Book 1: Chapter 25: The Blood That Flows Around the Carriage
Book 1: Chapter 25: The Blood That Flows Around the Carriage
Everything Lin Xi said was the truth, extremely sincere, while Tang Ke was also extremely frank. If it was anyone else, at the very least, they wouldn’t tell Lin Xi that there were casualties every single day in the Thousand Sunset Border Army.
It was because in the song sung about Principal Zhang that was circulated throughout the outside world, after the battle of Meteor City, Nanmo Country didn’t dare do a thing in the past half century.
Of course, this wasn’t entirely false, because after that battle of the past, the Nanmo Country that was defeated was later destroyed from internal strife, the ruling regime completely changed, now becoming the Great Mang Dynasty. For more than a decade, the ones Dragon Snake Border Army fought endlessly with weren’t the past domineering Nanmo Country’s Heaven Cavalry, but rather Great Mang Dynasty’s Ghost Rider Army.
However, as for the actual differences, anyone with a normal brain naturally understood clearly.
When these topics were mentioned, bits and pieces were exposed, naturally also possessing a bit of disrespectful feeling towards Principal Zhang.
It was precisely because both of them were extremely honest and direct that Lin Xi and Tang Ke were able to chat so happily. However, Tang Ke still found it hard to understand why Lin Xi wanted to scale Heaven Ascension Mountain Range, enter that barren world of ice and snow.
Lin Xi couldn’t tell him that both him and that middle-aged uncle came from an entirely different world, that the words on that monument were simplified chinese characters he could understand. If he did, Tang Ke would definitely think that he was speaking words that couldn’t be any more nonsense.
Because of the difficult trudging they went through to get here, Lin Xi and the other Self Defense Department new students all learned to hide enough rations on them to last a few days. Together with the fact that he didn’t have any thoughts of hastily exploring this place’s mysteries, after chatting away the remaining afternoon hours, Lin Xi slept peacefully in his own room during this first night in the Self Defense Freshman Dormitory. This room was even more quiet than the one in Deerwood Town, the fresh air that seeped through the wooden framed window allowing him to sleep extremely soundly.
…
In the distance, there was a shabby looking carriage that stopped on a hill.
The two old horses’ restraints were undone, allowed to roam about the edge of the forest, their heads currently lowered, slowly chewing on the moist grass shoots on the ground. Next to the carriage was an open fire, the attention of Uncle Liu, who brought Lin Xi through half of Yunqin Empire to Summer Spirit Lake, was currently concentrated on a cut open hare.
The hare was already roasted until it was golden yellow. After evenly scattering a layer of snow-white salt on its surface, the elder tore off a leg, starting to chew on it in his mouth, a hint of satisfaction spreading across his face.
Suddenly, his body curled up slightly, figure becoming even more stooped.
A bit of noise was released from the jungle. An arrow shot out as fast as lightning, passing over the top of his head, stabbing fiercely into the carriage behind him. After an extremely oppressive thunk noise, the thick and sturdy carriage body was almost penetrated through, only the feathers at the end shaking endlessly.
However, even after suffering from this type of sudden assault, the expression on this elder’s face still didn’t show any distinct changes. He merely lowered the fully roasted hare and half eaten leg onto a wooden plank next to the bonfire, and then his stooped body stood up.
Pa! Pa! Pa! A burst of applause sounded.
Five assassins dressed in black clothes walked out from the forest. The middle-aged male in the lead was the one who was clapping. He had a pale complexion, his beard rather long, a longsword resting diagonally on his back, giving off a rather refined appearance. However, the old driver wasn’t looking at him, instead giving the tall and sturdy man at his side a look, saying coldly, “So it’s you.”
The tall and sturdy man’s face looked like it had been stomped on, the bridge of his nose caved in a strange manner, making his current smile indescribably strange and sinister. “What, after knocking me down in front of the academy’s entrance examination like that, did you think that you could leave calmly just like that?”
“All this just for that one fist?” The elder’s posture became even more stooped, but a bit of a sneer appeared on his face.
The refined looking middle-aged man said with a light sigh, “That fist was not only aimed at his face, it was also aimed at Pine Academy’s face.”
“Pine Academy is low class academy to begin with. Even if your faces were stepped on, no one would really notice… this truly is stupid.”
The ice-cold voice from the elder’s throat and the clear mockery made this middle-aged man couldn’t help but freeze up a bit. However, he still bowed towards this elder. “Since that is the case, then please excuse this later generation…”
Following this bow, a space enough for an arrow to fly across was cleared up between the trees he walked out of the group and towards the elder.
Xiu!
An arrow immediately shot from behind this middle-aged man, directly aiming at the space between the elder’s brows. At the same time, the middle-aged man’s right hand was raised slightly. The longsword, because of his bowed waist, automatically slid out, the sword hilt entering his hand.
These five individuals weren’t the only ones here, within the trees, there was an archer whose arrows were extremely accurate even in the darkness of night. The middle-aged man and the archer were well coordinated, several inches of dazzling sword radiance shining, clearly about to spill outwards.
Pu!
Right at this time, the slight sound of flesh being penetrated sounded. The middle-aged man’s body shook intensely, his right hand suddenly stopped, as if forcibly held in place by an invisible force. His rather graceful attack came to a rigid stop.
Dang!
Meanwhile, the elder’s body suddenly shot straight up like a bent bamboo pole, springing out ferociously. Following a turn of his wrist, an ordinary dagger hacked out viciously, intercepting the tip of the arrow with incomparable precision, drawing forth a string of fine sparks, deflecting this shockingly powerful arrow.
That robust crushed nose man had just leapt out from the side with an evil grin, a thin and sharp long blade in hand, but he immediately looked towards his own chest with an expression of disbelief. A string of blood was currently shooting out from his body, the end of an arrow still shaking.
Xiu!
Right now, the second arrow had just left the woods, while the middle-aged man’s entire body was backing up in panic. On the back of his right hand, there was actually also earthworm-like blood wriggling about.
Peng!
A cold-faced, black-clothed assassin immediately blocked in front of the middle-aged man, his hands swept towards the elder together with his sleeves. At the same time, another individual stabbed his pike fiercely towards the elder’s waist, the entire silvery-white pike instantly covered in a layer of gleaming green light.
This wasn’t only a two-membered joint attack, but rather three opponents that were attacking together, because at this time, the second arrow also already flew over from within the forest. Moreover, the three assassins were extremely well coordinated, even more terrifying than extremely fierce and nasty bandits.
However, under this type of situation, the elder’s expression still didn’t show too many changes. A layer of green light also appeared on the surface of his body. As the countless black lights and pike stabbed at his body, the dagger in his hands deflected another arrow.
Pa! The assassin currently flanking from another side raised his iron shield, blocking this arrow.
However, the moment the arrow smashed into the iron shield, the elder’s stooped figure suddenly shot up with terrifying momentum, directly headbutting the cold-faced black-clothed assassin. That black-clothed assassin released a miserable scream, as if his body was struck by a moving tree, sent flying backwards.
Two fine and long daggers fell from the elder’s body. The pike wielding assassin’s feet entered the fight, but his face was full of horror. There was a part of the elder’s clothes that were rippled, but his body didn’t have any injuries.
“Scarlet plate armor!”
When he saw a unique scarlet red color within the opening of his outer clothing, the middle-aged man whose expression had already changed greatly released a cry of disbelief. “You… you are the Black Flag Army’s…”
“Originally, I was still willing to let you all off with your lives, but you recognized my identity. You cannot blame this on me anymore.”
The elder’s pale yellow eyes that carried a bit of mockery now suddenly became ice-cold. The instant the first word was uttered, his feet were already crushing down on the head of the black-clothed assassin who was previously sent flying.
The black-clothed assassin who was previously sent flying immediately became a corpse. Meanwhile, the elder was like a galloping horse treading on a flying swallow, rising up. The dagger in his hands easily blocked the refined looking middle-aged man’s long sword, while his other hand ruthlessly crushed the refined-looking middle-aged man’s throat.
“Incapable of even qi distribution, yet you all still dare cut in line in Four Seasons Plains… low class academies are low class after all.”
From the perspective of that robust, crushed nose man who was already sitting powerlessly on the ground, he only felt his hands suddenly become lighter, the long blade already in the elder’s hand. Then, his body gradually became cold, everything before his eyes also completely darkening. What he was unable to see, was that the pike wielding and shield bearing assassins had their heads removed the instant they faced the elder.
Then, this elder rushed into the forest with unimaginable nimbleness. A moment later, a miserable howl sounded from the forest.
The blood-soaked elder walked out from the forest slowly. After fetching a clean set of clothes from the shabby carriage, he then sat down by the open fire, completely disregarding the bloodiness all around him and slowly raising the still warm rabbit meat.
…
Dang… dang… dang
When the first strand of sunlight passed through the half covered window, Lin Xi was woken up by an indistinct, clear and melodious bell sound.
Self Defense Freshman Dormitory’s third floor corridor immediately became as noisy as a marketplace.
Each new student, including Lin Xi, when they opened their own doors, found that there were two sets of blue clothes waiting for them, as well as two pairs of brand new ordinary black cloth shoes.
The blue clothes’ collars and cuffs had small swords embroidered on them.
“En.. within five minutes, change into the academy’s clothes. Your first official class will soon begin.” The black-robed Lecturer Mu Qing examined these new students from a segment of bronze stairs that suddenly rose.
“Time to attend class… attend class…”
Lin Xi shook his head, getting those familiar memories out of his brain, and then picked up the blue academy uniform waiting at the doorway.