Chapter 57: Fighting the Horse Bandits (Part 1)

  Xiao Ziyang ordered Er Zhu to take Shanzi down the mountain and bring back the remaining horses, sending the crowd back to their houses. He then took Er Dangjia to his own house.

  Ling Er waited at the door, Xiao Ziyang entered the room, he opened the bedside cabinet, took out a few boxes of fine carved arrows, filled his quiver, and then took down a black cloak from the wall and tied it around his shoulder.

  He took out the palm flying dragon from his bosom, opened the bow arm, strung it, and hung it inside the windbreaker.

  Xiao Ziyang rode out of the mountain gate with Er Dangjia for the second time.

  The two caught up with Er Zhu and Shanzi not far from the Guanmen, Xiao Ziyang stopped his horse and ordered the two to take the horses back to the Taoist temple, then immediately lock the Guanmen tightly, and do not allow it to be opened before dawn.

  Having given orders to the two pillars, the two of them whipped their horses and galloped down the mountain.

  Xiao Ziyang followed the second master all the way, rushing into the mountain. As they went deeper into the mountain, the mountain road became steeper and more rugged. The second master's riding skills were extremely impressive, and he could still gallop his horse on this difficult mountain road, but due to Xiao Ziyang's drag, he had to slow down again.

  After more than half a time, the two came to a mountain cliff. The mountain road turned a big bend in front, and the cliff blocked the view, unable to see the situation ahead.

  Xiao Ziyang had passed by here when he went to visit the hunter, and knew that ahead was a three-forked road junction. One side led to the county town, one side led to a large village called Dujiiazhuang, and the third road was a small path for medicinal herb collectors to enter the mountain.

  Xiao Ziyang tilted his head and listened for a moment, but didn't discover any unusual sounds ahead. Nevertheless, he remained on high alert.

  Beyond the hillside, more than twenty riders suddenly appeared in his line of sight, startling Xiao Ziyang. He pulled on the reins to stop his horse.

  The second master was greatly shocked, and in his panic, he failed to pull the reins of his horse steady. Originally slightly behind, he overtook Xiao Ziyang by a whole horse's length before finally bringing his horse to a stop.

  "Big Brother, do you really want to kill me? I, Chen Yu, have been loyal to you with all my heart, and for your sake, I've risked life and death multiple times. Who would have thought that today I'd be silenced by you?" The Second Master suddenly drew out a long knife, its tip pointing at the leader of the opposing group, as he shouted uncontrollably.

  In front of the second master's chest, where Xiao Ziyang couldn't see, his left hand was constantly gesturing to the big Han in front of him. Cao Tianhao, who was surrounded by a group of bandits, looked at the second master's gestures and blinked repeatedly.

  He suddenly drew his bow and arrow at Er Dangjia, shouting "Chen Yu, you betrayed the Iron Riders Association. You dare to speak nonsense even when death is imminent."

  "Hahaha...!" The second master let out a miserable laugh, "Anyway, this life of mine was given by you, so today you can take it back." As he spoke, he pulled the reins, as if to urge his horse forward.

  Just as Jian Ma stood up straight, he suddenly turned his head and swung his sword towards Xiao Ziyang's face. At the same time, the leader of the opposing group slightly adjusted the direction of his arrow and shot it towards Xiao Ziyang's throat.

  In the eyes of Er Dong, at this moment, Xiao Ziyang should have been flustered and at a loss, but his face was as calm as water!

  Er Dong's heart sank, and he felt a surge of immense force on his lower back. Suddenly, he was lifted off the ground and flew forward, crashing heavily into a mountain cliff over two zhang away. The knife he had been aiming at Xiao Ziyang naturally fell short.

  It turned out that when Er Dangjia and Cao Tianhao suddenly launched an attack on Xiao Ziyang, Xiao Ziyang seemed to have anticipated this. As soon as Er Dangjia turned his head and raised his knife, the hilt of Xiao Ziyang's knife was heavily pressed against his lower back.

  Cao Tianhao let out a sorrowful cry, "Old Second!" Instantly his eyes turned red, he drew his sword and pointed the tip at Xiao Ziyang, shouting loudly "Kill!", leading the charge towards Xiao Ziyang.

  Xiao Ziyang supported himself with one hand on the horse's back, jumped off the horse, drew his thick-backed knife from its scabbard and inserted it in front of him. With a flick of his wrist, he threw away the scabbard, knelt down on one knee, bent his bow and set an arrow in place, using the "rapid shooting" technique to shoot arrows at the bandits who were rushing towards him.

  The horse thief was only about ten zhang away from Xiao Ziyang, and he just had time to shoot a round of six arrows. His arrows were all on target, and the six horse thieves fell with a thud.

  A disheveled and ferocious horse bandit, avoiding his fallen comrade by jumping over him, charged towards Xiao Ziyang in an instant. He let out a loud yell, fiercely tugging on the reins, causing his horse to leap high into the air, its front hooves heading straight for Xiao Ziyang's head.

  The bandit's eyes widened with excitement, as if he had already heard the sound of the Taoist's bones being trampled. But at this moment, a surge of powerful energy came from the war horse, and he flew up into the air together with the horse, like riding on clouds and fog.

  The horse turned over in mid-air, its four hooves pointing towards the sky. It also fell head down and feet up, and just as it was still unclear what had happened, it hit its head on the back of another horse that was now above it. The strong horse pressed down instantly, crushing the horse thief's bones and making him a confused ghost.

  The horse thieves behind saw Xiao Ziyang kick a strong horse flying three zhangs away with one foot, and were greatly shocked, hastily pulling the reins to stop their horses.

  Xiao Ziyang easily slung the longbow over his shoulder, pulled out the thick-backed knife from the ground, and with a loud whoop charged into the midst of the horse bandits.

  At that moment, the bandits were thrown off their horses and in an instant five of them were beheaded under the horses' hooves. At this point, Xiao Ziyang could no longer afford to spare the horses, and two out of three knives were aimed at the horses.

  Due to the large number of horse bandits, they came from all sides and killed at once. Xiao Ziyang killed five people and was also stabbed three times, but what made the horse bandits desperate was that their knives cut into the body of this fierce Taoist priest like cutting into old and tough, water-soaked iron scales, and couldn't hurt him in the slightest.

  Just as Xiao Ziyang was about to kill him, a gust of wind suddenly appeared behind his head. He dodged to the side and felt a severe pain in his left shoulder, having been stabbed by a knife.

  This knife was as swift and fierce as lightning, with great power and a sinking momentum. If he hadn't reacted quickly and sunk his shoulder to deflect most of the force, and if not for the tensile strength of his muscles, which were as tough as thousand-year-old wood, reacting instinctively to tense up, he would probably have been seriously injured by this knife. Even so, the knife had penetrated extremely deep into his flesh, with the internal force following the long blade's momentum and invading his body.

  Cao Tianhao's internal strength was extremely dense and scorching hot, carrying a fiery poison, clearly an evil internal skill.

  This evil internal force had just invaded, and hadn't yet caused much harm. Suddenly, Xiao Ziyang's shoulder surged with blood and energy, and the invading internal force instantly collapsed and disappeared without a trace.

  "Zi Yu Sheng Yan" was indeed extraordinary, Xiao Zi Yang's confidence surged to a hundred percent. The thick-backed knife that was about to chop the horse bandit in front of him suddenly turned around, changing from a normal grip to a reverse grip, and stabbed backwards with the momentum.

  The enemy who ambushed from behind was experienced and cunning, retreating as soon as he got stuck, and his knife stabbed into the empty space. However, this move "backhand sweep" is a lifesaving trick in the Five Tigers Broken Gate Knife that turns defeat into victory, and after being improved by Xiao Ziyang with martial arts theory from the military classics, its power has been taken to a higher level.

  Xiao Ziyang's foot stepped forward, his waist twisted, and the knife's momentum didn't stop. His wrist turned with the force, changing from a reverse grip to a normal grip. In an instant, Xiao Ziyang turned from facing away to facing the attacker, his thick-backed knife stabbing rapidly towards the attacker's face without any hesitation.