A Step into the Past

Book 9 Chapter 1: Ambush on the Narrow Gorge

Xiang Shaolong and Lord Longyang rode out together out of the city, protected front and back by high skilled bodyguards.

After receiving the news that Xiang Shaolong was about to arrive in Handan, the atmosphere in the city had been very tense, like a tightly drawn bowstring, forcing everyone not to be able to take a breather.

Even though everyone was itching for a fight, seemingly very confident, but everyone was afraid that they will be one of the unlucky ones.

From this it could be seen that he had built a god-like reputation, no one dared to underestimate him.

Lord Longyang brought his horse nearer to him and said, “Why haven’t I seen Long Shan?”

Xiang Shaolong secretly commended Lord Longyang for being observant.

During this dangerous warring period, everyone was always vigilant. If it was any other influential officials, if they had someone as powerful as Teng Yi, they would want him close by to protect them twelve hours of the day. So when Xiang Shaolong went out without him close by was really something out of the ordinary.

He smiled, “This is my first time to a big city. So with all the excitement to go shopping, I wouldn’t feel right without someone to accompany me.”

Lord Longyang was only asking out of curiosity and not because of some suspicions, changing his topics, “Li Yuan sees Brother Dong as number one rival in love. He has misunderstood your intentions. It’s truly outrageous.”

Xiang Shaolong was confused, “My Lord, why do you say this?”

Lord Longyang smiled, “The person that Ji Yanran is in love with is Xiang Shaolong. Oh! Maybe, Yanran, herself, hasn’t realised. The expression on her eyes when she’s looking at Shaolong compared to when she’s looking at others is totally different. Maybe at that time, she hadn’t realised yet that she had fallen in love with Xiang Shaolong, but I had known for sure.”

Xiang Shaolong’s heart trembled in fear. This Lord Longyang is definitely someone with sharp observation skill. If he’s not careful, he might accidentally reveal his identity from the slight tip of his eyebrow. He must be constantly alert around him. Lord Longyang grunted, “I don’t believe that Ji Yanran and Xiang Shaolong didn’t already have a secret agreement. As long as we observed Ji Yanran closely, we can surely lure Xiang Shaolong out.”

Xiang Shaolong frowned, “Didn’t you also want to take care of Learned Lady Ji?”

Lord Longyang sighed, “I have always viewed her as an irreplaceable friend. She fell in love with Xiang Shaolong is a natural thing. Mister Dong hasn’t yet seen Xiang Shaolong, he is someone with out of this world talents. Regardless of his style of conversation, insight, heart or spirit, they are all distinctive amongst us. I, myself, would like to be his friend, if we weren’t already standing on the opposite grounds as enemies. But now, I have to find any way to assassinate him regardless of how unscrupulous it might be.”

Xiang Shaolong intentionally probed him out, “Even though I know that I don’t have an ounce of hope of attaining Learned Lady Ji, but I felt that she has high regard of me. Hey! According to your observation, how does it compare when she looks at me compared to looking at Xiang Shaolong?”

Lord Longyang nodded, “She truly regards you highly. That’s for sure. The problem is she is a once and one type of person, unlike that promiscuous Lady Ya. Xiang Shaolong had the advantage of entering her heart first, you and Li Yuan would be better off to forget about her.”

Xiang Shaolong laughed, “The situation doesn’t seem hopeless yet. We have someone as powerful as you here, My Lord, to take care of Xiang Shaolong. We can already count down the days that he stayed alive. At that time, wouldn’t Learned Lady Ji need to start searching for another person?”

Lord Longyang smiled bitterly, “The fact has proven that everyone who underestimates Xiang Shaolong will end up on the losing ground. No matter how the Zhaos tried to arrange everything, I still believe that Xiang Shaolong would have ingenious plan to sneak into Handan. With the craftiness of both Lu Buwei and Xiang Shaolong, how could they have leaked their whereabouts to the other hostile party in Qin, there must be some trap in there.”

Xiang Shaolong trembled in fear.

He started to realise that this Lord Longyang isn’t a simple person. No wonder he could become Lord Xinling’s formidable adversary.

Amongst all of the countries’ influential politicians here in Handan, beside the heavyweight class Tian Dan, Lord Longyang also needed to be counted in.

But his weakness is: Hey! It seems like he has fallen in love with himself, so he has confided in himself, hoping to win Xiang Shaolong’s good favour. Oh my God! This is such a complete mess. Such complicated situation!

At that time, they had left the Handan city far away, riding along the government road towards the Hidden Army Valley, surrounded from both sides with tall mountains in the open countries in the autumn weather, with withered and fallen leaves.

Lord Longyang’s underlings were all seemingly like they have reached the countryside relaxing and stretching their muscles. Lord Longyang saw Xiang Shaolong was quiet without a word, knew that he was pondering his words previously, joyfully continued, “Xiang Shaolong has three important enemies: King Xiaocheng, Zhao Mu and Guo Zhong. As long as Xiang Shaolong is alive, I am afraid that these three people wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully.”

Xiang Shaolong was suddenly filled with uneasy feelings. This was called a soldier’s alertness. It didn’t need a factual proof for a reason.

This time, they were about to enter one of the small narrow gorge towards the Hidden Army Valley. Both sides were surrounded with dense thick forest. If there was an ambush, this would be the idealist place for it.

Xiang Shaolong swiftly stopped his horse.

Lord Longyang continued for another ten or more steps before noticing it and looked back, filled with confusion, “Is there a problem, Mister?”

When the rest noticed that Lord Longyang had stopped his horse, they all followed his lead.

Xiang Shaolong continued gazing towards the entrance of the narrow gorge, frowned, “Have you and Xiang Shaolong ever celebrate a festival before?”

Lord Longyang was slightly surprised, turned his horse’s head to follow his gaze towards the narrow gorge, ordered his underlings, “Go open the road for me!” More than ten riders rode out from amongst the crowd towards the narrow gorge.

Those persons’ shields were all hanging on the side of their horses. Apparently, they didn’t believe that there would be someone waiting to ambush them.

Xiang Shaolong was also extremely puzzled, who would want to take care of Lord Longyang? Could it that he’s being overly cautious, raising a false alarm?

Lord Longyang relaxed a little as he saw his underlings entered the gorge, smiled, “If Xiang Shaolong came to take care of me, then there must be some kind of misunderstanding. Otherwise, how would he know that I will go to the Hidden Army Valley today?” Xiang Shaolong’s uneasiness was growing by the minute.

After exercising the meditation method according to the Mohist Addendum, his sixth sense had become sharper. It had repeatedly saved him from dangerous situations, otherwise he might still be nursing his grievances back in Xianyang.

Even though the autumn sun was still hanging low in the sky, but he could feel the chill in the air.

Lord Longyang shouted, “Have you clearly thought about what I told you before, Mister Dong?”

Xiang Shaolong felt a headache coming, changed a topic, “How come your underlings haven’t come back yet?” Even before the words finished spoken, crying sounds could be heard. One of his famous swordsman underling appeared from the gorge, waved from far away indicating that everything’s alright.

Xiang Shaolong was embarrassed for being overly suspicious.

On the contrary, Lord Longyang consoled him, “It’s never wrong to be more careful! I admired Mister Dong alertness!”

Everyone continued riding towards the gorge.

Lord Longyang spoke in his soft and sweet tone, “Mister, have you ever ponder over our current war and what you would do to establish a long-lasting career for yourself?”

Xiang Shaolong was amazed at his craftiness. This person definitely has a sharp intelligence, something that most people have long been lacking in this period. He had seen that he’s not the type of person who’d be happy raising horses his whole life. That’s why he uttered these words.

When they were about 100 steps from the entrance, Xiang Shaolong suddenly felt alarmed again. But he could only indistinctly catch a blurry shadow and nothing concrete.

He casually replied, “Besides rearing horses, I know nothing about the art of war. Just based on fierceness, how could I lead the three armies through the desert?”

Lord Longyang smiled, “Mister doesn’t have to be modest. Just from looking at how you’ve been trained and that you have no fear of death, I know that you have the talent to be a famous general, otherwise, Tian Dan would have ignored you.”

Now, they were about 50 more steps from the entrance, the front guards had started to enter the gorge.

An idea suddenly flashed through Xiang Shaolong’s mind. He whipped his horse and shouted, “Quick! Turn around!” Now he realised the reason for his uneasiness.

Lord Longyang’s underling that passed the safe signal before quickly returned the gorge after signalling. It just didn’t make sense. Inside the gorge, there were 10 more Lord Longyang’s personal bodyguards. As a reconnaissance team, they should have guard the entrance and exit of the gorge, along with all of the strategic points inside the gorge until Lord Longyang passed through before withdrawing their position. Otherwise, if the enemies ambush from the entrance and the exit, wouldn’t they be surrounded and died inside? Xiang Shaolong also wasn’t basing this from the carelessness of Lord Longyang’s underling alone but because he had been on guard the whole time, he finally realised that if his enemy was planning on ambushing them there, they wouldn’t have placed anyone in the dangerous zone. That’s why he quickly rushed back in.

This time, Lord Longyang and his four personal bodyguards all frowned at him. They all felt that he’s being too extremely cautious.

The front guards ignored his warning and kept on riding into the entrance.

Lord Longyang forcefully reined in his horse to be polite. As he was about to speak, a tragic scream could be heard faintly coming from the gorge.

Everyone’s face paled. Suddenly, a stream of enemies flow out from inside the gorge, each one of them was holding a crossbow and arrows, and stringing them on. The front group of 10 or more soldiers jumped off their horse and prepared a frontline defence.

At the same time, killing shouts could be from all four corners.

From both sides of the dense forest, the enemies flowed out. In an instant, enemies could be seen everywhere.

All of these people dressed as common people. As far as the eyes could see, there must be at least several hundred people. Lord Longyang personal guards, even though they were elite soldiers who have experienced hundred battles, but there were many enemies compared to them. Crossbows were also hard to guard against. Without any time to prepare, they’ve been ambushed and were now in complete disarray.

Xiang Shaolong ducked down and avoided two arrows but from underneath, he could hear a pitiful neigh and the horse reared up.

He didn’t even get a chance to see where his horse had been shot, both feet fiercely kicked off, forcing him to lean sideways and fell off the saddle. He leaped across towards Lord Longyang, held on his waist and leaped off the horse. Both fell on the bushes on the side of the road. Lord Longyang’s saddle had long fallen off the horse, it was filled with arrows.

Lord Longyang was the enemy’s main goal.

His number one underlings, Jiao Xu, and other unhurt underlings all jumped off their horse and rushed in to protect Lord Longyang.

Lord Longyang was about to join in the fight when Xiang Shaolong dragged him back to the forest. Surrounded on all four sides with battles, all around killing sounds can be heard. The enemies had finished their first batch of arrows and hurrying to reload their arrows. This was exactly the perfect time to escape.

Wind of swords swished through.

Xiang Shaolong’s back was leaning against the grass. He moved his two feet, continuously pressuring the enemies back.

Those two people screamed in agony. While trying to scramble away, they rushed into three other attacking enemies.

“Clang!” Xiang Shaolong pulled out his long sword out of the sheath, followed with two people spilled their blood.

When he leaped up, Lord Longyang shook out of his reverie, pulled out his sword and sprung forward. “Swish!” His sword flew like a water dragon, slaying two rushing enemies instantly.

Jiao Xu and the other ten more guards fought and retreated at the same time towards the forest while protecting them both.

Xiang Shaolong knew that they were in danger just from looking that they were surrounded on all sides by the enemies. He quickly determined the best way to break out of the enemy’s barricade, shouted, “Follow me!” He waved around Blood Wave, leaving behind layers of the sword’s shadows, leading the way out of the barricade and deep into the forest.

His swordsman skill was superb. His strength surprised others. Moreover, inside the forest, the enemies were unable to take advantage of their numbers to crush them. They were truly swept over by the wind.

“Dang!” One of the enemy was chopped off by him to the point of scaring away all of the onrushing enemies.

But this scene would only last for a second before the reinforcement arrived and countless enemies rushed forward again.

Xiang Shaolong entered the Mohist’s defensive mind, calmly leading Lord Longyang and the others deeply into the forest, even killing seven eight enemies on the way.

Xiang Shaolong took advantage of this time to observe Lord Longyang and the others.

At this time, besides Jiao Xu, there were only seven people left following them. Everyone of them was badly injured. The situation was extremely dangerous.

But the enemies kept coming like tidal wave.

Even though Lord Longyang forged ahead courageously, but he was covered in blood. Not sure though whether it’s his blood or the enemies’ blood splashed onto him.

His right back shoulder was blotched bright red.

Xiang Shaolong wildly shouted, swung his sword backhand and penetrated the abdomen of the raid soldier, followed with a flick of his wrist to fend off an attack from the left side. While the opponent dodged his attack, in that instant of gap, he continuously attacked, wildly stabbed, and hardly penetrated the enemy’s chest.

When the enemies saw how brutal he can be, they all retreated, allowing him to enter by several meters.

“Peng!” Lord Longyang staggered and bumped into his back. It seemed like he’d been injured again by the enemy’s poisonous hand.

Xiang Shaolong shouted loudly, “Don’t worry about me!” He waved his sword, killing another attacker.

“Argh!” One of the guard injured badly and toppled over, the situation had just become more critical.

Xiang Shaolong’s Blood Wave sword was like a lightning. Within a move, an enemy instantly met with a violent death. He fiercely pulled Lord Longyang, at the same time, he called out to Jiao Xu and the rest, “Follow me!” Forcing his way into the left side of the enemy’s net, he repeatedly waved his Blood Wave, forcing the enemy to retreat one by one.

During this time when they were bathed in blood like the war, Xiang Shaolong displayed his boldness, strong stamina and his years of strict training as an elite soldier. He was like a never tiring machine, moving freely amongst the enemy formation.

Amongst all this, he still didn’t forget to examine all four surroundings. He saw on the left hand side, not far away, there was a slope road. That’s why he called Lord Longyang and the others to follow him to break through the formation.

One move of attacking to defend executed quickly and violently.

“Argh!” The enemy’s sword was split in half. While he was shocked, Xiang Shaolong moved sideways and kicked him, causing him to spewed out blood repeatedly and felt on the big tree behind him.

Xiang Shaolong dodged right and left, swung backward and stabbed the left chest of the enemy that tried to surprise attack him from behind. While at the same time, he moved and tackled the enemy till he tumbled down and met the earth.

Up till now, he had succeeded in breaking out and killing all the way to the edge of the slope. The pressure had been reduced. Gazing downward, he saw a strong flowing river.

Xiang Shaolong was overjoyed. He turned back, pulled out his sword swiftly and broke into the formation surrounding Lord Longyang, Jiao Xu and the rest. Amongst them, one was at the end of his life.

Xiang Shaolong used his sword to forcefully sweep away his enemies, shouted, “Jump down! That’s the only way to escape with your life.” He turned around and pounced on Lord Longyang, grabbing his waist and rolling down the slope, not knowing how many branches and leaves they’ve broken and smashed along the way.

Jiao Xu and the other five bodyguards dared not hesitate. All followed his way and rolled down the hills. “Splash… splash…” All eight people fell into the river successively, instantly dying the river blood red.

Xiang Shaolong grabbed hold of Lord Longyang and swam away following the river’s currents. Before long, they had left the place far away.

The enemy pursued by following along the river.

Up the front, the water noise grew louder like an exploding volcano.

Before anyone realised what’s happening, the currents were moving faster and faster. Unexpectedly they had reached the edge of around 7 metres high waterfall. They immediately fell onto the pool below following the waterfall.

When everyone was still recovering from the high fall, the current brought them away again. The enemies’ shout was growing quieter as the distance grew.

When Xiang Shaolong, Lord Longyang and the rest met the Zhaos convoys, it was already midnight. (三更means the time between 11-1pm so midnight would closely reflect that in here).

Even though the injuries had been properly bind up, but because everyone had lost a lot of blood and was tired, they all looked pale and exhausted. Two amongst them even had a fever which required immediate attention.

Zhao Mu, Le Cheng and the rest had already received the news and were waiting anxiously on the gate.

Zhao Mu and Lord Longyang had always had a private agreement between each other, while Xiang Shaolong was his hope of ascending the throne. His heart was burning with worry. On the other hand, if Le Cheng, acting as Handan’s guardian’s general, allowed anything to happen to this important Wei’s official, Lord Longyang, it would be hard for him not to get blamed for it. So, both of them were equally anxious and worried.

Both Zhao Mu and Le Cheng scrambled forward towards Xiang Shaolong and Lord Longyang’s horse cart. When they saw both of their appearance, even though a little bit shocking, but since there wasn’t any fatal injury, they were both able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Lord Longyang was secretly watching Xiang Shaolong affectionately, strenuously uttered, “If it wasn’t for Mister Dong risking his life to save mine, I wouldn’t have any left to meet you two anymore.”

Xiang Shaolong smiled bitterly.

It could be said that Lord Longyang is his number one mortal enemy, but at that time, there was no time to think about this problem, even if he had this idea, he wouldn’t be able to not rescue him when he saw it. This was so like what Tian Dan had analysed, “Softhearted,” is truly his biggest weakness. Le Cheng heavily said, “Did you see Xiang Shaolong?”

Xiang Shaolong and Lord Longyang were both astounded.

The latter frowned, “It doesn’t seem like it was Xiang Shaolong. But during those chaotic situation, we only cared about escaping, using the river to escape, and didn’t have the time to see clearly who the enemy might be.”

Le Cheng replied, “I’ve already sent out soldiers to seal off all roads and scout the area. Hopefully, we will receive the good news soon to report to my Lord.”

Lord Longyang and Xiang Shaolong knew that he didn’t have any confidence of this just from listening to his tone.

The raiding party surprisingly was able to slip within 15kms of the area surroundings Handan in great secrecy. It wouldn’t surprise them if they had already prepared an escape route.

But who would want to get rid of Lord Longyang? Xiang Shaolong of course knew that it wasn’t he himself who was responsible.

Lord Longyang wasn’t sure whether the reason why he wasn’t interested in speaking up was due to the injuries he had sustained.

Both Zhao Mu and Le Cheng personally escort Lord Longyang and Xiang Shaolong separately returning to their residence.

Shan Rou and the Tian sisters had long heard of the news and were both waiting in front of the gate to welcome him home.

Le Cheng then took leave.

Shan Rou complained, “If I knew, I would have come with you!” Wu Guo was confused, “Who did it?”

Tian Zhen and Tian Feng supported him inside towards the inner chamber. Both sisters had long been crying till their eyes were red and swollen.

Xiang Shaolong bitterly smiled, “Let me rest a little bit before I will explain everything clearly to you, alright?”

Suddenly, he remembered the circumstance of which Lord Longyang’s underling lured them into entering the gorge.

He trembled when he realised who probably would like to assassinate Lord Longyang.

No wonder he’s got that long face.