With the Blade

When Du Chengfeng woke up from his sleep inside the cage, what he saw was not the familiar soldiers responsible for guarding him.

But rather, two men and a dog even more familiar.

"It’s you? When did you come?"

Rubbing his still drowsy eyes, Du Chengfeng turned over and stood up.

"Indeed, if we count the days, you should be here by now, considering so many people in this camp have already been defected by you..."

"This time, I won."

The two Warriors spoke in unison.

"I’ve already waited so long, given you so much time, but your methods have never worked... It seems your ideas were merely a coincidence. To accomplish things, you still have to use my way."

"Hmm..."

Du Chengfeng started scratching his head.

"I have a question."

"Go ahead."

The Warrior was in a good mood, deciding to generously answer any of Du Chengfeng’s doubts.

It’s a grace only the strong can have, a victor’s pity for the defeated.

Just like the saying goes, win beautifully, and even if you lose, make sure they understand why.

"Come, ask whatever questions you have, now you can ask..."

"I’m saying, wasn’t this your fault from the start?"

Du Chengfeng looked puzzled at the two men and a dog in front of him.

"This was your doing from the start, wasn’t it? Now isn’t it only normal for you to be responsible for getting the job done? If you don’t do any work, aren’t you the real useless one?"

"You..."

The three Warriors were speechless, unable to reply for a long while.

Even though he was quite excited to feel the joy of victory, he realized his opponent never intended to compete with him—in fact, everything he has done has barely proven that he is still a normal person willing to take responsibility.

As for Du Chengfeng, since the camp has already been taken by the Warrior, there was naturally no need for him to continue squatting in the cage.

Just a few simple tugs, and the seemingly solid wooden cage was easily broken open.

"Since your method can work, then take on the responsibility you should bear."

Du Chengfeng patted the shoulders of the two humanoid Warriors, then petted the dog-headed Warrior.

"Keep it up, do well, I’m going to cook."

"You..."

The Warrior suddenly felt that perhaps treating this person as a rival was the biggest mistake of his life.

It’s well known that a good rival offers growth opportunities, often even more valuable than a good teacher. An appropriate and strong rival is undoubtedly the best treasure for a Warrior—but all this has a premise, that the rival is truly human.

Although the Warrior felt he was no longer human physically, he still mostly regarded himself as human.

But with Du Chengfeng’s words...

"No, how can there be someone like you."

Only until Du Chengfeng’s silhouette faded into the distance did the Warrior come back to his senses.

Iron beast, living livestock, this was the Warrior’s perception of Du Chengfeng, although this insulting judgment somewhat smacked of impotent rage, it was all he could think of—mainly because this matter made no sense, really no sense, he clearly had won, clearly it was supposed to be him who had won.

But why did he feel not the least bit happy?

"Clearly, I won, clearly this time I won..."

The Warriors muttered as they turned and left, although theoretically, things should indeed be done by him. But now, he just wanted to rest for a while, just wanted to regain some energy...

The same kind of fatigue also occurred among the people of the Yellow Sand City, even though they chose to accept the training, chose to try accepting this power, but soon they realized that this power wasn’t so easy to obtain.

Only because this power came with pain.

"You must learn to obey! Obedience is the greatest virtue!"

The former old farmers and soldiers now wore hooded cloaks, their wide hoods covered half their faces, making them appear mysterious and imposing—if there was a problem, it was that this outfit was very warm, and it’s not without reason everyone wore light and breathable linen clothing. If it’s not winter, wearing such hooded robes would definitely make them break out in rashes.

But these hooded figures didn’t care about such matters at all, even regarding them as a symbol of honor.

They truly believed that pain could bring strength.

However, they didn’t want to hide this strength, instead intending to share this pain with their former neighbors—thus, all the streets of Yellow Sand City suffered hardship, being pulled out repeatedly by these people for training exercises. At first, the training contents might have been related to combat, but soon, this so-called training turned into many unrelated to battle.

For example, serving tea and water to these hooded figures, or bowing and saluting whenever they saw them, which to the neighborhood was completely unreasonable. But if they didn’t do these things, it was seen as "not understanding the virtue of obedience" and would lead to beatings from the hooded figures.

This couldn’t help but arouse doubt among the people of Yellow Sand City.

Were their choices really the right ones?

They indeed suffered hardship, but the power they initially wished to gain was nowhere in sight.

Though the hooded figures truly had strength, the only thing they shared was pain. These hooded figures seemed to take using violence as a given. If not for these familiar faces, the people of Yellow Sand City would have thought these were enemy soldiers invading.

And later, they came to know it wasn’t merely what they thought.

But rather, enemy soldiers really did enter the city.

Enemy soldiers came in, and were let in by those hooded figures, yet the people of Yellow Sand City felt these soldiers carried quite a bit of the hooded people’s aura—and indeed, these soldiers, though not brutally attacking them, quickly joined forces with the hooded figures. Judging by their numbers, it was clear the hooded figures were now the true mainstream within the city.

This couldn’t help but make the people of Yellow Sand City begin to miss that gentle giant, at least when the friendly giant was around, their lives weren’t this miserable.

Fortunately, their longing wasn’t altogether useless.

Just after the soldiers garrisoned in the city, that gentle giant had likewise returned to the city.