Chapter 529: Attacking the Four Counties 2

The setting sun dips below the horizon.

Da Hei slides down from an old locust tree behind the tent, its massive body pressing over the grass and making a rustling sound.

The sound is heavy, not like a snake slithering, but more like someone dragging a thick, water-soaked cable through the forest.

It swims to Cheng Feng's side, its snake head slowly lifting; its golden pupils, like two floating lanterns in the mist, are a full eight feet off the ground.

Cheng Feng looks up at it and asks Wei Zhuang, "How wide is the road at the main gate of Shuanghe Town?"

"Wide enough for two ox carts to pass side by side," Wei Zhuang says. "But there are trenches dug on both sides, three tripwires in the middle, and archers on the stockade walls, occupying the high ground."

"Tripwires are for horses." Cheng Feng raises a hand to press against the side of Da Hei's neck, feeling the layers of tightly coiled muscle beneath the scales. "Two ox carts wide is enough for it to pass."

Wei Zhuang is stunned; he looks at Da Hei, then at Cheng Feng. "Are you saying you want Da Hei to charge first?"

"It will smash open the gate, and you will follow." Cheng Feng leans down to whisper a few words by Da Hei's head. Da Hei flicks its tongue, its golden pupils Shrink slightly, as if it has understood.

Cheng Feng straightens up and says to Wei Zhuang, "Arrows cannot hurt it, tripwires cannot trip it, and pits cannot bury it."

"Its only task is to rush in and find those wearing red robes and carrying Swords. Do not touch anyone who is not a warrior with abundant Qi and Blood."

Wei Zhuang grits his teeth, excitement appearing in his eyes. "Good! I will pass the order now, telling the brothers to follow behind Da Hei. It breaks the gate, we clear the people."

Cheng Feng nods. "We move at the Hour of the Rat tonight. Have Zhao Liyang take twenty men to circle to the flank and block anyone trying to climb the wall and run from the west."

"The east side is against the water, so don't worry about it; that is a patch of mudflats, and they won't be able to run fast."

Once the deployment is finished, the group disperses to prepare.

Cheng Feng remains where he is, takes a piece of dried meat wrapped in oilcloth from his bosom, and hands it to Da Hei's mouth.

Da Hei curls its tongue tip and swallows the whole piece. Its snake belly ripples slightly, and a faint sound of bones clicking together comes from within.

Cheng Feng watches its body, which is thicker than an adult's waist, by the moonlight, and remains silent for a long moment.

"Is the food too little? Can it even taste it??"

"You take the lead tonight," he says, his voice very low, as if instructing an old soldier who has fought by his side for years. "Don't be greedy for blood-food, and don't chase too far. Listen to my command after you smash the gate open."

Da Hei lowers its snake head, bumps it against Cheng Feng's shoulder, then raises it up and slowly slides into the depths of the night.

The black scales surge with a dark blue light under the moonlight, like a flowing iron curtain.

Hour of the Rat.

Outside Shuanghe Town, the night is like ink.

The Red Lotus Sect members on the stockade walls light a dozen torches; the firelight flickers in the night wind, making the dirt road in front of the gate appear in shifting light and shadow.

A few figures holding blades pace back and forth on the wall, shouting a few times toward the outside every now and then to bolster their courage.

The stockade gate is tightly shut, thick wood wrapped in iron, with three door bolts as thick as bowls barred across the back. The trench is thirty feet outside the gate, about five feet deep, with sharpened bamboo planted at the bottom.

Between the trench and the main road, three tripwires are strung, with copper bells tied to them.

When the night wind blows, the bells occasionally ring once, and the gate guards immediately poke their heads out to look.

Just past the Hour of the Rat, a very faint rustling sound comes from afar.

At first, the sound is like wind blowing through grass and leaves, but then it slowly draws near, turning into a continuous and heavy friction, as if the entire patch of grass is being parted and closed by something.

The sect members on the wall stop their pacing and look at each other.

"What's that noise?" someone asks, holding a torch high.

The firelight shines out, and they see a thick, heavy black shadow appearing in the middle of the official road thirty rods away,

standing a head taller than the bushes by the road.

The black shadow is still moving toward the stockade gate; its speed is not fast, but it carries an unstoppable sense of oppression, like a low mountain slowly shifting through the night.

"A snake... such a huge snake!" someone screams.

Da Hei slides to the first tripwire without stopping at all.

The thick hemp rope stretches to its limit, and the copper bells explode in a chorus, but they only make a few muffled, strange sounds under Da Hei's belly before "snap," they break.

The broken rope springs up, lashes against a tree branch by the road, and the remnant with the copper bells swings twice before falling to the ground.

The second and third tripwires meet the same fate, failing to delay it even for an instant.

The sect members on the wall begin to loose arrows. A dozen arrows whistle over—some bamboo, some with iron heads—and most of them have good aim.

But the arrowheads strike Da Hei's back, only scraping out a string of tiny sparks and making crisp "ding-ding-dang-dang" sounds before they all bounce off.

A few hit the side of the snake's body and slide off just the same, not even leaving a white mark.

Da Hei's scales shimmer with a ghostly blue iron color in the firelight; as the arrows shatter and fall, it is as if a swarm of moths has collided with a wall.

It has reached the edge of the trench.

The trench is five or six feet wide and about five feet deep.

Da Hei does not go around, nor does it retreat.

Its front half lifts slightly, then it lunges violently; the snake head crosses the trench like a battering ram and slams heavily onto the dirt road on the opposite bank.

A pit the size of a human head is punched into the soft mud,

and using this force, the latter half of its body swings through the air like a giant black wave, the entire snake leaping across.

When it lands, it crushes a patch of low shrubs beneath its belly, sending broken branches flying.

"Drop the rolling stones! Quickly, drop the rolling stones!" someone on the wall shrieks.

A stone the size of a human head crashes down; Da Hei's snake head tilts, and the stone hits its spine like raindrops on an iron pot, making a muffled thud before rolling to the ground.

More pieces of wood and pots of hot oil are poured down; the oil sizzles and steams on the scales, but Da Hei shows no reaction, its golden pupils merely Shrinking slightly as its snake head rises, heading straight for the stockade gate.

"It's going to ram the gate! Quickly, pull the people back from behind the gate!" Before a leader can finish his sentence, Da Hei has already violently charged forward.

The snake head slams into the stockade gate, emitting a muffled "boom," like a giant log striking a city wall.

The entire gate and its frame tremble violently, and the middle of the three door bolts behind it "crack!" splits open.

Several sect members on the wall lose their footing and fall off.

Da Hei's body then coils, pressing against the gate to deliver a follow-up strike.

This move utilized the strength of the waist and abdomen; the body, over two zhang long, was taut like a giant bow. When it sprang out again, the thick, iron-clad gate was smashed inward, and the door hinges snapped.

The third strike.

With a "Boom—", the entire gate collapsed inward, the bolt behind the door shattered into several pieces, and a massive cloud of dust billowed up.

Inside the gate, over a dozen sect members holding long spears were so terrified their faces turned pale; they pointed their spear tips toward the entrance, yet no one dared to thrust.

Da Hei ignored them. Its golden pupils swept across, its long tongue flicked out, and after pausing for only the briefest moment, it lunged toward a group of people on the left wearing red robes and carrying blades.

The snake body swept across the bluestone path like a bolt of black lightning; the spearmen instinctively dodged, some falling to the ground, scrambling to escape to either side.

Wang Hu followed closely behind with the elite of the Sword Hall.

He wore a green headscarf and held a long blade, the firelight illuminating his cold, hard face.

Da Hei had cleared a path over one zhang wide for him, and he did not stop his pace, leading his men straight into the town.

The brothers of the Henglian Hall followed up from behind, twenty men in a wedge formation, pressing the remaining spearmen at the entrance to both sides, opening up a clear space.

The town was in total chaos.

Once the Ordinary members of the Red Lotus Sect saw the giant black snake rolling in the firelight, they lost all fighting spirit and threw down their blades to flee.

Da Hei did not chase those who were empty-handed. It specifically sought out the martial artists wearing red robes and carrying blades or swords.

The snake head swept across like an iron whip; a minor leader who had swung his blade to strike was hit in the chest, sent flying horizontally, and slammed into the base of a wall, blood spraying uncontrollably.

As for another who tried to ambush from the side, Da Hei coiled its snake tail, entangling the man's legs, and then with a "Crack!",

the leg bones were completely shattered, and he was flung into mid-air while screaming, falling into Da Hei's bloody maw.

"Set fire! Set fire to lure that snake away!" an Elder in a yellow robe stood ten zhang away, pointing at the grass shed by the road and shouting.

Several subordinates, as if waking from a dream, desperately threw torches at the grass shed.

The fire flared up, but Da Hei did not budge; it had locked onto its target and headed straight for the yellow-robed Elder.

The Elder drew his blade, showing some ferocity; instead of retreating, he advanced, leaped onto a flatbed cart, used the momentum to jump up, and slashed at Da Hei's snake neck.

Where the blade landed, sparks flew in all directions, as if striking an anvil.

The Elder's web between thumb and forefinger split, and the blade flew from his hand. Da Hei turned its snake head and bit down on his right arm.

The Elder let out a miserable shriek, his left hand still trying to reach for the short blade at his waist, but Da Hei gave a violent shake, tearing his entire arm off, and slammed him onto the road surface, where he rolled a few times and could no longer crawl up.

Cheng Feng swept past from the side and finished him off with a blade strike.

"Blow the whistle!" Cheng Feng shouted.

A sharp whistle sounded in the town, three long and two short.

Hearing the whistle, Da Hei released the prey in its mouth, its high-raised snake head turned, and its golden pupils Shrink into lines in the firelight.

Blood was still dripping from the corners of its mouth, and its black scales were illuminated by the firelight to a crimson red, like a fierce god crawled out from hell.

"It's gone blood-crazy." Zhao Liu hurried over from the west, and seeing Da Hei in this state, he couldn't help but take half a step back.

"It's not crazy." Cheng Feng walked to the front of Da Hei and raised his hand to press it against its lower jaw, "It listens to me."

Da Hei was held by the lower jaw by Cheng Feng, its snake tongue still flicking in and out, carrying the fishy-sweet scent of Blood Qi.

But after a few breaths, it slowly lowered itself, its snake head drooping onto Cheng Feng's shoulder, like a piece of red-hot iron gradually cooling down.

The mopping up in the town was still ongoing. Wei Zhuang led the men of the Sword Hall and Henglian Hall to search and kill alley by alley, dragging the leaders of the Red Lotus Sect out one by one to be executed on the spot.

Most of the Ordinary members had thrown away their weapons and were kneeling by the roadside, trembling all over.

Those who had been scared out of their wits by Da Hei couldn't even speak clearly, only repeating vague titles like "Black Snake Great God" and "Black River Great King" in their mouths.

Zhao Liu walked to the gate, looked at the wooden gate collapsed by Da Hei, and smacked his lips: "This force is even more ruthless than a battering ram."

Cheng Feng patted Da Hei's side neck, letting it coil up to rest at the entrance of an empty courtyard by the road.

He stood in front of Da Hei, blocking half the firelight for it. Da Hei curled into a ball, its massive body piling into a black mound between the wall and the ground, only those golden pupils remaining half-open, like two lamps about to go out.

Half an hour later, Wei Zhuang came to report: forty-seven leaders of the Red Lotus Sect in the town, either killed or captured, none escaped;

over six hundred captives, all detained at the threshing ground in the east of the town. The seized grain, fodder, and weapons were piled like mountains.

"Taking this town so quickly is all thanks to Da Hei." Wei Zhuang could not hide his excitement,

"With that one charge, the courage of those people was completely scattered. Whatever trenches, tripwires, or bows and arrows, they were like paper in front of it."

Cheng Feng gave an "En", looking down at Da Hei. There was a patch of scales under Da Hei's belly slightly raised, caused by the cold Shrink after being scalded by hot oil, not injuring the tendons or bones.

He reached out and pressed them back for it, and the scales fit together as before.

"Those people wouldn't believe until they died that Qingxi County still hid such a thing." Zhao Liu sighed.

Cheng Feng did not speak. He squatted beside Da Hei, took a half-damp cloth from his bosom, and wiped the blood from the corner of its mouth.

Da Hei did not move, only resting its head on his knee, its throat emitting a very low hiss like distant muffled thunder.

The moonlight shone down from the end of the town where the smoke and dust had dissipated, falling on the person and the snake.

The person was covered in the scent of blood and fire, and the snake was coiled with a body full of charred black and silver-blue scale light.

In the distance, on the threshing ground of Shuanghe Town, six hundred captives knelt in the mud, silent.

Shuanghe Town, taken.