Jiang Xin Zhi was one versus five opponents. However, not even by the slightest margin did he lag behind those who exchanged blows with him in such a short period. At this, each of his opponents had a hint of amazement in their eyes. It was because they were initially asked to observe Jiang Xin Zhi who, when all was said and done, had been someone who had been on the battlefield. However, he was someone who was starkly different from hearsay- a young master of the Jiang family who was described as scholarly and weak.
During this period, this handful of fighters found it somewhat strenuous after exchanging blows with him and by now had expended much of their physical strength. Then, one of them gave a meaningful signal to another and in the split-second, these two fighters showed a renewed grit of determination. Step by step as if their life depended on it, one pressed harder whilst the other circled round to Jiang Xin Zhi’s back to strike at his horse’s leg.
“Neigh!” Hei Feng gave a long whinny as its front legs were severely slashed by a sword. With that, both of its forelegs buckled as it knelt down. Jiang Xin Zhi flipped himself over to get off the horse. As he did so, two other guards seized the opportunity to attack him. Jiang Xin Zhi leaned his body to the side but when he touched the soil underfoot, he felt that his body was suddenly sinking in. He was startled as he lowered his head to look. As expected, it was because his calves dipped into, and mud as he struggled, he sunk even deeper into it.
The several fighters then sheathed their swords as Jiang Xin Zhi looked at his lower body. In just a short period of time, the mud had alarmingly pulled him down to waist level.
Unexpectedly, he was surrounded by a large marsh area. Above this swamp layer, they had actually used dried, withered branches and twigs to completely conceal this fact and thus, he had not discovered it prior to this battle. So, these few people, who had fought with him, had actually planned to trap him here. The more one struggled in a swamp, the more one would be engulfed in its midst. After figuring this out, Jiang Xin Zhi stopped struggling as he coldly stared at the people before him, “Who sent you?”
One of the guards laughed, “Eldest Young Master Jiang, you can only blame yourself for blocking someone else’s path. If you must ask, then when you arrive on the roads of the Yellow Springs[1], go ask Yama[2] about it!” After saying that, with a wave of his hand, Jiang Xin Zhi heard a rustling sound coming from the woods and then saw countless numbers of people appear. All of them had a bow in their hands as they knocked an arrow seemingly in preparation to kill him.
[1] Huáng quán ( 黄泉 ) – the underworld of Chinese mythology which is the equivalent of Hades or Hell
[2] Yán wáng yé ( 阎王爷 ) – the King of Hell
Jiang Xin Zhi had a sudden epiphany; as it turned out, this was actually the real checkmate right here. From the very beginning, these people had wanted to trap him in the marshy swamp and then in the confusion, they would have him shot dead through the heart with arrows. Such conniving, vicious and sinister intentions! However, after all was said and done, who would have such a deep hatred towards him?
But no one was there to help resolve his dilemma as he then merely saw a wave of someone’s hand. At that moment, numerous arrows were simultaneously targeted at him and as the whooshing sounds pierced the air, the arrows darted like a shower of raindrops towards him!
Jiang Xin Zhi still had a blade in his hands and naturally, could not just await his death. With a swift brandish of his sword, he obstructed the first wave of arrows. One after another, they fell into the mud. Jiang Xin Zhi knitted his brows tightly; in a short time, with that vigorous sword move, his body had sunk even deeper into the marsh. If this continued on, even if he was not simply shot to his death by the flurry of arrows, he would still submerge and drown in the swamp pit- in the end, disappearing from the realm of living.
To be caught in such a damnably inescapable circumstance, he was trapped with no room to advance or retreat. What an extremely malicious scheme!
With another wave of the fighter’s hand, a new wave of arrows shot forth; this wave of the attack was even more concentrated with a constant flurry of arrows flying successively towards him. Jiang Xin Zhi unhurriedly lifted his sword but before he could even parry the attack, the arrows that were still in air seemed to be struck with something strange. In midair, they suddenly plunged to the ground and from far away, there was a sound of swords clashing. The hurried canter of hoof-steps came closer and with his narrowed stare, he actually saw a squadron of horsemen rushing from the depths of the ebony forest. Wherever they went, they were completely hacking down the men, who were stringing arrows to bows, to the ground.
The arrival of this group of horsemen was too sudden and not only was Jiang Xin Zhi astonished, even the fighters were gobsmacked. One by one, they turned around to deal with these people. Distanced too far away, Jiang Xin Zhi could not see clearly but the appearance of the two men in the lead was foreign to him. Between them was a lone horse whose pace was somewhat slower; the person mounted on it was dressed in red from head to toe. With a douli on their head, one could not clearly see their features. Yet, Jiang Xin Zhi could not help but feel an odd sensation in his heart.
Jiang Ruan tightly clenched her fists on horseback; even though she had experienced a lifetime’s worth of painful torment, she had thought that her temperament had been tempered into a tenaciously cold nature. Yet, when she clearly saw the situation right before her eyes, a rush of uncontrollable rage still burst from the depths of her heart.
So it turned out that this was actually how Jiang Xin Zhi had died in her former life!
One would have thought it to be true that Eldest Young Master Jiang would be able to return flushed with his success, in gorgeous and resplendent clothes, to the capital. Yet in the midst of this eerie, ebony forest, like a trapped beast, he had been captured in a slurry pit and pierced to his death by a thousand arrows! In such a place not far off from the capital, he had soundlessly vanished from this world!
The Xia family, the Jiang family, the Li family; this debt that she had from them, if she did not pay back in full, she would be beside herself[3]!
[3] Bú wéi rén (不为人) – What Jiang Ruan meant here was a saying: if she was unable to recompense them for this enmity and hatred that she held for them, she was unable to behave with integrity or conduct oneself. In a way, this concerns her pride: wherein she would have no way to meet anyone in the eyes for sparing them. This saying describes her tenacious determination to get even or more with these fiends.
These archers that had been lying low to ambush him in the depths of the forest realized that something was amiss. As they began to cross hands with the people that Zhao Yuan Feng had brought with him, all at once, one could not differentiate the opposing forces from each other.
Seeing Jiang Xin Zhi’s body still gradually sinking into the swamp, Jiang Ruan’s heart was austerely cold. Without thinking any further, she steered her horse as she made a beeline towards him.
Previously the fighters had assumed that matters had already reached the point wherein their success should have naturally followed. Yet who knew that midway through their plan, suddenly, the cavalry would come rushing in. Naturally, they were extremely resentful. Whilst some of the men had crossed swords with Zhao Yuan Feng and Zhao Yi, one person had noticed Jiang Ruan. In the midst of this ill-timed arrival of the cavalry, Jiang Ruan’s appearance was naturally rather unusual. With her dainty body, it was difficult for anyone to not notice her. That fighter had then leapt quickly into action. With a swish of his sword, he had immediately struck towards Jiang Ruan. Zhao Yi and the others were slightly further away from her. Moreover, at that moment, they were also busily entangled in battle with the other opponents around them and were too occupied to attend to her. With a narrowed stare of her eyes, Jiang Ruan’s gaze met with the flash of that sword strike. Abruptly, she bowed and drew her body flat against the horse’s back as she narrowly avoided that slash.
With that failed strike, the blade in that person’s hand changed its direction as it suddenly chopped down towards Jiang Ruan once more. However, her horse had been frightened by the whip of wind that the sword had caused. Instantly, it had stopped in its steps and Jiang Ruan was left with no way to retreat. She could only raise her hands to block the attack. With a grit of her teeth and a squeeze of her eyes, she supposed that it was just the loss of an arm.
However, that strike did not land down on her and Jiang Ruan only heard the echo of a clang and the muffled grunt of a man’s voice. As her eyes flared, the man before her had used his left hand to cover his wrist whilst his right hand was somewhat trembling. His hand was trembling so much that he could barely hold the sword in his hand as a trickle of blood dripped from his fingertips.
Jiang Ruan had lowered her head when she saw a distorted and deformed bronze plaque[4] hanging on his waist just as the fighter before her began to raise his sword once more. Suddenly, as if there was a gust of wind, a person’s figure leapt into the fray to cross blades with him.
[4] T/N – This bronze plaque is used as an identification of one’s status in an army.
Jiang Ruan was slightly startled, however, it was no more than a moment before the fighter suffered a gash to his neck with one slash of a sword. Covering his neck, the fighter fell and rolled on the ground.
Since Jiang Xin Zhi had been dealing with the assassins for quite some time on his own, with this new fighter’s participation, he quickly dealt with one of the assassins. When the other assassins saw the change in dynamics, collectively they began to surround and close in on this new fighter.
Jiang Ruan was still on her horse. As this person inclined his head over to give her a glance, it was unexpectedly Xiao Shao before her. As his elegant and heroically handsome face turned towards her, he indifferently remarked, “Get behind me.” With his eyes coldly staring at the two fighters that had surrounded him, he seemed to not have even the slightest regard for the danger posed to him.
As the fighters around him had all rushed towards Xiao Shao to eliminate him, Zhao Yi caught a break to steer his steed at a breakneck speed towards her. Worriedly, he asked with concern, “Biaomei, are you alright?”
Jiang Ruan shook her head and as Zhao Yi looked towards Xiao Shao, he was at once stunned. “Xiao Wangye?”
Jiang Ruan responded to Zhao Yi, “There’s no time to lose, hurry, please save my dage.”
There was an endless stream of the clanging sounds of sword fighting at close quarters in the midst of the ebony forest. Without another word, Zhao Yi dashed towards Jiang Xin Zhi’s location. Yet, the archers that laid in ambush in the forest were a thornier problem than they had expected. First, there were a huge number of them that might even be more than double the size of the Zhao family’s troops. Second, these people, in all likeliness, did not seem like a disorderly bunch of layabouts. Contrarily, they seemed like people that one would see in the military troops, organized and disciplined. The remaining fighters were launching an attack directed towards the two people, Zhao Yuan Feng and Xiao Shao. Thankfully, the skill between these two people were not to be underestimated either and contrary to their opponent’s expectations, they did not fall to a disadvantageous position.
After exerting a great amount of strength, Zhao Yi had managed to pull Jiang Xin Zhi out of the swampy marsh. Right at this moment, they heard a loud, mocking shout, “Xin Zhi- you, how have you been toyed into such a state?”
To go so far as to tail behind them, the one who appeared before them close to the very end of the battle was Guan Liang Han. Just as he spoke, the Guan’s family troops, who had remained in place waiting for Jiang Xin Zhi’s return, had finally realised after a long time that something was amiss. Once they set off in search of him and followed the sounds of sword fighting, they had also rushed over to the scene. Upon seeing the situation, Guan Liang Han then simply and bluntly laid an order, “D*mn[5], where did these youngsters come from, for them to have schemed onto this grandfather’s person. Go and exterminate all those archers for me!”
[5] Gé lǎo zi de (格老子的) – Rather than a derogative swear, this expression is simply a Sichuan slang that the people from the Sichuan province commonly use to mock or heckle someone good-naturedly like an self deprecatory interjection. It is often used to express the feeling of gloominess or surprise. It is a rather difficult word to place due to its multi-contextual meaning. Guan Liang Han uses this phrase in a very self-arrogant way in surprise, since he then refers to himself as their ‘grandfather’.
