MTLNOVEL Chapter 157: Let the Hunt Begin
The drums began before dawn.
Low and slow, like the heartbeat of something ancient roused from sleep, the rhythm rolled across the capital and stirred every soldier, every noble, every watcher behind silk-draped windows.
By midmorning, the Crown Prince's estate was a flurry of controlled chaos—horses being brushed to shine, banners unfurled and sorted by lineage, scouts rechecked, blades inspected, and arrows counted by the dozen.
And then the horns blew.
One long, curving note that cut through the mist like a blade. It was time.
The great procession rode out from the western gate before the sun had fully burned away the fog. Lords from every corner of the empire, generals with their honor-guards behind them, and sons of distant branches—some legitimate, some not—who had never been seen in the capital until now. Their faces were half-masked in velvet or bone, feathers stitched into the seams, teeth carved into the borders. Tradition dictated anonymity for the first leg of the journey. No house. No title. No protection.
Only survival.
Zhu Mingyu rode at the front, his robes woven with silver thread and his expression unreadable. I rode beside him—not because I had to, but because I chose to. Visibility had its uses, especially when the Third Prince and his polished entourage trailed not far behind.
The woods would welcome them all soon.
And I had been preparing their welcome for days.
"I still can't believe you're smiling," Shi Yaozu said beside me, his voice low enough that only the trees heard him.
I reached down and plucked a sprig of dried grass from the side of my boot. "Booby traps are like love letters, Yaozu," I reminded him. "They take time. They take care. And if you do them right…" I purred, looking up just in time to see the Third Prince's horse stumble slightly on the narrow road. "They leave an impression."
He chuckled, not because he found it funny, but because he knew I wasn't exaggerating.
The route we followed was ceremonial—wide enough for horses and banners, lined with painted stones and wind chimes that were meant to ward off misfortune. The chimes didn't work. I'd already replaced three of them with a different metal, causing the sensitive ears of the horses to stumble when hit just right. Of course, the horses of me and mine were plugged so they weren't affected.
Even the horses pulling the Emperor's carriage have stumbled a few times.
When we reached the first forest clearing, Mingyu raised a hand, signaling the line to stop. His voice rang out with clipped command, assigning camps and quartering zones. Red Demons to the northeast rise. Baiguang's men to the flat riverbed. Princes scattered in their respective hunting parties, their masked attendants close behind.
"We'll set camp just past the bend," Mingyu said to me as his horse shifted impatiently beneath him. "I assume you've been here before."
"I could walk it blindfolded," I replied, already dismounting.
A line of servant boys ran to take the horses, but Shadow emerged from the tree line with a soft growl that scattered them like leaves.
Shi Yaozu stepped in immediately. "He's with her," he said simply, placing a hand on Shadow's head.
The wolf licked his fingers once, then trotted past the stables to lie in the shade near my tent.
Everyone pretended not to stare.
By sunset, the camps were set.
Red silk tents rippled in the breeze. Cookfires were lit. Laughter from the younger nobles echoed through the trees, mingling with the occasional snap of a training whip or the clink of metal being laid out for morning practice.
I walked the edges of the clearing with Yaozu at my side, checking boundaries, inspecting where they had roped off the forest for "safe zones." It was almost insulting. Whoever thought a red string could keep out death clearly hadn't met me.
"How many traps did you already lay?" he asked after our third circle around the perimeter.
"Enough," I said lightly. "But this one's going to need a whole chapter's worth."
He raised a brow. "You mean an actual chapter?"
I turned and gave him a look. "Don't be dramatic. I mean at least twenty-five paragraphs of damage. Minimum."
Yaozu smirked. "We should've brought extra bandages."
"We did," I replied. "I told Zhu Deming to pack his pride and a funeral shroud."
We paused near a patch of foxglove, the petals delicate and pale in the moonlight. I crouched and brushed my fingers along the stalks.
"Poisoned?" he asked.
I nodded. "In the right doses. Not for killing—just for... encouragement. Makes the skin itch. Makes the horses twitch. Makes nobles rethink their decision to wander off alone."
From the direction of the Baiguang camp, music began to rise. The Crown Princess's banner was still unfurled, her entourage unusually large for someone who had claimed to want a modest experience.
"She brought musicians," Yaozu noted.
"Of course she did," I murmured. "It's not a proper hunt unless you have someone to write poems about your triumph."
"She's trying to bait the Crown Prince."
"She's trying to bait me," I corrected him, scoffing.
"Do you think it'll work?"
I looked up at the sky, then toward the tree line where the Third Prince's scouts had already begun setting small carved markers. My own had been moved slightly—not enough to trip a sharp eye, but enough to throw off his directional bearings.
"She's walking into a play she didn't write," I said softly. "And she doesn't even know the main actor has already rewritten the script."
Yaozu looked at me. "You?"
I shook my head. "Yan Luo."
His silence was absolute.
"You recognized him?" he asked.
"Too fast. Too quiet. Too calculating," I said. "He plays the fool better than the Emperor plays god."
Yaozu's expression shifted. "You think he'll interfere?"
"No," I said, standing again. "I think he's watching. And waiting. And calculating which of us is going to owe him the most by the end of this."
"And who will?"
I looked toward the campfires, then back at the darkness between the trees.
"Depends on how many bodies are left standing."
The night grew colder.
Shadow shifted beside the tent, his eyes never blinking as the last of the noble camps settled. From across the clearing, I caught a glimpse of Zhu Deming removing his armor and beginning the quiet task of sharpening his blade.
Sun Longzi had already disappeared into the woods to scout terrain.
And Yan Luo… was nowhere to be seen.
"Tomorrow," I said aloud.
Yaozu looked over.
"Tomorrow they start hunting."
He nodded. "And?"
I smiled.
"And I start bleeding the truth into the dirt."
Because every trap was a signature. Every step a test. Every heartbeat an offering.
Let the hunt begin.