Chapter 78 Rainy Night (3)
The scene of blood splattering everywhere did not occur. The loud-voiced soldier actually blocked his attack with his sword. The blades clashed and sparks flew. The black-armored soldier felt a tremendous force coming from his opponent's hand. His all-out slash not only failed to kill him, but the counterforce actually made him retreat three steps!
The Xuanjia soldiers were greatly surprised; how could there be such a skilled fighter among his troops?!
The loud-voiced soldier, under attack, yelled, "Why are you killing me? Did I say something wrong? If you're going to die, don't drag me down with you!"
Enraged, the Xuanjia warrior immediately turned around and attacked the soldier with a swift and deadly strike.
The loud-voiced soldier, while parrying, shouted, "My family is huge! My dad, my mom, my grandparents, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins, my cousins, my paternal aunts, my maternal grandparents... a whole bunch of relatives! If we kill a real prince, all these relatives will die with us! You think you can just issue a military order and send my whole family to their deaths?! You think you can just fly to the moon?!"
These words immediately threw the scene into chaos. In this era, people had many brothers, sisters, and relatives. Which family didn't have three to five children? When the children grew up, they had more children. If several generations were gathered together, a courtyard wouldn't be able to hold them all. If someone were to be exterminated along with their entire clan for assassinating the crown prince, they would become a sinner for the entire family for all time.
Moreover, once everyone is dead, there will be no one to offer sacrifices, and the extinction of the incense offerings is a matter of utmost importance!
Every attack from the Xuanjia soldiers was perfectly blocked by this loud-voiced soldier. He slashed more than a dozen times without even touching his hair. Moreover, he was agile, blocking and moving at the same time, breaking the formation into pieces.
The Xuanjia soldiers were furious. They had surrounded the enemy at the entrance, but their own troops had rioted.
If we don't kill this loud-mouthed soldier to intimidate him, my men might rebel.
But the more he fought, the more alarmed he became. His martial arts skills were rarely matched in the army camp, and this short soldier only defended and did not attack, yet he could not gain any advantage.
It was simply because he was so strong that he even took the initiative to hide. No matter where the knife was aimed, he could block it without showing any signs of exhaustion.
While he was making his move, he kept shouting and demanding that the other party prove he was a fake crown prince. He insisted on either providing documents or waiting for the Qingzhou Guard soldiers to come and verify his identity the next day. He refused to shut up, and his words were so hurtful that the soldiers, who knew nothing about the situation, were terrified and didn't know what to do.
The Xuanjia soldiers were completely outmaneuvered by him, and in their anger, they raised their swords and shouted: "This man disobeys orders, speaks cunningly, and protects the rebels at every turn. He must be in cahoots with the rebels! Men, whoever captures him will be rewarded with ten taels of silver!"
Ten taels of silver! The soldiers' eyes widened. They knew that their monthly salary after joining the army was only two dou of rice, and it was often delayed. How much grain could ten taels of silver buy?
The soldiers' expressions changed at the prospect of a hefty reward, and some couldn't help but feel restless.
The loud-voiced guard yelled, "Wow! You think you can buy the lives of my entire family with just ten taels of silver? My family has over a hundred members! On average, each life costs only a hundred or so coins, which isn't even as expensive as a piece of clothing! You're treating human life like dirt! You're in the wrong and can't produce any proof, so you turn around and accuse me of being a traitor. Do you think you can just declare someone a traitor with a few words? Do you think you can just say he's a fake prince without any proof?"
Even the soldiers who had been itching to attack dared not move, and instead took a few steps back in fear.
Meanwhile, Pang Shi and his men, who were surrounded, watched this scene in astonishment. They had thought that a massacre was about to begin, but the enemy had rioted first. The soldier who jumped out to provoke them had inadvertently drawn all their firepower away.
Meng Guanqi was both happy and worried; he had already recognized who the loud-voiced soldier was.
To everyone's delight, Li Xiaoxiao had infiltrated the enemy ranks disguised as a soldier at some point. She seized upon the Xuanjia soldiers' vulnerability in their campaign against the "rebels" and launched a relentless attack, which proved quite effective. The soldiers present, after being provoked by her, became suspicious of the Xuanjia soldiers and dared not make a move. This was excellent news for them, who had virtually no fighting ability.
His worry was that she was all alone, and if her identity was exposed and she was surrounded, he wouldn't be able to help her at all.
How can she face dozens of people all by herself?
His heart was in his throat as he watched the armored soldiers attack her.
Fortunately, the others just watched and did not join the Xuanjia soldiers in attacking her.
Meng Guanqi quietly approached Pang Shi and tugged at his sleeve.
Pang Shizheng watched with a solemn expression as Li Xiaoxiao fought against the Xuanjia soldiers, wondering how to win over this brave warrior who had jumped out to his side.
Noticing Meng Guanqi's movement, he turned his head to look at him and whispered, "What's wrong?"
Meng Guanqi said in a low voice, "General Pang, do you recognize her? That's Xiaoxiao... She's not doing well. Can you help her, General?"
Li Xiaoxiao was exhausted. She had been protecting him the whole way from Wanshan Academy until now, and had barely rested.
Even Meng Guanqi noticed that something was wrong with her. After all, when she was at her peak, she could kill a man in black with a single kick, but now she had been fighting that armored warrior for so long and still hadn't achieved a decisive victory.
Pang Shi's eyes widened suddenly, a surge of joy flashing through his mind, but it quickly dissipated. He shook his head: "I can't leave here."
Protecting the Crown Prince was his most important duty. Even if he knew that Li Xiaoxiao was in a bad situation, he could not abandon the Crown Prince to help her. After all, these people were either scholars or women and had no ability to fight back.
He secretly hoped she could hold out a little longer; it would be even better if she could win over these soldiers.
Moreover, in his view, although Li Xiaoxiao was tired, she was agile and still quite capable. Most importantly, she was shouting and yelling while fighting, which shook the morale of the soldiers. If he rashly stepped in to help now, he would only be making things worse.
The Xuanjia soldier was so angry that his face turned ashen. He couldn't out-talk Li Xiaoxiao, and he couldn't kill him. He ordered the other soldiers to help, but no one listened to him. He was furious and was about to signal the person who had been hiding behind him to help when he suddenly heard the sound of orderly horses' hooves outside.
The Xuanjia soldiers were shocked. They recognized the voice all too well; it was the Crown Prince's reinforcements!
He could no longer care about entanglement with Li Xiaoxiao. He suddenly leaped into the air and slashed at Pang Shi with his sword. At the same time, the black-clad man who had been hiding behind him also darted out like a ghost, passing by Pang Shi who was entangled by the Xuanjia soldiers, and thrust his sword at the Crown Prince.
At the critical moment, Meng Guanqi suddenly stepped forward and stretched out his arms to block the crown prince. Upon seeing this, Magistrate Meng immediately pushed his son aside and stepped in front of him himself.
The man in black's sword did not deviate in the slightest; he thrust out the sword with all his might.
Magistrate Meng was thin and weak. He was confident that his sword could pierce through his body and then into the prince behind him. His sword was poisoned, and if the prince was wounded, he would surely die.
The sword tip was less than an inch away from Magistrate Meng's heart when the man in black felt a tightness in his ankle, as if he were bound by some rope. He was pulled backward with force, but he couldn't get any leverage in the air and was pulled back half a zhang.
The only chance to kill the crown prince vanished before his eyes. The man in black's eyes turned red with hatred, and he swung his sword back.
The thin rope wrapped around his ankle disappeared with an eerie speed, and when it reappeared, it was around his neck.
The man in black didn't even know how he got caught, but he instantly understood how the archer's head on the wall had fallen down.
It wasn't some Bodhisattva or deity descending; rather, it was this thin rope, thinner than a musical string, that severed five heads in quick succession at an incredible speed.
And this thin rope was now in the hand of the soldier who was yelling.
If the man in black still didn't realize that the person in front of him was one of Magistrate Meng's men in disguise, then he had been a suicide soldier for nothing.
The sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang, and he froze, too stiff to move.
A thin rope was around his neck, almost invisible in the dark rain.
The Xuanjia soldiers, preoccupied with Pang Shi's presence, watched as their golden opportunity slipped away. Their only ally had even thrown away his sword, standing motionless in the rain, and they roared in anger, "Fifteen, what are you doing?"
"Fifteen?" Li Xiaoxiao tightened her grip on the steel cable. "Stop. Do you think your steps are faster or my hands are faster?" The only way to resolve the danger of the cable was to get as close to Li Xiaoxiao as possible, preventing her from having a chance to tighten it.
But Li Xiaoxiao immediately saw through his thoughts. With a slight exertion of force, Nan Shiwu felt a sharp pain in his neck, and blood immediately gushed out.
Li Xiaoxiao said, "You're the one who walked away in that dilapidated temple? The fourteen dead people before you were all your brothers?"
The cold rain lashed against Nan Shiwu's sharply defined face, causing the muscles in his cheeks to twitch uncontrollably. He gritted his teeth and said, "From Nan Yi to Nan Shisi, you killed them all?"
Li Xiaoxiao vehemently denied it: "No, I only killed one. Four of them committed suicide, and the other nine were struck by lightning. If you've been to the ruined temple, you should be able to tell the difference."
Nan Shiwu had of course gone to the ruined temple. When he saw the ten charred corpses under the big tree, he could hardly believe his eyes. He had been struck by lightning. How could there be such a strong lightning strike in such winter? But it was true. All fourteen of his fellow disciples had died in front of the ruined temple.
This goes beyond just being described as "bizarre".
The master had been planning this assassination for a long time. He exposed Zhu Duo's strength before killing the guards around the crown prince. Those guards risked their lives to pave the way for the crown prince and his three companions to escape the encirclement at Luoma Slope. However, they did not escape very far, as there were traces along the way. Therefore, the master sent out the four strongest members of Shadow One, leaving the other ten to clean up the mess.
But they were only half a day late. They thought that Nan Er and his men could kill the prince and return to report, but they never expected that all fourteen of them would die in the dilapidated temple in the mountains.
If the Crown Prince had been accompanied by this unfathomably powerful person, why would they have been hunted down like stray dogs? All the changes were because they encountered these people passing through Biyang County in the dilapidated temple!
Nan Shiwu felt that the deaths of his senior brothers were inextricably linked to the unfathomable strength of the person in front of him.
Nan Shiwu asked in a deep voice, "Who exactly are you?"
But he never got to know.
He could already hear the neighing and hoofbeats of warhorses outside the door. A squad of armored guards, wielding long spears, marched in with great momentum through the dilapidated gate. The leader, dressed in gleaming armor with the character "青" embroidered in the middle, held a crescent-shaped blade. He walked with the stride of a dragon and the gait of a tiger, his eyes flashing like lightning, exuding an aura that could swallow mountains and rivers.
Nan Shiwu closed his eyes, not expecting the Qingzhou Guard to arrive so quickly.
The moment his eyes met those of General Mingguang, he grabbed the thin rope around his neck.
A qualified suicide squad member must never fall into the hands of the enemy.
General Mingguang was taken aback; Nan Shiwu's head had already rolled off the ground.
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