Book 11: Chapter 23: Abnormal Prisoner Carriage Noises
Book 11: Chapter 23: Abnormal Prisoner Carriage Noises
Li Yingxing and the entire patrolling army’s bodies became taut like a bowstring.
Even though they didn’t know the identity of Lin Xi who had a giant green dyed bow behind him, what Lin Xi said wasn’t wrong at all. The following choice wasn’t hard to make for Li Yingxing.
The sounds of Great Mang’s army in panic made him and the entire patrolling army sure that this cavalry army’s numbers were at least double that of their patrolling army. Moreover, they understood even more clearly that there was no chance of Yunqin cavalry appearing in this region.
That was why what Lin Xi said was true, this was a Great Mang cavalry troop waiting in ambush.
“Sir Li!”
According to normal reasoning, at this type of time, it should be the entire army that waits for Li Yingxing to give orders, it definitely wasn’t time for anyone to speak out. However, a deputy commander behind Li Yingxing instead couldn’t help but say this through clenched teeth.
This deputy commander only gave Li Yingxing a look, he didn’t say too much, but Li Yingxing instead immediately understood what he wanted to say extremely clearly.
Just from the cries released by those Great Mang warhorses after spitting out the wooden chunks and the deep and low wind noises of large amounts of warhorses running quickly made it clear to everyone here that Lin Xi’s whereabouts were already exposed.
Moreover, all of them knew that Lin Xi purposely exposed himself for their sake, just to buy them a bit of time to break out.
However, for this lone cultivator to face a cavalry troop of this size, it could be said to be dangerous to the extreme. As the side that was saved, were they really supposed to just completely ignore this person, leave like this?
“This is war. I cannot let my troop be completely wiped out. I can only trust in his ability, trust that he can leave safely.”
Li Yingxing took a deep breath, and then he gave the direction Lin Xi was in a deep bow of respect.
“Break out!”
When the Yunqin soldiers behind him were just like him, hot blood surging to their faces, showing the direction Lin Xi was in a military salute, an extremely fierce and resolute military order sounded from Li Yingxing’s mouth, Then, Li Xingying was like a cheetah, the first one to rush in the direction Lin Xi pointed at.
All of the Yunqin soldiers behind him followed him like a flood.
…
Concentrated arrow sounds tore through the night sky.
A few breaths after a larger half of this Great Mang cavalry army crazily chased after Lin Xi, some officers in the military also recovered their rationality. The entire thousand and five hundred manned Great Mang light cavalry troop split up into two waves, one wave of close to seven hundred troops continuing to crazily chase after Lin Xi, while the other soldiers began to rush madly in the direction of the Yunqin patrol army that they already discovered.
Cultivators relied on the eruption of soul force. Their momentary speed will definitely be faster than the fastest speeding horses, especially cultivators with higher level cultivation whose speeds will be even faster. However, if they wanted to maintain their speed above military steeds, their consumption of soul force would be similarly shocking. That was why in a battle of endurance, cultivators couldn’t compare to military steeds at all.
As long as the distance between them and the cultivator wasn’t completely pulled apart, then they could wait until two other Great Mang troops came to encircle this cultivator.
After their initial fear and alarm disappeared, the Great Mang cavalry chasing Lin Xi began to fire arrows.
Even though the distance between Lin Xi and the Great Mang cavalry troop wasn’t something Great Mang cavalry’s bows could reach, the arrows this Great Mang cavalry fired right now weren’t meant to injure Lin Xi; what they fired were flame phosphorus arrows from Great Mang’s military workshops.
This type of arrow was entirely wrapped in a layer of silvery-white colored metal powder and phosphorus powder. After flying out a few dozen steps, because of the air friction, they would completely ignite, releasing dazzling white light, just like the flares of Lin Xi’s previous world.
These arrows descended one after another. Under the illumination of white fiery light, all of the Great Mang army chasing after Lin Xi clearly saw the figure of this Yunqin assassin who loomed over the hearts of all Great Mang officers like a shadow of death. They saw that Lin Xi’s figure, compared to the giant bow on his back, didn’t seem all that tall and strong. His running stance wasn’t all that fierce either, yet whenever his foot descended, all of these Great Mang soldiers felt a sense of perfect coordination between all of his flesh and bones, filled with an indescribable feeling of explosive power.
All unknown things would always be more terrifying than known things.
Right now, when these Great Mang soldiers saw Lin Xi’s running stance, even though all of them felt a heart trembling feeling because of the other party’s power, since they could clearly see their opponent, see that the other party was human and not a demon, a larger half of the fear in these Great Mang soldiers’ hearts disappeared.
“Kill him!”
“Get revenge for the commander!”
When the second wave of fire phosphorus arrows began to burn in the air, drawing out long white tails, there were over a hundred Great Mang soldiers who began to shout fiercely.
However, at this moment, a heavy rumbling sounded. Among the cavalry who were chasing after Yunqin’s patrol troop, the steed that was rushing at the very front collapsed, sending countless grass fragments and dirt flying.
Then, muffled crashing noises and sounds of falling sounded. Dozens of warhorses fell in succession, the miserable cries of warhorses and shouts of alarm from soldiers erupting. The horses in the back couldn’t stop their momentum either, running into the horse that fell over.
Most of the Great Mang cavalry chasing after Lin Xi didn’t know what happened on this side. As they looked at this sudden scene of chaos, but couldn’t see any enemy troops, they felt fear and confusion.
Suddenly, in front of their cavalry army, the entire body of the steed running at the very front suddenly leaned forward heavily, as if the ground in front suddenly became lower. Then, this horse couldn’t continue, kneeling down with a miserable cry, falling fiercely into the ground.
Only the Great Mang soldiers closest to this warhorse could see that in that instant, this horse’s front hooves were cut off.
However, the instant they released cries of alarm, the front hooves of the horses below them were also quickly cut off. Their horses all leaned forward heavily, and then the horses charging behind them also fell, running into them and their horses.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Sounds of flesh colliding rang out like war drums.
Only after close to a hundred horses continuously fell, did the cavalry in the back stop their momentum. They were shocked and furious when they found out that the reason this type of thing happened was because the other party arranged some extremely fine and strong steel wires in the underbrush.
Right now, more than ten strands of these steel wires that came from who knew where were snapped under the collision, but some were still intact.
Even if they had the fiery light of flame phosphorus arrows, the black steel wires were still hard to make out in the night’s darkness. It was only because these black steel wires were covered in blood that they could see them now.
Lin Xi continued to run ahead at a steady speed. He still didn’t disappear from these Great Mang cavalry’s line of sight, but under their warhorses’ cries of pain after having their front hooves cut through and the miserable howls of soldiers who had their skin cut apart and bones broken, this Great Mang cavalry army still not knowing how many more of this type of steel wiring and other traps were arranged up ahead, they didn’t dare immediately charge forward crazily. They could only watch as Lin Xi’s figure disappeared into the darkness with the frightened eyes of looking at a devil.
This was completely… a single person ambushing an entire army.
…
After making sure that his figure already completely broke free from the eyes of his pursuers, Lin Xi suddenly slowed down his speed. His legs began to gently step on the ground. Then, after checking his position, he directly moved southwest.
Since the very first Great Mang commander assassination, during these ten or so days, he already successfully killed more than ten Great Mang officers. His archery skills and cultivation, as well as these small methods for Windstalkers to escape, had also become more proficient. However, judging from the whereabouts of the Great Mang troops he came into contact with, he could sense that Yunqin still couldn’t contain the fast and violent momentum of Great Mang’s army. Great Mang’s army infiltrated even deeper into South Tomb Province’s borders, some Great Mang soldiers even already coming into contact with South Tomb Province’s Meteor Lake southern side.
This meant that Great Mang’s army was still dominating their battles around Thousand Sunset Mountain, currently winning, moreover able to send their troops deep into South Tomb Province to launch ambushes. This was a huge threat for Yunqin military’s transport of provisions and military equipment, and deployment of reinforcements. Moreover, for Lin Xi, the most crucial part was that the deeper Great Mang’s army penetrated, the more Yunqin’s commoners died, the more people became destitute and homeless.
Right now, the entire South Tomb Province’s southern region was already empty. Lin Xi could imagine that there were definitely large waves of refugees in South Tomb Province’s north right now. Meanwhile, right now, this South Tomb Province’s southern region already completely gave off a bit of a doomsday feel. Many towns that were originally just as bustling as East Port and Swallow Descent Town, even if they didn’t encounter Great Mang troops, there was already not a soul in sight.
On top of all of this, it wasn’t that the evacuating civilians didn’t encounter Great Mang troops while fleeing.
Two days ago, Lin Xi already saw the cruel scene of Thousand Tree Town being looted and massacred by Great Mang’s army.
Ever since he left Jadefall City, Lin Xi already understood that there was no way he could completely separate himself from this world. This type of scene even more so made Lin Xi understand that he couldn’t separate his individual grudges from this war. That was why right now, even though he was already extremely weary, he still didn’t want to rest, still continuing towards the Great Mang army activity Li Yingxing spoke of, heading in the southwest direction.
In the darkness that was still roughly an hour from daybreak, Lin Xi already arrived at the Sunset Fall Town Li Yingxing spoke of.
This was South Tomb Province’s southwestern region, a city three hundred li from Thousand Sunset Border Pass. This was originally a strategic town that led towards True Sword Pass in Thousand Sunset Border Pass. However, True Sword Pass was extremely close to Eye Coast Pass. That was why even if he didn’t know the exact military situation right now, Lin Xi knew that this place should be more dangerous than other places in South Tomb Province. Judging from Li Yingxing’s voice, Lin Xi already sensed that Yunqin army didn’t have much of a grasp over this place. At the very least, Great Mang’s army had absolute control over this region.
In the darkness before dawn, Lin Xi quickly saw that in this town area that had already experienced battles, already quite ruined, there was a Great Mang troop!
In this type of situation where normal cultivators couldn’t even see Lin Xi clearly, but Lin Xi could clearly see the situation in the town, Lin Xi stood next to a tree on an embankment, his brows furrowed slightly as he looked towards the town.
There were at least a hundred Great Mang soldiers patrolling around this town. Inside the town, military tents were erected on the streets one after another. The troops that brought these types of military tents would normally all be of a larger scale, and they were usually long distance traveling troops who would bring this type of military tent that would allow one to obtain better rest in the wilderness, preserving their stamina better.
Meanwhile, what made Lin Xi feel the most strange was that at the town center where he still couldn’t see clearly, there seemed to vaguely be sounds of steel prisoner carriages being struck, as well as some abnormal screaming sounds.