Chapter 45: Truly Nothing Left
Strategist Ji looked at Li Yan, who had fallen to the ground but had flipped over to face him, and let out a sinister, satisfied laugh.
"Hehehe... do you think you can escape? No matter what you do, the result or rather your end, will be the same!"
Seeing Li Yan remain silent, with a cold and indifferent gaze, Ji thought for a moment and added,
"I just don't understand, how did you realize I meant you harm? And how did you escape from Hong Linying's grasp?"
Li Yan looked at him, dragging one leg as he slowly moved his body backward. That leg was already gushing blood, and in just this short moment, it had already dyed the ground red through his pant leg.
He struggled to support himself against a tree trunk beside him, slowly pushing himself up to stand. The hem of his tattered black robe was also stained with a large patch of dark red blood.
Suddenly, Li Yan bared his pale teeth and gave Strategist Ji a grin.
"Hehehe... of course it was the clues left by my senior brother that told me; why would Marshal Hong hold me back? His target was you, not me!"
Strategist Ji was momentarily stunned. He didn't fully understand and felt there was something wrong in Li Yan's words, but he couldn't figure out what it was right away.
In that very instant of Strategist Ji's daze, Li Yan suddenly slammed his palm against the tree he was leaning on and let out a low growl:
"Then let's die together!"
Strategist Ji's thoughts were still lingering on Li Yan's previous sentence when he suddenly saw Li Yan's face twist in a grimace, and a palm strike hit the trunk.
Before he could figure out what Li Yan was doing, he felt a gust of wind at the back of his head and immediately realized something was wrong. He never imagined that Li Yan had set up another ambush here.
This place was a full li away from the original ambush site, something he would never have expected.
At that moment, there was no time to turn around. A flash of spiritual light surged over his body as he waved his hands rapidly behind him. Immediately, the sounds of "crash, clang, splat" rang out, followed by a muffled grunt.
The sudden loud noise startled the birds that had just returned to rest in the treetops. They flew off once again, flapping into the night sky.
After Li Yan struck the tree trunk, he used the momentum to roll to one side. In his ears rang a burst of chaotic sounds and a deep, rough grunt. When he flipped over and looked up again, he saw a scene that chilled his heart.
Strategist Ji looked quite wretched, even miserable. His black robe was slashed in over a dozen places, and two thick sharp wooden spikes, each about the width of a finger, had pierced through his left arm.
The tips of the spikes were still carrying strands of twisted black material, those were human tendons!
But what chilled Li Yan most was that Strategist Ji was still alive. His chest rose and fell violently as he stared at him with a man-eating gaze.
His dark, purplish face twitched from the intense pain, and he began walking step by step toward Li Yan.
"You're really something. Really something. You've managed to trap me time and time again! Good... Very... Good!"
He spoke slowly, word by word, blood spurting from his elbow like several thin streams of water.
Behind Strategist Ji was a pile of wood chips and broken branches. The originally densely packed seven or eight rows of wooden spikes tied together and aimed at him had been shredded to pieces by the wind blades he'd thrown behind him in panic.
But in his haste, he had only managed to protect his back and the back of his head. He couldn't destroy all of them in time, two sharp spikes had pierced through his left arm, dragging out his veins. It was unclear whether the bones had been damaged.
But from the looks of it, Strategist Ji would have a hard time using his left hand from now on. Even if it eventually healed, his current cultivation might not be enough to restore it to its original state.
This trap was a method commonly used by hunters to catch large demonic beasts called "Spiked Wood Raft."
Hard tree branches are whittled down into finger-thick stakes with sharp tips shaped like cones. These spikes are then fixed into a thick log, forming something like a spiked club.
Then, seven or eight of these "spiked clubs" are tied together in a large wooden frame and suspended between two trees. One end of a twisted rope is tightly wound around a tree trunk.
The other end of the twisted rope forms a slipknot, attached somewhere. When triggered by external force, the knot snaps open, and the spiked raft flies out with a whooshing sound, its effective range covering two to three zhang ahead.
But it has a flaw. To avoid hindering its own momentum, and to increase inertia, it usually hangs in the air, a foot or two off the ground. If a small or agile creature lies flat, it could pass right over their head.
But Strategist Ji had been confused by Li Yan's words, unsure of his meaning, and was caught off guard.
What's more, Ji was used to seeking immortality deep in the mountains, where he encountered only demonic beasts or fellow cultivators. Mortal hunters never made it far enough to set traps, before they had even traveled a few li into the wilderness, they had already become food in a beast's belly or a ghost beneath a cultivator's sword.
In the end, Strategist Ji had never expected Li Yan to be so cunning, able to set ambushes even while fleeing for his life.
Pity a martial arts master from the mortal realm, already stepping into the cultivation world, fell victim to such a scheme.
Li Yan propped himself up on one elbow, his face half-tilted upward.
"Hehehe... What a pity!"
"A half-grown kid like you, so full of cunning tricks. I wonder how many more you have? Let me see more of them, what do you say?"
Strategist Ji had walked within a few steps of Li Yan before stopping.
Only then did he raise his right hand and rapidly tap a few spots on his injured left arm and elbow. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.
"Now... there's really nothing left!"
Half-supporting his body, Li Yan was now calm and even let out a soft chuckle.
As Li Yan chuckled, Strategist Ji began scanning his surroundings, sharpening his vision to inspect the area around Li Yan carefully before slowly stepping forward again.
As soon as he reached Li Yan, he suddenly struck, his right hand pointing in a blur of motion. When his actions ceased, Li Yan had fallen flat on his back.
"Now this is truly nothing left."
Strategist Ji stood in the forest, looking at the fallen Li Yan at his feet.
Li Yan said nothing, but his eyes occasionally moved slightly, and the blood from his leg wound had stopped flowing.
Strategist Ji had sealed his vital points in an instant, including those near his leg wound, stopping the bleeding. He didn't want Li Yan to bleed to death just yet.
He lifted his head again and looked around. The dense trees stood interwoven in the night like eerie ghosts. In the forest, only strands of moonlight filtered dimly through the branches and leaves.
Cautiously, he circled Li Yan, carefully inspecting the area. Only after confirming there were no other traps did he finally relax.
Then he glanced down at Li Yan on the ground, and after confirming that he was restrained and unable to escape, his figure flickered and he darted toward the platform halfway up the mountain.
After just a few breaths, he once again arrived at the platform where Li Yan had set up his ambush earlier. The large boulder that had been on the ground was now gone.
Only a pit, several water pouches, two short stone pillars about as thick as a baby's arm, and a short piece of demon beast tendon were left behind.
He picked up the demon beast tendon and examined it, then grabbed a few of the water pouches and gave them a shake. After standing there in thought for a moment, he then strode over to the edge of the cliff behind the giant pine and glanced down.
In the darkness of the night, all he could see was a deep, black abyss, like a giant beast's gaping maw filled with fangs, causing the strategist's heart to involuntarily feel a chill.
Though his body was somewhat stronger than that of an ordinary person, it was still made of flesh and blood. If he were to fall, he'd either become a pile of minced meat or be pierced into pieces by the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff.
After looking for a moment, he had basically figured out how Li Yan had set the ambush. Although he wasn't a mountain hunter, just now he had been the prey in the trap. Now, knowing how he'd fallen into the ambush and examining the remnants, with his experience from the martial world, he could more or less piece together the setup.
With a few flickers of his figure, he disappeared from the platform and entered the forest at the base of the mountain.
The strategist returned to where Li Yan was lying on his back. A trace of pain suddenly flashed across his face, and black blood began to seep from the corner of his mouth. He quickly sat cross-legged.
With his right hand, he hurriedly pulled a semi-transparent crystal from his robe, closed his eyes, gripped the crystal, and began circulating his breath. He hadn't rested for several days, and now having taken heavy injuries, his condition was extremely dire.
An hour later, the strategist slowly opened his eyes. At this point, about seventy to eighty percent of his spiritual power had been restored. He glanced at the now-clouded crystal that had once been clear, and a trace of heartache flashed across his face.
There was no spiritual energy in this area, so he had to rely on this crystal to recover. This crystal had been passed down by the previous head of his sect's "Immortal-Seeking Lineage," who had told him:
"If one day you can embark upon the path of immortality, this crystal will surely aid you."
So many years had passed, and although he had already stepped onto the path of cultivation, he had never been willing to use it until now, in this situation.
The crystal was called a spirit stone, containing spiritual energy that could aid cultivators in their practice. This was something his seniors in the sect had told him. Their sect had only this one spirit stone, which had been passed down for more than a dozen generations.
Originally, he could have returned to the inner valley of the Military Advisor's Mansion and used the spiritual energy from the pond there to recover. But earlier, half his spiritual power had already been expended, mostly from repeatedly casting Wind Blade Technique.
At his current cultivation level, he should have been able to unleash eleven or twelve Wind Blades at full power. But in order to deal with Li Yan, he had to cut the stone at his feet and break through the wooden spike trap, costing him six Wind Blades in total.
And when he returned from the cliff's edge, the fire poison in his body had already erupted. If he didn't suppress it immediately, he would have died before Li Yan. But he had almost no spiritual energy left to suppress it, and so in desperation, he had to use the sect's treasured item.
The strategist stared blankly for a moment at the now-cloudy spirit stone in his hand, then returned it to his robe.
He raised his right hand and forcefully pressed on his own left elbow and upper arm. With two "chi chi" sounds, he let out a muffled grunt.
At the same time, two wooden spikes, each as thick as a finger, shot out of his flesh, flying off into the distance and trailing strings of blood behind them…
Cold sweat poured down the strategist's forehead from the pain. Gritting his teeth, he quickly tapped around the wounds to stop the bleeding. As he looked at the black, exposed tendons on his left arm, some hanging loosely, others snapped and dangling, he couldn't help but furrow his brow.
After a few breaths, he shook his head. As he stood up, his figure flickered repeatedly, darting swiftly through the nearby forest…
Half a incense stick later, his figure appeared once again at the original location. Looking down at the closed-eyed Li Yan, the strategist raised his right hand, bent his finger, and sent out a thread of finger wind, which entered Li Yan's forehead.
"I know you're not asleep. I also no longer care how you figured out my intentions.
Whether you know or not, the outcome for you is the same. I just didn't expect that you, a mere fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy, could be so vicious, with every scheme a trap meant to harm others. I truly underestimated my own disciple!"
The strategist stared at Li Yan, his eyes filled with poisonous hatred.
Originally, his plan was to continue forcibly suppressing the fire poison in his body for another half year. By then, Li Yan would likely have cultivated to mid-stage first level of Qi Condensation, giving him at least a 50% chance of breaking through to the fourth level.
But now, not only had the timing been pushed forward, Li Yan's cultivation was still far below his minimum expectations, and he himself had been forced to tap into his core spiritual power, causing the fire poison to erupt early.
And at this moment, his blood and qi were severely depleted. But he had no other choice now. Blood and qi could be replenished slowly, but could he wait for Li Yan for another half a year? Could his already-erupted fire poison go back to being dormant?
The more he thought about it, the more furious he became. Years of planning, all ruined by this one person, ending in such an unpredictable result.
"You say I'm vicious? Weren't you planning to trade my life for your own?"
Li Yan suddenly spoke from the ground, his voice hoarse.
"Oh? So you do know. I really would like to know how you figured it out but right now, I no longer care to waste the time.
With your kind of disposition, able to persistently kick over water pouches and sprinkle water on that demon beast tendon without giving anything away even to me... If I hadn't been poisoned, I might really have taken you in as a true disciple."
A trace of strange emotion flickered through Li Yan's eyes as he lay there. The fact that the strategist could deduce the setup of the trap after checking the platform earlier did not surprise him.
But that the strategist could deduce that he had kicked over the water pouch many times, now that surprised him a little.
"Oh? You even figured that out? Teacher, you really are amazing."
Li Yan said flatly, while silently thinking to himself:
'But you still didn't notice that other thing…'
(Chapter End)