The streak of blood floated outside his body without falling, as if gravity had ceased to exist.
Was there no gravity here? An Jiu recalled the small stones in her pocket and tossed one into the cage.
Clack! The stone landed at the bottom of the cage without floating.
Wei Yunshan frowned deeply before finally exhaling, the blood scattering onto his shoulders. "Help me remove the other silver needles, and I'll teach you how to use mental strength to manipulate objects."
An Jiu's heart skipped a beat as images of Wei Yuzhi suddenly flooded her mind.
Recalling the earlier scene, she realized—these silver needles weren't just suppressing his consciousness to keep him asleep; they were restraining his mental strength.
"Does Wei Yuzhi also know how to manipulate objects with mental strength?" An Jiu asked.
Wei Yunshan turned his head with difficulty to look at her. "He was born intelligent, with extraordinary comprehension in this field. Unfortunately, his innate frailty left him physically weak. Every use of this ability strains his body. Had he not practiced it since childhood, his congenital weakness might have been cured long ago instead of worsening over time."
Strangely, Wei Yunshan spoke of Wei Yuzhi without much hatred—rather, with a hint of pride.
An Jiu considered this carefully. Wei Yuzhi had no Inner Force, so he likely wasn't involved in draining Wei Yunshan's. That didn't matter to her. What unsettled her most was that, in their past encounters, Wei Yuzhi had clearly been capable of escaping but allowed her to control him—meaning she had been the one under his thumb all along.
Before this moment, Wei Yuzhi had left little impression on her. Now, however, his name was seared into her mind. If they ever met again, she would spare no effort to kill him.
With that thought, An Jiu swiftly pulled out the six silver needles embedded in Wei Yunshan's head. She snapped an arrow in half and placed it at his feet. "The arrowhead is sharp enough to pierce armor and weapons. Since you can manipulate objects, cutting these chains shouldn't be difficult, right?"
She leaped down the pillar, strapped four explosive crossbows to her body, and squeezed into the narrow space within the column.
The confined space, combined with the gear she carried, made climbing impossible.
Wei Yunshan let out a hoarse laugh as she returned. "Can't get out, can you? Little girl, how about we negotiate?"
Ignoring him, An Jiu crouched and swiftly dismantled two of the explosive crossbows. She extracted the arrows and stuffed them into her quiver. She had once obtained a similar crossbow and studied it privately—its power came from the arrows inside. Dismantling complex firearms took her mere moments, let alone a mere crossbow.
Once finished, she glanced at Wei Yunshan. With all the lamps in the room lit, she could clearly see his condition. Half his face was speckled with dark red blood, but his eyes gleamed with vitality—nothing like the near-death state from before.
"Good luck," An Jiu said before climbing back into the pillar. This time, she barely managed to ascend.An Jiu wasn’t entirely uninterested in the cultivation method Wei Yunshan mentioned, but that old man didn’t seem easy to deal with—just like Wei Yuzhi, both were foxes. For her, knowing that mental strength could be used in such a way was already a significant gain, especially in this critical moment. She had no intention of wasting time bargaining with a tiger. The most brutal mission in her memory was her first team battle as a mercenary. That battle had left her drenched in a sea of blood, with the severed limbs of her teammates becoming a nightmare she could never shake off. This time, An Jiu didn’t want to witness the same scene again.
As she neared the exit, the sound of the zither had ceased.
An Jiu heard Mei Ru Yan say, “That man in black robes is a Transformation Realm Master. With his protection, my zither music has no effect.”
A man coughed a few times before speaking slowly, “Order all hidden archers to target him and break through his protective qi aura.”
After a pause, he sighed softly, murmuring, “It’s snowing again…”
Wei Yuzhi!
An Jiu suppressed her aura and quietly shifted a roof tile aside.
The wind on the rooftop was fierce, making her robes flutter loudly.
An Jiu spotted an archer lying prone on the eaves, but there was no sign of Wei Yuzhi or Mei Ru Yan. The protruding roof ridge blocked her view—they must have been on the opposite side.
An Jiu took out a small vial, removed the stopper, and flicked it toward an archer with her finger. As the vial landed, the insects inside, drawn by the scent of flesh, rushed out frantically.
The man felt something on his body and reached to touch it, grasping the vial.
He glanced at it in confusion—it seemed empty. Before he could react, a sharp pain shot through his spine, and he instantly lost consciousness.
An Jiu emerged from the pillar and flipped down from the eaves.
Below, only a dozen or so members of the Crane Control Army remained, each surrounded and outnumbered ten to one. Apart from Chu Dingjiang, everyone else was wounded, their morale waning. At this rate, another seven or eight would fall within half an hour.
Hanging upside down from the second-floor eaves of the armory, An Jiu retrieved the Dragon Subduing Bow and used her mental strength to assist with the Startling String. Seeing one man already cornered, she abruptly drew the bowstring with four fingers. Three invisible Startling Strings sliced through the snowstorm, heading straight for three Misty Villa assassins, accompanied by a faint hum from the bow—a sound like a long sigh after eons of silence.
Mid-flight, the three invisible mental strength Startling Strings suddenly transformed into streams of black energy. In an instant, the dense snow along their path melted away, as if a long tear had been ripped through the snowy curtain.
What seemed like an eternity was merely the blink of an eye! The three Misty Villa assassins were struck, their bodies freezing momentarily. When they could move again, it felt as though their organs were shattering, and they spat out mouthfuls of blood.
Sui Yunzhu, hanging by a thread and filled with despair, found these three arrows like a beacon of hope. That brief respite ignited an astonishing will to survive within him. His sword stirred the snowy curtain, unleashing a dazzling, icy brilliance as he slaughtered his way through the battlefield.
Amidst the chaos of battle, An Jiu’s arrows went largely unnoticed. Those nearby only saw Sui Yunzhu suddenly fighting with godlike strength. But the faint hum of the Dragon Subduing Bow and An Jiu’s murderous mental strength sent a tremor through Wei Yuzhi’s heart.
Silently, he stared in An Jiu’s direction, his fair and handsome face grave, lost in thought.
After a long moment, he said, “Take me down.”Mei Ruyan put away her qin, wrapped her arms around his waist, and with a light tap of her toes, leaped down from the rooftop, her sleeves fluttering like red plum blossoms drifting through the snow.
An Jiu continuously fired Startling Strings, buying Lou Mingyue and the others a brief moment to catch their breath. The fourteen swiftly regrouped around Chu Dingjiang.
The battlefield momentarily froze into a stalemate. The assassins from Misty Villa could sense someone firing cold arrows from the shadows. Though they didn’t notice the Startling Strings, they clearly felt the growing, oppressive aura.
The battlefield of roughly a hundred people seemed to stand still, so quiet that the drop of a needle could be heard.
Suddenly, the mournful sound of a xun flute rose, growing louder and louder until it echoed through the snowy night.
Upon hearing it, the Misty Villa assassins immediately retreated.
Chu Dingjiang knew this was their signal to withdraw and commanded, “Charge out!”
“Yes!”
The group followed him in pursuit.
From An Jiu’s vantage point, the scene was surreal—it looked as though a dozen people were chasing down a large group of Misty Villa assassins.
Having been inside the weapon vault, An Jiu had gained deeper insight into Wei Yuzhi’s expertise in crafting mechanisms and setting traps. She guessed that whether they retreated or stayed, there was no way out alive. Chu Dingjiang surely understood this too, but their mission was to kill as many Misty Villa assassins as possible. As for their own survival… they’d have to fight their way out!
Perhaps because Chu Dingjiang had acted so chivalrously, An Jiu had never considered one thing until now—she suddenly realized that neither Chu Dingjiang nor Gu Jinghong truly cared about these twenty-some lives. Their grand scheme required sacrifices, and these twenty were merely the beginning.
That day, Chu Dingjiang had promised to protect her. She didn’t doubt his sincerity, but she wouldn’t rely on someone else’s promises to survive. This was something she had to remind herself of constantly.
Gripping the Dragon Subduing Bow, An Jiu was contemplating her next move when the xun music abruptly stopped. The courtyard gates slammed shut all around them.
Wei Yuzhi emerged slowly from the corridor, standing alone in the courtyard as he gazed up at An Jiu’s position. “Long time no see.”
Amidst the sea of corpses, he stood quietly in his ink-black cloak, his expression serene. His pale face, drained of color, appeared even more pristine—like a divine Buddha in the depths of hell.
An Jiu couldn’t shake the feeling that she and this man were fundamentally at odds.
“Only the two of us remain here. Shall we catch up?” Wei Yuzhi asked. (To be continued…)
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