The colorful serpent slithered around the corpse of Jinxiulang, occasionally lowering its huge head to gently touch him. Tuoba Chunsun’s right hand was pierced by a flying sword. With his left hand, he drew his saber and chopped off the serpent’s head without hesitation. Then he wildly slashed at Jinxiulang’s attendants, cutting them into pieces far more brutally than mere dismemberment, like a desecration worse than corpse whipping. Qinchare dared not remain mounted on his horse. After dismounting, he kept his distance from the young Tuoba, fearing being caught in his wrath. Tuoba Chunsun minced into paste the loyal attendant who had died because of him. Glancing sideways at Qinchare with a sidelong gaze, the latter trembled and immediately knelt on the ground begging for mercy. Tuoba Chunsun sneered, “You’re lucky you come from the falconers. Qinchare, send someone to fetch your tribe’s falcons and riders, and mobilize all your forces. If you fail to hunt down the assassin who tried to kill me, your tribe will be erased from the grasslands.”
Leading his horse to Tuoba Chunsun’s side, Qinchare handed over the reins with a sweaty face, whispering, “What about these herders?”
Tuoba Chunsun replied indifferently, “The grasslands value promises. Naturally, they should be given gold, cattle, and sheep.”
Qinchare nodded eagerly like a pecking chick, flattering, “Young Master truly is the King Eagle of the grasslands.”
Tuoba Chunsun mounted his horse and coldly remarked, “As for whether they live or die, that’s no longer my concern.”
Qinchare hesitated for a moment before suddenly understanding. He placed his arm across his chest and bowed low, saying, “Young Master’s wisdom is unparalleled.”
Tuoba Chunsun noticed the absence of anything on the saddle and emotionlessly ordered, “Bring me a strong bow and three quivers of arrows.”
Qinchare immediately shouted out, and soon after, a cavalryman, filled with reverence, rode over and handed him the bow and arrows. Tuoba Chunsun picked up an arrow with two fingers, drew the bow, and shot an outer cavalryman right through the skull. The man fell from his horse. Tuoba Chunsun nodded slightly with narrowed eyes. Looking up at the powerful golden eagle trained by Qinchare, his violent temper flared again. If Jinxiulang had not died, his falconry skills would have easily surpassed this falconer Origin Qinchare. The old servant had even trained a great bird capable of hunting eagles and hawks! The boy was indeed lucky. Suppressing his urge to kill, Tuoba Chunsun nudged his horse and commanded, “Make that beast of yours watch closely! Lose the trail once, and I’ll gouge out one of your eyes!”
Qinchare hastily mounted his horse and followed behind the young master.
They came and went in a flash.
The herders of Hu Yananbao’s tribe felt a great weight lifted from their shoulders. For this small, vulnerable exiled clan, it was as if dark clouds had not yet cleared from the sky, but at least the storm had not yet broken upon them. Hu Yananbao had already lost all hope and merely asked his daughter-in-law to bandage Hu Yanguan’s wounds. Inside the tent, the girl trembled from the pain but remained resolute in expression. Meanwhile, the child Aobao knelt nearby, sobbing with worry, too afraid to look at his sister’s wounds, burying his head between his knees. Hu Yananbao sighed with guilt, “It’s all our fault that this young Bodhisattva from the Southern Court has suffered so.”
Hu Yanguan seemed to want to say something but hesitated. The old man, filled with worry, murmured, “It must be Prince Xiao Tuoba who is hunting down our benefactor.”
Across the grasslands, a thrilling chase had begun.
After breaking free, Duanbo Huihui pursued him relentlessly, gradually closing the distance until they were no more than a hundred zhang apart, within sight. Both of them moved as swiftly as galloping horses. Behind Duanbo Huihui came Tuoba Chunsun, Qinchare, and a hundred riders. Once the net was cast, it would soon be drawn tight. If he were captured again, Xu Fengnian would have no chance of escape. Even so, he had already slain a master of the Realm of the Diamond Body in this pursuit, a feat that shocked all. Xu Fengnian bent low like a panther, not daring to slow his forward momentum. Glancing at the circling hunting eagle above, he bore his bitterness silently. His running speed had slowed, and while the Great Huang Ting technique could accelerate his recovery, being caught by Duanbo Huihui meant capture. Although Tuoba Chunsun had been wounded by the golden thread, he still retained eight or nine tenths of his fighting strength. Xu Fengnian, however, was already exhausted. To call him a spent force wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Riding the colorful serpent, though he hadn’t been paralyzed as the man in the brocade robe had intended, it certainly affected his agility. His eight flying swords wove a net of green threads. The Spring Thunder sword leapt from its sheath in a single green dragon from the sleeve. Finally, even the golden thread fetus was summoned. Many of Duanbo Huihui’s fists and kicks landed solidly on his body. Xu Fengnian had not yet reached the Tianxiang Realm, let alone the realm of a land-bound immortal. If Tuoba Chunsun and Duanbo Huihui had given him ten days or so to recover, he could have fought again. But they pursued relentlessly, determined to wipe him out completely. Xu Fengnian had no choice but to push himself to the limit, swallowing his pain and fleeing forward.
Fortunately, his previous experience with the Shu-style qi, which surged across three hundred miles in an instant, had made him accustomed to the burning pain of qi disruption. He could still grit his teeth and endure.
Duanbo Huihui, running furiously behind, furrowed his brow. On one hand, he was surprised by the sheer amount of qi the Southern Court swordsman possessed. On the other, he was puzzled by the wound on his leg. A sword through his thigh—he should have been able to ignore it with his King Kong constitution. Even if it didn’t heal quickly, it shouldn’t have hindered his qi flow as it did now. Clearly, the swordsman’s sword mastery might not yet be at its peak, but his flying swords were nothing short of celestial-grade treasures. This only strengthened Duanbo Huihui’s resolve to kill the young man. As for the death of the colorful serpent Jinxiulang, he felt no sorrow at all. The Tuoba family was like a great temple, filled with many clay statues of Bodhisattvas. Losing one meant more incense for the rest. Moreover, Duanbo Huihui had always been critical of the old servant’s place among the Ten Great Devils. He admired Xie Ling and a few others far more. In his eyes, the old man in the brocade robe was no devil—he was more like a ridiculous court entertainer, a sycophant who pleased his masters with flashy tricks. The two had never seen eye to eye.
Duanbo Huihui roared with vigor, “Boy, dare you fight me for three hundred rounds?!”
A distant voice replied mockingly, “Call your wife or daughter to come instead!”
Duanbo Huihui listened to the voice and sensed the man’s remaining qi—it seemed even more abundant than he had imagined. But after having been tricked so thoroughly, he now knew this fellow’s acting skills rivaled even his young master’s. He wouldn’t fall for any tricks again.
Xu Fengnian glanced once more at the golden eagle circling above.
An incense stick’s time later, Duanbo Huihui was startled to find the distance had closed to eighty zhang. But the cavalry behind, who had been following the eagle’s guidance in a straight line, had somehow caught up. Could the boy have gotten lost, taking a slightly unnecessary but deadly curved path?
Still, the distance was closing, and he would soon reunite with his young master. It was ultimately a good thing, so Duanbo Huihui didn’t dwell on it.
Tuoba Chunsun rode ahead, riding side by side with Duanbo Huihui at a distance of ten zhang.
The distance between them and the desperately fleeing swordsman from the Southern Court continued to shrink.
Duanbo Huihui warned gravely, “Young Master, watch out for his flying swords.”
Tuoba Chunsun said nothing, but drew a finely crafted arrow with black crow feathers from his quiver.
Two hundred paces.
Tuoba Chunsun began to draw his bow.
At one hundred and twenty paces, he prepared to fire—but suddenly, the distance stretched to one hundred and fifty.
Then it fluctuated between one hundred thirty and one hundred forty.
Tuoba Chunsun was not in a hurry. Normally, the man’s speed, unless on the finest warhorse, would have been impossible to catch. It would have been better to abandon the horse and chase on foot. But now that he was injured, it was a different matter. Tuoba Chunsun was content to play cat and mouse, slowly toying with this Southern Court aristocrat, the bane of his heart. Later, he would even hang the man’s head at his family’s gate!
Finally, the distance closed to one hundred and twenty paces. Tuoba Chunsun drew his bow and fired.
The arrow tore through the air.
Tuoba Chunsun’s hand moved with astonishing speed, drawing arrow after arrow from his quiver. Though fired one after another, they all arrived at the fleeing figure’s back simultaneously, each faster than the last. This was a form of rapid-fire archery.
Xu Fengnian dared not waste a single ounce of his internal qi. He rolled forward, dodging two arrows, swept two aside with his sleeve, and reached for the last.
Tuoba Chunsun stood on his horse’s back, drawing his bow into a full circle, releasing an arrow he had long prepared.
It aimed straight for Xu Fengnian’s forehead.
Xu Fengnian flicked the previous arrow aside with his finger, leaned his head back, flattened his body, grabbed the arrow with both hands, performed a nimble roll, and used the arrow’s tremendous force to propel himself forward. He snapped the arrow in two and suddenly gathered his qi, hurling the sharp tip into the sky.
It pierced the hunting eagle flying low.
Duanbo Huihui, still running, was stunned.
Tuoba Chunsun stood on his horse’s back, his fist clenched so tightly that his hand bled.
Xu Fengnian laughed heartily, his speed suddenly surging. The distance between them instantly stretched to a hundred zhang. “Even if you’re three Realm of the Diamond Body experts, what good is it? If no Tianxiang Realm master shows up, I won’t even feel ashamed dying here!”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage