Green Mountain
Chapter 183 - 138, Disperse

Chapter 183: 138, Disperse

The river water in winter was ice-cold, biting to the bone, so much that Chen Ji felt as if his thoughts were about to freeze in place. The chilly water seemed to surge into his body, determined to freeze his heart.

The moment he leapt into the river, he raised his head underwater and saw the sunlight filtering through the surface, forming pillars of light due to the Tyndall effect, resembling crystals yet devoid of warmth.

Someone had planned to use the opportunity of the Literary Meeting at Lu Hun Manor to ambush and kill Bai Li and the Princely Heir, then frame the disaster-stricken bandits of Dragon King Village.

The planners were meticulous, yet they had not anticipated Prince Jing’s incognito patrol, nor had they considered a petty apprentice from the Medical Hall.

Who wished to kill Bai Li and the Princely Heir?

Consort Yun or Princess Consort Jing?

As Chen Ji surfaced, he swam towards the opposite bank, intermittently glancing back.

The fisherman on the cover boat took off the headgear and slowly removed his straw raincoat, revealing a robust figure.

The middle-aged man stood at the bow, like an experienced hunter, eyes fixed attentively on the river’s surface.

On that cover boat was affixed a yellow paper talisman, drawn with complex and mystical symbols in vermillion. A strong gust propelled the cover boat, allowing it to speed forth swiftly even without using the oars.

The wind rattled the paper talisman, but it seemed as though it were nailed to the boat’s cover and simply couldn’t be torn away.

Bai Li, Princely Heir, and Zhang Xia swam frantically forward.

Blood, life, the flash of blades—a rush of adrenaline surged through them, fear trembling their lips.

But as Bai Li continued swimming, she suddenly realized something was amiss and abruptly turned around—to find behind them not a trace of Chen Ji, only the assassins coming across the water with their knives in their mouths, the murderous intent on the boat now fully revealed.

She cried out loudly, "Chen Ji, where are you?!"

The Princely Heir also surfaced, roaring, "Chen Ji?!"

But no one responded to their calls. It was as if their shouts had sunk to the bottom of the river.

Bai Li took a deep breath, "He’s gone back."

Zhang Xia asked in astonishment, "Gone back? What do you mean? How is going back now different from courting death?"

The Princely Heir said gravely, "He must have gone back to buy us time."

Zhang Xia hesitated, not understanding what the Princely Heir meant. That apprentice from the Medical Hall, whom everyone called a gambler—was he really swimming back to buy them time?

Yet she realized that neither Bai Li nor the Princely Heir had ever doubted that Chen Ji might have drowned or that he had fled alone.

Zhang Xia pondered, "Shouldn’t we turn back to save him? He surely can’t face so many assassins alone."

The Princely Heir was about to swim back but was held back firmly by Bai Li, "We keep swimming to the other bank!"

Zhang Xia was confused, "Are we abandoning him?"

Bai Li turned to her with resolve and said sternly, "If we don’t leave now, the time he bought for us will be wasted!"

Zhang Xia asked, "What if he gets killed?"

Bai Li gave no answer and turned to swim strenuously towards the opposite bank.

...

...

The assassins, knives in their mouths, swam in the river and, in the blink of an eye, realized their quarry had one less member.

"Find him!"

The leading assassin dived in search of the missing one. The moment his vision shifted from the surface to below the river, Chen Ji’s gaunt, calm face suddenly appeared before his eyes!

The assassin was startled, his heart skipping a beat.

Before he could retrieve the long knife from his mouth, Chen Ji had grabbed his hair, pulling them fiercely close!

A streak of blade light flashed underwater; the short knife in Chen Ji’s hand cleanly slit the assassin’s throat.

Bubbles and blood poured from the neck as the assassin felt the air in his lungs uncontrollably rush out and away.

Yet Chen Ji didn’t pause; in an instant, he sliced open the main arteries in both arms and plunged the knife into the heart.

Vast amounts of blood stained the water red, turning it murky, obscuring what had happened.

Chen Ji quickly retracted his hand and kicked the assassin chest, sending the body plummeting to the riverbed.

After death, a body will quickly sink to the bottom and will not surface until three to seven days later when gas from decomposing matter in the intestines causes it to float.

When the assassins on the surface saw bubbles, they dived in his direction, searching for Chen Ji amid the thick blood, but when the bloody water dispersed, no one was to be found.

An assassin looked around and saw Chen Ji clinging to the bottom of the swiftly approaching cover boat, his short knife stabbing repeatedly along the grain of the wood, chiseling into the bottom of the boat.

The assassin realized that Chen Ji’s goal from the start had been to destroy the boat! Among those who needed to be killed, the most insignificant had turned out to be the most troublesome!

With each stab Chen Ji’s short knife took at the boat’s bottom, chunks of wood flew off. Suddenly, he kicked hard with his legs, surfacing for air.

The moment his head broke the surface, a paper talisman flew straight at him; he hastily dodged, the yellow talisman slicing a gash in his left arm like a knife.

Chen Ji ignored the Executive Officer on the boat and resolutely dove back under to continue chiseling at the boat.

After a few breaths and seeing that the Executive Officer did not dive in to pursue, Chen Ji had a sudden realization—the other party dared not rashly enter the water!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Wood chips flew in all directions.

However, before Chen Ji could breach it, the cover boat unexpectedly stopped pursuing Bai Li and the Princely Heir and turned direction, carrying Chen Ji towards the twenty-odd assassins!

The assassins dived below, drawing the long knives from their mouths, waiting for Chen Ji to fall straight into their trap.

As they drew ever closer, the eyes of the more than twenty assassins were steely cold.

In the urgency, Chen Ji struck fiercely one more time, and the short knife he had brought from the Medical Hall broke in the middle, the blade sinking towards the riverbed.

He suddenly turned to face the holding-breath assassins, his forehead and temples’ hair drifting in the water.

The noon sun shone into the water, as if heralding the last moment of life.

The assassins saw Chen Ji suddenly stop moving.

Had he given up?

No, they discovered that the Medical Hall apprentice was unusually calm.

The assassins were waiting for Chen Ji to deliver himself to them, and Chen Ji was also waiting.

Waiting for a momentary roar.

The next moment.

The stove fire within Chen Ji’s body burned fiercely, one lamp, two lamps, three lamps... up to fifteen lamps!

Those stoves seemed to roar in a voice only he could hear, a roar that traversed the river of time from ten thousand years ago.

In these ten thousand years, seas had turned into mulberry fields, and mountains had collapsed to form plains.

The world shattered, but I did not go out.

Chen Ji struck a powerful punch at the hole bored in the bottom of the boat, and with that single punch, he blasted a crack through the broken wood!

River water poured into the boat, but he did not hesitate to detach himself from the bottom, surfaced for air, and immediately dived back down, swimming towards the assassins like an arrow.

As soon as they made contact, an assassin swung a long knife at him, but just as the blade approached Chen Ji’s face, he clamped it between his hands and with a light tremor, snatched away the long knife.

Before the assassin could react, the long knife had already slashed across his throat.

Just as Chen Ji was about to kill again, he saw a yellow talisman paper shoot into the water, piercing straight as a blade.

He forcefully turned his head, and the yellow talisman paper grazed his cheek, leaving a fine wound from which blood oozed.

The yellow talisman paper’s momentum did not cease, instead, it pierced straight into the dark riverbed.

Chen Ji was startled and immediately swam deeper, opting not to engage further in battle.

On the riverbank, Bai Li, the Princely Heir, and Zhang Xia stepped on smooth pebbles as they slowly made their way to shore, the biting wind as if piercing into their bones.

They did not leave, but instead turned back to look towards the center of the river, where the scholars on the opposite shore protected Prince Jing as they fought and retreated towards Yichuan County.

The scholars guarded Prince Jing so closely that no assassin could get near. Prince Jing, wanting to rush into the river, was held back tightly by a scholar.

Across the wide river, Prince Jing shouted towards Bai Li, but they were too far apart, and Bai Li could not hear what her father was saying.

Elsewhere, Chen Wenxiao ran wildly towards Lu Hun Manor, with Chen Wenzong, carrying Wang Daosheng and panting heavily, following behind. No assassin wasted their time on them.

At that moment, Zhang Xia asked curiously, "Look, why has that black-canopied boat stopped in the middle of the river?"

Bai Li softly said, "Chen Ji."

Zhang Xia looked at Bai Li in surprise.

The Princely Heir shouted, "Look, that boat is tilting, it seems like it’s going to sink!"

"There’s blood in the water!"

Bai Li pursed her lips as she watched the scene. Chen Ji must have found a way to sink that boat.

But what about Chen Ji?

Was the blood in the river his?

After a long wait, Chen Ji’s figure never emerged on the river’s surface, and her heart increasingly sank.

Bai Li turned to go, and the Princely Heir asked, "Where are you going?"

Wiping the water from her face, Bai Li said defiantly, "To find the Thousand-year Army! To take revenge!"

The Princely Heir took a deep breath, "Who to take revenge on? We don’t even know who’s trying to kill us."

No sooner had the words fallen than they heard the sound of water from the shore. All three turned simultaneously to see Chen Ji, with a long knife in his mouth, wading onto the bank, gasping for air, utterly exhausted.

With a clang, the long knife fell onto the pebbly river beach.

Bai Li paused, then quickly stepped forward, "Chen Ji, are you hurt?"

"I’m fine," Chen Ji said, "Let’s go quickly. We’ll head to Lu Hun Manor. There are people from the Dao Court and the Buddhist Sect there; the assassins surely won’t dare to cause trouble."

The Princely Heir looked at him, hesitated for a moment, "Your face?!"

Chen Ji touched it and found an inch-long cut on his cheek, "It’s nothing serious, just a minor injury."

Strangely, within less than half an incense stick’s time, the wounds on his left arm and face stopped bleeding.

He suddenly remembered asking Xuanyuan yesterday: What would happen if all the stove fires were lit and turned white?

Xuanyuan had answered: Immortal and indestructible.

But if that were the case, how did his former self die?

At that moment, Chen Ji on the shore looked back towards the center of the river, only to see the Executive Officer still standing at the prow, quietly gazing at him, unconcerned even as the boat tilted.

At some point, he became puzzled; while he had been dragging out time underwater, the assassins did not split their forces to pursue Bai Li and the Princely Heir, which was out of character for them.

Unless he too was one of the targets.

Or perhaps, he was the real target?

Chen Ji turned to leave: "Let’s go, this ambush is not over yet."

...

...

On the opposite bank, Wu Yun quietly emerged from the woods, looking at the now deserted riverbank.

It watched Chen Ji and the others turn and leave, hesitated for a moment, then reached out a paw to test the water.

So cold!

Wu Yun had never swum before, it did not know how to cross the river to join Chen Ji, but it knew that Chen Ji now needed the Molten Flow on its body to ignite the remaining fifteen stove fires.

This was crucial.

After pondering, Wu Yun decided to be harsh to itself and swim across the river.

Just as it was about to enter the water, the sound of hooves came from behind, and it saw Zhang Xia’s red horse, Zaozao, decisively entering the water and swimming towards the opposite bank.

Wu Yun’s eyes brightened, and it gently leaped onto Zaozao’s head with a meow, "Very brave!"

...

There’s one more Chapter.