Greed

Hearing this, Wu Youren glanced at Naimu'er, his eyes filled with doubt, but he remained silent. None of you Liang people are stepping in, yet you want me, a man of Jin, to go save someone? "What's with that expression?" Naimu'er grew a little irritated. Most unfortunately, his voice was just a fraction too loud. The sprinting knight glanced aside, veered straight off the road, and stumbled his way up the hill. Fortunately, Cynthia produced her identity token in time, then cast Naimu'er a glare. Carrying the person up the hill, Aslan spotted the two at a glance, his face instantly darkening. "Two apprentice knights..." Yet right after that, he recognized the identity token in her hand. This was Red Pine territory. He gave a sullen grunt. "Damn it, are you deaf?" "We are carrying out an academy mission," Naimu'er replied in a heavy voice. "Senior, halt!" "And if I don't?" Aslan's eyes widened with a glare. At this moment, he was thoroughly vexed. Cynthia asked calmly, "Can you tell, Senior, whether we've been Guizu-corrupted?" She wasn't trying to stir up trouble, only demonstrating that their suspicion was justified. "I'm not blind!" Aslan stopped in his tracks. A knight's perception could detect most abnormalities. Still, he was fuming. How dared two apprentice knights ignore his plea for help? The next moment, he released his knight's aura, sweeping across the area, and barked impatiently, "The one hiding, get the hell out!" Speaking like that was truly grating, but who could complain when he was a knight? And in a terrible mood to boot. From behind a boulder, Wu Youren walked out, but he merely stepped into view and stopped, his face devoid of expression. "Medicine!" Aslan's tone remained harsh. The three looked at one another; none was willing to respond. In Naimu'er's eyes, a faint, chilling glint even flickered. "Three little ants, looking to rebel?" Aslan was truly enraged. "I said medicine!" Cynthia bent down to rummage through her pack, then tossed two medicine packets over. "Apologies, Senior, but you cannot come any closer." Aslan had no time to argue with her and quickly set the person down to tend to him. Only now did the three see that the wounded person was a youth of seventeen or eighteen with delicate features, clearly someone from a pampered background. Once he finished bandaging him, the knight stood back up and grunted coldly, "Ghost-dispelling powder..." Seeing no reaction from them, only guarded postures, he tossed out two gold coins. "I'll buy it!" The exchange rate between gold coins and silver dollars was one to one hundred, and a dose of ghost-dispelling powder usually went for around one hundred silver dollars. Yet that was only under 'usual' circumstances. With the Guizu outbreak so severe and on an active battlefield, even two hundred silver dollars might not be enough. "We don't have any!" Cynthia answered bluntly. "The ghost-dispelling powder is with our instructor!" Keli only had one dose of ghost-dispelling powder and some loose powder on him, but there was no way he would have left it behind. Aslan was dumbfounded. "Then you dare stand guard? Are you asking to die?" "We have biguijue," Cynthia replied. "We just have to hold out until our instructor returns." She really didn't want to deal with this guy, but seeing his urgency to save a life, she could understand a little. She could only hint that they had an instructor. "My biguijue is destroyed." That was part of why Aslan was so irascible—he couldn't prove he hadn't been tainted by Guizu aura. "Lend me yours to check his condition." Cynthia replied without expression, "Senior, then we will have to check you first!" "Who gave you the nerve—" Aslan's words cut off midway—theirs was a legitimate request. He gave a resentful grunt. "Fine, you check him. I'll take a few steps back." Then he indeed stepped back a few paces, holding his greatsword in one hand in a defensive stance. "Little Wu," Naimu'er looked at Wu Youren, "it's your turn now, isn't it?" "You..." Cynthia's expression darkened, but just as she was about to speak, she saw the youth from Jin walk over. Wu Youren walked up to the wounded person, crouched down briefly, then stood up and backed away slowly. "He isn't tainted." "Wait!" Aslan lunged forward, abruptly closing the distance between them. "Where is your biguijue?" Wu Youren didn't want to invite trouble, but the man was clearly being unreasonable. He felt for the jade piece at his waist and gave it a slight wave. "I have it!" "This jade piece!" Aslan had initially worried the boy was tricking him, but upon seeing the jade piece, a flicker of greed flashed in his eyes. A biguijue that had tempted even Keli now had an even finer quality, while his own had been destroyed. Under such circumstances, how could he not feel a stir of greed? "Senior, watch yourself!" Cynthia spoke in a heavy voice, then glared fiercely at her fellow countryman. "He's a man!" Naimu'er spread his hands. He didn't believe he had done anything wrong. His own biguijue had been destroyed as well; he couldn't very well let Cynthia take the risk, could he? Aslan's chest heaved a couple of times, but he ultimately reined in his impulse. The three before him were all students of Red Pine Martial Academy. Robbing one person by force wouldn't be hard, but he would have to silence all three to keep the matter buried. Meanwhile, the boy was currently backing away while facing him, clearly on high alert. This wasn't his first time fighting the Guizu, and he had seen the treachery of the human heart; he wasn't surprised by such a reaction. Yet in the next breath, inspiration struck him. "You're from Jin!" During his time at the academy, Wu Youren had worked hard to correct his Jin accent, with considerable success. Earlier, for instance, Naimu'er hadn't noticed any Jin accent. However, Aslan recognized that the biguijue was not in the Liang style. Connecting the dots, realization dawned on him. If he was a man of Jin, then even as a student of Red Pine, so what? Hearing this, Cynthia drew the revolver at her waist and spoke with a dark face, "Senior, we've already given you medicine!" "Please take back the two gold coins on the ground as well." Aslan waved a hand and said sternly, "I'm not saying you did anything wrong, but people from Jin cannot be trusted!" It had finally come! Cynthia pursed her lips. "Senior Instructor Hong Yan of our academy holds him in high regard!" "Hong Yan?" Aslan pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I think I've heard the name." A senior instructor held high status, but Tianjing was the capital of Great Liang, where grand knights were everywhere. It was only natural that he wasn't familiar with Instructor Hong. Then he bent down to pick up the gold coins from the ground. In the next instant, a shadow flickered, and a long saber slashed viciously toward him. Wu Youren was expressionless, yet his strike was incomparably ferocious. "Careful, he has Guizu aura on him!" "Holy shit," Naimu'er blurted out in utter shock. "How dare you?" He had always looked down on Wu Youren, mainly because the boy was an obsequious coward. As for him being from Jin, Naimu'er had only just learned of it, but judging from his fellow countrywoman's reaction, there was no doubt about it. None of that was the point, however. The point was that after the war twelve years ago, no one from Jin dared act brazenly in Liang. "Strike!" Cynthia raised her hand and fired two shots, using the ghost-vanquishing bullets she had so few of! She didn't keep firing. Instead, she drew the scimitar at her waist and lunged forward. Riding the momentum of her charge, she brought the scimitar down with savage force. So what if he was a knight? When someone was pushed to utter exhaustion, who said an apprentice knight couldn't turn the tables and slay them? In Great Liang's classroom lessons, examples of their own apprentice knights slaying enemy knights were truly countless. Even Liang's martial artists knew that was meant to promote national pride, and likely exaggerated. Still, even if it was wine watered down, there had to be real cases in there, right? When Aslan bent down, he hadn't let his guard down completely. A man guards against tigers, and tigers guard against men—even if he didn't believe they had the guts to launch a surprise attack. Having roamed the world for so many years, what would become of him if he lacked even that much vigilance? Yet it was only an ordinary level of caution; he truly hadn't expected them to actually strike. An apprentice knight attacking a knight was absurd enough, but you're a fucking man of Jin! He instinctively parried with his greatsword, only to be even more surprised: not only was the boy's blade technique ferocious, but it was also heavy and powerful. He couldn't help stumbling back seven or eight paces, his heart gripped by shock. Could this fucking strike... really have been delivered by an apprentice knight? It was probably because he had been rushing non-stop and his body was too exhausted. Worse still, he was on a hillside where the ground wasn't level. As he stumbled, he lost his balance. Right at that moment, the girl's scimitar arrived. He parried once more, feeling a little reassured. Thankfully, the power behind this strike matched what he expected of an apprentice knight. All at once, his shaken confidence surged back, and he roared, "You're looking to die!" Yet at that very moment, a sharp cry came: "Then let's do this!" A fierce glint flashed in Naimu'er's eyes as he whipped out a sphere. Although only his right arm was injured, his combat capability was severely diminished. Apart from running and dodging, his offensive strength was greatly compromised. Even so, he was an extra body, and he had been assigned a corresponding combat task. The sphere burst open in midair, unfurling into a large net. "Holy shit..." Experienced as Aslan was, he hadn't anticipated such a trick here. Not that it mattered. Vicious as the trick was, the one executing it was the injured man, whose reaction was a bit slow. By the time the net swept down, Aslan had already cleared the area. In other words, while he knew the opponent had such a move, it hadn't affected him. "Students after all. So many combat doctrines can't be put into practice effectively!" Yet in the next breath, a sight that nearly tore his eyes from their sockets unfolded. Having missed his throw, Naimu'er didn't pause for a second; he spun around and pounced straight toward the young wounded man on the ground. "Bastard, how dare you!" Aslan drew the revolver at his waist with blinding speed and fired two shots. He was already too late to rush back to the rescue. Fortunately, besides the greatsword in his hand, he also had a revolver and some ammunition. Generally speaking, an apprentice knight could not stop bullets.