Dragon Canon

Fang Hetong had already risen to full height while the Northern Liao scout cavalry was loosing his arrow, drawing his bow and nocking an arrow of his own. Runes glowed along the bow’s surface as an arrow shot forth like lightning, instantly piercing the chest of a Liao cavalryman!

As a Dao Foundation cultivator, Fang Hetong’s shot was far stronger than that of an ordinary Liao scout cavalry. However, his Dao energy fluctuated after the shot, and he needed to catch his breath before loosing another arrow. During this short period, the other Liao scout cavalry were already responding to the sudden attack by drawing their bows and counter-shooting at Fang Hetong.

The scholar’s reaction was no less swift. He dropped to the floor nearly at the same time two sharp arrows whistled past the walls. If he hadn’t done so, the arrows would have struck his head and chest.

The third arrow was aimed much lower. It struck a battlement and actually pierced through it!

Thankfully, the walls of Flying Sand Village were very well designed. They formed a stepped structure where each wall section receded by a level. As Fang Hetong was lying prone on the lowest step, he just narrowly avoided the wall-piercing arrow.

After dodging three arrows by the skin of his teeth, Fang Hetong jumped to his feet and took his second shot, killing yet another scout cavalry.

Infuriated, the riders began charging the village. They had launched their counter attack using heavy arrows, which was why they were able to pierce through a battlement that was one and a half chi thick despite being a hundred zhang away. If they were able to narrow the distance to fifty zhang, then the heavy arrows would grow twice as powerful. Not even a Dao Foundation cultivator such as Fang Hetong would dare to take such a shot head on.

Wei Yuan didn’t make a move. The scholar had told him to wait via sound transmission; to endure until the Liao cavalry were sufficiently close. This wasn’t the first time the enemy had paid Flying Sand Village a visit so to speak, so they should still think that Fang Hetong was the only proper cultivator in the village. They should think that they would be able to suppress one person with their numbers.

Perhaps the deaths of their companions had enraged them, but the Liao cavalrymen kept charging until they were only thirty zhang away. If Fang Hetong poked his head out of the walls, arrows would immediately fly his way. He was suppressed to the point where he could not even lift his head.

It was at this moment Wei Yuan rose to his feet and threw his javelin! The weapon moved like lightning and appeared in front of a Liao cavalryman the instant it left his hand. It pierced through him before he could react, causing an eruption of blood and gore on both sides of his torso.

Wei Yuan activated the iron box with his Dao energy, causing it to pop out javelins in rapid succession. He snatched them out of the air one by one and threw them at the enemies fluidly and without pause. He was able to take out eight scout cavalry in just the blink of an eye.

To the Liao’s credit, they reacted swiftly. Piercing whistles filled the air as several heavy arrows flew toward his vital spots with deadly accuracy.

Wei Yuan killed one last cavalryman before he took evasive action. However, he underestimated the speed of the heavy arrows and took a shallow hit on his shoulder. The arrow had cut right through his shoulder armor, inner armor, and even his mystic robe to leave a shallow scratch on his sparkling, translucent skin.

The potency of this shot was equal to that of a Dao Foundation mystic artifact. Even the dagger Hsu Du had used to penetrate his body back then was slightly inferior to it.

Wei Yuan immediately set his gaze on the offender and threw two javelins in retaliation, but none landed. The cavalryman had rolled, twisted, and dodged out of the way as if he was one with his horse. But as soon as he rose back to an upright position, he immediately saw three watery blue balls of lights flying his way!

The first ball of light struck his warhorse and exploded into dozens of water blades, cutting it everywhere and putting a couple of wounds on its rider as well. Then, the two second and third balls of light arrived. This time, the injured rider could not evade the attack. A shower of water blades engulfed both him and his mount.

The warhorse galloped forward as if it was startled. A hundred zhang later, it suddenly collapsed on the ground, a thick trail of blood marking its final sprint. As for its rider, he flew through the air momentarily before hitting the ground with a sickening thud. He rolled across the ground a couple times before coming to a stop on his back, unmoving. A pool of blood rapidly grew under his body.

Suddenly, the surviving scout cavalry started crying at the top of their lungs. One rider turned around to escape, while the rest kept charging toward Flying Sand Village like they had gone mad. One horse accidentally stepped on a hidden pit and broke its legs instantly, tossing its rider into the air. However, its rider was able to perform a front flip and land firmly on his feet. Then, he pulled a saber from his waist and continued charging, yelling. When he was several zhang away from the wall, he leaped into the air straight toward Wei Yuan.

A long spear—one zhang and two chi long—pierced through the air like a dragon and nailed him in mid-air. When the struggling rider looked around, he discovered that the rest of his companions were already lying prone in pools of blood. He was the last one remaining.

The Liao cavalryman gasped like he wanted to say something, but all he managed to do was throw up thick globs of blood. Wei Yuan swung his spear and tossed him away from the village.

During the scout cavalry’s final charge, Wei Yuan had taken out most of them with his javelins, and Fang Hetong had killed two with his bow. One rider managed to scale the walls, but Fang Hetong was able to kill him with his sword. Excluding the one rider who had escaped, they had managed to rout the entire scouting party.

The battle would sound long in speech, but it was incredibly short in reality. In fact, one might say that the scouting party had been annihilated in the blink of an eye.

After the battle was over, Fang Hetong grabbed a wall to support himself while panting and sweating heavily. His Dao energy was almost completely dry, and he was close to scraping the bottom of his stamina after unleashing multiple powerful shots in quick succession. Even Wei Yuan’s Dao energy was circulating ferociously inside his body, unable to slow down until a long time later.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Fang Hetong finally said, “The one you killed with your Dao spells earlier is probably their captain. According to Liao tradition, if a squad leader died in action without annihilating the enemy, their whole squad must die with him. That is why they went insane in the end. That lone rider who escaped would commit suicide after he had presented his report.”

Wei Yuan had heard of this tradition before, but he didn’t truly feel the pressure until he had fought a suicidal Liao party on the battlefield.

Although the Liao cavalry captain hadn’t forged their Dao Foundation, he was on par with a cultivator who had completed the Body-tempering stage. Unlike humans, all Liao were physically gifted from birth. Humans needed to temper their body part by part, but they could temper everything at once until the end. This was why even a Liao in the early stages of the Body-tempering stage possessed a bit of mystic power. Weak, but enough to make use of one or two low-level mystic artifacts.

The Liao cavalry captain was incredibly tough. Wei Yuan was able to attack him first and force him to dodge repeatedly, seizing the initiative. Despite this, it still took three Water Blades before he finally managed to take down his opponent. Compared to the disciples of the Palace of Absolute Beginning, he was on par with those on the verge of completing the Body-tempering stage. Compared to a small sect, even Dao Foundation cultivators would probably lag behind him in terms of physical prowess.

Moreover, Wei Yuan’s Water Blade spell was unlike your ordinary Water Blade spell. Back in the day, during one of their fights, a Traditional Party disciple had thrown a Water Blade spell at him. The spell contained seven or eight sharp blades. However, Wei Yuan’s Water Blade spell contained between seventy and eighty sharp blades. An ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator of a small sect could not have survived a single Water Blade spell from him.

The Agula tribe was just an ordinary tribe among the Northern Liao, and this scouting party was one of their most mundane among the one hundred thousand archers. Despite this, their scout captain’s combat strength rivaled that of an immortal sect’s novice disciple, and every single one of his party members was equal to a human who had tempered over half of their blood.

The Liao excelled in mounted archery, and their bow-making skills surpassed those of the human race as well. Each cavalryman carried multiple types of arrow on their person. Take this battle for instance. During their initial ambush, the scouting party had used light arrows that were lightning swift and perfectly silent. When their ambush had failed, and they decided to launch a forceful assault instead, they had switched to heavy arrows that were devastating in their destructive force. Besides that, they also possessed armor-piercing arrows, mystic-piercing arrows, swift-wind arrows and more.

From this battle, Wei Yuan learned that an ordinary scout cavalry party of a dozen or so members was enough to suppress an ordinary human Dao Foundation cultivator. No wonder the human race had been enslaved by them for two hundred thousand years.