Gasping.

Chen Ji weaved through the flames and ashes, tearing a piece of cloth from his hem to cover his mouth and nose, but the heavy breathing still carried the spicy sting of smoke and fire.

Did the Night Patrol rush up the mountain to rescue the Yulin Army? Did the Yulin Army break out of the encirclement?

Chen Ji didn't know; he had already done his best.

In the darkness, a light suddenly appeared behind him.

Jiang Liuxian drew a long knife, the snow-bright blade reflecting the mountain fire and the bright moon in the sky. A huge Sword Gang, ten yards apart, roared like a mountain and sea.

The blade of the Sword Gang was several feet wide, and though Chen Ji dodged sideways, he was still grazed by the edge of the Sword Gang. Half of his sleeve, as if made of paper, was torn apart where the Sword Gang passed.

Chen Ji's right arm felt as if it had been plowed by a steel brush, oozing fine blood.

An excruciating pain.

Vaguely, Jiang Liuxian's Sword Skill seemed more domineering than Liang Gou'er's, with not only Sword Intent but also anger and hate. This anger and hate were hidden deep in her heart, resenting everything in the world, every person.

And even resenting herself.

This resentment eventually turned into ruthlessness, wanting to kill others, and herself too.

Such a blade could slay heaven and earth, cut off fate and affection, with nothing that couldn't be severed; this was the true Sword Intent.

Liang Gou'er had once said: "Sword Skill is bold and unrestrained; one who learns the blade must first have the confidence to split mountains. The blade is dominating; my Liang family's Sword Skill doesn't shy away from flaws; regardless of your flaws, as long as I swing my sword, your whole body becomes vulnerable."

Jiang Liuxian's blade was sharper and purer than Liang Gou'er's.

Chen Ji couldn't care less about his wounds, he had to keep running for his life.

At this moment, as Jiang Liuxian was about to swing her second blade, a cold arrow shot out from the forest, aimed right at her left waist.

The timing of this cold arrow was impeccable, as if honed by years of battlefield slaughter, hitting precisely when Jiang Liuxian found it hardest to turn back, forcing her to withdraw her blade energy to dodge the arrow.

It was Hong Zuer's arrow.

The next moment, Jiang Liuxian reversed her hand and slashed a delicate crescent moon-shaped blade into the forest, a muffled groan came from the shadows, Hong Zuer's footsteps staggered away.

This arrow bought Chen Ji a moment to breathe, opening up another ten yards of distance. But Jiang Liuxian merely glanced coldly at the forest without entangling with Hong Zuer and continued to chase after Chen Ji.

In just over ten breaths, she had leveled the effect of the arrow.

As Jiang Liuxian leaped over a mountain stream, another cold arrow shot out from the dark forest, seemingly finding a shortcut somehow and forcing her to meet the arrow with her blade mid-air.

Jiang Liuxian's face showed mockery.

The Sword Gang collided with the arrow tip.

The wooden arrow shaft shattered inch by inch, yet the momentum of the Sword Gang didn't stop, almost faster than the arrow itself.

Hong Zuer was hiding behind a tree, drawing his bow to shoot; as the Sword Gang came at him, he quickly retreated behind the tree. But the Sword Gang was so fierce that it split the tree he was hiding behind into pieces.

This stroke was perfection, seemingly just a step away from the Divine Realm. The Sword Gang sliced the tree in half, and the unspent Sword Intent still cut a blood streak across Hong Zuer's back, from his left shoulder diagonally to his right waist.

Hong Zuer gasped in pain.

But he didn't care about his wound or the tearing pain, nor did he care whether he would die when Jiang Liuxian swung her blade again.

Amidst the flying wood shavings, he suddenly turned around and drew his bowstring again, determined to use his life to buy that armored soldier a chance at life. That soldier saved a hundred people; it was worth exchanging his own life for the other's.

But this time, before the bowstring was fully drawn, his hard bow snapped from the bow's waist.

Hong Zuer was stunned, Jiang Liuxian's blade had actually cracked the bow in mid-air, unable to withstand the force of drawing again.

He looked up to see Jiang Liuxian, who had just lost track of Chen Ji, leaping onto a pine tree branch, using the moonlight to search for Chen Ji's figure.

Jiang Liuxian, clad in purple, held her long knife upside down behind her, standing poised on the pine branch against the wind, a round moon by her ear, as if the radiance was her own halo.

Transcendent and unworldly.

As Hong Zuer pondered his next move, Jiang Liuxian spoke calmly: "The last time I left Chongli Pass, Zhang Lanjin gave me a way out; I spare your life. Go back and tell him, Jiang Liuxian has repaid the debt to Chongli Pass."

Hong Zuer laughed bitterly: "My life's worthless, not worthy of being repaid for your Chongli Pass debt. Just kill me with one blade, I should have died long ago."

Jiang Liuxian's gaze finally found Chen Ji again: "The Night Patrol from the border town, if you are alive, someone must have died for you. Instead of pondering, live well for them."

With that, she leaped down the branch and chased after Chen Ji.

Only then did Hong Zuer have a moment to reach for his back, feeling the exposed ribs through the wound, deep enough to see bone.

He paused for two breaths, then casually wrapped his outer shirt around himself twice to tighten and stop the bleeding, staggering again in pursuit of Jiang Liuxian and Chen Ji.

...

...

Chen Ji escaped from the Tiger's back to the Kiln of White Dew, and then from the Kiln of White Dew to the Kiln of the Guo family.

He could vaguely hear the rushing sound of the Zhengou River, and the footsteps behind him getting closer. He weaved through the trees in the mountain forest, carefully and cautiously dodging the Sword Gang.

Jiang Liuxian's blade, he feared he couldn't even take a single strike.

The next moment, a Sword Gang slashed down.

This slash was no longer fierce, instead, it was like the spring breeze and drizzle during the Qingming season, filling the sky.

Chen Ji felt as if he were running in the spring rain, his body penetrated by the fine drizzle like ox hairs, tiny beads of blood oozing from every part of him, the pain in his organs felt like needles piercing, dyeing his clothes red in an instant.

He couldn't hold on after all and stumbled to the ground.

Chen Ji struggled to get up and continued to flee, his blood stained with leaves and dust, utterly wretched.

No, the next slash would definitely be unavoidable.

Chen Ji gritted his teeth and shouted, "I know an old acquaintance, he has a knife that hasn't been sharpened, I asked him why he hadn't sharpened it, he said there was no need."

This was what he asked Liang Gou'er in the Taiping Medical Hall, now echoing outside Chongli Pass.

Upon hearing these words, Jiang Liuxian's hand that was about to deliver the second slash suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Chen Ji continued to speak while fleeing for his life, distracting Jiang Liuxian: "After you left, he drank every day, good wine when he had money, borrowing to drink when he didn't. When drunk, he would chant 'Liuxian's' name, over and over. I don't know if you've seen him in the Jing Dynasty, if not, you should see him."

Liang Gou'er had many friends, it would be impossible for anyone to ascertain his identity from these few words without probing Liang Gou'er directly. But if Jiang Liuxian still cherished old feelings, these words might carve out a path to survival for him.

As he spoke, Chen Ji finally glimpsed the riverbank through the forest.

There was no one there to meet him, only the rushing river.

But he didn't see Zhang Xia's figure, and instead breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, Jiang Liuxian's paused Heartless Blade finally fell, its Sword Intent increasing rather than diminishing, fiercely resolute. The dazzling blade light brightened the night a bit, as if moonlight illuminated the earth.

Chen Ji's eyes suddenly calmed down.

Jiang Liuxian made a decision, and he also made a decision. Two sword seeds hidden among the treetops floated lightly down, forming a killing force on both sides above Jiang Liuxian's head.

Jiang Liuxian, sensing the murderous intent, slashed upwards, the overwhelming flood of blade light sweeping the two sword seeds dozens of zhang away, and in an instant, fine knife marks appeared on the sword seeds, almost on the verge of shattering.

Then Jiang Liuxian clearly saw the form of the two sword seeds, his pupils narrowing: "Two... No, did you cultivate three sword seeds?"

Chen Ji did not answer, focusing on fleeing, the two wobbly sword seeds returning to the pattern to be nourished.

When the sword seeds were struck by the blade light, he felt his heart and lungs were injured, even his consciousness dimmed with pain for an instant.

This was the first time he encountered a situation where even the simultaneous emergence of three sword seeds was helpless. There was no other way, he had to jump into the Zhengou River as Zhang Xia said for a slim chance of survival.

Jiang Liuxian chased after Chen Ji, speaking in a concentrated voice: "Hand over the Sword Seed Path, hand over your method of cultivating three sword seeds, and I'll spare your life."

Chen Ji ignored him.

Seizing the moment when Jiang Liuxian was halted by the sword seeds, he finally reached the riverside, leaping into the rushing Zhengou River. A Sword Gang attacked from behind, and just as Chen Ji's body was submerging into the white waves of the river, the blade light followed closely.

When the Sword Gang hit the river surface, the river split apart as if severing the flow. Subsequently, at the bottom of the rushing river, a blood-colored splash turned up, and then the river sped up again.

Jiang Liuxian stood quietly by the riverbank watching, but Chen Ji's body did not float up for a long time, disappearing without a trace.

She suddenly looked up, in the darkness of the night, only to see a masked figure on the opposite shore grasping a piece of broken wood, jumping into the river without hesitation. The figure abandoned the broken wood in the river, diving under and vanishing.

Zhang Xia.

When resurfacing, Zhang Xia had one hand passing under Chen Ji's armpit from the back, holding the unconscious Chen Ji as they drifted south, she struggled to kick the water, catching up with that piece of floating wood, until she held onto it, finally exhaling a murky breath: "I've returned a life to you, still owe you once."

Zhang Xia looked down at Chen Ji, seeing his pale complexion, a wound on his shoulder revealing the white of the shoulder blade, she abruptly looked up at Jiang Liuxian on the riverbank, engraving Jiang Liuxian's image deep in her mind.

The river carried Zhang Xia and Chen Ji further and further away, Jiang Liuxian moved into the forest, pursuing southward. She knew the river's course and where to take a shortcut to intercept the two at the next river bend.

But before she could chase far, she saw a white robe blocking her path.

Jiang Liuxian looked at that familiar Bai Long mask, as if facing a formidable enemy.

In the moonlight, in the forest, Xuan Snake and Treasure Monkey, Jiao Tu and Yun Yang stood respectfully behind Bai Long, and behind the Zodiac, there were over a hundred spies with their hands on their waist knives.

Bai Long smiled and instructed, "Everyone, kill this woman, and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, wipe them all out."

Jiang Liuxian turned and fled northward.