The carriage swayed back and forth as it crossed through the deserted long street in the middle of the night. Chen Xing was still thinking about what Feng Qianyi said, and his mind was in a huge muddle. Yuwen Xin personally hung his parents? But why?! He studied under the Chen family! Did Father not treat him well enough then?

"You"re not totally indifferent to hatred, are you?" Feng Qianyi"s cold voice still seemed to ring out next to his ears.

Chen Xing closed his eyes and took a deep breath. With his head lowered, he kept kneading the s.p.a.ce between his eyebrows with both a thumb and forefinger.

Xiang Shu spurred his horse on along the long street. When pa.s.sing through Hanguangmen street, the sound of gongs being beaten to sound the night watches gradually faded into the distance, and a gust of wind blew.

Xiang Shu looked up at once and saw a very faint and blur shadow leap out of the trees by the roadside, then sweep past a high wall.

Xiang Shu frowned. He turned his horse around and shouted almost at the same time, "Jia!"

The warhorse turned back and rushed towards the carriage that was driving towards Hanguangmen along the long street. As soon as Xiang Shu saw the shadow reflected on the wall, he shot towards the carriage and shouted, "Get out of the carriage!"

The coachman tried taking a closer look, but he didn"t see the shadow and only saw Xiang Shu rush over with a sword in hand. He was afraid that the horse would collide with him, so he tumbled over in an instant and fell onto the roadside. Within a brief moment, the shadow had already arrived in front of the carriage; it held a long, pitch dark sabre in both hands and swung it horizontally across the carriage, slicing it in the process.

With a "whoosh", the shadow sabre cut through like it was cutting paper, and the coachman"s head and body flew to  separate places. The carriage was sliced right across the middle into two, and the upper half was obliquely skewed as it flew up and landed about one zhang away. Just as the one sitting inside was about to be chopped in half——

Chen Xing had his head buried in his own knees in sorrow, but a gust of cold wind suddenly blew on him from his back.

Chen Xing, "?"

Chen Xing sat up straight and looked all around him. Why did this carriage turn into a handcart?

In a split second, Xiang Shu left his horse and stepped onto the carriage, then flew past Chen Xing"s side. Chen Xing hadn"t seen anything clearly yet and thought that Xiang Shu suddenly lost his mind and had turned back to cut the carriage into two, so his soul scattered immediately as he roared, "ARE YOU NUTS?!"

The shadow rushed to the wall with a "whoosh". Xiang Shu flung his sword out to jab it, following which the pitch dark shadow sabre took form again and whipped out from within the wall. Xiang Shu suddenly bent backward, and the blade brushed past less than an inch from his face with a chill that lingered afterward.

Chen Xing got out of the carriage in a hurry. Xiang Shu shouted, "Hurry and help!"

"How do I help??" Chen Xing was utterly baffled as he stood on the road. From his point of view, Xiang Shu was just hacking randomly at a wall.

"Great Chanyu?" Chen Xing asked, "Are you okay? Did you……accidentally kick the shaft of the carriage?"

Xiang Shu, "……"

As soon as Chen Xing came down, the shadow broke free from its brawl with Xiang Shu and whooshed into the ground, then swept towards Chen Xing. Xiang Shu immediately turned around and gave chase, shouting, "Light!"

This time, Chen Xing saw it. He immediately activated the Heart Lamp, and a flash of bright light illuminated the surrounding area in an instant. Shadows disappeared without a trace wherever the light touched; the Heart Lamp"s light illuminated the corpse of the coachman on the roadside, and once Chen Xing saw it, he was instantaneously stunned!

"What is this?!" Chen Xing immediately took a step back.

"I should be the one asking you." Xiang Shu said coldly, then shouted, "Behind you! It"s here again!"

Chen Xing turned around at once. Xiang Shu took a large stride forward and blocked in front of Chen Xing with a sword in hand. Chen Xing shouted, "A yao!" Then he spurred the Heart Lamp, and the weapon in Xiang Shu"s hand lit up at once. The shadow seemed to hesitate for a moment but still rushed towards them both. However, Xiang Shu was even faster than that shadow and nailed the shadow onto the ground in an instant. A cloud of black fog erupted from the shadow, then it retreated, spun on the spot, and released bursts of eerie winds.

Xiang Shu blocked Chen Xing with one hand and didn"t let him move forward. Chen Xing peeked out from behind Xiang Shu and looked on in horror, "Wh-wh-wh……what yao is that? Hasn"t silence fallen on all magic?! Why would Chang"an have yaos?!"

The two of them watched that shadow; the shadow seemed to be slightly apprehensive of Chen Xing and was slowly retreating.

Xiang Shu, "Aren"t you an exorcist? Exorcise it!"

Chen Xing lit up the Heart Lamp several times to try and expel that shadow, but it would just circle around outside the scope of his illumination and not dare to draw near them recklessly.

"But I don"t know how to!" Chen Xing was completely unaware and just blurted out, "Aside from emitting light, I can"t use any other spells!"

Xiang Shu was so infuriated by Chen Xing that his vision went black, if you don"t know how to exorcise demons, then you can just scare it away, why did you say it out loud? Now the yao knows too!

And sure enough, in the next moment, the shadow began transforming, elongating, then launched a whirlwind from the ground with a whirr. From within the whirlwind, a figure clad in heavy armour from head to toe gradually appeared.

The sound of hooves striking the ground travelled over from the distance — guards on patrol had arrived.

Xiang Shu made a decisive decision on the spot — he locked onto Chen Xing"s wrists and dragged him back. Chen Xing didn"t have any time to think before his whole body was dragged up into the air by Xiang Shu. Xiang Shu ran up to a wall beside the road in two steps, knocked into Chen Xing"s chest, and picked him up.

A warrior yao wearing pitch black armour rushed out from the whirlwind and whizzed through the air as it gave chase. Its sword was about to stab straight into Xiang Shu"s back when Chen Xing scrambled to raise his hand; with his left hand wrapped around Xiang Shu"s waist, his right hand pa.s.sed through from under his ribs, and a flash of light erupted from his palm.

Within that instant, Chen Xing suddenly saw the yao"s helmet……and suddenly thought it seemed a little familiar.

The black armoured warrior let out a mad roar and fell off the wall. Xiang Shu switched from crouching over to embracing him and firmly wrapped an arm around Chen Xing. He kicked off the high wall with one foot and pa.s.sed by the wall of an official"s residence by the road, then took Chen Xing along as he leapt up again and crossed through that residence. After jumping onto a roof, the two of them slid sideways together and slid all the way down from the tiled roof.

Pa.s.sing through another wall, jumping onto another roof, and they had already crossed through two residences within the blink of an eye. Only then did Chen Xing realise that Xiang Shu was running away!

Chen Xing, "We"re going to run away just like that?"

Xiang Shu got infuriated and asked angrily, "What else then?!"

Chen Xing was being half-hugged by Xiang Shu, and the two of them were very close to each other. Xiang Shu had really strong lungs, so with this one roar at Chen Xing, Chen Xing almost went deaf, and he quickly said, "That"s not what I meant, that monster……"

Xiang Shu wore a glum expression and had taken Chen Xing away from the main street in an instant. They weren"t far from the palace now, and high walls that were nearly two zhang tall were just like level ground to Xiang Shu. Before the time taken for an incense stick to burn pa.s.sed, they had already entered the garden. Chen Xing struggled to keep a firm footing upon landing; his head was spinning, and just as he was about to look back to see if the shadow was chasing them, Xiang Shu overbearingly grabbed Chen Xing"s arm and practically dragged him back to the sleeping chambers.

Within the hall, six eunuchs were waiting to serve him. Xiang Shu said in a deep voice, "Light up all of the lights."

In the middle of the night, the sleeping chamber was brightly lit. Xiang Shu then waved his hand again to motion for everyone to leave.

Chen Xing hadn"t settled down yet. He sat down to look for tea to drink and said, "That monster is a sha……"

Before he could finish speaking, Xiang Shu clutched Chen Xing by his lapels, and his tea spilled all over his body.

Chen Xing, "!!!"

A dangerous glint flashed through Xiang Shu"s eyes. He dragged Chen Xing from the side of the table to a pillar and pressed him against the pillar. Chen Xing kept struggling, and his face was thoroughly flushed red.

"What were you doing in that place where that bunch of Hans live?!" Xiang Shu suppressed his voice and was almost snarling at Chen Xing, "And I actually believed your nonsense!"

Chen Xing struggled in a panic. He clutched at Xiang Shu"s wrist with both hands, but it was as if Xiang Shu"s arms had been cast from iron, so it didn"t even budge an inch. Xiang Shu"s angry breaths were extremely close now, and his entire body was emitting a murderous intent that was on the verge of being manic. Chen Xing was lifted up into mid air; his eyes were level with Xiang Shu"s, and he really had no other way but to employ the malicious move "insidious kick" and tried to knee Xiang Shu in his crotch.

Not only would this move cause unspeakable harm to one"s opponent, but it could easily enrage the opponent as well. However, Chen Xing had once again misjudged Xiang Shu"s strength. All Xiang Shu did was gently flick his left finger, and he flicked the yang ling quan acupoint below Chen Xing"s knee. Within an instant, half of Chen Xing"s body felt sore and numb.