Chapter 766 – Heavy and Despairing Breathing
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Tianhai Zhanyi realized that he was flying.
He then realized that he had regained control over his body and instinctively began to wave his arms, his somewhat ridiculous figure akin to that of a dancing puppet. However, his movements were still incapable of shifting his trajectory. As he saw Nanke's small face get closer and clearer, he showed an expression of despair and closed his eyes.
He fell into Nanke's hand, but he did not die.
Nanke had grabbed his front lapel and held him up in the air.
Tianhai Zhanyi opened his eyes, his body shaking uncontrollably, a plaintive whine issuing from his lips.
Nanke tilted her head as she took measure of him, her somewhat dull eyes appearing rather doubtful, somewhat confused as to what was going on.
Tianhai Zhanyi was even more perplexed as to what was going on, overwhelmed by fear and confusion.
Nanke looked past him.
The troops of the Mount Song Army and the experts of the Emotion-Severing Sect and the Tianhai clan were also very confused as to what had just happened.
Zhu Ye and Ning Shiwei had already vanished from the mountain path.
Two howls of wind could be heard in the darkness of the mountain range, along with the occasional sound of a pine tree being crashed through.
One figure was swiftly charging down into a valley while the other was madly rushing up the snowy peaks.
In just a few moments, the two figures were already several hundred zhang away.
Zhu Ye and Ning Shiwei had left.
They had left with the greatest resolve, utterly uncaring about the lives of the subordinates and trusted aides that still remained.
It was evident that this had been their plan the entire time, that they had long since reached a tacit understanding.
The initial questions Zhu Ye had asked the middle-aged scholar and the conversation with Nanke had both been smokescreens.
They had thrown Tianhai Zhanyi at Nanke to buy themselves a little more time.
They had fled in two different directions to buy themselves a little more chance.
All had been for the sake of escaping.
Zhu Ye had never once thought about staying and fighting Nanke. He was not afraid of Nanke's strength, but he had seen through the other person.
It was that middle-aged scholar.
It was rumored that the Candle Shadow Shaman elder who was constantly at Nanke's side truly was very skilled at using the zither to control her foes, but Zhu Ye was incredibly sure that that person had died long ago in the Garden of Zhou.
Just who was that zither-playing middle-aged scholar?
Zhu Ye thought of a possibility, but this sort of conjecture was too frightening, so not even he dared to believe it.
When the rain of crossbow bolts was falling over the mountain path, he wasn't even paying attention to Nanke's response, but instead staring at the middle-aged scholar. The middle-aged scholar had kept his head lowered to the ancient zither at his chest. He remained unmoving, so the zither strings also did not move, and no attempts were made to dodge, yet those crossbow bolts infused with Sacred Light seemed to naturally drift away out of fear.
This incident made Zhu Ye even more confident that his conjecture was true.
Even if it was only a one-in-one-thousand chance, if the middle-aged scholar was really that person he had thought of, if he did not leave, his death tonight was certain.
So he had decided to escape without the slightest hesitation, even if he looked rather shameless and pathetic.
……
……
Zhu Ye and Ning Shiwei vanished into the dark mountains like two stray dogs.
The soldiers of the Mount Song Army and the experts of the Emotion-Severing Sect were at a loss, not understanding what was going on, much less what they should do next.
The people of the Tianhai clan, seeing that their young master was in the clutches of the Demon Princess, were nervous to the extreme.
Tianhai Zhanyi looked into Nanke's eyes, incredibly afraid, but the shadow of death caused an unimaginable courage to emerge. With a shout tinged with sobs, he struck with his hands at Nanke's forehead.
He seemed very panicked, his fists seemingly devoid of technique, but nobody knew that his two fists carried the supreme technique of the Tianhai clan: Bird Tail Grasping!
Two streams of light tore through the darkness. Tianhai Zhanyi's fists struck Nanke like a lightning bolt, accurately striking their target.
Two extremely clear thumps resounded over the mountain path.
Nanke did not avoid his fists. She did not even attempt to move, but continued to expressionlessly gaze at him.
A gust of wind lightly brushed a thread of her hair, which remained unbroken. Naturally, she had remained unharmed as well.
No one would yield the path to a grasshopper waving its forelimbs, just like how little she cared for Tianhai Zhanyi's attack.
Although the supreme technique of the Tianhai clan was very strong, his fists had no strength.
The nigh impassable gap between cultivation levels would cause all techniques to lose any meaning.
Tianhai Zhanyi was in despair and wanted to say a few words to plead for his life, but he found himself unable to speak.
Nanke released her hand and dropped him, and then walked to the side of the mountain path to gaze at the dark mountains, but she did not summon her two wings.
She looked at the two swiftly retreating figures, one high in the mountains and one down below, and silently thought, these two are probably important personages of the Human race, and even they can actually be so shameless. No wonder that despite how the Divine race has reigned over the north of the continent for more than a thousand years, we still haven't been able to defeat the Human race. Now that I think about it, if I encounter such a situation in the future, I should just kill them at the first moment I get.
Tianhai Zhanyi looked at her back, somewhat at a loss as to what was happening.
Suddenly, he felt a sweetness in his throat and a coldness in his heart.
He lowered his head and saw a feather stuck in his throat, and another feather stuck deeply into his chest.
These feathers were green. In contrast to the inky darkness, they seemed particularly strange and enchanting. They were gripped in the hands of two demon beauties.
With two light whooshes, the green feathers vanished. The two demon beauties transformed into countless specks of light that dispersed and collected on the side of the mountain path, turning back into two lightly flapping wings.
Tianhai Zhanyi dropped to his knees, holding his throat and chest, and watched his blood, green from poison, seep out from his fingers as he gradually ceased to breathe.
Nanke did not even glance at him. She continued to watch those two figures in the mountains.
Zhu Ye and Ning Shiwei had run off in completely opposite directions. Even if she possessed the most inconceivable speed in the world, in these mountains, she could probably only catch one person. Moreover, with her level of strength, she did not dare say that she could gain certain victory against even one of them. After all, these two were true experts of the Human race, and certainly not Tianhai Zhanyi.
She very naturally turned to the middle-aged scholar, asking for instructions as to how she should proceed.
The middle-aged scholar ignored her, his head lowered as he examined the inexplicably vibrating zither strings with great focus.
Nanke understood.
Her wings madly flapped, stirring snow and wind, and she transformed into a green stream of light that vanished in the darkness.
……
……
It was said that descending a mountain was more difficult than climbing one, but when speed was truly necessary, everyone knew that charging down a mountain was much faster than charging up one. However, Zhu Ye had still chosen to escape up into the mountains, not because he was yielding to Ning Shiwei, but because he knew that tonight's escape did not completely rely on speed. A faster speed did not necessarily mean one was safer. On the contrary, it might be more dangerous.
If he were pursuing two escapees, he would definitely chase the one who was fleeing the fastest first.
Just as expected, in the following period of time, he did not hear a howl of wind from behind him, nor did he see a green stream of light.
He was very fortunate, but he did not dare relax. He swiftly circulated his true essence, using the body-lightening techniques of the Emotion-Severing Sect to their greatest extent. After a while, he had charged across ten-some li and reached the upper edge of the mountains. He just needed to rush across several hundred more zhang, and he would have crossed the valley and be able to see the lights of Gaoyang Village, after which he could alert the garrison there.
His breath had already become very ragged, and he could hear how heavy it was becoming.
The appearance of the dimly lit night sky over the mountain valley endowed his exhausted self with new strength and he quickened his movement techniques once more.
At this moment, he heard an extremely faint sound from behind him.
It was like a thin sheet of ice falling on another piece of ice, like a gust of wind snapping a thread of ice, like a person plucking the string of a zither.
This is an illusion.
This must be an illusion.
Zhu Ye said to himself.
He did not turn around but continued his charge forward, his breathing growing more ragged and heavy, gradually stained by the aura of despair.