Have Your Fill of Mayhem

Learning that Yan Nu was a powerhouse of the Tu Fa Clan, that group of wandering knights grew anxious instead.

"Dammit, the Tu Fa Clan is already attacking?"

Many of them had come to enlist specifically to resist the Tu Fa Clan; perhaps their skills weren't great, but their ambitions were soaring.

As a result, the moment they signed up, the Tu Fa Clan had charged right into the city?

The wandering knights lay flat on the ground, their eyes fixed firmly on Yan Nu, feeling both unwilling and too terrified to make a rash action.

Until a certain bold guest, seeing that Yan Nu lacked true-qi body protection, walked past him.

Suddenly he mustered his courage, leaped into the air, and drew his sword to slash diagonally.

"Fight to the death with him!"

"Brother Li!"

This man seemed quite prestigious. The moment he took the lead, a large band of familiar fellow townsman wandering knights immediately sprang up as well, preparing to fight to the death.

"Bang!"

Yet with a single wave of his hand, Yan Nu used an explosive surge of force to send that bold guest flying.

Seeing this, the fellow townsman wandering knights who had been ready to fight to the death all froze awkwardly, trembling and not knowing what to do.

The rest of the restless wandering knights all continued to lie flat.

Seeing that it was completely impossible to fight, the bold guest struggled to sit up. Knowing he was dead for sure, he cursed through teeth, "Barbarian Tu Fa dogs, I hate that I cannot eat your flesh and sleep on your hides!"

"Impudent!" The middle-aged scholar's brow furrowed tightly. "Drag this lunatic away and behead him."

A soldier drew his saber to execute the order, but Huang Banyun had already rushed over and kicked the soldier flying.

"You unfilial wretch! You've surrendered just like that?" Huang Banyun was consumed by rage.

The middle-aged scholar only knew that Huang Banyun was a first-rate expert who had just pledged allegiance to the Zhang family; had it been before, he would have had to show him three parts respect.

Yet now that he himself had surrendered to the Tu Fa Clan, he barked, "Madman! The Tu Fa Clan's massive army is already about to enter the city. Instead of stubbornly resisting, you will only bring bloodshed to the entire city!"

Huang Banyun cold laughed, "Which of your eyes saw the Tu Fa Clan about to enter the city?"

The middle-aged scholar indeed felt something was wrong. Why was there no sound of battle outside the city wall?

Could it be that relying solely on Tu Fa Yak, he wanted to break the city gates and then let the main army come to receive their surrender?

Huang Banyun didn't waste words with him, flashing forward to throw a punch.

The middle-aged scholar stood behind Yan Nu, not even bothering to dodge, and said coldly, "In front of Your Highness, you still dare to act wild!"

"Bang!" Huang Banyun bypassed Yan Nu entirely and sent the middle-aged scholar flying with a single punch.

"Your Highness, you... cough... How..." The middle-aged scholar wore a face of utter disbelief. He coughed up wild blood, his chest caved in with a fist imprint.

Yan Nu grabbed Huang Banyun and looked at him, asking, "Where on earth did you see Tu Fa Yak?"

"..." The middle-aged scholar's mind went blank, and immediately another large mouthful of blood spewed from his mouth.

Huang Banyun was also left somewhat speechless. "No... He mistook you for Tu Fa Yak."

"I figured as much." Yan Nu nodded repeatedly.

"..." Huang Banyun thought to himself: Did you even need to figure that out? Shouldn't your very first reaction have been to realize they were talking about you?

He surveyed the messy scene and said with a bitter smile, "Little Brother, weren't we supposed to act according to the plan?"

Yan Nu raised his hand. "I really didn't mean to. Is there still cha—"

"There is, there is, there is! There is a chance," Huang Banyun said hastily. "Put your hand down first."

Yan Nu scratched his head, looking at him with a baffled expression.

Seeing this, Huang Banyun felt depressed. "With that punch of yours earlier, I almost thought I was going to die."

"No you wouldn't. The main power was concentrated in the middle position, and everything else was just wind blown out along the way," Yan Nu grinned and said.

At that moment, Feng Junyou emerged from the bronze contract.

This old ghost wore a headache-inducing expression. "The plan has changed, but fortunately Shen Leling is up on the city wall and hasn't alarmed the entire city yet."

"Hmph..."

A brilliantly dazzling woman leaped down from the city wall, landing lightly in the middle of the courtyard.

"You're going to anger me to death! You've made me rack up another two hundred years of karmic debt!"

Shen Leling was furious. To cover for them, she had disregarded the Mortal World Fire and directly controlled the situation to avoid leaking any secrets.

Regardless of whether one used spells to injure people, kill people, or control people, it would provoke the Mortal World Fire.

Fortunately, Yan Nu had intimidated the over one thousand people inside the drill ground—those who should be beaten to death were beaten, and those who should surrender had surrendered.

She only needed to deal with the two hundred garrison guards on the city wall.

"I'm sorry, Sister." Yan Nu wore an apologetic face. "These people knelt to me. Hurry up and eat them."

Shen Leling glanced at the middle-aged scholar and the dozens of remaining elite soldiers.

The Mortal World Fire on these people had weakened to the extreme, and she knew that Yan Nu had intentionally left them all for her.

How could Yan Nu know anything about receiving surrenders?

They had come to destroy the Zhang family. Never mind any Rear Army Sima; those who acted as jackals for the tiger would definitely be wiped out together.

Seeing these people kneel, Yan Nu had simply let them off, primarily to repay his sister's karmic debt.

At this moment, those surrendered soldiers were all completely dumbfounded.

Realizing he had made a mistake, the middle-aged scholar roared, "What is going on! You... who on earth are you?!"

Yan Nu honestly replied, "Jiang Yan'er."

Upon hearing this name, the middle-aged scholar felt it sounded a bit familiar, yet for a moment he couldn't remember who it was.

Shen Leling's streams of water flew toward him like tentacles.

Terrified and without a second thought, the middle-aged scholar screamed, "Wait a minute, Jiang Yan'er, I know you! I really know you!"

He frantically searched his memories, and at the juncture of life and death, he finally remembered.

"Ah, that's right! The Tea Mountain pariah! You are that Tea Mountain pa—"

The middle-aged scholar's voice cut off abruptly as he stared at Yan Nu with a look of utter despair.

He spent year-round staying in the city and hadn't participated in any monster-suppression affairs, but he had indeed heard about the Tea Mountain Fort incident.

He just hadn't expected this pariah to kill his way back.

Looking again at Shen Leling—this flowing water, wasn't it the Water Nymph of Laoshan? And that ghost... Damn it, what on earth was Zhang Quan doing?

"How could it be you..."

Incredulous, the middle-aged scholar died in the midst of his struggle.

He never imagined that this bunch of fellows not only hadn't been wiped out, but actually dared to attack the city.

At this time, the Zhang family, and indeed the powerful clans of all the surrounding counties and prefectures, were guarding against nothing but the Tu Fa Clan.

Shen Leling voraciously absorbed this bunch of fellows. In the absence of jade marrow and other Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, human essence souls were the most common items for repaying karmic debt.

"Old ghost, do you want any?" Shen Leling asked after absorbing a dozen or so.

"No, I never kill mortals." Feng Junyou shook his head.

Shen Leling curled her lips and immediately absorbed all the remaining elite soldiers.

"Hmph, a hundred years of debt are gone, but I still owe a hundred and thirty years."

Feng Junyou smiled. "Rest assured, the Zhang family's treasury definitely holds Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that increase karmic debt."

"As far as I know, the Zhang family hoards jade marrow year-round. The treasury is bound to have some, I just don't know if any has been sent to Mount Jiuhua yet."

Aside from old ancestor Zhang Tong, the Zhang family had other cultivators, though none of their realms were high.

The Dao of pill-consumption relied entirely on resources, and the Zhang family regularly stockpiled a batch to send to Mount Jiuhua.

"That's good then." Shen Leling nodded slightly, made a hand gesture, and used a stream of water to pry Zhang Feng off the wall.

Looking at the mangled corpse, she felt quite depressed. After casually repairing it to fill out the exterior, she transformed into a wisp of clear spring water and drilled inside.

Occupying Zhang Feng's corpse, she wriggled and twisted her body, straightened the bones, and pinched an incantation.

The distorted face immediately grew full and rosy, and the blood stains on her body were washed clean.

Nearly a thousand wandering knights and local braves remained in the courtyard; most of them were obediently lying prone.

There were also about a hundred people awkwardly standing. They had all prepared to fight to the death, but the series of changing situations left them utterly dazed.

The bold guest who had been cursing continuously realized it wasn't the Tu Fa Clan attacking, his expression relaxing as he suddenly sprang to his feet.

He originally thought Yan Nu hadn't exerted any force earlier, but now he knew Yan Nu probably hadn't intended to kill him at all.

"Monster... Everyone, what on earth are you trying to do?"

Yan Nu grinned. "Naturally, it's to annihilate the Zhang family."

The bold guest wasn't surprised; since they had already killed so many people from the Zhang family just now, they were definitely targeting the Zhang family.

"Are you planning to establish a monster state?" That bold guest's expression turned somewhat ugly.

The so-called monster state had only appeared in recent years. Bingzhou and Youzhou on the northern border were already chaotic to the extreme.

There were terrifying great monsters who didn't cultivate the Dao at all, yet possessed extremely formidable magical power; they conquered cities, penned up humans like livestock, and established monster states.

Yan Nu scratched his head and said, "I just want to wipe them out, distribute the money and grain, and let everyone eat and drink their fill, and take medicine to treat illnesses."

Everyone was stunned. Just for this?

The bold guest asked blankly, "You're doing this just to open the granaries and distribute grain?"

Yan Nu nodded and said, "The Zhang family doesn't give people a way to live, so they deserve to die."

Only then did the bold guest figure it out, his facial expression turning peculiar. "You're starting an uprising? A mon—monster uprising?"

"What's an uprising?" Yan Nu asked.

"..." The corner of the bold guest's mouth twitched, leaving him completely speechless.

He thought for a moment and mustered his courage. "I know you are formidable, and I know the Zhang family's perverted and tyrannical ways mean they indeed deserve to die..."

"But at least they didn't flee south; instead, they raised banners to recruit troops and resolved to defend the city to the death. It might feel cathartic for you monsters to wipe them out, but with the city in chaos, if the barbarian army charges in one of these days, who will stop them?"

His fellow townsman brothers were dumbfounded: Eldest Brother, you dare speak to a monster like this?

Yan Nu didn't mind it at all, and instead asked in return, "Didn't you want to stop them just a moment ago? I think you're much more useful than the ones who were kneeling earlier."

The bold guest was taken aback. "I am merely a martial man carrying nothing but a surge of passionate valor."

"Now that the country is in peril, I, Li Xiang, only wish to contribute my meager strength."

At this point, Shen Leling had already finished dealing with Zhang Feng's corpse and walked over. "Stop talking nonsense. Do you want me, a monster, to manage you people? I don't have that kind of idle time."

"Now I'll give you only two choices. First, join us in wiping out the Zhang family; after that, whether you roam the rivers and lakes or start an uprising to carve out territory has nothing to do with me."

"Second, I'll wipe you all out, and then wipe out the Zhang family."

Imitating Zhang Feng's voice, Shen Leling sounded remarkably authentic.

The corner of Li Xiang's mouth twitched. Was this even a choice?

To be honest, for this group of monsters to charge into the city and leave them alive was already quite miraculous.

Yet he still didn't agree immediately. These were monsters, after all! Claims that they would leave right after destroying the Zhang family, or open the granaries to distribute grain—it was probably a trap.

However, refusing to submit meant dying right now. Li Xiang couldn't help but look back at his brothers.

That group of wandering knights all said, "Brother Li, we'll listen to you."

Li Xiang felt under immense pressure. He had brought his good brothers from the village to enlist in the army and serve the country, solely because a formidable enemy was outside and the Tu Fa Clan was ravaging Qingzhou.

As for how the Zhang family lorded over Hua County and what kind of behavior they exhibited, everyone saw it clear as day; at any other time, faced with such magnates, he would have long since led his brothers to hack a few of them down and then fled to the rivers and lakes.

After pondering for a moment, Li Xiang offered a bitter, cupped-fist salute. "I shall obey your commands."

In an instant, his fellow townsman friends all agreed as well.

As for the wandering knights hailing from various places, what else was there to say? They submitted as well.

Feng Junyou muttered thoughtfully, "This group of people is too weak; they're of no use."

"Now the plan has changed. The fact that the barbican has been occupied by us cannot be concealed for long."

Yan Nu dashed to the edge of the drill ground, picked up his deposited Mysterious Iron Spear, and said with soaring fighting spirit, "Then we won't conceal it!"

Shen Leling giggled. "Good! You lead people to rebel, and I'll come to suppress you!"

"Um... Huh?" Yan Nu suspected he had misheard.

Shen Leling pointed at herself. "I am Zhang Feng now. Originally, according to the original plan, we were supposed to secretly gather all the members of the Zhang family, but you ruined all of that."

"Now there is demonic qi all over this place, and so many people from the Zhang family have died; we have to give an explanation to the outside world."

"It just so happens that you can lead a rebellion, and I'll dispatch forces to encircle and suppress you."

"You want him to shoulder everyone's encirclement all by himself? Then we might as well just charge straight out," Huang Banyun said excitedly.

Shen Leling shook her head. "It's different. The Zhang family has many methods that can restrain me and the old ghost, but Yan Nu is not afraid! We will act separately; as long as I am not suspected, I can assist him from within..."

"Anyway, no matter what plan is discussed with him, he always messes it up... It's better for me to handle it myself."

"Yan Nu, just take this bunch of people and wreak havoc to your heart's content."

p.s: Apologies. There is a Blue Archive group chat, group number: 767556857. The group owner plans to write containment items from all my books into archives, and because they lack helping hands, they asked me to drop an advertisement. Anyone interested is welcome to go help out.