Hidden Shadow – CH 182

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-Two: Snow

The streak of blood that had been drawn out of his body did not fall but floated in place, as if it had lost its gravity.

Could it be that there was no gravity here? An Jiu remembered that she still had some pebbles in her pocket, so she took one out and tossed it in.

Thud! The pebble landed at the bottom of the cage, not flying away.

Wei Yunshan frowned tightly, finally exhaling, the blood splattering on his shoulder. “Help me remove the other silver needles. I will teach you how to control external objects with your mental power.”

An Jiu’s heart skipped a beat, and many images suddenly flooded into her mind, all of them about Wei Yuzhi!

Thinking of what had just happened, An Jiu understood. These silver needles were clearly suppressing his mental power, not just putting him to sleep.

“Wei Yuzhi can also control external objects with his mental power, right?” An Jiu asked.

Wei Yunshan turned his head with difficulty to look at her. “He was born intelligent, with exceptional comprehension in this area. Unfortunately, he was born weak and lacked strength. Every time he used it, it strained his body. If he had not practiced this skill since childhood, his weakness would have been cured long ago, instead of deteriorating further.”

Wei Yunshan spoke of Wei Yuzhi with little hatred but rather with a hint of pride.

An Jiu thought carefully. Wei Yuzhi did not possess internal energy, so he should not have participated in absorbing Wei Yunshan’s. These things were irrelevant to her. What truly frightened her was that in their several encounters, Wei Yuzhi clearly had the ability to escape, yet he allowed himself to be manipulated by her. In reality, she had always been under his control.

An Jiu had never had a deep impression of this man before, but at this moment, the name Wei Yuzhi was deeply etched in her mind. If they met again, she would definitely do everything in her power to kill him!

After a moment’s thought, An Jiu swiftly removed the six silver needles from Wei Yunshan’s head, pulled out an arrow, broke it in half, and placed it at his feet. “This arrowhead is incredibly sharp; it can pierce iron armor and sharp weapons. Since you can manipulate external objects, cutting chains should not be difficult, right?”

An Jiu leaped down the pillar, strapped four crossbows to her body, and crawled into the narrow space between the pillars.

The space was already small, and with the things An Jiu was carrying, she could not climb any further.

Seeing her return, Wei Yunshan let out a hoarse laugh. “Unable to get out, right? Little brat, how about we talk about some terms?”

An Jiu ignored him, squatted down, and quickly disassembled two of the crossbows. She took out the arrows and stuffed them into the quiver behind her. An Jiu had previously obtained a similar crossbow; she had studied it privately. The reason these crossbows were so powerful was because of the arrows within. An Jiu could disassemble complex firearms in just a few breaths, let alone a mere crossbow.

After doing all this, An Jiu glanced at Wei Yunshan. She turned on all the lights in the room, enough for her to see Wei Yunshan’s condition clearly. Half of his face was stained with dark red blood, but his eyes still held a glint of light, showing no signs of his previous near-death state.

“I wish you all the best,” An Jiu said, then crawled into the pillar. This time, she could barely climb up.

An Jiu was not uninterested in the cultivation method Wei Yunshan had mentioned, but the old man did not seem easy to deal with; like Wei Yuzhi, he was a cunning fox. For her, knowing that mental power could be used in this way was already a great gain, especially in this emergency. She did not want to waste time trying to outmaneuver him. The most horrific mission she remembered was her first time as a mercenary, a team battle. In that battle, she was immersed in a sea of ​​blood, and the severed limbs and mutilated bodies of her teammates became a nightmare that haunted her for life. This time, An Jiu did not want to see the same scene again.

Near the exit, the music stopped.

An Jiu heard Mei Ruyan say, “That black-robed man is a master of the Transcendent Realm. With him protecting him, my zither music will be useless.”

A man coughed a few times and slowly said, “Order all the hidden bows to aim at him and break through his protective aura.”

He paused, then sighed, saying softly, “It’s snowing again…”

Wei Yuzhi!

An Jiu concealed her breath and quietly moved a tile aside.

The wind was strong on the roof, making her robes flutter wildly.

An Jiu saw an archer crouching on the eaves. Wei Yuzhi and Mei Ruyan were nowhere to be seen; the protruding roof ridge blocked her view. The two must be on the opposite side.

An Jiu took out a small bottle, uncorked it, and flicked it onto an archer. As soon as the bottle hit the ground, the insects inside, attracted by the scent of flesh and blood, swarmed out like madmen.

The man felt something on his body, reached out and touched it, and found himself holding the small bottle.

He looked at the bottle suspiciously; it seemed empty. Before the man could react, he felt a sharp pain in his spine and instantly lost consciousness.

An Jiu crawled out from behind a pillar and tumbled down from the eaves.

Below, only a dozen or so members of the Konghe Army remained, all surrounded and fighting ten against one. Except for Chu Dingjiang, the others were all wounded and showing signs of weakness. At this rate, another seven or eight would fall within half an hour.

Hanging upside down on the second-floor eaves of the armory, An Jiu took out the Dragon-Subduing Bow and used her mental power to activate the strings. Seeing one person cornered, she suddenly pulled back the bowstring with four fingers. Three invisible arrows sliced ​​through the snow and flew towards the three assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion. The Dragon-Subduing Bow emitted a soft hum. The sound was like a long, drawn-out sigh after countless ages of silence.

The three unseen spiritual arrows, as they flew towards them, suddenly transformed into a wisp of black smoke. In an instant, wherever they passed, a large patch of dense snow melted, as if a long rift had been torn open in the snow curtain.

All of this seemed to take a long time, but in reality, it was only a blink of an eye! The three assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion were struck, their bodies stiffening for a moment. When they could move again, they felt as if their internal organs were about to shatter, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Sui Yuntong, hanging by a thread and filled with despair, saw these three arrows as a ray of hope. A moment’s respite ignited an astonishing will to survive within him. His longsword churned through the snow, unleashing a blinding, chilling white light that slashed across the battlefield!

An Jiu’s arrows went largely unnoticed amidst the fierce fighting. Those around him only saw Sui Yuntong’s sudden, almost supernatural, increase in strength. However, the soft hum of the Dragon-Subduing Bow and An Jiu’s murderous mental energy sent a shiver down Wei Yuzhi’s spine, who was not far away.

He silently gazed at An Jiu’s location, his fair and handsome face grave, lost in thought.

After a long while, he said, “Take me down.”

Mei Ruyan put away her zither, wrapped her arms around his waist, and leaped from the rooftop with a light touch of her toes, her robes fluttering like a red plum blossom falling in the snow.

An Jiu continued to unleash the mental Startling the String, buying Lou Mingyue and the others a brief respite. The fourteen men quickly converged on Chu Dingjiang.

The scene was momentarily frozen. The assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion also sensed someone secretly firing arrows. They had not noticed the bowstring’s hum, but they could clearly feel the increasingly palpable pressure.

The battlefield, with its approximately one hundred men, seemed to freeze, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Suddenly, a mournful, mournful tune from the xun¹ began, growing louder and louder, echoing through the snowy night.

The assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion immediately retreated upon hearing the sound.

Chu Dingjiang knew this was their signal to retreat and said, “Charge out!”

“Yes!” The others followed him out. From An Jiu’s perspective, the scene was peculiar; it seemed as if a dozen or so people were chasing a large group of assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion.

An Jiu had been inside the armory, gaining a deeper understanding of Wei Yuzhi’s skill in crafting weapons and deploying formations. She guessed that whether they retreated or stayed, there was no way to survive. Chu Dingjiang must have understood this as well. Their mission this time was simply to kill as many assassins as possible from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion; as for their own survival… they would have to fight their way out!

Perhaps because Chu Dingjiang had appeared so righteous, An Jiu had not considered one thing. Now she clearly realized that neither Chu Dingjiang nor Gu Jinghong cared about these twenty-odd lives. Their schemes required sacrifice; these twenty-odd people were just the beginning.

That day, Chu Dingjiang promised to protect her. She did not doubt it, but she would not rely on someone else’s promise. She had to constantly remind herself of this.

An Jiu gripped the Dragon-Subduing Bow tightly, pondering her next move, when the xun music suddenly stopped, and the surrounding courtyard gates slammed shut.

Wei Yuzhi slowly emerged from the corridor, standing alone in the courtyard, looking up at An Jiu. “Long time no see.”

Amidst the corpses scattered everywhere, he stood quietly, draped in a dark cloak, his expression serene. His pale face, gaunt with bloodlessness, appeared even more pristine, like a god from hell.

An Jiu always felt that she and this man were absolutely incompatible.

“Since it is just the two of us here, why not talk about what has happened since we last met?” Wei Yuzhi asked.