Chapter 331: Leaving the City

Siniang had woven a gold-thread soft armor vest for Zheng Fan and every Demon King.

Before leaving the fortress this time, Zheng Fan took the gold-thread soft armor from both A’Ming and Liang Cheng and put all of it on himself.

He did not take Fan Li’s or Xue San’s.

One was too large.

The other too small.

Afterward, he put on his armor, mounted his horse, narrowed his eyes beneath the noon sun, and silently enjoyed the warmth.

The more tense and dangerous the surroundings, the more a person craved this kind of brief peace and comfort.

But stay inside comfort for too long, and one would begin yearning for excitement beyond it.

A poor old fisherman and a wealthy gentleman fishing beside the same river might appear to be doing exactly the same thing and admiring exactly the same scenery.

Yet because their states of mind were different, the same surroundings would give them entirely different feelings.

General Zheng was still indulging in this bit of sentimentality when behind him the Sword Saint approached on horseback.

He wore ordinary armor.

In his hand, he carried a Great Yan Black Dragon Banner.

Longyuan had been fitted inside the hollow flagpole.

Truthfully, the Sword Saint himself did not particularly resist wearing Yan armor or carrying a Yan banner.

For one thing, he had already spent several months in Shengle City serving as an ordinary city guard.

He was used to wearing the armor.

And after seeing the Black Dragon Banner for so long, it no longer stabbed at his eyes the way it once had.

For another, the Sword Saint was actually extremely easy to talk into things.

A gentleman could be deceived through his principles.

As long as you pressed him with righteousness, he would eventually yield.

General Zheng had become highly experienced with this method.

Do you want every savage who invaded Jin this time to be buried here?

Do you want the snowfields to spend fifty years unable to recover?

Do you want revenge for the Jin people butchered beneath savage blades?

Then pick up this banner.

Follow me.

Leave the city.

To outsiders, the Sword Saint of Jin might be a terrifying existence high beyond reach.

But General Zheng loved making friends with people like him.

The two met.

It was almost time.

General Zheng reached out and touched the armor beneath the sun.

It had grown slightly hot.

“Are you confident?” he asked.

“That depends on the distance,” the Sword Saint replied.

“How close?”

“At one hundred paces, I have a thirty-percent chance.

“At fifty, sixty percent.

“Within ten paces, ninety percent.”

“No hundred percent?”

“If that savage commander leading tens of thousands is only as strong as you, then yes.”

“Brother.

“Talking like that is how you end up with no friends.”

As he spoke, Zheng Fan reached into one of his saddle bags and took out a long strip of white cloth.

“What is that?” the Sword Saint asked.

“A khata.

“It symbolizes good fortune and blessing.

“Back in my homeland, when an honored guest or a friend from afar arrived, we offered one of these.

“Later, I intend to offer my good anda my blessing.”

That way, the distance between them would naturally shrink.

General Zheng’s preparations were extraordinarily meticulous.

“Yan has such a custom?”

“Only in my village.”

“I see.”

“I’ll try my best to bring you closer to their commander.

“But keep an eye on his standard-bearer too.

“I doubt he’ll be an ordinary man.”

“I know.

“But it should not matter much.”

That was confidence.

The confidence of a Sword Saint.

Among the Four Great Swordsmen, Li Liangshen served in the army.

As a Chief Commander, what he truly excelled at was commanding troops and killing people on the battlefield.

No one had ever seen Chu’s Swordsmith truly fight, so no one knew how much water there was in his reputation.

Among living men, the two people most skilled at killing with a sword were probably the Sword Saint and Qian’s Hundred-Li Sword.

The Hundred-Li Sword’s younger sister served as a Silver-Armored Guard close to the Emperor of Qian.

Baili Feng himself was treated as an honored guest by the Zhao imperial clan.

If the Sword Saint wished, he could become one of Great Yan’s highest-retained experts in an instant.

And now such a peerless master stood at Zheng Fan’s side, willing to follow his orders.

Zheng Fan genuinely felt as though he had activated a cheat.

Well if the cheat was still within its validity period, then he might as well enjoy it while he could.

“The last night raid bought us three days.

“If we can kill the enemy commander this time, then this defense will probably be stable.”

General Zheng continued building the Sword Saint’s mindset.

He explained just how great and meaningful the thing they were doing truly was.

So meaningful that the Sword Saint could disregard his own life and sacrifice himself to accomplish it.

“But if you do this,” the Sword Saint said, “it will damage General Zheng’s reputation.”

The other side had invited him to negotiate.

At least on the surface, the invitation was open and honorable.

Yet Zheng Fan was going there with his entire mind focused on ambushing and killing the other commander.

That was not exactly virtuous behavior.

“My reputation is not important.”

Zheng Fan swept an emotional gaze across the surroundings.

Then he said with feeling:

“These men came out here with me.

“I have to do everything I can to bring them home alive.

“Their wives and children are waiting for them.

“I am responsible for them.

“For that— what do a few empty names matter?”

The Sword Saint sighed.

Having once served as an ordinary city guard in Shengle, he understood something of what life felt like for common soldiers.

From the corner of his eye, Zheng Fan quietly observed the Sword Saint’s expression.

Good.

The favorability had gone up.

“When you make your move, do you need me to signal you?”

“No.

“A sword strike like this requires me to gather momentum in advance.

“I’ll judge the moment myself.”

“Good.

“Once you draw your sword, regardless of the result, I will immediately turn my horse and run back to the fortress.

“I have to be responsible for all the men beneath me.

“I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“I understand.

“That is what you should do.”

“Thank you.”

“No need.”

Armored soldiers stepped forward and removed the obstacles that had been piled behind the gate.

Inside the gate, several hundred cavalrymen were already prepared.

If anything unexpected happened outside, they would charge out immediately to retrieve their General.

That was not all.

Hooks and ropes had already been prepared atop the walls.

If the worst truly happened, Liang Cheng would personally shoot an arrow attached to a rope.

As long as Zheng Fan managed to grab hold of it, Fan Li waiting above would haul on the rope and drag Zheng Fan directly up the fortress wall.

Whatever happened, every possible security measure and emergency plan had been prepared.

The reason was simple.

Zheng Fan was leaving the fortress specifically to conduct a decapitation strike.

He lightly urged the horse beneath him forward.

For a moment, Zheng Fan regretted not bringing the Pixiu.

At a critical moment, surely escaping on a Pixiu would be much faster?

But there was no meaning in thinking about that now.

Once they passed through the gate, the Sword Saint lowered his head.

His helmet concealed his face.

His entire aura withdrew completely.

Because overhead, a falcon had already begun circling.

Demonic beasts possessed intelligence.

To a certain degree, their senses could actually surpass those of humans.

“Can you fool that bird?” Zheng Fan murmured, barely moving his lips.

“Before, probably not.

“Now, I should be able to.”

That was the Sword Saint’s answer.

In the past, merely standing somewhere, he had naturally resembled a sword planted upright in the earth.

Even if he restrained his aura, a person’s temperament was very difficult to hide completely.

But after spending several months as an ordinary city guard in Shengle, the Sword Saint’s state of mind had broken through to a new level.

He could now conceal himself far more naturally.

In a sense, it was a return to simplicity and truth.

Truthfully, news that the Sword Saint was traveling with this Yan army had never really spread.

Yes, he had acted during the seizure of Fengxin’s gate.

But first, the scene had been chaotic.

Second, very few ordinary rebel soldiers had ever possessed the ability to recognize the Sword Saint on sight.

And after Fengxin’s rebel forces were defeated by the Shengle Army, they had not gone to join the savages.

Some buried their identities.

Others simply became bandits.

They were not fools.

The moment Yan troops appeared in Fengxin City, they understood that the fighting between Yan and the savages would inevitably become even more brutal.

They had no intention of walking into savage hands and volunteering to serve as auxiliary troops.

Besides, when great trends collided especially in wars between states battles involving tens of thousands of troops often swallowed the light of individual martial prowess entirely.

Outsiders only knew that the Shengle Army had stormed into Fengxin and drowned the Situ brothers.

No one went digging obsessively into every detail.

The jianghu was the jianghu.

War between states was war between states.

Back when the Zhenbei Army fought all the way to the walls of Shangjing, the Hundred-Li Sword had rushed back in time.

But faced with Zhenbei iron cavalry, he could only withdraw.

He had never truly managed to influence the battle.

And now, this opportunity had been delivered voluntarily by the enemy.

In Zheng Fan’s view, Heaven itself was finally showing him some goodwill, making up for the cursed luck he suffered every time he joined a cavalry charge.

Besides, swordsmen were strongest in one-on-one combat.

And the man beside him was the Saint among swords.

The Sword Saint spoke quietly.

“You truly feel no curiosity about the terms the savages might offer you?

“No temptation at all?”

In the Sword Saint’s eyes, Zheng Fan was difficult to understand.

He felt Zheng Fan was, in a certain way, an extremely pure person.

But that kind of purity was not what ordinary people meant by the word.

“What could they possibly offer?

“At most, they’ll make me a prince.

“Maybe Prince of Jin?

“Ah.

“There’s something you don’t know.

“I sent the First Prince north into the snowfields and told him to grant princely titles to whatever tribal chiefs he meets.

“We’re all thousand-year-old foxes.

“Why bother telling each other *Liaozhai* stories?

“We’re using the exact same trick.

“If I still believed theirs, wouldn’t I be an idiot?”

“What is *Liaozhai*?

“And a thousand-year-old fox would be a terrifying demonic beast.

“I’ve never seen one.”

“Fine.

“Tonight I’ll tell you about it.

“It’s a collection of strange tales.

“Quite interesting.”

“Is that another book you wrote?

“I know you wrote *The Zheng Treatise on War*.”

Zheng Fan fell silent for a moment.

Then he sighed.

“Yes.”

“You know, if you had not become a general and had instead become a scholar, you might have done rather well.

“Qian has Yao Zizhan.

“His literary reputation has flourished for thirty years.”

Zheng Fan immediately put on another expression full of concern for the world and sorrow for the people.

He said:

“Great Yan has the barbarians to the west.

“The Three Jin to the east.

“Now the savages before us.

“And to the south, Qian sharpens its weapons and trains its armies.

“The glorious Great Yan may possess vast territory— yet within it, there is no room for a quiet writing desk.”

The Sword Saint heard those words and was genuinely moved.

“So that is why the children of Shengle can attend private school without paying tuition?”

Zheng Fan closed his eyes.

His mouth opened slightly.

A few strands of saliva still connected his upper and lower lips.

He nodded.

“The life I could not live—

I hope the next generation can.”

...

The falcon continued circling overhead.

And from the opposite direction, Gelimu rode slowly toward Snow Sea Pass.

Half a horse-length behind him rode a middle-aged savage standard-bearer.

The man’s true identity was a Guide.

Among the Guides, his status was second only to Sanghu’s.

Truthfully, Sanghu could not strictly be considered a priest.

He was merely a piece the Savage King had inserted into the organization of the Guides.

The man beside Gelimu, strictly speaking, was the actual leader of the snowfield Guides.

“The falcon shows no abnormal reaction.

“That proves the commander on the other side truly came out.”

The standard-bearer spoke.

“Gelimu.

“If we kill that Yan commander right here, wouldn’t Snow Sea Pass become much easier to take?”

Gelimu shook his head.

“No.

“If we kill the Yan commander here, the Yan inside will realize they have no road left to retreat.

“They’ll only fight more desperately to the end.

“The snowfields are behind them.

“They have nowhere else to go.

“But I am worried the Yan commander across from us may be thinking exactly what you are.”

The standard-bearer laughed.

“Gelimu.

“You yourself are a Fifth Grade Martial Artist.

“You also have my protection.

“And you’re still worried?”

“I’m afraid of dying.

“I really am.

“I still haven’t seen the Holy Race rise.

“I still haven’t seen my family name spread proudly again.

“I don’t want to die.

“Besides, the Jin have a saying:

Do not fear ten thousand possibilities.

Fear the one possibility that becomes real.”

“There aren’t that many possibilities.

“My protective power of the stars— there are truly very few people in this world who can break through it.”

“So there *are* some?”

“When the Sword Saint of Jin came into our snowfields in the past, he broke it once.

“That was the only time.

“But surely you aren’t about to tell me that the Sword Saint— that man whose pride reaches higher than Heaven would behave like I am now and carry a banner for a Yan commander who also destroyed half his homeland?”

[End of Chapter 331]