Chapter 210 Friday & Hua Shi VS Liu Ping (1/2)
Chapter 210 – Friday & Hua Shi VS Liu Ping
October 30th.
8 AM.
Forty kilometers north of Nie County, Liu Ping and his army persisted on marching to Jinyang. The long marching through the mountains, valleys, and cold weather exhausted them. The path was no longer a stone road or a mountain one, but hills and forests.
The current road was not a flat road in between valleys or a canyon anymore. Everything elevated, and the ground was uneven. All soldiers were now hiking hills and bumpy trails.
Today, most of the soldiers stopped trying to search for food as their feet either got frostbite or blistered from the long walking. Their knees also gave up on them as they kept climbing and descending for days. The horses also moved slower than usual as the animals were not accustomed to the snow and mountain geography.
Liu Ping's face was distorted as he realized his blunder.
'I shouldn't have dispatched my troops in winter. I've totally overlooked this!'
'Or maybe I have chosen the wrong placement. My troops should have been the ones that have gone to Ye City while Huangfu Song and the others were supposed to be here instead of me.'
'Damnit! Wang Yun is not a good strategist, and nobody dares to suggest anything to me! Everything is a mess!'
In his previous life, he was a pampered heir who was raised in a Southern Asia Country, so he was not aware of the climate of the northern part of China. In addition, he did not graduate from a college properly as all of his bachelor, master, and even his Ph.D. diplomas were bought by his father.
”How long until we reach Jinyang?” Liu Ping asked his followers.
”About two to three days at this pace, Your Majesty.”
Liu Ping sighed a relief. Traveling a long distance in this ancient era was troublesome. If he were in the 21st-century, it would have only taken him a couple of hours in his private helicopter to make a trip of this few hundred kilometers.
'I guess I have to stay in Jinyang until the winter is over. I also have to contact my detached troops in Ye for the next joint attack.'
The Emperor gave up continuing his journey to Julu for now. As Liu Ping had experienced setbacks after setbacks, he learned a thing or two from his mistakes.
Liu Ping sighed and looked upward to the sky without a cloud, contemplating his future plans.
The corner of his eyes detected movements from the top of the hill to the east. Liu Ping stopped his horse to concentrate his vision on the suspicious location. Alas, he could not find anything.
”Your Majesty?” A retainer was worried.
”I think I saw movements of an animal. Send someone to hunt it. I want to eat meat today.”
”Y-Yes, Your Majesty!” The retainer dashed away in a hurry.
Liu Ping closed his eyes and took another deep breath. As he was enjoying the serenity of temporary darkness and cold wind, he heard a whistling noise of an arrow.
*PA*
The right hand of Liu Ping caught the arrow by reflex, and he felt the sensation that he had not felt in this life.
Pain.
The tip of the arrow had cut his hand when he caught it.
The eyes of Liu Ping snapped open in shock. He darted his eyes around, searching for the ambusher. Liu Ping kept searching while he was preparing to leap from the horse and charge at the assailant. However, he could not find anybody.
The ambusher did not follow up with another attack.
A deep frown appeared on Liu Ping's face. From his previous life experience of countless assassination attempts by Ping's victims, all amateur ambushers or assassins always followed up with more attacks immediately if the first attack failed.
In this case, the person did not make a rookie mistake. The ambusher had aborted the assassination attempt and concealed his presence.
'An elite archer, a professional assassin, or an otherworlder?' Thought Liu Ping, 'The natives can never hurt me. This arrow should have been fired by an otherworlder or a monstrous existence like Lu Bu or Huang Zhong.'
'Huang Zhong belongs to Liu Biao Army, so the only ones who can threaten me is Lu Bu and otherworlders.'
'Was it you, Tong!?'
Killing intent exploded out as Liu Ping recalled the taboo name.
Liu Ping shouted, ”ALL FORCES! STAY ALERT! THERE'S AN AMBUS-*BOOM*”
*RUMBLE*
He had yet to finish his words, rumble sound could be heard from the back of the marching troops. Liu Ping could feel the ground trembling as if there was an earthquake.
*BOOM*
”Ambush!”
”Boulders!”
Rocks, stones, and boulders in various size rolled down from the east hill, causing a chaotic scene behind the marching troops.
Liu Ping was over 500 meters away beyond the ambush location. If he wanted to gallop his horse back to help his men, it would take him half a minute to reach them.
As he was about to rush back, ten light arrows flew through the sky, passing by Liu Ping and his men. Suddenly, they defied all physics, the tips of the arrows made a U-turn and pointed at Liu Ping before they accelerated toward him.
'Magic arrows!'
Hua Shi's ten magic arrows chased after the Emperor with a speed of 200km/hour. As the homing arrows rushed after Liu Ping, another light arrow pierced his horse's brain, killing it instantly.
The dead horse lost its strength. It collapsed on the ground with Liu Ping on top of it.
The Emperor did not react in time. He also lost balance and his momentum as he was about to parry the oncoming arrows. As the consequences, ten arrows made their ways into Liu Ping's body.
*SOEK* *SOEK*
*SOEK* *SOEK*
Magic arrows ignored Liu Ping's physical toughness and dug itself into his fresh like tofu. Four of the arrows pierced his arms, two for each. The other six embedded themselves as they went through his ribcage. One of it went into his lung, and one into his stomach.
The nauseous and shocking pain numbed Liu Ping's brain and his five senses. The déjà vu experience he had in Hell came back to him.