On the rugged mountain path, A-Sheng was carried by a startled warhorse, galloping towards Chongli Guan.

He looked back and saw Chen Ji disappearing into the forest, hiding behind a pine tree.

Seeing that Chen Ji was unarmed, A-Sheng wanted to unfasten his hard bow and short knife to throw to Chen Ji, but the warhorse had already carried him around the mountain hollow, and Chen Ji was no longer in sight.

Hong Zu-Er, lying weakly on the horse’s back, asked, “What’s wrong with that kid? Do you know him?”

A-Sheng, while calming the warhorse, replied, “He’s a noble son who just arrived here. His kesi robes alone are worth hundreds of taels of silver. But when I asked him if he wanted to buy military merit, he said no, preferring to squeeze in with others. Ah-Si Ge said he has a good temper; he didn’t get angry even when publicly humiliated… Oh, and he also asked how to become a Ye Bu-Shou. I didn’t take it seriously yesterday.”

“Only confident people don’t get angry. Not buying military merit means he has the skill and doesn’t need to buy it; he can earn it himself,” the warhorse’s jostling made Hong Zu-Er grunt. He said hoarsely, “Put me down. Go back quickly to assist him. That Zuo Sheng Jiang behind us is sinister and vicious. Don’t let that kid lose his life for us.”

A-Sheng hesitated, “Go back now?”

Hong Zu-Er became stern, “Don’t you want to be a Ye Bu-Shou? This is a Ye Bu-Shou’s fate. If you’re afraid of death, don’t be a Ye Bu-Shou!”

A-Sheng whispered, “Dad, I’m not afraid of death. I’ll protect you back to the pass, and then immediately go…”

Hong Zu-Er angrily said, “I told you already, don’t call me Dad! I’m not your dad!”

A-Sheng mumbled, “Fine, I’ll go, why so fierce?”

Hong Zu-Er softened his tone and said weakly, “If he lacks skill, you can assist him, see if you can save him and bring him back to the pass. If he truly has ability… please ask him to go and assist your Bai-Zi Shu. Your Bai-Zi Shu and Xing-Xing are trapped in Liutiao Gou.”

A-Sheng was startled. He quickly calmed the warhorse, then dismounted.

He said to Zhang Tong-Gou, who was fleeing behind him, “Tong-Gou Ge, please take Hong Ye back. There will be a generous reward afterward!”

Zhang Tong-Gou quickly said, “No need for rewards. Be careful yourself.”

A-Sheng handed the reins to Zhang Tong-Gou and instructed, “Go back and first ask Zhou Shu to help Hong Ye treat his arrow wound. The arrow is poisoned, only he knows how to cure it. If you delay for another half an hour, even immortals can’t save him.”

Zhang Tong-Gou hastily said, “Understood.”

A-Sheng took off the hard bow from his back and went into the forest alone.

At this moment, the sound of hooves grew closer.

Chen Ji hid behind a pine tree, holding his breath and concentrating. Suddenly, a hurried whistling sound came from behind him.

Chen Ji lunged sideways, and an arrow was lodged in the pine tree where he had just been hiding, its shaft vibrating violently.

It wasn’t just one arrow.

Before Chen Ji could land, two more arrows followed like shadows, chasing Chen Ji’s figure and embedding themselves in the tree. The last one narrowly grazed his right thigh, tearing a hole in his trousers but not injuring his skin.

Chen Ji rolled on the ground and got up, hiding behind a tree, breathing slightly.

The sound of the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s hooves finally arrived. He watched the warhorse pass on the rugged path outside the forest, but the saddle was empty.

This Zuo Sheng Jiang had abandoned his horse early on, using the sound of hooves to attract attention, while he himself circled around to flank.

Chen Ji had deliberately not asked A-Sheng for weapons. He thought being unarmed would make the Zuo Sheng Jiang careless, but he didn’t expect the opponent to be so vigilant, using full strength even when hunting a rabbit.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang was already in the Xiantian realm and was still so adept at strategy. No wonder the infantry of Chongli Guan spoke of them with fear. If Chen Ji had reacted even slightly slower just now, he might have been pinned to the tree.

He listened quietly to the movements in the forest, trying to judge where the Zuo Sheng Jiang would approach from.

But after a long wait, the forest remained silent, as if the Zuo Sheng Jiang had retreated after one failed attack.

He turned his head again to look at the arrows not far away, judging the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s position and the arrows’ force: the arrows came from the east, and three arrows penetrated the wood only an inch… To achieve rapid firing, the opponent was using an Ba Dou Qi Gong.

Chen Ji pondered for a moment, then suddenly ran north.

An arrow shot out from the shadows. Chen Ji changed his stance and actually moved towards the arrow.

The arrow came head-on. Chen Ji stared intently at the arrow’s direction, reached out, and actually caught the arrow in his hand, then threw it back.

Chen Ji chased behind the arrow, rushing towards where the arrow had come from. By the time he arrived, the spot was already empty.

The opponent had immediately changed position after firing one arrow.

Before he could stand firm, an arrow shot from the left. He instinctively dodged backward. But before his foot could land firmly, another arrow shot from the right, landing exactly where he would have stepped, aiming straight for his waist and abdomen.

There were actually two Zuo Sheng Jiang!

One of them had been hidden for so long that even Hong Zu-Er and A-Sheng hadn’t noticed!

Four words suddenly came to Chen Ji’s mind: sinister and vicious.

Fighting these two Zuo Sheng Jiang was a constant trap of psychological warfare; a slight misstep would lead to being outwitted.

The next moment, an arrow struck from the right. Chen Ji fell in response, losing all sound.

The forest returned to silence until dozens of breaths later, when the calls of orioles came from the mountains, one on the left, one on the right, signaling something to each other.

When the orioles’ calls ceased, a Zuo Sheng Jiang stood up from the bushes.

He slung his long bow onto his back, looked up into the distance, and watched as his comrade drew his bowstring and aimed at the bushes where Chen Ji had fallen. Only then did he slowly approach, drawing the short knife from his waist.

Extremely cautious.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang crept to where Chen Ji had fallen, and was suddenly startled. Where was Chen Ji’s figure on the ground?

There were no bloodstains either.

A trap!

The wind whistled. Chen Ji suddenly rose from the bushes ahead, throwing the arrow he had just caught with his bare hands, aiming at the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s face.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang bent backward, performing an Iron Bridge, letting the arrow fly over his face.

A sudden change occurred!

As the Zuo Sheng Jiang bent backward, the soil on the ground suddenly loosened, and a bronze sword-seed buried within it shot out.

By the time the Zuo Sheng Jiang realized something was wrong, it was too late to dodge.

The sword-seed flew past his neck, then disappeared into the bushes.

Blood spurted from the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s neck. Before he died, he couldn’t even see what had killed him. His comrade, obscured by the bushes, also couldn’t see why he had fallen.

The sword-seed vanished in a flash.

Since Chen Ji had cultivated three bronze sword-seeds on the summit of Xianglu Feng, he hadn’t used them when killing Liao Zhong, nor when breaking through the encirclement to return to the capital. Each time, he was cautious and restrained, fearing that the head of the Jing Chao Wu Miao would catch wind of it and come to kill him.

Now, outside Chongli Guan, with a certainty of killing, there was no need to hide them anymore.

Just as Chen Ji made his move, the other Zuo Sheng Jiang also released his fingers. The arrow left the bowstring but missed its target.

He turned and ran. Chen Ji no longer concealed himself, chasing into the forest, the sword-seed trailing along the ground beside him, passing through clumps of bushes.

Just as the Zuo Sheng Jiang was about to cross a small hill, he actually turned back and fired another arrow. After releasing the bowstring, he even threw the bow at Chen Ji.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang drew his waist knife, using the advantage of the slope to fight to the death. But Chen Ji did not engage in close combat with him, instead retreating again.

One advanced, one retreated, galloping on the mountain path.

Suddenly, Chen Ji’s back hit a pine tree, stopping him.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang’s heart pounded. An opportunity!

He raised his knife to strike, but he saw no panic on Chen Ji’s face, only a direct stare.

Something was wrong!

In a flash, a bronze sword-seed weaved through the branches of the bushes, piercing towards the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s Achilles tendon.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang reacted extremely quickly, lifting his foot to avoid it, and cried out in surprise, “Sword-seed?!”

He gritted his teeth, ignoring this sword-seed, and actually, in a desperate attempt to trade his life, slashed at Chen Ji’s head. But he didn’t notice that two more sword-seeds were striking beside him.

The next moment, just as the long knife in the Zuo Sheng Jiang’s hand was about to strike Chen Ji, one sword-seed pierced his lower back and exited his front abdomen; one pierced his left rib and exited his right rib; the previously dodged sword-seed spun in the air, pierced the left side of his neck, and exited the right side of his neck.

It was early morning. Sunlight projected from afar, passing through the tree canopy, and beams of light shone on the Zuo Sheng Jiang.

The three sword-seeds intertwined like swimming dragons. The Zuo Sheng Jiang’s figure, in the rising morning sun, seemed to explode, blood splattering everywhere, also splashing onto Chen Ji.

The sword-seed pathway was indeed the world’s number one official pathway.

It was also the fastest pathway to kill.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang’s knife deviated, he staggered a step, and the blade cut into the tree trunk, stopping an inch above Chen Ji’s topknot.

The sword-seeds flew back to Chen Ji like meteors, drilling into his clothes along his sleeve and returning to the patterns between his ribs.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang released the knife handle, slowly knelt to the ground, coughing blood, and mumbled indistinctly, “How could this be?”

Chen Ji stood before him, looking down at the wide-eyed Zuo Sheng Jiang, feeling a faint icy current flow into his Dantian.

All the wounds on the corpse were straight through. If anyone asked, he wouldn’t need to answer; the Nei Xiang would naturally assume it was caused by Zheyun Jian Qi.

But a problem arose: the military merits of ordinary infantry could be proven with ears, but how should a Zuo Sheng Jiang’s be proven?

If it was just cutting off an ear, how could it be proven that the Zuo Sheng Jiang was a Zuo Sheng Jiang?

A-Sheng, holding his hard bow, leaped through the forest, his eyes vigilantly scanning his surroundings.

As he got closer to Chen Ji’s location, he pricked up his ears but heard no sounds of fighting, not even the birds in the forest were making a sound.

Had the fighting ended?

A-Sheng came to within ten zhang, crouched behind bushes, quietly observed, and only approached again after confirming no one was around.

He saw Chen Ji’s hiding place, looked at the arrows pinned to the pine tree, then shifted his gaze to the two arrows behind them, as if he could imagine Chen Ji dodging the arrows, causing them to miss.

The Zuo Sheng Jiang ambushed and fired repeatedly, but that noble son actually dodged them?

What excellent skill.

A-Sheng looked down at the broken grass stems on the ground, followed the tracks, and then saw a Zuo Sheng Jiang lying on his back in a pool of blood, eyes open to the sky.

Dead?

That noble son actually killed a Zuo Sheng Jiang?

But strangely, since he had killed the Zuo Sheng Jiang, where had the noble son from the capital gone?

As he pondered, footsteps and a strange dragging sound came from the north, like someone slowly moving, dragging a piece of prey.

A-Sheng instinctively drew his bow and nocked an arrow, but then heard Chen Ji’s voice from ahead: “It’s me.”

He lowered the arrow-head, and saw Chen Ji’s figure, dragging a Zuo Sheng Jiang by the ankle, slowly emerging from the forest.