Battle to the Death and Steel Crossbows

In the blink of an eye, the two sides had exchanged dozens of moves, and the battle had settled into a balance.

Still, Zhou Ye felt somewhat stifled.

The two bandits were roughly equal in strength. In a one-on-one fight, he should have been able to defeat either of them. But the two worked together flawlessly. Whenever he unleashed a killing move, they always joined forces to turn danger into safety.

Especially the bandit wielding the iron spear. His spear techniques were extremely tricky, constantly striking at the places where Zhou Ye felt most uncomfortable. The weapon was also so long that Zhou Ye could not get close, allowing the man to maintain a relatively safe distance. Yet whenever Zhou Ye attacked the bandit with the saber, that iron spear would appear near his vital points...

That said, as the fierce battle continued, Zhou Ye grew more and more confident. He could feel that his martial techniques were becoming increasingly polished, and much of the martial knowledge he had acquired before was slowly becoming second nature.

So he could not keep his head down and grind blindly forever. A good sparring partner was just as important!

In the end, Zhou Ye gritted his teeth. He would temper his martial arts in real combat and use these two bandits as whetstones!

He still had 10 free attribute points anyway. Even if he had to add all 10 to his Constitution in the end, he could wear the two of them to death.

And so, another dozen or so moves passed. Zhou Ye improved at a breathtaking pace, rapidly becoming familiar with the two bandits' fighting styles.

Suddenly, Zhou Ye noticed the spearman's position. A spark flashed through his mind, and he sprang forward, chopping down hard at the saber-wielding bandit.

The saber-wielding bandit hurriedly raised his blade to block. As if by habit, the spearman stepped sideways and unleashed Viper Emerging from Its Burrow. His long spear shot forth like a swimming dragon, viciously stabbing toward Zhou Ye's side.

Yet the instant the spearman's foot landed, it stepped into empty air. He had actually planted it in a small pit?

That foot was his driving foot. Once it missed its footing, the iron spear immediately warped out of shape. The spearman staggered, realizing that something was terribly wrong as he desperately tried to steady himself.

Zhou Ye's blade merely flicked, causing the saber-wielding bandit's block to miss. Then, like an evil ghost, Zhou Ye slipped through the gap exposed by the iron spear and reached the spearman in the blink of an eye.

With a swish, a head flew into the air, its face still frozen in the spearman's panicked expression.

Without pausing in the slightest, Zhou Ye swept back like a gust of wind and returned before the saber-wielding bandit.

By then, the saber-wielding bandit was equally frantic. Five moves later, a steel blade pierced his chest...

Though the battle had been extremely intense, it had lasted only a short while, not even a quarter of an hour.

After ending the fight, Zhou Ye hurriedly climbed over the wall and surveyed the surroundings. He found that the nearby darkness was quiet and still. It seemed that no one had noticed the commotion here.

Or rather, the outside was simply too chaotic and noisy tonight. What happened here could not possibly draw much attention. Even if someone had heard something, they would never meddle in other people's business.

Since that was the case, he would deal with the three corpses first.

Zhou Ye moved quickly, stripping every weapon, item, and piece of clothing from their bodies. He then took several empty burlap sacks from the room and stuffed the three corpses into them one by one.

After tying all the sacks to a shoulder pole, Zhou Ye found a piece of black cloth and covered his face. Rather than leaving through the courtyard gate, he carried the pole and climbed out over the rear wall.

Having lived here for some time, Zhou Ye was already familiar with the surrounding area. Naturally, he had planned several escape routes.

This was one of them. It passed through several secluded alleys. Even if he occasionally encountered someone, there were far too many masked people carrying things around tonight for anyone to grow suspicious.

With Agility +10, Zhou Ye moved incredibly fast. Coupled with his luck, he did not encounter anyone along the way.

Before long, Zhou Ye arrived before several garbage heaps. He scattered the sacks among them. There would certainly be plenty of casualties tonight anyway. Once a few days passed, these corpses would become an unsolved case with no leads. It would generally be impossible for anyone to trace them back to him.

After tossing them away, Zhou Ye prepared to go home. But just then, shouts of battle suddenly rose from behind the garbage heaps.

Peeking over, he went, "Eh?"

To his surprise, Zhou Ye spotted an old acquaintance inside. Big Dog of the Woodcutter Gang was leading a group of men in a street fight against another group dressed like hoodlums. They seemed to be fighting over something?

This was fucking chaotic.

Zhou Ye crouched down, with no intention whatsoever of helping Big Dog. Brothers of the Woodcutter Gang, I'll silently cheer you on. Then he turned around and quickly returned home.

At last, he let out a sigh of relief. It was time to count the spoils.

First were three leather armors and two standard-issue military waist sabers. However, the saber used by the saber-wielding bandit was a rather sharp, thick-backed blade, far superior to the standard-issue waist sabers. The iron spear was dark and glossy, equally sharp and made of better material. It was undoubtedly custom-made, so Zhou Ye named it the Black Flood Dragon Spear.

But on the first man he had killed, Zhou Ye also found a ten-stone heavy bow. There was even a military steel crossbow? Along with it were more than twenty steel arrows for the ten-stone heavy bow, two cases of five crossbow bolts each, and another used case with only three bolts remaining. In other words, once a bolt case was loaded, it could fire five crossbow bolts in succession.

Good lord!

Zhou Ye's face darkened. This man must have been the archer and crossbowman. If he had not killed him first, and the man had been firing arrows from the side, Zhou Ye would definitely have been in deep trouble... right?

The military steel crossbow was even more outrageous. It was a weapon forbidden among civilians. Privately possessing one was a crime equivalent to rebellion, and the authorities might even exterminate one's entire clan.

After all, although weapons were quite easy to forge in the prefectural city, ordinary civilian blacksmith shops would never dare make military steel crossbows or steel heavy armor.

Their power was simply too great. Such military steel crossbows posed a threat even to Mingjin and Huajin masters. If a dozen or so archers and crossbowmen attacked together, there was no way to withstand them.

Then there was steel heavy armor, and even more formidable heavy cavalry. Once they formed ranks, they were like mountains collapsing and seas overturning, utterly beyond the ability of a mere handful of martial masters to resist.

They could also deal with beast tides of demonic beasts, crushing through them all the way.

Without question, these were the ultimate weapons the imperial court used to keep sects and noble families in check. Otherwise, if anyone with high martial attainment could run wild at will, how could the court rule? Would the world not fall into utter chaos?

Thus, whether military steel crossbows or steel heavy armor, these were military weapons designed specifically to counter martial masters, allowing the weak to defeat the strong!