r18novel Page 26
Page 26
While Liu Hong used his flying ability to destroy the sails, Zhu Gui was not idle either. He sent this 15-meter-long giant crocodile to the side of the giant ship and bit the lowered oar!
The massive oars, each as thick as a bowl, burst open like cracking biscuits, their wood fibers snapping with a sharp crack. Amidst the flying splinters, the crocodile's head, covered in tumor-like protrusions, swung violently from side to side. The entire row of oar frames was uprooted by the ferocious crocodile with a creaking sound as the metal twisted. The broken ends of the oar handles were still stuck between the crocodile's teeth, and blood-stained water filled the Zhang River.
Liu Hong discarded the sails, and Zhu Gui discarded the oars. The large ship, having lost both of its engines, could only drift with the current, its speed slowing down visibly, like a giant beast with a broken leg, stopped among a pack of bloodthirsty wolves.
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Author's Note: Bonus chapter for 1100 monthly votes! More bonus chapters will be added when it reaches 1200!
Chapter 51: A Chaotic Dance of Demons, Each Displaying Their Unique Abilities
"Brothers and sisters, well done! Kids, go!!!"
Seeing Liu Hong and Zhu Gui fighting so spectacularly that they paralyzed the boat, Du Qian and Song Wan's eyes lit up and they cheered!
In an instant, eight ships to the left and eight ships to the right, a total of sixteen ships, crashed heavily into the two sides of the Thousand Stone King's large ship. A large number of pale-skinned ratmen turned into rats and used their sharp claws to grip the ship's side, climbing up nimbly and quickly, squeezing into the cabin whenever they could find a gap!
More bandits swarmed forward, unleashing a barrage of grappling hooks that gripped the ship's sides. They bit into sharp blades, tightened their grip on ropes, and used the walls for leverage. In the blink of an eye, the ship was covered with wriggling black shadows, like a swarm of ants climbing the walls, unstoppable.
Meanwhile, the pirates on the ship used a large number of arrows, stones, throwing knives, and javelins as long-range firepower to cover their teammates in the front line as they boarded the ship!
"They're just a bunch of bandits, nothing but chickens and dogs! Front-line soldiers, form a shield wall! Back-line soldiers, cut off the grappling hooks! Don't let them land!"
The head constable escorting the birthday gifts had a completely different mindset from the soldiers, who were unwilling to aid and abet evil. His mind was consumed with thoughts of completing this mission for promotion and a raise; failure meant the end of his life! Offending Liang Zhongshu and Grand Tutor Cai—did he still expect to rise in rank?
He drew his bow and arrow, and with each shot he hit his mark, he killed the three bandits on the ship with three arrows, drawing cheers from the crowd!
With nowhere to retreat and under the supervision of their leader, the Song soldiers on the ship could not simply jump into the water and escape. They could only fight passively under his orders, shields blocking the incoming arrows and steel knives cutting the grappling hooks and ropes, causing the bandits on the ropes to scream and fall into the Zhang River, splashing water everywhere, unable to get onto the deck.
A sudden rain of arrows erupted, the whirlwind woven by twenty divine bows forcing Li Cunxiao to flap his wings and spin rapidly. Liu Hong swiftly ascended into the air; their scales, being at the fledgling dragon level, were not particularly sturdy. Seeing the cone-shaped armor-piercing arrows tearing through the clouds, they ultimately dared not face the Song army's arrow formation head-on, raising their altitude to temporarily avoid the onslaught.
The aerial arrow barrage paused briefly, then the sound of bows being drawn suddenly erupted from both sides! In an instant, arrows from both sides of the ship swarmed like locusts, darkening the sun, and attacked the bandits on both sides. Before those ants clinging to the ship could even cry out, they were pierced through the skull and abdomen. In an instant, blood mist splattered, like a dark swarm of ants being doused with a basin of hot water. Countless hedgehogs hit by arrows fell into the river, staining the surface red.
Seeing that a direct assault was futile, Song Wan grew anxious. The slender and graceful rat girl transformed once again into a mouse the size of a kitten, scrambling onto the ship like lightning. She nimbly leaped left and right, dodging arrows, and within a few breaths, she had climbed onto the deck.
The next second, she reverted to her original form amidst the dense forest of Song soldiers' legs, transforming from a giant rat into a normal human shape, disrupting the Song army's ranks.
Several Song soldiers drew their swords and slashed, but a cloud of blood mist shot up from the woman's body! It instantly engulfed the five Song soldiers around her, the blood mist so dark that no one could see their own hand in front of their face.
Before anyone else could understand what was happening, five Song soldiers were thrown and kicked around like footballs, leaving a trail of blood! A four-meter-tall, red-haired gorilla covered in bronze armor roared as it charged out and wreaked havoc among the Song soldiers!
But she was immediately wounded in both arms by a rain of seven or eight arrows and pierced through the hind legs by two spears. In her severe injuries, she captured two river guards from Daming Prefecture and crushed them.
She was the Gor Beast under the command of the God of War Chi You, and people could only recognize her by her black jade rat tail.
Cloud-Piercing Vajra – Song Wan.
Seeing that Song Wan was at a disadvantage against thirty or so elite Song soldiers, Wu Song tensed his muscles and suddenly exerted force with his feet. With a "crack," the small boat was forced to lift its bow, and the icy river water "whooshed" into half of the cabin.
Her tall and beautiful body shot into the sky like a cannonball, leaping directly to the side of the five-meter-high warship! She swung two steel swords in a wide arc, instantly slicing off the heads of two Song soldiers and saving Song Wan from being surrounded and beaten.
"Get out of Grandpa's way, all of you!"
Wu Song roared louder than thunder, slashing left and right with her steel sword. Spears were chopped off, shields were smashed to pieces, and soldiers in leather armor were hacked to pieces. An archer who tried to shoot a stray arrow was cleaved in two by her backhand sword, bow and all.
In the blink of an eye, he carved a bloody path through the densely packed Song army, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, or a ghost descending to earth!
Under the cover of Wu Song and Song Wan, a gap was finally torn in the Song army's formation, and the bandits on the starboard side of the ship breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to climb onto the deck without hindrance.
On the other side of the ship, Wang Lun and Du Qian, facing such an unfavorable situation, also took action themselves.
Wang Lun's white robes fluttered without wind as he recited Confucian classics. His left hand, wielding azure energy, flowed like a rainbow, creating ink-wash patterns on the fan with each wave of his sleeve.
As the final stroke of her silver brush came to a close, a majestic eagle painted in ink appeared on her folding fan. Ripples suddenly spread across the void, and the sound of tearing silk pierced the sky. The eagle on the fan spread its wings and broke through the air, its feathers exuding a majestic aura that rained down like stars, rushing straight towards the ship!
Two Song soldiers raised their shields high to defend against the flying eagle. But the next second, a roar came from the right side of Du Qian's head, as he used a sorcerer's magic technique, "Castration."
Accompanied by a faint blue arcane light, the two-headed ogre, more than four meters tall, below the ship instantly switched places with the giant ink-wash eagle, more than three meters wide, on the ship. Touching the sky, it immediately stood out like a crane among chickens, blocking the way in front of the Song army!
"Roar!!!"
With a bloodthirsty roar, the two-headed ogre's massive arm stirred up the wind and rain of the Zhang River. A four-meter-tall birch tree swung through the air, unleashing a full-moon arc of light. Its gnarled shaft shattered the early summer heat, creating three explosions!
Five or six bodies were sent flying like kites with broken strings by Du Qian's stick! They crashed into the river with a splash, creating towering waves.
"Smash them to death!"
No, burn them!
Du Qian's two heads roared bloodthirstyly in unison. The left head controlled the four-meter-tall giant body, leaving cracks in the deck with its footsteps. It swung its giant club left and right, smashing the ship and sending wood chips flying. Even when five Song soldiers raised their shields and formed a shield wall, the tree trunk smashed their shields and sent them flying! Its terrifying strength was unmatched.
However, the Song army's long-range firepower should not be underestimated. Under the cover of the shield wall of the river guards in front, the river guards in the rear fired a volley of sharp arrows, which sprayed out plumes of terrifying blood mist on the four-meter giant. His chest and head were immediately hit by more than ten arrows.
But it didn't matter. After being hit by an arrow on the right side of his head, he angrily began to play with the sorcerer's secret magic, spewing out a beam of scorching orange flames from his throat. While breaking through the rain of arrows, he burned two or three river guards from the daimyo prefecture alive, turning them into human torches. They screamed and danced wildly in the raging flames!
And the eagle took flight a second time, flapping its wings and swooping onto the ship!
Black wings spread, and countless bird feathers obscured the view. A gale howled, and the terrifying body swooped down rapidly. With a single swoop, the ink-black eagle gouged out the eyes of two Song soldiers, causing four streams of blood to burst from their dark, empty eye sockets.
Under the cover of Du Qian and Wang Lun, the bandits on the port side of the ship also rushed to board the enemy ship, drew the sharp blades they had in their mouths, and engaged in a fierce battle with the river guards of Daming Prefecture!
Chapter 52: The Great Sage of Chaos Takes the Head from a Hundred Armies
"Hold the line! Hold the line!"
The captain escorting the birthday tribute was truly tenacious, still resisting even in this situation! The remaining eighty or so Song soldiers retreated to the center of the deck, the front row of large shields stretching into a wooden city wall, the long spears intertwining into a forest of steel, and the archers in the rear row firing a rain of sharp arrows.
A large number of ratmen charged forward, only to be riddled with arrows and then impaled by spears. Even ogres over three meters tall, as they charged forward, were first wounded by the arrows, then crashed into the spear wall, their heads bleeding profusely, unable to break through in a short time.
Du Qian, whose height and appearance were too outstanding, originally wanted to rely on his physical advantage to wield his giant club to break through the formation, but the head constable saw him at a glance and shot two arrows at the same time, hitting his two heads. His huge body fell to his knees in a pool of blood and was helped off the battlefield by two ogres.
Wu Song tried to break the formation, but found it extremely difficult. If the hundred Song soldiers hadn't formed a battle formation and had instead fought amongst themselves in the streets, he could have easily wiped them out sooner or later, even if he wasted some time.
However, once they form a battle formation, the weaknesses of each individual will be compensated by their companions, forming an unbreakable whole! With each charge, Wu Song not only had to dodge the rain of arrows falling from the sky, but also had to be stabbed by more than a dozen spears that were more than three meters long. His attacks would also be blocked by shields from every angle.
That constable was also a master; his arrows were both accurate and deadly, and he had been forced to retreat by this guy several times.
Facing a battle formation for the first time, Wu Song was also thinking about how to break through the formation with his own abilities.
At this moment, Lü Fang and Guo Sheng, along with thirty caravan guards armed with broadswords, boarded the ship.
Looking at Lü Fang, Guo Sheng awkwardly used the move "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" to launch a charge. Thirty guards lined up in two rows, like the wings of the two women, a flock of phoenixes, and charged together with the two women! Thirty-two cold lights appeared like phoenixes spreading their wings, and sixty-four footsteps sounded like war drums. The two groups of people actually charged out with the terrifying momentum of thousands of troops!
This is precisely the terrifying aspect of the Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Spear Technique; it not only amplifies the combat power of an individual, but also amplifies the power of all nearby subordinates! It enhances the charging power of everyone!
"clang!!!"
The first row of broadswords fell down, and the iron-wood shields on both sides were shattered into countless wooden spikes by Lü Fang and Guo Sheng's halberds amidst a tooth-grinding sound of tearing silk. The fingers of the shield-bearers were split in two. Although the remaining broadswords could not cut the shields in two, they could still severely damage the Song army's shield wall, causing the cracked shields to fall to the side, revealing the Song soldiers behind them.
"clang!!!"
Seeing the shield wall breached, the second row of broadswords immediately launched an attack! Amidst the cracking sound of blades scraping against flesh and bone, heads wearing Fanyang hats flew into the air with severed tracheas, and bodies clad in leather armor fell with shattered chest cavities, their severed arteries spraying blood into towering waves!
Lu Fang and Guo Sheng's broadsword squad charged forward, creating a gap in the Song army's ranks. This forced the commander to deploy all his reserves to fill the gap, allowing them to regain their footing.
Once the "Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix" charge bonus disappeared, these caravan members wielding broadswords could only fight the Damingfu River Guards, who were armed with long spears and shields, to a standstill, and it was difficult for them to break through for the time being.
"Brother Liu Hong! Kill that constable first!!!"
After another failed charge, Song Wan pulled out a spear that had pierced his left arm and roared at the sky—these Song soldiers are all elites, and they have formed a battle formation on the deck. We simply cannot break through or destroy them in a short time.
But it doesn't matter, don't we have two people who can fly?
The constable also remembered that two people were flying above his head. He gave an order and dispatched ten elite archers to keep a close watch on the sky to guard against Liu Hong and Li Cunxiao. He himself would also look up at the sky from time to time.
Liu Hong observed the situation from the air. He frowned and came up with a plan. He retracted his golden roc wings and, like a molten gold meteor, swooped down with a sharp cry!
This action naturally did not escape the notice of the Song army. The captain, along with ten personal guards, immediately took out armor-piercing arrows, looked up and aimed. As long as Liu Hong dared to dive within eighty meters, they would shoot him dead with a hail of arrows!
Two hundred meters, one hundred and fifty meters, one hundred meters!
However, as Liu Hong swooped down, he suddenly unleashed a pair of gilded wings, with thousands of gilded feathers vibrating rapidly in the air currents. The buzzing sound of each blade cutting through the air was like a thousand thunderclaps!
His actions were like someone jumping out of a plane and falling naturally, who suddenly opened his parachute, and with the help of the updraft, instead of continuing to dive, he soared into the high sky.
At the same time, Li Cunxiao took a deep breath, made slight adjustments, and changed the scale and power of the dragon breath, spewing out a dazzling and scorching thunderous dragon breath towards the sky!
Before the captain, who was looking up at the sky, could react, a beam of incandescent lightning descended from the sky. It was not very powerful, but its brightness was extremely high!
Before he could close his eyes to dodge or raise his hand to shield his eyes, his retina was branded with an indelible thunder totem by the bright lightning, and his vision instantly turned pale: his retina was vaporized by the lightning that was so close at hand in a fraction of a second, and the remaining cone cells also imprinted this supernova-like light pollution on his optic nerve.
The other ten Song soldiers were the same; they were all intently watching the sky, waiting for Liu Hong to land his arrow. Who would have thought that this little dragon would pull such a stunt! A bright flash of lightning instantly blinded everyone!
"not good!"
The constable felt a chill run down his spine. Before his eyes could recover from the lightning, he heard an extremely shrill and terrifying whistling sound—the terrifying screeching of large birds swooping down to hunt, their feathers scraping against the air! Liu Hong had launched another dive!
But this time, his eyes were blinded by lightning, and he couldn't shoot arrows for a while. He could only rely on his intuition and instinct to defend against Liu Hong's diving attack!
At this moment, Liu Hong also unleashed all his skills, firing a [Chaos Tentacle] at the captain. Blasphemous flesh tendrils suddenly grew from the deck, tightly binding the captain who had been blinded by the light, turning him into a stationary target.
Then, Liu Hong used Yue Fei's Golden-Winged Roc's swooping charge, combined with the Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix spear technique taught by Zhou Tong, and integrated the highest level of the Heavenly Gang Slash, the Fivefold Star River, so that the thirty-pound iron rod, wrapped with five brilliant and beautiful star rivers, slammed hard onto the neck of the constable!
In an instant, skin and tendons tore open, flesh and blood rotted, and the neck bone shattered spirally under the weight of the giant club. The Adam's apple cartilage transformed into countless bloody projectiles, splattering in all directions. The head, now without support, did not fly straight into the sky, but rolled more than ten feet along the deck. The jawbone loosened during the roll and finally got stuck in the knot of the cable, maintaining its roaring expression.
What gushed from the severed neck cavity was not an exaggerated waterfall of blood, but rather initially appeared as a misty, scattering flow for three breaths, before turning into a viscous, gushing torrent as the heart's pumping pressure decreased.
The headless body did not immediately go limp; the remaining spinal reflexes kept its hands tightly gripping the bow and arrow until its knees hit the deck. Only then did the bow and arrow fall into the pool of blood along with the headless corpse.
The Song army, witnessing this scene, were dumbfounded. Our leader was killed in a single charge.
For the first time in his life, Liu Hong launched a high-altitude dive. His legs went numb as they landed on the deck. It took him a long time to stand up under the terrified, silent gaze of the Song soldiers. With a whoosh, the Golden-Winged Roc spread its wings, and thousands of fiery feathers suddenly burst forth with golden light several meters high! The golden light spread layer by layer from the tips of the feathers, like two pools of liquid gold, surging and roaring between the wing bones. In an instant, it turned the entire ship into a furnace of molten gold, as if Liu Hong had spread not a pair of wings, but two blazing suns.
"Brothers and sisters! You also have wives, children, and elderly parents at home, who are being extorted and plundered by Liang Zhongshu, right?! Why are you aiding and abetting this evildoer? Why are you working so hard to protect his father-in-law's birthday tribute?"
Surrender now! I'll spare your lives!!!
The remaining eighty or so Song soldiers looked at each other, and they had almost the same thought as the fleeing soldiers: this birthday tribute was collected by sucking our blood, what a load of rubbish!
We had nowhere else to run, and with the captains and officers watching us, we had no choice but to fight.
Now that their leader was dead, the eighty or so Song soldiers lost their will to fight and surrendered without hesitation. Liu Hong did not make things difficult for them. He simply confiscated their armor and weapons and locked them inside the ship's cabin. He said, "As long as the people at the next port find that the fleet has not arrived by nightfall, they will naturally go to look for it. When they find the large ship, you will be able to escape."
After imprisoning the prisoners, a group of people rushed forward and spent a lot of time unloading the 100,000 strings of cash for the birthday gifts from Qian Shi Wang onto sixteen small boats. The extra half ton of weight caused the sixteen small boats to draft very deep, almost to their limit. Then, without looking back, they ran away and disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter 53: Liu Hong Draws the Heavenly Dipper and Turns Beans into Soldiers
Having achieved a great victory and returned laden with spoils, the bandits were overjoyed. Singing songs, they returned to the Ghost Tower beneath Daming Prefecture and quickly began dividing the loot. They divided the 100,000 strings of cash for the birthday celebration and 100 sets of weapons and armor into three portions, distributing them to three different factions.
After dividing the spoils, everyone agreed that Liu Hong and his group had made the greatest contribution. Stopping the King of Qian Shi and killing the head constable were all thanks to their brother. They received 36,000 strings of cash and also took all the 100 pieces of river guard leather armor, spears, shields, powerful bows, and 3,000 feathered arrows they had captured.
Afterwards, the distribution was redistributed again. Liu Hong naturally kept the equipment to arm his own troops, while the money was divided equally among everyone. Liu Hong, Wu Song, Li Cunxiao, and Zhu Gui each received nine thousand strings of cash.
"Get rich, get rich!"
Li Cunxiao was overjoyed as he looked at the mountain of treasure. He pounced on his treasure, and the soft, moon-white scales on the young dragon's belly touched the pile of coins first, instantly creating a dragon-shaped depression on the mound of copper coins.
Cunxiao rolled around happily on the ground. The three Chongning Zhengbao that had been flung away by scales were caught by his wings and the verdigris fragments stuck in the gaps between the scales at the tip of his tail. With the flick of his tail, they refracted blue and gold starlight in the firelight.
As she pawed at the silver ingots, she kept slipping, her body repeatedly plunging into the pile of copper coins. Eventually, she submerged herself entirely in the coins, leaving only her head exposed. Her diamond-shaped pupils shrank into slits of surprise as the gold shimmered, and a trembling sound, like the purring of a Persian cat, escaped her throat.
"Brother, we've already robbed the birthday gifts. This money is more than we can spend in a lifetime. So what are your plans? To use it to recruit soldiers and make a big splash?"
Wu Song sat on the pile of money and casually picked up a string of pearls. Although she was happy for everyone's victory, she didn't care about these material possessions at all.
"Sister, have you ever heard of the art of turning beans into soldiers?"
Liu Hong explained his plan in detail.
"Sister, do you remember a month ago, a minor official from Neihuang County came to Qilin Village asking the people for loans? I remember that the Song Dynasty had a policy: every year in February and May, when food was scarce, there would be a loan. If the farmers couldn't afford to eat, the government would lend them money and grain, charging two percent interest every six months, which would be repaid along with the summer and autumn taxes."
However, as this policy was implemented, it turned into a system where the government forced all farmers to take out loans in February and May, and then repay the loans at even higher interest rates during the summer and autumn tax seasons. This policy was part of Wang Anshi's reforms and had been abolished thirty years ago, but people in Neihuang County were still implementing it, and it was probably no better in other places.
We can start with this – soybeans are easy to store and highly nutritious. My plan is to buy a large quantity of soybeans first, then find a place near Liangshan Marsh where people are starving due to the government's exorbitant taxes and levies. We'll make porridge from the soybeans and distribute it to the poor, encouraging them to reclaim the money and grain that have been plundered from them. That way, the soldiers will come, won't they?"
"My God! What are you talking about?!"
Zhu Gui, who was kneeling on her own banknotes and laughing heartily, heard the conversation between Wu Song and Liu Hong. Although her body was still trembling, she was no longer laughing, but rather afraid.
"Oh, we were talking about rebellion."
After carefully considering his brother's plan, Wu Song nodded after finding it feasible.
"Alright! I'll take one hundred strings of cash to buy some good wine, and the rest is yours to do as you see fit."
"Thank you sister."
Liu Hong did not refuse, as he did indeed need money to devise a plan to rebel.
"No, what heinous things are you talking about?"
Zhu Gui was even more astonished to find that Wu Dalang, Pan Jinlian, and Li Cunxiao, who were standing to the side, were actually nodding in agreement with such treasonous and rebellious remarks.