STNS: Chapter 479 (Patreon)

I was careless.

Wu Jian stared in anguish and anger at Zhou Wen as she stood behind Hou Jingshu. She had impaled the Shang Kingdom princess with her arm. Her hand and most of her forearm was sticking out of the young woman’s shoulder, ichor dripping down it and splashing against the ground.

He wasn’t the only one staring at the two in shock. Shuchang, Youmei, and Zhou Lihua looked like they had been broadsided by a powerful technique. The one affected the most by what she saw was none other than Zhou Lihua. Her eyes were wide and all the blood had drained from her face. She looked like she was staring at the disappointed ghosts of her ancestors.

“Zhou Wen! What are you doing?!” Zhou Lihua demanded.

“Shut up, you insipid, pathetic little girl,” Zhou Wen snapped. Her voice sounded so different from her normal one, so grating and harsh and full of hate, that Zhou Lihua’s mouth snapped shut. “Much better. You should learn to just keep your mouth shut. You'd be much pretty that way, and maybe more useful too.”

Hou Jingshu had not moved since she was impaled, but she wasn’t dead. Wu Jian caught a glimpse of her expression partially hidden by her bangs.

“So you’ve finally shown your true colors,” Wu Jian said.

“What?” Zhou Lihua looked confused.

Zhou Wen grinned. “So you knew who I was, knew I was your enemy, and still let me follow you around? Are you stupid? Well, not that I blame you. There’s no way you could have done anything even if you knew.”

“You’re using a technique--no, an artifact to conceal yourself,” Wu Jian declared.

“You really are quite smart. Yes, I have an artifact that makes me unobtrusive. Even though you know I’m there, your mind just glosses over me.” She tilted her head. “Of course, it won’t work now that I’ve done this. The artifact is subtle. It only works when I myself am not doing anything to garner suspicion.”

“What are you two talking about?” asked Zhou Lihua, both confused and angry. Her brows were furrowed in a glare, but she seemed to be on the verge of panic.

Wu Jian sighed. “The Zhou Clan… your clan… they’re my enemies. They’re the ones who destroyed the Wu Clan.”

“W-what?” Zhou Lihua’s eyes widened as even more blood drained from her face. “No… that’s… there’s no way… that can’t be true…”

“Oh, but it is. I personally led the attack on the Wu Clan,” Zhou Wen said with a chuckle. “We tried sneaking into the mansion and slaughtering everyone there, but someone knew it was going to happen and managed to slip away. I can only assume Meiying Huáng Hòu saw it in a vision.”

Huáng Hòu was a title Wu Jian had never heard used before, but he knew what it meant. The typical meaning was “Empress.” It traditionally meant wife of the emperor, but it could also be used in a highly respectful and poetic or metaphorical sense to acknowledge a woman’s supreme stature and influence.

“No…”

All the strength from Zhou Lihua’s body seemed to flee her. She sank to her hands and knees, eyes wide and body shaking. Wu Jian wished he could comfort her, but he had to keep his eyes on Zhou Wen.

“Why don’t you remove that mask of yours, Wu Jian--and don’t try anything funny. Your woman’s life is in my hands,” Zhou Wen said.

Wu Jian scowled as Shuchang looked back and forth between the two. “Wu Jian? So your name isn’t Jian Wu?”

“It’s not.” Wu Jian sighed as he removed the mask, revealing his pale face to the world. “Jian Wu is the alias I went by. I couldn’t let anyone know who I was, lest my enemies find me… though it seems they found me anyway.”

Some might think that simply switching the names around wouldn’t be that good of an alias, but that wasn’t the case. Family names always preceded given names. By reversing the order, Wu Jian subtly altered the perception of his name. To those who did not know him personally, this wouldn’t immediately raise suspicions, as the components of the name remained familiar yet were presented in a less typical format. Both “Jian” and “Wu” were also common names.

“It wasn’t easy thanks to that artifact Meiying Huáng Hòu gave you,” Zhou Wen admitted. “It blocks our perception of you and we cannot read your timeline. In truth, all we had for the longest time was a hunch. Really, it was thanks to your relationship with this little princess that made us think you might be Wu Jian.”

Wu Jian gritted his teeth when Zhou Wen leaned down and grabbed Hou Jingshu’s face. He clenched his hands and resisted his urge to cave her skull in. This woman had managed to punch a hole through Hou Jingshu’s shoulder, and she was at the Seeker Realm, which meant Zhou Wen was at least of comparable strength.

“So it’s true. Your clan are subordinates of Mei’s former apprentice?” Wu Jian said.

Zhou Wen smiled. “I see she’s told you a lot. Not that it matters. Meiying Huáng Hòu was quite careless to let you go on this mission. Now, be a good boy and come over here--and don’t try anything funny. I can sense Youmei trying to sneak up on me from the shadows. I’ll kill this princess the moment I sense any of you trying to do anything funny.”

Having been discovered, Youmei quickly came back out of the shadow and moved over to Wu Jian when he gestured for her. Shuchang also had been about to attack. However, the moment the woman finished speaking, he relaxed his stance. The only one who still hadn’t moved was Zhou Lihua, but she was in no position to do anything. She looked almost comatose.

Wu Jian returned the woman’s smile with one of his own. “I don’t need to try and sneak attack you.”

Zhou Wen frowned. “What do you mean--”

A loud roar echoed from Hou Jingshu and, before Zhou Wen could move, she grabbed the woman’s arm and snapped it in half. Zhou Wen tried to remove her now broken arm, but Hou Jingshu’s hands grew claws and dug into her flesh. Blood poured down Zhou Wen’s forearm, but it was hers this time. With a snarl on her face, Hou Jingshu used her claws to break through the muscle and bone, then ripped the entire arm clean off.

Zhou Wen’s scream pierced the air as Hou Jingshu, now free, kicked her in the chest. The attack was so powerful the woman was launched clear across the mountain pass. She slammed into the cliff, which fractured upon impact. Several massive chunks of rock fell down, further burying the woman.

Wu Jian and Youmei quickly raced over to Hou Jingshu as the woman fell to her knees. She removed a recovery pill from his storage ring and placed it against her lips. Hou Jingshu opened her mouth and he pushed the pill into it, watching as she chewed, then swallowed.

“Big Sis! Are you okay?”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better.” Hou Jingshu grimaced. “The woman broke straight through my bone. I, uh, can’t feel my arm. Even with the pill, it’s going to take a while for me to recover.”

“The fact that she could break through your bones is troubling.”

“Mmm.”

“I don’t like that woman,” Youmei mumbled. “She smells bad.”

“She’s very stinky,” Wu Jian agreed. “In either event, we should leave before--”

“Before what?”

Wu Jian’s eyes widened as a voice spoke behind him. He reacted quickly, grabbing both Hou Jingshu and Youmei and tried to teleport away.

[Temporal Stasis]

Wu Jian’s eyes widened when he found himself unable to move. It was a strange feeling. He hadn’t been frozen. It felt more like the area around him had been frozen in time.

[Aeon Blade]

Zhou Wen continued, raising a dagger of glittering silver. Massive quantities of chi poured into the dagger, so much so that temporal distortions appeared in the air around it, as if time was being constantly rewound and fast-forwarded. Wu Jian had seen a similar attack before. Wu Meiying had shown it to him when they sparred. It was an attack that sliced through time itself, allowing a cultivator to bypass all forms of defense.

[Vermillion Ascendance]

Before she could bring her blade down, Shuchang slammed into her. Zhou Wen blocked, but the attack sent her skidding backwards. The young man didn’t let up. His entire body was burning a brilliant and molten orange as though he had turned into a being of fire. His strikes had far more power now than they ever had before. Each time he attacked, he left blazing trails in his wake, and sparks flew every time they clashed.

“Youmei! Grab Zhou Lihua and run!”

“Yes, Master!”

Youmei was quick to act. She disappeared into a shadow, reappeared next to Zhou Lihua, and quickly slung the woman over her shoulder. She took off at a quick run.

Wu Jian also planned on heading out with Hou Jingshu, but first, he summoned the terracotta guardian that had been sealed inside of his storage ring, the gift given to him by Queen Medusa.

It didn’t look very big right now. Small enough to fit in his palm, the terracotta guardian appeared like nothing more than a miniature figure, but Wu Jian poured his chi into the statue before tossing it into the air. The stature quickly grew. It soon became the size of a person, then a boulder, and very soon, it towered over the mountain pass, casting a shadow on the battlefield.

Zhou Wen and Shuchang looked up as the terracotta guardian thrust the staff in its hand at Zhou Wen. She was able to avoid it, but she was forced to separate from Shuchang.

“Shuchang! We’re leaving!” Wu Jian called out as he picked up Hou Jingshu in a piggyback.

“Right!”

Wings sprouted form Shuchang’s back as he took off. Wu Jian also fled. Since flying was difficult with a person on his back, he used Pale Moon as a medium, standing on the greatsword as it soared through the sky. He could move faster like this than if he ran. It wasn’t long before the terracotta guardian became a small figure in the distance.

They soon caught up with Youmei, still carrying the insensate and shocked Zhou Lihua over her shoulder. Despite running along the ground, she moved quite fast.

“Wu Jian…”

“How do you feel?”

“A bit better. I have feeling in my arm again.”

“That’s good. Hang on. We’re almost out of the mountain pass.”

The mountain pass exit was just ahead. Once they were out, they could travel much faster and in any direction. What should they do once they got out? It might be a good idea for them to split off. If he disappeared somewhere with Hou Jingshu, they would be much harder to track since Zhou Wen couldn’t track him via his timeline. That would buy them some time, which they could use to make their way to the Heavenly Sword Sect. He nodded to himself as they finally emerged from the mountain pass.

But they were forced to stop.

Zhou Wen stood before them, completely unharmed. He glanced back at the mountain pass, but couldn’t see the terracotta guardian anymore. It was massive enough that he should have still been able to see it, which meant this woman had defeated it in just a few seconds and somehow managed to get ahead of them. This woman’s strength was terrifying.

“Did you really think you could run from me?” asked Zhou Wen.

“That was my hope, yeah,” Wu Jian muttered as he landed on the ground and set Hou Jingshu down. The woman had regained enough strength to stand on her own. She rotated her arm, grimacing in obvious pain, then summoned her spear. Shuchang and Youmei also stopped beside him.

Zhou Wen spread her arms. “Give up. There’s nowhere for you to run. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, we will find out. And you can forget about returning to the Heavenly Sword Sect. Even if you did, you’d find nothing but ruins by now.”

“What?” Wu Jian’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to the Heavenly Sword Sect?”

Zhou Wen grinned. “My clan is currently launching a full-scale assault on the Heavenly Sword Sect. I imagine Meiying Huáng Hòu has already come into our possession. There is nothing you can do except consign yourself to your fate.”