Returning Empty-Handed

Chapter 8: Returning Empty-Handed

Lin Maoxian paid no attention to the iron blade swinging toward him. He made no attempt to dodge and punched straight at his attacker.

"Clang! Clang!" Because of their weapons, Huang Liu's iron blade struck Lin Maoxian first, ringing against him.

"Adventurer took damage from the target, Yellow Turban Army Squad Leader—Huang Liu, and lost [22 − (15 + 10%)] === 5.5 health."

"Thud!" At the same time, Lin Maoxian's fist landed on Huang Liu, knocking him back several steps. The space prompt appeared: "Adventurer dealt crushing-force damage to the target, Yellow Turban Army Squad Leader—Huang Liu. Damage: (31 − 19) × 3 + 10% === 39.6 health."

Lin Maoxian glanced at the prompt from the space. It was exactly what he had estimated. He temporarily muted the prompts in his mind and prepared to charge toward Huang Liu.

Just then, the four Yellow Turban Soldiers following behind Huang Liu attacked as well. Lin Maoxian showed no intention of dodging their blows. Seeing that the four of them had blocked his path to Huang Liu, he knew he would lose a lot of time trying to get past them unless he dealt with the grunts first.

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"

The four Yellow Turban Soldiers' attacks struck Lin Maoxian one after another. Perhaps because their strength was low, he barely felt any pain. He punched the two nearest soldiers once each. Before they could react, both were knocked backward and lay motionless.

"Run!" When the other two Yellow Turban Soldiers saw what had happened, they didn't dare stand in the way of this killing machine. They fled in opposite directions, desperate to get away. But they were no match for Lin Maoxian's speed. They had barely taken a few steps before he caught up and dealt with them both with a single punch each.

After taking care of the two soldiers, Lin Maoxian didn't pause for a moment. He turned and chased after Huang Liu. While pursuing the other two, he had noticed that Huang Liu had no intention of fighting. After Lin Maoxian's punch sent him reeling, Huang Liu had clutched his chest and run toward the path, not caring whether the other four Yellow Turban Soldiers lived or died.

Lin Maoxian couldn't let his cooked duck fly away right before his eyes. His Agility was higher than Huang Liu's, and they weren't far apart. Huang Liu had barely gotten anywhere before Lin Maoxian caught up with him. This time, Lin Maoxian didn't punch him. A punch would have worsened Huang Liu's injuries, but it would also have knocked him forward and helped him get farther away.

After catching up, Lin Maoxian summoned all his strength, grabbed Huang Liu, and flung him backward as if he were an object.

"Crash!" Huang Liu's body slammed heavily into the ground. Lin Maoxian turned and went back to where he had landed. Seeing Huang Liu's pained expression, he muttered, "Run? You think you can get away? A perfectly good cooked duck trying to fly off—how naive."

Huang Liu felt as if every bone in his body were about to fall apart. Clutching his chest in agony, he looked up at the man standing before him. "Why are you killing us?"

Lin Maoxian had never been one to waste words on his enemies. He picked up the iron blade Huang Liu had dropped, raised it, and brought it down, chopping off his head in one stroke. Only after watching the head roll away did Lin Maoxian mutter, "Why does there have to be some big reason? Of course I have my reasons for killing you. Instead of thinking about how to stay alive, you keep asking pointless questions. What a fool."

He unmuted the space prompts and skimmed past the long string of damage notifications. Then he spotted the last one: "Adventurer killed Yellow Turban Army Squad Leader—Huang Liu. Reward: 500 Source Points."

Seeing this prompt put Lin Maoxian at ease. He hadn't received anything like it for the people he'd killed earlier, and had thought killing plot characters might not earn Source Points. Now it seemed those people had been neither important nor particularly strong. A Squad Leader like this was fairly capable; ordinary Adventurers would have found him difficult to kill. That was probably why the system awarded Source Points.

Lin Maoxian watched a ball of white light rise from Huang Liu's body. With a thought, he stored it in the Storage Space. He checked the other four Yellow Turban Soldiers' corpses, but found no white light, so he gave up. Once he was done, he called out to the surroundings, "Kid, you can come out now. There's no danger left."

Xiao Zhang came out, trembling with fear. Not much time had passed, but he had been terrified while hiding. Even after Lin Maoxian called him out, he still hadn't fully recovered.

Looking at how pathetic Xiao Zhang seemed, Lin Maoxian wondered how long he would survive on the battlefield if he kept acting like this. "Kid, if you keep behaving like that, I'll send you to join the others. Do you understand?"

At that, Xiao Zhang immediately pulled himself together. He didn't want to be killed for no reason.

Seeing that Xiao Zhang had regained his composure, Lin Maoxian said, "Go search them carefully, kid. See if they have anything good. If you find anything valuable, keep it for yourself. Your happy life starts here."

Xiao Zhang instantly perked up and happily headed toward the corpses. It wasn't the prospect of a happy life that thrilled him, but the chance to pick through valuable things and keep them. He knew his life was probably safe. If the man before him had wanted to kill him, he wouldn't have gone to all this trouble.

Lin Maoxian glanced at Xiao Zhang rummaging through the corpses, then shifted his gaze to the equipment in his hand. It was only a common-grade piece of equipment, but he could still sell it for some Source Points if he took it back to the space. However, when he looked at its attributes again, he could only shake his head in dismay. A new attribute had appeared: "Cannot be taken out of this world." In other words, this equipment could only be used in this world and couldn't be taken back to the space to sell. Lin Maoxian didn't even need to check the armor; he knew it had the same restriction as the blade and couldn't be taken back either.

"Kid, take this blade and Huang Liu's armor with you. If anything happens, you'll have something to defend yourself with." Lin Maoxian tossed the weapon onto the ground. Its attributes were decent, adding five points of damage. But he had no idea how to use it, and he'd probably be better off fighting with his fists.

Lin Maoxian found a place to rest while Xiao Zhang finished gathering things. He wasn't worried that Yellow Turban Soldiers might suddenly come up the path. Given their strength, as long as there weren't too many, he could kill as many as came. And if all else failed, he could always run.

It didn't take long for Xiao Zhang to finish. Wearing the armor and holding the iron blade, he stood before Lin Maoxian with a bundle wrapped in cloth.

Seeing that Xiao Zhang was ready, Lin Maoxian asked, "Kid, do you think there are more ambushes farther down? Will we be in trouble if we go down there?"

"My lord, there aren't any more ambushes below. But the army is camped at the entrance to the valley. There's nowhere to hide over there, so anyone who goes in will be spotted. Then the Centurion will bring his guards to eliminate the intruders." Xiao Zhang told him everything he knew.

"Centurion? Guards?" Lin Maoxian murmured, then asked Xiao Zhang, "Do you know how many soldiers are inside? Who's stronger, the Centurion's guards or the Squad Leaders?"

Xiao Zhang gathered his thoughts. After a moment, he said, "There are ninety-six people inside right now. Nine Squad Leaders each lead nine soldiers, and the remaining six are the Centurion and his guards. The Centurion's guards are chosen from the winners of the Squad Leaders' duels, so the guards are definitely stronger."

Lin Maoxian thought it over. Setting the Centurion aside, the ordinary soldiers, Squad Leaders, and guards would already be more than enough to give him trouble. And there was an even stronger Centurion in there, too. Charging in alone wasn't going to work. He would have to find a way to split them up and deal with them separately. "Kid, can you think of any other way to sneak in without being spotted? And do the soldiers ever leave the valley?"

Xiao Zhang pointed to the path in front of them. "There's no way in except this path. As for the soldiers leaving the valley, aside from the squad assigned to guard this side, the rest have to stay inside. They aren't allowed to go out."

Hearing this, Lin Maoxian felt terribly unwilling to give up. If he couldn't get inside this time, the people within would surely realize that something had happened to the ten men. Even if he came back, the defenses would be stronger. Without finding some help, he'd have no chance of getting in.

"Let's go back to Pingyang County!" Though he wasn't happy about it, with no other options, Lin Maoxian had no choice but to take Xiao Zhang back to Pingyang County.

After they had walked for a while, Lin Maoxian instructed Xiao Zhang, "Kid, the city gates are being watched closely because the Yellow Turban Army is about to attack. If anyone asks you anything, say you're going into the city to join the army. Tell them you ran into Yellow Turban bandits on the road and I happened to rescue you. Got it?"

"Got it," Xiao Zhang replied obediently.

Lin Maoxian barked, "If you got it, then why haven't you taken off that Yellow Turban on your head? With that on, everyone will know you're a Yellow Turban bandit!"

Only then did Xiao Zhang realize what he had forgotten. He reached up, pulled off the Yellow Turban, and tossed it onto the ground.