"You"re not a killer, Brother Feng, you lied to me."

Translated by: Zryuu
Edited by: Amelea, Juurensha

—

They were able to traverse the broken plank road with some difficulty. After leaving yixiantian, Feng Qianjun let Chen Xing perch on an area of high ground for a brief reprieve, then turned back to drag the corpse over to inspect.

It was a Jin soldier who had such a grievous fall that his entire body turned soft from the impact, and his body had been stiff and ice-cold for awhile. Feng Qianjun said, "This person was thrown down after he died. Can you tell what his cause of death is?"

The two of them thoroughly inspected the corpse but found no knife or arrow wounds on this Jin soldier"s body. They couldn"t find any purplish-black bruises on his neck either.

"He could have been poisoned." Chen Xing said, "His time of death was too long ago, so I can"t tell. We"ll have to find a crowner. Did the other party want to destroy the body and all its traces?" 

The Jin soldier corpse"s face was frozen in a twisted expression of horror — evidently, he had suffered a fright before dying, but people would usually be fearful when they die an unnatural death, so it was rather difficult to judge. The only thing they could ascertain was that he had been dead for at least two days. His face was covered in a layer of white frost, and his corpse had not started decaying yet because of the cold weather. Coincidentally, it matched up with what the official in the city had told them.

Feng Qianjun, "I"ll go to the top to see if I can find any clues. You stay here for a while, if someone comes, just shout. I"ll be able to see you."

Chen Xing answered, "It won"t be a problem, I"ve always had really good luck so nothing will happen to me for the time being. The corpse didn"t hit me when it fell down just now."

Feng Qianjun took an iron crossbow and had a slender, steel sabre hanging by his waist as he hiked up yixiantian"s wall to check. He looked back, "My guess is that the one who threw the corpse knew that we were down there and didn"t intend to hit you."

Chen Xing, "???"

Feng Qianjun had a nimble body; he first jumped onto a mountain rock, then turned around to leap onto another protruding mountain rock that was about a zhang higher. He rose to the top like this step by step as he jumped to the mountain peak of yixiantian.

Chen Xing was still contemplating Feng Qianjun words —— knew that we were down there and didn"t intend to hit me? What does that mean? A sudden realisation dawned upon him. Was the one who threw the corpse trying to warn us not to pa.s.s through this place?

For some reason, Chen Xing had the constant sensation of being secretly watched by a pair of eyes.

Feng Qianjun waved at him from higher ground, and Chen Xing waved back at him as well.

"What did you find?" Chen Xing shouted.

Feng Qianjun didn"t answer; he had disappeared. Chen Xing started to feel apprehensive, but not long after, Feng Qianjun appeared again on another path down from the precipice while holding the reins to a warhorse. 

Chen Xing breathed a sigh of relief. Feng Qianjun noticed his expression and knew that Chen Xing was worried about him, yet he laughed, "What"s wrong? Tianchi, were you worried that something might have happened to me?"

Chen Xing said, "Of course! It"s dangerous to operate alone in such a desolate mountain."

Feng Qianjun suddenly said, "We met by chance and have only known each other for less than twelve hours, little brat."

Chen Xing didn"t know why, but he felt a little embarra.s.sed. Feng Qianjun carried the corpse with one hand and placed it on the horse, tied it to the horse tightly, then casually patted the horse"s thigh, "Go! Take him back to Mai City, Mai City! Jia!"

The horse carried the body and ran away just like that.

The two of them started a fire at the bottom of the mountain where there was no wind. They decided to spend the night out in the open, then think about what they would do after leaving the mountain tomorrow morning.

Chen Xing faced the bonfire, and for a moment, both of them were silent and in a daze.

"Brother Feng, what are you thinking about?" Chen Xing asked Feng Qianjun.

The bonfire illuminated Feng Qianjun"s face, and he said lightly, "Thinking about how that person died. What about you?"

"Me too." Chen Xing answered. Time was limited just now, and it wouldn"t be good to take the clothes off of a soldier who had sacrificed his life in the line of duty for a more detailed inspection.

"It could have been a very small weapon." Chen Xing said, "Some are extremely poisonous and can achieve that kind of effect."

Feng Qianjun frowned deeply, "Never mind, let"s just sleep. Worthy little brother, although Yuxiong isn"t as skilled in martial arts as that Protector of yours, I am still somewhat capable. Stick to me when you sleep tonight, there is no need to be afraid."

But Chen Xing wasn"t particularly afraid. His luck has always withstood the test of time. No matter what enemies he faced, he wouldn"t have to lift a finger before heaven cleaned them up for him. Before entering Xiangyang as he headed south, Xiangyang was under such a heavy siege that it was as if it was under an iron bucket. Chen Xing waited for a long time, but he really couldn"t enter the city, so he decided to just take a gamble out of desperation. He held a lamp that he picked up from somewhere in the middle of the night and ran straight to level ground outside the city as he planned to forcibly conquer this city of the highest military importance. 

This foolish and absurd action indeed attracted the attention of the enemy"s 200,000 troops. The Qin army immediately sent out a hundred men to chase him, but in the end, all their arrows either shot askew or were blown away by the wind. As Chen Xing ran and ran, he even got lost and couldn"t discern which direction he was headed. With a hundred cavalry members in pursuit, he ran to the river outside Xiangyang city that had frozen over. Chen Xing slid and skidded over the river, but the cavalry members that pursued him were so heavy that they broke through the ice, and all of them fell into the water.

As soon as he reached the other side of the river, Chen Xing found another ladder someone had put up and thought that it was probably a wooden ladder secretly set up to prepare for a siege. He immediately climbed up the ladder, and when he arrived at the top of the city wall, there wasn"t a single Xiangyang defender in sight. Meanwhile, the Qin troops had pursued him to the bottom of the city gate tower. Chen Xing pushed the ladder over, which pushed quite a lot of soldiers into the frozen river again. At last, he tidied up his hair and robe before nonchalantly jumping down from the city wall and smoothly entered the city.

Whenever he encountered trouble, throughout Chen Xing"s life there would always be shouts of "yi? There"s a ladder here! That"s great! There"s a horse here, that"s great! That"s great! That"s great!" Amidst the countless "that"s great!" cheers of celebration, any enemy who dared to confront him along the way were inevitably doomed to plights of terror that made them wet their pants and crushing defeats.

As Chen Xing thought about it, he turned around. Feng Qianjun was sleeping with his back facing Chen Xing, so Chen Xing reached out from behind him and started touching and pinching every part of Feng Qianjun"s arm.

Feng Qianjun, "……"

Chen Xing, "Brother Feng, your arm"s pretty firm. It"ll probably take a lot of effort to give you an acupuncture treatment."

On the contrary, Feng Qianjun started feeling a little embarra.s.sed, "Really?"

Chen Xing uttered an "un" and casually touched Feng Qianjun"s chest. He had studied medicine in the mountains for eight years, and one of the areas he studied was acupoint recognition. He practised on a wooden doll first, then his Shifu. The alignment of muscles and builds differed from person to person, and the locations of acupoints were also p.r.o.ne to variation. Chen Xing"s Shifu was ill for a long time so his body was on the thin side and wasn"t as strong as Feng Qianjun"s physique, whose arms and chests felt like they possessed a powerful force.

Feng Qianjun reminded him, "My dear brother, we"ve only known each other for a day, this is progressing too quickly."

"Oh." Chen Xing withdrew his hand that was pinching the acupoint on Feng Qianjun"s shoulder, then casually said, "I had no other intentions, I was just curious."

Feng Qianjun said, "What are you curious about? Yuxiong is about 9 inches, under normal circ.u.mstances it doesn"t reach 4 inches."

Chen Xing hadn"t understood what his 9 and 4 inches meant, but he said, "You"re not a killer, Brother Feng, you lied to me."

Feng Qianjun, "……"

Feng Qianjun, who had his back to Chen Xing, suddenly had a dangerous expression on his face, but he laughed, "And how do you know that?"

"A killer"s arms and chest aren"t shaped like that," Chen Xing said, "My Shifu was a professional killer, but his stature was different from yours in many ways."

"There are also differences among killers," Feng Qianjun turned around and explained, "The martial arts techniques they practice are different."

"Wu." Chen Xing didn"t insist on his stance and closed his eyes, yet on the other hand Feng Qianjun started feeling uneasy. But even after exposing his lie, Chen Xing wasn"t too concerned and was the first to fall asleep.

A gust of wind blew by. Feng Qianjun abruptly opened his eyes, and sniffed as he glanced northward. The Big Dipper in the sky gradually descended, time pa.s.sed from the zi period into the chou period, and the wind brought with it a strange smell.

Feng Qianjun immediately bolted upright. He turned around to look at Chen Xing, who was still sound asleep.

The odour was getting stronger and stronger — it drifted over from where the wind was blowing. Feng Qianjun gently pulled his sabre out, raised it, looked around, then walked towards the place where the odour was coming from. The two horses that had been tied to a nearby tree began to notice that something was amiss and became agitated.

A soft rustle travelled over from the shrubs. Feng Qianjun stopped in front of the bushes, wielding a dagger in his other hand, when suddenly a figure came lunging out at him soundlessly!

Feng Qianjun immediately brandished his sabre, and his sabre struck into that black figure"s chest like a streak of lightning. At the same time, he suddenly withdrew and retreated; he took a huge step back, drew out the dagger with his left hand, raised his hand almost at the same time, and aimed it behind him to stab his other attacker"s neck! 

Feng Qianjun, "!!!"

The sabre in his right hand had pierced straight through his enemy"s solar plexus, a vital point, so his enemy should have been killed with this one strike from his sabre. What"s more, the dagger in his left hand had directly stabbed into his enemy"s neck; both moves were planned very carefully to ensure no miscalculation and should have ended the lives of both attackers from the front and back at the same time. However, what Feng Qianjun never expected was for the two attackers to show no regard for the sharp blades that had penetrated into their bodies. The one behind him threw his arm out and looped it around Feng Qianjun"s neck, while the one in front gripped the lower half of Feng Qianjun"s body tightly!

Feng Qianjun"s eyes widened and he was. .h.i.t by the stench of decaying corpses — the faces of the two deceased Jin soldiers appeared in front of him!