Da Li Temple - Chapter 78.2

Chapter 78.2
Surprise Attack??

Lin Wanqing held the broken branch and quickly drew in the snow. No, that’s wrong. Her other hand wiped and started again from the beginning. Her fingertips were frozen red and numb, about to lose their grip. The Thousand Bull Guards, Emperor Younghui, and Su Moyi should be controlled based on the current situation. Once someone among them left, King Liang would blow up the place and die with everyone. However, with something as conspicuous as explosives, why would no one in the inner palace guards notice it? With the Emperor trapped, even if the city’s forbidden soldiers didn’t know about it, there were internal guards and palace staff in the palace beside the Thousand Bull Guards, couldn’t anyone among them have noticed it as well? Snow was still falling like a rustling hourglass. Time passes little by little, and Lin Wanqing’s heart becomes more and more uneasy.

Hourglass, time —
30 minutes —
Kacha!
The tree branch crunched and broke. Lin Wanqing’s hand withdrew its force and stopped abruptly. “Ye Qing!” She suddenly grabbed Ye Qing’s hand, her pupils trembling. “Is His Majesty hosting a banquet at the Lin De Palace tonight?”
??
Ye Qing was shocked and nodded in disbelief.
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The Lin De Palace, the Taiyi Pond, the explosives no one found, and the 30 minutes King Liang deliberately stalled —
??
The swaying palace lamps on the wall cast a sliver of light on the snow, which looked disorienting and unreal.
??
Lin Wanqing was unsure but looked up at the burned sky behind her. She recalled that night. In the middle of such a fire, Su Moyi rode a horse, broke through the swords, and stood before her. On the opposite side was a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, yet he was only one person and one horse.
??
A gust of wind blew her nose and eyes. She suddenly understood the kind of devotion and dedication Su Moyi wanted. That was the brass she could not understand and tried her best to avoid. But at this moment, she realized that the preciousness of love lies in its audacity. The kind of audacity that dares to confront millions of people.
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“You ……” she turned to look at Lailuo and Ye Qing, mumbling, “Believe me?”
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Lailuo and Ye Qing nodded at the same time, their expressions firm.
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Lin Wanqing smiled and said to Ye Qing, “You go to Da Li Temple and call for help. Tell them to wait for me at the Taiyi Pond.” After speaking, she turned around with Lailuo and ran towards the Taiyi Pond.
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“Recorder Lin, what are you doing?” Ye Qing’s voice was so indistinct that this unforgiving night almost blew it away.
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Lin Wanqing smiled and did not turn around. Across the shadows of the lamps, the wind, and the snow, she said, “I’m going to save him!”
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She was going to save him.
She was going to save the person she loved.
??*
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Tonight’s Taiyi Pond was calm, sparkling in the cold wind. The Lin De Palace was on a slope on the banks of the Taiyi Pond. It had a pleasant view of the pool, so it had always been a place for royal banquets.
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Lin Wanqing led Lailuo around the pool’s edge and began to undress.
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Lailuo was so scared that she hurriedly hugged her, “It’s so cold! What are you going to do?!”
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Lin Wanqing broke away from her, took off her heavy outer cloak, and threw it at her feet, “If the palace gate doesn’t let me in, I’ll just swim there.”
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Lailuo’s large eyes suddenly glared into bronze bells. Swim over? In this freezing weather, with harsh wind and snow, one will die even with fewer clothes, not to mention swimming from the Taiyi Pond to the other side of the shore —
??
Lailuo swallowed her saliva and took an imperceptible step back. However, Lin Wanqing calmly removed all the heavy clothing on her body, stripping it down to only a thin middle garment. She covered herself with a short black outfit and walked towards the pool without looking back.
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Lailuo, who had been in the jianghu for many years and used to seeing killings and sword fights, couldn’t help but draw the corners of her mouth at this moment and instantly felt that Lin Wanqing was respectable and formidable. A woman who dared to lay her hands on herself was genuinely terrifying.
??
“You wait here for Ye Qing. Tell them that I went to the Lin De Palace first,” Lin Wanqing ordered, and with a “plop,” she plunged into the Taiyi Pond.

In the mid-winter season, the water was freezing when you entered it, so cold that it felt like 10,000 sharp knives cutting through the skin of the body. Lin Wanqing couldn’t help but shiver. To prevent herself from freezing, she immediately danced her arms and legs with all her might and swam towards the other bank. The round trip from the Taiiyi Pond to the Lin De Palace was half an incense stick. Most of the Thousand Bull Guards would be placed in the Lin De Palace to capture King Liang and protect the Emperor. Thus, King Liang used an explosion as a threat. Because the Emperor was present, no one dared to act rashly. He could control the Thousand Bull Guards outside of the Lin De Palace with fewer rebels. The 30 minutes he held on to was the time for the rebels to get everything ready after controlling the Thousand Bull Guards. He could not dignifiedly bring those explosives in from the palace’s main gate, so he could only use the old method of smuggling from the official mine in Hongzhou, sealing the things with paraffin wax and quietly hiding them in the Taiyi Pond. That is why no one could find them. But this was considered his last move. Between thoughts, Lin Wanqing had already swum to the shore.
??
Lin De Palace was silent, without any sound, and one could only see the firelight projected from afar, silently sprinkled all over the ground. No one was around, so the rebels did not wholly control the situation. The cold wind swept by, and her body was frozen and numb. She gritted her teeth and plunged into the water again. The Taiyi Pond was so big; although she was confident that the explosives were there, finding them still took some effort.

Lin Wanqing could only bury herself in the water and feel her way over inch by inch. Initially, she changed her breath every ten breaths. Gradually, she changed it every three breaths. Her physical strength and sanity gradually frozen over time, and her hands and feet became uncontrolled. But she never stopped.
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The cold Taiyi Pond was as silent as a section of the abyss. She stirred up inside, like a powerless young butterfly, wanting to fly out of the shackles, but in the end, it can only fall, sinking again and again –
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A buzzing in her ears came to mind, and white light appeared before her eyes. When her consciousness had dissipated at the last moment, her hand touched a smooth object, and the touch was different from any stone she had touched just now.
??
So this is it —
She thought dazedly; it was indeed in the Taiyi Pond. But she was too cold, so cold that she could no longer swim back to the shore or send out any cries for help.

“Jingche ……”
With the last murmur, overwhelming ice water poured into her mouth and nose.