The arrow tore through the air with a piercing shriek, heading straight for Zhou Cheng's back!
Without even looking back, Zhou Cheng twisted strangely in midair. The arrow skimmed his hem and struck the palace wall with a thunk, its fletching bursting apart as its shaft buried itself completely in the wall.
"Not bad reflexes."
Yan Xiaoyi narrowed his eyes and called out his praise from afar, continuing his pursuit without breaking stride.
Zhou Cheng landed on the palace wall, glanced back at him, then kept running.
One pursuing, the other fleeing, they darted across the Imperial Palace's rooftops and walls.
From behind, Yan Xiaoyi loosed an arrow now and then, each shot viciously angled-sometimes as Zhou Cheng vaulted a wall, sometimes the instant he turned, sometimes from an unexpected blind spot.
At the critical instant, Zhou Cheng always managed to use his surroundings to narrowly evade the shot.
Each time, it missed by a hair.
Each time, the danger could not have been closer.
The longer Yan Xiaoyi pursued him, the more agitated he became, but he still forced it down.
In all these years, this was only the second person who had dodged so many of his arrows in succession!
The first had been at the Peaceful Villa not long ago.
He did not believe his opponent could keep his nerves stretched taut forever.
He refused to believe he could not land a shot!
As though playing hide-and-seek, Zhou Cheng led Yan Xiaoyi out of the palace, then wove through the streets and alleys with him in tow.
After leading him around a while longer, Zhou Cheng decided it was about time.
An open stretch lay ahead, with little cover around it.
Yan Xiaoyi's eyes lit up. His chance had come!
He sneered, his voice carrying from afar: