Heng Xiaowen rejoined the huddle with Yang Jingfei slung over his shoulder and deposited her on the ground next to him.

“So, what’s the plan?” he asked.

“Well,” Song Jiayi said. “I think luring it into a containment array is still the most straightforward approach. This area is more densely populated than the other places we’ve hunted, so we’ll have to be careful and try keep the horse out of town.”

The horse snorted.

Everyone froze.

Holding their breath and staying as still as possible, everyone’s eyes flicked to the source of the unexpected sound.

It was a… Heng Xiaowen didn’t know how big horses were supposed to be. This horse didn’t seem particularly large. It was sturdily built with a white coat and chestnut patches.

More importantly, it was standing right in their fucking huddle!

Slowly, carefully, Song Jiayi reached for her sword.

The horse gave another dismissive snort, stamped its hoof, and was gone so fast Heng Xiaowen had hardly seen it move.

“Okay.” Song Jiayi cleared her throat. “Keeping it out of town may prove more difficult than anticipated.”

Hardly a second later, they heard a crash and a scream from down the road. They all took off at a dead sprint.

Song Jiayi skidded to a halt in front of what used to be a flower cart and was now a pile of splintered wood and scattered flowers.

Heng Xiaowen still hadn’t gotten used to how fast he was now able to run. By the time he realized he was about to crash into his master, it was too late to stop and he swerved to avoid her, losing his footing. Song Jiayi caught him by the back of the collar, hoisting him upright as a mindless reflex.

A commotion surrounded the cart; alarmed shouting, frantic investigation, haphazard attempts to help.

In the center of the chaos, a young woman was sitting on the ground, wailing and clutching her leg.

It was one of the more gruesome injuries Heng Xiaowen had ever seen. He quickly looked away. Legs shouldn’t look like that. He didn’t need to know more.

The horse was nowhere to be seen.

Qiu Jucheng quickly pushed through the crowd and kneeled down. “Miss,” he said to the wailing woman. “I may be able to help a little, if you will allow me.”

She whimpered some kind of assent. Heng Xiaowen’s curiosity beat out his nausea and he watched as Qiu Jucheng tapped several places along the woman’s mangled leg. Afterwords, he took her hand for a moment. The woman’s breathing slowed, she was still clearly in pain but whatever Qiu Jucheng had done eased it somewhat. “That should stop the bleeding for now, you should have someone take you to a doctor right away.”

The woman gulped. “Thank you.”

“What happened?” Song Jiayi asked. “Did you see anything?”

The woman shook her head. “It happened so quickly, I don’t— I don’t understand.”

Song Jiayi nodded, and then herded her disciples away from the scene, letting the locals take over.

“Will she be okay, Shishu?” Yang Jingfei asked.

“She’ll survive,” he said. “If the local doctor is skilled, she’ll be able to walk with a cane.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Qiu Jucheng didn’t elaborate on what would happen if the doctor wasn’t skilled. Heng Xiaowen drew his own conclusions.

Heng Xiaowen recalled the pancake motion the old women had made with her hands. He supposed it wasn’t the worst outcome.. It didn’t stop his stomach turning.

“Shizun,” he said. “I talked with Madame Jin’s daughter-in-law while you were arguing. She was terrified of the horse, she thought we should kill it.”

“I can see why,” Song Jiayi said. She folded her arms, drumming her fingers against her biceps. “Okay, the horse is more powerful than I anticipated. First precept?”

“Don’t die,” they chorused.

She closed her eyes for a moment before letting out a forceful sigh and handing Yang Jingfei her sword back. “I will take this back after the horse is dealt with, but I don’t want you unarmed. If you cannot control your temper, I will decide on further consequences. Do you understand?”

Yang Jingfei took her sword and bowed. “Yes, Shizun! I understand!”

“Shizun,” Lu Xiuying said. “Do you think the horse is intelligent?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Song Jiayi was looking down at the ground, almost talking to herself. “If it’s intelligent, that means it has higher cultivation than anything I’d take young disciples to hunt.”

“Do we stand down?” Qiu Jucheng asked. “I can send word to Feng Chi Sect, they should be able to have people here by tonight.”

“Maybe.” Song Jiayi paced pack and forth. “Maybe.”

Ling Hong stepped forward, squaring his shoulders and drawing himself up to his full height, which Heng Xiaowen had to admit looked a little silly for such a short stack. “I’ll keep my distance,” he said. “I’m a better shot than I am with my sword. I won’t hold us back.”

Song Jiayi stopped pacing and looked down at him. “I appreciate that suggestion, Ling Hong. But I’m not only worried about you. All of you—” She gestured to her disciples. “are very young, even your Da-Shixiong.”

Abruptly, she looked up. “I’m not sure how helpful distance would be either. Xiaowen, tell me, why is that?”

Heng Xiaowen hated Pop Quiz Time with Shizun. “Um.” He thought back to the horse inserting itself into their huddle. “It can sneak up on us?”

“That’s part of it. Other reasons?”

Ling Hong still had a determined look on his face. “It’s too fast, right?”

Song Jiayi nodded. “None of you have mastered sword flight yet, so trying to catch something with the speed and range of this horse will be difficult. All it has to do is scatter us and pick us off one by one.”

Oh. The thing about flying swords those kids said earlier was real then.

Heng Xiaowen had a thought. “Can horses climb trees?”

Everyone turned to look at him.

“That,” Song Jiayi said. “That’s a good point, Wen-er. Everyone follow me.”

Song Jiayi spun on her heel and leapt straight up onto the roof of the nearest building.

They all exchanged looks, but Yang Jingfei quickly followed suit. Ling Hong had to hop onto an awning first, but made it up without difficulty, Qiu Jucheng following close behind him. Lu Xiuying sighed and took a moment to fold her umbrella.

“Da-Shixiong,” she said, holding out her hand. “I feel nervous jumping so high, you know my cultivation still isn’t very strong.”

“Uh. Okay.” Heng Xiaowen took her hand. It struck him as odd. Lu Xiuying had been training longer than Yang Jingfei and Ling Hong, but after the incident with Yang Jingfei he wasn’t going to question it. “On three.”

He really hoped he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself.

“One, two, three—”

He jumped.

For a moment, he was completely weightless, like the pressure of gravity bearing down on him suddenly lifted.

Then his feet landed on ceramic tiles. Thank god.

Lu Xiuying lost her footing a little bit, stumbling into his chest. He grabbed her shoulder to steady her, trying not to fall over himself.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes. “Da-shixiong held my hand so tight,” she whispered. “Were you scared too?”

“Uh.” Heng Xiaowen let go of her hand. “I just wanted to reassure you.”

She smiled. “Thank you for taking such good care of me.”

He gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder and then scurried across the roof to where the huddle had reformed.

Teenage girls were so scary.

“We can keep lookout up here, and even if the horse can somehow get up onto the roofs, we should still have a terrain advantage,” Song Jiayi said as everyone gathered around her. “A tree would be better, but I want to keep watch over the city.”

Heng Xiaowen looked out from the roof, and saw that a few people had lifted the injured woman into a handcart and was presumably taking her to a doctor.

“Shizun,” he asked. “Why did the horse only break her leg? None of its other victims survived.”

“Well, it could be because it has a particular vendetta against the Jin’s and Su’s,” she said. “Or it could be that it wanted to make sure it got away be before we arrived.”

“Either way,” Qiu Jucheng added. “It was probably trying to get a sense of our abilities more than anything.”

“Would trying to throw a net on it from up here work?” Heng Xiaowen asked.

Song Jiayi shook her head. “We don’t have any, and for that to work we’d need a net made from immortal binding rope, which we can’t afford. Although…”

Song Jiayi looked at Qiu Jucheng and Heng Xiaowen got the sense they were having some kind of private conversation in a series of abtruse micro-expressions.

“Okay,” Song Jiayi said and looked at the rest of them. “I think we can manage this, but—” Song Jiayi paused, and one by one stared each of them down. “Every single one of you must be extremely careful. If you’re even a little unsure of whether you should do something, don’t. Stay on the roofs, stick close together, and listen obediently.”

They all nodded.

Song Jiayi continued. “You shishu is going to restrain the horse with Yinmai,” she looked to Heng Xiaowen. “Xiaowen, you’ll have to help him hold it.”

Yinmai?

[Translation Note: yinmai (银脉) means silver vein. i wonder what everyone else’s spiritual weapons are called |･ω･)

sorry that this tl came out late!!! (シ_ _)シ take pity on this humble student. the autumn session has begun and is already trying to kill me (╥﹏╥) wuwuwuwu]

Heng Xiaowen tried to tune out the chattering of the System. Thinking back, Yinmai was probably the chainwhip that he had seen Qiu Jucheng use the first time he saw Yang Jingfei get reprimanded.

“I can do that,” he said.

Song Jiayi nodded. “While the horse is restrained, I’m going to try and use the Flowing Earth technique to move a containment array under the horse. The rest of you will stay on the roofs and keep track of the horses movements. If it becomes too dangerous, we’ll retreat and try to kill it from a distance.”

It sounded like a good plan to Heng Xiaowen. He really wanted it to work.