58 A Battle of Two Persons (2/2)
In the pitch-dark rainy night, there was light hidden inside the building. When the podao was raised, the edge that shone with big movements became a bright surface. There was only one possibility if the podao's shine disappeared without a trace. The podao had to be in a state of stillness at the moment.
At this moment, the common-styled podao in his hand was in that Tang elite soldier's neck, which was wedged deeply into the neck roughly half its width.
The podao's edge tore open the skin, and tightly clamped in bones and flesh. Blood gushed out from the very tiny tip of the podao's edge, and then was quickly washed clean by the rain which was getting heavier. Ning Que held onto the hilt's bottom with his left hand and the opposite top of the hilt with his right hand, slightly lowering his head to watch the muddy rain blossoms splashing on the blue flagstones, and then maintained his posture of lowered knee and turned waist.
Time seemed to have stopped, but it would not truly stop. Ning Que pulled his left arm at a lightning fast speed and the podao's edge in the Tang elite soldier's neck emitted a sound that would make one's teeth chatter. That was the sound of that metal grinding against strong neck bones. Just as the Tang elite soldier died and fell over with both eyes open, Ning Que tightly gripped and pushed forward the hilt with his left hand. The podao's edge abruptly jumped up with rainwater and pierced into the second enemy's throat.
With his two hands crossed to grasp the podao's long handle, he leaped to and fro within a small range like a quick leopard in the grassland. Ning Que slashed with his opposite hand to chop at an enemy attacking from the left side, and then immediately spun his body to attack abruptly. With the podao's edge, he cut through the rain curtain, a blade through the night scene and the fourth enemy's shoulder.
After the face-to-face encounter, four elite troops of Tang died underneath his blade, with sprayed blood all over from their ravaged bodies that seemed to be even more intense than the rain. Ning Que had kept his promise, not letting a single person or crossbow arrow injure Chao Xiaoshu. As for the more and more boundless rain, it was not the thing he should care about.
The elite troop of Tang originally thought that they had come across the best opportunity to attack when the three cultivators were amidst a battle of life and death using Qi of Heaven and Earth as the stage. But they had not thought that the lad silently standing behind Chao Xiaoshu was such a violent character. Probably intimidated by Ning Que's sharp and strange blade techniques, the elite troop of Tang felt that black mask was a bit terrifying, subconsciously slowing down their advancing steps.
Ning Que gripped the podao with both hands. The rain-soaked black mask raised and fell slightly, and then he frowned.
The Tang's army was the most disciplined army in the world with the greatest fighting strength. These soldiers showing up in Chao Mansion tonight were Tang elite soldiers, who would absolutely not retreat when coming across fearsome enemies as long as their superiors did not give the retreating order. In other words, even if there was a ten-thousand-zhang abyss in front of them, they would still bravely charge over and not slow down without an order.
When the triggers gave out the sound of ”whoosh, whoosh, whoosh”, the torrential rain plopped as it fell down, beating atop Rain-enjoying Building's roof and making the solid blue flagstones emit a thunderous noise that successfully concealed the former three tiny sounds of triggers.
But Ning Que did not relax for the whole process, gazing at the seemingly fearful elite troop of Tang, and tightly gripped the hilt with both hands, carefully listened to any other sounds in the rainy night. So at the first instance of hearing the three extremely soft sounds of triggers, he had made the judgement: Shenhou crossbow!
Shenhou crossbow was the most terrifying weapon carried by the Tang soldier. With a storing box inside, it could fire ten crossbow arrows at one time. Even more fearsome was that with a special design of trigger, Shenhou crossbow could shoot out crossbow arrows at an especially fast speed, which had in history brought about countless glories when Tang Empire conquered the land. Unfortunately, the special steel required to make Shenhou crossbow was becoming rarer and rarer, and it gradually phased out of the Tang troops' standard equipment. No one would have thought that it would actually appear tonight.
In the beginning, the elite troop of Tang ambushing in Chao Mansion had not used Shenhou crossbow, for they did not have the confidence of using Shenhou crossbow to successfully shoot good-condition Chao Xiaoshu dead. Besides, that lad wearing a black mask was unworthy of Shenhou crossbow to deal with. They originally thought of using normal crossbow arrows as well as the sadhu and the robed swordsman to gradually wear down Chao Xiaoshu's strength before launching a final fatal attack with Shenhou crossbow. But the situation now did not allow them to do so. Without Shenhou crossbow, they could not even kill that lad wearing a black mask, not to mention Chao Xiaoshu.
A raindrop of a soybean size rolled along from the top of the black mask to the bottom. Within such a short time, Ning Que had figured out those things, and at the same time had silently put his left hand out of the long hilt, extending to his own back with his fingertip nearly touching that big black umbrella wrapped by coarse cloth.
He was not a powerful cultivator but just an ordinary lad. Even though countless bloody battles made him slightly unordinary, he still did not have the confidence to just rely on the podao in his hand to overcome the Shenhou crossbow.
Just in that instant, a series of tiny but clear sounds resonated within the rain in Chao Mansion again. These sounds were even clearer than the sounds of raindrops falling on instrument strings and much faster than the most enigmatic musician's plucking movements.
Ding ding ding ding... Ding ding ding... Ding ding... Ding!
Five extremely dim shadows of sword silently returned from Rain-enjoying Building, flying back and forth to dance like bees in the fields at high speed in the courtyard and weaving a thick net that did not even let the wind pass. They captured the trajectories of each Shenhou crossbow's crossbow arrows precisely and intercepted all ten of those arrows to strike them away as if they were alive!
Standing in the rain, Chao Xiaoshu showed nothing but calmness on his slightly pale face. When he slowly opened his right hand hanging outside of his sleeve, those five sword blades whistled to fly to his front, circling around them in a fast-flying speed. The curtain of rain surrounding the two was pierced with multiple holes by the blades, emitting several white lines.