Time passed quickly.
The winter month had come to an end, and the twelfth lunar month was already half gone. New Year's Eve drew nearer by the day.
...
On this day the light of heaven was fair, and all things shone bright. Yet Shen Nanqi's heart was heavy with gloom.
He judged his current position to lie east of Tangshe Town, somewhere on West Mountain, close to the long-abandoned Xiaolin Town. But he could not be certain of it, for he had lost all sense of direction. The four quarters were plainly legible—north, south, east, west all clear to the eye—and yet he would circle back to this same spot no matter how he tried to break free.
He no longer dared to gamble, especially with several of his junior disciples gravely wounded and unable to move on their own.
With a keen mind, he understood this for what it was: a conspiracy aimed at the students of the Dao Academy!
Five travelers had set out together, and now only he and one senior brother remained able to walk on their own. Of those, only he still commanded any strength to fight.
In the whole domain of Maple Forest City, West Mountain lay to the northeast—whatever the origin of that name, this was where they had been driven. Long ago a band of outlaws had made its lair here, until it was wiped out by the single sword of Jiang Chen, then still an outer disciple. Since that day the region had known a long quiet.
Shen Nanqi had led his team into the Qichang Mountains to hunt fierce beasts, a routine task of sharpening themselves. Yet outside Tangshe Town they had been ambushed.
They fought as they traveled, and reckoning the distance, they must have reached West Mountain—for they had kept marching east. But once here, the cardinal directions meant nothing at all.
Of formations he knew little, and he could not abandon his junior disciples to go venturing off on his own. The heretics lurking in the shadows seemed bent on draining him slowly, savoring his life. They launched their probing strikes one at a time, never committing their full strength.
With matters thus, all he could do was wait. The alarm incense had been lit at the first opportunity he found.
Now let it be seen which came first—the arrival of reinforcements, or his own collapse.
...
He could not count how many assaults this made. The Dao essence he had in reserve was all but exhausted.
The last comrade still standing fell, surviving narrowly because of his fierce outburst. But Shen Nanqi understood in his heart that it was only a matter of time, if they could not be tended to promptly...
Within the Celestial Palace, the Dao vortex churned, brewing the birth of new Dao essence. But Shen Nanqi did not know whether he could live long enough to see that hour.
No. He would. He had to.
He did not look back. He knew who stood behind him—his comrades. And he, Shen Nanqi, would never abandon his comrades.
Never!
He snatched up a sword at hand and rushed at the foe barreling toward him. Of Dao essence there was little left to spend, and so he conserved it as best he could. Though he had never practiced any transcendent sword canon, commanding his body with the cultivation of the Heaven-Piercing realm was enough to show a passable fighting strength. Yet never equal to the system of Dao arts he had steeped in for years.
Their blades crossed a few exchanges, then Shen Nanqi drifted back, and the foe crashed down, a gash gaping in his heart, blood pulsing from the wound. It was the mark of the Golden Light Arrow.
He had been forced to draw upon his Dao arts once more after all.
And now, at last, he was wholly depleted.
Was it over? He wondered.
Within his field of sight, more and more heretics stepped out from hiding. They did not veil their faces, for they did not intend to let a single one of them go.
Sunlight flooded the mountains.
Through the bright woods, a figure sped.
A long blade swept past.
Blade-gleam lighting on sunbeams, figure passing through figure.
Blood spattered; a head flew from its body.
The Fast Snow Blade had come... Wei Feng appeared.
The heretics who had just begun to cluster scattered in an instant, folding away through several turns until none remained to be seen. Within such a formation they could strike when advancing and hold when retreating.
"I did not expect you to be the one to come save me," said Shen Nanqi.
Wei Feng glanced behind him, his tone flat. "Still the same as ever. If you had gone on alone, you would have been out of here long ago."
"Drop the talk. When do the others arrive? The two of us alone cannot break out of this formation." Shen Nanqi seized the moment to catch his breath, trying to recover what little strength he could.
"There are just the two of us," said Wei Feng. "There is no one else."
"What?"
"They could not arrive in time, so there was no point in more than me coming."
Shen Nanqi drew a deep breath. "Then call for people now. Together we can hold for a while."
"Do you not see it yet? These heretics mean to encircle and wait on reinforcements. We cannot keep feeding men into the trap. With all this scheming, they must be plotting something vast. If the city guard bleeds too badly, Maple Forest City itself may be in danger." Wei Feng was decisive; he turned about, blade in hand. "Come with me. The two of us still have a chance to break out."
"Then what of them?" Shen Nanqi demanded, enraged.
Wei Feng looked back once, then casually summoned four long swords and cast them with precision to rest beside the four gravely wounded Dao Academy students.
A clatter!
Those four students were decisive in their own way—man and woman alike, they lifted their blades in a level cut across their own throats. They had waited long, and watched Shen Nanqi hold out alone for as long as he could. There was no disguise to Wei Feng's words, no pretense of hope left to cling to.
Not to slow Shen Nanqi down—that was the best end they could ask.
"No!"
Shen Nanqi lunged forward to wrest the blades away, but Wei Feng caught him in an iron grip. His exhausted body could not break through that restraint.
He could only stand and watch as four junior disciples cut their own throats and fell before his eyes. Tears reddened Shen Nanqi's gaze. "Wei Feng! Did you come here to save people, or to kill them?"
It was as though he lived through that night once more.
That night drenched in blood.
He and Wei Feng had both been there then.
And it had been Wei Feng who made such a choice that time too.
On that night, the friend he and Wei Feng had shared died a horrible death before their eyes, burned to ashes. Not even a bone remained.
"If they can be saved, save them. If they cannot, why waste the time?" Wei Feng turned coldly. "If you want to avenge them, keep up."
"Wei Feng!" Shen Nanqi's voice was less a roar than a wail.
"You would do better to spend that strength cutting down more of the heretics, so that they may rest in peace." Gripping the Fast Snow Blade in reverse, Wei Feng slashed a tree in two.
He studied the growth rings, then set off straight ahead.
"A formation may deceive our eyes, but it cannot deceive a tree. For a tree has no eyes—only the instinct of life."
Shen Nanqi held back his tears and followed in silence.
In his heart he knew well that the choice those junior disciples had made was not without merit. At least it spared them a crueler fate. But in his emotions, he could not accept such a reckoning.
He had fought so long, held on so long. And still he had saved no one.
Not a single one.
He was nearly driven to madness.
Along the way the heretics organized two large-scale attacks, and both were driven back by Wei Feng and by Shen Nanqi, who fought like a man possessed.
Yet all the way to the foot of the mountain, the masters Wei Feng had anticipated never appeared.
Tangshe Town lay to the west. Dazed and addled, Shen Nanqi moved his feet toward the west.
"South," said Wei Feng.
Without a word of question, Shen Nanqi turned to follow.
But Wei Feng explained anyway: "On the way here, I ran into a squad of Dao Academy students also coming to reinforce. They have not shown up yet—they have likely fallen somewhere down there. We must go and look."
Shen Nanqi turned to look at him, light slowly returning to his eyes—but that light was fury. "You said no one else would come to reinforce!"
"There is no time." Wei Feng said flatly. "If we stayed there bleeding out slowly, you would die, and I might not live either."
He added: "And see for yourself—that squad of reinforcements has already been lost too."
"You will always make choices this way." Shen Nanqi ground his teeth. "I hope that one day, when you yourself are laid across such a choice, you will find it sweet as honey!"
Wei Feng merely leapt onward, casting all the sunlight behind him.
"No need for your blessing. When I was five, I was already chosen this way."