Chapter 1028: Beheaded
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
While Jiang Jinfu was still hitting the war drum, he suddenly shouted, “General, I think it’s the Sharp Vigor Battalion!”
Upon seeing the dazzling blades moving around in circles like a circular saw blade, he instantly recognized that this was the Sharp Vigor Battalion’s formation.
“How bold of them!” Yang Ping’s expression darkened. “This is a suicide mission!”
“General, they’re trying to kill Zhu Wuji!” Jiang Jinfu exclaimed. “Their formation is very powerful. Hurry up and take a look!”
He was amazed and dumbstruck.
The rest of their soldiers widened their eyes as they looked over and saw how invincible these twenty-three men were. The fifty men who had gone all out to ward off their attack were unable to stop them from moving forward. As their blades came at their enemies like a chainsaw and cut through everything in their way, Chu Li and his men were able to keep pus.h.i.+ng their way ahead.
“What a pity!” Yang Ping shook his head.
He saw that Zhu Wuji was quickly evacuating the place with ten other men as they spurred their horses down the hill. Soon, they should be able to join the five hundred riders who were coming toward them.
No matter how powerful these twenty men were, there was no way they could survive a battle against a troop of five hundred riders. Moreover, they were not riding their horses, so they could never go up against a cavalry.
Within a short amount of time, Zhu Wuji had successfully put more distance between himself and Chu Li’s team and had gotten out of danger. This a.s.sa.s.sination attempt could be considered a failure.
Yang Ping felt somewhat regretful and relieved at the same time.
He felt regretful because Chu Li had not managed to kill Zhu Wuji and gain this great merit. After all, the Sharp Vigor Battalion’s merits belonged to Soaring Eagle Cavalry as well.
Nonetheless, he was also glad that Chu Li had not succeeded in his a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. If not, Chu Li would be directly promoted to the position of a centurion and would leave the Sharp Vigor Battalion.
“Argh… They were so close to succeeding!” Jiang Jinfu stamped his foot in frustration.
He had been feeling anxious for Chu Li and his men and had put aside their personal grudges at the moment because killing Zhu Wuji would mean a huge victory for Soaring Eagle Cavalry. In that case, everyone would earn great merit. Personal grudges could never compare with merits in terms of practical value.
Chu Li waved his blade and effortlessly cut off a man’s arm. His physical advantage became apparent in this situation, and he seemed like an adult bullying a bunch of young children as he fought against these riders, none of whom were able to block his blade.
However, while he swung his blade around at an incredible speed, these men had no fear of death and did not hesitate to use their bodies to block his blade, so he ended up having to kill them one by one.
“Ugh… They were so close to killing him!” Jiang Jinfu kept stomping his foot and wished he could go there and a.s.sist them.
The rest of their people also stomped their feet furiously. Chu Li and his men had actually managed to get so close to the enemy and were about to succeed in their a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. They had only been a few steps away from their target!
When Chu Li saw that Zhu Wuji had escaped over a hundred meters away and was getting further out of his reach, he disappeared in a flash and reappeared in front of Zhu Wuji’s horse before swinging his blade at the man.
“Neigh…” The horse whined loudly and stood on its hind legs to avoid his attack.
While Zhu Wuji had a rather meek and helpless demeanor, he was very brave and domineering and did not hesitate to draw his blade to ward off Chu Li’s attack.
Then, as Chu Li vanished again and reappeared in mid-air, he ignored an incoming arrow and allowed it to pierce into his chest while he slashed his blade downward.
His blade moved at lightning speed in a fierce and relentless manner. Nothing could stop it this time.
“Ts.h.!.+” Zhu Wuji’s head was sent flying into the air.
As Chu Li landed on the ground and staggered slightly, he lowered his head and glanced at the arrow in his chest before lifting his gaze to look at a middle-aged rider some distance away from him.
This middle-aged rider was driving his horse to stand on a boulder and was staring down at Chu Li with a cold and impa.s.sive gaze.
The rider placed another arrow on his bow and took aim again. The tip of the arrow gleamed with a strange red glaze, as though the arrow’s tip had been smeared with fresh blood.
Chu Li had been wearing his floating silkworm treasured clothing under his armor, so it was almost impossible for him to be wounded by any weapons. Nonetheless, nothing was really invincible in this world, and the floating silkworm treasured clothing was not truly indestructible given that this arrow had indeed pierced through his floating silkworm treasured clothing.
“Ts.h.!.+” Chu Li swiftly waved his blade when the rider’s second arrow reached him.
“Ding…” He effortlessly cut the arrow in half.
Before this, although his intuition had been warning him to avoid this arrow, he had decided to ignore it anyway because he could not afford to miss that fleeting moment of opportunity to kill Zhu Wuji.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the middle-aged rider to hit him with that bow shot since he could have easily dodged that attack. The most threatening part of this rider’s arrow was its tip.
He glanced coldly at this rider and shouted, “Retreat!”
Xu Cihang called out, “Master Zhao, let’s leave together!”
“You guys should leave first!” Chu Li shouted. “I’ll hold them off!”
“Master Zhao, you should be careful then!” Fan Yang said anxiously. “Let’s go!”
Xu Cihang glanced at Chu Li and then evacuated from the area with Fan Yang and the other twenty men.
After having witnessed Chu Li’s expert and vicious fighting skills, they knew that they would only be a burden to him if they stayed behind. The best thing they could do was to leave first so that they would not add to his troubles.
All the riders paid no attention to Xu Cihang and the others as they left, and charged toward Chu Li in a frenzied manner. They kept throwing themselves at him and swore that they would kill him even if it meant losing their lives.
The scrawny-looking middle-aged man stood at the top of the hill and shouted, “Whoever kills this person will be rewarded with ten thousand taels of gold and be promoted to the position of a chiliarch!”
Since he was standing on high ground, his voice resounded into the distance even though he did not use his inner energy.
Other than those loyal protectors of the general, the five hundred riders at the foot of the hill came charging uphill in an even more desperate manner.
Chu Li picked up Zhu Wuji’s severed head and wrapped it in a piece of cloth before running away with it.
He tried his best to absorb spiritual energy from his surroundings. Although his inner energy had been suppressed, he could still use a bit of it, which was enough for him to perform his light-body technique at a speed as fast as a sprinting horse.
In fact, even a sprinting horse could not run as fast as him in this mountainous and forested place. He just kept slas.h.i.+ng at the people blocking his path with his blade as he ran away.
After a short while, there were no longer any riders standing in his path. Nonetheless, waves after waves of arrows rained down on him as the rest of his enemies persistently continued to chase after him.
Chu Li waved his blade around to stop the arrows from hitting his head and easily managed to protect himself since he had a s.h.i.+eld tied to his back.
“Ts.h.!.+” He suddenly turned around and slashed his blade downward.
The arrow from the middle-aged rider was cut in half and fell to the ground. Among all the other arrows, this one posed the greatest threat. He did not have to worry about the rest of their bow shots, because even if their arrows managed to pierce through his s.h.i.+eld, he was still protected by the floating silkworm treasured clothing.
He turned around and continued running away.
He could feel his inner energy and his strength flowing out of his body in a slow yet steady rate through the arrow in his chest while he was running away. If he were to allow this to go on, he would soon become very weak.
Thus, he waved his blade and cut off the tail of the arrow without hesitation before pus.h.i.+ng the arrow deeper into his chest forcefully. The tip of the arrow pierced out of his back and caused more blood to gush out.
This arrow had a barbed tip so it could easily sink deep into the flesh but was very hard to remove without worsening the injury. If he had tried to pull it out, his injury would become more severe.
Chu Li tied the bundle of cloth containing Zhu Wuji’s severed head to his waist and then took out a jade bottle from his inner pocket before he poured out a snowy white pill and stuffed it into his bleeding wound. A few moments later, the bleeding stopped, and a pleasantly cool sensation flowed around the wound.
Chu Li sighed to himself. Luckily, he had prepared high-quality spirit pills beforehand to ensure his own survival, although he had initially thought that he would not need to use any of them. He never expected that he would be using them so soon.
He proceeded to move at an extremely fast speed, and the distance between him and his pursuers eventually increased until their arrows could no longer reach him.
When the riders of Flying Cloud Cavalry saw their general’s severed head dangling from Chu Li’s waist as they remained in hot pursuit of him, they became even more filled with hatred and indignation, and were determined to hunt him down even if they had to go all the way to the ends of the earth.
“Honk…” The blaring sound of a blowing horn could be heard.
As the scrawny middle-aged man stood on the hilltop and blew into a large horn, the sound of the horn resounded into the distance.
The five hundred men who had been holding off the riders of Soaring Eagle Cavalry quickly turned around and charged toward Chu Li and his men to intercept their escape route and stop them from getting down the hill.
Thus, while the five hundred men behind Chu Li’s team carried on with their pursuit, the other five hundred men would try to block their path ahead.
“Good!” Yang Ping hit his fist against his palm and rejoiced to himself as he muttered resentfully, “He’s finally dead!”
Initially, they were going to suffer a crus.h.i.+ng defeat due to the glaring difference in the capabilities of Soaring Eagle Cavalry and Flying Cloud Cavalry. After this unexpected turn of events, they ended up gaining a great victory instead!
Jiang Jinfu shouted with delight, “Zhu Wuji is dead! Congratulations, General!”
Yang Ping huffed and said, “Let’s continue observing the battle situation first!”
Admittedly, he was overjoyed at this outcome. However, it quickly occurred to him that Zhao Dahe played the biggest role in securing their victory this time. This meant that Zhao Dahe would soon be promoted to the position of a centurion, which would allow the guy to leave the Sharp Vigor Battalion and escape his grasp!