Chapter 7: Before the Outpost, A Single Thread Decides the Outcome
The uphill trail was steep and rugged. Loose gravel mixed with thick layers of decaying leaves made the ground treacherous and slippery. Every step upward required several times the usual effort.
A-Shi was already at the absolute end of his rope.
From the bloodbath in the tunnel, the breakout in the valley, to the desperate flight through the pine forest, his new and old wounds had layered upon one another. Severe blood loss had pushed him to the very edge of unconsciousness. His vision repeatedly blacked out, and his ears rang incessantly. His legs felt as heavy as lead, and every step was accompanied by an uncontrolled, staggering stumble.
Yet, against his chest, the token wrapped in three layers of oilcloth remained as steady as a boulder.
Even as his muscles stiffened and ached, and his consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse, his arms locked around the bundle in a death grip. His fingertips were pale blue from the excessive force, not daring to loosen their hold for even a fraction of a second. This was the object his brothers had died to protect. It was the single thread of hope Chen Yi had bought with his life. He couldn't afford to lose it, and he absolutely would not.
At the end of the forest ahead, the Zhenyue Escort Agency's outpost finally came into sharp focus.
A towering fence built from thick, solid logs stood tall. A wooden watchtower perched at the crest of the hill, and a brown escort flag fluttered fiercely in the mountain wind. The characters "Zhenyue" on the flag were bold and powerful, representing the only symbol of safety in these desolate mountains.
Hearing the commotion, several guards on duty, armed with long spears and steel blades, rushed out of the outpost. Their footsteps were frantic, their expressions vigilant.
"It's A-Shi!" Zhou Wu, the lead guard, narrowed his eyes and immediately waved his hand. "Everyone, full alert! Move to receive him!"
Seeing his companions at this moment, the string in A-Shi's heart, pulled to its absolute limit, suddenly snapped. His eyes instantly welled with tears. The oppression, fear, and exhaustion from days of slaughter and desperate flight surged upward all at once, threatening to completely crush him.
He clenched his jaw, forcing his swaying body to stabilize, and pushed the very last shred of his strength into a final sprint.
But behind him, a lethal chill was already closing in.
Green Face had reached the middle of the uphill slope.
Not a speck of dust stained his ink-colored robe. As he ran, his sleeves billowed in the wind, his steps light and steady, completely unaffected by the steep terrain. The bronze mask covered his face, the hollow eye sockets locked onto the fleeing figure ahead. His long sword hung loosely in his hand, the blade still gleaming with fresh blood.
He was neither rushed nor anxious, yet every step he took was a guaranteed kill.
Lin Yan sprinted up right behind him. The violent running pulled at his old chest wounds, sending waves of dull pain through him. His arm wound, soaked in sweat, burned with a piercing sting. He watched helplessly as Green Face rapidly closed the distance, his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach.
This man's martial arts realm was on an entirely different level from all the previous assassins.
The ambushes, terrain traps, and stone-throwing tactics in the pine forest were nothing but child's play against him.
"Stop him!" Zhou Wu roared. He waved his hand, sending two guards rushing forward to intercept.
The two guards attacked from the left and right with long spears, the spearheads aimed precisely at Green Face's vital points. Their movements were disciplined and perfectly coordinated—a combined formation honed by years of escort agency training, more than enough to block ordinary Jianghu thugs.
But Green Face treated them as if they didn't exist.
With a slight flick of his wrist, a flash of sword light erupted.
Clang! Clang!
Two crisp, shattering sounds exploded almost simultaneously.
The sturdy wooden shafts of the two long spears snapped instantly, wood splinters flying everywhere. The sword light didn't stop. Green Face used the flat of his blade to strike with overwhelming force, accurately smashing into the chests of the two guards.
Two muffled groans sounded at once. The guards were sent flying backward as if struck by a massive hammer, crashing heavily to the ground, unable to rise.
In a single strike: the formation broken, the men defeated.
Zhou Wu's face paled, his heart filled with shock. He had guarded this outpost for years and seen countless martial artists, but he had never witnessed swordsmanship so swift, so domineering, and so effortlessly powerful.
But he didn't retreat half a step. Gripping his long spear, he charged forward alone, gritting his teeth to desperately block Green Face's path.
Watching this, Lin Yan's heart raced. He bent down, snatched up several loose stones along the way, and hurled them with all his might at Green Face's back.
The stones tore through the air, but they couldn't even get close to him.
Without turning his head, Green Face casually swept his sword. A wave of sword qi shattered the flying stones into dust, the debris exploding into the air without even grazing the hem of his robe.
"Futile effort."
Two indifferent words drifted on the wind, chilling to the bone.
At this moment, A-Shi was only twenty paces from the outpost.
Life and death hung by a single thread, separated by mere inches.
A-Shi's vision had blurred. The fence, the flag, and the faces of his companions layered and overlapped in his eyes. Driven by his final, unyielding conviction, he sprinted wildly, throwing himself forward for the last few steps. He collapsed onto the open ground in front of the outpost, his palms ground to bloody pulp by the gravel. Yet, he still held the oilcloth bundle high in the air.
"The token... catch it!"
Zhou Wu's eyes burned crimson. He lunged forward, thrusting his long spear horizontally to desperately block Green Face's pursuing blade. Simultaneously, his large hand reached out, steadily catching the heavily wrapped token.
CLANG—!
The deafening clash of metal numbed the eardrums.
Green Face's thrust was met by Zhou Wu's desperate block. The massive shockwave tore open the webbing of Zhou Wu's hand and sent a numb shock through his arm, forcing him to stagger back several steps.
But it was precisely this momentary delay.
Several guards from behind rushed forward en masse. Steel blades and long spears formed a tight encirclement, instantly locking into a rigid formation that completely blocked Green Face outside the outpost.
The token had been successfully handed over.
Completely drained of strength, A-Shi collapsed to the ground, gasping for air and trembling all over. He couldn't push himself up anymore.
Lin Yan quickly rushed to his side, bending down to help him up. His fingers brushed against the large, warm patch of blood on A-Shi's back, and his heart tightened. This journey had been too brutal. From the initial bloodbath in the forest and the total annihilation of the team, to the two men fighting to the death as a rearguard, the deadly struggle in the tunnel, and the pursuit through the pines... After countless brushes with death, they had finally delivered the token to the rendezvous point.
Yet, in his heart, he felt no relief at all.
Because he knew that the safety before them was merely a temporary illusion.
Green Face stopped outside the encirclement. He made no further attacks and slowly sheathed his sword.
He raised his eyes to look at the oilcloth bundle now heavily guarded inside the fence. The gaze beneath his mask was deep and still, revealing neither joy nor anger, yet carrying an oppressive weight that refused to dissipate.
"You think that just because you've reached here, you've won?"
Green Face's voice came through the bronze mask, muffled and hoarse. It fell upon everyone's ears, sending a chill through their hearts.
"Green Face, the token has entered our Zhenyue outpost. Your scheme has completely failed!" Zhou Wu gripped the token tightly and rebuked fiercely. "If you don't retreat now, we will gather our forces and fight you to the death!"
Green Face smiled faintly, a cold, icy smile.
"Failed?"
"This place is nothing but a minor outpost at the foot of the mountain. In these desolate hills, your forces are thin, and you have no defensible terrain."
"The true escort route is a thousand miles south, crossing three prefectures, leading directly to the Jiangnan headquarters."
"I was merely setting up a slight interception on the road ahead. The true killing formation has only just begun to unfold."
A single sentence plunged the entire scene into dead silence.
The wind swept over the ridge, making the escort flags flap wildly. A bone-chilling cold rolled across the entire slope.
The expressions of all the guards shifted dramatically.
They all knew Green Face spoke the truth. The outpost at the foot of the mountain was merely a temporary rendezvous point. With so few men and rudimentary defenses, it could hardly be considered safe. Until the token entered the Jiangnan headquarters and was placed in the hands of the Grand Escort Master, this pursuit would never end.
Green Face's gaze slowly swept over the crowd, finally returning to Lin Yan. He lingered on him for two extra seconds.
"A mere mortal. No fists, no martial arts. Yet, you have repeatedly ruined my grand plans."
"Young man, you are very strange."
He said nothing more, nor did he attack again. He simply cast one last, deep look toward the outpost, turned, and flicked his sleeve, walking away.
His ink-colored figure took a single step into the shadows of the pine forest, vanishing instantly into the layered rustle of the pines. He left behind only a ground soaked in blood and a heavy, oppressive silence.
Only when Green Face's presence had completely faded did the guards let out a collective, long sigh of relief. Their taut bodies finally relaxed, though many found their backs completely soaked in cold sweat.
Zhou Wu immediately issued orders: "Quick! Help A-Shi and this young brother up, and take them back to the outpost for treatment! Send someone to immediately assess the injuries and clear the battlefield! Also, send a message to the back mountain at once to search for Brother Chen Yi!"
Several guards responded and sprang into action.
Supported by others, Lin Yan stood up. Looking toward the deep, silent pine forest in the distance, the unease in his heart grew heavier.
He had no so-called dimensional mission binding him, nor had anyone assigned him a heavenly mandate.
But he knew perfectly well—
This token carried consequences too massive to fathom.
Green Face was lurking in the shadows, laying out a thousand-mile killing formation. He would absolutely not give up.
And he himself had been completely dragged into this Jianghu vortex, with no way to extract himself.
From the moment he threw that first stone in the forest, desperately blocked the assassin in the tunnel, and set the tripwire in the pine forest, he had stood directly against Green Face.
If the token was ultimately lost, if Green Face's scheme succeeded, this Jianghu would be engulfed in a catastrophic storm. And as someone trapped in the center of the board, no one could remain unscathed.
Lin Yan lowered his head, looking at his own hands, covered in wounds and stained with blood. His fingertips tightened slightly.
He had to keep walking.
Not for some abstract, unspoken mandate, but to survive. To protect what everyone along the way had traded their lives to secure. To tear apart this dark, murderous web that blanketed the entire landscape.
Inside the outpost, the warmth of medicinal herbs, charcoal fires, and hot tea gradually began to spread.
But outside the mountains, the wind was growing colder.
The thousand-mile escort journey south was littered with lethal threats, every step a heart-stopping gamble.
The road ahead remained shrouded in uncertainty.
A-Shi was already at the absolute end of his rope.
From the bloodbath in the tunnel, the breakout in the valley, to the desperate flight through the pine forest, his new and old wounds had layered upon one another. Severe blood loss had pushed him to the very edge of unconsciousness. His vision repeatedly blacked out, and his ears rang incessantly. His legs felt as heavy as lead, and every step was accompanied by an uncontrolled, staggering stumble.
Yet, against his chest, the token wrapped in three layers of oilcloth remained as steady as a boulder.
Even as his muscles stiffened and ached, and his consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse, his arms locked around the bundle in a death grip. His fingertips were pale blue from the excessive force, not daring to loosen their hold for even a fraction of a second. This was the object his brothers had died to protect. It was the single thread of hope Chen Yi had bought with his life. He couldn't afford to lose it, and he absolutely would not.
At the end of the forest ahead, the Zhenyue Escort Agency's outpost finally came into sharp focus.
A towering fence built from thick, solid logs stood tall. A wooden watchtower perched at the crest of the hill, and a brown escort flag fluttered fiercely in the mountain wind. The characters "Zhenyue" on the flag were bold and powerful, representing the only symbol of safety in these desolate mountains.
Hearing the commotion, several guards on duty, armed with long spears and steel blades, rushed out of the outpost. Their footsteps were frantic, their expressions vigilant.
"It's A-Shi!" Zhou Wu, the lead guard, narrowed his eyes and immediately waved his hand. "Everyone, full alert! Move to receive him!"
Seeing his companions at this moment, the string in A-Shi's heart, pulled to its absolute limit, suddenly snapped. His eyes instantly welled with tears. The oppression, fear, and exhaustion from days of slaughter and desperate flight surged upward all at once, threatening to completely crush him.
He clenched his jaw, forcing his swaying body to stabilize, and pushed the very last shred of his strength into a final sprint.
But behind him, a lethal chill was already closing in.
Green Face had reached the middle of the uphill slope.
Not a speck of dust stained his ink-colored robe. As he ran, his sleeves billowed in the wind, his steps light and steady, completely unaffected by the steep terrain. The bronze mask covered his face, the hollow eye sockets locked onto the fleeing figure ahead. His long sword hung loosely in his hand, the blade still gleaming with fresh blood.
He was neither rushed nor anxious, yet every step he took was a guaranteed kill.
Lin Yan sprinted up right behind him. The violent running pulled at his old chest wounds, sending waves of dull pain through him. His arm wound, soaked in sweat, burned with a piercing sting. He watched helplessly as Green Face rapidly closed the distance, his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach.
This man's martial arts realm was on an entirely different level from all the previous assassins.
The ambushes, terrain traps, and stone-throwing tactics in the pine forest were nothing but child's play against him.
"Stop him!" Zhou Wu roared. He waved his hand, sending two guards rushing forward to intercept.
The two guards attacked from the left and right with long spears, the spearheads aimed precisely at Green Face's vital points. Their movements were disciplined and perfectly coordinated—a combined formation honed by years of escort agency training, more than enough to block ordinary Jianghu thugs.
But Green Face treated them as if they didn't exist.
With a slight flick of his wrist, a flash of sword light erupted.
Clang! Clang!
Two crisp, shattering sounds exploded almost simultaneously.
The sturdy wooden shafts of the two long spears snapped instantly, wood splinters flying everywhere. The sword light didn't stop. Green Face used the flat of his blade to strike with overwhelming force, accurately smashing into the chests of the two guards.
Two muffled groans sounded at once. The guards were sent flying backward as if struck by a massive hammer, crashing heavily to the ground, unable to rise.
In a single strike: the formation broken, the men defeated.
Zhou Wu's face paled, his heart filled with shock. He had guarded this outpost for years and seen countless martial artists, but he had never witnessed swordsmanship so swift, so domineering, and so effortlessly powerful.
But he didn't retreat half a step. Gripping his long spear, he charged forward alone, gritting his teeth to desperately block Green Face's path.
Watching this, Lin Yan's heart raced. He bent down, snatched up several loose stones along the way, and hurled them with all his might at Green Face's back.
The stones tore through the air, but they couldn't even get close to him.
Without turning his head, Green Face casually swept his sword. A wave of sword qi shattered the flying stones into dust, the debris exploding into the air without even grazing the hem of his robe.
"Futile effort."
Two indifferent words drifted on the wind, chilling to the bone.
At this moment, A-Shi was only twenty paces from the outpost.
Life and death hung by a single thread, separated by mere inches.
A-Shi's vision had blurred. The fence, the flag, and the faces of his companions layered and overlapped in his eyes. Driven by his final, unyielding conviction, he sprinted wildly, throwing himself forward for the last few steps. He collapsed onto the open ground in front of the outpost, his palms ground to bloody pulp by the gravel. Yet, he still held the oilcloth bundle high in the air.
"The token... catch it!"
Zhou Wu's eyes burned crimson. He lunged forward, thrusting his long spear horizontally to desperately block Green Face's pursuing blade. Simultaneously, his large hand reached out, steadily catching the heavily wrapped token.
CLANG—!
The deafening clash of metal numbed the eardrums.
Green Face's thrust was met by Zhou Wu's desperate block. The massive shockwave tore open the webbing of Zhou Wu's hand and sent a numb shock through his arm, forcing him to stagger back several steps.
But it was precisely this momentary delay.
Several guards from behind rushed forward en masse. Steel blades and long spears formed a tight encirclement, instantly locking into a rigid formation that completely blocked Green Face outside the outpost.
The token had been successfully handed over.
Completely drained of strength, A-Shi collapsed to the ground, gasping for air and trembling all over. He couldn't push himself up anymore.
Lin Yan quickly rushed to his side, bending down to help him up. His fingers brushed against the large, warm patch of blood on A-Shi's back, and his heart tightened. This journey had been too brutal. From the initial bloodbath in the forest and the total annihilation of the team, to the two men fighting to the death as a rearguard, the deadly struggle in the tunnel, and the pursuit through the pines... After countless brushes with death, they had finally delivered the token to the rendezvous point.
Yet, in his heart, he felt no relief at all.
Because he knew that the safety before them was merely a temporary illusion.
Green Face stopped outside the encirclement. He made no further attacks and slowly sheathed his sword.
He raised his eyes to look at the oilcloth bundle now heavily guarded inside the fence. The gaze beneath his mask was deep and still, revealing neither joy nor anger, yet carrying an oppressive weight that refused to dissipate.
"You think that just because you've reached here, you've won?"
Green Face's voice came through the bronze mask, muffled and hoarse. It fell upon everyone's ears, sending a chill through their hearts.
"Green Face, the token has entered our Zhenyue outpost. Your scheme has completely failed!" Zhou Wu gripped the token tightly and rebuked fiercely. "If you don't retreat now, we will gather our forces and fight you to the death!"
Green Face smiled faintly, a cold, icy smile.
"Failed?"
"This place is nothing but a minor outpost at the foot of the mountain. In these desolate hills, your forces are thin, and you have no defensible terrain."
"The true escort route is a thousand miles south, crossing three prefectures, leading directly to the Jiangnan headquarters."
"I was merely setting up a slight interception on the road ahead. The true killing formation has only just begun to unfold."
A single sentence plunged the entire scene into dead silence.
The wind swept over the ridge, making the escort flags flap wildly. A bone-chilling cold rolled across the entire slope.
The expressions of all the guards shifted dramatically.
They all knew Green Face spoke the truth. The outpost at the foot of the mountain was merely a temporary rendezvous point. With so few men and rudimentary defenses, it could hardly be considered safe. Until the token entered the Jiangnan headquarters and was placed in the hands of the Grand Escort Master, this pursuit would never end.
Green Face's gaze slowly swept over the crowd, finally returning to Lin Yan. He lingered on him for two extra seconds.
"A mere mortal. No fists, no martial arts. Yet, you have repeatedly ruined my grand plans."
"Young man, you are very strange."
He said nothing more, nor did he attack again. He simply cast one last, deep look toward the outpost, turned, and flicked his sleeve, walking away.
His ink-colored figure took a single step into the shadows of the pine forest, vanishing instantly into the layered rustle of the pines. He left behind only a ground soaked in blood and a heavy, oppressive silence.
Only when Green Face's presence had completely faded did the guards let out a collective, long sigh of relief. Their taut bodies finally relaxed, though many found their backs completely soaked in cold sweat.
Zhou Wu immediately issued orders: "Quick! Help A-Shi and this young brother up, and take them back to the outpost for treatment! Send someone to immediately assess the injuries and clear the battlefield! Also, send a message to the back mountain at once to search for Brother Chen Yi!"
Several guards responded and sprang into action.
Supported by others, Lin Yan stood up. Looking toward the deep, silent pine forest in the distance, the unease in his heart grew heavier.
He had no so-called dimensional mission binding him, nor had anyone assigned him a heavenly mandate.
But he knew perfectly well—
This token carried consequences too massive to fathom.
Green Face was lurking in the shadows, laying out a thousand-mile killing formation. He would absolutely not give up.
And he himself had been completely dragged into this Jianghu vortex, with no way to extract himself.
From the moment he threw that first stone in the forest, desperately blocked the assassin in the tunnel, and set the tripwire in the pine forest, he had stood directly against Green Face.
If the token was ultimately lost, if Green Face's scheme succeeded, this Jianghu would be engulfed in a catastrophic storm. And as someone trapped in the center of the board, no one could remain unscathed.
Lin Yan lowered his head, looking at his own hands, covered in wounds and stained with blood. His fingertips tightened slightly.
He had to keep walking.
Not for some abstract, unspoken mandate, but to survive. To protect what everyone along the way had traded their lives to secure. To tear apart this dark, murderous web that blanketed the entire landscape.
Inside the outpost, the warmth of medicinal herbs, charcoal fires, and hot tea gradually began to spread.
But outside the mountains, the wind was growing colder.
The thousand-mile escort journey south was littered with lethal threats, every step a heart-stopping gamble.
The road ahead remained shrouded in uncertainty.