The Bandit Chief Must Not Escape

The newcomer was none other than Zheng Daniu. He knew nothing of martial arts, and when his opponent slashed at him, he simply failed to dodge in time. The blade struck him square in the chest, but he was wearing the Two-Panel Armor Gao Yiyi had given him, with one large iron plate covering his entire chest.

As for what happened when a broad-bladed saber struck a large iron plate, well, of course...

Whoa, that scared the hell out of me!

The slash gave Zheng Daniu quite a fright, but once he realized he was completely unharmed, his mouth split into another foolish grin.

One Blade raised his saber and slashed at Zheng Daniu's neck. Your fucking neck can't have iron armor protecting it too, can it?

But halfway through the slash, he suddenly felt something was wrong. His saber seemed to have been caught by something in midair, leaving it utterly immobile.

Huh?

Huh?!

Why? There's clearly nothing there! What's grabbed my saber?

The one holding his saber was, of course, Li Daoxuan.

The partial Heavenly Venerable valued his own little people's lives ten thousand times more than anyone else's. Besides, Zheng Daniu had rendered outstanding service in earning him income from miniature carvings. He absolutely could not let anyone hurt this little fellow.

When he saw One Blade slash at Zheng Daniu's neck, Li Daoxuan reached out two fingers and pinched his saber in midair.

One Blade strained to pull his saber back, but it didn't do a damn thing.

From farther away, Gao Yiye shouted, "Zheng Daniu, the Heavenly Venerable has pinned the enemy's saber in place for you! What are you still grinning like an idiot for?"

Zheng Daniu said, "Huh? Huh, huh, huh?"

He abruptly came to his senses and raised his axe...

He had certainly practiced swinging an axe. Every day lately, he had been chopping trees on the hillside and dragging the timber back for the two sculptors to carve into wooden statues. Then he would receive the Heavenly Venerable's reward: a huge basin of Happy Fat Otaku Water. After guzzling it down, the fellow had put on quite a bit of weight in just over ten days.

The might of his sweeping axe blow would have frightened even a century-old tree into yanking its roots out of the ground and taking to its heels.

How could the thick leather armor wrapped around One Blade's body possibly withstand that axe?

Thud!

At the dull impact, One Blade felt a burst of excruciating pain through his chest and abdomen. Looking down, he saw that the axe blade had sliced a gaping hole through his thick cowhide armor, and blood was gushing out.

He raised his head in disbelief for a glance at the sky, then toppled backward.

Zheng Daniu raised his axe and roared, "The Heavenly Venerable protects us!"

The villagers beside him could not help roaring along, "The Heavenly Venerable protects us!"

The bandit leader, the Supreme Wisdom King, was beginning to feel that something was wrong.

As their leader, he naturally charged ahead faster, leading a group of his fiercest men at the very front. Thus, when the huge rocks came flying over, they all landed behind him.

Since they hadn't hit him, he wasn't afraid.

After reaching the foot of the wall, he did not climb up with the others. He merely kept waving his hand, urging his fiercest bandits to charge upward.

So neither the rocks nor the boiling oil landed on his head.

The same reasoning still applied: since they hadn't hit him, he wasn't afraid.

He continued brandishing his demon-headed broadsword, shouting and urging the men beside him to climb the siege ladders and storm the wall.

But as he kept issuing orders, he noticed fewer and fewer men around him.

"Huh? Where's my army of twelve hundred?"

The Supreme Wisdom King turned to look. There was no army behind him at all, only a few dozen scattered men.

The giant rocks launched by the Stone-Throwers had been pounding the bandit ranks behind him without pause. The first volley alone consisted of twenty huge rocks. As they crashed down one after another, they shattered the bandits' morale outright.

The bandits farther back refused to advance. Instead, they retreated farther and farther from the wall, then simply scattered and fled until they vanished from sight.

That left the first wave of bandits who had reached the foot of the wall isolated.

One knocked down by a rock meant one fewer man. One felled by boiling oil meant another fewer. One stabbed off a siege ladder meant yet another...

The Supreme Wisdom King's men kept dwindling, but he stood at the front of their formation rather than the back. With all the noise, shouting, and chaos around him, he had no idea.

Only now, when he suddenly looked back, did he realize how badly things had gone wrong.

At that moment, the Supreme Wisdom King finally understood what it meant for "the defenders to have a huge advantage." After all, this was his first siege in his entire life. From storytelling performances and comic dialogues, he had picked up the little nugget that attacking a city meant putting up a siege ladder and climbing it. Only in actual combat did he discover it was nothing like that.

Nor was his men's morale something a mere mountain bandit like him could control.

The Supreme Wisdom King roared, "Back! Fall back! Retreat!"

With that, he took to his heels.

The few dozen fierce bandits remaining beside him also turned and ran after him.

Mister Bai held out a hand and shouted, "Bring me a bow!"

A household servant beside him immediately handed him a hunting bow, ready to shout "Excellent shot!" and flatter his master.

Mister Bai took the bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at the vital spot in the center of the Supreme Wisdom King's back. Then he released his right hand. The bowstring thrummed, and the arrow streaked away like a startled wild goose...

Whoosh!

It flew past half a zhang away from the Supreme Wisdom King.

The servant who had been ready to shout "Excellent shot!" froze in embarrassment.

The people beside him: "..."

Mister Bai gave a light cough, his old face faintly flushed. He hastily shoved the bow back into the servant's hands, clapped his hands, and pretended nothing had happened. I'd better concentrate on commanding.

As for archery, one of the Six Arts of a gentleman-cross it out, cross it out.

Of course, his little embarrassment had no effect on the overall situation. As the bandits began retreating, the pressure on the wall abruptly eased, and the villagers began cheering. "We won!"

"We stopped the bandits!"

"We held Gao Family Village!"

"We're safe!"

"The Heavenly Venerable protects us!"

"The Heavenly Venerable protects us!"

Mister Bai looked around in every direction and shouted, "What are you all so happy about? If the bandit chief escapes, that Supreme Wisdom King will surely hold a grudge against us. Who knows when he might suddenly wheel around and strike back..."

All the villagers froze.

On second thought... huh? He was right!

A thief stealing from you was less frightening than a thief setting his sights on you.

The villagers of Gao Family Village were all decent, ordinary folk who feared trouble. They certainly did not like the idea of a bandit bearing a grudge against them. That was hardly a pleasant feeling. They would be fine while sheltering within Gao Family Village's walls, but what if they went into the mountains to gather herbs, visited the County Seat to buy things, or traveled to a neighboring village? If the Supreme Wisdom King ambushed them on the road, wouldn't they die without even a place to be buried?

Just then, they suddenly heard Gao Yiye's voice.

She pointed at the Supreme Wisdom King's retreating back and shouted, "Everyone, watch closely! The Heavenly Venerable is about to use his immortal magic to uproot this future danger for us!"

The villagers were instantly overjoyed.

Mister Bai: "?"

Suddenly, wind and thunder rumbled in the sky, as though something enormous had parted the clouds and was descending at tremendous speed. An invisible pressure whipped up a savage whirlwind on the open ground outside the wall, sending dust spreading outward in a ring.

Then...

Boom!

An enormous crash shook the earth and mountains.

The Supreme Wisdom King, who had been fleeing into the distance, and every one of his men within three zhang of him were flattened into meat patties.

The ground where they had stood sank down, leaving an enormous handprint.

The meat patty that had been the Supreme Wisdom King lay right in the center of that handprint...