The western mountains were distant. As Meng Jianqing and his companion traversed forests and valleys, they would rest for a quarter-hour every two hours of travel. Both knew that others were certainly rushing toward that same direction in the shadows. For precisely this reason, they couldn’t allow themselves to exhaust too much energy. Even during rest, the two didn’t converse, only tacitly taking turns keeping watch while the other focused on breathing exercises and meditation. Yun Yanjiao had learned internal martial arts, and in a quarter-hour, she could complete one full circulation of energy cultivation, immediately feeling refreshed and clear-minded. However, seeing Meng Jianqing, dressed in his Imperial Guard flying fish robes, meditating like a monk during rest with remarkably standard posture, she couldn’t help but curve her lips in an almost imperceptible smile to herself.

As the autumn moon set in the west, they finally reached the western mountains. The small path into the mountains wound and spiraled through the dark, deep forest. They could already hear faint sounds of battle from deep within the mountain forest and smell the slight scent of blood in the night wind.

Meng Jianqing blew his copper whistle again. The responding whistle call carried an unmistakably cheerful tone. His subordinates must have been struggling to hold out, so learning that reinforcements had arrived made them this happy.

However, they seemed to be celebrating a bit too early.

Meng Jianqing was unsurprised to see a circle of shadows already surrounding them in the mountain forest. These figures appeared quite composed, neither restless nor hurried, faintly emanating the aura of those who break through formations and kill generals with absolute determination.

He tilted his head slightly and said in a low voice: “You Youfu, is in my men’s hands and isn’t dead yet. If you want to question him, hurry over there. I estimate those fellows can’t hold out much longer.”

Yun Yanjiao shook her head: “You Youfu won’t easily reveal what I want to know. It’s better to first deal with these people so we’ll have time to question him properly.”

Her interrogation methods were probably not so simple.

Meng Jianqing quickly weighed the situation in his mind and readily agreed: “Fine, let’s eliminate this batch first.”

The moment he spoke, Yun Yanjiao felt something within him seemingly burst forth through the air.

As the Bai Zhe Dao left its sheath, two masked men approaching from above down the mountain path suddenly raised their hands simultaneously. A dark shadow shot forth from their hands.

It was dozens of crossbow bolts packed densely together!

At such close range, firing so many arrows at once, Meng Jianqing already knew this must be the Cold Crow Crossbow. The Cold Crow Crossbow was small, exquisite, and portable, but unfortunately, troublesome to manufacture and load. It could only shoot twenty paces, which greatly limited its use in battlefield combat. However, it excelled in firing dozens of bolts at once, making it a supreme weapon in close-range fighting. Therefore, the Ministry of Works had never stopped manufacturing them, primarily equipping constables of Yingtian Prefecture. How had these people managed to obtain two Cold Crow Crossbows?

These thoughts flashed quickly through his mind, but his striking momentum never paused. Facing that shower of arrows, he charged urgently down the mountain path. Yun Yanjiao unhesitatingly charged down with him simultaneously, drawing two short swords hidden in her sleeves. Together with the Bai Zhe Dao, they cut down the incoming arrows in front of them.

With their charge, all dozens of Cold Crow Crossbow bolts fired from above the mountain path missed their targets.

Meng Jianqing’s left hand already gripped a small knife. The moment the arrows were spent, the small knife shot out.

The archer below on the mountain path couldn’t dodge in time. The small knife struck his throat directly, and he immediately fell backward.

Yun Yanjiao simultaneously leaped down, her left short sword flicking upward to catch the Cold Crow Crossbow before the archer fell, sending it flying. Her right short sword twisted back at the wrist, slicing the Cold Crow Crossbow in half.

With so many opponents, they absolutely couldn’t give them a chance to reload and fire a second time.

Meng Jianqing turned and leaped onto an old pine beside the path, dodging two sabers sweeping horizontally at his waist. He forcefully kicked the trunk, crossed the narrow mountain path, and leaped onto another pine tree. After several rises and falls, he had approached the archer above on the mountain path. The archer was loading crossbow bolts while fleeing into the dense forest. The masked man covering him deflected a small knife that Meng Jianqing had thrown with his horizontal blade, but at that instant, Meng Jianqing also leaped through the air over the masked man’s head and struck downward. The thin and sharp Bai Zhe Dao split through layers of pine branches, cleaving half the archer’s right shoulder along with half the Cold Crow Crossbow to the ground. Blood sprayed everywhere, splashing all over the masked man, who turned back to rescue the archer, blurring his vision. In just that instant, the Bai Zhe Dao had already sliced across his throat.

After eliminating the remaining seven masked men on this side of the mountain path, Meng Jianqing also bore three knife wounds, though they were quite shallow, and the seeping blood had already automatically coagulated.

Yun Yanjiao emerged from the mountain forest slightly later than him. Her white robes bore only a few blood spots, but she left six corpses behind her.

Meng Jianqing examined her and was amazed to see that Yun Yanjiao was completely unharmed.

Such skilled killing techniques… It was truly hard to believe that someone like Yun Yanjiao, who seemed like an immortal fairy, had been trained into such an excellent assassin. This contrast was enormous—who would have imagined it without seeing it firsthand?

However, on second thought, without such thunderous methods, how could the immortal sea mountains have established their authority in the chaotic waters of the South Seas?

Another copper whistle sounded from the mountain, this time with some urgency.

Meng Jianqing and Yun Yanjiao exchanged glances. Yun Yanjiao quietly slipped into the mountain forest, quickly removed her white outer garment, wrapped it around tree branches, and threw it to Meng Jianqing. Underneath, she wore a dark azure, tight-fitting garment with narrow sleeves. Hidden in the mountain forest, she was truly invisible without a trace.

Seeing her depart, Meng Jianqing took out his copper whistle to respond.

In the distance ahead, beneath a cliff, four plainclothes Imperial Guards were locked in bitter combat with seven or eight masked men. Seven or eight corpses lay on the ground, including two Imperial Guard bodies. Another Imperial Guard had his back against the cliff, continuously guarding a captive lying on the ground and repelling any danger that approached.

Meng Jianqing threw the white garment wrapped around long branches. In the darkness, it appeared like a white figure gracefully sweeping past.

Four masked men lurking in the bushes, planning to wait for prey, leaped up with four blades simultaneously piercing into the white garment, truly swift as lightning and quick as thunder. However, by the time they discovered the deception, it was too late. As Yun Yanjiao silently swept past two of them from behind, her hands separated, and her short swords quietly pierced their hearts, immediately withdrawing again. Her waist twisted lightly as she floated away, avoiding the spurting blood and the dying counterattacks of the two masked men.

The other two masked men roared as they rushed toward Yun Yanjiao. However, this terrain was relatively open, and when Yun Yanjiao’s form fully extended, she was as light and graceful as a flying swallow—the two men couldn’t even touch the hem of her garment. In the blink of an eye, Yun Yanjiao had already charged into the melee, finishing off one masked man who was caught off guard and exhausted from prolonged fighting.

Meng Jianqing and the two masked men, whose ambush had failed, arrived beneath the cliff almost simultaneously. One Imperial Guard was cut down by the two-man pincer attack, but after Yun Yanjiao and Meng Jianqing joined forces, standing back to back and attacking without defending, they quickly dispatched two opponents. With a moment’s respite, the three exhausted Imperial Guards stood shoulder to shoulder, back to back, forming a simple triangular formation, and the situation immediately tilted to one side.

As the melee ended, dawn was breaking in the east.