Hidden Shadow – CH 183

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-Three: Trapped

An Jiu raised her bow, the empty string drawn.

With a hum, the bowstring whistled, and the transparent arrow streaked across the snowy sky, gradually condensing into a wisp of black gas as it approached Wei Yuzhi.

However, the arrow seemed to encounter immense resistance, a chi in front of Wei Yuzhi, its speed abruptly slowing before disappearing completely in its advance.

Wei Yuzhi took a half-step back, his face growing increasingly pale.

This was the power of mental energy that could control external objects! It had actually reached this level!

An Jiu drew her bow again, firing four arrows in quick succession with ordinary arrows.

Swish, swish, swish, swish! One after another, they approached.

The first arrow stopped in front of Wei Yuzhi, the next arrow split the first in two, until the fourth arrow stopped right in front of Wei Yuzhi.

Rumor had it that the second-in-command of Piaomiao Mountain Mansion did not know martial arts, yet he often traveled alone. He had remained unharmed because no one dared to touch the people of Piaomiao Mountain Mansion… This rumor seemed plausible, but upon closer inspection, it did not quite hold water. There were always one or two people in this world who were fearless and reckless. The greater reason Wei Yuzhi had survived to this day was probably that he possessed sufficient self-defense capabilities.

His mental power should not only be able to defend but also kill!

The fourth arrow shattered with a crash, and Wei Yuzhi staggered backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

“Sir!” Mei Ruyan rushed forward to support him.

Wei Yuzhi straightened up. “Fourteenth Young Lady, such a welcoming gift has left a deep impression on me.”

Mei Ruyan paused, then turned abruptly, seeing a black figure leap down from the beam, exuding a chilling aura. The figure was like a sword drawn from its sheath, or a wolf ready to tear its prey apart. She clearly sensed no trace of Mei Jiu’s presence.

“Ah Jiu?” She turned back to Wei Yuzhi in disbelief. “This is my sister?”

Mei Ruyan’s face had matured. She had an oval face, phoenix eyes, and delicate eyebrows, her brows carrying a faint sadness and a hint of fierceness. Not strikingly beautiful, she possessed a unique charm.

“Sisters meeting again, yet not recognizing each other,” Wei Yuzhi said, taking out a handkerchief to lightly wipe his lips. “Do not worry, this is not necessarily a dead end. As long as she agrees to marry me, she will be safe.”

An Jiu found it strange; this man had been talking about marriage since their first meeting. “Why me?”

“I understand the principles of the I Ching; therefore, I can set up formations, and I can also deduce, commonly known as fortune-telling,” Wei Yuzhi said calmly. “You and I are destined.”

Nonsense! An Jiu scoffed.

“Destined is a karmic entanglement.” She coldly raised her Dragon-Subduing Bow. “And you are wrong about one thing: whether it is a dead end or not is not up to you to decide!”

Before she finished speaking, three arrows fired simultaneously tore through the snow.

One person could actually unleash a rain of arrows! That madness seemed to return to the time they were trapped in the armory. They would not rest until they tore Wei Yuzhi to pieces!

A split second.

The arrows paused for a moment half a zhang away, and Mei Ruyan seized the opportunity to pull Wei Yuzhi away.

The arrows, no longer able to meet their attack, landed on the wooden door in the distance.

An Jiu frowned. “Mei Ruyan. You are allied with the murderers who wiped out your family?”

An Jiu remembered that Mei Ruyan was deeply in love with Master Mo. If she had only pretended to approach Wei Yuzhi, she would not be behaving like this now! Otherwise, there were only two possibilities: either Mei Ruyan did not know that Piaomiao Mountain Mansion was the murderer of the Mei family, or she knew but still chose to associate with wolves.

Mei Ruyan’s body trembled. Only then did she believe that the person before her was indeed Mei Jiu. She murmured, “No way.”

She leaped up with Wei Yuzhi, landing on the porch. Her expression was calm now, but she said helplessly, “My Lord, you are exceptionally intelligent, yet you understand women so poorly. Even if you and my sister are destined for each other, this pressure must have already angered her. How can we talk about marriage now?”

Wei Yuzhi silently gazed at the murderous An Jiu in the courtyard, feeling that Mei Ruyan’s words made some sense. “Then what should we do?”

With Wei Yuzhi’s intelligence, even if the sky were to fall, if he said he could find a way to hold it up, there would be people in this world who would believe him.

This was the first time in his life that he had uttered the words, “What should we do?”

Seeing An Jiu draw her bow again, Mei Ruyan led Wei Yuzhi back several chi, landing in a deep alley in the distance. “My Lord, let my sister reunite with those people. Although this will not quell her resentment, at least it will not create an enemy.”

The enmity between the two of them had already been formed long ago.

“Back in Bianjing, I deliberately let her capture me. While it was partly to infiltrate the Konghe Institute, my true intention was to get closer to her… closer…” Wei Yuzhi coughed twice, weakly asking, “Now that she knows my abilities, will she think I deliberately used her?”

This…it was indeed using her, was it not? Mei Ruyan stared at him silently.

Wei Yuzhi closed his eyes. “I am tired.” Finding a wife was so exhausting! He missed his chance when he was being tactful before, and now, with his efforts to get closer, had he missed it again?

“I will take you back to rest, My Lord.” Mei Ruyan vaguely knew that this was only the main estate where Piaomiao Mountain Mansion accepted missions, not the true heart of Piaomiao Mountain Mansion. Even if it were destroyed, the very foundation of Piaomiao Mountain Mansion could not be destroyed.

Mei Ruyan led him to a carriage and drove out of the town.

They had not gone far when a rider hurriedly approached. “Second Master!”

The carriage stopped, and Mei Ruyan poked her head out. “What is it?”

“Miss Ruyan!” the rider bowed respectfully, then continued, “Is the Second Master with you?”

“Sir is tired and needs some rest. What is it that you need to tell me? I will relay it to him when he wakes up,” Mei Ruyan said.

The rider hesitated for a moment but insisted, “Please trouble you to wake him, Miss. This matter is of great importance and cannot be decided by anyone but him.”

These subordinates were usually very afraid of Wei Yuzhi and would never dare to disturb him like this. Mei Ruyan knew it was indeed a confidential matter she could not know, so she gently nudged Wei Yuzhi. “My Lord, My Lord.”

Wei Yuzhi slowly opened his eyes, gently raised his hand, and a strange fragrance wafted from the carriage. Mei Ruyan’s vision went black, and she lost consciousness.

“Speak,” Wei Yuzhi said, leaning against the carriage wall, his brow weary.

“Second Master! The Old Master is missing!” the rider cried urgently.

Wei Yuzhi showed no surprise, only calmly saying, “Ignore this matter. Order the immediate activation of the grand formation. Hand-to-hand combat against a Transcendent Realm expert is the worst possible strategy.”

“Yes!” The man acknowledged the order and left.

Wei Yuzhi clearly remembered how much effort it took to subdue Wei Yunshan back then. Wei Yuzhi had not absorbed a single drop of Wei Yunshan’s internal energy, but Wei Yunshan’s current predicament was entirely due to his scheming, yet Wei Yunshan remained unaware.

The most perfect scheme in the world was not about killing someone but about outsmarting them so thoroughly that they doubt everyone else yet believe only you.

Wei Yuzhi lowered his eyes, his wide sleeve brushing against Mei Ruyan’s face.

Mei Ruyan smelled a faint fragrance and slowly regained consciousness.

In the small town, the fighting continued.

A heavy stench of blood filled the air. Over forty assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion had perished, most of them at the hands of Chu Dingjiang. It was less a team operation and more a one-man slaughter by Chu Dingjiang.

When An Jiu found them, only nine remained, including Chu Dingjiang.

She immediately recognized that Chu Dingjiang had intervened to protect them.

Most of these survivors were from the same team Chu Dingjiang had led. Even the two near-ninth-level experts from Gu Jinghong’s group were gone, leaving only Lou Mingyue, Sui Yuntong, Li Qingzhi, and An Jiu. Conversely, low-level martial artists like Sun Dixian had survived. In this battlefield where strength reigned supreme, such a situation would be impossible without external intervention.

“Second Young Lady Lou!” An Jiu untied the explosive crossbow and handed it to Lou Mingyue and Sui Yuntong. “There are only two crossbows left.”

Under Chu Dingjiang’s biased protection, as one by one of their former teammates died, Lou Mingyue, Sui Yuntong, and Li Qingzhi gradually felt ostracized. This time, An Jiu gave them the explosive crossbow, which gave the three of them a sense of belonging to the team again. Li Qingzhi was not happy about not getting the crossbow, but seeing that An Jiu did not have one either, he stopped thinking about it and roared, swinging his knife with a powerful gust of wind.

Sun Dixian was dissatisfied. It was one thing for Sui Yuntong to have the explosive crossbow, but Lou Mingyue, a master about to enter the ninth rank, actually had the nerve to hold onto it!

The sound of the xun began again.

Everyone felt a slight tremor beneath their feet, as if the entire ground was about to explode.

The mist rose from nowhere, and in the blink of an eye, no one could see more than ten chi away. The assassins from Piaomiao Mountain Mansion scattered in all directions. Soon, besides the corpses, only the ten of them remained in the alley. The fog grew thicker and thicker, and in the darkness, it was almost impossible to see someone face-to-face.

“This fog is strange,” Sui Yuntong remarked, realizing she could no longer sense the people around her.

Chu Dingjiang’s mental energy was also somewhat limited.

“Which way?” Li Qingzhi asked.