The chasing group behind were constantly frustrated as their pursuit took the pattern of a yoyo, every time they cut the distance to the carriage they were forced to stop and rest for fear of riding their horses to death, only to have the distance open up again, it was like a long distance race between sprinters and marathon runners, the sprinters had burst of tremendous speed but the marathon runners could hold a steady average-speed over a prolonged period negating the quick burst and even gain an advantage over longer distances, the pattern repeated itself through out the day until the carriage entered on the uphill section, this cut the average speed of the carriage dramatically...

The 20 meter walls and a huge double black gate were in sight of the carriage, they were within a kilometer of the northern gate, the sun was dipping behind a slope off to the right leaving a shadowed stretch of road. The carriage was now within the sights of the chasing pack, this was the closest they have been to the carriage all day, they desperately stormed forward unwilling to let this opportunity slip through their fingers. This was a mission of top priority given to them by Song Zemin.

Before long the pa.s.sengers of the armored carriage could hear the patter of hooves against the cobbled road, it was close and getting closer, with a sigh Hartley said, "they're here, 5 xanthians and around twenty mortals." If these people saw the ending of the squad of a.s.sasin from the night before and still pursued with this determination, they were truly tearing down the doors to enter h.e.l.l Hartley thought to himself.

The carriage rolled to a stop and the five xanthians leading the troop of men stopped 20 meters behind, after a short while Hartley and Zhi Ruo alighted from the right side of the carriage and Qin Li from the left, they walked side by side to the rear of the carriage to face the group not giving any instructions to Yang Yi who stayed on the driver's seat. The five men leading the group of armored soldiers were all middle aged, some had white streaks in their hair while others had a full head of white hair, they all wore orange robes with a rose on a stem st.i.tched in with black thread on the right breast. They could have raced here by themselves using their movement technique, but for their plan to work each of them needed to be at their peak state.

"Sir Hartley of the Sanzu house" said a white haired man as he maneuvered his horse a couple steps forward, "we are here to arrest you and bring you back for questioning by the eldest prince," as he spoke, two armored soldiers dismounted and came forward carrying a full set of black iron shackles which seem to have dry blood and rust spots all over. There was a distinct sound of the heavy shackles rattling and clanking as both men struggled to carry the device forward as they dragged it across the cobble stones. "We don't care about your accomplices if you come without resisting they can leave but if you resist I promise they will be killed and your body will be dragged back and paraded through the capital as an example of what happens when a back-bush expert like you goes against the eldest prince."

"I'm sure thats exactly what the eight xanthians who tried to finish me off last night thought as well, look how they ended up." Hartley said with a smirk.

The man smiled as if Hartley said something mildly amusing, then with a dismissive snort he replied, "those amateurs, they couldn't finish off a dinner! don't feel too proud" disdain contorted the man's features "don't compare us to those b.u.mpkins" this time he shouted in annoyance. "Make your choice!" the man barked impatiently. The confidence in the man's voice made Hartley a little more vigilant, three of the five in this group were 5th layer xanthians and the other two 6th layer xanthians. Hartley was sure he could dispatch these guys with or without the help of Qin Li and Zhi Ruo. Why were they so confident?

"Give my regards to the eldest prince, but I won't be accopanying him anytime soon." said Hartley while waving his hands dismissively. The man on the horse smiled "I was hoping you would say that."

IN a sudden movement the five xanthians jumped of their horses in five different directions and floated down to the floor like cherry blossoms in spring, they were arranged in a pentagonal shape, The trio of Hartley Qin Li and Zhi Ruo took up their battle stance but unexpectedly the opponents didn't rush forward and attack, instead they kept a neat pentagonal shape as they landed in the s.p.a.ce between Hartley and the armored troops behind, for the first time Hartley noticed that all five had different elemental affinities.

As the opposing experts stood in a 2-2-1 pentagon formation with two at the back two in the middle and one at the front. Quickly a brown light flashed from one of the experts at the base to the expert directly across from him then a green light shot forward to the expert in front quickly followed by a white light from the expert positioned on the opposite side which connected to the opaque light that shot forward, all the lights converged onto the white haired man who had talked earlier, he was stood at the very front of the formation. He exploded with magnificent rainbow lights that gave an oppressive feeling of overwhelming power that swept over all, the horses of the armored men behind, whinnied chaotically before rising on their hind legs throwing off some of their riders as they attempted to flee.

Eyes bulged, jaws dropped and sweat dripped, Hartley, Qin Li and not even Zhi Ruo who had spent time in the capital had seen this before, the hairs stood erect on the back of their necks as if the hairs wanted escape from their follicles and flee this danger. Yang Yi couldn't help himself, stood on the driver's seat of the carriage and peeping over the roof at the events happening at the back, he saw the explosion of color and the suffocating feeling of power radiating from the expert, after gulping down a mouthful of saliva, he quickly sat back down and grabbed hold of the reins and started to shake them vigorously. The wild beast galloped forward dragging the carriage along clopping towards the sanctuary of the northern gate, leaving Hartley Qin Li and Zhi Ruo in his dust.