And Then Escape

“…general!”

Liu Dan drowsily opened his eyes, and then the pain from all over his body rushed over like a tide. His eyes went dark, and he almost passed out again.

“No, the general was hit by gravel and seriously injured.”

Liu Dan felt that he was being carried on his back and there was someone whispering in his ears. These voices made him even more dizzy and he even wanted to vomit.

What happened?

Liu Dan had a severe headache and his mind went blank.

After a while, Liu Dan realized that he should have brought people to the mountain, wanting to catch the Si family by surprise.

Half of Qiuling County was part of the Si family business. The Si family caravan also witnessed the whole process, so the Bandit Sweeping General couldn’t hide the news that he was going to attack the Si family after he got the account book. He might as well strike while the iron is hot and take down the Si family in one go.

He didn’t procrastinate, after all, the Si family had been operating in Mount Silang for several generations, and no one knew how many troops they’d hidden in their basement. Still, one night should not be enough for the Si family to finish their preparations.

Liu Dan thought that he was fast enough, but he was still ambushed by the Si family on the way.

The Si family had already made preparations. While sending people to chase after the account book, they set up an ambush on the way up the mountain.

Although Liu Dan was careful enough to go out from the south gate of Qiuling County on the surface, even making a false move of leading the people around to the west gate and walking to another mountain road, they were still ambushed.

——the young master of the Si family actually knows him so well?

The moment Liu Dan encountered the ambush, he realized that he had underestimated his opponent.

The Si family was powerful in the local area and proficient in running amuck, but leading troops to fight wars should be a matter of generations ago. The Si family’s private soldiers also didn’t have the aura of elite soldiers and strong generals. The rumored young master of the Si family was more like a shrewd and capable businessman who was very good at making money and bribery to win relationships. On the surface, he can turn everything into gold, but secretly ferocious.

Liu Dan had seen many such people.

As a result, he was truly good at making money and ruthless, but the Si family’s young master was not just a businessman. He personally led people to ambush Liu Dan, not only guessing Liu Dan’s intentions but also knowing the time to attack just right.

As soon as there was an attack, Liu Dan was caught off guard and more than a dozen soldiers were killed.

If it wasn’t for Liu Dan’s rich experience on the battlefield and his bad intuition, stopping everyone from entering the valley, more people would have died under the rolling stones and falling trees.

Afterward, the two sides fought, and Liu Dan suddenly discovered that the Si family private soldiers he met earlier——were basically just a show of pretentiousness, powerful servants put on display for others to see. Although they could also shoot arrows and slash people, they could be defeated in one blow. However, this group of talents was the real elite soldiers, even their armor and swords were of high quality.

Liu Dan was extremely angry. This was like the ship capsized in the gutter*!

*something went wrong in the surest place, a mistake that shouldn’t have been made at all

He was blindsided! The Si family was not just greedy and powerful, they were also scheming, training soldiers, and digging gold mines. It’s clear that they want to rebel!

Obviously, the ancestors of the Si family failed to seize the opportunity when the world was in chaos, and could only stick to one place. When the Chu and Yuan Empires ruled the world, the Si family surrendered and only got the post of Qiuling County’s military officer. After more than fifty years, the Si family suddenly transformed into an ambitious family with great plans.

Although Liu Dan had the talent to lead an army, he was in the open while the Si family was in the dark. The other side had studied him thoroughly while he seriously underestimated the enemy’s strength. The enemy took advantage of the situation, so as soon as the two sides fought, he was immediately beaten and had to steadily retreat.

However, fighting was not just about tactics. General Liu would never abandon his men and run away when he was in trouble. He reorganized his army, led the crowd to attack the Si family’s private army, hacked and killed them with a sword, and tore a hole in the encirclement.

Just when he was about to break out of the siege and defeat the Si family’s army in turn, the young master of the Si family who had been watching the battle on the hillside made a move…

Recalling this point, Liu Dan couldn’t help roaring, “Damn Si Zhuan!”

“General is awake?”

Liu Dan’s soldiers were overjoyed, quickly putting him down, and busily getting the water bottle.

It was pitch black all around, and he couldn’t see anything clearly. Apart from the smell of the soil, there was also an indescribable unpleasant smell.

Liu Dan coughed twice, and asked in bewilderment, “What’s going on? This general only remembers being hit by that Si Zhuan guy and falling off the horse…”

He touched his chest and felt a dull pain, but luckily, the ribs were not broken.

“General, your heart protection armor is broken. I never thought that the young master of the Si family practiced martial arts…”

“He slapped his palm in the air, and he was able to get close from such a distance, is that as simple as practicing martial arts?” Liu Dan was about to die of anger, this was clearly a martial arts master!

Why do martial arts masters always have trouble with him?

Is he a martial arts master?

Liu Dan wanted to vomit blood. He struggled to stand up, stretching out his hand for guidance, and suddenly touched mud and moss.

“What kind of place is this?” Liu Dan suddenly had a bad feeling.

Could it be that their entire army was wiped out, and the Si family directly locked them into the underground mine to silence them?

“General, after you passed out…the ground shook!”

“What?” Liu Dan was dumbfounded.

“An earthquake, the earth dragon turned over!” The soldiers thought that Liu Dan didn’t hear clearly, so they tried their best to explain, “There was a lot of movement, and the hillside next to us sank into the ground. There are also many cracks in the valley where we are, so while saving the General, we accidentally slipped into a smaller crack, and it’s only after the earthquake passed that we found the top blocked by boulders and couldn’t get out at all!”

“What about the rest?”

“…I don’t know, there are only a dozen of us trapped in this crack. The crack was long and we kept going, digging through rocks and dirt, looking for an exit.”

As soon as the soldier finished speaking, the ground shook again.

Liu Dan was hit in the chest by the young master of the Si family, causing internal injuries and chest tightness. He was also hit on the head a few times during the earthquake and became dizzy. Now faced with the ground shaking, he finally couldn’t hold it anymore and vomited.

The soldiers thought that their general was vomiting blood from his injuries and was terrified.

The aftershocks stopped, and a sour smell filled the narrow tunnel.

“Um?”

Liu Dan supported himself with the stone walls and measured the width of the tunnel with his arms, which seemed smaller than before.

“Why do I feel like this crack is closing?”

When the earth dragon turns over, there might be cracks in the ground and a “line in the sky” scene, or it might push two cliffs together and make the valleys disappear without a trace.

“Not good! General, we must quickly find the exit!”

Otherwise, they would be squeezed into meatloaf in this dark underground.

Liu Dan was supported and they ran forward in a stumbling manner.

Maybe it’s luck, they didn’t encounter any boulders blocking their way again. Some stones were thrown aside by the huge tree roots, and the more they walked, the more lush the vegetation seemed to be. Even underground, they could feel a lot of moss on all sides.

“There seems to be sound ahead!”

Liu Dan was refreshed, and while feeling the stones and walking forward, he really felt that the terrain of the tunnel was slowly rising.

“Boom.”

It’s the sound of thunder and rain!

Everyone excitedly moved a stone away and was caught off guard by the mud-like water spray.

“Dig quickly!”

The water poured into the tunnel, and everyone desperately dug. Finally, the first person covered in mud climbed out of the tunnel.

“General, we’re out!”

Liu Dan was half pushed and half carried out by the soldiers and left the tunnel. He looked up at the sky and suddenly saw a bolt of lightning appearing in the night sky while the pouring rain made his face ache.

In fact, the place where they’re located was still a crack, but it’s very wide, and there were no stones blocking it on all sides, including the top. The ground was full of ravines as if it had been cut by a legendary giant spirit god with a knife.

Liu Dan narrowed his eyes. He seemed to see a pile of stone ruins in the distance.

“General, there seems to be a tree on the hillside over there. We have a rope, so we can go up from here!”

Liu Dan followed the direction pointed out by the soldiers and saw that it was indeed a big tree. The crown of the tree was also very dense and it was hard to see what kind of tree it was from a distance, but this was the twelfth lunar month, shouldn’t the leaves have fallen off? Can pines and cypresses have such dense branches and leaves?

Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating General Liu, who was covered in mud in the ravine, and the people next to the tree.

Feeling that it’s not safe for the tree to stay there, Mo Li who was digging the tree carefully: “…”

Although he didn’t know why the tree had to be dug up, but since the doctor said to dig it, Meng Qi: “…”

Before Mo Li made a move, he went to the ruins of the Si family stronghold for a look and felt there was no life beneath it. Coupled with the sound of rain and thunder covering the movement underground, it wasn’t until this time that a group of people was found in the muddy water three feet away.

Digging a tree was much more difficult than digging ginseng. Mo Li didn’t want to break the roots of the tree, so he had to dig along with the soil, which made him and Meng Qi also covered in mud.

Two clay figurines and a group of clay figurines looked at each other.

Liu Dan and the others were covered in mud all over their faces, so even ghosts couldn’t recognize who they were.

——however, the nature of martial arts masters determines that work belongs to work, so Meng Qi’s and Mo Li’s faces were still clean.

Liu Dan really vomited blood this time, why did he still see these two people when he crawled out of the ground?

Even from underground ah!

When I came out, I saw the State Teacher digging a tree!

In the middle of the night, under the wind and rain, secretly digging trees!

“General!”

The soldiers were still in shock, and when they saw Liu Dan vomiting blood, they panicked.

“Oh.” Meng Qi understood this address, turned to Mo Li, and said, “It’s moneybag Liu!”

Mo Li didn’t know what to say. Why did Liu Dan vomit blood? Was he that scary?

“Hold the tree first!”

Mo Li jumped down the ravine, pushed away the soldiers surrounding General Liu with his internal force, familiarly stretched out his hand to check the pulse, and wiped Liu Dan’s face with the rain to see how he looked.

“It’s an internal injury.” Mo Li heaved a sigh of relief, it turned out that he wasn’t scared.

Liu Dan’s injury was not serious, and he had the power of elixir in his body which could save lives at critical moments.

“I’ll take you out, find a place to shelter from the rain, and wait overnight. If there’s no fever, your injuries will slowly heal.” Mo Li injected a stream of spiritual energy into Liu Dan’s body and was about to carry him out of the ravine when Meng Qi said.

“Somebody is coming.”

Everyone looked up together, only to see a few figures coming from a distance.

These people had very good qinggong, quickly arriving in front of the ruins of the stone stronghold in the blink of an eye.

“How?”

The man in the lead roared in grief. Although there were stains on his clothes, he was not panicked, and they could immediately recognize who he was.

“It’s Si Zhuan! General…”

Before the soldier finished speaking, the man sharply turned his head and looked straight to their side.

“General? How many generals will enter Mount Silang tonight?”

Si Zhuan’s eyes were red, and with a flash of his figure, he reached the top of the ravine.

Meng Qi, who was supporting the tree, happened to be in the shadow, and Si Zhuan came from behind him without seeing him at all.

Si Zhuan stared at Liu Dan, who was bleeding from the corner of his mouth, and sharply laughed: “The general is truly lucky. You can still escape the catastrophe by taking advantage of natural disasters like this! I have been planning for many years but in the end, I am not as good as the heavens, and the foundation of the Si family is even ruined, but it doesn’t matter…I still have a gold mine in my hand, and I can make a comeback at any time, but you, Liu Dan, is doomed to die under this mountain. Disappear without a trace!”

Liu Dan was furious and wanted to curse, but ended up coughing because of his injuries.

Mo Li motioned for General Liu’s soldiers to pat his back.

However, in Si Zhuan’s view, Mo Li, covered in mud and supporting Liu Dan, should also be a soldier of this General Liu.

Can a master be covered in mud?

Besides, when he ambushed Liu Dan before, this Bandit Sweeping General had no martial arts master at all!

“Mount Silang is so big, but you still bumping into my path is God’s destiny!”

Si Zhuan was furious because the Si family stronghold was turned into ruins and the well-trained private army suffered heavy casualties. He was in need of someone to vent his anger on, and killing Liu Dan with a sword was no longer enough to satisfy him.

“No one will know your whereabouts anymore! Hahaha, I heard that what General Liu is most afraid of is experiencing what happened to Qian Baihu of Jinyiwei. I heard that he disappeared in the deep mountains of Bazhou, no one had seen him alive and no corpse was seen…how about it, if you kneel down and beg for mercy, I will let you die happily, otherwise——”

Si Zhuan stretched out his hand and pointed at Mo Li, angrily saying, “I’ll try it with your own soldiers first, and let you see what a human pig is.”

The author has something to say:

Author: Let me see, this chapter activates a “meet the protagonist by chance” buff to increase the survival rate of supporting characters.

Liu Dan summoned a table from a different dimension and threw it down in a rage (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Liu Dan: I won’t be acting anymore, it’s lunchtime!

Author (pushing glasses, ignoring): Come, put the shot while lying down debuff on the protagonist…the what’s this nonsense expression pack on little Mo Li and the infinitely reduce his sense of presence passerby aura to Meng Qi.

Meng Qi: …

Mo Li: …