Chapter 7

Whoosh!

The squad leader seized the chance to yank the fuse, and the signal arrow rocketed into the sky. With a loud “bang,” it exploded into a burst of brilliant light and blue smoke.

Wei Jing’s sword came just a fraction too late. His eyes narrowed fiercely as, in an instant, his enemy’s head and neck were severed. A torrent of hot blood gushed from the tip of his blade, splattering all over his head and face.

“Husband!”

Despite his fearsome appearance, Shao Qing felt no terror. After scrambling to her feet, she staggered and rushed to his side. In that split second, she had believed she was about to die—but she never expected…

He chose to save her!

Shao Qing’s heart still trembled and she was utterly grateful. There was no time for long thoughts as she cried urgently, “Husband, let’s go quickly!”

Wei Jing looked upward, glancing at the blue smoke in the sky. Gradually, his murderous intent faded. With one arm looping around Shao Qing, he drew in a deep breath and soared forward.

His body temperature was rising, and his complexion looked even worse than moments before. Shao Qing was extremely worried, but she dared not protest; if the pursuing enemy finally managed to encircle them completely, the two of them would be done for.

Especially considering that yesterday’s two or three dozen black-clad assassins were clearly far more skilled than the blue-clad soldiers. If Wei Jing were to face them now, the outcome would likely be fatal.

Wei Jing knew very well that he had to leave this area as soon as possible and go into hiding again.

However, events did not progress smoothly.

…

They pressed on frantically, dispatching another group of blue-clad men. Ahead, among the trees, the shadows gradually thinned—revealing what appeared to be a high slope sloping downward. Wei Jing furrowed his brows, ready to charge down with all his might, when suddenly loud footsteps echoed from up ahead.

“They’re here!”

Chou Zong, leading four or five dozen men, charged headlong up the slope. He was overjoyed when he spotted Wei Jing and immediately barked orders: “Cut him off! Quickly encircle him—fire the signal arrows!”

A signal arrow whooshed up into the sky. Wei Jing abruptly halted his steps and, with a powerful motion, flung Shao Qing upward. His sword hand clenched tightly, and without waiting for her to regain footing, he immediately raised his sword and charged forward.

Two bursts of blood exploded instantly. Clinging to a damp branch, Shao Qing quickly craned her head downward in alarm.

Although the blue-clad fighters were not as skilled as the black-clad ones, there were no fewer than forty or fifty of them before her. And with Wei Jing already at the end of his tether, her heart hammered in terror.

Chou Zong, too, was filled with dread. He had never expected that even a severely injured and poisoned Prince Qi could display such formidable strength—one single leap had already felled five or 6 of his brothers.

Wei Jing suddenly looked up and fixed his gaze on Chou Zong—the very familiar Imperial Guard officer. Chou Zong was his father’s milkbrother and most trusted confidant, originally installed into the Imperial Guards by his uncle’s efforts.

His expression was icy. With a flicker of his sword tip, he deflected two elite attackers from the Imperial Guards who were advancing toward him, and he surged directly toward Chou Zong.

Chou Zong was struck with horror.

In the blink of an eye, he suddenly remembered someone and burst out with a high cry: “The Empress, Empress Fu!”

“How dare you, Prince Qi! Aren’t you going to surrender? Do you not care at all for the safety of Empress Fu in the capital?!” someone roared.

Wei Jing’s actions froze for a moment.

“Husband!” cried Shao Qing.

Overcome with both urgency and anger, Shao Qing watched as Wei Jing hesitated—and in that instant, several splashes of blood burst from his body. Seizing the opportunity, the blue-clad fighters swarmed in.

Disregarding everything else, she shrieked at the top of her lungs:
“Mother has died!!”

“Don’t believe him, husband! He’s deceiving you! On the very day the late emperor passed away, Mother was forced to be sacrificed alongside him!!”

“Mother is already dead!!”

“Ahhhhhh!”

At the sound of Shao Qing’s cry, Wei Jing’s mind erupted with a resounding clash. He let out a sorrowful, enraged roar as his body seemed to vanish from the ground, and his sword flashed like lightning in a continuous arc. In an instant, the innermost circle of his encirclement erupted in a thick spray of blood mist.

“Hurry up! Hold him! He won’t last much longer!”

Wei Jing suddenly exploded into action. His screams of agony filled the air as bodies fell around him. Chou Zong was stricken with fear. As he hastily retreated, he ordered his men to press the attack.

They were so close—just a little longer, and they could hold him off. Reinforcements were only moments away!

But fate was unkind. Whether the Imperial Guards died or fled, after merely twenty or thirty steps had been gained, Wei Jing was already in hot pursuit.

He quickly turned to confront his foes. Yet, like a deathly avenger, the blood-soaked Wei Jing launched a fierce assault. He deflected around a dozen blows before one sword thrust struck his heart squarely. His eyes widened in shock, and his long blade clattered to the ground with a resounding thud.

In the dense forest, corpses lay scattered, their blood staining the yellow earth, which seeped away with the rain. Slowly, Wei Jing retracted his sword tip; with a loud “bang,” Chou Zong fell to the ground, and Wei Jing staggered, coughing up a spurt of fresh blood.

“Husband, husband!” Shao Qing leaped down from the tree. Clambering and rolling, she rushed to his side and supported him. “How are you?” she pleaded.

Wei Jing looked at her blankly, taking a slow moment before finally lowering his gaze. His eyes were bloodshot, his expression still fierce with murderous intent, yet his face had turned as pale as paper.

For reasons he could not explain, Shao Qing began to weep. “Don’t be like this! Even the spirit of your late mother and imperial brother up in heaven wouldn’t want to see you like this!”

Wei Jing was overcome with grief. He shut his eyes tightly, and a single drop—be it rain or a tear—slid down from the corner of his eye.

“At least you’re still reacting,” Shao Qing sobbed, afraid he might lose his senses entirely. “They’re all dead—you must live on for them!”

“Don’t you want to avenge them? Wipe away your hatred for their sake?!”

“If they could see you like this from the heavens, how much sorrow they would feel!”

“Just think of them, think of them!”

Grasping his arms, Shao Qing urged, “We must survive. Let’s leave now, okay?”

Wei Jing fixed his gaze on her, his Adam’s apple bobbing a few times before he finally murmured, “Alright.”

After uttering those words, his body suddenly went weak and collapsed against Shao Qing. She stepped back and barely managed to support him.

Wei Jing panted heavily, with half his body’s weight pressing down on Shao Qing. The sword in his hand wavered and clattered to the ground with a resounding “clang.”

He was already at his limit, and it was no surprise to Shao Qing that he became utterly exhausted after his burst of strength. She quickly picked up a sword and a sturdy branch to serve as a crutch, supporting Wei Jing as they continued forward in uneven, staggering steps.

A signal arrow had been released, and the enemy was already rushing in that direction. Shao Qing was aware of their approach, but whether they were clad in black or blue no longer mattered to her. After all, this life had been merely scavenged, and if Heaven hadn’t bestowed it to her wholeheartedly, then she intended to claim it back.

The two stumbled forward, with wind and rain lashing their faces. Suddenly, they slipped and tumbled straight down the steep slope. At the moment of landing heavily on her buttocks, Shao Qing couldn’t help but curse, yet she immediately clutched Wei Jing to protect both their heads as they rolled downward with a rumbling sound.

“Swish, swish…”

They rolled down the long slope, and luckily, they encountered no jutting rocks. In the end, they crashed heavily into a cluster of low, shrubby bushes at the base of the slope, trampling a wide patch of vegetation until a fallen, withered tree trunk finally brought their descent to a stop.

Shao Qing’s back struck squarely against the tree trunk while Wei Jing collided heavily into her chest and abdomen. In that instant, she felt as if her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were all about to be squeezed out. After a pained cry, she had no time to dwell on it; she pushed Wei Jing away and hurriedly propped herself up, barely managing to sit upright.

Halfway through their tumble, she had caught strange sounds—like the gentle rush of flowing water. At the time, she had ignored it, but now she had anxiously lifted her head, scanning around in every direction.

At the base of the slope lay a barren grassy field about a dozen meters wide. Beyond that, to the left, low trees ascended in dense clusters; to the right, bizarre rock formations of varying heights—the tallest reaching three or four meters and the shortest nearly as tall as a person. Their distribution was uneven, leaving numerous large gaps exposed.

The sound of rushing water came from behind the trees and rocks, and not far ahead, there was a large gap.

“Husband, I’ll go take a look.”

Speaking to the barely awake Wei Jing, Shao Qing got up and dashed to the gap to peer inside. She was immediately stunned.

Beyond the trees and strange rocks stretched a sheer cliff face that plunged another twenty or thirty meters downward, revealing an immense, sweeping river below.

The surging Qian River—wide at five or six zhang—ran through the continuous mountain ranges. Torrential rain had raised the water level, and the current surged turbulently. The yellowish water pounded against the riverbanks and rock walls, churning up waves and producing a rapid “hua hua” sound.

Shao Qing collapsed to her knees.

The hard, icy rock surface, separated from her only by a thin layer of clothing, sent a chill that invaded her knees.

What is this all about?

There was no way forward, and pursuers were closing in from behind.

Is this Heaven’s way of cutting us off?

Shao Qing panted heavily as she looked up at the sky, thick with dark clouds. “After all this striving, can’t we still live?” she wondered.

The river wind swept raindrops sideways, lashing her face with a stinging “pitter-patter” that made her wince. In that moment, her resolve hardened.

“If it’s death either way, why not go all out?!”

“I’d rather be buried in the great river than suffer the pain of that kiss on my neck!”

“At worst, it’s just one death—nothing is too great a risk. Besides, in our current situation, our chance of survival by risking it is even higher than if we do nothing.”

Suddenly composed, Shao Qing quickly rose and returned to Wei Jing’s side. He had already managed to sit up against a tree trunk, gasping for air. After taking a few deep breaths, he asked in a low voice, “Is it the Qian River?”

“Yes,” she replied.

Helping him to his feet, Shao Qing staggered and made her way to the gap among the strange rocks, seating him there. Then she swiftly turned back, using her sword to cut several long strands of pliable vine. She bound the half-withered tree trunk—on which Wei Jing had just been resting—with the vines and dragged it forcefully toward this side.

She wasn’t sure what kind of tree it was, but it was obvious that the ferocious winds had snapped it off from the top of the slope long ago. Its sparse branches had withered and even rotted away; with little effort, she pared it down to a straight trunk over a person’s height.

Though Shao Qing was determined to meet death if needed, she would not give up struggling until the end. She cut strips of cloth and securely tied her and Wei Jing’s arms to the trunk. She fastened his sword to it as well and then added extra vine for good measure.

Minutes passed as signal arrows exploded continuously in the sky. By the time Shao Qing finally pushed the tree trunk to the very edge of the gap, in the corner of her eye she saw the trees atop the slope swaying—and dark shapes bursting forth.

She helped Wei Jing up again, holding him in one arm while gripping the tree trunk tightly with the other. “Husband, are you afraid?” she asked.

Wei Jing kept his eyes on her every movement. The cloth and vine held his arms in place, and he made no protest; lowering his head, he stared at her pallid face and said, “Not afraid.”

“Good.”

Taking a deep breath, Shao Qing declared, “If we are to die, then let’s die together!”

Could it really be that they would share life and death? In this desperate moment, he still had one companion he could lean on.

Wei Jing squeezed his arm as tightly as he dared and quietly agreed, “Alright.”

At that very moment, the black-clad foes were sprinting toward them. Several flashes of ethereal silver light arced in their direction. Shao Qing fixed her cold gaze on the incoming enemies and forcefully leaned back.

Then, with an earth-shaking “bang,” their body and soul leaped into the surging river.