Green Mountain-Chapter 591 - 448: The World’s Number One Official Gateway
On the rugged mountain path, Ah Sheng was taken by the startled warhorse galloping towards Chongli Pass.
He looked back and saw Chen Ji duck into the forest, hiding behind a pine tree.
Ah Sheng saw that Chen Ji was unarmed and wanted to throw his hard bow and short knife to him, but the warhorse had already turned around the mountain bend, and he could no longer see Chen Ji’s figure.
Hong Zuer, lying weakly on the horse’s back, asked, "What’s with that kid, do you know him?"
While calming the horse, Ah Sheng replied, "He’s a newly arrived official’s son, his silk clothes alone cost hundreds of taels of silver. But when I asked if he’d buy military merits, he said no, he’d rather squeeze in with others. Brother Ah Si said he’s good-tempered, not even angry when humiliated in public... Oh, and he also asked how to become a Night Patrol; I didn’t take it seriously yesterday."
"Only those with confidence don’t get angry. Not buying military merits means he’s capable of earning them himself," the jolting horse made Hong Zuer groan, he hoarsely said, "Put me down, hurry back to assist. That Life-catcher General behind us is vicious and ruthless; don’t let that kid die because of us."
Ah Sheng hesitated, "Go back now?"
Hong Zuer sternly said, "Don’t you want to be a Night Patrol? This is the fate of a Night Patrol; if you fear death, don’t become one!"
Ah Sheng whispered, "Dad, I’m not afraid of death, I’ll escort you back inside the pass, then immediately..."
Hong Zuer angrily replied, "I told you before, don’t call me dad, I’m not your dad!"
Ah Sheng mumbled softly, "I’ll go, I’ll go, why so fierce?"
Hong Zuer softened his tone and weakly said, "If he’s not that capable, just assist a bit, see if you can save him back to the pass. If he’s truly skilled... ask him to help your Uncle Baisi, your Uncle Baisi and Star are trapped in Willow Ditch."
Ah Sheng paused, hurriedly calmed the horse, and got off.
He said to Zhang Tonggou, who was fleeing behind him, "Brother Tonggou, please take Mr. Hong back, there will be great rewards afterward!"
Zhang Tonggou quickly said, "No need for rewards, take care of yourself."
Ah Sheng handed the reins to Zhang Tonggou and instructed, "Go back and ask Uncle Zhou to treat Mr. Hong’s arrow wound. The arrow is poisoned; only he knows how to cure it. If delayed another hour, even an Immortal can’t save him."
Zhang Tonggou quickly replied, "Understood."
Ah Sheng took off the hard bow from his back and ventured alone into the forest.
...
...
At this moment, the sound of hoofbeats grew closer.
Chen Ji hid behind the pine tree, holding his breath in concentration. Suddenly, a swift whistling sound came from behind him.
Chen Ji suddenly dove to the side, seeing a feathered arrow nail into the pine tree where he had just been hiding, the arrow shaft vibrating violently.
Not just one.
Before Chen Ji landed, two more feathered arrows followed, pinning onto the tree in pursuit of his figure. The last one narrowly sliced past the right side of his thigh, tearing a slit in his pants without touching his skin.
Chen Ji rolled on the ground to get up, hiding behind another tree, slightly panting.
The Life-catcher General’s hoofbeats finally came close; he watched as the warhorse passed by the rugged path outside the forest, but the saddle was empty.
This Life-catcher General had actually abandoned the horse early on, using the hoofbeats to attract attention while he flanked around.
Chen Ji had deliberately not asked Ah Sheng for a weapon, thinking his unarmed state would cause the Life-catcher General to be careless. Unexpectedly, the opponent was so cautious, like a lion using all its strength to hunt a rabbit.
The Life-catcher General was already at the Innate Realm, yet so adept at scheming. No wonder the Chongli Pass infantry were terrified of him. If Chen Ji had reacted even slightly slower earlier, he feared he would already be nailed to the tree.
He quietly listened to the movements in the forest, judging where the Life-catcher General might come from.
But after waiting for a long time, the forest remained quiet as if the Life-catcher General had fled far after one failed strike.
He turned to look at the feathered arrows not far away, judging the position of the Life-catcher General and the force of the arrows: the arrows came from the east, three feathered arrows penetrated only an inch into the wood... the opponent, for rapid shooting, used an eight-dou horse bow.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Ji suddenly ran north.
An arrow shot from the shadows, and Chen Ji shifted his form, rushing toward the arrow.
Facing the incoming arrow, Chen Ji closely watched the arrow’s direction, reached out, caught the arrow in his hand, and threw it back.
Chen Ji chased after the arrow, lunging toward the place from where it was shot. By the time he reached it, the area was empty.
The opponent had already changed positions after firing an arrow.
Before he stabilized, an arrow came from the left side, and he instinctively dodged back. But before he could plant his foot, another arrow came from the right side, targeting the spot where he was about to step down, aiming right at his waist and abdomen.
There were actually two Life-catcher Generals!
One had been hiding for so long without even Hong Zuer and Ah Sheng detecting it!
Four words suddenly surfaced in Chen Ji’s mind, vicious and ruthless.
When battling with these two Life-catcher Generals, psychological traps were everywhere; a slight misstep would get one caught in their calculations.
Next moment, an arrow from the right struck, and Chen Ji fell without a sound.
The forest returned to silence until, dozens of breaths later, yellow orioles sang in the mountains, one on the left and one on the right, conveying some signal.
When the yellow orioles’ song ceased, a Life-catcher General stood up from the bushes.
He hung the longbow on his back, looked towards the distance, watching as his colleague drew the bowstring aiming at the bush where Chen Ji had fallen, then pulled out the short knife from his waist and slowly approached.
Incredibly cautious.
The Life-catcher General reached the place where Chen Ji had fallen, and was suddenly startled, where was Chen Ji’s figure on the ground?
There was no blood either.
A trap!
The wind howled as Chen Ji abruptly rose from the bushes ahead, throwing the feathered arrow with his bare hands towards the Life-catcher General’s face.
The Life-catcher General bent backward, performing an iron bridge, allowing the feathered arrow to pass over his face.
An unexpected change occurred!
As the Life-catcher General faced upward, the ground soil suddenly loosened, and a brass sword seed buried within shot out abruptly.
By the time the Life-catcher General realized something was wrong, it was too late to dodge.
The sword seed flew past his neck and disappeared into the bushes, vanishing instantly.
Blood gushed from the Life-catcher General’s neck. Even in his last moments, he never saw what killed him. His colleagues, obscured by the bushes, also didn’t see why he fell.
The sword seed flashed by in an instant.
Since Chen Ji nurtured three brass sword seeds on the Incense Burner Peak, he hadn’t used them when killing Liao Zhong, nor when rushing back to the Imperial Capital, always being extremely cautious, fearing that the Mountain Master of the Jing Dynasty Martial Temple would hear the news and come to confront him.
Now, outside Chongli Pass, with a guaranteed kill, he no longer needed to hide.
As Chen Ji acted, another Life-catcher General released his fingers, and the arrow was shot, but it missed its target.
He turned and ran, and Chen Ji no longer hid his presence, pursuing into the woods, with the sword seed flying close to the ground, passing through clusters of bushes.
Just as the Life-catcher General was about to pass over a small hill, he turned back and shot another arrow, releasing the bow towards Chen Ji as well.
The Life-catcher General drew his waist knife, leveraging the slope to fight downhill in a desperate struggle. But Chen Ji did not engage him closely, instead retreating further.
The two moved back and forth rapidly along the mountain path.
Suddenly, Chen Ji’s back hit a pine tree, halting his steps.
The Life-catcher General’s heart skipped a beat; the opportunity was here!
He swung his knife, but saw no panic on Chen Ji’s face, only a direct gaze fixed on him.
Something’s wrong!
At the critical moment, a brass sword seed weaved through the branches, aiming for the Life-catcher General’s Achilles tendon.
The Life-catcher General reacted quickly, lifting his foot to dodge, and exclaimed, "Sword seed?!"
He gritted his teeth, ignoring the sword seed, adopting a stance for trading lives, slashing towards Chen Ji’s head, unaware that two more sword seeds were coming at him.
The next moment, just as the Life-catcher General’s long knife was about to strike Chen Ji, a sword seed pierced into his lower back and went through his front abdomen; another pierced his left rib and came out through his right; the one previously dodged turned in the air, pierced his left neck, and came out through the right.
It was early morning, and sunlight beamed in from afar, filtering through the canopy, casting beams of light on the Life-catcher General.
The three sword seeds intertwined like a dragon dance. The Life-catcher General’s figure appeared to explode under the rising morning sun, with blood spraying all around, and even splattering on Chen Ji.
The Sword Seed Path is indeed the number one official door in the world.
Also the fastest path to kill.
The Life-catcher General’s knife veered, and he staggered forward, the blade embedding into the tree trunk, stopping an inch above Chen Ji’s hairpin.
The sword seeds returned like meteors, slipping into Chen Ji’s clothes along his sleeves and settling back into the patterns between his ribs.
The Life-catcher General released the knife handle and slowly knelt to the ground, coughing blood and murmuring, "How could it be?"
Chen Ji stood before him, looking down at the dead Life-catcher General, feeling a faint Ice Flow gathering in his Dantian.
The wounds on the corpse were all straight through; if anyone inquired, he wouldn’t need to respond, as the Prime Minister would naturally assume it was caused by Cloud Covering Sword Qi.
But the question arises: a common infantryman’s military merits can be proven by ears, but how should one prove a Life-catcher General?
If just cutting an ear, how to prove it’s really a Life-catcher General?
...
...
Ah Sheng hopped through the forest with his hard bow, his eyes vigilantly scanning the surroundings.
As he got closer to where Chen Ji was, he pricked up his ears but could not hear any sounds of fighting, not even the birds in the forest stirred.
Has the fight ended?
Ah Sheng crouched behind bushes ten units away, cautiously examining and confirmed no one was around before moving closer.
He saw Chen Ji’s hiding spot, the arrow pinned into the pine tree, then moved his gaze to two arrows behind, seemingly imagining how Chen Ji must have dodged the arrows, causing them to miss.
The Life-catcher General’s surprise attack, even shot, was dodged by that official nobleman?
What excellent skills.
Ah Sheng looked down at the broken grass stems on the ground, following the trace and then saw a Life-catcher General lying in a pool of blood, staring at the sky with open eyes.
Dead?
That nobleman from the Imperial Capital actually killed the Life-catcher General?
But the strange thing is, since the Life-catcher General is already dead, where has that nobleman from the Imperial Capital gone?
While pondering, footsteps and a strange dragging sound came from the north, as if someone was dragging a prey slowly.
Ah Sheng instinctively drew his bow and nocked an arrow, then heard Chen Ji’s voice from ahead, "It’s me."
He lowered the arrowhead, seeing Chen Ji dragging a Life-catcher General by the ankle, slowly emerging from the woods.
