Sneak Attack

Inside the manor, everyone was resting. The righteous and evil factions stayed on opposite sides, clearly separated.

Just then, suddenly, an evil faction expert nicknamed Divine Ear twitched his ear, startled, and immediately stood up, shouting, "Many people are approaching here. Many of their footsteps are synchronized. It's a well-trained army!"

"What, the army? Have we been discovered?"

Everyone was greatly alarmed. The evil faction experts were ready to go out and investigate, while the righteous faction experts were half-believing, half-doubting. They asked, "Is it true? Why didn't we hear anything?"

"Run, it'll be too late if we don't."

Divine Ear had no time to bother with those righteous faction experts and immediately wanted to escape the manor. However, at this moment, he seemed to hear something and was so scared that he immediately dropped to the ground.

The next moment, accompanied by intense whistling sounds, over ten crossbow bolts, much thicker than ordinary arrows, pierced through the wooden walls from outside and shot in, instantly impaling and killing several experts who couldn't dodge in time!

"Siege Crossbows!"

The experts were shocked and quickly ducked to the ground. Such powerful crossbow bolts could only be siege crossbows. These were the imperial court's great killing weapons against martial artists!

But why were there siege crossbows outside the manor?

The biggest weakness of siege crossbows was their immobility. This meant these siege crossbows were already nearby. This was clearly a trap!

Everyone's hearts sank. After several volleys of fire, the siege crossbows fell silent, replaced by the sound of hurried footsteps.

The experts looked up and saw a group of soldiers holding shields appear in front of the hall. Behind them, a row of archers nimbly drew their bows and shot arrows, a rain of arrows whistling down.

The experts quickly got up to dodge, using tables and chairs from the hall as shields or throwing them at the soldiers. Many experts also used their agility techniques to charge towards the soldiers!

The battle, or rather, the bloody battle, erupted at this moment!

If they were ordinary mountain bandits or thugs, a martial arts expert could fight dozens of them without any problem. But against well-trained soldiers, as long as ten of them formed a military formation, it would be difficult even for martial arts experts to kill them, because they would cooperate!

Moreover, no matter how powerful martial arts experts were, most of their bodies were fragile. Even an ordinary person with a knife could stab them to death!

Therefore, even though the experts' martial arts were not bad and their numbers were not small, they were still under immense pressure in front of so many elite soldiers. A few experts with high agility techniques, seeing that the situation was unfavorable, wanted to escape.

However, when these experts reached the outside of the manor, they despaired. The surroundings were densely packed with soldiers, and many experts recruited by Cao Dan were waiting!

"No..."

The despairing shouts of the experts could even be heard by Zhang Yunhao and the others on the opposite mountain. Zhang Yunhao sighed with emotion, "If I hadn't come, Tian Ming would have been among that group now. How could I be so leisurely?"

"These people can't escape the Director-General's five fingers... palm."

Zhang Yunhao turned to the Great Hero of Southern Mountain and smiled, "This is all thanks to our Great Hero Dragon. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy to capture these experts in one fell swoop. Great Hero Dragon is truly my role model, worthy of my study."

The Great Hero of Southern Mountain remained expressionless, but the Director-General laughed heartily, "Indeed, it's all thanks to our Great Hero Dragon. Long Yuan, come here and tell me which specific martial arts experts they are. I don't recognize all of them."

"Yes, Director-General!"

The Great Hero of Southern Mountain, however, was not angry but pleased. He pretended to hesitate for a moment, then strode to Cao Dan's side and introduced, "The few who just escaped were experts with good agility techniques, such as Grass on Flying, Treading Snow Without Trace..."

Seeing the Great Hero of Southern Mountain standing with Cao Dan, Zhang Yunhao secretly frowned. Although he had successfully approached Cao Dan and had plenty of his own men, the Great Hero of Southern Mountain and Cao Dan were too close. If he made a move, he would easily be surrounded by both of them.

Moreover, Cao Dan's thirteen adopted sons were also very close!

"This is troublesome. I'll observe for now. Speaking of which, the Great Hero of Southern Mountain and the others always feel a bit strange to me."

Zhang Yunhao narrowed his eyes slightly. He had been paying attention to Huang Lei and the others. He noticed that Huang Lei and the others didn't show much guilt now; instead, they were filled with joy, excitement, and nervousness!

Under normal circumstances, no matter how heartless they were, they should feel some guilt after causing so many deaths. And at this moment, their joy was understandable, but why were they excited and nervous?

Another doubt was that they hadn't knocked out the Fierce Arhat yet, nor had they severely injured him. They had only sealed his acupoints!

Logically speaking, after committing such a despicable act, they should have wanted to kill the Fierce Arhat as quickly as possible, or at the very least, knock him unconscious!

"It's already an incredible thing for the Great Hero of Southern Mountain to defect to Eunuch Cao. Could it be..."

Zhang Yunhao had some guesses, but this only made him angrier. He snorted and decided to wait and see!

Time ticked by. More and more soldiers died on the opposite mountain, and quite a few experts also died. Some people discovered Cao Dan and the Great Hero of Southern Mountain on this side and were filled with grief and indignation, but unfortunately, it was useless.

Just then, the Iron Vajra, the strongest among the experts, suddenly used a secret technique. His body expanded, becoming impervious to blades and spears. Wielding an iron rod, he swept away large numbers of soldiers. Ordinary soldiers couldn't even get close to him. A group of imperial court experts surrounded him and engaged in a fierce battle.

"I don't know what martial art this is, but it's just an external skill, not worth mentioning," Cao Dan said disdainfully. The Great Hero of Southern Mountain chimed in, "That's right. Compared to Your Excellency's Pure Yang Virgin Boy Skill, this Iron Vajra is nothing."

"Of course, Pure Yang Virgin Boy Skill is the strongest martial art, with no weaknesses!"

Cao Dan laughed heartily, watching the distant battle with great interest.

Although the Iron Vajra's strength was nothing in Cao Dan's eyes, he was still very powerful to others. Five or six experts couldn't take him down. Cao Dan's attention was gradually drawn to their battle.

"This is the moment! Swimming Dragon Sword Slash!"

The Great Hero of Southern Mountain, who had been waiting for a long time, saw his opportunity and decisively placed his hand on the sword hilt like lightning. Then, the scabbard suddenly split open, and a streak of black sword light, like a flowing silk, swept towards Cao Dan's waist, aiming to cut him in half.

"Hmm?"

No one expected the Great Hero of Southern Mountain, who had already defected, to suddenly launch a deadly attack. However, Cao Dan was not to be trifled with. He reacted immediately, let out a cold snort, and his right hand, with uncanny skill, appeared in front of the sword light. Under the effect of True Qi, it was like a piece of white jade.

With a clang, the Great Hero of Southern Mountain's sneak attack was blocked by Cao Dan. Cao Dan's palm was unharmed, only his body vibrated slightly.

The sneak attack failed, but the Great Hero of Southern Mountain was not discouraged. He exerted force and actually drew out a small sword from the long sword. It was also pitch black and stabbed towards Cao Dan's waist.