Chapter Fifteen: Re-encountering the Beauty

  It was night, with a dark moon and strong winds. Ao Lie lay in ambush on the grassland two miles outside the Xiongnu's large camp, his eyes fixed intently on the Xiongnu encampment.

  Near Ao Lie, Lü Bu and Zhang Liao were also lurking in the bushes, carefully observing the Xiongnu sentry. Behind the three of them, there were still 300 elite vanguard following. After observing for a while, Lü Bu whispered to Ao Lie: "The patrol is sparse, it seems they don't know that Zuo Xianwang has been killed by his second brother."

  Lü Bu furrowed his brow and said, "Although Second Brother is exceptionally brave, there are many Xiongnu people. Shouldn't we temporarily put off the plan to assassinate their leader?" Zhang Liao also stepped forward and advised in a low voice, "Your Excellency, General Lü's words make sense. Why not wait until Zi Tai leads the governor's army here, then engage in a decisive battle with the Xiongnu people?"

  After listening to the two, Ao Lie shook his head and said: "Opportunities are not to be missed, once lost they will never come again. At this moment, the Xiongnu people do not know that Zuo Xianwang is dead, their vigilance is relaxed, if we wait until tomorrow, things may change. Tonight is the best time for a surprise attack." Lü Bu saw Ao Lie insist on sneaking into the camp to assassinate, and said: "Even so, as the main general, how can you take risks lightly? Why don't you command the troops again, and I'll go to assassinate?" Ao Lie hurriedly stopped Lü Bu and said: "Big brother doesn't have to argue anymore, you haven't learned the art of hiding, it's easy to be discovered. This matter, only I can do."

  Lü Bu and Zhang Liao saw that they could not persuade Ao Lie, nor was it convenient to persuade him further, so they reluctantly nodded in agreement. Ao Lie smiled and waved his hand at the two of them, then leapt out of the bushes and crept towards the Xiongnu camp. Along the way, Ao Lie's figure appeared and disappeared suddenly, as quiet as a maiden, as swift as a rabbit. One moment he was crawling forward, the next he had changed to a zigzagging gait. Lü Bu and Zhang Liao stared in amazement, thinking to themselves: No wonder our lord wants to use assassination - this stealthy skill is probably unmatched by anyone in the world today.

  Ao Lie sneaked all the way, and easily took care of several Xiongnu soldiers on patrol. He then slipped into the central army tent. The central army tent was originally the large tent of Left Virtuous King, but now that Left Virtuous King had died under Ao Lie's spear, when Ao Lie entered the central army tent, he didn't see any Xiongnu people, but unexpectedly saw two Han women.

  Taking a closer look, the younger of the two Han women was not Cai Yan, but who else? Ao Lie hastily walked to the back of the two women and covered their mouths with his hands before whispering, "Don't make a sound, it's me. I'm here to rescue you." Cai Yan suddenly heard Ao Lie's familiar yet unfamiliar voice, her eyes filled with an incredulous expression, she quickly turned around, wanting to see who was rescuing her.

  When Cai Yan's gaze met Ao Lie's, the incredulity in her eyes disappeared, replaced by endless thoughts. Yes, there was no fear, no sadness, and even less joy at being rescued; what there was, was that endless thinking.

  Feeling the change in Cai Yan's eyes, Ao Lie understood Cai Yan's thoughts. Slowly releasing his hands covering their mouths, he then tightly hugged Cai Yan into his arms. In an instant, Cai Yan was melted by the warmth of Ao Lie's body, letting Ao Lie hold her immature body, softly murmuring, and wrapping her arms around Ao Lie's waist, unwilling to let go again.

  After a moment, Ao Lie suddenly remembered that there was another person in the tent. He hastily released Cai Yun and turned to ask the other girl: "Who are you?" The girl had already seen Ao Lie's actions with Cai Yun earlier and her face was flushed with shame. Seeing Ao Lie asking her questions now, she lowered her head and softly said: "I am Hua Ling, from Tianjia Village two hundred miles away. I was kidnapped by the Xiongnu three days ago."

  Ao Lie's heart moved, and he asked: "Do you know Tian Chou Tian Zi Tai?" As soon as Hua Ling heard Ao Lie's question, she burst into tears and sobbed: "That is my husband, in another two months, he will come to marry me, who would have thought that I am now trapped in the jaws of a wolf."

  Ao Lie pointed outside the tent and said, "Don't be sad, your husband is now a staff officer under a certain general, and he's currently on his way here leading a large army."

  After hearing Ao Lie's words, Hua Ling first turned from sorrow to joy, and then fell into tears again, sobbing softly: "Tian Jia brother is now an official of the imperial court, I am very happy. But I have been defiled by the Xiongnu people, what face do I have to see Tian Jia brother?" Cai Yan whispered in Ao Lie's ear, saying: "Thanks to Hua Ling sister's sacrifice, I was able to preserve my chastity, I beg of you, sir, please rescue Hua Ling sister and let her reunite with her husband." The Xiongnu people have always been brutal, the Han women they capture, regardless of age, are all doomed to lose their chastity.

  Ao Lie reached out and pinched Cai Yan's small hand, whispering softly to comfort her: "Don't worry, I absolutely won't abandon you." Then he turned his head to say to Hua Ling: "You two wait here for now, I'll go outside and create some chaos, then come back to take you away." Hua Ling and Cai Yan nodded in agreement.

  Out of the central army account, Ao Lie quietly came to the outside of the tent on the left side of the central army account, took out a short knife and lightly pierced a hole in the tent, looking inside. After seeing the situation inside the tent clearly, Ao Lie's face immediately turned red. It turned out that there was a Hunnu leader-like strong man in the tent, who was now comfortably lying on the wooden bed, with his legs wide apart, two naked women kneeling on either side of the strong man's legs, bowing their heads and sucking hard on the strong man's **. The strong man's hands were pressing down on the top of the two women's heads, exerting force, and his mouth was still occasionally emitting a comfortable moan.

  No matter in the past life or this life, Ao Lie is a true and proper eldest brother. Where have you seen such an array? Can't help but blush. Shook his head, forcibly shielding the scene in front of him, then Ao Lie circled around the tent, taking advantage of no one noticing, slipped into the tent.

  The robust man who was enjoying himself heard someone coming in and was about to shout at whoever was disturbing his pleasure, when Ao Lie suddenly appeared in front of the wooden bed, her short knife stabbing into the robust man's throat with incredible accuracy. After a quick turn of the knife, she ended the robust man's life completely. At the same time, Ao Lie's empty left hand didn't idle, forming a palm-knife shape, and with one swift motion, she knocked out a woman by striking her neck. Ao Lie quickly pulled out the short knife, then flipped it over, using the hilt to strike another woman on the back of her neck, causing her to follow the first woman into unconsciousness.

  After finishing these actions, Ao Lie made a brief cleanup and moved towards the next tent. After walking through more than a dozen tents, Ao Lie was able to swiftly and decisively kill the Xiongnu officers inside each one. Afterwards, Ao Lie snuck into the area where the Xiongnu people stored their grain and set fire to it using several torches. Once the flames had spread, Ao Lie heard footsteps approaching and knew that the Xiongnu people had discovered the fire and were rushing to put it out. Ao Lie didn't linger and instead sneaked back into the tents where he had previously killed the Xiongnu officers, pouring lamp oil on flammable materials inside before setting them ablaze.

  After that, Ao Lie returned to the central army tent. At this time, Hua Ling and Cai Yan heard the shouting of the Xiongnu people outside and realized that Ao Lie was creating chaos. Seeing Ao Lie suddenly flash into the tent, the two women hurriedly walked to Ao Lie's side, as if only in this way would they have some sense of security. Ao Lie comforted the two women in a low voice: "Don't be alarmed, just wait for a moment, our army will come and kill them, don't worry, it's very safe inside this tent, no one can easily rush in."

  In the midst of a chaotic noise outside the tent, cries of alarm kept ringing out: "It's all over! The Second Chieftain has been stabbed to death in his tent!" "Quickly go and report to the Second Chieftain that the Third Chieftain is dead in his tent! What? The Second Chieftain is also dead?" "How can this be, the Fourth Chieftain's head has been cut off by someone!" The cries of alarm were like a death knell, announcing the violent deaths of all the Xiongnu chieftains.

  While the Huns were in a state of utter chaos and leaderless, amidst a loud battle cry, Lü Bu and Zhang Liao led 500 elite troops into the Hunnic camp! Earlier, Ao Lie had stealthily infiltrated the camp and silently eliminated the Hunnic sentries, so Lü Bu's charge became exceptionally smooth. They fought all the way to the center of the main camp before the Huns realized someone was raiding their camp.

  In an instant, a small team of Han soldiers burst into the central army account where Awu Lie and others were located. After seeing Awu Lie, they all knelt down on the ground, with the first one saying: "See General!" Awu Lie stretched out his hand to help up the leading soldier, pointing outside the tent and said: "You several quickly go to call General Wen Yuan, also, bring my horse over." This team of soldiers heard this, immediately re-divided, leaving a few people to protect Awu Lie and others, while the rest turned around and left the account to find Zhang Liao.

  Before long, Zhang Liao entered the main tent with a stern and murderous aura. He saw Ao Lie sitting upright inside the tent and saluted by clasping his fists: "I pay my respects to my lord!" Ao Lie stood up, walked in front of Zhang Liao, and helped him adjust his armor before saying: "Wen Yuan, escort them out first, I'll follow later." Zhang Liao knew that Ao Lie was going to cover for him so he could gain time to break through the enemy camp. He couldn't help but glance at the two women behind Ao Lie with a puzzled look in his eyes, not understanding why his lord would take such great risks to protect two women.

  Ao Lie saw the doubt in Zhang Liao's eyes and explained: "These two, the elder is Zi Tai's wife, and the younger one is someone's fiancée."

  Zhang Liao heard this and hastily knelt down on the ground, facing Cai Yan and saying: "Zhang Liao has offended the mistress, a capital offense!" Cai Yan had never seen such a scene before. For a moment, she didn't know whether to speak or not to speak. She wanted Zhang Liao to get up, but was also at a loss for words due to Zhang Liao's mention of "mistress". Ao Lie pulled Zhang Liao up and said: "In an emergency, we must take action, Wen Yuan doesn't need to be so polite. Quickly escort them out, I can also focus on defeating the enemy."

  Zhang Liao also knew that things were urgent, so he didn't say anything more and ordered the soldiers to take the two women out of the tent. Before leaving, Cai Yan couldn't help but turn her head and glance at Ao Lie. Ao Lie was also looking at Cai Yan's back, and when he saw Cai Yan turn around to look at him, he responded with a reassuring smile. Cai Yan slightly nodded her head, then followed Zhang Liao away.

  Ao Lie stood outside the central military tent, looking up at the night sky with his head raised. The pitch-black sky didn't have a single star. Ao Lie let out a sigh: "A dark moon and strong winds, a night for killing." He immediately mounted the Snow Dragon Horse, pulled down the long spear hanging on the horse's back, and loudly shouted: "Kill!"

  Dozens of riders followed Ao Lie, charging towards the densely populated area of the Xiongnu people. Ao Lie's long spear was like a dragon, slashing left and right, stirring up a bloody storm, and wherever he passed, the Xiongnu people fell to the ground with arrows. The dozens of elite cavalry behind him saw that their general was invincible, and their conviction of certain victory surged, all following Ao Lie with one against ten, fighting fiercely in the blood.

  Ao Lie, who was at the forefront of the charge, had become a bloody man. His armor had been stained red with the blood of the Xiongnu people. He had killed his way through, and even he himself couldn't remember how many Xiongnu people he had killed. Suddenly, there was an empty space in front of him, and Ao Lie looked up to see that he had already broken through the dense Xiongnu army formation from earlier, completing a breakthrough.

  Not far away, Lü Bu wielded the Guandao, like a god descending to earth. However, not one of the Xiongnu people within a zhang's range around Lü Bu could escape alive. Ao Lie raised his long spear and shouted at the dozens of riders behind him: "Follow me in charging forward! When General Lü turns back, we'll join forces and give the Xiongnu another thrust!" The dozens of riders behind him responded in unison: "Yes!"

  Hearing the loud cry, Lü Bu accurately found Ao Lie's position in the midst of the fierce battle and immediately ordered his soldiers to move towards Ao Lie.

  After the two elite forces merged, Ao Lie raised his long spear stained with Xiongnu people's blood again and shouted loudly: "Those who dare to offend the great Han, no matter how far they are, must be executed! Pierce through them!"

  Hundreds of elite troops gathered around Ao Lie shouted: "Those who dare to offend the great Han, no matter how far away, will be punished! Pierced! Pierced!! Pierced!!"