Rising Phoenix

Gu Nanyi nodded, slowly saying: “Rest assured, she can protect herself.”

The grey robed man let out a relieved breath, but was still somewhat worried as he stood and carefully explained the route they had taken that morning. Gu Nanyi stood unmoving, listening carefully.

They grey robed man laboriously explained, and Gu Nanyi accurately repeated back the instructions before floating away in the correct direction, but the grey robed man was still ill at ease as he thought about all of his master’s strange habits and weird problems. He sighed to himself, lamenting the absence of their Commander, but unfortunately the Commander needed to stay in Dijing to handle the traitor and Golden Key Guards surrounding surname Xin. Would the leader, the number one directionless Sect Leader under the heavens, be able to find his way…

In this world, hopes are always beautiful, but reality always cruel…

Feng Zhiwei’s horse was from the best Da Yue lineage and had cost the Yan Family a small fortune. It ran quickly and with great endurance, and after speeding off into the distance, Feng Zhiwei was already some ten Li away from town.

Feng Zhiwei did not think that Ning Yi’s group would have moved too quickly, and so they were at most thirty Li away. That stretch of road had a post house and the convoy would have likely chosen to spend the night there.

The mid-autumn night wind swept briskly by, icing the sweat covering Feng Zhiwei’s torso as she slowly retrieved a soft, black sword as from her robes.

She had looped the long sword a couple times around her waist, bulking up her thin figure. Both edges of the sword were sharpened, and one side was even serrated; the sword tip was triple edged, and the pure black surface of the weapon reflected no light — it was by all appearances a vicious killer, fitting very well with her temperament.

She had designed this weapon herself but had never used it before; perhaps today it would taste flesh.

Past a copse of woods lay the nearest post house.

The post house sank into the quiet darkness, moonlight gentle on its roof — peace reigned.

Scattered trees loomed high on either side of the wide road, and Feng Zhiwei’s powerful horse devoured the ground as they sped along.

Feng Zhiwei’s eyes swept the ground.

Suddenly, she reached out with her sword and struck.

“Clang!”

There was nothing in there way, but then a black shadow appeared and metal clanged; something snapped and its two halves flew to either side.

A muffled exclamation filled the quiet night and Feng Zhiwei sneered before striking out horizontally. A tree by the road fell, and a silhouette leapt forward through the air, but Feng Zhiwei’s sword was already moving, snapping forward like a pouncing snake.

The silhouette stumbled and Feng Zhiwei swept it by, the long mane of her horse brushing against the shadow as the powerful steed leapt over the fallen tree.

In a single moment, Feng Zhiwei had lashed out and cut down her foes, not wasting a single moment as she passed the obstacles in her way.

Feng Zhiwei left the figure convulsing in the dirt, the halved steel wire broken in twain, blood on the serrated edge of her blade.

A cold grin curved her lips, more frigid even than the dark blood dripping from her sword.

She had instantly been alerted by the dark post house — the well-trained Chang Ying Imperial Guard would never have left the way stop without fire and guard.

If the post house had been attacked, then the killers likely set up an ambush in the nearby roads to kill any reinforcements.

Since the main force had no way of reinforcing so quickly, the ambush was certainly a simple, hurried measure without much manpower.

And in the area around the post house, the most suitable ambush location was in the woods.

The hurried reinforcements would certainly be anxious and urging their horses at a fast gallop — was there any easier trap then steel wires along the road to trip and maim the horses?

The ambushers had been waiting for Feng Zhiwei to crash into the black steel wire hidden by the night.

Feng Zhiwei had been waiting with her hidden soft sword to cut down her enemies.

Both had been prepared and the more vicious would be the victor.

Feng Zhiwei wasted no time examining her fallen foe, not sparing her blade’s first trophy’s a single glance; since there were traps in the area, Ning Yi had surely chosen to spend the night at the post house. Danger was upon them!

The web of her thumb had ripped from her horizontal slash, but she ignored the pain. Even though she had trained in martial arts, she still lacked true battle experience — the angle of her slash had been off, and so even though she had cut down the tree, she had injured herself.

The injury was not unexpected, but the power of her strike not so much; she had only begun cultivating recently, but her improvements in True Qi were incredibly rapid; she had never compared herself with others, but even a child knew that people could not cut down a tree in a single strike with only a single year of cultivation.

But now was not the time to wonder over her strength, and Feng Zhiwei clutched the reins to her horse in one hand, circulating her Qi in preparation for the battle ahead.

In the blink of an eye, her horse was emerging from the woods.

As soon as she broke past the woodline, Feng Zhiwei flipped, ducking downwards and hiding along her horse’s belly.

“Cha!”

A crossbow bolt pierced through the night, cutting through the space she had just occupied.

Feng Zhiwei leapt from her horse, dashing towards her assailant. She almost immediately ran into an enemy, and without even glancing upwards, she shifted and whipped her elbow into the man’s throat.

The man’s shattered trachea crunched in the night as a raging blow shot towards Feng Zhiwei from her left. She grabbed the dying man in front of her and pulled him to the side, pushing him into her next assailant.

A muffled thud filled the night as blood and matter sprayed outward; Feng Zhiwei’s heart lurched at the powerful fist strike and the powerful internal force expert that had dealt the blow.

Every one of her enemies had great kung fu, but Feng Zhiwei’s cold smile never shifted. As soon as her enemy pulled his fist out from the corpse shields belly, her waiting sword struck through the bloody hole and cut forward.

Her sword punctured the internal force expert’s genitals, and the shocked man could only clutch his crotch as he stumbled backwards. Astonishment filled the injured man’s mind — although his enemy’s martial skill was not great, their attacks were extremely vicious and accurate!

Forcing through the pain, he reached for the signal flare tied to his waist, but the soft sword flicked out again and cut off his hand.

A slender hand reached forward to grab the flare.

The man opened his mouth to cry out, but a rank something was smashed into his teeth and lodged into his mouth, stunning him and blocking his cry.

In the last moments before his death, he saw a slender silhouette turning away with the flare in hand, but then the cold, thin sword flashed once more and he fell into eternal darkness.