Chapter 380: A Grand Burial!

“Come, Dahu. Eat the egg.”

At the breakfast table, the Sword Saint placed the egg he had just peeled into Dahu’s bowl.

“Mm.”

Liu Dahu nodded obediently and began eating it, taking bites of porridge and pickled vegetables along with it.

The Sword Saint peeled another egg for himself and ate it one bite at a time. Then he pointed toward the basin of porridge on the table and said to Madam Wu, “Don’t make porridge for breakfast anymore. Dahu is at the age when he’s growing. He needs better food. When you finish work tonight, go to the General’s Residence shop and ask if they have any goat’s milk. Bring some back for Dahu to drink in the mornings.”

Before Madam Wu could answer, the old woman beside them, who was drinking porridge, immediately objected.

“What’s wrong with porridge? Goat’s milk is expensive. You can’t run a household by throwing money around like that.”

The Sword Saint smiled.

“But the boy is growing. He needs to eat well if he’s going to grow strong and fall sick less often.”

“What’s wrong with porridge? It smells wonderful. Son-in-law, you’ve never lived through famine. When disaster comes, people strip the bark off trees and chew it clean. Having a bowl of porridge to drink then is enough to make you burn incense in gratitude.

“And besides, goat’s milk has that rank smell. What’s so good about drinking it?”

The Sword Saint shook his head. On this matter, he was stubborn.

He was a swordsman and had practiced martial arts since childhood.

As the saying went, scholarship could be pursued in poverty, but martial training required wealth.

If you wanted to raise a Martial Artist, the first requirement was good food. An ordinary household simply could not afford to feed someone that way. The Sword Saint had been lucky enough to encounter his master while still young. Otherwise, even if he had practiced martial arts later in life, a weak foundation would have made it almost impossible to achieve what he had.

In this age, jianghu Martial Artists were injured so often that most understood at least some medicine and pharmacology.

Put them in later generations, and many could probably pass for half a nutritionist and half a pharmacist.

“Even if you make porridge, add meat and eggs to it. Fish slices are fine too. Don’t keep making plain white porridge.

“And Dahu needs the goat’s milk. Look at the savages on the snowfields. Their lives aren’t much better than ours, but they’re all tall and sturdy.”

“Son-in-law, if we keep living the way you’re talking about, won’t this household...”

The Sword Saint put down his chopsticks.

His voice sank.

“Listen to me.”

The old woman immediately shut her mouth.

At the end of the day, he was the only grown man in the household. Even if his body was crippled at present, his words still carried weight.

Madam Wu nodded as well.

“Understood. I’ll buy some after work.”

“Mm. Don’t be afraid of spending money. Once my body recovers a little more, I’ll be able to return to duty. This family won’t go hungry.”

“We still have enough silver at home,” Madam Wu said. She earned wages from her own work as well.

The old woman pursed her lips and returned to her porridge, deliberately slurping loudly and smacking her mouth.

She genuinely could not stand the way this crippled son-in-law spent money with such a loose hand.

But the man was spending it on good food and drink for her own grandson.

There was not much she could argue about.

Whatever else could be said, she could see plainly that this new son-in-law genuinely cared for her grandson from the bottom of his heart.

After the family finished breakfast, the old woman cleared the bowls and chopsticks while Madam Wu went to work.

The Sword Saint took up his crutch and brought Liu Dahu to school.

Dahu’s books, paper, brush, and ink were packed inside a small cloth satchel. The Sword Saint insisted on carrying it himself, while Liu Dahu supported one of his arms and accompanied him down the street.

Rather than a stepfather walking a child to school, it looked more like the child was accompanying his stepfather.

Along the road, Dahu ran into plenty of classmates. When some of them saw what his father looked like, they could not resist calling out with a hint of mockery:

“Dahu, is that your dad?”

Every single time, Liu Dahu puffed out his chest and shouted loudly:

“Yeah! That’s my dad!”

There was not the slightest trace of shame over the fact that his father had to walk trembling on a crutch like a cripple.

At the school entrance, Liu Dahu took the cloth satchel from the Sword Saint and bowed deeply.

“Father, your son is going to class.”

“Good. Listen carefully to your teacher.”

“Yes, Father.”

The Sword Saint watched Liu Dahu run into the school, a satisfied smile filling his face. Then he turned, braced himself on his crutch, and prepared to head home.

The moment he turned around, however, he saw Count Zheng standing there in what looked like foreign dress.

It was not actually foreign dress. It was a hoodie Siniang had knitted for him long ago. The hood could cover much of his face, so whenever Count Zheng wanted to walk around alone, he usually wore it.

Being surrounded and cheered everywhere he went had felt wonderful at first.

After enough repetitions, though, a man began to crave quiet instead.

“Oh. Fancy running into you here.” Zheng Fan smiled.

The Sword Saint nodded.

“Quite a coincidence.”

“Eaten yet?”

“I have. You?”

“Not yet. Wait here. I’ll go buy a couple of flatbreads.”

Every shop inside Snow Sea Pass was, in truth, an enterprise of the Count’s Residence. In that respect, the old system from Shengle City had been carried over intact.

Zheng Fan returned after buying two mutton flatbreads. He ate as he walked and asked the Sword Saint, “Want me to take you home?”

The Sword Saint shook his head.

“I want to go outside the city for a walk. Staying inside all the time makes me feel stifled.”

“With your body?”

“Even walking around near the wall is fine. I just want to get through the city gate.”

“Fine.”

Zheng Fan accompanied him slowly. The Sword Saint had to stop and rest every so often, but Zheng Fan never reached out to support him.

After a long while, they finally passed through the city gate.

Outside lay an enormous, bustling construction site.

The Sword Saint was tired. He sat down on a stone block just beyond the gate.

Zheng Fan sat beside him, licked his lips, and found his mouth a little dry. The mutton flatbread had been too salty.

“They’re building all these houses outside the walls,” the Sword Saint said. “What happens if an enemy attacks the city?”

“There’s a saying: keep the enemy beyond the gates of the realm.”

“You really are more imposing than before. Worthy of a man who’s become a Count.”

“Of course.”

Directly in front of where the two men sat was a sprawling living area filled with tents.

Most of the people inside were women responsible for washing clothes and cooking. Elderly people and children moved among them as well, making the place lively and crowded.

“There’s still plenty of room inside the city,” the Sword Saint said.

Snow Sea Pass was huge.

Truly huge.

It could hold an enormous population.

“There has to be some distinction.”

“I remember you once telling me that all men are born equal.”

“That’s right. But I haven’t divided people here into Yan, Jin, and barbarians. That’s already fairly equal. Military households can live inside the city.”

“And those women?”

“If they marry soldiers, they can live inside too.”

“Not very principled.”

“That takes us back to what you said earlier about keeping the enemy beyond the gates. The north faces the snowfields, so the wall protects us there. Later, you’ll be guarding the northern gate too.

“But to the south...

“To speak from the heart, in the future I imagine for this place, without thirty thousand cavalry—no, without more than fifty thousand cavalry—it’ll be impossible to truly keep the enemy outside.”

“That’s still a long way off.”

“A very long way.

“But foundations are built piece by piece.”

Just then, a troop of cavalry galloped out through the Snow Sea Pass gate.

Jin Shuke rode at their head.

The moment government troops appeared, the civilians outside moved aside.

Zheng Fan and the Sword Saint were seated in a relatively secluded corner, so Jin Shuke did not notice them. He had military business to handle and no attention to spare anyway.

“Looks like he’s doing very well,” the Sword Saint remarked.

Jin Shuke had been the man he recommended to Zheng Fan.

“He’s talented.”

Whether in fighting battles or dealing with people, this barbarian displayed a level of delicacy and talent beyond the ordinary.

Sometimes Zheng Fan even felt as though he were looking into a mirror when he watched Jin Shuke. In many ways, the man resembled him.

Except he was not as handsome.

Barbarian features did not really conform to the prevailing aesthetics of the Xia peoples.

“The First Prince married the Barbarian King’s daughter. The dowry included an entire tribe of nearly thirty thousand people. They’re already fairly close to us.

“I sent Jin Shuke to lead troops out and receive them.”

“Then it looks like Count Zheng will have quite a few more troops beneath him.”

“Ten thousand barbarian cavalry.”

Zheng Fan proudly raised one finger.

“Oh? That really is excellent.”

“Truthfully, I like using barbarian soldiers. They have fewer complicated thoughts, and once they’re stranded in a foreign land, they’re more willing to fight desperately.”

“No. Other than Yan troops, you like every kind of soldier. If this weren’t Jin territory, and if the savages hadn’t only just slaughtered so many Jin people, you’d want savage troops too.”

“You saw through me.”

“You never bothered hiding it.”

“Fine. I’ll reflect on myself.”

“Jin Shuke’s fortune is rising. Sometimes a man’s fate is exactly like that. Seize the opportunity and you rise with it.

“Of course, some people possess real ability. They can rise on their own merits.”

“Are you talking about yourself?”

The Sword Saint had overturned his fortunes with a single sword, escaping the identity of an impoverished Yu clansman until his influence exceeded even that of the long-puppetized Emperor of Jin.

“I meant him.”

“It’s different. There are very few people in this world like you, capable of using a single sword to stab through every shackle and fly upward alone.

“Take Jin Shuke. If you hadn’t happened to be guarding the east gate at the time, I would never have noticed him. If you hadn’t recommended him, I wouldn’t have promoted him directly to Thousand-Man Commander either.

“He might easily have died in some skirmish.

“Or in a clash between scouts.

“It’s true that gold will eventually shine.

“But that saying contains far too much survivorship bias.”

“Survivorship bias?”

The Sword Saint clearly did not understand the phrase immediately.

But after tasting the meaning for a while he could sense there was something to it.

*Crash!*

A shattering sound suddenly came from nearby.

An old man sat on an ox cart. Several small wine jars rested beside him, and he had just smashed one on the road in front of the cart. No wine spilled out, so it was probably already empty.

After the jar shattered, two women hurried over from the laundry area.

Both wore patched clothing. The elder woman still retained traces of the beauty she must have possessed when young, and even now she had considerable charm. She looked like the old man’s concubine.

The younger woman was plainly dressed but could not conceal her prettiness. She was probably his daughter.

The old man’s clothes were unkempt, yet traces of former luxury could still be seen in them. He had likely once belonged to a wealthy household, only to lose everything in the war and end up relying on his wife and daughter working for the Count’s Residence to support the family.

When the Blind Man and Siniang led Shengle’s civilians east, they absorbed huge numbers of refugees along the way. By the end, the column had grown like a snowball.

Among the civilians now settled in and around Snow Sea Pass, people who had originally belonged to Shengle City were actually a minority.

The jar the old man smashed had landed directly on the road leading out from the city gate. His wife and daughter immediately squatted down to clear the shards.

Fortunately, the cavalry formation had already passed.

Had he smashed the jar while that large force was charging out through the gate, he might well have been seized and accused of malicious intent.

To maintain stability, the Count’s Residence had always shown zero tolerance toward anyone who deliberately stirred up trouble.

Young men were sent into labor camps alongside savage slaves.

Old men who were useless yet still insisted on causing trouble were simply shot, saving everyone the trouble of wasting grain on them.

The punishments were brutal.

But that brutality was also what maintained peace and order across this enormous “construction site.”

“Hahahaha!”

The old man opened another jar from the ox cart. He tried to lift it with both arms but lacked the strength, so he leaned his mouth directly to the jar and took a deep drink.

Then he kicked his legs out and shouted:

“Hahahaha! Think back to when the Marquis of Jin opened the frontier, drove out the savages, and founded the state! What grandeur that was!

“And look at us now!

“Above a mighty strategic pass of Great Jin flies the Black Dragon Banner of Yan!

“This is Jin soil!

“This is the land where the people of the Three Jin have multiplied and lived for generations!

“And now it lies beneath Yan cavalry hooves!

“Our ancestors above!

“The spirits of our forebears above!

“You! You! You! And me!

“When we die, what face will any of us have left to meet them?”

The old man seemed drunk enough to have lost all restraint.

He began shouting words that could easily be branded treasonous.

The Sword Saint beside Zheng Fan sighed.

Zheng Fan himself did not care.

At his present level, he was hardly going to lose his temper over the drunken ravings of some old man.

Besides, the Sword Saint himself was sitting next to him.

Surely Zheng Fan could at least leave the man a little dignity.

“Earlier I saw them making tents over there. I asked around and found out that even barbarians from the desert are being moved here now!

“Hahahahahaha!”

The old man kept laughing.

Then he lowered his head, drank another mouthful of wine, and roared:

“What in Heaven’s name has happened to the lands of the Three Jin?

“The Yan come here and run wild!

“The savages come here and run wild!

“And now even the barbarians are coming over to stand on the heads of Jin people and piss and shit on us?”

The older woman hurried over to support him and seemed to beg him to stop talking.

His words were terrifying enough to make the heart tremble.

The old man shoved the supposed concubine aside.

“What is there I dare not say?

“What is there I cannot say?

“I will say it!

“I insist on saying it!

“Think of Great Jin!

“In war, we once had the Situ Clan guarding Snow Sea Pass and Zhennan Pass, resisting savages in the north and Chu slaves in the south!

“In letters, we once had the Wenren Clan establishing academies and promoting scholarship, so scholars of Jin no longer had to envy the splendor of Shangjing in Qian!

“In trade, we once had the Helian Clan’s caravans ranging across the realm, linking north and south. Jin merchant houses stretched east and west. Merchants from other states found it difficult to do business here if they couldn’t even speak a mouthful of the Jin dialect!

“And Great Jin once had a Sword Saint whose single sword flew—”

When he reached the Sword Saint, the old man stopped.

Zheng Fan deliberately glanced toward the man beside him.

The Sword Saint did not wear an expression that said, *Go on, hurry up, I want to hear this.*

He merely gave a self-mocking smile.

“The Helian and Wenren clans were exterminated!

“Their merchant houses were destroyed!

“Their scholarly lineages were cut clean!

“The Emperor of Jin was moved into Yanjing, and the ancestral temples, the altars of soil and grain, every place where our forefathers were worshipped—all of it was plundered empty by the Yan!

“The Situ Clan survives only as the Prince of Cheng, a hawk and hound beneath Yan knees!

“And even that Lord Sword Saint...”

The old man stopped once more.

Tears filled his eyes.

His feelings toward the Sword Saint were clearly complicated.

At last, he released a long sigh.

“The Sword Saint is, after all, a man of the jianghu.

“Though he has become a vanguard before Yan horses, he still once seized the gate beneath Fengxin City and killed Situ Yi and Situ Jiong, those two savage lackeys!

“Before Snow Sea Pass, one sword cut down a thousand riders and buried those damned savages here!

“He is only a man of the jianghu.

“For accomplishing that much— this old man can only respect him!”

The Sword Saint closed his eyes.

Zheng Fan leaned back slightly.

At that moment, a group of armored soldiers came from the city gate.

The officer leading them was Lieutenant Commander Xu Youcheng.

Zheng Fan still remembered the man. He should have come from the surrendered Jin troops.

“What the hell are you babbling about, old bastard?

“You drink a little horse piss and suddenly forget how much you weigh?”

Xu Youcheng cursed loudly.

The old man’s supposed wife and daughter immediately hurried over to apologize on his behalf.

The old man pointed at Xu Youcheng and laughed.

“You speak pure Jin, yet wear Yan armor and march beneath Yan banners!

“You have forgotten your ancestors!”

“You!”

Xu Youcheng flew into a rage and immediately drew his saber.

No collaborator hated anything more than being called a collaborator.

“Please, General! Spare my master! He’s drunk. He’s drunk! I’ll take him away right now!”

The older woman dropped to her knees and kowtowed.

The younger one hugged Xu Youcheng around the legs, terrified that he would go forward and kill the old man.

Over these past days, they had seen plenty of people executed for stirring up unrest or inciting trouble.

“Beg for what? Why beg him?”

The old man continued roaring.

“Come on, little thief! Kill me!

“My surname is Yu!

“I am the current Grand Patriarch of the Yu Clan!

“Come kill me!

“Kill me!”

Grand Patriarch?

That was effectively the head of the Yu Clan.

For the Sword Saint, this old man was one of the highest clan elders of his ancestral house.

Zheng Fan immediately turned toward the Sword Saint.

“You don’t know him?”

The Sword Saint was a Yu as well.

He shook his head.

“No. There are too many descendants of the Yu Clan. My family declined when I was still young, and we had long since lost any right to enter the Patriarch’s Residence. Naturally, I wouldn’t know him.

“But he is probably telling the truth. When the Emperor of Jin moved east into Yanjing, I remember hearing that some branches of the Yu Clan refused to accompany him.”

Zheng Fan believed the Sword Saint.

There were simply too many people surnamed Yu.

The Sword Saint and his younger brother had grown up extremely poor. They might have borne the imperial surname in name, but their lives were little different from ordinary commoners.

And even the Emperor of Jin had not possessed much actual power back then—only the capital region around him.

The Sword Saint himself had long disliked the Emperor of Jin.

He had never taken pride in bearing the Yu surname. If anything, he had been ashamed of it.

After becoming famous, he had shown no interest in mixing with the other Yu clansmen.

So this old man was probably one of the small number of Yu nobles who had refused to follow the Emperor of Jin into Yanjing.

He had abandoned a life of silk clothing and rich food as a wealthy gentleman in Yanjing and fallen all the way to this state instead.

Hard-headed indeed.

Rather like the ancient men who would rather starve than eat Zhou grain.

“So what if you’re the Grand Patriarch?” Xu Youcheng roared. “The State of Jin is gone! The Yu Clan all went to Yanjing! Who are you trying to impress by waving that tiger skin around here?”

He shouted furiously, but he did not actually step forward and cut the man down.

Xu Youcheng understood that the old man’s identity might not be truly important anymore.

Still, executing him carelessly could create trouble for the people above.

Perhaps not even real trouble.

Perhaps merely making someone above slightly unhappy, enough to frown.

For Xu Youcheng, even that was unnecessary.

The women kept pleading and kowtowing.

The old man ignored them completely.

“You sons of the Three Jin serve the tiger as accomplices! Where has the old splendor of the Three Jin cavalry gone?

“Your ancestors followed the Marquis of Jin and drove out the savages!

“They were heroes!”

“If not for the Yan, if not for the Marquis of Jingnan, if not for our Count Pingye, this place would still be a pasture where savages ran wild!

“You old bastard, would you even be alive to curse in the street?”

Xu Youcheng shouted back.

Whatever else could be said, the Yan had helped the Jin drive out the savages.

After witnessing the terrifying destructive power of the savages and the horrors they inflicted upon the countryside, soldiers born in Jin had genuinely begun to view the Yan far more favorably.

Nor was that sentiment limited to soldiers.

The common people of the Three Jin had breathed an enormous sigh of relief as well.

At the end of the day, Yan people and Jin people did not differ in appearance the way savages and barbarians did.

Their accents varied somewhat.

But if everyone kept their mouth shut and stood in a circle, who could actually tell who came from which state?

So whoever could protect the people against outside invaders would naturally win some goodwill.

Xu Youcheng continued roaring:

“We were the ones who held Snow Sea Pass!

“Yes, we’ve heard a barbarian tribe is coming now, but that day when Snow Sea Pass was defended to the death, most of the soldiers on the walls were men of Jin!

“You say we’ve forgotten our ancestors?

“I, Xu Youcheng, and every Jin-born soldier beneath me would sooner die than kneel to a savage!

“Whose saber among us isn’t stained with savage blood?”

“Heh. Savages are wolves. Yan are tigers. How much better is one than the other?” the old man sneered.

“You ungrateful old bastard!”

Xu Youcheng kicked away the two women clutching his legs and shouted to the soldiers around him:

“Seize all three of them!

“Hand them over to the Count’s Residence for judgment!”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

At that moment, the Sword Saint, still seated beside Zheng Fan, spoke.

“Spare his life.”

The Sword Saint had asked for mercy.

Zheng Fan stood.

The Sword Saint understood that asking Zheng Fan to spare an old man for drunken speech was not some great favor.

Zheng Fan would not care about something so small.

To the men below, such words might be grave disrespect.

To Count Pingye himself, they were barely entertainment.

But the Sword Saint had still asked.

And Zheng Fan immediately gave him face.

The Sword Saint also understood that every request he made of Zheng Fan became another favor owed.

One day, favors had to be repaid.

Count Zheng understood that perfectly well too.

Which was why there was no need for bargaining.

Zheng Fan walked over.

“Stop.”

Every gaze immediately fell upon the man in the strange clothing.

Zheng Fan pulled down the hood of his hoodie and revealed his face.

Xu Youcheng froze.

Then he immediately knelt.

“This subordinate pays respects to Count Pingye!”

The armored soldiers around him knelt as well.

“We pay respects to Count Pingye!”

Count Pingye?

Whether they had been watching the commotion or working nearby, every civilian around them immediately dropped to the ground before Zheng Fan.

Within the territory of Snow Sea Pass, it was no exaggeration to say that Count Pingye was Heaven.

The old man’s supposed wife and daughter knelt too, trembling violently.

The old man himself remained seated on the ox cart.

He gave Zheng Fan two sideways glances.

Then lowered his head and kept drinking.

Zheng Fan walked to the cart.

“Shall I have some dishes prepared for you to go with the wine, Old Sir?

“Drinking on an empty stomach is bad for the body.”

“Tch. Who needs a cat crying over the mouse and pretending compassion?”

“Insolence!” Xu Youcheng shouted.

Zheng Fan raised a hand, signaling him to calm down.

The old man smiled.

“What?

“You’re going to pardon me?”

His tone genuinely begged to be punched.

Zheng Fan simply nodded honestly.

“This Count can tolerate the drunken ravings of one old man.”

The old man slapped the wine jar.

“Not bad.

“You have a little bearing.

“But I’m still going to curse you.

“Yan dog!

“Yan dog!

“Yan dog!”

Zheng Fan sighed.

He had been cursed.

He still was not angry.

He merely pointed toward the two women kneeling on the ground.

“You are old.

“But you should think more about your family.”

“Heh.”

The old man narrowed his eyes and stared at Zheng Fan.

“Don’t assume every Jin man is some coward afraid of death.”

Zheng Fan suddenly lost all desire to keep chatting.

He turned toward Xu Youcheng.

“Arrange a home inside the city for this family.”

“Yes, Count.”

The moment the old man heard the order, he smashed the half-full wine jar directly onto the ground.

Pointing at Zheng Fan, he laughed and cursed:

“You Yan dog actually have some breadth to you!

“Not bad!

“Not bad!

“Worthy of Count Pingye—the man who buried a hundred thousand savages!”

Zheng Fan turned back.

He pointed at his own face.

“Are you complimenting me?”

“This old man has always believed that a true Jin man should distinguish public from private.

“At the very least, he should possess the courage to count one matter as one matter!

“You Yan seized my territory, moved away my ancestral temples, and destroyed my state!

“That is a blood feud!

“But you Yan also drove out the savages!

“The Marquis of Jingnan and you, Count Pingye, destroyed more than a hundred thousand of them!

“Even here, I can see tens of thousands of savage slaves laboring like beasts, living worse than pigs and dogs!

“You avenged the Jin people butchered by the savages!

“That is a favor!

“The feud—

I remember.

“Unfortunately, I am old now and can no longer lift a saber.

“In this lifetime, I cannot avenge it.

“As for relying on the next generation...”

The old man’s gaze swept across Xu Youcheng and the other Jin-born soldiers.

He sneered.

“Heh.

“The next generation probably won’t manage it either.

“But a favor— this old man must repay!”

He pointed toward the two women kneeling on the ground.

“These two women are not my concubine and daughter.

“This old man was wandering in the wilderness when they found me.

“They deliberately brought me into the refugee column that later came to Snow Sea Pass.

“There is something wrong with both of them.”

The instant those words fell both women snapped their heads upward.

The older woman reached toward her waist and drew a flexible sword.

*Fuck!*

The moment her hand moved toward her waist, Count Zheng immediately thought of one possibility.

There was one powerful intelligence organization in this world whose members particularly loved carrying flexible swords worn around the waist.

Sixth Grade Martial Artist Count Zheng immediately erupted with qi and blood and retreated!

Yes.

A Sixth Grade Martial Artist was genuinely not weak anymore.

Put him in the jianghu and he counted as a minor expert.

But Count Zheng’s first instinct was still to retreat.

This was his territory.

Soldiers loyal to him were everywhere.

Why the hell would he show off?

Hadn’t Sun Ce’s death been frustrating enough?

Besides, the Demon Child was babysitting and not currently beside him.

It was not because the Demon Child had become negligent.

Count Zheng had merely intended to slip out for a change of breakfast.

He had not expected to run into the Sword Saint taking a child to school.

Nor had he expected to leave the city.

And so, under this perfect accumulation of circumstances—

Count Zheng, who had recognized the enemy’s intention ahead of time promptly darted backward.

Straight behind Xu Youcheng.

The woman drew her flexible sword and prepared to seize Count Pingye as a hostage.

Then she blinked and discovered Count Pingye had already run behind someone else!

The speed was simply astonishing.

Xu Youcheng roared.

He immediately understood what he needed to do.

His saber cut forward.

The woman tried to block with the flexible sword, only to have her blade knocked aside instantly.

That alone revealed how weak she actually was.

She might have been somewhat stronger than a sheltered noble lady.

Compared with a real Martial Artist, however, there was simply no contest.

Xu Youcheng smashed her flexible sword aside but did not follow through with a killing stroke.

His left hand clamped onto her shoulder.

His right foot swept across her legs.

The woman crashed to the ground.

His saber came down immediately afterward and pinned her in place.

The younger woman was surrounded by the soldiers behind Xu Youcheng, a forest of blades pressed toward her.

The entire situation was controlled in an instant.

So easily that Count Zheng himself felt slightly awkward.

To conceal that awkwardness, he walked over and picked up the flexible sword from the ground.

He poured qi and blood into it.

The blade immediately straightened.

Count Zheng seized it with both hands.

The strength of a Sixth Grade Martial Artist erupted.

*Crack!*

He broke the flexible sword cleanly in half.

Then he tossed the broken weapon to the ground with disdain.

Afterward, he deliberately dusted off his hands as though the entire thing had been effortless.

Once he finished—

Count Zheng felt even more awkward.

A flexible sword looked as though it ought to be easy to snap.

If he wanted the effect to look impressive, he should probably have broken a saber instead.

*Tsk.*

Count Zheng felt helpless.

Fortunately, nobody around him paid attention to his embarrassment.

Everyone was still shocked by the assassins who had suddenly appeared.

The old man on the ox cart burst into laughter again.

“While this old man was sleeping, I heard them talking.

“They wanted to use my identity to get close to Count Pingye.

“I have no idea where they heard it, but apparently they were told that Count Pingye likes married women.”

Zheng Fan shook his head with a bitter smile.

“Baseless nonsense.”

Then again, this was indeed the sort of method the Silver-Armored Guard loved using.

The Silver-Armored Guard seemed especially fond of delivering wives to its targets.

Count Zheng had even discussed the subject with the Blind Man recently.

Was he not important enough yet?

Or simply too far away?

Why had he never benefited from the Silver-Armored Guard’s wife-delivery policy?

The Blind Man’s answer had shocked him even more.

He had specifically investigated Madam Ke’s background and confirmed that she genuinely was an innocent widow whose household had been destroyed by war.

Master could safely keep using her.

One could hardly blame the Blind Man for being paranoid.

There had already been the example of Dujuan.

This sort of thing required caution.

After all, a successful and famous man might possess ten thousand virtues, but he also tended to share one common weakness: difficulty keeping his belt tied.

In any case, the thing they had worried about had finally happened.

The Silver-Armored Guard had indeed targeted him.

They had even delivered the promised “benefits.”

Count Zheng deliberately looked a few more times at the older woman.

She really was quite attractive.

The old man spoke again.

“Count Pingye, you have merit for defending Snow Sea Pass on behalf of the Xia realms.

“You have merit for avenging the people of Jin.

“You may be a Yan man, but this old man acknowledges that favor.

“So I originally intended to drag this so-called wife and daughter with me into the blades of your soldiers.

“That way I could fulfill my reputation for loyalty and righteousness.

“And I’d have company on the Yellow Springs Road besides.

“But since Count Pingye himself happened to be here— and even wanted to pardon me—

I had no choice but to reveal the truth.”

Zheng Fan nodded and cupped his hands toward the old man.

“Old Master Yu, please enter the city and rest.

“This Count will hold a banquet for you.”

The old man raised one hand immediately.

“If I coveted your wine, meat, wealth, and comfort, I would simply say so.

“Why would I waste all this breath pointing at the mulberry while cursing the locust?

“My surname is Yu!

“I am Grand Patriarch of the Yu Clan!

“This old man swears he will never serve as an official beneath Yan!

“Nor will I enjoy Yan blessings!

“Now that these two have already been captured, I ask only one thing of Count Pingye.”

“Speak.”

“This old man is old and weak.

“And I’m a little afraid of pain.

“The Yu Clan may have declined, but I never suffered all that much in this life.

“In the end, I was nothing more than a muddleheaded waste who drifted through the years.

“Now I refuse to take advantage of Yan.

“I refuse to accept Yan care.

“There is only one thing left— death.

“Let this worthless life end here.

“That way nobody can someday say I sold my wife and daughter for wealth and status.

“So— this old man asks Count Pingye to send me onto the road with one stroke of your saber!”

Zheng Fan hesitated.

Then he nodded.

“To send Old Sir on his road is this junior’s honor.”

He no longer called himself *this Count*.

He called himself *this junior*.

The old man hurriedly raised another jar and poured a great mouthful of wine down his throat.

Then he said cheerfully:

“They say once you’re drunk, dying doesn’t hurt.

“That’s why executioners give condemned men a bowl of wine before sending them onto the execution ground.

“This old man drank so much today because I was afraid that when death really came, I’d start screaming from the pain.

“That would be humiliating beyond words!

“Hahaha!

“Fortunately, Count Pingye is an important man.

“Your saber should be damned clean and quick.

“If Count Pingye personally sends me onto the road— then at least this old man dies with some dignity!”

Zheng Fan reached out.

He accepted a saber from one of the nearby soldiers.

Then he walked before the old man.

The old man straightened his back where he sat.

He roared:

“I ask only that Count Pingye guard Snow Sea Pass well!

“Do not let the people of the Three Jin suffer beneath savage cruelty again!

“This old man wishes Count Pingye a flourishing official career— and wealth and honor for ten thousand years!”

Zheng Fan’s saber fell.

*Pfft!*

The old man’s head left his body.

It spun through the air.

Zheng Fan reached out and caught it.

He carried the head to Xu Youcheng.

Xu Youcheng accepted it in both hands.

“According to Jin rites...”

Zheng Fan paused.

Then continued:

“Give him a grand burial.”

Off to one side, the Sword Saint—who had knelt with everyone else earlier simply to avoid standing out—lowered his head.

He murmured:

“This unworthy descendant Yu Huaping respectfully sees the Clan Patriarch on his road.”

————

[End of Chapter 380]