20demayo Chapter 1150 You think you can just leave? Not so easy!
Chapter 1150 You think you can just leave? Not so easy!
He neither dodged nor evaded, but instead drew a circle in front of him with his halberd. The three short arrows, as if drawn by an invisible force, spun three times around the halberd's blade, and then—changed direction, shooting back at an even greater speed!
"Puff puff!"
Yan Xiaoyi looked down at the three short arrows embedded in his chest, his eyes filled with disbelief. The poison on the arrows spread rapidly, and his vision began to blur.
"Why...why..." he murmured, "a man like you..."
Lu Bu rode up to him and looked down at the dying ninth-rank master.
"I am Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian," he said slowly. "Born in a chaotic world, I will die in a chaotic world. If Gaoyao can offer me a place to fight, I will fight for him."
He paused, a rare hint of emotion in his voice: "Your archery skills are quite good, it's a pity you were born in the wrong era. If you were under my command, you might become a fine general."
With a gentle thrust of the halberd, Yan Xiaoyi's life came to an end.
Yan Xiaoyi, a master archer of the Northern Qi Dynasty and a ninth-rank expert, has passed away.
With their two main generals dead, the remaining cavalry of Northern Qi and Southern Qing roared with bloodshot eyes, "Avenge our great general! Kill—!"
The remaining cavalry launched a desperate charge. However, they faced a formation of two hundred warriors of at least the fifth rank.
The martial artists trained by Gao Yao may have unstable foundations or lack combat experience, but they all have one thing in common—their true energy is rampant, and they are fearless of death. Under the stimulation of the pills, their sense of pain is weakened, and their fighting spirit is amplified, like a pack of ferocious beasts unleashed.
Ran Min and Lü Bu retreated to the front of their lines, refraining from further attacks. Clearing out the remaining enemy forces was a good opportunity to hone this newly formed army.
"Form ranks!" Ran Min ordered in a deep voice.
The two hundred warriors instantly split into twenty teams of ten, forming small battle formations. They practiced the same technique, and their true energy resonated with each other. The combined power of the ten warriors far surpassed the power of simply adding their individual strengths together.
The first wave of Northern Qi cavalry collided with the warriors' army formation.
The expected carnage did not materialize. The ten riders at the forefront seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall of energy, and were thrown back along with their horses. Immediately afterward, the warriors moved—their movements were perfectly synchronized, ten men as one, their fists, palms, swords, knives, and various weapons and techniques working in seamless coordination.
This is not a street brawl; this is military-style slaughter.
The Northern Qi cavalry's charge was forcefully halted. The warriors, in small squads, weaved and split the enemy lines, scattering them. Warriors were frequently wounded or even killed, but their comrades immediately filled in, and the army's formation remained intact.
Fan Xian watched from the hillside, his heart pounding. He had seen the Black Riders of Southern Qing and the Iron Pagoda of Northern Qi, but the fighting style of this martial arts force was unlike any army he knew.
They were more like a sophisticated killing machine, with each person a cog in it. There was no individual heroism, no lone wolf fighting, only the most efficient teamwork and slaughter.
On the battlefield, the slaughter continued.
Although the Northern Qi cavalry were fierce and brave, they were quickly routed by the overwhelming attack of the warriors' formation. Some tried to escape, but Ran Min had already arranged for thirty warriors to block the valley entrance, and all the escapees were intercepted and killed.
The battle ended half an incense stick later.
The valley was littered with corpses; none of the people brought by Uesugi Tiger and Yan Xiaoyi survived.
Ran Min rode his horse to survey the battlefield, pausing briefly before each of the Northern Qi soldiers' corpses to confirm that no one had survived. Lü Bu, meanwhile, wiped the blood from his halberd, while his Red Hare trotted uneasily beside him.
Fan Xian and Haitang Duoduo exchanged a glance, both seeing the coldness in each other's eyes.
"Let's go," Fan Xian said in a low voice.
Fan Xian's mind was also on high alert. Yan Xiaoyi's death involved the Southern Qing military and the royal family; Shang Shanhu's death directly touched the nerves of the Northern Qi military. Regardless of who Ran Min and Lü Bu, who suddenly appeared and swiftly killed the two, were, the waters behind them were too deep, deep enough to easily drown anyone who tried to wade into the muddy waters.
He glanced at Haitang Duoduo beside him. Although the Holy Maiden of Northern Qi maintained a calm facade, her tightly pursed lips and slightly constricted pupils betrayed the gravity of her heart. They exchanged a look; no words were needed, retreat was the only wise choice at the moment.
Coincidence, or rather, the unseen hand of fate, often adds a dramatic touch at the most tense moments. Just as Fan Xian, Haitang Duoduo, Xiao En and their group were quietly moving out of the forest, Guo Baokun and his dozen or so shaken veterans were also trying to emerge from the dense forest from another direction. The two groups bumped into each other right in a relatively sparse forest clearing.
"Guo Baokun, what are you doing here?"
Fan Xian blurted out, genuinely taken aback. He never expected to encounter this old acquaintance in this situation. In Fan Xian's mind, his feud with Guo Baokun was more of a petty squabble between spoiled young masters in the capital, mixed with the helplessness of being secretly instigated by Princess Li Yunrui.
Guo Baokun, frankly speaking, was somewhat foolish and was used as a pawn, but his nature was not necessarily wicked. As for the downfall of his father, Guo Youzhi, it was a sacrifice in the power struggles of the court and the efforts of himself and Princess Chang—a pathetic pawn. Fan Xian was fully aware of this, and even occasionally felt a trace of barely perceptible pity.
The fact that Guo Baokun was now in this desolate wilderness far from the capital, followed by a dozen or so men who, though their faces showed fear, were clearly former soldiers dressed as farmers, was something that could not be explained by mere coincidence or impulsiveness.
A chill crept up Fan Xian's spine—was there some force, one he hadn't yet discerned, entangled behind Guo Baokun? Just how many unknown participants were hidden in tonight's game?
The moment Guo Baokun saw Fan Xian, a deep-seated hatred instantly erupted in his eyes. The resentment from his father's imprisonment, his family's decline, and the shattering of their past glory was almost bursting forth. He subconsciously tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, and the veterans behind him stirred slightly, the atmosphere instantly becoming tense.
Guo Baokun's gaze swept quickly across the begonia blossoms beside Fan Xian, and further into the darkness where a ninth-rank official had just perished. His murderous intent was suddenly doused with ice water. He abruptly snapped to reality: At this moment, even if he could kill Fan Xian, the commotion alone might attract those two fiends, and everyone would die here in the process! A powerful will to survive overwhelmed his urge for revenge.
"Fan Xian!" Guo Baokun spat out the name through gritted teeth, his chest heaving violently. He finally suppressed his urge to attack immediately. "Today... consider yourself lucky! But remember, this isn't over! I will never let you go!" After uttering this threatening but cowardly statement, Guo Baokun waved his hand, signaling his men to quickly take a detour, wanting only to escape this dangerous place as soon as possible.
"You really do seem to attract enemies wherever you go." Haitang Duoduo hung the double axes back on her waist and glanced at Fan Xian with a slightly teasing look. However, there was not much ease in her teasing; instead, there was a sense of helplessness that said, "You're such a troublemaker."