Martial Arts Longevity Begins with the Equipment Slot

Chapter 102 Offense and Defense Game, Melee and Slaughter

"Commander!"

The crossbowmen above the gully mouth shouted anxiously.

"Shoot him in the knee! What are you standing there for? Shoot him in the knee!"

Sun Feipeng roared, trying to point in the direction, but he couldn't even lift his finger.

"Hold!"

He looked down and saw that his palm was a bloody mess.

"What's wrong? Can't it be unpacked this time?"

Xiong Kuo looked at Sun Feipeng with great interest, his smile deepening.

He took a step forward, pointing the axe tip at Sun Feipeng's nose.

"Your swordsmanship is not bad, but your strength is too weak. Are you guys in the Sword Guard Hall starving or what? You can't even find someone who can withstand three of my axe blows?"

Sun Feipeng moved back half an inch.

On the right side of the broken rock is a protruding ridge rock, below which is a sloping scree slope.

He has fought at least twenty or thirty ambush battles in the past few years while suppressing bandits in the mountains.

He had honed his skills in maneuvering and maneuvering through such rocky terrain to the point that it had become second nature through actual combat.

If you want to escape, now is the best time.

But this time he did not run away.

Because behind him was the last opening from the wolf pack to the valley entrance.

Once he retreats, Xiong Kuo can plunge straight into the side flank of the valley entrance along the broken rock.

Meanwhile, on the western cliff.

The seventh brother, Bai Qiulian, was feeling his way up the cliff face through a crack.

This cliff is the most dangerous section of the three defense lines of Niutou Mountain.

The cliff face is nearly flat and vertical, and the view from the bottom of the valley is extremely poor.

The angle that the sentry post could observe was mostly blocked by the protruding rock strata.

What's worse, directly above this cliff face is a slope of rubble that has been piled up for who knows how many years.

Once a person steps on the stone, it slides down, making it impossible for the defending side to maintain a fixed post for an extended period.

When Chen Yu took Xue Linglong on a mountain patrol, they stood on this cliff for about half an hour.

After repeatedly surveying the surrounding terrain, it was finally determined that it was impossible to deploy troops here, and that the only way to make up for the defense was to rely on mobile sentries and mechanisms.

Because it was easy to attack but difficult to defend, Bai Qiulian decided to launch her attack from this scree slope.

His lightness skill was excellent, so this kind of terrain was not an obstacle for him.

Bai Qiulian led the way, with more than 20 skilled climbers behind him.

They were all cliff raiding teams that Black Wind Stronghold had invested heavily in training.

These people were originally mountain hunters from the Sunset City area, who for generations had been digging for swallow nests and collecting medicinal herbs on the cliffs. Later, they were recruited by Black Wind Village and specialized in cliff climbing.

At this moment, they formed a loose diagonal line and slowly moved upwards, clinging to the cliff face.

Soon, three or five men at the front had reached the middle of the cliff, less than a hundred paces from the flank sentry post of the Sword Guard Hall.

"call.

Bai Qiulian stopped to catch her breath and looked up at the top of the cliff.

He knew the sentry post on the cliff very well.

Before the war began, Black Wind Stronghold had thoroughly investigated the defenses of Sword Guard Hall.

There was only a squad leader with five soldiers on this cliff face.

Six infantrymen guarding a hundred-foot cliff were practically useless against the Black Wind Stronghold's cliff raiding force.

"This is a sure thing!"

Thinking of this, a lazy smile appeared on Bai Qiulian's lips.

He was certain he would make a name for himself in front of Li Tianlong on this trip.

Each of the village leaders has their own role to play.

Xiong Kuo is the hammer that rams the door, Miao Huahua is the needle that sprays poison, and Mei San Niang is the knife that cuts people.

Who is Bai Qiulian?

He is the hook of Black Wind Stronghold.

They deliberately reach out from where others can't see them, and hook through the enemy's back.

Today, with this hook, he intends to cut off the entire flank of the Sword Guard Hall.

As they crawled along...

Bai Qiulian suddenly heard a very faint sound of wind breaking.

He looked down and saw a thin steel wire, as thin as a hair, rapidly rebounding.

The two ends of the steel wire were originally stretched between two inconspicuous pieces of gravel.

Its exterior is covered with a thin layer of stone powder for camouflage.

While moving, my toes accidentally touched it.

The afterimage of the bouncy wire had not yet dissipated from the air.

Bai Qiulian's smile froze on her face.

"Watch out, there's a tripwire!"

Bai Qiulian turned around and shouted sternly at the cliff raiders.

"Climb back! Quickly!"

The reminder was timely, but unfortunately the cliff raid team had spread out too far.

More than twenty people lined up diagonally, the closest one was five or six steps away from him, and the furthest one was more than ten steps away.

The wind blew through the cliff face, tearing his voice into pieces.

Only the two veterans closest to him heard it and abruptly stopped their upward movement.

The people behind them hadn't realized what was happening yet and were still reaching up.

Bai Qiulian had no time to explain.

He saw with his own eyes that above the cliff, a dozen or so previously inconspicuous crevices of rocks simultaneously protruded with crossbows.

At the sentry post on the cliff top, six sword guards and crossbowmen were clearly already crouching in their pre-arranged positions, waiting.

They weren't aiming at the people on the cliff face, but at the dozen or so arrow holes marked with white lime on the cliff.

Before the battle, Xue Linglong had marked the positions of these arrow holes with lime water during the patrol, and the firing angle of each hole was specially calibrated.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

Six crossbow bolts were released simultaneously.

They were driven into the six arrow holes in the cliff face.

Impartial and unbiased, without the slightest error.

The moment the crossbow bolt pierced the arrow hole, the pre-set mechanism was triggered.

Dozens of stones crashed down the pre-prepared stone trough.

"Oh no! Everyone, run!"

Bai Qiulian hadn't even had a chance to draw her sword yet.

A loud rumbling sound was heard.

Dozens of huge boulders rolled down the three stone troughs at the same time.

"Aaaaaah!"

The cliff raiders were caught off guard, and screams filled the entire cliff face.

Bai Qiulian drew his sword and deftly deflected the most fatal stones from the rolling rocks.

But the rolling rocks were too dense. He dodged a few that hit his head, but couldn't avoid one that bounced and changed direction as it grazed the cliff face.

"Aaaaaah!"

The rolling stone struck his left calf, and the flesh instantly tore open.

Blood trickled down her trouser leg as Bai Qiulian gritted her teeth and clung to the cliff face with one hand.

Until the last few stones landed.

He dragged his injured leg and crawled back to the safe area on the west side.

Zhang Siyu, the fourth leader, was riding his horse down the north slope when he saw Bai Qiulian stumbling towards him, covered in blood.

"Seventh Brother, what's wrong?"

Bai Qiulian's fingers were still trembling as he pointed at the stone wall at the valley entrance and cursed loudly.

"Who is that woman on the stone wall? With those tripwires and those rolling stones, she planned for us to sneak up the cliff face!"

"This is a trap specifically designed to target our cliff raiding team! She knew we would come from here, she knew everything!"

"The one stationed here is Xue Linglong."

Zhang Siyu reined in his horse and squinted his narrow eyes at the stone wall at the entrance of the valley.

In the twilight, a slender woman stood beneath the black flag.

At this moment, she was handing the spare tripwire to her deputy, seemingly indicating the next shift.

Zhang Siyu withdrew his gaze, a rare hint of approval in his eyes.

"The most calculating of the eighteen commanders of the Sword Guard Hall."

Bai Qiulian stared at the stone wall, her eyes filled with resentment.

He tore off half of his sleeve and wrapped it tightly around his left calf twice.

"Once my leg heals, I'll personally tie her up and take her back to the village. Let's see if she can still scheme against me!"

Zhang Siyu glanced at him indifferently.

"If you still have the strength, go to your elder brother and explain to him that this road is impassable. If you act rashly again, more than just these twenty people will die."

Bai Qiulian clenched her teeth and remained silent.

On the stone wall at the valley entrance, Xue Linglong withdrew her gaze from the western cliff.

Her face showed no extra expression; she simply and methodically instructed the crossbowmen to replace the arrows in the arrow holes with spare arrows.

On the east side of Wild Wolf Gully, Xiong Kuo and Sun Feipeng's entanglement had lasted for a full quarter of an hour.

Xiong Kuo became increasingly agitated as the fight progressed.

He was known for his great strength among the nine bandits of Black Wind Stronghold.

His greatest pride in life was the pair of mountain-splitting axes in his hands.

The right axe weighs 52 jin, and the left axe weighs 48 jin.

When he unleashed both axes, there wasn't a single person in the entire Black Wind Stronghold who could withstand all three of his axe blows head-on.

But this commander surnamed Sun in front of him took no less than twenty blows from him.

Each axe blow landed with a shaky, unsteady gait, yet he just wouldn't fall.

Although both were martial artists at the Bone Refining Realm, Sun Feipeng looked much more disheveled than Xiong Kuo.

The old wound on my left shoulder reopened, and blood flowed down my arm, soaking the entire sleeve into a dark red color.

Despite not being in good condition, he still held the long sword steadily.

The blade reflected the blood on his face and his bloodshot eyes.

"Xiong Kuo, your Grandpa Sun isn't leaving today! Come on, see if I don't bite off half your ear!"

Upon hearing this, Xiong Kuo grinned.

His smile contained both annoyance at being provoked and a touch of rough-and-tumble interest.

"Whispering in someone's ear? Interesting!"

"I've fought half my life, and I've heard of anyone threatening to chop off my head, gouge out my eyes, or bite my ear, but you're the first one I've ever heard of!"

"Fine, for saying that, I'll spare your mouth later so you can tell your commander yourself how I sliced ​​your ears off piece by piece!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly pushed off with his foot, and his whole body crashed into the road like a cannonball.

This time, instead of using his most powerful "Monument-Splitting Strike," he used a series of rapid axe strikes that he rarely used.

The right axe cleaves diagonally, the left axe slices horizontally, and then the right axe flicks back.

"Whoosh whoosh!"

The axe blade flashed in the air like a continuous stream of cold light.

Layer upon layer of axe flashes locked Sun Feipeng firmly in the very center of the attack.

Sun Feipeng dodged the diagonal slash of the right axe, then kicked off with his right foot, his body disappearing into the blind spot to the left.

His eyes remained fixed on Xiong Kuo's axe handle.

Having fought for so many years, he knew all too well that opponents wielding heavy axes all shared a common weakness.

The connection between each axe stroke relies on the trajectory of the end of the axe handle.

The limit of the trajectory lies in the instant when the opponent's knuckles tighten.

Relying on the combat experience gained at the cost of his life, Sun Feipeng managed to find that extremely narrow gap amidst the swirling axe flashes.

Thanks to this, he was able to maneuver nimbly through the gaps.

The opponent's axe was extremely dangerous, yet it always missed by a hair's breadth.

"Are you like a loach?"

Xiong Kuo's right axe strike missed its mark, and in his extreme anger, he laughed instead.

"We can't hit our targets, we can't retreat, what the hell kind of battle are we fighting?!"

"Wild buffalo carrying mountains!"

Sun Feipeng roared and swung his long sword upwards.

Xiong Kuo quickly dodged.

At the same moment, the crossbowmen above the cliff fired another volley.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

Five crossbow bolts pierced the air and rained down.

Arrows covered all possible routes Xiong Kuo could take in.

"Drink!"

Xiong Kuo's eyes were bloodshot as he frantically chopped at the arrows with his double axes.

Just then, Sun Feipeng slashed him on the shoulder with his knife.

"The tabby cat's scratch is surprisingly powerful!"

Xiong Kuo took three steps back, his chest stained red with blood.

"You surnamed Sun! I will definitely kill you! I'll make your commander watch you die with his own eyes!"

Sun Feipeng leaned back against the stone wall for a moment.

He gasped for breath and raised his still-movable left hand, wiping away the blood and sweat that were obscuring his eyelids with his sleeve.

"Xiong Kuo, do you think you can get over this wall?"

He tapped the stone slab he had personally laid on the wall with the back of his knife.

"This stone wall was built by your grandfather the day before yesterday. You're not going to get over it unless I give my approval."

He took another breath and pointed the tip of the knife forward.

"Also, you just asked me what battle I was fighting?"

"Let me tell you, my strategy is to drag out the battle. We'll drag it out until my brother Chen Yu turns the tables on the other side, and then you'll see who's going to be the dead!"

At 3:45 PM, the sun was beginning to set.

Black Wind Stronghold's elite forces in the central route finally advanced to Ghost's Sorrow.

This force was completely different from the feinting attacks on the east and west flanks.

No one whispered to each other, and no one broke the line.

These were the elite troops that Li Tianlong had carefully selected, the core force he had relied on most for many years.

At the very front of the procession, Mei San Niang spurred her horse onto the first stone slab at the northern end of Gui Jian Chou.

The knife wound on her right arm had not yet healed, but her posture while riding her horse remained as straight as a spear.

Last time in the cave, Chen Yu slashed her right arm with a knife, forcing her to retreat in a sorry state through the ventilation shaft.

Today is the day she gets her revenge.

Behind Mei San Niang were three horses, with Lao Ba and Miao Hua Hua riding a short, blue-maned horse, following at a leisurely pace.

Miao Huahua was wearing a dark green robe, with a few dried medicine stains on the hem.

Her long hair was loosely tied back with a wooden hairpin, and her face looked rather demure.

At this moment, she was playing with a palm-sized ink bamboo tube.

A few wisps of pale purple smoke kept seeping from the edge of the bamboo tube, forming extremely thin strands of tobacco in the wind.

The mountain wind howled, carrying the smoke to the roadside weeds.

The grass blades curled, yellowed, and withered at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Miao Huahua glanced at the withered grass leaves and squinted her eyes in satisfaction.

In the shadows at the very back of the procession, the fifth rider, Xin Wuying, rode his horse at the very back of all the riders.

In the center, the leader, Li Tianlong, personally oversaw the operation.

He reined in his horse, raised his head, and met the gaze of the figure opposite him from afar.

At the southern end of the Ghost-Seeing-Sorrow Stone Ridge, Chen Yu stood in front of the main entrance to the mine tunnel.

The stone ridge is less than two zhang wide, with bottomless canyons on both sides.

Behind him was the main entrance to the mine tunnel, the dark opening resembling an old wound cleaved open in the mountainside.

On both sides of the cave entrance, the remaining main force of the Sword Guard Hall had already formed ranks.

The front-row swordsmen and shield bearers crouched down, raising their shields, while the rear-row spearmen rested their spear shafts on the edges of their shields.

The crossbowmen, behind the shield formation, drew their crossbows to their full draw, the arrow tips gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

Everyone knew in their hearts that this was the last line of defense they could put out.

The shouts of battle continued in the eastern Wild Wolf Gully, with Sun Feipeng and Xiong Kuo locked in a stalemate.

The rolling stone formation on the west side has been exposed, Xue Linglong has run out of wire, and only the archers are still gritting their teeth and filling the gap.

Reinforcements have yet to arrive, while a dark mass of elite troops stands silently arrayed at the other end of the stone ridge.