Nightfall Chapter 14

Simply a word “Umbrella.”

No verb.

Ning Que also did not call out Sang Sang’s name.

The master and maid had been living together since very young. Together they cooperated to survive on the mountain, forest and plain for years, so they already knew what each other’s thinking. They could inform each other by giving simply a look or a word or a hand signal.

Immediately after the hearing the word “umbrella,” Sang Sang, like a mice, quickly ran to the side of the maid, then pushed the handle of the umbrella, opening up the extremely large black umbrella, like a dark sky appearing in the forest on the Way of North Mountain, blocking off all the starlights.

Two firebombs dropped on the ground, burning up fast. The vigorous fire causing the fallen leaves on the ground to fly up. These leaves then caused the fire to get even bigger that people could not stop it.

The survived guards and barbarians around the wagon, looked at the big fire, thought about the noble hiding over there, suddenly felt hopeless. They were all heavily wounded, so they had no more energy to help out, and all they could do is watching that hot fire wall destroying everything in a second.

However, they did not see that, the big black umbrella did not get burned up. When the high temperature fire touched the greasy umbrella cover, it strangely became small and weak. What kind of material was this black umbrella made from, that it could block off the starlights like a dark sky, and also keep the fire away!?

Below the big black umbrella, the skinny Sang Sang nervously put her head down, closed her eyes, shut her mouth, her hands tightly held the handle of the umbrella, defending against the terrifying fire that was only a few inches away. Her left hand holding the handle tightened temporarily, but it relaxed for a while for no reason, appearing to be extremely restrained, but also seems like she had a difficult struggle inside her mind.

The maid was also under the black umbrella. She sensed the high temperature separated by the umbrella, looked at the fire, felt extremely nervous, yet when she looked through the gap, seeing the readily opening fighting scene, a surprise came up in her eyes.

The men dressed in black hiding in the jungle, had holden their breathe for a really long time. They silently spectated the reactions of the princess’s subordinates, judged and analyzed their plans, eventually ascertained where the target really was. Then, when the Great Sword Master and the giant man grabbed Lu Qing Chen’s attention, they silently moved close to here and started the assault.

Fragmented wood fell off, as the two men dressed in black jumped down. The time they chose was just about right. They first threw out two firebombs without hesitation, then got close to the opponents to assassinate them, giving no time and opportunity for Ning Que to use his archery skill.

They were not powerful Xiu Xingists, but they were more expert than those Xiu Xingists in assassination.

Seeing two assassins jumping out, Ning Que’s facial expression did not change much. He did not feel surprised and nervous, throwing out the bows and arrows like they were useless shoes, then jumping up at the moment the two firebombs were thrown out.

The muscles at his waist and legs tightened then loosened, his legs seemed to have fixed to springs, without run-up, suddenly jumped up in the original place.

At this point the firebombs started to burn. His body was over the fire wall, like he was stepping on the fire and used it as a tool to float in air.

He passed through the big fire in air, his hands making two hollow fists – along with inertia his fists and legs swing to the back, his body inclined to the front – the entire movement appeared to be very natural and coordinated, like a bird gliding in air, and the handles of the knives on his back were about to go in his two hollow fists.

Jumping over the fire wall and floating in air, while Ning Que was doing these movements, he consistently stared at the two assassins. His eyes contained no distracting thoughts, only extreme calmness and attentiveness, seemed to be abnormally unhurried.

The black maid looked at his movement of jumping out of the fire wall, seeing the youngster’s calmness, suddenly felt extremely cold for no reason.

At this moment, she remembered what she saw when she followed the Chief for Great Plain hunting a half year ago.

When that young tiger jumped towards him from the jungle, with front claws clenched up, back feet slightly contracted, eyes contained not a single brutal or violent feeling, only extreme calmness and attentiveness, at that short moment it actually showed a sort of noble temperament. That tiger’s eye expression was the most terrifying expression she had seen in her life. Sometimes during midnight, she might even awakened by the tiger’s calm and unhurried look in her dream.

–The expressionless calmness represented power and confidence, attentiveness represented volition and determination. Tiger hunting, attentive and calm yet not cold, because to tear every enemy into pieces, was not his desire to let off pressure, but his innate talent.

In the fire the maid looked at Ning Que’s face, came up with such thought.

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Assassins who had been living in the darkness of light were creatures most sensitive to danger, even the maid felt the peril under Ning Que’s calmness. The two assassins dressed in black stared at the youngster who jumped through the fire wall and instinctively felt uneasy. They did not feel this nervous even when killing Yan empire’s cavalry back in the days. Their hands holding the long swords paralyzed under the extreme pressure.

In the blowing sound of wind, Ning Que jumped right between the two men. His cotton shirt was still burning a little from his previous actions, the fire lingered and brought light into the night of the dense forest.

Two rusted long swords were pulled out quickly from the back of his shoulders and slashed towards the assassins like a rainstorm. Consecutive clashing noises spread throughout the the forest. A strong wind breezed by and blew the fire on the burning shirt into smaller sparks, but brightened the battlefield even better than before.

Knives and swords were slashing against each other, Ning Que bounced his body forward and forcefully stepped into the middle of the two assassins. Ning Que used the enemies’ sword backs as direction while his waist switched from a chopping motion to a dragging motion to slice right into their ribs.

The heavy knife blade slashed right into the chest bones of the two assassins from under. Their rib cages were broken, flesh and blood were squeezed out by the body of the blade. The assassins cried painfully, but showed the unmatchable will of Tang soldiers at their dying moments. They forfeited their swords and used their own body to lock Ning Que’s two knives in place.

Just this moment, another assassin dropped down like a raging ghost. His two hands were holding a sharp dagger, which was striking towards the back of Ning Que’s neck with unstoppable determination.

There was a third assassin in the forest!

No matter from what perspective, it seemed that the two assassins were the last attempt. It was hard to believe they still had another plan. This plan may seemed repetitive and unnecessary but it was ruthless; The assassins did not have their lives in mind when they made this plan!

No one could have predicted this situation, except Ning Que, or the young maid under the black umbrella.

“Six! Two!”

The young maid under the black umbrella shrinked her body nervously. Just when the third assassin stroke toward Ning Que, she closed her eyes tightly and used all her force to yell out two numbers.

It was two very simple numbers, what could it possibly warn Ning Que of? Was it a secret code or direction? But she could not see the assassin because her eyes were closed. Even if she did measure the location of the assassin accurately, at this moment Ning Que’s two knives were still locked in the chests of the two assassins, what could he possibly done?

“Six? Two? that is pretty tall.”

Hearing Sang Sang’s yelling, Ning Que quietly complained in head. He released his two hands from the weapons without hesitation while the two dying assassins were using their lives to hold his knives and locking him in place. Now that his two hands were empty and the lingering sparks were dying out while the night kept on getting darker, he held tightly a handle wrapped in cotton which was soaked in blood and fiercely pulled out his last knife from his back.

Two hands holding the long knife handle tightly, the blade came out of the sheath with a abrupting sound. Ning Que did not peek an eye toward his back and he turned around, putting all of his force into his long knife, and ripped the night sky apart with his strike.

It was like he had an eye on the back of his head. This forceful strike accurately landed on the assassin who was accelerating downward. The sharp blade sent the dagger in the assassin’s hands flying.

Then the long knife sliced right into the assassin’s neck bones with no interruption.

The momentum of the blade was so strong that the knife did not stop until it was halfway through the his neck.

The assassin did not have time to moan. He jumped down from the branches of the tree and then fell onto the dried fallen leaves, his knees were on the ground.

Ning Que backed off a little and held a handle which was in another assassin’s chest, pulled the knife out quickly and returned to the third assassin. He slashed the other side of broken neck and the two blades met in the middle of the assassin’s bone.

Blood was spilling everywhere. The head of the assassin dropped on the ground and rolled away from his knees and the fallen leaves. It rolled a long distance in the middle of the forest.

During the war between Tang and Yan, General Xia Hou’s elite force assassinated countless cavalry. Those secret assassin units were formed by the best soldiers. Although they were not xiuxingists, their performance in battles were excellent. There were times when the units successfully assassinated xiuxingists.

Normal people had no idea what the secret assassin unit under General Xia Hou consisted of, but Ning Que knew.

He knew the assassin unit always attended their missions with three killers.

That’s why he started to carry three knives on his back from his younger days.