

Shen Yu gripped the support points on the inside of the carriage. The entire rear curtain of the carriage was torn down, and he stood at the outermost edge, vaguely seeing the cold, eerie light above the imperial city.

Xuan Lin stood on the city wall, his bowstring taut, the tip aimed at Shen Yu.