Hidden Shadow – CH 227

Chapter Two-Hundred-Twenty-Seven: A Master of the Song Dynasty

The moonlight filtered through the grove, casting cold, white beams onto the cavalryman’s armor, making it appear eerily cold.

An Jiu, hidden in the shadows, watched the light spots on the cavalryman’s body shift and change as he moved forward. When they were less than five zhang apart, An Jiu raised her arm and pulled the trigger of his crossbow.

The man reacted with lightning speed, dodging to the right the instant he heard the sound. The crossbow bolt grazed his right arm, sparks flying as it struck her armor.

An Jiu gave him no time to breathe, firing four arrows in quick succession, each half a chi apart and at varying heights, blocking his path.

The cavalryman, seeing this, leaped onto a nearby tree, but before he could rise halfway, the four arrows were already upon him, one striking him squarely in the thigh!

He grunted, knowing his opponent was skilled with a crossbow. Maintaining this distance would keep him at a disadvantage; he had to get close!

Thinking this, he gritted his teeth, slashing away the obstructing arrows with his sword, and darted away like lightning. The force of his movement caused blood to gush from his leg wound, leaving a trail of blood.

An Jiu had underestimated the ranger’s speed. She retreated hastily, drawing her twin swords from her back.

A sinister smile appeared in the ranger’s eyes. His heavy sword gleamed with a blood-red hue in the dappled moonlight. Even before the blade reached her, An Jiu felt a powerful gust of wind.

The sword was powerful and bold, wielded like a tiger. The wind from the blade, infused with a biting aura, could also be deadly. An Jiu was a fraction too slow to dodge, and a bead of blood, the size of a bean, welled up on her left cheek, sliding down like a tear of blood.

Swords clashed heavily, sparks flying. Cracks appeared on An Jiu’s twin swords, seemingly on the verge of shattering.

The light was dim, but by the faint glimmer of light, An Jiu glimpsed the cracks in her sword. Her opponent’s blade remained unscathed.

An Jiu abruptly stomped her foot, unleashing a burst of power and launching a desperate counterattack.

The ranger was both pleased and suspicious. He was pleased because the martial arts of external cultivators were mostly based on fierce and domineering techniques, and women were inherently weaker than men in this path. He was suspicious because he did not know how his opponent was concealing her aura; if her mental strength was extremely high, she would become very troublesome.

In that moment of distraction, An Jiu’s twin swords snapped. She leaned back, the blade grazing her nose.

An Jiu drew a dagger from her leg and leaped three zhang away.

The two faced each other, blades drawn.

The sounds of fighting outside gradually subsided, and An Jiu had a bad feeling—the Song army had been defeated and was retreating!

She had to find a way to escape quickly!

A thought flashed through An Jiu’s mind. She raised her hand and fired seven or eight arrows at the cavalryman. In the instant he dodged, An Jiu spun and disappeared into the darkness. She concealed her presence and retreated rapidly.

A sharp whistle sounded behind her.

Immediately afterwards, An Jiu sensed six more experts relentlessly pursuing her.

Although these six were not as skilled as the cavalryman, their speed was astonishing.

An Jiu’s speed was inherently inferior to that of an internal cultivator, and the distance between them was closing rapidly.

The enemy had not yet found her trail. But with this encirclement maneuver, they would soon discover her.

If there was no chance to escape, she might as well launch a counterattack!

An Jiu abruptly stopped, minimizing her presence. Following her mental senses, she drew her Dragon-Subduing Bow and fired several arrows in the direction she sensed.

The sound of arrows clashing against weapons echoed through the woods, along with screams of agony. They had not expected their fleeing prey to suddenly stop and counterattack, much less that someone could hit their target without them even seeing them!

One of them roared in Khitan, and the remaining five suddenly doubled their speed.

In almost two breaths, they appeared before the tree where An Jiu was hiding, forming a semi-circle around her.

An Jiu leaped down from the other side of the tree and slowly emerged from behind it.

After a brief standoff, the five men, wielding large swords, charged forward.

An Jiu stood motionless against the powerful wind and energy. When they were only a few steps away, her mental energy suddenly erupted. The impact and pressure were like a mountain crashing down from the sky. Caught off guard by such a powerful mental attack, their minds went blank, leaving only the piercing sound in their ears! This was a mental attack technique that An Jiu had observed for a long time. Although it was the first time she had used it, the effect was clearly similar to what she had imagined.

An Jiu drew her twin swords from her sides and immediately charged forward. The swords were coated with poison she had obtained from Mo Sigui; the moment they touched the skin, a smell of corroding and burning flesh emanated.

An Jiu watched helplessly as a ranger’s armor turned into a hollow shell before her eyes, falling to the ground as a lifeless pile.

In a short instant, she had killed three with her sword.

The remaining two, freed from their predicament, took a few steps back in fear upon seeing the scene before them.

An Jiu regretted not using her limited poison on her arrows.

“The Song army has retreated, and you are surrounded by our men. You’d better surrender obediently,” one of them said in broken Chinese.

Martial artists of the fourth rank and above were not everywhere. Even if the Liao Kingdom deployed all its martial artists to the army, there would not be many.

An Jiu was not intimidated by these words; instead, they stirred a strange emotion within her. She coldly retorted, “Running wild on someone else’s territory, daring to speak so arrogantly!”

Before her words even finished, she had already shot forward like an arrow.

Her mental power merged with the two swords in her hands, making her appear as a giant sword slashing down from the sky.

Before the sword even struck, her mental power had already cleaved a trench in the ground. The two men froze, feeling blood welling up from their skulls, washing over their faces.

A short distance away, the Liao cavalry was approaching in this direction. From afar, they saw a large number of birds suddenly take flight from the forest, soaring into the night sky. The leaves, stirred by some unknown force, rose densely, almost obscuring the moon.

No one gave the order, yet all the cavalrymen stopped in their tracks, watching this strange phenomenon with astonishment.

The cavalry leader frowned, muttering, “So this is what the Song Dynasty’s experts are like…” Leaves fell in the forest.

An Jiu coughed up blood, using her broken sword to steady herself. She glanced at the several corpses amidst the carnage, confirming they were all dead, before pulling out a medicine bottle from her robes. She took a pill, wiped the blood from her mouth, covered her face with her handkerchief again, and hurriedly left.

After her reforging, the damage from the mental energy’s impact on her body had healed by seventy or eighty percent. Combined with the medicine Mo Sigui had given her, she was now almost completely recovered. Even An Jiu had not expected to suddenly unleash such powerful mental energy! Even her reforged body could not withstand it…

Why was that?