With the Blade

That was not the body of a mere soldier, it was clearly the dying Jiang Wenyuan.

"You’re not dead?"

Shan Bing quickly turned around, only to see Jiang Wenyuan on the ground, with a gaping wound in his shoulder. The blind man’s iron hook had torn open Jiang Wenyuan’s shoulder, leaving a huge wound from which blood was gushing out. Jiang’s face was extremely pale, but the injury was clearly not as severe as the one on his leg. One look at that almost crushed calf, and it was likely that the leg bone had been shattered.

"No, I, this..."

Shan Bing broke out in a sweat. This situation was completely beyond his expectations.

Yet at this moment, with Shan Bing unable to explain, the soldiers at the city gate seized a fleeting opportunity to catch their breath.

Thus, the soldiers hurriedly scrambled to crawl their way into the city.

Although, in theory, the moment Shan Bing had his back turned was their best chance to strike, they knew their own limits well. After all, their monthly wages simply weren’t worth risking their lives over this.

Moreover, they weren’t entirely neglecting their duty, at least they ran back with a report, which served their purpose.

"An expert has come! There’s an expert with Evil Qi attacking us!"

Panicked, they had lost their ability to organize their words. The urgency of the situation left no room for them to elaborate on the details. In this critical moment, they could only use the simplest and most direct words to convey the bloody crisis behind them.

Similarly, this was the bloody crisis the entire Dengzhou City was about to face.

"So how come an expert with Evil Qi has come again?"

In the governor’s mansion of Dengzhou City, Bai Wujiu paused his writing to stare in shock at the urgent report from his subordinates.

"Didn’t we send the money and provisions this month? Why are they still attacking us?"

"Um, Sir Bai, it shouldn’t be people from Forget Sorrow Village."

The messenger hesitated for a moment before responding.

"Besides, hasn’t Forget Sorrow Village always been peaceful with us? Except when the last manager was killed..."

"Stop talking! Just stop talking."

Being a remnant of the Yu dynasty, Bai Wujiu temporarily laying low in Dengzhou as the organization’s manager began to sweat.

It didn’t make sense, it just didn’t make sense. Bai Wujiu understood that Dengzhou had lost two previous managers, and therefore had always sought to avoid conflict, foster peace whenever possible—especially with the mysterious Forget Sorrow Village nearby. Although knowing the Revolutionary Army would suffer losses, he insisted on maintaining friendly exchanges for mutual benefit.

Though it’s mutual, in reality, Bai Wujiu’s side was losing money. But it was worth it to spend some money and provisions to buy peace, as long as the flying, elusive expert didn’t come to trouble him, all of this would be worthwhile.

But now, the expert had come seeking him.

Where did he go wrong?

"Sir Bai, it really might not be people from Forget Sorrow Village."

The messenger, ordered to be silent, thought for a moment before speaking again.

"Although what I heard was confusing too, based on the soldiers’ accounts, the expert used a sword..."

"A sword? Then that’s a match!"

Bai Wujiu slapped his forehead, his face turning pale.

"The second in command of Forget Sorrow Village indeed uses a sword. I even met him not long ago. He came over saying he wanted to buy some lumber; we happened to need to repair the barracks, so I didn’t agree... Is it because of this?"

Recalling that sinister Sword Qi, which seemed to surge towards him even without the sword being drawn, Bai Wujiu had never regretted his actions so much.

Wasn’t it just a bit of wood? Had he known, he would have sold it cheaply. As if it was worth coming to take a life over such a trivial matter?

"So... Sir Bai, what should we do now?"

The messenger hesitated before speaking again.

"Perhaps we could agree with him?"

"Too late..."

Bai Wujiu sighed deeply.

Too late, it’s already too late to say anything now. It’s not a matter of agreeing or not agreeing; it’s the speed at which the experts advance that’s the issue—at the moment the message reaches him, the expert is almost inside the city, possibly even at the doors of the governor’s mansion.

In other words, the time left for him is...

"The time for a cup of tea."

Bai Wujiu roughly calculated.

A cup of tea equals a quarter of an hour, which was perhaps overly optimistic. If that flying, elusive monster were really coming, he’d only need to count to three before preparing for reincarnation. But clearly, there is a difference among experts, and the time for a cup of tea is at least enough for him to pack up and escape.

But can he escape?

Seems unlikely to escape. As an ordinary person, Bai Wujiu’s speed was vastly different from that of experts. If he attempted to flee, by the time he reached the gates, the expert would be there waiting for him.

Even riding a horse wouldn’t work. An expert of this level, utilizing Evil Qi, could run as fast as a horse. Although they typically use horses to travel, if they were forced to fight, their speed would outstrip a horse significantly.

"Think of a plan, think of a plan..."

Bai Wujiu slapped his forehead hard, trying to come up with a decent idea. However, it’s evident that while most things can be solved with intelligence, this was one situation where it simply wouldn’t suffice—one that Bai Wujiu found most loathsome. In this world dominated by Evil Qi maniacs, no amount of strategy could defend against them, leaving him feeling sick eventually knowing life and death were decided by others.

Imagine a world without these inexplicable Evil Qi maniacs or superhuman experts, where everyone merely needed to compete with tactics and send soldiers to die in battle, how wonderful would that be?

"Sir Bai! Good news! Good news!"

Just as Bai Wujiu had entirely given up thinking and fallen into fantasy, another subordinate rushed in excitedly.

"It’s confirmed! They’re not from Forget Sorrow Village! The incoming person uses a sword shield! It’s the eighty-fourth-ranked ’Unbreakable Iron Wall’ Shan Bing from the Hundred Weapons Chart!"

"...Huh? What did you say?"

Perhaps it was the loudness of his subordinates’ voices, Bai Wujiu eventually snapped back from his imaginary world.

He dared not trust his ears; he needed to hear it again.

And after several other subordinates entered to report the same news, Bai Wujiu’s expression visibly relaxed.

"If you’d said so earlier! I was wondering who it was!"

Wiping sweat off his forehead, Bai Wujiu reverted back to his calculating demeanor, as if his previous panic had never occurred.

"Hundred Weapons Chart rank... eighty-fourth? Why are you worried? Where are our men?"

"The brothers Tian Can and Di Que went to fight but were killed."

A subordinate dutifully reported.

"That’s why these soldiers came back in panic—they were frightened by the scene. After all, it’s shocking for someone ranked eighty-fourth to defeat the seventeenth and eighteenth..."

"Ah, that’s my fault; I forgot about that situation."

Upon hearing this, Bai Wujiu sighed.

"I should’ve been more careful writing it; then this wouldn’t have happened... Remind me later to create a new Hundred Weapons Chart. The previous version was too rough, and much of it was written haphazardly."

"So... Sir Bai, what do we do now?"

Some subordinates started scratching their heads.

"With Tian Can and Di Que dead, the city has no fighting force left. Shan Bing is clearly about to attack. How can we possibly..."

"What do we do now? Call for reinforcements, of course!"

Bai Wujiu chuckled.

"What did you think all those provisions and money each month were for?"