Chapter 129 : Chapter 129
Chapter 129. Do You Only Know How to Dodge?
Beside Green Maple Forest, on a remote side road, four plain carriages were making their way forward at a slow pace.
The wheels rolled over fallen leaves, producing a faint rustling sound.
The night was deep, and the moonlight was blocked by the tree canopy, leaving everything around them dim and shadowed. Only the two wind lanterns hanging from the shafts of the carriages swayed unsteadily in the wind.
Inside the front carriage, Xu Yuan sat alone with his legs crossed. He appeared to be resting with his eyes closed, but in truth his mind was taut, constantly sensing every movement in the surroundings.
This man was none other than Xu Yuan.
He and Old Liu had long since separated from the other convoys with the main supplies.
The carriages had their banners taken down and were replaced with simply decorated ones. They brought along only five or six four-meridian martial artists and deliberately chose remote back roads all the way, doing everything possible to avoid attention.
Unless someone were investigating on purpose, no one would ever notice such an inconspicuous little convoy.
The carriage jolted along the road. After circulating the Jade Platform Stance Art once more, Xu Yuan finally opened his eyes and asked, “Old Liu, where have we reached by now?”
Old Liu had been lifting the curtain to peer outside. At the question, he immediately pulled his head back in and answered at once, “Workshop Master Xu, we’ve already passed Caiyou Ward and traveled more than ten li out.”
“Up ahead is the Bitterwater River… If all goes smoothly, we should reach Siyou Ward by evening. By then, we’ll have covered around sixty percent of the journey.”
In truth, he had never been particularly sensitive to routes like these.
But since his life was on the line, he had gone out every half hour to ask the old coachman for directions and had forcibly memorized every one of these place names.
Xu Yuan gave a slight nod. “Have the carriages pick up the pace as much as possible.”
His gaze passed through the slit in the curtain and out into the pitch-black night. “I have a feeling the Bai Family won’t give up so easily on a chance like this to strike at our morale.”
“I understand,” Old Liu replied with a nod, though inwardly he was groaning in misery.
Ever since reaching the five-meridian level, he had been living in comfort, with servants attending to him no matter what he did.
How had he ended up on a trip like this, forced into endless waiting and shaken around so badly that the old ailment in his lower back was close to flaring up again?
He could only hope they were not out here trying to outwit empty air.
“The Bitterwater River is actually more or less a mandatory crossing point. Several routes all have to pass through there. If we insist on avoiding it, we’d have to make a huge detour…”
Old Liu kept rambling on, but then his voice suddenly stopped, and his expression changed.
Xu Yuan reacted even faster.
He shot to his feet, tore down the hanging curtain that had been shielding the carriage, then flicked his wrist and snapped the cloth open in front of him.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A flurry of arrows tore through the air and slammed into the curtain cloth.
Xu Yuan’s hands trembled in quick succession, making the cloth whirl so tightly that not a single gap remained, blocking every arrow shot toward the carriage.
“Enemy attack!” he shouted in a low, sharp voice.
A burst of noise immediately erupted outside the carriage.
“That skill… it’s a six-meridian fighter!”
“So the Shangyang Residence really did send a workshop master along this time. Workshop Master Chen, looks like we’ve finally hooked a big fish.”
“The Shangyang Residence moved quickly enough. If someone hadn’t passed us the information, we probably wouldn’t have made it here so fast.”
Xu Yuan’s heart sank.
From the sound of it, their whereabouts had been exposed?
Damn it.
Just how many spies had the Bai Family planted?
At that moment, Chen Donghai darted forward and stopped several zhang in front of the carriage. The moment he saw Xu Yuan from afar, surprise flashed across his face, followed by a sinister smile.
“So it’s you, Xu Yuan! Good, good, good. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. We will meet again.”
“Yes, we will meet again.”
Xu Yuan was somewhat surprised as well. He had not expected that after leaving home, he would run into an old acquaintance.
Old Liu lifted the curtain for a look, and his heart immediately turned cold by half.
Good heavens… the one leading the ambush was a six-meridian workshop master, and from the look of things, there was another expert of the same level at the side holding the line!
“This is the end…” he muttered to himself, his face ashen.
As they spoke, several men behind Chen Donghai had already spread out, forming a triangular encirclement around the convoy. Savage grins hung on every face, as if they were looking at a group of turtles trapped in a jar.
Chen Donghai stood with his hands behind his back, victory already in his grasp. Suddenly he raised his voice and called out, “Workshop Master He, come over and see who we’ve caught!”
Footsteps approached from a distance.
A figure slowly emerged from the night. When he saw Xu Yuan’s face clearly, he froze for a moment, then let out a dark chuckle.
“Well, if it isn’t the great Workshop Master Xu?”
Feng walked forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Chen Donghai, his eyes sweeping up and down Xu Yuan’s body, brimming with satisfaction.
Xu Yuan said nothing. The corner of his eye, however, was already scanning the surroundings.
How many people had they brought?
Other than these two, were there more hidden in the dark?
Chen Donghai glanced at He Feng and lowered his voice. “Has Sir Wang come over yet?”
Feng nodded and lowered his voice as well. “Don’t worry. Someone’s already been sent to fetch him. He should arrive in about half the time it takes half a stick of incense to burn.”
Hearing that, Chen Donghai felt completely reassured, and a cold smile rose at the corners of his mouth. “Then we’ll keep him surrounded here and wait until Sir Wang gets here before making our move.”
But He Feng frowned, his tone full of disdain.
“What is there to fear? Don’t tell me he can fight both of us at the same time by himself?”
He stared fixedly at Xu Yuan, battle intent blazing in his eyes.
“Besides, my Seven Wounds Fist just reached great completion a few days ago. Even if I can’t beat him, holding him off for a while won’t be a problem.”
Chen Donghai still wanted to persuade him, but He Feng had already tossed out a single line—“Cover for me”—and then his figure flashed as he lunged straight at Xu Yuan!
“That reckless brute!”
Chen Donghai stomped his foot furiously, yet did not stop him.
In his eyes, the result of this encounter was already set in stone. If He Feng wanted to vent some anger, there was no harm in letting him.
“Xu Yuan, let’s have another round!”
Feng's figure was sharp and fierce, dragging out several afterimages as he shot forward like a flying arrow tearing through the air!
He had waited far too long for this day.
He was a renowned martial artist, yet back at the medicinal fields, Xu Yuan had ruined his plans, and then in the Level Three zone, Xu Yuan had beaten him into a miserable retreat.
Those two incidents had always remained like two heavy boulders in his heart.
And now, at last, he could wash away that humiliation in one stroke!
In the blink of an eye, the muscles in He Feng’s arms bulged and knotted, and his fist force burst out with a shrieking wind as he instantly clashed with Xu Yuan!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Across the field, all that could be heard was a string of explosive impacts like firecrackers going off. Countless blasts of force shot in every direction, carrying smoke and dust high into the air.
Feng's punches came like a raging storm, one move following another, every punch fiercer and faster than the last!
And Xu Yuan did nothing but dodge and parry, as though he had fallen into the disadvantage.
“Xu Yuan, do you only know how to hide everywhere like a turtle?”
The more He Feng fought, the more exhilarated he became. The frustration he had suppressed for so long was finally erupting in full at this moment!
He suddenly remembered a line he had once read in an old book, and in the rush of his triumph, he shouted it aloud:
“Hahaha! Where the sea ends, heaven becomes the shore; at the peak of martial dao, I alone am the summit!”
The voice rang out like a bell, carrying far into the night.
What a domineering line.
Chen Donghai and the others lit up with admiration and could not help shouting in unison, “Workshop Master He, glory to our Bai Family!”
Their cheers rose and fell one after another, echoing across the empty wilderness.
And in the middle of it all, He Feng only grew fiercer, his fist force blazing like a rainbow. With another loud shout, he cried, “With my feet upon the azure clouds, I alone run wild—”
Before he could finish, Xu Yuan gave a soft laugh. “Very well, then. I’ll strike back now.”
BOOM!!
A heavy impact exploded without warning.
Feng's bold and heroic shout cut off abruptly.
His whole body flew through the air like a torn sack, tracing a perfect arc before crashing to the ground several zhang away!
Dust billowed upward, and bits of grass flew everywhere.
The field instantly fell into deathly silence.
“???”
The smile on Chen Donghai’s face froze completely.
The cheers from the Bai Family martial artists sounded as though an invisible hand had clamped around their throats. Not a single word could come out.