Chapter 864 – A Porter Forged From Steel (1/2)
Chapter 864 – A Porter Forged From Steel1
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Ten-some warships belonging to the Great Zhou Navy appeared downstream, each manned by many soldiers armed with divine crossbows.
With a whoosh, many experts of the Imperial Court went ashore and ran into Fengyang City.
Several Daoists, their blue clothes drifting about them, flew out of the forest on the opposite shore. They gently touched the navy ships and then landed on the other shore.
The blue-clothed Daoists had cold, unfathomable expressions, and wielded Dao swords. They came from the Monastery of Eternal Spring in Luoyang.
The tattered leather boots stepped on the stone steps still not dry from the morning dew.
The tea merchants and pedestrians on both sides of the stone steps subconsciously backed away as this person approached, perhaps out of fear or out of shame.
Xiao Zhang didn't even look at these people, ignored those experts of the Imperial Court pursuing him. Holding his spear, he expressionlessly continued forward.
A few gasps came from some corner of the street and then rapidly faded away. Amidst the restless crowd, one could faintly see the cold glint of crossbow bolts.
The blue-clothed Daoists flew onto the stone steps like cranes. Behind Xiao Zhang, they had solemn expressions, able to attack at any moment.
The path from the river to the Seven Treasures Stronghold was completely made up of stone steps. Someone with nothing better to do had once counted them, finding that there were over seven thousand steps.
A normal person would need a very long time to walk them all.
But Xiao Zhang, even when burdened by heavy wounds, did not need much time.
In a few moments, he had reached the middle of the flight of steps. On the side was a very small park.
Several dozen people were standing in this park, in the shade of some trees, watching him with rather complex expressions. They were somewhat afraid, somewhat uneasy.
Suddenly, an extremely dim and stealthy sword glow pierced through a basket one of them was holding and stabbed towards Xiao Zhang.
This was an unthinkable angle of attack, a most sinister strike.
Yet Xiao Zhang seemed long-prepared. Grunting, he stabbed his spear through the air, accurately striking the sword glow with a fierce momentum.
The sword glow instantly shattered into pieces, the assassin hidden in the crowd forced to retreat in a wretched state, slamming against a tree.
Leaves drifted onto the assassin's body and were swiftly dyed red by vomited blood.
The assassin's face was brimming with fright. He wanted to stand and flee, but he could no longer muster the strength.
Surprisingly, Xiao Zhang only glanced at the assassin before continuing up the steps.
Chen Changsheng's group had already left the tea house and were now standing at the back of the crowd.
Seeing this scene, Tang Thirty-Six praised, ”An excellent technique.”
During the night of the coup of the Mausoleum of Books and the period that followed, Xiao Zhang had been a very intractable foe for the Orthodoxy to deal with, but things were different after he rescued Wang Po from the shores of the Luo River. At least in Tang Thirty-Six's view, this expert who should have been at the top of the Proclamation of Liberation was a powerful ally that they had to contend for, so he naturally had a favorable view of him.
However, Hu Thirty-Two and Zhexiu shook their heads at Tang Thirty-Six's praise. It was clear that they held different views.
”His wounds are too severe. Even more severe than we imagined,” Chen Changsheng said worriedly.
Tang Thirty-Six understood.
Based on Xiao Zhang's violent style of fighting, if he still had sixty or seventy percent of his fighting capability, even an assassin from the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets would have died to a single attack, their bones shattered.
Even if they managed to live by some fluke, Xiao Zhang's personality guaranteed that another strike would come, making sure of their death.
But the assassin was still alive.