"Boss, boss, why did they all run away?"
Just then, Shen San came running over with Old Ghost and the others.
They had been busy searching for the supposed treasure, only to discover that the guards who had been fighting them tooth and nail were suddenly retreating one after another.
"Their master ran away. Why wouldn't they?"
Li Dao brushed the remaining frost off his clothes as he spoke.
"Ran away? Then our mission this time..."
Li Dao swept his gaze over the wagons loaded with goods. "Isn't everything right here? Have a look."
"No need to look."
Sun Zheng suddenly spoke up.
"No need?"
Shen San and the others looked puzzled.
"Right."
Sun Zheng explained his reasoning. "After fleeing in such a sorry state, they could only return to the Tamu Tribe. They couldn't possibly head to Great Qian. Our mission is complete."
Li Dao asked, "What if they regroup after returning and go ahead with the marriage alliance?"
Gao Liang smiled beside him. "Then that's another mission. Nothing to do with us."
Li Dao: "..."
Sure enough, workplaces were the same in every world. Everyone found ways to shove troublesome tasks onto someone else.
Since that was the case, it saved them the trouble too.
He had completed the third task he had promised Wei Yun. Next, he could welcome his freedom.
Half an hour later.
They dug a pit and buried the goods they had seized. After all, carrying everything away with just seven people was unrealistic.
"The mission is complete, so we'll take our leave."
Sun Zheng and Gao Liang cupped their fists toward Li Dao.
"You're leaving already? Aren't you going back to Changgu Town to inform Commander Wei?"
"No need. We answer only to His Majesty."
"All right, then. Safe travels to you both."
Gao Liang patted Li Dao's shoulder with a smile. "You helped us out enormously this time. When you return to the Imperial Capital, we'll treat you to drinks."
Treat me to drinks?
If they learned his true identity, they would probably serve him blades instead.
Outwardly, however, he nodded along.
Before long, the two departed, leaving only Li Dao and his four companions.
Li Dao glanced at the wreckage around them and said, "Next, we go back, report the mission complete, and claim our freedom."
Perhaps because he was growing impatient himself, Li Dao led the four back to Changgu Town without stopping to rest.
Yet when they reached Changgu Town, they all froze.
Numerous corpses lay outside Changgu Town.
Some belonged to Great Qian soldiers, while others were unfamiliar.
"What happened here?"
Shen San's eyes widened in shock.
Li Dao said nothing. He dismounted and walked over to examine a corpse. Upon seeing its clothing, he murmured, "The Falling Cloud Tribe?"
He recognized the unfamiliar corpses' clothes as those worn by members of the Falling Cloud Tribe.
In other words, it was the Falling Cloud Tribe People who had attacked Changgu Town.
"Come on. Let's go inside and look first."
The five led their horses toward Changgu Town.
The farther they went, the more corpses littered the ground. They were still all Great Qian soldiers and Falling Cloud Tribe People. Apparently, only the Falling Cloud Tribe People had attacked.
Just as the five stepped through Changgu Town's gates-
Whoosh!
Li Dao's ears twitched. Instinctively, he reached up and caught an arrow in his hand.
"Who's there!"
Shen San and the others immediately looked warily toward the direction the arrow had come from.
"Falling Cloud barbarians, we'll fight you to the death!"
The next instant, numerous bedraggled Great Qian soldiers rushed out from concealed corners.
Li Dao recognized their leader. It was Squad Leader Liu, Liu Neng.
"Squad Leader Liu."
Li Dao's voice made Liu Neng, who was charging with his head lowered, jolt.
He looked up and realized they were not enemies, then hurriedly raised his hand. "Wait! Don't attack! They're our people!"
Li Dao glanced at the wounded Liu Neng and asked, "What happened to Changgu Town?"
Liu Neng's expression turned bitter. "Last night, after you left yesterday, the Falling Cloud Tribe suddenly launched a sneak attack on Changgu Town. They caught us completely off guard, and the town fell."
"Are you the only ones left?"
Li Dao looked at the battered soldiers behind Liu Neng. There seemed to be fewer than two hundred remaining.
The Mighty Camp was a thousand-man battalion, and Changgu Town had held over a thousand men. Even accounting for their earlier losses, at least seven or eight hundred should have remained. Yet overnight, fewer than two hundred were left, and every one of them was wounded.
"Yes."
Liu Neng nodded dejectedly.
Suddenly, something occurred to Li Dao. He frowned and asked, "Where is Commander Wei? He's a Xiantian Martial Artist. Surely he wouldn't die so easily?"
At the mention of Wei Yun, Liu Neng looked even more dispirited. "Toward the end of last night's battle, Commander Wei realized the Mighty Camp couldn't defeat the Falling Cloud Tribe People. He drew their remaining men away by himself. His whereabouts are unknown."
Li Dao's expression immediately darkened.
He took a deep breath and asked bluntly, "Did you see which direction Commander Wei went?"
Shen San asked in confusion, "Boss, half a day has already passed. Isn't he probably more dead than alive by now?"
Li Dao said gravely, "If he's alive, I want to see him. If he's dead, I want to see his corpse."
Shen San muttered, "Is that really necessary?"
Old Ghost could not help reminding him, "Little fatty, if Wei Yun dies, who's going to grant you your freedom?"
The word "freedom" made Shen San jolt. "Does Wei Yun really have to handle all of it?"
"Who do you think agreed to those conditions? Without him, who's going to acknowledge you?"
Old Ghost spoke without mercy.
Shen San panicked and hurriedly asked Liu Neng, "Tell us, quick! Which way did Wei Yun go?"
Seeing this, Liu Neng dared not delay and pointed in a direction.
Shen San immediately said, "Boss, let's hurry after him! We can't let that fellow Wei Yun die!"
Li Dao mounted his horse at once. "You stay here. I'll go after him myself."
"But..."
Before Shen San could finish, Li Dao slapped his horse's rump and galloped in the direction Liu Neng had indicated.
"Old Ghost, should we follow him?"
Shen San could not help asking.
"Follow him?"
Old Ghost took it in stride, plopping down on the ground. "If you want to follow him, go ahead."
Then he glanced at the wounded soldiers and smiled. "Today, I'll show you some kindness. Anyone who needs treatment, come line up."
Elsewhere.
After riding out of Changgu Town, Li Dao kept watching for tracks on the ground.
Soon, he found traces that might have been left by the pursuing Falling Cloud Tribe and immediately followed them onward.
At that moment, some distance away from Li Dao.
A temporary camp had been established.
At its center stood a wooden cage, containing a man bound in numerous chains.
Had Li Dao been there, he would certainly have recognized Wei Yun.
This was the Falling Cloud Tribe's temporary camp.
A Falling Cloud tribesman walked up to the cage and splashed a ladleful of cold water inside. "Tell me. Did your Great Qian people kill our tribe's Third Prince?"
"Pah!"
Wei Yun spat without hesitation, then bared his teeth in a cold grin. "Tell you your mother's bloomers! What does your tribe's Third Prince have to do with our Great Qian?"
"Heh. Still talking back?"
The Falling Cloud tribesman took a kettle of boiling water from the nearby campfire and hurled its contents at Wei Yun.
As the boiling water struck him, Wei Yun's expression twisted, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.
The surrounding Falling Cloud Tribe People sneered at the sight.
"Quite a stubborn mouth."
Just then, a Falling Cloud tribesman rose from the crowd, and everyone around him immediately fell silent.
They had dispatched two Xiantian Martial Artists to deal with Wei Yun's Mighty Camp.
One was called Jinhua, and the other Jinsha.
This man was Jinhua, one of those Xiantian Martial Artists and one of their leaders.
Jinhua approached Wei Yun and chuckled. "I don't know whether our Third Prince's death had anything to do with your Great Qian."
"Perhaps it didn't. Perhaps it did. But none of that matters anymore."
"What matters now is that we must make our Third Prince's death connected to your Great Qian."
"All you need to do is admit that your Great Qian caused our Third Prince's death. Then we'll not only release you, but also allow you to join the mighty Falling Cloud Tribe. What do you say?"
Wei Yun frowned. "You belong to the Falling Cloud Tribe's Anti-Great Qian Faction!"
Among the Northern Barbarians, the Falling Cloud Tribe was nominally neutral.
Its attitude toward Great Qian had always been ambiguous.
However, some among them disliked that ambiguity. They preferred to wage war against Great Qian like the Tamu Tribe, reaping richer resources and lands.
The Third Prince of Falling Cloud whom they had killed had belonged to the Anti-Great Qian Faction. That was why he had concealed his actions from the King of the Falling Cloud Tribe and gone to negotiate with the Tamu Tribe.
Their current actions were merely an attempt to find a pretext to persuade the rest of the Falling Cloud Tribe.
Once he understood this, Wei Yun was even less willing to yield, even though he really had ordered men to ambush and kill the Third Prince of Falling Cloud.
"So what if you know? Just give me your answer."
Jinhua urged him impatiently.
Wei Yun did not want to speak, so he simply closed his eyes and remained silent.
Seeing this, Jinhua understood his answer. He looked up at the sky; the sun was nearing its zenith.
He ordered, "Raise a flagpole. Hang him up and let him bake in the sun."
And so, the battered Wei Yun was hung from a pole beneath the blazing sun.
At that moment, something seemed to occur to him, and he murmured, "I'm sorry, Nine Five Two Seven."
Wei Yun did not fear death. His only regret was that he had failed to fulfill his promise.
Time slowly passed.
The scorching sun above Wei Yun grew increasingly fierce and dazzling. He felt parched and utterly weak.
His injuries were too severe, and after baking in the sun, his vision had begun to blur.
Through the haze, he saw a figure gradually approaching from afar.
Nine Five Two Seven?
Wei Yun gave a bitter smile and murmured, "They say people see things when they're about to die. Looks like it's true."
Without hesitation, he bit the tip of his tongue, using the pain to stimulate himself.
Although he felt regret toward Nine Five Two Seven, he refused to think about a man in his dying moments. He wanted to replace him with a beautiful woman, so at least he could depart a little more comfortably.
Yet the pain did not dispel the figure before his eyes.
Instead, as the figure drew closer, he even heard hoofbeats.
Wei Yun jolted, his mind instantly clearing. This was no hallucination.
Meanwhile.
Li Dao had also approached the camp and clearly identified it as belonging to the Falling Cloud Tribe.
His gaze also caught Wei Yun hanging from the flagpole.
With his extraordinary eyesight, he easily discerned that Wei Yun was still alive.
He immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Wei Yun had not died. Otherwise, taking such a tremendous loss would have left him furious enough to kill.
Since Li Dao made no attempt to conceal himself, the Falling Cloud Tribe People spotted him too.
"Report! A stranger is approaching!"
With that shout, the soldiers in the camp rapidly assembled in the open ground.
The two Xiantian Martial Artists were among them.
"Nine Five Two Seven, forget about me! There are two Xiantian Martial Artists here!"
After coming to his senses, Wei Yun hurriedly shouted from the pole in a hoarse voice.
To him, Li Dao could not possibly rescue him from a camp guarded by two Xiantian Martial Artists. He might even lose his own life.
Hearing Wei Yun's voice, Li Dao quickly fixed his gaze on the two figures standing at the front of the soldiers.
"Two Xiantian Martial Artists?"
Li Dao gave it little thought and immediately opened the system's status panel.
[Master: Li Dao] [Physique: 40.74] [Available attribute points: 10.98]
Although he had failed to kill Snow Demon Liu Yan at the end of his recent battle against the Tamu Eldest Prince, killing those elite guards had still earned him a substantial haul of attribute points.
"I wonder if a physique fifty times that of an ordinary person will be enough."
But whether it was enough or not, he had pursued them all the way here. He would never be satisfied without giving it a try.
"Allocate the points."
[Master: Li Dao] [Physique: 51.72] [Available attribute points: 0]
In an instant, the familiar warmth spread throughout his body.
His boiling blood set his fighting spirit ablaze as well, filling him with an urge to let loose, as though he had been pumped full of stimulants.
Without hesitation, he spurred his horse on, charging straight into the Falling Cloud Tribe People's faces to unleash his assault.
Facing Li Dao's head-on charge, the Falling Cloud Tribe's two Xiantian Martial Artists sneered and immediately ordered, "Get him! Kill him!"
"Kill!"
A mob of soldiers rushed toward Li Dao all at once.
After all, they were facing only one man. They felt not the slightest fear.
What they did not know was that, in Li Dao's eyes, their charge looked like flock after flock of sheep rushing at a tiger, as though they intended to stuff it to death.
In the very first clash, aided by his horse's momentum, he sent dozens of soldiers flying.
At the same time, the soldiers around him swung their long sabers at Li Dao.
Not far away, the two Xiantian Martial Artists thought nothing of Li Dao and even began placing bets.
Jinhua said, "How long do you think he'll last in there?"
Jinsha smiled faintly. "Thirty seconds at most before he drops dead."
Jinhua laughed. "You say thirty seconds? Then I'll give him a little more credit. Forty."
Jinsha shrugged. "Then let's wait and see."
With his reflexes, Li Dao could have reacted swiftly and perfectly dodged the countless blades coming at him from all sides. But he did not want to dodge, because doing so would slow his own saber strikes.
In an instant, countless blades struck Li Dao's body.
Yet apart from slashing holes in Li Dao's clothes, none of those blades could injure the body beneath them.
The sight stunned every soldier around him.
But they no longer had a chance to react.
Li Dao swept his Black Iron Saber out, spraying a ring of blood.
[Eight enemies killed. Attribute points gained: 1.24]
Eight men only gave me 1.24 attribute points?
They fell far short of the Eldest Prince of the Tamu Tribe's guards. Apparently, they were all ordinary soldiers with no cultivation.
He glanced at the densely packed soldiers around him. What they lacked in quality, he could make up for in quantity.
Li Dao simply leaped off his horse and plunged into the crowd, slaughtering his way through.
Yet to Jinhua and Jinsha nearby, this was nothing but a fool courting death.
"Looks like he won't even last thirty seconds."
Jinsha sneered.
"Are all Great Qian soldiers this stupid?"
Jinhua could not help commenting from beside him.
Of everyone present, only Wei Yun, hanging from the flag, had a vantage point that let him see everything clearly.
From his perspective, Li Dao moved through the encirclement of Falling Cloud barbarians as though no one stood in his way, reaping lives wherever he went.
Wherever he passed, each stroke of his saber cut down a whole swath of Falling Cloud barbarians. Even hanging from the flag, Wei Yun felt his blood boil at the sight. Had he not been bound in chains, he would probably have already sprung up, clapping and cheering.
He was especially astonished when he saw clearly that Li Dao was completely ignoring the blades.
Xiantian Martial Artists could project their true qi outward to ward off blades and spears.
But he knew perfectly well that Li Dao had no true qi in his body. He fought entirely through physical strength.
He also knew that some martial arts could temper the body and improve its underlying strength, but those arts required true qi as well.
If that true qi dispersed, their bodies would at most be somewhat stronger than those of martial artists at the same level. They would never be this monstrous.
For a moment, he could not even find the words to describe Li Dao.
Then he suddenly remembered Li Dao's status as a death-row prisoner and could not help muttering, "What idiot threw such a fine, born commander onto death row? Didn't he think it was a waste?"
Before you continue