With the Blade

"I knew you Southerners were letting ordinary people run around everywhere, turns out these are all traps, all bait!"

After exchanging several blows with Jiang Wenyuan and Shan Bing, the initiator Tuo Ba Jie became furious.

"No matter! I’ll kill you all!"

"Watch out! He’s going crazy!"

Seeing the Evil Qi around Tuo Ba Jie surging more fiercely, Jiang Wenyuan quickly shouted aloud.

"Don’t face him head-on!"

"I know!"

Even though Shan Bing shouted this from the other side, he still raised his large shield.

There’s no choice; this isn’t something he can avoid even if he wanted to. The moment Tuo Ba Jie raised his twin blades, he was already locked in Tuo Ba Jie’s sights and couldn’t even move his feet, let alone dodge.

Perhaps this is the ability of Tuo Ba Jie’s twin blades, just like Shan Bing’s large shield can accumulate force and then release it all through the Short Sword; now he can’t move his feet, obviously also caused by those twin blades.

"Time to fight to the death..."

Shan Bing suddenly felt a bit dazed.

At this moment, he suddenly remembered the words from that old eunuch. He had sincerely sought advice from the old eunuch, who pointed out his current flaw — indeed, as long as the enemy couldn’t break his shield, he was virtually invincible, but that also meant he overly relied on the large shield in his hands.

If someone could destroy his shield with sheer force, what would he do then?

Shan Bing had imagined what he would do if his shield were destroyed, wondering what kind of response he could muster.

But he never thought it would happen so soon.

Those two heavy blades were finally coming down.

"Am I going to die?"

This was Shan Bing’s first reaction; he never felt time move so slowly, at this moment he could even see the patterns engraved on the Horned Scimitar and the slight gaps between the blades — these must be blades that have seen many battles, he was sure, because back when he was among the War Soldiers, the weapons his comrades received were much like this, full of signs of usage.

Sadly, his comrades were all dead.

And he was about to die too.

Already reminiscing about the past, he was indeed close to death. Shan Bing could even hear his own heartbeat, he never felt death was so close.

"But I won’t die."

Thinking this, Shan Bing actively moved forward.

"At least, I won’t die here."

Bang —

The twin blades smashed onto the large shield, the massive shield even flew dozens of yards away!

"Good!"

"General, mighty!"

"Kill him! Kill him!"

Seeing such a terrifying scene, the crowd of prairie riders began to cheer for their leader — but only their leader Tuo Ba Jie looked extremely displeased.

The reason being the feeling was off.

These two blades were supposed to shatter the shield, how could it merely fly away?

Was there really no one behind that large shield?

"Turns out no one is behind it!"

Seeing the shield spinning in the air, the keen-eyed Tuo Ba Jie finally clearly saw that there wasn’t even half a shadow behind the shield!

Where is the shield bearer? Where did the shield bearer go?

"Boss..."

A prairie rider tremblingly raised his hand.

"Yo-you-you, b-behind you..."

"..."

Tuo Ba Jie was momentarily speechless.

In fact, even without his subordinate’s reminder, he already realized that the shield bearer was now behind him.

All because the Short Sword in the opponent’s hand was slowly being withdrawn from his back.

Blood flowed from the wound on his waist, along with all of Tuo Ba Jie’s brute force.

"Since the shield might be shattered, then discard the shield."

Pulling out the Short Sword from Tuo Ba Jie’s waist, Shan Bing slashed with it, cutting through Tuo Ba Jie’s throat from behind.

Yes, this was what he came up with, the means to deal with a shattered shield.

The world’s greatest advice, really effective.

"Impressive!"

On the other side, Jiang Wenyuan was dumbfounded, knowing he originally planned to help, but who could have predicted that Tuo Ba Jie, who could suppress them both single-handedly, would be felled by Shan Bing using a novel technique he had never seen before.

At this moment, Jiang Wenyuan suddenly understood why the old eunuch would pair Shan Bing with him.

Just looking at this combat strength, it’s simply...

"You killed him, you are the new thirty-sixth rank!"

Although Jiang Wenyuan didn’t care much about rankings, he still showed a hint of envy when looking at Shan Bing.

A change in the Hundred Weapons Chart is both hard and easy; you just have to take down someone ranked higher than you to claim their spot, the sole difficulty being how to defeat someone clearly much stronger — obviously, Shan Bing accomplished this, killing the thirty-sixth rank as the eighty-fourth.

Such combat skill, such talent, it’s simply...

"Huh?"

As Jiang Wenyuan was preparing to join Shan Bing, he suddenly noticed something seemed off.

It was indeed off, because Tuo Ba Jie, whose throat was slit by Shan Bing, stubbornly stood up again, then forcibly jammed his twin blades into his own throat.

Jiang Wenyuan momentarily didn’t understand what was happening.

If it was a dying struggle, that final strike should have slashed at Shan Bing, if it was merely seeking quick death, there was no need to stab himself twice, since the wound Shan Bing caused was already fatal.

What was the point of stabbing oneself now?

Trying to preserve his dignity this way?

Or...

"Boom!"

Just as Jiang Wenyuan was slightly distracted, a huge spider with a bull’s head rose from the ground.

The gigantic spider had claws like human faces, each claw engraved with wails, and that fierce bull’s head expressionless but extremely frightening, its mere expression could silence infants, and its massive spider body was even larger than ten carts combined, clearly this was one of those Evil Qi monsters he most commonly encountered.

Also, Evil Qi monsters weren’t the only ones.

Seeing their leader suddenly die violently, the remaining prairie riders realized escape was futile, and also chose to commit suicide on the spot — but this suicide wasn’t ordinary, as they plunged their Evil Qi-infused weapons into their bodies, the unvented hatred finally erupted within them.

In an instant, over a hundred monsters appeared from the refugee camp, a scene far more terrifying than the last time they were attacked by monsters.

"Damn it... do they actually have the means to transform into monsters?"

Realizing all this, Shan Bing and Jiang Wenyuan felt nauseous as if swallowing a fly.

Monsters are transformed from humans, this is something both Shan Bing and Jiang Wenyuan know, but such a large number of prairie people turning into monsters right in front of them means the prairie people definitely have some method to batch-create monsters — it’s even possible, all the monsters in Jiankang City were laid by prairie spies.

Thinking of their overtime efforts every day resulting from prairie people’s secret machinations, Shan Bing and Jiang Wenyuan were determined to show these spies some retaliation.

And now...

"Stay alive! No matter what, stay alive!"

At this moment, Jiang Wenyuan and Shan Bing cheered on each other specifically.

"Don’t die!"

Jiang Wenyuan added another sentence.

"There are already plenty! I saw something flying over just now! Once experts arrive, everything will be better!"

"I saw it too."

Mid-air, collecting the shield, Shan Bing turned his head back and pointed to the sky.

And in the direction of Shan Bing’s finger, a small black dot was getting closer.