Nightfall Chapter 57

Chao XiaoShu’s single sword became five.

Three swords made chi chi sounds as they evaded the copper bowl, shooting towards the ascetic monk’s body. The remaining two swords didn’t return back to protect his body, rather completely ignoring the robed swordsman’s blue ray short sword, they sharply tilted and stabbed right towards him!

Even if it was a battle of cultivators, this blue robed middle-aged man was meanwhile still concentrating on ChangAn JiangHu’s cold, fierce and very fiery meaning: If today you kill me, you’ll still die. I’ve been a cultivator in ChangAn’s underworld for many years, I don’t fear death or anything else. You that has cultivated for many years under the wing of famous mountains and big rivers, do you fear death?

The robed swordsman feared death – with his face slightly pale, he bet on this sword attack, one scattering, one striking, forcefully recalling the blue light short sword that was firmly flying out half way from the ground. In the instant of the most dangerous moment, it struck the two swords attacking towards his eyes. In this one movement it made his right hand slightly tremble; on the back of his white hand, blue veins could be seen.

Beside him that ascetic monk’s expression was heavily concentrated on those three swords attacking his body. Already it was too late to recall that heavy copper bowl to protect his body, only hearing him clumsily shouting a vague word, and throwing the prayer beads hanging between his thumb and forefinger hovering in the air, it whizzed as it rotated around his body in a whirl. The only thing visible was a flower of flames in four directions, instantly and unexpectedly, inside the trail of those three swords were collisions who knows how many times!

The sword’s shadow arrived and pierced air, and the copper bowl carrying water rose. The blue light short sword pierced straight through the mansion’s door, and the dull gray shadow became five swords. The blue light short sword fled like lightning backwards, and the prayer beads floating guarded it, each section containing terrifying danger. As long as there was a single mistake among these three powerful fighters, someone would die spraying blood.

In the world of the strong, the scale of time is fundamentally different. This seemed like a complicated, dangerous and long course of events, but in the real world it was only the utmost shortest instant. In fact the water spilling over from that copper bowl was still in mid-air transforming into splashes of glass tiles that hadn’t ever hit the floor, brimming with rainwater as it was still slowly knitted a rain curtain, and those elite Tang troops carrying crossbows had absolutely no reaction.

Sudden! Sudden! Suddenly sudden!

The Tang elite troops used the absolute shortest amount of time to make their reaction – quickly squeezing the trigger, tens of bolts carrying the powerful sound of wind-ripping force shot towards the mansion entrance. In this moment, those five swords were in the middle of battle with those two cultivators inside the rain-listening pavilion, and Chao XiaoShu completely had no ability to protect himself. Soon, he could only watch as those crossbow bolts shot him into a hedgehog.

And just in this moment, just as the bolts were fast about to arrive into the front of Chao XiaoShu’s body, one slice of a shiny, gleaming snow-bright blade shone in the courtyard, matchlessly bright compared to the layers upon layers of the rainy curtains, rolling all of that tight cluster of bolts into it!

Boots struck watery puddles on the ground in Chao Mansion’s main gate, like nails chiseling into the ground. With two hands firmly gripping onto the blade’s handle as resolute as steel, who knows when Ning Que circled around in front of Chao XiaoShu. The muscles of his wrist and forearm flexed tight at a speed difficult to imagine and relaxed, driving that snow-bright plain blade swiftly swiveling around upwards, changing into a silvery circular shield, illuminating that old black mask on his face, and shaking those densely packed crossbow bolts flying.

Bang bang a slice of tinkling shattering sounds shown before the two people, and tens of crossbow bolts were firmly shaken flying away by the powerful blade at quick speeds angling in all directions, sticking above the sign board of Chao Mansion, closely followed with a flurry of thud thud sounds echoing out.

Tens of crossbow bolts unexpectedly fell like rapid rain, even if Ning Que’s blade techniques were even better, he had no way of being completely blocking. But in this moment his pupil shrank, his sight became keen to the max just like an eagle flying in the open sky of a prairie, making all the details of everything in front of him seem crisp and clear. His state of mind was also as calm as an eagle, relying on his senses to intercept the angles of firing crossbow bolts, he only waved his blade for those crossbow bolts that could injure himself and Chao XiaoShu, and not paying the least attention to those periphery bolts.

In this instant, from a young man who had gone through countless struggles of life and death, out emerged those frightfully perfectly polished sense of danger and judging ability. Those crossbow bolts that seemed especially dangerous brushed against his ear lobe, penetrating headlong through his robe fiercely, piercing a crack into that rain-soaked limestone tile, without causing any other harm.

“Attack!” The leader of the Tang elite troops sternly yelled.

Following the sound of this order, the Tang elite troops that fired one round of bolts split into two groups – one group quickly pulled the triggers and fired bolts, the other group of ten plus silently drew the steel blades at their waists and came charging head-on at Chao Mansion’s main gate.

Step! Step! Step! Step! A Tang elite troop’s two feet repeatedly tread onto the wet flowing ground, charging over as though tightly following after the last volley of bolts. The distance to the main gate was only a short distance apart – only hearing him howl once, his two hands wielding a blade leapt up high, hacking down towards the top of Ning Que’s head with irresistible force.

The two eyes showing from the black mask slightly lowered. Ning Que looked at the rainy ground in front of him, as though he didn’t see the ferocious, reckless strike just about to land. Only seeing his wrist flick, the blade’s edge became a white brightness, incomparably precisely hacking at the last two crossbow bolts, then…… the blade’s gleam suddenly stopped, disappearing unseen.

In the deep pitch black of the rainy night, hidden inside of the building there was light. When the blade was raised, the edge that shone from big movements became a bright surface, if it is desired for the blade’s shine to disappear without a trace, then there was only one possibility – then the blade at the moment had to be in a state of stillness.

The common-styled plain blade in his hands, in this moment was in that expert Tang elite troop’s neck. The plain blade was wedged deeply into that person’s neck roughly halfway through.

The blade’s edge tore open the skin, bones and flesh and tightly clamped in. Blood from the very tip of the blade gushed out, then quickly was washed clean by the heavier and heavier rain. Ning Que’s left hand held onto the very bottom of the handle, his right hand at the opposite very top of the handle, slightly lowering his head watching the dripping rain splashing on the limestone tiles raising muddy blossoms, and maintaining his deeply lowered knee, he turned waist stance.

Time in this instant seemed to have stopped, but it wouldn’t truly stop. Ning Que pulled his left arm like lightning, and the blade’s edge in that expert Tang troop’s neck made a sound that made people’s teeth sour –  the sound of that metal grinding against strong neck bones. Just as that expert Tang troop stared as he died with both his eyes open and fell over, Ning Que’s left hand tightly gripping the the blade advanced with one leg, and the blade’s edge carrying rainwater abruptly jumped up and pierced into a second enemy’s throat.

His two hands opposite to his legs grasped the plain blade’s long handle, with his steps like tiny leaps to and fro within a range like a quick leopard in the grass. Once Ning Que slashed with his opposite hand chopping at an enemy attacking from the left side, he immediately followed with a body spin abruptly issuing force. The blade’s edge cut through the rain curtain, as the edge was cutting through the blade passed through the night scene, cutting the fourth enemy’s shoulder in half.

In one face-to-face encounter, four elite Tang troops died underneath his blade; blood from their ravaged bodies sprayed all over. Unexpectedly as though the rain had become even more intense, Ning Que had done as he had promised, not letting a single person or crossbow bolt injure Chao XiaoShu’s body. As for that more and more boundless rain, it wasn’t something he cared about.

Three cultivators were amidst a battle with the vigor of heaven and earth on the edge of life and death – those elite Tang troops originally thought that they had come across the best opportunity to attack, but they hadn’t thought that that youth standing mysteriously behind Chao XiaoShu was unexpectedly such a violent character. Probably intimidated by Ning Que’s sharp, strange blade techniques, that black mask in the eyes of the elite Tang troops became a bit terrifying – the steps of their advancing charge subconsciously slowed down some.

Ning Que’s pair of hands gripped the blade, that black mask soaked by the rain slowly moved up and down, and his brow frowned.

The Great Tang’s army was the most disciplined in the world, and their troops had the greatest fighting strength. Tonight these soldiers in Chao Mansion were of the Great Tang’s elite troops; troops of this caliber, no matter if they had come across a fearsome enemy, as long as their superiors didn’t give the order to retreat, then they would absolutely not retreat. As long as there were no orders, even if in front of them was an abyss 10,000 fathoms deep, they would still bravely charge over, and absolutely not fearfully slow their steps.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh the sound of triggers from three directions sounded out, the torrential rain plop plopping as it fell down, beating atop the rain-listening pavilion’s roof. A thunderous noise sounded out from on top the solid limestone tiles, successfully concealing these three tiny sounds.

But Ning Que the whole while had not relaxed – he gazed at those fearful unresisting elite Tang troops, his two hands tightly gripping his blade’s handle. With a concentrated stare listening in the rainy night for any other sounds, so in the first instant he didn’t catch three of the extremely tiny sounds of triggers, at the same time within the first instant he made his own conclusion: the God Targeting Crossbow!

The God Targeting Crossbow was the single most terrifying weapon Tang troops carried. Inside the crossbow was a storing box, that at one time could fire ten crossbow bolts. Even more fearsome was that the God Targeting Crossbow’s trigger had a special design – the speed of the crossbow bolts shot out was strangely fast. This weapon had in history brought about countless glory when the Great Tang Empire was on campaign across all under heaven – only unfortunately, the special steel required to make the God Targeting Crossbow was becoming rarer and rarer, thus it was gradually pulled out of the Tang troops’ standard issue. Who would’ve thought that tonight it would actually appear.

In the beginning, the reason the elite Tang troops ambushing in Chao Mansion hadn’t used the God Targeting Crossbow was because they didn’t have the confidence that they could use the God Targeting Crossbow and successfully shoot Chao XiaoShu dead when he was in good condition, and that juvenile wearing a black mask was unworthy of using the God Targeting Crossbow to deal with. They were originally thinking of using normal crossbow bolts in concert with the ascetic monk and the long-robed swordsman to gradually wear down Chao XiaoShu’s strength, and in the very end launch a fatal attack with the God Targeting Crossbow. But now the situation didn’t allow for them to do so – because if they didn’t use the God Targeting Crossbow, they had no way to even kill that youngster wearing a black mask, much less to mention Chao XiaoShu.

A raindrop the size of a soybean rolled along from the top of the black mask to the bottom. Within such a short amount of time, Ning Que had realized this much of the situation, and at the same time his left hand had long left the handle of the blade silently without a sound, and extended to his own back, his fingertips had nearly touched that big wrapped black umbrella.

He wasn’t those powerful cultivators, he was just an ordinary juvenile. Even though countless bloody melee battles made him change into a bit unordinary, but he ultimately didn’t have the confidence to just rely on the plain blade in his hands to handle the God Targeting Crossbow.

Just in that moment, within the rain at Chao Mansion again resonated with a series of small but clear sounds; these sounds were even clearer than the plucking sounds of falling rain drops, more profound than a string instrument master’s plucking movements and still faster than a bee’s fluttering.

Dingdingdingding…….dingdingding…..dingding……ding!

Five extremely dim sword shadows silently returned from the rain-listening pavilion who knows when – within the courtyard they flew back and forth like bees in the fields at high speeds in a flying dance, weaving a thick net that didn’t even let wind pass. Like an intelligence, they precisely captured each of the trajectories God Targeting Crossbow shots, intercepting all ten of those bolts then striking each of them flying!

Chao XiaoShu stood in the rain, a bit pale in the face. Besides calmness there were no other emotions. Only visible was his right hand hanging outside of his sleeve slowly opening, and those five swords zoomed creating an echo and flew circling in front of him, like a cage in the four directions in a fast-flying dance with a whistling howl. With the two people inside, the rain surrounding their bodies was being sliced by swords mowing out a hole, displaying white lines.

Chapter end