CH 62

Chen Ziqi held the thin blade tightly between his fingers for a moment, then looked up at the sky. It was already sunset. The blade had probably been received in the morning, which was to say, the Bloodblade Tower would act tonight.

This was not the time to sit and think carefully about the possible reasons why or the potential persons who wanted him dead. He needed to leave with Chang Er and Ah Mu before dusk! The assassins were already hidden along the road, and he would certainly encounter a number of them if they made a run for it now, but the alternative was waiting around like pigs in a slaughterhouse for a whole horde of assassins to descend upon them in the mansion. 

Chen Ziqi waved a hand to dismiss the chicken farm manager, then walked toward the houyuan without another word.

Chang Er was sitting in the houyuan teaching the two girls to make clothes. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that she was trying to teach them how to make clothes. The two couldn’t even thread a needle properly, and she was irritated to death by these two students. “The two of you are idiots! How can you not even know how to do this?!” she said.

Yu Linglong poked around any old how with her needle in a very petulant manner. Yu Furong was a slightly better student – she at least put effort into trying to do things properly, but the things she sewed didn’t look like anything on earth.

Chen Ziqi walked over, pulled Chang Er to her feet, then started leading her away. 

“Hey – hey! What’re you doing?” Chang Er asked, quickly stuffing her feet into her shoes and staggering a few steps after Chen Ziqi.

“People are coming to murder everyone in the mansion. We need to leave quickly,” Chen Ziqi said calmly, showing Chang Er the blade in his hand.

Chang Er got a real shock. She had heard Chen Ziqi talk about this blade before. This was the Bloodblade Tower’s calling card, the one they sent just before they set about killing people. After staring blankly into space for a while, Chang Er suddenly slapped her thigh, pulled her hand out of Chen Ziqi’s grasp and turned to take a small box out of the sewing basket before turning back to Chen Ziqi. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” she said.

The two Yu sisters exchanged a look, then ran up together to block Chen Ziqi’s path. They fell to their knees with a plop. “Wang ye, we implore you to bring us along. We don’t want to die!” they said.

“Are you trained in martial arts?” Chen Ziqi asked, looking coldly at the two girls kneeling in front of him. These two were specially brought up as concubines for the Tiande Emperor by the Suxin Sect, but the Tiande Emperor didn’t want them. There was definitely more than met the eye here. For example, it could be that these two were highly skilled martial artists, such that dispersing their martial arts ability would be a real pity…

“We…” Yu Furong said, clenching her teeth. “I’ll be frank. We are the Suxin Sect’s core disciples, and we’re very good at martial arts.”

Chen Ziqi pressed his lips together in thought. They were very likely to meet with the Bloodblade Tower’s assassins along the way. Wu Bujian and Tu Buxian were but two people, and they might not be able to handle them all. If he brought these two along, he could toss them out as human shields if push came to shove.

He gestured his approval, then turned to go to the side wing of the mansion. Ah Mu was reading a book when Chen Ziqi got there, and he was unceremoniously pulled out of his room and thrown into a horse carriage. 

“Is there any way to tell Dan Yi to send people to help us get to the Cloud Palace safely?” Chen Ziqi asked Wu Bujian as he got on his horse.

Wu Bujian’s eyes followed a few small sparrows that had shot off from the bushes. He nodded. “This subordinate has already found a way to inform the Palace Master,” he said.

There were still about two hours until sunset. They had to get on their horses and go right now. However, the journey from Jianyang to the Cloud Palace took six hours even on a fast horse, and if they had a horse carriage in tow, they would need to travel for at least a day. Chang Er didn’t know how to ride on horseback, and Ah Mu’s horse riding skills were terrible, so the two of them could only be put in a horse carriage. The sky was darkening, the journey was long, and the road was filled with hidden assassins. It was incredibly dangerous.

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“If we meet with the Bloodblade Tower’s assassins, can you two hold them off for at least an hour?” Chen Ziqi asked, directing Fuyuan with hand gestures as he spoke. He wanted Fuyuan to cover the horse carriage with ragged-looking green cloth.

“The Bloodblade Tower’s assassins have their own weaknesses. If there aren’t more than five people coming at us at any one time, it won’t be a problem at all,” Tu Buxian said, patting his bald head confidently.

“Good,” Chen Ziqi said. He was very pleased with this answer. These two were a big part of the reason why he dared to leave immediately. The two guards that Dan Yi lent him certainly wouldn’t be of mediocre skill. Assassins usually specialised in striking in a fast, vicious manner, and a real martial arts master was very likely to be able to give them a run for their money. That was why the Bloodblade Tower had never taken on any jobs that involved wiping out a major sect. 

Unfortunately for them, the Lushan Sect people happened to not come today, and Ah Mu’s Jiujiu also wasn’t around. He couldn’t hide in the Changjian Sect or the Duanjian Sect – he might cause those small sects to get wiped out as well.

Also, those two “sworn brothers” of his would probably just throw him to the Bloodblade Tower’s assassins the moment they appeared. Their relationship didn’t have strong foundations to begin with.

In times of real crisis, the only one he could count on was Dan Yi.

Chen Ziqi removed the expensive riding outfit that he wore, switching it out for a nondescript-looking green shirt and pants, then leapt onto his horse. 

Tu Buxian also rode on a horse, whilst Wu Bujian rode on a horse carriage. Their little entourage quickly left Jianyang and headed for the Cloud Palace.

The road was quiet and peaceful. Not a single hidden assassin leapt out at them. Chen Ziqi was extremely suspicious of this state of affairs, and the lack of assassins had the reverse effect of making him even more nervous.

After passing through a forest, Chen Ziqi suddenly called them all to a halt. He looked around him with vigilant eyes, then spoke in ringing tones. “I believe the few of you have been hiding for a while now. Won’t you come out and say hello?” he said.

“Hahahaha…” A woman’s shrill laughter suddenly echoed all around them. 

“Shit, this is Wuyin’s Laughter!” Wu Bujian exclaimed in horror.

“Stop talking!” Tu Buxian yelled, glaring at Wu Bujian in annoyance. “Quick, use your neili to counter it!”

Wuyin’s Laughter was the Abbess Wuyin’s juezhao. The laughter was filled with powerful neili, and if you didn’t counter it immediately using your own neili, you would be knocked out in seconds.

Chen Ziqi immediately called forth his neili to block out that demonic sound. He could feel how powerful it was, like the relentless waves in a tsunami. The waves pounded relentlessly against his eardrums, trying to find a way to get into his meridians. The moment he let down his guard, that was exactly what would happen. Chang Er and Ah Mu, who didn’t have any neili at all, had already fainted inside the horse carriage and were dead to the world. 

The laughter stopped abruptly. Before Chen Ziqi could even start rubbing his throbbing ears, a strong palm wind raced towards him. Tu Buxian immediately leapt in front of Chen Ziqi to block, then countered the palm wind strongly.

“Bam!” The sound of the two martial artists’ neili crashing together was thunderous. Their sneaky attacker had to backflip in the air to escape the impact, and Tu Buxian was thrown off his horse. He landed easily on his feet like a cat, and the two of them immediately charged at each other.

Chen Ziqi took a good look at their attacker. It was the Suxin Sect’s first generation disciple, Zhao Surou!

The Suxin Sect? Chen Ziqi was stunned. Why was the Suxin Sect here? 

“Linglong, Furong, take her away!” Zhao Surou shouted.

Linglong and Furong suddenly burst out of the side of the horse carriage, taking the unconscious Chang Er with them.

Wu Bujian immediately moved to cut off their path, but the two sisters each pulled out a silk sash from their waist and infused their neili into it. The soft, formless silk immediately became lithe and supple, undulating in the air like two ghostly snakes.

The Suxin Sect’s martial arts was called the Wuxin Gong, and its philosophy was using softness to wrap around hardness. All their weapons were therefore made of soft, supple material. The two sisters’ martial arts abilities were not lacking at all, and it wasn’t easy for Wu Bujian to deal with both of them at once. 

Wu Bujian stiffened his fingers into claws, grabbed hold of one silk sash in a single, swift move, then used his neili to shatter it. As the bits of torn cloth rained down like confetti, a sharp blade suddenly pierced through Wu Bujian’s palm.

“Ah!” Wu Bujian shouted in pain. He kicked out hard at Yu Linglong’s chest.

Yu Furong leapt away with Chang Er, leaving her younger sister to fight with Wu Bujian.

“My dear concubine, where do you think you’re going?” Chen Ziqi asked, springing in front of her and glaring at her with bloodthirsty eyes. He snatched the unconscious Chang Er from her grasp and slapped her hard across the face, sending her flying back from the impact. 

“Ah!” Yu Furong screamed, clutching at her face.

That slap had also dislodged Yu Furong’s veil, revealing her lovely, youthful face. To Chen Ziqi, however, there was no way he could see her as anything more than a monster now, no matter how pretty she was. A red handprint now appeared on that fair-skinned face, and it started swelling up rapidly.

At this moment, Chen Ziqi really regretted not killing those two girls the moment they arrived.

Yu Furong slammed her hands to the ground and sprang back to her feet. Chen Ziqi dodged her attack, holding on to Chang Er tightly with one hand and using his other hand to counter with the Roving Dragon Follows the Moon. His hand snaked forward and landed a solid blow on her chest. The moment his hands came into contact with the soft fabric, he clenched his fingers around it and tore the front of Yu Furong’s robes. 

“AHHHH!” Yu Furong covered her chest with her hands, screaming even more vehemently now. She couldn’t attack any more in this state.

Chen Ziqi pulled out the dagger at his waist and prepared to take her out with a single blow. Suddenly, he felt a strong palm wind charge at him from behind, and he immediately spun around, pushing Chang Er protectively behind his body.

“Wang ye, be careful!” Wu Bujian said, leaping over to his side in an instant and blocking the blow.

“Bam!” The sound of human flesh taking a solid hit shocked Chen Ziqi to the core. When he looked up again, he saw an old nun dressed in a cassock exchanging blows with Wu Bujian, who was coughing up blood nonstop. She finished off the critically injured Wu Bujian in about ten moves. 

Tu Buxian had his hands full with Zhao Surou and couldn’t assist. He howled in rage when he saw that Chen Ziqi was in danger, then stiffened his huge, coarse hands in a peculiar motion. They suddenly turned into great black reptilian bird claws with sharp, cruel-looking hooked ends. Zhao Surou cried out in shock and was stunned for a moment. In that very instant, Tu Buxian grabbed hold of her shoulder with one of those great claws, leaving five deep red gashes in it.

He tossed Zhao Surou aside like a rag doll, then flew over to Chen Ziqi’s side.

“I cordially invite the Taifei niangniang to the Suxin Sect in my capacity as the Sect Leader. Taifei niangniang, please be my guest for a few days,” the bald old nun said, holding a hand erect at her chest in the Buddhist fashion and bowing in greeting. Her eyes met Chen Ziqi’s calmly after she did so. 

“Abbess, this is what you call a “cordial invitation”? It doesn’t look like one to me,” Chen Ziqi said, looking coldly at the old nun as he held the dagger in front of him.

“Ha!” The Abbess Wuyin laughed once coldly, then suddenly attacked. Tu Buxian sprang forward to counter her, but was in turn countered by the Abbess Wuyin. She flicked the long sleeves of her cassock and wrapped them around Tu Buxian’s sharp claw-hands.

“Demons from the Cloud Palace!” the Abbess Wuyin hissed. She didn’t seem surprised to see Wu Bujian’s claw-hands; to the contrary, her fighting spirit seemed to have been raised as a result.

As the leader of a sect who had practiced martial arts for decades, the Abbess Wuyin’s neili was very much stronger than Tu Buxian’s, and the speed at which she moved was therefore also much faster. Chen Ziqi attempted to launch a sneak attack whilst she was occupied with Tu Buxian, slashing out at the Abbess Wuyin’s waist with his dagger, but the Abbess suddenly turned around and aimed a blow right at Chen Ziqi’s head. 

As Chen Ziqi leaned his head backward to avoid the first blow, the Abbess Wuyin followed up a second blow, and Chen Ziqi had no choice but to counter her attack.

He put everything he had into the second cultivation level of the Divine Dragon’s Howl, which he had only just mastered, threw Chang Er onto a huge pile of dead leaves, grit his teeth and hit out at his attacker.

“BOOM!” The sound of their neili clashing reverberated through the forest, sending the withered leaves and loose dirt on the ground flying as the shockwave travelled out from the epicentre.

“Wang ye!”