Suppose Xu Jie struck and slaughtered this mercenary group clean, leaving not a single survivor.
So long as no other martial artists witnessed it and testified, even if countless ordinary non-martial people saw it—
Even if he killed mercenary group members right in front of ordinary people, it would be as good as not having killed them at all.
The reason was simple: ordinary people had no voice in this world!
Otherwise, if any ordinary person could casually accuse a martial artist of breaking the law and killing another martial artist, wouldn't Xia Country fall into chaos immediately?
Therefore, only martial artists could serve as witnesses; only martial artists were qualified to testify!
For a monster like Xu Jie from a martial arts school, accusing him was even more difficult!
No rush. They had already left the city—was he worried there would be no chance to act?
At the front of Jinwu University's group.
The chief instructor leading the team approached the mercenary group's commander and coldly confronted him.
"Commander Qin, tell your men to rein themselves in! You haven't joined the Guard Army yet. Are you planning never to leave the city again after this?"
The chief instructor's attitude was exceedingly forceful, carrying an obvious threat.
On one hand, he was stronger than Commander Qin. He was a Third-rank Martial Artist, while Commander Qin was merely at the Second-rank Intermediate Stage.
On the other hand, martial school instructors belonged to the Martial Department. They were not something a mere mercenary group could compare with.
If they truly angered this group of instructors, once the Beast Tide ended, this mercenary group could forget about leaving the city easily. They would undoubtedly suffer the Jinwu University instructors' brutal retaliation.
This was the world of martial artists!
If you were strong, you could stand above the weak, even openly threaten their lives!
Upon hearing the chief instructor's explicit threat, Commander Qin, whose face bore a scar, forced out a smile.
He immediately turned around and fiercely rebuked his unrestrained subordinates.
However, when the chief instructor was not paying attention, Commander Qin revealed a trace of cold malice and casually swept his gaze over Xu Jie within the group.
That person was the target, then?
What a grand gesture!
To kill a martial school student, they had actually gone so far as to stir up a Beast Tide!
Commander Qin glanced around at their surroundings and realized they had crossed the core defensive line and entered the outer perimeter.
Thus, he took the initiative to approach Jinwu University's chief instructor and spoke in the name of the military Guard Army.
"Lord Captain ordered us to spread out and clear the demons in this area. Instructor, what do you think?"
The chief instructor merely nodded. He clearly knew this rule.
He then summoned several powerful instructors and instructed them to lead the students in batches according to the established plan, clearing the designated areas.
And so, the students and instructors around Xu Jie gradually dispersed. The farther they traveled from the city, the fewer people remained around him.
This gave him an opportunity to act. Following Chu Mingyue and a group of students, he killed several demons along the way.
Meanwhile, atop the southern wall of Jincheng City.
Zhao Tianyu's father, Zhao Du, one of Jincheng City's Guard Officers, stood together with Xu Bin.
The two avoided the crowd and seemed to be discussing something in hushed voices.
One was one of Jincheng City's Guard Officers, a high-ranking military commander.
The other was a Fourth-rank Martial Artist. Naturally, both drew much attention and could not personally enter the field or leave the city. They could only remain stationed atop the wall.
"Brother Xu, the plan has begun!"
"Mm. Is everything in order?"
"Rest assured. Nothing can go wrong!"
Zhao Du bared his teeth in a savage grin and spoke in a low, cruel voice.
"No matter how monstrous Xu Jie is, he is still just a youth. Wouldn't it be easy to provoke him? As long as we lure him into the designated area, there will be no evidence left, dead men tell no tales!"
If Xu Jie died in this Beast Tide, then even if the Martial Department's assessment team came to Jincheng City, they would have no way to investigate deeply.
After all, it was still uncertain just how outstanding Xu Jie's talent truly was.
No one would waste precious resources, manpower, and material wealth to investigate the truth for a dead man.
Even if they truly uncovered the truth, could Xu Jie come back to life?
"Well done!"
Xu Bin nodded in satisfaction, then let out a hypocritical sigh.
"What a pity. In order to kill one Xu Jie, we had no choice but to trigger this Beast Tide. When the time comes, the commoners dead and wounded will number in the tens of thousands... sigh!"
"Hmph!"
At those words, Zhao Du's face filled with savage viciousness, while a trace of madness and hysteria flashed in his eyes.
"So what? My son is dead! Let those commoners be buried with my son! What day does this world not see people die? Dying earlier is their blessing!"
The corners of Xu Bin's lips curled slightly upward. He clearly agreed with Zhao Du's words.
After leaving the City Lord's Manor that day and tearing all pretense apart with Xu Jie at Jinwu University,
He had taken the initiative to contact Zhao Du, who had lost his son, to discuss how to kill Xu Jie before the assessment team arrived.
Both had the hatred of a son's murder against Xu Jie. They hit it off at once.
That very day, they devised a plan to draw the beast hordes outside the city into attacking Jincheng City and use the Beast Tide to kill Xu Jie.
Xu Bin and Zhao Du had initially worried that Xu Jie might not leave the city...
Yet Xu Jie had actually come!
That made everything much simpler!
Zhao Du, who hated Xu Jie to the bone, used his authority as a Guard Officer to arrange everything.
He was confident that he could kill Xu Jie in the wilderness without anyone noticing, thereby avenging his son's death.
For this, the crazed Zhao Du had actually spared no effort to deliberately draw a Beast Tide into crashing against Jincheng City's defenses, creating the present situation.
In Zhao Du's eyes, as long as Xu Jie could be killed, forget tens of thousands of dead and wounded commoners—even if the Beast Tide broke through Jincheng City's walls, he would not hesitate!
In Zhao Du and Xu Bin's expectations, although Xu Jie was a monster, he was at most in the Blood Moving Realm. Once he left the city, wouldn't he be clay in their hands, to knead and pinch as they pleased?
Even if Xu Jie had truly moved his blood nine times, so what?
Could he break through into the Pulse Opening Realm in such a short time?
At the end of the day, Xu Jie was still a Blood Moving Realm martial artist!
One had to know that Zhao Du had not only dispatched a mercenary group to cooperate this time, but had also secretly ordered his trusted Lord Captain—a martial artist at the Pulse-Opening Peak Stage—to assassinate Xu Jie in the wilderness.
Even now, Zhao Du's plan was still proceeding smoothly!
The outer defensive line.
Over an entire day, Xu Jie had only killed three First-Rank Demons, gaining more than two hundred years of usable Lifespan.
He glanced somewhat helplessly at Chu Mingyue, who was protecting him at close range, and sighed inwardly.
This girl was truly strong!
But it was precisely because she was too strong that Xu Jie felt rather helpless.
As time passed, Jinwu University's students gradually scattered.
In the end, the only one left beside Xu Jie was Chu Mingyue, like a piece of dog-skin plaster that could not be shaken off no matter what.
It would have been fine if he simply could not shake her off, but the key was that Chu Mingyue's combat strength was astonishing. She was no ordinary Pulse-Opening Peak Stage martial artist.
Xu Jie had specifically asked and learned that Chu Mingyue was a Martial Dao Prodigy at the Twelfth Layer of Pulse Opening Realm, currently opening the Eighth Meridian within her body.
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