Fierce Battle

The time between Zhao Zhi pouncing on Song Caitang, rolling aside and the arrow whooshing through the air and landing seemed very short, yet very long at the same time.

Song Caitang smelled the smell of green grass and the faint smell of mud in its freshness; she smelled the smell of the river water, its damp but clear smell; she smelled a fragrance that resembled pine, bold yet distant.

The atmosphere in the air was chilling. The arrow was stabbed into the ground just next to her. The white feathers on its end were still quivering.

But Song Caitang only remembered Zhao Zhi’s smell…and weight.

He was…really heavy.

The enemy moved fast than she had imagined. After he rolled her out of the way, he only had time to say “take care of yourself” before slamming a palm against the ground to get off her. He used his hip strength to rotate his body as he reached behind with his right hand and drew his sword from its sheath. His left arm shook, sending a rain of stealth weapons flying out. They looked like a silver web in the moonlight.

Song Caitang was too stunned to move.

All of that had happened in just the blink of an eye.

For the first time, her understanding of martial arts in this era had increased significantly.

This situation was simply too dangerous!

These people were not from the same group as the men in black from earlier on. This group was clearly more highly skilled. Zhao Zhi had reacted so quickly and sent out so many stealth weapons, yet Song Caitang failed to hear a single scream of pain or smell any blood in the air.

Every weapon had hit nothing. Zhao Zhi hadn’t injured anybody at all.

The moon was moving westward and it was going to disappear soon. The moonlight was dim but there was still some left. But Song Caitang couldn’t see anybody at all. She had no idea who these people were, what they looked like, what they were wearing, what special characteristics they possessed…she couldn’t see a single thing!

The enemy was like wolves and panthers hiding in the forest. Hiding and launching sneak attacks were their strength, and they worked best in a pack.

Zhao Zhi was all by himself, and he was accompanied by her, a completely useless person when it came to fighting…

Only one word came to mind: DANGER!

She knew herself well. She couldn’t help Zhao Zhi in battle at all, since she had no idea where the enemy was, how many of them there were, and getting nervous and afraid or screaming and running were useless. The best thing to do now was to remain calm and logical. She had to quietly allow him to protect her while thinking hard about how she could lessen his burden.

They were in a wide, flat and empty area, so if she stayed here, she’d be an easy target. It was better to hide herself. The river was behind her, while a dense forest lay before her. Logically speaking, the dense forest would have been the best place to hide, but the enemy was coming from this direction as well.

Song Caitang look at the river.

The river it was!

Zhao Zhi had already started fighting the other side. Their weapons collided and sparks kept flying.

Song Caitang noticed that while Zhao Zhi had avoided using his left leg as much as possible earlier, he did not hesitate to do so now. He tried not to land on it as often as his right leg, but he would always do it if it could stop the other party from coming closer.

But he was all by himself, after all.

As the saying goes, two fists have trouble fighting four arms.

The battle seemed to be stuck in the forest, but it was actually coming toward the river. It had moved slightly toward where Song Caitang was.

She didn’t dare to delay any further. She bent over and quickly, quietly and deftly walked to the edge of the river. After using her foot to test the temperature, she gritted her teeth and pulled her skirt around herself as she sank her entire body into the water.

Song Caitang could swim and she was a pretty good swimmer too. Right now, she just had to make sure that the enemy couldn’t see her. That wasn’t difficult. She didn’t have to remain underwater the whole time to do that. All she had to do was to move along the bank, use the rocks and plants in the river to cover her and leave half her head out to observe the situation.

The river water gently carried her along and she felt like a fish as she swam slowly without making any noise.

The surroundings were very silent and very safe.

The only problem was that…it was a bit too cold in here.

She could finally see that there were 11 attackers in total.

The arrow seemed to have been aimed at her earlier, but now, none of them cared about her. Their weapons were all directed at Zhao Zhi. He was fighting all of them by himself and it was one crazy fight.

And Zhao Zhi got himself injured again.

But he exchanged that small injury for the deaths of three opponents.

Song Caitang finally understood where all his injuries had come from.

These people were targeted at Zhao Zhi in the first place. The arrow earlier might have gone slightly off course for whatever reason and flew at her because she had been sitting very close to him.

After fighting for about 15 minutes, the attackers seemed to have sensed something amiss.

Zhao Zhi did not run, slip away or retreat, choosing instead to fight off their aggressive attacks, unmoving despite all his injuries. It was as though he was rooted to this place as he glared at them arrogantly and furiously. He was injured, but he continued to fight more and more valiantly!

It didn’t look like he was fighting because he was angry. It looked more like…he was protecting something.

They started to test their hypothesis.

A few of them blocked his way, while the rest pretended to leap toward the river…

They were right! Zhao Zhi wasn’t letting them go anywhere near the river!

The man did a somersault and landed in front of the group heading for the river, brandishing his sword fiercely at them!

They now knew how to attack him now.

There were more people on their side, so they fought by coordinating formations with one another. The more they fought, the more they kept changing their formations in order to move closer to the river. Zhao Zhi seemed to have gotten seriously angry now and the look in his eyes grew more and more murderous. His eyes were bloodshot and he was like a vengeful ghost seeking revenge on his killers. Despite being pushed back by quite a lot, he continued to fight the group and even managed to kill two more!

So now, their group was only left with six…

The glint of blades shone brightly and blood spurted in all directions. Song Caitang’s heart pounded wildly as she watched on. Zhao Zhi, hang in there!

The enemy thought that Zhao Zhi was fighting so hard to protect her, which was definitely one of the reasons. But the bigger reason was – Zhao Zhi was afraid of water!

He fought hard to remain on the bank and seemed to be fighting harder than before, just so that he didn’t have to go too close to the water!

But the other side kept pushing him closer and closer to the water, and Song Caitang was now within their range of attack.

However, she hid herself well in the water and didn’t even make a ripple because she didn’t move. Even if they threw a stealth weapon at her, it wouldn’t hit her.

Zhao Zhi tried his best to remain steady, but nobody could remain perfectly steady forever. Song Caitang watched as he slipped up and allowed the enemy to strike him. He managed to defend himself with his arm, but the impact made him fly toward the river!

In that moment, Zhao Zhi’s entire face paled.

Song Caitang knew how terrified Zhao Zhi was of the water, so she wanted to help him even if it wasn’t much.

She quickly stood up in the water and stared intently at Zhao Zhi flying toward her. She clenched her fists tightly and got ready to push him back out with all her strength.

But when she thought about how heavy he was…

She frowned slightly. This wasn’t going to work.

So, she took two steps back, gained momentum in her legs as she waited for Zhao Zhi to come closer. When he was about to hit her, she took two steps forward, stomped hard on one foot and sent the other one flying toward him…

This other leg kicked Zhao Zhi in the waist.

She hid herself in the water again immediately after doing that.

Zhao Zhi grimaced and seethed from the pain, but he also made good use of that rebound energy to somersault toward the enemy again!

He had managed to come back too quickly from that attack and the enemy wasn’t expecting it, so he managed to kill one more person!

Song Caitang was still watching in the river. It was a very bloody and violent scene as Zhao Zhi had used his sword to pretty much slice the man into half. But this lifted her spirits. The more enemies Zhao Zhi killed, the safer they were going to be!

The other party had lost more than half of their group and was on the brink of madness now. They stopped trying to fight in formations and they just went all out to use the most strength combined with their best moves to make sure Zhao Zhi died!

And so…Zhao Zhi was sent flying toward the river again.

Of course, Song Caitang wasn’t going to let him hit the water. So, she repeated what she did earlier.

She moved back, ran forward, stomped hard on the ground and gave him a kick.

This time, her aim was a little off and her foot kicked him in the butt.

Uh…

She didn’t mean it. She really didn’t.

Then again, that felt pretty…bouncy?

It wasn’t soft, but not as hard as a rock either. Zhao Zhi’s butt was a lot nicer to kick than his overly muscular chest.

But if they could kick him toward the waters once, they could do it again. And again.

The attackers were getting more and more aggressive and both sides were giving it their all. Zhao Zhi was sent flying toward the river again.

This time, Song Caitang kicked him in the thigh.

Oops.

Her aiming wasn’t great, but it couldn’t be helped. She had never had martial arts training and the fact that every kick managed to hit him in this darkness was already incredible enough. Hoping for accuracy was definitely asking for too much.

As Zhao Zhi flew back toward his opponents, he gritted his teeth and yelled sarcastically, “Thanks so much, Song Caitang!!”

She yelled back, “Hey! Don’t call me by my full name!!”

She didn’t want the enemy to know! What if they remembered and came back for revenge?!

As they continued their insane battle, the moon finally disappeared and there was no more light. It was too dark to even see one’s own fingers.

Song Caitang leaned against the rocks along the river but she couldn’t see what was happening anymore. She could only catch a bit of action when swords collided and created sparks.

She had no idea how these people managed to do this. How in the world did they know which person was the enemy and which person wasn’t?

Everything was dark, so she could only hear the sounds of fighting.

After some time, even the sounds stopped.

Several seconds later, a hand grabbed hers, “Come out of the water. It’s safe.”

It was Zhao Zhi.

A huge and heavy cloak that reeked of blood was wrapped around her once she got out of the water, covering her entirely.

“I don’t want a little girl to catch a cold.”

Song Caitang did not refuse his kind intentions, but she replied quietly, “I’m not a little girl.”

She couldn’t see anything, but since Zhao Zhi had led her here, it was probably safe. She sat down and listened to her surroundings.

“They’re all dead,” said Zhao Zhi in a low and hoarse voice, “Nobody will remember your name and seek revenge.”

Song Caitang was confused for a moment before realizing that this was Zhao Zhi’s reply to what she yelled at him earlier on.

He had dared to yell her name out loud because he was certain that none of the attackers would get away.

She was stunned at his confidence.

After a period of silence, she called for him because she wanted to talk to him, but nobody answered her. He seemed to have disappeared.

But when she heard rustling noises and watched as a fire was lit in front of her, she realized what he had gone to do earlier.

He had gone to look for dry branches so that he could start a fire.

“You can dry your clothes.”

Song Caitang frowned.

Zhao Zhi sighed, “Don’t worry, that was the last batch of people. Nobody else will be coming.”

Once the fire got going, Zhao Zhi picked a random spot and lay down. He used his hands as a pillow and was facing away from Song Caitang, “I’m very tired, so I’ll probably sleep like a log. You can take off your wet clothes and dry them, I won’t be able to see anything.”

He did seem very tired. His breathing slowed down and became even just seconds after he lay on the ground, and he even started snoring.

Song Caitang stared at Zhao Zhi for a while. She suddenly felt that despite how prickly he usually was, he was actually a very sweet person.

But he wasn’t sleeping very well because he hadn’t attended to his wounds yet.

Song Caitang ambled over, found his bag of medication and started washing, dressing and bandaging his wounds…

After she was done doing all that, she took her clothes off and let them dry.

She thought she’d stay awake to watch for any movement, but she was exhausted from the day’s activities. It didn’t take long before her eyelids became heavy and she fell asleep.

This was the first time she had managed to fall asleep during the later half of the night after she had arrived here.

A warm breeze carried the fresh smell of flowers. The birds chirped loudly. The air was full of life again.

Song Caitang was awakened by the sun.

She was a little confused at first. It was…morning?

As she rubbed her eyes blearily, a small cup made from a section of bamboo landed next to her face, “You’re awake? If you’re awake, then get up and have some breakfast.”

Song Caitang finally remembered what happened the night before.

And she was a little surprised now.

Zhao Zhi knew how to cook?

But when she sat up, she realized she had gotten her hopes a little too high.

The bamboo cup contained water that was clean and sweet, so it was great for quenching her thirst. But the food was…a different story altogether.

Zhao Zhi had caught a fish and it was quite a big one too. Its stomach had been sliced open and its guts had clearly been dealt with properly. The fire was still going, so he had stabbed a branch through the fish and roasted it over the fire.

But…but the fish was all burned!

Song Caitang looked away. She honestly wasn’t a picky eater, but she was NOT going to eat this black thing covered in soot!

But Zhao Zhi was actually cooking for her…

Given his manly pride, he would be very unhappy if she refused to eat.

She sighed inwardly as she slowly made her way to the river to wash her hands and face while thinking of a good way to avoid a confrontation.

But before she could think of a solution, someone came to save her from her predicament.

Wen Yuansi was here.

His shoes were covered in mud, his clothing a little dirty and he was perspiring profusely. He arrived with a very anxious look on his face, but when he saw that Song Caitang and Zhao Zhi were fine, he let out a big sigh of relief.

Zhao Zhi seemed surprised to see Wen Yuansi and sounded a little unfriendly as he asked, “Why are you here?”

Wen Yuansi waved a handkerchief, “Sorry for coming so late.”

Zhao Zhi recognized that handkerchief. Song Caitang said inspiration had struck and she wrote some poem on it…so, she had written an SOS message and not a poem?!

He grunted and glared at Wen Yuansi, “What took you so long then?”

“We’ve found Pacification Commissioner Lu Guangzong.” Wen Yuansi looked at Song Caitang as she approached them and said quietly, “Or more accurately speaking, we’ve found his body.”