Across the boundless grassland, three horses galloped at breakneck speed, separated by several dozen paces.
Zhaixingzi led the way, Wang Yu rode in the middle, and Gulanrena brought up the rear.
Holding the reins with his sole hand and lacking a crop, Zhaixingzi glanced back. Wang Yu was drawing closer by the moment, with Gulanrena right behind him.
Zhaixingzi had witnessed Wang Yu intercept Shi Mo earlier and knew the young prince had already stepped into the Xiantian realm. Had Wang Yu been alone, Zhaixingzi would not have been overly concerned. But with Gulanrena added to the fray, he feared being pinned down.
If they managed to entangle him, he would be doomed the moment Yan Xiangxue and the Tianshan Sect elders broke free from the main battlefield, which lay not far behind.
Thus, Zhaixingzi had no choice but to flee. Even if he felt confident he could overpower Wang Yu and Gulanrena together, running was his only viable option.
He could not turn west, east, or south; he could only flee north.
The three horses chased across the plains, steadily nearing a low range of mountains dozens of li to the north.
Zhaixingzi noticed his mount was slowing. He had shown no mercy to the beast, spurring it onward by clamping his legs tightly against its flanks in place of a whip, and the animal had finally reached its absolute limit.
The next instant, the horse's front legs buckled. It tumbled to the turf with a mournful whinny.
Zhaixingzi vaulted into the air. Seeing the foothills so close, he moved like the wind, skimming across the open ground and plunging straight into the rugged terrain.
Wang Yu arrived moments later and caught sight of Zhaixingzi darting between crags, clearly attempting to scale the ridge and shake off pursuit.
"Wait, Your Highness! Let us go together!" Gulanrena called as she drew up beside him. "This is Mount Tianqiang, sacred land of our Qiang people. It stretches over a hundred li east to west. While not particularly tall, crossing it is no easy feat."
Wang Yu glanced eastward. "Is the sacred ground of the Heavenly Qiang Sect located within Mount Tianqiang?"
Gulanrena nodded. "Eagle Beak Mountain is a spur of the Mount Tianqiang range."
"Understood," Wang Yu said. "Up we go!"
The two ascended together, following Zhaixingzi's trail up the rocky slopes.
One ahead and two behind, they climbed ever higher.
Zhaixingzi's original plan had been to gain elevation, locate snowdrifts and craggy boulders to mask his silhouette, shake off his pursuers among the peaks, and then find a path leading out through the northern side to evade the army's dragnet.
As for how he would survive after escaping the army—
For an ordinary person, being stranded alone on the wild grassland with nothing to their name was practically a death sentence. But for a Xiantian expert of Zhaixingzi's caliber, it presented no real obstacle.
Moving like a gust of wind, Zhaixingzi ventured deep into the mountains, climbing higher and higher. Yet he found himself unable to shake Wang Yu and Gulanrena, and his ascent was leading him into a corner.
The path back was blocked, while the path ahead appeared to be—
Zhaixingzi stood at the edge of a sheer cliff, struck dumb.
A moment later, Wang Yu and Gulanrena caught up.
"Tsk, tsk. Howling mountain winds, sheer precipices—what marvelous atmosphere!" Wang Yu remarked, looking at Zhaixingzi. "By all rights, under circumstances like these, shouldn't I ask: 'Is this the burial ground you chose for yourself?'"
Zhaixingzi turned around, looked at the two of them, and then cast a glance toward the south. His eyes suddenly flickered. "Why don't you say it, then?"
"Because if I'm not mistaken, you were just about to say those exact words to me," Wang Yu replied with a smile.
"Indeed!" A smirk crept onto Zhaixingzi's face. "Is this the burial ground you chose for yourself?"
Gulanrena held her curved blade across her chest and whispered a warning to Wang Yu. "So long as we hold this mountain path, Master and the elders will surely find us."
They had ridden straight north in full view of everyone. Once Yan Xiangxue and the others came searching, they would discover the horses at the foot of the mountain and quickly trace the path upward.
A cold glint flashed in Zhaixingzi's eyes. Wasting no more breath on banter, he sprang forward, closing in on Gulanrena in the blink of an eye and lashing out with his single hand.
In truth, he dared not waste a single moment.
With Shi Mo besieged by Yan Xiangxue, Gu Nanfeng, and Zhao Rong, and his own junior brother surrounded by the Tianshan Twin Eagles, neither could hold out for long. He had to conclude this fight immediately.
On the open grassland, Wang Yu and Gulanrena had ample room to maneuver, which would have allowed them to drag things out; that was why he had been forced to run.
Here in the tight mountain pass, however, space was severely constricted. It was the ideal setting to unleash the full might of his Star-Plucking Hand and Star-Chasing Steps. Confident that his cultivation vastly outstripped theirs, Zhaixingzi was certain he could crush them.
Gulanrena felt as though the reaching hand carried the weight of thousands of jin. It exerted an uncanny push and pull, multiple currents of force tugging at her body until she felt the terrifying illusion that she was practically thrusting her own neck into his grasp.
Startled, she slashed out with her scimitar. Countless blade shadows fluttered, churning up the drifting snow into a glittering screen of freezing steel before her.
The next instant, the pressure vanished. Zhaixingzi pulled his hand back, twisted his torso, and whipped a kick toward Wang Yu's lower body.
"Damn!"
Wang Yu halted abruptly and backed away, the tip of his longsword angling toward the Xuanzhong acupoint on Zhaixingzi's ankle. Yet Zhaixingzi alternated his legs in mid-motion; his other leg evaded the blade and snapped viciously toward Wang Yu's chest.
Ten years ago, Zhaixingzi had lost his right arm and Zhuixingzi had lost his left leg. With their signature arts crippled, each had taken up the other's specialty. Zhaixingzi had painstakingly practiced the Star-Chasing Steps, while Zhuixingzi had drilled the Star-Plucking Hand.
Over the past decade, though their cultivation realm had stagnated or even slightly receded, their internal strength had grown deeper, and their mastery of martial forms had advanced. Springing this technique without warning caught Wang Yu entirely unprepared.
Twisting aside by a hairsbreadth, Wang Yu evaded the kick. He thrust his sword forward, employing not the Seven Forms of the Setting Sun, but the Seventy-Two Forms of Wind and Snow.
"The Seventy-Two Forms of Wind and Snow?" Zhaixingzi spun around, dodging the thrust. "How do you know that sword art? Have you joined the Tianshan Sect?"
Wang Yu nodded. "When I marched out, I actually notified Senior Ye and Senior Ling as well. They'll be arriving any moment now."
"Utter nonsense!" Zhaixingzi snarled. He did not believe a single word out of Wang Yu's mouth.
Zhaixingzi was indeed formidable. Wang Yu's internal cultivation was still somewhat lacking; while the Seven Forms of the Setting Sun excelled in subtle brilliance and profound martial intent, its efficacy was limited against a hardened foe like Zhaixingzi. It was far less effective than the Seventy-Two Forms of Wind and Snow, which swept up the frosty mountain air and complemented Gulanrena's blade technique seamlessly.
Both youths possessed profound ice-snow true qi. One wielded a sword that whipped up swirling snow, while the other brandished a blade that frosted the earth for miles. With swift sword and rapid blade, using reach to exploit his single-handed disadvantage, they prevented Zhaixingzi from closing the distance.
Enraged, Zhaixingzi advanced rather than retreating. His Star-Chasing Steps traced stellar alignments, while his Star-Plucking Hand generated shifting currents of force. Though caught amid a tempest of blade light and sword shadows, not a single edge could touch his person.
Gulanrena grew increasingly alarmed as the duel wore on. No wonder her master had thought so little of her chances; the world was full of remarkable talents, and the disparity among Xiantian experts was vast indeed.
Though she and Zhaixingzi were both in the Xiantian realm, had she faced him alone, she doubted she could have lasted twenty moves—even with him having only one arm.
At that thought, she glanced at Wang Yu, her awe deepening.
In their joint assault against Zhaixingzi, the anchor was not her, but this King of Zhenxi, who had stepped into Xiantian at barely twenty years of age!
Wang Yu shifted fluidly, his sword spinning a nearly seamless web of light. He actively coordinated with her movements and patched her defensive lapses, allowing them to fight Zhaixingzi to a standstill.
Upon a flat ledge barely twenty or thirty feet wide at the mountain summit, the three clashed in a blur of flashing steel and darting shadows.
After twenty exchanges, every one of Zhaixingzi's aggressive thrusts had been turned back by Wang Yu's snowy sword curtain. Zhaixingzi's frustration mounted, and the gaze he fixed on Wang Yu turned increasingly venomous.
Looking upon Wang Yu's face—calm, yet tinged with exhilaration—he felt as if he had been cast back ten years, standing alongside his junior brother Zhuixingzi against Zhao Zheng.
Back then, Zhao Zheng had displayed that exact same cold, domineering demeanor. His flaming cloud saber technique had pressed them until they could barely breathe, forcing them in the end to employ their master's secret technique in a bid for mutual destruction.
Mutual destruction—
Zhaixingzi swept his gaze around. The mountain winds howled, sheer precipices flanked them, and their only retreat was blocked by the two youths.
Had the time come once more to drag his enemy into the grave with him?
A ruthless glint flashed in Zhaixingzi's eyes. He launched another aggressive assault, his Star-Plucking Hand deflecting Wang Yu's sword before shifting repeatedly, transforming into a massive spectral claw that reached for Gulanrena's weapon wrist.
Gulanrena assumed Zhaixingzi was repeating his earlier pattern: feinting at her, feinting at Wang Yu, and ultimately striking at her again.
During their opening exchange, Zhaixingzi had failed to take Wang Yu down in a single move and had immediately realized Wang Yu's martial skill surpassed Gulanrena's. He had shifted his strategy accordingly: feigning an attack on Gulanrena to lure Wang Yu into rescuing her, then feinting at Wang Yu to expose Gulanrena's flaws, seeking a breakthrough on her side.
Yet every attempt had been foiled by Wang Yu's peerless movement technique and swordplay.
During those clashes, however, Zhaixingzi had noticed traces of the Star-Chasing Steps in Wang Yu's footwork. Clearly, the youth had practiced the doctored manual the brothers had planted for him.
The thought of the fake manual brought to mind the doctored Star-Plucking Hand. Several of its energy circulation pathways would inflict hidden meridian damage, and forcing rapid stance transitions carried the severe risk of tearing meridians apart.
Zhaixingzi settled on a scheme. He feigned another strike toward Gulanrena, and as Wang Yu moved to intercept, Zhaixingzi forcibly executed the Star-Chasing Steps, slipping awkwardly to Wang Yu's left flank. He drove two fingers like a sword toward Wang Yu's ribs, offering him an angle practically begging for the Star-Plucking Hand.
Sure enough, Wang Yu fell for the trap. Finding his sword unable to whip back in time, he extended his left hand like a claw, his fingers snapping three times as he clamped down toward Zhaixingzi's wrist.
Zhaixingzi's eyes lit up. Twisting his body, he altered his stance.
Wang Yu shifted his form in tandem, just as expected. An imperceptible, savage grin tugged at the corner of Zhaixingzi's mouth, though he feigned astonishment as he shifted moves: "How do you know the Star-Plucking Hand?!"
Wang Yu smirked smugly. "Take a guess!"
Zhaixingzi had no intention of guessing. In that tiny patch of ground, the two exchanged seven variations within a fraction of a breath, with Wang Yu holding the upper hand through every single one.
Wang Yu appeared thoroughly confident, leaving his right-hand sword unused and failing to notice that Zhaixingzi had maneuvered to his left, cutting Gulanrena off behind him.
The next instant brought the crucial eighth variation.
Zhaixingzi twisted his wrist and contorted his entire frame in an impossible motion, his two fingers curving into an eagle's claw as he struck upward toward Wang Yu's throat.
Under such circumstances, the doctored *Star-Plucking Hand* prescribed a specific counter-variation: one that could seal all of Zhaixingzi's retreat routes, seize his wrist, and pin him violently to the ground.
There could be no better opening!
Zhaixingzi waited for Wang Yu's transition—because executing that counter caused an instantaneous clash of true qi, forcing a momentary stall. In that split second of paralysis, Zhaixingzi would rip his throat open!
Then Wang Yu shifted his stance.
Yet it was not the move Zhaixingzi anticipated. The strike came from the exact opposite angle—completely smooth, blindingly fast! Zhaixingzi's own raised arm blocked his view, and Wang Yu's fingers locked around his wrist.
Only when his wrist was seized did Zhaixingzi realize what had happened.
A look of utter bewilderment surfaced in his eyes. In the next breath, a dual surge of ice and fire internal energy poured into him, leaving the entire left side of his body numb. He watched in horror as Wang Yu, gripping Zhaixingzi's left arm with his left hand, drove the sword in his right hand straight upward into Zhaixingzi's torso from beneath his armpit.
Zhaixingzi felt a chill at his heart—not the cold touch of despair, but a literal, piercing frost.
"You... how..."
Zhaixingzi stared at Wang Yu, his eyes swimming with confusion, as if pleading for an answer.
Wang Yu grinned playfully. "I searched the authentic *Star-Plucking Hand* manual off your disciple and practiced from that. Surprised? Shocked?"
The confusion in Zhaixingzi's eyes only deepened. "That's... impossible..."
Wang Yu nodded with solemn sincerity. "Entirely possible. And thank you."
Chapter 126