CHAPTER 688: CHAPTER 14 THE AMBUSH AS EXPECTED

Miss Rabbit had been waiting for another two hours, becoming a bit bored in the process; she took off the Electronic Pet Egg hanging around her neck and fiddled with it for a while.

Just as the Lady was huffing with impatience, her guest this evening finally arrived fashionably late.

Shajia and his companions had been observing the castle from the outside for quite some time, and they had discovered a flight path that would bypass the line of sight of the guards on the outer wall.

Using the cover of nightfall, they arrived silently above the castle.

Caleb and Sedya took the lead, passing through the narrow windows and landing in the empty corridor.

To their surprise, there were no guards there.

This lax?

Caleb and Sedya exchanged a glance, reading a hint of confusion in each other’s eyes.

However, on their way here, they had visited many noble mansions, and as a result of past overconfidence, the imperial nobility often lacked the necessary precautions against dangers from the sky.

Perhaps the owner of this castle felt the town’s garrison was competent enough, or maybe the guards on the castle walls were deemed reliable, so no additional personnel were arranged outside the rooms.

Alternatively, it might be due to the owner’s strong confidence in their own martial arts, feeling they did not need protection.

Being the Champion of the Ireya Martial Arts Tournament, perhaps this explanation was closer to the truth.

Caleb and Sedya did not hesitate for too long because Shajia and the others outside were at risk of being spotted by some guard at any moment, so they gestured out the window as agreed.

Soon, fourteen shadows carrying the stench of death descended into the corridor.

Shajia was the last to arrive; he folded his powerful, wide wings and sidestepped through the stone window, landing steadily on the ground, and whispered.

"Where’s Ireya’s room?"

"We don’t know; we didn’t see any guards," Caleb said. "Maybe we could seize a maid or something to ask."

"Maids usually live on the lower floors," Balan noted, having gained some insight into the fortresses of the nobility after raiding quite a few mansions along the way.

While everyone was talking, Shajia saw another white mouse run past him.

As Sedya said, there seemed to be too many mice in this place. Did that noblewoman named Ireya not care at all?

As Shajia was thinking this, a door not far from him suddenly opened, and a woman looking like a maid emerged from inside.

She seemed taken aback upon seeing the group of uninvited guests in the corridor.

Shajia ordered, "Kill her."

However, before Caleb could shoot the arrow in his hand, the maid had already fled back into the room.

This time, without Shajia’s order, the nearest Balan and others immediately pursued.

They followed the maid into her room, where there were... four more maids.

Each held a strange white object in their hands.

At the same time, several other doors near Shajia and the others were pushed open, and a group of maids each raised identical gadgets in their hands.

The scene unfolding before them filled all the Wing Clan Warriors present with a sense of eeriness.

Without a doubt, their surprise attack tonight had already been anticipated by someone. But the question was, were their opponents really just a bunch of... maids?

And what were those things in the maids’ hands, without even a slightly sharp edge? Could such things really kill someone?

As if to answer the doubts in their hearts.

The shrill roar tore through the quiet of the night, sparks and white smoke spewing from the primer pans and barrels, quickly spreading throughout the corridors.

Shajia realized the danger at the last moment and opened his mouth to call his companions to retreat, but the next moment he felt a pain in his waist, followed by aches in his abdomen and thigh.

He reached down and felt something sticky on his fingers while also smelling the scent of fresh blood.

He realized he was wounded, but he couldn’t see where the enemy’s blades were at all.

How was this possible?!

Shajia’s eyes widened. As one of the strongest warriors of the Winged Man, though young, he had experienced countless battles, but none as bizarre as this.

He did not even know how he had been wounded.

This realization brought back a sense of panic to Shajia’s heart that he had not felt for a long time, having almost forgotten the taste of fear.

Because, in the past, this was the nightmare he bestowed upon his opponents.

The urgent voice of Yaxu brought him back to reality, "No good, it’s the Holy Artifacts of the Double Rest Sect, damn it, why are there so many!"

"Holy... Holy Artifacts?" Shajia murmured. He remembered Yaxu’s words from before, about a woman named Ireya, the Lady who possessed Holy Artifacts bestowed by Saturday.

Extremely powerful, Moen from the Grey Eagle Tribe was defeated by that Holy Artifact.

Shajia was wary of that Holy Artifact, otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited until everyone in the castle was sound asleep before making his move. But why were there so many now, with every maid holding one?

However, now was not the time to ponder this question—Shajia knew they had to retreat.

The number one brave warrior of the Wing Clan had completely lost his fighting spirit, only wishing to leave this place as quickly as possible, to flee the Western territory and get as far away as possible.

So he looked to Balan, hoping his childhood playmate would help him cover their retreat, but the scene he saw made him gasp.

There lay Balan, always so brave and skilled in martial arts, now sprawled on the ground with eyes wide in disbelief.

But he could no longer say a word, because there was a bloody hole right in the middle of his forehead, from which blood incessantly flowed.

A chill ran down Shajia’s spine.

Balan... was already dead? Not just Balan—Shajia looked around and saw that several of their own were already down. Some, like Balan, unresponsive, while others writhed in pain on the ground.

Shajia didn’t look any longer; he had turned around and was running towards the window, but someone else was quicker than him.

Yaxu was already standing by the window, and in the last attack, Caleb beside him took most of the hit, so Yaxu wasn’t much wounded. Taking advantage of the maids reloading, he had already squeezed half of his body out of the window.

Then he saw a rain of arrows coming at him from outside, it was the castle’s guards shooting at him.

Yaxu quickly pulled his neck back, and then he felt his body being shoved aside.

After that, Shajia, out of utter desperation, scrambled toward the window, but by this time the maids had finished reloading, and another volley was fired.

And they had recognized Shajia’s status as their leader; this time, at least six lead bullets hit his body.

Shajia screamed in agony and finally fell to the ground as well.