Chapter 623
: Traveling Together
When Bao Hou emerged from the secret chamber, Chun'an Hall was already in ruins, and even the clay sculpture of the Dragon Girl under Guanyin's seat had been smashed to pieces on the ground.
A hoarse voice exclaimed in surprise, "Where did Lord White Dragon find that woman? She's so fierce!"
The monkey did not answer.
He strode through the ruins of the main hall, kicked open half of a crooked door, and jumped into the courtyard. The large bronze incense burner in the courtyard was long gone, its fragments embedded in the snow, revealing rings of bronze patterns.
nobody.
Neither Lu nor Qi Zhong were present.
The snow was still falling, but there was a patch in the yard that was bare of snow, as if it had been swept clean.
Footprints of varying depths were left on the blue bricks, along with a long drag mark, as if someone had been thrown out and slid a long way on the ground.
The monkey listened intently.
A muffled sound came from afar, several streets away, but it was difficult to hear clearly because it was covered by heavy snow.
The shrill voice urged, "Go and check quickly, don't let that brat Qi Zhong get away."
Bao Hou leaped onto the remaining half of the courtyard wall and glanced in the direction of the sound. But he couldn't see anything, only the heavy snow and the gray sky.
He jumped off the wall and ran into the street, stepping on the broken bricks.
Bao Hou pierced through layers of snow, and when he reached the street, he saw Qi Zhong and Lu Shi churning the snow and fighting fiercely. The snow around them was whipped up by their fists and feet, forming a whirlwind.
Snowflakes were swept into the air, then fell back down, only to be swept up again, over and over again.
The monkey took only one step forward before feeling the wind stinging its face.
The hoarse voice said, "Let them fight for now, we'll cover them."
The monkey took a step back and watched as the tornado grew larger and larger, pushing the snow on both sides of the long street backward to reveal the bluish-gray stone pavement.
At the edge of the whirlpool, the snow piled up like two low walls, cutting off the entire street.
Pedestrians at both ends of the street hid in the doorways, craning their necks to look this way. A peddler carrying a load on his shoulder threw his load to the side of the road and lay on the ground, too afraid to move.
The monkey squinted and peered inside.
In the snow, the golden swastika between Qi Zhong's eyebrows shone like a lamp.
He crossed his hands in front of him, each palm strike accompanied by a muffled thunderous sound. The wind and snow were swept up by his palm wind and crashed down on the Lu family.
The wind lifted the black veil of Lu's veil, revealing the lower half of her face, with a scar running horizontally across her nose.
Her palm techniques were not as expansive and powerful as Qi Zhong's; instead, they were subtle and insidious, like hidden needles beneath leaves. They relied on movement as the foundation, twisting as the root, the waist as the axis, and circles as the method, combining internal and external techniques to avoid direct attacks and strike from the side.
Each time Lu's palm struck, it created a ripple in the air.
The monkey saw that the eight trigrams—Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui—rotated around in her palm, and the snow on the long street was swept away, vaguely drawing a huge yin-yang symbol between the two of them.
As the yin-yang symbol moved back and forth with the two men's steps, Qi Zhong suddenly lunged forward and struck Lu Shi in the face with a palm.
Lu dodged to the side, her right hand sweeping upwards, the edge of her palm aimed directly at Qi Zhong's ribs. The palm strike was so fast it was almost invisible; all that could be heard was a buzzing sound, and a Li trigram exploded in the air.
Li represents fire, volcano is associated with travel, and heavenly fire is associated with people.
After the palm strike, another phantom flew out from behind Qi Zhong. The phantom was pale-faced, and the Devouring Thief Soul was knocked into the snow curtain and disappeared.
Qi Zhong grunted and was forced back three steps, his feet carving two furrows in the bluestone slab.
But he didn't fall.
Qi Zhong steadied himself, the swastika between his eyebrows shone even brighter, and he clasped his hands together and slapped them on the ground.
boom.
The snow, piled high on the ground, was sent flying by this palm strike, scattering in all directions. In an instant, the snow and mist obscured the sky, making everything invisible.
Bao Hou heard the sound of bricks and stones breaking in the snow mist, the sound of blue bricks flying up and hitting the wall, and Lu Shi's muffled groan.
The next moment, the snow mist was split open by a palm.
Lu emerged from the white mist, her veil gone and her hair disheveled. Before the snow fog completely dissipated, she tore a strip of cloth from her hem and covered her face with it.
Qi Zhong stood across the street, his chest heaving, a bloodstain on the corner of his mouth.
The snowstorm on the street suddenly stopped.
It didn't stop; it was shattered by the two of them.
Bao Hou squinted as he saw Qi Zhong and Lu Shi suddenly strike at the same time, their palms meeting.
The blue bricks of the entire street seemed to tremble, and cracks spread from beneath their feet, crawling across the street like a spider web. The shop doors on both sides rattled, and several doors were shaken open, revealing dark, gaping rooms inside.
But at that moment, Qi Zhong suddenly withdrew his hand, using the force of the recoil to leap back several feet, landing on the roof of a shop, then turned and crossed the roof ridge to escape north.
A high-pitched voice rang out from Bao Hou's throat: "Quick, chase after him! What if Bai Long doesn't want to be our friend anymore if he gets away?"
The monkey didn't move.
Just as Qi Zhong leaped onto the roof ridge, a light suddenly shone from an unseen place on the opposite side of the ridge, and a meteor shower shot from afar—twelve arrows in two breaths, much faster than the sharpshooters in Jingchao's cavalry.
Caught off guard, Qi Zhong was pierced through the shoulder by an arrow and through the dantian by another. The meteor flew through his body, leaving two plumes of snow mist, and continued to fly further away.
In an instant, twelve meteor-like arrows rained down across the snow curtain above the long street, dazzlingly beautiful. Qi Zhong swayed on the roof ridge, finally falling backward and crashing heavily onto the tiles, then tumbling twice before landing on the snow-covered ground of the long street.
Qi Zhong propped himself up and slowly got up, looking up at the roof.
The celestial horse had somehow already reached his head, standing on the eaves, drawing its bow and nocking an arrow, coldly looking down at him.
From Bao Hou's throat, a woman's voice clicked in amazement: "Three Dao Seeking Realm cultivators surrounded and killed one of them, and he almost escaped."
Qi Zhong, panting, looked at Lu Shi and Bao Hou, then looked down at the blood hole in his dantian.
He dragged his heavy steps through the snow, slowly making his way towards Fuyou Street: "The Third Miss only has me left, I have to go back, yes, I have to go back..."
Just as the monkey was about to step forward and finish off Qi Zhong, it suddenly felt its hair stand on end and retreated.
He looked up and saw that Tianma had somehow drawn his bow and was pointing it at him.
The monkey roared angrily, "Are you crazy? Why are you pointing at me?"
Tianma did not answer, but instead looked at Qi Zhong on the street again, shooting arrow after arrow, just like the armor-piercing cone in Qi Zhong's hand on the night Xifeng led the men to break into the prison cart.
Tianma replicated exactly how Qi Zhong used the armor-piercing cone to kill the spies under Jin Zhu's command, until he finally nailed Qi Zhong to his death on the long street.
Bao Hou turned to look at where Lu Shi was, but there was only endless heavy snow, and Lu Shi was nowhere to be seen.
He squatted down next to Qi Zhong.
Qi Zhong lay prone in the snow, his face turned to the side, his eyes fixed on the direction of Fuyou Street.
When Bao Hou spoke, a little girl's innocent voice said, "Uncle, stop looking and take a nap. You're all too tired."
The small monkey reached out and covered Qi Zhong's eyes, helping him close his eyelids.
……
……
Fuyou Street, in front of the Qi family's gate.
Amidst the bustling crowd, people whispered amongst themselves, their gazes shifting between Chen Ji and Zhang Xia.
Chen Ji stood on the stone steps looking into the distance until Xiao Man ran out of the snow curtain carrying Wu Yun and stood outside the crowd, nodding frantically at him. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
It's finally over.
Just as Chen Ji turned to leave, Qi Zhaoning's heart-wrenching cry came from the threshold of the Qi family's house behind him: "Li Changge!"
These three words chased out from the threshold of the Qi family home, like a nail driven into the heavy snow.
Chen Ji stopped on the stone steps and continued walking down them.
But then Qi Zhaoning cried out, "What did I do wrong? Why won't you ever look at me properly!"
Qi Zhaoning rushed out from the threshold.
The hem of her white fox fur cloak tripped her, and she stumbled, almost falling. She stood at the top of the stone steps, leaning against the vermilion gate of the Qi family, watching Chen Ji's retreating figure as he walked down the steps.
Her voice trembled: "When I heard from the Fragrant Hills Villa that you were being chased by the Five Witches' army, I prayed for you day and night in the Buddhist hall. Later, when I heard that you were in danger at Chongli Pass, I knelt down and begged my grandfather to send someone to rescue you. For you, I learned needlework, and I also learned to ride horses and shoot arrows, but why don't you even look at me!"
Chen Ji turned back in the heavy snow and said softly, "I'm sorry."
Qi Zhaoning sniffed, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and wiped away her tears and snow water together.
She looked at Zhang Xia: "Zhang Xia, you'll end up like me, where whenever you hear others mention him, they'll also mention Princess Bai Li. Then you'll remember that the person in his heart wasn't you, but someone else!"
Sitting on Zaozao's back, Zhang Xia looked at Qi Zhaoning's disheveled appearance, sighed softly, and did not answer.
Qi Zhaoning slowly straightened up and stared at Zhang Xia: "Are you going to marry this eunuch? Are you going to bring the Zhang and Xu families down with this disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unjust scoundrel?"
Zhang Xia's eyes slowly hardened, but she didn't bother to argue: "Chen Ji, go home."
Chen Ji came to Zao Zao, took the reins, and was about to lead Zao Zao and carry Zhang Xia through the crowd.
But then Zhang Xia angrily asked, "What are you doing?"
Chen Ji was taken aback.
What to do?
Zhang Xia said in a deep voice, "Mount up!"
Chen Ji looked up at the red-clad girl on the horse, who was as radiant as the sun. He was stunned for a long time before he smiled and said, "Okay."
He mounted his horse, sat behind Zhang Xia, took the reins, pulled Zhang Xia into his arms, and rode out of the right side of the mansion.
Xiaoman stood at the street corner, hugging Wuyun tightly, her eyes full of joy.
The crowd parted like waves in front of the two people and the horse. Everyone watched in silence as Zaozao slowly walked past them through the snow. The two people no longer saw anyone else, and the surging crowd became transparent.
However, at the very end of the crowd, a woman dressed in a brown stand-up collar and long lapels appeared, standing in the middle of the long street, coldly watching the two of them.
Chen Ji suddenly gripped the reins tightly, and Zao Zao slowly stopped five zhang in front of the woman.
Zhang Xia opened her mouth but couldn't speak for a long time. After hesitating for a long time, she finally timidly called out, "Mother..."
Madam Zhang stared at the relics for a moment, then her gaze returned to Zhang Xia's face: "Nonsense!" (End of Chapter)