Watching the number of masked men increase, the guards from each family resisted desperately, but swords have no eyes, and the disadvantage in numbers could not be overcome by sheer desperation alone.

In just a short while, the guards on the perimeter were all wounded; some had taken a slash to the shoulder with blood streaming down their arms, while others had their legs struck, still kneeling on one knee while continuing to parry with their blades.

The defensive line was shrinking inward at a speed visible to the naked eye; if they kept fighting like this, it was only a matter of time before it was breached.

Zhou Ming crouched behind the layers of guards, a layer of cold sweat beading on his forehead.

It was not that he had not seen fights before; in his past life, he had seen hoodlums brawling outside the school gates.

But those were at the level of bricks and wooden sticks, completely different concepts from the current battle where every strike drew blood and lives were being gambled.

He gritted his teeth, his mind racing; after other protagonists underwent Transmigration, they either found an ancient Divine Artifact or encountered a peerless master.

Whenever they encountered danger, they were sure to turn misfortune into fortune and could easily snag a Heaven-Defying Opportunity along the way.

But what about him? Not only was he reduced to servitude after his Transmigration, but he also hit walls everywhere he turned, and even when he tried to sneak through a dog hole to pass on some scriptures, he was called a demon by a group of beggars, causing his plan to spread the scriptures to be shelved.

Now, he was in imminent danger, and there was a good chance his life would end here today; the heavens would certainly not grant him another chance at Transmigration.

Just as he was thinking about words like protagonist and Opportunity, a scene suddenly flashed through his mind: a protagonist encountering an Opportunity inside a cave.

"A cave?"

"Heaven never cuts off all paths, haha…"

Zhou Ming was secretly pleased; it was a cave he had discovered yesterday while scattering sulfur on one side of the West Mountain.

The entrance was narrow, only allowing one person to crawl in while stooping, but inside was a different world, spacious enough to hold about a hundred people, and the other end led to a hundred-foot-high cliff.

With that terrain, as long as they held the entrance, let alone dozens of masked men, even if hundreds more came, they would never be able to attack inside.

The most critical point was that the entrance was only a hundred paces away; as long as everyone fought with their lives, it was not impossible to charge there.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ming suddenly raised his head and reached out to push the back of the guard in front of him.

But he forgot his own spindly frame; he pushed twice, but the guard did not move an inch, his arm holding the long saber taut like iron, not even swaying a bit.

Zhou Ming was so anxious his throat went dry; he could no longer care about rules or decorum, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Eldest Miss! Eldest Miss!"

Empress Su Mingyue was staring at the battle, and upon hearing the shout, she turned around abruptly.

That pair of phoenix eyes stared straight at Zhou Ming, with no panic in her gaze, only a cold and sharp scrutiny.

The meaning was crystal clear: if you do not give me a reasonable explanation, you will not need to wait for the masked men to act today.

Fortunately, she had grown up with Zhou Ming and knew that this little attendant, who had practiced swordsmanship with her since childhood and been beaten to the ground by her, although timid, was never one to act without cause.

In such a tense moment, for Zhou Ming to dare to call her, there must be a reason.

Empress Su Mingyue gave a look to the guard blocking Zhou Ming, and the guard stepped aside to open a gap barely wide enough to squeeze through.

Zhou Ming squeezed through the gap and lowered his voice to say quickly, "Eldest Miss, there is a cave ahead; I discovered it when I was scouting yesterday. The entrance only allows one person to crawl in while stooping, but the interior is very spacious, and the other side leads to a cliff a hundred meters high."

"It is easy to defend and hard to attack, making it an excellent place to seek shelter."

He raised his finger and pointed to the cliff wall next to the bushes: "It is right next to that clump of bushes."

"How far is it?"

"A hundred paces away."

Empress Su Mingyue glanced in the direction Zhou Ming pointed, then turned her head back, her gaze pausing on his face for a moment.

She did not ask, "Are you sure?" nor did she say, "If the intelligence is wrong, I will hold you accountable." She simply nodded decisively, her voice as calm as if she were ordering a daily task: "Protect yourself."

After saying this, she turned around and began to reorganize the manpower.

"Everyone, listen to my orders," Empress Su Mingyue's voice rose above the clanging of swords, "Abandon your current positions and prepare to break out. Servants and maids, support your masters well; if they cannot walk, carry, drag, or piggyback them."

"Do not leave anyone behind. Guards, switch from the defensive formation to the breakout formation; concentrate the strongest combat power to the front and await my commands."

She did not ask for anyone's opinion, nor did she leave anyone time to hesitate.

The guards almost subconsciously rearranged their formation according to her orders; the circular defensive formation turned into an arrow-shaped breakout formation in just a few breaths.

At the very front of the arrow was the Guard Commander of the Yongning Marquis Mansion; he held his saber across his chest, soaked in blood, his gaze so dark it seemed as if it could drip water.

Empress Su Mingyue stood in the very center of the breakout formation, and the four head maids beside her had produced short swords from who knows where.

Each blade gleamed with a cold light, surrounding her tightly from four directions.

These four maids usually served tea and water or made the beds, looking no different from ordinary maids, but now with short swords in hand, their steps steady and their gazes sharp, it was clear that every one of them was skilled in martial arts.

Zhou Ming glanced over; Dongmei was among them. There was no superfluous expression on her delicate face, only an aura of stern Killing Intent.

Empress Su Mingyue bent down and picked up a long sword from the ground that someone had dropped.

The hilt was still stained with blood; she held it in her hand, tested its weight, tapped the tip slightly, and then raised it abruptly, the blade pointing directly toward the cave.

"Break out!"

She shouted loudly, her voice clear and crisp like the striking of gold and stone.

"Kill…!"

The guards roared in unison, their voices shaking the mountains and fields.

The tip of the arrow lunged forward, like a wedge driven fiercely into the circle of masked men.

The Guard Commander of the Yongning Marquis Mansion took the lead, his long saber flying, every slash carrying the shrill whistle of breaking wind.

The two masked men blocking his front were sliced in two almost the moment they met.

The guards on the flanks gritted their teeth and followed, the sparks from clashing blades merging into a continuous sheet.

Zhou Ming followed closely behind the young masters and Young Misses of the families, shrinking his body to the smallest size possible.

His back was arched like a fully drawn bow, his legs half-crouched as he inched forward.

His head was almost tucked into his shoulders, but his two eyes darted around non-stop, scanning the surroundings nervously.

When passing a tabletop that some unlucky guard had smashed, he grabbed a piece of the broken wooden board and held it against his back.

It was wood, at least; if a stray arrow flew over, it might be able to block it.

He went on like this, hunched over, holding the wooden board, taking small, short steps, looking exactly like a skinny monkey carrying a turtle shell.

The hundred-pace distance felt like it took a whole hundred years to walk.

The sound of clashing blades exploded right by his ears, and from time to time, hot blood splashed to his feet.

He did not even dare to look down to see whose blood it was.

Someone fell behind him, but he dared not look back.

Someone screamed ahead, and he could not spare the effort to distinguish which family's guard it was.

He only stared fixedly at the bushes and the cliff wall getting closer and closer in front, pouring all his attention into his two legs.

Don't go soft, don't stop, take one step, then another step.

He had never felt that a hundred-pace distance could be so far; every step he took on the grass felt like stepping on a blade.

Fortunately, in the end, it was a close call with no harm done.

When the bushes were slashed open by the guard in front, revealing the pitch-black cave entrance behind, Zhou Ming almost sat down on the ground.