Unsheathed

Traveling through foreign lands during Plum Rain, the ninth solar term and the early stages of summer, was already a very frustrating and stifling matter to begin with. This wasn't made any better by the fact that there was seemingly a saber placed on his neck, something that caused Old Assistant Minister Sui Xinyu to feel even more anxious.

When he passed the relay stations and looked at the poems of frustration and lamentation on the walls, the assistant minister who was a great literati felt a sense of genuine empathy. There were several times when he had drunk wine to wash away his sorrows, causing the young boy and the young girl to feel increasingly worried. Only the young woman wearing a veiled hat remained calm and composed.

The four of them only dared to ride along the official roads as they traveled to the capital of the Five Mountain Nation, and when evening arrived today, the torrential downpour finally calmed down. However, even though they had ridden as quickly as possible through the torrential downpour before, they would still fail to arrive at the next relay station before night set in. This caused the old assistant minister, who was wearing a bamboo hat, to feel extremely miserable as he took off his raincoat.

The old assistant minister looked around and had a nagging feeling that there were lurking dangers all around them. If it weren't for the old assistant minister's relatively good health and his habit of traveling around the nation with his old friends after he retired from the imperial court and returned to his hometown, he would have already fallen sick and become frail after fleeing for so long and experiencing so many hardships.

An unfamiliar face appeared from a hidden area near the official road, and it was none other than the member of the cultivation world who had appeared in the small pavilion on the ancient trade route before, a young and sturdy man with a meaty face. He held a saber in one hand as he stood thirty or so paces away from the four steeds from the Sui Clan, and upon seeing them ride over on their horses, he immediately started to charge over without saying so much as a single word.

"Save us, Sword Immortal!" Sui Xinyu shouted loudly.

However, there was no response as heaven and earth remained silent.

Afterward, the frantic sound of galloping hooves sounded beside the old assistant minister who had suddenly pulled back his reins and stopped his horse. Looking over, it was the young woman in a veiled hat who was charging forward on her horse.

There was a flash of saber light as the horse charged past the saber-wielding man.

The young woman was seemingly struck in the waist by the saber, with her slender body leaning sideways as she tumbled off her horse and started to cough up blood.

Meanwhile, the saber-wielding man was carried forward by his momentum, yet he eventually slowed down and stumbled forward before limply collapsing to the ground.

His face, neck, and chest were all struck by a golden hairpin, weapons that appeared like the hidden blades of martial artists from the cultivation world, yet also appeared a bit like the flying swords of immortals. Things would have been very precarious if fewer than three hairpins had been launched, and the saber-wielding martial artist might not have been killed in an instant.