Wang Chong sensed it faintly. His folding fan flew from his sleeve, and he unleashed a stroke of Wind and Cloud: A Thousand Transformations. With a deft pull and guide, he turned his surging internal force and knocked the arrow—laden with ice-cold true qi—off its course. It plunged into a great tree beside him with a thud, piercing through the trunk and bursting out the far side.
Wang Chong was inwardly appalled. He thought to himself, "What formidable internal force! What fearsome archery."
His hand on the folding fan felt a trace of cold. He hurriedly circulated his true qi to drive out the ice-cold true qi that had invaded him.
That brief delay let two of his pursuers close in by more than ten zhang. Not daring to be caught in their encirclement, Wang Chong surged his true qi and raced on.
A moment later, another arrow came winging in, charged with a piercing, unmatched ice-cold true qi, and once again he turned it aside with a stroke of Wind and Cloud: A Thousand Transformations.
Yaglakar Yehu was inwardly shaken. He thought, "How can this man be unafraid of my Ice Soul Divine Art?"
"By all reason, even if he can knock aside my arrows, the Ice Soul true qi should have invaded his meridians by now and left his internal force unable to circulate freely."
This invincible commander beyond the frontier kept loosing arrows. When the seventh was loosed, someone at last caught up close and cried out in a delicate, furious voice, "Little thief of the Central Plains—hand over your life!"
Wang Chong exclaimed in surprise, "So you're a woman?"
The third person he had struck just now was this very one. At the time he had only thought her young and had casually knocked her from her horse, too lazy to spare her a second glance; he had never imagined that the moment she opened her mouth, she would give herself away as a woman.
That single remark left Princess Pijia seething. She prided herself on her beauty, admired by countless young men across the great steppe, yet Wang Chong had not only unseated her the instant they met but even claimed he hadn't recognized her as a woman!
This was beyond bearing!
Princess Pijia channeled her Ice Soul Finger, intent on winning back her lost face. But how could Wang Chong spare the leisure to trade blows with her? This was a fight to the death!
The moment he spoke, he had already flicked seven strands of hair at her with Plucking Flower and Leaf Hand. Princess Pijia had seen with her own eyes this little thief use that very technique to kill her father's most trusted military advisor, so she was on her guard; her robe billowed up and swept away all seven strands at once.
In an instant, Wang Chong weighed the odds. He abandoned the idea of breaking away and fleeing at once—he had already been drawn into close range, and even if he slipped free for a moment, he would be caught again before long. Instead, he lashed out with a burst of Diamond Prajna Palm Force: Nine-Headed Fire Dragon Flash.
Princess Pijia's information was outdated; she did not yet know that Wang Chong had mastered Qingshan Sect's exclusive palm art. Gritting her teeth, she countered with a stroke of Ice Soul Finger.
The two met in a head-on clash. Wang Chong's palm force hammered down like a storm—how could Princess Pijia withstand it? Her cultivation was not even a match for Wen Ducheng's; by the third layer of palm force a sweet taste rose in her mouth, and she spat out blood.
Fearing he might kill his opponent outright, Wang Chong held back, releasing only five layers of palm force before cutting the blow short. Then, with a light grappling hold, he took this steppe princess alive.
He laid his long sword across Princess Pijia's neck and even found the leisure to glance at her. Seeing that her neck was as smooth and lustrous as jade, he could not help but pour qi into his voice and shout, "If anyone comes a step closer, I'll kill her!"
Yaglakar Yehu halted and shouted, "Even with a hostage in hand, you won't leave here alive today."
Wang Chong had never put any faith at all in this "hostage"—it was nothing but a gamble. Had these people refused to stop and kept charging, he would simply have killed her and fled on. But now, glancing all around, he saw that everyone had halted, and his heart settled at once. He shouted, "I ask only that none of you take a single step for fifty breaths—then I'll release her."
Yaglakar Yehu considered for a moment. Wang Chong's terms were, in truth, extremely lenient: he asked for no life in return, made no special demands—only fifty breaths without pursuit. He agreed at once. "I can agree to that."
Wang Chong took the woman and set off using lightness skill. Though carrying her slowed him somewhat, he would not set her down; he was betting that these people would truly honor the pact of fifty breaths.
Judging that the time was nearly up, Wang Chong turned his head for a look back at the Yaglakar clansmen, who were itching to give chase, then suddenly burst into laughter. He hoisted the woman high and made as if to "crush" her neck; Princess Pijia's body went limp at once, looking exactly as though her neck had been snapped.
Wang Chong flung her to the ground and tore off at full speed with his lightness skill!
Yaglakar Yehu flew into a rage, then was overcome with grief. He had several sons, but this was his only daughter, whom he treasured beyond measure. He lunged madly at Wang Chong, but as he passed Princess Pijia he could not bring himself to give up; he gathered up his daughter and found the "corpse" soft and faintly warm. Feeling for her heartbeat and her breath, he realized it had all been a false alarm. Wang Chong had only made a show of crushing her to death with one hand—he had channeled no force at all—while his other hand, hidden behind her body, had sealed her acupoints.
It was not that Wang Chong was especially kind to women; rather, a living Princess Pijia could hold the pursuers back better than a dead one.
Yaglakar Yehu, his fright having proved groundless, did indeed first busy himself unsealing her acupoints, and did not join the chase at once. With this veteran innate master's ice-cold arrows no longer blocking his path, Wang Chong used his lightness skill and left his pursuers farther and farther behind.
Wang Chong crossed a mountain and looked back. There was no sign of pursuit. He let out a small breath of relief. Since he had transmigrated into this world, for the first time he felt he had nowhere to go.
He certainly could not return to Pengshan County, the place he knew best. It had several thousand men, but they were a mob fit only for easy victories; bringing this pack of vicious killers there would merely add to the slaughter. As for Tongzhou Prefecture, he did not know the way—nor did he know whether his pursuers would give him any chance to ask for directions.
Wang Chong had brought nothing with him when he fled. He was now rather hungry and thirsty, yet all he had on him was a sword and a fan; he had entrusted all his belongings to Yu Zao, and at this moment he did not have even half a flying note to his name.
He rested a while and recovered most of his true qi. Faintly he heard someone several li away using lightness skill, the sharp rush of wind it raised, so he hurriedly picked a direction and fled on.
By now the great camp outside Pengshan County was already packed with people. Gan Ci, shouting orders and seeing to the camp's affairs, said to the monk Xuan Gang, "Master, you have it wrong! We crushed the Yaglakar army outside Pengshan County, and there were many who fled the field. How could word of it fail to spread? Once the news reaches Yaglakar Yehu, he will surely gather what remains of his broken troops and attack Pengshan County again."
The monk Xuan Gang sighed. "Then what are we to do?"
Gan Ci said resolutely, "Since we were able to beat the Yaglakar army once, there's no reason we can't beat them a second time. That is why holding this camp is our only choice."
"During this time, routed Yaglakar troops will surely keep coming here to throw themselves into our net. With every extra man we capture, there is one less danger and one more edge toward victory."
The monk Xuan Gang asked, "And if Yehu comes back?"
Gan Ci laughed. "Then we are simply gambling with our lives."
The monk Xuan Gang could only resign himself to it. Gazing at the dozen or so captured Yaglakar cavalry in the camp, he thought, "Will the heads of these common soldiers be enough to give Yaglakar Yehu pause?" He truly did not know. He only felt that Gan Ci had gone mad. Now he rather missed Wang Chong. Though Wang Chong was forever dreaming up wild ideas, he always seemed to find a way, and his mind worked far better than Xuan Gang's own; with Wang Chong there, he would have had far fewer worries.
...Gan Ci: Win, and it's a lifetime of splendor and wealth; lose, and it's but a single worthless life...
Chapter 69