Chapter 266

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

"Fine, if Heaven wants me dead, I want you dead; then let's see if your so-called Heaven wins or I win."

As Shaowei spoke, her right hand gripped a short knife to meet him, stepping onto the rock between the two; Du Shulin's broadsword came slashing down, Shaowei leapt, the blade passing beneath her shoe sole to strike the rock, gravel bursting through rainwater, while Du Shulin swiftly lifted his sword diagonally upward for a reverse thrust, his strength immense and his moves changing fast, nothing like a wounded man.

The flying gravel had not yet settled, the broadsword reflecting rainlight in midair urgently chasing, Shaowei spun to evade, stepping onto another protruding mountain rock; Du Shulin turned, tracking with his eyes, only catching that dark vermilion-clad shadow darting and rushing through the rain, instantly attaching to a lush tree beside, then kicking off the tree trunk, lunging through the air like lightning, left hand holding the short blade horizontally to kill toward his rear side!

Du Shulin's brows and eyes twitched ferociously, reacting extremely fast, suddenly swinging his blade to block sideways, one long one short double blades clashing, sparking fire, Du Shulin's widened eyes watching the girl thereby briefly hover in midair, he gritted his teeth pressing the sword tip diagonally, simultaneously clenching his left hand into a fist, smashing toward her right temple—

Her short knife held no frontal advantage, once her body fell she would be beneath the broadsword, left side a diagonal blade pressing, right side a solid fist wrapped in cold rain already rapidly approaching, all moves only in a turning instant, Du Shulin was determined to win, yet saw her neither retreating nor falling, as if predicting his move, extremely fast bending her right elbow to block, actually fantasizing to hard-block his hard fist!

This elbow strike was faster than his fist wind; in a flash of lightning, it carried the momentum of the guest overpowering the host, striking his wrist and forearm, actually making him feel as if his wrist bone were nearly shattering. At the instant his strength leaked, the opponent's elbow force dispersed, and that not-large palm quickly wrapped around his thick arm from above like a snake, coiling and twisting upward, fingers precisely clamping from inside his armpit toward the most vulnerable joint of his shoulder and arm. Du Shulin already had enough reason to believe that if he received this force, the tendons and bones of his shoulder and arm would surely shatter.

His reaction was also fast among fast, relying on the advantage of facing off with the broadsword and feet planted on the ground, his feet quickly retreated, narrowly avoiding this strike, shaking off that deadly shadow in midair.

Shaowei, upon landing, again stepped on a mountain rock, leapt onto another miscellaneous tree, gathered strength, lunged out, holding the knife straight toward Du Shulin's back heart.

Repeatedly skirmishing thus, Du Shulin's physical strength was draining, the man already fallen into violent rage and madness.

That arrow in Shanglin Park was fierce enough, but he had never had close-quarters combat; only today did he know this girl had unbelievable swiftness, strange strength exceeding her own body, truly an outright monster.

This monster opponent was extremely skilled at hunting, as if enclosing this extremely恶劣 mountain forest environment as her hunting ground, every strike ruthless, fast, accurate; if once failed, she would retreat to gather strength and pounce again, seriously consuming the prey's patience and life, her gaze always carrying a sharp, cruel, focused beastly aura, even making Du Shulin feel like a civet catching a mouse, being toyed with and tortured to death.

The wound on his rib side was still bleeding, his body also successively bearing other injuries, Du Shulin's reaction speed and sword-swinging movements both began to slow, the advantage he prided himself on was about to be exhausted, only supported by a surging resentment and unwillingness.

Shaowei, who had cut a wound on his shoulder, once again darted to guard on the big tree; Du Shulin held his knife spinning in place searching, roaring and cursing: "A mere bastard, nothing but bandit descendants, deceiving the world, intolerable by heaven and earth!"

Shaowei, already recognized by Mother from the root, was unmoved by this cursing, taking it as wind in the ears; she had now realized: those who always called her a bastard were often the ones most caring about her origin—unwilling to be surpassed, snatched, threatened, killed by this mere bastard of hers, so they hated her origin even more than she did, simply hating it to the point of vomiting blood.

"And what about you, Grand Marshal Du, defeated twice by my bastard hands?" Shaowei stood on the slanting branch of a pine tree, no longer urgently attacking, speaking while looking past Du Shulin toward the rear situation.

Hearing this, Du Shulin was even more furious, and he was also waiting, waiting for his men to approach—he had brought sixty experts and death warriors to ambush, those who died under Shaowei alone exceeded ten, plus at least ten or more injured falling and scattering in this恶劣 mountain forest, together with being counter-killed by Shan Gu and others, losses already over half, but the remaining twenty or so were still successively following and surrounding.

At this moment Shan Gu and two Imperial Guards had also approached, but were momentarily entangled; immediately three death warrior shadows seized the opportunity to run near, among them one death warrior with sharp gaze locked onto the tree shadow, running near while swinging the iron chain wrapped before him, the chain's top having a sharp climbing claw hook, like fangs bared of a poisonous snake swiftly swimming in the air, the poison fangs biting toward the shadow on the tree.

Shaowei leaned back to evade, her waist and back against the rustling branches, springing up, directly grabbing the iron chain with the claw hook nailed into the tree trunk, the back of her hand quickly wrapping around one circle, exerting force to violently pull—

The other end of the iron chain was connected precisely to the death warrior's knife hilt; he was by this tyrannical force反夺 his weapon, and this weapon was swung by the girl on the tree with the iron chain, horizontally sweeping toward another death warrior; that death warrior urgently dodged, avoiding the danger of having his neck cut, but still had half his scalp including the bamboo hat sliced off his forehead, for a moment blood qi like hot mist spraying, rain wildly striking the red and white skull, the man staring eyes twitching and falling.

Du Shulin swung his blade to cut off the tyrannical wildly dancing iron chain, gathering his last strength, with the madness of perishing together, swinging his blade roaring toward the hateful enemy.

The death warrior whose weapon was taken by Shaowei had already been slain by Shan Gu; he felt he had not completely blocked and killed these people, failed to guard A Jie's hunting ground, therefore struggled to charge out from the melee, but now also gradually showed signs of difficulty, while another death warrior seized the opportunity to raise his blade and chop toward his entire back—

Shaowei without hesitation threw the short knife in her hand, the sharp short blade directly piercing the raised-blade death warrior's front chest; as that man staggered, Shan Gu turned and counter-killed; Du Shulin had already arrived under the tree; Shaowei "crack" broke off a large section of pine branch, swinging hard, fine pine needles like needles mixed with rainwater splashing down; Du Shulin's remaining few eyes were forced to tightly close for an instant; when vision disappeared, people subconsciously change the straight chopping blade to horizontally block at the chest for defense, lest the heart gate be lost; Shaowei seized the opportunity to pounce from above, opening the final hunt.

She pressed one foot on Du Shulin's horizontal blade, the other leg bent knee striking toward his collarbone and chin; two figures in opposite directions heavily collided; Du Shulin, whose strength was exhausted, was like suffering a fierce attack of a siege heavy hammer, his body collapsing with a boom, heaven and earth shaking beside his ears.

Shoulder and back striking against gravel, Du Shulin spat blood from his mouth, only the blade still unwilling to leave his hand, but his arm was already firmly kneeling pressed by the person above with one leg; the other's left arm horizontally pressed his neck, while the right hand horizontally inserted a pine branch into his rib wound; the broken pine branch's断口 uneven, with thorns squeezing into the wound, drilling through white ribs, stirring into red organs; the emerald green pine leaves exposed outside rustled with the struggle of this flesh-and-blood vessel.

Du Shulin pained until his face deformed, his tall body twisting, but firmly suppressed.

Shaowei's mouth corner was also overflowing with blood, her breath also surging, but overall she had not suffered heavy injury; the thunderstorm mountain forest environment was恶劣, yet it was also her domain of dominance.

And when initially killing Zhu Zhi on Yundang Mountain failed, although already forced to realize power was a more tyrannical martial art, Shaowei also never relaxed the improvement of her own martial arts; this was her instinct for survival, her most loyal and brave companion, defending her dignity, letting her time and again save others and save herself.

The Du Shulin before her with outstanding martial arts was a somewhat hard-to-kill opponent, but only that much.

But Shaowei did not have time to relax for a moment because of this victory.

Bandit chief Du Shulin defeated and controlled, his henchmen witnessing up close were deterred, for a moment stopping their offensive; Shan Gu and the remaining two Imperial Guards just got to catch their breath, but above, blade slaughter sounds rang out again.

Those were Du Shulin's remaining henchmen, now suddenly falling into slaughter; an Imperial Guard subconsciously cheered: "Reinforcements have come!"

Shaowei suppressed Du Shulin, turned her head to look up, her line of sight blocked by plants, yet said: "Not necessarily."

Shan Gu propped his blade stepping onto a high rock, his mood also sinking: "No lights!"

Traveling in the mountains on a rainy day for support, to respond to each other, even if unable to light torches they would surely raise wind lamps; traveling at night without lamps is a symbol of covert action.

Du Shulin was already dying, his body's remaining strength seemed at this moment gathering to act on his brain, making his five senses produce a brief but extreme clarity; he discerned the direction of the slaughter sounds, mockingly smiling: "Fine, threatened by me... after terms were agreed, you turn around and use the plan against the plan, wanting to silence me..."

"But far from not enough... in this Taishan Commandery, how many people can he mobilize..." Du Shulin's mouth surged with a large amount of blood, he turned his head with difficulty, yet looked downward, reminding Shaowei: "You should look there, the Yellow Sparrows, should also fly out by now..."

Shaowei, already aware, slowly turned her head.

This place was the end of the downhill; below was a concave round-basin-shaped mountain valley; at the end of the mountain valley, the adjacent mountain peak now had dense black shadows leaping out from the back mountain, running, like black sparrows under the sky, appearing in groups, spreading, wanting to cover the entire mountain valley.

The sixty elite death warriors Du Shulin brought suddenly became not worth mentioning.

Du Shulin began to laugh.

Sixty death warriors were not a small number; they were all his remaining power secretly kept; he originally also counted on surely winning; who knew this little monster was so hard to kill; unable to kill her with his own hand to vent anger, certainly regrettable, but after all she would die today.

"See? These are all here to kill you... those above who want to silence me naturally also want to silence you... all want to kill you, even Heaven wants to kill you!"

Du Shulin widened his blood-covered one eye, cursing-like saying: "Heard you this bastard were born in Taishan Commandery, rightly should die in Taishan Commandery... this is your fate!"

Shaowei pressed straight her blood-stained mouth corner.

What is fate?

Those palm lines engraved in the palm since birth, spread open the hand to see?

The hand gripping the pine branch loosened; the palm lines had long been confused by fresh blood.

Shaowei suddenly clenched her hand into a fist, heavily punching Du Shulin's face, blood flying.

Compared to the fate lines visible by spreading the hand, she had always been more superstitious about the strength of clenching the hand into a fist.

"Speak, for whom do you willingly act as a blade to open the path? And who let you come here!"

Du Shulin was punched until mouth, nose, and ears all bled; in dizziness he heard that voice interrogating.

Shaowei had roughly discerned—

Where the Son of Heaven's carriage arrives, defenses are strict; without an inside ghost leading the way and letting pass, Du Shulin could not possibly come here; and this inside ghost's weight must not be light.

Tonight's ghosts were divided into three routes; from Du Shulin's earlier vague words it could be known he made a deal with the inside ghost, but the inside ghost反要 to silence him; and this inside ghost obviously never expected Du Shulin behind him still followed a route of dense Yellow Sparrows—

Based on some unknown inside story, a transaction was woven into a multi-party assassination of mutual deception and calculation, and in this assassination all blades would point toward "Heavenly Secrets".

Du Shulin's breath shattered, his mouth full of blood: "I won't speak, you won't know, you should die a muddled unjust death ghost, dying unclearly..."

At this moment, he noticed the force suppressing his right hand leave, so he instinctively raised his blade-holding hand—

Fearing his strength wasn't enough, a hand back-gripped his wrist, helped him lift the blade, press down, cut into his neck, and said to him: "I will know, you go die first."

Having said he would die today, Shaowei, true to her word, borrowed the blade from his hand and neck, straightened amidst the spraying blood rain, and looked toward those "yellow sparrows" indistinguishable in number in the dimness.

The "Heaven" in Du Shulin's mouth, besides these things, seemed to also contain true Heavenly Will.

Observing the qi phenomena recently, tonight originally shouldn't have had thunder and rain, in the dark it seemed Heavenly Will wanted to isolate the variables that shouldn't exist in this world here, the remnant-eared enemy who opened the death date in the previous life this time turned into a one-eyed appearance, the crippled guide ghost, shouting a fate-like curse.

Lightning split open a sky rift above that back mountain, as if the slumbering Heavenly Way spoken of by Jiang Fu opened its eyes, opened its mouth, wanting to chew and devour empty all changes made by that wandering soul girl under the sky.

The only two remaining Imperial Guards following showed desperate expressions.

And fear appeared in Shaowei's eyes.

Relying on her sharper sight, she saw those "yellow sparrows" split off a group of shadows, surging toward the candle-shaped mountain peak on the right front... the Immortal Shrine, the Immortal Shrine where Mother and Jiang Fu are!

Thunder roared in rage, gang wind like iron blades, wind and rain like flowing sand, wanting to suppress, cut down, and overturn-kill the variables under heaven.

Under the furious Heavenly Gate, Shaowei held her blade and ran out, closely following behind her was the equally shouldn't-exist-in-this-world stone Shan Gu, the two's clothes black and red alternating, fluttering in the wind like tattered but proud battle flags.

That section of red robe thrown into the wind by Shaowei fluttered, caught on a tree branch, then lifted by wind, drifting and wandering, brushing past a rain-shelter stone pavilion in the mountain.

This pavilion was built at a spacious spot midway on the imperial road, the leading Ritual Official inside held a jade casket, face ashen, cold sweat dripping, the other officials behind him also all looked panicked and at a loss.

This reaction was not solely because of encountering ominous thunder and rain blocking the way while escorting the jade casket down the mountain, but more because the Crown Prince abandoned everything and left.

They walked slowly due to escorting the ritual vessels, when passing this stretch of road, the sky wasn't fully dark, everyone stopped, the Crown Prince asked them if they heard strange sounds.

None of them failed to change color, someone nodded—such loud thunder, naturally all heard it!

But the Crown Prince looked toward a certain direction, then actually immediately entrusted the jade casket to the leading Ritual Official, ordered the accompanying Imperial Guards, and entrusted the Ling clan's son to quickly send people separately to Dai Summit and the Mountain Waist Zhongguan Camp to mobilize manpower, and ordered all directions to be on guard—

Everyone was bewildered and shocked, the Ling clan's son also seriously asked what matter, Crown Prince Qi said: 【She might be in danger.】

She? Might? —Just because of uncertain hallucinations, uncertain guesses, he would personally rush over, abandoning the great matter of escorting the Fengshan Ceremony ritual vessels?

That Ling clan's son actually also solemnly obeyed, immediately took people and left, everyone only felt the sky falling, hurriedly advised the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince said: 【All consequences borne by me, won't implicate you all, if rain stops, please all continue escorting ritual vessels down mountain first.】

He is the Crown Prince recognized by Heavenly Mandate, he says he bears it alone then truly won't let them suffer, however the Crown Prince Palace officials couldn't sit by and watch, all knelt and begged, the leader said in alarm: 【Your Highness, this is no ordinary ritual vessel, but Heavenly Mandate remnant fire, absolutely cannot be escorted by others!】

The official bit heavily on the two words "Heavenly Mandate", trying to awaken the Crown Prince's reason.

But that youth went with determination, with a sufficiently rational tone left a final sentence: 【She is the true Heavenly Mandate remnant fire.】

She is his Heavenly Mandate, the remnant fire of this originally falling world.

If she has an incident, he cannot live, this world also cannot live well.

When Liu Qi's words fell, rain began to fall, fierce qi machines raged between heaven and earth borrowing wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, confirming the sensing in his heart.

He personally led the Imperial Guards into the mud-smelling mountain wind, didn't take the imperial road original route back to Dai Summit, but chose a cliffside dangerous wild path pointed out by nearby patrolling Imperial Guards, the Crown Prince's vertical pearl crown was removed and discarded along the way, wide sleeves and wide robes fluttered violently beside the cliff path, like an eagle traversing wind and rain returning to its nest.

?? Thank you everyone for the monthly tickets! Rewards! Comments! Will update normally tomorrow (actually writing every day, but write so slow, sometimes can't piece together a chapter T_T will strive to update before this event concludes!)