Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sporadic, poorly aimed volley of arrows whistled through the air as the soldiers made a desperate attempt to slow her down. Su Min moved with a dancer's preternatural grace, her body flowing in perfect harmony with the rhythm of the gallop. She spun her slender sword in a shimmering, defensive arc.
The fine steel met each incoming projectile with a sharp, metallic ring, deflecting every single one with impossible accuracy. Shattered arrowheads and splintered shafts clattered uselessly to the hard, dry ground behind her galloping horse, marking her trail with the debris of their failed effort.
The horse's hooves beat a frantic, staccato rhythm against the packed earth. It was a sound of pure flight, rhythmic and desperate.
Hiss—
A collective, sharp intake of breath came from the pursuing cavalry. They instinctively reined in their mounts, their faces masks of stunned disbelief. Their earlier bravado evaporated like mist in a strong wind, replaced by a cold, creeping realization.
"How is this possible?!" one of them whispered. His voice was tight with a shock that bordered on genuine fear.
Su Min's reflexes weren't simply human. They far exceeded anything they had ever witnessed on any battlefield, a feat even their most seasoned, battle-hardened veterans couldn't hope to match. Their orders demanded she be taken alive, but if risking their lives wasn't enough to even touch her—if she could bat away their arrows like annoying insects—what was the point of chasing this demon further?
Noticing their hesitation and the sudden break in their pursuit, Su Min allowed herself a small, internal sigh of relief. After breaking through to the mid-stage of Body Refining, her perception had sharpened to an incredible degree. By focusing her mind and channeling a thread of spiritual energy to her eyes, she could track the flight path of each arrow with crystal clarity. The world seemed to slow down just for her, making the projectiles appear like lazy, drifting feathers in the wind.
"Witch! You think you can escape?!"
A furious, youthful roar cut through her momentary respite. Ahead, a young general in his twenties charged toward her on a powerful, snorting warhorse. His face was a contorted mask of rage and ambition. He lowered his gleaming silver spear, its polished, razor-sharp tip aimed directly at her heart. It was a classic cavalry charge, a killing blow meant to skewer her where she sat.
"Look! It's General Sun!"
"General Sun, stop her!"
The soldiers behind her cheered, their hope renewed by the sight of a noble officer. Their courage was artificially bolstered by his presence.
Su Min narrowed her eyes as her focus became absolute. The world shrunk to the single point of that silver spear. The lance's angle was vicious and precise, a strike aimed with deadly intent and years of practiced skill. The Body Refining stage was still a step below true immortal cultivation and remained bound by many mortal limits. She was tougher than a normal person, her bones denser and her skin more resilient, but she couldn't afford carelessness against a well-placed thrust from a fine weapon.
Yet, no matter how refined the martial technique, it was useless against someone who could read every tiny flex of his muscle and every shift of his weight. She could react faster than thought and strike with overwhelming, cultivated force. To her, his movements were all just flashy, mortal posturing.
At the very last possible second, when the spear tip was a mere hand's breadth from her chest, she twisted her body aside with serpentine agility. As the spear shot past her, a silver streak of wasted motion, she grabbed the wooden shaft with one hand and the general's armored wrist with the other. Her grip was like iron. Then, using his own forward momentum against him, she yanked hard, unseating him with brutal efficiency.
Thud!
The man flew from his saddle as if launched from a catapult and hit the dirt with a heavy, bone-jarring thud. He rolled in a cloud of dust and dry grass, his ornate armor clattering against the stones. Before he could even recover his breath or his wits, Su Min leaned down low from her own horse, her balance perfect. In one fluid, practiced motion, she snatched the powerful laminated bow from his back and plucked a single, fletched arrow from the quiver strapped to his saddle.
She nocked, drew, and released in a single, seamless breath.
Twang!
"ARGH!"
A sharp, choked scream tore through the air as the arrow punched straight through his decorated chest plate and buried itself deep into his heart. The pursuing cavalry, who had been moments from charging in to support him, froze in their tracks. Their blood ran cold as they watched their leader fall. The color drained from their faces, leaving them pale and wan. Her movements had been a seamless, brutal dance of death that left no room for counterattack and no space for heroics. Several soldiers scrambled from their horses and rushed to check General Sun's pulse, but a heavy, terrified silence followed their discovery. He was gone.
This was the grandson of Grand General Sun Tangshou, a three-dynasty veteran with immense influence in the court and a temper known to be as fierce as his battle prowess. The young Sun himself hadn't been a slouch; he was a skilled tactician and widely considered one of the army's finest young warriors. It usually took six or seven elite soldiers to match him in sparring combat.
And now he had been killed in a handful of seconds, like a child swatting a fly. Who in their right mind would keep chasing the demon who had done that? What reward was worth such a certain death? Their unit was already understaffed, mostly infantry who couldn't hope to catch a galloping horse.
The dozen or so horsemen left would just be picked off one by one, acting as target practice for her bow. This wasn't a real, honorable battlefield. Dying here wouldn't bring their families glory or a pension. It would only bring ridicule for being bested by a single, unarmored girl.
"Why risk our necks for a monthly stipend?" one soldier muttered. He voiced the thought that was now on all their minds, shattering the last illusion of duty.
Su Min exhaled slowly. A genuine wave of relief washed over her, cooling the fire in her veins. That general had gone straight for the kill with no hesitation and no false chivalry. His gilded armor had marked him as high nobility, making him the perfect example to make. The result was even better than she had hoped; she had broken their will.
If she was being completely honest with herself, she had never properly trained in archery. Instead, in the brief moment she had grabbed his wrist to unseat him, she had imprinted a tiny, almost invisible spark of her spiritual energy onto his chest, right over his heart. The arrow, subtly infused with a wisp of her power, had then homed in on that spark like a magnet drawn to steel. It was a cheat, a cultivator's trick against a mortal warrior.
But then—
Thud-thud-thud!
The ground began to tremble, a vibration she felt through her horse's hooves. A distant thunder, the sound of hundreds of synchronized hoofbeats, rolled toward them from the east and west. The signal flare had done its job.
"Reinforcements from the flanks," she realized, her brief moment of triumph cut short.
But it was too late for them to intercept her. She had chosen her breakout point with meticulous care, aiming for a spot right by the edge of the Jishui River where the bank was low. Without slowing, she spurred her tired horse toward the water's edge. At the very last moment, as the animal skidded to a halt in the mud, she leaped from the saddle, abandoning her steed.
SPLASH!
Her boots skimmed the river's churning, gray-brown surface, barely making a dent in the water. She was running, propelled forward by a thin, concentrated layer of spiritual energy that adhered to the soles of her feet. It created a temporary, solid platform with each step, allowing her to treat the water as solid ground. This technique, using qi to walk on water or scale walls, required a finesse and control that most Body Refining cultivators never mastered. At the Qi Refining stage, one couldn't use brute force to propel oneself, but for now, perfect, unwavering precision was the only way. It was something she had practiced relentlessly in her secluded mountain pool for hours on end, anticipating this very moment of escape.
Mid-river, she risked a single glance back over her shoulder. The reinforcement cavalry had reached the bank, a mass of men and horses, but they could only watch in silence. Their jaws were slack with a kind of superstitious horror as they witnessed a lone girl sprinting across the wide river as if it were a paved imperial road. By the time their officers bellowed orders and they fumbled to nock their arrows, she was already a small, receding figure far out of their maximum range.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
The moment her feet touched the soft mud of the far shore, Su Min's legs buckled. The spiritual energy in them was utterly spent. She collapsed to her knees and gasped for air, her chest heaving as she tasted the spray of the river. The toll was immense. Her calves screamed with a deep, burning pain, and the core of spiritual energy within her dantian had felt nearly empty. It was as dim as a guttering candle.
But she had done it.
She was safe.
She was across.
In this era, no bridge, no matter how grand, couldn't hope to span a river this wide and powerful. Crossing required boats, ferries, and time. The only vessels on this side were a few rickety fishing skiffs, utterly useless for a swift military pursuit. Any pursuers would be idiots to follow in those, and if a few brave, foolish stragglers did make it across, she was confident she could handle them easily.
"Farewell, gentlemen," she whispered toward the distant, helpless soldiers. Her voice was hoarse but laced with triumph.
Tossing a Qi Restoring Pill into her mouth from her storage ring, she felt a welcome warmth immediately spread through her tired meridians. It was a balm to the emptiness. With one final glance at the vast, impotent army stranded across the water, she turned on her heel and vanished into the deep shadows of the southern forests. She left only silence in her wake.
She wasn't completely out of danger yet, not by a long shot. She wouldn't be safe until she had put the entire Great Wei Dynasty's sphere of control far behind her.
Back across the river, the massive, once-proud army stood in dumbfounded, humiliated silence. The scale of their failure was absolute. They had spent half a year in meticulous preparation. They had mobilized hundreds of thousands of men and felled countless trees to create firebreaks. They had even burned an entire sacred mountain range, an act that would haunt the land for generations.
And she had just walked away across the water, as if their entire effort was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.