Chapter 7: The Older Generation's Good Swordsmanship

  Zhang Zhongjian led Li Xian's black horse into the forest and then let go, telling Li Xian to be careful before turning his horse around and heading back. There were still several brothers who had been shot with arrows and fallen from their horses along the way. If they didn't go to rescue them, it wouldn't take long for those Sui soldiers to shoot them all dead.

  Chen Que'er hastily flew to Li Xian's side and anxiously asked: "Was he hurt?"

  Li Xian took a deep breath, calming down the fear from the previous moment. He smiled at Chen Que'er and said, "I'm fine, Little Bird Brother. Let's go help Grandpa rescue people first."

  Chen Que'er looked over there and shook her head: "I'll stay by your side, the brothers will go to rescue people."

  Li Xian felt a warmth in his heart, and just as he was about to say that he was fine, he suddenly saw several soldiers wearing grassland people's leather armor holding crossbows emerging from behind Chen Que'er. He didn't have time to shout a warning before slapping the rump of Chen Que'er's black horse with one palm, causing it to leap forward and narrowly avoid several arrows shooting towards them. However, after Chen Que'er dodged out of the way, Li Xian became the target of those soldiers. With great force, Li Xian kicked off from his black horse and leapt into the air, and several crossbow bolts shot past beneath him.

  Li Xian fell to the ground, rolled over and jumped behind a large tree. He cautiously poked his head out to see that Chen Que'er was unharmed, and his heart slightly settled. Subconsciously reaching back with his hand, he found nothing there, only then remembering that his bow and arrows were on the black horse. Li Xian looked at the approaching soldiers and let out a sigh.

  Although he was mentally mature, after all, he was just a ten-year-old child. So the soldiers wearing grassland people's leather armor set their main target on Chen Queer, and after one strike, they immediately surrounded him in a fan shape. Li Xian stole a glance, seeing that those soldiers were in groups of five, coordinating tacitly, obviously not the tactics of the grassland people.

  Why did the Sui soldiers pretend to be prairie people?

  Li Xian furrowed his brow and thought for a moment, immediately dismissing the idea that these were troops sent by Luo Yi of Youzhou to pursue them. If Luo Yi had wanted to kill them, he wouldn't have let them leave in the first place. The village where Li Xian and his men were hiding, Gougu Village, was located on flat plains with no natural defenses, making it an ideal place for the elite cavalry of Youzhou to attack. There was no need for Luo Yi to send troops hundreds of miles away to set up an ambush. From this analysis, these soldiers must be local troops from the Fuyu County!

  The black horse was standing just a dozen meters away, and those soldiers chasing Chen Que'er subconsciously didn't take Li Xian this kid into consideration.

  Chen Queer's riding skills were exquisite, and his Bohu Wuyou was a famous breed of Khitan horse. Although the forest restricted its speed, it was still not something that those infantrymen could catch up to. However, Chen Queer did not accelerate his departure, but instead used his superb horsemanship to control his speed and lure the pursuing troops. Li Xian knew that Chen Queer wanted to lead all those soldiers over here, so that he himself would be safe.

  The crossbow bolt flew rapidly past Chen Queer's side and stuck into the tree trunk with a loud thud, stirring up bark fragments. Li Xian took a deep breath, waited for the right moment, and charged towards the black horse. The distance of over ten meters was not far, as long as he had his bow in hand, Li Xian had no reason to fear those dozen or so soldiers.

  He crouched down and rushed forward, several crossbow arrows shooting past his body. Not far away, another group of five Sui soldiers appeared, and after discovering Li Xian, they immediately poured over with a large number of crossbow arrows. The Wu Hou Lian Nu had originally been able to fire five crossbow arrows in succession, but after being modified by skilled craftsmen, it could now fire twelve crossbow arrows in succession. This was truly a deadly weapon, and Li Xian hadn't expected that even the county soldiers would be equipped with so many expensive Wu Hou Lian Nu.

  A crossbow bolt whizzed past Li Xian's forehead, cutting off a few strands of his black hair dancing in front of him. Li Xian rolled on the spot and dodged behind a boulder, then silently counted to five before charging out from the other side. Several crossbow bolts hit the boulder, sparking a flurry of sparks, one of which grazed Li Xian's left shoulder, cutting a fairly deep gash, fortunately the bolt had brushed past his shoulder without being embedded in the flesh.

  Li Xian stumbled and almost fell, but managed to jump to the side of the black horse using his momentum. Li Xian quickly removed the bow and quiver from the horse's back and then sprinted in one direction again. Perhaps it was because the soldiers pitied the horses that they did not continue shooting arrows when Li Xian hid behind the black horse.

  Li Xian dodged and weaved, hanging the quiver on his shoulder and pushing it back, carrying the quiver on his back, Li Xian was like a young leopard jumping and dodging left and right in the forest.

  He flashed behind a boulder, Li Xian drew an arrow from his back and placed it on the bowstring, trying to calm his breathing and steady his trembling hands. After a moment, Li Xian swiftly emerged with his bow and shot at a distant figure without aiming. As soon as the arrow was released, he leaped towards a nearby rock that could conceal him. Faintly, Li Xian heard a muffled groan from afar.

  He drew out a second arrow, recalling the enemy's position from that brief glimpse. Calculating the distance in his mind, as soon as the sound of the crossbow bolt hitting the stone stopped, Li Xian suddenly stood up and shot another arrow. The sword was like a shooting star, with a "puff" sound it entered a soldier's chest.

  There are three more!

  Li Xian silently counted and calculated his next move.

  Wiping away the sweat that had flowed into his eyes, Li Xian cursed: "Damn it! More exciting than playing Crossfire! More thrilling than real-life CS!"

  He suddenly rushed to one side, but took only one step before immediately retreating back. As expected, the soldiers waiting for him to rush out immediately cocked their crossbows and fired several arrows in the direction Li Xian had rushed towards. Li Xian took advantage of this opportunity to draw his bow and calmly aimed at a soldier thirty meters away, shooting an arrow through his throat. Li Xian crouched down and looked in Chen Que'er's direction, but couldn't see his figure.

  Two soldiers dressed in prairie attire cautiously approached the rock where Li was hiding, exchanged a glance, and nodded to each other. Their repeating crossbows were empty, and reloading would clearly take too long. The two men separated, slowly drawing out the horizontal knives from their waists. Li lay on the ground, sneaking a peek, and curled up his lip in disdain. Horizontal knife? Prairie people using the Da Wei style horizontal knife? This is such an obvious fake, what a lack of professionalism!

  One soldier pointed to a small segment of the bow and one foot exposed from behind the stone, another soldier nodded and went around from the other side. This soldier suddenly flashed out with a knife and chopped down, then his body fell forward due to inertia. There was no one behind the stone, he hacked empty with all his might.

  A bow is leaning against a stone, and a shoe is on the ground.

  Li Xian leaped down from the middle of the tree, and with both hands grasping a feathered arrow, he fiercely stabbed it into the soldier's neck. The soldier let out a muffled hum, his throat making several cracking sounds before he fell to the ground unwillingly. After getting away, Li Xian didn't dare to stay, picked up the soldier's horizontal knife and swung it randomly towards his back. He swept with the knife a few times, then sprinted forward.

  The last soldier who had just killed four of his comrades saw that the one who had done it was a child, and his eyes blazed with anger as he shouted and chased after Li Xian.

  Although Li Xian was not lacking in perseverance to cultivate a skill, although he was fundamentally not a child in terms of intelligence, his body had always limited him. He hadn't run far before the soldier gradually closed in on him, and it seemed like he was about to catch up. The soldier chased after him for several steps, then swung his knife at Li Xian's back.

  Plop!

  A burst of blood splattered everywhere.

  Li Xian's body suddenly fell forward and rolled several times before stopping. He subconsciously turned his head back to look, only to see the soldier who was chasing him had a horizontal sword stuck in his chest. The soldier looked at his own pierced chest in disbelief, then blankly looked around. There was no one beside him, and he had no idea where the sword came from.

  "A mere dog's crawl can't kill an enemy, is the knife in your hand only good for randomly slashing at grass?"

  A lazy and arrogant voice suddenly appeared beside Li Xian, startling him. He subconsciously swung his knife towards the direction of the sound, but suddenly found that his hand was empty, and when he looked again, the knife in his hand had inexplicably been snatched away!

  Fear!

  Li Xian had never been so terrified until now, even when the Red Buddha locked him in a mountain cave to play hide-and-seek with black bears.

  The knife was right next to him, its sharp blade on one side of his throat.

  Under the enormous fear, Li Xian suddenly thought of that classic phrase: At that time, the knife was only one-tenth of a centimeter away from my throat...

  The knife didn't move at all, without even a slight tremble.

  Li Xian followed the horizontal blade with his eyes and first saw a clean and slender hand, then saw a disheveled man wearing a tattered leather robe. The knife in the man's hand was as stable as a stone, but on his face was an expression that seemed to be smiling yet not smiling. The man had a head of messy, slightly curly long hair that covered one eye, but it could be seen that there was a terrifying scar running from the side of his face hidden by his hair down to his chin.

  "Get up, don't touch the dagger on your wrist unless you want to die."

  That man's age was indistinguishable, Li Xian looked at this robustly built Han Chinese with a helpless smile, then immediately withdrew his hand and obediently stood up.

  "Good swordsmanship, senior."

  Li Xian sincerely praised, then suddenly raised his hand, and the wrist-mounted crossbow shot out a short arrow. At this time, he was close to you, the fallen man, and this arrow was extremely abrupt. Li Xian absolutely did not think that the man could dodge it. But his subsequent actions did not stop, quickly taking out a packet of lime powder from his pocket and sprinkling it out, then lowering his head and pulling out the dagger from his ankle to stab forward fiercely.

  The dagger hovered in mid-air, as the horizontal sword was placed on his shoulder again.

  Li Xian smiled with difficulty and repeated a sentence: "Senior's good swordsmanship!"

  He put down his left hand which was blocking his view and narrowed his eyes, staring at Li Xian as if he were a monster.

  "There are quite a few ways to save one's life, and you're ruthless enough. I really want to see if there's anything else messy on your body?"

  Li Xian pulled out several flying knives, a packet of quicklime, a small copper mirror, a packet of laxative, over ten iron lotus seeds, and a stick of anesthetic incense from his bosom and tossed them onto the ground. Then he patted himself all over again and pulled out a slingshot, brandishing it: "Does this count?"

  That rascal of a man scowled: "How can there be such a shameless, cunning and ruthless kid like you? What kind of father created what sin to give birth to such a monster?"

  Li Xian tilted his head: "Actually... I'm also quite curious."