by Jeremy Bai
A shadow descended from higher up on the Dragon Gate, and before any of them had a chance to react, someone was standing only a meter or two away from them. He wore the robes of the Golden Dragon Sect, and the skin on his face and neck was a bright blue color, giving him a dramatically terrifying appearance.
“Blue Devil Yuwen Huo,” Mao Yun said softly.
Yuwen Huo nodded respectfully. “Is that you, Mao Yun? Out for a stroll, are we?”
Mao Yun looked at Bao.
In the years that she had been in the city, Bao had encountered Yuwen Huo on numerous occasions and had come to like the man. He was fiercely loyal to Sunan and a good fighter, one of the best in the Golden Dragon Sect. Pulling the black cloth away to reveal her face, Bao said, “We’re going to kill the Fire General. Care to join us? How is your qinggong?”
Yuwen Huo’s eyes narrowed, and he turned his head to look out at the distant command tent. After a moment, he looked back at Bao. “Does Sect Leader Sunan know about this?”
She shook her head. “We don’t have time for meetings and debate. The plan is to strike quickly. Be in and out in only a few minutes. The slightest sign of trouble, we flee. There’s really nothing to lose. I’m completely confident we can do it. If you wish to join us, here.”
She had a sack slung over her shoulder, which she loosened. Inside was a long black cloak which she’d brought along for emergency purposes, as well as a few strips of black cloth. Everyone in the group had similar emergency items in case they need extra levels of disguise while on the mission.
Yuwen Huo looked at the black cloak in Bao’s hand, and after a moment, a slight smile appeared on his face. “Nowadays Sect Leader Sunan has too many things to worry about. He’s too weighed down with responsibility. In the old days, this is exactly the kind of thing he would have done. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a real fight.”
He reached out and took the cloak, throwing it over his shoulders. After tying the strip of cloth around his nose and mouth, he looked just as capable as them of melting into the shadows.
“What about your qinggong?” Liu Jiahui asked.
“I haven’t mastered that butterfly move of yours, but I have my own abilities. Let’s just see if you can keep up.”
Without another word, he stepped off the city wall and dropped toward the ground. A moment later, he vanished, moving so quickly than none of them could even see him. In the blink of an eye, he was almost a hundred meters away from them, waiting in the shadow of a tree.
“Showoff,” Liu Jiahui said.
Bao chuckled. “Let’s go.”
The entire group leapt off the city wall, using the Drift of the Butterfly Fish to float through the air like leaves. They couldn’t quite match the speed that Yuwen Huo had just attained, but they didn’t touch the ground the entire time, alighting softly in almost the exact location Yuwen Huo was waiting.
From that point on, Bao and her people relied on another fundamental qinggong technique, Leap of the Swan, while Yuwen Huo dashed forward at incredible speed with his own technique. In that manner, they made their way through the farmland and across the open land to the Fire General’s army.
Eventually they stopped in a copse of trees a short distance from the perimeter of the tents. Just when they were about to dash toward the camp, the clouds parted, casting brilliant moonlight down on the entire camp.
Bao raised her hand to stop the group. They waited patiently for a while until the clouds once again swallowed up the moon. When everything was in shadow, and the patrolling guards had passed, they dashed forward.
Considering the high level of their martial arts, it was a relatively simple task for them to slip through the camp unnoticed. A few soldiers were out and about, but most were huddled around fires chatting and drinking, or even asleep in their tents.
Bao was a bit surprised. Somewhat lacking in discipline for everything I’ve heard about the Fire General.
After weaving through the camp for a short time, they were in the shadows of a tent just across from the command tent, which was guarded by two soldiers who were obviously veteran fighters. The moment of truth had arrived.
Drive away your fear, Bao, she thought to herself. Be confident!
Bao looked over at Lin Qingxia and Yang Ziqiong and gave them a slight nod. The two women blurred into motion, leaping out of the shadows as quickly as vipers. Before the two guards could react, the two Claws of the Phoenix unleashed their most powerful moves in cathartic fashion.
Yang Ziqiong’s Blood-Drinking Stab was executed to perfection. Her hand stabbed into the guard’s acupoints, and an instant later, his throat exploded, sending blood shooting out like a fountain. Yang Ziqiong expertly dodged to the side to avoid the blood, then reached out to slow the guard’s fall so he didn’t make any noise.
As for Lin Qingxia, as she dashed forward, she began to spin like a top, her long knives flashing through the night with such incredible speed that the guard had no hope of defending himself. The knives bit into his neck, tearing through flesh and bone with no mercy. A second later, his head tumbled to the ground a few meters away. Lin Qingxia quickly grabbed the shoulder of his torso and lowered his corpse to the ground.
Surprisingly, the guards only seemed have experienced two or three breakthroughs in their qi cultivation and were killed almost instantly.
Bao pointed to the entrance of the tent, and the group leapt into motion.
Yang Ziqiong and Lin Qingxia ran into the tent only a few seconds before the rest of the group. Yuwen Huo and Mao Yun made it in next, with Liu Jiahui and Bao coming up last.
As soon as Bao was in the tent, time seemed to slow.
As expected, the Fire General was not alone. Based on reports from the walls of Daolu, soldiers came in and out of the tent on a regular basis, and estimates had placed the number of people inside between four to six at any given time. Sure enough, there were six people present at the moment.
Shockingly, only three of them were human soldiers. One was an old man, clearly a veteran of many battles, with an eye patch and a perpetual snarl. The second was a handsome young man wearing gold jewelry over his armor. The third was a middle-aged woman with angry eyes that opened wide with shock.
Next was the Fire General, wearing his resplendent armor. He was leaning over a wide table that filled most of the tent, atop which was stretched a map of Daolu.
Standing only a few meters away from the Fire General was a woman in a red dress, with long red hair. As soon as Bao laid eyes on her, the hair on the back of her neck stood up.
I passed her on the bridge the day we came to Daolu. That’s the Love General!
However, the sight of the Love General made almost no impression on Bao at all compared to the final figure in the tent. Sitting in a chair off to the side, hands steepled in front of him, was a sinister-looking figure in a suit of bone armor.
The Bone General. How did they get here? None of the reports mentioned other ogre generals.
Although everyone in the tent seemed shocked, Bao and her people had been expecting the unexpected, and they didn’t hesitate.
Being the first into the tent, Yang Ziqiong and Lin Qingxia attacked first. Yang Ziqiong headed to the left side of the table, her target being the Love General. Lin Qingxia went in the opposite direction, attacking the young man with the gold jewelry.
Lin Qingxia used the same move she had on the outside, spinning like a top, blades whizzing toward the young man. However, the young man was an expert fighter. A sword appeared in his hand and flashed through the air to block the knives. His left foot flew through the air, kicking Lin Qingxia in the side and sending her smashing into the table.
As for Yang Ziqiong, she once again used the Blood-Drinking Stab, and cathartically at that. Her hand blurred through the air toward the Love General’s sternum, and then her shoulder. The move was executed perfectly, and the Love General’s eyes went wide.
However, all she did was cough. Her throat did not expl
ode, and not a drop of blood could be seen. In fact, her mouth twisted into a snarl, and her own hand shot out, a palm striking Yang Ziqiong’s shoulder.
Yang Ziqiong screamed with intense pain, staggering backward and then dropping to her knees.
As Bao was preparing to unleash her own secret move on the Love General, the Bone General rose to his feet and waved his hand in front of him in one fluid motion.
Three wickedly serrated bone knives flew through the air, one toward Yang Ziqiong, one toward Bao, and one toward Yuwen Huo.
The first knife landed true, stabbing directly into Yang Ziqiong’s eye.
Chapter 44: City Walls
In the heat of combat, there was no time for an emotional reaction. Bao called upon a move that Sunan had taught her during one of their sparring matches: Dragon Cleaves the Clouds. She flipped backward and kicked the Bone General’s knife, sending it spinning off to the side, where it stabbed into the table.
As she flew through the air, she heard a muffled shout from Yuwen Huo, and out of the corner of her eye, could just barely see him staggering backward as a knife hit him in the shoulder.
Then she landed. As she did, Yang Ziqiong toppled backward to land face up on the ground, blood pooling out beneath her head.
On the other side of the room, Lin Qingxia lurched to her feet and flung herself toward the young man in gold jewelry, joined by Mao Yun.
Bao looked over at Yuwen Huo and saw him pulling the knife out of his shoulder and tossing it to the ground. Without the slightest pause, completely ignoring the pain from the knife wound, he launched toward the Love General with Slash of the Dragon’s Tail.
Bao had been hit with Slash of the Dragon’s Tail before and knew the incredible power it could unleash. However, it was to her shock that the Love General simply blocked the kick with her forearm as if blocking a blow from a child.
The momentum of Yuwen Huo’s leap was completely thrown off, and he fell awkwardly to the ground.
Bao gritted her teeth. Now is not the time for shock. I have to be confident.
Without any further hesitation, she leapt forward and shoved her hand out toward the Love General.
“Phoenix Palm!” she shouted, striking with such speed that the startled Love General was incapable of blocking her. Bao had been working on the Phoenix Palm for quite some time, and although it was not yet completed, it was already devastatingly powerful. It was a vicious technique, so dangerous that she had never even tested it out on a person. It was designed to permanently alter the flow of qi through the target’s meridian points, doing almost irreversible harm to their vital energies. Hitting the Love General with this technique would most likely leave her so stunned and hurt that the flow of battle would instantly change.
Bao’s mouth turned up into a grin as her fingers jabbed into a series of acupoints, and then she slapped her hand down onto the Love General’s shoulder.
Nothing happened.
Bao felt qi flowing out of her in what should have been a devastating blow to the Love General’s meridians. Instead, she felt like she was pouring a bucket of water over a cliff.
The Love General snarled and leveled a kick at Bao’s waist. Bao was too shocked to react, and she took the kick without defending herself. The next thing she knew, she was tumbling backward head over heels. It took only a few seconds for her to lurch to a halt and then struggle to her feet next to Liu Jiahui, who was so stunned that he hadn’t even moved yet.
The sight that met Bao’s eyes when she looked up sent coldness stabbing into her heart.
The Bone General crouched next to Yuwen Huo, holding a knife at his neck.
“How many more of you are there?” the Bone General growled.
On the other side of the table, Lin Qingxia and Mao Yun were barely holding their own against the young man in gold, who had been joined by the old man with the eye patch.
Meanwhile, the Fire General was staring right at Bao, his face completely expressionless.
“How many?” shouted the Bone General.
Yuwen Huo spit in his face, and the Bone General slashed his knife across his throat.
“NOOO!” Bao screamed. But she could do nothing to prevent the blood from spurting out of Yuwen Huo’s throat and across the Bone General’s face.
The Bone General licked the blood off of his lips and slowly rose to his feet.
The old man with the eye patch growled “Smash of the Ogre God!” and thrust out with both of his hands. A blast of green energy surged out from his palms, smashing into Mao Yun and knocking him backward several paces.
The fight had only just begun, and two people out of their group of six were already dead. Not a single enemy had even been wounded. Three of their opponents were ogres, who somehow seemed impervious to all of their attacks.
How is this possible? I killed an ogre before. They’re not invincible!
Now was not the time for contemplation. Bao was no fool, and she had the sickening realization that if they kept fighting, they would be slaughtered. The only option now was to flee.
But how? They won’t hesitate to cut us down from behind.
Her eyes flickered back and forth, and she realized that their only hope was to rely on a trick that had already saved her once in the past.
As the Bone General took a step forward, Bao’s hand snaked out and grabbed the oil lamp that hung from the tent wall.
“Retreat!” she yelled as she hurled the lamp toward the table with all the power she could muster.
The lamp shattered, sending oil splashing in all directions, which instantly ignited. Bao’s frustration burned just as hot as she turned around, pushed Liu Jiahui out of the tent, and followed.
Mao Yun came close behind, followed by Lin Qingxia, and the four of them began to run at top speed through the camp.
Dammit! DAMMIT! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!
They were only a few seconds away from the command tent when Bao sensed footsteps behind them. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that they were being pursued by the Bone General and the young man from the tent. Farther back, the flicker of flames ate away at the inside of the command tent, and smoke was already rising up into the night.
Hoarse shouts were ringing up, and the camp was beginning to stir.
Bao gritted her teeth and tried to pick up some speed. Now that they weren’t skulking in the shadows, they could move even faster than before.
And yet the walls of Daolu seemed very, very far away.
***
The Dragon Gate on the east wall of Daolu had a towering pagoda above the gate itself, which served as the watchtower.
For many centuries, the north had been a relatively peaceful place, and the guard towers of Daolu had been mostly for show. But when the Demon Emperor arrived, all cities in Qi Xien changed. Walls were repaired. Guard towers reinforced.
But decades had passed in Daolu without the Demon Emperor so much as crossing the Chezou River. Things grew lax.
Then came the assassination of the magistrate and the sheriff, which sent the local soldiers and constables into chaos.
Thanks to the efforts of Sunan and Bao, all of the guard towers on the city walls were manned, which had been no simple task considering there were nearly fifty of them altogether. As for the Dragon Gate, it held mostly members of the Golden Dragon Sect, as well as a few scattered city soldiers.
In the past, it had been commonplace for the soldiers to sleep during their night watch, but not now. The fact that encamped armies had surrounded the cities ensured that all of the guards were on the highest level of alert.
One of the guards happened to be looking out at the camp to the east when he noticed something flickering in the middle of the camp. Squinting, he leaned out to try to see things a bit more clearly. After a moment, his eyes widened.
“Sir!” he called out.
The officer in charge of the Dragon Gate was a lieutenant of the Golden Dragon Sect, a man named Sima Zikang. Although he was a capable fig
hter, he had risen through the ranks more because of his quick wit and excellent command of strategy and tactics.
“What is it?” he asked, hurrying over.
“Sir, look. The command tent. It’s on fire!”
Sima Zikang peered out into the night. Sure enough, the command tent in the middle of the army camp appeared to be aflame. At first Sima Zikang was inclined to ignore the matter. A fire in a tent among the enemy forces was not unheard of. But then something toward the edge of the army camp caught his attention.
Four figures ran out from the camp, moving at incredible speed as they headed directly toward Daolu.
“Sir, do you see that?” cried one of the other Golden Dragons.
Sima Zikang nodded.
“Are they attacking us?” another soldier blurted.
Sima Zikang chuckled. “Calm down. They’re not going to attack us with only four people. However, those people are clearly using qinggong to speed up their movements. I wonder if they—”
Before he could finish his sentence, two more figures sped out from the tents. Apparently two people were giving chase, and all of them were heading in the direction of Daolu.
Who could it be? Sima Zikang thought to himself. Escaped prisoners? But they haven’t taken any prisoners yet. Defectors?
As the figures drew closer, Sima Zikang took a deep breath. “Disciple Chen, Disciple Wang, Disciple Zhang. Ready your bows. We might need to loose arrows. Also, send word to Dragon Lord Yuwen about what’s happening.”
As his orders were carried out, Sima Zikang watched the group racing across the landscape. As they got closer, it remained impossible to determine who the group of four was, considering they were wearing all black. However, of the two pursuing figures, it soon became obvious that one of them was a hulking figure wearing a suit of armor made from bones.
Sima Zikang gasped. “The Bone General! Send word to Sect Leader Sunan! Men, ready your arrows. Wait for my word to fire!”
The group of four was now about a hundred meters away from the wall, which was about the limit of the range of the composite bows wielded by the three Golden Dragon Sect disciples that Sima Zikang had just called out.