Translator:
Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor:
Nyoi-Bo Studio
No one was watching him.
Fan Xian knew it was his own misperception. It was like last time at the Xi Mountain precipice outside Shangjing in Northern Qi. He had felt there was a pair of eyes watching him from the mountain woods behind him. It was probably the reaction of someone faced with a difficult situation and after they experienced a shakeup of their emotions. For an idealist like Fan Xian, this was a natural reaction.
A year ago, when he had sat on the white-sailed ship to visit family in Danzhou, he had once passed the great Dong Mountain that appeared to have been split open by a god’s sword. At that time, he had looked at the smooth precipice and thought mockingly to himself, Surely, I won’t have to climb this mountain one day, right?
He had never thought that all of this would become reality.
Mathematically, in the great dome above, were the heavens really just watching him the entire time?
The great Dong Mountain’s precipice was much more dangerous, slipperier, and taller than that of Xi Mountain. By the time Fan Xian reached the ground, his body had already begun to shake. The internal consumption had already begun to affect his muscles.
He was stuck to the wall as fluidly as a bat. His fingers dug into difficult-to-find cracks. He rested for a moment. Raising his head, he had long lost sight of the fire at the top of the mountain. Turning his gaze back, he could see the ocean water coming closer and closer, as well as the few army boats rocking in the sea.
These were boats from the Jiaozhou Navy. They were on guard and would not be much use in the sudden attack by the rebel soldiers at the back of the mountain. It was clear they could get away and notify the local government.
From when the incident occurred to now, the navy boats had not moved. Although Fan Xian had not discussed this matter with the Emperor, both of them knew that something had also gone wrong with the Qin family.
A corner of the moon peaked out. Fan Xian did not move in a hurry. He stuck his cheek against the icy cold precipice and felt the threads of coldness. He thought, If the Qin family were counted… This was a gathering of all the powers in the world to participate in the mission at Dong Mountain. No wonder the Emperor could not have calculated for it.
For one person to be able to draw together all the enemies in the world and have them temporarily throw aside their differences and be tightly united, what kind of realm was this? This was the realm of the Qing Emperor.
Northern Qi had not struck. But, for Yan Xiaoyi’s troops to reach the foot of Dong Mountain, it was clear that the Eldest Princess and Shang Shanhu had secretive arrangements. Fan Xian rubbed his face against the icy cold stone. For such a major matter, did Haitang know about this?
Immediately after, he gently breathed a few times. In reality, the dangerous situation at hand was, in the end, the result of many years of plotting by Chen Pingping. He had also participated a little. Regardless of whether it was the Eldest princess, Qin family, or Ye family, they had all been carefully pushed by himself and the old cripple until they had no choice but to stand against the Emperor.
If Chen Pingping knew that matters had developed like this, would he think the same as himself, hanging on the cliff right now, and feel that matters of the world were truly very wondrous?
The wind on the precipice was very strong, but the force between his hand and slippery rock face was powerful. The Tyrannical zhenqi inside his body circulated through the thick meridians and gently opened and closed them. To prevent there not being enough internal strength, the soft and natural Tianyi Dao aura slowly repaired the instability in the meridians.
He swallowed and looked up at the pin straight rock face above his head by the faint light of the moon and couldn’t help feeling a lingering fear. If he didn’t stick to the rock face and fell down, he would fall into the ocean with raging waves and sharp rocks. His body would probably completely shatter.
The wind on the precipice facing the ocean was too strong. It billowed past his four limbs with an icy chill. He wasn’t Wu Zhu and didn’t have the miraculous ability to fall in a straight line down from the open air. Thus, he plastered himself even tighter to the precipice.
Why did the Emperor know that Uncle Wu Zhu was in Dong Mountain? This question, which he never had the chance to ask, surged in his mind. It looked like the Emperor probably had some secret connection to the temples. However, the unusual death of the Great Priest last year… These things did not make sense.
A layer of cloud once again covered the moonlight. Fan Xian began to move down the precipice. After sliding for an indeterminable time, he was getting closer and closer to the pool of black water. He became more and more cautious. He raised his skill to its peak condition, ready at any moment, to meet an unknown danger.
The closer he was to the ocean, the easier it would be for him to be discovered by the rebel soldiers on the navy boats. The closer he was to the ocean, the closer he was to the little boat on the ocean.
Perhaps the rebel soldiers on the navy boats would not be able to see the slowly moving dot on the precipice in the dark, but Ye Liuyun may be able to discover him.
His fists were tightly stuck to the smooth precipice. Suddenly, his pupils constricted. He felt a chilling murderous intention behind his body.
Who had such eyesight to discover him?
Fan Xian had no time to think. Unconsciously, he decisively cut off the zhenqi making its circulation around his body. The zhenqi between his fists and the rock face suddenly became ineffective. He began to slide down.
Thud! A black arrow shot into where he had just been. The metal arrowhead pierced deeply into the precipice of Dong Mountain and created dozens of shattered stones.
If Fan Xian’s reaction had been slightly slower, he would certainly have been pinned to the rock face by this unexpected arrow. However, he was still in danger. His entire body was flattened against the rock face. He slid down at an astonishing speed.
Fan Xian gave a muffled grunt. The circulation of zhenqi he had just stopped was forced again into extreme circulation. His fists slapped gently against the rock face. He barely managed to stabilize his body.
Phew! A second black arrow shot ferociously into the right side of the precipice right below his foot. It was only half an inch away from the heel of his foot.
The situation was dangerous. It was clear that the person shooting had calculated ahead and knew the speed of Fan Xian’s fall. If Fan Xian had tried earlier to fall naturally to avoid the suddenly attacking arrows, he would not have escaped it.
Sweat poured down Fan Xian’s back. His right hand shook. It shook half his body away from the wall and drew a half-circle in the air before sticking anew to the rock face. Now he was facing the ocean. Without time to think, he slid down another meter completely without meaning to. Immediately after, his right hand slapped against the rock face again. His body bent strangely and twisted downward.
Inside the boat on the ocean, a dozen black arrows flew toward him coolly and without mercy. They passed by his body, piercing through his clothes, and thudding viciously into the rock face.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Fan Xian dodged them tenaciously on the precipice. Counting on the endless practice since his rebirth 20 years ago, as well as the foundation he had laid down with Wu Zhu as a child, he unconsciously dodged the mysteriously appearing arrows.
The situation was dangerous. The arrows came endlessly and did not give him any chance to react. Furthermore, they seemed calculated clearly to where he was going to be next. It made it so that he could fall from the cliff at any moment.
Miraculously, Fan Xian seemed to always be able to make a decision a split second before he was hit by the black arrows. The zhenqi in his body moved ferociously along the two circulations in his body, replenishing the zhenqi he used up. It managed to barely ensure that he always had one hand stopped on the rock face.
Every time it appeared that he was going to fall, the hand stuck to the rock face would move him. It forced his body to bounce up and fall down as if he could never leave the attractive forces of the rock face.
He was like a puppet made with black materials. His four limbs were controlled by the mysterious power inside Dong Mountain’s rock face. It made him perform a rigid but funny dance.
The black arrows that followed tightly behind him valiantly brushed past his body and pierced into the rock face. They created careless lines on the rock face. The front of the lines followed him, filled with murderous intention. It could pin this puppet to death at any moment with a random arrow through his heart.
…
…
The navy’s ships did not get too close to the foot of Dong Mountain because of submerged reefs. There was only one person in the world who could fire arrows into the rock face at this distance. It was only that person who would be able to find a concealed Fan Xian on the rock face in such a dark night: the Qing Northern Governor, Yan Xiaoyi.
After an endless amount of time, the arrows over the ocean stopped. There was no longer a trace of Fan Xian’s shadow on the precipice. The ocean and precipice each recovered their own peace. Only the sound of waves lapping against the shore could be heard. Fan Xian had finally successfully avoided the endless arrows and landed among the reefs.
Phew! The last arrow seemed to have gone wide. It pierced more than an inch in the rock face. The end of the arrow vibrated endlessly and made a buzzing sound.
A few scraps of black cloth hung on the shaft.
The sound of the waves were deafening on the reef. Fan Xian half knelt on the wet rocks and coughed uncontrollably. Fortunately, the navy’s ships were too far and the sound of the waves lapping against the rock was too loud. It covered up his series of coughs, so he didn’t give away his position in the darkness.
His face was deathly pale. While he had climbed down a mountain that made humankind stop in wonder and avoided Yan Xiaoyi’s repeated life-stealing seemingly godlike arrows on the precipice, he had already burned through a great deal of his zhenqi and energy. The puppet dance at the final portion of the rock face appeared easy, but it was a demonstration of his highest realm. In every second and moment, his psyche was tightly wound up and brushed against the impossible. The exchange speed of the zhenqi in his body was too quick and the rate was too high. Even with the valiant meridians in his body, he still found it difficult to control.
When the flow of zhenqi had reversed, it had damaged a meridian below his diaphragm. Thus, he had begun to cough and felt a sharp pain at the front of his chest.
Compared to this, the tragic injury on his right shoulder did not worry him too much. The injury had been split apart by a sharp arrowhead that cut through muscle and cartilage running with fresh blood. It was very painful, but there wasn’t anything life-threatening.
It was night time, which was a disadvantage to Yan Xiaoyi. Fan Xian, on the precipice, had the advantage. Thus, this attack and escape was not fair. No matter how powerful Fan Xian was, he still did not dodge that last arrow.
Not very many people would be able to keep their lives under such difficult circumstances and protect their own lives from Yan Xiaoyi’s endless arrows.
Fan Xian lowered his body as far as possible. The seawater wet his robes. He allowed the black outfit to be soaked in water. It blended perfectly with the submerged reefs into one body.
Fan Xian was not worried that there would be poison on Yan Xiaoyi’s arrows. He knew Yan Xiaoyi was arrogant and proud and had never used poison. He had also taken out a medicinal pill from his clothes and swallowed it with his saliva. In terms of using poison, not many people were better than him.
The situation on the shore was still very tense. The boats were unable to come closer to the precipice, but it felt that the pair of eagle eyes was staring at movements under the precipice. They had to kill him before Fan Xian got onto the road.
Fan Xian narrowed his eyes and looked around. The moon in the sky was not bright, but the waves were getting larger and larger. On one hand, they protected him. On the other, it made it difficult for him to find a safe path. If he were to use his qinggong on the reefs to fly out, it would be the same as giving Yan Xiaoyi an opportunity to pick him off.
Fan Xian disliked the feeling of being aimed at by a bow and unable to respond, particularly being aimed at by Yan Xiaoyi’s bow.
Suddenly, a warning flashed across his mind. With a muffled grunt, his right hand slapped against the reefs. The Tyrannical zhenqi surged out with ferocious force and shattered one corner of the reef. His body followed the powerful counterforce and drew a half-circle in the air. He fell into the ocean at the quickest possible speed.
Spray bloomed up and was immediately swallowed by the increasingly larger waves. The white foam at the bottom of the precipice seemed to be incomparably angry that someone dared to underestimate their power and sink into the ocean filled with submerged reefs.
Now, Fan Xian had given away his location. Although he sunk into the ocean, he couldn’t escape the chase of those eagle eyes. However, he had to jump into the ocean. He had to leave the reef that temporarily protected him at the quickest speed and with the most extreme posture. Even if the sea was in such a rage, he still had to seek shelter.
He would rather face the raging ocean and be shot to death by Yan Xiaoyi’s arrow than stand on the reef and face the trembling in his heart.
A white line swept up from the ocean. It seemed to have some supernatural power. Despite the large waves, it was not disturbed by them. It silently and clearly came down Dong Mountain’s precipice. It was as if a god’s hand was holding a magical brush and was drawing a line in the inky and raging ocean.
The white line was actually a wave being split apart. An ancient sword was moving quickly about a meter above the line.
At the moment Fan Xian had flipped away from the reef, the white line had just touched the reef. The ancient sword and his body met in an instant then separated. No one knew whether they had touched or not.
The reef became chaotic. The sword did not stop. The intention of the sword shone through and easily split apart the reef where Fan Xian had rested earlier.
In front of this sword, reefs were just like black tofu.
The sword flew past the waves and air. It pierced into the smooth precipice of Dong Mountain. Despite the very hard rock face, the blade of the sword slid all the way in until only the hilt was left like a little round dot.
A moment later, the sword hilt shattered and round dot disappeared. From then on, the sword became one with the precipice of Dong Mountain, never to be separated again.
