Poison Genius Consort

Chu Tianyin was quite crafty, aiming for every possible direction with his first move. Long Feiye’s reach with his whip was limited by the cramped space, so he couldn’t perform as easily as usual. With just that, Chu Tianyin gained a huge advantage.

As the arrows flew towards him, Long Feiye snapped his whip and knocked them all to the ground. Under these circumstances, he had to struggle for a chance to stop Chu Tianyin from shooting. Chu Tianyin was in no mind to give Long Feiye any space to breathe, but quickly set a second round of arrows flying at him. Because of space limitations, Long Feiye had no choice but to dodge them. 

If this was like before, he would try to get closer to Chu Tianyin and kill him even at the expense of getting shot. But Han Yunxi had said the arrows were poisoned with a fatal toxin. If even she was reminding him to watch it, it couldn’t be an easy poison to deal with. Even if Han Yunxi could treat it, it would still take precious time. Being oppressed like this really made Long Feiye depressed. 

As he dodged the arrows, he began to plan out a counterattack. Regretfully, their luck was really rotten this time. If this kept on, Chu Tianyin would be able to read the path of his whip and easily shoot around it. And because Long Feiye was so used to fighting alone, he completely overlooked Gu Qishao’s assistance. Even injured, Gu Qishao was still a fighter himself!

Currently, Gu Qishao was still protecting Han Yunxi while sporting an arrow in one shoulder. His eyes were narrowed at the space around the black-robed woman for a suitable patch of dirt as his hand toyed with a seed. Han Yunxi wasn’t idle, either. She was staring at Chu Tianyin, her fingers hovering over the Pear Blossom Teardrop Rain around her hand. Even if she couldn’t kill him, she could distract him with a few needles. Before Gu Qishao had made his move, she’d already shot a few poison needles at Chu Tianyin’s leg. But he dodged them all while still shooting his arrows, releasing a fresh slew of them at her to boot. 

He was not only skilled in archery, but martial arts as well---much more than they imagined. Faced with this reality, Long Feiye wanted all the more to give him a thorough thrashing, but the tunnel was too narrow for long swords or whips. 

“Do Your Highness Duke of Qin and Qin Wangfei plan to fight two against one?” Chu Tianyin mocked them. He had been quite polite the last time they met in these grounds, but not this time.

“Wrong! It’s three against one!” Gu Qishao replied arrogantly as he threw a tiny seed in his direction. Since he couldn’t find any appropriate soil, he might as well use Chu Tianyin’s blood and flesh instead!

But!

Once again, Chu Tianyin dodged without missing a beat with his arrows. Long Feiye once again knocked all the arrows to the ground. “Who would’ve thought that the Chu Clan’s eldest young master had such hidden depths!”

“Who would’ve thought that the sword sect master’s pride and joy was better with the whip instead!” Despite his ridicule, Chu Tianyin was secretly filled with admiration. Long Feiye was the first person in history who could last this long against the Nether Clan’s Driving Arrow Arts. 

The situation between them hadn’t changed after Han Yunxi and Gu Qishao got involved. In some ways, Chu Tianyin was truly capable of taking them one to three in this tunnel. Otherwise, he wouldn’t reveal the Chu Clan’s secret arts so easily! Neither Han Yunxi nor Gu Qishao gave up, however. This time they switched to targeting the black-robed woman instead, using both needles and seeds as projectiles. But the woman evaded them easily as well!

Han Yunxi was stunned. “Gu Qishao, have you gotten as bad as me, or is she just too strong?” Even if her weapons missed, Gu Qishao’s should have hit.

Gu Qishao narrowed his eyes dangerously. “This woman...is even stronger than Chu Tianyin!”

As he spoke, he quickly pulled Han Yunxi aside, just in time to avoid an arrow that had slipped past Long Feiye’s guard towards her. So close! Long Feiye grew alarmed as well as he realized the true adversary before them was actually the black-robed woman.

“Originally, I had wanted to see just what was so good about the man that Qingge fancied, but from what I’ve seen so far…” the black-robed woman’s lips curved up into a cold smirk before she mocked drawing an invisible bow to launch an arrow of her own! Her arrogance was very similar to Chu Qingge, but just who was this woman to the Chu Clan?

Unable to predict her moves, Long Feiye retreated to Han Yunxi’s side. “Withdraw!” he cried.

Both Chu Tianyin and the black-robed woman smiled. Since they’d exposed the Driving Arrow Arts, they would definitely see them die! Both of them began to shoot arrow after arrow at the trio. Long Feiye didn’t have any time to retreat. He could only continue to block their weapons, but only by using twice as much effort as before! He managed to dispel the first wave, but two arrows slipped past his guard on the second to aim for Han Yunxi. Fortunately, Gu Qishao was able to shield her. By the third wave, an arrow had brushed past Long Feiye’s face, grazing the skin with its sheer pressure despite not hitting its mark. 

This was probably the most dangerous situation Long Feiye had been in for his entire life.

“You two go first!” he shouted.

“Impossible!” “You’re thinking too much!” Both Han Yunxi and Gu Qishao completely rejected his idea. At the same time, there was a rumble from behind Chu Tianyin and the black-robed woman. The giant boulder burst into pieces, filling the air with dust. In their wake came Tang Li and Chu Xifeng’s figures.

Reinforcements had arrived!

The duo had rushed over even faster as soon as they got Long Feiye’s message. Tang Li had used quite a bit of explosives to blast apart the rock, only to come upon a heated scene of combat. Everyone was momentarily stunned, but less than a second later, Long Feiye had reacted with his whip. He finally managed to attack before Chu Tianyin and the woman could retaliate, forcing them to duck while Tang Li and Chu Xifeng sprang into the fray.

But something unexpected happened once again. 

The tunnel had been rocking up and down before, but now it switched to shaking left and right. In a flash, the ground beneath them split open to reveal a deep fissure. Nobody expected this, so everyone fell in. Long Feiye instinctively went to look for Han Yunxi, but all he saw was darkness before him!

“Han Yunxi!” he shouted, but there was no reply.

The fissure was very deep and it was black all around them. The entire world seemed to be shaking as they all fell. It was a long time before everything grew silent…

--

Some time afterwards, Han Yunxi’s eyes suddenly shot open. She discovered that she’d ended up in dense, dim forest filled with plants that could be used for poisons. She had heard Long Feiye shouting her name when they fell into the fissure, but her sudden loss of gravity had caused the blood rushing to her head, causing her to black out before she could reply. 

Where is this? I didn’t fall to my death?

Han Yunxi hastily crawled to her feet to look over her body, only to find herself completely uninjured. She should’ve been rejoicing, but she only felt dread and fear in her heart. Just what happened? Who in the world rescued me? And who put out that fire back in the secret tunnels?

Where’s Long Feiye and the rest of them?

There was nothing here but wild trees and grass, causing her to shiver unconsciously. She hastily headed towards a source of light, never noticing the white figure shadowing her from behind. Soon enough, Han Yunxi saw a round sacrificial altar surrounded by dense undergrowth. Its stone stele was covered with green vines, making it look both solemn and mysterious. 

Is this a sacrificial altar from the Poison Sect’s old days? 

The Poison Sect and the medical academy both hailed from a long history. During the time of the Great Qin Empire, their power and influence were only average, but as the dynasty collapsed, various factions rose abruptly into prominence, the Poison Sect and academy amongst them. While Han Yunxi was puzzling things out, a very familiar sound came rushing at her from behind.

Shuaaaa…. The whistling of an arrow!

Greatly alarmed, Han Yunxi spun back in time to see a long whip knock the arrow aside. Long Feiye flew in from one side and had pulled Han Yunxi behind him as soon as he landed. At the same time, Gu Qishao, Chu Xifeng and Tang Li all appeared from the woods to station themselves around them. After falling down the dark fissure, they’d ended up wandering into this patch of woods. All of them landed together except for Han Yunxi. If they hadn’t been close by and caught the sound of the arrow, Heaven only knows what would have happened.

Long Feiye’s expression was ghastly, but his voice remained cool. “Who saved you?”

All of them had used their lightness techniques to land on the ground unharmed, but Han Yunxi didn’t know any martial arts. If she didn’t fall to her death, then someone must have saved her life.

“I don’t know either, I lost consciousness,” Han Yunxi said honestly.

“Maybe that fellow who put out the fire?” Gu Qishao suggested doubtfully. As they spoke, multiple arrows suddenly shot out from the forest, truculent and aggressive.

“You’re seeking death!” Long Feiye replaced his whip with his sword and leapt into the air. After being cramped in that tunnel for so long, he could finally let loose and slaughter to his heart’s content here.

The Nether Clan’s Chu Family! Hmph, this is adding new grudges on top of the old. Today I’ll settle scores both for my country and myself!

His body itself was like an arrow flying taut from its bow. Every weapon he met hit his sword with a clang, clang, clang, falling to the ground, as he pushed his way into the woods. Finally, Chu Tianyin couldn’t hold back his onslaught any longer and emerged from the forest. Long Feiye immediately went to give chase. Alarm shone in Chu Tianyin’s eyes as he instantly released a cloud of arrows against him!

The arrows fell through the air like a canopy of spikes, whistling in the air. Long Feiye finally stopped to sweep them all aside. In turn, Chu Tianyin released a fresh onslaught to attack him. The two of them fought back and forth in mid-air, but unlike their bout in the tunnel, Long Feiye had a clear advantage. He quickly batted away each arrow as he drew closer to Chu Tianyin. The latter had started to gradually retreat, but soon slipped into frantic fleeing. The frequent clangs of sword against arrows was a testament to Long Feiye’s superior speed. As soon as they were within proximity of each other, Chu Tianyin’s arrows would be useless against Long Feiye’s sword.

Han Yunxi and the rest watched with trepidation while silently cheering for Long Feiye. Abruptly, another figure flew out from behind Chu Tianyin---the black-robed woman! She scattered arrows at Long Feiye as soon as she appeared, so Tang Li and Chu Xifeng both flew up to provide assistance. Gu Qishao simply smirked before soundlessly shooting out a single seed.

Tang Li’s assassination weapons and Chu Xifeng’s sword skills quickly trapped the black-robed woman and prevented her from helping Chu Tianyin. She could only focus her efforts on them instead.

“You’re both men, but you’re taking advantage of your numbers to oppress the weak. And even using assassination weapons! Despicable!” the black-robed woman cursed them.