Chapter 26: Wei Yun Is Captured, Li Dao Forces His Way into the Enemy Camp
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“Boss, Boss, why have they all run away?”
At that moment, Shen San came rushing over with Old Ghost and the others.
They had been busy searching for the so-called treasure when they suddenly discovered that the guards who had fought them desperately moments earlier were retreating one after another at astonishing speed.
“Their master has fled. Do you think they would stay behind?” Li Dao said, brushing the last traces of frost from his clothes.
“Fled? Then what about our mission...?”
Li Dao swept his gaze over the carriages loaded with goods. “The supplies are all here. Take a look.”
“There’s no need,” Sun Zheng suddenly said.
“No need?” Shen San and the others looked at him in confusion.
“Exactly.” Sun Zheng explained his reasoning. “In such a humiliating retreat, they can only return to the Tamu Tribe. There’s no chance they’ll continue on to Great Qian. This mission can be considered complete.”
Li Dao asked, “But what if they regroup after returning and continue with the marriage alliance?”
Gao Liang laughed from the side. “Then that will be another mission. It has nothing to do with us.”
Li Dao: “...”
Sure enough, the workplace was the same in every world. Everyone tried to shove troublesome matters onto someone else.
Since that was the case, they might as well spare themselves the trouble.
The third request he had promised Wei Yun was complete. Next came the return of his freedom.
Half an hour later.
The five men dug a pit and buried the goods they had seized. After all, it was unrealistic for seven people to carry everything away.
“The mission is complete. We two will take our leave,” Sun Zheng and Gao Liang said, cupping their fists toward Li Dao.
“You’re leaving already? Aren’t you going back to Long Valley Town to report to Commander Wei?”
“There’s no need. We only have to answer to His Majesty.”
“Very well. I wish you both a safe journey.”
Gao Liang patted Li Dao on the shoulder and laughed. “You helped us greatly this time. When you return to the imperial capital someday, we’ll treat you to drinks.”
Treat me to drinks?
If the two of them knew his true identity, they would probably be treating him to blades instead.
Still, he merely nodded and humored them.
Not long afterward, the two men departed, leaving only Li Dao and the other four behind.
Li Dao glanced at the wreckage around them and said, “Let’s return and report the completion of the mission. Then we can exchange it for our freedom.”
...
Perhaps because he was eager to be free, Li Dao led the other four on a relentless journey back to Long Valley Town without stopping to rest.
However, when they reached the town, all five of them froze.
Numerous corpses lay outside Long Valley Town.
Some belonged to Great Qian soldiers, while others were unfamiliar bodies.
“What happened here?” Shen San asked, eyes wide with shock.
Li Dao said nothing. He dismounted and walked over to one of the corpses. After examining its clothing, he murmured, “The Luoyun Tribe?”
He recognized the garments as those worn by members of the Luoyun Tribe.
In other words, the Luoyun Tribe had attacked Long Valley Town.
“Come on. Let’s go inside and take a look.”
The five men led their horses into Long Valley Town.
The farther they went, the more corpses they saw. They were all either Great Qian soldiers or warriors of the Luoyun Tribe. From the looks of it, only members of the Luoyun Tribe had launched the assault.
Just as the five of them stepped through the town gate—
Whoosh!
Li Dao’s ears twitched. He instinctively raised a hand and caught an arrow in midair.
“Who’s there?”
Shen San and the others immediately turned toward the direction from which the arrow had come.
“Luoyun savages! We’ll fight you to the death!”
The next moment, numerous disheveled Great Qian soldiers charged out from concealed corners.
The man leading them was someone Li Dao knew: Captain Liu Neng.
“Captain Liu.”
Li Dao’s single call made Liu Neng, who had been charging forward with his head lowered, shudder.
He looked up and realized that the newcomers were not enemies. He quickly raised a hand.
“Wait! Don’t attack. They’re our own people!”
Li Dao glanced at Liu Neng’s wounds and asked, “What happened to Long Valley Town?”
Liu Neng’s face turned bitter. “Last night, after you left, the Luoyun Tribe suddenly launched a surprise attack on Long Valley Town. We were caught completely off guard, and the town fell.”
“Are these the only people left?”
Li Dao looked at the battered soldiers behind Liu Neng. There appeared to be fewer than two hundred of them.
The Mighty Guard Battalion had originally consisted of a thousand men, and Long Valley Town had held more than a thousand soldiers in total. Even after suffering some losses, there should still have been at least seven or eight hundred left.
Yet after a single night, fewer than two hundred remained—and every one of them was wounded.
“Yes.” Liu Neng nodded dejectedly.
Suddenly, Li Dao thought of something. Frowning, he asked, “What about Commander Wei? He’s an Innate Martial Artist. He shouldn’t have died so easily.”
At the mention of Wei Yun, Liu Neng’s expression grew even more miserable.
“Last night, when the battle reached its final stage, Commander Wei realized that the Mighty Guard Battalion could not withstand the Luoyun Tribe. So he lured the remaining tribesmen away by himself. His whereabouts are unknown.”
Li Dao’s face darkened instantly.
He took a deep breath and asked directly, “Did you see which direction Commander Wei fled in?”
Shen San asked, puzzled, “Boss, half a day has already passed. He’s probably dead by now.”
Li Dao said in a deep voice, “Whether alive or dead, we must find him.”
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Shen San muttered, “Is that really necessary?”
Old Ghost could not help reminding him, “Little Fatty, if Wei Yun dies, who will give you your freedom?”
At the words “your freedom,” Shen San jolted.
“Could it be that Wei Yun has to handle everything personally?”
“Who do you think agreed to all your conditions? Without him, who would recognize them?” Old Ghost said bluntly.
Shen San grew anxious and hurriedly asked Liu Neng, “Quickly, tell us which way Wei Yun went!”
Seeing this, Liu Neng did not dare delay. He pointed in a certain direction.
Shen San immediately said, “Boss, let’s go after him. We absolutely can’t let that fellow Wei Yun die.”
Li Dao mounted his horse. “You stay here. I’ll go after him alone.”
“But...”
Before Shen San could finish, Li Dao slapped the horse’s rump and galloped off in the direction Liu Neng had indicated.
“Old Ghost, should we follow him?” Shen San asked helplessly.
“Follow him?” Old Ghost took the matter in stride. He dropped onto the ground and said, “If you want to, go ahead.”
Then he glanced at the wounded soldiers and smiled.
“Today, this old man is feeling charitable. Anyone who wants medical treatment or their wounds tended should line up.”
...
Elsewhere.
After riding away from Long Valley Town, Li Dao kept his eyes fixed on the traces left on the ground.
Before long, he found signs that the Luoyun Tribe’s pursuit had likely left behind. He immediately followed them and continued onward.
At that moment, some distance away from Li Dao, a camp had been temporarily established.
At the center of the camp stood a wooden cage. Inside was a man bound in numerous chains.
If Li Dao had been there, he would have recognized him immediately as Wei Yun.
This was the Luoyun Tribe’s temporary camp.
A tribesman approached the cage and threw a ladle of cold water inside.
“Tell me. Were the people of Great Qian the ones who killed our Third Prince?”
“Bah!”
Wei Yun spat without the slightest hesitation. He bared his teeth in a cold grin.
“Go ask your mother’s trousers. What does your Third Prince’s death have to do with Great Qian?”
“Still talking back?”
The Luoyun tribesman snatched up a kettle of boiling water from the nearby campfire and poured it over Wei Yun.
When the scalding water struck him, Wei Yun’s expression turned ugly, but he clenched his teeth and endured it.
The surrounding tribesmen began to laugh coldly.
“Your mouth is still hard.”
At that moment, one of the Luoyun warriors rose from among the crowd. Everyone else immediately fell silent.
Two Innate Martial Artists had been sent to deal with Wei Yun’s Mighty Guard Battalion.
One was named Jinhua, the other Jinsha.
The man who had just stood was Jinhua, one of the leaders of the expedition and one of the two Innate Martial Artists.
Jinhua walked over to Wei Yun and smiled faintly.
“I don’t know whether the death of our Third Prince is connected to Great Qian.”
“Perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn’t. But that no longer matters.”
“What matters now is that we must make the Third Prince’s death your Great Qian’s responsibility.”
“All you need to do is admit that the Third Prince was killed by Great Qian. If you do, we will not only release you, we will also allow you to join the glorious Luoyun Tribe. What do you say?”
Wei Yun frowned. “You belong to the anti-Great Qian faction of the Luoyun Tribe!”
In the Northern Barbarians, the Luoyun Tribe was nominally neutral.
Its attitude toward Great Qian had always been ambiguous.
However, some among them disliked that ambiguity. They wanted to follow the example of the Tamu Tribe, wage war against Great Qian, and seize richer resources and more fertile lands.
The Third Prince of Luoyun, whom they had killed, belonged to that faction. That was why he had secretly gone to the Tamu Tribe to negotiate without informing the King of Luoyun.
Their current actions were merely an attempt to find an excuse that could convince the rest of the Luoyun Tribe.
Once he understood this, Wei Yun became even less willing to yield—not even if he truly had been the one who ordered the ambush that killed the Third Prince of Luoyun.
“So what if you know? Give me your answer,” Jinhua urged impatiently.
Wei Yun did not wish to speak. He simply closed his eyes and remained silent.
Jinhua understood his answer. He looked up at the sky. The sun was nearing midday.
He then ordered, “Raise a flagpole and hang him from it beneath the blazing sun.”
And so the battered Wei Yun was hung from a pole and left to bake beneath the scorching sun.
At that moment, he seemed to think of something and murmured, “I’m sorry, Nine-Five-Two-Seven.”
Wei Yun did not fear death. His only regret was that he had failed to fulfill the promise he had made.
Time passed slowly.
The sunlight above Wei Yun grew ever more intense and blinding. He felt his entire body becoming dry and weak.
His injuries were already severe, and after being exposed to the sun for so long, his vision had begun to blur.
Through the haze, he vaguely saw a figure approaching in the distance.
Nine-Five-Two-Seven?
Wei Yun gave a bitter laugh and muttered, “They say that people see hallucinations before they die. Looks like it’s true.”
Without hesitation, he bit through the tip of his tongue, using the pain to jolt himself awake.
Although he felt regret over Nine-Five-Two-Seven, he refused to spend his final moments thinking about another man. He would rather picture a beautiful woman. At least then he could die in greater comfort.
Yet the pain did not make the figure before him disappear.
Instead, as the figure drew closer, Wei Yun began to hear the sound of hoofbeats.
He shuddered violently. His consciousness cleared in an instant.
This was no hallucination.
At the same time, Li Dao drew near the camp and recognized it as belonging to the Luoyun Tribe.
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His gaze also fell upon Wei Yun, who had been hung beneath the flag.
With his extraordinary eyesight, Li Dao easily saw that Wei Yun was still alive.
A wave of relief swept through him.
Thank goodness Wei Yun had not died. Otherwise, suffering such a great loss would have made Li Dao angry enough to start killing.
Because Li Dao made no attempt to conceal himself, the Luoyun tribesmen soon spotted him as well.
“Report! An unknown person is approaching!”
Following the shout, the soldiers in the camp quickly assembled in the open ground.
The two Innate Martial Artists were among them.
“Nine-Five-Two-Seven, don’t worry about me! There are two Innate Martial Artists here!”
Wei Yun came to his senses and hurriedly shouted in a hoarse voice from where he hung.
In his view, this camp was guarded by two Innate Martial Artists. There was no way Li Dao could rescue him. He might even lose his own life.
Hearing Wei Yun’s voice, Li Dao’s eyes quickly settled on the two figures standing at the front of the assembled soldiers.
“Two Innate Martial Artists?”
Li Dao did not think too long. He immediately opened the system panel.
[Master: Li Dao]
[Physique: 40.74]
[Available Attributes: 10.98]
Not long ago, during the battle against the First Prince of Tamu, Li Dao had failed to kill the final Snow Demon, Liu Yan. However, the high-quality guards he had slain had still provided him with a considerable number of attributes.
“I wonder whether a physique fifty times greater than an ordinary man’s will be enough.”
Regardless of whether it was enough, he had already come this far. He would never be satisfied without giving it a try.
“Allocate.”
[Master: Li Dao]
[Physique: 51.72]
[Available Attributes: 0]
In an instant, a familiar current of heat spread throughout his body.
His surging blood and vital energy caused his fighting spirit to boil as well. He felt an intense urge to vent it, as though he had been injected with stimulants.
Without hesitation, he urged his horse forward and charged straight at the Luoyun tribesmen.
Seeing Li Dao ride directly toward them, the two Innate Martial Artists from the Luoyun Tribe sneered and immediately ordered, “Attack! Kill him!”
“Kill!”
The mass of soldiers charged at Li Dao all at once.
After all, they were facing only one man. They felt not the slightest fear.
What they did not know was that, in Li Dao’s eyes, their charge resembled a flock of sheep rushing at a tiger, as though they intended to kill the tiger by sheer numbers.
In the very first clash, aided by the horse’s momentum, dozens of soldiers were sent flying.
At the same time, the long blades of the surrounding soldiers swung toward Li Dao from every direction.
Not far away, the two Innate Martial Artists did not take Li Dao seriously at all. Instead, they began wagering on him.
Jinhua said, “How long do you think he can last in there?”
Jinsha smiled faintly. “At most thirty seconds before he dies horribly.”
Jinhua laughed heartily. “Since you say thirty seconds, I’ll give him a little more credit. Forty seconds.”
Jinsha shrugged. “Then let’s wait and see.”
Facing the countless blades attacking him from all sides, Li Dao had the reflexes to evade them all with ease.
But he did not want to dodge. Every evasive movement would reduce the efficiency of his own strikes.
In an instant, countless blades crashed against his body.
Yet apart from tearing open his clothes, none of them managed to injure the flesh beneath.
The surrounding soldiers froze in astonishment.
But they had already lost their chance to react.
Li Dao swung his black iron saber, and a ring of blood sprayed through the air.
[Eight enemies slain. Attributes gained: 1.24]
Eight men had yielded only 1.24 attributes?
That was vastly inferior to the guards of the First Prince of Tamu. It seemed these were merely ordinary soldiers without any cultivation.
Li Dao glanced at the densely packed soldiers around him.
The quality was poor, but quantity could make up for it.
He simply dismounted and plunged into the crowd, beginning a slaughter.
In the eyes of Jinhua and Jinsha, watching from nearby, this was nothing more than foolishness bordering on suicide.
“Looks like he won’t even last thirty seconds,” Jinsha sneered.
“Are Great Qian soldiers all this stupid?” Jinhua could not help commenting.
Of everyone present, only Wei Yun, hanging beneath the flag, had a clear view of what was truly happening.
From where he hung, he could see Li Dao moving through the Luoyun savages as though no one else existed, reaping lives wherever he went.
Every swing of his saber cut down a swath of Luoyun warriors. Even while hanging from the flagpole, Wei Yun felt his blood surge with excitement. If he had not been bound by chains, he would probably have already leapt up and applauded.
He was especially astonished when he realized that Li Dao completely ignored the incoming blades.
Innate Martial Artists could use the external release of vital energy to withstand blades and spears.
But Wei Yun knew very well that Li Dao possessed no vital energy within his body. He relied entirely on the strength of his physical form.
He also knew that certain martial arts could temper the body and increase its basic strength. However, such techniques still required vital energy to work in conjunction with them.
If their vital energy dispersed, their bodies might be somewhat stronger than those of martial artists at the same level, but they would never become this monstrous.
For a moment, Wei Yun did not even know how to describe Li Dao.
Then he suddenly remembered Li Dao’s status as a condemned prisoner and could not help muttering, “I wonder which idiot threw such a naturally gifted general into the death row. Doesn’t he feel it’s a waste?”
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