"Boom, boom, boom!"
A series of thunderous explosions erupted, but aside from shaking violently, the Dragon-Breaking Stone remained completely unmoved. Judging from the dull sound, the few of them had not budged it in the slightest.
After striking it twice each, they abandoned the effort. Golden Eagle Envoy Wang Zhen said in a deep voice:
"Don't bother trying anymore. This Dragon-Breaking Stone is too thick for us to break through."
With that, he turned and left. The others followed one after another. The group passed through the gate tunnel and entered the enceinte, only to see densely packed soldiers with drawn bows lining the entire upper perimeter. Row upon row of gleaming arrows was aimed straight at them.
An enceinte was a defensive structure found at the entrance of important passes and cities. When an enemy suffered heavy losses to break through the city gate, they would discover a semicircular inner wall behind it enclosing the gate. Once the gate was blocked, those inside would be trapped, just like a tortoise in a jar. This was also the origin of the idiom "a tortoise in a jar."
This enceinte stood some eight or nine meters high, equivalent to a three- or four-story building. One had to raise their head and look up to see the soldiers above. Golden Eagle Envoy Wang Zhen looked grimly at Brigadier General Li, who was surrounded by numerous generals atop the enceinte, and said:
"You betrayed us!"
"No, he didn't betray you."
Another voice came from the other side. A small section of archers parted, and a large group of armored soldiers escorted another military officer out. At that moment, a scream rang out. A flash of blade-light appeared behind Brigadier General Li, and his fine head flew up and fell into the enceinte.
The officer who had come later said coldly:
"The rebels of Dushan Fortress revolted several days ago. Li Zhao colluded with the rebel Dushan Fortress and is guilty beyond forgiveness. By order of the General of Shanhaiguan Pass, he is to be executed on the spot!"
He shifted his gaze to the people of Dushan Fortress inside the enceinte and swept a hand forward.
"Kill!"
In an instant, the dense sounds of bows and crossbows rang out. Countless arrows rose from atop and behind the enceinte. No one knew how many archers had been lying in ambush there. Arrows numbering in the thousands came raining down like a torrential downpour.
Lin Xiao had no time to be shocked that Dushan Fortress had actually rebelled. He watched helplessly as the arrow rain descended, unable to dodge and with nowhere to dodge to. He could only circulate his inner force throughout his body. His feet halted, his body blurred, and he split into two.
"Thunk, thunk, thunk..."
The arrow rain blanketed the sky. Screams rang out without cease, while even more arrows missed and stabbed into the ground. One of Lin Xiao's afterimages was pierced through by several arrows, while the other took two arrows, which his formidable inner force forcibly blocked.
The arrow rain came in three waves. By the end of them, seven or eight out of every ten of the several-hundred-strong group had died. Of those remaining, all but a few experts were wounded.
At that moment, strange sounds came from atop the enceinte. Lin Xiao looked up and saw ballistae being moved into position and aimed at them. His expression changed drastically. Then Golden Eagle Envoy Wang Zhen shouted:
"We can't stay here! Break out immediately!"
With that, he shot into the air and flew toward the city gate, seemingly intending to retreat. The many experts who had survived followed close behind, and Lin Xiao went with them.
But just then, along the wall of the enceinte they had charged out from, a line of archers suddenly retreated. A group of strongmen in heavy armor, carrying enormous shields, emerged and slammed their shields down in unison.
Golden Eagle Envoy Wang Zhen gave a cold snort and struck one of the descending shields away with a palm. Yet his body inevitably paused for an instant. At that very moment, the ballistae that had long been prepared fired simultaneously. Thirty or forty refined-steel bolts, each thicker than a thumb, shot toward them in a concentrated barrage.
At this moment, Wang Zhen displayed his supreme martial arts. In midair, he forcibly twisted his body, shouted, and turned golden as he clasped his hands before him and twisted the empty space. The dozen or so powerful bolts surrounding him suddenly halted and were forcibly deflected. The crown atop his head exploded on the spot, leaving him disheveled and seemingly wretched.
Alone, he twisted and drew nearly a third of the bolts into a single uncontrolled cluster. Purple Elephant Dharma King let out a roar, and the air around him suddenly expanded, forcibly jolting several incoming bolts away. The remaining experts each dealt with one or two bolts and blocked them as well.
But after this wave of bolts, aside from Golden Eagle Envoy, Purple Elephant Dharma King, Dushan Envoy, and a handful of other experts, everyone else was exhausted after taking the attack and fell back down. Then a second wave of arrows descended. Within Lin Xiao's field of vision alone, more than a dozen people were shot dead on the spot.
Relying on his superb Lightness Skill, his perfected Flying Heaven Steps allowed him to nimbly shift his body even in midair. He directly evaded the two bolts shot at him without needing to block them head-on, making him one of the few experts with enough strength left to charge onto the city wall.
It had to be said that a properly organized regular army was indeed extremely formidable. Judging solely by martial strength, their force could easily sweep through Linjiang Prefecture's Three Great Gangs. Yet before this little Zushan Pass, they had suffered heavy casualties and had no chance to fight back.
Even if the few of them managed to reach the city wall, they had done so mostly through their powerful individual strength. Reaching the city wall was one thing, but whether they could escape was another—because... the army had experts too!
When they broke through the obstacles and reached the wall, several Black Armored Guards wearing black cloaks rushed over. One of them even had a faint white gleam running along his blade as he swung it, showing that his skill was already no weaker than that of a first-rate martial artist of the jianghu.
These Black Armored Guards were similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard of the Ming Dynasty. Besides supervising the officials, they also monitored the martial world.
They seemed to know their identities very well and quickly found their respective opponents. The strongest one, a Black Armored Envoy clad in black with gold embroidery, intercepted Golden Eagle Envoy. The Mo Dao in his hand extended into a three-foot blade aura and swept across. Even Wang Zhen did not dare block it head-on.
Of course, the main reason was that they had no time to get entangled here. Once they were held up for even a moment, thousands of soldiers would surround them. Even a Grandmaster could be killed beneath the encirclement.
Golden Eagle Envoy's arms turned golden. Using only his fleshly palms, he deflected the Mo Dao, then thrust both palms forward and sent the other man staggering back with his formidable inner force. He leaped up, intending to clear the enceinte wall and jump into the city.
Getting out through the pass was too difficult, but leaping into the city still gave him a chance to escape.
The enemy had anticipated this, however. The moment he rose into the air, a shout to kill came from the distance:
"Fire!"
At once, dozens of prepared archers released their fingers. The arrows they had been nocking shot out, with two crossbow bolts mixed among them.
Wang Zhen, suspended in midair, raised a hand and struck downward. His formidable inner force knocked the arrows askew, but the two crossbow bolts hidden among them shot straight toward his face. He was startled, but still reacted in time, twisting his body in midair.
But at that moment, a Black Armored Guard nearby who had been fighting another Dushan Envoy suddenly ignored the opponent before him. He snatched the long spear from the soldier beside him and hurled it with all his strength. He took a palm strike from his opponent directly to the chest and fell from the city wall.
Yet his sudden, full-powered spear caught Wang Zhen off guard and pierced his back. His formidable inner force protecting his body kept it from penetrating, but his body was still jolted askew beyond his control and fell downward.
Before he could hit the ground, a second indiscriminate arrow rain descended. The defending commander seemed determined to kill them all here, especially Golden Eagle Envoy, the highest-ranking member of their group. Even the Black Armored Envoy who had been stopping Lin Xiao turned around and slashed at him, abandoning his own opponent.
A sharp gleam flashed through Lin Xiao's eyes. He leaped straight up, his body twisting irregularly in midair like a fish swimming through water. Taking advantage of the opening, he slipped past several soldiers and darted to the edge of the enceinte wall.
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