Chapter 1032: To Capture Evildoers, Capture the Head First
The Embroidered Envoy was a taboo existence in the hearts of most Zhou Dynasty subjects. Often, when children were being disobedient, parents would tell their children that they would be captured by the Embroidered Envoy if they kept crying. Those children wouldn’t dare to cry anymore.
Even though that example was a bit extreme, the Embroidered Envoys were definitely terrifying existences to most people. And that was just referring to ordinary Embroidered Envoys, let alone one of the legendary golden token envoys.
“Golden Token Eleven!” Sang Hong and the others immediately felt much more at ease when they saw his appearance.
Zu An raised his head and called out, “Sir Eleven has arrived; Sir Eleven is here!”
The morale of the Armed Escort Army immediately received a huge boost. On the contrary, Dong Jin’s expression became much uglier. But with things already the way they were, he couldn't just surrender, right?
“No matter how strong he is, he is just one person!” Dong Jin exclaimed with a cold snort. At the same time, he prepared for a sudden ambush from the other party.
Just then, Golden Token Eleven seemed to pick up a musical instrument. His hand moved along the strings, letting out a burst of pipa notes. It sounded like the shattering of bottles and the bursting of rivers, and the harsh clashing of weapons. Those present felt their heads ring. It was as if a sharp, stabbing pain had entered their heads.
Sang Hong was alarmed. He quickly transferred his ki, and only then did that uncomfortable feeling go away. Afterward, he quickly looked at the battlefield. Most people were clutching their heads in pain. Only Gao Ying, Pei You, and a few others with cultivation levels that were relatively high could barely hold on.
“What kind of skill is this?” Sang Hong was incredibly shocked. He subconsciously looked at Zu An to see if he was fine. However, he was nowhere to be seen.
Just then, the air exploded. He quickly turned around. Only then did he see a white-clad figure catapulting toward Dong Jin.
Dong Jin was horrified. The spiritual attack had left him momentarily distracted. His cultivation wasn’t bad, so he had quickly suppressed that uncomfortable feeling. However, just as he recovered, he saw a figure charging straight at him!
He drew his blade while ordering his subordinates, “Get into formation!” Unfortunately, the soldiers were in a state of confusion, so how could they carry out his order? Helpless to do anything else, he could only brandish his blade at the other party.
As someone who often fought against the fiend races and local uprisings in Cloudcenter Commandery, he was a strong and tough individual himself. He immediately discerned that the other party’s cultivation was above his own. As such, he didn’t vainly hope that his sword strike alone could stop his opponent. Instead, he aimed to take the other party down with him.
He was gambling, gambling that the other party wouldn’t be willing to trade lives in this kind of situation where he clearly had the advantage. As long as the other party showed even the slightest bit of hesitation and evaded, he would have a chance to gain some distance. By then, his subordinates should be able to react in time. It wouldn’t be so easy for the other party to capture him again.
Even if the other party completely ignored his move, dragging them down with him wouldn’t be too bad of a result either. After all, he had just broken through into the seventh rank not too long ago. He had absolute confidence in his ability to deliver a lethal blow.
However, his eyes immediately widened. The other party actually didn’t plan to evade at all and instead reached out with a finger.
Dong Jin felt a sense of absurdity. How could two weak, fleshly fingers possibly contend against his sharp blade? His expression grew cold as he brandished the tip of his sword at the other party’s fingers. After fighting constantly in Cloudcenter Commandery in situations of life and death, he knew he shouldn’t hold back. Otherwise, the situation might easily change.
But soon afterward, his eyes widened completely. His ferocious blade was actually gently clasped between those two fair fingers! He wasn’t willing to give up and twisted his blade to try and cut off those fingers, yet the blade didn’t move in the slightest! All of his strength seemed to be completely useless.
He was horrified. He quickly realized he had offended someone he shouldn’t have. He instinctively decided to abandon his blade and back off. But it was already too late. He felt that a suction force seemed to be coming from his blade, preventing him from letting go. Furthermore, his ki seemed to be failing him.
If someone took the same set of stairs year in and year out, but one day, one flight of stairs was suddenly a bit higher or a bit lower than before, there was a chance that the person might just fall.
That was even more true for cultivators. They were used to their own ki flow and physical coordination. At the moment when Dong Jin’s ki output changed, it caught him off guard. The energies within him surged chaotically.
Normally speaking, such a thing wouldn’t be too big of a problem. He would completely recover as long as he was given a momentary breather. Unfortunately, his opponent perfectly seized the moment to press forward, pushing a finger against Dong Jin’s chest.
At that moment, the back of Dong Jin’s outfit exploded into pieces. He felt as if he had been rammed into by a bull charging at full speed. Blood gushed out of his mouth. He felt all of his internal organs rapidly shift their positions.
He subconsciously thought to use the force to increase the distance between them. However, the other party’s hand seemed to contain some strange suction force, preventing him from breaking free.
Then, the other party’s hand pressed down on his shoulder’s major acupoint. His entire body went weak, and he couldn't resist in the slightest anymore. Only then did he see the other party’s appearance clearly. That person was the most handsome young man from the imperial envoy.
Even though he had seen him receive Xiao Yao’s sword in the evening banquet, that sword had been made of alcohol. Together with the fact that Xiao Yao was someone who had been invited by the Vice Magistrate, there was a chance that he had been going easy on purpose.
As such, he had felt that even if the other party’s cultivation was higher than his, it couldn't be too much higher. After all, he was way too young, and he looked like a pretty boy. It was really hard to associate him with being a powerful cultivator.
But at that moment, he understood just how badly he had been mistaken. I am an utter fool, truly.
Zu An picked up Dong Jin. His ki empowered voice echoed through the battlefield as he said, “Dong Jin has already been captured. Out of consideration that you did not know the truth and were coerced, as long as you lower your weapons, we will let bygones be bygones. Otherwise, you will be dealt with as traitors!”
He was glad that Daji’s use of ‘Voice of the Devil’ had made those with lower cultivation sink into a state of confusion. Afterward, he had been able to take the chance to capture their leader Dong Jin. If these people had successfully gotten into formation, he wouldn’t have been able to succeed so easily.
Furthermore, he was lucky that the enemy had had to rush over in a hurry, so not all of their equipment had been in order. Otherwise, they could have used war drums to offset the effects of Daji’s ‘Voice of the Devil’.
The war drums of the military were all special items with formations engraved into them. They were also extremely loud and full of killing intent. They were a perfect tool for offsetting Daji’s Voice of the Devil.
Cloudcenter Commandery’s soldiers looked at each other in dismay. Their boss was already being carried like a chicken by the other party; what were they even fighting for anymore?
When they recalled how Zu An had shot out like a specter and instantly subdued Dong Jin, Sir Imperial Envoy’s ferocious gaze, and that mysterious golden token envoy, all of them immediately lost their confidence. They instinctively wanted to lower their weapons.
Suddenly, however, someone shouted, “Don’t trust him! If you hold onto your weapons, there’s still a chance of survival, but if you let them go, there will only be death awaiting you! Did you all already forget the battles we fought against the fiend races over the years?”
The soldiers shivered. Only then did they recall that in the battles against the fiend race, the other party would also say they wouldn’t kill those who surrendered, but if they really did lower their weapons, they were almost always slaughtered in the end.
Later on, they began treating the fiend races the same way. They would advise the other party to lower their weapons, but would then take that chance to kill them one by one.
As time went on, no one spoke similar words again.
Zu An narrowed his eyes. He noticed that it was precisely those people who were adding fuel to the flames. Otherwise, the two sides wouldn’t have ended up fighting. Those people’s cultivations were clearly higher than that of the soldiers around them. The others were still a bit dizzy from Daji’s Voice of the Devil, but they had already completely recovered.
He tossed Dong Jin toward the Armed Escort Army, while he himself shot at those people. Sang Hong clearly had similar thoughts, rushing toward the instigators.
“They’re going to kill us! They’re going to kill us!” the instigators screamed in alarm. They brandished their weapons defensively. Unfortunately, their cultivation levels were far from Dong Jin’s. How could they be a match for Zu An and Sang Hong? They were almost instantly detained.
Sang Hong was alarmed. He only had time to detain one of them, but Zu An had already taken down the other four. Even though he had been a bit farther out, that was a bit too ridiculous, right?
Just then, Zu An exclaimed in surprise, “They’re dead?”
Sang Hong quickly checked the one he had captured. Black blood was coming out from the corner of that person’s mouth. He had clearly poisoned himself to death.
“Deathsworn soldiers!” Sang Hong exclaimed, alarmed. Just now, he had clearly already subdued the other party, proving that they had crushed the poisonous pill between their teeth when he and Zu An first rushed at them. To have that level of composure and bravery… just what kind of power had nurtured them?
They had originally planned to capture those people to find out who the one behind the scenes was. However, they had failed for want of a final effort.
The other soldiers had been kept in the dark. They had only seen Zu An and Sang Hong rush at those comrades of theirs, but then the soldiers had quickly died. They had heard the words ‘They’re going to kill us, they’re going to kill us’, so they subconsciously thought it was Zu An and Sang Hong who were responsible. As such, they instinctively picked up their weapons. Another chaotic battle was on the verge of erupting.
A panicked voice exclaimed just then, “All of you, stop, stop!”
A group of people ran over from afar. The one in front was Vice Magistrate Xu Yu. He quickly stopped both sides. When he saw the mess and the seriously wounded Dong Jin, his expression became sullen as he exclaimed, “What is going on? What the hell is going on?!”
Sang Hong said in an awe-inspiring voice, “Sir Xu has come at the perfect time. Has your Cloudcenter Commandery decided to rebel?”
The situation was already completely within his grasp. As long as the other party’s response was even the slightest bit suspicious, he didn’t mind completely purging Cloudcenter Commandery’s court.
There was a reason why his colleagues in the imperial court called him the Grim Reaper. He had never been someone lenient.