Feeling the icy mountain breeze rush against his face, Chi Cheng inhaled a deep breath; catching a whiff of the fresh scent of snow. The cold tugged at his bare arms but in a few moments, his body would warm up from the physical activities.
Seated on An Xing's back with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back and a longbow clutched in his left hand, Chi Cheng scrutinised the surface layout of the frost forest. The icy terrain was unfamiliar territory for him and the pathways were either too narrow or riddled with natural obstacles.
To the right of him, the Grandmaster was positioned and mounted on his white Yili horse. To the left of him was Chi Weiran and Feng Yuxian as a pair, and beyond them was a third pair, a mix of the Shan and Huo clans.
'I have to be wary of him.' Chi Cheng glanced at the Grandmaster from the corner of his eye. 'With Ah-Ran being in the same round as me I will have to lessen the use of my abilities. I should target four purple targets to reach the goal and be done quickly but… I should leave the purple targets for Ah-Ran.'
'He's very focused.' Han Xuelian observed Chi Cheng's furrowed brows and his intense gaze that was fixed on the reins in his right hand. 'How strange that he recovered this quickly from the incident with Yijun.'
The battle horn sounded, indicating the start of the first round. Chi Cheng snapped the reins and An Xing neighed before taking off into the frost forest. The soft thuds of hooves on snow were the only sound that accompanied him as each pair split into different pathways.
With the Grandmaster following closely behind him, Chi Cheng drew his longbow hesitantly as the first black target appeared on a grey tree bark ahead to his left. Twisting his body slightly as he neared the target, he shot a glance at Han Xuelian who eyed him carefully.
'I didn't want to use this but I can't allow him to assess my skills.' Chi Cheng tapped the ruby earring on his left ear briefly and his emerald green eyes lit up, glowing subtly like an orb of Qi.
He channelled his mental focus, drawing a stream of Qi that was stored in the earring. He connected with An Xing's energy, tapping into the horse's consciousness. The emerald Qi tendrils wrapped around the blue life force energy within An Xing's mind, calming it and taking control.
Lifting his longbow, poised to aim, Chi Cheng issued a mental command to An Xing: 'Jerk.' He instructed the horse and An Xing abruptly stopped, lifting its front hooves off the ground. It resulted in Chi Cheng losing his balance and the arrow he loosed from his bow as he released the bowstring missed the black target, hitting the bark instead.
An Xing neighed again, taking off in a gallop after Chi Cheng's command. Pursuing behind him, the Grandmaster hit the target effortlessly with a quick draw of his bow, the target disintegrating immediately.
'An Xing listened to you quite perfectly earlier and he's familiar with this terrain, why did he suddenly stop?' Han Xuelian's gaze narrowed, attempting to assess the reason behind An Xing's behaviour. 'Should I have not let him ride An Xing?'
'He's definitely going to suspect me.' Chi Cheng glanced over his shoulder briefly. 'I need to ride further ahead to stay out of his sight. 'I should hit the next target.'
Chi Cheng tapped the earrings again, extracting a larger flow of Qi this time and channelling into An Xing's body, enhancing the horse's physical capabilities, particularly its speed and focus.
'Faster.' Chi Cheng issued another mental command and An Xing's pace increased in a matter of seconds, leaving behind only a trail of snow dust that blurred Han Xuelian's path.
The Grandmaster brought an arm to cover his eyes to prevent the snow dust particles from entering. When the cloud of snow cleared as he rode through it, Chi Cheng had long escaped his sight with only traces of An Xing's footprints left behind.
'Why did An Xing suddenly speed up?' Han Xuelian pulled back on the reins to make his horse stop. 'I didn't see him kick his heel against An Xing or do anything… hmm… no matter, I'll pursue him differently.'
Han Xuelian pulled the reins more firmly again to redirect his horse to take a steeper uphill path.
Breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed Han Xuelian was no longer within his proximity, Chi Cheng continued to aim at and accurately shoot red targets simultaneously as they randomly appeared on the trees in his path.
'Han Yijun?' Chi Cheng's gaze caught sight of his ex-lover in the distance to the left of him, travelling swiftly through the trees as he observed Chi Weiran and Feng Yuxian who were not far off. 'He must be one of the assessors for this round.'
'This doesn't exactly count as cheating, does it?' Chi Cheng pondered, considering whether the aid of his Qi-filled earring would be unfair sportsmanship or not. 'But I have been disadvantaged right from the beginning either way, so if the dear Grandmaster somehow finds out I'll use the excuse of it being a handicap.'
He then touched the headband on his forehead, feeling relieved that since he externally channelled the Qi with mental control rather than throughout his body, it hadn't detected the technique.
In the distance ahead, a purple target appeared. Chi Cheng hesitated upon drawing his bow, his gaze switching to Chi Weiran who rode on the path adjacent to him through the trees on the left.
'We're on different paths.' He pressed his lips together with worry. 'I'll take this one and one more then finish up.'
Nearing the target which An Xing had already passed by a few inches, Chi Cheng leaned backwards. His body arched like a bow itself, twisting his upper body slightly to the left as he flexibly released an arrow that penetrated the target dead in the centre. His body swiftly righted itself as he bounced back into his normal position in the saddle.
A moment later, the Grandmaster emerged from the trees on Chi Cheng's right, cutting through them as his horse leapt back onto the path a few paces behind An Xing.
Chi Cheng clicked his tongue irritably, subtly glaring at Han Xuelian who looked visibly pleased having witnessed Chi Cheng's display of skills. But he didn't have the luxury to afford his attention to the Grandmaster.
Chi Cheng's gaze snapped back to Chi Weiran, and not far off he noticed a foul trick in motion by the third pair who rode a little further away from his younger brother and Feng Yuxian.
Chi Cheng audibly gasped, sighting the female disciple from the Shan Clan notching an arrow to her bow, twisting her body to aim in Chi Weiran's direction.
Without enough time to call out a foul to the assessors, Chi Cheng made a quick rash decision.
'I'll have to try and pull it off from this distance.' Chi Cheng tapped the earring again, drawing a larger amount of Qi.
Using a few motions of his fingers secretly out of Han Xuelian's sight, accompanied by a whistle to act as a signal to his brother, Chi Cheng directed the Qi to Chi Weiran's horse. Taking control of the creature and amplifying its speed and power, he issued it the command to speed up.
Chi Weiran's horse unsteadily increased its pace, causing the Chi youngster to lose his balance for a moment.
The arrow released from the Shan disciple's bow just barely grazed past Chi Weiran's head, missing him completely. But the arrow deftly sailed through the trees, seemingly enforced by something more than just physical skill and pierced Chi Cheng in his left shoulder blade.
Chi Cheng grimaced, feeling the metal arrow dip delve into his flesh with a sharp force that sent a nerving shock throughout his body. He closed his eyes, momentarily losing control of An Xing. The black Yili horse became enraged, feeling the sensation of pain from Chi Cheng whose consciousness was still connected with its life force.
An Xing galloped faster, wildly shaking his head as he took off for a stray path that was far too narrow and riddled with dead tree branches.
Han Xuelian's eyes widened at the sight of Chi Cheng's shoulder bleeding profusely, his robe quickly soaking the blood. Once turning into the stray path it became difficult for the Grandmaster to pursue him and sensing the severity of the situation, Han Yijun spotted Chi Cheng.
He followed after him, using the aid of the trees to speed up his movements. But An Xing had only gotten much further out of their sight, reaching a ledge at the end of the forest.
Chi Cheng became delirious, his vision blurring and the arrow seemed to stun something in him that restricted movement. An Xing stopped abruptly when he neared the edge of the ledge but Chi Cheng was unable to comprehend his surroundings.
Submitting to a state of unconsciousness, he slipped out of the saddle on An Xing's back, falling off the ledge where there was no end to the depth for miles.
"CHI CHENG!" Was all he heard before his eyes fluttered closed.