A large group of men hurried down from the pathway, wearing grey outfits. They were the same outfits that were fighting in the bamboo forest like the ones Suyin had seen before. Jianhong roared in laughter. "My dear nephew, you dare to defy your uncle?" He challenged. Junli could only smile, looking around at Jianhong"s men.
"Such a strong, powerful man, sheltering behind so many people, huh?" He spoke. He glanced at Qin Fuhua (who he only knows as Tienzheng).
Junli knew that it was one of his men that sent him a warning letter the day that Suyin had the letter sent to her. Zhaoyun was the one who shot the arrow through the tree to send Suyin the letter while Weizhe shot another one through Junli"s room simultaneously.
In his letter, it depicted the information about alerting him that his uncle was going to come. Feng Junli"s father was out of the village with his wife to go pray to the Buddhist, so he was responsible for taking care of the house.
Feng Junli nodded at Qin Fuhua to let him know that they were ready as Qin Fuhua and his men pointed their swords toward Jianhong.
"Y-You!" Jianhong uttered, startled at the sudden move.
"You are working for someone else aren"t you?" Qin Fuhua mentioned.
"Why... aren"t you just a mere little scholar? How dare you point a sword like that to me!" Jianhong shouted.
Qin Fuhua could only give him a cold expression, his eyes not moving away from Jianhong.
"The man who had pointed fingers at his wife. To make her fool so that he would save his own life, is it?" Qin Fuhua coldly said.
Jianhong"s eyes were scanning around him, as he threw a bizarre, white ball down to the ground.
With the impact of the ground, it made a mixture of dust, dirt, and smoke around the area as everyone began coughing their lungs out, including Qin Fuhua. Jianhong dashed his life out of the area, running away for his life as the soldiers of Jianhong began to fight with Qin Fuhua and Feng Junli"s men.
It was nearly impossible for them to see anything, but Qin Fuhua, Weizhe, and Zhaoyun knew that they needed to stop Jianhong from running away.
"Go get Jianhong!" Weizhe uttered, protecting the Prince of Qin. Covering his mouth with his sleeves, he nodded, dashing off in the air to follow the cowardly man.
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Jianhong ran as fast as he could, tripping over some of the twigs of the trees as he hustled towards the hill in the mountains. There were little trees here and there, but it couldn"t stop him from escaping. As he tripped over a large root from a large tree, Qin Fuhua was able to catch up to the man.
"Stop it right there." Qin Fuhua drifted down, taking a step closer to Jianhong as he retreated away, using his feet to push against the ground.
"Y-You don"t know who you are messing with!" Jianhong began to stutter, as he screamed at Qin Fuhua.
"There"s nothing that can stop you right now."
Right as Qin Fuhua finished his sentence, a man covered in a grey mask with a dark blue outfit soundlessly flew on top of the tree, pulling the bow and arrow directed at Qin Fuhua"s back with a poisonous snake coming out from the man"s sleeves.
Distracted at Jianhong"s shameless begging, Qin Fuhua didn"t get the chance to notice until the arrow fired. He was unable to block the arrow, piercing right through his upper right arm as the snake took a bite on his shoulder.
Jianhong promptly stood up and ran off, with the person helping him flying away as well. Qin Fuhua felt a gush of pain on his right arm, but that wasn"t the problem: The snake slithered off to follow its master.
With all of the force that he could, he pulled the arrow out from his arm.
"My lord!" Weizhe hurried down the forest after seeing Qin Fuhua knelt on one knee. Zhao Yun immediately followed behind Weizhe and the two held the Prince up.
"My lord, we had Jianhong"s men captured and most of them killed. Some of the men that were his reinforcements did not speak of who the other party was," Zhaoyun lowered his head, "those that were caught all bit their tongue to death."
Qin Fuhua shrugged his shoulders so that Weizhe and Zhaoyun didn"t help him up anymore.
"Go find anything about Feng Jianhong"s history and investigate the maids and his men to see who he was affiliated with." He glanced at his arm.
"There is something I have to do." Qin Fuhua was still able to move but his right arm was practically paralyzed. Whatever it was, it was affecting his body and he still needed to meet up with Suyin. Keeping the head of the arrow for later, he used up all of his qi to fly to where he had promised to meet Suyin.
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Suyin had fallen asleep, sitting down on the ground and used the statue so she could rest on something with her back. The sun had risen already by the time she awoke, hearing the sounds of birds flutter away.
The sound of clothes rustling among the wind made Suyin wake up immediately, hoping that it was Qin Fuhua who appeared in front of her. She saw Qin Fuhua"s figure flying in the sky. Nearly reaching to her, Qin Fuhua had used up all of his energy and plopped down to the ground.
Suyin stood up and rushed to Qin Fuhua"s aid, helping him up until she saw the blood smeared all over his clothes.
"Q-Qin Fuhua!" It was all she could say with him suddenly appearing. What had happened while she had fallen asleep waiting?
Qin Fuhua closed his eyes, breathing heavily. "Help me up." He uttered. He barely had the energy to stand so Suyin had to have him lean on her. Qin Fuhua used every ounce of his energy to reach the lion statue.
"Do you still have the jade of the dragon?"
Suyin nodded, taking out the item and handed it to him. Qin Fuhua weakly but surely placed the jade of the dragon in the lion statue"s mouth. It triggered a pathway through the creek and into the waterfall.
Qin Fuhua placed the jade of the dragon in his pocket as the two slowly entered the secret cave through the waterfall.
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"You stupid, wrenched being!" A man yelled at Jianhong. He threw his teacup down to the ground as it smashed in front of Jianhong. Shivering, he kneeled to the man, putting his face to the ground with his hands touching the floor.
"I-I"m sorry! I have failed you!!" Jianhong"s voice began trembling. "I-I used that ball to turn smoke around me! It worked but I..."
"And to have my men help useless men like you. You"re nothing but a mere empty sh.e.l.l now that you are a wanted man." The man called his men dressed in grey to drag him out of the prosperous hall.
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Drips of water fell to the shoulders of Han Suyin, following the injured Qin Fuhua to the cave. It was dark inside the cave with the sunlight being the only source of brightness in the hallway. Qin Fuhua limply walked down the pathway, using the walls of the cave for support. As the two entered deep into the cave, Suyin watched Qin Fuhua weakly feel the walls of the cave with his hands.
"I can help you up if you want to."
"No. Leave me be." Qin Fuhua firmly answered immediately. His face began to look pale, but Suyin couldn"t do anything but follow him.
Qin Fuhua felt the walls as he pushed through one, calling Suyin to follow him inside.
A room filled with a large, long dark wooden table was in front of them with cushion seatings on the ground. The room was filled with bookshelves and even a bed at the side. The walls were decorated in black petals with little candle posts that can be lit to see in the dark.
"What is this," Suyin uttered. If she didn"t know they were under a waterfall, she would have believed this was another room of Qin Fuhua"s manor.
Qin Fuhua barely had enough energy to slide down at the edge of the door after closing the door. His face turned pale, with his lips tainted in red from the blood slowly coming out of his mouth.
"You know, I am a Doctor. You can ask me for help." Suyin stated. At first, she felt angry, but suddenly softened at the face of Qin Fuhua. His eyes were blank, staring through the distance.
Barely holding up to his awareness, he turned to her, he finally spoke.
"I was poisoned by a snake..."
His eyes closed, losing his consciousness.
"Wait... you!" Suyin tried to shake him for a couple of seconds before he didn"t wake up. Suyin took the cloak off of Qin Fuhua carefully as she gently used it as bedding for Qin Fuhua to sleep on. After lighting the lamp so the room was more visible to Suyin, she was able to see the whole area. The room was about half of the size of a courtyard and of course, it would make sense since it appeared to have looked like an important area for people like Qin Fuhua to be able to only enter in.
"I"ll be back, I promise." Suyin turned to give one last look to Qin Fuhua and hurried out of the cave, carrying the Jade of the Dragon with her.
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