Escape into the Open Sky!

Yongfeng County.

To the southwest outside the town stood Centipede Mountain, so named because more than ten similarly sized peaks rose and fell in an unbroken line, their head and tail forty-eight li apart. To travel through Centipede Mountain, counting its ups and downs, thorny brambles, and ravines, that distance would increase by at least three to five times.

Six years ago.

Great Chu underwent a great upheaval.

The Li River Gang, entrenched in Shian Commandery, seized the opportunity to rise up. Gathering its members, it wiped out the commandery's garrison and captured the county towns of Lingchuan, Yangshuo, Yongfu, and others, including Yongfeng County.

Four years ago.

Wusheng Sect rose in Lipu County, Shian Commandery, and forcefully seized Mu Transformation County and Yongfeng County from the Li River Gang.

The Black Prison within Centipede Mountain was also taken by Wusheng Sect from then on.

From then on, they built a city against the mountain.

After several years, it gradually took shape.

The mountain city was named: Martial Victory City.

This day.

At the southern gate of Martial Victory City, on the outskirts of Centipede Mountain.

Eight Black Armor guards escorted sixteen Black Prison mine slaves out. At a glance, they saw sunlight carpeting the ground, dazzling and scorching, while a fresh breath of air rushed toward them, standing in stark contrast to the oppressive, stifling, dark, damp Black Prison.

A mountain wind blew over them, carrying a wave of heat.

The miners, long accustomed to the bloody stench on their bodies, found the smell exceptionally pungent and striking at this moment.

"I—"

"Here—"

"We really came out?"

Sun Fei, Shen Liang, and the other miners barely looked human. They had not felt it in Black Prison, but under the sun, each was disheveled and filthy, reeking from head to toe. Years as mine slaves had ravaged their bodies, and the illnesses triggered in recent days made them even more unbearable to look at.

Yet none of them noticed.

One by one, they greedily basked in the sunlight, greedily gazed at the bright world, and breathed in the scorching yet warm, fresh air.

Unable to pull themselves free.

For a moment, they even forgot their excitement.

Their minds were blank.

Imprisoned in Black Prison and enslaved for so long, they had suddenly returned outside, and every one of them was lost in it.

"The sun."

"So warm."

Chen Shaohe was the same.

At ten years old, he had followed his father and elder brothers into Black Prison. In the blink of an eye, six years had passed. Now that he had finally come out, it truly felt like a lifetime apart.

He stood rooted to the spot.

It was not only Black Prison mine slaves such as Sun Fei and Chen Shaohe.

Wei Guan, Zhou Dafeng, Chu Mingrui, and the others were the same. They had spent three months in Black Prison and had long since found it unbearable. Their whole bodies even felt as though they had gone moldy.

Now that they were out, they seemed much brighter as well.

Everyone was intoxicated.

Only Chen Jichuan.

"We're out."

Chen Jichuan saw the blazing sun overhead and knew they had truly left Black Prison.

He had spent more than six years in Black Prison, but in recent days, he had been able to enter and leave the Great Yan World and had seen a normal world. Thus, coming out now did not shock him greatly. The joy in his body could not shake Chen Jichuan's mind. The moment he emerged, he quietly surveyed his surroundings.

Before his eyes.

First came an enormous freight plaza.

It was paved with bluestone.

Tall warehouses stood on both sides, filled with grain and ore. Roads had also been built, one extending east and another south, leading to places unknown.

At the city gate.

Another twenty ordinary soldiers stood guard.

"It stinks! It stinks!" At the sight of Chen Jichuan's group, every one of them covered their noses and turned their heads away.

Other than that.

No other soldiers could be seen.

Chen Jichuan raised his head to look up. Because of the angle, he could not see whether soldiers stood atop the gate. The space ahead was open and empty.

If several dozen archers were to fire down from above.

Chen Jichuan was confident he could avoid them, but Chen Shaohe—

"Wait a little longer."

Chen Jichuan steadied himself and did not rush to act.

Wei Guan and the others had returned to the long-missed Martial Victory City. Somewhat emotional, they were extremely pleased.

They stayed by the gate for a moment. Wei Guan then went to exchange documents before leading the dozen or so miners to one side. After walking some forty or fifty steps, Chen Jichuan finally saw clearly that this was a long stretch of city wall extending left and right beyond sight.

Judging by Wei Guan and the others.

He had no idea where they intended to take them.

Looking ahead and behind.

Perhaps because this was the entrance and exit to Black Prison, not a single commoner was in sight. Furthermore, it seemed today was neither a day for Black Prison to send ore out nor for food to be transported in. The surroundings were silent and deserted.

There might have been people in the warehouses on either side, but they were far away. Even when Chen Jichuan gazed into the distance, he could not make them out.

To make a move here.

As long as they were fast enough, even the people atop the city wall might not notice. Thoughts flashed through Chen Jichuan's mind. He knew the danger involved, but if he waited any longer, he might miss his chance.

His heart turned resolute.

"Move!"

Once Chen Jichuan made up his mind, he first gave Chen Shaohe, who had waited for so long, a meaningful look, then moved himself.

Sun Fei stood beside the Chen brothers.

Having emerged from Black Prison, he was delighted. He looked at the sky and the ground, without sparing a thought for where Wusheng Sect intended to send them.

As he looked.

He saw Chen Jichuan take several quick steps.

"Hm?"

He found it strange.

So he looked toward Chen Jichuan ahead.

He saw that the fourth son of Yongfeng's Smiling Tiger had actually gone up to the four Black Armor guards at the front and said urgently, "My lords, this lowly one has unbearable diarrhea and wishes to relieve himself to the side."

Chen Jichuan clutched his stomach, putting on an act as he stood before Wei Guan.

When Wei Guan saw this filthy, hunched mine slave reeking all over come close, the disgust on his face was unbearable. He spat, "Hold it!"

"Do you think this is Black Prison?"

"Hold in the big and the small. If any of you dare make a mess, I'll make you regret it!"

Wei Guan shouted at Chen Jichuan, but still felt it was not enough, so he loudly berated mine slaves such as Sun Fei as well.

"Filthy trash!"

Zhou Dafeng was eager to return to Martial Victory City to report in, then head east to Everlasting Prosperity County Town to enjoy himself. Seeing Chen Jichuan dawdling here and wasting their time, he grew irritated and was about to kick him.

"Don't."

Seeing this, Chu Mingrui hurriedly grabbed him. Did he do so out of kindness? Of course not. "Careful you kick out what's in his belly."

When Zhou Dafeng heard that.

He hurriedly withdrew his foot. Startled by Chu Mingrui's words, he no longer dared kick him and merely shouted, "Behave yourself!"

Chen Jichuan heard this.

He raised his head and glanced toward the city wall. The wall was around five or six zhang high, and its top could not be seen at a glance. The commotion below had just been quite loud, yet no head had appeared above the wall.

Chen Jichuan felt reassured and bowed and scraped to Zhou Dafeng with a fawning smile. "This lowly one will hold it, this lowly one will hold it—"

Halfway through his words.

He suddenly lunged forward. With a flick of both hands, he seized the heads of Zhou Dafeng and Chu Mingrui, the two closest to him, and viciously smashed them together—

Bang!

Brains splattered everywhere. The two Black Armor guards, vicious and cruel only moments earlier, died on the spot.

The fourth layer of the Water-Splitting Technique had given Chen Jichuan arms with the strength of a thousand jin. At such close range and with such suddenness, even fellow Level Four experts might not have been able to guard against it.

Much less these two.

Chen Jichuan moved with lightning speed, killing the two in the time it took for a spark to flash from flint, before anyone could react.

He stepped over Zhou Dafeng and Chu Mingrui.

"You—" He grabbed Wei Guan, who was about to draw his weapon, in a bear hug and locked his arms tight.

Crack!

With a sound, he nearly snapped Wei Guan's waist and back. Using the force to leap up, he swept both legs out, striking the head of another Black Armor guard before him, Zhang Biyang.

Another bang rang out.

The leg technique cultivated through the Iron Broom Technique kicked Zhang Biyang so hard that stars burst before his eyes and his head struck the ground.

Whether he had died or merely passed out, he made no further movement.

Before Chen Jichuan's feet even touched the ground, he freed one hand, reached for Wei Guan's head, and violently twisted it backward—

Wei Guan's head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees.

His eyes rolled white.

He was clearly dead beyond doubt.

Though this sounded lengthy, it had actually happened with astonishing speed.

Sun Fei had been watching Chen Jichuan the whole time. He saw only Chen Jichuan strike abruptly, first bringing two Black Armor guards' heads together with both hands and killing them. Then he hugged one Black Armor guard, leaped up to kick another to death, and snapped the neck of the one in his grip.

Like a hare rising and a falcon falling.

By the time both feet landed, four men already lay on the ground.

Sun Fei stared stupidly, his thoughts completely frozen.

"Those who don't want to die, don't make a sound!"

Chen Jichuan shouted low.

He kicked Zhang Biyang, who lay on the ground with life and death unknown, in the temple. He cultivated the Crouching Tiger Technique. The strength in his toes could not only support his entire body weight, but also bear a boulder weighing a thousand jin. The force of those toes was far more than a thousand jin. This strike was like the thrust of a weapon; Zhang Biyang had no chance of surviving.

After killing four men in succession, Chen Jichuan did not pause in the slightest.

His feet kicked off repeatedly, and in several steps, he crossed more than ten miners who had already gone dumb with shock and reached the rear formation.

There, Chen Shaohe had already made his move.

He rubbed his hands together.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Four fist-sized fireballs flew straight for the throats of the four Black Armor guards.

Flames produced by Level Four Fire Control could melt even Yantie Ore, much less flesh-and-blood bodies. The four had been unprepared. Even less had they expected that among these miners, whom they had never regarded as worthy of notice, hid a Fourth Rank Altered Human.

In that instant.

Their throats were burned.

"Ugh! Ugh!"

"Ugh, ugh, ugh!" They clutched their throats and tried to scream in terror. But the flames had burned through their vocal cords, leaving them able to make only hoarse, whimpering sounds that could not carry.

Two of them were stronger and had greater resistance.

One drew his saber.

With a clang, he rushed to kill Chen Shaohe.

The other turned and ran, not daring to fight back.

It was Chen Shaohe's first real battle, and it was a battle of life and death from the start. Seeing the Goose-Wing Saber come down at his head, his mind was astonishingly clear—

Calm down!

I have to stay calm!

They're only Level Two and Level Three. I'm Level Four. I'm invincible!

Chen Shaohe gritted his teeth. His arms were so frightened that they had gone stiff and could not move, but he opened his mouth and spewed flames. "Ha!" The fire burned toward the man swinging his saber down, frightening him into hurriedly raising the saber to block.

At that moment.

Chen Jichuan arrived.

"Die!"

Four fingers like golden hooks, he swiftly knocked aside the steel saber.

Chen Jichuan's hand shot out like lightning. He grabbed the man's head and pulled it downward while driving his knee upward. With a crack, even the skullcap was likely smashed apart.

A real man never looked back at an explosion!

Chen Jichuan killed one man first.

Without even looking, he leaped onward, light as a swallow. In several steps, he caught up with the fleeing man. The man's burned throat was in unbearable pain, and terror had sent him fleeing in the wrong direction.

Chen Jichuan caught up from behind, brought his four fingers together, and struck squarely into his back.

The Golden Shovel Finger Technique was endlessly wondrous, cultivating both yin and yang with mighty force.

Bang!

The man's tendons and bones shattered at once, his internal organs pierced through. He collapsed to the ground, beyond saving.

Only then did Chen Jichuan turn back.

Twisting around, he saw—

"Go to hell!"

A low roar rumbled from Chen Shaohe's throat. A Goose-Wing Saber was in his hand as he viciously chopped down at the two Black Armor guards rolling on the ground, clutching their throats and wailing.

One slash struck a face, turning flesh and blood into a blur but failing to kill him. Instead, it made that Black Armor guard suffer even more. The other was luckier; the blade struck the back of his neck, blood spurted out, and he fainted on the spot.

Chen Jichuan arrived.

With one kick each, both men died.

Even in the Yellow Springs, the eight of them probably would not dare believe that they had died at the hands of Black Prison mine slaves they despised and had never regarded seriously.

And they had died so cleanly and decisively.

"Go!"

Chen Jichuan kicked up a Goose-Wing Saber and picked it up, with no time to deal with anything else.

If the mine slaves here had been useful enough and trustworthy enough, Chen Jichuan would have considered stripping the Black Armor off these men, disguising themselves, and swaggering away.

But Chen Jichuan did not trust them.

And although Chen Shaohe was not weak, putting on Black Armor would not be easy for him. Once clad in armor, his movements would undoubtedly become even more cumbersome.

It would not help their escape.

Better not to bother with it.

"Keep your voices down. Strip off this armor and pretend to be escorting prisoners. Then you can escape and live!"

Chen Jichuan offered this plan to Sun Fei, Shen Liang, and the other mine slaves, who had been stunned before falling into panic.

These miners were pitiful people too.

Chen Jichuan was no saint, but he could not bring himself to slaughter them wantonly.

Besides, there were still fourteen people here. Even if he and Chen Shaohe attacked together, if just one person cried out, unforeseen complications could arise.

Better to give them hope.

That way, they would not ruin things.

"Right!"

"The Black Armor are dead. We can escape too!"

Unlike Chen Jichuan, these people had not made plans early on. Faced with this sudden upheaval, they had long since lost their heads. Chen Jichuan's suggestion was like sweet rain after a drought, soaking into their hearts.

Excitement appeared on every face.

Sun Fei was the first to strip Wei Guan's armor, and the other mine slaves were stirred into action as well.

They clumsily set about taking it off.

But armor was difficult both to put on and take off, and they could not finish it in a short while.

Taking the opportunity, Chen Jichuan grabbed Chen Shaohe and rushed toward the Bluestone Road on the left.

He had seen that at the end of that Bluestone Road, lush green trees lined both sides.

Wusheng Sect had a large army, with no shortage of bows, arrows, and armor. If they fled along the main road, they could very well be surrounded by the army. Then, with ten thousand arrows loosed at once, even wings would not let them escape.

So Chen Jichuan had set his strategy from the very beginning—

"Flee into the mountains."

"Avoid the cutting edge!"

Chen Jichuan was extremely fast.

While practicing the Land-Flying Technique in the cave, he had not only worn sand clothes and carried sandbags, but often practiced with Chen Shaohe on his back. At this moment, just as before, he carried Chen Shaohe on his back and ran in the direction opposite the city wall.

Ten steps.

Twenty steps.

Thirty steps.

He ran fifty steps in one breath, and no one had noticed yet. Chen Jichuan let out a breath. Killing the eight Black Armor had bought them enough time.

Once they were fifty steps away, even if there were archers atop the wall, hitting him would become far more difficult.

Eighty steps.

Ninety steps.

Chen Jichuan ran farther and farther away. Seen from Martial Victory City, he had nearly become a tiny black dot.

By then, Sun Fei and the others beneath the city wall had only just stripped off the armor. In their nervous panic, they could not get it on no matter what they did.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Sun Fei was furious and anxious. He touched his scalp, only to discover that he had become bald. His heart immediately turned cold. Looking like this, would he not still be discovered even if he put on Black Armor?

"Chen—"

He turned, intending to find Chen Jichuan, but with one look, he realized that Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe were nowhere to be seen. Far away, he could only make out an indistinct figure.

"I've been tricked!"

Sun Fei's heart filled with panic.

Only then did he realize he had fallen for Chen Jichuan's scheme.

He no longer cared about changing clothes. His mind was in complete chaos, and all he wanted was to run immediately.

"To hell with it!"

He threw the Black Armor to the ground, then took off running.

Some of the remaining people, including Shen Liang, were still fighting over the armor. When they suddenly saw Sun Fei flee, some of them came to their senses too. "Run! Run!"

There were fourteen of them in all.

Some clutched Black Armor, some carried Goose-Wing Sabers, and some simply took nothing at all. In any case, they ran with all their might.

But they were all ordinary mine slaves, and illness had ravaged them. Their bodies were frail beyond measure. Forget carrying Black Armor and Goose-Wing Sabers—even empty-handed, after rushing twenty or thirty steps in a panic, they were already gasping for breath, as though flames were burning in their chests.

They ran slower and slower.

More than a dozen people fled in terror. Such a large target, yet running so slowly—on Martial Victory City's walls, a bored soldier responsible for keeping watch casually glanced outside and spotted them at once. His attention was drawn over.

"Who goes there?!"

The sentry soldier was startled. He hurriedly picked up his bell hammer and struck the bronze bell hard—

Clang!

The bell rang out.

Before long.

Fifty archers and fifty saber-wielders sprang into action. Someone recognized them. "Those are Black Prison mine slaves!"

Someone looked down below the city wall.

The wall was five or six zhang high, and it was difficult to see clearly.

But those with sharp eyes still saw seven or eight corpses lying at the foot of the wall, each dead in a different manner. Their clothes had all been stripped and tossed aside. "They're Black Armor Army soldiers! The mine slaves killed the Black Armor Army and escaped!"

That cry was like poking a hornet's nest.

Whoosh!

Someone anxiously loosed an arrow.

The other archers seemed to receive a signal and fired as one. Sun Fei, Shen Liang, and the others had only run twenty or thirty steps, yet more than half were easily shot dead. Only then did some officers and soldiers react. "Leave survivors! Hurry, come with me and capture them alive!"

But it was too late.

The fourteen mine slaves had fled together, and fifty archers fired volleys from just twenty or thirty steps away. After several rounds, how could any survivors remain?

When the archers stopped firing.

Only twenty-two still-warm corpses remained outside the city.

"Chen—"

"Chen—"

Sun Fei knelt sprawled on the ground, struggling to raise his head toward the distance. He reached out, trying to grasp something, but in the end, strength failed him and his hand fell to the ground. An arrow swayed in his back, having pierced through his back and chest.

Having left Black Prison and tasted freedom for only a moment, Sun Fei died.

Joining him on the road to the Yellow Springs were Sun Liang and the other thirteen mine slaves, as well as Wei Guan and the other eight Black Armor soldiers.

A group of people.

They had emerged from Black Prison together.

Only Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe fled without a trace!

Let me explain: during the new book period, with no recommendations so far, updating four or five thousand words a day is not little. Please do not fixate on chapter count—look at the word count. Two thousand words per chapter may make the chapter count look higher, but it is meaningless. Demon Monk's Tale mostly has large chapters, some four or five thousand words long, others eight or nine thousand. Please understand.

The new book has been up for eight days and has forty-five thousand words, averaging fifty-six hundred words a day. That really is not little for a new book period.

Thank you all for your understanding and support.