Chapter 95 Arrest (2) If you don't come out, not a drop of water will be spared...

The Rakshasa Army brandished their longswords, their presence particularly chilling in the fiery night. Xiao Yinshi approached, backlit, his fury no less intense than a raging inferno. Feng Tan felt a sudden chill run down his spine and whispered to Arslan, "He is a ninth-rank martial artist. How is your martial arts?"

"Ninth Rank?" Arslan chuckled, stroking his sword. A murderous intent gleamed in his deep brown eyes. "Judging from the true energy he's releasing, he's already reached the Grandmaster level. But he must have just advanced recently, so he's still not very stable. As for me, I'm only Ninth Rank."

Grandmaster? He was clearly a ninth-rank master just a few days ago, and he even had no internal energy for a long time in the Linzhang sea area? Could it be that during that time, Xiao Yinshi completed his martial arts advancement? The difficulty between the ninth-rank and the grandmaster level is greater than any other level of advancement. So, the reason he chose to use his internal energy to block the cannon fire on the day of the battle with the Japanese pirates was not only to risk his life to complete the case, but also to put himself in a life-or-death situation and seize the opportunity to enter the grandmaster realm?!

Feng Tanyue thought about it more and more and felt that this person was terrifyingly cunning. He absolutely could not let him arrest him in Dahua. This was his exclusive power field. If he was captured here, the chance of escaping would be too slim. Since Arslan was a ninth-rank martial artist, he should be able to resist for some time.

The hunt had dragged on for too long, and after being outmaneuvered twice by Feng Tan, Xiao Yinshi completely lost his patience. Any pity he had for her being a woman vanished. In the past, he had only ever shown her kindness and never went too far. But tonight, after conquering the city, he was determined to give her a thorough and satisfying experience.

The man's dark eyes turned to Arslan, and he tried to persuade him to defect: "When Emperor Jingde abandoned the city and fled, what conditions did he offer that allowed the Sotaha cavalry to mobilize a massive force of 150,000? Tell me."

This was an attempt to turn Arslan against them. Feng Tan's heart grew even colder. The firelight illuminated Arslan's wild and handsome face, and his roguish smile revealed his true colors. He said, "A princess to marry into the country, three hundred miles of territory to be ceded, and taxes to be paid in reverse. What? You can afford it? If it's even a little less, I, Sotaha, cannot accept it."

Feng Tan's heart pounded. If Xiao Yinshi agreed, she would be in a predicament.

Feng Tan had calculated that Xiao Yinshi would not let her leave easily, so she joined forces with Sotaha in the name of Yu Ruxi to carve out a way out; while Xiao Yinshi had calculated that Feng Tan would be difficult to capture, so he dispatched the Rakshasa Army to surround the entire city, and now, he wanted to capture her right under his nose without bloodshed.

Both were observant and perceptive, and their protracted battle was a contest of intellect and strength.

Emperor Jingde's offer was not intended to betray the country for his own safety. Feng Tan was already in Xiao Yinshi's possession, so he had no need to give up a large area of ​​Hua Kingdom's territory. He refused decisively, saying in a deep voice, "Then there is nothing to discuss."

Arslan drew his blade from his waist, and Xiao Yinshi raised his hand to signal that they were ready to attack. In the brief lull before the two armies clashed, Feng Tan silently tightened his grip on the reins, then turned his horse around and galloped away!

Xiao Yinshi was amused by her retreat in the face of battle, and gestured for Zhu Qi to hand over the bow and arrow. He then stretched out his arm and shot at the horse under Feng Tan's hooves!

Arslan thought Xiao Yinshi was going to shoot Feng Tan, so at the moment the arrow was about to pierce the air, he used his true energy to deflect it from its intended straight line, and it actually shot straight at Feng Tan's back!

Feng Tan heard the sound of arrows coming from behind her and dodged to avoid hitting her back. The arrow pierced through her shoulder blade, almost causing her to fall off her horse. She had been injured in this spot before in the Linzhang sea area, and now that it had been pierced through her again, the pain was much greater.

Feng Tan groaned in pain. The two armies behind her had started fighting. She didn't dare to turn around and waste time. She flicked her whip to make her horse run faster!

Seeing that the arrow had not pierced Feng Tan's back, Xiao Yinshi and Arslan both breathed a sigh of relief. However, Xiao Yinshi refused to let Feng Tan leave and chased after her on horseback. He was tripped by Arslan, and the two fought fiercely on horseback. Arslan was, after all, a ninth-rank martial artist, and Xiao Yinshi could not kill him in one fell swoop.

However, the internal strength of a ninth-rank martial artist is ultimately no match for that of a grandmaster. After several rounds, Xiao Yinshi kicked Arslan off his horse and spurred his horse toward the direction Feng Tan had left.

Seeing Feng Tan still riding high on her horse and escaping even after being shot by an arrow, Xiao Yinshi decided not to go easy on her any longer. Since she always relied on her unparalleled lightness skill to escape, he might as well cripple her today.

The steel ball, brimming with internal energy, shot precisely towards Feng Tan's knee. The force was controlled to puncture her tendons but not break her skin. An even more intense pain than before spread throughout Feng Tan's body. She broke out in a cold sweat as she galloped on horseback. Looking back, she saw Xiao Yinshi about to shoot through the horse beneath her. She quickly pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it, completely blinding him.

She hadn't dodged in time; one leg was unharmed, but the other was no longer as agile as before. She no longer had the strength to leap. Her anxiety intensified, but she dared not show the slightest cowardice in a foreign land.

The sounds of battle between the two armies behind them grew fainter and fainter. Feng Tan's smoke bombs, which he threw around indiscriminately, successfully disrupted Xiao Yinshi's vision. In addition, the city was filled with the sounds of fighting and crying, making it impossible for him to identify people by their voices. This allowed Feng Tan to easily shake off his pursuers during his escape.

In the once bustling capital city, shops were closed and vendors had ceased operations. Feng Tan, severely injured and with little strength remaining, stumbled upon a mansion that had just been burned, looted, and ravaged. The gilded sandalwood plaque on the door was upside down on the ground, obscuring the mansion's name. Upon entering, she found the courtyard overgrown with flowers and plants, and the bamboo curtains hanging on the latticed windows were half-drawn. She dared not light a tinderbox to see what was inside, and instead fumbled in the darkness to retrieve a bottle of wound medicine, loosened her clothes, and sprinkled the medicine on the wound.

As she was resting briefly and preparing to leave, she suddenly heard a faint cry of a baby. Feng Tan stopped in her tracks, steeling her resolve to leave anyway. The baby cried again, its sound particularly loud in the dark room. Torn between inner turmoil, she lit a tinderbox to dim the light, turned back, and with faltering steps, limped toward the infant.

He must have been gagged before, and after some time, the white cloth was spat out and hidden in a dark box. It was clear that he was a newborn child, with blood and grime still on his body and a long umbilical cord hanging down in front of him. His mother was not in the hall; only an old woman-looking servant lay in a pool of blood.

Feng Tan could tell that this baby was no ordinary person, but in the face of chaos, she herself was struggling to survive, let alone help a baby she had only met once. She rummaged through the hall and found several bottles of milk that had been prepared beforehand. After feeding the baby until he was full, she drank half a bottle herself to stave off hunger. She put the other bottles into a box and said, "Whether you survive or not depends on your fate."

As she prepared to leave, the baby suddenly grabbed her finger, which was still in the box, and giggled at her after it had finished eating.

Feng Tan closed her eyes. No, she couldn't take him with her. But if she thought of something else, she couldn't use her lightness skill right now, and being alone would make her an easy target. If she took him into a place where people gathered and pretended to be a mother who had just given birth and lost her husband, she might greatly lower the guard of the search team.

The baby wasn't very good-looking, all wrinkled and looking like a little old man, but the little hand holding Feng Tan's was exceptionally soft. Having made up her mind, Feng Tan found a set of women's clothes in the hall, changed into them, put on a human skin mask, picked up the baby, and turned to walk out of the courtyard.

She wasn't very familiar with the layout of Kyoto, but fortunately she had looked at a map before and memorized most of the layout. Like the capital city, the neighborhood layout was closely related to wealth and poverty. The neighborhood where ordinary people lived wasn't too far from here, so she could blend in there and avoid trouble for a while.

......

The chaotic battle of the night ended. Many houses in Shangnianfang were destroyed in the fighting, and many people slept outdoors. This made Feng Tan, dressed as a middle-aged woman, not conspicuous as she sat in the crowd holding a baby.

Fortunately, it was early autumn, and the nights weren't too cold. It didn't matter that she didn't have a blanket. Thanks to Menghe Naboul's special wound medicine, Feng Tan's shoulder wound didn't fester, but it still throbbed with pain. The problem was her slightly lame leg, so she tried her best not to stand up and attract attention.

Under the shaded canopy were several women whose houses had been destroyed by the bombing, and the sound of their conversation reached Feng Tan's ears without missing a single word.

"Hey, have you heard? The rebels who stormed in won."

"I knew it. The old emperor abandoned the city and ran away. How could we possibly win?"

"My dear sisters, no matter who wins, we're the ones who will suffer. Yesterday, both armies came right up to my doorstep. If my husband and I hadn't hidden in the cellar, we wouldn't be sitting here right now after that cannon shot."

After she finished speaking, she gestured to the two women beside her to look at where Feng Tan was, and said, "Look at this poor thing, she hasn't even finished her postpartum confinement yet... Whose wife is this?"

Another old woman took out a dry biscuit from her bosom and handed it to Feng Tan, saying, "This is the last piece. You should eat it. The baby will go hungry because you don't have enough breast milk. It's pitiful."

Feng Tan shook her head, licked her dry lips, cradled the baby in one hand, and asked, "Just now I heard my elder sister say that the outcome of the two armies has been decided. When will the city gate be open to people? My husband must still be waiting outside the city to pick us up."

Several women gathered around, and one of them, an old woman wearing a blue headscarf, said, "It will probably be in about two days. The new emperor has just entered the city, and I heard that a wolf cub got lost in the fighting. He's sending a large army to search every neighborhood."

Another woman wearing a light purple headscarf comforted her, saying, "Don't worry, my lady. The Xiao family is always trying to seize power. We common folk can't stop them. It's not hard to find a wolf within these high walls. In two or three days, my lady will be able to reunite with her husband."

"Oh my, look how well-behaved this baby is, but he was born just in time for a military coup, so pitiful."

The wind and sandalwood chilled her to the bone. If she still had her lightness skill, escaping through the city gate would not have been a problem. However, Xiao Yinshi knew exactly how to strike at the heart of the matter. He had struck her in the meridians of her leg with a steel ball. Whenever she tried to gather her qi and fly away, she would be in excruciating pain, making it impossible for her to escape.

Over the course of two days, the Rakshasa Army searched every corner of the capital city but found no trace of their target. The Shangnianfang neighborhood where Feng Tan lived was also searched twice. However, because Feng Tan was holding a baby in her arms, no one intensified their search of her.

On the third day, all the people of the city were gathered on the vast open space in front of the Meridian Gate. Zhu Qi stood on the high platform and said loudly, "The new emperor is about to ascend the throne, and his love for the people is as clear as the sun and the moon. Today, everyone has cooperated well. Let us open the city gates immediately and rebuild the capital's former prosperity!"

The tone shifted abruptly, becoming stern and chilling: "We're all from the same village. If any strangers appear around you, report them immediately. Anyone who tries to deceive you will be executed without mercy!"

As soon as the words fell, a murmur arose from the crowd below. Within a few hours, several groups of people were indeed brought up to the stage. Zhu Qi examined their faces and found that none of them were Feng Tan, which made him somewhat anxious.

Even after gathering the entire city together, they still couldn't find Feng Tan. Just after the hour of You (5-7 PM), the setting sun bathed the area in a golden light. Xiao Yinshi finished his military affairs and came out of the palace, stepping onto the high platform. His attendant, Sun Cheng, directed two soldiers to place a bronze water clock, several dozen feet tall, on the platform. After filling it with water, the water droplets fell one by one, their light refracting into bright spots in the setting sun.

Xiao Yinshi looked down at the people with cold eyes, and only one person understood the meaning in his words: "From now on, if you don't come out, every drop of water will cost you a life."