Chapter 144: Flaw | Thanh Sơn

Thanh Sơn - Updated on June 26, 2025

Two heads fell.

Chen Ji saw from afar that the tavern was drenched in blood. The previously bustling street instantly fell silent, as if frozen in fear.

Mr. Feng, dressed in a green robe, sat calmly on his horse. Not a drop of blood had splattered on him, yet he exuded a strong scent of blood. In this world, it was never the warriors who loved killing the most, but the scholars.

The lamplight inside the tavern illuminated the portraits. Chen Ji was startled to realize that every single one of them was a depiction of him. With just a few strokes, his likeness had been captured vividly, with his distinctive features clearly outlined.

So, the Liu family had intended to kill him from the very beginning.

Why?

It must be that the things he did for the Secret Service had been exposed. The Liu family intended to make an example of him.

Chen Ji turned and retreated into the distance, preparing to escape with the Crown Prince and Bai Li, but then he gradually slowed his pace.

There were likely thousands of soldiers in this small town. If they searched everywhere, he, along with Bai Li, the Crown Prince, and Zhang Xia, wouldn’t be able to get far.

He turned his head and glanced in the direction where the Crown Prince and the others were hiding. It was too far, and he could only vaguely make out the tall blast furnace chimneys of the ironworks rising into the night sky.

The tavern’s lights and the soldiers’ rallying shouts intertwined around him.

The next moment, Chen Ji snapped back to reality and walked in the opposite direction.

After walking for an unknown distance, he arrived at a small noodle shop and waved to the owner: “Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles, please.”

The shopkeeper, who was wiping a table, draped the towel over his arm and asked with a smile, “What kind of noodles would you like, honored guest?”

Chen Ji found a wooden table by the door and sat down: “Any kind of noodles will do, as long as they’re hot.”

“Coming right up!”

A moment later, the shopkeeper placed a bowl of pig intestine noodles in front of Chen Ji.

Outside, there was the din of military chaos, but Chen Ji, inside the noodle shop, didn’t spare a glance outside. He let the soldiers run past the entrance.

He didn’t mind the heat; he picked up his chopsticks and slurped a large mouthful of noodles into his mouth.

After the first bite, Chen Ji let out a long sigh of contentment: “Delicious.”

After a day of fleeing, being able to eat a hot bowl of pig intestine noodles was one of life’s happiest moments.

With one mouthful of noodles, his body seemed to warm up.

Chen Ji finished the noodles in a few bites, then gazed somewhat reluctantly at the red broth in the bowl.

He really wanted to drink all the soup, but if he did, he wouldn’t be able to run.

He sighed softly: “What a pity.”

The shopkeeper looked puzzled: “Honored guest, what’s a pity?”

“Nothing!”

Chen Ji grinned. He tossed a piece of broken silver onto the table: “Shopkeeper, here’s for the noodles.”

The shopkeeper was momentarily stunned, then discreetly slipped the silver into his sleeve. “Honored guest,” he said, “my shop’s noodles are inexpensive; you’ve given too much silver. I’ll go next door and get some copper coins for your change.”

Chen Ji smiled and waved his hand: “Go ahead.”

Once the shopkeeper had left, he took another look at the noodle soup. Then he stood up and walked along the cinder path toward the encampment fence in the northeast, picking up his pace as he went, until he was finally running.

The shopkeeper returned to the noodle shop with several soldiers. “Gentlemen,” he said, “that young man is still in my shop, waiting for his change. … Oh, where is he?”

A soldier cursed and kicked the shopkeeper to the ground: “You dare to play tricks on me?”

The shopkeeper hastily said, “He was just here; he couldn’t have gone far.”

With that, he looked around. He then saw Chen Ji’s figure lightly leaping over a wooden fence: “There!”

The soldiers turned their heads and watched Chen Ji run into the dense mountain forest. They immediately shouted loudly, “Found him! Over here! Chase!”

More and more troops gathered to the northeast, pursuing Chen Ji along his escape route. They swarmed like locusts, covering the land.

In the moonlit mountains, the dry, barren trees offered no hiding place. Hundreds of soldiers rushed in, but Chen Ji was nowhere to be found.

A soldier stepped on the soft, decaying leaves and drew his waist knife. He cautiously searched forward.

However, just as the soldier turned his head to look left, Chen Ji suddenly darted out from behind a tree trunk on the right, swiftly drawing his knife across the soldier’s neck.

The blade shallowly grazed the carotid artery in the neck, as light as a cool breeze touching the skin.

As the soldier clutched his neck and looked back, Chen Ji had already brushed past him and vanished behind another tree trunk.

By the time the others discovered him, blood was gushing from between his fingers.

He only managed to point towards the tree trunk where Chen Ji had hidden before collapsing unwillingly onto the decaying leaves.

“Over here!”

Two soldiers shouted as they moved to flank the tree trunk from both sides.

They exchanged a glance, then leaped forward together. Their two long blades crossed like scissors as they hacked out.

The two long blades struck the tree trunk with a dull thud. They looked closely: where was anyone behind the tree trunk?

“No, wait.”

Their eyes blurred. They saw Chen Ji leap down from the tree, lightly stepping on the blades they had jammed into the tree trunk, and then crouching.

The two soldiers looked up in astonishment, staring fixedly at Chen Ji crouching on their blades.

A gust of wind swept through the mountains, rustling the decaying leaves piled on the ground.

The Chen Ji in their eyes stared back, devoid of emotion, only cold calculation remaining. “Call for help,” he said.

The two soldiers were instantly terrified, a chill rising from their tailbones and racing all the way to their scalps.

“Help, he’s here.”

“Help.”

The two soldiers loosened their grip on their sword hilts and retreated. But before their raised feet could fully leave the ground, Chen Ji casually swung his blade, leaving a trail of blood across both their necks.

With another leap, Chen Ji stepped on the blades stuck in the tree trunk, vaulted over the two men, and disappeared into the forest without a backward glance.

These two cries for help finally alerted everyone. Hundreds of soldiers trampled the faded, decaying leaves, frantically chasing Chen Ji’s retreating figure.

Strangely, they could clearly see Chen Ji’s trail. Yet, they couldn’t catch up.

It was as if a fixed distance was always maintained between them, neither too close nor too far.

Every time the soldiers felt they were about to lose him, Chen Ji’s retreating figure would gradually become clear again.

The next moment, Chen Ji, who had climbed to the top of the hill and was about to go over the ridge, suddenly paused for a brief second.

He turned and cast a deep glance at the military town behind him before setting off again, disappearing behind the mountain.

In the military town, Mr. Feng led dozens of black-clad retainers to the front of the noodle shop.

He lightly dismounted, held up his robe, and entered the noodle shop. He sat down at the table where Chen Ji had been sitting earlier.

The bowl Chen Ji had eaten from had not yet been cleared away.

He smiled broadly at the shopkeeper and said, “Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles, exactly like the one that young man had earlier.”

The shopkeeper tremblingly cooked and brought over a bowl of pig intestine noodles. Mr. Feng took a bite and exclaimed loudly, “Delicious! Did that young man praise it earlier?”

The shopkeeper whispered, “Yes, he did praise it.”

Mr. Feng ate all the noodles clean. A black-clad attendant handed him a pristine silk handkerchief, with which he wiped his mouth. He then tossed the handkerchief onto the ground.

Next, he looked at Chen Ji’s bowl.

After a moment of thought, Mr. Feng compared his bowl with Chen Ji’s. Then he picked up Chen Ji’s bowl and took a sip of the soup. “The taste is the same,” he mused. “Can a person, starving for a day and fleeing for a day, resist drinking this hot noodle soup?”

Mr. Feng muttered to himself: “A meticulous person. How could he have given himself away over such a small thing as a wooden tally?”

With that, he stood up and exited.

A black-clad retainer asked, “Mr. Feng, shall we pursue him?”

Mr. Feng swung himself onto his horse and laughed heartily: “That young man deliberately revealed a flaw here. He must be trying to cover the tracks of the Crown Prince and Princess. Send men to continue searching the military town; the Crown Prince and Princess should still be here.”

The black-clad retainer asked, “So, are we still pursuing this young man?”

Mr. Feng spurred his horse in the direction Chen Ji had fled. “Pursue him. Why wouldn’t we? Grandfather is waiting to take his head to accompany the Second Master in burial. He is the most important quarry.”

Back to the novel Thanh Sơn

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第114章 酝酿(感谢'百里彤雲'的盟主)

Chapter 144: Flaw

Thanh Sơn - June 26, 2025

Chapter 96: Morosa’s Body Refining Method

Chapter 113: Pre-Match Breakthrough, Sky Pillar

Chapter 143: Accompanying Burial

Thanh Sơn - June 26, 2025

Chapter 112: Victory and Defeat