True identities? The three martial brothers looked at each other in silence.
The masked woman asked, “What, is it something you cannot bring into the light?”
Yu Qing replied, “It is not that it cannot be brought to light, but even if we tell you, you might not believe it, and you would have no way to verify it right away, would you? Besides, if our identities are leaked, there would be no need for us to sneak into the mountain anymore.”
The bowstring in the masked woman’s hand grew a little tighter. “So, there is no room for negotiation?”
The hearts of the three brothers tightened as well, not doubting her ability to fire three arrows at once in the slightest.
Yu Qing, who had witnessed her skills on the way to the capital for the imperial exams back in the day, quickly raised his hand to stop her, signalling her not to act impulsively, and called out, “Look, there are three of us after all, and one person cannot make the decision alone. Let the three of us discuss it, and allow us to unify our opinions before replying to you, how about that?”
Seeing the other party hesitate, he quickly added, “If the three of us cannot sort things out among ourselves, even if we force ourselves to stick together, we will be of divided minds afterwards, and we will not be able to get anything done.”
After a brief silence, the masked woman said, “Go ahead and discuss.”
Yu Qing said, “You are standing so close, it is not convenient to speak about private matters, how can we discuss? We…” He pointed at the three of them, indicating they would step back a little.
The masked woman warned, “You had better not try any tricks.”
Not objecting meant agreeing.
The three brothers then began to step back gradually. While retreating, Yu Qing also secretly observed the surrounding terrain, discovering they had indeed run into a vast wilderness. The terrain was quite flat, making the risk of escape rather high.
Regarding the cultivation of a Great Archer, people in the cultivation world had heard something about it. The primary thing a Great Archer cultivates is eyesight. Night shooting is also one of the basic abilities of a Great Archer, possessing extraordinary night vision, which was perfect since tonight there was starlight and moonlight to illuminate the area.
Those whose eyesight cultivation is not up to standard are not qualified to become Great Archers.
The three kept retreating until they were a distance of about ten zhang away, when the masked woman suddenly shouted loudly, “Enough.”
The three had to stop as well. Yu Qing muttered under his breath, “If you have the skill, keep the bowstring drawn and do not let go, let us see how long you can hold it.”
The Coiling Dragon Bow had tremendous shooting power, so the strength required to draw it was naturally immense. It was hard for anyone to keep it drawn without letting go, as it would be too exhausting.
Nan Zhu asked, “Discuss what? Are we really going to sneak into the mountain with her?”
Yu Qing said, “Who knows if there is something wrong with this woman.”
He was truly once bitten, twice shy. Let alone someone whose identity was unclear, even when he met Hu Youli in Mirage City, even after roughly figuring out her identity later, he had always kept a considerable distance from her, and did not reveal the truth even when leaving.
Nan Zhu said hesitantly, “The military side with Cao Wei does not seem to be setting up a trap together with this woman.”
Yu Qing did not dwell on this anymore, and said to the other two, “Whether it is a trap or not, the rule is to keep strangers at bay, and getting close is suspicious. There are currently four choices. First, listen to her and cooperate with her. Second, do not cooperate with her, and fight to the death. Third, pretend to cooperate with her and wait for a chance to escape. Fourth, pretend to cooperate and wait for a chance to eliminate her, which conveniently silences her. I do not want to cooperate with her, as her background is unclear. What about you two?”
He had already eliminated the first of the four options for himself.
Nan Zhu blinked and said in a low voice, “I am afraid it is not easy to fight this Xuan level Great Archer head on. If we wait for a chance to eliminate her and fail by accident, it will truly be a fight to the death between us. The problem is we do not know exactly how strong she is.” He glanced at the arrow still aimed at them, then looked at Mu Aotie. “I think it is more appropriate to stabilise her first, and then wait for a chance to escape. Ninth Brother, what do you think?”
Mu Aotie thought for a moment and nodded. “That works.”
Yu Qing also nodded slightly. “Fine. However, if we truly encounter a suitable opportunity on the way, we can also settle it once and for all. Anyway, we will look for opportunities on the road later and act according to the situation.”
Nodding at each other, the three unified their opinions and walked back.
After walking back to roughly their original positions, Nan Zhu called out, “Fine, we can cooperate with you. You lead us into the mountain, and we will help you find people. However, I want to say one thing upfront. It is better not to reveal our identities. If you insist on asking, we will just make something up.”
The masked woman was silent for a moment, then replied, “Fine.”
The bowstring in her hand slowly relaxed, and finally, the arrow was unstrung. She reached back and inserted it into the quiver on her back, then slung the bow back over her shoulder.
Seeing the great weapon that had been deterring them was no longer a threat, the three brothers secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and slowly sheathed their swords. Taking the opportunity, Yu Qing turned sideways and muttered to Nan and Mu, “Agreeing so easily, this woman definitely has a problem.”
Regardless of whether there was a problem or not, they were not considering it at least for now. Anyway, they had no intention of falling for her tricks, and instead were prepared to kill her once they had the chance.
The two parties, having dropped their attacking stances, finally carefully closed the distance and walked face to face until they met.
To be honest, a Great Archer at close range did not have much deterrent power. Yu Qing felt a bit restless and wanted to strike first to eliminate the future trouble. However, he ultimately did not know the other party’s background or strength, and was afraid of dropping a stone on his own foot, so he had to endure it for the time being and asked, “What do we do now?”
The masked woman said, “It is still a bit too close to the previous incident site here. We still need to take a detour. Going up the mountain from another direction of Kunling Mountain will be safer.”
Yu Qing asked, “Are the three of us going to use your sect’s identities as well?”
The masked woman replied, “When the time comes, I will find three suitable names of fellow disciples for you to use, and then send a message to the sect to cooperate. Once the deed is done, the sect will not undermine it. Whether it is Kunling Mountain or other aspects, it will not be so easy to see through your identities.”
“Fine then.” Yu Qing, looking around, said indifferently, “Which way do we go?”
After orienting herself, the masked woman raised her hand and pointed forward, which was also the direction they had been rushing towards all along. “Keep moving forward.”
Yu Qing did not say any more and walked forward, with Mu Aotie following close behind.
Nan Zhu, however, cheerfully sidled up to walk beside the masked woman. “May I ask which sect the heroine belongs to?”
Who would have thought that as soon as the words left his mouth, there was a swish, a cold light flashed, and a sword was already resting against Nan Zhu’s neck.
Hearing the noise, Yu Qing and Mu Aotie suddenly turned around. Seeing this, they were both greatly shocked and quickly drew their swords with a swish. Yu Qing even pointed his sword at her and said sternly, “What do you mean?”
This was a scene no one had anticipated. Logically, if the other party wanted to make a move against them, there was no need to do this. They could have just fought directly by shooting them earlier. Why reduce her own deterrent power to do this at close range? Was the intention to eliminate one of them first really that important?
“Do not panic, do not panic. Do not get excited, it is fine, it is fine.”
Caught off guard, Nan Zhu stiffened his neck and dared not move rashly. He quickly waved his hands to signal Ninth Brother and Fifteenth Brother not to mess around, afraid they would endanger his life. At the same time, he also persuaded the woman beside him, “Heroine, I did not mean to pry into your privacy. Besides, this does not even count as prying. Later, when we enter the mountain, you will still have to tell us. We cannot just be unable to answer when they ask which sect we are from when we sign up, can we?”
Hearing this, Yu Qing and Mu Aotie were simply speechless. They realised this damn fatty really talked too much nonsense. Knowing she would tell them sooner or later, why rush up and ask blindly? They were already looking for a chance to either escape or strike, so why provoke her vigilance?
The masked woman did not say much. Holding the sword to hostage him with one hand, she used the other hand to rapidly strike heavy finger points, poking him over a dozen times in succession. She directly controlled his meridians and acupoints, placing a seal on him that rendered his entire cultivation useless.
Only then did she speak to Yu Qing and Mu Aotie, “He suddenly came close. If it were you two, I am afraid you would also have to be on your guard. Rest assured, as long as you do not play any tricks, I will not harm him in the slightest. If you dare to mess around, I will chop him up first. Now, even if you do not reveal your true identities, I can be at ease. You two take the lead in front, and the two of us will follow behind. Let us go.”
The previous remark criticising Nan Zhu was just an excuse. In truth, this was the reason she had agreed to the three of them so easily. The moment she put down her bow and arrow, she had prepared to lull the other party into a false sense of security to take a hostage. She just did not expect this fatty to actively come close without any guard. Even she did not expect it to go so smoothly, and was just figuring out how to continue lowering their vigilance to find a chance to strike.
The three brothers were not fools. Hearing this, they knew they had been tripped up. They had secretly plotted to kill her, but it turned out she was not to be trifled with either.
Yu Qing and Mu Aotie were completely speechless. The key to the problem was that Nan Zhu had handed his own neck to her sword blade on a silver platter. Where could they even go to reason this out? Otherwise, how could she have succeeded so easily? Who knows who would have struck first later on? Now it was fine, the well discussed plan was ruined in the blink of an eye.
The looks the two gave Nan Zhu were full of anger at his lack of fight. They really wanted to spit in his face and then enrage the masked woman into slaughtering the damn fatty.
However, hate it as they did, the two could not possibly let Nan Zhu’s fat body be left here. They did not even know how to start scolding him.
“Stop mentioning your martial world experience in the future!” Yu Qing cursed, spat, and then angrily turned his head and walked away, sheathing his long sword, absolutely furious.
Mu Aotie, on the other hand, clenched his fists, suddenly swung his sword and cut down a patch of weeds, sheathed his sword with a swish, and also turned and left.
Seeing Ninth Brother and Fifteenth Brother honestly going ahead to clear the way, Nan Zhu, with his stiff neck, looked utterly embarrassed. “Sigh!” He sighed lightly, then raised his hand to gently flick the shiny sword at his neck. “Heroine, I trusted you so much, yet you treat me like this. What can I even say… Everyone has a heart of flesh, just let it go, alright? We are already like this, are you still afraid I will run away?”
His fingers flicked the cold blade again.
He also wanted to get angry, but alas, he was the fish and she was the butcher knife and chopping block. Even if he was angry, he had to speak gently and politely.
The masked woman moved the sword away from his neck, but did not sheathe it, ready to chop him at any time, and pushed him on the back. “Walk!”
Nan Zhu stumbled and could only obediently move forward. It was truly just walking. With his cultivation restricted, he could only walk clumsily through the wilderness, stepping deeply and shallowly.
After walking for nearly an hour, he started to feel the strain. Not to mention his body type, the rope holding the large gourd was obviously digging into him uncomfortably.
The masked woman, who had been walking beside him all along, noticed the large gourd on him was a bit heavy. She reached out and supported the bottom of the gourd, finding it was indeed somewhat heavy, probably no less than twenty jin. She could not help but ask, “What is inside this gourd? Why is it so heavy?”
Panting heavily, Nan Zhu saw she had the urge to open it and take a look, so he quickly said, “It is nothing. It just holds some sand and soil from in front of my master’s grave. I want to find a suitable place to plant an evergreen tree, to comfort my memories.”