Boom boom——
The sound of hoofbeats grew closer and closer, the barbarian squad had already chased to within 300 meters behind.
Li Yao looked back on horseback, she could already vaguely see the figures of the barbarians. This was still her first time seeing the barbarians in this world. Although from afar, she could still make out that they were very tall and strong, their combat ability was certainly not weak.
She had no intention of taking on over thirty people alone, especially battling on horseback, which was not her specialty to begin with, so it was tantamount to suicide.
As an assassin, the most important thing was to hide herself, and then make full use of timing, geography, people and harmony to kill the enemies one by one.
When the war horse galloped into a patch of grass up to the knees, she instantly flipped off the horse, slid a dagger out of her sleeve, and stabbed it heavily into the butt of one of the horses.
The horse neighed in pain and frantically galloped forward. Li Yao hid herself in the thick grass.
Boom boom——
The dense sound of hoofbeats passed by less than ten meters outside of her hiding place, chasing after the two riderless horses.
But this did not mean safety.
The barbarians would quickly catch up to those two horses. Upon discovering no one was riding them, they would immediately double back.
So before that happened, she had to prepare everything as best she could.
From her backpack, Li Yao took out some gadgets she had prepared in advance over this period of time. They were a perfect combination of her own designs and Xia Xian’s craftsmanship. After setting up some traps, Li Yao took out a small folding shovel and quickly dug a hole in the thick grass, making a patch of turf about the same size.
Although not perfect, on a night like this, it could barely serve as a hiding place.
At this moment, the sound of hoofbeats approached from the front again. It seemed this squad of barbarians was rather elite, with quick reactions and mobility.
But however elite they were, they never expected that Li Yao, just one person, would dare make a move against over thirty of them.
"He must be hiding in this thick grass, find him!"
At the leader's command, over thirty people immediately fanned out to search the not-so-large area of thick grass.
But just then, with a swoosh, a metal arrow accurately pierced through the throat of a barbarian soldier.
Li Yao scored a hit and immediately escaped far away.
By the time the surrounding barbarian soldiers reacted, she had already hidden quite far.
Seeing this, the barbarian sub-leader immediately responded: "Don't spread out too much, three men per team!"
But even so, Liu Xiu still had countermeasures.
A team of three men approached the trap she had set. Their horses triggered the mechanism.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh ——
Several arrows shot out, directly piercing two men's bodies.
These arrows were coated with a powerful paralytic poison. Although not fatal immediately, they would quickly paralyze the victim and incapacitate them.
The one not hit by the arrows turned his horse around to retreat, but how could Li Yao give him that chance? Her exquisite crossbow arrow lifted and shot, cutting him down directly, before she again quickly escaped far away.
Having lost four men in the blink of an eye, the barbarian sub-leader was a little angry. He gathered everyone together in a horizontal formation over 20 meters wide.
But Li Yao had set several traps. Soon, poison arrows struck ten more men.
"Set fire to it!"
The barbarian sub-leader was furious. No longer caring whether to keep them alive, he brought his men to the upwind side and lit the dried thick grass.
Fanned by the wind, the flames quickly burned away all the thick grass cleanly.
But when they stepped through the ashes to search for corpses, they found nothing.
At this time, Li Yao had already hidden far away in the dug pit from earlier, covered beneath the thick grass turf. If they didn't look closely, it was basically impossible to notice.
What she had to be thankful for was that the barbarians did not keep dogs. Otherwise, just one moderately trained hunting hound could easily sniff her out in the blink of an eye.
Not having found even a shadow, and having lost half their men, the barbarian sub-leader could only curse his bad luck.
"He must have set traps and left early," he comforted himself in the end. "Take the wounded and horses, we're going back."
The sound of hoofbeats grew further and further, but Li Yao still did not budge an inch in her pit.
Her acute hearing noticed that the barbarians had not all left. At least five remained hidden nearby in the grass.
Despite the cold night wind, these barbarians were impervious to cold by nature. They kept watch the whole night.
Not until the sky lightened slightly did their sub-leader return to retrieve them.
Only when she could no longer hear any hoofbeats did Li Yao emerge from her dugout.
No wonder even Daling’s main forces struggled against the barbarians. These were no mere reckless cavaliers.
Watching the sun slowly rise, Li Yao stretched and ate some rations and clean water.
Now she had lost her horse. The road ahead would be more arduous and dangerous. But this long lost feeling filled her whole body with fighting spirit.
After getting her bearings, Li Yao started quickly running across the grasslands.
The next two days, relying on her keen hearing and sense of danger, she perfectly avoided several barbarian squads.
But there were still no signs of Daling's camp across the vast grasslands.
The rations and water she carried had run out.
Although with her skills she wouldn’t starve in the grasslands, this was a place she could encounter barbarians anytime, leaving her unable to safely search for food and water.
It seemed she would have to think of something.
Li Yao lay amidst the thick grass, concealing herself, and began planning her next steps.
She decided to properly rest during the day. Then at night, she would try to encounter a barbarian squad, seize some horses and rations if she got the chance.
......
Night fell again on the grasslands. Based on experience from the previous two days, the deeper she went into the grasslands, the more likely she was to encounter barbarian squads, with almost 100 percent probability.
They treated the rear of Daling’s army like their own backyard, coming as they pleased.
She just didn't know how many tonight’s group would have.
Lying amidst the grass, Li Yao waited until late into the night. Sure enough, she faintly heard the muffled sound of hoofbeats from underground.
After carefully discerning, her heart lept with joy. It was only a squad of over a dozen men.
If she could ambush them, she could potentially wipe them all out under cover of this thick grass.
So she took out the last things in her package and quickly started laying traps. To lure them in, she deliberately lit a small campfire.
"There's someone over there!”
Like hunting dogs spotting a rabbit, the barbarian squad frantically rode over.
But up close, they only saw an extinguished campfire.
"He can't have gone far," said the leader. "Search the thick grass! Be careful, I heard this guy is very good at laying traps. Use those wooden sticks!"
Over ten men stopped their horses outside the thick grass. Holding their weapons and wooden sticks, they started searching in a dragnet formation.
What comforted them was halfway through, they still hadn't encountered any traps or ambushes, much less a scent of humans.
The sub-leader sitting tall on his horse outside the thick grass oversaw it all in the moonlight: "He must be in the grass, keep searching!"
But the moment his words fell, a black shadow rapidly approached from behind. To reduce weight, the barbarians wore armor made of thick ox hides rather than steel. This gave Li Yao the perfect chance to strike as she silently pierced the back of the sub-leader's neck with an arrow. The sub-leader only had time for a muffled grunt before falling off his horse.
Having assassinated the leader, she'd accomplished half her goal. Next, Li Yao took out a firesteel and began setting fires from upwind.