WJ Chapter 42

Kudzu Vine (5)

Guan Wujue felt a wave of dizziness.

He struggled to open his eyes and staggered a step toward Yun Changliu, but could no longer stand. His entire body went limp like a puppet with severed strings, collapsing sideways.

“Wujue……!?”

Yun Changliu turned back in panic and reached out to catch the weakened Protector around the waist, pulling him into his arms.

Guan Wujue’s face was deathly pale as paper, his eyes tightly closed, his head and neck falling back limply as he lay motionless in Yun Changliu’s embrace.

Dark red traces gradually spread across his once immaculate brocade robe.

All the blood in Yun Changliu’s body went cold in an instant. His normally cool and calm voice immediately lost its usual composure, trembling badly, “Wujue… wake up, wake up…”

“Be good, open your eyes…”

He held the cold body in his arms tighter, feeling nothing but the wet stickiness of blood everywhere. His voice suddenly rose sharply, “Don’t scare me… Wujue!”

“Cough...”

Guan Wujue’s eyelashes trembled slightly. It took nearly all his remaining willpower to fight through the chaotic darkness and grasp a few threads of consciousness.

——In truth, at this moment, if anyone from the sect other than Yun Changliu had come to rescue him, the Four Directions Protector could have unhesitatingly allowed himself to fall unconscious and lose awareness.

But just before he collapsed, what filled his vision was the dragon-patterned white robe symbolizing the Sect Leader’s identity…

This was a serious problem. If it were anyone else crying out “Don’t scare me,” it would merely be an emotional outburst, but when it came to his own Sect Leader, this was no joke… Yun Changliu truly could not withstand this kind of shock!

So Guan Wujue could only breathe with difficulty in fits and starts, forcing himself to slowly lift his heavy eyelids, “…Sect Leader…”

However, what appeared in his blurred vision were countless gleaming blades, murderously lighting up behind Yun Changliu.

That group of black-clad assassins of unknown origin had been momentarily awed by the might of Yun Changliu’s single whip strike, causing their offensive to falter. But now seeing clearly that Yun Changliu had come alone and was protecting a severely wounded person in his arms, they hesitated no longer and surged forward together!

A flash of icy killing intent crossed Yun Changliu’s expression. With his left hand, he very carefully pulled the Protector into his embrace, adjusting to a more stable and comfortable position; with his right, he snapped the long whip. The Dragon-Chasing Whip brought forth the sound of tearing wind as it boldly met the attack.

Guan Wujue leaned against the Sect Leader’s shoulder, hearing only the clash of blades and the crisscrossing of vital energy beside his ears.

Yun Changliu held him while dodging and weaving through the encirclement of nearly a hundred people—no one could touch him. With each fall of the whip came the muffled sounds of flesh splitting open and bones shattering.

Crack!! Crack!!

The whip sounds were like death knells.

In the blink of an eye, Yun Changliu’s refined and handsome face was already splattered with enemy blood, making him look like a god of slaughter. All around, rocks crumbled and old trees broke, countless severed limbs and bodies sank in pools of blood—a scene truly like the hell of Yama.

This was the true power of the Dragon-Chasing Whip technique.

The Dragon-Chasing Whip technique was created by Yun Guyan. Its moves were fierce and cruel, emphasizing domineering force above all. The old Sect Leader favored his eldest son, teaching him all his internal and external martial arts without reservation. Yun Changliu’s whip technique was personally handed down by him. Unfortunately, though Yun Changliu had extremely high comprehension in martial arts, his temperament did not quite match the Dragon-Chasing Whip technique, so he rarely had occasions when he could unleash the full ten-tenths power of this ultimate skill.

Until this very moment—the sleeping dragon’s reverse scale had been touched, and it finally roared as it soared into the air. In an instant, wind and clouds churned and heaven and earth changed color.

The aura surrounding Yun Changliu was ruthless and violent, the killing intent leaking from his icy long eyes was terrifying. Guan Wujue was deeply alarmed, afraid that if the Sect Leader lost emotional control even slightly, it would trigger his poison. He called out hoarsely, “Sect Leader…”

“This lord is here.”

The Protector’s voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, easily drowned out by the chaos of battle. Yet Yun Changliu heard it. He immediately looked down at him, seizing this brief opening to send a stream of internal energy into Guan Wujue’s body without reservation, softening his voice to coax. “Don’t sleep, look at me.”

Guan Wujue said with difficulty, “Huo’er…”

Yun Changliu nodded. “It’s back, rest easy.”

Only then did Guan Wujue relax, first relieved about his beloved horse’s safety, and second gratified that the Sect Leader could still speak normally—it seemed he wouldn’t actually kill with eyes red from rage.

He couldn’t help but feel fortunate. Thank goodness Liuhuo was clever—seeing the dangerous situation and unable to save its master, it knew to turn back to Xifeng City to report. This time, it had truly saved his life.

The sound of the bitter wind howled through the mountain cliffs.

The situation reached a temporary stalemate. The attacking assassins had suffered heavy casualties and dared not attack again for the moment, looking toward their leader for instructions.

The leader stared gravely at Yun Changliu and raised his hand, making a gesture to fire arrows.

Seeing the crossbow-wielding assassins begin to nock and string their arrows, Guan Wujue immediately knew this was bad. “Sect Leader, let me go…!”

The current situation was different from when the Protector had been racing through the night. Then, all pursuers were behind him, and he only needed to deflect arrows coming from his rear. But now the two were trapped in the assassins’ encirclement, with assassins occupying positions above, below, left, and right on this steep cliff—enemies on all sides…

If ten thousand arrows were fired at once, Yun Changliu might be able to protect himself, but protecting another person as well would be absolutely impossible!

The sound of crossbows being raised was heart-stopping once it reached the ears.

Yet in truth, this momentary pause while raising them was the last time and last opportunity for those trapped.

“Don’t move!”

Yun Changliu barked at the person in his arms, and in the next moment leaped up while holding Guan Wujue!

Vast and mighty internal energy poured into the Dragon-Chasing Whip, sweeping forth with mountain-crushing, sea-overturning force. More than ten assassins wielding swords and daggers attempted to meet him, but couldn’t even withstand this single whip strike. All were sent flying back, and ahead, clouds of blood mist exploded.

He was going to force open a breach in the encirclement circle!

Arrow tips had already been aimed at Yun Changliu’s back.

The Sect Leader’s expression remained indifferent and unchanged as the Dragon-Chasing Whip swung again. As bodies fell one after another, what appeared ahead was not a mountain path for escape, but… a towering, steep cliff wall.

Yun Changliu had actually chosen such an incomprehensible dead end as his direction for breaking through!

But Guan Wujue immediately understood everything. His face turned ashen. “Sect Leader——“

In the next moment, several acupoints on his body were sealed by Yun Changliu, leaving him completely unable to move.

The Sect Leader channeled his internal energy to lift him, extremely gently and carefully sending Guan Wujue to the front of the rock wall, then removed his outer robe and covered the man with it.

Guan Wujue’s breath caught.

His vision was completely blocked by Yun Changliu’s outer robe. He couldn’t see anything and could only listen.

He heard the crossbows fire in unison, the whooshing sound of arrows breaking through the air immediately echoing through the mountains.

He heard the Dragon-Chasing Whip wailing shrilly, the clinking and clanging sounds of deflection continuing endlessly.

For some reason, the smell of blood grew thicker and thicker. In a daze, he heard the sound of sharp objects piercing flesh.

Sect Leader…!?

Guan Wujue felt the world spinning, his whole body trembling.

Behind his back was solid, safe rock.

In front of him stood a person, blocking all harm for him.

Clearly… clearly he was Yun Changliu’s Protector, yet once again he had been protected behind the Sect Leader without any room for defiance!

Just moments ago, when alone and trapped in the assassins’ encirclement, Guan Wujue had felt there could be no more difficult or longer moment than that.

Yet now, when no one could harm him in the slightest, the torment in his heart was a hundred, a thousand times worse.

He didn’t know how much time passed before the sound of arrows breaking through air gradually ceased.

The sounds of clashing weapons became dense, as if the battle situation had changed again.

The outer robe covering Guan Wujue’s face was lifted, then wrapped tightly around his body again. He weakly opened his eyes to see familiar black clothing and black armor surrounding him.

The Yin Ghosts from within Xifeng City had finally arrived and were now fighting with this group of assassins.

Yun Changliu knelt on one knee before Guan Wujue, now bearing five new wounds on his body, with some arrow tips even embedded in his flesh.

He himself seemed completely unaware of this, only urgently embracing the Protector and once again channeling internal energy into him, saying repeatedly, “It’s alright now, I’ll take you back right away, it’s alright now.”

In this world, no pain could be more tormenting than Fengchun Sheng, and Yun Changliu, who had grown up with Fengchun Sheng since childhood, could already regard these ordinary external injuries as nothing.

But Guan Wujue was terribly frightened, helplessly grasping Yun Changliu’s arm. “Sect Leader…! Cough cough cough cough… Sect Leader, you…”

“Don’t move!”

Yet Yun Changliu was even more panicked than him. With such severe injuries and blood loss, they truly couldn’t delay any longer. He lifted Guan Wujue along with the outer robe covering him into his arms, stood up, and instructed the Yin Ghost beside him, “This lord will take the Protector and go ahead first. You all be careful of these people’s martial arts… Remember to leave survivors!”

Then, summoning his lightness skill, he leaped onto the mountain path.

Having escaped danger, Guan Wujue’s constantly taut nerves gradually relaxed, and his consciousness immediately plunged into haziness.

Cold mountain wind poured into his lungs and he began coughing incessantly again, instinctively wanting to curl up.

The cold wind swept past Yun Changliu’s face, making his black hair fly wildly. The Sect Leader was at his wit’s end. With both hands occupied holding the person, in his desperation he actually pressed his lips in confusion against the cold skin of Guan Wujue’s forehead, haphazardly placing soothing kisses. “Almost there, taking you back… endure a little more, almost there.”

“Sect Leader…” Guan Wujue’s eyes were half-open, his pupils already so dilated they’d lost focus. His voice was hoarse and weak, thin as a mosquito’s buzz, yet he still struggled to form words, “Wujue won’t die…”

“You won’t… you won’t, don’t be afraid.”

Yun Changliu could only repeat the same incoherent words of comfort over and over, forcing his internal energy to the point where his meridians ached, only hating that he couldn’t go faster.

“You…don’t panic, cough cough… Fengchun Sheng, must avoid emotional agitation…” Guan Wujue’s voice grew lower and lower, the ending already barely audible.

“——I’m not panicked, where am I panicked?”

Yun Changliu no longer knew what he was saying, didn’t even know where he was.

He only felt the body temperature of the person in his arms growing colder bit by bit, breathing becoming weaker and weaker. Fear spread to every corner of his mind. Yun Changliu said with a trembling voice, “Be good… don’t talk anymore, don’t talk, we’re almost there. Look ahead, it’s Xifeng City… do you see it?”

Ahead, Xifeng City’s black, towering walls were indeed close at hand, the city gates slowly opening.

Guan Wujue called out “Sect Leader” in a low voice, but it was already a broken gasp without voice.

His chest weakly convulsed once, his eyes slowly closed, and his bloodless face silently leaned into Yun Changliu’s embrace… he had passed out.

“Wujue!”

Yun Changliu was both shocked and pained, knowing that Guan Wujue had already reached his absolute limit. The truly dangerous time was coming…!

In a flash they had reached beneath the city. The Sect Leader looked up—the gates were not yet fully open.

Not daring to wait even these few breaths of time, Yun Changliu directly channeled his lightness skill. His foot suddenly touched down with such force that the ground stones cracked and accumulated snow scattered in all directions!

A fine wind swept past.

In the blink of an eye, the young Sect Leader of Zhuyin Sect descended with graceful bearing. Against the ten-thousand-zhang morning light rising from the distant mountains behind him, like the great roc bird from ancient legends riding the whirlwind upward, he held Guan Wujue and safely landed atop the towering city wall.

On the city wall, the Zhuhuo Guards all cried out in unison, incomparable shock on everyone’s faces.

The Sect Leader dared not pause, leaping down from the high wall with his lightness skill once more.

Below the wall, Wen Feng had just arrived. Seeing both men covered in blood, his expression changed immediately.

But he was worthy of being someone who could serve as the Sect Leader’s personal attendant—even at this moment, his mind remained calm, and his first words were: “Elder Guan is at the Medicine Gate!”

Yun Changliu nodded, left Wen Feng behind, and headed straight toward the Medicine Gate while holding the unconscious Protector.