“Why was I the one who came?”

Luo Jing glanced back at the field of bodies, then looked at Zhang Tang. His voice was entirely flat.

“Because when it comes to killing — you’re probably not as good as I am.”

This battle: twelve thousand Ning Army soldiers, at the bank of the Mingyang River, had killed over thirty thousand rebels — every one of them beheaded. The rebel commander Wang Dangzhi was killed by Luo Jing’s spear, and his head now hung at the side of Luo Jing’s horse.

The other rebel commander, Xie Jingren, had fled toward Dengzhou with the remnants of his force. His ranks had crumbled and scattered along the way, until he had barely three to five thousand men still following him.

At this moment, every Ning Army soldier had at least two or three heads hanging from his belt. A sight like this, if witnessed by any other enemy, would stop their hearts before a single blow was struck.

Zhuang Wudi had taken the letter and ridden south to find Tang Pidi, who was holding the line against Yang Xuanji. Li Chi’s message contained only two lines.

The first: *Leave Zhuang Wudi with you — send Luo Jing back to Yuzhou.*

The second: *Whichever unit carries the heaviest killing spirit — give Luo Jing that unit to bring back.*

With those two lines, Tang Pidi understood clearly what Li Chi intended.

Zhuang Wudi’s men were Ning frontier soldiers too, but since the battle against the Shanhai Army, the eastern frontier forces had been resting for a long time, and killing spirit is something that fades.

On the Yuzhou southern front, the Ning Army had been in continuous battle with the Army of Heaven’s Mandate. And just recently, Tang Pidi had slaughtered seventy thousand of Heaven’s Mandate’s forces in a single engagement.

For sheer killing spirit, no other unit could match Tang Pidi’s forces at this moment.

Zhang Tang understood the Ning Army’s way of war well enough, and he himself was a cold and murderous man by nature.

But the moment he watched those Ning Army soldiers cut the heads from corpses, his heart hammered without stop.

This was not the same kind of killing he knew.

Cutting heads from corpses was already grim and terrifying enough. What of cutting heads from prisoners still breathing?

Luo Jing tossed his iron spear to a subordinate, who caught the shaft against his forearm, bent his elbow, and used the leather of his armor to wipe the blood from the spearhead.

“Find somewhere to rest.”

Luo Jing instructed his men. “Divide whatever dry rations we have between the Tingwei Army brothers. We’ll go after the ones who got away.”

Zhang Tang quickly said: “General Luo, the rebels are likely retreating toward Dengzhou. Dengzhou’s walls are high and thick — please take care.”

Luo Jing gave a faint acknowledgment: “Noted.”

And with that, he wheeled his horse and was gone.

Twelve thousand Ning Army soldiers had killed over thirty thousand rebels and come away nearly unscathed. What kind of terrifying power was this? What kind of terrifying killing spirit?

As they marched on, accounting for battle merits as they went and then discarding the heads, Zhang Tang led the Tingwei Army Black Riders along behind them — and what he saw along the way was a scene of something beyond description.

Tang Pidi had forged the Ning Army into wolves and tigers — rapaciously bloodthirsty the moment they stepped onto a battlefield.

An army like this, facing any enemy, would never be outmatched in spirit.

An army like this, honed through engagement after engagement, had built an unshakable confidence in itself.

*Whatever army you are, however strong — none of you are good enough.*

Once that kind of confidence takes hold, it produces one extraordinarily fearsome result: in land battle, the Ning Army is unmatched.

Inside the carriage, Zhang Tang breathed deeply in long, steady breaths, trying to settle the turmoil in his chest. He had known Prince Ning would make arrangements — but he had not expected the Prince to pull that true bringer of slaughter from the front lines and send him here.

Which told him plainly enough just how deep Prince Ning’s intent to kill ran in this matter.

Weighing the generals currently at the front against each other one by one — who could be harder or stronger than Luo Jing?

Zhuang Wudi was already a man of hardened heart. And yet compared to Luo Jing, he still fell somewhat short.

From the Prince’s choice of man alone, one could read the message: this time, Prince Ning had no intention of small moves in Yuzhou.

—

Two days later. Dengzhou.

The Ning Army had arrived before the walls of Dengzhou. The gates were shut, and rebel soldiers could be seen keeping watch on the walls.

Luo Jing raised one hand and lightly waved it, and the formation behind him came to a halt.

He rode forward alone — slowly, at an easy pace — stopping not far from the walls. Every rebel soldier on the ramparts had him in their sights, yet not one of them dared release a single arrow.

“I give this offer once.”

Luo Jing spoke toward the wall: “The rebel commanders must die. But anyone inside this city — soldier or common resident — who sets down their weapon and opens the gates, I will spare. Anyone who captures a rebel commander alive and delivers them to me, I will remit all past offenses. Starting from this moment—”

Luo Jing paused, and then his voice dropped to something cold.

“Within twelve hours, if the gates do not open — everyone inside is a rebel, and when I take this city, no one will be left alive.”

With those words said, Luo Jing turned his horse and rode back. He said nothing more.

Back in the Ning Army’s ranks, men swiftly erected a tent for Luo Jing. His personal guard moved briskly, scouting for firewood, building a fire outside the tent, and setting an iron pot over the flame.

In full view of the rebels on the walls, this general — whose hands had never stopped counting the dead — sat down and, bowl in hand, ate a pot of hotpot.

Less than an hour later, the chaos inside Dengzhou began.

Once ordinary residents learned what Luo Jing had said, they poured out of their homes. They were not afraid of the rebels — they were far more afraid that the man people called Luo the Savage, Luo Who Leaves None Alive, would make good on his promise inside Dengzhou.

Residents stormed rebel encampments and set fire to their supplies.

Rebel patrol units moving through the city were surrounded by crowds of residents and beaten. Xie Jingren and his people had fled back into Dengzhou with only three to five thousand troops — they had nowhere near the manpower to suppress the populace.

Out on the streets, any rebel soldier spotted was quickly set upon by residents. Countless men were beaten to death this way.

Before long, residents had surged onto the walls and begun fighting the rebels for control.

Many rebel soldiers, in their terror, stripped off their armor and threw down their weapons — desperately hoping no one would recognize them as rebels.

Luo Jing had given twelve hours. It had not even been two before the city was in complete disarray.

The defending rebel soldiers scattered and fled, hiding wherever they could.

Xie Jingren saw that the defeat was beyond recovery, and with a company of skilled fighters protecting him, escaped through one of the other city gates.

Luo Jing had known he would run. But Luo Jing did not intend to seal the gates — because his plan was to hunt them down.

Wherever those rebels fled would have some connection to them, and if they were simply trapped inside the city and killed now, that would be the end of it — just these few people. But if they escaped, wherever they ran, the Ning Army would follow.

Shortly after, Dengzhou’s gates were opened by the residents themselves, and Luo Jing led the Ning Army into the city.

Residents lined both sides of the main road to receive them, though every heart was quietly uneasy — they feared being branded rebels themselves.

Luo Jing reined in his horse and looked along the two rows of residents. He said:

“I hope that after this, you remember — when someone does evil, you must dare to resist. When you went soft in the face of evil men, the evil men grew bolder. But when all of you dare to resist—”

He raised a hand and pointed at the rebel bodies on the ground.

“That is what happens to evil men.”

Then he urged his horse forward: “Continue the pursuit.”

The Ning Army passed through the city and continued to give chase to Xie Jingren and his companions.

By this point, Xie Jingren had only three to five hundred men still with him — all his most loyal followers.

“Where are we going?”

Wang Xiaoxiao’s face was ashen.

She — a woman who had always been utterly confident in her own martial skills — had watched the slaughter on the battlefield and felt that confidence collapse entirely, leaving behind only fear.

She had watched her elder brother Wang Dangzhi die before her eyes — in front of that demon Luo Jing, he had not survived a single exchange. Wang Dangzhi’s martial arts were solid enough, yet the spear had gone straight through his skull, punching a blood-soaked hole clean through.

Hearing Wang Xiaoxiao’s question, Xie Jingren was silent for a long moment.

Where could they go?

Fengzhou was certainly out. As for the Yin family rebels — their attitude toward the Xie and Wang families was probably no different from Luo Jing’s.

“We go to Liaoyang.”

After a long silence, Xie Jingren finally remembered a place.

Inside Liaoyang, the Shanhe Seal had a hidden money house and tunnel network. They could shelter there for a time.

The Xie family had once held a position of no small standing within the Shanhe Seal, and it was through the Seal’s pre-existing connections that they had been able to organize so rapidly. Though the Cao family had fallen, the Shanhe Seal’s reach within Yuzhou was still not to be underestimated.

Remembering Liaoyang, Xie Jingren turned the remnants of his force and fled in disarray.

Liaoyang was roughly two hundred li north of Fengzhou, and more than two hundred li from the Nanping River — a fairly large county in northern Yuzhou. The journey from here to Liaoyang would take about half a month, and along the way they would have to pass through several counties. Whether they could shake off the Ning Army was another matter entirely.

—

Outside Dengzhou.

Zhang Tang intercepted Luo Jing and said: “The rebel commander Xie Jingren’s forces — fewer than three to five hundred men got away. What comes next can be left to the Tingwei Army. There is also another rebel force: the commander is Yin Ke, with tens of thousands gathered under him, having taken Fengzhou.”

He looked Luo Jing squarely in the eye. “Hunting down rebel remnants and stragglers is not the kind of work that suits you, General. Please — leave Xie Jingren to me.”

Luo Jing considered for a moment. To send twelve thousand Ning Army soldiers in pursuit of three to five hundred rebels did seem rather excessive.

He nodded. “Very well — I’ll take my men to Fengzhou now. I’ll leave the Xie traitor to Zhang Daren.”

—

Inside Dengzhou, in the rear courtyard of a certain tavern, three people sat facing each other — and none of their faces were quite right.

Cao Lie let out a sigh. “I’ve barely set foot back in Yuzhou and I walk straight into this…”

Master Jingya and his young page boy sat across from Cao Lie. The old master was quiet for a moment before he said: “If not for you, the two of us might have died in the chaos. But then again, if not for you — what brought the two of us out here in the first place?”

This tavern had once been one of the Shanhe Seal’s properties in the area — a minor holding that Cao Lie had barely registered in his mind.

Good thing he still remembered it.

In truth, not long after Zhang Tang had led the Tingwei Army out of Dengzhou, Cao Lie and Li Shangong had arrived.

But then — unexpectedly — they had walked straight into the rebels. Just as they were about to leave, Xie Jingren had come fleeing back to Dengzhou with his remnant forces and shut them inside the city.

Cao Lie looked at Master Jingya and said: “I’m going to have to part ways with you for a while. The story isn’t finished yet — I’ll tell you the rest if we meet again.”

Master Jingya immediately asked: “Where are you going?”

Cao Lie said: “Xie Jingren’s rebels escaped northward — they’re probably making for Liaoyang. I have to go.”

Master Jingya looked somewhat astonished. “Could it be that this rebel commander Xie Jingren also once served under your Cao family?”

Cao Lie let out a quiet sigh. “If I told you that every single person in Yuzhou who has dared to rebel against Prince Ning — every last one of them, without exception — was once under my Cao family’s command, would you think I was bragging?”

Master Jingya thought about it for a moment, then also sighed. “Then you are truly unlucky.”

Cao Lie gave a bitter smile. “Which is exactly why I have to go to Liaoyang. Otherwise, I really am in terrible trouble.”

He had barely arrived in Yuzhou and already the Shanhe Seal’s people had risen in revolt. If word got out that he was in Yuzhou, the charge of rebellion would fall on his shoulders nine times out of ten.

After all — he was Cao Lie.

This kind of thing: others would never believe it was all coincidence.

Cao Lie didn’t care whether others believed it or not. What he cared about was whether Li Chi believed it, and the truth of the matter was — if it truly had been his scheme, then so be it. But it was not. And if Li Chi mistook it for his doing, that would really be…

*Too damn unfair.*