Danger and Flight

In an instant the air seemed to freeze, as if it had frozen into an iceberg. Lian Youming lay in bed, eyes tightly shut, breathing calm, a heavy cotton quilt covering him with only his head exposed. His face, originally somewhat youthful, had been hammered by day after day of frost and cold wind into something even more resolute, and coarser still. His ochre cheeks looked as if coated with windblown dust, dim and dark, and his tightly pursed thin lips were cracked by the dry air. His thoughts now were strange: he feared Xie Laosan would see through him, yet also hoped the man would detect it. Faced with this kind of martial-world slaughter, Lian Youming didn't know why, but inexplicably felt an impulse to experience it, to undergo it firsthand, and even to clash with it. Even though he was only just starting to learn martial arts, even though the other side was a martial arts master who killed without blinking, the more this was so, the more Lian Youming anticipated it. But as a normal person facing a life-and-death crisis, he felt some unease and resistance. Under this contradictory and conflicted state of mind, Lian Youming silently kept feeling Xie Laosan's breathing. He found this person's breathing terrifyingly drawn out—one inhale and exhale equaled seven or eight breaths of an ordinary person, and it was faint, nearly soundless. Finally, after counting breaths, Lian Youming heard the sound of the wooden door opening and closing again. Feeling the cold air squeeze into the dormitory, he secretly sighed in relief, as if a great stone had been removed from his chest. Xie Laosan just let him go like that? He didn't seem completely heartless after all; perhaps after going into the mountains together these days, some affection had developed, and he intended to let him off? Lian Youming thought to himself. But when he opened his eyes again, a gloomy, hoarse laughter fell in his ears. "Kid, you're still too green." Unlike his usual taciturn self, the current Xie Laosan, though still in the same clothes, exuded a murderous aura from within and without. The color drained from Lian Youming's face instantly, and he stammered, "Don't... don't kill me." Xie Laosan smiled. "Don't worry. I've taken a liking to you. You're sharp-witted and full of schemes—a fine seedling. How about coming back with me to the White Lotus Sect?" Lian Youming put on a bitter face. "Can I not go?" Xie Laosan snorted coldly. "Fine, then you can keep Old Ghost Yang company on the road to the Yellow Springs... oh, and that girl too." Lian Youming shivered, as if terrified to the extreme. "What does that have to do with me? I'm just a kid." Xie Laosan narrowed his eyes, full of mockery. "You were quite the talker before, weren't you? A rustic scholar, grave robber—hahaha." As he walked toward the head of the heated kang, he gave a strange laugh. "Don't think I don't know you're trying to pump me for information. Playing tricks with me—back when I was roaming the martial world, your grandfather was still in open-crotch pants. Be sensible and come down the mountain with me obediently, or I'll cut off that tongue of yours that boasts and talks nonsense first." As he spoke, Xie Laosan's right hand reached out and grabbed toward Lian Youming's ankle. But Lian Youming suddenly sat up. "Wait, wait, wait, I'll go..." Xie Laosan smiled with narrowed eyes, about to speak, but his pupils suddenly contracted and his face changed slightly. But Lian Youming's expression instantly turned fierce, and he spat out unfinished words, "I'll go—your mother!!!" No sooner had the words fallen than a gunshot suddenly rang out from under the quilt. "Bang!" With clumps of cotton fluff spraying up, Lian Youming was suddenly seen holding a Hanyang rifle, hidden under the bedding. Unfortunately, after one shot, an extra bullet hole appeared in the wall, while Xie Laosan sprang aside, moving like a startled hare, and a clear bloodstain appeared on his withered, wax-yellow cheek. Lian Youming's reaction wasn't slow either. Seeing the shot had failed, he lifted the quilt with one hand and threw it at the opponent, seizing the opportunity while cotton fluff filled the air to block the man's vision, and he flung himself out the door into the wind and snow. Almost one after the other, a thin figure covered in cotton fluff hurried out in pursuit. The cold wind blasted his face; Xie Laosan's head of gray hair rose with the wind, and his old eyes were full of killing intent like a falcon's. But Lian Youming didn't flee toward the Old Man Who Guards the Mountain; instead, he fled down the mountain, rolling and crawling, sliding into the white gullies. Xie Laosan wanted to pursue, but glanced toward the canteen and drew back the right foot he had just lifted half a step. In this battle he absolutely could not be distracted; he had to deal with that old ghost... But before the thought was fully settled, Xie Laosan suddenly frowned, because the boy fleeing down the mountain was actually holding his breath, and his heavy steps had become noticeably lighter. Hearing a few toad croaks drifting on the wind, the old man's face instantly turned grim as water. "Toad-Hooking Force!" Finally, in the howling wind came Lian Youming's shrill cry at the top of his voice. "Xie Laosan, I fuck your ancestors for eight generations!" "Kill!" Without a word, Xie Laosan advanced in a bow stance, letting out a fierce whistle, and lunged to kill at the boy's back. If an ordinary person went down the mountain now, it would be tantamount to seeking death, but Lian Youming had actually mastered "Toad-Hooking Force"; even if only a beginner, there was a possibility of a turn of events. Once the identities of these people were exposed, they would face unimaginable lethal danger. Not to mention the grudges in the martial world, by then they might not even make it out of Tahe County before facing a siege by dozens or hundreds of machine guns—truly no road to heaven, no door to earth. Moreover, they had lain dormant for so many years, success within sight; they had piled earth nine ren high—how could they fail for lack of one final basketful? "Stinking brat, your rifle has only one spare round—do you have any other trump cards? Obediently come to your death." Lian Youming's pace was not slow, but steady. During this time he had nearly figured out the terrain around the forest farm. Although the heavy snow had sealed the mountain, now relying on that half-baked "Toad-Hooking Force," he could slightly offset the cold and move more lightly while running. But when he glanced back at Xie Laosan, he was startled. This old man's legs exerted force like a spring, bending and straightening; one step could carry him three or four meters, his feet not touching the snow, but pushing off rocks and trees for leverage, agile as a monkey. Originally twenty or thirty meters apart, in the blink of an eye the distance had been closed to four or five meters. It was too fast. Seeing the opponent getting closer, Lian Youming was anxious and hurriedly said, "Say, you two old men guarding this broken place—what exactly is it for?" Xie Laosan did not respond, his face dark as iron, killing intent fully exposed in his eyes, clearly having made up his mind to kill. Just as the man was getting closer, Lian Youming suddenly turned his upper body, holding a slingshot with a stone in its pouch, aiming at the old man's two eyes and firing. Xie Laosan's face twitched, fire in his eyes; with a large hand he grabbed in midair and caught the two stones in his hand. His five fingers squeezed and ground together, and stone powder immediately drifted from between his fingers, scattered by the wind. Seeing this, Lian Youming nearly had his jaw drop in shock. Xie Laosan's face was like cold frost as he sternly said, "Even if you shout your head off today, you cannot escape death!" But as he chased, he saw Lian Youming ahead suddenly slow his escape and put his hand into his bosom, as if hiding something. Xie Laosan, deep in scheming, instinctively hesitated and planted his feet, but just as he stepped on the snow, "whoosh!" a lasso sprang up from the ground and tied his ankle securely. There was actually a trap. The other end of the lasso was tied to a bent tree top; once the trap was triggered, the tree top instantly snapped back like a drawn bow, and the rope would tighten and lift Xie Laosan into the air. But Xie Laosan only snorted coldly, exhaling and inhaling deeply, planting his feet firmly, actually rooting himself dead in the ground; no matter how taut the rope became, he did not move an inch. "Kid, you..." Just as Xie Laosan was about to speak, two pellets shot straight toward him halfway through his words, and he immediately raised his hand to grab them. But as soon as his palm touched them, before his five fingers could close, the pellets burst open with a puff, and two clouds of lime powder scattered in the wind, squarely blinding his eyes. "Wah!" Xie Laosan's eyes widened; he did not dodge or avoid, puffed out his cheeks, actually took a deep breath, and roared and blew to scatter the two clouds of lime powder before him. Then he stomped his foot, and the lasso on his ankle was snapped by force. Watching Lian Youming's back disappear into the wind and snow, Xie Laosan was expressionless, but blew a sharp whistle from his mouth. "Whoosh!!!" With the whistle, a yellow blur shot out from the woods, a fishy stench on the wind. Lian Youming looked back, and his heart immediately gave a thump. The yellow shadow landed—a large mountain cat with fearsome claws and a look full of ferocity. Lian Youming ran even faster. "Xie Laosan, calling for help to deal with me, a child—you're really shameless!"