The sky was dim, its darkness turning the pale white of a fish's belly as a thread of dawn spilled down.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh-
Several figures wearing coarse linen hoods dropped from the trees.
"Found him?" Chen Tong asked, his head lowered.
Chen Wu replied, "Just ahead, beside the stump."
At the very limit of their vision, they could just make out a disheveled figure curled on the ground, utterly bedraggled. Who knew how long he had gone without sleep? Only the occasional twitch of his legs proved he was still alive.
Chen Tong nodded, then set off, sometimes leaping into a tree, sometimes crouching in the grass. He held his breath and watched, only his eyes moving as he took in everything around him.
"One, two, three, four... four men standing in a line over here."
"One, two, three, four... four over here looking up at the sky."
Chen Wu frowned. "Only eight?"
They all knew the Yue People cared nothing for Deng Xiu and only wanted to use him to lure the army in and slaughter it. Most of their men were stationed around the outskirts of the forest, or even farther out, waiting to spring their ambush. But wasn't this far too few?
Chen Tong said, "There should originally have been eighty-eight."
Understanding dawned on Chen Wu. Eighty-eight made much more sense. However skilled Deng Xiu was, after so many days without food, water, or sleep, nearly a hundred rank-and-file soldiers would have been enough to finish him off.
As for where the other eighty were...
They were all lying behind them. Sneaking in hadn't been easy, after all.
Chen Tong drew a deep breath and said to Chen Wu, "Brother, are you ready?"
"Ready!"
Chen Wu nodded. "Remember, our teacher taught us that an assassin must