Lu Yao knew, of course, that He Lingchuan and his men only wanted to slow the pursuers down. He had never truly expected a mere stretch of icy road to hold back fierce bandits.
Once the men had all crossed the frozen stretch, Lu Yao waved a hand. "Pursue!"
Just then, one of the bandits raised his hand timidly. "General, the—the horses didn't make it up!"
How were two legs supposed to catch up to four?
Lu Yao glared. "Then what are you waiting for? Lead them up!"
The bandits had no choice but to backtrack and fetch the horses.
That was when the real trouble began.
Men could climb by stepping into the carved ice holes, but horses could not.
The ice was slick as oil, with only a few small holes offering any purchase. Horses were not human, nor were they specially trained; their footwork was nowhere near nimble enough.
Their long, slender legs slid back and forth across the frozen surface. Sometimes hooves found a hole, and sometimes they did not, depending entirely on luck.
The bandits grew anxious and lashed them with a few hard strokes of the whip. Unable to bear the pain, two horses violently dug their hooves upward in a desperate scramble.
Instead of catching purchase, they slipped.
With a dreadful screech of sliding hooves, the horses skidded over the edge, dragging the bandits behind them down the precipice.
Cries of men and shrieks of beasts ended abruptly at the bottom of the cliff.
The bandits' scalps prickled with dread. All they could do was look toward Lu Yao.
If the horses could not pass, how the hell were they supposed to pursue? Lu Yao let out a skyward roar of pure fury before bellowing, "What are you all standing around for? Dig the ice! Dig out a path for me!"
A path the horses could walk on!
Fortunately, the village had shovels and hoes. When it came to breaking ice, these dedicated farm tools were far more useful than sabers and axes.
By the time the three absurdly thick layers of hard ice were thoroughly hacked open and the horses could clip-clop their way across, nearly another shichen had passed since He Lingchuan and his group made their escape!
It had taken almost as long as smashing through three wagon barriers! Lu Yao trembled with cold fury, the same thought crossing his mind more than once:
*Did that little He cur calculate this from the very beginning?*
Plummeting to his death so cleanly was far too merciful an end for him!
Panting, the bandits tossed aside their farming tools. Ignoring their aching limbs, they mounted up at Lu Yao's urging and resumed their pursuit along the road.
By now, the sun was nearly at its zenith.
Stomachs rumbled. None of them had touched a drop of water or a grain of rice since last night's dinner, and hunger gnawed at them.
They deeply regretted not pocketing a few flatbreads from the village.
Yet seeing General Lu's grim, livid face, none dared utter a peep.
Just as they galloped past a small grove, Lu Yao suddenly roared, "Who's there?"
Before his shout even faded, an axe flew out.
With that thrown axe, branches snapped, and someone tumbled out of a tree, one leg shattered.
Lu Yao walked over, took a look, and let out a dry chuckle. "Aren't you a scout under Old Pei?"
The man wailed pitifully, "General Lu, spare my life!"
"Where is Old Pei?"
The man stammered, too terrified to speak.
Lu Yao chopped his head off with a single slash, then ordered his men to search the body. They found nothing of value.
Right then, a flutter of noise rustled through the woods as something flew over and collided with the corpse.
The bandits looked closely. It was a mechanical wooden bird.
Lu Yao was thoroughly familiar with these contraptions. He pried open its belly, pulled out a scroll of paper, and glanced over it twice before sneering. "That bastard Pei wants him to keep monitoring my movements. Heh!"
***
*Splash!*
Something churned in the water, sending spray flying in all directions.
Then He Lingchuan actually heard someone coughing.
The coughing sounded choked with water—rapid, breathless, and broken.
He Lingchuan had suffered his fair share of wounds over the past two months and had seen plenty of others injured. From the sound alone, he could tell this person had sustained at least a lung injury.
Soon after, he caught the scent of blood.
Below, another peculiar sound rose, like someone panting hard:
*Haa-huh, haa-huh...*
He Lingchuan dared not breathe too loudly, choosing to watch quietly and see how things developed.
The coughing ceased abruptly.
For a full forty to fifty breaths, all was quiet.
Just as He Lingchuan began to think the person had already left, the water churned once more. Something slapped against the rock face with loud, sharp cracks that sounded immensely powerful.
Before long, the coughing started up again.
This time, the man coughed even more violently, as if he had just broken the surface.
With great difficulty, he choked out two words:
"Vile beast!"
The voice sounded somewhat familiar. He Lingchuan felt as though he had heard it recently.
Very recently.
Was it in the past two days, or just a few hours ago?
A flash of insight crossed his mind, and He Lingchuan blurted out in a low voice, "Wu Shaoyi?"
He had not spoken loudly, and his voice should have been drowned out by the sound of churning water. Yet the man below heard it distinctly and suddenly cried, "Who—who is up there? Help me, quickly!"
The moment He Lingchuan called out the name, he already understood a good third of the situation. Hearing the man beg for help, he guessed Wu Shaoyi posed no threat to him. He tore off a strip of cloth from his clothes, lit it with a fire striker, and tossed it down.
The spark drifted all the way down and landed on the water's surface, flickering twice before going out.
Yet by that meager light, He Lingchuan managed a limited glimpse of what lay below.
He saw no sign of Wu Shaoyi himself, but instead beheld a body clad in pitch-black scales!
Closely arranged across the scales were three rows of sharp hooks, glistening dark beneath the splashing water.
The spark seemed to have drifted down right beside the creature's head, startling it. It tossed its head, sending lake water churning and spraying everywhere. Through the mist, He Lingchuan thought he caught sight of a pair of eerie, glowing green eyes.
*Hiss—*
He drew in a sharp breath. It truly was that monstrous beast—
The Crocodile King.
Earlier, Wu Shaoyi had been ambushed by the giant crocodile at the lake shore, and both had vanished together. Everyone had assumed the Crocodile King had dragged him under to feast in some hidden depths.
Who would have guessed it had brought Wu Shaoyi here?
"General Wu?" He Lingchuan called tentatively. "Where are you?"
Raising his voice caused an echo, revealing that this cavern was a massive hollow chamber.
"In—in the Crocodile God's mouth!" Wu Shaoyi answered at once. "I'm propping its lower jaw open with my spear! Come—come down and help..."
His voice cut off before he could finish.
He Lingchuan guessed the giant crocodile had dragged him underwater again.
The man below was a rebel commander. Should he help, or shouldn't he?
If he didn't, could he escape on his own?
He would ask him next time.
"Next time" arrived soon enough.
Wu Shaoyi surfaced once more with the crocodile's jaws. Seizing the moment while the beast thrashed, He Lingchuan called down, "Where is the exit? How do I get out?"
"You can't get out! Outside, there are..." Wu Shaoyi accidentally choked on a mouthful of lake water. "...other crocodiles!"
He quickly added, "Help me, and I'll find a way! Trust me!"
He Lingchuan remained skeptical. "Do you even know who I am?"
"Anyone will do! Even that son of a bitch Lu Yao!" Wu Shaoyi yelled. "This is the crocodile nest! There's no other way out! If you don't help me, we both die here!"
He Lingchuan thought it over, then lit two more strips of cloth and tossed them down, sacrificing another large section of his sleeve.
The giant crocodile happened to roll sideways into the water. By the brief flare of light, he finally saw Wu Shaoyi.
The man was indeed half-reclined inside the crocodile's maw, his spear firmly braced between the monster's upper and lower jaws. Wu Shaoyi had to cling desperately to the shaft just to keep from being thrown out amidst the violent thrashing.
Chapter 126