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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 15: Breakthrough
Xiang Yan was not dead. The screams Lin Kou had heard earlier did not come from Xiang Yan, but from his soldiers. As the rain of arrows fell, two soldiers stepped forward to shield him with their bodies, both collapsing under the barrage of Feathered Arrows. Lin Kou, standing on the city wall, was indifferent to the battle situation because he knew Xiang Yan could not escape from the encirclement.
The soldiers sacrificed their lives to keep him safe, and Xiang Yan felt a deep sorrow in his heart. Yet he did not lose his composure. As the second wave of Feathered Arrows approached, Xiang Yan stumbled out, rolling twice on the ground before springing up. He drew his bow and shot three arrows at the archers on the city wall, causing three of them to stagger and shake the wall with the impact of his swift arrows.
The pent-up frustration within him could finally be released.
However, there were too many enemies surrounding him; the death of three soldiers would not turn the tide. Xiang Yan prepared himself for a desperate counterattack, entangled within the archers' range—this was currently his most unfavorable factor. His gaze swept quickly across the battlefield and saw his remaining soldiers fighting against Ghost Soldiers. With a grim expression that could terrify anyone, Xiang Yan realized that if they delayed for even a moment longer, they would surely be annihilated.
Feeling an unprecedented pressure of death weighing down on him, this mental strain tormented him, yet he could not compromise.
One situation was sudden while the other was like catching fish in a barrel; they were worlds apart. The sounds of battle echoed in his ears, causing pain to throb in his eardrums. With an astonishing force, Xiang Yan drew back his bowstring, releasing arrows that whistled through the air.
Xiang Yan shouted loudly, “Soldiers, retreat from the city gate!”
He moved with a ghostly speed, dodging the overwhelming waves of enemy attacks.
Blood splattered as Xiang Yan led his soldiers in a fierce retreat away from the archers' range.
His fighting spirit surged as he shot arrows at lightning speed, each Ghost Soldier falling beneath his bow.
With each Ghost Soldier that fell, they gained more space to retreat. Xiang Yan thought to himself that if they were to escape, it would have to be through underground routes. He noticed several Ghost Soldiers closing in on him; all he could see were flashes of their blades—nothing else but gleaming edges.
A thought rose in Xiang Yan's mind: "Am I going to lose?"
Moments later, he cast aside his worries and resolved within himself: "Even if I die here, I will protect my soldiers as they escape."
Three Ghost Blades swung toward Xiang Yan simultaneously. He met their attack head-on with his bow. This bow was crafted from rare silver turtle shell; it was lighter than an ordinary bow but harder than refined iron.
The three Ghost Blades struck against his bow like sharp points of attack. Without the silver turtle bow, Xiang Yan would have found himself in an irretrievable predicament. If he did not care about his soldiers' safety at this life-and-death moment, he could have easily used others' lives to buy himself a moment's respite without hesitation.
But Xiang Yan did not do that. As blades clashed against his bow, he suddenly found it hard to breathe as if a thousand-pound stone pressed down on his hands. Pain coursed through him like being cut by knives; the chill from the blades made him feel as though he had plunged into eternal ice. Summoning all his strength, Xiang Yan pushed back with a fierce shout, knocking down the three Ghost Soldiers who had attacked him.
Xiang Yan's hands moved swiftly to the quiver, drawing three arrows and releasing them with a whoosh, each piercing the foreheads of three fallen Ghost Soldiers.
"Soldiers, hold steady! They are not Night Demons; they can die from blades and spears up close!" Xiang Yan called out.
One soldier, having just felled a Ghost Soldier, shouted, "General, there are too many of them! Even if we stand still and let them come at us, we'll be exhausted!"
Xiang Yan knew this was true. All around him, the air was filled with the howls caused by the rapid movements of the Ghost Soldiers, their figures swarming everywhere.
As soon as the soldier finished speaking, two Ghost Soldiers lunged from either side and behind him, slicing through his body with their Ghost Blades. He fell to the ground with a cry, lifeless.
More soldiers fell with anguished cries. "Ah~~"
The Ghost Soldiers gradually closed in on them again. A commanding officer shouted, "The encirclement is tightening! General!"
The situation was not in their favor. Xiang Yan thought to himself, "There are too many."
One Ghost Soldier had its weapon knocked away by a soldier. In a fierce lunge, it bit into the soldier's throat. Before collapsing, the soldier managed to slice off half of the Ghost Soldier's head with his last breath, resulting in both their deaths.
Xiang Yan kicked down a Ghost Soldier and thought, "I can't accept this! I've come this far and still have no idea where Second Sister is. Ji Zichen, you better not let me down!"
Dodging a slash from a Ghost Blade, Xiang Yan reached for his quiver only to find it empty. He rolled on the ground and grabbed a spear. With it in hand, he unleashed a flurry of spear strikes, thrusting towards the faces of nearby Ghost Soldiers.
Having killed several more Ghost Soldiers, Xiang Yan managed to advance a few steps when suddenly two immense pressures bore down on him from both sides. He sidestepped just in time as a series of clashing sounds erupted from overlapping blades and spears.
Xiang Yan stabbed down another enemy but felt his chest heaving from exhaustion as he gasped for breath.
In an instant, a commanding officer let out a terrible scream; he had been struck across the chest. Just as Xiang Yan pierced another Ghost Soldier's chest and prepared to rush forward to help him, that Ghost Soldier clutched tightly onto the spear, refusing to let it go. Startled, Xiang Yan saw two more Ghost Soldiers raising their weapons to strike him down. At that moment, he realized he had no time to evade.
Feeling the blade's aura rushing toward him with nowhere left to hide, suddenly a shadow leaped into the air above him. The figure extended its long beak and snatched up one of the Ghost Soldiers while using its foot to grab another and hurled them into a group of other Ghost Soldiers, causing chaos among them.
As Xiang Yan recognized the shadow's face—it was Gu Diao—he felt both astonished and grateful. Gu Diao had come to his rescue at a critical moment. Just then, Ji Zichen's voice echoed out, "General Xiang, you owe me big time for this!"
Xiang Yan raised his gaze through the gaps in the crowd and spotted Ji Zichen. Ji Zichen stood with her arms crossed, alongside Lin Chuyu, outside the throng of people. Behind Ji Zichen trailed hundreds of armed slaves, all wielding weapons from the dungeon, where the Corner Lodge's armory was located.
Seeing Lin Chuyu and Ji Zichen together, Xiang Yan felt a mix of shock and joy. "Second Sister!"
The ground was littered with corpses, most of them Ghost Soldiers. Only seven of the people Xiang Yan had brought remained. Lin Chuyu was deeply moved to see that these individuals had died for her.
With a roar, the Gu Diao Monster dropped to all fours and charged at the Ghost Soldiers like a Mad Bull, using its horns to collide with them. The slaves, united in their anger, raised a collective shout that surged toward the Ghost Soldiers like a massive wave.
Meanwhile, Lin Kou sat across from the Ghost Guardian in the mansion when a soldier rushed in with news. "Lord of the City, it's bad! Second Sister has brought the slaves from the dungeon and is fighting alongside General Xiang against the Ghost Soldiers."
Lin Kou could hardly believe it. "How is this possible? How could Yu'er be mixed up with them?"
The Ghost Guardian stood up and said, "I hear there are quite a few slaves; my soldiers won't hold them off for long."
Lin Kou also rose and commanded, "You go gather the Aldebaran Soldiers."
"Yes," the soldier replied before departing.
After a moment of thought, Lin Kou added, "If Yu'er can lead the slaves out of the dungeon, it seems Xiang Yan has discovered the secret of Underworld City of the Horned Constellation. They won't be able to break through the main gate of the inner city. Guards, follow me; if they want to escape, it can only be through Underground City. I intend to capture them all in Underground City."
The Ghost Guardian darkly remarked, "There’s no need for you to take risks; I can surround them underground."
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