Moonlight.

Moonlight draped the nocturnal mountain forest in a hazy glow.

A beam of moonlight pierced through the branches and leaves, illuminating a patch of decaying leaves on the ground, turning them silver-white.

The next moment, a foot stepped into the moonlight, crushing both the light and the decaying leaves.

Chen Ji fled, panting, as the sound of startled birds erupted behind him.

Crows typically go to sleep within half an hour after sunset and sleep until dawn.

They would never take to the sky unless danger was present.

Chen Ji stood on the hillside and looked back, seeing flock after flock of birds startled into flight.

The birds flying into the sky seemed to form a straight line, pointing angrily at him.

It was as if a formidable war chariot was traversing mountains, crossing ridges, and tearing through the forest, coming to kill him.

Why was their target so clear?

Chen Ji subconsciously glanced down at the wound on his wrist; the bleeding had long stopped, but the wound had not yet healed.

He recalled how the previous Wu Chang soldier had fought desperately to leave a wound on him, suggesting this might be the key to how the Wu Chang soldiers could track him directly.

Chen Ji continued to flee north. He had been running for a day, and his legs ached and swelled.

Yet, the Wu Chang soldiers behind him were like clusters of flames that never tired and never extinguished.

The startled birds behind him grew closer. The Wu Chang soldiers made no attempt to conceal themselves, as if they didn’t care whether Chen Ji noticed their arrival.

Chen Ji heard footsteps behind him. He turned to look and saw that the Wu Chang soldiers wielding bone spears were the fastest: the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers.

The “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers, bone spears in hand, gradually outflanked him from both sides, until Chen Ji could hear their footsteps crushing the forest floor.

Just then, one of the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers lunged out of the forest at an angle, moving much faster than Chen Ji.

In the moonlit forest, the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier ran ahead, dragging his bone spear, while Chen Ji followed behind.

With one in front and one behind, it paradoxically looked as if Chen Ji was chasing the Wu Chang soldier.

The next moment, the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier suddenly twisted his body, executing a reverse spear thrust!

His arms stretched like a bow, and the bone spear passed close to his chest like an arrow. This reverse spear thrust, like thunder and dragon, lunged towards Chen Ji’s face!

But the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier was suddenly startled!

As if Chen Ji had known the trajectory of the reverse spear thrust in advance, he lightly leaped, then floated down onto the tip of the spear. Chen Ji crouched on the spear tip, holding his bow in his left hand, with the string fully drawn in his right.

With a snap, the bowstring vibrated, and the feathered arrow pierced through the eye socket of the bone mask.

Chen Ji leaped again from the bone spear, passing over the head of the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier, and continued his frantic sprint northward without stopping.

Behind him, the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier remained frozen in the posture of his reverse spear thrust, then disintegrated into white ash, scattering in the moonlight.

The instant the wild fire in the Wu Chang soldier’s eyes extinguished, a molten flow passed from him into Chen Ji’s body: the 567th and 568th furnace fires were ignited.

This was the ninth Wu Chang soldier Chen Ji had killed, and the eighteenth furnace fire he had acquired.

No one knew that when the Wu Chang soldiers appeared, the furnace fires within Chen Ji’s body began to pulsate wildly, and an icy current surged ceaselessly in his dantian.

He could see the wild fires in the eyes of the Wu Chang soldiers. Even across mountains and forests, those clusters of wild fire were like someone brazenly carrying torches in the dark.

When Chen Ji led the Wu Chang soldiers before the Prince, he hid beneath a large rock, most worried that the Wu Chang soldiers could also see the furnace fires on him. Yet, while he could see theirs, they could not see his.

Each time he killed a Wu Chang soldier, the wild fire in their eyes would flow into his body like a molten stream, igniting two furnace fires. This was the first time he had obtained a molten flow from anything other than ginseng, as if… as if those fires originally belonged to him.

From the dawn of creation, they belonged to him. Chen Ji didn’t know where these Wu Chang soldiers came from, nor why their wild fires ignited the furnace fires within him. He just felt a strange melancholy, as if they had known each other for a very long time.

They had known each other since the dawn of creation. As he pondered, a horn sounded behind him, its call desolate, heavy, yet grand and imposing. The clusters of wild fire in the forest flared wildly.

Chen Ji had no time to ponder further and continued his flight north.

As Chen Ji sprinted, his right hand touched the last two feathered arrows in his quiver at his waist, and he formed a plan.

While thinking, he suddenly drew his bowstring.

The feathered arrow flew straight into the shadows diagonally ahead, striking the Wu Chang soldier ambushed there and causing him to dissipate into white smoke.

The tenth!

The Wu Chang soldiers behind Chen Ji had been closing in with intimidating momentum, intending to create pressure and distract him, thereby giving their comrades lying in ambush ahead a chance to strike. However, Chen Ji seemed to possess foresight, rendering the ambush useless.

Just as Chen Ji was about to pass a large tree, a Wu Chang soldier wielding a simple dao flashed out from behind it and brought his blade down.

Chen Ji, again with foresight, sidestepped in advance to avoid the blade. As he brushed past, the feathered arrow in his hand smoothly pierced the opponent’s jaw.

The eleventh.

The feathered arrows were all used up.

His Whale Blade was still at Chen Manor’s Ginkgo Garden. He hadn’t been able to bring it when he suddenly left for Chun. Along the way, the only weapons he had were the twelve feathered arrows he had taken from the Eastern Palace’s attendants.

Now, not a single feathered arrow remained. In the forest, someone blew a horn; the call was urgent and wild. As the horn call faded, the Wu Chang soldiers seemed to know that Chen Ji had run out of arrows, and they all began to close in.

Nine “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers, carrying bone spears, outflanked him from both wings—four on the left, five on the right. They sprinted through the forest, bent low, like a pack of cheetahs.

As they gradually overtook Chen Ji, another whistle suddenly sounded, and the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” soldiers on both sides abruptly converged on Chen Ji, like two palms clapping together, aiming to trap him in the middle.

However, at that moment, thin, bamboo-leaf-like black sword seeds glided out from Chen Ji’s tattoos. They moved along his skin, then emerged from his sleeves.

In the darkness, the black sword seeds were traceless; only the sound of them tearing through the air could be heard.

The instant the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers were about to complete their encirclement, a black sword seed, like a viper flicking its tongue, pierced through the eye of a bone mask.

The twelfth!

The sword seed rapidly spun in the air and darted towards another “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” soldier’s bone mask. The opponent’s movement suddenly halted, and he raised his bone spear to block.

The black iron sword seeds were not as fast as feathered arrows. With the opponent prepared, he immediately had a countermeasure, and the bone spear clashed with the sword seed, producing a metallic clang!

The sword seed was repelled without effect.

Fortunately, these two strikes had forcibly created a gap in the encirclement, and Chen Ji barely managed to break through the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers’ siege.

Strangely, the Wu Chang soldiers behind him paused in bewilderment.

In Chen Ji’s perception, each Wu Chang soldier stopped in place, no longer giving chase, as if they had witnessed something inconceivable.

Someone hesitantly asked, “Is it a sword seed?” The “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” soldier who had blocked a strike with his bone spear looked down at it. Staring at the sword mark on the spear, he stated with absolute certainty, “It is a sword seed!”

The “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldiers suddenly erupted: “Sword seed!”

“It’s a sword seed!”

Horns sounded, four calls rising and falling in succession, and the clusters of wild fire stirred restlessly.

Chen Ji was startled when he heard the words “sword seed.”

He had assumed these Wu Chang soldiers wouldn’t recognize sword seeds, so he had deliberately used up his feathered arrows, intending to use the sword seeds as his ultimate strike. But he hadn’t expected them to recognize the sword seeds immediately upon seeing them!

Strange, where did these Wu Chang soldiers come from, and how did they know about sword seeds?

At this moment, a centurion approached the “Fanning-Altars-and-Razing-Temples” Wu Chang soldier. His fingers, covered in lividity, carefully traced the bone spear, and the wild fire in his eyes pulsed madly. “It is a sword seed,” he stated.

The Wu Chang soldiers roared: “Kill him!”

The centurion abruptly raised his head, looking at Chen Ji’s retreating figure. “A sword seed wielder, no wonder he has the style of the Fengzi Battalion. It wasn’t a misconception earlier; it’s indeed a skill passed down from the Fengzi Battalion. Strange, wasn’t the Fengzi Battalion wiped out?”

The Wu Chang soldiers gathered around the centurion, shouting in unison: “Kill him or not?!”

The centurion sneered, “Kill him, dismember him, and bury him in the four fields. Otherwise, our hatred will not be appeased!”

As his words fell, the Wu Chang soldiers swarmed out, chasing in the direction Chen Ji had fled.

The centurion, holding his long saber, gazed at the distant mountains and observed the terrain. He silently made two hand gestures to the two “Soul-Collecting-and-Taboo-Establishing” Wu Chang soldiers beside him. The “Soul-Collecting-and-Taboo-Establishing” Wu Chang soldiers immediately split into two groups, holding white bone banners, and set off with determination.

As Chen Ji fled, he felt as if the Wu Chang soldiers behind him had gone mad. Those clusters of wild fire pursued him like a torrent, and two more fires moved around the mountains from the left and right, seemingly aiming to cut off his path, moving with extreme speed.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that there might be some misunderstanding, or perhaps he was bearing someone else’s grievances. But the Wu Chang soldiers would never give him a chance to explain.

Stopping to explain now would be tantamount to putting his life in someone else’s hands.

Chen Ji sensed the two clusters of wild fire outflanking him and moved east along the hillside, trying to avoid them. But as soon as he turned, he heard the horn sound again behind him, and the two clusters of wild fire also changed direction.

Relentless.

Chen Ji looked up at the sky; the moon was at its zenith, and dawn would break in another two hours.

He quickly pondered in his mind: These Wu Chang soldiers surely wouldn’t exist forever. How long would he have to stall until they dissipated?

He couldn’t be certain, so he couldn’t pin his hopes on that.

Chen Ji quickly observed the terrain again. This was Tiyun Peak of Xiangshan Mountain, and further north was Qingyun Peak of Xishan Mountain, where the Qingxue Pavilion of Xishan stood.

Was there any advantageous terrain ahead he could use? If he could defend a strategic location, like he did at Dragon Gate Inn, there might still be a glimmer of hope.

But he was unfamiliar with the area and had no idea where he could hold out.

Rely on sword seeds? Sword seeds were cunning and deadly, perfect for piercing the wild fires in the Wu Chang soldiers’ eyes, but black iron sword seeds were not as fast as feathered arrows and too easily blocked.

Wait.

Xuanyuan had once spoken of a sword-hiding place: “Where the mountain’s red leaves have all fallen, the stone turtle embraces the sword.”

In autumn, the Smoke Trees (Huanglu) of Xiangshan Mountain cover the entire mountain in red leaves, don’t they? Many people mistakenly think Xiangshan’s red leaves refer to maple leaves, but that’s not the case. Xiangshan’s red leaves are the beautiful scenery created by the Smoke Trees’ round leaves turning red in autumn.

But “where all have fallen,” what does this clue point to?

Does it refer to the edge of Xiangshan Mountain? If so, the area would be too vast; he’d have to walk all the way around Xiangshan.

No!

No!

Smoke Trees prefer warmth, so in Xiangshan, they only grow on the sunny south slopes, while the shady slopes are mostly covered in pine trees. Consequently, Smoke Trees are mostly found on the mountain slopes and at the foot of the mountain, while the peaks are covered in pine trees.

Therefore, the sword-hiding place must be either at the mountain peak or on a shady slope.

Chen Ji pondered Xuanyuan’s last phrase: “Stone turtle devours sword.” Stone turtle sculptures are typically found at the foot of mountains, at mountain gates, or at panoramic viewpoints on mountain tops, serving as pedestals for steles…

The sword-hiding place is at the mountain peak!