Lu Changfeng hadn’t left the Martial Arts Hall in a long time.
Lu Changfeng knew full well how dangerous the world was.
He spent nearly every day training inside the Martial Arts Hall, determined not to waste the Root Bone Talent he had copied.
This time, as he followed Zhang Desheng out of the Martial Arts Hall...
...Lu Changfeng noticed that the streets of the Outer City were filled with even more sallow, emaciated vagrants.
Their gazes were filled with a probing hunger as they watched others.
Every so often, someone on the street would be swarmed by vagrants and robbed of their possessions.
The Outer City had no constables from the County Yamen to maintain order. If you were robbed, there was nowhere to even report the crime.
But wherever Lu Changfeng and his master went, the vagrants fled.
One of them was ridiculously muscular, and the other was built like a small mountain. They were clearly martial practitioners. The starved, skeletal vagrants looked as if a mere bump from either man would send them to meet King Yama. Who would dare approach and court death?
It was the height of summer.
Rotting corpses in some of the alleyways emitted a ghastly stench.
A glance from the corner of his eye revealed a horribly decayed corpse in a fetid ditch, crawling with vermin.
The worldly Zhang Desheng couldn’t help but sigh. The end of a dynasty, an era of chaos—such a calamity hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years.
Yunyang Prefecture, where Feng City was located, was still relatively peaceful for the time being.
He’d heard that in the neighboring Cyan Mountain Prefecture, many cities were already controlled by Sect forces. The Prefecture Soldiers were powerless, and warlords fought endlessly.
Refugees periodically fled into Yunyang Prefecture, and since Feng City was on the border with Cyan Mountain Prefecture, it saw a constant influx of both refugees and rogue soldiers.
The mission Zhang Desheng had personally accepted was a joint commission from several merchant houses in the Inner City.
Their goods had lately been plundered by a band of rogue soldiers operating outside Feng City.
After much deliberation, they had decided to offer eight hundred taels of silver to hire Zhang Desheng to eliminate this band of rogue soldiers.
The merchant houses had already gathered clear intelligence on the rogue soldiers.
This band of soldiers was likely a squad belonging to a Sect from Cyan Mountain Prefecture that had failed in its bid to capture a city.
There were about fifty men in total.
Their leader was a Blood Forging Fifth Layer Martial Artist.
He also had two other Blood Forging Realm Martial Artists under his command, who served as his lieutenants. The rest of the soldiers were ordinary men.
Along the way, Zhang Desheng explained the situation to Lu Changfeng.
At last, he spoke. "The main purpose of this mission is to get you your first taste of blood. I’ll handle the three Blood Forging Martial Artists myself. The ordinary soldiers are all yours."
"Kill as many as you can."
"Don’t hold back. These soldiers committed countless atrocities as they fled here to the outskirts of Feng City—burning, killing, and looting. There’s no telling how much blood they have on their hands."
"Killing them is a good deed."
Lu Changfeng nodded slightly.
Zhang Desheng then took out a suit of Soft Armor and had Lu Changfeng put it on.
The Soft Armor would protect Lu Changfeng’s torso.
After putting on the Soft Armor, Lu Changfeng tested it with his sword. It didn’t impede his movements in the slightest.
Zhang Desheng himself was empty-handed, carrying no weapon.
The master and disciple walked until they soon reached the edge of the Outer City.
The Outer City’s wall was merely a symbolic earthen barrier a little over three meters high, with no soldiers guarding the gates.
Once outside the city, the pair headed straight for their destination.
A Martial Artist’s pace was extremely fast.
A little more than an hour later, the master and disciple arrived at the location noted in the intelligence report.
A small valley.
The valley was only thirty li from Feng City.
It was an extremely convenient spot for observing the merchant caravans entering and leaving Feng City. No wonder their raids were always so timely.
However, these soldiers clearly didn’t understand the situation in Feng City. The city wasn’t just home to the Wang Family of the Inner City; even the factions in the Outer City that had been pushed out by them were not to be trifled with.
Being so close to Feng City, even if Zhang Desheng hadn’t acted, someone else would have eventually stepped in to eliminate this band of soldiers.
Outside the valley, the two had confirmed the soldiers’ location.
"Master, how should we attack?"
"How? We charge straight in, of course!"
"Stay behind me."
Zhang Desheng stepped into the valley as if he owned the place.
"Who goes there?!"
"To think someone would come here to die!"
"ARGH!!"
Zhang Desheng struck an approaching soldier in the chest with his palm, sending him flying.
The soldier flew seven or eight meters through the air, knocking over three or four of his comrades as he fell.
"Kill them!" the soldier chief bellowed, and all the soldiers surged toward the master and disciple.
But he had recognized Zhang Desheng’s power. After giving the order, he took his two lieutenants and immediately fled toward the other side of the valley!
"Hmph."
As if Zhang Desheng would let the leader escape.
Zhang Desheng unleashed a flurry of palm strikes. With his exquisite Palm Technique, the soldiers who had swarmed him were sent scattering like falling feathers.
Circulating his Inner Strength, Zhang Desheng shot off like a bolt of lightning in pursuit of the fleeing chief.
As Zhang Desheng gave chase, Lu Changfeng faced his first enemy.
A rogue soldier brandished a long spear and thrust it at Lu Changfeng.
Lu Changfeng drew the longsword from his waist and sidestepped. Though he moved second, his strike landed first, his blade piercing straight through the center of the soldier’s forehead.
Lu Changfeng pulled his sword free, and the soldier collapsed.
He had no time to process the feeling of his first kill.
Several more soldiers armed with long spears charged him.
To be combat-ready as quickly as possible, soldiers were often armed with long spears.
Their length provided good reach, and they were cheap to produce, requiring only a small amount of iron for the spearhead to be fitted onto a wooden shaft.
In this situation, the power of his Gale Swordsmanship at the Great Success level became apparent.
A countermeasure immediately formed in Lu Changfeng’s mind.
His body flickered, and his sword flashed out, accurately and swiftly severing the spearheads from their shafts.
While the soldiers stood bewildered, he unleashed his Ultimate Technique, "Gale and Torrential Rain."
His longsword flashed in a series of thrusts, each one striking a vital point on the soldiers before him.
The soldiers collapsed almost simultaneously.
This display of swordsmanship made the surrounding soldiers hesitate in their attack.
Lu Changfeng, however, pressed his advantage!
The iron long sword in his hands became a blur of afterimages.
The surrounding soldiers were cut down one after another.
Lu Changfeng cut down more than a dozen soldiers in a row. Against a Martial Artist at the Second Layer of the Blood Forging Realm whose swordsmanship had reached Great Success, ordinary soldiers posed no threat without an overwhelming numerical advantage.
Seeing how ferocious Lu Changfeng was, the surrounding soldiers began to scatter and flee.
Lu Changfeng gave chase, cutting down another seven or eight of the deserters before stopping his pursuit once they had scattered far into the distance.
Snapping back to his senses, Lu Changfeng looked down at himself, splattered with blood, and his heart finally began to pound.
But perhaps it was due to his resilient nature that even after killing dozens of soldiers, he remained relatively calm.
He didn’t feel the urge to vomit or anything of the sort.
"Not bad at all."
A figure leaped over.
It was Zhang Desheng, carrying the head of the enemy chief.
A mere Blood Forging Fifth Layer Martial Artist could never escape the pursuit of someone in the Tendon Transformation Realm like Zhang Desheng.
Zhang Desheng had killed the chief, taking his head as proof to claim the bounty.
Moreover, Zhang Desheng had given Lu Changfeng plenty of opportunity to gain experience, only revealing himself after his disciple had defeated the remaining soldiers.
"Master, what about the soldiers who escaped..."
Zhang Desheng waved his hand. "Don’t worry about it. We’ve killed their leader, and the rest have had the courage beaten out of them. They won’t be stirring up any more trouble."
.