Chapter 860: Chapter 515: Daoist Priest, Time to Take You Killing (6k)
The remaining twenty or so Linfeng Warriors all attacked simultaneously, moving in unison, drawing their knives and charging toward the followers.
If these were ordinary followers, even with some martial arts skills, they wouldn’t withstand the coordinated assault of a military formation for more than a few breaths before being completely wiped out.
In the eyes of the black-armored officer, this young aristocrat, whose status was obviously not low, already seemed like a dead man.
This was the frontline of the battlefield, yet he was foolish enough to travel with a few beautiful women; he deserved to die.
However, Zhao Douan, casually holding a tree branch and poking at the fire beside him, merely lowered his gaze, looking at a pot of bubbling hot water on the stone hearth, and spoke softly, "Leave one alive."
"Understood!"
The next moment, the harmless-looking "followers" revealed their fangs. Tang Jinzhong sneered, unarmed, and took great strides towards the nearest fierce soldier with a punch.
That ferocious soldier’s body went limp like clay, suddenly losing all strength. His back arched, and the metal-plated inner armor tore like tofu; blood seeped out forming a fist mark on his skin, and he flew backwards into the forest like a sack, lifeless.
Song Jinxi chuckled slyly, his figure ghost-like, appearing almost simultaneously behind three soldiers, locking a single hand around each of their frail throats, effortlessly felling them like baby chicks.
The other tributors each took on an opponent, without even drawing their blades, and in the blink of an eye, the killing aura-filled squad of soldiers lay scattered on the ground.
All except the black-armored officer, who alone charged towards the fire pit, surprisingly unimpeded.
And just as his blade was about to fall, a bright curved knife suddenly flew over from the cart, severing his ankles in two.
The curved knife spun once in the air before returning to the right hand of Lang Shiba, who had just "relieved himself" in the woods.
With his left hand, he lifted a wine gourd, took a carefree swig, then frowned, weighing the gourd anew with some confusion.
Ji Yue, hugging her knees in a ball, squatting beside a stump, silently clawed at the air, drawing half the blood from the black-armored officer’s body through his ankle wound, forming a "blood ball," which she tossed into the woods.
"Ah—" Only then did the officer collapse to the ground with a thump, too weak to hold his blade, feeling dizzy with vertigo, and looked up in terror at the noble gentleman still tending the coals, "You...you are... Zhao..."
Zhao Douan pulled out the tree branch, stuffed it into his mouth, and said, "The Yunfu rebel army changing into these clothes to deceive this governor is truly underestimating me. Take him to the woods and give him a good interrogation. I am too kind-hearted to witness torture."
Song Jinxi, adept in assassination and interrogation, grinned as he dragged the officer into the woods.
Only at this moment did Mo Chou near the fire pit snap out of it, exclaim "ah" in alarm, standing upright, covering her mouth with shock as she began to retch again.
Yu Xiu, maintaining her cross-legged meditative posture, frowned, "There are only wrong names, no wrong nicknames; truly worthy of being called ’Yama Zhao’ in the Capital."
Zhao Douan chuckled with squinted eyes, "Is the priesthood unwilling?"
Yu Xiu stood up, turned and walked towards the cart, "The clash of two armies is in accordance with the Heavenly Dao, how is it related to my humble self?"
Zhao Douan laughed heartily, "When the meal is ready, I will have someone deliver it to the cart."
Yu Xiu remained silent, merely quickening her pace.
...
This battle came as suddenly as it ended quickly; in the blink of an eye, the forest gained over twenty corpses. Tang Jinzhong searched the bodies and indeed found identification tags of the Yunfu Rebel Army within their armor.
"How did the rebel army appear here? Could it be there’s an issue in the Prefecture?" Mo Chou retched a few more times, tightly knitted her brows, and looked towards Zhao Douan.
Zhao Douan sat by the fire, fingers pinching an identification tag, scrutinizing, eyes narrowed as he spoke, "If there was a real issue, these people wouldn’t need any disguise. They’re clearly a small reconnaissance team infiltrating the court’s defensive line. Such a long line cannot be entirely sealed, some slipping through is not unexpected. It seems the woman they were pursuing is more important than we anticipated."
At this moment, a follower led the woman over. Her wounds had been simply treated, and she was given healing pills to restore a bit of strength. However, she still had disheveled hair and was staggering as she was brought over, her unremarkable face except for a prominent nose, smeared with several stripes of black ash, showed vigilance and uncertainty.
"Tell me, who are you, and why were these people chasing you?" Zhao Douan spoke softly, examining the mysterious woman.
After the hat was shattered, there was a red mark where an arrow had grazed her scalp, and now there was still a trickle of blood on her forehead, though her leopard-like gaze held an unnamed brilliance. As she hesitantly observed Zhao Douan, she suddenly asked, "May I ask, might you be Junior Guardian Zhao of the Capital? Do you have proof of identity?"
Tang Jinzhong beside them raised an eyebrow, a long blade in hand suddenly pressed against the woman’s neck, "Answer what the lord asks."
Zhao Douan, slightly surprised, met her gaze, and suddenly waved his hand, speaking with interest, "Such courage, very well. Do you recognize this?"
He reached into his robe, retrieving a token. It was the identity waist tag of an Imperial City Tributor.
With a twist of his wrist, the token spun and embedded into the ground in front of the woman with a thud.
The woman’s eyes lit up, blood-stained hands withdrew the token, holding it upright and tilting it towards the sunlight, inspecting the angles of reflective light and subtle textures, as if verifying counterfeit currency.