Righteous Man? Scum?

With a BUG-like character like Sun Shaozong holding the line, wasn't it as easy as turning over one's hand for the guards to achieve a complete victory?

In just about half an hour, all the thieves were either dead or wounded, having completely lost their ability to resist.

According to the post-battle count, the number of thieves who joined the battle one after another was about twenty-six. This number far exceeded the assassins who escaped from the Ruan Residence, so it was assumed that more than half of them were responsible for covering and receiving.

Among them, five died on the spot [including the doorman], seventeen were injured and captured [more than half were due to Sun Shaozong's handiwork], and only four gave up resistance and surrendered directly, which was enough to show the bloodiness and sturdiness of these people—if they hadn't encountered Sun Shaozong, this humanoid beast, it would have been unknown who would have won or lost.

It is said that after the thieves were wiped out in one fell swoop, Sun Shaozong saw that the guards were only cheering there, but no one came forward to take care of the aftermath, so he had to wipe the blood stains on the Gold Thread Great Ring Blade and loudly ordered: "Feng Xin, you take two people to guard the gate, no matter if they are officials or thieves, no one is allowed to enter or leave!"

"Understood!"

In just half a day, Sun Shaozong had already established supreme authority. How dare Feng Xin be as negligent as he was at the beginning?

He hurriedly responded respectfully, and pointed out two familiar brothers to go to the gate of the residence in a hurry.

Sun Shaozong continued to order: "The injured brothers bandage each other, and the rest of you first find some handy things to tie up all these rebellious thieves, and then divide into two teams to search carefully to see if there are any fish that have escaped the net!"

"Understood!"

The guards acted separately, and soon someone brought a pile of tents and clothes, cut them into strips with a knife, and tied the thieves like rice dumplings.

Not only that, Sun Shaozong also found that many people's arms were bulging, filled with all kinds of valuable objects. At first, he wanted to reprimand them a few words, but later he thought about it. In this era, soldiers and bandits were not separated in the first place. If he came forward to stop them, most of them would obey orders, but they would inevitably complain about him afterwards—especially since he was new here and was relying on these people to act, there was really no need to create a gap with them for some stolen goods.

So Sun Shaozong also turned a blind eye and pretended that he didn't see anything.

After the thieves were tied up, seeing the guards spontaneously divided into two teams and were about to start searching, he hurriedly added two sentences: "Everyone be careful, if you encounter any tricky characters, don't be brave, first find a way to notify me!"

In the previous melee, under Sun Shaozong's deliberate care, nearly twenty guards only suffered some skin injuries. If he lost manpower after locking in the victory, wouldn't his efforts have been in vain?

When the guards heard this, they all said 'Thank you', and then they went their separate ways.

After these guards left, Sun Shaozong turned his attention to the prisoners. Just as he was about to step forward to interrogate them, he suddenly found a warm and jade-like object in his palm. Only then did he remember that he had been holding Ruan Rong's soft hand, and had forgotten to let go until now.

He hurriedly let go of his bear paw, scratched his head and said with a smile, "Miss Rong, were you frightened just now?"

Ruan Rong shook her head with a red face, not daring to look at Sun Shaozong, but her mouth was as soft as glutinous rice: "Brother Sun can just call me Rong'er, that's what Daddy calls me."

Even an uninitiated person could hear the affection implied in these words, not to mention that Sun Shaozong had had several love affairs in modern times?

But…

In this short half-day, the little girl looked like she had secretly promised herself, wasn't the progress a little too fast?

What he didn't know was that the young ladies of this era mostly didn't leave their homes. The men they had seen before they left the cabinet were either relatives and friends or servants. It was naturally easier to fall in love at first sight when they met an excellent strange man.

However, after saying the word 'Rong'er', Ruan Rong felt her face burning even more, so without waiting for Sun Shaozong to agree, she said in a panic: "Brother Sun, I'll go help them bandage their wounds!"

With that, she hurriedly approached an injured person, took the 'bandage' and bandaged it in a panic. As for whether the bandaging technique and position were correct, she couldn't care about it for a while.

Sun Shaozong was stunned in place for a few more seconds before he finally remembered that he still had serious business to do, so he carried the Gold Thread Great Ring Blade and walked straight to the wide iron sword assassin. Seeing that he was still in a coma, he raised his foot and gently stepped on his right shoulder.

"Ah~!!!"

I saw the assassin raise his head and let out a shrill scream, which echoed all around.

Sun Shaozong originally wanted to wait for him to finish shouting before questioning him, but who knew that after shouting a few times, the guy rolled his eyes again and fainted from the pain.

Sun Shaozong was speechless when he saw it, but he also knew that he was not pretending—the guy's shoulder blade was smashed to pieces, and those bone fragments pierced into his muscles, blood vessels, and meridians, just like countless steel needles and iron files. In addition, with severe subcutaneous bleeding, half of his shoulder was swollen like a red unicorn arm, enough to make people suffer more than death!

Hesitating for a moment, Sun Shaozong simply turned to a captive who had surrendered, held the Gold Thread Great Ring Blade in front of him, and asked casually, "Who among you is the leader?"

Who knew that the fellow looked blank, staring wide-eyed at Sun Shaozong for a long time without saying a word.

"Our leader is Brother Ba Song!"

Someone nearby shouted in a strange tone, "It's the one you stepped on just now!"

Tsk~

So the fellow couldn't speak the Han language.

It seems the task of promoting 'Mandarin' in Zhen Country is quite arduous.

Sun Shaozong turned to the thief who could speak the Shun Tian Prefecture dialect and asked, "Who ordered you to assassinate Lord Ma?"

"Brother Ba Song brought us here!"

The captive had been quick to answer, so he was naturally not a tough bone. Moreover, he had been terrified by Sun Shaozong's martial prowess. Not only did he tell everything he knew, but he even learned to answer preemptively: "Brother Ba Song said that as long as we kill the Zhou Country's dog... official, our Zhen Country can catch its breath and once again dominate the Southern Borderlands! So a dozen of us brothers came in batches from Zhen Country—as for the people in this residence, I heard that Brother Ba Song had prepared them two years ago. They can all speak fluent Han language like the Qianxiang People."

His words immediately drew condemnation and scolding from his accomplices, but these noises were quickly suppressed by the guards with fists and feet—these days, there's no such thing as preferential treatment for prisoners. Beating and scolding are light punishments; if they get angry, they'll just chop them down with a knife.

Sun Shaozong inquired carefully and learned that this 'Brother Ba Song' was actually a well-known Roving Swordsman in the Zhen Country Capital, known for his generosity, and had thus recruited many 'good men' under his command.

Ba Song had two major hobbies in his life: one was lust, and he often helped young ladies and young wives solve their physiological needs, 'taking care' of chaste women to the point of hanging themselves; the other was fame. He admired Zhuan Zhu, Jing Ke, and other assassins who left their names in history, and he always thought about doing something for Zhen Country on his own. Therefore, he spared no expense to endure hardship and carry out this assassination.

Hearing this, Sun Shaozong didn't know how to evaluate this guy. If he said he was full of evil, he had a passion for sacrificing himself for his country. If he said he was a righteous man, he was a complete scumbag!

Fortunately, he was a Military Attache, not a historian, so he didn't need to dwell on such issues.

After asking repeatedly and confirming that the cowardly captive was not lying, Sun Shaozong turned back to Ba Song and tapped his shoulder lightly with his toe.

"Ah~!!!"

Another shrill scream, but this time Ba Song didn't faint. He just glared at Sun Shaozong with a ferocious expression. Because of the intense pain, his bloodshot eyeballs bulged outward, as if they were about to pop out of their sockets at any moment.

"Ba Song, right?"

Although Ba Song's face was a bit frightening, it was wishful thinking to scare Sun Shaozong. He smiled as if nothing had happened: "Your men have already confessed almost everything. Now it's your turn—tell me, who ordered you to carry out the assassination?"

Hearing Sun Shaozong call out his name, the muscles on Ba Song's face twitched strangely. Just when Sun Shaozong thought he would burst into curses, he saw Ba Song's left cheek suddenly bulge, then sink deeply.

Not good!

Sun Shaozong thought something was wrong and quickly reached out to pinch Ba Song's jaw, but it was too late. He only heard Ba Song grunt a few times, white foam trickled from his mouth, and he lost his breath.

This guy had obviously hidden poison in his mouth, ready to commit suicide at any time!