Where Immortals Once Walked-Chapter 264: A Stinking Counterkill

As he stood up, He Lingchuan casually brushed past his father and tapped a few times between his shoulder blades. The coded message was simple: “Be extremely careful.”

He Chunhua glanced at the two of them but said nothing.

The shopkeeper pointed helpfully. “The latrine’s out back. Once you’re in, don’t look down.”

The two stepped out of the shop. Only then did Shan Youjun lower his voice and say softly, “Master, take a look at those horses. All three are made for running.”

He Lingchuan had not paid much attention to the horses before this. After all, Xinhuang was full of horses and oxen today, so those three horses were hardly anything to get excited about. But with the reminder, he looked again and noticed some key details.

These three mounts were smooth-coated and glossy, with long legs, willow-leaf ears, deep chests, and thick muscle over their flanks. Their eyes were bright and alert.

They were nothing like the plodding nags pulling grain wagons.

One of them was pawing the ground, stamping as though it could barely stand still. Shan Youjun took one glance and said, “They’re all warhorses. Their hooves and shoes were just trimmed and replaced. I served as light cavalry in the north. I won’t mistake that.”

Each of those “merchants” has a mount like this?

Shan Youjun’s voice tightened. “All the way north from Dunyu, how many caravans have we seen? We arrive in Xinhuang, and just happen to bump into these three?”

Central and northern Xia Province were desolate. There was no money to be made, so few merchants bothered traveling this route. Escorting the grain convoy up, they had barely seen any proper merchant caravans—only the odd small trader, and even those were rare.

He Lingchuan drew a slow breath. “Got it. Let’s circle once and head back.”

They had just walked a few steps when a light flared behind them. One of the three supposed merchants had come out, his hand was on his belly as he said,. “I need the latrine too. Haven’t you found it yet?”

He Lingchuan pointed vaguely behind the shop. “No. The shopkeeper said it’s behind the noodle place, but I don’t see it.”

“Follow me.” The man led them into the alley behind the eatery.

Night had fully fallen. The residents here did not waste oil on lamps, so every alley was a strip of darkness. The alley walls on both sides were barely two meters high, but the trees were tall and dense. Even during the day, the place would have been shady.

The wind sighed through the leaves. Branches rustled overhead. The darkness felt thick enough to touch, like something from a ghost story.

A place like this, at a time like this—if nothing happened, that would be strange.

They turned two corners in quick succession. He Lingchuan called out to the man striding ahead, “How much farther? Why’s the latrine this far away?”

“We’re almost there. It’s just right up ahead.”

“You seem awfully familiar with these back alleys.” He Lingchuan stopped walking and smiled faintly. “Do you come here to squat often?”

The merchant turned, still playing the part. “Are you coming or not? I’m in a hurry.”

He Lingchuan leaned sideways toward Shan Youjun and murmured a few words too quietly for the man to catch, then he said aloud, “You three don’t look much like merchants. Even army officers don’t always have horses as good as yours.”

The other party scratched his head. “And you two don’t look like merchants either. Nobody’s going north at a time like this.” His expression suddenly hardened, and he shouted, “Now!”

The hand scratching his head dropped, and his wrist flipped. With a faint whoosh, a sleeve arrow fired from a hidden mechanism in his cuff, aimed straight at the space between He Lingchuan’s eyes.

His judgment was not bad. He had picked out at a glance that between the two, He Lingchuan’s status was higher.

His attack came without the slightest hint of warning. In this pitch-dark alley, who would be watching for a hidden arrow?

At the same moment, a man vaulted over each of the low walls on either side, hurtling down toward the backs of He Lingchuan and Shan Youjun.

They had planned this from the start. They would lure someone into this alley, kill them neatly, and leave no witnesses.

However, He Lingchuan had never intended to stroll in undefended.

He twisted at the waist and let the arrow whip past his cheek. At the same time, his left hand, which had been hanging loose, flicked down. The little “incense dumpling” concealed in his palm hit the ground and burst.

A smell that words could do no justice to exploded in the narrow alley.

By sheer coincidence, the wind chose that exact moment to die. The stench did not blow away; it thickened, rolled, and settled in like an invisible flood.

He Lingchuan and Shan Youjun had both already held their breath.

Their three opponents, however, were completely unprepared. The man who had lured them in bent double on the spot, retching dryly as his eyes watered. The two who had just vaulted over the wall had not even landed properly before pure instinct had their hands flying to their noses and mouths.

You could be as tough as you liked, but your body still had its own reflexes.

The whisper He Lingchuan had slipped to Shan Youjun earlier had only been three words: hold your breath.

They wanted to set a trap. But when had He Lingchuan ever been the type to meekly sit in someone else’s snare?

The gagging merchant knew that he was in trouble the second he doubled over. He tried to clamp his mouth shut and draw his saber, but before he could, He Lingchuan’s wrist snapped up.

This time, the arrow did not come from the other man but from him.

This was the first time he had used the violet-gold sleeve arrow set Li Fubo had custom-made for him. He had gotten it just the day before they set out. Tonight would be its debut.

Grandmaster Li’s craftsmanship was of a completely different level from the cheap stock mechanisms used by low-level assassins. The merchant had barely straightened up when he felt a sharp, electric pain and a sudden, icy emptiness between his legs.

The arrow had gone in precisely where no man ever wanted anything to go.

One-shot eggbuster!

He Lingchuan’s diligence in training had to count for something. At this range, how could he miss?

The man folded like a cut rope, rolling on the ground and screaming like his soul was being torn from his body.

Of course, the sleeve arrow’s viciousness did not end there. A length of cord was attached to its tail.

He Lingchuan gave that cord a gentle tug.

There was a wet, snapping sound.

The screaming cut off. The man went limp, fainting right away.

Using hidden arrows like this felt good, far too good. Panlong City’s Martial Review Hall had always strictly forbidden him from using weapons with such lethality. Now, finally, he could let it off the leash. Exhaling slowly, he turned toward the next enemy, the one grappling with Shan Youjun.

This man was quick on the uptake. He shoved aside his disgust at the stench and threw himself fully into the fight, roaring as he hammered at Shan Youjun with two heavy chops. Sparks spat from the blades as they clashed in the dark.

He Lingchuan chose his moment and stepped in, driving a kick into the man’s ribs the instant his stance opened up.

With his current strength, he could have dented a bronze platter. A human torso fared far worse.

The man felt a blast of pain explode between his ribs. Numbness rushed through his body. His vision began to darken at the edges. For a heartbeat, even his breath stalled.

Shan Youjun did not waste the opening. His blade swept out at once, cleanly cutting the man.

A head flew, tumbling end over end into the shadows.

The last of the three had just lunged in with his trident-like piercing spear. He barely had time to thrust before He Lingchuan flicked his own blade up, catching the weapon and turning it aside.

Seeing his two companions already down while his opponents stood unscathed, he took one quick look at the ground and chose survival over pride. Without hesitating, he turned and ran.

Of the three, he might not have been the strongest in a stand-up fight, but he was unquestionably the fleetest of foot. After only two strides, he planted a hand on the wall, vaulted over into someone’s dirt yard, and darted through, cutting into another alley without missing a beat.

He had reached Xinhuang ahead of the others and knew the layout better than anyone here.

He dared a glance over his shoulder.

No one followed.

Good. I’ll report back first. These two are troublesome. Once our main force arrives, I can just sit back and watch these two have their heads chopped off.

He had just gathered to sprint again when he felt a sudden, icy gust of wind at the back of his head. Something from seemingly nowhere—cold, thin, sharp—shot through his heart like lightning.

The blade entered between his shoulder blades and burst out through his chest, punching a ragged, bloody hole.

He staggered forward two more steps on sheer habit before his legs folded and he crashed onto the ground.

Even as he lay there, he could not understand it. He had already turned into another alley. How had a saber, thrown from behind, still found him and hit so perfectly?

He Lingchuan only came over after taking a moment to wind the cord and retrieve the violet-gold sleeve arrow. The arrowhead was fouled with... unspeakable fluids; it was not fit for use again for a while.

He stepped into the alley and grasped the hilt jutting from the man’s back. Shan Youjun came up behind him, still slightly wide-eyed.

He had clearly seen his master throw that changdao in the previous alley. The target had already leapt over a wall and vanished. Then, in midair, the saber had suddenly jerked, turned in an impossible curve, and shot down a different path to pierce the man clean through.

He had heard of chasing arrows, of flying knives, and other magical artifacts that would hound their targets until they hit. But he had never heard of a changdao with the same ability.

He Lingchuan pulled Fleeting Life out of the man’s body, the steel sliding free with a wet sound. The corpse’s eyes were still open, round with disbelief.

He wiped the blood off the blade on the dead man’s clothes and slid it back into the scabbard.

Of course, that perfect, heart-piercing strike was thanks to Fleeting Life’s Surestrike Throw.

In his opinion, it was even more convenient than archery.

“Let’s go back,” he said. Any enemy who was willing to lure even the two of them to their deaths would hardly spare his father.

He was not overly worried, though. His father was a cultivator as well, with multiple protective magical artifacts on his person. Taking him down would be no simple task.

The two of them hurried back the way they had come. They had just reached the mouth of the alley when a thunderous boom split the night from the east.

A pillar of fire blossomed upward, momentarily lighting all of Xinhuang.

The explosion was tremendous. The ground itself seemed to jump, and dust cascaded from the eaves. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He Lingchuan’s face changed.

The restaurant where the county magistrate was hosting Mozhe Jingxuan was in the direction of that explosion.

Back in the noodle shop, He Chunhua and the two merchants were making idle conversation, words drifting and breaking as though no one’s heart was in it.

The blast hit like a hammer. Just then, the shopkeeper had been picking up a basin of hot water. He flinched, sloshing the basin and nearly dumping it all over himself. He had to grab the pillar to keep from falling.

He Chunhua, Mao Tao, and Jiao Tai all turned toward the sound on reflex.

At that exact instant, the two fake merchants sprang up.

They whipped out their weapons and lunged.

All that only to slam into a thin shimmer of light that appeared before He Chunhua, like a translucent screen patterned with fine scales.

Their movements slowed at once, as though submerged in mud. Strikes that should have been swift and deadly turned sluggish.

His protective magical artifact had activated on its own.

The moment he heard the first scrape of blades, Jiao Tai knew what was happening. He barked a furious, “How dare you?!” and dove in front of his lord.

He Chunhua flicked his fingers. The red lines that were wound around his wrist shot out, expanding in midair into a wide net that wrapped one of the attackers from head to toe.

Sun Fuping’s magical artifact really is useful in every situation.

At that moment, the wind curtain lifted with a slap, startling everyone inside.

But it was only He Lingchuan and Shan Youjun bursting back in.

“Three of them down outside!” He Lingchuan said as they slipped through the doorway.

Outnumbered five to one, the last attacker had nowhere left to go. The outcome was no real mystery. Within a few short exchanges, they had him on the floor and bleeding.

While Jiao Tai beat the man half to death, He Chunhua grabbed the net and hauled up the one that was caught. He then said with a voice like iron, “Speak! What’s happening outside?”

The man laughed wildly. “Your commanding officer has ascended to Heaven! My brothers are here already. They’ll send you up after him!”

He Chunhua traded a look with his eldest son, then asked again, “How did you know when the convoy would pass this way?”

Notice to Xinhuang about preparing to host them had gone out only a day in advance. These Xun Province cavalrymen were roving around all of central and northern Xia Province—a huge area. Under normal circumstances, there was no way they should have gotten wind of the timing so quickly.

The man only bared his teeth in a twisted grin and stayed silent.

“He’s stalling,” He Lingchuan said at once. “We need to get back to camp!”

Jiao Tai drew his blade across the captive’s throat with a single decisive motion.

Ignoring the shopkeeper, who was clinging to his pillar and shaking, He Lingchuan still remembered to toss a handful of coppers onto the table for their meal. Then the five of them rushed out of the eatery and untied the three fine warhorses the Xun Province cavalry had ridden in on.

One vault, one swing of the leg, and all five were mounted.

* * *

Five men. Three horses. They had barely thundered a hundred meters down the road when they heard another rumbling of hooves behind them.

A unit was coming in from the south. Judging by the sound, there were at least two or three hundred riders.

“Hyah!” He Chunhua’s face hardened. He dug his heels in, and their mounts surged into a full gallop.

The horses shot off the main street and bolted straight toward the grain convoy’s camp. When He Lingchuan glanced back, he saw a solid black mass of cavalry pour into the town behind them.

As they rode, those men ripped open their cloaks and tore off their outer garments, revealing the uniforms beneath.

He did not recognize the cut or the colors, but he did not need to.

Only Xun Province’s roving cavalry could be here, now, in a force like that.

Clearly, these wolves had been lurking outside Xinhuang all along, waiting for a signal. The instant the explosion went off in town, they charged in to kill and seize the grain!