Chapter 39
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The bandits were brimming with killing intent. Once their identities were exposed by Blacksmith Sun, they did not waste a single word.
They struck immediately, first leaving two militiamen behind. Then, the three archers at the rear loosed their arrows simultaneously.
On the earthen wall, the three hunters had no time to react before they were hit.
Two arrows pierced chests.
One arrow struck an arm.
The change came far too suddenly.
In the blink of an eye, Blackstone Village suffered three deaths and two serious injuries.
An unprecedented terror instantly flooded Su Wangchuan’s chest. But in the next moment, Captain Zhao Heiniu’s final words before leaving flashed through his mind:
Protect the village!
The fear in his eyes was instantly replaced by resolve.
Su Wangchuan completed the motion of drawing and loosing his bow in a single fluid movement. An armor-piercing arrow shot out without warning.
The burly man charging at the front had not paid much attention to the youthful-looking Su Wangchuan. Only when he noticed the bow being raised did he instinctively lift his shield to block.
The sharp armor-piercing arrow punched straight through the shield and buried itself in his hand. He sucked in a sharp breath of pain and shouted loudly:
“Kill the hunters!”
“That young one’s using—”
Before the words “armor-piercing arrows” could leave his mouth, the second arrow had already drilled into his skull like a bolt of lightning.
SPLAT!
The ferocious-looking bandit died on the spot. His body stiffened, then toppled backward and crashed into the snow.
Su Wangchuan’s attack immediately put the bandits on alert.
The three archers hidden at the rear almost simultaneously locked onto him.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
But Su Wangchuan’s senses were keen.
He was already moving rapidly along the earthen wall, dodging the arrows, locking onto the direction of their flight, and firing back with a swift countershot.
WHUMPH!
The advantage of high ground showed itself at that moment. Even though the archer stood behind the crowd, he was still struck by the arrow.
The armor-piercing arrow passed through leather armor, piercing straight through his chest and back.
The hunters of Blackstone Village began to counterattack.
The bandits at the front had solid defenses. Ordinary arrows struggled to penetrate their thick leather armor.
A seasoned militiaman shouted loudly:
“Fall back!”
“Defend inside the wall!”
“They can’t break in!”
After all, the village still had dozens of able-bodied men.
Everyone retreated from the wall.
Su Wangchuan was no exception.
After killing two enemies, worried that he would become the next target, he jumped down from the wall. Using stacked goods inside the village as footholds, he climbed onto a wooden rooftop to maintain the advantage of elevation.
A bandit vaulted up onto the wall.
WHOOSH!
Su Wangchuan was fast. The armor-piercing arrow did not hesitate for a moment and struck true.
The third bandit was hit and fell backward from the wall, crashing onto the ground.
At that point, more bandits, agile and experienced, stepped on the rough indentations of the earthen wall and used them as leverage to flip inside.
All the village hunters had already climbed onto rooftops.
For a time, arrows flew everywhere.
Several more bandits were cut down.
The hunters had learned their lesson. Knowing that ordinary arrows were easily blocked by thick leather armor and shields, they all switched to armor-piercing arrows.
Five or six hunters were badly wounded.
Su Wangchuan fired two arrows in succession.
Two bandits, who had not even finished taking in the situation inside the village, clutched their faces as blood sprayed through their fingers.
There was no helping it.
There were simply too many people in front of them.
Nearly sixty able-bodied men leveled their spears at the attackers.
Anyone would feel fear at such a sight. The slightest lapse in focus meant getting shot.
On Blackstone Village’s side, both militiamen and players were so tense that sweat poured from their palms as they looked around warily.
But seeing the bandits fall one after another, easily cut down and rapidly dwindling in number, they visibly relaxed.
Even when a few bandits managed to rush in, they found it difficult to break through the rows of spear formations.
Su Wangchuan moved while firing.
Those hit were either killed outright or severely wounded.
These bandits had truly chosen the wrong target.
Not only had they attacked Blackstone Village at a time when it had the most manpower—twenty-odd bandits assaulting a village defended by over sixty able-bodied men—but they had also encountered a village capable of forging its own armor-piercing arrows.
Their thick clothing combined with leather armor could block ordinary arrows, but armor-piercing arrows put them in a completely different predicament.
Two bandit archers who vaulted over the wall took one look at the scene inside and immediately turned to flee. They were shot down in midair.
Two screams rang out…
Another two eliminated.
More than twenty bandits had rushed into the village, but within moments they were completely suppressed. The seven remaining survivors were pinned in the chest by spears, disarmed, and forced to surrender.
“Don’t kill me!”
“I surrender!”
Unfortunately…
It was too late.
The players could not bring themselves to strike, but the enraged militiamen stepped forward and drove their spears straight through the bandits’ chests.
All twenty-seven bandits were killed to the last.
Eyes bloodshot, the militiamen stabbed the remaining corpses again for good measure.
“Damn it!”
“Hurry and check if Erhu can still be saved!”
Someone remembered that one of their men had been shot in the thigh outside.
Soon after, someone pulled back with a heavy expression and shook his head.
“He’s gone.”
Su Wangchuan felt his heart sink.
In this battle, four had died, and one was crippled.
If not for his master, Blacksmith Sun, and that seasoned militiaman, the death toll would have been even higher.
Lin Dahai, Hong Kaibao, Bai Yuhui, and the others, however, were unusually excited and exhilarated.
“There’s loot!”
“These bandits’ equipment didn’t disappear after they died!”
The other players stared at the bandit corpses strewn across the ground, eyes gleaming.
At this moment, the village chief ordered the militiamen to search all the bodies. They recovered a large amount of items.
Aside from crude iron weapons and damaged leather armor, there was also a small pile of silver and copper coins.
More than a dozen bottles of wound medicine.
After taking a look around, Blacksmith Sun showed a mix of disdain and anger.
“These two, and those three archers, are bandits trained in the mountains. The rest are just ordinary vagrants.”
“They must have learned somewhere that Captain Zhao had left the village and came specifically to exploit the opening… If Captain Zhao were here, he would have smelled the stench on these bandits from far away and never let them get close to the village.”
“…”
The village chief’s expression was heavy.
They had lost several capable men again.
This winter…
It was only getting harder to endure.
But as the village chief, he had to step forward to take control of the situation, raise morale, and ensure that nothing went wrong for the rest of the night.
“There are a total of 157 taels of silver here.”
“Take 40 taels as compensation for the families of the four villagers who died. Use another 15 taels to treat the wounded. Of the remaining 102 taels, Wangchuan contributed the most and will be rewarded 30 taels. The other hunters will each receive 5 taels. The rest will be divided evenly among everyone who participated in the battle.”
The villagers’ emotions were complicated and heavy.
The players, however, were ignited by the village chief’s words, all of them extremely excited.
Each person would receive half a tael of silver—five hundred copper coins.
“Awesome!”
“That’s several days’ worth of income in one go!”
“This month we won’t have to scrape by anymore!”
They were filled with envy and jealousy toward Su Wangchuan.
Thirty taels of silver for him alone…
That was the equivalent of 150,000.
Su Wangchuan now held a total of 65 taels of silver, heavy in his hands.
Yet he could not bring himself to feel happy. He felt that he had failed Captain Zhao Heiniu’s trust and had not protected the village well enough.
CLICK HERE to Rate/Review