The wind blowing through the Stone Arch was sharper, carrying with it—beneath stone and pine—also memories of fresh snow from altitudes higher north. Stone Creek was long miles behind them, but Lin Xuan didn't have to ask the System to know that they were not alone.
[System Alert: Secondary pursuit confirmed. Range – 2.7 kilometers. Projected intercept: 2hr 48min at current pace. Group size: 5–8. Qi-fluctuating signatures: multi (Early to Mid Qi Gathering)]
He tightened a thin strap across his travel pack and said softly, "They're closing."
Yun Ruo didn't break stride. "I know. I felt them 30 minutes ago!"
"You're not worried?"
"I'm interested." Her eyes slid toward him. "You had me watch last time. And this time, you'll have me fighting alongside you. If you can keep up."
Through the Pines
The journey north became a path along the edge of the mountains, the pines crawling out through the hard-baked dirt. To my left, the curve of rock curved suddenly into a ravine; to my right, bramble earth had transformed into inconvenient jagged steps, rising farther and farther away from me.
Environmental Scan: Type of Terrain (Defense Choke Points), 120–180 meters between each point. Shale ridge above loosened. Possible ambush hazard – moderate.]
Lin Xuan then looked up to a patch of white rock overhead. That shale could fall on us.
"You could give it a try," said Yun Ruo nonchalantly. "The real question is—"
A faint twang answered her.
First Volley
They had no time to settle in; arrows whittled from the ridge above, shooting fast and rougher, not as clean killing as the Black Talon ambushing them along their trail.
[Skill detected: Scatter Rain Shot – Fifth-rate pupil archery technique. Acquire?]
"Yes."
Lin Xuan turned halfway and, with the flat of his palm, slapped off one arrow, spraying others to whistle past him. Yun Ruo only hesitated slightly before not stopping and giving a wave of her left hand, and the two arrows on their way to her suddenly split into two hundred pieces before flying carelessly in the direction of the nearby abyss.
"They're testing," she said. "Finding our rhythm."
"They'll find mine changes quickly."
The First Engagement
The trail curved into an out-of-sight ditch—ideal for a double-ended ambush.
[System Attention: Disturbances. Approach from multiple hostiles – front and rear.]
The four came from up front, the three from back—all clad in mismatched travel leathers, some of them augmented with scavenged bits and pieces of armor. Though not as disciplined in appearance as the Black Talon archers, their movements were slick with coagulated blood.
[Skill Identified | Split Fang Advance: Low-tier double-pronged assault. Acquire?]
"Yes."
Lin Xuan turned toward the front group, pulled out a spear that was still slurried on his back to the right. He prayed to everything good in this unsteady universe that the System would never be detected for how it moved from within, unlocking a dozen micro-adjustments of grip and stance that settled with the shaft feeling alive between his hands.
[Stone Piercing Lunge][Skill Detected: Mid-Grade Spear Technique] Acquire?]
"Yes."
Then he came through into a move—it was all motion, the tip of the spear/webbing once darting in to break the lead attacker's guard and then snapping back in one long fluid arc that swept across low to take out attacker number two at the knees.
Yun Ruo Unbound (a little)
Yun Ruo got there behind him, their first blow floated—it wasn't more than a light slap of the hands that sent a blade careening away from them, and then her foot shot out to clip another man's knee out from under him, leaving Yun gasping on all fours.
Expending no power, every motion was a fatal cut. But Lin Xuan could feel the pressure she was refraining from showing. But she was clearly fighting to hold back at least half her strength.
The last man on the back tried to charge her from the blindside—and Lin Xuan was there, his calf of spear cracking against his ribs even as it sent him staggering into Yun Ruo's waiting elbow.
"Good," she said, looking into his eyes for a moment. "You're learning."
Breaking the Chase
It was the stumble that broke them, leaving two injured and another unconscious. The others fell back up the hill.
[System Notice: Pursuit disengaged temporarily. Estimated regroup in 12–15 minutes.]
That it will get ahead of them, Lin Xuan seems to have guessed.
Yun Ruo nodded. "Then we do not go by trail."
Off the Path
Agborian, Agborir: they climbed the raw rock faces up the side of the mountain. Small rocks rolled as he walked; underfoot the ground crunched.
[Terrain Adaptation Module Unlocked – Mountain Step Balance]
Knowledge forced into his muscles which gave his footfalls grip where there should be none. Yun Ruo also raised his eyebrows slightly, and he was accustomed to it.
"Ugh, you were not kiddin' bout that 'talent' thing," she wrote.
Wouldn't be much of a taaaaaaaaalllliieeeent if it only worked on flat ground…
The Second Clash
Up a defile between two ridges they found the pursuers waiting, the trailside dropping away quickly to either side for too long to make any kind of retreat viable.
This time the front was led by a burly man wearing half a mask of tarnished copper. The chain whip, the links of which glimmered in the sunlight.
[Technique Obtained: Iron Serpent Whip – Leash-grade flexible weapon technique. Acquire?]
"Yes."
The whip hissed through the gap where Lin Xuan's throat had been. He caught the last second, pivoting to let it slap around the shaft of his spear, instead of his neck. A quick twist, a pull—and the iron shot taut to the ground between them. The man smirked behind the mask, ambition he'd just assumed the leverage he did, until Lin Xuan stepped into the tension, turning it into a short spear thrust that drove the man back two paces.
Movement in Conjunction
Seeing the opportunity, the rest surged—they had been playing a fool before, and that should have continued. The two on the right had short sabers now, the one on the left a heavy cudgel.
[Recommend Group: Saber Parry into Whip Block with ally assist finder]
"Left," Lin Xuan shouted, but Yun Ruo was already in motion—her palm shoved the sword-wielder off balance, sending him spinning into the whip's path. Lin Xuan drove his spear butt into the cudgel's wielder's gut, then swept the man's legs out.
In sixty moments, it was a whirl of spear arcs and whip hisses of Yun Ruo's precise slicing punches.
The Pullback
When the copper-mask leader finally staggered back, his whip arm dangling limply, the other three retreated in a scatter.
[System Notice: Remaining pursuit probability – 41%. Recommend continued evasion.]
Yun Ruo glanced at him. "You could have finished him."
"I could have," Lin Xuan agreed. "But now he'll go home and tell someone exactly what I can do. That's worth more than his head right now."
Her lips twisted. "Maybe you'll live in sect politics after all."
As the sun dropped behind the highest peaks, the mountain yawned out into a vast, forested plateau. A river of pale stone staircases stretched far ahead, leading up into the moonscape before the distant complex of blue-tiled, white-walled buildings appeared—Azure Spirit Sect.
But the System chimed again.
[WARNING: LONG-RANGE QI LOCK DETECTED. Unknown cultivator. Estimated strength – Foundation Establishment. Distance: 4.2 kilometers and closing.]
Lin Xuan tightened his grip on the spear in his hand.
Yun Ruo didn't even slow. "Now, welcome to the next level, Lin Xuan."
They continued past the gates, a shadow much fiercer looming just behind them.