Chapter Ninety-Three: A Desperate Escape

“Come now, my pretty little darling, don’t go.” Wan Yanji reached out and seized Cheng Ruizhi by the wrist. “Just look at that frail little face of yours, delicate as a sickly beauty. I adore men like you. Come, come, let your sister dote on you properly.”

Cheng Ruizhi’s brows drew together in disgust. He was just about to shake off her hand when he saw An Yi give the slightest shake of her head. He paused, and in that moment of hesitation, Wan Yanji pulled him down to sit beside her on the reclining couch.

With one hand still gripping Cheng Ruizhi, Wan Yanji lifted his chin with the other and leaned in to kiss him. Before her lips could touch him, she felt the press of a sharp object against her throat. Turning her eyes, she saw An Yi holding a slender golden hairpin.

“Palace Mistress.” The middle-aged man rushed forward, intent on saving his master.

“If you take one more step, I will kill her.” An Yi tightened her grip, and the pointed end of the hairpin pricked through Wan Yanji’s skin.

For fear of Wan Yanji’s safety, the middle-aged man stopped in place.

“To threaten someone with a gold hairpin? Girl, you are courting your own ruin.” Wan Yanji laughed without a trace of fear.

At that moment, Yulang, who stood closest to Wan Yanji, suddenly went limp and collapsed, the iron chain in his hand clanging to the ground.

Wan Yanji asked in surprise, “Yulang, what’s wrong with you?”

“He was drugged by my sleeping powder,” An Yi said.

The smile froze on Wan Yanji’s face.

“Ruizhi, take the hairpin,” An Yi said.

Cheng Ruizhi shook off Wan Yanji’s hand and clutched the golden hairpin tightly.

“Oh, so this little darling is your little lover. You should have said so sooner; I wouldn’t have fought you for him.” Wan Yanji’s eyes glittered, her smile seductive.

An Yi took an antidote from her bracelet and stuffed it into Cheng Ruizhi’s mouth. Then she reached out, pulled the jade hairpin from Wan Yanji’s hair, and stabbed it toward her left eye.

Wan Yanji was startled and hastily shut her eyes.

Meilang, too, had already been drugged unconscious.

“Old witch, don’t play tricks in front of me. If you dare use your soul-binding art to bewitch anyone again, I’ll blind your filthy eyes.” An Yi’s voice was icy.

Feeling the sting at her eyelids, Wan Yanji was truly afraid An Yi might actually gouge her eyes out. “I’m willing to give you the antidote and escort you out.”

An Yi tossed the jade hairpin aside, took out a poison pill from her bracelet, and forced it into Wan Yanji’s mouth. Lifting her chin, she said, “This is a Venom Ant Pill personally refined by my master. If you obediently send us out, I’ll give you the antidote. Otherwise, when the poison takes hold, you’ll lose your beauty entirely.”

When striking at a snake, one must strike at its vital point. The thing Wan Yanji cared about most was her appearance. Threatening her with that was the most effective method.

Wan Yanji opened her eyes and stared at An Yi, her chest heaving. She said hatefully, “Ji Fanyi has a vicious heart. The disciple he taught is just as cruel-handed.”

An Yi pinched Wan Yanji’s mouth open and confirmed that she had truly swallowed the pill. Then she curved her lips in a cold smile. “So you’ve already suffered at my master’s hands. Then behave yourself and stop making trouble.”

Seeing Wei Xiaolin and the other two bound by iron chains, An Yi hesitated for a moment. Then she took out three more antidotes and fed them to them. Cheng Ruizhi was ill and knew no martial arts. With her own skill, An Yi could still manage to protect herself, but taking him along would be difficult. She needed helpers. She did not trust the others, so she could only take the risk of rescuing these three to travel with them.

After swallowing the antidotes, Wei Xiaolin and the other two felt the sluggish haze fade away. They rose, removed the chains from their necks, and cupped their hands in salute. “Many thanks, young lady, for your help.”

An Yi stepped back to Wan Yanji’s side, picked up the jade hairpin, and pressed it against her brow. She glanced at the middle-aged man and the masked figures. “Three seniors, I ask you to seal their acupoints.”

The cavern was spacious and had vents for airflow. The drugged mist was already thinning. The middle-aged man and the others had entered a full quarter hour later; though they felt dizzy, they were still able to resist and would not be knocked out.

Wei Xiaolin and the others did as she said, and the middle-aged man and the rest did not resist.

An Yi drew out the last two antidotes and tossed them to Wei Xiaolin. “Senior Wei, please rouse these two and have them lead us out.”

Wei Xiaolin woke Yulang and Meilang.

An Yi said, “Senior Wei, trouble you to keep them in line and make them guide us.”

Yulang and Meilang cried out together, “Palace Mistress!”

“Do as she says.” In order to preserve her life, Wan Yanji had no choice but to yield.

Yulang and Meilang walked side by side toward the passage, with Wei Xiaolin following behind.

“You eleven, follow them,” An Yi said.

The young men who had been captured here obediently followed.

“Please, seniors.” An Yi said.

Zhu San and Jin Yi nodded and also followed.

“Ruizhi, let’s go,” An Yi said.

Seeing this, the young woman guarding the stone gate was just about to draw her weapon when Meilang shouted, “Do not move! The Palace Mistress is in their hands.”

Led by Yulang and Meilang, the party successfully left the cave. The two of them, however, did not know the way out of the manor.

An Yi had no choice but to keep Wan Yanji in front as she led the way. After turning left and right, they came upon a rockery. Going around it, they saw a sea of flowers. In the middle of the flower field ran a gravel path straight to the main gate, and on either side of the gate stood an octagonal, delicately carved tower.

Zhu San and Jin Yi went forward and opened the gate. Outside was a winding mountain path.

Wan Yanji said, “You’ve already come out. Surely you can give me the antidote now?”

“If I give you the antidote now, before five li are out, you’ll have me captured again,” An Yi said with a cold smile.

Wan Yanji’s face darkened. She had not expected such a young girl to be so hard to deal with.

An Yi’s gaze swept over the people of the Ten Thousand Flowers Palace. “All of you, back away. None of you are to follow. If anyone dares to come after us, I will kill her.”

The people of the palace looked toward Wan Yanji.

Wan Yanji blinked, then sighed. “Do as she says.”

The members of the Ten Thousand Flowers Palace withdrew until they were five paces behind An Yi’s group.

Someone suddenly said, “Without the antidote to the Mind God Pill, you won’t survive three months even if you leave here.”

The eleven young men stopped in place, their expressions wavering.

An Yi was about to speak when Zhu San sneered. “If I’m to be controlled by some Mind God Pill, I’d rather die.”

Cheng Ruizhi drew himself up and said, “Better to die cleanly than live in humiliation.”

Wei Xiaolin and Jin Yi laughed together. “Well said.”

Wei Xiaolin and Cheng Ruizhi walked at the front side by side. An Yi kept Wan Yanji in the middle, while Zhu San and Jin Yi brought up the rear. The others, fearing death, hesitated again and again and did not follow.

After they had gone three li, the frail Cheng Ruizhi could go no farther. He was short of breath and panting, his face white and his lips turning purple.

“Young fellow, let me carry you,” Wei Xiaolin said proactively.

Cheng Ruizhi waved him off.

“Ruizhi, don’t force yourself. Hurry and thank Senior Wei,” An Yi said.

“Tha—” Cheng Ruizhi had only just begun to speak when Wei Xiaolin extended a long arm, supported his waist, swung him onto his back, and carried him forward.

After another two li, Wan Yanji refused to go on. “We’re far enough from the manor now. You can give me the antidote, can’t you?”

“Girl, we can’t let this enchantress go. Kill her and rid the people of a scourge,” Jin Yi said.

Wan Yanji’s expression changed. She snapped, “Jin Yi, you lowly wretch, what right do you have to call yourself righteous?”

“Dealing with people like you, there’s no need to speak of martial virtue,” Zhu San said with a cold laugh, fists clenched.

“Ha ha ha ha.” Wan Yanji suddenly burst into laughter, rocking forward and back so hard the little bell earrings at her ears rang in a lively, tinkling chain.

“Agh! Agh! Agh! Agh!” Cheng Ruizhi and the other three clutched their heads and screamed in agony.

Laughing all the while, Wan Yanji stretched out a hand toward An Yi’s right wrist.

An Yi sidestepped and leaped backward three paces, narrowly avoiding the grab. Missing her first strike, Wan Yanji attacked again, still laughing, sweeping at An Yi’s throat.

The move was too fast. An Yi had no room to retreat, so she could only meet it with the flat of her palm against Wan Yanji’s left elbow. Wan Yanji did not engage her in a palm clash; instead, she sprang back. “All four of you kill her, and I’ll give you the antidote.”

Wei Xiaolin released his hold. His eyes were bloodshot. He struck, but not against An Yi; he charged straight at Wan Yanji.

Zhu San and Jin Yi also rushed at her at once.

Cheng Ruizhi knew no martial arts and, clutching his head in pain, rolled upon the ground.

Wan Yanji did not dare fight three people who still retained some measure of reason. She executed a light-footed escape and cried from afar, “Luo Shijiu, however cunning and foxlike you may be, today you shall drink this old woman’s bathwater! Ha ha ha!”

Stirred by Wan Yanji, the Mind God Pill’s poison erupted. The four of them were on the verge of losing all reason.

“Miss, go! Go now!” Wei Xiaolin and the other two clasped their hands together, urging her anxiously.

An Yi removed the two earrings and took out two pills. These were healing antidotes refined for her by Ji Fanyi. But there were only two pills, while there were four poisoned people. One had already been given to Cheng Ruizhi. The other—who should receive it?

“Three seniors, who among you has the best lightness skill?” An Yi asked.

“Little Jin,” Wei Xiaolin said.

“Jin Yi,” Zhu San said.

An Yi fed the pill to Jin Yi.

After about the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, Cheng Ruizhi and Jin Yi returned to normal. Wei Xiaolin and Zhu San, meanwhile, were already crazed with pain, clawing two deep pits into the ground.

“We have to go. Once they lose their reason completely, we won’t be able to beat them,” An Yi said.

Jin Yi looked at his two old friends, almost moved to tears. Enduring the pain, he carried Cheng Ruizhi onto his back and, together with An Yi, used lightness skill to fly away.

The moment they left, Wan Yanji flashed out from the woods, removed the bell from her left ear, and gave it a shake. The two men who had been clawing at the earth rose at once, their eyes vacant as they walked to Wan Yanji and knelt before her.

“Master.”

A cold light flickered in Wan Yanji’s eyes, her killing intent surging. “Wei Xiaolin, Zhu San, go after them and kill them.”

“Yes, Master.”

The two took their orders and pursued.

Wan Yanji laughed triumphantly three times and turned back the way she had come.

Jin Yi’s lightness skill lived up to his name, as though he truly had wings. Even carrying someone, he was faster than An Yi running on her own. No matter how hard she tried, she could not keep up. Then she heard movement behind her and turned her head, only to be stricken with horror.

Wei Xiaolin and Zhu San had already lost their reason, and every move they made was vicious. Even in a one-on-one fight, An Yi could not beat them. Much less now, against two at once, and with her sleeve arrows and silver needles gone, she had no means of defense at all.

Wei Xiaolin’s palm wind was fierce. An Yi could not evade in time and was swept off the cliff by the force of his strike.

She fell from the cliff like a broken kite, the wind howling past her ears. In the instant a person stands at the threshold of death, hidden potential bursts forth. She seized a vine growing from the cliffside.

The soil at the edge of the cliff was only a shallow layer, and the vine’s roots were not firmly anchored. Yet An Yi’s falling force was too great, and the vine was torn free at once.