On the night of the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, at Rabbit Garden Villa east of the Huan River, the horsemen of the Exorcising the Dragon Gang seized the initiative.
With organized troops having already taken the two cities upstream and downstream, they had, almost miraculously, evaded the escort's layer upon layer of eyes and ears and reached the villa. Then, at its weakest moment, they had launched a sudden, precisely timed assault, engaging the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry guarding it at close quarters.
Yet even caught this utterly unprepared, the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry retained certain trained instincts. Amid the battle cries, faced with the vanguard rider charging toward them aglow with red light, they immediately drew their curved sabers. Their leader, Black Sash Li Qingchen, even circulated his true qi and rode out to meet him.
But in the darkness, as the two leading riders' regulation sabers met in midair, Li Qingchen, despite having mustered all his true qi, felt his arm go numb, his chest tighten, and his vision nearly black out. His saber flew from his hand on the spot, forcing him to duck immediately and hug his horse's head to evade the blow, turning the horse as he did so in an attempt to escape.
In that moment of panic, the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's riders behind him had already charged in.
Without needing Li Qingchen's warning, the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry swiftly realized that they were no match for their opponents. Protecting the utterly bewildered Governor Cao, they turned and headed into the villa...
For at a glance, the Brocade-clad Patrol Cavalry had seen that although the flowing light of true qi around the gang's riders was a bewildering jumble, a great expanse of silver-gray ice true qi linked it through the center, faintly forming