Book 11: Chapter 21: Windstalker’s Assassination

While moving into this sorghum field canal, Lin Xi was always slowly arranging a ring of fine hemp string.

After patiently waiting for a long time, a Great Mang troop finally appeared in his line of sight.

This was a light armored cavalry army of about two thousand in number. They clearly already carried out some type of mission, already fought a battle, quite a few of their bodies carrying injuries. Right now, their speed of advance wasn’t fast, taking breaks every so often to let their warhorses chew on some tender grass, get a bit of rest.

Since there was already a scouting army that scouted the area within a hundred li, making sure that there definitely weren’t any traces of Yunqin army moving about here, this Great Mang army didn’t seem to be on that high of an alert, also not separating into a forward and rear army.

Ever since Yunqin Empire was founded, receiving Principal Zhang’s influence, apart from really high ranked officers or the commanders of some special troops, all other Yunqin commanders wore the same black leather armor as ordinary soldiers, the only difference lying in the inner armor. This way, if it wasn’t an assassin like Xu Qiubai who came from Yunqin’s military to begin with, someone who understood Yunqin’s oral commands and hand gestures well, it was quite difficult to pinpoint which individual in a Yunqin army was the commander.

However, Great Mang wasn’t as influenced by Principal Zhang as Yunqin Empire. The clothing of different ranked officers was clearly distinguished.

The helmets of Great Mang’s high level officers normally had different gems embedded by Purgatory Mountain, gems like rubies, peacock stones, fire ambers and other precious objects. Meanwhile, lower level officers would have turquoise, yellow cornelian and cloud red jade. Those that were lower than that didn’t have anything embedded, only having gold and silver ornaments, their helmets also decorated with the plumage of different fiend beasts.

When Lin Xi received the Windstalker inheritance in Green Luan Academy, not only did he train in archery, he also remembered some stealth and assassination techniques inside out.

His eyes quickly locked onto the highest ranked officer in this Great Mang cavalry army.

This was a giant whose figure definitely exceeded two meters, his weight definitely exceeding two hundred and fifty jin. In this type of distance where an ordinary person couldn’t see faces clearly at all, Lin Xi instead already saw clearly that this person even had muscles bulging on his face. This face was one that was truly fierce and valiant to the extreme. Perhaps because the weight was too great, this Great Mang officer’s weapon needed to be carried by a separate warhorse at his side. This was an oval shaped, flat ring-like blade, entirely black and red colored. The runes were Great Mang’s unique flowing magma designed runes. The outer ring and inner ring, apart from the areas for him to grip onto, were completely extremely sharp blades. Moreover, these blades were jagged like bursts of flames.

The gem embedded in his helmet was a cornelian. In Great Mang, this represented the official rank of a major fifth ranked Cavalry Officer. Normally, the amount of troops under him should already reach three thousand.

Yet right now, this cavalry army only had two thousand individuals left. This meant that they either began with this much, or that they already experienced a battle that wasn’t small, already close to a thousand people injured.

An organized cavalry troop would always be the bane of cultivators.

It wasn’t just the endurance of horses that could catch up to cultivators who had a temporary advantage in speed, just the archers and some thrown weapons in this organized cavalry were enough to pose a fatal threat to cultivators. A cavalry army on this type of scale was something Lin Xi had no chance of contending against, so he didn’t waste time in carefully examining this troop’s military equipment, only continuing to search out other officers while this troop continued to advance.

This Great Mang troop was completely unaware that they had already been targeted by a Green Luan Academy Windstalker. They continued to advance at a speed that wasn’t too fast or too slow. For this army that was just making a return trip, ensuring that there were no openings for enemy troops to intercept them was much more important than saving a bit of time.

In this underbrush, Lin Xi’s eyes became exceptionally bright, starting to truly shine like two gemstones.

The instant the final hundred or so riders passed through the scorched town region, his right hand fiercely pulled at the fine hemp thread that was already becoming taut.

Dang!

A noise that was similar to a type of Yunqin crossbow machine being fired suddenly erupted in this silent wasteland, sounding from the rear flank of this Great Mang troop!

Almost everyone in this Great Mang cavalry troop lowered their bodies within a single breath of time, as if by conditioned reflex, their eyes extremely cold as they swept towards the brush where this noise sounded from.

At the same time, Lin Xi in that canal already raised that black bone giant bow that he already dyed green. His eyes passed over the messy sorghum straw, accurately locking onto that giant-like Great Mang officer and two other Great Mang officers with gold and silver patterns on their helmets.

Chi! Chi! Chi!

Even before that previous loud noise disappeared, three shrill air tearing sounds already echoed through the air.

Three bursts of blood erupted from three different individuals’ bodies at the same time.

That giant Great Mang officer’s hand had just reached the giant ring on that warhorse’s back, and then a huge gash was made on the side of his exceptionally strong and sturdy neck. His entire head was almost torn off, falling to the side.

As for the other two Great Mang officers, one was hit in the middle of his back between a gap in his armor, falling straight to the ground, while the other’s hand was raised, so an arrow entered his underarm. The vicious metal arrow directly stabbed into his underarm, crushing half of his important inner organs. When the tremendous power entered his body, it made it so that the instant he fell down from his horse, blood gushed out of his mouth crazily, many chunks of crushed internal organs coughed out.

What followed the three shrill air shattering noises and the heavy noises, was a momentary deathly stillness.

Since the amount of time was too short, when this scene entered their brains, their rational reactions and judgment still couldn’t erase the first moments of horror.

After an extremely short silence, a boom noise sounded. This Great Mang army instantly erupted with endless sounds.

Weapons and armors rang out, cries of shock, shouting, orders, horse hooves, all of this began to merge together in an extremely chaotic manner.

Over a hundred Great Mang cavalry frantically charged towards the point where the previous dang noise sounded. Dozens of Great Mang soldiers immediately rushed towards their three collapsed commanders, but their faces quickly became deathly pale, releasing howls of despair.

Judging from these people’s reactions, the Great Mang soldiers around them already knew that their commander and the other two officers already became corpses that were quickly becoming cold.

All of these Great Mang soldiers swept crazily around them, but they didn’t notice any movements. Moreover, what these Great Mang soldiers who were experiencing fear and anger found even more inconceivable was that not a single one of them could deduce where the three arrows were fired from the air tearing noises.

It was because in that instant, the air shattering sounds from those three arrows actually seemed to have come from all directions, as if there were people blowing whistles from all directions.

An officer squeezed his way over to these three corpses.

This officer could normally only command a hundred people, but after the death of these three officers, there were only officers of the same rank as him left. Meanwhile, his qualifications among these officers were the deepest, so he now already became the commander of this Great Mang troop.

This old officer whose complexion was even paler than his white hair endured the extreme shock and anger he felt, pulling out the arrows deeply embedded in the corpses in front of him.

He saw that these were extremely ordinary Ink Feather Runed Iron Arrows Yunqin’s cultivators used.

This type of arrow was entirely made from a type of alloy hardened by a type of ink charcoal. Its surface was covered in flakes like fine feather steel runes. From the outside, it looked completely identical to some expensive armor penetrating arrows, but the arrowheads weren’t as tough and costly as those armor penetrating arrowheads, so the price was something ordinary cultivators could shoulder even without the support of great powers.

This type of special iron arrow normally couldn’t release this type of noise from all directions at all. However, this old official immediately saw that there were some irregular carving lines on the arrowtip and the arrow itself.

It was these carvings that made the arrow sounds become different, preventing them from deducing the exact direction where the arrow came from. Moreover, this type of carvings actually didn’t affect the arrow’s accuracy!

Just what kind of archer was this?

This old officer raised his head. What made his breathing stop momentarily was that some of the hundred men he sent out previously already rushed back, the soldier at the very front holding a brass skinned bucket-like object. Meanwhile, the other soldiers were currently crazily searching in a direction within that underbrush.

After hearing these rushed reports, this old official continuously gave out several orders. There were several hundred more people who scattered, crazily searching in all directions.

After more than ten halts of time, someone finally noticed some traces of activity within the sorghum canal. However, no matter what kind of search followed, there was no way for them to find out anything more about that assassin.

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