Chaos

The knight unhurriedly put on his shirt, then loosened up his limbs and nodded with satisfaction. "Having the dressing changed feels much better." The next instant, he abruptly drew the scimitar at his waist and slashed at the apprentice knight beside him! Wu Youren had looked relaxed on the surface, but his nerves had been taut the entire time. The moment the man drew his scimitar, Wu Youren threw himself backward, simultaneously kicking out at the scattered items on the ground. The cave covered only seven or eight square meters in total, leaving virtually no room to maneuver, but he was not about to go down without a fight. Yet in his wildest dreams, he never expected that the knight would draw his blade against his own comrade. The apprentice knight clearly hadn't anticipated it either, and was cleaved diagonally in two by the single slash. He did not die immediately, deep horror filling his eyes. "My lord..." The knight backhanded another strike, severing his head cleanly and cutting off any further sound. "My lord, you—!" The other apprentice knight's voice cracked in shock at the sight. "He is—" "Die," the knight uttered. His figure blurred as he closed the distance, unleashing another slash of incredible speed. "Ugh..." Clutching his throat, the man clearly wanted to say something, but in the end, he swayed twice and collapsed to the floor. "Those fallen in battle receive compensation," the knight said, shaking his head. He turned to Wu Youren. "You did well." Long saber in hand, Wu Youren kept his guard up vigilantly. "My lord, I didn't see a thing!" "No need to be so cautious." The knight gave a careless wave of his hand and sheathed his scimitar. "I am from Jin as well." "Holy shit..." Wu Youren let out a long breath, a shiver running through him. "My lord, you scared the hell out of me." "I know you don't trust others easily," the knight replied with a casual smile. Then his expression grew stern. "However, you acted too rashly in reporting Instructor Kelly!" "As I recall, relations between Jin and the State of Xi aren't very good either," Wu Youren replied solemnly. The man had gone so far as to slay two comrades from the Intelligence Bureau just to win his trust, so Wu Youren was not afraid to voice his concerns directly. "She was likely hedging her bets across multiple sides," the knight answered offhandedly. "Yet you... were forcing her to make a choice." "I can't afford to get mixed up in that kind of business," Wu Youren said, shaking his head. "I only want to live in peace." "You won't get peace," the knight countered with a wave of his hand. "War between Great Jin and Liang is inevitable. As a hostage, you must prepare early." "I've considered that," Wu Youren nodded slightly. "However, given Jin's national strength, it needs a few decades of recovery and recuperation." "Liang constantly stirs up trouble along the border," the knight said calmly. "If we keep recuperating, Great Jin's fighting spirit will be snuffed out." "True enough," Wu Youren nodded again. "And your purpose in coming here, my lord...?" "The Guizu crisis is severe in Great Jin as well," the knight answered solemnly. "I came to gather firsthand information, and perhaps see if there are any opportunities to exploit." "Is your wound serious, then?" Wu Youren asked with apparent concern. "Don't you need a few days of rest?" "When investigating the Guizu, who has time to worry about such trivialities?" the knight answered nonchalantly. "Rest assured, it won't affect my combat effectiveness." "What about the battle in the first half of the night...?" Wu Youren indeed had plenty of questions. "Are they mounting a counterattack?" "Far from a counterattack," the knight shook his head. "Nine times out of ten, Suotu Town is about to evolve into a Guizu domain." Once a Guizu domain formed, eradicating it became excessively difficult—even grand knights would be out of their depth. Even if a Divine Might Knight took action, there would be considerable risk. The grand knights from the military and the Martial Academy had struck last night primarily to prevent the Guizu outbreak from spreading any further. With so many Guizu aura clusters dispatching strands of energy to reinforce the front, it was the perfect opportunity to weaken them. Thus, last night's battle had been fundamentally defensive, aimed at intimidating and whittling down the enemy, and nothing more. Fighting on home turf meant the price paid was far lower. However, it was precisely because of this battle that the Intelligence Bureau had an opportunity to infiltrate agents. Otherwise, with Guizu aura clusters packed so densely, slipping in undetected would have been extraordinarily difficult. Hearing this, Wu Youren nodded slightly, then asked, "The stench of blood from these two corpses is too heavy. Should we bury them?" The scent of blood might draw not only the attention of the Guizu, but wild beasts as well. Attracting either was something neither of them wanted to see. "The rock here is hard," the knight replied with a slight shake of his head. "Digging a pit would be too difficult. Toss them outside—throw them far away!" That was indeed one solution. Wu Youren nodded, dug out a waterproof tarp, wrapped up one corpse, and hauled up the other. Moving them toward the entrance, he raised a hand to push aside the boulder blocking the cave mouth. The next moment, a gleam of blade light slashed toward the knight with blinding speed, aimed directly at his ribs. "You—" the knight blurted in shock. Yet with no time to speak, he drew his scimitar. He hadn't placed absolute trust in Wu Youren and still retained considerable vigilance, drawing his weapon at incredible speed. Yet just as he moved to parry with the scimitar, his back seized violently with a surge of agonizing pain. "Hiss—" He sucked in a breath of cold air from the pain, clarity dawning on him. No wonder this strike hadn't targeted an outright vital point. It turned out the boy had intentionally chosen an angle where it was difficult for him to exert force—attempting to parry would inevitably tear at his wound. He couldn't help exclaiming, "Impressive tactics, but you misunderstand—" "No misunderstanding," Wu Youren said. Though his blade struck home, he could feel how tough the man's flesh was. A strike delivered with everything he had hadn't cleaved the man in two; the edge was even clamped tight by the knight's muscles. However, that was as far as it went. Wu Youren jolted his true qi, using the vibration to wrench the blade free, and swung it backhand toward the man's neck. He had watched the knight fight earlier and knew what to do—he had to prevent the man from crying out. If Guizu were drawn here, neither of them would have a good time of it! The knight likely never imagined that this curious lad, who had been asking question after question just moments ago, would strike with such vicious ruthlessness once turning hostile! With a deep gash beneath his ribs, in the heat of the moment he couldn't even tell whether his internal organs were punctured. In this split second, he had no leeway to ponder it as he raised his scimitar once more to parry the incoming long saber. Yet almost simultaneously, he froze again, eyes widening in shock. "What is—" The wound under his ribs violently jolted, and the battle qi throughout his body leaked out uncontrollably and frantically. The scimitar that usually felt nimble and light now felt as heavy as a mountain in his grip! He lacked even the strength to dodge, watching helplessly as the long saber swept across his throat. "Not Wild Gale..." he managed to choke out four words, before nothing remained at his windpipe but a wet hissing sound. Clearly, he knew Wu Youren cultivated the Wild Gale Cultivation Method, and the destructive power causing his battle qi to hemorrhage was definitely not Wild Gale. Holding the saber in his right hand, Wu Youren released his left and gently nudged the boulder blocking the cave entrance aside. Blocking the opening, he watched the knight coldly without uttering a single word. Clutching his neck with one hand, the knight stared fixedly at him, eyes brimming with disbelief. His gaze seemed to ask: Why? "You talk too much," Wu Youren said leisurely. "Throwing around 'Great Jin' with every other breath—how on earth did you survive in the Intelligence Bureau?" People of Liang usually called their own country Great Liang, and would never refer to Jin as "Great Jin." If the man was a spy for Jin embedded in the Intelligence Bureau, he would have had to be exceptionally disciplined; how could he ever let such speech become a habit? Naturally, this was only one of his reasons for striking, but it was more than enough. A complicated look surfaced in the knight's eyes, mixed with a myriad of emotions. There was shock, resentment, incredulity, a touch of remorse, and deep, bitter reluctance... "You..." Wu Youren gave a slight shake of his head. "...don't understand hostages!" This was the honest truth. Hostages walked on thin ice every day; who could imagine that perpetual state of dread and insecurity? Of course, there were also those who abandoned all hope and gave up on themselves, but behind that wanton indulgence lay despair that seeped into their very bones. A faint rattling sound came from the knight's throat, as if he wanted to say something, but... he simply couldn't manage it. Wu Youren wasn't speaking out of post-victory arrogance; he understood better than ordinary people that "villains die from talking too much." The opponent possessed formidable strength, and his neck had only been sliced open in the front, which wouldn't kill him instantly. A cornered beast would still fight to the bitter end. Wu Youren didn't want to risk moving in to attack again, so speaking was necessary to keep the man distracted. He was simply waiting for the man to bleed out until he could hold on no longer. Listening to his words, the knight clutched his neck with one hand while letting go of his scimitar with the other, waving his hand slightly as if to say, "You're wrong!" Wu Youren, on the other hand, felt increasingly exhilarated the more he spoke. In this moment, he began to understand why villains enjoyed rambling on. Showing off before a dying man was an immensely gratifying sensation. If the man died right away and there was no one left to flaunt before, it would feel a bit like walking in fine silk at night—a real buzzkill. He had been repressed for too long and needed a release; seeing the complex emotions in the other man's eyes was incredibly cathartic. With mock smugness, he remarked, "No need to be upset. You aren't the first Liang knight I've killed, and you won't be the last." With a soft splat from his neck, the knight swayed twice and crashed to the ground. Such petty tricks... Wu Youren gave a smirk and flicked his wrist, hurling a small dagger that struck right into the back of the knight's thigh. The man didn't move at all. Wu Youren considered it for a moment, then threw another small dagger, aiming straight for the popliteal fossa at the back of the knee! So what if he was lying face down? Even the hamstring tendon had a reflex response. Yet the man's lower leg merely twitched slightly, looking completely like the post-mortem nerve reflex of someone freshly deceased. Wu Youren's eyes darted as a crafty thought struck him, and he hurled a third small dagger, aiming straight between the man's legs. "Hngh!" The knight let out a muffled groan, straining to move his body to dodge the blade. Yet he was truly drained of all strength. Though he had anticipated the intent, his body couldn't keep up. The next instant, his entire body convulsed. From lying prone on the floor, he sprang violently into the air before crashing heavily back down. Then, clutching between his legs, he rolled endlessly on the ground.