Chapter 4: Xiniya

  At dusk, a group of people rushed out from the forest and climbed to the top of a high ridge. Before their eyes appeared a vast blue sea, with waves shimmering in the sunlight, several white sails slowly emerging from the depths of the sea's sunset glow, leaving behind long, unbroken trails of white foamy water marks.

  In the distance, a magnificent and majestic castle rises from the ground, standing on a vast plain overlooking the bay, shining brightly under the sunset. The fiery sunset gave the entire city wall a layer of red light, looking exceptionally magnificent and beautiful.

  A gentle breeze blows, and the wild grass on the plain sways like waves, with cows and sheep strolling leisurely among them, full of vitality. This is just like a huge and beautiful pastoral landscape painting.

  Breathing in the slightly salty sea breeze, Nia smiled sweetly and said to Ye Feng who was stunned: "Welcome to Nisia." After finishing speaking, she urged her horse on and galloped down the mountain slope, rushing towards the castle.

  At this time, the cavalry had already entered the city to report. Seeing their arrival, a long bugle call immediately sounded in the city. A large crowd surged out of the city gate to wait and welcome them.

  Niya rode up, dismounted and helped the middle-aged general to his feet. "General Lei," she said, "I've told you many times before, as a senior elder of Xiniya City, I should also call you uncle. You don't have to be so polite."

  The general bowed and said in a deep voice: "How can that be done? Without rules and discipline, how can the young lady manage this city?"

  Ye Feng listened behind, and couldn't help but look at Nia with new eyes. Apparently everyone here didn't take that duke seriously, instead they treated Nia, a little girl not yet twenty years old, as the true manager of this castle.

  The general stood up, saw Ye Feng in the team, and his eyes flashed. He walked a few steps to Ye Feng's face, stroked his chest with his right hand, and said: "This must be the brave warrior who saved Miss and Young Master. Thank you for your help."

  Ye Feng hastily returned a formal military salute and said: "I just happened to be there and lent a little help, that's all."

  That man saw the crossbow on his back, and with years of military career cultivating his intuition, he immediately felt the subtle but palpable murderous intent emanating from that weapon. His curiosity piqued, he said: "Sir, may I borrow that thing for a look?"

  Yefeng smiled and handed over the crossbow and arrow together, saying: "Of course, this is just a small toy."

  Lei Jiang took over the crossbow, fiddled with it for a few moments in his hand, and immediately understood its usage. He sucked in a breath of cold air and said, "Isn't this just a miniaturized version of a catapult?"

  He stretched out his hand and pulled the crossbow string to its limit, placing an arrow in the groove. He aimed at a small tree not far away, and gently pressed the trigger. The arrow flew out at a speed that was almost invisible to the naked eye, but the small tree didn't even sway once.

  Everyone thought he had missed, and they all turned around to stifle a laugh. General Lei's face also showed some embarrassment. A soldier who ran over to pick up the arrow walked back with a strange expression on his face.

  "What's wrong? Where is the arrow?" General Lei asked angrily as he saw him return empty-handed.

  The soldier saluted and glanced at Ye Feng, saying: "It's better for you gentlemen to go take a look yourselves."

  Everyone heard the words and felt strange, and they all walked over. Seeing the appearance of the tree, they couldn't help but take a breath of cool air. Only to see that the big tree with a diameter as thick as a bowl was shot through with a small hole. The arrow also flew somewhere, and finally it was found by a soldier fifty steps away from the big tree.

  Everyone looked at Ye Feng in disbelief, thinking that if someone were to use such a crossbow, it would cause great harm to themselves, and their faces suddenly turned pale.

  Lei Jiangjun patted the crossbow and sighed, "What a great thing! I wonder what materials are needed to make such a small crossbow cannon and how much it costs?"

  Ye Feng snatched the crossbow back from his hand, thinking to himself: "These country bumpkins have never seen the world, they don't even recognize a crossbow." He spouted nonsense, saying: "This is made from the iron of fallen stars from heaven, I spent 99 days and 47 nights to refine it. The bowstring is made from the tendon of a giant dragon that has been frozen for ten thousand years in the extreme north..."

  Lei Jiangjun looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile, as if he had seen through his lies, but did not directly expose him. Ye Feng's old face turned red, and he could no longer blow it off.

  Diana said coldly, "Another oversized thing. The draw is slow, you shoot one arrow, a skilled archer can shoot two arrows. The only advantage is that the accuracy is slightly higher and the range is farther. But within 100 steps, an archer can also hit accurately. Beyond 100 steps, humph. The shadow of an enemy beyond 100 steps is only the size of a fingernail, and after the arrow flies out, it will be affected by factors such as wind speed and gravity, and it's not surprising if you miss the target by tens of thousands of miles."

  Everyone listened to her and suddenly realized. Nodded in agreement one after another.

  She smiled coldly and turned to see General Lei's astonished gaze, her face flushing as she involuntarily retreated a few steps and hid behind the crowd.

  A knight approached General Lei and whispered a few words in his ear. Ye Feng recognized him at a glance as the guy who had congratulated him earlier. General Lei turned to look at his warhorse, pulled hard on the reins, but found that it didn't budge at all. He patted the saddle heavily and said, "Not bad, this little thing is not bad either. It's much more convenient to get on and off the horse, and the rider won't fall off easily."

  Ye Feng cursed these guys in his heart for having no standards. It's necessary to know that the invention of stirrups has epoch-making significance. Only after the appearance of saddles and stirrups did cavalry truly take the stage of war, transforming from auxiliary troops to the main force on the battlefield.

  But he himself felt it was beneath him to show off in front of these country bumpkins, so he smiled faintly without revealing his emotions.

  Despite this, General Lei still didn't want to let him off the hook. He patted his shoulder and said: "By the way, I heard you defeated my daughter?"

  "Your daughter?" Ye Feng was taken aback:

  Diana jumped out of the crowd with a flushed face and said loudly, "He just relied on having a sharp dagger to cut off my long sword. Otherwise, I wouldn't have lost."

  The crowd let out a deep and meaningful "oh" in unison, their faces revealing clear expressions.

  Diana saw the ambiguous expressions of the crowd and became furious, snatching a long sword from a nearby soldier's hand and walking forward. She said to Ye Feng: "Do you dare not use that sharp dagger and have a fair fight with me?"

  Ye Feng's eyes flashed with a hint of anger, his brow furrowed, and he was about to speak. Nia saw this and knew things were going to go badly. She had witnessed Ye Feng's ability to kill with a smile before, and didn't want the two to clash, so she hastily intervened. "Let's talk about the fight later," she said. "We've been traveling all day and are exhausted. If no one has any other business, let's just go back and rest for now."

  After finishing, she pulled Diana, who was still unwilling to give up, and took a step forward, walking towards the city. The crowd found that the good commotion was ruined by Nia, and they all let out a sigh. Following behind her, they surrounded Nia and walked towards the Duke's Mansion in the city.

  ××××

  The next morning, Ye Feng was woken up by a sudden and urgent horn. He jumped out of bed, his bare feet landing on the smooth marble floor, the chill running from his toes to his head. Only then did he realize that this wasn't the forest where danger lurked around every corner, even in sleep.

  He walked to the window, gazing at the sun rising slowly outside, and let out a long sigh. Smelling the fragrance of flowers drifting with the wind, he stretched his waist lazily, thinking contentedly: This is the life I want.

  Nia, in order to repay his debt of gratitude, treated him quite well and arranged for him to stay in the noble guest room of the Duke's mansion. The messy beard on his chin had been shaved clean, and after a hot bath, his body emitted the fragrance of roses, and his long hair had been carefully trimmed by a professional, no longer having that suffocating feeling like wearing a steel helmet.

  The urgent horn sounded again. Ye Feng furrowed his brow, cocking his ear to listen carefully, and faintly heard the distant sound of people's terrified cries and the clamor of horses and carriages.

  A burst of footsteps sounded, followed by the door creaking open as it was kicked from the outside. Ye Feng turned his head to look, and saw Oola covered in sweat, wearing a suit of leather armor, with a long sword hanging at her waist, rushing in from outside like a fire.

  He was shocked by Ye Feng's appearance, and didn't expect that the primitive barbarian from yesterday would turn into an extraordinary young man. He leaned in front of Ye Feng, carefully looking at his face, and said: "Really didn't expect it, you're actually quite handsome."

  Yefeng looked at the black shoe print on the intricately carved door and asked: "Do you have something urgent? Why are you in such a hurry."

  Oola suddenly came to her senses and pulled his hand as they walked out. She said, "Can't you hurry up? The pirates have already reached our doorstep."

  Ye Feng looked down at his last line of defense on his body, smiled bitterly and said: "Even so, can you let me put on my clothes first?"

  They arrived on the street, only to see that it was filled with panicked refugees. The frightened crowd surged into the city, almost blocking the road, and all they could say was: "The pirates are coming, the pirates have arrived."

  Ye Feng looked at these poor refugees, the cars were loaded with, on their backs were some worthless but precious belongings to them, all he could hear was the crying and wailing of women and children. His heart felt a pang of sympathy. It wasn't until now that he felt he had become a part of this world and should do something for these poor people.

  Two people went against the tide, exhausting their strength to squeeze through the crowd and finally arrived at the top of the city wall. Outside, on the surface of the sea, nearly fifty ships of various sizes were anchored there, almost covering the blue sea.

  A black flag with a white skull and crossbones fluttered in the wind atop the mast. Hundreds of small boats were packed with people, sailors shouting slogans as they rowed towards the beach with all their might, while five miles away on the beach was already crowded with pirates of various colors, armed to the teeth and cursing loudly.

  That loud noise, Ye Feng stood on the city wall, could hear it clearly. He estimated that there were more than 2,000 pirates in total. With a cold laugh, he spat a mouthful of thick phlegm at the foot of the city wall and said: "A bunch of useless trash, just a mob."

  He saw that around the city, burnt houses and manors were emitting rolling black smoke, and the air still carried a hint of blood. Through the thick smoke, he could still vaguely see some civilians who did not escape in time and were killed by the pirates.

  He frowned and asked a soldier beside him: "You just watched them land, didn't you think of attacking?"

  That man's face turned pale as he swallowed his saliva, just about to speak. Then he heard someone behind him say coldly: "Certain people may have high martial arts skills, but they don't understand military tactics, so it's better for them to shut up and avoid losing face here."

  Ye Feng turned around to look, and saw that Niya was leading a dozen or so generals walking over in this direction. The one speaking was Diana, who was dressed in armor and following closely behind her.

  Diana saw Ye Feng's new appearance and was taken aback, with a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes. She found Ye Feng's eyes revealing a look of astonishment, and hastily looked up at the sky, letting out two cold laughs.

  Nia was also taken aback. Seeing Ye Feng's puzzled expression, she sighed and said: "Xin'nia has been at peace for a long time, we only have 300 people, our military strength is insufficient. It's fundamentally not enough to be used for a counterattack. I think the pirates are targeting us precisely because of this."

  Ye Feng couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat, and suddenly a classic line popped into his head: "It's not that our army is too incompetent, it's just that the Communist Army is too powerful."

  Noticing the atmosphere on the city walls was somewhat down, Nia hurriedly said loudly: "However, as long as we can hold out for three days, the Empire's powerful Dian Navy will arrive, and at that time we can wipe out these pirates who invaded our home."

  The gloomy mood of the crowd was swept away.

  General Lei seized the moment, drew his long sword and shouted loudly: "For our home!"

  The crowd was shocked, grasped the weapons in their hands tightly and raised them high. For a moment, knives and guns were like forests, and morale was like a rainbow. People shouted in unison with boiling blood: "For our home."

  That mighty roar echoed through the city sky, lingering for a long time without stopping.

  Ye Feng secretly glanced at the side and thought: "These fools, do they think that shouting a couple of times will scare the enemy away?"

  The enemy across the way blew a low horn, and the pirate camp began.