Jun Beiyue could never have imagined that the man behind him would be him—Chu Tiange!
The last war between Xijing and West Chu had left West Chu’s strength badly shattered, nearly forcing it off the stage of Longyuan entirely—and throughout this current chaotic war across Longyuan, West Chu had remained utterly silent.
Yet no one had expected Chu Tiange to make his move at a time like this!
“You contemptible man!” Jun Beiyue said coldly. He knew the arrow was poisoned, and he knew Chu Tiange’s presence here meant this had to be a long-planned ambush, thoroughly prepared!
“Heh, the victor writes the rules—the loser is the one who’s contemptible!” Chu Tiange stepped out from the grass, holding a crossbow, looking quite pleased with himself, a cold smirk curling at his lips—the very picture of a petty man suddenly given power!
“Do you think a single arrow like that can do anything to this prince?”
Jun Beiyue shot back with disdain, his body shuddering as he immediately forced the arrow out from his back—but to his shock, the poison from the wound, the moment he channeled his internal energy, instantly surged and spread to every major point throughout his entire body!
This was clearly a poison designed specifically to seal off the body’s meridian points, to strip away a person’s internal energy entirely!
What a Chu Tiange—the poison he’d chosen must have been picked with great care!
Seeing Jun Beiyue’s expression change, Chu Tiange grew even more arrogant. He stepped back a few paces, raised his crossbow, and aimed it at Jun Beiyue’s chest. “Yes, West Chu isn’t as strong as Da Zhou—but so what? Once I kill you, it’ll be this prince who gets to rewrite history!”
Chu Tiange was utterly ruthless. Without giving him a chance to flee, he fired the moment he finished speaking!
Fortunately, Jun Beiyue wasn’t quite so weak. He dodged to the side, gritting his teeth, forcing back the poison surging wildly through his body, and kicked a chunk of frozen stone from the ground, sending it flying straight at Chu Tiange, striking him hard in the face!
Chu Tiange clutched his face in a panic, nearly falling over.
“So you want to play rough! Keep it up, then—I’ll tell you this: every time you channel your energy, your strength weakens by another degree. This prince has all the time in the world to play with you slowly!”
“And I’ll tell you this—before this prince loses every last drop of his internal energy, I will absolutely destroy you first!”
Though wounded and poisoned, Jun Beiyue’s aura remained overwhelmingly commanding. He surged forward abruptly, startling Chu Tiange into retreating. Chu Tiange hadn’t expected that after so long apart, Jun Beiyue’s martial skill would have advanced so much.
There was no denying it—if Jun Beiyue hadn’t been poisoned, Chu Tiange probably couldn’t have withstood three of his moves.
Retreating step by step, Chu Tiange pulled another crossbow bolt from behind his back, and with a bolt in each hand, aimed both at Jun Beiyue and fired!
Jun Beiyue’s robes billowed wildly in the wind, flaring and twisting, and in his ice-cold dark eyes seemed to lurk a thousand frozen arrows. His entire body radiated an invisible killing intent, as though he were some demon-slaying warrior emerged straight out of a hell of ice and snow.
He had no time to waste on someone like Chu Tiange, no patience for it—he was rushing to find Ziqing!
He couldn’t afford to lose even a moment, because that single “moment” could very well cost Ziqing her life!
Knowing Situ Haonan as he did, once that damned fool lost control, he would absolutely be willing to die together with Ziqing.
He wouldn’t let Ziqing live, and he wouldn’t want to go on living himself either!
So no matter what, he had to reach Ziqing and warn her to be careful before the war in Xijing came to its end!
Watching Jun Beiyue advance toward him, fury blazing, looking every bit like a wild beast, like a demon incarnate, Chu Tiange couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine. In all their many clashes over the years, this was the first time he’d ever seen such a terrifying expression on Jun Beiyue’s face.
Chu Tiange kept backing away, step after step, not even daring to meet Jun Beiyue’s eyes directly, afraid that in the next instant those cold eyes might truly shoot out a thousand arrows and pierce him through and through.
Chu Tiange kept retreating, while Jun Beiyue completely ignored the pain wracking his body, the poison coursing through him, the meridian points gradually sealing off one by one, his internal energy steadily draining away!
In this moment, perhaps he was no longer fighting on the strength of his internal energy at all, but on sheer will alone!
He could not fall. He could not afford to be delayed!
Whoever stood in his way to Xijing—god or Buddha—he would cut them down without mercy!
“Men, come with me!” Finally, unable to hold his own, Chu Tiange called out to the archers lying in ambush nearby. Instantly, shadowy figures sprang out from the grass one after another, each holding a crossbow, bows drawn taut and ready to fire!
But Jun Beiyue seemed not to notice any of it. His cold eyes had turned crimson, and he stared icily at Chu Tiange, reaching out and snatching an arrow flying straight at him out of the air!
At that moment, Chu Tiange’s hand trembled with fear, and he swung it down violently. “Fire!”
Fire! Just as before, a thousand arrows loosed at once!
What now?
Jun Beiyue was in grave danger!
And yet, unexpectedly, almost the very instant Chu Tiange gave the order, shadowy figures dropped down out of nowhere—the well-trained Shadow Guard!
In an instant they surrounded Jun Beiyue, shields raised, facing down the archers!
And at the same time, White Tiger General, astonishingly, had brought guards and caught up with him, instantly surrounding every last one of the archers!
The Shadow Guard had, in fact, been protecting Jun Beiyue the entire time, staying near him.
It was only that this time, their master’s speed had been so extreme that even Yingzi, chief of the Shadow Guard, likely couldn’t have kept pace—let alone the rest of the guards.
Fortunately, they had arrived in time!
As for White Tiger General, he had simply wanted to find out what was going on, and had brought an elite unit in pursuit—never expecting to stumble upon a scene like this.
In an instant, Chu Tiange’s entire company of archers found themselves surrounded by White Tiger’s troops. Within the encirclement, Jun Beiyue and Chu Tiange stood roughly ten paces apart!
Chu Tiange held two crossbow bolts; Jun Beiyue held a single short arrow. Their eyes locked.
The situation was clearly turning against Chu Tiange.
A flicker of cunning flashed through his eyes, and he suddenly leapt into the air—but just then, Jun Beiyue’s gaze turned icy, and he hurled the short arrow with brutal force, his own arm serving as the most powerful crossbow of all!
That single arrow buried itself straight into Chu Tiange’s chest. Had Jun Beiyue’s internal energy not been nearly exhausted at that moment, Chu Tiange would surely have died on the spot.
Chu Tiange let out a muffled groan and fell, crashing down some distance away.
Jun Beiyue didn’t so much as spare him another glance, saying coldly, “White Tiger. Kill him.”
With that, he turned to leave—an opponent like Chu Tiange, already left far behind him, wasn’t even worth a second look, let alone now, when he was in such a hurry to move on!
Perhaps Jun Beiyue himself hadn’t noticed it, but nearly everyone present could see that something was deeply wrong with his complexion.
“Your Highness!”
White Tiger General couldn’t help but step forward—only for Jun Beiyue to suddenly drop heavily to one knee and cough up a mouthful of fresh blood!
“Your Highness!”
Everyone cried out in alarm. At that very moment, Chu Tiange fired off one last arrow and immediately turned to flee.
Jun Beiyue pressed one hand to his chest and forced himself back to his feet, using the arrow shaft to help push himself up!
What a Chu Tiange—this arrow, this prince would remember. And not only would he remember him—he would remember West Chu itself.
At that moment, White Tiger General’s elite troops were more than capable of chasing down Chu Tiange, but Jun Beiyue wouldn’t allow it, and White Tiger General wouldn’t act against his wishes either—their own war wasn’t fully over yet, and they couldn’t afford any further complications.
Jun Beiyue wiped the blood from his lips and gave a quiet order to the Shadow Guard, “Ride at full speed to the Xijing battlefield. Tell the Princess Consort to be wary of Situ Haonan.”
“Yes!” The Shadow Guard accepted the order and departed.
“White Tiger—who gave you permission to leave the camp without authorization! Get back immediately!” Jun Beiyue demanded coldly, and turned as if to leave again. But helplessly, just as he turned, the poison finally took full effect, and he collapsed, losing consciousness entirely…