Chapter 29: Besieging the Village

He made the jump!

Chen Tiansheng was overcome with excitement. When he first leaped, he felt it was possible, but that was merely a feeling. Now, having actually jumped over twenty meters while carrying someone on his back, he stood firmly and steadily upon the rooftop.

He had no idea that his physique would be this powerful after body tempering!

At this moment, Yue Wumiao was dazed, staring blankly at the back of the young man’s head. It was her first time being carried by someone using light-foot martial arts to traverse such a distance. She had only heard rumors about whether disciples of the Guamen sect possessed such skills, and given Chen Tiansheng’s age, she hadn’t been entirely confident.

But now, this man had done it!

Being carried through the air by such martial arts was an incredibly wondrous sensation; she found herself longing for it.

"What was that sound?"

As they were lost in their thoughts, a faint, muffled voice of a woman drifted up from the building below. Chen Tiansheng, with his ears blocked by his fingers, could not hear the people downstairs, but Yue Wumiao heard it. She quickly released his ears and whispered, "We must go, quickly."

Chen Tiansheng gathered his focus and headed in the direction Yue Wumiao pointed.

A martial artist patrolling the street had heard a slight disturbance where Chen Tiansheng landed, but by the time he looked over, the people were already gone. Seeing the window to Yue Wumiao’s room closed, he didn't give it much more thought. After all, such a distance was impossible for even him—a man approaching the level of a Guamen master—to clear. How could anyone easily enter Yue Wumiao’s room and abduct her, or cause her to vanish?

***

Half an hour later.

Outside the North City Gate, on a dirt slope.

Yue Wumiao’s heart was pounding incessantly. Looking at the man standing upright before her, she felt overwhelming shock.

From the Sixiang Pavilion to outside the city was nearly ten miles. Within half an hour, this man had carried her on his back, sprinting without a single pause, and yet, he showed no signs of fatigue now. Such endurance was simply terrifying—far more impressive than what the martial artists who frequented the brothels claimed of the Guamen disciples.

Could it be that this man was not a Guamen disciple?

That was impossible. Though he appeared mature, he was clearly under eighteen. An eighteen-year-old Guamen disciple was already a rare find; an eighteen-year-old Guamen master was simply unimaginable!

Perhaps he was just putting on a front, and was actually exhausted.

At that moment, Chen Tiansheng was also feeling stunned. He hadn’t truly understood his body after the tempering. After leaping across the twenty-meter street from the Sixiang Pavilion, he had gained a rough grasp of his capabilities. In his excitement, he had sprinted the whole way with Yue Wumiao to test his limits.

Currently, his maximum leap height was five meters, and he could cover nearly thirty meters in a single jump. As for endurance, running at full tilt for an hour was no issue. Because he had been carrying Yue Wumiao, he could only estimate his limits, but the tempering was truly powerful. No wonder they said Guamen disciples and masters were on entirely different levels! If he were to learn formal light-foot techniques, his travel would be even easier, and his jumping height and distance would increase significantly.

"Let’s rest a moment, then take me to Longhu Manor."

As he was thinking, Yue Wumiao’s gentle voice drifted over.

Longhu Manor!

Chen Tiansheng’s heart tightened.

Longhu Manor was nearly thirty miles away from Qingzhou Prefecture, located behind Little Qiong Mountain, upstream of the Ping River. It was a place of great strategic importance. Ten years ago, during the Heng Prince’s rebellion, he had crossed the Ping River to attack Qingzhou Prefecture. With insufficient troops in the city, local martial artists had spontaneously gathered to block the advance. The two sides fought at Longhu Manor for ten days until the Heng Prince was forced to retreat due to the suppression of the rebellion in Duliang City. After the battle, the imperial court rewarded the leader of these martial artists, a man named Zheng Guangzhong, by appointing him the General of Longhu Manor.

Though Zheng Guangzhong had earned his merits, he was a treacherous, bullying, and power-hungry man who used his position for personal gain, leaving the local people in misery. He had once publicly denied his affiliation with the Fandao Society, causing a rift between them, and had declared that any member of the society who set foot in Longhu Manor would be killed on sight.

Now that Yue Wumiao wanted him to go to Longhu Manor, if Zheng Guangzhong found out, the consequences would be dire. He considered himself stronger than the average martial artist, but he could not stand against a five-hundred-man army. Moreover, it was rumored that Zheng Guangzhong had once attained the status of a Guamen master, with his combat prowess ranked in the top five of Qingzhou Prefecture!

Seeing his hesitation, Yue Wumiao roughly guessed his concerns and said, "Do not worry. I know you are a member of the Fandao Society and are at odds with Zheng Guangzhong. We are only going to the outskirts of Longhu Manor, to a place called Yue Family Village, which does not fall under his jurisdiction."

Hearing this, Chen Tiansheng breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at the moon and, turning his back to Yue Wumiao, lowered himself, saying, "It takes a lot of time to go back and forth to Longhu Manor. We won't rest; get on, and I will carry you there."

No rest?

Yue Wumiao looked at him with skepticism and shook her head inwardly. She despised men who were reckless and loved to play the hero. However, time was truly short. If they didn't return before dawn, her absence from Sixiang Pavilion would be discovered, and the pavilion would certainly punish her—after all, she was merely a tool for them to make money!

After some thought, Yue Wumiao climbed onto Chen Tiansheng’s back, grabbing his shoulders to avoid unnecessary contact.

Chen Tiansheng stood up, reached back to hold her legs, and said, "Hold on tight. We’re off!"

Yue Wumiao said, "Actually, you don't need to hold my legs. I can wrap them around you."

What bold words!

Feeling her legs wrapped around his waist, Chen Tiansheng was left speechless. Wouldn't Yue Wumiao be the one at a disadvantage here? Then again, she was wearing long trousers; it wasn't as if anything would happen. He really didn't know what this woman was thinking.

Chen Tiansheng did not reply. He let go of her legs and pushed off, sprinting toward Longhu Manor.

As his speed picked up, Yue Wumiao found it difficult to keep her grip on his shoulders without him supporting her legs, and her entire body ended up pressed against his back.

Yue Wumiao’s face flushed red. She bit her lip and said, "Don't run so fast! And... just hold my legs, and don't let your mind wander!"

Wander? Whose mind was wandering?

Chen Tiansheng was speechless once more. Too busy to argue, he held her legs and continued on.

There were few houses along the road from Qingzhou to Longhu Manor, and nothing of note happened at night, so they spent most of the journey sprinting on the main road, only detouring to the side as they approached the manor.

***

Along the way, the pair encountered no obstacles and arrived at Yue Family Village with ease.

Looking at the village before him, Chen Tiansheng frowned. The village was in ruins, as if it had been ravaged by war a year or two ago. The houses were burned, and the air was thick with the scent of peat.

Yue Wumiao climbed off his back and followed the unrecognizable path through the village until she reached a dilapidated house in the center. She suddenly dropped to her knees and kowtowed three times, tears streaming down her face. "Dad, Mom, Brother, Little Brother... I’m home!"

Seeing this, Chen Tiansheng roughly understood what had happened. It turned out that the glamorous courtesan of Qingzhou Prefecture had such a tragic family history. Judging by the ruins, Yue Wumiao’s family had been prominent, yet to think that everyone except her had been slaughtered—truly, life was unpredictable.

Seeing her grief, he did not step forward to comfort her. They were master and servant, not friends, and to show concern now would be no different from being a rogue.

Yue Wumiao took off her tear-soaked veil, wiped her face, and retrieved three sticks of incense she had prepared. She lit them with a fire-starter, planted them in front of the house, and stood up to face Chen Tiansheng. "I want to have a word with my family. Is there enough time to return before dawn?"

Chen Tiansheng looked at the sky and nodded. "Yes, but you only have two quarters of an hour."

"Thank you."

Yue Wumiao bowed, expressing her heartfelt gratitude.

Chen Tiansheng could see her expression and hear the tone in her voice by the moonlight; he knew she was sincere. Living in a place as chaotic as a brothel, yet still maintaining a sense of trust in others—this was rare indeed. He sympathized with her, but beyond sympathy, he felt nothing more.

He was tired from the journey as well, so he took the opportunity to cultivate and recover his strength; otherwise, he might not make it back to Sixiang Pavilion before daybreak. With the experience from earlier in the day, his cultivation went smoothly.

In two quarters of an hour, he had recovered eighty percent of his strength.

Chen Tiansheng approached Yue Wumiao and said, "It is time to go."

Yue Wumiao nodded, took a deep breath, rose from the worn steps, and walked toward him.

Just as Chen Tiansheng prepared to carry her, the sound of rapid, chaotic hoofbeats echoed from behind. He turned his head to see a group of people charging toward them on horseback, brandishing torches.

The young man in fine silk robes at the lead laughed loudly. "Haha! Little Wu, it really is you! Truly, I searched the world for you in vain, only to find you here without effort! Since you've come, don't even think about leaving!"

"Men! Seize that woman! If there is so much as a scratch on her, I’ll kill you all!"

Seeing who it was, Yue Wumiao’s face paled. She hurriedly put on the tear-soaked veil and urged Chen Tiansheng, "That is Zheng Guangzhong’s son, Zheng Peng! Run!"

"Run?"

Zheng Peng wore a sinister smile. He put his fingers to his lips and let out a whistle. Suddenly, people holding torches appeared all around the village.