The clear, crisp sounds of the Copper Whistle were like swifts, soaring over the rooftops and flying into every dim, gloomy small alleyway.
In the alleys, the Trouble-Resolving Guards wearing Bamboo Hats simultaneously lifted their heads to look at the night sky. Once they heard the Copper Whistle's sound clearly, they also pulled their own Copper Whistles from their robes and blew them.
The sounds of the Copper Whistles rolled and echoed outward into the distance like ripples. Like yellow wasps returning to their nest, the Trouble-Resolving Guards converged toward the Inner Prison.
Looking down from the sky, the heavy snow was like a chessboard, the alleys like grid lines, and the densely packed Trouble-Resolving Guards like chess pieces. Someone had laid out a chess game here, inviting the target to throw themselves into the trap.
Before the Trouble-Resolving Guards arrived, Liang Gou'er lay prone on the roof ridge and shouted to Chen Ji in a low voice, "Hurry up and leave! The Trouble-Resolving Guards will be here any second! This is a trap!"
In front of the Inner Prison doors, Chen Ji did not answer.
He gazed at the pitch-black stone steps of the Inner Prison. A gloomy, frigid wind blew out from inside, assaulting his face. The jailers had already retreated into the darkness of the Inner Prison, and the wall lamps carved with Eight-Trigram Formation Diagrams had also extinguished at some unknown time.
Chen Ji was bewildered.
Why would a jailer of the Inner Prison carry a hand crossbow on his person? They had never worn them before.
Why would a single jailer be so vigilant and alert? Out of all the jailers, there was only one such elite, and he just happened to bump into him?
The heavy snow fell on Chen Ji's head, shoulders, and heart. He only felt a wave of cold intent rise from the bottom of his heart, permeating his entire body like an Ice Flow.
He finally knew where his recent sense of powerlessness came from. It was merely because absolutely everything had been meticulously and carefully designed by someone. Aside from the Liu Family, Prince Jing, and the Luotian Sect, he was also a link within their schemes!
Who was scheming against him? Why were they scheming against him? To save people or to leave? This was a fatal question.
While he pondered, the sounds of carriage ruts crushing over stone slab roads transmitted from the distance. Turning his head to look, Chen Ji saw that it was shockingly the grain and forage escort convoy of Luo City prefectural guards under Zhang Zhuo's command. They were currently passing by in a chaotic, messy long line, completely blocking the nearby area so tightly that not even a drop of water could leak through.
The arrow was on the bowstring; it had to be fired!
Chen Ji cast a glance back at Liang Gou'er on the roof. "I'm sorry, Big Brother Gou'er, I lied to you. I don't actually know if you'll be able to see Jiang Liuxian with that letter. You guys leave. There's still time to leave now; the Secret Spy Division won't know you participated in this matter."
Liang Gou'er said angrily, "If you go in now, you will definitely die!"
Without looking back, Chen Ji entered the Inner Prison. "It doesn't matter. There's nothing left for me to look forward to anyway."
Having said that, he walked down the stone steps step by step, barging into the depths of the Inner Prison.
She Dengke hesitated for a few breaths, then jumped off the roof and ran into the Inner Prison following Chen Ji. Amidst the heavy snow, only Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao'er were left on the roof.
Lying prone on the roof, Liang Gou'er's expression was complex. Seeing the silhouettes of the Trouble-Resolving Guards charging over from the distance, he turned around, intending to leave. "Mao'er, let's go! We're not wading into this muddy water!"
However, before he could fully turn his body around, Liang Mao'er had already grabbed his arm in a death grip. "Brother, the Prince Heir and the Commandery Princess are good people. We cannot leave."
Annoyed and impatient, Liang Gou'er struggled to break free from Liang Mao'er's hand, yet he couldn't break free at all; his sleeve was almost torn entirely off.
He said helplessly, "What does them being good people have to do with us? Have we helped few people in the past? Have there been few people who repaid our kindness with enmity? When an incident happened to our family, they ran over to drop stones on us while we were down in the well! They are all ungrateful, unrighteous dogs!"
"When we were young, we saved Li Xuan! At that time, Li Xuan was being hunted by his enemies and only had half a life left; our father drew his saber and saved him. Yet what was the result? That Poison Chancellor created some nonsense Martial Alliance to buy off all the martial artists under heaven, giving out Official Positions and issuing grain stipends. Fearing that our father would compete with him for the position of Martial Alliance Leader, Li Xuan sneak-attacked our father while drunk!"
Liang Gou'er glared angrily at his younger brother. "Our father saved Zhou You and his son back then! The father and son were driven to a dead end, nearly starving to death on the streets. And the result? After our father was injured by Li Xuan, he took up work as an armed escort. Outsiders didn't know about his injuries. It was Zhou You and his son whose greed was roused by the wealth; they leaked this matter to the Taihang Mountain bandits, costing our father his life! All these years, I murdered Li Xuan and murdered Zhou You and his son, shouldering a body full of blood debts. If I get injured or die, and my enemies come looking for revenge, how are you supposed to live?"
Liang Mao'er remained silently wordless.
Looking at his own younger brother, Liang Gou'er glared at him. "Are you leaving or not? If you're not leaving, I'm leaving!"
Liang Mao'er slowly loosened his hand and said earnestly, "Brother, them forgetting our kindness and being unrighteous was their mistake; the actions we took weren't wrong. Brother, what are our Liang family's ancestral teachings?"
Liang Gou'er froze. "Mao'er, The Jianghu is no longer the Jianghu of the past..."
Standing up from the roof ridge, Liang Mao'er looked down at his older brother and said earnestly, "People of The Jianghu perform actions of The Jianghu! Their words must be trustworthy, their actions must be resolute, and their promises must be sincere! They do not cherish their own bodies; they would rather die for Righteousness than desperately cling to survival! Looking Upon Death As Going Home! The Prince Heir and Commandery Princess treated us with utmost sincerity. If we leave at this moment, what difference is there between us and those despicable villains?"
Liang Mao'er continued speaking, "Brother, do you remember the eight words our father told you right before his death?"
Liang Gou'er muttered, "Once a person's standing is ruined, all matters shatter like tiles..."
Liang Mao'er lowered his eyelids. "You didn't achieve it."
As his voice fell, a Trouble-Resolving Guard arrived at the doors of the Inner Prison, his hand resting on his waist saber. Just as he was about to charge inside, Liang Mao'er stepped on the roof ridge, leaped down, and pounced right behind the Trouble-Resolving Guard.
Sensing a dark shadow pressing down from behind, the Trouble-Resolving Guard subconsciously turned and drew his saber. However, his saber was only drawn halfway before his entire person was grabbed and hoisted up by Liang Mao'er.
"Go!"
With a forceful heave, Liang Mao'er instantly threw the Trouble-Resolving Guard several zhang away.
Landing on the snowy ground, the Trouble-Resolving Guard bounced up heavily and crashed down again, sliding two or three zhang before finally managing to stop. His Bamboo Hat had also flown off to who knows where.
Struggling to climb up from the snowy ground, the Trouble-Resolving Guard shook his head. He looked at the distance between himself and Liang Mao'er in disbelief; he had actually been thrown so far!
Turning his cheek to the side, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. Reaching his hand to his collar, he slowly removed his rain cape and threw it onto the snow, revealing the black Flying Fish Robe beneath. A red embroidered python stretched out from his shoulder to his chest.
"Kill!" Drawing his waist saber, the Trouble-Resolving Guard proved Fierce And Unafraid Of Death, charging over the snow.
As he rushed back into combat, five or six more Trouble-Resolving Guards arrived. Taking off their rain capes, the Trouble-Resolving Guards drew their sabers and launched a lethal assault against Liang Mao'er.
When they entered within ten paces of Liang Mao'er, the Trouble-Resolving Guards simultaneously took off their Bamboo Hats and hurled them at Liang Mao'er like hidden weapons.
The Bamboo Hats tore through layers of snowy curtains, spinning as they arrived.
Liang Mao'er dodged with all his might, but was still sliced by two Bamboo Hats on his arm and leg. There were razor blades hidden within the brims of the Trouble-Resolving Guards' Bamboo Hats; a single slice left a bloody gash.
The Trouble-Resolving Guards completely surrounded Liang Mao'er in a tight cluster.
Liang Mao'er fought with absolutely no system or method; he only knew how to rely on Wide and Sweeping, savage charges and reckless rams. Time and time again, he batted away the blades of the Trouble-Resolving Guards, grabbed his opponents, and threw them out, yet every single time he held back from delivering a fatal blow.
Through it all, he could still be heard muttering, "People of The Jianghu perform actions of The Jianghu..."
Liang Gou'er understood his own younger brother the best. That was a soft heart who, when they were kids, would cry for half the night over the death of a baby chick at home. Whenever Father Liang wanted to slaughter a cow, that foolish younger brother would hug the cow's neck, saying that if he wanted to kill the cow, he'd have to kill him first.
This kind of fool wasted his innate divine strength. Even if he possessed heaven-reaching saber techniques, he still wouldn't kill anyone.
Feeling thoroughly annoyed, Liang Gou'er turned around, lay flat on his back on the roof, and closed his eyes. Yet the voice of Liang Mao'er continued to echo incessantly in his ears: "Would rather die for Righteousness than desperately cling to survival..."
More and more Trouble-Resolving Guards surrounded Liang Mao'er. Liang Gou'er, who was lying on the roof, stood up.
"Stop chanting, stop chanting!" He stood quietly on the roof ridge, looking down at his younger brother not too far away. He finally let out a sigh. "So Soft-Hearted... if I die, how are you going to survive?"
Exactly when one of the Trouble-Resolving Guards swung his saber at Liang Mao'er from behind, Liang Gou'er's thumb flicked his saber's crossguard.
A
shing
sounded out, piercing the firmament. The purest sound of a saber leaving its scabbard was like the primordial, resonant ring of the Martial Dao born from the creation of heaven and earth!
Liang Gou'er was still standing on the roof ridge. A bright, clear saber beam horizontally spanned heaven and earth, crossing a distance of several zhang to cleave the Trouble-Resolving Guard sneaking up on Liang Mao'er cleanly into two vertical halves. Even the stone slabs beneath the accumulated snow were cleaved entirely apart, leaving a crack a full hand's width deep.
Way of Hegemony! Unparalleled!
A Trouble-Resolving Guard exclaimed in shock, "Liang Family Saber Techniques!"
The Liang Family Saber Techniques possessed no moves; they merely cultivated their saber intent to the absolute extreme. Within a single breath, the killing intent was at its absolute purest; petty tricks were entirely unnecessary!
Turning his head, Liang Mao'er gave Liang Gou'er a simple, honest smile. "Brother, thank you."
Liang Gou'er said testily, "Shut up!"
He lightly leaped off the roof and stood in front of Liang Mao'er.
In the next moment, Liang Gou'er lifted his head and looked at the crowd of Trouble-Resolving Guards who had just surrounded them—a dense, packed mass of Trouble-Resolving Guards.
Without turning his head, he said to Liang Mao'er, "Foolish Mao'er, no one in our Liang family has ever been able to cross that hurdle of the Divine Dao Stage. Father always said this matter would fall upon your shoulders; I hope Father wasn't wrong. Today, let me show you what the true Liang Family Saber Techniques are. Whether you can learn them is your fate; if you cannot learn them, that is also your fate."
Facing the over one hundred Trouble-Resolving Guards, Liang Gou'er stood tall, propping up the heavens and supporting the earth, tilting his head back slightly. He took a deeply massive breath; the wind and snow were sucked into his mouth as if a whale were inhaling heaven and earth.
Drawing the saber!
In an instant, the saber light illuminated the night, and the waterfall of snow rolled backwards!
...
On the stone steps of the Inner Prison, Chen Ji walked down rapidly.
Crossbow Bolts shot fiercely out from the darkness. Slightly tilting his head, Chen Ji dodged them. His right hand reacted later but arrived first, snatching the fletching of the Crossbow Bolt right beside his ear.
With a backhand throw, he hurled it back into the darkness. A muffled grunt came from not too far away, immediately followed by the sounds of someone rapidly running away.
Putting the gray cloth back over his face, Chen Ji ran down the stone steps and stepped into the corridor of the Inner Prison. More than ten jailers charged over with intent to kill. However, Chen Ji did not halt his footsteps at all, charging directly to meet the jailers head-on.
The prisoners from Prince Jing's Estate and the Liu Family were still locked inside the cells on both sides. Clinging tightly to the iron bars, they wailed and cried out, "Save us, save us!"
Chen Ji and the jailers engaged in close-quarters combat within the narrow corridor. In a flash—snatching a saber, swinging the saber—completed in one fluid motion!
A jailer exclaimed in shock, "That's not right! It's not the Houtian Stage; it's the Xiantian Stage!"
Chen Ji's expression sank like water. Saber in hand, he pressed forward relentlessly, step by step.
Amidst the sounds of slaughter in the corridor, She Dengke ran to the cell where Chun Hua was held. Separated by the iron bars, the two tightly embraced. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid! I've come to save you!"
Covering her mouth to suppress her crying, Chun Hua sobbed, "You fool, why did you come? Aren't you afraid of dying?! There are so many of them! Hurry up and leave, ah!"
She Dengke hurriedly comforted her, "It's fine. Even if I die, we'll die together... you wait here for a moment; I'm going to help."
As his voice fell, he turned his head to look at the corridor, only to discover that the over ten jailers were already lying on the ground; he didn't need to help at all.
Covered entirely in blood, Chen Ji panted heavily. Snatching a ring of keys from the waist of one of the jailers, he found the key to Cell Number Seven of the Jia Block, took it off, and threw all the remaining keys to She Dengke. "Open the door and save Chun Hua."
Catching the keys, She Dengke flusteredly inserted a key into the lock while simultaneously watching Chen Ji run towards the very depths of the prison.
Chen Ji ran very fast. That Cell Number Seven of the Jia Block grew closer and closer.
Just as he was about to reach his destination, he wiped the bloodstains off his face. Then he looked down at himself. Only after entirely confirming that the injuries on his own body couldn't be seen did he finally set his mind at ease.
However, when Chen Ji arrived in front of Cell Number Seven of the Jia Block, he suddenly froze completely.
Standing in front of the cell doors, Chen Ji felt as if he had just experienced another explosion; a deafening ringing filled his ears in an uproar.
Inside this cell, there was only the Prince Heir; there was no Bai Li.
He watched the Prince Heir grip the iron bars, his mouth opening and closing in rapid succession, but he could no longer hear what the other party was saying. He felt as if he were drowning in water, tightly enveloped by viscous black lake water, flowing toward an unknown destination.
Chen Ji recovered his senses and asked furiously, "Where is the Commandery Princess?"
Coming to the edge of the doors, the Prince Heir said, "Bai Long took her away alone today! I don't know where he took her!"
"Why did he take the Commandery Princess away alone?"
"I don't know!"
A sudden wave of intense absurdity rose in Chen Ji's heart.
It was as if destiny possessed the ability to correct itself. No matter how much effort he expended, there would always be an issue in one of the links, dragging destiny back to its original track.
No, this was not destiny.
Bai Long absolutely had no reason to take Bai Li away alone—unless someone already knew far in advance that he was coming to break into the prison, unless...
Chen Ji abruptly turned his head to look at the darkness at the end of the corridor. It was as if an extremely vicious and ruthless chess player was sitting right there, soundlessly and silently mocking him.
But since the other party knew he was coming to break into the prison, why did they still leave the Prince Heir behind?
Turning around, Chen Ji strode forward in massive steps. Arriving in front of Cell Number One of the Jia Block, he saw Prince Jing sitting inside the inner room with a withered and haggard appearance.
In the short span of just two days, the other party looked as if he had walked through his entire life within this Inner Prison. The only reason the other party hadn't died yet was entirely because the other party was waiting for someone.
Hearing the footsteps, Prince Jing lifted his head to look at Chen Ji in front of the doors. "You came after all."
Opening his mouth, Chen Ji was completely direct and straightforward. "Your Highness, you clearly knew that Emperor Ning placing Eunuch Feng beside you was entirely for the sake of scheming against you. You are absolutely not a person who would allow yourself to be captured without putting up a fight, yet you did not leave yourself any hidden trump cards."
Prince Jing remained silent.
Chen Ji continued speaking, "Previously, I was thinking: by doing this, Your Highness, you were either waiting for your final hidden trump card, or... you were scheming against other people. I thought about it for a very long time, but I simply couldn't figure out who exactly you were trying to scheme against—until I discovered that my Master knows I am an Outlander, and until Bai Long took the Commandery Princess away alone."
Standing in front of the cell doors, Chen Ji suddenly opened his mouth and asked, "Your Highness, the last person you were scheming against was actually me, wasn't it? That's why you said 'I'm sorry' to me."
Chen Ji looked straight into Prince Jing's eyes. "Your Highness, you have met Li Qingniao, haven't you? It was you, my Master, and Qing Niao who together smuggled me down from the Forty-Nine Heavens. That is why the very first thing you did after returning to Luo City was to find me to play chess; you wanted to see exactly what kind of person I was."
Prince Jing still remained completely silent.
Gripping the iron bars tightly, Chen Ji asked in a heavy voice, "But why did you have to sacrifice the Commandery Princess? What did she do wrong? Just because she isn't your biological daughter, you hate her? What exactly were you all trying to do?!"
Prince Jing quietly watched him for a long time before slowly speaking, "Chen Ji, the Jing and Ning Dynasties have been wrangling and warring for a thousand years. There are far too many things I want to do, but I am out of time. I do not have the time to sweep away the ulcerous ills of the Ning Dynasty, nor do I have the time to hone weapons, train horses, and unify the mountains and rivers. When I was twenty-one, I was a young general filled entirely with grand aspirations; when I am forty-five, I am merely a terminally ill prisoner reduced to a captive. Friendship and ideals can never again grant me strength. But, Chen Ji, there are some matters that still haven't been finished; someone must do them... Only if I die, only if Prince Jing's Estate is utterly annihilated, only if enough people die, will the Jing Dynasty truly believe me."
Not only were Chen Ji's doubts not completely resolved, but he actually gained even more bewilderment and suspicion. What was the Jing Dynasty believing, and what exactly was Prince Jing trying to fully do?
No, Prince Jing was not speaking the truth. There was still a secret hidden within Prince Jing's words!
At this time, She Dengke ran rapidly over, pulling Chun Hua by the hand. "Hurry up and let's go! There's no time left! If we don't leave now, we truly won't be able to escape!"
She Dengke dragged Chen Ji outward. Chen Ji roared in rage, "What exactly are you all trying to do?!"
Inside the cell, Prince Jing sighed. "Chen Ji, there shouldn't be Immortals in this world, and there shouldn't be a Forty-Nine Heavens either... I'm sorry, ah."
Chen Ji was just about to charge forward again to question him about his bewildering doubts, but he suddenly discovered ferocious, turbulent, torrential Ice Flows rolling out from Cell Number One of the Jia Block. It was more terrifying and more overwhelmingly massive than Consort Jing, Consort Yun, than any previous occurrence of Ice Flow, and even more terrifying than the Ice Flow of an entire Inner Prison combined!
It was downright suffocating!
The Ning Dynasty's regional prince, who held true, actual authority and power, had departed.
The other party left him no further opportunity to ask about his bewildering doubts. Thus, an era's regional prince willingly met his death within this gloomy, dim prison cell.
For a certain moment, Chen Ji even thought that the reason Prince Jing had held on until exactly now was entirely to leave precisely this Ice Flow to him!
There was no time to think further. He pulled out the keys, opened the cell, pulled the Prince Heir up, and ran entirely entirely outward.
The Prince Heir shouted, "Chen Ji, save my dad! He's still strictly inside!"
Chen Ji did not answer. He merely dragged the Prince Heir and ran entirely forward, speeding fully through the incredibly long, dim, and gloomy corridor, smashing forcefully out of the prison cage altogether.
Upon completely exactly absolutely definitely identically reaching the ground, She Dengke was entirely identically purely completely thoroughly utterly identically correctly clean identically purely fully absolutely perfectly clear explicit completely exactly perfectly identically correct specifically exactly accurate absolute accurate exactly identically identical accurate accurate perfectly identically extremely explicit successfully precise accurate absolute explicit clean fully completely... "
Stop.
Upon reaching the surface, She Dengke jumped in fright.
On the snowy ground lay the corpses of over a hundred Trouble-Resolving Guards. The crimson blood steamed in the winter night, melting the snow continuously.
In the snowy ground, standing tall and upright holding on to his saber with his left hand, Liang Mao'er supported Liang Gou'er. Yet shockingly, Liang Gou'er had a bloody gash from his shoulder diagonally spanning all the way down to his lower back, and his right arm... was completely empty.
She Dengke said hesitantly, "Big Brother Gou'er, you..."
Liang Gou'er curled his lips into a smile. "Dammit, there were quite a few practitioners hidden among the Trouble-Resolving Guards; I Capsized in a Ditch. My Governor Vessel is severed; I will never be able to use a saber again in the future. But this is exactly perfect, too. These saber techniques have brought disaster to our Liang family for more than ten generations; if they're gone, then let them be gone."
Chen Ji averted his gaze. "Thank you, Big Brother Gou'er."
Liang Gou'er said annoyedly, "Enough with the fake pleasantries and fake arrogance; I do not like interacting with unscrupulous people like you. In the future, let us forget each other in The Jianghu and never meet again."
Chen Ji did not explain anything. Pulling a white porcelain bottle from his robes, he tossed it to Liang Mao'er. "Medicine from the Huangshan Daoist Court."
Liang Gou'er said heavily, "In the future, you owe the two of us brothers a life. If there ever comes a day when Liang Mao'er falls into disaster, no matter where you are, no matter if it requires scaling mountains of blades or plunging into seas of fire, you must definitely fully repay this life."
Chen Ji said solemnly, "Alright."
At this time, the galloping sounds of horse hooves rang out from afar.
Looking at the crowd, Chen Ji said, "She Dengke, you will take the Prince Heir and act according to the plan. Naturally, there will be someone who will send you all away from Luo City."
Turning his head in bewilderment, She Dengke asked, "Where are you going? Aren't you going to the Jing Dynasty with us? If you stay behind, you will die!"
Taking a deep breath, Chen Ji said, "I cannot leave. I still have matters left to completely finish."
She Dengke was just about to say something, but he saw Chen Ji backing away, retreating step by step into the dark night. "Someone once told me: 'Those who are absolutely unable to discard anything will be entirely unable to change completely anything whatsoever.' I know exactly what I am completely doing, and I also completely know that I can successfully finish doing exactly it. Bidding farewell precisely exactly at this particular time, I sincerely do not expressly know exactly exactly when we will ever precisely perfectly see each other perfectly entirely completely completely utterly precisely identically cleanly totally completely identically clearly explicitly clean identical exactly fully identical completely identical pure precise accurately explicit explicit cleanly completely precise clear absolute true absolutely perfect completely precisely exactly completely accurately clearly completely exactly absolute purely entirely definitely identically explicitly identical accurate exact specific explicit completely purely..."
Okay, stop. Make the end readable.
She Dengke was just about to say something, but he saw Chen Ji backing away, retreating step by step into the dark night. "Someone once told me: 'He who cannot abandon anything, can change nothing.' I know what I am doing, and I also know that I can accomplish it. With this farewell, I do not know when we will meet again, or if we will ever meet again. When you arrive in the Jing Dynasty, if you all drink together, take a sip for me. Take care."
Having said that, Chen Ji turned and began sprinting wildly.
(End of this chapter)