An Accidental Encounter Under the Moon

The moon climbed to the middle of the sky.

Wang Chong gently pushed Chen Jing's shoulder, signaling that it was time to change shifts.

Chen Jing opened his eyes and nodded, taking over the night watch and letting Wang Chong lean against the stone wall to close his eyes.

Just then, a sudden, rapid rustling of shrubs came from the mountain gully.

It was not the wind. Someone was coming!

Chen Jing's grip tightened fiercely around the White-Shaft Spear, and Wang Chong opened his eyes in the same instant, one hand already clenched around his iron spear.

The two exchanged a silent glance. Wang Chong raised his index finger to his lips, then tilted his head toward the cave entrance.

Moonlight leaked in through the gaps in the wild vines.

It lit the mountain gully in patches of half-brightness and half-shadow.

Chen Jing edged up to the cave mouth and, using the vines as cover, looked outside.

Two figures stumbled and rushed into the gully.

The one in front wore a long blue robe. His clothes had already been torn in several places, and he ran on unsteady feet, his expression frantic to the extreme.

By the moonlight, Chen Jing recognized the newcomer.

Steward Bai of White Horse Pharmacy.

Behind him followed an escort, his whole body stained with blood.

There was a saber wound on his shoulder so deep the bone could be seen, and half his sleeve had been soaked through with blood, but he still clutched his blade in a death grip, shielding Steward Bai behind him.

Chen Jing's heart stirred.

They had actually managed to escape too.

Steward Bai ran into the gully, tripped, and fell with a thud into the pile of loose stones. The escort reached out to help him, but before he could bend down—

A burst of crude laughter came from outside the gully.

"Where do you think you're running!"

Two figures chased in from the entrance of the gully.

The man in the lead was tall and thin, wielding a ghost-head saber. He moved like an ape, closing in on the escort with just a few bounding leaps.

The ghost-head saber came down toward his head with a sharp whistle.

The escort barely raised his blade to block. With a clang, sparks flew in all directions, and his whole body was jolted back several steps.

"Stay here and don't move!"

Wang Chong's voice exploded beside Chen Jing's ear. Before the words had even faded, the old instructor had already charged out with his spear.

During the day, the difference between enemy and ally had been too great: nearly a hundred men surrounding twenty and beating them down. Playing the hero then would have been the same as courting death.

But now it was different. The other side only had two men, and they were hidden in the dark. There was a chance to save them.

Wang Chong was not the sort to watch someone die and refuse to help. As the militia instructor of Shuang'an Town, he had his own bottom line.

Wang Chong burst out from behind the wild vines, the wind roaring around him.

In a few steps, he closed the distance.

His iron spear was like a dragon, thrusting straight toward the lean bandit's back.

The bandit was just swinging his saber at the escort's neck, the blade less than three inches from his throat, when he suddenly heard the fierce wind behind him.

He forcibly withdrew the saber's momentum and backhanded a slash behind him.

With a clang, the ghost-head saber and iron spear crashed together. Wang Chong's pupils abruptly contracted. His full-strength spear strike had actually been knocked aside.

"More helpers?"

The tall, thin bandit retreated two steps and tilted his head, sizing Wang Chong up. Not only was there no panic on his face, a cold smile even appeared there. "Another one come to die."

Before his words had fallen, his figure swayed.

The ghost-head saber had already hacked down in front of Wang Chong.

Wang Chong blocked sideways with his spear. Clang, clang, clang!

He blocked three strikes in a row, and with each block, he retreated one step.

This bandit's saber technique was fast and tricky, and his strength was heavy as well. Wang Chong had come from the border army, and his spearwork was solid.

But under the other man's storm-wind-and-driving-rain offensive, he could only barely parry.

The wounded escort caught his breath, gritted his teeth, and threw himself forward to attack from the side. Only by joining forces did the two of them just barely stabilize their footing.

Even so, the lean bandit's ghost-head saber chopped left and slashed right, his body as nimble as an ape. Under the two men's combined assault, he could still find gaps to counterattack.

They had exchanged only a dozen or so moves.

Another fresh wound appeared on the escort's arm, blood streaming down his wrist. He could barely keep hold of his saber.

Chen Jing watched from the shadows, his heart tightening.

He had a rough idea of Wang Chong's strength. He should also have reached major accomplishment in Body Tempering, but his foundation was far deeper than Chen Jing's; he was simply stuck at a bottleneck.

Yet the bandit before them was fighting two against one with ease, and even seemed to have a faint momentum of pushing them back.

This bandit was clearly a notch stronger than Wang Chong. His foundation had probably already surpassed Body Tempering.

His speed and strength were no inferior to several of the constables from Six Gates. Of course, Li Dingfang could not be counted among them—Li Dingfang's martial skill was plainly on another level.

Just then, the lean bandit forced Wang Chong and the escort back with one slash, then turned his head and snapped impatiently at another bandit:

"What are you standing there for! The one in the long gown should be a steward!"

"Grab him!"

Steward Bai had originally been hiding behind a pile of shattered rocks in the distance.

When he heard this, his face turned white with fright. He spun around and scrambled, half-crawling, half-rolling, deeper into the mountain gully.

The other bandit answered and gave chase.

Though he was not as formidable as the lean bandit, his footwork was countless times faster than Steward Bai, who knew no martial force at all.

In just a few steps, he had caught up behind Steward Bai, cackling as he reached out to grab his shoulder.

Steward Bai only felt a reeking gust pounce from behind him.

His legs went weak, and with a thud, he fell to the ground.

He closed his eyes in despair, thinking that his life would be handed over today in this wild mountain wilderness.

There came an extremely faint, extremely swift sound of something cutting through the air.

The bandit suddenly felt that in the darkness ahead, a smear of silver light seemed to bloom.

After waiting for a long while with nothing happening, Steward Bai slowly opened his eyes.

To his shock, he saw that the bandit chasing him had an extra bloody hole in his throat, fresh blood gurgling out.

The bandit's eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open.

He wanted to shout, but not a sound came out. His whole body stiffened in place and swayed twice, then crashed to the ground with a thud.

Chen Jing walked out from the shadow of the rock wall, blood still dripping from the tip of the White-Shaft Spear in his hand.

Moonlight shone on his young face. His expression was cold, stern, and calm, without the slightest trace of panic.

Steward Bai was overjoyed, practically springing up from the ground. "Brother Chen! I knew you were here too!"

"Be careful yourself."

Chen Jing gave him a reminder.

His gaze had already turned toward the battle around Wang Chong.

When the lean bandit saw his companion killed, the savage light in his eyes surged, but Wang Chong and the escort had him tangled up, and he could not break free for the moment.

Chen Jing drew a deep breath, his gaze freezing in place.

This bandit was ferocious, far from the mob of ragtag rabble he had killed before.

He knew they had to use their advantage in numbers to take this bandit down. Otherwise, he would certainly break them one by one.

Chen Jing raised the White-Shaft Spear in his hands.

He circulated the Fierce Tiger Stance, his blood and qi surging throughout his body. His entire person was like a fierce tiger moving through a dense forest, approaching the battle step by step.

Chen Jing could tell that the opponent's movement technique was very fast.

If he attacked rashly, he would only disrupt the rhythm of Wang Chong and the escort. He was waiting for an opening. He had to seize the instant the other side revealed a flaw and kill him in one blow.

At that moment, the lean bandit chopped the escort back with one slash and was just about to turn to deal with Wang Chong, his back exposing a flaw for a single instant.

Chen Jing did not hesitate.

His foot stomped down fiercely, and his whole body pounced out like a fierce tiger.

The force of the Fierce Tiger Stance ran all the way from his waist and hips to the spear tip. Spear Like a Dragon—the tip of the White-Shaft Spear drove straight for the bandit's back and heart.

This spear thrust was fast and precise, its angle tricky and vicious.

But the bandit's reaction was truly swift and fierce.

At the very instant the spear tip touched his body, he forcibly twisted his form aside, avoiding his vital point. The spear tip stabbed into the right side of his back, but after only entering several inches, it was blocked by muscle, sinew, and bone. It was only a light wound.

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