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墨書 Inktalez
In the Fox Fairy Cave behind the mountain, Lin Dahe rubbed his sore eyes and said, "Put it together with Aunt Wang's grain."
Cui Xiaoman burst into the ancestral hall, clutching a faded bundle. "I found it! The treasure at the bottom of the Mad Old Woman's chest!"
As she unwrapped the bundle, several embroidered diagrams on coarse cloth revealed themselves. The stitches were astonishingly fine; from a distance, they appeared to be a lucky pattern of magpies perched on branches, but up close, hidden secrets emerged—each bird's position corresponded to a tactical formation, and the direction of the branches indicated ambush routes!
"This is..." Lin Dahe's finger hovered above the embroidery.
"A modified version of the Yuanyang Formation used by the Qijia Army," Cui Xiaoman exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. "My father mentioned it in his books!" She suddenly lowered her voice, "The Mad Old Woman's man was one of Qijiguang's personal soldiers back in the day..."
A system notification suddenly popped up with historical data: [Qijiguang, a famous Ming dynasty general known for resisting Japanese pirates, created the Twelve-Person Yuanyang Formation specifically to counter their sabers]. Lin Dahe's heart raced; how many secrets could this seemingly ordinary village hold?
As night fell, the entire village sprang into action. Women sewed soft shields from cotton blankets to block arrows, while children embedded shards of pottery into mud cakes to create traps. Lin Dahe led a team to dig three triangular pits at the village entrance, with sharpened bamboo stakes inserted at the bottom.
"Pour another layer of manure water," Seventh Uncle commanded, leaning on his cane. "It’ll fester the wounds nicely."
When the first raindrop hit Lin Dahe's neck, he thought it was sweat. It wasn't until the second and third drops followed that he looked up sharply—the dark night sky seemed to have been torn open as torrential rain poured down.
"The Mad Old Woman's prophecy!" someone shouted in alarm.
The rain quickly turned the pits into muddy traps. Lin Dahe carried a lantern to inspect them when he suddenly noticed reflective traces on the road—it was white ash! Someone had scattered powder on the main road before the rain; now washed by water, it revealed glowing green arrows pointing directly to the village granary!
Following the traces to a dilapidated temple, Lin Dahe pressed against a broken window frame and overheard hushed arguing inside.
"What kind of useless mark did Zhou Liangzhang give us?" a hoarse male voice cursed. "That white ash dissolves in water!"
"Calm down, big brother..." another sycophantic voice replied. "That old fool said he just got a new batch of saltpeter; the markers would glow at night..."
Lin Dahe's heart raced. Peering through the gap, he saw about ten burly men gathered inside; their leader bore a scar across his left eye and wore a standard waist knife—these were no ordinary bandits!
"We strike tomorrow at noon," Scarface kicked over an offering table. "According to old rules: raid for grain and burn down the village—leave no survivors!"
Lin Dahe stepped back from the dilapidated temple as rainwater poured down his neck, chilling him to the bone. Suddenly, he recalled the flashing red dots on his system map and hurriedly summoned the interface—those markers representing enemy troops were now closing in within five miles!
At the moment when the granary caught fire, Lin Dahe was loading arrows into a crossbow. A sharp whistle pierced through the rainy night, followed by Cui Xiaoman’s altered shout: "From the north! They're coming from the north!"
As he burst out of the door, he saw that the entire northern sky was already ablaze. The thatched roof of the granary blazed fiercely in the rain, clearly ignited by specially made fire arrows. Even more terrifying was how clearly the flames illuminated moving shadows outside the village—at least thirty men were surrounding them in a fan shape!
"Dong dong dong—" The copper bell in front of the ancestral hall rang out.
The voice of an one-armed veteran boomed through the rain: "Take your positions! Arrange according to the embroidery!"
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