Chapter 278: Arrow of the God of War

The great fire surged in Zhengyuan City, still spreading continuously towards the north.

In the windy black night, the city's scorched smell was blown far away. Street after street was filled with smoke, acrid and pungent.

On Kule Street, more than ten Tiance Army cavalrymen, holding long spears, completely surrounded Li Xuan and six commoners.

Li Xuan held his sword only in his right hand, while his left arm held the little girl, constantly changing direction to protect the commoners behind him.

One Tiance Army cavalryman raised his long spear and thrust it towards the old man behind Li Xuan. Li Xuan, quick-eyed and nimble, used his sword tip to block the spear tip, emitting an ear-piercing metallic clash!

The long spear trembled, shaken by the sword tip. The Tiance Army cavalryman's hand went numb. He immediately retracted his spear and warned in a low voice: "Be careful, he's very troublesome!"

One Tiance Army cavalryman gripped his reins, looking down at Li Xuan from his high position, and mocked: "You're already struggling to protect yourself, yet you still delusionally want to be a hero and a good man."

Li Xuan breathed heavily and roughly said: "Zhengyuan City is already yours, why do you still want to kill all these commoners who will be your subjects later? Why not give them a way to live?"

That Tiance Army cavalryman sneered: "How do I know there aren't spies from your Southern people hidden among them? Zhengyuan, as one of the nine borders, is extremely important. How could we be like those border army fools and leave hidden troubles? Naturally, we will purge the entire city and replace it with our Northern people."

Li Xuan's heart was filled with mixed emotions. Even the Jing Army knew the truth, why didn't the Ning Dynasty border army know? How could the border army be so short-sighted? They actually let so many Northern people enter to destroy the city for the sake of extracting tax silver.

But he still retorted: "General Hu is also for the border army's livelihood!"

The Tiance Army cavalrymen looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter, as if they had heard the biggest joke: "Letting the Northern people into the city to do business was that dog thief Wen Tao's idea. What does that have to do with Hu Junxian? Your so-called General Hu exchanged letters with my family's Grand Commander years ago. Even the mountain path bypassing into your Ning Dynasty inland this time was guided by his confidants."

Another person on horseback said wildly: "Turns out you are the real fool, sold out and not even knowing it. The so-called 'opening the gates and offering the city to protect the commoners of Zhengyuan' is all a pretext, words only meant to deceive his subordinate border army soldiers. That Hu Junxian wanted to offer Zhengyuan to our dynasty long ago."

Li Xuan was stunned in place: "How could it be so, how could it be so."

Seeing him lost in thought, the Tiance Army cavalrymen instantly raised their spears and thrust.

Ding ding ding ding.

Li Xuan's long sword in his hand shook out brilliant sword flowers, actually blocking all four long spears thrusting at him, one by one!

One long spear was chopped broken by a sword. As the spear tip fell, Li Xuan kicked it out with one foot!

The spear tip, wrapped in the momentum of wind and thunder, stabbed into the rear hindquarters of a warhorse. The warhorse, startled by the pain, reared up, almost throwing the Tiance Army cavalryman on its back off the horse!

No one expected Li Xuan to be so troublesome, even when his mind was distracted, they couldn't do anything!

Just as Li Xuan was about to take advantage of the situation to chop this Tiance Army cavalryman off his horse, a sharp whistling sound came from afar, and a fierce-sounding arrow arrived in a flash!

This arrow came at an extremely tricky angle, forcing Li Xuan to retract his sword to defend, blocking the sounding arrow!

Someone in the Tiance Army said in a low voice: "He's not from the border army, possibly a high official of the Xun Dao Realm. Wait for the sounding arrow to call people here, and we'll surround and kill him together."

At the same time, Li Xuan's heart tightened: "This is just an ordinary small team of Jing Dynasty cavalry, yet someone is attacking the heart, and someone is responding from afar. Both offense and defense are so dense that it's alarming; there's fundamentally no flaw!"

Watching the sounding arrow's sound, more Tiance Army soldiers would soon come to surround and kill them!

Li Xuan silently looked around, and asked in a low voice: "Just now you all spoke about Hu Junxian's matter, it was just to disturb my mind, right? Although you are ordinary troops, how can you know military secrets?"

One Tiance Army cavalryman urged his horse to circle around Li Xuan and the refugees, and slowly said: "This matter is no secret at all in my Tiance Army. You are not from the border army, perhaps from the Imperial Guard. I'm somewhat curious, why are you the only one here? Where are your colleagues? Could they have all abandoned you and run? It's better to surrender to my Tiance Army, and you will naturally have glory and wealth!"

Li Xuan suddenly recalled Chen Ji's indifferent and distant eyes, but quickly pulled himself back!

He knew that the Tiance Army armored soldiers were delaying time waiting for reinforcements, but there was nothing he could do!

No, he couldn't delay any longer.

He took a step forward, wanting to break through the formation by force, but as soon as he moved, the Tiance Army armored soldiers immediately thrust their long spears towards the refugees, startling him into having to defend!

From the darkness far away, another sounding arrow shot towards him, almost brushing past his scalp!

Some Tiance Army armored soldiers loudly mocked: "Indeed, a spoiled army, kind-hearted. A Xun Dao Realm official actually lets us few people surround and kill him for the sake of a few commoners who are like grass!"

These people grasped Li Xuan's weakness. As long as he made a move, they would immediately attack the refugees and entangle with him!

These people were extremely cautious and would absolutely not launch a strong attack before reinforcements arrived.

Li Xuan had a mind to abandon the refugees, but he turned back to see the tear-streaked refugees, and couldn't harden his heart!

Yet he heard one Tiance Army cavalryman sneer: "Since you have a Bodhisattva heart, why come to the battlefield? Remember to reincarnate as a rich man in your next life, and stop seeking death!"

Li Xuan shook the long sword in his hand, and the long sword emitted a booming sword sound: "If we cannot protect the commoners behind us, what do we cultivate for?"

The Tiance Army soldiers said shamefully: "Spoiled army young masters, you only know how to say these nice words, heh."

Before the words were finished, a handful of fresh blood suddenly splashed on Li Xuan's face!

Li Xuan suddenly looked up, only to see the Tiance Army armored soldier who had just spoken staring with wide eyes. An iron-tipped arrow had pierced through his mouth, and blood flowed down from his open mouth!

Everyone was surprised and turned their heads, looking towards the direction from which the iron-tipped arrow came.

"It's impossible for a god archer to miss!"

All the Tiance Army god archers had the ability to pierce a willow from a hundred paces. Even if an arrow were blown off course by the wind, it wouldn't be so off target as to hit their own comrade.

In the Tiance Army, a group of people roared angrily: "Dodge, the god archer's bow has been seized!"

With a bang, an iron-tipped arrow pierced through the chest and abdomen of this person. The momentum of this iron-tipped arrow was strong, actually surpassing that of a Tiance Army god archer.

Li Xuan was surprised and uncertain: "What exactly is happening? Who is extending a helping hand?"

He had no time to think more. Seeing the Tiance Army's flaw had appeared, he immediately swung his sword to break the formation!

He saw one Tiance Army armored soldier hanging sideways on his horse, using the warhorse to block the direction from which the iron-tipped arrow came. But Li Xuan's hand rose and his sword fell, the sword blade sticking to the gap between the helmet and shoulder armor, chopping off the opposite head.

For a time, Li Xuan and the archer hidden in the black night attacked from south and north!

Li Xuan's Vajra's angry eyes, flying up and down in the crowd, in just a few breaths, caused chaos in the Tiance Army's formation!

"Go, seek Hundred Commander Chang to come." One Tiance Army cavalryman hung sideways on his horse and fled, delusionally wanting to rendezvous with the coming reinforcements!

But an iron-tipped arrow shot from the night sky lightly struck the reins!

The reins broke, and the Tiance Army soldier lost his leverage, his upper body falling down uncontrollably!

The instant his head poked out from under the horse's belly, an iron-tipped arrow came in response, piercing his head!

The Tiance Army soldier's left foot hung in the stirrup, his body being dragged farther and farther by the warhorse. Li Xuan's pupils suddenly contracted!

He had fought against many Tiance Army god archers today, yet he had never seen such fierce arrow technique, making it impossible to guard against!

After Li Xuan chopped down the last Tiance Army soldier, he couldn't help but turn his head to look towards the place where the iron-tipped arrow came from, but there was only the black dark night, unable to see who was drawing the bowstring!

Is it a Ning Dynasty spy planted in the Jing Dynasty? Or a capable official among the border army?

Vaguely, Li Xuan saw a black shadow crossing over from the rooftop, getting closer and closer!

Li Xuan didn't know if it was friend or foe, so he could only block the refugees behind him, holding his sword and holding his breath, waiting!

The next moment he suddenly exclaimed: "Chen Ji."

Under the black night, on the rooftop, Chen Ji had changed into a set of Tiance Army god archer's black armor at some point. He wore a pheasant tail helmet, and one black pheasant tail was raised high, pointing to the crescent moon in the sky!

He saw Chen Ji holding a bow in one hand and setting an arrow with the other. Two arrow quivers were still hanging at his waist, indicating that he had silently killed two god archers.

"How could it be you?"

Li Xuan's heart was surprised. The shot that just pierced the running horse's reins, perhaps even a Tiance Army god archer might not necessarily be able to do it!

The key was, he never thought it would be Chen Ji who came to save him!

When they passed the alley entrance earlier, Chen Ji clearly warned him with his eyes, so why did he turn back now?

Li Xuan murmured: "You..."

Chen Ji's gaze slowly swept over Li Xuan and the refugees, and he calmly said: "Still not quickly going?"

Li Xuan hurried to re-hoist the little girl, turned his body, and ran towards the north!

But after running only a few steps, he heard the sound of horse hooves from the front, presumably the Tiance Army cavalry guided by the sounding arrow.

He turned back with the little girl again and ran towards the west. The sound of horse hooves also came from the west!

Li Xuan stood still and listened carefully, suddenly discovering that Tiance Army cavalry was galloping from all four sides and eight directions. There was fundamentally no way to escape!

He turned back bitterly to look at Chen Ji: "Sorry to drag you down. Why don't you escape by yourself? With your skill, they shouldn't be able to stop you! Can you at least take this little girl away? She's still so small..."

Chen Ji looked at him strangely, then reached out and pointed to the northwest direction: "Go from there, pass through a small alley, and then head north!"

Li Xuan shook his head: "People are coming from that side too, we can't escape! These Tiance Army soldiers are hard to deal with. If they stick to us, no one will survive!"

Chen Ji didn't answer. He casually took three sounding arrows from the arrow quiver, set them on the bowstring together, and shot them towards the east!

A mournful sharp whistle sound went far, rushing into the black night!

Li Xuan was startled. He heard the sound of iron hooves that were originally rushing towards them suddenly become chaotic, instantly changing direction towards the place where the sounding arrows went!

Sounding arrows were indeed the signal in this black night, guiding all the Tiance Army to kill.

Li Xuan's eyes widened, only now understanding Chen Ji's intention in assassinating the two god archers!

With sounding arrows in hand, even if he didn't deliberately avoid the Tiance Army, he could still make the Tiance Army give way to a path to life.

This boy's courage was too great to do such a risky act, yet it really was useful.

Li Xuan hurriedly said to the refugees: "Quick, follow me!"

He carried the little girl on his back and ran towards the small alley in the northwest. Before entering the small alley, he couldn't help but turn back to look, only to see that Chen Ji's figure was no longer on the rooftop!