Chapter 405: A Desperate Gamble

Dongfang Ke was looking out the window when suddenly, there were three loud bangs from the front of the convoy. He heard shouts and the neighing of horses, a scene of chaos. Dongfang Ke’s heart tightened. That’s not gunfire!

“Who’s there! Don’t move!” The shout from the lead scout at the front of the convoy was loud and clear. Everyone in the Elder’s carriage heard it, and their slightly relaxed nerves tensed up again.

Then the convoy stopped. The soldiers on the road formed a semi-circle, their guns raised. The guards on the carriage spotted a suspicious figure on the riverbank and opened fire.

Several shotguns fired in succession. The junior disciple named Zhao, who was moving to a new position to fire at the freight wagon, was hit by buckshot and fell from the embankment, tumbling into the river.

Seeing the convoy stop, Zhuo Yifan and the others sprang from their hiding places, launching their throwing knives and darts. As the hidden weapons struck, the injured horse let out a long neigh and reared up. The driver and guards were thrown into disarray. Wang Qisuo screamed and fell from the carriage. At the same time, Zhuo Yifan was the first to charge towards the closed door of the Elder’s carriage.

Originally, only a few accompanying guards were watching the riverbank. In the instant the horse was startled, several had already fallen from the carriage. Only the guards on the rear freight wagon managed to fire in time.

With a loud bang, Zhuo Yifan felt a gust of wind rush past, the sound of something whistling by his ear, and a pungent smell of gunpowder filled his nostrils. Before he could react, he heard a junior disciple behind him scream. He must have been hit by a lead ball.

Zhuo Yifan didn’t dare to look back, afraid that slowing down would make him a target for the Aussie muskets. At this moment, the escort captain’s face was pale. The guards on the carriage had basically emptied their shotguns in their panicked volley at the suspicious figure on the riverbank. These shotguns were only double-barreled, and now they were all busy reloading. He raised his pistol and pulled the trigger repeatedly at Zhuo Yifan. In his haste, not a single shot hit its mark.

He roared, “Quick, form up!”

Three or four quick-reacting accompanying guards had already assembled, forming a line of bayonets in front of Zhuo Yifan.

Zhuo Yifan knew that this “pike formation” was the most difficult to break, especially since he didn’t even have a long sword, only a dagger. He had no choice but to throw his hidden weapons.

The distance between them was very short. He threw a handful of hidden weapons, and several soldiers were immediately wounded. One grunted and collapsed to the ground. The others, though in pain, did not retreat a single step.

Seeing that a frontal assault was futile, Zhuo Yifan was unwilling to flee. He steeled himself, protected his chest with his left arm, and brandished the dagger in his right hand, preparing to charge through, even if it meant being stabbed by the bayonets.

He shouted, “Aussie scoundrel, die—” Before the word “die” could leave his lips, a flash of light came from the ground to his left, followed by a “bang!”… He fell before the line of guns like a kite with a broken string.

On the ground, Zhuo Yifan felt a sharp, piercing pain in his left arm and abdomen, as if he had been stabbed with an awl. Several pseudo-Aussie soldiers rushed forward with their bayoneted muskets, about to stab him.

“This is the end of me!” The thought had just flashed through his mind when the junior disciple who had been shot and had fallen to the ground leaped up and jumped between Yifan and the line of guns. He held a stick he had picked up from the ground horizontally and, with a roar, charged at the line of guns. With a mighty push, he actually pushed the entire gun line back several steps, single-handedly holding them at bay… In an instant, an Aussie soldier circled around from the left rear of the gun line to the right side of his fellow disciple. Taking advantage of his inability to look to his left, he thrust his bayonet with all his might into his right side. The tip of the bayonet actually pierced through his left side. Immediately after, his chest was stabbed several more times by bayonets from the line. From behind, Yifan saw three bayonets emerge from his junior disciple’s back. The junior disciple seemed unfazed and continued to push forward against the gun line with all his might… Suddenly, the junior disciple turned his head, the veins on his forehead bulging, his two eyes bloodshot. He looked at Yifan and roared with all his might, “Senior Brother! Go!” At the same time, blood gushed from his mouth.

Zhuo Yifan saw that the soldiers from the other side of the carriage had already arrived. Another junior disciple was already lying dead on the ground. He knew that if he didn’t leave now, there would be no chance. He endured the pain and, rolling and crawling, tumbled into the river.

Before he went under, he looked back. His junior disciple was being lifted into the air by several bayonets, his feet off the ground…

“Quick, after them!” the captain shouted in a panic. The assassination attempt had been as swift as lightning. Before the guards from the main road could return, Zhuo Yifan had been dragged and had rolled into the Wenlan River. The hastily arriving soldiers could only fire randomly at the river’s surface, kicking up many splashes, but no bodies floated up.

“Don’t pursue!” Elder Dongfang’s voice came from the carriage. “Back to the city!”

Dongfang Ke had been scared out of his wits just now, and had almost dropped the pistol in his hand. Seeing that three of the assassins had been killed and the other had fled wounded, he finally calmed down a little.

As soon as his emotions stabilized, he began to complain in his mind again. “Has this captain ever received any protection training? Protection, protection, it’s not about catching assassins, it’s about protecting the VIPs! So unprofessional!”

Zhuo Yifan fell into the river and was carried away by the current. He was seriously injured, drifting in and out of consciousness. In a daze, he felt someone pull him out of the water, and then he lost consciousness completely.

He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious when a cool sensation suddenly touched his nose. He shuddered and woke up, struggling to sit up.

“Don’t move!” a voice whispered in his ear, and someone pressed down on his body.

The voice was very familiar. It was Sima Qiudao’s voice!

“Is that you?” Zhuo Yifan was so weak he could barely speak.

“It’s me. Don’t talk, don’t move. We’re not out of danger yet,” Sima Qiudao said, his voice almost at his ear, as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.

Zhuo Yifan collected himself a little and looked around. He saw that they were surrounded by dense vegetation, covered with thick leaves. They must be in a thicket.

He didn’t know where he was, but he could hear the sound of flowing water not far away. They were probably still not far from the Wenlan River.

Before his thoughts could settle, he suddenly heard the sound of voices and footsteps approaching from not far away. The noise grew closer, and soon he could even hear the words being spoken. It was the Aussies, searching!

“Poke the dense vegetation with your bayonets!” someone was ordering.

His heart leaped into his throat. Although the vegetation was dense, if the Aussies conducted a dragnet search, they would definitely not be able to hide. He looked at Sima Qiudao, who also had a grave expression, his hand tightly gripping a short sword.

Through the gaps in the vegetation, he could see several black-clad policemen lingering nearby, occasionally thrusting their bayonets fiercely into the bushes. Just as he was at his wit’s end, he suddenly heard a woman’s voice from afar: “Over here! There’s something suspicious here!” The few black-clad policemen who had been approaching the bushes immediately put away their muskets and ran in that direction. As the noisy sound of people gradually faded away, Zhuo Yifan let out a long sigh of relief.

Sima Qiudao also put down his short sword and sighed in relief.

“Brother Sima, what are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story,” Sima Qiudao said. “I was originally by the river preparing to support the brothers hijacking the boat, but it was a complete failure! Later, I saw you drifting down from upstream. That was close! If I had seen you a moment later, you would have been discovered by the Aussies! Yifan, you’re seriously injured!”

Sima Qiudao was being vague. He had participated in the failed attempt to hijack the Cang on the river. He had originally planned to leave Dongmen Market immediately, but then the firework rocket went off and gunfire erupted. He knew that the Aussies would conduct a city-wide search, and that running around would likely expose him. So he simply found a place to hide by the river.

Zhuo Yifan, seriously injured, had no strength to think much. Reminded of his injuries, he realized how badly he was hurt. He had been shot by the Aussie muskets during the assassination attempt. He untied his clothes and saw that his left side, hip, and thigh were all bandaged with strips of cloth, and the blood had stained his clothes and pants red.

“The Aussie muskets are very vicious. Just one shot, and you have several wounds! I’ve already removed a few pellets for you and applied medicine, but there are still a few lead pellets left…” Sima Qiudao had some medical knowledge and had served in the army. He knew that if lead pellets were not removed in time, the wound would turn green and black, and then not even a god could save him.

Zhuo Yifan knew that this was clearly not the place to continue removing pellets. He said, “I’m fine. We’ll leave this place when it gets dark!” He didn’t feel much pain, just weak. He asked, “Did your ambush on the small boat on the river succeed?”

The ambush on the Cang was not in the original plan. It wasn’t until the day before the operation that Seventh Master had sent the message, along with the route of the orchestra and the size of the convoy. Sima Qiudao and Zhuo Yifan had discussed it. There were only a few girls on the small boat, and the chances of a successful strike were much greater than for Zhuo Yifan and the others in front of the stadium. So they made a last-minute decision to split their forces. Sima Qiudao would lead a group to ambush the Cang, which they had a better chance of succeeding with, while Zhuo Yifan would take on the heavy burden of going to the stadium.

Sima Qiudao grimaced. “It was a complete disaster.”

He then recounted how they had planned and lured the other party to the shore, how they had attacked the enemy, how a young girl on the boat had been so skilled with firearms, and how their own side had suffered heavy casualties and been almost wiped out.

“Sigh, I never thought the Aussie muskets would be so sharp, all of them firing in succession. There was simply no opportunity to exploit!” Sima Qiudao said in frustration.

“The Aussie defenses are very strict. This time, we have lost so many heroes from famous and righteous sects. It’s truly heartbreaking. I wonder how the people outside are doing.” Zhuo Yifan, thinking of how they had been almost completely wiped out, was burning with anxiety. Although he knew that the others were likely in a bad situation, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Yifan, it has come to this. The two of us have no strength to fight anymore. In my opinion, we should leave this place quickly. While it’s still chaotic, there’s still a glimmer of hope. Otherwise, when the city-wide search begins, neither of us will be able to escape.”

“That’s all we can do, Brother Sima. But, the others…” Zhuo Yifan took a breath. “I just feel that this whole affair is strange.”