Aoyama

Chapter 395 Centurion

"kill!"

The Five Witches' army charged in.

The pure white wintersweet in Meigu hangs on the trees like little copper bells, and the plum blossoms are shaken off as the Five Wrathful Soldiers charge through the battlefield.

The ever-burning flame in the sky split into two more flames that flew into the corpses of the officials. Behind the Five Witches' army, the two officials whose heads had been cut off slowly rose to their feet.

They accurately located their own heads, tucked them under their left armpits, and the gray-white eyes on their heads stared straight at Chen Ji and the others, their eyes blazing with fire.

The next moment, they reached into their chests and abdomens with their right hands and broke off a rib. The rib grew back into a white bone mask, which they wore on their grayish-white cheeks tucked under their armpits.

They broke off another rib, which continued to grow in their hands, eventually becoming a curved fish skeleton taller than a person, resembling a white bone banner.

The two men, carrying banners made of white bones, also launched their charge.

Sheep asked in surprise and doubt, "What are those fish bones?"

Zhang Xia was also surprised and doubtful: "Comet Tail Flag?"

Chen Ji glanced sideways: "What's a comet tail flag?"

Zhang Xia shook her head and said nothing.

But then the soldier who had sealed his sword and set bones shouted, "Our lord's banner has appeared in the world! Soldiers outside, return immediately!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the surviving assassins seemed to be possessed and charged at the spears of the Five Witches soldiers, letting the spears pierce their hearts!

The inextinguishable flames gathered in the sky flew into the bodies of the newly deceased warriors, and flames suddenly ignited in their eyes. They then put on their bone masks again, took out bone spears, and followed the troops in a charge.

In an instant, all eighty-two warriors transformed into the Five Witches' army!

Only then did the two stone altars on the ground crack into hundreds of stone fragments, and the flames in the sky gradually dissipated, as if they had never existed!
The sheep roared, "Form the formation! Form the fish scale formation!"

The palace attendants and the men of the Five Armies reacted at the same time, overlapping behind Yangyang like fish scales.

As the Five Witches' army drew closer, Yangyang shouted, "Fire arrows!"

Arrows rained down from the fish-scale formation like locusts, but the Five Witches' soldiers did not flinch at all, allowing the arrows to pierce them.

An arrow pierced the throat of one of the Five Witches soldiers.

An arrow pierced the abdomen of one of the Five Witches soldiers.

An arrow pierced through the horse they were riding.

However, the Five Witches' soldiers and warhorses remained unmoved, and their momentum only grew stronger.

Zhang Zheng muttered, "They're still alive?"

When they were thirty paces apart from the Five Witches' army, Chen Ji suddenly drew an arrow from the quiver of the Eastern Palace attendant beside him and shot it straight at one of the Five Witches' soldiers. The arrow passed through the gap in the white bone mask and hit the flame in the soldier's eye.

The Five Witches' army finally fell off their horses, turned into white ash, and vanished in the wind.

"Shoot in the eyes!" Yangyang woke up with a start.

But Chen Ji was even more shocked at this moment. When he shot through the flames in the eyes of the Five Witches' soldiers, two of the furnace fires in his body were ignited.

This fire... seems to have always belonged to him.

It belonged to him from the very beginning of time.

Moreover, he could even see wildfires. Even through the woods, those clusters of wildfires looked as if someone were holding torches in the dark, brandishing their weapons.

strange!
Chen Ji drew another arrow from beside him and fired, but this time, a member of the Five Witches' army who was hunting in the mountains shot an arrow at the same time, blocking Chen Ji's arrow halfway.

Chen Ji fired another arrow, but the Five Witches soldiers who had been shot raised their spears to block it.

At this moment, a man from the Fifth Army Battalion followed suit, drawing his bow and shooting an arrow. The arrow aimed straight at the face of the Five Witches' soldiers, but missed by a hair's breadth by striking the white bone mask next to their eye sockets. The white bone mask was indestructible, without even a crack.

The Five Witches soldiers drew their bows and deflected an arrow; the bone arrow was extremely fast and passed right through the eye socket of the man from the Five Witches camp.

Two hunters, Wu Chang, were on a raid and began shooting arrows, one after another piercing through the five army camps and the Eastern Palace attendants, and they could not be stopped at all.

Yangyang's expression changed drastically.

If all the Five Witches soldiers had such strength, wouldn't everyone be at the Innate Realm? No, the Five Witches soldier who sealed his blade and set his bones, and the two who had their heads cut off, were probably even stronger.

Yangyang took a deep breath and immediately made a decision: "Xia, you ride Zaozao and take Zhang Zheng away quickly, I'll cover the rear!"

But Zhang Xia did not answer.

Prince Fu, mounted on his horse, sneered at the Crown Prince: "Trying to get your skin from a tiger, you don't realize that no one cares about your life. You wanted to kill me, but now you're going to lose your own life too."

The Crown Prince remained silent, pursing his lips. Mr. Liao calmly said, "Your Highness, if it were truly Your Highness's scheme, why would you place yourself in such a dangerous situation?"

Prince Fu, however, showed no fear of impending death. He laughed heartily, "Who else could be so insidious besides him? He simply miscalculated! Hey, my dear brother, before you die, tell me who you conspired with in this matter—the Qi family? The Chen family? So that I may know who I should settle this score with on my way to the underworld!"

As they spoke, a bone arrow shot straight into the army formation.

The bone arrow flew straight at Chen Ji, but Chen Ji slightly turned his head to dodge it. The bone arrow grazed past his ear and shot towards the prince behind him.

In a flash, Mr. Liao suddenly flicked his sleeve, revealing a red-faced, fanged mask. He grabbed the prince's robe and transformed into a cloud of black smoke, flying out of the army formation.

The bone arrow missed its target!

Prince Fu turned his head and saw Mr. Liao carrying the Crown Prince, landing more than ten feet away, and running wildly to the north, abandoning everyone and fleeing! "Mr. Liao has been hiding well. So you are the last person that the Monkey King is looking for," Prince Fu raised his eyebrows: "Your Highness, if you were just an ordinary commoner, that would be fine, but our Ning Dynasty has never had an emperor who is afraid of battle, nor a crown prince who has disgraced himself. If you flee today, you will never have a chance to sit on the throne again!"

Zhou Kuang whispered from the side, "Your Highness, you should leave too. This humble servant will lead the Five Armies to buy you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!"

"Leave?" Prince Fu said arrogantly, "I'd rather die than compromise my principles!"

He drew his sword: "I'm ready to fight to the death!"

At this moment, the Five Witches' army had arrived in front of the battle formation. Yangyang shouted in a low voice: "Earth, Water, Fire, Wind!"

Suddenly, flames erupted before him, like a giant python.

But when the Five Witches' army reached him, they suddenly parted to the sides, causing his raging flames to burn nothing. The Five Witches' army split into two groups to encircle him, bending down to thrust their bone spears at the soldiers of the Five Armies Camp and the Eastern Palace.

A soldier drew his sword to parry, but the Five Witches' army only feinted. The bone spear retracted a foot in the blink of an eye, then thrust out again, piercing the soldier's heart.

The Five Witches' army forcefully lifted it up and waved it in the air like a flag: "Victory!"

In the blink of an eye, more than ten soldiers died on the spot.

Zhou Kuang hissed, "Sheep, what are you waiting for?"

Sheep flew into a rage: "Guardian!"

He bit his finger, forming a sword with two fingers, and smeared the blade with his blood. Then he took a yellow talisman from his robes, threaded it onto the tip of the sword, and plunged it into the ground!

Just then, the hunting Wu Chang noticed something amiss, and a bone arrow flew through the air, heading straight for Yang Yang's back.

Just as the bone arrow was about to strike, Yang Fang stood in front of it, letting it pass through his body. The bone arrow was heavy and still hadn't stopped, but Yang Xian rushed forward and finally caught it with his heart.

The two slowly fell to the ground and closed their eyes.

In an instant, the long sword in Yangyang's hand, pierced by a yellow talisman, plunged into the soil. Flames burst forth from the soil, like magma, or like fire snakes, quickly moving and protecting them within.

Three zhang high flames blocked their path between them and the Five Witches' army. The Five Witches who sealed his sword and set his bones reined in his horse and slowly walked outside the wall of fire.

Wearing a bone mask and carrying a large bone sword, he sneered across the wall of fire, "Old Zhurong's petty tricks? No, no, far from it."

The sheep asked breathlessly, "Who exactly are you?"

The Five Witches' army was slightly taken aback, as if they had heard the biggest joke in the world: "Who are you? Who are you! Hahahaha, I am just a lowly centurion in the five armies under my lord!"

One of the Five Witches soldiers said coldly, "Let's see how long this fire can last."

Yangyang's heart tightened, and he whispered, "A-Xia, Zhang Zheng, you only have one chance. Trust me, I'll buy you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Someone has to return to the capital and announce this to the world!"

Chen Ji suddenly spoke up and urged, "Make your move!"

Without further thought, Yangyang bit her tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the talisman and sword in front of her, and immediately became listless.

A fierce wind swept across the sky, carrying fiery serpents from the ground towards the Five Witches' army, forcing them to retreat repeatedly. Gradually, the flames parted around the group, creating a path that stretched northwards along both sides of the road.

Sheep hissed, "Let's go!"

At the critical moment, Chen Ji took one last look at Zhang Xia, then suddenly turned his horse and fled towards the burning path of escape. Before leaving, he even took a quiver from the Eastern Palace attendant beside him.

Sheep's expression changed, and he cursed, "You son of a bitch, you're a coward in the face of battle!"

As Chen Ji rode past Prince Fu, the prince stared coldly at his profile, but Chen Ji did not look at him directly.

Zhou Kuang urged Prince Fu again, "Your Highness, let's go quickly, this is the last chance!"

Seeing that Prince Fu remained unmoved, he immediately said to his attendant, "Take His Highness away!"

However, Chen Ji turned around, drew his bow, and shot an arrow that struck in front of Prince Fu's warhorse, startling the horse into retreating repeatedly: "Don't follow!"

Zhou Kuang glared angrily at Chen Ji: "How dare you, you brat?"

Chen Ji headed north without looking back. Yangyang watched his retreating figure and whispered, "A-Xia, you misjudged him!"

Zhou Kuang also sneered, "I originally thought he was a hero in Li Sha Mao Hutong, but I was wrong about him."

Zhang Xia said in a low voice, "Shut up, all of you!"

Prince Fu said softly, "So the person those assassins wanted to kill was him, not me..."

The next moment, everyone suddenly realized that when Chen Ji left the army formation, the Five Witches' troops outside the raging fire stopped attacking them and instead chased after Chen Ji.

Eighty-one Wuchang soldiers galloped on horseback, with the Sealed Blade Bone-Connecting Wuchang leading the way, and two headless officers of the Seeking Dao Realm carrying white bone banners, their killing intent soaring to the heavens.

Sheep's pupils constricted sharply as he recalled the Five Witches' army asking, "We know your wish, but do you know the price for summoning us?"

It turns out that the dying warrior's wish to summon the Five Witches' army was to kill Chen Ji!

Yangyang turned to look at Zhang Xia: "He knew he was the target, so he lured these ghosts away all by himself?"

Zhang Xia said coldly, "Otherwise what? Put out the fire!"

Sheep pulled the long sword from the ground, and the raging fire was extinguished instantly.

Zhang Xia spurred his horse and rode off: "I'll go to Yuquan Mountain to find reinforcements right away. You all return to the capital immediately and inform the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs of this matter, and have them send the Twelve Zodiac Animals!"

Zhang Xia sped eastward, bending down to say to Zaozao, "Faster, Zaozao, faster!"

(End of this chapter)