Chapter 793

Having been chasing all along, he hadn't noticed.

Only now that he stopped did he realize that, apart from himself, there were only the Qing soldiers of his own squad following him.

He hadn't seen a single other Mingshier Sect captain!

597 Pedantry or Chivalry?

Since the Qing court was restored and the Martial Prohibition Edict was promulgated,

within the Great Qing's borders, whether martial artists or commoners, countless had died.

The Wuji Sect, from which Fu Qingzhu hailed, had likewise scattered and fallen into ruin because of this; to this day he did not know which fellow disciples still survived.

Add to that Fu Qingzhu's own hatred of evil as if it were a sworn foe,

and the martial artists who aided the tiger on this mountain, dying by his hand, were too many to count, and commoners beyond reckoning.

Now seeking his own death, he saw no other figures of the Mingshier Sect captains.

While Fu Qingzhu waited for him in such astonishment, his figure erupted, a sword thrusting straight at the chest.

This Fu Qingzhu, in lands beyond the pale, could fuse all he had learned into Wu Gong and temper it to the step of Grandmaster — truly a rare, gifted talent.

The sword stroke before his eyes seemed to be the Wuji Sword of the Wuji Sect.

In truth, hidden within the sword art was not only the Confucian vast, righteous qi, but also the medical Way's Golden Needles of Salvation.

Once the sword move was launched, it seemed utterly unremarkable, yet lethal strokes kept coming with fierce precision.

Hero Shan Zhi's Wu Gong was not outstanding among the Mingshier Sect captains.

He relied on a strange weapon of chain and grappling hook, supplemented by a hand crossbow, to win.

Had he not been seized by Fu Qingzhu's opening strike, with grappling-hook chains and hand crossbow he could have kept Fu Qingzhu beyond ten paces.

For the two to decide victory or defeat, it would have taken at least fifty moves.

But Fu Qingzhu, seasoned and cunning, unsettled Hero Shan Zhi's mind with a single sentence.

Then, without caring for his reputation, he brazenly struck with a sneak attack.

In one stroke he enveloped Hero Shan Zhi within his sword-light, forcing Hero Shan Zhi to use his short against Fu Qingzhu's long.

In the blink of an eye, three moves passed, and Hero Shan Zhi's hand crossbow was flicked straight away; the situation hung by a thread.

"This... Captain, what should we do?"

The highest Wu Gong among the Qing soldiers who had followed Hero Shan Zhi in pursuit, the Captain, in truth only possessed first-rate skill.

The remaining dozen or more didn't even reach third-rate skill.

Such Qing soldiers, were Hero Shan Zhi not present, would likely be cut down one by one by Fu Qingzhu's sword and done for on the spot.

"Quick, loose arrows, aid Hero Hero Shan Zhi!"

The Captain knew that if he charged in, he would most likely be giving himself away for nothing.

But if he did not strike, once Fu Qingzhu killed Hero Shan Zhi, his own squad of Qing soldiers would have no hope of living either.

At once he played to the Qing soldiers' strength, ordering them to draw and loose arrows.

The Great Qing imperial clan rose from the White Mountains and Black Waters, born of fishing and hunting.

They were quite accomplished in the art of mounted archery.

These Qing soldiers' Wu Gong was ordinary, but in archery, perhaps not even Fu Qingzhu could match them, let alone Hero Shan Zhi.

Hearing the Captain's words, the Qing soldiers immediately dismounted, drew their bows and loosed arrows.

Some ten Qing soldiers circled the locked-in combat of Fu Qingzhu and Hero Shan Zhi, continuously loosing arrows.

These Qing soldiers were truly formidable; every arrow was not only full in force and accuracy,

but more crucially, the dozen or so men — a single squad — had their arrows coordinating with one another.

Some were solely tasked with aiming at Fu Qingzhu's vital points; others aimed at his footfalls and the spaces he might dodge into.

Add to that Hero Shan Zhi's desperate holding out, which tied up the greater part of Fu Qingzhu's attention.

For a time, Fu Qingzhu found them somewhat difficult to deal with.

But after weathering a volley of arrows, Fu Qingzhu once again felt composed and at ease.

He could sense that Hero Shan Zhi could hold out at most ten more moves before it was over.

Once Hero Shan Zhi fell, what would this squad of Qing soldiers amount to?

"Ah…"

Just as everyone present felt the battle was nearly decided,

a sharp arrow, deflected by Fu Qingzhu, shot into the nearby grass.

Then a startled cry rang out from within that grass.

"Eh? Someone? Who's there?"

The Qing Captain was first startled, then a flash of delight crossed his heart.

These past days, following Duogeduo, he had been hunting down martial artists within the Great Qing's borders.

He knew these martial artists who resisted the Qing court shared certain common traits.

To put it nicely, they had a spirit of chivalry.

To put it unkindly, they were somewhat pedantic.

And the Fu Qingzhu before him was the very finest of these chivalrous folk.

The person who had just cried out was most likely not Fu Qingzhu's ally.

Otherwise Fu Qingzhu would certainly not have deflected an arrow there.

Then the person there was most likely a passerby who had witnessed this fight and had no time to dodge.

Such a person was precisely the sort of innocent that great heroes like Fu Qingzhu loved to save.

And Qing soldiers cared nothing at all for the innocent.

When he had killed those martial world knights-errant back then, this Captain had not been shy about using women and children as leverage.

This was also the reason he had risen to Captain at such a young age.

So after working all this out, the Captain immediately ordered several Qing soldiers to stop firing arrows.

From all directions, they closed in on the thicket.

"Damnable… shameless!"

Hearing Fu Qingzhu was fighting Hero Shan Zhi with one hand while also having to fend off the Qing soldiers' hidden arrows.

But because of that startled cry, he still split off part of his attention to observe the situation around him.

Seeing the movements of these several Qing soldiers, he—who had long dealt with Qing soldiers—immediately understood.

These Qing soldiers wanted to use innocent passersby as leverage against him!

If he sat and awaited death, truly waiting for these Qing soldiers to seize the innocent passerby hiding in the grass.

Given Fu Qingzhu's own character, he would most likely be unable to keep making things difficult for Hero Shan Zhi and the Qing soldiers.

After that angry shout, Fu Qingzhu could only use a swift sword in one hand, forcing Hero Shan Zhi to retreat several steps in succession.

Then with a kestrel-flip, his whole body suddenly shot up from the ground and landed steadily in the thicket.

Listening to the wind to gauge position, he at once caught the bearing of the person hiding in the thicket.

He reached out a hand, fished him straight out.

Without time for a closer look, he swept aside the Qing soldiers' hidden arrows with one hand while, without turning his head, said to him,

"You, get out of here quickly…"

"Puchi—"

Fu Qingzhu had not finished speaking when he sensed a sound of tearing air coming from behind him.

The one hiding in this thicket—was actually an enemy!?

At any other time, Fu Qingzhu might still have been able to dodge it.

But right now, with Hero Shan Zhi and the Qing soldiers' hidden arrows in front, and the Captain leading men to attack from all around.

This point at his back was truly beyond his expectations.

At the critical moment, he could only employ Liusheng Wuji internal art, in the instant the enemy was about to strike his waist.

He saw Fu Qingzhu's waist suddenly contract, bending in midair by several degrees.

But even with that bend, the person behind him changed his move to match.

A strike shifted from a grab to an upward slash, landing viciously on Fu Qingzhu's back.

As Fu Qingzhu bore this heavy blow, he also turned his sword to thrust at this enemy.

At this moment he struck out full of hatred, unleashing the full breadth of his Liusheng Wuji sword art.