Volume 1, Chapter 52: The Killing Trap Surfaces Again
As the setting sun sank below the horizon, its lingering rays dyed the clouds at the edge of the sky in a magnificent, bloody hue.
The massive grain-transport convoy finally reached the entrance of the "Sliver of Sky."
True to its name, this was a long, narrow pass wedged between two precipitous cliffs that looked as though they had been split apart by a giant's axe.
Looking up, the sky was squeezed into a thin, elongated blue line. The rock faces on either side were craggy and jagged, sparsely vegetated, and exuded an atmosphere of desolation and stern danger.
The pace of the procession slowed noticeably. The constricted passage forced the originally broad formation to stretch out like a gigantic serpent, winding its way down into the throat of this subterranean beast.
The air was thick with tension. The soldiers involuntarily tightened their grips on their weapons, their vigilant gazes sweeping across the towering cliffs on both sides.
Such terrain exerted immense psychological pressure upon them.
Li Xuan and Xiao Ningshuang rode side by side at the very front. Their expressions remained calm, but their acute senses had already been pushed to their absolute limits.
"It is a bit too quiet," Xiao Ningshuang said softly.
Her voice was very low, yet it carried clearly to Li Xuan's ears.
"Indeed. Quiet to the point that not a single bird can be heard," Li Xuan's gaze swept over an inconspicuous protrusion on the cliff face, the corners of his lips curling into an imperceptible, cold smile.
He had already sent Jing Yun and the vanguard unit ahead to scout, and the report had come back that everything was normal.
Yet Li Xuan knew well that genuine danger was often concealed beneath the facade of "everything is normal." Since the enemy dared to make their move here, they would never leave such obvious flaws exposed.
As the convoy reached the midpoint of the passage—the narrowest and most perilous section of the entire Sliver of Sky—sudden chaos erupted!
"Rumble—!"
A dull, thunder-like explosion echoed from the tops of the cliffs on both sides.
Immediately afterward, the earth began to vibrate violently. Countless fist-sized rocks rained down from the sky, battering the soldiers' armor with a dense, crackling barrage.
"An ambush! Hold your ground! Raise your shields!"
The commander of the Golden Guard roared at the top of his lungs.
Well-trained, the soldiers raised their shields without hesitation, forming a tortoise-shell-like defensive line that protected their heads.
However, this was only the beginning.
Accompanied by an even more violent roar, countless boulders and rolling logs—already positioned at the edges of the cliffs—were pried loose with levers, carrying the momentum of a falling mountain as they smashed fiercely down toward the convoy below!
The scene was akin to the shattering of the heavens and the splitting of the earth!
Instantly, battle cries and the neighing of panicked horses merged into utter chaos. The narrow terrain left the convoy with nowhere to dodge, forcing them to watch helplessly as death descended from above.
"Your Highness, watch out!"
Xiao Ningshuang's face turned pale, and reflexively, she moved to push Li Xuan out of harm's way.
Yet Li Xuan's reaction was even faster. With one arm, he scooped her slender waist, his foot stomped hard against the stirrup, and his entire body vaulted upward like a soaring roc, carrying her toward a comparatively gentler slope on the cliffside.
Almost the exact moment they left, a millstone-sized boulder crashed down with tremendous force, smashing the horse they had just been riding—along with the solid ground—into a terrifying, gaping pit!
"Protect His Highness! Protect the grain carts!"
Tieniu emitted a roar like a wild beast. Wielding his specially crafted heavy battle-axe, he cleaved a rolling log hurtling toward the grain carts cleanly in half.
The elite guards of the Crown Prince's Household Battalion sprang into immediate action, using their flesh and blood to forge a wall of steel that resolutely shielded the grain carts at the center.
Even so, the enemy's assault was far too fierce and covered too vast an area.
Soldiers were continuously crushed by falling boulders, collapsing with miserable screams as fresh blood instantly stained the earth beneath their feet.
Amidst the confusion, the "merchant caravan" that had trailed at the very rear finally revealed its ferocious fangs.
More than a dozen guards disguised as laborers suddenly drew fully-drawn heavy crossbows from their carriages, aiming not at the enemies on the cliffs, but directly at the Golden Guard soldiers whose formations were now in disarray!
At their vanguard stood none other than Zhou Ming, his face terribly disfigured and marred by hideous scars!
"Loose arrows! Kill them all! Avenge the Third Imperial Highness!" he shrieked frantically.
Caught entirely off guard, a massive swath of the Golden Guard in the rear collapsed instantly.
Caught between a hammer and an anvil!
This was actually a sequential trap! The falling rocks on the cliffs were meant to create chaos and break the formation, while the assassins hidden at the tail end were tasked with harvesting lives!
"The Third Imperial Highness?" Landing on a foothold along the cliffside and shielding Xiao Ningshuang behind him, Li Xuan caught Zhou Ming's roar, a flicker of comprehension crossing his eyes.
So it was Li毅, that sore loser.
"Stay here and do not move around," Li Xuan instructed Xiao Ningshuang.
Gazing at the horrific carnage below, Xiao Ningshuang felt her heart burn with anxiety, but she knew that rushing down now would only add to the chaos. She could only nod and say, "Be careful!"
Li Xuan took a deep breath, his eyes suddenly turning as sharp as an eagle's.
Instead of rushing down immediately, he locked his gaze onto the dark shadows atop the cliffs who were still frantically pushing boulders downward.
To capture the bandits, one must first capture their chieftain!
Taking a deep breath, the inner Qi he had cultivated began to circulate at high speed, and a peculiar vibration brewed deep within his throat.
"Roar—!"
A low, bizarre roar—scarcely sounding human—burst forth abruptly from Li Xuan's mouth!
The Thunderous Roar of the Tiger and Leopard!
This time, rather than using it to temper his own physique, he directed this sound wave infused with mental shock outward toward the top of the cliff!
The sound wave was invisible, yet it carried the impact of a tangible force.
Atop the cliff, those black-clad figures desperately shoving rolling stones felt a thunderous buzzing in their heads, as if they had been struck heavily by a sledgehammer. Dizziness and ringing ears overwhelmed them instantly; several who stood closest even bled from all seven orifices, tumbling off the cliffside with piercing screams.
Seizing this once-in-a-lifetime window, Li Xuan moved!
His figure flashed like a streak of black lightning, stepping against the sheer cliff face and ascending at an angle that defied the laws of physics!
The ambushers atop the cliff had their minds shattered by that single "Tiger and Leopard Thunderous Roar," failing entirely to notice that the god of death had arrived.
Li Xuan appeared behind them like a ghost. He used no weapons whatsoever—merely fists, palms, elbows, and knees.
Every single strike was concise and lethal.
Either a punch shattered a laryngeal bone, or a palm shattered a heart. Those well-trained assassins were as fragile as paper dolls before him.
In merely a dozen breaths of time, the ambushers on that side of the cliff had been thoroughly cleansed!
With the threat from above eliminated, the pressure below plummeted.
Jing Yun had already led the elite Crown Prince's guards in a counter-charge against the "merchant caravan" led by Zhou Ming.
Though Zhou Ming and his men were considered capable fighters, they were utterly defenseless against slaughtering machines like Jing Yun and his men. Before long, Zhou Ming was drop-kicked to the ground by Jing Yun and captured alive.
A heaven-shaking assassination plot was forcefully shattered by Li Xuan's near-supernatural personal martial prowess.
When Li Xuan descended gracefully from the cliff, the entire battlefield fell silent.
All surviving soldiers—whether from the Crown Prince's Household Battalion or the Golden Guard—gazed at him with awe, as if looking upon a deity.
The scene just moments ago had been simply too staggering: a single man with a single roar had suppressed the entire field; scaling sheer cliffs bare-handed as if walking on flat ground; slaughtering dozens of ambushers instantly with empty hands!
Was this... was this truly power a mortal could possess?!
Ignoring the gazes of the crowd, Li Xuan walked over to Zhou Ming, who lay bound like a dead dog upon the ground.
Zhou Ming raised his head, his hideous face filled with terror and disbelief: "You... exactly what are you, human or ghost?"
Li Xuan squatted down, patted his cheek, and smiled, "This Crown Prince is a ghost here to collect a debt on behalf of the Third Imperial Highness."
Standing up, his gaze swept across the littered battlefield and the wounded soldiers; the smile on his face gradually faded, replaced by a biting, frigid murderous intent.
He proclaimed in a ringing voice, "Tally the casualties and treat the wounded! Hang the corpses of all the enemies at the entrance of the Sliver of Sky for this Crown Prince!"
"Let the world know that this is the price of making an enemy of this Crown Prince!"
"As for you," he pointed at Zhou Ming, speaking coldly to Jing Yun, "dislocate his jaw and break his four limbs. I want him alive, to watch clearly as his master marches step by step toward utter destruction."
"Third Brother," Li Xuan raised his head to gaze in the direction of the capital, a cold flash in his eyes, "I accept this lavish gift you sent me."
"Next, it is this Crown Prince's turn... to return the favor."