Chapter 92: Return of the Masked Woman

Zen would look up ever so often, feeling some comfort when he saw Shibi, still following them from the safety of the branches above. He had long spat out the medicinal herb that Geyi Kun had given him. The pain no longer throbbed and he only felt it when he placed weight on his foot. The bandits had not bothered to bind him, as he was now injured.

Hours had passed and his foot began to pain again. “Yo! I think I may need the poison again!”

“You, big girl! Give him some more of that medicine.”

Kun grumbled in annoyance as she gave Zen another dose of the herb.

Cho and Xi walked together as they discussed something.

“So, have you noticed?” she said.

“What?” Cho whispered back.

“The kid,” she nodded towards Zen as Kun fed him the herb. “All he has bee really doing is leading us west. Sure, he meanders to hide this fact, but we always end up going west.”

“You think he is lying to us?”

“But why head west? If anything, we’re going deeper into the forest.” Xi said. “I think they are heading towards the Snow Ram but he doesn’t want us to know it is that simple.”

“So, he’s basically hiding the fact that he is useless.”

Xi nodded. “And he is quite a burden…”

Cho dug out a storage stone and the Zen Blade appeared in his hand in yellow balls of light. “Well, then perhaps I should cut the burden off.”

Zen was still walking, unaware of the danger he was in… not from the bandits behind him coming closer with the sword but the one ahead. Someone leapt from above and landed in front of him. Both he and Kun froze in place as they stared at the crouching figure before them, adorned in a black cloak.

The figure rose to their feet, slowly raising their head and revealing the masked faced under the black hood.

Zen’s eyes widened and his heart quickened. He recognised the woman as the woman who had tried to kill him when he was first heading to Goixi Academy. He still remembered the cold mask and even more disturbing, the sphere of ki needles rotating in her left hand.

“That’s right, Wang Zen.” She said as she raised the sphere of rotating needles higher. “Look at me and know that this is your last moment on this world.” She thrust the sphere out and sent out a stream of fast moving needles for Zen.

Geyi Kun dived to the side, a few needles hitting her shoulder. As for Zen, a red-ish monkey ell from above and tackled him to the ground, out of the path of the needles. Cho dove out of the way, shouting, “Hit the ground!”

Xi and Xue Shaonu also barely dodged the river of needles. Yang was still heading to the ground but the big man was no match for the needles, which stabbed his large form. He fell backward, dead. Falling right on top of Jao Cong.

“Sh-Shibi?” Zen said, his voice quivering as he stared at Shibi’s angry face. However, he knew that the angry face was not targeted at him but at the woman Shibi turned to face.

The masked woman sped forward for Zen. Shibi ran to meet her head on and pounced on her with an angry screech. She had to stop and swept Shibi aside with the blade of her hand.

“No!” Zen shouted as he got up, using his good leg to jump at the woman.

The masked woman blocked his knee and his follow-up round house kick before thrusting her fist into his chin. The shot sent him falling away where he fell back on his back.

“You’ve grown taller and a little braver but you’re still weak!” The masked woman said as she began forming another sphere of needles above her raised palm.

Meanwhile, Xue Shaonu fished out her storage stone and something began appearing in her hand in white scrolls.

“Cho!” Xi said as she got up from the ground, looking at Xue Shaonu as she unrolled the scroll. “We need to stop her!”

Both Xi and Cho sprinted for her.

Xue Shaonu was annoyed that they were focussing on her instead of whatever was attacking Zen up ahead. She placed the scroll on the ground and sent her ki into it, causing the scroll to glow. The scroll glowed yellow and a trigram expanded form the scroll before a figure made of yellow light began appearing above it, taking shape and form. The light dissipated, revealing a white bird which sang out, sending a stream of cold air intermixed with snow at the two bandits.

Cho and Xi were stopped, as the frigid air slowly covered them in snow and ice.

Xue Shaonu leapt onto the giant bird’s back before they flew forward as one. Air and snow surrounded the bird as it flew forward at great speed. The two bandits dodged it by diving to the side but were blown away by the tail of snow and air it left in its wake.

The masked woman had to abandon her technique to dodge the bird. The bird swung around in mid-air and hovered in place. “Geyi Kun, help Wang Zen and Jao Cong to escape!” She said before the bird dived for the masked woman. The bird sent out another stream of snowy air, which lifted her off the ground and slammed her into a tree. Xue Shaonu leapt off the bird’s back and thrust her palm into the masked woman’s chest.

“Pulsing Palm!” Xue Shaonu shouted as the three pulses slammed into the woman, digging a niche into the tree with each pulse. She leapt away from the woman as she fell to her knees. Xue Shaonu jumped off the ground and the bird caught her.

“Zen, we need to leave!” Geyi Kun said as Zen rose to his knees.

“Not without the Zen Blade.” He said.

“What?”

“My sword.” Zen said.

As if reading his mind, Shibi ran forward. He fell on a surprised Cho, where they struggled before he retreated. Shibi then grabbed Zen’s sword before running to him. The scorch ape handed Zen the sword as he made his way up Zen’s arm and around his back to his shoulder.

He felt good, feeling Shibi’s weight on his shoulder and his blade in his hand.

“Alright, you got your dumb sword, can we leave now.”

“Yeah.”

They both began for Cong, who was still trapped under Yang’s dead body.

“Your moving rather slow, Wang Zen.” Geyi Kun said. “Will you really be able to escape?”

“We don’t need to get far, just far enough. I can do far enough.” Zen said.

They both stopped when Xi and Cho got up and stood in their path.

“Well, it will be harder to give them the slip now.” Kun said.

Zen raised his blade, preparing to fight. Xue Shaonu and the bird dived in front of them, heading for the bandits who were once again blown away. As the bird passed by Yang, it grabbed his body and pulled Yang off of Jao Cong.

Xi gritted her teeth in anger and took out a storage stone of her own. Yellow balls of light flashed in her hand before a red coil of rope with brass balls at either end appeared. “I am going to kill her!” She spat as she jumped onto trees and threw her rope out at the bird, catching its leg.

On the ground, Kun and Zen headed toward Cong who was getting up. The earth began to shoot out as a river of debris. Kun and Zen dove to the opposite side as the debris cut them from each other. Zen recognised this ki technique as Cho’s. The debris of earth continued on towards Jao Cong. Cho came out of the debris facing Zen.

“Stone Punch!” Cho said, his fist covered in very light grey ki.

Zen blocked but was blasted away by the technique and he hit the tree. The debris died down and he faced Kun, who turned tail and ran away.

“Cho! Help!” Xi shouted as the bird dragged her higher into the air. She tried to gain tractions using the branches but they broke as the bird pulled her higher.

Cho looked up and jumped to help her. He was able to grab onto the rope just as they reached the tree tops. Both bandits were now able to hold the bird back.

“Wang Zen, are you okay?” Jao Cong said as he crouched over Zen.

“Just a little sore,” Zen said as he sat up. “Shibi, you okay?” Shibi returned to his shoulder. He looked up where he saw the giant bird struggling against the two bandits. “Jao Cong, you need to go. Head south, that’s where Kun ran away. Find her, she’ll protect you. Don’t go too far, as I’ll need to find you.”

“Wh-What will you be doing?”

Zen looked up at Xue Shaonu and the bandits. “I need to help Xue Shaonu.” He rose to his feet. “Go, I’ll join you when I can.”

Jao Cong nodded, “Good luck.” He said before running in the same direction Kun had moments earlier.

Zen jumped up, with one good leg, leaping from branch to branch. He saw the bird trying to escape the rope. It would sometimes turn back and snap at the rope to no avail. He twirled his sword, having full confidence that the back iron blade could cut the rope. He awkwardly ran across the branches of the tree tops. He jumped for the rope and swung his blade down. The edge of his blade made contact with the red rope and rebounded off, as if he had tried to cut the rope with a stick. He looked at the undamaged rope in confusion. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that there was ki running through the rope. He narrowed his eyes at the bandits, especially Xi, understanding that this was a ki technique.

“This is why she was the one who bound us with the rope,” he said to himself.

Xue Shaonu reached back and grabbed the rope. “Wang Zen, try again!” She shouted.

Wang Zen noticed a lighter white ki running from where she touched the rope, down to its length.

“That witch! She’s trying to weaken my technique!” Xi said as she strengthened her own ki.

Zen understood as both ki fought against each other along the length of the rope. He jumped up again and swung his blade just as Xue Shaonu’s ki won out. His blade went through the rope as he had expected and the sudden separation sent the bird shooting forward and the bandits falling down.

Xue Shaonu was directing the bird back to him.

“Wait! Leave!”

“What about you?” she said.

“I’ll be okay,” Zen looked down at the bandits who had already recovered from their fall and were climbing back up. “We’ll meet up later!” He said before allowing himself to fall back.

Xue Shaonu bit her lip guiltily but the directed her beast around and flew away…