Chapter 723: Fleeing

Nie Zeng still remembered Tie Linglong as a rude and unreasonable little girl with green eyes who had left a cut on his chest at their first meeting. Although the wound wasn’t very deep, it had still taken him several months to fully recover. And when the Dragon King asked them to take Hu Shining as their Master, only she had successfully escaped in secret.

This was what had happened during the summer of two years ago. At that time, Nie Zeng had only had a fearless heart and mediocre saber techniques, but now he was Hu Shining’s favorite disciple and would not be cut again so easily.

Chu Nanping was a good person, but that was all. During the days they trained together, he seldom communicated with others and insisted on using a long sword instead of a saber. Although his martial arts skills were good, he was not very popular at all.

In short, Nie Zeng didn’t like these two people.

It was him who had kidnapped the captive, and he would not let those he disliked take his captive away.

A swarm of soldiers came over. Nie Zeng jumped onto the palisade and pursued the two ‘robbers’ with all his strength. Arrows came from behind him, but he just ran even faster instead of turning around to block them.

The two people in front of him had very good lightness skills. Chu Nanping ran very fast even with one person on his shoulder while Tie Linglong, who was more like a light colt, leaped very far every time she jumped, not worrying about the danger of landing at all.

“I’m not inferior to you two,” Nie Zeng muttered and became even more determined to prove that the ones who had started practicing martial arts earlier might not be better at kung fu than those who started later.

Tie Linglong suddenly halted and slashed out as fast as lightning.

This move was out of Nie Zeng’s expectations, but instead of stopping, he leaped forward and also struck out with a blow without trying to defend at all.

Tie Linglong was taken aback. This kid had average sabersmanship but fought like a desperate gangster, which wasn’t the Dragon King’s style at all.

She chose to retreat. Then she pulled off the mask and coldly looked at Nie Zeng, “Looks like you’ve been practicing hard these past two years.”

Nie Zeng was stupefied. This wasn’t the green-eyed little girl of his memories, but instead a pretty teenage girl. The only thing that remained unchanged was her cold and arrogant expression, which was just as annoying as before. “Give him back to me.”

Tie Linglong turned to glance at the shaman on Chu Nanping’s shoulder before replying, “We found him first. Why would we give him to you?”

Chu Nanping put down the captive and said, “Either way, we’re going to hand him over to the Dragon King, it’s the same no matter who does it.”

“No, it’s not!” Nie Zeng and Tie Linglong refuted at the same time. But when Tie Linglong spoke, she revealed a flaw. Nie Zeng, who was like a sensitive beast, immediately attacked without saying anything.

But the one who fell was him.

Although Tie Linglong hadn’t received the full training of the Waning Moon Hall, and her saber techniques hadn’t improved much, she had still mastered a lot of fighting skills which would dazzle even the fully fledged killers of Golden Roc Castle.

She poked her opponent with the Jueyin Finger Technique, which was a kung fu skill taught to her by Han Wuxian.

Tie Linglong smilingly looked at her defeated opponent and said, “Didn’t anyone teach you that the saber isn’t the only thing that can kill people? How could a careless person like you be a…”

Before she could spit out the word ‘killer,’ Nie Zeng, who should have been unable to move, suddenly stabbed out.

Tie Linglong leaped several steps back in an instant. Her reaction was actually fast enough to dodge most of the attack, but she still received a cut on her right arm, the blood gushing out immediately.

Chu Nanping unsheathed his sword, but Nie Zeng wasn’t able to jump up and fight with him. His acupoint had indeed been stricken. It was only because of the fury that he had been able to wave his arm. His internal Qi, therefore, deviated and started circulating backwards, which caused his face to flush red. But he still glared at Chu Nanping with extremely fierce eyes.

Without caring about her bloodstained sleeves, Tie Linglong walked over and said in a low voice, “I’ll kill you.”

Nie Zeng’s fierce eyes turned to Tie Linglong but he didn’t say a word in return.

Chu Nanping checked Tie Linglong before she did something reckless. “He’s the Dragon King’s man. You can’t kill him. Let me bandage your wound.”

Tie Linglong stared back at Nie Zeng viciously, her green eyes full of killing intent. She allowed Chu Nanping to bandage her arm but also did not say a word.

She didn’t need to make a move again. Nie Zeng’s face grew redder and redder, and he would probably die of Qi deviation soon.

“Restore his acupoint,” Chu Nanping softly persuaded.

“He asked for it.” Tie Linglong could never behave as cooly as a killer, arguing, “I didn’t intend to kill him. He himself forcibly stabbed at me and caused his internal Qi to flow backward. Do you still think that I should save him?”

“You should save him, otherwise we won’t be explain his death to the Dragon King.”

Tie Linglong knew that Chu Nanping was right, but was still unwilling to do it.

At this moment, a person emerged from the grass. It seemed that he had been hiding for a long time, but none of the three teenagers had noticed him.

“I saw the three of you from a distance and it turns out that it really was you guys. Little Chu, how are you doing?” Shangguan Fei smilingly asked, not daring to greet the angry-looking Tie Linglong. They were not familiar with each other anyway. “Ehh, isn’t this Nie Zeng? Where’s Hall Leader Han? Where did you leave her?”

Tie Linglong slightly frowned. “Han Wuxian? What does he have anything to do with Han Wuxian?”

As soon as she finished her words, Han Wuxian herself arrived. Dressed in a large black robe, she glided on the grass like a bird flying through the night. After landing on the ground, she walked a few steps forward, showing no sign of a foot injury. “So many acquaintances,” she said.

“Hall Leader Han, your ‘mount’ seems to be suffocating to death,” Shangguan Fei kindly reminded.

Han Wuxian didn’t seem to hear it. She smilingly looked around and then deliberately rested her eyes on Chu Nanping’s face for a while. Suddenly she lifted her hand out from her long sleeve and handed him a string of something. “Hold this for me. How can your skin be so pretty?”

This was the first time Chu Nanping had ever met the Hall Leader of the Waning Moon Hall. He received the item in a daze and said, “I don’t know.”

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Tie Linglong looked at the string of things in disgust and asked, “What’s this?”

Chu Nanping looked down and said, “… it looks like hair mixed with a bit of scalp.”

Tie Linglong trembled. She had killed people before, but she had never done anything so disgusting.

Shangguan Yun had followed her. But before he came over, his praise had rung out, “Hall Leader Han is really invincible, easily killing two disciples of the Waning Moon Hall. Even your skills in peeling off scalps are first-class. I didn’t even see clearly how… Ehh, why are you all stopping here?”

Chu Nanping raised his arm, trying to keep Han Wuxian’s “trophies” as far away from him as possible.

Han Wuxian grabbed Nie Zeng’s belt, pulled him up, and patted him. “You’ll be fine, but why did you remove the chair from your back? Where will I sit later?”

Nie Zeng felt that this was the most humiliating moment of his life. Although the reversed circulation of his internal Qi had been greatly relieved, he could not move for the time being, and he did not want to speak either.

Everyone seemed to have chosen the same retreating route. Another group of people came running in. The one in the lead was Old Man Mu, holding a stiff person upright in his arms which made him look much taller.

The two of them were quarrelling as they moved.

“Put me down, you odious old man.” Tu Pianpian felt that this was the most humiliating moment of her life. Her acupoints had been struck and her legs were being held by the greatest enemy of her life, leaving her with no power to fight back.

“Haha,” Old Man Mu laughed hysterically. “In your dream! I’ll run all the way to the Kongtong Mountain and show your disciples this Old Man’s new humanoid weapon.”

Behind him were Dog Butcher and several disciples of the Kongtong Sect. Dog Butcher wanted to save people, but dared not to get too close. “Old Man Mu, please calm down, and please put down my Senior Sister.”

“Fight! Duel! Whoever wins will get the old woman… Ehh, why are you here, my lady?” The second half of Old Man Mu’s words was for Han Wuxian.

Han Wuxian’s smile suddenly disappeared. “Your lady is in your arms.”

Old Man Mu immediately threw Tu Pianpian away. “I wouldn’t not take her as my lady even if I were blind. Who’s that in your hand?”

A smile reappeared on Han Wuxian’s face. She lifted Nie Zeng and glanced at him, saying, “A handsome teenage killer.”

Dog Butcher rushed forward to catch his Senior Sister to save her some face. He was just about to unseal her acupoints when Tu Pianpian snapped, “Well, you little dog. How dare you help your enemy to oppress me? You are betraying your own sect…”

Dog Butcher sighed and handed his Senior Sister who was still stiff to the disciples of the Kongtong Sect and said, “Take good care of her.”

A swarm of soldiers rushed out of the camp. Shangguan Yun coughed and said, “It will be too late if we don’t run away now.”

Han Wuxian was just about to jump up when Tie Linglong anxiously checked her. “This man knows where Han Xuan is.” She gestured at the fainted shaman on the ground.

Han Wuxian threw Nie Zeng away and grabbed the shaman, disappearing into the darkness in just a few jumps.

Chu Nanping was still holding onto the hair and was at a loss about what to do with it. Tie Linglong said in a low voice, “Throw it away. Do you still want to do a deed of merit for her?”

Chu Nanping let go of the hair and then reached out to help Nie Zeng, but his hand was grabbed by Tie Linglong. The two then also quickly disappeared into the night.

Shangguan Fei would not fall behind in such matters as fleeing. He took a glance at the disciples of the Kongtong Sect and found that the one who had been hit by him was not dead. Relieved, he immediately ran towards the place where the horses were hidden.

One by one, they ran away. The disciples of the Kongtong Sect were not powerful enough in terms of internal energy, and could not unseal their Aunt Master’s acupoints, so they could only run after Old Man Mu under her commands.

Dog Butcher looked at the empty wilderness and pointed to Nie Zeng who was lying on the ground, shouting, “Hey, don’t you want him?”

The pursuers behind got closer and closer, but Dog Butcher then picked Nie Zeng up and comforted him as he ran, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you.”

Nie Zeng finally smoothed out his internal Qi and jumped to the ground, groping in the grass for his narrow saber while grunting, “I don’t need your protection.”

Dog Butcher glanced back at the teenager in surprise and then continued running away without stopping.

Nie Zeng finally found his saber, but the pursuers were almost in front of him now. Full of anger, he abandoned his killer’s principles and decided to confront the group of horsemen.

He had to kill people to release all the anger pent up in his heart.

All of the cavalry in the camp seemed to have come out. Thousands of horses scrambled forward, causing a rumbling sound that shook the ground slightly.

But before Nie Zeng could get a firm foothold, he was drowned in the swarm of horses.

No one killed him. He was ignored as if he were a ghost by the living cavalry.

Nie Zeng twisted and turned to dodge the galloping horses. Then he suddenly came to understand that these horsemen were not chasing but fleeing, and they were more frightened than those who were ahead.

Someone was shouting something but Nie Zeng didn’t understand. He slowly withdrew from the torrent of cavalry and looked out over the small battalion of the Court Attendants Army.

The raging flames almost lit up the sky. The last group of people ran out of the camp was a great crowd of servants. Without horses, they could only run in all directions on foot. Some of them came from the Central Plains, shouting while running.

Nie Zeng finally heard what they said, “The Khan! Devil Bird! Please spare my life!”

The words ‘The black horse will perish’ written by Shangguan Fei were exceptionally effective but that was only part of the reason for the panic of the Court Attendants Army.

Nie Zeng looked up and finally saw the legendary Devil Bird: a huge shadow like the devil’s cloak flew over the fugitives’ head and then shot into the sky.