Her vision swayed with the jolting motion. Peering over the shoulder of this unfamiliar young guard, the young lady could clearly see a hundred riders giving chase behind them. Each face atop those horses was hideous and ghastly, enough to make one's blood run cold.
Yet the young lady's heart was calmer than it had ever been!
This scene, this feeling—they were déjà vu, as though she had experienced something like it before.
But she had lived her entire life within the Meng Estate, never straying far from White Jade City. When could she possibly have been hunted down like this, with someone shielding her before her like this?
In a dream? Or in some past life?
Clinging so closely to a strange man should have been profoundly uncomfortable, yet she found herself relishing it. Her arms tightened around the young guard's neck, as if she wanted to merge her body into his.
She knew—he would never abandon her. Not even if it meant death!
A dozen arrows came streaking from behind. She cried out in alarm, "Watch out!"
Then her eyes were filled with a flash of blade-light. Yang Kai did not turn around. The young lady was shielded in front of him; if he turned, she would become a living target. It was as though he had grown eyes on the back of his head—he swept his blade backward in a reverse slash.
Most of the arrows were deflected, but one pierced clean through his shoulder.
The young lady's gaze locked onto that arrow shaft—an arrow an arm's length long, buried deep in flesh, sunk in to the fletching. Not much blood flowed, but the sight wrenched her heart tight.
It must have hurt terribly, yet the young guard hadn't made so much as a sound.
More arrows flew in. Yang Kai twisted and dodged, but the pursuers behind them were drawing ever closer. Before long, they would be completely surrounded.
Yang Kai veered left. There was a fold in the mountainside up ahead—perhaps some terrain they could put to use.
Sure enough, he quickly carried the young lady into the fold. Their luck was holding: he spotted a small hollow at the base of the cliff wall almost immediately.
It wasn't large, but just big enough for one person.
Yang Kai sprinted over and set the young lady down. "Get inside!"
She nodded firmly and scrambled into the hollow on hands and knees, curling herself up as small as she could.
When she looked up again, the young guard's silhouette stood before her like a towering mountain, sheltering her from the storms raging beyond.
"What's your name?" the young lady asked.
"Yang Kai." Yang Kai reached back and grabbed the long arrow jutting from his shoulder, snapping it off with a grunt. He left the arrowhead embedded in the wound, then turned and flashed the young lady a grin. "My name is Yang Kai."
The young lady repeated it, as though committing those two simple syllables to the deepest recesses of her soul. She reached up and brushed back her disheveled hair, revealing a smile that could bring the world to its knees. "My name is Meng Ru."
Yang Kai nodded. "Fine name."
The thunder of hooves sounded—the hundred riders had caught up. At their head, a man with a hawkish nose raised his hand, and the column halted. He fixed Yang Kai with a predatory stare.
Their eyes met. The hawk-nosed man could not suppress the admiration flickering in his gaze as he looked Yang Kai up and down. "Kid. Did you kill Lü Anguo?"
Yang Kai answered in a low voice, "That's right."
The hawk-nosed man's expression darkened. "Lü Anguo was my Baotian Peak's second-in-command. You killed him—that makes us enemies."
"He shouldn't have abducted the young lady of the Meng Estate." Yang Kai shook his head. "Anyone who dares threaten the young lady deserves to die."
The hawk-nosed man chuckled softly. "Loyal to a fault—but utterly foolish. Lü Anguo was simply outmatched. Dying at your hands was his own doing. Still, he was my second-in-command. You killed him, so as the boss, I owe my brothers an explanation."
"And what kind of explanation are you looking for?" Yang Kai asked, his voice steady.
The hawk-nosed man bared his teeth in a savage grin. "A life for a life, a debt repaid in coin—it's the way of the world. What kind of explanation do you think I want?"
Yang Kai replied evenly, "If you want my life, come and take it yourself. That is, if you have the skill."
The hawk-nosed man let out a derisive snort. "Your life doesn't interest me nearly as much as you do. How about this: hand over the woman behind you as a token of submission, then come with me up the mountain. Our grudges will be wiped clean."
Yang Kai's brow furrowed. He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. "I'm willing to go up the mountain with you, but I won't hand over the young lady. Let her go. Let her return to White Jade City, and I'll agree to your other terms."
The hawk-nosed man slowly shook his head. "That won't do. My Baotian Peak spent enormous effort—lost quite a few brothers, even our second-in-command—to finally get our hands on this woman. Why on earth would we let her go? Don't worry. Once you come up the mountain with me, this woman will be yours from then on."
Yang Kai's voice was iron. "On one condition: the young lady must return safely to White Jade City."
The hawk-nosed man's face went cold in an instant. He had already shown Yang Kai considerable face, even extended the courtesy of recruiting a worthy man—and yet this fool was refusing a gift horse.
"I'll go up the mountain!" The young lady's voice—Meng Ru's voice—rang out from behind.
"Stay put!" Yang Kai hissed.
"Oh." Meng Ru obediently shrank back inside.
"Looks like there's nothing left to talk about," the hawk-nosed man said with an expression of regret. He swept his hand forward and gave the order: "Kill him!"
Realizing he could not win Yang Kai over, he struck without a heartbeat's hesitation—a man of ruthless decisiveness through and through.