Rallying Enough Men to Make a Squad Leader

"An order from the Thousand Household!"

"Regardless of age or sex, kill all the rebels, to uphold King's Law!"

"An order from the Thousand Household..."

Shouts rang out through the forest. After being ambushed time and again, the Patrol Inspectors, tormented until they were nearly crazed, were all venting themselves without restraint.

Even those who felt reluctant did not dare disobey under military orders.

Men and women, old and young—beneath the blade, there was little difference.

Chu Mu struggled to his feet. It was not that he intended to pursue the fleeing remnants. Obviously, his body did not support him doing anything of the sort right now.

He stood only to guard against unforeseen danger. Victory was within reach, and if someone came along and stabbed him from behind at this moment, he would truly be finished.

"Don't run!"

"Stop!"

Beside Chu Mu, several Patrol Inspectors who had cowered timidly ever since entering the mountains now saw the old, weak, sick, and disabled fleeing, and charged out howling as if they had been injected with rooster blood.

"You're not going after them?"

Chu Mu cast a glance at Xu Yuan and asked.

"I have to stay and guard you, Mu Ge'er."

Xu Yuan raised his chin and said indifferently.

Chu Mu said no more. He took two steps back and leaned against a tree.

Time trickled by. Before long, the cries and wails in the forest gradually fell silent.

At least within Chu Mu's field of vision, there were no longer any scenes of pursuit. All that remained were the figures of Patrol Inspectors returning with heads dangling from their hands.

"You're wounded?"

Just as Chu Mu was weakly surveying the surroundings, Wu Shuo's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.

Chu Mu turned his head, but before he could see clearly, Wu Shuo had already come before him.

"This bandaging won't do. If we can't stop the bleeding, you won't last."

Wu Shuo frowned, then tore off a large strip of cloth from beneath his own armor.

"Stand still. I'll bandage you again."

As he spoke, Wu Shuo reached out and opened the wound Chu Mu had bandaged himself, then carefully wrapped it again.

"I learned this bandaging technique from Doctor Li of the Town."

"I've practiced it over the years, too. You brat are lucky..."

Chu Mu was surprised. "Doctor Li is willing to pass on his medical skills?"

"His prized secrets naturally can't be taught. But for some basic things, you can still learn them for a little money."

"Martial Arts place the greatest emphasis on qi and blood. The body's structure, Meridians and Acupoints—all of these are things one must understand..."

"Putting everything else aside, if you're injured, knowing these things can at least help you preserve your life..."

Chu Mu nodded and firmly engraved Wu Shuo's advice in his heart.

"You brat, you have three heads now?"

As he spoke, Wu Shuo glanced at the two heads beside Chu Mu.

Chu Mu nodded, then pointed at the burly man's head. "He was practically dead and still managed to give me a slash. I didn't dodge in time."

"You must have been careless."

Wu Shuo did not even raise his head. "You can count yourself lucky this time. Some sinister Martial Arts can even let a person erupt with strength far beyond their usual power just before death. Others can make a person temporarily feign death..."

"Remember this well: whenever you fight someone, regardless of whether they're male or female, old or young, you must not be careless in the slightest..."

As he spoke, Wu Shuo sighed with emotion. "My former Squad Leader died because he let his guard down. In the end, a child stabbed him straight through the heart with a dagger..."

"Once we put on this skin, many things are no longer up to us."

After finishing the bandaging, Wu Shuo took the two heads that a nearby Patrol Inspector was carrying and tossed them in front of Chu Mu.

"I'll make up two for you. We'll turn them in together later, and you can cobble together enough merits to become a Squad Leader."

Chu Mu froze and was about to speak, but Wu Shuo cut him off. "I'm a Squad Leader. Heads are no use to me."

Chu Mu spoke up. "Squad Leader..."

"Take them if I tell you to. Why are you being so fussy?"

Wu Shuo interrupted Chu Mu again. Without waiting for him to say more, he called out to several accompanying Patrol Inspectors and walked away.

Chu Mu was speechless. Looking at the two heads on the ground, he could not help feeling somewhat helpless.

"Mu Ge'er, don't worry. I asked around just now. Li Gang will probably be dismissed. No one will dare come looking for trouble."

"How could I be worried about that!"

Chu Mu waved his hand. It went without saying that since Wu Shuo dared to give them to him so openly, no one could possibly come looking for trouble over it.

What he was worried about was this debt of gratitude! First Wu Shuo had given him Martial Arts, then bandaged and treated his wounds, and now he was using these two heads to send him all the way to the position of Squad Leader.

Once the debt grew this large, many things would truly no longer be up to him.

"Let's go. They're assembling. Mu Ge'er, I'll help you over."

Before Chu Mu could think further, Xu Yuan glanced at the forest in the distance, then supported Chu Mu and headed toward the place where the Patrol Inspectors were gathering.

After the slaughter had reached this point, this Mountain Bandit Suppression expedition had undoubtedly ended in complete success.

Heads were piled one atop another, their blood staining a vast stretch of snow, forming a hideous little mountain.

And for the sake of these heads...

At the beginning of the expedition, there had been nearly two hundred Patrol Inspectors. Now, after Chu Mu swept his gaze around, he estimated that only seventy or eighty remained. The number of wounded was no small one either.

With more than half the force dead or wounded, this Patrol Inspector unit had somehow not collapsed. The greatest credit clearly belonged to that terrifying deterrence.

If one person fled, the whole family would suffer. In this Small County Town, where everyone's circle of life was fixed, such deterrence was undoubtedly extremely effective.

Compared with the journey in, their speed leaving the mountains was unquestionably much faster.

Nearly a day and night of pursuit was likely a terrifying nightmare that most of the Patrol Inspectors would find impossible to erase for the rest of their lives.

Now that they had finally endured it, the overwhelming desire to return home was undoubtedly the prevailing mood for most of them.

With his wounds so severe, Chu Mu naturally could not walk too quickly, and before long he fell behind.

Fortunately, an order soon came down for the group to slow their pace. Chu Mu and the other wounded in the unit therefore did not fall too far behind.

"Mu-ge..."

As Chu Mu struggled forward, Xu Yuan suddenly bumped his shoulder, then pointed toward the bamboo grove at the side.

Chu Mu instinctively followed Xu Yuan's pointing finger. His pupils suddenly contracted, and the long saber in his hand was already slightly raised.

But after getting a true look, Chu Mu relaxed a little.

"Let's go!"

Chu Mu waved his hand.

"Mu-ge?"

Xu Yuan was puzzled.

Chu Mu shook his head. "Go. Don't cause trouble."

"Oh..."

Xu Yuan nodded. He could not help looking back at the forest again, but he said no more. Silently supporting Chu Mu, he continued forward as though nothing had happened.

"Brother, they didn't discover us, did they?"

"Looks like they did. Look, they're looking over here..."

"Brother, I'm scared..."

"Don't be scared. Your brother will protect you."

"Brother, they left. They didn't discover us."

"Let's go..."

"Let's go find Xiu Ge. Second Uncle said Xiu Ge is still alive..."

Within the forest, in the midst of the silence, hushed whispers could faintly be heard.

Not long after Chu Mu staggered away with Xu Yuan's support, the snow beneath a tree in the forest was suddenly pushed aside. Two small, thin figures crawled out, the larger hand clasping the smaller one, and soon disappeared into the Dense Forest, leaving behind only a string of tiny footprints in the snow...