Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 166: Thrill

The goal was to raid the enemy and clear out a path. Wuyi had planned this raid as a general would.

Chao used to say, "War is simpler than assassination. That's why men prefer it to real life more."

And his lesson for Wuyi, if he ever happened to be in a war: Never make a plan more complicated than your ability to communicate it.

Wuyi reviewed his plans one more time. "Let's go," he said.

They rode out of the fog at a canter. About half a li to the north, Meiying led the northern group out of the shower of arrows sent by the now fully alerted Talons, Swamplings, and the Duskreavers, who were gathering like clouds before a storm around her small force.

Wuyi led his men west into the setting sun, out of the fog, and right along the riverbank.

There was an unmanned barricade on the road, and he rode around it, up the bank above the road, and around the first bend, and there they were.

Boats.

Sixty boats, or more. Farmers' boats, dug-outs, canoes. Rafts of lashed branches. All pulled up out of the water.

Every archer following Wuyi threw a rug-wrapped parcel into a boat. Some got none—some got two—and he heard whistles, and some shrill calls to the north.

They were taking too long.

The archers down at the far end of the beach received some arrows and charged into the woods on their horses, scattering the enemy archers. Baijian set off in pursuit with half the Qi warriors, and Wuyi suddenly feared he'd been trapped after all. He was over-extended, and the size of the bank beneath the ancient trees dwarfed his paltry raid. And now half his men were getting too far—

More shouts behind him.

He turned to Jia. "Sound the recall," he said.

Jia's whistling wasn't his strongest suit. He was on his third try when the whistle rang out clearly, against the sound of screams and heavy crashes from the west of the bank. Wuyi sat on Haruki's back in a rage of indecision—desperate to get his men back, afraid to commit the rest to the group all the way down the bank. He had planned they would be fast and escape before the specter arrives.

Baijian emerged from the lowering trees, his sword raised. Wuyi began to breathe again.

More and more of the Qi warriors and archers emerged from beneath the trees, swords a ruddy dark in the failing light.

"Let's get out of here," Wuyi said. He wheeled Haruki just as two arrows hit the horse's Haruki was protected by Qi so they got knocked of the horse, and Wuyi reared and grunted and then enemy archers were around.

There were Talons at the edge of the trees, just to the north, their dirty gray coats shining in the last light of day. The polished heads of their war arrows covered with poisoned Qi seemed to flicker as they loosed.

Lei, one of the archers, took a shaft in the neck, right through his mask. He went down without a croak, and his horse, well-trained, kept formation.

Ni, the nearby Qi warrior to Lei, was off his horse in a flash, lifting the fallen archer onto his horse. He was struck twice—both blows at long range, falling on his Qi armor, and he didn't even stagger.

Wuyi pointed Haruki's head at the edge of the wood. If someone didn't stop the Talons from shooting, his group was going to be dead in heartbeats the poisoned Qi arrows was not something he could ignore. Unlike Wuyi's, the archers' light horses weren't even spirit beasts.

Haruki rose from a heavy canter to a flowing gallop, apparently unencumbered by attacks.

An arrow struck Wuyi's, and two more aimed at his head. Two dark hands appeared out of nowhere and cut the arrows before they even reached Wuyi; it was so fast that no one noticed, but it was costing him energy he did not like wasting it, but he had to.

Another heavy arrow came close and struck down, and another came close off his right knee, and then it was like riding through hail, and all the arrows kept being cut down; two fast black hands kept coming out from Wuyi's side and clearing the arrows as they arrived. Wuyi kept his head down and moved ahead.

His whole world was narrowed to what he could see from the two eye slits of his brotherhood mask that he was wearing.

Not much. Mostly, Haruki's neck.

Clang.

Clang-clang-clang-whang-ping.

All the arrows came flying.

Thwak-tick-tock-clang! They were being cut down continuously. Wuyi started wondering how many arrows these guys had?

He sat up on his horse. Got a hand on the sword and drew, and an arrow caught the blade; he sliced it easily.

He got his eyes up, and there they were.

Even as he watched, they broke and ran. There were only six of them—All those arrows came from six men? And they ran with practiced desperation in six different directions.

His sword took the nearest neatly.

Killing fleeing warriors was an essential part of warriors' training, taken for granted, like courage.

He let his arm fall, and the man died, and he did not have to do anything to guide Haruki; the moment the first man died, the horse knew who to chase. Another advantage of such a steed—unlike others, he did not have to give directions to his beast; they knew it by his thoughts. After the second man, the smallest of the group, one of his fellow warriors stopped, drew, and shot.

Cursed when his arrow passed harmlessly near Wuyi's, and without flinching, Wuyi killed him too.

Wuyi was enjoying the thrill; for some reason, he had been distant with killing for a while. He would not consider himself a psychopath because if he was one, then almost all the warriors in this world would be. But he would not consider himself not a psychopath either because who in their right mind would like the thrill of battle and killing anyone. Haruki was slowing, and Wuyi turned him.

They were going in too deep; it was the horse's way to alert him as Wuyi was getting lost in the excitement of the chase. This is the reason the beast was special; it had wisdom. He felt he and the horse had a great deal in common.

A healthy desire to live, for example.

The four surviving Talons didn't run much farther than they had to, as they heard the hooves pause.

Whang, came another arrow. Seeing Wuyi pause they wanted to get him while he was at distance.

Yun Ming came out of the woods to the archer's left, at a full gallop. He rode around the great bole of an ancient tree, and the ruddy-haired Talon lost his head in one swing of Yun Ming's sword.

The other three ran west, into a thicket.

"Thanks!" Wuyi called.

Yun Ming nodded.

Show off, Wuyi thought.

He gathered Haruki under him, turned his head, and started moving east.

The fields to the north of him seemed to ripple and flow—Swamplings running in their odd hunched posture, low to the ground, Duskreavers, their dark bodies like moving mud and stone.

But they were too late, and the handful of Swamplings who paused to loft arrows were ineffective.

At the edge of his effective casting range, Wuyi reined Haruki in and pulled a small patch of charred cloth from the palm.

He stepped into his sacred chamber.

"The Being is still outside waiting for you," the statue of harmony informed him.

"He doesn't know who I am or what I can do, yet, the entity is fishing," Wuyi said. He walked to the statue of Valor and spoke, "Agamus hoc." Then he went close to the edge of the chamber. The statue of Valor, which had been sitting quietly, got off its platform and stood behind Wuyi.

"He will notice," the statue of Harmony spoke again.

"Let him; we are prepared, aren't we?" Wuyi said confidently. He was well aware that his statues possessed extraordinary, unique qualities. Yet, he had often overlooked the significance of the sacred chamber itself. It was no ordinary room; this chamber that safeguarded his secrets was, indeed, extraordinarily special.

Furthermore, he realized that the chamber could serve multiple purposes, especially now, as the mysterious being lurked outside. This chamber not only housed his precious cheats but also protected his consciousness.

Through the insights provided by the Statue of Knowledge, Wuyi had come to understand that the being outside was not directly attacking the chamber; to this entity, it seemed the chamber didn't even exist. Instead, it was Wuyi's consciousness the being was attempting to infiltrate. Wuyi needed to explore further potential uses of the chamber in response to this threat.

He had to acknowledge the tenacity of the entity that was persistently attacking his consciousness, desperately trying to locate and understand him. His curiosity about this entity matched the entity's curiosity about him. Yet, Wuyi was not ready to confront this risk directly at this moment.

He did, however, intend to delve deeper into understanding who this entity was, why it had taken such a keen interest in him, and how it had been able to find and attempt to breach his consciousness.