There isn’t much romance in the idea of rushing a thousand miles to help a friend in trouble, only to find that you’ve become the burden dragging them down instead. But right now, on the streets of Anping County, shielded behind the woman before him, watching the eyes of the crowd turning toward them, Ning Yi knew he had become exactly that kind of clown.
From the very start, if everything had gone smoothly, his group of twenty-odd people would have been able to retreat into the inn, weather the first wave of attacks, and the seeds they’d planted would have begun to sprout. Yao Wuliu, and the people of Anping in general, wouldn’t have staked their lives on this, and as for Chen Jinxia, if he could avoid falling out with the government, he probably would have chosen that better path as well. And once this night passed, with over two hundred more men following behind and gathering at Anping, they would basically have had enough strength to stand toe to toe with these heroes.
But now, because of his appearance and injury, Hongti had tipped the other side of the scale hard in the opposite direction—practically giving Liangshan’s men and Lin Qi’s family a shot of adrenaline. And even among those who had been wavering in the middle, some, given their closer ties to Liangshan and their grudges against the government, would now be reconsidering whether to just kill them here and now—make a name for themselves in the outlaw world and be done with it. Even if the government and army came after them later, worst case, they could lie low for a while, and once things died down, they’d emerge as fine upstanding men once more.
Only a brief, suffocating silence followed. Zhu Biao and the others regrouped their formation, and murmurs spread through the crowd, carrying a malice that made one’s skin crawl. Ning Yi leaned against Hongti’s back, his hand instinctively tightening, before realizing this wasn’t quite proper—but there was no time to worry about that now.
“The horses are on the other side of the wall. We need to escape…”
He put away the firearm in his right hand and made two gestures toward Qi Xinhan and the others. In truth, they hadn’t coordinated much beforehand, and Ning Yi wasn’t even sure they’d understand the gestures. But once he made them, and after a brief moment’s hesitation Hongti nodded, Ning Yi suddenly leapt, grabbed the courtyard wall beside them, and vaulted over into the empty courtyard beside the inn. Hongti flipped over at the same time. At that same moment, shouts of battle erupted outside like a surging tide!
Sensing the whole situation tipping, Ning Yi’s reaction in that instant was nothing short of swift. But this decisive action in the moment also shattered whatever restraint of reason remained among the crowd on the street. Cries of “Kill!” suddenly rang out. Monk Tunyun broke into a run; Zhu Biao’s steel spear whistled through the air toward him, but Monk Tunyun knocked it aside with both palms, using the momentum to strike back at Lu Wenhu. On the street, Shi Jin, Lin Chong, and the others surged forward like a flood; Lin Qi’s family, disciples, and some outlaws rushed in shouting as well, only briefly held back by the Dulong Ridge men.
The fastest to close the distance was still Monk Tunyun. In an instant he reached the wall, and with two steps that seemed to climb like a stairway to heaven, his robe sleeves flaring, Lu Hongti’s figure rose up on the other side of the wall, sweeping her sword in a single strike aimed straight at his forehead.
She leapt up, thrusting her sword out—fierce and silent, yet utterly simple and clean. Monk Tunyun, caught unprepared, found the killing intent already surging right before his eyes. Fortunately his feet could still move; he kicked off the wall, and his whole body flew backward.
On the road, outlaws were charging forward, and two of them were struck in the face by Monk Tunyun’s sleeves. Monk Tunyun himself crashed face-up into the mud, utterly disheveled. Known by the nickname “Lone Wanderer of Ten Thousand Miles,” he had many enemies and a ruthless streak; having lost his balance in this crash, he was in no mood to let anyone get behind him. The two outlaws who’d charged in were caught in the crossfire too, sent flying backward, tears, snot, and blood mixing on their faces—badly injured.
Meanwhile, Yao Wuliu threw another punch at Han Li, and in the same motion grabbed a Liangshan man rushing past and slammed him to the ground with a single palm strike. “No one moves! Everyone stand down!” Chen Jinxia, who had already been somewhat leaning toward Ning Yi’s side, now frowned deeply, his eyes fierce as he watched the scene unfold before him, clearly displeased at having lost his authority over the situation, yet visibly reweighing the whole affair, his mind torn.
In the inn’s courtyard, horses whinnied. A second group tried to climb over the wall, but no sooner had the first head poked up than a red-tasseled spear thrust out with a swish, piercing straight through his skull; then a second and third man toppled down after him. The wall facing the street was less than two zhang high, but with Lu Hongti’s skill holding the line inside with a long spear, who could possibly climb over?
Monk Tunyun struggled up out of the mud, bellowing, “Guard the back!” When he climbed the wall again, he saw dozens of horses released from the stable in the courtyard, running toward the rear gate. Lu Hongti, already far off, suddenly turned and hurled the red-tasseled spear from her hand—it came whistling through the air. Monk Tunyun, mid-leap, his cassock whirling wildly, smashed the spear to splinters, then landed back in the mud on the street, roaring, “They’re getting away—”
Lin Chong, Shi Jin, and the outlaws surged off in different directions to cut them off. In truth, there might well have been people posted in the alleys behind the inn, but with horses clearing the way ahead, they likely couldn’t hold off someone of Lu Hongti’s caliber for long. On this side, Zhu Biao and the others struggled to hold back as many pursuers as they could, shouting, “No one’s getting away!” Yao Wuliu also tried to keep the two sides apart, roaring, “Stop fighting!” When Han Li fanatically called on the Fire Fist Gang’s disciples to go kill the she-devil, Yao Wuliu charged at him: “Have you lost your mind!”
The two exchanged a blow, Han Li stepping back two paces, then smiling strangely, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I haven’t lost my mind. Yao Wuliu, you’ve got a big family and a big fortune, don’t you? I, Han Li, don’t have that many kin to worry about… You think I don’t know she’s been carrying on with you all this time? This is a good opportunity—I don’t care anymore. Yao Wuliu, may your whole family go to hell, this is as good a time as any to settle scores with you…”
The latter half of Han Li’s words came out through gritted teeth, though his voice stayed low. Yao Wuliu’s face first showed shock, then fury surged up. “You son of a bitch, I’ll… fine, today let’s settle both old and new scores—”
As Han Li swung a punch at him, Yao Wuliu swung his arm to block, and the two gang leaders fell into open combat. Seeing their leaders go at it, the members of both gangs on the street began throwing punches at each other too, crackling chaos breaking out. Chen Jinxia, only now grasping the situation, hadn’t expected the two to turn on each other at this moment at all, and rushed over shouting, “You two, stop—”
Chen Jinxia, nicknamed “Iron Fist,” was himself skilled with his bare hands, though the nine-ringed blade on his back stayed sheathed. Yao Wuliu practiced Iron Thread Fist, and Han Li, being of the Fire Fist Gang, naturally also relied on fistwork. In an instant the three were locked in combat, and the disciples of the two factions on the street broke into chaotic brawling as well.
Ning Yi and Lu Hongti rode one horse, charging out through the back alleys. Anyone who tried to block them was either scattered by the charging horse or knocked flying—or simply killed outright—by Lu Hongti. Passing a dark alley entrance, Lu Hongti pulled Ning Yi down off the horse, rolling into the alley, and the two of them made their way forward along the dark path.
“Will your companions be alright?” Even while running, Hongti didn’t forget to turn and ask him this.
Ning Yi shook his head. “There are always people in the city who know how to survive. As long as they hold up in the inn or somewhere similar, they shouldn’t be wiped out entirely—as long as we stay alive, that’s what matters… Is your injury alright?”
“It’s fine,” the woman replied simply.
The large-scale manhunt in the city closed in on these alleys; everyone around was a martial artist, and Ning Yi’s skill at moving stealthily wasn’t quite up to par—he alerted their pursuers once again. Lu Hongti killed two of them and led him out, and afterward there was another close call with an encirclement. Not long after, at the eastern city wall of Anping, the two of them leapt into the small river outside, climbed out on the other side, and ran off into the distant darkness. Behind them, torches spread out from the city, fanning across the mountains and wilderness…
…
Perhaps because of the heavy rain that had just passed, the night sky was clear and pristine, a full moon hanging beneath it, casting light over the endless mountains and forests. Two figures ran through this wilderness, over hills, occasionally crossing valleys and streams.
It must have been around midnight, the moon high overhead, when Ning Yi and Hongti finally stopped in a mountain hollow. Before this, the two had been running almost continuously for nearly two hours, occasionally still catching sight of the pursuers’ torchlight. They found a small cave in the hollow—though calling it a cave was generous; it was really just a hollow recess in the rock face, relatively dry, offering some shelter from wind and rain. Ning Yi, breathless, sat down and didn’t want to get up again, only laughing as he said to Lu Hongti, “Sorry about that.”
Lu Hongti stood a short distance away, glancing at him with a smile, and after a moment said, “I really didn’t expect you to get here so fast…” Before long, she came over and sat beside Ning Yi, hugging her knees.
In truth, from the moment they’d jumped into the river to this point, their clothes were still mostly wet from all the running. After that heavy rain, the autumn night had already taken on a chill, and Ning Yi, having been struck hard enough earlier to cough up blood, now felt a slight cold creeping in.
The two of them had parted ways back in Jiangning, and had thought it would be a long while before they’d meet again—now, suddenly seeing each other again amid all these events, neither quite knew what to say for a moment. After a while, Lu Hongti said, “They might still come after us.” Ning Yi knew this was possible too. “For now they can only chase—it’ll take a couple of days before they consider giving up.” They discussed this for a bit, and though they both felt they weren’t quite out of danger yet, with everything now silent and the night clear and calm, sitting together in this little cave, looking out at the moonlit sky beyond the cave mouth, they still managed to find something like a familiar sense of ease. Ning Yi, being naturally easygoing by nature, said, “My… clothes are all soaked through, I need to take them off and let them dry. You…”
Hongti nodded. “Mm.”
Since the two of them were still on the run, they couldn’t light a fire. Ning Yi took off his outer clothes and hung them on a branch by the cave mouth. After a moment, Hongti said, “Don’t turn around yet.” She took off her outer robe and handed it to Ning Yi to hang up, then opened the small bundle she’d kept tightly tied at her front—inside were two changes of clothes—and found one shirt that hadn’t gotten fully soaked and put it on.
After settling things with Liangshan and making it this far, he’d never expected the first thing to go wrong would be something like this. But since Hongti was unharmed, and he himself was, for now, out of immediate danger, it wasn’t all bad. He’d once thought of the outlaw world he imagined, calling himself the Bloody-Handed Butcher, finding it amusing, entertaining himself with the idea—but now, looking at things, he really had ended up caught up in that very world. Thinking about it this way, he couldn’t help but laugh.
With a few pieces of clothing hung at the cave mouth, the little cave now looked almost like a small room with a curtain drawn. Ning Yi, bare-chested, wearing only his shorts, wasn’t particularly bothered by it, but he also didn’t want to get too close to Hongti and risk damaging her reputation. After sitting down, Hongti asked him about the situation with Liangshan, and Ning Yi, smiling, began recounting everything in detail…
It felt almost like a continuation of those Arabian Nights-style stories from back in Jiangning, or from the mountain god’s temple outside the city—here in this little haven in the wilderness, the two of them, having just escaped danger, murmured quietly to each other. In the vast wilderness beyond, amid the stillness, there was also a faint restlessness—the howling of wolves broke the night’s silence, and a shadow in a broad monk’s robe crossed over rain-soaked leaves and branches, as Lin Chong, Shi Jin, and the others swept through in an uncertain direction, searching.
Beneath the moonlight like flowing water, the night was still long.