The onlookers took a few steps back at the sight, recoiling as though from a snake or scorpion. Not a single person ca forward to check on the blue-robed man's injuries, let alone extend a hand to help.
Just then, a slight, small figure squeezed out from among the gathered crowd on the bank, trotted over a few steps, and crouched down in front of the man in blue.
The man in blue, Jin Zhengjie, lay face-down against the stone pillar with a deathly pale face. The wounds on his back combined with the enormous energy expenditure of running his lightness technique back and forth had left him utterly drained, without even the strength to tend to his own injuries.
At the rate things were going, there was a very real chance he would bleed to death.
The small, slight figure crouched down beside him, and Jin Zhengjie struggled to lift his eyelids and look.
It was a little girl of around six or seven, dressed in a pink skirt with two small pigtail buns on her head, her face soft and rosy, with cherry-red lips and pearly teeth. She looked quite endearing.
Jin Zhengjie opened his mouth slightly, trying to speak, but could not produce a single sound.
At that very mont, the little girl seed to move with quick eyes and quick hands, and in the instant Jin Zhengjie's mouth opened, she reached out and slipped sothing inside it.
Then, without a word, she turned and ran quickly back in the direction she had co from.
Clop, clop, clop.
The sound of hoofbeats approached from behind the crowd. Soone turned to look, and saw an old man leading a mule, walking unhurriedly toward the riverbank.
Whenever the old man passed, the people around him felt an invisible force gently nudging them aside, and without quite realizing it, they found themselves parting to make a path just wide enough for one person and one animal to pass.
"Grandpa."
The little girl in pink ca running up to the old man and called out to him in a bright, clear voice.
The old man, dressed in coarse hemp clothing with deep furrows across his brow and the corners of his mouth drooping like the eaves of a weathered roof, looked at the little girl with eyes full of tenderness, reached out a rough, aged hand to pat her on the head, and grinned, saying, "Don't run off."
As he spoke, he gently raised his head and looked toward the stone pillar at the water's edge.
Jin Zhengjie, who had been lying motionless and too exhausted to stir a mont ago, was now sitting upright with his legs crossed, eyes closed, circulating his True Qi to staunch the bleeding and heal his injuries.
The onlookers, seeing this, began shooting glances between the old man and the little girl, guessing that whatever the girl had slipped into Jin Zhengjie's mouth must have been so kind of healing elixir.
At the sa ti, Hu Rui'an's gaze settled on the old man in hemp clothing, and he gave a slow nod, saying, "He is indeed a formidable expert."
Li Musheng rubbed his chin and said, "The old man is quite skilled at playing humble."
Beside them, Captains Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong furrowed their brows slightly as they looked toward the opposite bank, saying, "We have both passed thirty, but neither of us has yet taken a wife. Those people over there will likely not let us across."
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an withdrew his gaze from the old man in hemp clothing, looked out toward the far bank, and seed entirely unconcerned, saying only, "From what I can see, the bridge over the Julu River shows signs of having been deliberately destroyed, and the people on the other side have made such a peculiar demand. There must be more to this."
As he spoke, he swept a glance over Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong, saying, "When the ti cos, simply follow behind and cross the river. They will naturally be unable to do anything about you two. As for what to do once we're across... we will discuss it then."
It was evident that Hu Rui'an was still adhering to his principle of avoiding trouble wherever possible.
Besides, they were still within the territory of Zhanliu Manor, and so he seed disinclined to stir up any further complications.
Just then, a cry of pain rang out from the stone pillar on the bank.
Jin Zhengjie, gritting his teeth, yanked the arrows out of his back, then took a small bottle of wound dicine from inside his robe and, enduring the pain, applied it to the wounds on his back.
Seeing this, several martial world practitioners on the bank who had also been intending to cross the river now stared warily at the group on the opposite shore, their resolve gone, and not a single one dared attempt the crossing any longer.
Yet just then, the crowd noticed that the old man in hemp clothing had taken hold of the mule carrying the pack on its back and was walking slowly toward the stone pillar.
Arriving before the pillar, the old man bent down, picked up the little girl in pink, and set her on the mule's back, then said to her, "Hold on tight."
The little girl in pink nodded obediently, wrapping both arms around the mule's neck.
The onlookers watching this scene had absolutely no idea what the man intended.
But in the very next mont, every one of them suddenly stared with widened eyes in stunned disbelief.
No one could quite see how the old man in hemp clothing had moved, yet to their shock they watched as he casually lifted the mule beside him, a beast that looked to weigh well over six hundred jin, to shoulder height with a single hand.
The mule, clearly sensing sothing was very wrong, had its legs visibly trembling.
The little girl in pink on its back, however, simply blinked her dark eyes with complete composure.
Then, before the crowd had even recovered from their shock, the mule that had just been hoisted into the air was suddenly sent flying.
The mule's entire massive body shot through the air toward the opposite bank, drawing almost every set of eyes present at once.
The crowd watched in person as the mule soared across the hundred zhang expanse of the Julu River and ca arcing down toward the far shore, every face showing an expression of pure disbelief.
And then soone noticed that the old man in hemp clothing, whom everyone had montarily forgotten about, had vanished at so unknown mont, only to arrive on the opposite bank ahead of the mule, catching the creature as it plumted out of the sky with effortless ease and setting it back down gently on the ground.
Every person on the near bank who had witnessed this from start to finish was left slack-jawed in stunned silence, while the black-robed man on the far shore who had earlier struck at Jin Zhengjie made no move whatsoever throughout the whole thing.
Whether it was because the old man in hemp, the little girl, and the mule fell outside the restrictions the man had declared, or because that single one-handed throw of a horse across a river had simply left him too shaken to dare interfere, no one on the near bank could say.
"Excellent, excellent, excellent."
Li Musheng gave a light clap of his hands and spoke up suddenly.
Hu Rui'an, Wu Shang, and the others looked over, assuming Li Musheng had been impressed by the old man's feat.
In reality, Li Musheng was simply admiring what a masterful performance of understated superiority the old man had put on.
At this point, Hu Rui'an glanced at Li Musheng, then narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "There is no need for you to be impressed, Sir. I can do the sa."
With that, Hu Rui'an raised his hand without warning and drove his palm down into the ground beneath him, and in the next instant the carriage he was sitting on suddenly launched into the air.
Cao Gaoshan, sitting up front, was briefly startled, clearly not having had ti to react, and felt an invisible force of True Qi envelop him from all sides.
Then the carriage he had been driving went sailing across the air toward the opposite bank, and in just a matter of breaths had crossed the hundred zhang of the Julu River and landed with smooth steadiness on the far shore.
The whole thing happened so fast that the martial world practitioners gathered on the near bank, who had barely begun to recover from the shock of watching the old man in hemp throw a horse across the river, were suddenly stunned again to find that a carriage had just flown across a hundred zhang of open water through the air.
And by the ti they just barely managed to process what had happened, the carriage was already long since on the other bank.
Reviews
All reviews (0)