Gu Debai, perched on the eaves, slashed downwards with his palm.
Two hundred three-edged armor-piercing arrows, soaked in kerosene, rained down on the street corner with a whistling sound.
"Your Highness, step back!"
Pu Yunshan raised his spear to block.
Gu Moran did not retreat. Instead, he swung his Sea-Calming Sword backward with his right hand and cut the thick hemp reins on the accompanying waterwheel.
He kicked the bottom of the water-carrying barrel, which was about half a person's height, with his left foot.
The large wooden bucket, filled with two hundred catties of well water, flipped upside down and landed on top of him and his warhorse with a splash.
Cold water soaked through his entire armor, and even the mane of his warhorse was dripping wet.
Gu Moran his horse's flanks, bracing against the first wave of rockets hurtling towards him, and forcefully smashed open the thick wooden door of the stone pawnshop on the left, charging into the porch shelter with his horse.
Several rockets were driven into the bluestone slab where he had just stood, the flames at their tails crackling and leaping wildly.
Gu Moran sat on the horse, wiped the cold water from his face, and turned to look at the other fast horses that had followed him into the pawnshop.
The bucket of water that had just been spilled soaked Kim Seon-a -ah, who was standing right next to him.
Her thin Goryeo silk dress from Goryeo, already soaked with well water, clung completely to her body.
Although she was wearing a silk inner armor, the exposed snow-white skin below her neck and the outline of her rounded thighs tightly bound by her wet skirt were dazzlingly white in the firelight.
Gu Moran casually grabbed the dry blanket from beside the saddle and tossed it into her arms, his hand giving her wet waist a squeeze.
"Wipe it off! If you keep looking, I'll bleed to death right here."
Kim Seon-a- ah flinched, clutching the blanket hastily to her chest, her ears burning hot.
"What time is it, Your Highness, that you still have the mind to spout nonsense..."
My father just said there's something strange about the cellar; I need to take some men to check it out!
"Go ahead, have Lin Qingdai and Tuoba Mang go with you via the side path."
Gu Moran patted her cold hand.
"I'll clean up all that rotten fish and shrimp for you."
Kim Seon-a bit her lip, turned her horse around, and led Lin Qingdai and Tuoba Mang, who had just caught up, crashed through the wooden door of the pawnshop's backyard and rushed out.
At that moment, Gu Debai's arrogant laughter came from the rooftops on the street.
He paced back and forth on the green tiles, his long, gleaming steel scalpel pointing towards the pawnshop door below.
"Good nephew, why are you acting like a coward?"
Five years ago, those idiots in the Ministry of War thought I had been fed to the fish in the East Sea. In fact, I had already made contact with the Inukami with my loyal naval brothers!
I've been hiding my identity for five whole years, all for this day!
Uncle is determined to collect my good nephew's body in Hanseong!
The naval rebels on the rooftop once again drew their bows and arrows, sealing off every inch of the bluestone slabs at the pawnshop's entrance.
Gu Debai raised his chin high and dragged out the last syllable:
"Your emperor father is already bedridden and waiting to die, your second brother is crippled, and that crown prince is a stupid pig!"
As long as you're imprisoned in this Goryeo Hanseong, if I don't sit on this Great Yan empire of Dayan, who will?
"Shoot my arrows and burn the pawnshop to ashes!"
Just as the second rocket was about to launch, the door of a dye shop with a blue cloth sign hanging on the west side of the street was kicked open from the inside.
Murong Xue charged out with a spear in one hand, shouting at her personal guards behind her:
"Pick out all the wet blankets from the dye vat!"
Dozens of guards used long spears to lift up hundreds of bolts of thick cotton cloth and coarse cotton quilts that were soaking in a large dye vat.
Those cotton quilts were soaked with indigo dye, and each one weighed seventy or eighty pounds.
"Raise shields! Set up shelters!"
At Murong Xue's command, her personal guards tightly bound the soaked cotton quilts to the outside of the wrought iron shield, closing it on all four sides to form an airtight, mobile water shield wall, and strode towards the eaves.
Grab it! Grab it!
Two hundred rockets were fired at the wet cotton quilt. The arrowheads had barely penetrated half an inch when the flames were extinguished by the water, leaving only a pungent white smoke.
Murong Xue pushed the water shield all the way to the pawnshop entrance, piled dozens of wet quilts on the stone steps in front of the pawnshop, and forcibly built a soft, sloping ramp towards the eaves.
The wooden lattice window on the second floor of the pawnshop was smashed open from the inside with a loud crash.
Gu Moran leaped out of the window with the Sea-Calming Sword in one hand, his boots landing heavily on the slope made of wet cotton blankets, and he soared into the air, directly onto the two-zhang-high green tile roof.
The Second Rank Pure Yang Gang Qi flowed down his arm and into the sword.
Before the three rebel archers at the forefront could even draw their swords, Gu Moran swept his sword across them.
Click!
The three heavy ox-horn bows, along with the breastbones of the three rebel soldiers, were instantly cleaved in two by the Pure Yang Gang Qi, their internal organs mixed with shards of iron scattering all over the roof.
Gu Moran stepped onto the slippery, blood-stained tiles, taking three steps at a time, his sword tip aimed straight for Gu Debai's face:
"Does the Imperial Uncle want the throne?"
Don't worry, after I bury you, I'll definitely burn a paper dragon throne for you!
Gu Debai's eyelids twitched; he had never expected Gu Moran to dare to rush onto the roof all by herself.
But he was relentless in his words, gripping the long, finely crafted steel sword forged by a renowned Wa craftsman with both hands. He stomped on two roof tiles, causing them to collapse, and slashed at the Sea-Calming Sword head-on.
"A good-for-nothing who rose to power by relying on women's connections dares to draw his knife in front of me!"
Back when I was slaying pirates in the East Sea, you were still playing in the mud in the palace!
His plan was simple: he had been immersed in the Peak Third Rank for many years, and he possessed a long, rolled-up Wa sword specifically designed to break through heavy armor.
As long as Gu Moran is injured by three direct strikes, the surrounding guards can swarm him and chop him into mincemeat.
clang--!
The sword and the saber collided solidly in mid-air.
Before Gu Debai could even unleash the sinister grin on his face, a surge of scalding, domineering Pure Yang Gang Qi rushed along the blade.
How is that possible?!
When did this little beast break through to the Second Rank?!
The thought had barely crossed his mind when a thumb-width gash appeared in the middle of the blade of the fine steel longsword in his hand, capable of slicing hair in two.
With a crisp crack, half of the broken blade spun and flew into the night sky.
Gu Debai's hands exploded open at the same time, blood flowing down the hilt of the knife. The bones in his entire right arm were numb from the shock. His feet slid back two zhang on the roof tiles, crashing into half of a brick chimney before barely coming to a stop.
Stop him!
Quickly, fire arrows to stop him!
Gu Debai no longer cared about being a royal uncle. He threw away the broken half of his sword and jumped down into the alley behind the roof.
While he was in mid-air, a sudden burst of rapid hoofbeats came from the back alley entrance.
Pu Yunshan, who had already bypassed the main road, led three hundred cavalrymen to completely block the narrow alley.
Pu Yunshan stood on the stirrups, wielding his six-foot-long cavalry saber with both hands, and slashed diagonally upwards at Gu Debai and his dozen or so rebel guards who had just landed.
Pfft!