Wang Yu readily took their advice. "Then back to the city we go."
The bandits and monks who had just been locked in chaotic battle had stopped, all turning their eyes toward Wang Yu. After all, the very prize they had fought tooth and nail over was now in his hands.
The injured monk said, "Many thanks for your valiant assistance, young hero! We humbly ask you to help us drive off these brigands. Our temple will reward you handsomely!"
Then he watched as Wang Yu opened the wooden box, took out the medicinal pill, and held it to the tip of his nose for a sniff.
Startled, the monk hurriedly warned, "That pill is destined for the Great Vajra Monastery! Only two came from the entire furnace! Young hero, be careful—"
Halfway through his sentence, he watched Wang Yu pop the pill into his mouth and swallow it whole.
Everyone fell dead silent.
Right at that moment, a booming laugh echoed from the nearby woods, followed by the rustling of leaves as if a fierce beast was barreling toward them.
"Where is my Snow Lotus Jade Marrow Pill?"
A burly, bald giant standing over six feet two, with shoulders like a tiger and a waist like a bear, crashed out of the woods. A refined iron staff trailed in his right hand. The moment his eyes landed on the injured monk, he grinned broadly, pulling the jagged scar across his face into an even more grotesque contortion.
"Well, if it isn't Nephew Fadu," the brute sneered with a sinister chuckle. "If you don't want your martial uncle to smash that little skull of yours to bits, you'd better hand over the Snow Lotus Jade Marrow Pill right now."
Fadu turned pale with fright at the sight of Wei Honggang, hurriedly pointing at Wang Yu. "He took the pill and swallowed it!"
"What?" Wei Honggang bristled with fury, whirling toward Wang Yu.
Having crossed paths with the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor countless times, he recognized the attire of the manor guards at a glance, and also spotted Zhao Shan and Zhao He—the two men he had once hunted down.
Those two were no weaklings; fighting together, they could hold their own against him for dozens of moves. They were among the premier experts of the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor and rarely took the field.
For someone to have them as personal bodyguards, and a young man at that...
Wei Honggang's eyes lit up, his fury giving way to sheer delight. "Zhao Yu!"
"'You can wear out iron shoes searching far and wide, yet stumble upon what you seek without lifting a finger!'" Wei Honggang roared with laughter, charging forward without missing a beat.
Seeing Wei Honggang storming forward like a human grizzly, Zhao Shan and Zhao He both blanched. Zhao Shan thrust out his hands, swapping his locust stones for throwing knives, while Zhao He formed claws with both hands, his knuckles turning white.
"My brother and I will hold him off! Your Highness, get back to the city at once!" Zhao Shan yelled.
Seeing that despite his massive frame, Wei Honggang moved as swift as a galloping horse, Wang Yu narrowed his eyes. "Can you two actually hold him?"
Zhao He gritted his teeth. "The old prince saved our lives from this fiend back then. If dying today lets Your Highness escape, our deaths won't have been in vain!"
Evidently, Zhao Shan and Zhao He could not stall Wei Honggang for long, nor did they have any confidence in escaping with their lives.
Zhao Yingjie wasted no time, immediately leaping onto the carriage's driver's box to turn the horses around. Although he had no idea how long Zhao Shan and Zhao He could delay Wei Honggang, horses were always faster than men.
Inside the carriage, Qianqian shrank behind Wang Yu, her body trembling slightly. But had Wang Yu turned around, he would have seen not a speck of fear in her eyes—only a flicker of annoyance.
Yet in the next moment, she saw Wang Yu reach down and lift the longsword resting inside the carriage.
"His target is me. I'll tie him down—head back to the city and bring reinforcements!"
Though he spoke of reinforcements, Poison Hand Veda, while not a Xiantian expert, possessed profound internal energy and a formidable physique; in the entire Prince of Zhenxi's Manor, the only person capable of besting him was Zhao Rong.
With that, Wang Yu leaped into the air. Like an agile swallow, nimble and swift, he tapped the carriage shaft lightly and shot diagonally across, sweeping past Wei Honggang just out of reach before vanishing in a flash into the roadside forest.
"Such guts!" Without hesitation, Wei Honggang wheeled around and plunged into the woods after Wang Yu, matching him in speed.
"Brother Yu!" Zhao Yingjie gasped, startled out of his wits.
"Your Highness!" Zhao Shan and Zhao He cried in alarm.
Qianqian's brow twitched in apparent surprise and bewilderment. Then, narrowing her eyes, she gazed deeply after Wang Yu's receding figure, lost in thought.
"What do we do?" Zhao Shan asked, turning to Zhao Yingjie.
Young though Zhao Yingjie was and modest his martial arts, he was worldly-wise and held the post of a manor steward, so Zhao Shan and Zhao He instinctively turned to him whenever trouble struck.
"What else can we do? Go back to the city and find my father!" Zhao Yingjie shouted. Leaping onto a horse, he galloped at full speed toward Longshan Prefecture.
Zhao Shan and Zhao He exchanged a glance. Neither followed him back; one person was enough to deliver the message.
With another shared glance, the two brothers sprang forward and plunged into the woods along Wei Honggang's trail, rushing to Wang Yu's aid.
The remaining ten manor guards were at a loss and could only look toward Qianqian.
"Stand guard where you are!" Qianqian instructed. She closed the carriage door, withdrawing inside and blocking everyone's view.
...
Whoosh—
Wang Yu tapped a treetop lightly and glided forward twenty feet.
Boom—
Wei Honggang kicked off the ground with brute force, vaulting forward twenty feet through the woods as well.
One chasing, one fleeing, one up high and one down low, the two shot through the woods, leaving behind swirling fallen leaves and startled birds circling above the canopy.
Wang Yu glanced back at Wei Honggang.
As one of the Five Great Bandits of Mount Qi and a core threat to the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor, files on him were naturally kept in the manor.
The man's secular surname was Wei, his Dharma name Honggang. Originally a monk of the Great Vajra Monastery's Hong generation, he possessed exceptional natural gifts. He had made a name for himself in his youth, wielding the Vajra Demon-Subduing Staff so tightly that not a drop of water could seep through. Traveling through Hexi Circuit, he had earned a formidable reputation and the moniker Reckless Vajra.
However, he was exceptionally violent, ruthless in his methods, and heedless of advice, often harming innocents. In the end, he refused to heed even the monastery elders' admonitions. When an elder sought to escort him back to the monastery for confinement, he suddenly mounted a sneak attack, struck the elder dead, and rebelled against the Great Vajra Monastery.
From then on, shed of all restraint, he acted with ever-increasing cruelty, eventually slaughtering entire families. When the Great Vajra Monastery dispatched a Xiantian expert to hunt him down, he fled into Mount Qi and turned to banditry.
Nearly twenty years had passed since then, and the rising young star of the Great Vajra Monastery, the Reckless Vajra, had become Poison Hand Veda, one of the Five Great Bandits of Mount Qi.
"Little brat, you're so young—how much internal energy could you possibly have built up? You can't escape! Just come back to Mount Qi with Lord Buddha obediently!" Seeing Wang Yu look back, Wei Honggang chuckled darkly. "Quite the tender-faced pretty boy, aren't you? Once you're in the mountains, you won't be getting any sleep at night."
Wang Yu did not slow his stride, continuing to familiarize himself with the newly enhanced Swallow Carrying Spring while launching a verbal jab. "That scar on your face—did my father carve that into you back then?"
Fury blazed in Wei Honggang's eyes, as if the pain and terror of that day were resurfacing. "Little brat, Lord Buddha will slash your face as well and ruin those pretty looks!"
Wang Yu shook his head. "What I mean is, my father was doing you a favor. He gave you that slash across the face to make you look fiercer, so you'd actually look the part of a bandit. Why are you so ungrateful?
"If you had half a brain, you would have prepared lavish gifts and gone to the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor to express your gratitude. And meeting me today, you ought to kowtow! Allowing you to become one of the Five Great Bandits on the strength of that scar was an act of patronage—one you should spend a lifetime repaying as a household slave!"
"I'll fuck your ancestors back eight generations!" Wei Honggang nearly died of rage.
Years ago, while hunting Zhao Shan and Zhao He, he had run into Zhao Zheng, who slashed him across the face and sent him fleeing for his life. He considered it a humiliating disgrace and dreamed of paying it back.
Yet Zhao Zheng had been a Xiantian Grandmaster; with no hope of ever exacting revenge in his lifetime, Wei Honggang had been forced to swallow his pride, stewing in his fury for over a decade. The moment he learned of Zhao Zheng's death, he immediately voiced ruthless threats.
That was why, upon encountering Wang Yu, he had recklessly given chase to kill him.
And of course, there was another reason...
"You little bastard! That Snow Lotus Jade Marrow Pill was key to Lord Buddha advancing to the Xiantian realm! Since you ate the pill, Lord Buddha will eat you!" Wei Honggang growled savagely.
Wang Yu nodded. Wei Honggang certainly had good reason to be so enraged; the medicinal potency of the Snow Lotus Jade Marrow Pill was indeed remarkable.
Within the limits of what his body could endure, it had improved his constitution and widened his meridians, bringing him up to the standard needed to cultivate the fourth tier of Flowing Fire Reflection. As long as he entered secluded cultivation for three days upon returning, achieving the fourth tier would follow as a matter of course.
In addition, faced with this incoming formidable foe, Wang Yu had poured his remaining energy into his movement art. Swallow Carrying Spring was not an overly powerful light-body technique to begin with; the tortoise shell had not only evolved and refined it, but even after bringing Wang Yu to full mastery, some energy still remained.
That final sliver of energy was naturally applied to his swordplay. After all, sharpening one's spear before battle, even if not razor-sharp, leaves it shining bright.
Whoosh—
Wang Yu suddenly accelerated a fraction, then slowed back down.
Wei Honggang grinned. "Little bastard, is your internal energy running dry?"
Wang Yu looked back with a smile. "Running like that burns through internal energy far faster than I do. Can you keep it up?"
The Great Vajra Monastery was not known for its movement arts. Hongzhao, whom he had met back in Puning County, was a prime example—his light-body skills had been inferior even to a roving defiler from Jiangnan.
Granted, Young Master Zhehua was no ordinary flower thief, and Wei Honggang's martial arts were certainly superior to Hongzhao's, his movement techniques having been tempered and enhanced through years in the pugilistic world.
Even so, running in such a manner drained internal energy much faster than Wang Yu's method. Furthermore, Wang Yu had achieved full mastery of Swallow Carrying Spring; not only was his consumption of internal energy minimal, but he could even recover his breath in midair.
His earlier acceleration and deceleration were not due to flagging internal energy, but because he feared moving too fast might cause Wei Honggang to give up in despair.
Naturally, Wei Honggang had no idea. "Little bastard, Lord Buddha won't tire even if you drop dead of exhaustion!"
"Good to hear!" Wang Yu nodded. Having already secured an invincible footing, he continued to hold back thirty percent of his strength, stringing Wei Honggang along at an unhurried pace and even letting the gap narrow bit by bit.
Yet while Wang Yu was in no hurry, Wei Honggang grew anxious.
He was an irascible man by nature, and Wang Yu's movement technique had genuinely exceeded his expectations. After chasing for so long, he had only closed the distance slightly, and his patience was wearing thin.
Seeing the gap close, Wei Honggang seized his opportunity. Circulating his internal energy, he surged forward with an explosive roar. Launching himself off the ground, he shot forward like an arrow, leveling his refined iron staff straight at Wang Yu, who was caught in midair with seemingly nowhere to dodge.
Wei Honggang could almost envision Wang Yu screaming as he plummeted.
Yet in the next instant, Wang Yu twisted his body in midair without any footing whatsoever, abruptly changing direction.
"What?!"
Wei Honggang's eyes went wide. Then he saw a sudden burst of sword light erupt from beneath the dodging youth's elbow, thrusting straight toward his throat.
Wei Honggang twisted sideways in desperate evasion, but the sword tip still sliced through his sleeve and grazed across his upper arm, opening a shallow cut.
Tapping against a nearby tree trunk, Wang Yu darted away like a swallow to open the distance once more. He looked back with a trace of regret. "A pity."
"A pity your grandmother's leg!"
Chapter 30