Chapter 18: Lord Xiahou’s Might
Fearing discovery by experts from the Xiahou Clan, Lu Yun only dared to follow from afar. He saw that the Xiahou Clan had only twenty or thirty people in total, but each moved with agile movement technique, darting through the alleys inside the fortified village like nimble cats. All the village guards they encountered on patrol were silently killed on the spot without a sound, with no chance to raise the alarm!
With experts from the Xiahou Clan clearing the path ahead, Lu Yun could easily follow behind, as long as he was careful not to be detected. He even had the leisure to ponder the purpose of these uninvited guests.
Without a doubt, the Xiahou Clan’s secretive and painstaking approach meant they were targeting certain people in the village, or some thing. And there were probably few people or things under heaven that the Xiahou Clan would care about so much! Even if a prince of the Southern Dynasties was here, the Xiahou Clan wouldn’t need to sneak around the Emperor to capture him. Unless that person had some tremendous secret, or held some extraordinary thing in hand!
Whether secret or thing, anything the Xiahou Clan valued so highly was worth risking it all for! He had to figure out what they were up to; if he could fish in troubled waters, that would be even better!
However, he was only thinking about it. Those twenty or thirty Xiahou Clan experts were at least Black Rank, and there were definitely Heavenly Rank among them. Even if he went all out with full cultivation, he probably had no chance of snatching food from the tiger’s mouth. Gauging the situation, Lu Yun made up his mind: unless absolutely necessary, he absolutely could not expose himself. Learning the Xiahou Clan’s secret would make this trip a success.
Only by protecting himself could he have a chance at revenge; this was a principle he had long understood.
While Lu Yun was lost in wild thoughts, the group of Xiahou Clan experts had already killed their way near the inner fort. At that moment, alarm bells rang loudly throughout the fortified village. Village guards rushed to the wall top of the inner fort upon hearing the news, with pine torches lighting the fortress walls above and below as bright as day. Strong bows and crossbows forbidden for common folk were set up on the walls, and the village guards stood ready. Any enemy approaching the inner fort would face their fierce barrage!
Lu Yun watched the scene before him intently. He wanted to see how the Xiahou Clan would breach the inner fort and learn their strength and tactics, because one day, these people would stand before him!
At this moment, the inner fort gates swung open, and hundreds of village guards streamed out, preparing to reinforce the outer fort.
The Xiahou Clan experts hidden in the darkness unhesitatingly charged toward the crowded fort gate!
Lu Yun’s eyes went wide. Was the Xiahou Clan’s tactic just to charge head-on? Never mind the hundreds of fully armed village guards; on the gate tower and the merlons on both sides, there were at least a hundred guards wielding strong bows and crossbows, and even bed crossbows capable of killing Earth Rank!
‘Even if they could rush in, how many would they lose! If this is the Xiahou Clan, there’s nothing to fear!’ Lu Yun thought.
But the next moment, he felt utterly chilled to the bone…
He saw those twenty-plus Xiahou Clan experts charge like a whirlwind to within a dozen steps of the hundreds of village guards! Then they simultaneously hurled out volleys of hidden weapons!
Amid the whistling sounds slicing through the air, the village guards screamed and fell one after another…
The village guards above and below the walls were dumbfounded. They hadn’t even had time to shout, much less raise their weapons, before the Xiahou Clan experts took out nearly a hundred of them with hidden weapons! And they hadn’t even seen what the hidden weapons looked like!
Amid the screams, the twenty-plus Xiahou Clan experts plunged into the flock like tigers among sheep. Weapons flashed, sending severed limbs and spraying blood flying through the air!
The village guards hastily raised their weapons to block, but their refined steel chopping sabers were cut through like tofu by the enemies’ weapons. Then, arms along with half their bodies were directly hacked off by the Xiahou Clan experts!
Despite outnumbering the enemy ten to one, the village guards had no power to fight back and could only be slaughtered at will!
The village guards defending the inner fort wanted to close the gates, but the gate tunnel was jammed with people—how could they close it just because they wanted to?!
“Loose arrows!” On the wall top, a Zhou Family Elder roared the command to the archers. “Don’t worry about friendly fire—loose arrows!”
The archers gritted their teeth to ready their triggers and release their bowstrings. But those unknown hidden weapons shot forth again like locusts; the struck archers screamed and fell, tumbling off the wall top like dumplings!
In the end, only one or two out of ten arrows shot downward actually hit, and most were blocked or dodged by the enemy. Only one or two Black Rank from the Xiahou Clan were inadvertently wounded…
That Zhou Family Elder was also struck in the shoulder by a hidden weapon. With his Black Rank strength, ordinary sabers and spears could not penetrate him, yet that hidden weapon still broke through his protective true qi!
However, that hidden weapon instantly lost its force, landing softly on his shoulder and drifting down.
The elder reached out to catch the hidden weapon. By the firelight, he looked closely and saw it was a thin, long, verdant willow leaf… His soul nearly fled in terror as he involuntarily murmured: “Flying Petals…”
It wasn’t some willow leaf-shaped blade, but a real willow tree leaf—soft and ubiquitous in Bai Liu Village…
In other words, those fierce, locust-like hidden weapons were simply leaves the enemies had casually plucked from roadside trees and shot at them…
Only an Earth Rank Grandmaster could infuse true qi into a weapon or even a tree leaf to achieve Flying Petals, making anything lethal!
This elder, standing on the wall top, saw it clearly: at least ten experts had simultaneously shot such willow leaves… Meaning half of those twenty-plus were Earth Rank Grandmasters! What terrifying strength—even the lower-ranked clans among the Seven Great Noble Clans couldn’t muster so many grandmasters!
In an instant, the elder felt all strength drain from his body. He slumped dejectedly into a kneeling sit on the ground. This was a terrifying power the Zhou Family could not resist…
Doomsday had truly come.
.
Lu Yun in the distance was also chilled to the bone. Who could have imagined the Xiahou Clan could deploy so many Earth Rank Grandmasters at once?! According to prior intelligence, all the Xiahou Clan’s Earth Rank Grandmasters, including those over fifty, numbered only twelve. And the Xiahou Clan surely had a considerable number of Earth Rank Grandmasters stationed in the Capital City!
Thus, the Xiahou Clan had absolutely hidden a large portion of their strength! At the very least, their Earth Rank Grandmasters far exceeded the known numbers!
Those ten Earth Rank Grandmasters unleashing power simultaneously rendered the Zhou Family village guards’ numbers and terrain advantages meaningless! In an utterly one-sided slaughter, the Xiahou Clan members cut down all village guards in their path!
But the desperate resistance of these village guards was not without meaning. At least, they bought time for those inside; the inner fort village guards finally managed to close the two massive gates!
The Zhou clan members behind the merlons had just begun to relax, preparing to use strong bows and crossbows to stop the enemy from climbing the wall top. But they saw one person step out from the Xiahou Clan, face shrouded by a cloak, arms crossed over his chest as if embracing a mountain, fingers interlocked in a series of seals!
Lu Yun watching from afar saw it clearly: it was the Dragon Elephant Great Hand Seal that Xiahou Lei had used!
“On soldiers fight array, forward all!”
The man’s posture was identical to Xiahou Lei’s as his palms unleashed a Sun Seal!
But the might was worlds apart. Xiahou Lei’s Sun Seal was mere form without substance, while this man’s Sun Seal truly radiated searing white light, illuminating the night as bright as day!
Like a great sun slowly rising from his chest, it smashed heavily onto the two fort gates! Instantly, light blazed forth, blinding all who looked!
With a thunderous roar shaking heaven and earth, chunks of wall bricks were ripped straight from the wall! The two immensely heavy gates, deeply embedded in the wall, were directly smashed down by the Sun Seal!
Amid the billowing smoke and dust, the village guards inside the gates who couldn’t dodge were crushed into meat paste by the thousand-jin gates…
The man brushed the dust off his body, then stepped over the blood-soaked gates, striding into the inner fort step by step.
The Xiahou Clan experts followed closely, vanishing into the gate tunnel.
Silence fell over the fort gate above and below. All were stunned into wooden stupor by this world-shaking strike beyond human power, their will to resist utterly extinguished. They could only watch wide-eyed as the Xiahou Clan experts strode in arrogantly…
Lu Yun was also stunned by this strike. It was his first time seeing a Heavenly Rank Grandmaster in action—utterly unimaginable, invincible!
It was also his first time witnessing the Xiahou Clan’s true strength—equally unimaginable, unstoppable!
Was this his enemy? Could he truly defeat them?
Sweat soaked Lu Yun’s back. In that instant, he finally understood why Lu Xin had firmly opposed his revenge. Because it wasn’t even throwing an egg against a rock…
But moments later, Lu Yun transformed the frustration filling his heart into motivation to grow stronger! So what if Heavenly Rank experts? Sooner or later, I will personally blast you to dust! So what if the Xiahou Clan? One day I will uproot you all, making you vanish utterly from heaven and earth—not even a name left!
Only such enemies, such a Xiahou Clan, were worthy of the thousand hardships he had endured and ten thousand torments he had suffered!
Lu Yun’s gaze hardened once more with unyielding resolve. His body turned into a phantom and charged into the inner fort!
