The reflected snowlight outside made the interior of the great hall extremely dim. The opponent could use their Inner Force to slow their breathing to the minimum, putting An Jiu in a highly precarious situation.
In the darkness, she gradually relaxed her grip on the bow, though the arrow remained nocked. One finger hooked onto the trigger of the crossbow strapped to her arm as she focused intently on sensing the presence of the other person.
Assassins had sharp instincts for danger, but that alone wasn’t enough to pinpoint the enemy’s exact location.
An Jiu sensed that the person had likely closed within three zhang. Perhaps because they lacked confidence in a single lethal strike, they hadn’t attacked yet.
Her mind raced, considering the possible angles of ambush.
Both the eastern and western sides of the hall had raised platforms holding arhat statues. She didn’t know if the north and south sides had them as well. If they did, the opponent might have climbed onto one of the arhats—only from that height could they see her clearly. If not, they were probably using the rafters, just like her.
Mei Jiu, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke, "There are no arhats on this side."
Hearing the certainty in her voice, An Jiu didn’t question it. She shifted slightly—originally concealed within the shadow of a pillar, the movement instantly exposed her silhouette.
In the gloom, An Jiu’s ears caught the faint sound of something cutting through the air.
Using the momentum, she flipped onto the rafters, simultaneously pulling the crossbow trigger.
A dozen silver needles shot through the hood she had just shed, embedding themselves into the opposite pillar!
At the same time, a loud crash echoed through the hall.
Sheltered under An Jiu’s Mental strength, Mei Jiu felt safe. In situations where she wasn’t directly facing the enemy, all she had to do was relax as much as possible and avoid hindering An Jiu’s movements.
An Jiu changed positions, pushed open a narrow window above the door, and swiftly slipped inside.
The interior was much darker than outside, but it wasn’t too bad for An Jiu.
She spotted a figure lying on the ground and immediately fired two bolts from her crossbow.
A muffled groan reached her ears. An Jiu took cover behind an arhat statue in the far corner of the western wall, only emerging when she no longer sensed any signs of life.
She pulled out the two bolts and used their tips to search the body, retrieving a map from the person’s robes. She glanced at it under the faint light.
It was the same map as the one Mei Tingyuan had—now completing the full picture when combined with the one in her possession! She wrapped it in a handkerchief and tucked it into her pocket.
"You killed him?" Mei Jiu finally snapped out of her shock.
"No," An Jiu replied.
"You clearly killed him!" Mei Jiu’s voice trembled. She had seen the man struck by three bolts—one had pierced straight through his throat.
"If you saw it, why ask? If you don’t like it, get lost!" An Jiu said coldly.
Mei Jiu pleaded, "Can’t we just find a place to hide? As long as we survive and get out, that’s enough. We don’t have to kill anyone."
An Jiu had originally planned to ignore whatever she said, but hearing this, she couldn’t help but retort, "So you’re saying you’ll just let your mother fend for herself in the Crane Control Army? You won’t do anything?"
Perhaps it was the same maternal instinct that stirred a sliver of emotion buried deep within An Jiu, making her despise Mei Jiu’s attitude.
"I…" Mei Jiu had no escape. "How could I not worry about my mother?"
"So your worry is just thinking about it in your heart?" An Jiu demanded, all the while remaining alert for potential attacks.
Mei Jiu had no answer. She knew very well that if she didn’t enter the Crane Control Army, she could only worry in her heart. But if she wanted to go in, how could she avoid killing?"The Heavenly Book Fragment and the Ice Crystal Box can help enhance Inner Force. I must obtain them," An Jiu said. In truth, she was also uncertain about her future, but as long as she had a goal, she would persist relentlessly in achieving it.
"We’re only here to find things, not to kill... isn’t that possible?" Mei Jiu’s voice was faint, as if speaking to herself.
She didn’t want to become a butcher with bloodstained hands in the future. She also resisted becoming as cold and unfeeling as An Jiu. She feared that by the time she found her mother, she would have forgotten the warmth of familial love.
The fighting in the rear hall had also ceased.
An Jiu caught up with them.
Mei Tingjun watched her warily.
An Jiu said, "It’s me."
The group collectively exhaled in relief.
"We shouldn’t linger here. Let’s leave first and talk later," Mei Tingzhu suggested.
Once they exited the Mahavira Hall, Mei Tingyuan asked, "How many maps do we have now?"
Mei Tingzhu extended her Inner Force to sense their surroundings, confirming no one was nearby, then replied, "We should have three complete ones."
Killing in the dark didn’t carry much visual impact, and since Mei Tingzhu had been the one to deal with the two main assailants, Mei Tingyuan felt that stealing others’ maps was easy. Excitedly, she proposed, "Then let’s go snatch two more!"
Mei Tingzhu promptly doused her enthusiasm with cold water. "Those five only had fourth-tier Martial Arts and weren’t particularly skilled in Hidden Weapons or poison. Even so, if Fourteen Lady hadn’t taken out three of them, do you think we would’ve stood a chance against an ambush?"
Her reminder made the group suddenly realize—out of the five ambushers, An Jiu alone had eliminated more than half!
"You really don’t have any Inner Force?" Mei Tingyuan questioned skeptically.
An Jiu didn’t respond.
Mei Tingyuan snorted but said nothing more.
The five of them had benefited from the prestige of the Mei Shi name—no one dared to attack them recklessly along the way, allowing them to reach the Mahavira Hall relatively early. The teams that had passed through before them had likely gone ahead to search for the Heavenly Book Fragments, believing that striking first gave them an advantage—every fragment counted. The group lying in ambush in the hall had abysmal luck. Judging by the situation, all five of them had identical maps, so they hid along the only path, planning to ambush lone travelers before larger groups arrived. Yet after stealing four maps, not a single one matched their own fragment! In desperation, they had resorted to ambushing a team.
By comparison, the group now felt incredibly fortunate.
Mei Tingzhu took out the three maps and pieced them together. "Let’s search for this one first—it’s on the outermost edge. If someone’s already taken it, we’ll go deeper and look for the item marked on the second map."
No one objected.
The path beyond the Mahavira Hall grew increasingly narrow, eventually becoming a plank walkway winding around the steep face of a mountain.
"Be careful. This is a prime spot for ambushes," Mei Tingjun warned, leading the way. No matter how dangerous, this was the only route forward.
A dense mist shrouded the mountains. From the front gate, the mountain hadn’t seemed tall—they could even see the spire of a pagoda piercing the sky behind it. Yet from the walkway, the bottom was invisible, as if the drop stretched hundreds of feet below.
The iron chains lining the walkway were thick with rust. The wooden planks beneath their feet creaked ominously.
Here, the importance of Inner Force became evident once more! The four in front moved effortlessly using qinggong, while An Jiu, though not struggling, had to constantly worry about plummeting to her death.
Feeling the unsteady sway of the walkway beneath him, Mei Tingjun asked, "You truly have no Inner Force at all?""I can sense it a little, but I don't know how to use it," An Jiu answered honestly.
Mei Tingjun said, "Focus your mental strength, clear your mind, feel the Inner Force in your dantian, and use your mental strength to guide it through your limbs..."
An Jiu followed his instructions. She sensed the bean-sized point of light in her dantian but didn’t know how to control it, so she imagined it as a silkworm cocoon, pulling countless threads from it and stretching them throughout her body.
Mei Tingjun continued, "When your body rises, don’t worry about it. When you descend, use your mental strength to lift it upward."
An Jiu tried it and felt her steps lighten slightly upon landing. Encouraged, she focused even harder on controlling the Inner Force.
Mei Tingzhu, who was walking ahead of An Jiu, remarked, "Your Inner Force is just forming. Keep practicing like this, and you’ll improve quickly."
An Jiu gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment.
The group had been moving smoothly until, just as they were about to turn a corner, they suddenly heard voices ahead.
A clear female voice said, "What do we do? It's so wide."
Mountain winds swayed the plank path in the valley, so the group ahead hadn’t noticed the newcomers. By the time they sensed something amiss, the five members of the Mei family had already closed in.
The two groups faced each other, and the atmosphere instantly turned tense.
The wind howled, making their mantles flap violently. Both sides caught the scent of blood on each other and immediately understood—these were people who had taken lives.
Mei Tingjun first noticed the broken section of the plank path behind them. When he withdrew his gaze, he saw a six-sided tower embroidered on the hems of their robes and spoke up, "So it’s the Lou family."
"The Mei family?" a woman from the other side responded. Both sides simultaneously lowered their guard.
The Mei and Lou families had once intermarried—the Old Madam of the Mei family was originally a daughter of the Lou family. For some inexplicable reason, the Lou family seemed cursed to bear mostly daughters; having even three sons among five branches was rare. However, Lou women were notoriously fierce, often surpassing men in strength.
"This plank path is broken for over two zhang," the leading Lou woman said, her voice heavy.
Seeing there were only four of them, Mei Tingjun understood what must have happened.
"Just now, my elder sister tried using qinggong. She made it across, but the wood on the other side was too rotten—it couldn’t bear even the slightest weight. My sister…" The clear voice choked up. "She was fifth rank."
The hearts of the Mei family members sank. If even a fifth-rank cultivator couldn’t make it, then Mei Tingyuan, Mei Tingchun, and even Mei Tingzhu stood little chance.
As silence fell over the group, a cold voice suddenly spoke up, "Do you have any rope?"
It was An Jiu.
"I do," Mei Tingchun said, pulling out a bundle of thin cord.
"How strong is it? How long?" An Jiu asked.
"It’s woven from Xuan silk—impervious to fire, water, or blades. No one’s ever managed to cut it. But it’s so fine and tough that with enough force, it could slice through flesh."
An Jiu pulled out a length, removed her mantle, and twisted it together with the Xuan silk to form a thicker rope, which she tied around her waist. She then tested a nearby protruding rock with her foot, found it sturdy enough, and secured the other end of the rope to it. Turning to Mei Tingjun, she said, "If I fall, use the rock to anchor the rope."
"Are you insane?! You—" Mei Tingyuan glanced at the Lou family members and bit back her words.
She had been about to say that An Jiu, having no Inner Force, would be courting death by jumping with just a rope.Three zhang away—there was no way An Jiu could leap that distance. But she noticed the cliff face wasn’t smooth; it had uneven protrusions and indentations perfect for climbing. And wasn’t rock climbing one of a killer’s essential skills?
As a sniper, An Jiu often had to lie in ambush in treacherous terrain. She once scaled a sheer cliff seven or eight zhang high while carrying forty jin of ammunition—bare-handed.
Back then, her protective gear had been far better than now, but hadn’t she still made it without falling?
She estimated her current load at less than ten jin, and the climbing distance was only about two zhang.
"What are you doing?" Mei Jiu cried in terror.
"If you don’t want to die, don’t try to take control of the body!" An Jiu warned.
Without waiting for a reply, she began scaling the cliff.
Mei Tingjun understood her plan and immediately channeled his Inner Force into his palms, gripping the rope tightly.
When An Jiu had been dangling from the beam earlier, Mei Jiu hadn’t been particularly afraid—partly because she couldn’t see the height, and partly because the motion was almost static. All she had to do was hold on and not fall. But now, they had to keep moving in the midst of danger! She could clearly feel the biting wind howling from below. She forced herself to relax, yet couldn’t stop trembling.
Some rocks were covered in snow, making swift climbing impossible. A single misstep could send them sliding down. As An Jiu climbed, she also had to use her Mental strength to suppress Mei Jiu, preventing a repeat of the incident when she fell from the horse.
This drastically worsened their initial expectations. Carrying Mei Jiu was worse than hauling forty jin of dead weight—at least inanimate objects wouldn’t suddenly disrupt her movements.
By the halfway point, An Jiu’s sweat had soaked through her Inner Garment.
The dark clouds parted, revealing a sliver of moonlight. With clearer vision, An Jiu immediately chose rocks free of snow, climbing steadily and swiftly to the other side.
Once on the plank, she inspected it carefully. The wooden boards bore marks of being sliced by a sharp blade—clearly not natural decay.
"Safe to land," An Jiu said, untying the rope.
Being the first to cross came with risks, but also advantages. For instance, having someone assist added an extra layer of security, preventing them from abandoning her.
"Let my younger sister go first," said the woman leading Lou Shi’s group.
Mei Tingjun’s expression darkened. "I also have a sister who hasn’t crossed yet."
An Jiu put on her Mantle and watched coldly. Seeing them at a standstill, she considered leaving first—after all, she already had a complete map in hand. (To be continued…)
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