Can they kill?

Lately, there have been too many clingy people around me. This isn't a good sign!

"Brother... hungry... hungry... whimper..."

"Shut up!"

Just then, Little Black's adorable voice echoed in Xu Jie's mind, like a young beast that had eaten its fill and woken up, now crying for milk.

Xu Jie quickly and subtly cut his arm, letting the Little Black snake latch onto the wound like a leech and suck his blood.

Could he even continue living like this?

Jinwu University's mobilization was swift.

In just two hours, over two thousand martial artist students, led by their instructors, departed the school.

Along the way, they rendezvoused with students from four other martial artist universities in Jincheng City.

Over ten thousand young martial artists marched in formation on the streets, which had already been cleared and cordoned off, heading towards the west of the city.

The City Lord's Mansion, showing consideration for the martial arts schools, assigned the students to the areas with the lowest combat intensity.

According to intelligence, the beast tide was attacking from the southwest of Jincheng City, meaning there weren't many demons in the western part of the city.

On the road, Chu Mingyue stayed close to Xu Jie, softly explaining the detailed intelligence about the beast tide.

"This is a mid-level beast tide, with a starting number of at least one hundred thousand! Jincheng's garrison has only ten thousand troops, making it very difficult to resist. Therefore, during the city-wide Level 2 alert, all martial artists, whether from martial arts schools or civilian mercenary groups, are conscripted to join the defense!"

"Of course, despite the large numbers of the beast tide, not all of them will attack the city. Less than half will actually charge the city. The most troublesome aspect isn't the city defenses, but the villages established outside Jincheng, which cover a vast area, more than ten times the size of Jincheng!"

"Now that the first outer defense line has been breached, it means the outermost villages have been affected. Our mission is to clear out small groups of beasts that have broken through the defense line and defend various villages until the beast tide ends!"

"Xu Jie, you must obey my orders when we are outside the city. Do not act rashly. We need to cooperate with the military to resist the beast tide and rebuild new defense lines, do you understand?"

"..."

Xu Jie nodded silently. Whether he had actually taken her advice to heart was another matter entirely.

He also had some information about wild demons and beast tides from fragmented memories of his previous self, passed down from his mercenary father.

The outbreaks of beast tides across Xia Country followed a pattern. Most were caused by wild demons breeding too quickly and in excessive numbers.

This led to the beast herds compressing each other's living space, causing them to gather out of hunger and charge towards densely populated human cities with abundant food.

The cities themselves weren't dangerous; it was difficult for the beast tides to reach the city walls.

This was because vast farmlands existed on the city's outskirts, inhabited by more civilians than the city's population, though they were more scattered.

Each time a beast tide erupted, after clashing with martial artists and suffering heavy losses, their numbers would decrease.

Furthermore, once some demons had eaten their fill, the beast herds would naturally disperse.

While Chu Mingyue was speaking, the vast contingent of school martial artists had arrived at the city gate and were orderly exiting the city.

While waiting to exit, Xu Jie keenly felt a subtle sense of being watched.

He turned his head, but the feeling of being spied on vanished, causing him to frown slightly.

At the same time, on the city wall.

A guard captain who had spotted Xu Jie's whereabouts hid in a corner, took out his phone, and sent a text message to his superior. He then received orders to proceed as planned.

Clearly, the outbreak of this beast tide was likely not as simple as it appeared, though Xu Jie hadn't realized it yet.

After receiving the orders, the captain summoned a mercenary group temporarily conscripted into the guard, numbering over a hundred people.

The captain meaningfully instructed the mercenary group's leader to lead his subordinates to follow the Jinwu University students out of the city to defend defense line 703 and clear out the scattered beast groups there.

The mercenary group leader, a fierce man with a scar on his face, clearly had some arrangement with the captain. He nodded with a sinister grin and led his men to follow the two thousand students of Jinwu University.

After exiting the city, the students from the five martial arts universities, as expected, separated and went to different locations to resist the beast hordes.

Each group of university students was accompanied by soldiers flying the banner of the guard, which included temporarily conscripted mercenary groups as well as actual guards.

The group accompanying Xu Jie's Jinwu University was a mercenary group whose members clearly did not look like soldiers.

Not long after leaving the city, many mercenaries were brazenly ogling the female students in the group.

Some mercenaries were whistling and deliberately making suggestive noises, causing the instructors to frown.

Before the calm-faced chief instructor could say anything, Chu Mingyue, standing beside Xu Jie, exploded first.

Given Chu Mingyue's beauty, which surpassed all other women in the five universities, she naturally attracted the most attention.

She could tolerate Xu Jie's teasing on a daily basis; in fact, she was a little addicted and looked forward to it.

However, when faced with the mercenaries' provocation, Chu Mingyue, who wasn't known for her patience, couldn't stand it and immediately berated them.

"If you dare to look at me again, I'll gouge your eyes out!"

"Oh, the little lady has a fiery temper!"

"Heh heh, I like this type! She's got spirit!"

"Interested in exchanging contact info and coming out to play with us later?"

At this moment, Xu Jie glanced indifferently at the mercenaries who were gradually closing in.

He spoke a few quiet words that stunned the extremely angry Chu Mingyue on the spot.

"Can they kill us?"

Chu Mingyue was startled and quickly came to Xu Jie's side, whispering in his ear.

"Xu Jie, don't joke around! Although these people are mercenaries, they've been temporarily conscripted by the city lord's mansion and are flying the banner of the garrison. Any Martial Artist who dares to kill a member of the garrison will face certain death!"

Did he look like he was joking?

Seeing Xu Jie's indifferent expression, Chu Mingyue knew he might have murderous intent because of her.

This warmed her heart, and she continued to persuade him in a low voice.

"It's fine, Xu Jie. They only dare to talk big; they wouldn't dare to casually harm our students and instructors. Otherwise, if the Martial Department holds them accountable, they can't afford it! Don't get any special ideas. If some things are done, there's no turning back!"

"..."

Hearing this, Xu Jie glanced at the mercenaries who were still verbally harassing the female students and Chu Mingyue, temporarily suppressing his murderous intent.

If he were to act, it couldn't be here!

Chu Mingyue was right. Killing or injuring soldiers in Xia Country was a serious crime!

However, Xia Country's laws also had a few special provisions, such as "no witnesses, no conviction" and that the testimony of non-Martial Artists would not count, among others.