Lu Ye and Wang Hu immediately felt their hair stand on end.
The ideal of living as servants for influential families had already been destroyed.
How could they be willing to serve as servants to others even after death?
If you want to drag our brothers to the grave just because your own men died, if you truly have such deep brotherly love, why don't you kill yourselves to accompany them?
Seeing this "Uncle Seventeen" approaching on horseback while brandishing a long saber dripping with fresh blood, the "female knight-errant" beside him did not make any move.
Lu Ye gritted his teeth; he had long known that the prettier the woman, the more ruthless her heart!
Under his feet lay the corpse of the fierce servant that Wang Hu had stabbed to death, and beside him were several packages he and Wang Hu had collected, containing blades, gold and silver, dry rations, and so on.
Countless thoughts raced through Lu Ye's mind.
He drew a long saber, and Wang Hu immediately snatched one as well, holding it horizontally to protect Lu Ye.
"Uncle Seventeen" and the others in the cavalry team laughed out loud, full of malice, while the "female knight-errant" stared at Lu Ye with interest.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Lu Ye swung his blade with all his might at the neck of the fierce servant!
Lacking sufficient strength and with the wrong angle, the single strike did not sever the spine.
Pfft!
He followed up with a second strike!
Finally, he managed to decapitate the fierce servant. Enduring his nausea, Lu Ye grabbed the hair, held up the dead head, and using all the breath in his chest, he shouted until his voice was hoarse.
"You have lost two brothers, and we two brothers can supplement them!"
"Our brothers also want to join King Chuang's team."
"Kill the government soldiers, kill the bullies, kill the dog emperor!"
Coming from later generations, he felt no psychological burden in shouting about killing the dog emperor.
However, to the others, it was a shock to their systems. Even as bandits, in the minds of many, the Emperor was still very sacred; the fault lay with the corrupt officials, and the holy Son of Heaven was never wrong.
After hearing this, the "female knight-errant's" two eyes brightened a bit.
Lu Ye’s face turned red from the stifled air in his chest, and as he held up the head, his face and neck turned crimson from shouting.
"This is our brothers' Letter of Submission!"
He took a step forward with every shout, waving his arms, the head in his hand shaking with each movement.
"We want to join the group!"
"We want to survive!"
"We want to have a full stomach!"
From the moment he transmigrated and was almost put into a pot, to the various life-and-death crises he had faced since, Lu Ye roared out all the fright and resentment he had endured all the way.
After three steps, Lu Ye had reached the front of "Uncle Seventeen's" horse, the opponent's blood-stained long saber flashing with an enchanting red light in the moonlight.
He held his neck high to show his defiance—if the other party were to swing their blade, it would surely be a perfect posture for cooperation.
Wang Hu could see that Lu Ye's legs, trailing behind, were trembling slightly.
"Uncle Seventeen" remained expressionless, wondering what he was thinking.
Lu Ye hastily looked back to give Wang Hu a signal, then looked at the ground.
On the ground lay several packages: food, gold and silver, blades...
Wang Hu only needed to offer the packages; although it was borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha, it would prove that the two of them were still of some use.
Someone had to do the work of cleaning up the battlefield, right?
Wang Hu saw his eldest brother's signal and replied with a look that said he understood and that he should feel relieved.
He was seen picking up two steel knives from the ground.
Kneeling before the decapitated corpse of the fierce servant, he swung the two steel knives up and down, left and right, hacking away fiercely.
He acted as if possessed, not caring that fresh blood splattered all over his face, his two eyes wide with rage, muttering to himself.
"Master taught us benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust... what a load of crap!"
"Master taught us to trust the government authorities... what a load of bull!"
"Master taught us to be a good person... that's worth nothing!"
"Want to be a soldier, get hunted by soldiers; want to be a servant, get chased and killed; they don't give a person a way to live..."
He looked like a mighty cook holding two kitchen knives facing fatty meat on a chopping board, intending to mince it into filling.
Wang Hu used the two steel knives rapidly, swinging them into afterimages, venting all his resentment and anger onto the corpse...
Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft...
The scene was silent; everyone just watched him perform his "knife skills," all of them dumbfounded.
Soon, Wang Hu approached exhaustion. He supported himself with the long saber to stand up, the corpse under his feet barely recognizable as a human form, having been severely mangled.
Wang Hu panted, looking at the crowd, fresh blood streaming down his face like a demon, his eyes exceptionally fierce.
"This... is... my Letter of Submission!"
The crowd was silent.
Lu Ye’s throat moved—brother, you’ve become three times stronger after turning dark!
I’m afraid you misunderstood my meaning; I wanted you to offer the packages, not to go and mince meat!
Suddenly, "Uncle Seventeen" coughed and gave a cold laugh.
"If it were any other day, I would have taken you in."
"We are a hundred li away from the old camp, and we just killed so many lackeys; the government soldiers will definitely send troops to pursue us."
"Where would we find the time to carry two burdens like you? It would be better to just send you down..."
Lu Ye’s heart turned cold.
The "female knight-errant," who had not spoken until now, suddenly spoke up.
"Uncle Seventeen, just take them in; my camp happens to be short of hands."
"We have two empty horses; tying them to the saddles won't delay our journey."
"Uncle Seventeen" hesitated for a moment, and although he disagreed in his heart, he decided to give his niece some face.
He waved his hand, and immediately someone tied Lu Ye and Wang Hu's hands and feet and laid them across the saddles.
During this time, "Uncle Seventeen" and the others wolfed down the dry rations that Lu Ye and his brother had collected and gathered up the other packages.
After everyone was prepared, a whistle blew.
With the clip-clop of hoofbeats, the bandits left the area holding torches.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu were sandwiched in the middle of the team to prevent them from falling behind or escaping. The "female knight-errant" rode her horse beside them the whole way, and occasionally, if Lu Ye or Wang Hu’s bodies tilted, she would flick her long whip to straighten them up.
They walked and stopped along the way, the team gathering and dispersing, allowing Lu Ye and Wang Hu to take the opportunity to rest.
Occasionally, government soldiers would follow, but they only monitored these vicious bandits leaving the territory and disappeared after escorting them for a distance. Thus, throughout the journey, the cavalry team suffered no further casualties.
When night fell.
Passing through a valley, a vast encampment suddenly appeared.
Lu Ye felt as if he had seen the refugee shacks under Dong Sai Prefecture again.
It was just that the shacks were on the outer perimeter, while in the center there was a large camp. The camp fence was erected carelessly and loosely, and the camp only had a simple wooden tower responsible for high-altitude guard duty.
From the camp to the shacks, three or four narrow, winding dirt roads extended outward, covered in hoofprints, serving as the roads from inside the camp to the outside.
Lu Ye only took one look and felt that this King Chuang had probably put together a ragtag group.
"Uncle Seventeen" rode forward. As the cavalry team stepped onto the dirt road, refugees on the road hastily evaded them, and the refugees in the shacks on both sides also stayed away from the cavalry team; some even knelt down to kowtow to the team.
The people in the cavalry team seemed accustomed to this.
Before they even approached the camp, they could hear the noise inside. There were two guards at the camp gate who, upon seeing the cavalry team, immediately smiled and stepped aside, nodding and bowing to welcome everyone into the camp.
Lu Ye vaguely heard the two guards address them as "Commander Du" and "Miss."
The long-bearded black man who was fierce, possessed high martial arts skills, could slay a Steel Bone Martial Master, and wanted the two of them to go underground to serve as servants for his brothers was naturally Commander Du.
The only female, the "female knight-errant" who had saved the two of them, was naturally the Miss.
Strange, what kind of "Miss" comes out of this bandit den?
Once they entered the camp, it was quite lively with people coming and going, and there were no rules.
The two were dragged off their horses and thrown directly into a woodshed, and no one paid any more attention to them.
When the two of them moved their numb hands and feet to recover, they peeked out through the cracks in the door and saw bandits standing guard with spears, so they extinguished any thoughts of escaping.
"Hu Zi, don't blame your eldest brother; at the time, there was only one way to survive, and that was to follow the bandits."
"Eh, eldest brother, what are you saying? From now on, I will listen to you. Didn't you say it yourself? We joined the Rebel Army to survive and have food to eat!"
"Hu Zi, it's great that you can think that way!"
Lu Ye let out a long sigh, rubbing his sore buttocks while looking out the window.
The bright moon shone clearly; they had survived another day...
✦✦✦