Aoyama

Chapter 401 Mountains Covered in Red Leaves
moonlight.

The moonlight cast a hazy glow over the mountains and forests at night.

A beam of moonlight pierced through the branches and leaves, illuminating a decaying leaf in a silvery-white light.

The next moment, a foot stepped into the moonlight, crushing the moonlight and the decaying leaves together.

Chen Ji ran away panting, and behind him came the sound of birds taking flight.

Birds typically fall asleep within half an hour after sunset and sleep until dawn. They will never take to the sky unless there is danger.

Chen Ji stood halfway up the mountain and looked back, only to see flocks of birds taking flight in alarm. The flocks of birds that took to the sky looked like a straight line pointing angrily at him.

It seemed as if a menacing war chariot was charging towards him, traversing mountains and forests.

Why is the other party's objective so clear?
Chen Ji subconsciously glanced down at the wound on his wrist. The bleeding had stopped, but the wound hadn't healed yet. He thought of how the Five Witches' soldiers had risked their lives to leave wounds on him; perhaps this was the crux of their problem.

escape!
Chen Ji continued his northward escape. He had been fleeing for a day, and his legs ached. But the Five Witches' army behind him was like a blazing fire that never tired and would never go out.

The flock of birds startled behind them drew closer and closer. The Five Witches' army made no attempt to conceal themselves, seemingly unconcerned whether Chen Ji had discovered their arrival.

Chen Ji heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw that the Five Witches soldiers, wielding bone spears, were the fastest: the Five Witches soldiers who overturned altars and destroyed temples.

Holding bone spears, the altar-turning and temple-breaking figures gradually flanked from both sides until Chen Ji could hear their footsteps treading through the forest.

Just then, a man who overturned altars and felled temples rushed out of the mountains and forests at an incredible speed, far surpassing Chen Ji's.

In the moonlit forest, Fan Tan and Fa Miao, dragging bone spears, ran ahead, while Chen Ji ran behind.

The two walked one after the other, making it seem as if Chen Ji was chasing after the Five Witches' army.

The next moment, Fan Tan Fa Miao suddenly turned around and twisted his body, launching a counterattack!
He stretched out his arms like a bow, and the bone spear passed his chest like an arrow. This counterattack was as powerful as thunder and dragon, piercing Chen Ji's face!
Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine as he overturned the altar and destroyed the temple!
As if he knew the trajectory of the counterattack in advance, Chen Ji leaped lightly and landed gracefully on the tip of the spear. Chen Ji was crouching on the spear tip, holding a bow in his left hand and drawing the bowstring taut with his right.

With a snap, the bowstring trembled, and the arrow pierced through the eye socket of the bone mask.

Chen Ji leaped again, stepping on the bone spear, and crossed over the top of the temple, continuing his mad dash northward without stopping.

Behind him, only the image of overturning altars and destroying temples remained frozen in the posture of a counterattack, before turning into white ash and scattering in the moonlight.

The moment the wildfire in the eyes of the Five Witches' soldiers was extinguished, a stream of molten metal flowed from his body into Chen Ji's body: the 567th and 568th furnace fires were ignited.

This was the ninth Wuchang soldier Chen Ji killed, and also the eighteenth furnace fire Chen Ji obtained.

When Chen Ji led the Five Witches' army to the Crown Prince, he hid under a boulder. His biggest worry was that the Five Witches' army could also see the furnace fire on his body, but he could see the Five Witches' army, while the Five Witches' army could not see him.

Chen Ji didn't know where these Five Witches soldiers came from, or why their Wildfire had ignited the furnace fire within him. He just felt inexplicably melancholy, as if they had known each other for a long time.

As I pondered, I heard the sound of a horn behind me. The horn was desolate and heavy, yet majestic and awe-inspiring. Wildfires raged wildly in the mountains and forests.

Without a second thought, Chen Ji continued his escape northward.

……

……

As Chen Ji ran, he touched the last two arrows in the quiver at his waist with his right hand, and made a decision in his mind.

While pondering, he suddenly drew his bow and released the arrow.

The arrow shot straight into the shadows diagonally ahead, turning the Five Witches soldiers lying in ambush into white smoke and vanishing.

The tenth person!
The Five Witches soldiers, charging menacingly behind Chen Ji, were meant to create a sense of oppression and draw his attention, giving their comrades lying in ambush an opportunity to strike. However, Chen Ji seemed to have precognition, rendering the ambush useless.

Just as Chen Ji was about to pass a large tree, a Wu Chang soldier wielding a broadsword emerged from behind the tree and slashed down with his sword.

Chen Ji, once again prescient, dodged the blade in advance. As he brushed past the opponent, the arrow in his hand pierced the opponent's jaw.

The eleventh person!
We've run out of arrows.

A horn sounded from the mountains, its blast urgent and arrogant. As soon as the horn fell silent, the Five Witches' army, as if they all knew Chen Ji had run out of arrows, surged forward.

Nine altar-turning and temple-chopping men, carrying bone spears, flanked them from both sides, four on the left and five on the right. They crouched low and ran wildly through the mountains and forests, like cheetahs.

As they gradually passed the ruins, a whistle suddenly sounded again, and the two altars and temples on either side suddenly closed in on the ruins, like two palms, as if to slap the ruins in the middle.

However, at that moment, a black sword seed, as thin as a bamboo leaf, emerged from the old marks and patterns, following the skin and emerging from the sleeve.

In the darkness, the black sword vanished without a trace, leaving only the hissing sound of it tearing through the air.

Just as the encirclement was about to be completed, the black sword, like a venomous snake, pierced through the eye socket of a white bone mask.

The twelfth! The sword seed spun rapidly in the air, stabbing towards another white-masked figure who was overturning altars and destroying temples. The figure suddenly stopped and raised a bone spear to block in front of him.

The bone spear clashed with the sword, producing a metallic clang, and the sword returned empty-handed.

Fortunately, the two swords managed to carve out an opening in the encirclement, and Chen Ji barely managed to break through the encirclement of the overturned altar and destroyed the temple.

Strangely, the Five Witches' soldiers stood there dumbfounded behind him.

Chen Ji sensed that all the Five Witches soldiers had stopped in their tracks and ceased their pursuit, as if they had witnessed something unbelievable.

Someone asked hesitantly, "Is it a sword type?"

Fan Tan Fa Miao, who had blocked a sword with his bone spear, looked down at the bone spear. He stared at the sword mark on the bone spear and was absolutely certain: "It's a sword seed!"

The Five Witches' army, which had been overturning altars and destroying temples, suddenly erupted in cheers: "Sword Seed!"

As the horns sounded, four horns rose and fell in succession, and wildfires began to blaze.

When Chen Ji heard the words "sword seed," he was startled.

He had assumed the Five Witches' army wouldn't recognize the sword, so he deliberately used up all his arrows, intending to use the sword as his trump card. But to his surprise, the Five Witches' army recognized the sword the moment they saw it!
Strange, where did these Five Witches soldiers come from, and how do they know about the Sword Seed?
At this moment, the centurion arrived in front of the altar and temple, his fingers carefully stroking the bone spear, his eyes blazing with wildfire: "It's a sword seed."

The Five Rampaging Soldiers roared, "Kill!"

The centurion suddenly looked up at Chen Ji's departing figure: "Sword lineage successor, no wonder he has the style of the Fengzi Battalion. I wasn't mistaken before, it turns out to be a skill passed down from the Fengzi Battalion. Strange, wasn't the Fengzi Battalion supposed to be extinct?"

The five savage soldiers surrounded the centurion, shouting in unison, "Kill him or not!"

The centurion sneered, "Kill him, dismember him and bury his body in the fields, otherwise our hatred will not be appeased!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Five Witches' army mobilized in full force, chasing after Chen Ji in the direction he had fled.

The centurion, long sword in hand, gazed at the distant mountains and surveyed the terrain. He silently made two hand gestures to the two Soul Collectors beside him. The Soul Collectors suddenly split into two groups, carrying white bone banners and heads, and walked away.

……

……

As Chen Ji fled, he felt that the Five Witches' army behind him had gone mad. The clusters of wildfires followed like a torrent, and two more clusters of fire circled around the mountain from the left and right, seemingly trying to block his path, moving at an extremely fast speed.

He always felt that there might be some misunderstanding. Could it be that he had taken on some grudge for someone else? But the Five Witches' army would never give him a chance to explain.

Stopping to explain at this point is tantamount to handing your life over to someone else.

Sensing the two wildfires encircling him, Chen Ji moved eastward along the mountainside, trying to avoid them. But just as he turned, he heard the horn sound again behind him, and the two wildfires also turned.

The ghost lingers.

Chen Ji looked up at the sky; the moon was high in the sky, and it would be dawn in two more hours.

He thought quickly: These Five Witches soldiers can't stay in the world forever. How long should he wait until they disappear?

It's uncertain, and we can't place our hopes on this.

Chen Ji quickly surveyed the terrain. This place was Xiangshan Tiyun Peak, and further north was Xishan Qingyun Peak, where Xishan Qingxue Pavilion was located.

Is there any terrain ahead that we can rely on? If we can hold onto a strategic position like we did at the Dragon Gate Inn, there might still be a glimmer of hope.

But he wasn't familiar with the area and had no idea where to guard.

Relying on sword types? Sword types are cunning and deadly, making them ideal for piercing the wildfire in the eyes of the Five Witches' army, but the speed of the Black Iron Sword type is not as fast as the Feather Arrow, making it too easy to defend against.

and many more.

Xuanyuan once spoke of a place where swords were hidden: "Where the red leaves have all fallen from the mountainside, a stone tortoise swallows a sword..."

In autumn, the smoke trees of Fragrant Hills are ablaze with red leaves. But where does this clue lead when the leaves finally fall?
Does it refer to the edge of Fragrant Hills? If it refers to the edge of Fragrant Hills... then that area is too large; you'd have to walk around the entire Fragrant Hills.

wrong!

wrong!

Smoke trees prefer warm climates, so only the sunny south-facing slopes of Fragrant Hills grow smoke trees, while pine trees are more common on the shady slopes. As a result, smoke trees are mostly found on the mountainside and at the foot of the mountain, while pine trees grow on the mountaintop.

Therefore, this place where the sword is hidden is either on a mountaintop or on a shady slope.

Reflecting on the past, Xuanyuan's last line was "the stone tortoise swallowing the sword." Stone tortoise sculptures have always stood at the foot of the mountain, at the mountain gate, or at the top of the mountain where one can look out into the distance, to serve as a support for steles...

The place where swords are hidden is on the mountaintop!
(End of this chapter)