Sadly, things had gone against his wishes. Even if he used the entire bottle of Thunder Pills now, he could only delay death's arrival.
His blue robes billowed like clouds, his true qi thundered like lightning, and Shen Yanping burst through the door. His blazing momentum actually forced the man in black to glide backward.
His sword raced like a thunderbolt. Shen Yanping advanced again, and the man in black retreated again.
But after that strike, the consequences of swallowing too many Thunder Pills at once finally caught up with him. Countless tiny wounds split open across Shen Yanping's skin, making his face, already twisted with fury, even more terrifying.
At most, four more strikes.
Feeling the state of his body, Shen Yanping reached that conclusion.
He struck again. The man in black dodged once more without drawing his saber. As they swept past each other, the hood revealed a young, cold, ruthless face, its lips hooked in a mocking smile.
To the man in black, Shen Yanping was now like a fish already placed in a cooking basin, flopping about for lack of air. It was not that he could not hold it down; he would simply get some fishy slime on himself. He only had to wait another ten seconds or so, then catch it while it gathered its strength, pin it down, and sever its head with one stroke.
So even knowing that death awaited after his final three strikes, Shen Yanping dared not stop. The slightest gap between attacks would let his opponent slip a fatal slash into it.
Another strike. The two swept past the locust tree, and branches and leaves shredded by lightning qi stabbed into the ground like a dense shower of darts.
Only two strikes remained.
In the rear courtyard, the terrified boys poured out of their rooms. Pei Ye hurriedly pressed reins into the hands of everyone who had not explicitly answered, "I can't ride."
"Get as far away as you can! Into the mountains! Down the river! Into the woods! Toward the prefectural city! Anywhere!"
"If," Pei Ye said, tearing the bandage from his forehead and pointing at the Fire Talisman, "this symbol appears on the face of someone traveling with you, anyone without a symbol must get far away from him immediately. Do you hear me?!"
"Yes."
The bewildered boys had yet to grasp the cruelty in those words. Pei Ye looked at their still-childish faces, pale as paper. Two were trembling so badly they could not even hold their reins.
How could they possibly escape those vicious men's pursuit?
Even the best outcome was merely for those "marked for death" to die.
Chapter 14: The injury flares
Unable to bear looking any longer, Pei Ye lifted the two ten-year-olds onto a horse and shouted, "I'll take these two. Go, now!"
But a hand caught his reins. Sweat covered Cheng Feng's face as he said, "Brother Pei, let me take one!"
The more people one took along, the greater the chance that one of them had been selected, and children were burdens besides. Cheng Feng's offer was both righteous and brave. This was no time to argue. Looking into the boy's resolute eyes, Pei Ye lifted one child over to him, and the two horses raced side by side out of the courtyard.
A small blue silhouette brushed past them.
Pei Ye instinctively looked back and saw outspread wings.
The Soul Bird had returned.
The instant he saw it, Pei Ye understood why it had been delayed so long.
A jade box rested on its back, far heavier than anything this bedraggled bird should normally have carried.
It had been flying toward its master, but upon seeing the situation in the courtyard, it intelligently traced a graceful arc and landed in Chang Zhiyuan's palm.
The horses were already gathering speed. Pei Ye did not know what happened there next, but after riding a few paces farther, he felt as though the rain had frozen for an instant before sweeping backward.
That should have been a good sign, because the fighting in the courtyard seemed to be continuing.
Fenghuai County had no permanent street lighting, and its residents did not light lamps every night, to save money. Once night fell, the streets were no different from the wilderness.
Yet Pei Ye and Cheng Feng dared not slow their horses at all. Though the fear that they might suddenly be thrown at any moment hung high in their hearts, the four of them on two horses still flew westward.
"Leave through the west gate!" Pei Ye shouted.
"All right!" Cheng Feng shouted back into the wind and rain.
"Brother Pei!"
"What?"
"Does Lord Shen really have no chance of winning?"
"..."
Just then, Pei Ye inexplicably felt an emptiness behind him. He turned to look, and his pupils abruptly contracted.
The Black Chi entering his dreams, a deity drawing talismans-however mysterious and miraculous those things were, their visual impact still could not compare to a boy's simple fantasies of commanding water and wielding fire.
Now those fantasies stood before his eyes.
The horses were not slow, and they had already covered a considerable distance, but when he looked back, the brightly lit courtyard of the county offices still stood out clearly.
The rain within a radius of dozens of yards had been drawn away completely, all of it surging toward the county offices. A water dragon several meters long twisted and soared within the courtyard, seemingly hunting something.
At the same time, water kept shooting into the courtyard like arrows, like blades, stabbing, slicing, cutting, cleaving-as though tiny soldiers and generals from a kingdom of water were exhausting every skill they possessed in an all-out assault on the target inside.
The remaining rain hung miraculously around the little courtyard, forming a mistlike ring, like well-trained soldiers awaiting orders.
Then the entire water dragon plunged into the courtyard, as though binding its target fast. Next, Shen Yanping's distinctive blue true qi exploded outward, and all the water waiting in midair hurled itself down at once. It was hard to imagine what devastation that little courtyard had suffered.
Cheng Feng's mouth fell open, and he instinctively pulled on his reins. "Brother Pei-"
"Don't stop!" Pei Ye shouted. "Keep going!"
That display of power had indeed kindled hope in his heart, too, but until the dust settled, they could not turn back lightly. If Shen Yanping truly won, there would still be time to return. If the outcome was the opposite, however, they would lose their chance to leave.
Hooves drummed, and his chest drummed just as hard. Looking back toward the county offices, he saw that everything had fallen quiet. The lamps had all been extinguished by water, leaving no way to tell who had won.
But if the criminal had won, he should soon begin selecting sacrifices. After all, candidates like them were scattering farther away with every passing moment. Since no ghostly blue Fire Talismans had descended, every minute that passed made Shen Yanping's victory a little more likely.
With that anxious hope, the four reached the western gate, where two large lanterns hanging beneath the archway provided some light.
"We split at the fork ahead! I'll go north, you go south!"
South led onto the main road toward the prefectural city; north led into the mountains. Giving Cheng Feng no chance to protest, Pei Ye turned his horse.
"Keep running, and don't stop! If dawn comes and neither of you has a Fire Talisman on your forehead, then... you can return to town!"
That last half-sentence offered encouragement to all of them, Pei Ye included. He exchanged a glance with Cheng Feng's panting face, then turned away and held the child in his arms steady. Just as he was about to urge his horse on, the child said, "B-big brother, the thing on your forehead is glowing."
Pei Ye went rigid. He instinctively covered his forehead, and when he turned toward Cheng Feng's horse, his heart plunged into an abyss.
On the pale forehead of the child in Cheng Feng's arms, a boy named Zhang Xiaoyan, a ghostly blue Fire Talisman was slowly taking shape.
The battle had been decided. The selection had begun.
Lord Shen and Lord Chang had most likely both met with disaster.
When he realized those two pillars had collapsed, it felt as though all the pressure had suddenly fallen onto his own shoulders. The gloomy, rainy night became suffocating.
Pei Ye lowered his head and saw nothing unusual on the forehead of the child in front of him. He immediately dismounted and lifted him down. "Cheng Feng, switch children! Give me Zhang Xiaoyan. I'll take him!"
"Brother Pei..."
"Take this child back into town. Stay off the main streets, and find a household to shelter you for the night. Remember! Whatever you do, don't wander around town!"
Cheng Feng gritted his teeth. "Brother Pei, let him go back himself. I'm coming with you!"
Those words seemed to ignite something. Irritation surged violently through Pei Ye, and he seized Cheng Feng by the collar, nearly dragging him off his horse. "You're coming with me?! Who do you think you are? What can you do?! If I wanted to kill you, three punches would be enough!"
Cheng Feng froze. Pei Ye took two ragged breaths, released him, and said coldly, "Is your life worth so little? What am I to you that you'd throw it away for me?"
Cheng Feng's lips moved uncertainly. Holding Zhang Xiaoyan, Pei Ye turned and walked toward his own horse.
Help had not arrived, and the authorities had been defeated. Fenghuai was now a hunting ground where the enemy could slaughter without restraint. Things had reached their worst possible state. They were mice, and the enemy was a cat. Only decisive restraint, concealment, and abandonment could minimize the losses. One fewer death if possible, one more survivor if possible.
There was no need for loyalty like "I'm coming with you," nor courage like "I'll fight you to the death."
For now, neither he nor Zhang Xiaoyan showed signs of losing their souls. The enemy's "selection" and "summoning" were probably two separate stages. He did not know when the next would begin; all he could do was get as far away as possible.
But as he stepped into the mud-covered fields, the mud seemed suddenly to become a bottomless abyss and suck him down. The world spun, and only when he struck the ground hard did Pei Ye realize he had fallen.
Only then did the savage, twisting pain in his chest and abdomen batter open the gates of his mind.
Despite repeated warnings, the boy had not treasured any of those chances and had kept exposing himself to the cold autumn rain. Now his injured body finally repaid him with a merciless punishment.
Chapter 15: Flight for their lives
Cheng Feng immediately dismounted, told the unmarked child to return to town and hide, then ran over to help Pei Ye up.
The face he lifted from the mud had white cheeks and blue lips, like a corpse dug out of a grave. His eyes stared fixedly, his teeth clenched tight, and tiny beads of sweat mingled with large drops of rain streaming over his face.
Seeing that ghastly white face, Cheng Feng felt for the first time, directly and vividly, the torment this once high-spirited older brother had endured over the past two years.
He stammered, "B-brother Pei, your injury's acting up, isn't it... do you have any medicine... what should I do?"
"Don't... worry. In a while... it'll get better... on its own... you, go. I'm fine..." Pei Ye squeezed indistinct words through his teeth, but no matter how Cheng Feng looked at him, he could not believe he would be fine.
Cheng Feng stood and looked around the open countryside in panic. For a fourteen-year-old boy, such a situation truly left his mind reeling. His dependable older brother lay in the wilderness, seemingly in mortal danger; the frightened younger boy's forehead bore a symbol shining like ghost fire; and the terrifying enemy even Lord Shen could not defeat might appear behind them at any moment.
Whom should he save, whom could he save, and how?
His riding was poor to begin with. He had nearly fallen off several times during their flight through town, and ahead lay even rougher, more dangerous, rain-slick mountain roads. If he took both of them, he probably would not make it even fifteen yards.
In truth, the best choice was to abandon them all and leave alone. Just as Pei Ye had said, who did he think he was? He was no savior, merely another mouse beside two whose tails were pinned beneath a cat's paw. Instead of thanking his luck, tucking his tail, and fleeing, did he really mean to play tug-of-war with the cat?
But that choice clearly did not exist in the boy's heart. Struggling to calm himself, he swept his gaze over the fields, then suddenly fixed on something. He bent down, hoisted Pei Ye onto his back, and panted, "Brother Pei, I'll hide you in the wheat stack... I'll tie your horse beneath that tree, farther away from you. Once you're better, go ride it yourself."
Pei Ye managed a slight nod.
In fact, Pei Ye had not lied to him. Once the flare-up passed, he would indeed recover. With medicinal liquor, the pain lasted only a short while. Without it, the attacks would recur over the course of two hours, even causing unconsciousness and suffocation, but he could still endure them. They would not kill him.
Cheng Feng moved aside the stacked wheat, placed the rigid Pei Ye inside, then piled it back to conceal his body, leaving only his face exposed. Finally, he propped up a little shelter over his mouth and nose so that he would not suffocate if the rain grew heavier.
"There, Brother Pei." Cheng Feng tried hard to make his voice sound calm. "I'll take Zhang Xiaoyan into the mountains. I know them well. Don't worry."
Pei Ye still wanted to persuade him to abandon Zhang Xiaoyan and leave alone, but he could no longer open his mouth at all. He could only stare with hazy eyes, as though he had not heard.
Cheng Feng gave him one final worried look. Knowing time was pressing, he turned and ran back.
Pei Ye watched the boy's retreating back with vacant eyes. Heaven and earth were blurred and distant in his vision. He saw the boy stumble back through the uneven ground and tie his horse some distance away. Then Cheng Feng ran back again, lifted Zhang Xiaoyan onto the other horse, and took its reins, preparing to mount.
Too much time wasted... Pei Ye thought helplessly.
As if in answer to that thought, a black-robed figure walked out through the city gate.
His robe was soaked through and somewhat torn. His hood had been ripped apart completely, exposing a pale, sickly young face. It was impossible to tell whether the dark red on his body came from the lantern light or seeping blood.
When Pei Ye first saw him, he was at the gate. At the second glance, he was twelve or fifteen yards beyond it. By the third, he stood beside Cheng Feng like a ghost.
Only then did Cheng Feng begin to realize something. He turned his head, bewilderment on his face.
There was no visible flash of steel leaving its sheath. The boy's head rolled to the ground like a fully ripened melon.
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