stonecrandall Chapter 1149 A Double Defeat!
Chapter 1149 A Double Defeat!
This time, Ran Min used all his strength.
The giant sword "Slaying the Barbarians" conjured nine sword shadows in the air, each one as solid as a tangible object, blocking all of Shangshan Hu's escape routes. This was Ran Min's self-created killing move, Nine Slaughter, derived from his feat of defeating nine barbarian armies in a single day.
Uesugi Tora gritted his teeth, knowing he was facing a life-or-death situation. He poured all his life's energy into the "Breaking Army" sword, causing the blade to glow with a bright crimson light, and a faint phantom of a fierce tiger appeared on its surface—this was his ultimate technique, the Tiger Soul Sword Intent.
"Roar--!"
The swords clashed again, but this time the sound was as muffled as thunder. The shockwave from the clash of their inner energy swept across an area of twenty feet, and more than thirty Northern Qi cavalrymen were killed instantly, their internal organs shattered, before they could even scream.
The smoke cleared.
Uesugi Tora knelt on one knee, his "Broken Army" sword broken into three pieces. A deep, bone-revealing sword wound stretched from his left shoulder to his right abdomen, blood gushing out. He looked up at Ran Min, who still stood upright, his eyes filled with resentment.
"General!" The lieutenant, his eyes bloodshot, led fifty cavalrymen in a desperate charge.
Ran Min didn't even look, and swept his sword horizontally with a backhand motion. The black sword energy spread out in a fan shape, and dozens of riders and horses fell, none of them surviving.
He walked up to Uesugi Tora, pressing his greatsword against the man's throat.
"You're a warrior who's fought on the battlefield; I'll give you a quick death," Ran Min said.
Uesugi Torata grinned, his mouth full of blood: "You... for whom do you serve?"
Ran Min didn't waste any words; a hint of disdain appeared in his eyes.
The sword flashed.
General Shang Shanhu of the Northern Qi Dynasty died.
While Ran Min and Uesugi Tora were fighting, another duel was also taking place.
Lu Bu charged forward on his Red Hare, his speed so great that he left a trail of afterimages behind him. Yan Xiaoyi was prepared; the instant Lu Bu moved, he had already drawn his bow and nocked an arrow, firing three armor-piercing arrows in a triangular formation, sealing off all of Lu Bu's escape routes.
As a ninth-rank master, Yan Xiaoyi's archery skills had reached a state of perfection. A hunter by trade, his hearing was so acute he could distinguish the breathing rhythm of a person a hundred paces away. These three arrows were not only fast, accurate, and deadly, but he also predicted the trajectory of Red Hare's charge.
However, he underestimated Lü Bu.
Facing the oncoming arrows, Lü Bu neither dodged nor evaded, his halberd drawing a perfect arc in the air. With three crisp clangs, three arrows powerful enough to pierce iron armor were precisely deflected by the halberd's blade, the sparks flying from the impact being particularly dazzling in the morning mist.
"Excellent archery skills." Lu Bu rarely praised him, and Red Hare's speed increased instead of decreasing. "Unfortunately, it's not fast enough."
Yan Xiaoyi's expression remained unchanged as he drew five arrows from his quiver with his right hand. This time, he did not fire them all at once, but instead his five fingers flew, firing five arrows in quick succession, each one faster than the last, aiming at Lü Bu's vital points, with each arrow chasing the previous one, creating a continuous rain of arrows.
This is his signature move, "Five Stars in a Row," which he once used to shoot and kill an eighth-rank general from Nanqing from three hundred paces away.
Lu Bu finally got serious. His halberd seemed to come alive in his hands, its blade transforming into a silver curtain of light. "Clang clang clang clang clang—" Five long, almost consecutive clangs rang out, and all five arrows were stopped.
At this point, the two were less than fifty paces apart.
Yan Xiaoyi discarded his bow and drew two short blades from his waist. Although he was famous for his archery skills, his close combat skills were equally impressive. With the two blades in hand, he moved like a ghost, dodging the charge of Red Hare, and getting close to Lü Bu's side, the tips of his blades stabbing straight at his ribs.
Lü Bu laughed loudly: "Well done!"
He didn't even defend; his halberd swept across the battlefield in a single blow, a desperate, life-or-death tactic. If Yan Xiaoyi didn't retract his attack, he might have managed to pierce Lü Bu, but he himself would surely have been cut in half at the waist.
In a flash, Yan Xiaoyi crossed his twin blades to parry. "Clang—" With the sound of metal clashing, he was sent flying by the immense force of the halberd, tumbling three times in the air before landing, his feet carving two deep furrows in the ground.
His tiger's mouth was torn open, and both arms went numb. Yan Xiaoyi was horrified—Lu Bu's strength was simply inhuman!
“Warm-up complete.” Lü Bu swung his halberd, and Red Hare slowly approached. “It’s time to get serious.”
He suddenly leaped from his horse, and in mid-air, his halberd transformed into a rain of countless shadows, pouring down like a torrential downpour. This was Lü Bu's self-created "Halberd Technique of Chaotic Times," inspired by the chaos of the world and the rise of numerous heroes. The moves were endlessly varied, each strike carrying the power to shatter mountains and split rocks.
Yan Xiaoyi gritted his teeth and met the attack head-on, his twin blades flashing like silver light. He moved with agility, weaving and dodging through the shadows of the halberds, occasionally counterattacking, his blade always finding the slightest opening in Lü Bu's moves. The two fought with lightning speed, the sounds of clashing weapons as dense as rain; spectators could only see two blurry figures and sparks flying everywhere.
In the blink of an eye, a hundred moves have passed.
Lu Bu suddenly changed his move, thrusting his halberd straight forward—simple yet incredibly fast. Yan Xiaoyi crossed his blades to parry, but felt a spiraling force from the halberd tip, which made his arms numb and his defenses wide open.
"break!"
The halberd blade plunged straight in. Yan Xiaoyi desperately tried to turn sideways, the halberd tip grazing his ribs and spraying blood. A sharp pain shot through him, and he used the momentum to leap backward, simultaneously reaching for his waist with his left hand—where three poisoned short arrows were hidden.
However, Lü Bu was faster.
Red Hare had somehow charged up behind Yan Xiaoyi. Lü Bu turned and swept his halberd horizontally. Yan Xiaoyi barely managed to parry with his twin blades, but was sent flying again. This time, he couldn't completely absorb the force and crashed heavily into a rock. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Archers, fire!" the lieutenant shouted the order.
The surviving hundred or so Nanqing cavalrymen simultaneously drew their bows, unleashing a rain of arrows upon Lü Bu. However, Lü Bu merely wielded his halberd, transforming it into a blur of silver light, deflecting all the arrows. Even more remarkably, during a lull in the parrying, he effortlessly retrieved his iron bow from behind his back with one hand, nocked an arrow, and drew the string—a movement of fluid grace.
"You too will catch one of those arrows."
The bow is full as a full moon, the arrow is like a shooting star.
The arrow wasn't aimed at Yan Xiaoyi, but rather shot into the sky. Just as the Northern Qi cavalry were wondering what was happening, the arrow suddenly split in mid-air—no, not split, but because it was moving too fast, one arrow became three, three became nine, and the nine arrows fell like flowers scattered by a celestial maiden!
The people of this world will never know that Lü Bu's archery skills were unparalleled in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. His feat of shooting the halberd at the gate was no joke. Lü Bu's lack of archery skills didn't mean they were bad; on the contrary, few in history could match them. The legendary archer Yang Youji of the Spring and Autumn Period had a maximum range of only about 180 meters, but Lü Bu's range exceeded 210 meters, and he could accurately hit targets as small as mosquitoes. His archery skills were unparalleled in the world.
Nine arrows fell, and nine Northern Qi cavalrymen fell to the ground, each arrow piercing their throats with pinpoint accuracy.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yan Xiaoyi finally took out a poisoned short arrow and threw it at Lü Bu with his last bit of strength. The three short arrows formed a triangular shape, sealing off all of Lü Bu's escape routes.
Lu Bu laughed.