The arrowhead sank three parts into the ground, its fletching still trembling slightly in the air, emitting a hum as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

Then, the sound of hooves arrived.

It was not just one or two, but a dense, dull, thundering sound of hooves surging in from all directions.

The ground began to tremble, and the surface of the water in the teacups on the table rippled.

Immediately after, masked figures on horseback charged out from the woods.

Their faces were covered in black cloth, revealing only their eyes, and the blades in their hands glinted with a chilling, cold light under the grey, overcast sky.

Their numbers were far greater than imagined; in just a few breaths, they had completely surrounded the entire area.

"Guards!"

"Protect the Young Miss!"

"Protect the Young Master!"

The guards reacted the very instant the arrows appeared.

After all, these were the elites selected by each household; their reactions were undeniably swift.

The clanging of unsheathed swords rose one after another as the guards from each family quickly formed small formations, shielding their masters behind them and building a human wall with their bodies.

The guards who had been standing on the perimeter had already drawn their blades and rushed forward, clashing with the masked men in black.

The flash of blades was blinding under the sunlight; in an instant, the shouts of killing, the clashing of weapons, and the neighing of horses merged into a chaotic din, turning the previously elegant and poetic West Mountain into a slaughterhouse.

The Young Masters and Young Misses of the various families had never seen such a scene, and they descended into chaos on the spot.

The Young Masters and Young Misses screamed, clutching tightly to the sleeves of their attendants and maids, their faces as pale as sheets of paper.

Some even collapsed limply to the ground, a wet patch appearing beneath them.

Zhou Ming had originally been standing behind the shed, and the moment the arrows appeared, his pupils constricted sharply.

With a crisis instinct almost carved into his bones, his first reaction was not to step forward to protect the Empress Su Mingyue.

It was not to look for a weapon, nor was it to see where the arrow had been shot from.

Instead, he abruptly retracted his neck, crouched down, and curled his back like a shrimp.

He scrambled on all fours to retreat behind the Empress Su Mingyue and the guards.

He did not share the mindset of the people in this era; his life was his own, and the prerequisite for playing the hero was staying alive.

He couldn't scrape two ounces of meat off his entire body; he was as thin as a hemp stalk.

Let alone fighting against this group of vigorous, superhumanly strong men, he might not even be able to defeat a stray dog right now.

Rushing up there would have no meaning other than adding one more corpse.

Therefore, he cowered with complete justification and without hesitation, stuffing himself into the deepest part of the defensive line formed by the guards, pressing tightly against the Empress Su Mingyue.

Just when everyone was in a panic, the Empress Su Mingyue stood up.

She did not stand up slowly.

She shoved away the four head maids surrounding her and rose abruptly.

Her moon-white jacket fluttered loudly in the mountain wind; she tore off the cumbersome ornaments on her skirt hem, including the mutton-fat jade ring, and threw them onto the ground with a sharp slap.

"Everyone, shut up."

Her voice was not loud, but it was like a basin of cold water poured over everyone's heads.

There was no panic or trembling in that voice, only a calmness that bordered on cold severity.

The Young Masters and Young Misses in the field seemed to be suddenly suppressed by something; the screaming stopped abruptly, and even the few Young Misses who had started crying out of fear forcibly choked back their sobs.

"Guards of all families, take orders," the Empress Su Mingyue's gaze swept across the field, and what her phoenix eyes revealed was not fear, but a scrutiny that was nearly sharp.

"Do not fight individually; guards, protect your masters, and all Young Masters and Young Misses, move toward the center."

Her words were concise, direct, and without a single superfluous word.

The guards began to move according to her command almost reflexively.

It was not because the order came from the Eldest Miss of the Yongning Marquis Mansion.

It was because, in a moment when everyone else had lost their heads, she was the only one who could still think clearly.

"The injured retreat to the center, those who can still move stay on the perimeter. Young Misses, do not stand, crouch down; do not give the archers a target."

Her gaze swept over the Young Misses shivering on the ground; she offered no words of comfort, nor any unnecessary sympathy.

She simply confirmed their positions quickly and then turned to the Guard Commander beside her:

"Send a signal down the mountain."

The Guard Commander hesitated for a moment before immediately taking a signal bamboo tube from his sleeve, pulling out a fire starter to ignite it, and pointing the fuse end toward the sky.

The fuse instantly ignited, hissing with white smoke and scattering sparks.

A moment later, with a soft "pop," a crimson firework shot straight into the clouds.

It exploded in mid-air, turning into clusters of starlike red light, hanging suspended above the mountaintop, extremely eye-catching.

Just then, the Su Mingli appeared from out of nowhere, his green robe crumpled into a ball, his folding fan still clutched in his hand.

The peony flower on his head had fallen off at some point, his hair bun was tilted to one side, and his appearance was as disheveled as it could possibly be.

Yet his mouth was not idle; he yelled at the Empress Su Mingyue, "Mingyue, have you gone mad? Why are you standing up? Crouch down quickly! Blades have no eyes..."

The Empress Su Mingyue turned her head to look at him.

With just one glance, the Su Mingli shut his mouth.

Zhou Ming, peeking through the gaps between the guards' shoulders, witnessed this scene and secretly made a mental note:

This flamboyant Young Master feared neither heaven nor earth, but he was terrified of his younger sister's stern face.

The Empress Su Mingyue withdrew her gaze and continued issuing orders methodically.

She ordered people to set several thick tabletops upright to use as makeshift shields.

Although the effect might be minimal, having something to block with would naturally instill a sense of security in people's hearts.

At such a critical juncture, the Empress Su Mingyue even noticed that one of the Young Misses was so frightened she was about to faint.

She had someone pass a pot of cold tea over, perhaps not out of concern, but to prevent anyone from collapsing at this moment and affecting the movement of everyone else.

Zhou Ming crouched behind the layers of guards, suppressing his presence to the absolute minimum.

He curled his body as small as possible, clutching his head with both hands, only exposing his eyes to nervously observe the battle through the gaps between people.

His heart was pounding loudly, his breathing was shallow and rapid, his lips were dry, and his palms were covered in cold sweat.

But even though he was cowering, his eyes were not idle, taking in every word and action of the Empress Su Mingyue.

This Eldest Miss, who usually kept a low profile, was now like a sword unsheathed—sharp, calm, and striking directly at the vital points.

Every one of her orders was clear and accurate, every judgment was astonishingly fast, as if the emotion of fear simply did not exist in her dictionary.

The masked men were already charging toward the crowd; amidst the flash of blades, some guards fell, and some masked men were cut down to the ground.

Zhou Ming observed for a while and had already discovered the clue: these two groups of people were, damn it, not human.

What normal person could chop down a tree as thick as a man's embrace with a single slash?

Who could smash a hundred-pound rock into pieces with one slash, sending shards flying everywhere?

Yet even so, the Empress Su Mingyue did not retreat a single step, standing at the very center of the defensive line, her gaze constantly locked onto every corner of the battlefield.

Watching her back, Zhou Ming suddenly felt that at this moment, this Eldest Miss was a hundred times stronger than those powder-faced generals he had seen in movies and TV shows in his past life.