Chapter 801: Refuse the Toast, Drink the Penalty Cup

Still no sign of him.

Yan Baoru flashed down onto the branches of several other great trees and searched again, but found nothing. She could not help cursing Niu Youdao's vigilance. The man was as slippery as an old fox; at the slightest hint that something was wrong, he vanished without a trace.

She had been tailing him all along. Niu Youdao skimmed over the treetops while she followed through the forest beneath the canopy. In theory, any birds along the way should have been startled into flight by Niu Youdao first. Instead, she had run straight into a nest of some unknown stupid birds hiding below and sent them bursting upward.

The instant she saw Niu Youdao notice and drop into the forest, she doubled back and concealed herself behind a tree. Yet in that brief moment while she evaded his notice, the instant he slipped out of her sight, Niu Youdao had darted away and disappeared.

His grasp of timing told Yan Baoru that she had run into an expert at shaking a tail.

What she did not know was that Niu Youdao was still inferior to Yuan Gang in this regard. Yuan Gang was the true expert, and it was Yuan Gang who had taught Niu Youdao counter-surveillance methods like this.

There was one thing she could be certain of, however. Niu Youdao had been out of her sight only briefly. If he moved again, it would be difficult for him to avoid being spotted. He should still be somewhere nearby.

She wanted him to misjudge the situation and assume that some wild beast had startled the birds, allowing her to continue following him, so she stayed hidden and did not move.

But after about an hour passed with no sign of Niu Youdao, she could no longer sit still. Had he already slipped away?

Then she reconsidered. If she had been exposed, so be it. At worst, she would stop following him. Tracking him was not her main purpose anyway. Even if Niu Youdao had escaped, she was not worried: she knew who he was traveling with, and she knew where those people were. She could always lie in wait for him there later.

She finally showed herself and searched, only to find nothing. The terrain here was complicated enough that Niu Youdao truly might have gotten away.

He managed to escape even after all that? Yan Baoru cursed under her breath.

Even so, she did not give up easily and continued searching the area.

Niu Youdao actually had chances to make use of the difficult terrain and slip away whenever Yan Baoru moved farther off and stopped paying attention to his hiding place. He did not.

He was considering the same question that had troubled him earlier: had this truly been a chance encounter?

He regretted not asking Situ Yao about Yan Baoru's situation. After he had left the State of Yan, had Yan Baoru remained there?

If she had later left Yan, then meeting her here really could have been coincidence.

But if she had not left, then a group from Yan had just been lured into an ambush and killed here, and now Yan Baoru appeared in the same place. Could that possibly be coincidence?

If it was not, then she could not have simply appeared halfway along his route and begun following him. Niu Youdao's heart grew heavy. He had no idea how much Yan Baoru knew, or whether she already knew that he had joined forces with the people from overseas.

After searching the surroundings for a while longer, Yan Baoru seemed to give up. She suddenly flashed up into the treetops as if she were about to leave.

Hidden in the shadows, Niu Youdao turned his head, quickly picked up a branch beside him, and snapped it in his hand with a crisp crack, making it sound as though someone had accidentally stepped on a dead twig.

The sharp noise carried through the quiet mountain forest. The graceful figure that had just risen into the canopy immediately dropped back among the trees. Yan Baoru paused on a branch, her gaze fixed in this direction, then floated down with steps light enough to skim ripples, landing atop the weeds that grew taller than a man. Her great sleeves swept again and again.

Wherever her spiritual power rolled through, weeds flew in all directions.

In this fashion, Yan Baoru advanced toward the sound, clearing the undergrowth as she went and searching the ground section by section like a carpet sweep.

When she was nearly on top of him, Niu Youdao swept an arm out, flung aside the jagged rocks covering him, and rose to his feet.

The two stood only several zhang apart, facing each other.

Bits of grass fluttered around Yan Baoru while dislodged soil and stone fell around Niu Youdao. Then everything became still.

Niu Youdao brushed an insect crawling over his shoulder. At the sight, Yan Baoru smiled, and her cold, beautiful face broke into a rare, brilliant smile. "Hide, then. Keep hiding. Why did you stop?"

"You were almost stepping on my head. There was nowhere left to hide." Niu Youdao sounded resigned. "Bad luck on my part. If I'd held out just a little longer, you probably would've gone past."

Yan Baoru sneered. "Indeed. You very nearly got away with it."

Niu Youdao asked, "How did you know I was here? A chance encounter?"

"A chance encounter?" Mockery touched the corner of Yan Baoru's mouth. "I've been following your group for several days. You always had too many people around you, and I thought I'd have little chance to approach. Who would've guessed you'd leave the group by yourself? I meant to follow and see what sort of scheme you and that pack of demons and monsters were plotting, but a little accident gave me away. I have to admit, you truly know how to endure. The slightest thing seemed wrong and you hid for this long. You almost slipped away. Just as you said, your luck was a little lacking."

What Yan Baoru had learned from Li Wuhua was limited. She knew only that Lingjian Mountain had discovered traces of Niu Youdao and intended to hunt him down. No one had expected Niu Youdao to be together with that band of demons and monsters; the people from Lingjian Mountain had simply walked straight onto the blade.

She knew only that Lingjian Mountain had happened to discover Niu Youdao. She did not know that he had deliberately baited them. She had been unable to approach Niu Youdao's group and had no idea what they were doing.

Even now, it had never occurred to her that Niu Youdao himself was serving as bait, because she could not imagine that those demons and monsters would dare oppose the forces of all seven states.

That was why, when she saw Niu Youdao leave the group alone, she had badly wanted to follow and find out what he intended to do.

But her words meant something very different to Niu Youdao. His heart sank. This woman really had discovered that he and the people from overseas were working together.

"Showing yourself is fine too," Yan Baoru added with a cold snort. "Sneaking around behind you was tiring. Whatever I want to know, I can just ask you directly."

Niu Youdao said, "I imagine you're only curious. You don't actually mean me any harm, do you?"

"You treacherous bastard." Yan Baoru's tone sharpened. "You haven't forgotten the probing from a few months ago already, have you? You should know perfectly well what my intentions toward you are."

"I have no grievance or grudge with you. I'm guessing coming after me wasn't your own idea." Niu Youdao remained calm. "A man about to die ought to at least be allowed to die knowing why. Who sent you?"

"That isn't important. Tell me this: what are you doing mixed up with those demons and monsters? If your answer satisfies me, I may leave you a path to survival."

"In a place like this, what else could we be doing? Looking for Spirit Seeds."

"If you'd told me that before, perhaps I would have believed your nonsense. There would've been no reason not to. What else would people band together for here besides searching for Spirit Seeds?" Yan Baoru looked him over. "But you left the group alone. Does it look as though you're searching for Spirit Seeds? I've followed you for days. Other than stopping to rest, you've done nothing but travel. I haven't seen any of you make the slightest effort to search for Spirit Seeds. Niu Youdao, I am very dissatisfied with that answer. I advise you not to refuse a toast only to drink the penalty cup. If I have to pry your mouth open myself, you won't enjoy the experience. I happen to like cleanliness. I truly don't want to dirty my hands."

She raised a hand and almost tenderly stroked her own slender, jade-like fingers.

"You'd better worry about saving yourself!" Niu Youdao said, looking past her shoulder.

Yan Baoru's heart tightened. She whirled around.

Nothing. No one was there.

Realizing something was wrong, she snapped her head back. Niu Youdao's sword was already out of its sheath. A cold gleam slashed several arcs of sword qi toward her while he seized the chance to flee.

Yan Baoru's great sleeves lashed out in succession. Several thunderous impacts shook the forest as the force behind her sleeves directly smashed apart the sword qi, as though the sleeves themselves were iron.

Furious that he dared toy with her using such a petty trick, Yan Baoru shot forward and pursued Niu Youdao through the forest.

Her sleeves billowed as she rapidly closed on him, like a hawk swooping down on a fleeing hare.

Still airborne, Yan Baoru rotated one fair palm and pushed.

Niu Youdao abruptly felt the air around him congeal. An inconceivably powerful tension filled the space, making movement difficult, as though he had fallen into some transparent, viscous fluid.

Yan Baoru drew her palm back.

The surrounding currents instantly dragged Niu Youdao away just as he was about to land and borrow force from the ground, pulling him backward through the air. It was as if this entire pocket of space had fallen under Yan Baoru's control.

Then her palm struck out with startling speed.

The air that had been churning inward suddenly reversed like an overwhelming mountain-and-sea surge and slammed into Niu Youdao's back.

Boom!

Niu Youdao was blasted away. The bundle on him burst apart, and glittering purple Spirit Seeds scattered through the air like rain.

"Puh!" Blood sprayed from Niu Youdao's mouth as he crashed into a great tree and fell to the ground.

A figure flashed. Yan Baoru was already standing before him. She glanced around at the falling purple rain, somewhat surprised.

Then both sleeves turned over sharply. A whirlwind rose around her, setting weeds and loose stones spinning from the ground. Standing at its center, she extended one hand. Specks of purple light shot out from the whirling debris and gathered in her palm.

In moments, the Spirit Seeds had clustered into a large globe of purple crystal resting on her hand.

She had recovered every Spirit Seed that had just scattered in the blink of an eye.

With a light flick of her other sleeve, the whirlwind of debris abruptly expanded outward, scouring the surroundings clean. The gusts spread away through the forest and gradually died.

Yan Baoru looked down coldly at Niu Youdao. He lay on the ground gasping, face deathly pale and blood hanging from the corner of his mouth, seemingly on his last breath. Holding out the great mass of purple crystal on one palm, she demanded, "You actually have this many Spirit Seeds on you. Speak. What exactly are you plotting?"

"We..." Niu Youdao murmured. The rest dissolved into an unintelligible gurgle.

Keeping the purple crystal balanced on one hand, Yan Baoru made a grasping motion through the air with the other and hauled Niu Youdao upright without touching him.

She was just reaching to seize the front of his robe and hold him up for questioning when his seemingly weak eyes snapped open, suddenly cold and fierce. Riding the motion, he struck with one palm.

"Courting death!"

The reversal came without warning. Caught off guard by the point-blank ambush, Yan Baoru turned her clawing hand into a palm and met his strike head-on.

Boom!

The great tree behind Niu Youdao—the tree on which he had planted his other hand—exploded through the middle of its trunk, splintering apart on the spot.

Yan Baoru was startled. She could feel that the full force of her palm had not landed on Niu Youdao. Most of it had gone into the tree instead.

The violently shaking upper half of the tree immediately toppled. Niu Youdao, who had taken her palm, was already shooting backward through the storm of splinters bursting behind him. In an instant he had broken away from Yan Baoru. He reached through empty air, and the sword knocked away earlier shot up from the ground and flew back into his hand.

[End of Chapter 801]