Li Yan was originally a martial arts master, and he was also the best in the world at leading troops in battle. He knew at a glance that it was a situation of one fleeing and the other chasing.
Li Yan did not move, but the most undesirable thought had arisen in his mind. With his rich experience, he had already concluded that no matter whether the dozen people in front were fleeing or chasing, they were all soldiers. At a glance, he could see that all of them were using military riding skills.
A distance of two or three miles was only a moment at a gallop. As the person in front approached, Li Yan used all his eyesight. When the rider was less than thirty feet away from the tree where he was, he finally saw the person's appearance clearly.
The moment he saw the person on the horse clearly, the thin branch under Li Yan's feet made a slight "crack" sound and then broke.
The moment the twig broke, Li Yan was startled. He swayed and stepped on another twig again, so he did not fall down.
Although the sound of the twigs breaking was extremely light, the man below did not hear it at all amid the rumbling of horse hooves, and instead galloped away from under the tree.
Li Yan stood on the tree without moving, just looking coldly towards the back of the official road.
After a while, dozens of cavalrymen from the rear came under the tree like a rainstorm and a strong wind. Li Yan could see clearly that these people were the cavalrymen wearing imperial iron armor.
They were all silent, cold-blooded and murderous, with faces as cold as ice. Most of them held spears, and two of them held an empty bow, which they had obviously used before.
Seeing that these people had already flown under the tree, Li Yan suddenly moved like an eagle, circling over the head of the first person.
He did not draw his sword, but stepped on the head of the galloping man. There was a "bang" sound, followed by the sad cry of a horse.
The armored soldier on horseback didn't even utter a groan before he had his head stepped into his neck with such force that it was like a heavy hammer.
The strong horse that was galloping under the armored soldier also fell to the ground with a loud bang. Its four hooves made a "crackling" sound, and its bones and tendons were broken. The whole horse's back collapsed, and it was obvious that it was dead.
This sudden change immediately disrupted the formation of the dozen people who were running quickly, but each of these people was a well-trained elite soldier and their reactions were extremely fast.
At this moment, their superb riding skills were clearly revealed. Amid the neighing of horses, they each turned their horses' heads, or stood up straight on the spot, or galloped to the side of the road.
After killing the first person, Li Yan did not stop at all. He used his toes to gain leverage and jumped up again, arriving in front of the second person in an instant.
The man was riding a strong horse with its hooves raised high. When he was about to push the horse's head down, he saw a dark shadow approaching his side.
The armored soldier also reacted very quickly. He pulled the reins with one hand, no longer worrying about whether he would fall off the horse, and with the other hand, the spear had already stabbed towards the black shadow in the corner of his eye.
Although his reaction was almost instant, he met Li Yan. As soon as he thrust out the spear in his hand, he felt a strong force coming from the tip of the spear, followed by a crisp "click" sound from his arm.
Before he felt the pain, the gun handle had already hit him backwards. He only felt a sweetness in his mouth, and a large mouthful of blood with large pieces of internal organs spurted out.
Then he fell face down on the horse's back. Because Li Yan's attack was too fierce, the inertia of the spear handle caused the horse to fall face down as well, and then fell heavily on the soldier again.
The soldiers, who were already dying, had all kinds of colors squeezed out of their seven orifices.
After killing two people in a flash, Li Yan arrived in front of the third person like a whirlwind. He clasped his palms together and slapped the back of the soldier who was rushing forward and was about to turn around and shoot an arrow.
There was another loud bang, and the man's back and the steel armor were deeply sunken, while his chest swelled up as if blown up. The horse was galloping forward with the dead body.
After three people died, the remaining eight people finally calmed the frightened horses, circled their horses back and surrounded Li Yan. Only then did Li Yan land on the ground.
Li Yan's face was as gloomy as water. With his hands behind his back, he looked coldly at the eight people and eight horses around him.
One of the eight men said in a low voice, "We are ordered to arrest the imperial court's criminals. How can you be a desperate criminal... You are..."
"Yuan...Yuan...Marshal..."
"Quickly retreat..."
The man only said a few words. He had not been able to see Li Yan's face clearly in the dark before, but now he was very far away and the moonlight was very bright tonight. He could see Li Yan's face clearly and immediately let out a cry of surprise.
Not only him, but several soldiers facing Li Yan had already seen who was coming. They were so scared that they almost died, and subconsciously turned their horses around and wanted to escape.
The people behind Li Yan had ferocious looks on their faces before, but when they heard the exclamations of the people in front of them, although they reacted a little slowly, after hearing the word "Marshal", the ferocious looks on their faces immediately disappeared, and were replaced by grayish-white colors, and they all immediately fled in all directions.
They chased the fleeing people all the way because they were afraid of being discovered by the army ahead, so they did not dare to act recklessly on the road and just kept chasing them.
Now that they were sure that the person in front of them was the evil spirit, they all had something to hide, and now they felt that their retribution had come, and they couldn't help but scream out in fear. "Want to leave?" Li Yan saw that after seeing him, these soldiers did not come to pay homage, but fled, which confirmed his thoughts.
He just stood there motionless, but he curled the fingers of his right hand into claws, and several streams of energy burst out from between his fingers.
Then he raised his arm, snapped his fingers, grabbed and pulled in mid-air to one side. The armor plates on a dead body made a "rustling" sound, and eight armor plates flew out of the armor one after another, and the next moment they were in Li Yan's hands.
Li Yan clenched his five fingers together, pinched the eight nail leaves between his fingers, and then waved them away without even looking at them.
Several sharp "whoosh" sounds were heard in the silence, like the call of the god of death. Then a few shrill screams were heard in the distance, startling countless roosting birds.
Then, the eight horses in four directions continued to gallop forward, but there was no one sitting on their backs.
Some of the eight men fell directly off the horses' backs, while others were half-dragged on the ground. As the horses galloped, the armor plates on their bodies hit the ground with dull sounds.
These people were wearing armor and iron helmets, but at this time there was a big hole on the back of the iron helmet, and blood and pale substance were gushing out of it.
Li Yan no longer looked at them, but instead moved and ran back the way he came.
He had only walked a little over a mile when he saw a man on horseback looking towards him. When the man saw someone coming towards him in the dark, he wanted to turn his horse around immediately, but he was obviously still hesitant.
The screams of a dozen people before they died could be heard from far away in the silent night. Not to mention a mile or two away, even from farther away, they could be heard.
So when the person who escaped heard the news, he was shocked and knew that the pursuer behind him had met with an accident. At this moment, his physical strength was severely overdrawn and he was seriously injured. Even if he could walk, he probably wouldn't be able to hold on for too long. So he hesitated and wanted to see what had happened.
After those screams, the sound of horse hooves was heard again behind him. He hurriedly spurred his horse forward, but after only walking a few dozen feet, he stopped again.
Because when he turned his horse sideways and looked back, he saw that there was only one war horse coming, and there was no one on the horse. While he was alert, the horse had already galloped past him.
"Someone really killed those people..." Just as he had this thought, he saw a black shadow rushing towards him like lightning, which scared him so much that he instinctively turned his horse's head and planned to escape.
At this moment, a voice that surprised him rang out, "Li Si, it's me!" This surprised and delighted the man, who immediately pulled the reins and asked in a trembling voice, "Is it you, sir?"
"It's exactly so-and-so!" The man came with astonishing speed. When he uttered the second sentence, he had already arrived in front of this person.
The man named Li Si on the horse shook his body, and his tense nerves finally relaxed. The next moment, he felt dizzy and fell off his horse, but was caught by Li Yan.
While catching Li Si, Li Yan's other hand had already touched several places on his body, but his brows were furrowed.
Li Si was seriously injured, with two feather arrows stuck in his right shoulder blade and lower back, staining his entire back red.
Li Si looked pale, but his face was still anxious as he looked at Li Yan. He said in a weak voice, "Sir, hurry up... hurry up to save... save the mistress and the young master... the young lady, the Kong school rebelled... surrendered to the enemy..."
Before he could finish, Li Yan's body shook violently, and he asked anxiously, "What happened to Aying and the others?"
“When I… Li Da, Li San, and I were sent by the mistress to seek help… the mansion had already been surrounded by the rebels led by Kong Xiao, and the mistress led the guards in the mansion to defend against the wall.
The three of us… fought desperately, not daring to… linger in the battle, and only then did we break through the encirclement. Li Da risked his life to hold back… Kong Xiao, and Li San lifted the thousand-pound gate with all his strength at the city gate, and was hit by… dozens of arrows, which protected me and allowed me to escape from Qingshan Pass.
This… this happened… two days ago! My Lord, please return to the city as soon as possible, so that…”
As Li Si spoke, thick blood continued to flow out of the corners of his mouth. In addition to the two arrow wounds, his body was covered with dozens of wounds of varying sizes. In order to break out as quickly as possible, they did not wear any heavy armor at all, only a set of soft armor close to the body.
After hearing this, Li Yan was extremely anxious, but he still interrupted Li Si in a deep voice.
"Okay, I understand. You don't need to say anything now. I will heal your wounds. Then you can rest in the woods here. Li Du will lead the army here by tomorrow evening at the latest. You can ask them to take you with them then."
“No… No, sir, don’t worry about me, quickly rescue the mistress and…” Li Si was very anxious after hearing this.
He knew that he was seriously injured and it would be difficult to save him, so he mustered up his remaining strength and tried to break free from Li Yan's arms.
But before he could say anything, Li Yan pressed the back of his head with the thumb of his other hand, and then Li Si collapsed limply.
Li Yan had a dark face and ran towards the woods with Li Si in one hand.