Chapter 1364: [Three Consecutive Slashes] (Part 2)

Hu Xiaotian suddenly burst out with an angry shout, again mobilizing inner strength from his Dantian Qi Sea, completing an astonishing three consecutive slashes in a short time. The same motion, same direction, yet the chopping power grew stronger each time. Overbearing blade qi fell upon the twisted light shield; the light shield could no longer dispel Hu Xiaotian's mighty three consecutive slashes. The linked light shield showed a gap, followed by a miserable cry as the invisible blade qi tore the shield, directly striking one swordsman's shoulder, cleaving his body diagonally in two. From the ruptured cavity sprayed a cluster of scarlet blood mist, the heavy stench of blood instantly spreading through the night.

The twelve swordsmen almost simultaneously reacted, intending to fill the gap in the shortest time, but it was already too late.

Huo Shengnan would not miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; with two swooshing arrows, the feathered arrows actually traced two lovely arcs in the air, crossing and transforming, accurately piercing through the gap torn by Hu Xiaotian and respectively striking the throats of two swordsmen.

With three members lost, the Heavenly Net Sword Formation collapsed in an instant; Hu Xiaotian raised his saber like a tiger leaving its gate, lunging at the enemy camp—no need to release blade qi, close combat sufficed to rout the foe.

Seeing the situation turn bad, the swordsmen fled one by one, but while fleeing another was cut down by Hu Xiaotian. Compared to that, Huo Shengnan's long-range killing power was greater; in this moment she shot dead two more. Of the thirteen swordsmen, six died on the spot—both sides could be said to have won a complete victory, yet Hu Xiaotian regretted that Feng Xianlin actually escaped.

However, Hu Xiaotian had no thought of continuing the pursuit; that sword formation had also frightened him into a cold sweat—if not for the three consecutive slashes he grasped at the critical moment, he might truly have been trapped by them. Now Hu Xiaotian's main concern is returning to camp; his coming to Black Sand City seems no secret, since Feng Xianlin could know. Perhaps other enemies could also know; don't look at his young age, but he has made many foes—if this gang of enemies swarmed up to take revenge, he'd likely be overwhelmed.

Hu Xiaotian and Huo Shengnan returned to their own camp; Chang Fanqi led over a hundred warriors scouting outside the camp. Anxiously awaiting their return, seeing them come back safely, Chang Fanqi finally relaxed and told Hu Xiaotian that Zhuge Guanqi had been waiting in the tent, saying there was an urgent matter to report.

Hu Xiaotian let Huo Shengnan go rest first, then he and Chang Fanqi went together to Zhuge Guanqi's tent.

Zhuge Guanqi was sitting under the lamp staring at the map when he saw Hu Xiaotian enter. Wanting to rise to greet him, Hu Xiaotian laughed, "Brother Guanqi, just stay seated." He and Chang Fanqi also came to sit beside Zhuge Guanqi, who said, "My lord, please look at this map."

Hu Xiaotian leaned over to look; this was a map of the local area. He saw nothing special about it.

Zhuge Guanqi said, "Black Sand City lies low; fifteen li north of the city is the Xuan Yong River, a tributary of the Yong River."

Hu Xiaotian looked ahead, yet saw the Xuan Yong River north of Black Sand City bulging upward in an L‑shaped bend, nearly encircling the city, though the distance was still far—even the nearest point was fifteen li away. He felt somewhat puzzled, not knowing how what Zhuge Guanqi said related to the impending negotiations.

Zhuge Guanqi said, "The riverbed of the Xuan Yong River is higher than Black Sand City; the rainfall these two days has already caused the river's water level to surge."

Chang Fanqi asked, "Sir, are you worried the Xuan Yong River might burst its banks? The rain has stopped; tonight is clear. Tomorrow is the day of the four-party talks; after the talks we'll leave immediately, so there shouldn't be any danger, right?"

Zhuge Guanqi said, "If it were merely due to weather, there would probably be no trouble, but if someone were to exploit this to cause sabotage, it would become problematic. Judging from the elevation difference between the Xuan Yong River and Black Sand City, once the river bursts its banks, within an hour the flood will inevitably inundate Black Sand City, at which point likely no one inside the city could escape."

Hu Xiaotian nodded; what Zhuge Guanqi said was precisely the potential danger lurking nearby. After a moment's thought he said, "Brother Chang, divert two hundred men to patrol near the Xuan Yong River."

Chang Fanqi replied, "The Xuan Yong River is very long; two hundred men might not be enough." In fact, to patrol the whole river, even if they moved all one thousand of their troops here, it still wouldn't suffice.

Hu Xiaotian said, "With Xia Zhangming keeping watch from the sky, two hundred men should be sufficient."

Chang Fanqi said, "Or I, as the subordinate commander, will personally lead them there; if something really happens, it's good to have backup."

Before Hu Xiaotian could decide, Zhuge Guanqi already said, "All right, if General Chang personally goes, that would be best; lead the two hundred men there, station them in two places—part on Ox Head Mountain, part on Level Gold Hill. These two spots are also the highest points on the south bank of the Xuan Yong River; from there you can conveniently observe and promptly detect any abnormality in the river."

Chang Fanqi said, "Sir, rest assured; I will risk my life to guarantee the Xuan Yong River dam."

Zhuge Guanqi shook his head, saying, "The most important thing is to preserve the brothers' lives; if all is peaceful, that's best, but if things get out of control, you must remember to lead the brothers to gather on high ground to avoid a catastrophic disaster." He had a premonition that if anything went wrong, the problem would necessarily lie in the Xuan Yong River. Xia Zhangming had already patrolled the area within a hundred li around Black Sand City and found no signs of large troop movements, yet Zhuge Guanqi could not set his mind at ease; after thinking it over, he believed the greatest danger to the surroundings of Black Sand City still lay in the Xuan Yong River.

Chang Fanqi nodded.

Zhuge Guanqi added, "My lord, it would be best to send someone to inform Su Yuchi's side of this matter, since it's on his territory; our troop movements might arouse his suspicion. If Su Yuchi agrees to detach some troops to go defend the Xuan Yong River dam, that would be ideal; if he pays no heed, we will have done our utmost."

Hu Xiaotian said to Chang Fanqi, "Brother Chang, this task will be hard on you."

Chang Fanqi clasped his fist in salute, received the order, and departed.

Although Hu Xiaotian knew Zhuge Guanqi was exceptionally wise, he did not think the Xuan Yong River would suffer a major incident; he smiled, "Actually, even if something happened, Xia Zhangming could detect it immediately; flying from the Xuan Yong River here would not take long, so we would still have time to escape."

Zhuge Guanqi said, "The chance of a breach is minuscule, yet we must make thorough preparations, for we are on someone else's turf, and this time neither the Xichuan nor the Xingzhou side has sent any important figures; we cannot rule out someone sabotaging from behind."

Hu Xiaotian expressed agreement: "Preparing for rain before it falls is always good."

Zhuge Guanqi said, "If something truly occurs, we must retreat south; twenty li south lies Tuolong Mountain—though not high, it should allow us to escape the flood. According to my calculation, from the moment the Xuan Yong River breaches until the flood reaches Tuolong Mountain, we would have about half an hour."

Hu Xiaotian said, "Half an hour is plenty to reach Tuolong Mountain." The thousand men accompanying him this time were all cavalry; at their marching speed, covering twenty li in half an hour poses no problem whatsoever. Moreover, the so-called river breach exists only in hypothesis; perhaps none of this will actually happen.

Hu Xiaotian's reminder failed to draw Su Yuchi's attention; each side brought a thousand soldiers, and Su Yuchi was unwilling to detach any part, thinking Hu Xiaotian was obviously overanxious, making a fuss over nothing. Since Hu Xiaotian's side was so tense, let them bustle about; Su Yuchi, anyway, couldn't be bothered to join this boring commotion.

Next morning, Hu Xiaotian woke, left his tent, looked up at the sky, saw the weather was fine, and immediately relaxed. Zhuge Guanqi also emerged from his tent, looked up at the sky, and his expression was not at ease.

Hu Xiaotian pointed to the eastern sunrise and said, "Today it looks like it won't rain."

Zhuge Guanqi slowly shook his head and said, "There will be a heavy rain at noon."

Hu Xiaotian knew he was skilled at observing celestial phenomena; he looked up again, the sky was deep blue and clear, not a wisp of cloud visible—how could such weather bring rain? Yet summer weather changes in an instant; perhaps it will shift later, which cannot be known for sure.

Huo Shengnan walked over from afar, laughing, "In another hour we'll head to Black Sand City for the talks; we had better hurry and eat."

Hu Xiaotian said, "May everything go smoothly!" He mounted his horse, Huo Shengnan and Zhuge Guanqi taking positions to his left and right, leading eight hundred soldiers toward the open ground north of Black Sand City.

As Hu Xiaotian's contingent set off, he saw the forces of Xichuan, numbering over a thousand, also begin moving slowly toward the designated point; the blazing sun hung high, the temperature rose considerably in a short time, the sky had not a trace of cloud nor a breath of wind—it was swelteringly hot.

Hu Xiaotian shaded his eyes with his hand and looked at the sky, then turned to Zhuge Guanqi and smiled; Zhuge Guanqi knew why he laughed—Hu Xiaotian was clearly saying such weather made rain impossible.

Huo Shengnan said, "Looks like it won't rain."

Zhuge Guanqi laughed, "I also hope my judgment is wrong; no rain would be best."

The vanguard of Xichuan's forces suddenly halted; in fact they had split into two parts—the front five hundred continued advancing, while the remaining five hundred deliberately formed a line to block Hu Xiaotian's side's road. Soon a soldier reported this to Hu Xiaotian, who smirked contemptuously and said, "Yang Daoyuan is doing this on purpose to disgust me."

Huo Shengnan looked ahead and saw the five hundred Xichuan soldiers blocking their path forward, deliberately stopping and starting to slow their pace; if this continued, their marching progress would be greatly hindered, possibly delaying their arrival at the negotiation site.

Hu Xiaotian pointed to the Li-character banner fluttering in the enemy camp and said to Huo Shengnan, "Huo Shengnan, is their marching speed being controlled by the flag bearer?" (To be continued~^~)