Chapter 52: One Arrow Determines the Fate of Heaven and Earth

  (Thanks for the rewards from "Zhao Wu Xu 2014", "Evil Wolf Star" and "Tian Han Wu Liang"!)

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  On the mountain cliff, Ma was silently looking at the arrows beside him, with less than ten arrows left.

  Li Ji knelt beside him, her face anxious, and asked again: "Let me go down the mountain to search for arrows, otherwise if the Xianbei people attack again next time, it's all over."

  "No way, it's too dangerous." Ma Huan firmly refused, her eyes fixed on the Xianbei people at the entrance of the canyon.

  "Unless I go and take a look at the mountain path, maybe there are some lost arrows..." Li Ji did not give up and asked again.

  "...can, but be careful."

  Jian Ma finally agreed, and Li Ji's mouth curved into a smile as she picked up her skirt and ran down the mountain path.

  The mountain path was also littered with corpses, making it almost impossible to set foot, and the blood had stained every inch of land. The green grass on both sides was splattered with bloodstains, and the closer you got, the more pungent the smell of blood was, making people want to vomit.

  Li Ji furrowed her delicate eyebrows, covered her mouth and nose, and forced herself to endure the discomfort. She slowly approached, her bright eyes darting back and forth.

  The Xianbei people launched a second attack, and there were many archers. Li Ji also picked up many arrows to replenish them, but later the Xianbei people also realized the problem of providing arrows to the enemy, so the troops they sent out again were all swordsmen and axe men. The collection of arrows became even more difficult.

  Li Ji suppressed her fear and continued downwards, turning over many corpses, but to no avail. Just as she was about to give up hope, her eyes suddenly lit up - a Wuman tribesman lying face down on the ground, with several feathers pinned under his body, seemingly...

  Li Ji quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and stretched out her slender white fingers, pinching and pulling, and indeed it was a hawk feather arrow.

  Liji excitedly turned back, raised her bow and arrow towards the mountain cliff, indicating: "Ah——I found the arrow......"

  Ma Huan kept staring at Liji, with his arrow on the string, but in that instant, his face changed - he suddenly jumped up and ran wildly.

  Li Ji was stunned, her mouth just opened, when a big furry hand suddenly covered it from behind. A strange laughter came from behind: "Ma Xun, do you want to die yourself or this woman to die?"

  "I can take you down, I want you dead!" Ma Xun was like a provoked mountain leopard, ferociously pouncing over.

  That's right! The Wuman tribesman who faked his own death and used the arrow as bait is indeed Nengchen Zhi. At this moment, he reveals a fierce light in his eyes, one hand covering Li Ji's mouth and nose, and the other hand pulling out a short axe from his waist and fiercely throwing it at Ma Xun.

  Ma Xun was as swift as the wind, without stopping for half a step. With one lift of his hand, he grabbed the handle of the flying axe that came at him head-on. His body didn't pause for even a fraction of a second, and his momentum became even more fierce.

  Neng Chen resisted and was startled, stretched out his hand to grasp Li Ji's neck, and sternly said: "Hurry up and stop, otherwise I will kill her... Ah!"

  The seemingly weak and frightened Li Ji suddenly raised her hand, thrusting the eagle feather arrow grasped in her palm backwards, hitting E Bi Zhen's right eye with precision.

  The sound of Neng Chen's scream was like that of a wounded beast, echoing through the valley. His rough hands covered his eyes as blood flowed from between his fingers. As he stumbled and fell, his sturdy body tilted to one side, tumbling towards the cliff outside the mountain path, dragging Li Ji down with him.

  The beauty of the flower changes color, like a green willow leaning over, as if petals are falling, and floating down to the mountain cliff.

  At the critical moment, Ma Xun rushed forward with all his might and grabbed Li Ji's wrist just in time, stopping her from falling. With a swift lift of his arm, he pulled Li Ji back up to safety. It wasn't until halfway through that he noticed Li Ji's face contorted in pain. Ma Xun was taken aback, and as he looked past Li Ji's body, he saw an arrow lodged in her back, with blood covering her face, and Neng Zhi's ferocious expression as he bit his teeth and grasped Li Ji's ankle, refusing to let go.

  Ma Xun's eyes flashed fiercely, and he squatted down, letting Li Ji wrap her arms around his neck. He stretched out his hand to support Li Ji's buttocks, and with a sudden movement, he lifted Li Ji's entire body up. Meanwhile, Neng Cheng also managed to grab onto the edge of the cliff, but one hand still tightly grasped Li Ji's ankle.

  "Righteous Marquis, our next meeting will be in the afterlife!" Ma Heng's voice was as cold as ice shards. With one hand raised high, he swung his axe down heavily, chopping... Blood splattered everywhere.

  "Wah——" Neng Chen's body let out a long and mournful cry, like a boulder, bouncing all the way down to the foot of the cliff, where it was smashed into a pulp.

  Ma Xian threw down his axe and used force to pry open the severed hand that was able to resist him, then casually threw it down the cliff, letting it reunite with its owner.

  Liji cliff horrified, escaped from death, the delicate body still soft without a hint of strength, still tightly wrapped around Ma Hong, breathing like orchids, surprised and delighted whispering: "You... your strength has recovered!"

  Ma Huan was taken aback, having just rescued someone with all his might, he had completely forgotten that he couldn't run at all, let alone wield an axe to chop people. Could it be... He slowly raised his left hand, clenched it into a fist, and with a burst of energy, a long-forgotten sense of power surged through his body, filling his arm. At this moment, he felt like he could shatter even stone!

  "Hahaha! My strength has recovered, Yan Rou, Ke Bi Neng, you're in for a disaster!" Ma Xun laughed loudly and pulled up Li Ji's jade arm, "Come on, let's gamble with the Xianbei people to see who's lucky."

  A brief and perilous encounter on the mountain path, the Xianbei people also saw it, but before they could react, everything was over.

  Yes, everything should be over now.

  Ma Huan held a leopard bow in his hand and left the cliff, walking slowly towards the mountain top. Li Ji rolled up her sleeves and lowered her eyebrows, following closely behind him.

  The mountain top is covered with lush greenery, dense weeds are everywhere, strong winds blow by, branches and leaves dance wildly.

  Ma Xun walked all the way to the edge of the cliff, raised his hand to signal Li Ji to stop ten steps away, then slowly drew out an iron arrow.

  The Xianbei army was just three hundred steps away, and the white-based golden-edged horned beast flag was in the center of the army, at a straight-line distance of 380 to 400 steps, which is about one kilometer away. Under the big flag, several people wearing luxurious clothes could be seen, although their faces were not clear, but from the arrangement of their horses and the normal standing position of the flag holder, it could be inferred that the person under the big flag on the right was indeed Qiliebian.

  Four hundred paces, beyond the effective range of the leopard bow, but still within its maximum range. The so-called effective range refers to the distance at which an arrow can pierce armor and kill the enemy; while the maximum range is how far an arrow can be shot, that is, the limit of a strong crossbow.

  Six-stone strong bow, shooting four hundred steps is no problem, of course it must be a projectile, using the arrow's self-weight to produce downward potential energy to injure the enemy.

  So Ma Xun climbed to the top of the mountain, using iron arrows and taking advantage of the height and gravity to make the arrows fly farther and more deadly. The only concern was that the leopard bow's arm had been shot with an arrow before, and a crack had appeared - could it withstand another full moon long-range snipe?

  There's also the issue of aiming. Four hundred steps super long-range sniping, no assisted aiming, shooting and killing a fixed target, Ma Hu thought it was impossible for him to do so. Let alone him, even if all the top-notch generals and marksmen of the Three Kingdoms were gathered together, they couldn't do it either, as it had already exceeded human limits, which is why the Xianbei dared to watch with such arrogance.

  Ma Xun drew his bow and nocked an arrow, the bowstring slowly tightening. The arrowhead pointed at the Hu cavalry, his bright eyes narrowing as he slowly searched for an opportunity. Suddenly, he seemed to have seen something, his narrowed eyes widening in excitement.

  What made Ma Xun excited was a orange-red reflective light! The reflective light came from the helmet on top of a certain Xianbei noble's head.

  Ma Hu gave the leopard bow a infrared sight, the maximum irradiation distance is actually over one thousand meters, the problem is that human eyes can't see that far, this is also why Ma Hu often has to wait until the enemy approaches within one hundred steps before shooting, even though he has a strong bow that can shoot three hundred steps away.

  Just now, Ma Hu used his bow and arrow to scan the surroundings, looking for a chance to fight. Unintentionally, he discovered that in the distance, there were flashes of red light from time to time. Surprised, he thought about it briefly and suddenly realized. He understood that these strange reflections were caused by infrared rays shining on iron helmets under the scorching sun, producing dazzling spots. These light points were not weak and dim like infrared light points, but strong and dazzling, just like someone far away using a mirror to reflect sunlight, exceptionally eye-catching. Not to mention 400 steps away, it's likely that even thousands of meters away, they could be seen clearly - this is actually a method for long-distance rescue in wilderness survival in later generations.

  Of course, to produce such a strong reflection, certain conditions must be met: first, there must be strong light, that is, the sun must be shining brightly; secondly, the angle of the sunlight must be suitable, it must be direct sunlight, if it is backlight, even if it shines on the back of the head, it will not work; finally, it must shine directly on a polished metal object to have a good reflective effect - are there any iron objects that are more polished than an iron helmet?

  The Xianbei people would not have any standardized equipment, and iron helmets were even less common - the nomads preferred to use this iron to make more arrowheads. However, the nobles of the Xianbei were an exception, especially those present on the scene, who were the highest leaders of the central Xianbei, almost every one of whom wore an iron helmet.

  Today the sun is high in the sky, it's almost time for dinner (3 to 5 pm), and the sun's shadow is slanting westward. Looking from southwest to northeast, those shining bright spots are clearly visible. And these shining bright spots, Ma Hu's distant sniper, indicate a clear direction.

  When Ma Hong had been adjusting the infrared sight for a long time, he finally saw Ku Bi's forehead light up and was overjoyed to the point where his hands were shaking slightly. He quickly took a deep breath, steadied his arm, and locked onto the target from such a distance that even if his hand shook slightly, he might lose the target. Because he couldn't see the light source at all, he relied solely on tactile sensation to search for it, making it difficult to lock onto, and with just half a tremble, it would be a case of "losing by a hair's breadth, missing by a thousand miles".

  Lock onto the reflective point, calculate distance and angle. Fortunately, this is at a high place, no need to raise too high an elevation angle, otherwise even with reflective auxiliary locking it would lose its meaning.

  "Let this arrow be the end of our dispute!"

  Ma Xian's mind was preoccupied, ignoring the fact that the Xianbei people had already begun to stir, someone called out "Ma Xiao", preparing to rush towards the valley entrance.

  Bang! Buzz——

  Crack! The leopard bow finally broke with a gesture of farewell after completing the killing blow.

  An arrow soared through the air, carrying the sound of wind and thunder, passing over the heads of thousands of Xianbei people, drawing a black arc that brought with it an aura of death.

  Many Xianbei people sensed something and looked up, their eyes following the thin black shadow in the sky, their mouths wide open in surprise.

  When the iron arrow fell less than a hundred feet from the ground, the Xianbei nobles under the big flag seemed to have realized something and lifted their heads together.

  Just then, Yan Rou rode up on her horse and leaned forward as if she wanted to say something to Ke Bi.

  Iron arrows fell heavily.

  The iron arrow flew swiftly, grazing Yan Rou's cheek and splashing blood everywhere. Yan Rou let out a pained cry as her nose was sliced off. The arrow's momentum didn't stop there, fiercely piercing through Ji Bi Neng's leather armor and lodging itself in his right chest.

  Kebineng was killed and fell off his horse, causing great chaos among the Xianbei people. The beheading was a success!

  The tribal chiefs such as Luo Hou, Fu Luo Han and Xie Gui Ni were frightened - the arrows have reached here! Who will be the next?

  The king of the Xianbei fell off his horse, and the rest of the tribal leaders retreated one after another. No one dared to stay in their original position. As soon as the central army moved, the people and horses were in great chaos. The Xianbei people had already been killed and were terrified, and at this moment they were completely demoralized by this mysterious arrow. It was rare for an army not to collapse after its commander was defeated, let alone these temporarily assembled pastoral warriors. As a result, they retreated and eventually collapsed.

  Looking out at the vast and boundless plains, the Xianbei people and Wuhuan people were rushing about like wolves and pigs. Ma Xiu raised his hand holding a broken bow and let out an angry roar:

  "Xianbei slaves! Don't think it's over yet! You've plotted against me, pursued and killed my guards, destroyed my precious bow. I'll make you pay back a hundredfold!"