"Something is wrong!"
"Be careful, Commander!"
Zhou Fugui and his men were eager to return to the camp, and the scouting trip to Guangling Prefecture had been so uneventful that they had grown careless. As they passed through a patch of woods, Feng Cheng, a scout flag bearer, suddenly sensed that something was amiss and shouted a warning.
Feng Cheng, being a hunter by trade, possessed an unusually keen sense for the goings-on in a forest.
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"
Before Feng Cheng's warning could fully register, the sound of arrows cleaving the air echoed from the woods. Three sharp arrows, flying in a triangular formation, shot towards Zhou Fugui and his men like lightning.
"Thud! Thud!" Two of the arrows, traveling at incredible speed, made it impossible to fully dodge. Two scouts from the White Tiger Camp were struck down from their horses, dead. The third arrow whizzed past Zhou Fugui's face.
Zhou Fugui immediately smelled a pungent, foul odor.
These were poison arrows, meant to kill on contact!
The two fallen scouts writhed for a moment before falling still, their lives extinguished.
"Withdraw! Get out of the woods!" Fortunately, Feng Cheng's early warning had allowed Zhou Fugui to twist his head just enough to evade the deadly poisoned arrow. He quickly nocked an arrow to his bow and roared.
The enemy was hidden, while they were exposed. Only by retreating from the woods and utilizing the speed of their horses could they escape this peril.
Zhou Fugui, Feng Cheng, and the others had numbered five, but now only three remained. The enemy, hidden within the trees, numbered an unknown quantity. The three men turned their horses and spurred them onward in a desperate flight.
This was Zhou Fugui's oversight. He had assumed that a smaller group would be less of a target and had thus brought few men on this reconnaissance mission to Guangling Prefecture. Now, caught in an ambush, their numbers were woefully insufficient.
"Don't let him escape!"
"Scoundrel! Traitor! You killed our brothers, now you will pay with your life!"
"Chase them! Chase them!"
The assassins hidden in the woods would not allow Zhou Fugui and his men to escape. More than a dozen figures emerged from the trees, shouting furiously as they charged towards Zhou Fugui and his companions.
Arrows continued to whistle through the air, each a poisoned dart pursuing the three men. Some struck trees or leaves, while others grazed their scalps.
Zhou Fugui urged his horse forward, nocked an arrow, and with a quick aim at a figure closest to him, turned and fired.
"Ah!" The figure, who had been in the lead, let out a scream as Zhou Fugui's arrow struck his chest with pinpoint accuracy. He fell as quickly as he had charged, his cry echoing as he tumbled into the dust. Even without the arrow's wound, the impact of the fall alone would have broken his bones.
"Bang!" A thick tree trunk, laden with branches and leaves, suddenly blocked Zhou Fugui's path. In the process of shooting down an assassin, Zhou Fugui was thrown from his horse.
Horses could not run fast in the woods. Even at a gallop, the dense foliage became an obstacle, turning into deadly spears.
"Thump!" Zhou Fugui landed heavily, the impact sending waves of pain through his body, leaving his limbs feeling numb.
The wind howled past. Before he could even rise, Zhou Fugui felt a weapon strike at him. He desperately rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding a crescent-bladed halberd that grazed his head and buried itself in the earth, sending a spray of dirt over him.
"Scoundrel!" A stout, bald monk, wielding the crescent halberd, bellowed and swept it towards Zhou Fugui.
Zhou Fugui raised his bow to block, but a bow was for ranged attacks, not close combat. The halberd hooked his bow, and the stout monk twisted it, disarming Zhou Fugui, then followed up with a brutal strike to Zhou Fugui's ribs.
The stout monk's immense strength sent Zhou Fugui flying.
"Canglang!" Zhou Fugui landed, rolling with the momentum to a kneeling position. He drew the saber at his waist, his eyes fixed on the dozen or so monks charging towards him. A trickle of blood ran down from the corner of his mouth.
"Commander!"
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Seeing this, Feng Cheng and the scout Hu Tieniu cried out in alarm, quickly turning their horses to rush back and rescue him.
Feng Cheng drew his bow and shot down one of the monks, but his horse was struck by an arrow. Feng Cheng dismounted and lunged forward with his spear to attack another monk.
Hu Tieniu, holding a heavy iron shield, attempted to reach Zhou Fugui and shield him from attacks.
"Kill!" Zhou Fugui ducked under a fierce strike from a charging monk and, with both hands gripping his saber, powerfully chopped at the monk's leg. The sharp blade severed the limb in one swift cut. Blood spurted as the monk fell into a pool of his own gore.
"White Tiger Camp! Form ranks!"
Zhou Fugui's mouth bled, his hands gripped his saber, his eyes wide with determination. He roared the order.
Zhou Fugui had taken a hard fall, and the stout monk's blow had been immense. He felt severely injured, his waist throbbing, his ribs seemingly broken. But at this moment, he had to persevere. If not, none of them would make it back to camp.
It was thanks to Zhou Fugui's diligent training that they could even attempt this.
As Zhou Fugui commanded, Hu Tieniu raised his iron shield in the front, his sole task to block incoming arrows and weapons. Zhou Fugui stood in the center, wielding his saber, parrying the charging monks. Feng Cheng, holding his spear, covered their rear, thrusting, sweeping, and smashing at the more distant attackers.
Ideally, the three-man formation would have included a skilled archer, a shield-bearer for defense, and a spearman to engage approaching enemies.
However, Zhou Fugui's bow had been knocked away, leaving him only with his saber.
Zhou Fugui, Feng Cheng, and Hu Tieniu formed a defensive circle, their backs to each other. The three-man formation was not static; it rotated slowly, fending off the enemy's assault.
The dozen or so monks attacked the trio relentlessly, but for a long time, they could not break through the intricate three-man formation.
"Clang!" A monk swung a saber and brought it down on Zhou Fugui and his companions, but Hu Tieniu blocked it with his shield. From beneath the shield, a spear flashed out and pierced the monk's leg.
The monk cried out in pain, nearly falling. He retreated in a huff, holding his saber. He could only curse and rage, unwilling to advance.
Despite being surrounded and attacked for a considerable time, the three remained unharmed, while three or four of the attackers had been felled.
However, the three-man formation had its weakness: if even one person fell, the formation would break.
Zhou Fugui, already injured from the fall and the monk's blow, had sustained further wounds from blades and spears during the prolonged fight. His strength was rapidly dwindling, and the faces of the monks blurred before his eyes.
"Puff!" A monk lunged close. Zhou Fugui desperately swung his saber, striking the monk's shoulder. The monk cried out and stumbled backward, but in doing so, he pulled Zhou Fugui's saber free.
Zhou Fugui no longer had the strength to retrieve his weapon.
Hu Tieniu, who had been blocking wave after wave of heavy blows with his shield, finally could bear it no longer. Under the relentless onslaught, he lacked the strength to even lift the shield. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.
With two members of the three-man formation incapacitated, Feng Cheng was left to defend alone. He lunged forward to aid them but was forced back by two monks, sustaining injuries himself.
"Commander!"
Feng Cheng watched as Zhou Fugui slowly sank to the ground, groaning in pain. He roared Zhou Fugui's name, but there was nothing he could do to save him.
"Han dog! Traitor! Give us our brother's life!"
The stout monk slowly approached Zhou Fugui, a sneer on his face as he raised his crescent halberd high.
Zhou Fugui was now utterly spent. Yet, he did not glare in anger or curse, but merely smiled at the stout monk.
He thought to himself that his journey in this life was likely at its end. He wondered if he could trick Meng Po into letting him skip the Forgetfulness Soup. He doubted it; Meng Po would surely choke him to death upon seeing him.
Of course, choking wouldn't kill him, only scatter his soul.
"Puff!"
Just as the stout monk raised his halberd, a sneer on his face, intending to crush Zhou Fugui's skull, a gleaming sword tip emerged from the monk's left chest. It moved with blinding speed, its tip incredibly sharp. Yet, not a single drop of blood stained the polished blade.
An expression of disbelief spread across the stout monk's face as he stared at the sword tip protruding from his chest. He struggled to turn his head, wanting to see who had ambushed him, but his neck was stiff, and he could not.
With a soft "chiss," the sword tip vanished from the monk's chest. Blood then surged forth like a fountain, and the stout monk collapsed onto Zhou Fugui, his head frozen in its failed attempt to look.
"Who is it?"
"Kill him! Avenge Master Fo Bo!"
With the stout monk fallen, a masked figure in green appeared behind him, holding a dripping sword. He stood silently, watching the cluster of monks. The monks, startled and enraged, brandished their weapons, abandoning Zhou Fugui and his companions to charge at the green-clad figure.
However, Zhou Fugui could no longer see any of this. The stout monk had fallen face-down upon him, completely obscuring his view.
Zhou Fugui could only hear the clash of blades and weapons, the screams of the monks, and then the panicked shouts of the monks fleeing. The green-clad figure remained silent, like a ghost.
"So it was you. A true master!"
With his last ounce of strength, Zhou Fugui pushed aside the stout monk's bulky head. He then saw the scene, let out a sigh upon recognizing the green-clad figure as the martial arts master he had crossed paths with in You Prefecture, and then lost consciousness.
Though still masked, Zhou Fugui had recognized this person as a martial arts expert he had encountered before in You Prefecture.