Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 42 The Thunder God Descends to Earth
This farcical spectacle finally came to an end after half an hour, as Mr. Yi's patience had reached its limit. He coldly looked at the crowd below and, after a brief silence, announced loudly.

"The quality of this batch of goods is quite good, Lai Laosan, Wu Lai..."

"Everyone will receive a reward!"

With a crash, the group behind Mr. Yi overturned a tall, pre-prepared box, spilling out a large amount of gleaming silver coins. The Worry-Free Cave was a group of desperate criminals, and large sums of money were the biggest catalyst for their desires. Xiao Sheng could clearly hear the heavy breathing of the surrounding criminals. This blatant stimulation would constantly intensify their ambitions, prompting them to act as convenient tools as before. No, they would even fight harder for it! This was also one of Worry-Free Cave's methods of controlling these people.

However, Xiao Sheng heard a slightly strange question from a desperado standing next to her.

"Mr. Yi, why are you being so generous today? Everyone is being rewarded; it's rare to see something like this."

"That's right, Mr. Yi is probably in a good mood today. He doesn't care about anything else, as long as he gets the money, isn't that enough?"

"Too."

Xiao Sheng, who had been waiting anxiously for an opportunity, watched as the kidnappers scattered around rushed towards the small cave where Mr. Yi and his group were. A sharp glint flashed in her eyes. This was the moment she had been waiting for.

As more and more thugs squeezed through, Xiao Sheng hid in the crowd and took out one strange piece of controlled weapon after another from his body, assembled them together, and finally formed a thin stick.

Fortunately, the underground cave wasn't that high, otherwise she wouldn't have been so confident that she could break through the hole above her head in one go.

She had heard from the eccentric Princess Ying that this thing called a signal flare would emit a blinding light even through the slightest gap. She had to create as much of an opening in the ground as possible so that the Earl could find her location.

The young women surrounding the flute player watched this scene with delight. Although they didn't recognize the tall woman, they knew she was saving them, so they silently hid her even more. They even subtly raised their index fingers to the terrified children, signaling them to be quiet. If they alerted the kidnappers who were dividing the money, their chances of escaping would be even slimmer.

"Pfft!"

The sound wasn't loud. The desperados who were dividing the money were still gathered in the small cave in front, so they shouldn't have heard it. However, Mr. Yi, who was surrounded by the noisy desperados, moved slightly and his eyes quickly locked onto the seemingly harmless lambs.

what sound?
Xiao Sheng did not stop. Under the dim light of the cave, the weapon in her hand was as black as ink, and it would be difficult to be discovered unless she got a certain distance away.

Mr. Yi was clearly an extremely cautious person, because after hearing this subtle noise, he did not ignore it, but instead walked over.

Upon witnessing this, Xiao Sheng held his breath and, with a desperate effort, thrust upwards. A cool breeze rushed in through the tiny opening, bringing a refreshing sensation to everyone.

Seeing Mr. Yi striding towards them, Xiao Sheng didn't hesitate any longer. He grabbed the signal flare from his pocket, pulled off the fuse, and threw it out through the hole. "Thump—"

A slight tremor came from the ground, and a sliver of white light shone down from the cave entrance, landing directly on Xiao Sheng. Mr. Yi had already noticed something was wrong and, frowning, ordered the desperate criminals caught in the scramble to leave.

“A rabbit has infiltrated. Bring all these people to me… never mind, kill all these lambs. Keeping them alive is always a threat, especially that little rascal…”

You can only blame your bad luck for being born into that person's family, yet you have no sense of propriety whatsoever and don't even know how to submit in the imperial court.

The desperate criminals, who had been scrambling for the prize, snapped to their senses upon hearing Mr. Yi's voice. Their eyes turned to the women and children with ferocious glints in their eyes. They were no strangers to murder, especially since Mr. Yi had said the area was being watched and their lives were in grave danger. Compared to their own, what did the lives of these others matter? They might as well kill them all and bury them on the spot; this place was perfect for burying them.

Seeing that they were about to attack, even with his superior martial arts skills, Xiao Sheng couldn't protect the hundreds of women and children here. Furthermore, even if Lord Bo and his men arrived with reinforcements, it would take them some time. Xiao Sheng quickly made a decision, took out another jar from his robes, lit the long fuse with a tinderbox, and threw it with remarkable precision towards the small cave where Mr. Yi and the others were.

Actually, Xiao Sheng didn't have high hopes for the small jar at this point. After all, it looked too small, and even if she could hit one or two of them, there weren't enough people to stop her. So she parted the crowd and ran forward to buy time. But just as she took her second step, a huge roar suddenly rang in her ears.

For a moment, she felt like she couldn't hear anything, her head was buzzing, and a lot of blinding light appeared in front of her, as if thunder from the sky had suddenly descended upon this place, almost blowing the entire cave apart!

"boom--"

Qi Zheng and the others, who had just seen the signal flare burst into light, almost thought it was thunder on a clear day when they heard the earth-shattering roar! But it was already night, the moon was bright and the stars were few, so where did the dark clouds come from?
Qi Zheng stared at the direction from which the tremendous commotion had originated, his large hand gripping the reins tightly. Even his warhorse neighed in fear, hesitant to move forward. This was a Ferghana horse, a veteran of countless battles, yet it was terrified by the power of thunder from the sky?
The soldiers behind him felt the same way. People of this era naturally considered anything that couldn't be explained by common sense as a miracle. At this moment, seeing the lightning erupting on the ground, everyone gasped sharply. Qi Zheng could even hear the terrified murmurs of his most trusted subordinate directly behind him.

"Good heavens! Has the Thunder God descended from heaven? How could there be thunder at this time of year? And why is the thunder coming from the ground?"

Just as Qi Zheng was at a loss for words, a nimble figure flashed past him. Although the rider's posture was still awkward, even clumsy, the calm and composed figure still attracted the attention of the bewildered crowd.

"The power seems a bit weak. It was my first time doing this, and I messed up. Hey? Why are you all stopping? Aren't we going to save people?"

This should correspond to the Nine Palaces.

Qi Zheng lowered his eyes and slowly inhaled the cool night breeze.

(End of this chapter)