Green Mountain

Chapter 532 394: Centurion

"Victory!"

The Five Mad Soldiers charged forth.

The white plum blossoms of Mei Valley hung like little copper bells on the trees, shaking loose as the Five Mad Soldiers charged through.

The magical fire in the sky, unyielding in its cohesion, split and flew into the bodies of the Executive Officers. To the rear of the Five Mad Soldiers, two headless officers slowly rose.

They accurately found their own heads, tucked them under their left armpits, and their eyes, gray and lifeless, stared intently at Chen Ji and the others, flames flickering within.

In the next moment, they reached into their chests with their right hands, broke off a rib, which grew into a white bone mask, and placed it over their gray faces beneath their arms.

They snapped another rib, which in their hands grew into a tall, curved fish bone, resembling a White Bone Banner.

The two raised the White Bone Banners and began charging.

Yangyang was filled with doubt: "What are those fish bones?"

Zhang Xia echoed the doubt: "Comet Tail Banner?"

Chen Ji glanced sideways: "What's a Comet Tail Banner?"

Zhang Xia shook his head, saying nothing.

But then the blade-binding bone-mending warrior shouted loudly, "Our Lord's banner has appeared in the mortal world, soldiers on the outside return swiftly!"

As his words fell, the remaining living Death Soldiers appeared bewitched, rushing toward the long spears of the Five Mad Soldiers, allowing themselves to be impaled!

The Five Mad Soldiers pulled out their spears and continued their charge, the eternal flame in the sky flew into the bodies of the freshly slain soldiers, their eyes suddenly lit with flames, as they donned white bone masks, wielding long bone spears to charge after the troops.

In an instant, all eighty-two Death Soldiers transformed into members of the Five Mad Soldiers!

At this point, the two stone urns on the ground shattered into hundreds of stone fragments, and the fire in the sky gradually dissipated, as if it had never existed!

Yangyang roared in anger: "Form the formation! Form the fish scale formation!"

The attendants of the Eastern Palace and men of the Five Armies Camp responded simultaneously, overlapping like fish scales behind Yangyang, their best tactic against a cavalry charge.

The Five Mad Soldiers drew nearer, Yangyang shouted loudly: "Release arrows!"

Arrows flew like locusts from the fish scale formation, yet the Five Mad Soldiers did not avoid them, allowing the feathered arrows to pierce through them.

An arrow punctured a Five Mad Soldier's throat.

An arrow punctured a Five Mad Soldier's abdomen.

An arrow punctured the horse beneath them.

Yet neither soldier nor horse was affected, their momentum only increasing.

Zhang Zheng muttered, "They won't die from this?"

With only thirty paces between them, Chen Ji suddenly pulled an arrow from the quiver of an Eastern Palace attendant beside him, shooting it directly at one of the Mountain Hunters of the Five Mad Soldiers. The arrow passed through a gap in the bone mask, hitting the flame in its eye.

The Five Mad Soldier finally fell from his horse, turning to ashes that blew away in the wind.

"Aim for the eyes! No, aim for the head! No wonder they put on the bone masks first!" Yangyang realized.

Chen Ji pulled another arrow, drew his bow and shot, but this time, a Mountain Hunter Five Mad Soldier simultaneously shot an arrow, intercepting Chen Ji's arrow mid-flight.

Chen Ji shot again, but this time the targeted Five Mad Soldier lifted a long spear before his eyes, deflecting the arrow.

Meanwhile, a man from the Five Armies Camp mimicked them, stringing a bow. The arrow shot straight at a Five Mad Soldier's face, but missed by a fraction, hitting the bone mask next to the eye, which was impervious, not even cracking.

A Mountain Hunter of the Five Mad Soldiers fired a bone arrow in return, fast and powerful, piercing through the eye socket of the Five Armies Camp soldier and continuing on to pin another comrade behind him to death.

Two Mountain Hunters of the Five Mad Soldiers fired arrows during the assault, piercing through the Five Armies Camp and Eastern Palace attendants, unstoppable.

Yangyang was visibly shaken.

If all the Five Mad Soldiers were this powerful, each would possess Innate Realm strength? No, that blade-binding bone-mending Five Mad Soldier, and those two headless ones were even stronger.

Yangyang took a deep breath, making a swift decision: "Axia, ride Zaozao and take Zhang Zheng to leave, I'll cover your retreat!"

This was the best scenario he could think of, yet Zhang Xia didn't respond.

Prince Fu, mounted on his horse, sneered at the Crown Prince, "Plotting with the tiger, yet unaware that no one values your life. Wanting to kill this prince, now you risk your own life here too."

The Crown Prince pursed his lips silently, Mr. Liao calmly said, "Prince Fu, you worry too much, if it was truly the Crown Prince's plan, how would he place himself in such peril?"

Prince Fu showed no fear of death, laughing heartily: "Who else could be so insidious besides him? He merely miscalculated! Hey, my dear brother, before you die, tell this prince, who exactly did you plot with, the Qi family? The Chen family? At least so this prince knows whom to settle scores with on the road to the underworld!"

As they spoke, a Hunting Five Mad Soldier fired a bone arrow, shooting straight into the military formation.

The bone arrow aimed for Chen Ji, but Chen Ji tilted his head slightly, allowing it to pass by, heading towards the Crown Prince behind him.

In a flash, Mr. Liao suddenly waved his robe sleeve, a red-faced fierce mask appeared, and he grabbed the Crown Prince's garment, turning into a black cloud, flying out of the formation.

The bone arrow hit nothing!

Prince Fu turned to look, seeing Mr. Liao carrying the Crown Prince over ten feet away, fleeing northward, abandoning everyone to escape!

"Mr. Liao, you hid well, so you are the last person the Treasure Monkey seeks," Prince Fu raised an eyebrow: "Crown Prince, if you were just an ordinary citizen, it would be fine, but our Ning Dynasty has never had an Emperor who shied from battle, nor a Crown Prince who disgraces his position. Today, you flee, and the throne will no longer be within your grasp!"

Zhou Kuang whispered from the side: "Your Highness, you should leave too. I can lead the Five Armies Camp to give you thirty minutes!"

"Leave?" Prince Fu said arrogantly, "I would rather die than surrender!"

He drew the sword from his waist: "We will fight to the death!"

At this moment, the Five Mad Soldiers had arrived at the front of the army formation, Yangyang shouted in a low voice: "Earth, Water, Fire, Wind!"

Suddenly, flames rose before him, like a giant python.

But when the Five Mad Soldiers approached him, they abruptly separated to both sides, leaving the flames to burn in vain. The Five Mad Soldiers divided into two groups to surround, leaning forward and thrusting bone spears at the soldiers of the Five Armies Camp and the Eastern Palace.

A soldier drew his sword to block, but the Five Mad Soldiers feigned a strike, the bone spear swiftly retracted a foot, then swiftly pierced again, stabbing through the soldier's heart.

The Five Mad Soldiers lifted him brutally, waving him like a banner in the air: "Victory!"

With just this brief exchange, more than ten soldiers died tragically on the spot. These Five Mad Soldiers were not only highly skilled but also extremely adept at the art of fighting, even the elite of the Five Armies Camp could not compete.

Zhou Kuang shouted in a low voice: "Yangyang, what are you waiting for?"

Yangyang was enraged: "Guardian!"

He bit open his finger, using two fingers as a sword, smeared the blood over the sword's blade. He then took out a Yellow Talisman from his bosom and strung it on the sword tip, stabbed it into the ground!

Just then, the Mountain Hunter Five Mad Soldiers noticed something unusual, and a bone arrow came flying towards Yangyang's back.

As the bone arrow was about to hit, Yang Fang blocked in front of it, allowing the bone arrow to pierce through his body. The force of the bone arrow was strong, yet it did not stop, but Yang Xian also leapt forward, finally catching the bone arrow with his chest.

The two slowly fell to the ground, peacefully closing their eyes.

In an instant, Yangyang's longsword pierced with the Yellow Talisman into the soil, causing flames to erupt from the earth like magma, swiftly slithering like a fire snake, surrounding them.

The three-meter-high flames blocked between them and the Five Mad Soldiers, and the headless bone soldier reined in his horse, slowly striding outside the wall of fire.

He wore a white bone mask and held a white bone saber, sneering coldly through the wall of fire: "Is this all the trick of Zhu Rong? Not right, far from it."

Yangyang panted and asked: "Who exactly are you?"

The headless bone soldier was slightly startled, as if he had heard an enormous joke: "Who am I? Haha! I am just a mere Centurion under the command of my lord's five armies!"

A soldier of the Five Mad Soldiers said coldly: "Let's see how long this fire can last."

Yangyang's heart tightened, he whispered: "Axia, Zhang Zheng, there's only one chance, trust me, I'll buy you thirty minutes. Someone must return to the Imperial Capital to inform the world about this!"

Chen Ji suddenly urged: "Do it!"

Yangyang wasted no more time, biting the tip of his tongue, spraying a mouthful of blood on the talisman and sword before him, suddenly becoming withered.

A fierce wind blew from the sky, rolling the fire snakes on the ground to attack the Five Mad Soldiers, forcing them to retreat repeatedly. Gradually, the flames opened a path around the group, the fire burning on both sides of the path, leading towards the North.

Yangyang shouted in a low voice: "Go!"

At the critical moment, Zhang Xia didn't leave, instinctively reaching out to grab Chen Ji's sleeve but grasping only air. Chen Ji took one last look at Zhang Xia, suddenly turning his horse towards the burning road of escape, before leaving, snatching an arrow quiver from a nearby attendant of the Eastern Palace.

Everyone was shocked, Qi Zhenzhuo looked puzzled.

Yangyang's expression changed, cursing: "You cowardly wretch, scared before battle!"

As Chen Ji rode past Prince Fu, Prince Fu looked at the side of his face coldly, yet he didn't glance sideways.

Zhou Kuang urged again by Prince Fu's side: "Your Highness, hurry to leave, this is the last chance!"

Seeing Prince Fu unmoved, he immediately told the followers beside him: "Pull His Highness away!"

However, Chen Ji looked back, nocked an arrow and shot, pinning it in front of Prince Fu's horse, startling the horse to retreat repeatedly: "No one is allowed to follow."

Zhou Kuang glared at Chen Ji: "How dare you?"

Without looking back, Chen Ji headed hurriedly towards the North, Yangyang watched his back and whispered: "So, the military achievements he claimed in Guyuan were false? Axia, you picked the wrong man!"

Zhou Kuang also sneered: "Previously in Li Shamao Alley, I thought he was a folk hero, Zhou misunderstood his character."

Zhang Xia said resolutely: "All of you, be quiet!"

Prince Fu said softly: "So, the ones the Death Soldiers wanted to kill were him, not me..."

In the next moment, everyone suddenly realized that when Chen Ji left the army formation, the Five Mad Soldiers outside the flames were no longer attacking them, but chased after Chen Ji.

Eighty-two cavalrymen from the Five Mad Soldiers galloped, the headless bone soldier led the charge, two headless officials of the Seeking Dao Realm brandished White Bone Banners, killing intent surging.

Yangyang's pupils shrank suddenly, recalling the question the Five Mad Soldiers had asked earlier "We know your wish, do you know the cost of calling us?"

It turned out the Death Soldiers' heartfelt wish before dying was to kill Chen Ji!

Yangyang turned to Zhang Xia: "He knew he was the target, so he alone led these ghostly things away?"

Zhang Xia coldly said: "Otherwise? Put out the fire!"

Yangyang pulled the longsword from the ground, and the flames extinguished.

Zhang Xia mounted his horse and departed: "I will go to Yushan to seek reinforcements, you must return to the Imperial Capital immediately and inform the Ritual Supervision, let them send the Twelve Signs!"

Zhang Xia sped east, leaning down to say to Zaozao: "Faster, Zaozao, even faster!"