Chapter 184: Turning Point
In truth, from the moment they left the imperial palace, the Blind Man had kept his mental perception fully extended.
The drain was enormous.
But this was the capital of an enemy state.
Was this really the time to conserve strength?
Reality proved once again being cautious was never wrong.
The instant figures appeared atop the courtyard walls on both sides of the street, the Blind Man reacted immediately.
So quickly that his response actually came before the assassins' attack.
"Master, up!"
The Blind Man had barely finished speaking when Zheng Fan felt a force suddenly lift him from below.
He understood at once.
Using the momentum, he jumped upward, grabbed the upper frame of the carriage with both hands, then pulled his legs up as well.
The movement looked somewhat like someone mounting the uneven bars.
The Blind Man followed.
Using his mental power, he lifted himself and pressed flat against the carriage roof beside Zheng Fan.
"What about me?" A'Ming asked.
"No room left above.
"And I can't hold up three people."
The carriage roof was only so large.
With two grown men already pressed against it, there genuinely was not much room left.
And the Blind Man's mental power was not a hydraulic jack.
Supporting himself and Master simultaneously was already strenuous.
Still to be fair if they squeezed a little, there was room.
And if the Blind Man forced himself, supporting A'Ming too would not have been impossible.
But who told you arrows couldn't kill him?
A'Ming gave a soft "heh."
He shifted forward.
Instead of leaving the carriage, he pressed his body tightly into one corner at the front.
The Blind Man had not explicitly said what weapons the assassins carried.
But from his reaction alone, A'Ming could already guess.
Charging out of the carriage now would only turn him into a living target.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
In an instant crossbow bolts tore through the carriage.
Bolt after bolt punched straight through the wooden walls.
Pressed against the roof, Zheng Fan felt streams of displaced air slicing beneath him.
The assassins outside had never imagined the people inside would react before the attack landed and flatten themselves against the carriage roof.
So when the crossbowmen on both sides fired they instinctively aimed lower.
They had calculated where ordinary passengers would normally sit inside a carriage.
After that dense volley sounds of fighting erupted outside.
The Silver-Armored Guards escorting the carriage had begun clashing with the assassins.
Unfortunately every assassin was radiating the light of a ranked practitioner.
All of them were experts.
The Silver-Armored Guards had already lost more than half their men in the opening volley.
Caught completely unprepared they were no match for these wolf-like attackers.
Zheng Fan and the Blind Man dropped from the carriage roof.
Together they looked toward A'Ming.
A'Ming had already been quite cautious.
Even so, one crossbow bolt had buried itself in his left arm.
Another in his right thigh.
A'Ming shook his head while pulling the bolts free.
Once again he lamented the complete lack of human rights afforded to vampires.
At that moment, an assassin lifted the carriage curtain and stuck his head inside.
By their reasoning, the people inside should already have been dead beyond dead.
He was merely checking the bodies.
Time was short.
So there had been no cautious probing.
A'Ming who had only just pulled an arrow from his body casually stabbed the bolt straight into the man's eye.
Pfft!
The assassin screamed.
Instinctively, he recoiled.
But A'Ming immediately followed.
He seized the man's shoulders with both hands dragged him bodily into the carriage then sank his fangs into the assassin's neck without the slightest hesitation.
Gulp.
Gulp.
Gulp.
The assassin's body began rapidly shriveling like a punctured wineskin.
For A'Ming, drinking blood normally served as an elegant embellishment to life.
In battle it became emergency replenishment.
"Master, use the Demon Child!"
The Blind Man shouted across their mental channel.
The assassins outside had already noticed something wrong with the carriage.
Their crossbows were being raised again.
These men were clearly extremely well trained.
Even after closing in for the attack, they had deliberately left shooters on both sides.
Zheng Fan did not hesitate.
The situation now directly concerned his life and death.
He slammed one fist against his chest right over the place where the Demon Child rested.
Buzz!
Cold.
Bone-piercing cold surged out from the Demon Child.
In an instant it flooded Zheng Fan's entire body.
Calamity.
Curse.
Nightmare.
Layer after layer of sinister power descended upon him.
A film of blood-red began staining Zheng Fan's pupils.
Bang!
He kicked off hard with both feet.
His entire body shot forward.
The two assassins standing at the front of the carriage saw only a blur rushing toward them.
Before either man could even fully raise his saber both were already airborne.
Zheng Fan's arms spread wide like two iron bars.
They smashed directly into the assassins' necks.
The force carried both men backward seven or eight meters through the air.
At once, the crossbowmen on both sides reacted.
They aimed at Zheng Fan where he landed.
And pulled the triggers.
Pfft!
Pfft!
Pfft!
Pfft!
Zheng Fan grabbed the two assassins he had just driven into the ground.
One in each hand he lifted them as human shields.
Every bolt struck those two bodies instead.
"Huu...
"This should be the first time the Demon Child has truly acted since Master reached Eighth Grade, right?" A'Ming said.
"Your own son is naturally different."
Among the Demon Kings the Demon Child had always been one of the most feared.
Put differently among the Seven Demon Kings, he had effectively been the strongest.
So while this display was astonishing it was not entirely unexpected.
"Left or right?"
"Right."
A'Ming left the carriage first.
He charged toward the right.
The Blind Man followed close behind.
Two assassins on that side happened to turn and attack them.
The Blind Man already held two needles between his fingers.
A'Ming, meanwhile simply rammed straight into the pair.
Pfft!
Pfft!
The two assassins reacted swiftly.
Both slashed horizontally.
Their blades buried themselves deep inside A'Ming's body.
But A'Ming's hands immediately clamped down on the wounds around the blades locking the weapons in place.
Neither assassin could pull free.
Buzz!
Buzz!
The Blind Man's two silver needles shot forward.
Each pierced an assassin through the temple.
Both men collapsed instantly.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Two more bolts flew in.
A'Ming stepped backward at once placing himself directly in front of the Blind Man.
Both bolts struck A'Ming squarely in the chest.
The Blind Man clenched both fists.
In the next instant an invisible force slammed into A'Ming's back.
A'Ming cooperated by pushing lightly off the ground with his toes.
His entire body rose into the air almost like a kite being launched.
He flew toward the opposite wall directly above the two crossbowmen.
As he descended, A'Ming pulled the two sabers still lodged inside him free.
Then slashed downward with both weapons.
The two crossbowmen wore expressions of utter disbelief as A'Ming cut them down from above.
They fell from the wall.
Their bodies twitched several times then went still.
A'Ming climbed over the wall and returned to the street.
On the opposite side of the carriage five assassin corpses had already been laid out neatly together.
Zheng Fan tilted his head.
He looked toward the Blind Man and A'Ming.
The assassins had all been eliminated.
Truthfully, every one of them had possessed respectable skill.
But in this sort of small-scale close encounter the Demon Kings' individual abilities and strange characteristics could be brought to their fullest extent.
It was exactly like Yuan Zhenxing, who had been shot to death beside the frozen river.
In single combat there probably were not many people in the Yan army capable of defeating him.
But under concentrated attack he could only die in an extremely miserable fashion.
Fortunately there had not been many assassins.
"They're all dead.
"Quickly withdraw the power.
"Don't overdraw Master too much," the Blind Man warned.
Zheng Fan grinned.
There was something vicious and suppressed in his eyes.
Then, his legs gave out.
He dropped backward onto the ground.
"Cough...
"Cough, cough...
"Cough..."
Zheng Fan began coughing violently.
The sensation was almost like finishing a long-distance run in winter.
His lungs felt slightly torn.
His throat tasted sweet.
"It's over?"
Zheng Fan looked around at the assassin corpses lying across the street.
"Is it over?"
"It's over, Master," A'Ming answered while continuing to pull bolts from his body.
Just then dense footsteps sounded from both ends of the street.
Groups of Qian soldiers had already arrived.
Leading the force from the front was Zu Dongcheng's younger brother—
Zu Dongling.
"What the hell happened here!" Zu Dongling roared.
Supported by the Blind Man, Zheng Fan forced himself upright.
He looked at Zu Dongling ahead and shouted without the slightest courtesy, "Shouldn't we be asking the State of Qian what the hell this means!
"If you want to kill us, then kill us openly!
"Why hide your faces and use a cowardly method like this!"
Truthfully—
Zheng Fan understood very clearly that these assassins almost certainly had not been sent by the Qian court.
There was no reason for Qian to do so.
Zheng Fan was not Li Fusheng.
Killing him possessed very little strategic value.
Worse it would force the Zhenbei Army outside the city to carry out its promise and begin slaughtering civilians in retaliation the next day.
But understanding that internally was one thing.
It did not prevent Zheng Fan from throwing the chamber pot onto Qian's head first.
"Heh.
"If we truly wanted to kill you, do you think you'd still be alive to speak with me right now?" Zu Dongling shot back.
Zheng Fan stared at him with a dark expression.
"Escort us out of the city."
"No.
"This matter has not yet been investigated clearly."
Zu Dongling had originally wanted to ask whether the Yan had staged the entire assassination themselves.
But seeing the three Yan men still standing there perfectly alive he swallowed the accusation.
If no one died how exactly were the Yan supposed to frame anyone?
"It will be dawn soon.
"If I do not return to camp before sunrise—tomorrow, one hundred thousand Qian commoners will die because of your decision, General."
Zu Dongling's face stiffened involuntarily.
Clearly, he was barely restraining his fury.
On Qian soil using Qian lives to threaten Qian troops.
What kind of humiliation was this?
"Escort the Yan envoy out of the city!" Zu Dongling ordered.
Zheng Fan and the other two began moving forward.
As they passed Zu Dongling, the young general spoke in a low voice.
"Yan envoy.
"I look forward to the day we meet on the battlefield."
Zheng Fan smiled.
"Why wait for another day?
"Why change the date?
"Today works.
"Open the city gates right now.
"We'll fight with real blades and real spears.
"Standing here and spitting empty threats behind people's backs—that's not what real men do."
A strange, unreadable expression suddenly appeared within Zu Dongling's earlier fury.
Then he shouted, "YOU ALL HEARD HIM!
"THE YAN DOG HAS GONE TOO FAR!
"HE INSULTS THE MEN OF GREAT QIAN AS COWARDS!
"ALL SOLDIERS—
"HEAR MY COMMAND!
"CUT DOWN THESE YAN DOGS WHERE THEY STAND!"
"............" Zheng Fan.
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(End of Chapter)
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