Zhan Zhao Adventures - Chapter Four (Part IV)

Chapter Four: Partridge Sky (Part IV)

The pine torch emitted a greasy, choking plume of smoke.

 

Beneath the torchlight, Yan Ziqing’s face also appeared somewhat greasy and shiny.

 

The Imperial Guards standing respectfully beside him raised the torches high above their heads, for the purpose of allowing him to clearly see the ground before him.

 

As for what Yan Ziqing did, it was merely to lightly crouch down his body and pinch a handful of the damp soil on the ground.

 

When he stood up, the soil staining his fingers was still sticky.

 

That was soil contaminated with bloodstains.

 

He turned his head back: "There seems to have been a battle here, and someone shed blood!"

 

"There were at least four people here! One of them, from beginning to end, seems to have barely moved; his martial arts should also be the weakest!"

 

"Looking at their footprints, sometimes deep and sometimes shallow, the fight between them seems to have been very fierce!"

 

Mo Dao behind him, however, had been looking at the leaves fallen all over the ground.

 

The tender, originally loose and green fallen leaves were soaked through by the consecutive days of heavy rain; at this moment, reflecting the flickering torchlight, they actually resembled the fallen blossoms of late autumn.

 

──But autumn had not yet arrived, whence came a ground full of fallen leaves?

 

Mo Dao’s wide, old Taoist robe danced with a ripping sound in the night wind, and his Taoist hair-bun cast a long shadow upon the ground.

 

His face, beneath the torchlight, appeared even more gloomy.

 

Yan Ziqing had also already noticed these fallen leaves scattered upon the ground. His pupils suddenly contracted: "Could it be him?"

 

Mo Dao’s voice already sounded as if it were squeezed out from the gaps between his teeth: "Besides him, who else can execute this 'Thousand-Jun Dragon-Slaying Cleave'?"

 

Yan Ziqing said: "Only, the Cold Water Palace has not walked within the martial world for more than twenty years, why does it suddenly appear in this place again? Could it be that they are also coming for our Prince of Xiangyang’s mansion? Then the one who fought against him, who was it?"

 

──Soaked leaves, even if one wished to slice them down piece by piece with a sword, would be extremely difficult. Only the peerless, fierce, and masculine energy of the "Thousand-Jun Dragon-Slaying Cleave" could destroy swan feathers and shatter all living things.

 

──Who else could block this peerless strike?

 

Mo Dao’s voice was very deep and low.

 

There were several times when Yan Ziqing almost thought it was Shao Jizu speaking. Within the "Jianshi Hall," the ones he feared most were precisely Shao Jizu and him. Every time he met this gloomy-faced Taoist, he would be very respectful; if there were no necessary words, he would absolutely not say a single extra sentence. Seeing Mo Dao’s countenance under the torchlight right now, he understood that his current status could only be to listen!

 

Mo Dao spoke very slowly, because he never wasted a single one of his words.

 

──"The person who fought against him used a sword, not a blade!"

 

──"If it were not that he had already taken my 'Friendship at First Sight,' I would almost believe it would be him!"

 

Yan Ziqing said with extreme caution: "With his current situation, how would he be willing to invite a powerful enemy again for no reason; even if he provoked the people of the Cold Water Palace, how could he still take this move of the 'Thousand-Jun Dragon-Slaying Cleave'?"

 

Mo Dao appeared not to hear his words. His gaze seemed to have already dissolved into one with this night color.

 

The night color was deep. His gaze, however, was even deeper and more somber than this boundless night color.

 

The crowd within the woods was all waiting without making a sound!

 

After a long time, this silent Taoist in the old Taoist robe finally spoke two sentences slowly. Two sentences that sounded baffling to bystanders, yet made all the people present understand tacitly.

 

──"No matter whether the one who took the 'Thousand-Jun Dragon-Slaying Cleave' was him or not, the midnight hour is about to arrive."

 

──"Our second chance today is precisely at the midnight hour."