This was the only path leading to Tiansha and Zhan Beiye was probably chasing after her. His brother must have had lost patience and decided to take action.The story of Zhangsun Wuji"s death must have inspired that man to kill Zhan Beiye and then push the blame to Zhangsun Wuji.
Meng Fuyao sprang up and rushed to the head of the mountain, shouting, "Stop! Stop!"
Despite channeling inner energy into her voice, the pouring rain, along with the fact that they were separated by the distance of a mountain"s width and height, drowned her out. In fact, the horses" gallops were enough to eliminate any noise.
"Stop—"
"An Ambush!"
Without even lifting his head the black-robed rider charged ahead at full speed and was about to reach the end.
"D*mn!"
Meng Fuyao cursed, looking toward the opposite side, where two seemingly split mountains stood facing each other, on which soldiers were ready to attack. The mountain she was on was slighter higher and further away, but if she were to go down a section, the opposite mountains would share a smaller distance. There was a platform there and she could take a risk to get there. While it would test her limits, she did not see any other choices.
Meng Fuyao dashed to the edge of the cliff and someone from the opposite side immediately took notice but was unable to launch their arrows that far away. All he could see was a figure dashing forward and making an impressive leap off the cliff.
"Ah!" he let out. "Suicide?"
Meng Fuyao had jumped, and time was of the essence. She needed to get onto the platform in order to catch Zhan Beiye"s attention. Seconds were all she had.
She let out a thunderous yell, dashing down the steep slope as if it was flat.
Wind gushed from behind like a wave of cannon, attacking her chest area. It was like an invisible hand, reaching toward and suffocating her with the intention of turning this individual, who had chosen to test her physical limit, into ground meat.
Meng Fuyao spat air out, the inner energy in her body immediately being mobilized. Even the inner energy hidden beneath her pubic region was engaged to fight against the natural forces. Like a golden bell canopy, it flowed throughout her body. Due to overuse the inner energy started to surge and gush out of her body like lava.
She bit down on her cheeks, enduring the explosive pressure and speeding up exponentially. Finally, she turned into a black line that flowed seamlessly down the cliff, stopping just before she lost control.
Pfft.
A mouthful of blood was ejected from her mouth, blossoming in the rain like blood-flowers. Meng Fuyao"s abrupt brake, which was a form of resistance against all natural forces, was no different from a hammer smashing at the heart.
Yet, it was in this reckless struggle that she gained a breakthrough.
The hooves were rumbling and approaching the break-off point.
Rolling on her side, Meng Fuyao reached the platform before swinging her head to start off a flip, and by the time she landed on her feet, her sword was already in hand.
She raised her head, looking toward the opposite side with eyes like an eagle. Men dressed in black and waiting behind the rocks had their bows ready but were in utter shock as they had just witnessed a crazy leap. A slim figure had completely defied gravity and other natural forces, and they were left speechless. It was until her arrival at the platform that they sensed what she was trying to do and raised their arrows. However, in spite of her difficult situation, Meng Fuyao"s eyesight and reaction time were not compromised.
Like a layer of rolling black clouds, Zhan Beiye and his team continued charging and were only about two to three horses away from the break-off point. He had come this urgently through wind and rain in hope of getting to her side as soon as possible. Unable to approach the roads with caution due to the lack of time, he was not at all aware of the predators, who were simply waiting for him to enter their net. Neither did he know that hundreds of meters above him, amid the heavy downpour, stood Meng Fuyao, who had just risked her life fighting against bigger forces in order to warn him of the danger, and had just been launched into a silent life-or-death struggle.
Dark Wind Horses moved closer, the frontmost row about three meters away behind Zhan Beiye.
It was a gap of life and death.
Meng Fuyao looked up and exhaled, reaching for the trunk of a tree nearby and lifting it up.
With the thickness of big thigh, the arrow-like trunk whizzed through the air with sufficient power to split the sky, and the immense air resistance instantly shattered the branches and leaves on it, leaving only the trunk shooting toward the crowd on the opposite side.
Using a tree as javelin, she wasn"t leaving room for a gentle discussion.
"Bang!"
The trunk entered the crowd and consecutively took ten over men down. Blood and internal organs splattered all over as corpses could be seen dangling around the trunk before slamming onto the ground.
"Clap."
A corpse with a trunk-size hole through his chest dropped to the ground before Zhan Beiye"s horse, its fresh blood spurting onto his shoes.
A corpse had blocked their entrance, and Zhan Beiye was only a step away from being ambushed.
Zhan Beiye"s head shot up. The rain made objects appear hazy, and the black cliff, together with black rain, entered his line of vision. He saw, on the opposite side, a slender figure shifting about, as if dodging arrows.
"Meng Fuyao!"
He let out a yell and charged forward, quickly reaching the edge of the cliff. In the next moment, man and horse in midair, he shouted, "Ji Yu! You know what to do?"
"Yes!"
The leader of Dark Wind Horses, Ji Yu, wiped the rainwater off his face and raised a hand to signal the soldiers behind to retreat. His astonished eyes never left the opposite cliff. There, the slender figure flipped and turned all over and as quickly as the flowing rain. His gaze then fell upon the corpse that had been pierced by the trunk. It was because of this corpse that had served as a warning to them, and it was thanks to it that they needn"t send their own thousands of lives into the hands of the evil ambushers.
Ji Yu looked at the mouth of the broken valley. If he remembered correctly, this path wasn"t narrow to begin with so it wasn"t possible for an ambush. Because of that and because they were anxious, Zhan Beiye, and himself hadn"t noticed the changes in the topography and had almost fallen into a death trap.
He shot a grateful glance toward the cliff and waved. "Retreat."
Mountains and forests weren"t suitable for battle on horses, and the enemy was prepared. Traps had definitely been set in place so if not now when do they retreat?
Zhan Beiye had gone ahead, however.
His silhouette could be seen flying across the gap, amid the heavy rain, to get to where the arrow rain was being released. The moment he set foot on the ground a round of even denser arrows came toward him.
Without dodging nor giving way, he raised his brows, yelling, "I"ll break them!"
He leaped into the air, aiming his gold spear, which emitted a golden light curtain, downward. With anger and might contained in the light curtain, Zhan Beiye went for it.
"Boom!"
The cliff that protruded like an umbrella had been split.
Big chunks of rocks and bodies fell, and anguished cries echoed throughout the mountain age range. It was the sound of earth crumbling, and it was hard to imagine that a human had caused it.
In the instant Zhan Beiye struck, he flipped and stuck himself to the cliff wall, only rising when the rocks had all fallen. The once heavy mountain was now feather-light, and Zhan Beiye floated his way onto the top.
The beginning of his arrival at the top was the end of the soldiers lying in ambush.
Screams filled the air as a firework of broken arrows and limbs exploded. He barged into the crowd, chopping, seizing, smashing and trampling on everyone in his way.
Witnessing Zhan Beiye"s actions from the other cliff, the soldiers raised their bows and released arrows ferociously. Of course, the heavy rain impeded their accuracy, and Zhan Beiye even had the chance to smash them with broken limbs.
Since there was limited s.p.a.ce in that area, there were only about 100 soldiers waiting. Soon, Zhan Beiye managed to clear the field. However, with a shout, another crowd surged from within the quiet trees and bushes.
These were soldiers who were waiting for Zhan Beiye and his troop to fall into their trap, but since their ambush had been exposed, they had to resort to surrounding him.
Zhan Beiye stood on the cliff, his black robe fluttering loudly in the wind. Amid the pouring rain, his eyes appeared to contain disdain, and his handsome side profile was sharp and G.o.d-like.
"Want to kill me? Dream on."
He let out a rumbling growl, and the sky lit up momentarily as lighting struck down, its surrounding light illuminating his leaping figure.
He flew up, tossing his heavy spear aside and a.s.sumed a posture even mightier than Meng Fuyao"s when she had dashed down at a right angle. A leap was all he took to reach the opposite side.
Meng Fuyao raised her head, clothes completely soaked and hair stuck to her face. With complexion appearing increasingly like snow she witnessed Zhan Beiye"s leap. Sticking a thin trunk she had used as a weapon into the ground she burst into laughter.
"I"ll laugh at you if you fall!"
"Xiu!"
A ball of fire exploded from behind him, its color exceptionally brilliant. It was so bright that even the dull rain couldn"t dim its splendor. The next second a reddish-yellow fireball shot straight for Zhan Beiye"s back.
"How f*cking despicable," Meng Fuyao cursed, sending the tree in her hand out with a clap. The trunk collided with the fireball, instantly becoming charred and splitting into two sections. The fireball landed on Zhan Beiye"s body, burning off a sleeve.
At that point, he had closed in on them and was a man"s distance away from reaching the side of the cliff.
Meng Fuyao let out a sigh of relief but two fireb.a.l.l.s appeared, faster and fiercer. One was aimed at Zhan Beiye while the other was at her.
Unfortunately, there weren"t enough trees for her to counter the attack.
"Oh, Grandmother!" She cursed once more, dashing toward Zhan Beiye without holding back. She launched herself forward like a cannonball, leaping into the air the next moment. She slammed onto Zhan Beiye with her body in a straight.
She was just a hair"s length away from reaching the side of the cliff, and just a millisecond away from saving him.