C175 – Broken Array
Yin Xu did not make the guests wait too long. The civil servants and generals had morized every detail of his plan, so when Yin Xu announced its completion, they felt it was too quick.
“That’s it?” Even the Emperor expressed his doubts. All they saw was Yin Xu placing a few stones in the arena. Those with sharp eyes could tell they were unpolished jade, but that was all.
Could he really defend against a group of experts like this? It seed like a joke.
Yin Xu walked over calmly and nodded at the emperor, “Yes, that’s enough. Let them begin.” Then, he walked to Teng Yu’s side, ignoring the shocked and doubtful expressions around him.
Teng Yu took out a handkerchief and wiped his hands. His gentle expression and considerate actions almost blinded everyone.
No one doubted Teng Yu’s feelings towards Yin Xu, but no one supported their so-called true love.
The emperor waved his hand, and Commander Xu, upon receiving the order, led a hundred elite soldiers to cautiously approach the array.
Yin Xu hadn’t asked them to evade while he was setting up the array, so they clearly saw his movents. But the more they saw, the less danger they felt.
When they were ten ters away from the array, Commander Xu, out of caution, made everyone stop and sent two clever guards to scout ahead.
Those two guards weren’t foolish. They took out anything they could from their pockets and threw them into the formation, including bags of broken silver and a few copper coins.
The objects were thrown into the formation without any resistance.
Everyone held their breath, anticipating an unbelievable scene. Unfortunately, after a while, the formation remained unchanged, and the items lay there untouched.
“This… This is too ridiculous!” So people began to feel that Yin Xu was deceiving them. How could such a simple thing offer any defense?
Teng Yu said coldly, “The competition we agreed upon is for people, not random objects!”
Seeing this, Commander Xu heaved a sigh of relief. Standing here today, representing the Emperor, if he lost, his future prospects would be bleak.
Moreover, Yin Xu had seized the lilight shortly after entering the palace, earning high regard among the guards. Commander Xu could foresee the day he would be replaced.
Today was the best opportunity for him to turn the tables.
“Attack!” he ordered the two pathfinders.
The two of them didn’t wait for his orders. Seeing no changes along the way, they let their guard down and quickened their steps towards the formation.
“Eh…” So spectators imdiately noticed sothing was off.
Teng Yu shushed them, signaling them to remain silent.
In their eyes, the two guards appeared to be walking in circles around the formation without stopping. Could they be surveying the terrain?
Commander Xu beca anxious and shouted, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you entering?”
Unfortunately, the two people circling acted as if they couldn’t hear him and didn’t reply.
As long as they maintained their reason, they knew sothing was wrong. From the mont they started walking until now, no matter how far they went, they couldn’t reach the edge. They were only ten ters away; how could they not be there?
In their eyes, the formation was still right in front of them. They had never stepped inside.
Both turned back in surprise. They looked at each other in panic and thought, “Where are we?” Why was there no one around?
This was impossible!
“What’s going on?” one of the guards asked.
“Haven’t we entered the array yet? Could it be…” Both turned their heads to look at the formation before them, feeling goosebumps all over.
This ti, everyone saw the problem. Soone muttered, “What are they doing?”
Naturally, no one answered because no one knew.
Commander Xu waited for a while, and seeing the two guards make no progress, he sent ten more guards.
This ti, he didn’t act rashly. He ordered soone to find a long rope and tie it to the ten guards, then had them walk through one by one.
Even if they couldn’t enter, at least they would be able to leave. Commander Xu thought this was a good idea; when they returned, he would first listen to what they had to say.
The rest of the guards were anxiously waiting on the sidelines, eager to jump in and check things out themselves. How could they not want to intervene when the person they were looking for was right in front of them?
Ti crept by slowly. The sun was high, and the officials on the stage were sweating profusely. The emperor had ordered tents to be erected and tea to be served, ready for a prolonged effort.
A few senior officials were given seats, and the three princes were naturally included. Yin Xu, not of high rank, wouldn’t have received such treatnt, but with Teng Yu’s intervention, he was pulled over to sit, disregarding the feelings of the other standing officials.
Yin Xu felt perfectly comfortable. Sitting was better than standing, so he had no problem sitting on Teng Yu’s lap. He watched the ongoing turmoil below with a smile.
“Quick, pull!” Commander Xu roared, and the guard holding the rope exerted all his strength to pull the person out.
But in the end, the rope ca out, and the person on the rope remained in the sa place. What was going on?
“This… The rope didn’t break! Impossible!” Commander Xu was drenched in cold sweat, having never encountered such a bizarre situation.
“Commander, what should we do?” The guards around him looked eager to try it themselves, curious about the experience.
Seeing that their comrades in the formation were still alive and unhard, they felt reassured.
Commander Xu frowned, thinking for a mont before pushing a guard forward, “You, walk twenty steps from here. No matter what you see or encounter, turn back imdiately. Understood?”
The guard replied eagerly, “Yes.”
He asured his steps precisely, understanding the command, and after twenty steps, he turned and trotted back.
“How is it? What did you see?” soone asked impatiently.
Even the people in the stands held their breath, waiting for his answer. Only Teng Yu and Yin Xu remained relaxed.
They trusted Yin Xu completely; nothing he said would surprise them, while the latter maintained an indifferent expression.
The guard scratched his head and stamred, “It’s just like what I see now.”
“What?”
“It’s the sa as what we see from here. The formation is still there, the people are still there. There’s no difference.”
Commander Xu frowned, “Go back and take thirty steps this ti!”
“Yes sir!”
The guard obediently left. However, after walking thirty steps and turning around, he was shocked to find the people in front of him had vanished, leaving only a small array of stones in an empty plaza.
He walked a few more steps and realized the situation was unchanged. He imdiately understood he had followed in his colleague’s footsteps and was trapped.
He tried shouting, but no one answered him. It was as if he were the only person in the entire square, terrifyingly alone.
All the guests turned to look at Yin Xu simultaneously. Seeing him being fed tea and pastries by the Third Prince, appearing so relaxed, their scalps tingled with unease.
Yin Xu swallowed the food in his mouth and kindly reminded them, “Don’t forget there’s a ti limit to every ga.”
Commander Xu’s heart skipped a beat, and his lips turned white. He couldn’t think of any effective asures.
“Why don’t we try removing the rocks from a distance?” Soone proposed a bright idea, which was imdiately adopted.
They found a few bows and selected so guards with exceptional archery skills to aim their arrows at the stones on the ground.
Although they had never seen this kind of formation before, it was likely that the small stones were central to it and could not escape its influence.
For the bodyguards, skilled in piercing trees with arrows from a hundred steps away, hitting the stone was a simple task compared to their usual training.
Despite their accurate shots, the target didn’t budge. Instead, all the arrows split in two and fell to the ground.
The guards lowered their heads and set aside their bows, shrugging to indicate their helplessness.
Commander Xu, out of options and pressed for ti, ordered, “Let’s attack together. We’ll bypass the formation and surround that area, then attack on my command!”
The guards moved swiftly, positioning themselves according to Xu’s orders. On his command, they raised their weapons, focused their inner force, avoided their trapped comrades, and aid at the stones.
“Bang…” The square was filled with flying sand and rocks, creating deep pits in the bluestone floor. Just as everyone felt triumphant, they noticed the small stones still stubbornly stuck in the holes.
As for the guards who thought they had broken through the array, they rushed in like headless flies, unable to find a way out.
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