Chapter 98: The Horseback Gun

  "Great bandit audacity"

  A loud, thunderous shout, a dark figure descended from the sky and landed in front of the young princess with a thud, as if a giant pagoda had crashed to the ground, sending snow flying everywhere.

  Daoyuan and Shang

  This monk's body was lean, but his loud shout had the power to swallow rivers and mountains. He suddenly jumped in front of Xu Meng'er, snow flying everywhere, his monk's robe bulging, looking as majestic as a heavenly god. From Xia Zhen's angle, what was originally a delicate and lovely little girl, like a delicious dish about to be devoured, suddenly transformed into a Buddha statue, with a stern expression, standing tall like a mountain, his monk's robe fluttering wildly, the flying snowflakes forming strange whirlpools at his feet.

  Xia Jiang was startled and quickly regained his composure, stopping his momentum. He pressed both hands on the ground and sprang back with incredible agility.

  Dao Yan and Shang were truly angry, the county magistrate was in front of him with some mistake, what face did he have to see people? Originally, he had always been self-aware of his identity, and everything was led by Xu Fei. At this time, under the shock of anger, without asking for instructions, he pointed at Xia Jun and shouted loudly: "Break him for me!"

  The sword light flashed, the powerful strike broke through the wind, like a dragon's roar. Four sword lights surged forth at once, and the unparalleled knife aura crossed and chopped down fiercely. The four Yan Wang guards really made a killing move. With the same attire, the same narrow-edged single knife, and the same chopping technique, they advanced fearlessly, shocking the heavens and earth. This strike's angle, position, and power were flawless, leaving no room for error. There was only evasion, no way to block it.

  Where should I take shelter?

  A shrill cry escaped from Xia Jiu's throat as four gleaming blades intersected and slashed down, seemingly chopping him into pieces. Mei'er, the young mistress of the manor, had never witnessed a real killing scene before, and she let out a sharp scream, covering her eyes with her hands. With her eyes covered, she didn't hear any cries of agony, but when she quietly opened her fingers to peek through them, she saw that the two people on the cliff were gone.

  "Ahhhh, I'm going to die, I'm going to die..."

  Ximen Qing was pulled by Xia Chuo, and he jumped down the cliff, sliding quickly along the smooth snow wall. He lay down, then got up, turned like a top, and was tossed about, jumping up and down, his heart racing with fear. All the way, he wailed in despair: "I'm done for, I'm done for, ah... If I die, tell my wife that my private money is hidden..."

  Ximen Qing was in a hurry to settle his affairs, and he rushed straight into a small tree on the mountain slope. The small tree was right between his legs, causing severe pain in his lower body. As he fell, he sat up with momentum, and his forehead heavily hit the tree trunk again. The small tree shook, and the thick snow on it "swished" down, covering his head and face. Ximen Qing's eyes widened, and with a thud, he lay back down and fainted.

  Xia Liu jumped down the mountain slope, always carrying a small heart, trying to avoid rocks and small trees. He slid down four or five zhang before stopping his body, looking up at the mountain, faintly seeing black shadows chasing after him. However, he didn't know that his attempt to take the young princess as a hostage had thoroughly enraged Dao Yan and the Yan King's guards, who were now chasing after him. They didn't dare to risk their lives like Xia Liu did, so they used their weapons to steady themselves, while Dao Yan Master exerted force underfoot, using Qian Jin Zhui to stabilize his sliding motion, pursuing at their fastest speed.

  Xia Liu didn't dare to linger, and hastily crawled to Ximen Qing's side, brushing away the snow on his face. She saw that his eyes were rolled back, and he was still not awake. Then, she grabbed his collar and dragged him away like a dead dog. Fortunately, the ground was very slippery, so it didn't take much effort to drag him. Once they got moving, they moved quickly.

  Can't escape now

  Xiaojian and Ximen Qing's cat, who had already woken up, were quietly observing the surroundings in a snow nest. Not far from them, an arrow with feathers was inserted, with only the tail of the arrow remaining on the snowy surface, looking terrifying.

  Enraged King Yan of Wei had already made up his mind to kill them, even if Xia Liu and the others were originally innocent. Now that they dared to offend the princess, it was enough to behead them.

  On a winter night in the mountains, it's almost pitch black, but throughout this entire evening, you won't see a scene where you can't even see your fingers when you stretch out your hand. Because everywhere is covered with snow, which can refract and magnify the faint light from the sky, forming a soft glow. Even without the moon, the ground maintains a certain brightness. Perhaps a wild cat could avoid being seen by humans, but these two big living people absolutely cannot escape.

  Not far away, the sound of snow falling and icicles breaking came, a guard searched past.

  Ximen Qing said with a bitter face: "What to do? It seems they won't give up. If we don't escape now, by dawn it will be all over."

  "Can you escape? If we keep running, our corpses will be frozen stiff by dawn."

  His gaze gradually shifted to the mountain top where they had just slid down, and there were still torches flashing on the mountain top. Xia Chuo said fiercely: "We won't leave now, if we want to survive, let's make a desperate counterattack."

  "Turn back and strike?"

  Ximen Qing followed his gaze and said in a low voice, "Are you crazy? Do you want to jump into the net yourself?"

  Xia Fu chuckled and said, "You didn't expect it either, did you? Who would have thought that we'd end up going back? Holding that little girl hostage, using her as a human shield, let's get past this hurdle first, then go."

  Ximen Qing took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and followed him back.

  Daoyan led the guards to search the outskirts, but never expected that Xiawan would dare to go back. The two of them circled around to the side with backlight, using their hands and feet, and started climbing towards the top of the mountain. By the time they climbed up the mountain, their hands were almost frozen stiff.

  Two people huddled together, quietly warming their bodies and carefully observing the movements of those people. They found that six or seven guards were patrolling back and forth, and from time to time someone would walk to the edge of the cliff and look down for a few moments. On top of the mountain, a fire was burning, and an armored woman sat beside it, talking to the little girl called Ming'er, seemingly scolding her. The little girl pouted and lowered her head, as if she was being reprimanded.

  After a while, the woman in armor also stood up and walked to the edge of the mountain to take a look. She said a few words to one of the guards beside her. The little girl named Ming'er became lively again, adding two branches of firewood, stirring the fire, and standing up to move around a bit. However, it seemed that she had listened to the woman's instructions and did not dare to leave the guard's surveillance area again.

  "We'll get close, then I'll distract the guards while you grab the girl. You only have one chance, just a brief moment, if we fail, we're both dead."

  Ximen Qing's face turned pale, and he just nodded slightly.

  Xia Fu patted his shoulder and gave a slight nod. The two of them moved forward in an extremely slow and stealthy manner, as if slithering silently ahead.

  "Hmm"

  Under a dwarf tree, a muffled sound suddenly came out, "Clang" steel knife out of the sheath, a Yan Wang guard rushed over like a fierce tiger, wind and thunder, hand knife cut down quickly, the dwarf tree responded to the sound and broke off. At the same time, in another direction, two more dwarf trees made sounds, two guards were very alert, followed the sound and pounced, knife light danced wildly, thunder and lightning flashed, making people's hearts beat with excitement.

  At the same time, Xia Chuo jumped up and ran backwards instead of forwards. Seeing a human figure jumping out, two more guards followed closely behind. Just then, Ximen Qing, who had been buried in the snow, suddenly sprang up like a starving dog pouncing on food, baring his teeth and brandishing his claws as he lunged at Ping'er, who was standing by the fire pit, blinking her big eyes to watch the commotion.

  "With a loud dragon's roar, the Yan Wangfei drew her sword and leapt towards Ximen Qing with a swift stab. Seizing this narrow opportunity, Ximen Qing threw himself beside the frightened Xiaojunzhu, awkwardly knocking her down, but his hand had already grasped Niang'er's neck, shouting: 'Everyone, stay your hands!'"

  The sword was half a foot away from him, and it suddenly stopped. Empress Xu's face turned pale with rage, her eyes blazing with fury as she shouted: "You dare to be so presumptuous! Let go of Rong'er!"

  Ximen Qing grabbed Ping'er, and suddenly his courage grew. He half-squatted down, holding onto Ping'er, and proudly looked around, threateningly saying: "Don't move, nobody move, whoever dares to move, I'll take her life."

  Meng Er said with a hint of grievance: "Sister, this time I listened to you, I didn't run around or make any trouble"

  Ximen Qing, amidst his busy schedule, still didn't forget to show affection and care, lowering his head and saying: "Good girl, you're so obedient, don't move or make a sound, that's just right."

  The sudden change attracted everyone's attention. Xia Jiu raised his hand to signal them not to act rashly, and walked over to Xu Fei, saying: "Madam, we don't know what your identity is, nor do we want to know. We have no other requirements, just ask Madam to let us go, as long as you let us leave the mountain safely, we will release the hostage, and absolutely won't harm this little girl."

  Xu Fei's face turned iron-green as she said: "You have a big nerve, daring to blackmail me..."

  "Does the lady know who I am?" Xia Yu pointed at his own nose and asked.

  "Is there still a way out for you?" Princess Xu coldly hummed and asked.

  Xia Liu smiled and said: "You don't recognize me? That's easy to handle, we're willing to sacrifice our lives, dare to pull the emperor off his horse, we're really being forced by your wife to have no way out, just wanting to ask for a way to survive. If your wife lets us go, we will definitely keep our promise, you stand here and don't move, as soon as we leave the mountain pass, we will definitely release this little girl. Otherwise..."

  Xia Liu sneered and put on a desperate look, saying fiercely: "We'll just break her neck, snap her limbs, and throw her into the mountain ditch to feed the wolves. At worst, we'll all die together."

  Ming'er heard that big bad guy say such terrifying things, and was so scared that she shrunk her body, pitifully sobbing: "You... are big bad eggs?"

  Ximen Qing saw the young beauty with tears in her eyes, pitiful and lovely. He couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions again, so he quickly loosened his grip on her fingers and comforted her in a low voice: "Little girl, don't be afraid. That uncle was just scaring them. We haven't lived long enough to kill people, especially not someone as lovely as you. Tsk, tsk, tsk, when you grow up, you'll be even more beautiful. How could Uncle bear to kill you?"

  "Oh..."

  Meng'er's eyes were brimming with tears as she nodded, her thick eyelashes blinking rapidly several times. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and Ximen Qing felt a surge of sympathy. Next thing he knew, she lifted her small leather boot and kicked him hard... right in the groin.

  She was a martial artist, of course she knew where the vital points were to defeat her enemy with one move. Ximen Qing never expected that this seemingly innocent and harmless little girl would come up with such a move. Although she was young and weak, the place where she kicked... especially since he had just been injured there, this kick landed right on it, and Ximen Qing's smile froze on his face.

  Xia Jiangzheng and Xu Fei were negotiating the terms, when he suddenly noticed that the eyes of several people in front of him didn't seem quite right. Behind him, a small dog's whimpering sound was transmitted, he quickly turned his head to look, and immediately stared blankly...

  The sky brightened, a line of vehicles rumbled along the snowy wilderness, with one car in the middle that seemed like a prison van. In fact, it was originally used to hold live captured beasts, so the bars were thick and dense, but the cage wasn't very big.

  Xiaojie and Ximen Qing squeezed into the sedan chair, swaying back and forth with the bumps of the cart, pitifully looking outside.

  "Sorry, I...I..." Ximen Qing said apologetically to Xia Bian, and then couldn't say another word.

  Xia Fu's face was wooden and expressionless, and it wasn't until after a while that he let out a soft sigh: "I suddenly remembered a phrase often said by those who roam the jianghu..."

  "What did you say?"

  "There are three kinds of people you can't afford to offend when traveling in Jianghu. One is monks."

  Ximen Qing looked at the black-robed monk on horseback and nodded heavily: "Right"

  "The second is women"

  Ximen Qing looked at Xue's back and nodded heavily: "Right"

  "The third one is a little kid."

  Ximen Qing said with tears in his eyes: "Damn it, you're absolutely right..."

  Xia Fu turned his head and looked at him again, saying: "I also heard a sentence that makes even more sense, it's extremely reasonable."

  Ximen Qing wiped away his tears and asked: "What did you say?"

  "I'm not afraid of an enemy who is as strong as a god, but I am afraid of comrades who are as weak as pigs."

  Ximen Qing's face stiffened: "Uh..."

  After a long while, Ximen Qing shifted the topic and said: "Now is the time to bring out our protective charm. Why don't you tell them about Qi Wang's identity? If we get caught again, we'll surely be in for a good scolding, and who knows if we can even keep our lives..."

  "Can't say, can't say it here..."

  Xia Liu calmly observed the surroundings and said solemnly, "They only claimed to be government soldiers but never revealed their identities from start to finish. A monk, a woman, a child, accompanied by dozens of brave guards armed with knives and bows, this identity is extremely suspicious. Heaven knows which gods they are? What considerations do they have? If we speak out here, in the desolate mountains, what if they kill us and throw our bodies into the snow pit? Would Emperor Qi even know?"

  Ximen Qing's expression turned serious and he hastily asked: "What should we do?"

  "Don't worry, once they take us back to the city, with so many people seeing us two breaking into the city, they won't dare to dispose of us arbitrarily. At that time, we can reveal our true identities to the official in charge of interrogating us, and then our safety will be guaranteed."

  Ximen Qing was silent for a moment, then sighed and said: "At critical moments, you are still calm, I am not as good as you."

  Xia Bian didn't listen to Ximen Qing's flattery, his gaze shifted from the monk riding a horse to the beautiful woman in armor, and then looked at Xu Meier in the carriage in front, who was making a scary face at him with her big eyes. A thought suddenly popped into his mind: "Good heavens, they can't be...can't be...it's not that coincidental, is it?"