Two heads fell to the ground.
From afar, Chen Ji saw the wine shop become drenched in blood. The originally boisterous street instantly fell Silent As A Winter Cicada.
Wearing a green scholarly robe, Mister Feng sat composedly on horseback. Although not a single drop of blood had splashed onto his body, he reeked of a bloody stench. The ones who took the greatest pleasure in killing people in this world had never been martial artists, but men of letters and scholars.
The lantern fire from the wine shop illuminated those portraits one by one. Astonishingly, Chen Ji discovered that every single portrait was of him. With just a few strokes, he was sketched out vividly and lifelike, his distinct features clearly depicted.
It turned out that the person the Liu family wanted to kill from the very beginning was him.
Why?
Presumably, the matters he had done for the Secret Spy Division had leaked out, and the Liu family wanted to make an example of him.
Chen Ji turned around and retreated into the distance, preparing to take the Prince Heir and Bai Li to flee, but he gradually slowed his footsteps.
There were likely over a thousand rough soldiers in this small town. If the other party searched all over the mountains and plains, he wouldn't be able to run far with Bai Li, the Prince Heir, and Zhang Xia anyway.
He turned his head to glance in the direction where the Prince Heir and the others were hiding. It was too far away; he could only vaguely spot the blast furnace chimney erected by the iron-smelting workshop in the night.
The fiery light in the wine shop and the shouting of the assembling soldiers intertwined around him.
The next moment, Chen Ji snapped back to reality and walked in the opposite direction.
After walking for an unknown distance, he arrived at a small noodle shop and waved at the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles."
Wiping the tables, the shopkeeper draped his towel over his arm and asked with a smile, "What kind of noodles would the guest like to eat?"
Finding a wooden table by the door, Chen Ji sat down: "Any kind of noodles will do, as long as it's hot!"
"Right away!"
A moment later, the shopkeeper brought over a bowl of pork intestine noodles and placed it before Chen Ji.
Outside the door were the sounds of the Turmoil of War. Inside the noodle shop, Chen Ji didn't cast an extra glance outside, allowing the soldiers to run past his door.
Not minding the heat, he picked up his chopsticks, rolled up a large mouthful of noodles, and sucked them into his mouth.
After the first bite, Chen Ji let out a long sigh: "Delicious!"
After fleeing for a day, being able to eat a mouthful of piping hot pork intestine noodles was simply one of the happiest moments in life. With a single mouthful of noodles, it felt as if his entire body had grown piping hot.
Chen Ji finished the noodles in two or three bites, his gaze lingering somewhat reluctantly on the red soup in the bowl. He really wanted to finish the soup as well, but if he did, he wouldn't be able to run anymore.
He sighed softly, "What a pity."
Confused, the shopkeeper asked, "Guest, what is a pity?"
"Nothing," Chen Ji said with a grin. He tossed a piece of broken silver onto the table: "Shopkeeper, paying you for the noodles."
The shopkeeper was momentarily stunned before quietly pocketing the silver into his sleeve: "Guest, our small shop's noodles are cheap. You've given too much silver. I'll go next door to exchange it for some copper coins to give you your change."
Chen Ji smiled and waved his hand: "Go on, go on."
Once the shopkeeper exited the door, he shot another glance at the noodle soup. Only then did he get up and walk along the cinder road towards the military camp fence in the northeast. The further he walked, the faster his speed became, until he finally broke into a run.
Leading several soldiers, the shopkeeper returned to the noodle shop: "Several military sirs, that youngster is still in my shop waiting for his change... Huh, where is he?"
Cursing and swearing, a soldier kicked the shopkeeper over: "You dare play tricks on me?"
The shopkeeper hastily explained, "He was just here a moment ago! He definitely hasn't gone far!"
Saying so, he began looking around, just in time to catch sight of Chen Ji's figure lightly leaping over the wooden fence: "Over there!"
The soldiers turned their heads to look. Seeing Chen Ji run into the deep mountains and old forests, they immediately shouted loudly: "Found him, he's over here! Chase!"
More and more troops and horses assembled towards the northeast, pursuing along the route of Chen Ji's escape like a swarm of locusts crossing the border, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
In the moonlit mountain forest, the withered and bare trees couldn't hide a person. Hundreds of soldiers charged in, yet Chen Ji's figure was already nowhere to be found.
Stepping on the soft, rotting leaves, a soldier drew his waist-saber and cautiously searched forward.
However, just as the soldier turned his head to look left, Chen Ji abruptly flashed out from behind a tree trunk on the right, neatly and cleanly swiping a knife across the soldier's neck.
The blade sliced shallowly across the carotid artery, as light as the caress of a cold breeze.
When the soldier clutched his neck and looked back, Chen Ji had already brushed past him, disappearing behind another tree trunk.
By the time the others discovered him, blood was gurgling out from between his fingers. He only had time to point at the tree trunk where Chen Ji was hiding before falling unwillingly onto the rotting leaves.
"Over here!" Shouting at the top of their lungs, two soldiers moved to flank the tree trunk from the left and right.
The two exchanged a glance, then simultaneously leapt forward, their two long sabers chopping out in a crisscross pattern like a pair of scissors.
Clang!
Clang!
The two long sabers struck the tree trunk, emitting dull thuds. The two focused their eyes to look—where was there anyone behind the tree trunk?
Something wasn't right!
Their vision blurred, and they saw Chen Ji leap down from the tree, lightly stepping on the blades of their sabers that were wedged in the tree trunk, and squatting down.
Astounded, the two soldiers raised their heads, staring blankly at Chen Ji who was squatting on their active saber blades. A gust of wind blew through the mountains, rustling the piled rotting leaves on the ground.
The Chen Ji in their eyes was meeting their gaze. His eyes held no emotion, only a cold and calculating glint: "Open your mouths and call for help."
The two soldiers instantly felt their hair stand on end. A trace of coldness rose from their tailbones, shooting all the way up to their scalps!
"Someone come! He's over here!"
"Someone come!"
Releasing the hilts of their sabers, the two soldiers retreated backwards. However, before their raised feet completely left the ground, Chen Ji casually swept his knife, leaving a line of blood on the necks of both men.
With another leap, Chen Ji stepped on the blades wedged in the tree trunk and vaulted over the two of them, disappearing into the woods without looking back.
These two cries for help finally alarmed everyone. Stepping on the ashen rotting leaves, hundreds of soldiers sprinted madly in pursuit of Chen Ji's back.
But strangely enough, even though they could clearly see Chen Ji's tracks, they just couldn't catch up to him no matter what.
It was as if a fixed distance was forever maintained between them, neither close nor far. Every time the soldiers felt they were about to lose him, Chen Ji's back would gradually become clear once more.
The next moment, climbing to the top of the hill, Chen Ji paused for a fraction of a second just as he was about to cross over the peak.
He turned his head to take a deep look at the military town behind him, only then setting off once more and disappearing behind the mountain.
...
...
In the military town, Mister Feng led dozens of black-clad attendants on horseback to the front of the noodle shop. He lightly drifted off his horse, lifted the hem of his robe, and walked into the noodle shop. He sat at the table where Chen Ji had sat previously. The bowl Chen Ji had eaten from hadn't even been cleared away yet.
Smiling, he said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles, exactly identical to the one that youngster had earlier."
Trembling with fear, the shopkeeper boiled a bowl of pork intestine noodles and brought it over. After a single bite, Mister Feng loudly praised, "Delicious! Did that youngster praise it earlier?"
The shopkeeper said in a low voice, "P... Praised it."
Mister Feng ate the noodles clean. A black-clad attendant handed over a pristine white silk handkerchief. He wiped his mouth, then tossed the handkerchief onto the floor before looking at Chen Ji's bowl.
Pondering for a moment, Mister Feng placed his bowl and Chen Ji's bowl side by side to compare, then picked up Chen Ji's bowl and took a sip of the soup: "The taste is the same... For a person who has been starving for a day and fleeing for a day, how could they resist drinking this mouthful of hot noodle soup?"
Mister Feng muttered to himself, "How could someone with such a meticulous mind expose a flaw over a minor matter like wooden tallies?"
Having said that, he stood up and exited the door.
A black-clad attendant asked, "Mister Feng, shall we pursue?"
Swinging onto his horse, Mister Feng laughed heartily: "That youngster deliberately exposed a flaw here. Presumably, it is to cover up the tracks of the Prince Heir and the Commandery Princess. Dispatch men to continue searching the military town. The Prince Heir and the Commandery Princess should still be here."
The black-clad attendant asked, "Then are we still pursuing this youngster?"
Spurring his horse in the direction of Chen Ji's escape, Mister Feng said, "Pursue, why wouldn't we pursue? The Old Master is still waiting to use his head as a burial sacrifice for the Second Master. He is the most important prey."
(End of Chapter)