Aoyama

Chapter 479 Escape
Sword type.

Jiang Quan, the second-generation headmaster of the Martial Temple, cultivated the sword seed path, entered the Seeking the Dao Realm at the age of twenty-six, and entered the Divine Dao Realm at the age of sixty-one.

At a time when the Jing Dynasty was in turmoil, with a young and uncertain ruler, eunuchs, relatives of the empress, and nobles wreaking havoc on the court and causing widespread suffering among the people, Jiang Quan, dressed in a faded blue Taoist robe, entered the capital empty-handed. He appointed himself the Jing Dynasty's National Preceptor and resided in the capital for twelve years, bringing peace to the court and the country.

Lu Xingzhou, the fourth-generation headmaster of the Martial Temple, cultivated the Sword Seed Technique. On the first day of cultivating the Sword Seed Technique, the heavens and earth resonated with him, and he entered the Divine Realm at the age of thirty-six.

At that time, Goryeo provoked trouble on the border. Shen Buhai created the Haidong Sword Style and challenged Jingchao Martial Temple to a duel. With one sword, he shattered the "Grand Master of the World" plaque on the mountain gate.

In his sleep, Lu Xingzhou slew the sword with a single strike. Then, while still in the Martial Temple, he threw the sword seed to Jingfu Palace, 1,180 miles away. With a single strike, he shattered the Shenwu Gate. The brilliant sword seed hung high above the Qinzheng Hall for 72 days until the Goryeo envoy knelt and presented the surrender document in Liaoyang Prefecture, at which point the sword seed was returned to the Martial Temple.

These are all stories told by storytellers, three parts truth and seven parts fiction. But the word "sword seed" is always the main character, no matter when it appears in a storyteller's story.

So when the sword seed appeared on the tiger's back, the words "sword seed" spread like ripples on a lake, carried by the words of the Mo Dao soldier.

At this moment, Li Xuan lost his horse and, under the cover of Qi Zhenzhuo and Duo Bao, retreated back to the Imperial Guard and tightened his formation.

Yuan Heng Li Zhen's horse stumbled, but when he got up, he didn't even glance at Li Xuan again. Instead, he stared intently at the armored soldier running towards the ridge.

He removed the half-finished mask, revealing a heroic face with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes: "I've searched high and low without finding it, but it came to me effortlessly. I've found this person."

After saying this, Yuan Heng Li Zhen abandoned the Imperial Guards and led the Mo Dao soldiers up the mountain, with one force pursuing from behind and another flanking from the foot of the mountain. Only a hundred or so men remained to continue fighting the Imperial Guards and the Shenji Battalion.

The woman in purple, carrying a long sword, followed Yuan Henglizhen and said, "There are still important matters to attend to here. You stay and deal with the Ning Dynasty people, I'll go after him."

As Yuan Heng Lizhen climbed the mountain, he calmly said, "For the Martial Temple, there is nothing more important in this world than the lineage of the sword technique. Dynasties, thrones, power, money, women, and fine wine are all worldly shackles, insignificant in the face of martial arts. Night thugs can be killed anytime, this year, next year, or the year after, but our Martial Temple has been searching for this sword technique successor hidden in the martial world for hundreds of years."

The woman in purple stood beside him and said calmly, "Even those in the Divine Realm are not invincible. Only the Headmaster is truly invincible."

“Yuan will be next,” Yuan Henglizhen strode forward, walking through the mountains as if on flat ground.

The woman in purple remained expressionless: "Actually, your eagerness to kill this person is simply because you want the Headmaster to merge with the Dao as soon as possible and ascend to the forty-ninth heaven. Only in this way can you have a chance to become the first Martial Saint of two dynasties... Otherwise, the Headmaster will always be the mountain weighing on your head."

Yuan Heng Li Zhen was not angry when his thoughts were exposed. Instead, he calmly said, "That's right."

The woman in purple smiled sarcastically: "With your temperament alone, you'll find it hard to become a saint."

Yuan Hengli Zhen was even more frank: "The headmaster is a mountain that weighs down on the heads of all people in the world. It not only makes the two dynasties unable to breathe, but also makes everyone under the Martial Temple unable to breathe. It is only natural that I am wary. It is a pity that I did not cultivate the sword path, otherwise I would definitely test the headmaster's edge in this life."

The woman in purple turned to look at him: "Do you think the reason why the successive abbots of the Martial Temple are the best in the world is simply because of their sword type?"

Yuan Hengli Zhen didn't care at all: "Heroes are as numerous as carp crossing a river, and there are countless people more talented than the headmaster. The headmaster has changed so many times, but the headmaster of the Martial Temple will always be the number one person in the world. If it's not because of the sword seed, what else could it be? The path of the sword seed should not remain in the world. It would be better for the headmaster to take it and ascend to the forty-ninth heaven as soon as possible."

The woman in purple said no more.

As we walked up the mountain, a heat wave swept in from the south, and every gust of wind carried ash and haze, making it impossible to open one's eyes.

Chen Ji wiped the sweat from his face on the ridge, removing some bloodstains, only to smear it with new dust, making his features increasingly blurred.

He glanced back at what was behind him, then ran frantically eastward. Two miles to the east was the Zhenggou River, where someone was waiting for him.

……

……

Down the mountain, Hong Zu'er led the night guards and sneaked up the mountain amidst the chaos.

Just as they reached the mountainside, they were shocked to see Chen Ji running frantically along the ridge, as if he had stirred up a hornet's nest, with hundreds of Mo Dao soldiers hot on his heels.

Zhou Fang of the Fifth Army Camp silently observed for a moment. He was unaware that a sword seed had appeared on the mountainside, so he wondered, "This person is very clever. He knows that only by running up the ridge can he force the Mo Dao Camp to abandon their horses, but... why would the Mo Dao Camp abandon the Shenji Camp and the Yulin Army to chase after him?"

Gao Yuan asked with suspicion, "Who is this person? What is he doing?"

Hong Zu'er frowned. He tried to identify the person by their physique, but the armor completely changed their appearance, making them entirely different from what he remembered. He then tried to identify them by their posture and movements, but a person looks completely different with and without armor; even their running posture would be different.

Hong Zuer took a deep breath: "He wants to draw away the Mo Dao soldiers and give the people on the mountainside a chance to survive."

Zhou Fang sighed softly, "You've got guts." Hong Zu'er pointed to the mountain and said to all the night scouts, "You guys go up the mountain to rescue people first. I'll take a look and maybe I can provide some support."

Zhou Fang looked at him: "You were the one who wouldn't let me save people before, but now you want to save people. You've said all the right things to do."

Hong Zu'er said in a deep voice, "Do you really think that I, Hong Zu'er, am a person who regards human life as worthless? Before, when things were hopeless, I could only exchange my life for a piece of flesh from the Mo Dao Camp. Now that this person has drawn away most of the Mo Dao soldiers, it is different... Go, don't let this person's efforts be in vain."

Having said that, he turned his horse around and rode alongside Chenji and Modao Camp at the foot of the mountain, heading east.

At this moment, on the mountain ridge, Chen Ji ran while taking off the heavy armor of the Mo Dao soldier. Wearing the armor was to reach the front line, but now, in order to escape, the armor, weighing dozens of kilograms, had become a burden.

Shoulder guards, arm guards, neck guards... Zhang Xia helped him put them on with great skill. It looked very simple, but when he took them off himself, he realized how troublesome it was.

Chen Ji simply stopped untying the bandages and used his sword to cut them off one by one.

As his armor was peeled off piece by piece, he looked back again: the Mo Dao soldiers on the mountain had lost their horses and were much slower than him; the Mo Dao soldiers on the mountainside were swarming him on horseback and would sooner or later block his way.

Behind him were Yuan Heng Li Zhen and the woman in purple. Both of them were at the Dao Seeking Realm. Even though Yuan Heng Li Zhen was wearing heavy armor, his skills far surpassed his.

How to do?
Just then, Yuan Heng Li Zhen also stepped onto the mountain ridge with his Mo Dao in hand. The mountain wind blew sparks up the ridge, as if the tide was crashing against his black armor.

The next moment, Yuan Heng Li Zhen raised the Mo Dao over his shoulder and suddenly threw it at Chen Ji's back with all his might: "Go!"

The heavy, seven-foot-long Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) stirred up a howling wind, and sparks and smoke were swept into the tail wind behind the Mo Dao, swirling like a fiery red comet.

Upon hearing the sound of the wind, Chen Ji leaped straight down the ridge. On the path he had been on, the Mo Dao had blasted a gap in the ridge, and rolling rocks were falling down the mountain.

At the same time, a sword that had been lying in ambush on the road suddenly attacked, slashing at Yuan Heng Li Zhen's ankle.

Ke Yuan Heng Li Zhen reacted extremely quickly, dodging the sword blade with a flick of his toe, and instead striking the sword body, sending the sword flying dozens of feet away.

Before the sword could even return to its original position, the woman in purple unleashed a powerful blade strike from afar, like a crescent moon slashing down on the sword. With a crack, a fissure suddenly appeared on the sword.

Chen Ji coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling as if his heart and lungs had been struck hard, and his face turned pale instantly.

Liang Family Knife Technique.

Jiang Liuxian!
Wu Yun repaired the Liang family's gate, and Chen Ji was one of the people most familiar with the Liang family's swordsmanship. How could he not recognize this sword aura? He remembered that Brother Liang Mao'er had said that Jiang Liuxian, a woman from the Jing Dynasty, had married Liang Gou'er under an assumed name, stole the Liang family's swordsmanship, and then returned to the Jing Dynasty. He never expected to meet her here.

Liang Gou'er's swordsmanship was fierce and powerful, while Jiang Liuxian's swordsmanship was sharp and ruthless; neither of them could be dealt with by ordinary people.

Should we reveal our identities and use our connection with Liang Gou'er to seek a glimmer of hope?
No, Jiang Liuxian is not someone who acts on emotion; she can leave Liang Gou'er so coldly. I must keep my identity a secret.

However, at that moment, a fire suddenly broke out at the foot of the mountain.

Chen Ji was startled. He looked into the distance and saw a familiar figure riding a horse, holding dozens of lit pine resin sticks in his hand, throwing them one by one into the forest, burning a path of fire.

The wildfire spread rapidly up the mountain, like a fiery dragon leaping forward, creating a wall of fire on the north side of Tiger Back Mountain, which had not yet caught fire. This blocked all the Mo Dao soldiers who were trying to flank Chen Ji on horseback. The Mo Dao soldiers could only turn their horses around in front of the wall of fire and look for other directions to flank him.

Hong Zu Er!
At this moment, Hong Zu'er dismounted on the opposite side of the fire wall and stabbed the horse in the rump.

The warhorse, in pain, galloped eastward.

Hong Zu'er roared from the foot of the mountain, "Go!"

Chen Ji understood immediately and followed the warhorse's trajectory, rushing down the mountain at full speed. He and the warhorse were like two lines that gradually intersected, finally meeting at the foot of the mountain.

As the man and the horse met, Chen Ji reached out and grabbed the front saddle strap, and was propelled forward at high speed.

He looked back and saw that Hong Zu'er had disappeared into the shadows of the mountains and forests, having accomplished his mission and vanished without a trace.

On the mountain ridge, Yuan Heng Lizhen sneered and removed his armor. The speed of a Dao Seeking Realm official might not be slower than that of a warhorse.

Before he could even remove his armor, Jiang Liuxian had already lightly leaped down the ridge and chased after him like a gust of wind, leaving him far behind.

(End of this chapter)