Feng Yi was watching the fight of the Imperial Guards and pirates, her eyes focused and attentive, paying attention to details and reading movents.
"What do you see?", Wu Long's voice reached her ears, as she felt his presence from behind, the warmth coming off him reaching her even without touch, though unable to tell when he got so close to her.
"...", she gulped at first, a rush of emotions disrupting her earlier focus and train of thought, but then after a brief mont of self-reprimand, and reminding herself it wasn't the ti or place to have such thoughts, replied, "... opportunities, at least three or four almost stable trajectories appear from ti to ti"
"Good, that's the mindset of an Archery Cultivator", his smile was apparent in his voice, "What else?"
"Were they… trained with support from archers in mind…? The way they leave gaps for perfect shots is quite consistent", she replied, while inwardly sighing with relief, taking his reaction as being satisfied with what he heard, and thus glad he didn't notice her montary slip of thoughts.
"Yes", Wu Long nodded, "What about timing?"
"They give a breath's ti for a shot to be made, but I still can't figure out the pattern of timing, when to expect them to create an opening, it seems irregular", Feng Yi sighed, I'm not sure I can make most of the shots because the best timing to aim is gone by the ti I notice them"
"It's because they don't have archers here - they're making the maneuvers out of habit because it has been drilled into them during training and subsequent experience. If they had archers as a backup there would be a pattern, though it would've changed from ti to ti to not let the enemy adjust to it", he explained, "It seems you have so ideas"
"I was thinking of telling Father about it…", she smiled, not surprised at how easily he read her intentions, or rather, aspirations, "though we don't have a group of Archery Cultivators among our troops to make use of it"
"I'll ask Fen Baihu to show him this fight", Wu Long replied, "as for Archery Cultivators, it's never too late to train soone from the War Palace who has talent for it, or recruit more people who could be trained"
"You're not interested in recruiting already experienced Archery Cultivators?", she turned her olive green eyes slightly up and to the side, as his face was now almost hovering over her, his hands hugging her from behind.
"Maybe if we et any who are promising, but I would prefer to raise the majority of those archers from ground up, you know my stance on the trade off between loyalty and ability", his words vaguely told her what he ant, but in reality she wasn't able to concentrate on them because of his hands around her slim waist, and then the start of his whisper into her ear sent shivers through her, "now, how about you tell what you thought about when I asked you what you saw?"
After a mont of startled silence, her slightly disoriented mind started catching up to the aning of his words, and her blush intensified. She then narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, protesting "You! You...! Ugh..."
He started laughing with delight as the beauty in his arms wanted to both complain about his teasing and at the sa ti continue hiding in his embrace from the view of her Dao Sisters.
The embarrassed and slightly prickly look in her eyes was bewitching, making it worth teasing her, but at the sa ti it put him into a mood for which the pirate situation developing around the Beast of Burden beca a nuisance.
'I guess I better deal with this ss then, it was about to get to that point anyway', he inwardly chuckled, throwing a glance into the distance, as light wind started rising.
—
"Tsk… useless idiots…", the pirate leader clicked his tongue in frustration after throwing a glance at the disorganized and ssy movents of his n, very slowly losing one or two fighters in clumsy retreat.
"What did you expect from a bunch of thieves and lowlifes?", the Imperial Guards Captain spoke after his spear clashed against the opponent's saber, the wind that started rising making the red tassel near the spear blade flutter.
The latter glared at him from the holes of the mask, the smug and relaxed attitude he had before the fight long gone. He could not gain an advantage he clearly predicted, as his opponent was far superior to his expectations.
He also didn't bother acting like he cared about the insult thrown at the pirates, or keep the pretense of being an ordinary pirate just like those he commanded were, there was no point arguing with sothing both of them knew was true, though he still didn't acknowledge anything outright either.
Thus, it was even more problematic if this attack failed, and this man returned to the Wei Dynasty.
The frustrations piled up, and hesitation appeared in the eyes behind the mask, one that the Imperial Guards Captain didn't like at all, since it was the gaze of soone inwardly debating using an extraordinary asure.
Imperial Guards Captain didn't show signs of noticing it, continuing to fight without increasing his efforts or urgency to not push the pirate into rash decisions. But at the sa ti, he started building up Profound Qi for a special move, the kind that cultivators rarely revealed early into the fight since it was usually sothing that they couldn't use that many tis, and preferred to be certain to not miss.
However, the next mont, the look in the eyes behind the mask of the pirate leader changed in a blink of an eye, as did the captain's, when his Spiritual Sense detected an approaching group of seven, all of them in lower two levels of Essence Gathering Realm.
The two opponents widened the distance, instantly sensing an incoming change to the battlefield, even as the others continued to be locked in stalemate in the background.
"You're late!", the pirate leader spoke with a bit of frustration that followed that brief mont of relief he felt at the newcors who quickly beca visible flying through the stone maze, and then stopped a short distance away, looking over the entire scene, "That's why I told you not to go 'exploring the ruins' just days away from the job!"
"Quit nagging, we're here, aren't we? Ca as soon as we got your talisman ssage", one of the seven spoke while cleaning his ear with his pinky.
"Yeah, we even had to stop midway through our 'exploration', cutting short all of the fun", the other spoke, holding his ox-tailed sword dripping with clearly fresh blood, which Imperial Guards Captain was certain to belong to human.
"You were paid much more than you possibly could get from the suckers exploring the ruins anyway, just focus on doing what you were paid, don't you want the other half of the paynt?", the pirate leader said with annoyance, mostly just venting his frustrations than actually hoping his words will be respected by these seven.
"Fine, fine, stop the hysteria", another one with a deeper voice grumbled, not appreciating the tone and attitude of the pirate leader, but the seven pairs of eyes were already sizing up the Imperial Guards Captain.
The latter clenched his teeth, knowing that this shift in developnts ant that the situation was decisively not in their favor. In fact, they were most certainly dood.
As if reflecting his mood, the light of the moon first dimd and then was hidden away as shadows crept over the area, enveloping it in deep darkness. The yellow lights of the lanterns hanging from the Beast of Burden and the vessel on its back beca brighter in contrast. And a heavy atmosphere lood over the whole scene, not just because of tension of hostilities, but physically as well, an ambient pressure resembling air before a coming storm.
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