Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 145. Chased Down.

A few seconds ago, Jasmine had been hectic as she hurried to reach Laien and Yin as fast as she could. Now, however, she involuntarily slowed down and stared at the scene from a few kilometers away with her mouth agape. Those two men had passed by her, so she was mostly clear about their strength. She had been certain that the boys weren’t a march for those elites and hoped to reach them before they got killed or captured, but instead, she saw Laien and Yin kill their opponents within mere two or three seconds.

“Even if they had been careless… no, to begin with, what was that green lightning?” she asked herself as she started running hurriedly once more. From so far away she had been unable to tell much, but even then the sensation of danger that lightning gave her was very apparent. “Those two, how come they always seem to be hiding something from everyone? They are already so powerful but you mean to tell me that they are still capable of more?” she wondered, feeling both helpless and relieved. It was a good thing that the two were safe, but she had an inkling that no matter how much time she spent with those boys, she would still be unable to comprehend them.

“If I knew,” she murmured with a sigh. “I would have taken care of the rest of those guys back there. Now that they scattered in all directions, it’s pointless to try and chase them all down,” she said while looking over her shoulder. Those one hundred and fifty riders had been more ferocious that she had given them credit for, so they had held her up for almost a minute and forced her to kill two-thirds of them before she could afford to disengage without too much of a danger involved. She didn’t want to encounter another group of people from the Guode Yimarate, so killing them to the last man would have been the best choice. Alas…

Now that she thought about it calmly, she hadn’t finished off everyone from the first two fifty-man units either. So, in the grand scope of things, it didn’t matter much if she killed those fifty of not. Those who were left alive were all the people who didn’t pose much threat to her in battle, so even if she were to encounter them again, they wouldn’t pose much of an issue.

“The only problem is,” she began saying, then sighed and started slowing down. After getting close to Laien and Yin, who by this point had stored the corpses of those two elites away and were waiting for her, she put her fingers to her mouth and whistled with the aid of her Qi. The sounds of the battle had been loud enough already, so it didn’t matter if she used a loud noise to call her horse back or not. “The problem is what are we going to do? I don’t want to give up on getting the Holy Union’s aid, but taking those two along with me is just…” she thought and groaned quietly. Had it not been for the mind-blowing performance of those two, who killed two elite martial masters of the fifth rank on their own, she would have straight-out ordered them to go back. Now, however, she couldn’t make up her mind about what to do.

“No point thinking about it on my own,” she assumed and gave the boys a very serious look. “What do you want to do now? I’ve got no idea how, but it looks like they had been waiting for us. We are almost halfway through, but getting to the Holy Union will honestly be very dangerous. I’d have told you to go back and I’d have gone alone… but I will leave it up to you. Will you come with me or will you go back to the Ruishi Federation?” she asked bluntly, planning to waste no time. The longer they delayed here, the lower the chances of them getting through the Guode Yimarate safely were.

The question was one that in the past, Laien would have answered without a second thought. Yet, his thinking had changed enough for him to stop for a moment and consider all the variables before making his decision. Had they not lucked out this time and not fought against a lightning-element marital master, had the second one of their opponents not lost his cool, they would have been in considerable danger. If Yimar Maar’s camp knew that they were trying to get through to the Holy Union and his people were actively looking for them, then it would indeed be very dangerous.

If the option of walking on their feet was a viable one, then it would have perhaps been a safer one. However, due to the Prophet’s actions, they couldn’t afford to delay if they wanted to get to the Holy Union in time. “They wanted to capture us, too,” Laien thought to himself. Did those people know who they were or were they simply ordered to capture messengers just in case? Either way, it wasn’t good.

“I think we should keep going.” To Laien’s surprise, Yin spoke his thoughts the very moment he came to his own conclusions. “We will need to get out of the Ruishi Federation sooner or later. If we assume that Yimar Maar and the rest of them know we are Arslan’s friends and want to capture us, then getting out will be dangerous regardless. We’ve already killed so many of their experts and Mustafa is keeping their strongest elites at bay. I think we should still try,” he explained calmly, all the while looking Laien in the eye. Then, after he finished, he laughed and added with a smile.

“It would also be a pity if we failed to help Arslan, so taking some risk should be acceptable. With little time to prepare, no second big ambush should be waiting for us.”

Having heard Yin say all of that, Laien merely smiled and looked at Yin for a good few seconds with a warm look in his eyes. He chuckled quietly and stepped closer to Yin. He saw how Yin’s face grew slightly red, then laughed in his heart and rested his head against Yin’s shoulder. “I didn’t think I would be hearing those things from you, Yin,” he whispered and after a brief moment, backed off and exchanged one more glance with Yin, causing his green-haired friend to smile helplessly.

Facing dangers in order to grow strong and in order to stay true to himself… in the past, Yin had a darkness in his heart that caused him to desire power. It was something that propelled him forward, but during his journey with Laien, this darkness had steadily dissipated and finally disappeared. Now, however, he had grown enough to be able to make a choice to calmly walk into danger both in order to grow stronger and to stay true to the emotions in his heart, to Laien and their friends.

“Eh?” Unable to keep the surprise from showing on his face, Yin soon laughed in helpless amusement. He wasn’t going to mention anything in front of Jasmine, but he didn’t need to say anything for Laien to realize what happened. The half-complete foundation of Tranquility and the cluster of Desire within his soul, they both rose by half a level, gifting him with a complete foundation of the Aspect of Tranquility and a half-complete one of the Aspect of Desire.

Just like that… or perhaps, not just like that? Had he not met Laien, had he not come to like him a lot… had he not fallen in love with him at some point, would he have ever gotten rid of his inner demon? Would he have ever grown enough to make a choice like the current one with a cool head, without being driven by wrath or madness? He honestly couldn’t be sure if that would have ever happened, even if he had somehow managed to achieve his revenge on his own.

On the side, Jasmine didn’t quite know what to do as the two youths lost themselves in their own little world. She was glad that they wanted to tag along since with their strength, they would definitely be useful. However, she didn’t want to disturb their moment and just as much, she didn’t want to waste time. Luckily, her dilemma was solved since the two horses of Laien and Yin’s came alongside her own Hisan Horse, so she went to get them instead. After a moment, she left the two war horses near the boys and mounted her own stallion.

Laien and Yin also got into their saddles soon enough and just a minute later, the three of them were once again galloping towards the Holy Union.

“We’ve got two options,” Jasmine brought up after they left the rough area of the battlefield. “We can either go around by the east or charge right through towards the north-west. I prefer the first idea, but what do you two think?” she asked, for the first time including Laien and Yin in her plans. Before that, she had been making all the choice about the path they were going to take on her own, but after she had seen those two kill two elite marital masters of the fifth rank, she came to feel it would be wrong if she made all the decisions alone. Moreover, the fact that the two decided to stick with her even after that ambush was also an important factor in her change of attitude.

After this question was presented to them, Laien and Yin remained silent for a moment, unbeknownst to Jasmine exchanging their own opinions about both of the options. Finally, around twenty seconds later, Laien answered for the two of them, “Let’s go the long way around. We could also give up on entering through the Bolan Kingdom and settle for the easternmost Yali Kingdom. Given how careful we need to be when riding through the Guode Yimarate anyway, we won’t lose much time.”

A few seconds later, when Jasmine took a look at Yin and confirmed that he appeared to be of the same mind as Laien, she nodded in agreement. “Fine, let’s change directions. Follow me!” she said and first slowed down, then cut straight into the forest to their right. Going by the roads would be disadvantageous to them at this time either way, so she didn’t hesitate to slow down for a period of time in order to travel through a more convenient and safer path.

“It’s going to get dark soon,” Jasmine mentioned as the three of them were riding through one of the many forests in the central Guode Yimarate. “If you need me to slow down or speed up, then do speak,” she said without beating around the bush. Somehow, though, those similar-sounding words weren’t spoken in the same way at all. The slight tone of superiority that had still been present in Jasmine’s voice in the morning was now gone, what Laien and Yin didn’t fail to notice.

“Go a bit faster then,” Yin said with a laugh. “Our horses do most of the job anyway, so we will be able to keep up,” he added straightforwardly. Both his and Laien’s riding skills had grown a lot during their journey northwards, but they weren’t quite at the level of people like Jasmine or Ruan. However, it wasn’t that they lacked the necessary talent; it was just they didn’t spend enough time polishing their skills in this regard, having spent a lot of time traveling casually or riding in a carriage.

“Fine,” Jasmine said simply and sped up just like Yin wanted her to. In consequence, the three of them sped up by around twenty kilometers per hour.

At the same time, a few dozen kilometers to the south-west.

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“You mean to tell me you actually failed?” a muscular man clad in ruby-golden robes asked with a slight frown on his face. “It looks like I was right to ask Yimar to allow me to come here,” he murmured, not bothering with this small group of men anymore. He had learned from them that the messenger sent by Mustafa’s son was Jasmine, the Makarash’s Death Reaper. He had also confirmed that the two youths spotted by their spies on the border of the Ruishi Federation were indeed Arslan’s companions, likely his friends. Since he knew this much, he could act without regret. Even if the White Guard attacked when he wasn’t there, the loses their men would sustain would be worth it as long as he killed that woman and captured those two boys.

“You know what to do,” he said to the ten personal guards of his, all of whom were clad in the exact same ruby-golden robed he wore. “I’ll take care of that woman, you split up both north and south and make sure they can’t escape. Since we have four speed-types, two will go with each unit. If we are to believe what those people told us, then those kids are a threat. The Wind and Lightning Brothers were killed by them two on two, so first chase them down, then fight them together,” he instructed just to be sure. He trusted this group of ten martial masters of the fifth rank a lot, but it was one of those times when failure wasn’t an option.

“Understood.”

The eight men and two women responded in perfect unison, showing just how much authority their master had amongst them.

“Go,” the ruby-golden-robed man commanded and himself, he turned around and broke into a sprint. Within seconds, he sped up to four hundred, five hundred and finally almost six hundred kilometers per hour, each of his powerful steps plowing a hole in the ground. Although as an earth-element practitioner he wasn’t someone who specialized in speed, his body was exceptionally potent. He was also a martial master of the sixth rank, so he could easily keep up this kind of a speed for thousands of kilometers without getting too tired.

“The head of Makarash’s Lieutenant,” Abdain mused, an excited smile emerging on his face. “It will make for a great trophy. Those bastards are always surrounded by their men, so killing one is so stupidly hard,” he thought in amusement. When Yimar Maar called that meeting two days ago, he had been suspicious whether they should trust any information provided by the Guild of Shadows. Those people never had open and clear intentions, so being manipulated by them wasn’t a fate to be envied. However, it looked like this time around, they would be the ones to benefit from the Guild’s interference.

“I don’t know what you did to piss off the Guild, but you’re going to die here,” he thought and suppressed a laughter. He was in a great mood despite having lost a large number of experts as all in all, the only ones of the bunch who had any real value apart from being cannon fodder were the Wind and Lightning Brothers. It was a bit of a pity that his master, Yimar Maar, had lost two valuable pawns, but as long as he finished Jasmine off, it would be Makarash that suffered a greater loss.

In this manner, Abdain chased northwards, in the rough direction he expected the three riders to be fleeing towards. The ten personal subordinates of his meanwhile ordered their own people to employ their information network to track the three riders down. Given where they were, using flying magical beasts would be the easiest way, so in a bit of time, they should receive some reports.

For now, however, they split up into two groups of five just like Abdain told them to. One of their groups headed to the north-east, while the other one to the south-east. This way, it wouldn’t matter if Jasmine and those two boys chose to keep going to the Holy Union or if they retreated. Sooner or later they would be discovered by their intelligence forces and then, the ten of them would be able to chase them down with their master’s aid.

This was what all eleven of the ruby-golden-robed experts thought, but reality sometimes proved to be very different to one’s expectations.

First, they didn’t think that the three riders they were chasing would opt to go straight east from where they had been. Due to that, their two teams of five were actually getting further and further away from them with every minute instead of pinning them down.

Second, they forgot that along with Makarash’s flying beasts, the majority of the best flying magical beasts of theirs had also been killed off by the Guild of Shadows a week ago.

And third, they forgot that Makarash’s own intelligence and assassins were on the move, obstructing and killing their own men whenever possible.

With the night falling, first minutes then hours passed without any detailed information reaching the ears of the eleven experts. They hadn’t been all that worried at first as their lower-level subordinates were sweeping the area alongside them, but as the patch of land they needed to comb through kept growing bigger and bigger, they couldn’t help but grow anxious. What if those three had discarded their horses, hidden their auras and found some secluded place to wait the chase out? If it was like that and they lost their track, then finding them would become almost impossible.

By the morning, it looked like the whole chase was going to end in one huge fiasco. The only good thing seemed to be that no news of the White Guard attacking from the south-east came as of yet. However, amongst the eleven elites, there was one man who kept his cool the whole time, and it was none other than Abdain.

He had noticed that something was wrong early on and changed the direction he was running towards to the eastward one. He was only going by the gut feeling and he didn’t know which path the three riders had taken exactly, so he was forced to choose the areas to sweep at random and hope that he wouldn’t happen to randomly overtake them somewhere along the way. Throughout the whole night, he didn’t let the stress get to him and kept looking diligently and finally, an hour or so after the sunrise, his patience was rewarded.

“So that’s where they are,” Abdain laughed heartily, what in turn caused his speed to fall down for a brief moment. “Just one hundred kilometers away. An hour… no, two hours considering I won’t be able to pinpoint them the whole time. Too bad the southern team is too far away to be useful. The northern one is relatively closer, between those three and the Holy Union, so I can leave those boys to them,” he thought contentedly. As strong as Wind and Lightning brother had been, the people he had trained by himself weren’t inferior to them in the least.

It was one thing to get lucky and finish off two marital masters of the fifth rank once they underestimated you… but against five, he refused to believe that the kids would be able to do anything. In the worst case scenario, those five could always simply keep the boys at bay until he killed Jasmine and came to help them out. Still, he didn’t think such an exaggerated level of carefulness would be necessary.

The time flowed and quickly as the eleven experts closed onto Jasmine, Laien, and Yin. Abdain was the closest, then the five men in the north, while the three men and two women in the south would likely serve as an insurance, just in case, since they were almost ten hours of a ride away.

Then, by one point, when the three of them were still three thousand kilometers away from the borders of the Yali Kingdom, they all sensed a worrying sensation of looming danger. The same ‘feeling’ of danger had been accompanying them the whole time, but then, it suddenly became clearer and far stronger. It wasn’t yet at the level of a killing intent, but it was akin to a strong premonition one would have when hunted down by a dangerous beast.

“Something’s wrong,” Yin said as the first one. As a magical beast, he had far sharper instincts than humans. Something like a perfectly-hidden ambush was outside of his ability to predict, but the sense of approaching death was causing him to keep looking over his shoulder and tracing the area behind them with his sharp gaze. “I don’t know what, but we need to do something,” he added in a worried tone, but Laien was just as well aware as he that there wasn’t much they could do.

“We could try and…” Jasmine began saying, intending to suggest that they cut down on the circling and hiding and instead rush towards the Yali Kingdom in a straight line from this point onwards. However, before she could get the words out, she heard a booming laughter and quickly looked behind her back. “Those robes, this speed…!” she noticed instantly, her face draining of blood and growing pale. It had been bad enough when they were ambushed, but compared to facing Abdain, the second-strongest man of the enemy camp, it was still far preferable!

“Flee,” Jasmine said without a second thought, the tone of her voice saying that she wouldn’t accept any objections. “You two go straight to the Bali Kingdom. I will hold him back for as long as I can,” she said resolutely but was unable to prevent her voice from trembling slightly. This wasn’t supposed to happen…! The three strongest experts of their enemy camp were supposed to be under constant surveillance! How was it possible that Abdain was allowed to half-secretly leave the front lines to the south-west, between the Faren Yimarate and the Guode Yimarate, and come all the way here?

“He must have come the instant he learned we left the Ruishi Federation or just a bit after that,” Jasmine deduced, but she was unable to be happy due to figuring this much out. However, the only thing that made her feel better about herself was that there wasn’t anything she could have done to prevent this situation from occurring. Whether they went north, east or back south, they would have gotten caught sooner or later. In fact, the eastward path bought them the most time. Alas, their fate had been sealed the moment Abdain chose to trust whatever information their camp had managed to obtain and came to chase after them in person.

“Good luck,” Yin said simply and after giving Laien a stern glance, the two of them turned to the left and rode north at top-speed. There were many things the two of them wanted to say, especially in Laien’s case, but they knew it was no time for words. They had naturally recognized who it was chasing them and they clearly felt the powerful aura of a marital master of the sixth rank. It was just one rank of a difference, but the gap between fifth and sixth ranks of the Realm of Heroes was huge. After all, while it was still possible to reach the fifth Realm of Heroes with a huge amount of training and just an above-average level of talent, the same couldn’t be said about the sixth rank.

“No thank you,” Jasmine murmured and laughed helplessly. Abdain… an earth-element martial master of the sixth rank who could overtake her in running speed. This kind of an opponent… would she be able to live after facing him? Truth to be told, she wasn’t confident in her chances at all. Yet, she was determined to at the very least keep him at bay and lead him around for at least five hours. As impossible as it would be for her to kill him, Abdain with his relatively slow attacks would also find it hard to kill her within a short period of time.

“Haha, good choice, Jasmine the Death Reaper!” Abdain laughed boomingly, by this point caring little about his running speed dropping a little. “Come, let’s fight! Let me claim your head!” he yelled with a huge smile on his face, watching the exquisite woman that led her horse straight towards him. Yes, that was what he expected her to do! Fearless and ruthlessly decisive, as expected of one of the White Guard’s ten Lieutenants! How rare was it that he could enjoy a proper one-on-one fight?

“Don’t worry about anything, Death Reaper!” Abdain called out with an excited laugh, for once allowing the wild part of his personality to emerge. Usually, he was quite a level-headed person, but from time to time, he needed to find an opportunity to let off some steam. “I won’t shake you off to chase them down! I’ll let my subordinates do that for me! So, if you want to save them, you’d better give your best and try to kill me before those two are captured!” he declared as the distance of a few kilometers between him and Jasmine was rapidly shrinking.

“…” On the other hand, Jasmine didn’t feel like she was going to get excited about the battle that was coming to her. Just like Abdain, she was someone who tended to go into a battle-rage once she fought desperately, but her state of mind was too disturbed for her to do that. Discarding everything else, there was only one thing she wanted to know above anything else.

Who was it that betrayed them? Who was it that orchestrated this series of events? She refused to believe that all of it was just an accident!

And indeed, similarly but differently to what she expected, but a few kilometers away two black-cloaked and black-masked men were slipping through the shadows.

The Trial of Heart and the Trial of Will… the Guildmaster of the Guild of Shadows had chosen this theater and those actors to perform them.