Volume One: First Arrival Chapter 26: Before the Battle

Ye Feng asked curiously from the side, "Isn't it said that the tendons of a Shadow Leopard make for excellent bowstrings? Why aren't you using them?"

Zhai Yao replied, "Those require special treatment through multiple processes before they can be used as bowstrings. Besides, it would be a waste to use such material for crossbow strings. I intend to use them for the strings of a composite longbow."

Xiao Yun added, "Compared to crossbows, doesn't using a longbow require specialized knowledge and long-term practice?"

Zhai Yao nodded. "I spent several years shooting recurve bows before I crossed over. I plan to make the longbow my primary weapon from now on."

Just then, a middle-aged village woman entered the courtyard carrying a bamboo basket. After nodding to Meng Xingchen, she said, "Master Zhai, here are the wooden bolts you requested."

Zhai Yao picked up a few bolts from the basket to inspect them. Their length, thickness, and specifications were consistent. He nodded and said, "Thank you for your trouble."

The woman, not being one for words, simply smiled and replied, "It is only right, it is only right," before turning and leaving the courtyard.

Meng Xingchen picked one up to examine it. These so-called "wooden bolts" were actually ironwood dowels, about the thickness of a pinky finger and twelve centimeters long, with one end sharpened to a point and the other sanded smooth.

Zhai Yao said, "There should be about two hundred of them. With twenty crossbows, each assigned ten bolts, we can create a relatively dense rain of arrows."

Ye Feng picked up a crossbow and looked it over. The structure was simple, and it was easy to see how it functioned at a glance. He took a few bolts from the basket and loaded them into the magazine on top of the crossbow; it fit exactly five bolts.

Just as Ye Feng began to pull the lever, Zhai Yao pressed his hand down. "If you pull the lever all the way, the bolts will fire automatically. Be careful not to hurt anyone."

As Ye Feng turned his head to look for a target, Li Daniu returned to the courtyard and said to Zhai Yao, "The five straw figures are ready. Want to go take a look?"

There was an open space next to the bamboo grove at the edge of the village where the villagers often stacked firewood and hay.

When Meng Xingchen and his group arrived, the clearing was already bustling. Nearly a hundred people were packed into the small space, a mix of transmigrators and local villagers. Everyone was pointing at a row of five straw dummies set up at the edge of the field.

Seeing the dummies, Ye Feng couldn't wait. He pushed through the crowd, stood about twenty meters away, aimed the crossbow at the dummies, and pulled the lever repeatedly. In an instant, the five bolts in the magazine were fired.

The first two bolts struck the torso of the dummy, but the subsequent three missed their mark because the continuous pulling of the lever caused the crossbow to shift.

The onlookers gasped in amazement, especially the local villagers who owned hunting bows. In such a short time, even a skilled hunter could fire at most two arrows using a hunting bow.

Yet, Ye Feng, clearly a novice who knew nothing, had managed to fire five bolts, with the first two hitting the target.

Moreover, the two bolts that struck the dummy were embedded deep into its torso, with less than five centimeters of the twelve-centimeter-long shafts remaining exposed.

The power was not bad; at the very least, ordinary flesh and blood could not withstand such a hit.

At this moment, Zhai Yao stepped up beside Ye Feng, also holding a crossbow. After a brief aim, he pulled the lever continuously, even faster than Ye Feng.

His arm was remarkably steady; the action of the lever caused the crossbow to shake only slightly, and he quickly made adjustments to keep it on target.

All five bolts struck the head of the dummy with precision.

Xiao Yun raised an eyebrow at Ye Feng and said, "Your archery is not so great, Leader of the Kobolds."

Ye Feng’s face flushed red. Just as he was about to retort, he saw Li Changfeng approaching with a group of people. From a distance, Li Changfeng asked, "How did the new weapon test go?"

The reason the test was held here was at Li Changfeng's suggestion. Shielded by the bamboo grove and the houses in front, they wouldn't be seen by the goblins on the other side of the river.

Since Meng Xingchen had mentioned that goblins were spying on Li Village the previous night, Li Changfeng had been cautious when choosing the test site. At the very least, if they clashed with the goblins again, they could use the crossbows to catch them off guard.

Meng Xingchen took a quick look around, assuming all the transmigrators were gathered here. "The crossbow test was very successful. Since everyone is here, there is something I need to announce.

"I believe everyone is already aware of what happened this afternoon. To my knowledge, goblins have night vision. To guard against any surprise attacks at night, I want to form a patrol and guard team.

"Since we have only produced twenty crossbows so far, the patrol team will be limited to twenty people, divided into two shifts—one for the first half of the night and one for the second.

"We will operate on a voluntary basis. Those who wish to join the patrol team should sign up with Chief Steward Xu later."

Ye Feng immediately shouted, "I sign up for the patrol team!"

Meng Xingchen shook his head. "We are not forcing anyone to join, nor will we use moral coercion. Those who are interested can sign up privately with Chief Steward Xu later."

The pale moon hung high in the sky. It was a full moon tonight, so even without night vision, one could barely make out objects within twenty or thirty meters.

Meng Xingchen sat cross-legged on the roof of Li Daniu’s house, cultivating his internal energy. Beneath him, in the small courtyard and the one next door, nearly twenty people were sleeping on the ground, fully clothed and with their crossbows by their sides.

In reality, with Meng Xingchen there, there was no need for night patrols. He only needed to sit in a conspicuous spot to naturally attract enemies looking for a night raid, and the moment their eyes landed on him, he would be alerted.

This saved time and effort, and did not interfere with Meng Xingchen's cultivation.

The reason he announced the formation of a patrol team was simply to identify those with the will to fight. Sometimes, more people in a battle is not necessarily better. If a team is filled with people who lack both combat experience and the will to fight, they can sometimes cause more harm than good.

If he had simply announced that a large goblin army might attack tonight and initiated a war mobilization, the effect might not have been better than selecting a patrol team; it would likely have caused even more panic among those already terrified.

When Meng Xingchen received the sign-up list from Xu Jingya, he was somewhat surprised. It wasn't that the number of people was particularly high or low—in fact, including acquaintances like Li Changfeng, Ye Feng, and Xiao Yun, only twenty-five people had signed up.

What surprised him was that the list included Xu Jingya, two other flight attendants, and Tongtong’s mother, He Qingwan.

He Qingwan’s participation was understandable; she was a woman of strong character and inner fortitude who felt deeply indebted to Meng Xingchen and wished to repay him.

The fact that Xu Jingya and the two other flight attendants had signed up was entirely unexpected. Xu Jingya had awakened the "Super Memory" talent, and if he remembered correctly, one of the other flight attendants had awakened water manipulation, and the other, healing.

The water manipulation ability currently had no combat applications beyond condensing moisture from the air or moving small amounts of water. The healing ability only accelerated the recovery of one's own injuries. The three of them were essentially no different from ordinary people with no combat capability.

Their flight crew consisted of seven people: a chief steward, four flight attendants, a captain, and a co-pilot. The co-pilot and two flight attendants had died in the kobold and gnoll attacks. Now, all four remaining crew members had joined the patrol team.

Meng Xingchen felt several malicious gazes and snapped out of his meditative state.

Following his intuition, he looked toward the opposite bank, slightly upstream. A group of goblins was wading across the river. There were over a hundred of them, mostly ordinary goblins, but with three goblin spellcasters holding long staves among them.

The river in front of the village was only six or seven meters wide, and at its deepest point, it was no more than one and a half meters. Even those who couldn't swim could cross it easily.

Meng Xingchen flicked two copper coins, hitting Li Changfeng and Ye Feng, who were sleeping in the courtyards below. Both woke up instantly and began rousing the others.

Everyone began checking their crossbows, ready for action.

As soon as all the goblins descended into the riverbed, where the low terrain obscured their view of the village, Meng Xingchen waved his hand, pointing in a specific direction.

Receiving the signal, everyone silently filed out of the courtyards and gathered where Meng Xingchen had directed.

As the goblins crossed the river and climbed up from the low bank onto the flat ground in front of the village, they were met with a rain of bolts.

Cries of pain and guttural shrieks erupted instantly. At the same time, a system notification chimed in Meng Xingchen’s mind: "Ding! Emergency quest triggered: Goblin Raid. Please check the quest panel for details."

Ignoring the system prompt, Meng Xingchen said in a low voice, "Ignite."

Four pillars of fire erupted in the open space before the village, illuminating the area as brightly as day.

Goblins possessed night vision, and since the first wave of the surprise attack was over, there was no need to continue fighting them in the dark.

Because they didn't know from which direction the goblins would attack, firewood piles had been placed at intervals in the clearing. They served two purposes: illumination, and providing a source of fire, which significantly boosted the power and stamina of fire-users.

Because they were prepared, the transmigrators only squinted to adjust to the sudden light and continued firing, while the goblins were thrown into total disarray by the rain of bolts and the sudden, intense brightness.

With a series of unintelligible shrieks, the goblins managed to reform their ranks and charged at the transmigrators' position through the rain of bolts. Simultaneously, two ice arrows were fired at them.

Meng Xingchen swung his sword, sending out two sword auras that shattered the incoming ice arrows in mid-air. "Ignore them. Keep firing."

The transmigrators, twenty-six in total including Meng Xingchen, were arranged in two rows—the front row half-crouching, the back row standing—continuously pulling their crossbow levers.

The goblins, brandishing wooden clubs and pushing through the bolt storm, had just reached a point four or five meters from the transmigrators' position when the leading goblins suddenly lost their footing and tumbled to the ground.

The goblins behind couldn't stop in time and tripped over them as well, turning their formation into chaos once again.