Chapter Twenty-Six: Crossbow Arrows from the Darkness
What a clumsy tune out of the mountain!
Everyone was full of disdain, only Li Xinglin walked out of the house, heard a few words from the officer, and then looked in the northeast direction, probably because of the heavy drizzle and humidity these days, the fire did not look big, but the smoke was very strong, and it was very hazy from a distance, and it was not clear. Listening to the sound of gongs and drums, the officers on duty and the surrounding people were already busy fighting the fire, and it should not be difficult to control the fire while it was still under control.
Li Xinglin told a few words, and asked the messenger to take a few brothers back to put out the fire, and he stood in place and watched for a while, and saw that the fire showed no signs of spreading, so he returned to the room with some confidence. The other three of them were eating and drinking as usual, but when they didn't see this little episode, when they saw Li Xinglin coming back, they hurriedly sat down together.
The walls of the Nanya prison seem to be old and in disrepair, but these dilapidated are only the appearance, even if the walls are mottled and powdered and covered with moss, in fact, the inside is still extremely tall and thick. At this moment, there were a few sneaky black shadows hiding at the base of the wall, and two of them took out the flying claws from their backs and threw them at the head of the wall beside them, and climbed up the wall silently along the thin rope under the flying claws under the cover of night. The two of them leaned on the wall and looked around for a moment, only to see that there was silence and darkness everywhere, and only in the northernmost part could they see a little light peeking through the half-hidden door, and a few whispers and chuckles came from the night breeze.
At this moment, the moon is just at the beginning, but only a hazy circle of discs can be barely seen behind the clouds. The dense floating clouds that happened to pass by enveloped the entire bright moon in his arms, covering the originally clear and mellow moonlight on the earth, and completely dissolving all shadows into the darkness. His previous arson was extremely particular, and he seemed to be in a big position, but he didn't cast light on the prison to expose his figure. The two looked at each other, turned back to the wall, and gestured, and then lowered the rope they were carrying towards the wall. The two of them grabbed the rope and slid down carefully, but did not make the slightest sound, and when they landed and stood firmly, seeing that there was no unexpected trap ambush, they beckoned their companions behind them to follow and climb into the wall. A group of six people carefully blended their figures into the shadows at the bottom of the wall, leaning against the wall and slowly touching forward.
Seeing that he was getting closer and closer to the lit cell, the leader of the men in black who was walking in the front slowly drew his short sword at his waist and signaled everyone behind him to prepare for a surprise attack. Everyone was holding their breath and lowering their steps, and they didn't expect to walk a few steps before they were startled by the sudden sound of bells on the ground. The crisp and chaotic sound was particularly loud in the empty night, a few scattered birds screamed from the branches and fluttered their wings into the night sky, and there was a constant noise in the bushes, and I don't know how many small beasts were disturbed and fled desperately in it.
The black-clothed man at the head was shocked, and quickly stopped his steps and looked down, through the extremely faint moonlight, he could vaguely see several extremely thin silk threads hanging with bells dragging obliquely on the ground, and it was he who inadvertently tripped over one of them just now, which caused a huge movement. The leader of the men in black raised his head vigilantly, and he couldn't help but clench the short blade in his hand, no matter how annoyed and unwilling he was, he could only change the sneak attack to a strong attack, preparing for the ensuing battle. However, after a few breaths, the expected sound of the bell did not follow, and no one in the light-filled room rushed out with a sword, and everything was silent again, as if the sound of the bell that had disturbed the peace of the night just now was just an innocuous episode.
The crowd looked at each other in shock, and thought that maybe all this was really just a coincidence, and it happened that someone abandoned a few strings of bells in the corner of the wall, and happened to be tripped by their own line, and happened to be ignored by these negligent guards. Even if it all sounds too coincidental to be realistic, the human heart will always have unrealistic thoughts in times of despair. Just when everyone was thinking about their luck, an extremely subtle humming sound sounded in the air, the sound was very light and imperceptible, but it was extremely fine, like the slight flutter of the light cicada wings on a summer evening, and like the wanton rubbing of a thread of rain on the broad leaves. However, on this clear spring night, there will be neither happy cicadas nor lingering spring rain. Thinking of this, the face of the black-clothed man led by him suddenly became extremely ugly, he had worked hard in the army, although he had been away from the battle formation for many years, at that moment he immediately realized the origin of this familiar voice, and his body involuntarily reacted almost instinctively. At this moment, he no longer cared about the concealed figure and the silent voice, but just tried his best to unfold his body, swept forward as fast as he could, and shouted loudly, "Disperse!" ”
Although they did not know what was happening, thanks to years of tacit understanding and training, as well as the almost instinctive instinct of the Night Assassins about danger, they did not hesitate to carry out this hastily issued order at the first time, but it was still a little late, or rather, in this open flat land without any body to hide, from the moment they heard this order, it was already too late.
I don't know how many strings of rope with bells were wrapped around the feet of the black-clothed people who scattered around, and the sound of bells in the dark night was chaotic, like wind chimes screaming in panic under the eaves when the wind was raging, and it tore the silent silence hard. However, even in such a noisy environment, those extremely subtle humming sounds were not annihilated, but even more terrible screams.
Countless bolts flew from the towers on the heights, from the shadows of the corners, from the dark cells, from all directions.
For the first time, the Assassins, accustomed to walking in the dark world, felt that the darkness was so terrifying and hopeless that they faced the rain of arrows that roared through the piercing sound of breaking through the air. The rain of arrows that roared was so dense that they couldn't rely on the sound to discern the flight trajectory of a specific arrow from the countless subtle and chaotic sounds of breaking the air, and they naturally wouldn't be wearing heavy armor or carrying a shield when they focused on assassination, so they could only wave the weapon in their hands frantically and in vain at the moment, hoping that their luck was good enough to block all the arrows that should have fallen on them. It's just that the blades they carry are mainly short swords, even if they can really dance without water, how can they cover their bodies with all the covers.
A few screams abruptly stopped, along with the humming and whistling of those arrow rains.
It was only a salvo, and among the six people, except for the leader of the men in black who was the first to be alert, escaped from the area covered by the rain of arrows one step ahead of time with his swift body, and a guy who was lucky enough to defy the sky, and the rest of the people were all damaged.
The leader of the men in black turned around with a blue face, after many years of assassin career, he no longer cherished and feared life, but he was used to killing people, and he only felt the pain when he was killed. What's more, no matter how sharp and cold his methods of killing people were, compared to the decisiveness of the thunderous killing in the army, he still couldn't help but feel a little shocked and shocked. The man who sat under the wall was hit by several arrows, but what really killed him was a crossbow arrow that slanted into the eye socket, and the force was so great that it passed directly through the skull, and the bright red blood mixed with the gray brain pulp poured down from the eye socket, and the death was extremely miserable. The man who fell beside him was pierced through the neck with an arrow, piercing the cervical vertebrae. Compared with the death of these two on the spot, the other two don't know whether to call it lucky or unlucky, the body that fell on the ground each posed in a strange position, but was nailed to the ground by several crossbow arrows, only the hands and feet could occasionally twitch unconsciously, and the throat whimpered, but even the strength to scream had disappeared.
The whole world fell silent again after a volley, and no one jumped out excitedly to check the results, and no one clamored for the slaughter. There was neither the cry of the night owl nor the melancholy of the night wind, and only the gurgling of blood could be heard in the open background, and only the rapid and futile wheeze of the air mixed with blood in the throats of the deceased could be heard.
It wasn't clear what was hidden in the darkness, or what would happen next, so the silence here and now was even more terrifying. It is like countless hungry beasts that choose to eat people and hide in the deep forest, greedily waiting for the prey to be delivered to the door by itself. Time seemed to be extremely slow and difficult at this moment, and the silence in front of them put a lot of pressure on the surviving two, making people want to turn around and run, or roar and rush forward to fight for their lives, as if no matter what, it was better than silence.
The leader of the men in black gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down from his violent emotions. He looked around, the fierce color on his face disappeared, and as soon as he raised his hand, two sleeve darts came out of his hand, and the two muffled sounds of "poof" were accurately pierced into the hearts of the two people who were twitching on the ground.
"Boss, you ......" The rest of the accomplices were startled and looked at the leader in horror.
"Sixth son, you know the rules in the building! They can't go back. The leader of the men in black replied coldly with a gloomy face. He looked around quickly, trying to find the man behind the crossbow arrows in the dark night. Looking at the length of those crossbow arrows just now, they are all strong crossbow systems in the army, whether it is the head or strength, which can be compared with the small hand crossbows that the officials are used to using on weekdays. Nanshao Prison has always been laxly guarded, and he originally only wanted to be captured, but he never thought that the other party would ask the military to deploy such a ruthless trick in advance, and dug a big hole for himself.
The flames of anger burned in the leader's heart, burning in his eyes, but no matter how fierce the uncontrollable hatred was, there was no way to turn into substance and really illuminate the night, so that he could see even one and a half figures behind the inky night. He gritted his teeth and looked at the cell that was dancing with a dim light, and the hatred in his eyes became more and more intense.