As Zhang Qi's words fell, Black Mountain Guest, who had been knocked flying earlier, recovered from his dazed state and struggled to his feet. But the sight before him made him gasp in shock.
"Th-this..."
Amid his startled cry, he instinctively tried to flee, but where could he possibly run?
At once, two soldiers stepped forward to stop him. Black Mountain Guest displayed his martial arts, intending to knock them down. He could naturally see that these two soldiers were not particularly skilled, but their seemingly ordinary movements contained the formation's rhythm. Even something as simple as stopping a fleeing man had been drilled hundreds of times. Every movement followed a method; they neither feared a powerful enemy nor underestimated an opponent because he had few men.
Thus, the outcome had already been decided.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen, to tell you the truth, we too were forced into this! Look at this man—his cultivation is profound. We dared not disobey him, nor could we! But we never truly intended to oppose the Marquis of Pacifying the Realm!"
Pinned to the ground, with the blades about to slash across his wrists and ankles, Black Mountain Guest immediately shouted at the top of his lungs. Yet he still could not stop the cold gleam on those blades.
When blood flashed, it became a scream.
At that moment, someone among those lying on the ground roared, "Why go this far? You only need to kill the chicken to frighten the monkeys—why use such vicious means?"
"On the battlefield, there is nothing else. Even a lion uses its full strength to fight a rabbit," Zhang Qi said, unmoved by those words. Besides, everything that needed doing had already been done; a battle of tongues could change nothing. "As for people like you, if you had truly