As the Lord Says

Only three young men remained standing in the middle of the grounds. None of the three were considered among the tallest or most burly of the candidates. Now they stood back-to-back in a triangle, supporting one another. Though battered and disheveled to the extreme, their faces bruised purple and blue, and blood trickling from split eye corners, they had not fallen. "Those three... which brigade are they from?" Li Keshi asked, his eyes bulging. Chen Chong cleared his throat, his three eyebrows dancing with lively vigor. With his hands clasped behind his back, he said with reserved pride, "The best-looking one standing there—that is my nephew." Li Keshi looked at Chen Chong with one eyebrow raised higher than the other. "Tsk... Third Sister, you really are proud of yourself, aren't you? Anyone can see at a glance he isn't your blood nephew. With that mug of yours... ha! What about the other two?" "What the lord says is true! Given Third Sister's wretched mug, no matter how much crossbreeding went on, there's no way he could produce a nephew that handsome!" The captain of the Second Brigade burst into hearty laughter, cleared his throat, and said, "The ugliest one with the most fighting spirit and that frizzy yellowish hair—that's my boy." "Hahaha..." The crowd nearly died of laughter. He had ridiculed Chen Chong to the absolute extreme, only to turn around and claim the ugliest one for himself. As for the phrase "with the most fighting spirit," everyone automatically tuned it out. The short, squat, dark-skinned captain of the Seventh Brigade laughed until his beard quivered. "The short, squat, dark one is my nephew." The others nodded one after another. "Now that nephew of yours is clearly blood! Closer than a son!" *** Xu Yao stood in the center of the grounds, panting. His head, ears, eye corners, and nose were split and bleeding, but he had no time to tend to them, keeping a fierce watch on his surroundings. As he had fought through the chaotic brawl, he had clearly felt that his body possessed exceptional strike resistance. A punch of identical force felt like little more than an itch when it landed on him, yet when he landed a blow on them, it sent them reeling. Moreover, under the relentless pummeling, the power of pure qi within his body showed signs of melting away. As he fought, the pure qi he had not yet fully absorbed rapidly melded into his body with each blow he took. Whatever could truly not be absorbed simply evaporated into nothing. Realizing this, Xu Yao thought: *I have a massive advantage!* He immediately changed his fighting style: trade injury for injury! *You hit me once, I hit you once.* On the surface, he looked beaten to a pulp, yet he remained steadfastly on his feet. A yellow-haired youth nearby saw that Xu Yao took hit after hit without ever toppling over. His gaze flickered, and he suddenly charged over, shooting Xu Yao a meaningful look before bellowing, "Go down!" Yet as he closed in, he whispered urgently, "Brother, my good brother! Let's team up, or we're both done for!" Even as he spoke, the yellow-haired youth turned around, presenting his unprotected back entirely to Xu Yao while shielding him against the onslaught ahead. Xu Yao glanced at the boy's unguarded back, his eyes narrowing sharply. Then he turned, locking back-to-back with him to fight. Cold sweat beaded on the yellow-haired youth's forehead. Only when he felt Xu Yao's back pressing against his did he finally relax, laughing aloud, "Who dares take on the two of us?!" Then a short, squat, dark-skinned chubby boy scurried over. "Big Brother, Second Brother, pull your little brother up!" He brazenly wedged his spine in between them. Even when he took a punch from Xu Yao and a kick from the yellow-haired youth, he didn't fight back at all, pleading desperately, "Big Brother, Second Brother, spare me! Pull your little brother up..." Feeling the immense pressure all around them, the two yielded one side of the triangle to him. The dark chubby youth was overjoyed. Locking back-to-back with the two of them, he instantly fought with astonishing ferocity. "Who dares take on the three of us?!" Several youths from the same brigades as these two were nearly choked with fury. "You bastards! Wouldn't it be better to team up with your own people?!" "You're all lying on the ground! Team up my ass..." The two shamelessly weathered the curses flying from all directions, constantly buttering Xu Yao up. "Big Brother, Big Brother, hehe... us three brothers, united as one..." In the end, only the three of them remained standing, propping one another up, while everyone else lay scattered across the ground in various postures, unable to rise. The yellow-haired youth and the dark chubby youth grinned in satisfaction, turning around simultaneously. "Thank you, Big Brother." Xu Yao nodded. "You're—" Before he could finish, both of them attacked at once. One jabbed straight for Xu Yao's eyes, while the other launched a kick aimed right between his legs. "Owrooo..." The dark chubby youth clamped his thighs together, clutching his crotch as his eyes bulged. He dropped to his knees, twitching all over and letting out an inhuman shriek. Bracing through two punches, Xu Yao seized a fistful of the yellow-haired youth's hair, jerked him forward viciously, and drove his knee upward. "Aaaargh—!" The yellow-haired youth also clutched his crotch, writhing and rolling across the ground in agonizing convulsions. Panting heavily, Xu Yao wobbled, his strength finally spent, and collapsed onto his backside. Feeling a dry wooden club within reach, he brought it down upon the heads of the yellow-haired and dark chubby youths without a second thought. With two sharp cracks, the club snapped into three pieces. The yellow-haired youth and the dark chubby youth rolled their eyes back and lay motionless on the ground in blissful unconsciousness. "I won!" Xu Yao roared, pushing himself up with the broken half of the club. "I won!" Looking at the bodies strewn across the ground, Xu Yao suddenly felt like a survivor walking away from a hundred battles. A desolate sentiment washed over him, and he sighed with emotion. "One general achieves fame over ten thousand rotting bones..." *** Outside the woods, the corners of Li Keshi's, Chen Chong's, and the others' eyes twitched. "..." For a moment, they were at a total loss for words. *Ten thousand rotting bones? Where the hell did that come from?* Seeing three boys left standing had been impressive enough, but in the blink of an eye, the three had turned on one another. Within seconds, two had gone down in identical fashion—curled up like twitching prawns, clutching their crotches, and howling toward the heavens. All the brigade captains turned in unison, looking at Chen Chong with bizarre expressions. "Third Sister, does this nephew of yours have some peculiar obsession with that part of the body?" Chen Chong cleared his throat twice, his expression solemn and unyielding. "On the battlefield, so long as you can defeat the enemy, why care what method is used..." "Fuck off! Just shut your mouth!" Before Chen Chong could finish, the group cursed him in unison. "Call him over," Li Keshi said with great appreciation. What impressed him most was Xu Yao's immediate reaction the moment the two boys backstabbed him. That response alone had made Li Keshi's eyes light up. Lord Liu replied, "Yes, sir." Seeing that Li Keshi was in high spirits, Lord Wang seized the opportunity to ask, "Does Lord Li see one good prospect, or three?" Li Keshi's cheerful demeanor vanished, his gaze turning cold as he looked at him. "What do you think?" Lord Wang grimaced inwardly. *Why the sudden change of face?* Steeling himself, he pressed on. "This subordinate means that if this Xu Yao successfully passes the examination for Demon Suppression Warrior, could he remain stationed here in Black Mountain?" Li Keshi narrowed his eyes, offering a hollow, mocking smile. "What do you think?!" Lord Wang said, "This subordinate formally requests it." Li Keshi snorted. "You request it? Heh, *you* request it?" Lord Wang fell silent, merely sighing as he turned to glance at Lord Liu. Lord Liu maintained a breezy, tranquil expression, as if he hadn't heard a single word. The other brigade captains looked at Chen Chong with envy. Everyone knew in their hearts that this seemingly meaningless brawl had ultimately crowned the local wolf king. Unless Xu Yao failed to qualify as a Demon Suppression Warrior, his victory today would sooner or later become a heavy weight on the scales. And judging by his performance today, the likelihood of him failing... was slim. With a wave of their hands, Lords Liu and Wang dispelled the concealing barrier. The youths across the clearing turned to look almost at the same time. "Xu Yao! Come here!" Chen Chong called in a booming voice, unable to suppress his triumphant pride. "The general wants to speak with you." His original intention had been to bring his nephew along to watch the execution, searing an unforgettable red line into the boy's heart. He had never expected the boy to catch Lord Li's eye—an unexpected windfall. Several captains nearby hissed a reminder: "Lord Prefect! It's Lord Prefect, you idiot!" Yet Li Keshi clearly cared little for titles, waving with a smile. "Your name is Xu Yao?" "Yes, my lord." "Which Yao?" "The Yao of sun, moon, and shining celestial bodies." The hand Li Keshi had raised to touch his face stiffened almost imperceptibly, after which he praised, "A fine name! As a martial artist, one must march forward fearlessly, wanting both this and that!" Chen Chong and the others nodded as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Lords Liu and Wang were momentarily caught off guard, their expressions twisting into pained grimaces as they hastily turned their heads away. Seeing Xu Yao freeze, Chen Chong hurriedly jumped in. "What the lord says is true!" Xu Yao snapped out of his daze and echoed, "What the lord says is true." Li Keshi turned toward Chen Chong and the others, instructing them with heartfelt earnestness, "Our Demon Suppression Bureau needs vibrant youths exactly like this! Xu Yao—a fine name indeed! 'Xu Yao' sounds just like 'needed'! A name so forthright about being needed! Remember, being needed is a person's greatest value in this world!" Deeply convinced, Chen Chong and the captains chimed in unison, "What the lord says is true."