Chapter 127: Sudden Reversal

Zhao Qinghe suddenly pointed at the lake below and said, "Lu Yao wants to escape by boat!"

Everyone looked and saw Lu Yao gathering his remaining forces, fighting and retreating. He had untied the small boats at the wooden pier by the shore, clearly intending to escape to the center of the lake.

However, only thirty to forty of his fierce bandits remained, and their numbers were rapidly decreasing. So, the seven or eight boats by the shore were more than enough.

By this point, Lu Yao had no time to worry about his image; he leaped onto the first boat and was about to head towards the lake's center.

Wu Shaoyi swung his saber, cutting down two men, and roared, "Seize the boats, stop him!"

The struggle for boats by the lakeshore continued. Wu Shaoyi's subordinates, who had retreated from Xishan, arrived one after another, unleashing a volley of arrows towards the lake's center.

Lu Yao held his shield forward, deflecting all the arrows. Two personal guards beside him were caught off guard, struck by arrows, and fell. Lu Yao pushed the two obstructing bodies into the water. No one noticed him reaching a hand into the water and releasing some powder.

The powder turned red upon contact with water, but the surrounding area was already covered in blood, masking its unusual nature.

The bandit rowing for him also fell dead from an arrow. Lu Yao's small boat spun twice, drifting less than a zhang (about 3.3 meters) from the shore.

Seeing Lu Yao so close and sensing that the lakeside slope here wasn't very steep, Wu Shaoyi, eager to kill his enemy, simply waded into the waist-deep lake water and charged directly at Lu Yao.

A sinister smile, however, crept onto Lu Yao's lips:

"You brought this upon yourself."

Less than five feet from the boat, Wu Shaoyi charged forward rapidly. Suddenly, the water surface to his front left erupted.

With a "splash," a massive dark shadow surged out from under the water!

The churning waves splashed high into the air, and as they fell, they turned into a fine drizzle.

Rain thick with the smell of blood.

He Lingchuan and the others on the mountainside were dumbfounded. Before the waves completely subsided, they realized:

Wu Shaoyi was gone.

Wu Shaoyi, such a powerful rebel general who had thrice cut down generals sent by the royal court, was dragged underwater by the dark shadow in just a single encounter?

Mao Tao felt a chill run down his spine and stammered, "What... what was that?"

The dark shadow appeared for too short a time and moved too quickly. Coupled with the dim light by the lake, even with everyone's keen eyesight, they could only glimpse a fleeting black mass.

But compared to the nearby small boat, its size was truly immense!

It was longer than two boats connected bow to stern.

This was a monster that human power simply couldn't withstand. Moreover, Wu Shaoyi was attacked while in the water, giving him no chance to even retaliate.

Both bandit forces, locked in a fierce battle, froze. But immediately, their reactions differed:

Lu Yao's bandits cheered loudly, raising their weapons and launching a fierce counterattack.

Their excitement was like a shot of adrenaline; it seemed as if they weren't the ones who had been begging for mercy moments earlier.

In contrast, Wu Shaoyi's bandits, apart from a few loyal confidantes who cried "General" and plunged into the water to search, seemed bewildered.

"Lu Yao and his men know what that dark shadow is," He Lingchuan exclaimed. "That's what killed Madam Zhu's husband!"

Madam Zhu had mentioned her husband escaping by boat; the boat capsized before reaching the lake's center, and he vanished. No one in the entire village, young or old, saw how he disappeared.

Isn't that exactly like the current situation?

In the brief moment of Wu Shaoyi's bandits' hesitation, a bandit suddenly screamed and fell backward into the water.

Something underwater was violently dragging and shaking him; he had no ability to resist.

Other bandits ran towards the shore, shouting.

From a distance, He Lingchuan couldn't hear clearly. "What are they shouting?"

"It sounds like..." Zhao Qinghe suddenly pointed. "Crocodile!"

Mao Tao also cried out, "Good heavens, it's enormous!"

Wu Shaoyi's bandits were dragged down one after another; clearly, something in the water was biting people. One unfortunate man had just stepped his front foot onto the shore when a dark shadow lunged from behind and bit him around the waist!

Only when the creature fully crawled onto the bank could He Lingchuan and the others clearly see that it was, astonishingly, a huge crocodile.

A massive, black, reflective crocodile with fearsome scales all over its body.

This one was nearly two zhang (about 6.6 meters) long, and another one, about a zhang (about 3.3 meters) in length, rushed over from the side to contend for the prey with it.

One bit, one tore; each crocodile took half.

Judging by the way Wu Shaoyi's bandits were flailing in the water, there were likely more of these creatures at the bottom of the lake.

From this, it could be inferred that the one that attacked Wu Shaoyi was also a crocodile demon, but that creature was simply too enormous; these younger ones weren't even fit to carry its shoes.

Humans naturally have an instinctive fear of such creatures with gaping maws and sharp teeth. Wu Shaoyi's bandits had no mind to fight anymore and fled screaming towards land. Lu Yao let out a long laugh. "My lads, get to shore!"

He pointed his great axe towards the shore. "Listen up, you lot! Wu Shaoyi is dead. Those who surrender to me now will share meat, wine, and money together in the future. Those who refuse to follow me, get lost immediately and don't let me see you again!"

Leveraging the dark creature's power, he instantly transformed from prey to hunter. His subordinates rushed ashore, once again surrounding him.

By this point, He Lingchuan understood: this fellow had deliberately feigned weakness earlier, creating the illusion of escaping by boat to lure Wu Shaoyi towards the water.

Wu Shaoyi, eager for glory, advanced rashly and fell into the dark creature's trap.

The situation suddenly reversed; Wu Shaoyi's side's advantage vanished completely, and Lu Yao now seemed poised to have the last laugh.

Just then, Lu Yao suddenly looked towards the western mountainside, as if sensing He Lingchuan's presence.

There were torches on the mountainside, and the figures of the government soldiers were still quite distinct.

Lu Yao grinned at them, then drew a hand across his throat, making a cutting gesture.

At this moment, several of Wu Shaoyi's lieutenants cursed him, "Surrender to a low-class monster like you? Will we be eating human flesh with you from now on?"

Lu Yao stopped smiling.

Mao Tao murmured, "This is trouble now."

"Hold out for as long as we can. We still have over ten carts, including the villagers'!" He Lingchuan remembered there was a mystic among the soldiers guarding the rear, quickly found him, and asked a few questions.

Over half an hour later.

Lu Yao wiped a smear of blood and flesh from his axe, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and called out, "Assemble! Count heads!"

Wu Shaoyi's remaining forces had been scattered: some fled, some defected, some surrendered, and the stubborn ones were all fed to the crocodiles.

The crocodiles slowly crawled onto the shore, looking sated. But the largest one hadn't appeared, hinting at a hidden, powerful leader.

After his subordinates counted the numbers, Lu Yao's force, originally over two hundred men, had been reduced by more than half after Wu Shaoyi's surprise attack, but now it had expanded to nearly four hundred. Including the seven hundred ambushing troops at Whistle Rock and the five hundred stationed in the town, his total army size had grown to nearly sixteen hundred men.

But Lu Yao was still very dissatisfied.

If the three factions had met as planned, and he had secured the leadership, his army should have been much larger.

After all, most of Wu Shaoyi's bandits had refused to join him and chose to leave instead.

Whose fault was this situation? Lu Yao looked towards the western mountainside, a cold glint in his eyes. "Blame these government soldiers!"