Meng Jianqing sat beneath a small pine tree barely half a person’s height, examining the crossbow his two guards were assembling. This cumbersome bed crossbow could penetrate heavy armor at a distance of one li when fired from level ground. Now positioned atop this ten-zhang-high precipice, its range should reach a li and a half.

No one would imagine someone could carry such a heavy weapon up such a cliff, then wait on the precipice for a battle opportunity that might never come. Meng Jianqing chose this location for an ambush simply because it was on the necessary route from Zhang Fan’s garrison to Zhu Neng’s main camp – he considered it worth waiting for prey like a hunter by a tree stump.

After Wei Huan’s modifications, the bed crossbow could be disassembled and reassembled. Meng Jianqing, with his two guards, made three round trips under the cover of night to finally transport all components, including fifty arrows, to this clifftop area no larger than two tabletops. Two solitary pines on the cliff concealed them from Yan’s army patrol sight, though even without these pines, Meng Jianqing had planned to plant some camouflage.

However, he hadn’t expected that after waiting all night, he would see Master Daoyan escorted into Zhang Fan’s camp by Yan troops transporting military pay. The main force immediately turned toward Zhu Neng’s camp without waiting for the great monk.

Meng Jianqing immediately sensed an opportunity and ordered preparations.

Though they had already tested this bed crossbow’s range from various heights, the two guards repeatedly corrected their positions and adjusted their sights, determined to hit with one strike. Meng Jianqing slowly and carefully applied poison to each arrowhead.

Half an hour later, Daoyan emerged from camp, accompanied only by four monks, four palace guards, and a hundred-man escort unit, heading directly for Zhu Neng’s camp.

A heaven-sent opportunity.

But just before reaching firing range, Daoyan inexplicably turned back without warning.

Meng Jianqing’s expression darkened. His two guards couldn’t help but curse the thieving monk and bald donkey under their breath.

This was too much.

Even more excessive was what followed.

They waited until afternoon before seeing Zhang Fan’s troops ride out from camp in squadrons. However, this deployment was unusual. Each unit had its objective, and from Meng Jianqing’s high vantage point, they seemed to flow like mercury, penetrating everywhere. Within moments, nearly every strategic point from Zhang Fan’s garrison to Zhu Neng’s camp was successively controlled.

Horn calls sounded from far to near as each unit took position and prepared.

The camp gates opened, and Daoyan finally emerged under heavy escort.

Meng Jianqing’s hand holding the telescope trembled slightly.

Though Meng Jianchen and the others still wore ordinary soldier armor, far fewer people accompanied them this time. Meng Jianqing easily recognized among the mass of armor a figure that remained familiar despite years of separation.

There was more than one familiar figure.

He lowered his telescope, feeling rare hesitation.

Once discovered within such a vast net, escape would be nearly impossible.

He should have eliminated that damned Li Mo long ago.

If he didn’t act… but after Zhang Fan saw off Daoyan, he might still turn back to close the net.

Under the sunlight, the poison applied earlier had dried. Meng Jianqing once again coated the arrowheads with poison. Fortunately, he had brought sufficient poison, or his efforts might be wasted.

Daoyan’s group drew closer, approaching the bed’s crossbow’s firing range.

Daoyan suddenly looked up toward the precipice.

The moment he raised his head, Meng Jianqing closed his eyes and dropped down, simultaneously pressing his two guards’ heads low. He preferred to believe that Daoyan, this renowned high monk, possessed some mysterious intuition enabling him to see what others could not.

Daoyan looked toward the precipice far beyond the bed crossbow’s one-li range because his heart again felt that uneasy sensation of being watched.

On the cliff, Meng Jianqing’s thoughts raced. Faced with someone as perceptive as Daoyan, assassinating him seemed too difficult. He had only one chance and couldn’t waste it.

His gaze swept past Meng Jianchen and Gongsun Yi, who stayed close to Meng Jianchen, then turned to Gao Qianhu, paused, then shifted to Li Mo, and finally to Zhang Fan. Who should he choose to avoid wasting this precious opportunity?

Daoyan’s heart suddenly lightened, as if a stone had been lifted.

He exhaled slightly. Perhaps he was being overly suspicious.

But he immediately understood his alertness wasn’t unfounded. In the afternoon autumn sun, a volley of arrows shrieked through the air like a dark cloud. The sharp whistling of the arrows caused everyone to react instinctively. The four monks quickly tackled Daoyan from his saddle and surrounded him, while the four palace guards raised shields overhead.

Meng Jianchen turned his horse toward the arrows, raising his long spear in an “Eight Winds and Clouds” technique, the spinning spear flowers protecting him completely. Gongsun Yi reined in his horse and luckily stopped directly behind him. Gao Qianhu, following closely, quickly rolled from his saddle to hide behind his horse.

However, they soon discovered the arrows targeted the troops behind them.

After Wei Huan’s improvements, the bed crossbow’s arrows possessed extraordinary force and speed. Even for a veteran like Zhang Fan, defense was extremely difficult. Of his four deputy generals, two dodged successfully, one was struck in the right arm, and one had his cheek grazed by an arrow. However, over ten soldiers at the front all fell to the arrows.

Li Mo was most unlucky. His reactions were naturally slow, and he was at the center of the crossbow’s target. Despite two personal guards fighting desperately to protect him, he was still struck by three arrows.

While dodging the crossbow bolts, Zhang Fan blew his horn.

The nearest Yan ten-man squad to Meng Jianqing simultaneously fired signal rockets.

Meng Jianqing severed the trigger mechanism with one stroke. Without time to dismantle the bed crossbow, the three men quickly rappelled down ropes. Rounding the precipice, they met the nearby ten-man squad rushing to intercept them. At first sight, seeing the opponents also wear Yan army uniforms, the ten-man squad hesitated slightly. But Meng Jianqing immediately threw three small knives. Before the squad could draw bows and nock arrows, three men were struck and fell from their horses. The two guards behind Meng Jianqing charged forward. Though their hand crossbows had short range, at such close distance every arrow found its mark. The result was that after one encounter, only two men remained of the ten-man squad, but they too were struck down by Meng Jianqing’s second attack.

A quarter-hour later, three reinforcing ten-man squads arrived to see ten horses each carrying a Yan soldier’s body scattering in all directions, with three corpses lying below the precipice. After a moment’s shock, they split up in pursuit.

The encirclement net slowly tightened as planned, though unable to contract to the expected density immediately. The Yan soldier corpses, hastily bound to ten horses with reins, fell off one by one during the gallop across wilderness and forest.

Only six corpses could be seen on the plain. The Yan army could only search carefully in the forests the horses had passed through while sending riders to report the situation to Zhang Fan.

Zhang Fan’s original plan was to first trap Meng Jianqing with this net, use the time to escort Master Daoyan to Zhu Neng’s camp, then return to concentrate forces and resolve the matter.

But clearly, the plan now had problems. Had Gao Qianhu not promptly produced four Resurrection Pills – giving one each to two deputy generals, two to Li Mo, who was most severely poisoned, temporarily preserving their lives – his losses would have been enormous.

He could only hold his position and assess the situation.

The two uninjured deputy generals had organized the troops into a circular formation, protecting Daoyan and the others in the center.

Daoyan sat cross-legged on the ground, listening intently to the commotion. After a while, he beckoned to Meng Jianchen and Gongsun Yi: “Go check below the cliff.”

The two men hesitated only briefly before leading a squad of personal guards on horseback.

Moments later, signal rockets rose from behind the cliff.

Hadn’t Meng Jianqing and his men already disguised themselves as Yan soldier corpses carried on horseback and scattered to escape, likely hiding in some forest? What were Meng Jianchen’s two men signaling about?

Zhang Fan suddenly understood – the three corpses below the cliff were what Meng Jianqing’s three men had disguised themselves as. The encircling Yan army had probably rushed to chase the horses without careful inspection.

Daoyan smiled: “Such commotion here will likely alert Hu Jinyong.”

Zhu Neng’s main army had been tied down by the southern army’s main force for days and couldn’t be counted on. They had to concentrate forces and close the net before Hu Jinyong appeared.

At sunset, horns sounded from Zhang Fan’s distant camp while southern army drums responded simultaneously – Hu Jinyong was indeed taking advantage of the chaos.

However, they also saw signal rockets indicating the successful encirclement of Meng Jianqing.

Zhang Fan ordered the horns blown. Scattered units across the plain quickly converged on him.

Both of Meng Jianqing’s guards had died in battle, and he was wounded in several places. Though he stood alone on horseback within the heavy encirclement, Yan soldiers still dared not approach. Meng Jianqing surveyed the arrows aimed from all sides, then looked at Meng Jianchen and Gongsun Yi across from him. After thinking, he said: “Let’s go. Take me to see Zhang Fan and Daoyan.”

On the way, Meng Jianqing tore strips from his clothing to bind his wounds, preventing excessive blood loss. Meng Jianchen rode alongside at a distance, his lips curled in a half-smile: “Elder brother truly keeps his composure.”

Meng Jianqing replied matter-of-factly: “Since Prince Yan sent you, he naturally has other intentions. Why should I be anxious?”

Meng Jianchen looked him up and down: “You won’t let us search you, yet you want to see General Zhang and Master Daoyan. I strongly suspect you’re planning another assassination attempt with this opportunity.”

Meng Jianqing smiled: “I don’t want to die yet.”