Discovered? Then kill them all

He picked up the Black Iron Saber Wei Yun handed him, and the first thing he felt was its weight.

It looked exactly like an ordinary standard-issue saber, yet weighed seven or eight times as much. An ordinary soldier would probably struggle just to lift it.

Swish!

Li Dao drew it with his right hand. A sharp, cold gleam met his eyes as the blade left its sheath, its keen edge plain to see.

"Fine saber!"

Compared with the ordinary saber he had used before, this Black Iron Saber could not have suited him better.

This was a saber made for killing. Paired with the Gale Saber Technique he had worked out himself, it left him itching to put it to the test.

Li Dao looked up. "When do we leave?"

Wei Yun answered frankly, "If you leave early enough, tonight will be the best opportunity."

"Then what are you waiting for? Get the horses ready."

"..."

Outside Changgu Town.

The five of them gathered with Wei Yun.

"Say, why do I have to take this Little Madman with me?"

Shen San sat on his horse, with Little Madman tied down a short distance behind him.

Little Madman kept baring his teeth and struggling at Shen San, grinding and snapping his serrated teeth as he growled. The sound made Shen San's scalp prickle.

Wei Yun chuckled. "Because you're the best fit."

At that, Shen San looked at the other four.

There was no need to consider Li Dao, their leader. After being taught a lesson, Little Madman feared him most and did not dare go near him.

Off to the side, Xu Hu sat on a horse. He weighed so much that his enormous backside occupied its entire back. Seeing how the horse strained, Shen San could not help feeling sorry for it.

As for Old Ghost, the last candidate, he was over a hundred years old and looked as though a gust of wind could blow him away. Could he withstand Little Madman's antics?

After looking them all over, Shen San actually found himself agreeing that he was the best fit.

"Forget it. This will do."

Shen San let it go. He was already used to getting screwed over.

Wei Yun walked up to Li Dao's horse. "I've marked the location for you. There's an eighty percent chance they'll pass through there tonight. If you hurry over now, you should be able to get ahead of the Third Prince of Falling Cloud's party and intercept them."

"Understood."

"All right, then. Get going."

Li Dao looked back at Shen San and the others, slapped his horse's rump, and said, "We're off."

Meanwhile.

On an ancient road along the Northern Barbarians' frontier.

A party of several hundred riders slowly advanced in one direction.

At their head rode a young man in splendid clothing on a blood-red horse.

He was none other than the Falling Cloud Tribe's third prince, who had come to negotiate with the Tamu Tribe.

Beside him rode a burly man in armor, the Third Prince of Falling Cloud's personal guard captain.

"Third Prince, do we really need to leave in such a hurry? Are you sure we shouldn't inform the king?"

The guard captain spoke to the young man beside him with some concern.

The Third Prince of Falling Cloud waved a hand, looking utterly unconcerned. "There's no need to make a special report to my father over something like this. I can handle everything myself. We only need to report back to him once the negotiations are finished."

"But the Tamu Tribe is close to Great Qian's frontier. If Great Qian learns that we're forming an alliance with the Tamu Tribe, they may well send men against us."

"What is there to fear? Our Falling Cloud Tribe is a major tribe too. I don't believe Great Qian would strike at me first when we haven't made a move."

"But..."

The guard captain wanted to say more, but was quickly interrupted.

"Enough with the buts. There aren't so many complications. We just need to go to the Tamu Tribe, negotiate how the benefits will be divided, and return home to report. It's simple."

The Third Prince of Falling Cloud paid the guard captain's words no mind at all.

Just then, he could not help yawning. He turned and asked, "Guard Captain Jin Sheng, what time is it?"

"Third Prince, it's one hour until the hour of the rat."

"It's that late already? Then have the party stop and make camp in an hour. I need to rest."

"Third Prince, I suggest we keep moving without stopping and head straight to the Tamu Tribe."

"But I'm sleepy."

"Third Prince..."

Jin Sheng wanted to say more, but the Third Prince of Falling Cloud raised a hand to interrupt him again. "Jin Sheng, just tell me this: can you protect me?"

"Yes!"

Jin Sheng answered without hesitation.

As the third prince's guard captain, protecting him was his duty. If the third prince died, he died. Only if the third prince lived could he live as well.

The Third Prince of Falling Cloud smiled. "Since you're so confident, what's wrong with me taking a rest?"

"I..."

Jin Sheng was suddenly at a loss for words. He could hardly slap his own face by contradicting himself.

In the end, he could only bow his head and yield.

Seeing this, the Third Prince of Falling Cloud smiled triumphantly and immediately ordered, "We'll travel for another hour, then everyone will make camp and rest where we are."

"Yes, Third Prince."

The hour soon passed.

The Third Prince of Falling Cloud's party stopped right on time and began lighting fires and setting up camp.

They certainly lived up to their reputation as nomads of the grasslands.

In the time it took an incense stick to burn, their camp was ready.

At that moment, behind a slope not far from the Third Prince of Falling Cloud's camp.

Li Dao and the other four gathered together.

"Fatty, these are the foolproof traps you were talking about?"

Looking at their target's camp in the distance, Li Dao turned to Shen San.

Shen San looked innocent. "I didn't see them stopping to make camp coming either."

Glancing at the Third Prince of Falling Cloud's camp, less than a hundred paces from the traps he had laid, he could not help cursing inwardly.

Why did they have to stop?

Why couldn't they have gone a few steps farther?

Old Ghost grumbled beside him, "You little fatty, you've wasted all those poisons of mine."

Shen San could hardly talk back to Li Dao, but with Old Ghost, he made a point of "respecting his elders."

"Wasted your poisons? What kind of bullshit is that-poison that can't kill anyone?"

"My poison wasn't meant to kill people."

"If poison doesn't kill people, can you still call it poison?"

"Why don't you try it?"

"..."

Seeing the two begin to bicker, Li Dao kicked Shen San in the backside. "Shut up."

As for why he did not kick Old Ghost?

The man was over a hundred years old. Li Dao was too broke to afford that kick; one careless blow might send the old man straight to his grave.

"The traps are useless now. What do we do, boss? We can't wait until daylight tomorrow, can we? The odds of them discovering the traps would be too high."

Ever since learning that Li Dao was their leader, Shen San had called him boss at every turn. Though he was older than Li Dao, his guiding principle was to cling to a powerful thigh.

"We're not waiting until tomorrow."

"Then..."

"Once they're asleep, we'll launch a night raid."

Li Dao glanced at the sky and made his decision on the spot.

A night raid?

Shen San could not help trying to dissuade him. "Boss, that's a party of three hundred. We don't even know whether there are any experts among them. Is a night raid really going to work? What if we're discovered?"

"Discovered?"

Li Dao answered directly, "Then we'll kill them all, and there'll be no one left to discover us."

Shen San: "???"

Would you listen to what you're saying?

In the end, they settled on the night raid.

Old Ghost would administer the poison, Little Madman and Xu Hu would create chaos if they were discovered, and Li Dao would command.

As for Shen San, he successfully landed the most important task.

Assassinating the Third Prince of Falling Cloud.

Well, he only had himself to blame for being the best at lightness skills.

Of course, that was only the plan on the surface.

Li Dao's main goal was still to harvest attributes from these three hundred-plus Northern Barbarian soldiers.

"Boss, if I get caught, you have to save me."

Upon learning that he would be responsible for assassinating the Third Prince of Falling Cloud, Shen San grew terribly nervous and spoke with utter seriousness.

In response, Li Dao stepped forward and patted his shoulder. "Perseverance is victory."

Time slowly passed.

As the night deepened, the Third Prince of Falling Cloud's camp gradually fell quiet. Only clusters of unextinguished campfires burned in the darkness.

Li Dao led the other four slowly toward the camp.

Because they were very careful, and all fairly agile, no one noticed their approach for the time being.

"Old Ghost, spread some poison."

Li Dao turned to Old Ghost beside him.

"What kind of poison do you want? I've got..."

As he spoke, Old Ghost started to take out his bottles and jars, but Li Dao quickly stopped him. "Never mind what kind. As long as it keeps these people from waking up."

"Then I understand. You want..."

Seeing that Old Ghost was about to go on again, Li Dao decisively turned to Shen San. "Once Old Ghost has administered the poison, go carry out the assassination."

"Boss, don't abandon me."

"I know. Enough chatter."

With that, Li Dao turned his attention to Xu Hu and Little Madman beside him.

For now, Xu Hu simply did whatever he said, with no opinions of his own.

As for Little Madman, his mouth was firmly stuffed with a wad of gauze. He wanted to struggle, but one look from Li Dao immediately quieted him.

"Xu Hu, keep an eye on Little Madman. Don't let him cause trouble."

"Understood."

Xu Hu grabbed Little Madman and pulled him over.

Perhaps because they had eaten meat together earlier, Little Madman did not resist Xu Hu as fiercely as he did Shen San. Though somewhat awkward, he did not attack Xu Hu.

An incense stick's worth of time later.

Old Ghost took out the poison he had prepared, held out a hand to test the night breeze, and opened the bottle.

A wisp of pale yellow gas drifted with the wind into the camp.

A few minutes later, Old Ghost nodded. "That should do it."

"Though I mixed it in a hurry, these people won't wake up anytime soon as long as we don't make too much of a disturbance."

Li Dao nodded and turned to Shen San.

With a miserable expression, Shen San nodded and slipped toward the camp under cover of darkness.

To his credit, despite all his flab, Shen San was remarkably nimble. With his lightness skills, he soon slipped into the camp.

Seeing Shen San get away smoothly, Li Dao planned to send the four ahead once Shen San had assassinated the Third Prince of Falling Cloud. He could then stay behind, wreak havoc, and leave afterward.

After all, completing the assassination mission was important to him.

But harvesting attributes from Northern Barbarian soldiers was even more important.

Though Wei Yun had said he would not kill the donkey once the millstone was turned, Li Dao would not stake his life on someone else's humanity.

So he would not pass up any chance to improve his strength.

Time passed little by little.

Li Dao and the other three waited in a concealed spot beside the military camp.

Suddenly, several voices rang out from inside the camp.

"Who are you? Where are the guards?"

"An assassin! You're an assassin!"

"You dare try to assassinate our third prince? Die!"

Hearing these voices, Li Dao quickly realized that Shen San had been exposed.

"Old Ghost, didn't you say your poison would work?"

"It does work."

"Then how did Fatty stir up trouble?"

"Maybe Fatty didn't run into an ordinary person."

"What do you mean?"

"The poisons I just mixed only work on ordinary people."

Before Li Dao could say anything, a figure suddenly appeared beside them.

Li Dao instinctively raised his hand to attack.

"Wait, it's me."

Only then did Li Dao see that it was Shen San.

"What's going on in there?"

"I don't know either. I'd only just gotten close to the third prince's command tent when someone spotted me. If I hadn't run fast enough, that guy might have cleaved me in two with one swing."

Shen San spoke with lingering fear written all over his face.

"Where's the man who spotted you?"

"I don't know."

Suddenly, a commotion broke out inside the camp.

"Bastards! An assassin's already here, and you bastards are still sleeping! Get up!"

That booming, rough voice soon threw the previously quiet camp into an uproar, and the sleeping soldiers woke up one after another.

The group instinctively turned their gazes toward Old Ghost.

Old Ghost hurriedly shook his head. "There's definitely nothing wrong with my poison."

Suddenly, he raised his hand to test the air, and his expression changed at once. "Oh no, the wind changed direction! The poison didn't blow into the camp!"

Li Dao shook his head. Sure enough, relying on others was never as good as relying on himself.

He drew the Black Iron Saber at his waist. "Since this approach didn't work, let's switch to the second assassination method I mentioned earlier."

Shen San instinctively asked, "What second assassination method?"

Li Dao said bluntly, "The assassination method where we kill everyone who spots us."

Shen San: "???"

Truth be told, this had been Li Dao's original idea as well.

If he hadn't had to consider Shen San and the other three, charging straight in would absolutely have been his first choice.