Chapitre 74: Chapter 73: The Tide of Battle Has Turned!
Seeing Commander Xu's "lost for words" expression, Huo Yunying felt immensely pleased.
If it weren't for the intense and risky exploration phase they were in, he might have laughed out loud.
Traitor, now it's your turn!
In the previous trial illusion, Commander Xu had caused players endless trouble, only being exposed at the very end of the exploration. Now, it was finally payback time.
Of course, the fight wasn't over yet, so he couldn't be careless.
This was the ultimate trial with 100% pain sensitivity, and Huo Yunying couldn't afford to take even a single hit.
One hit could cause him to flinch from the pain, leading to a collapse of their plan.
Fortunately, Huo Yunying had repeated this sequence countless times in his speed runs. He knew every move and stance of these bandits and understood their positions and teamwork thoroughly.
Using Commander Xu as a natural shield, Huo Yunying, controlling Gao Ze's body, fought smoothly, swiftly killing two or three bandits with his sword.
The entire battlefield shifted significantly because of Huo Yunying's actions.
Originally, the plan was for the swordsman to take down Commander Xu, causing many soldiers of the Empire to scatter in panic. The swordsman and shadow servants would then clean up the remaining fighters, with Magistrate Tang eventually dying, resulting in a swift breakdown of order.
The swordsman was one of the strongest in the group, even more dangerous than the general. If he were freed, the consequences would be catastrophic.
But now, Commander Xu refused to fall, and the swordsman was held up.
Commander Xu, fearing the other bandits wouldn't hold back, wouldn't let anyone else strike him. Every time the swordsman attacked, Huo Yunying, playing Gao Ze, would interfere. If the swordsman focused on Huo Yunying, he would circle around Commander Xu under the pretense of "covering the flank," essentially using Xu as a shield.
The swordsman and Xu couldn't make their actions too obvious, or it would only confirm Xu's traitorous role.
Thus, the three of them created a strange balance, with no one able to overpower the others.
As a result, the pressure on the main battlefield eased.
Magistrate Tang and his guards fought the Eastern Yi general to a standstill. The militia and soldiers, seeing Tang, Xu, and Gao still fighting, held their ground, realizing the situation wasn't hopeless.
The Eastern Yi bandits couldn't understand why this supposedly one-sided street battle had turned into a tug-of-war.
The demon possessing the general sensed something amiss and shouted, "Kill him!"
At that moment, Magistrate Tang's horse gave a pained cry, collapsing.
Magistrate Tang shouted, "Loyalty to the Emperor!" before sacrificing himself heroically.
Although Huo Yunying's maneuvers had extended the fight, it still wasn't enough to completely turn the tide.
With Magistrate Tang's death, two shadow servants were freed.
At the general's command, they and several nearby bandits closed in on Gao Ze, realizing he was a significant obstacle that needed swift removal.
Huo Yunying recognized that his task was nearly complete and began a tactical retreat.
Commander Xu, finally rid of this persistent nuisance, exhaled in relief and looked back at the swordsman.
The swordsman smirked and struck, sending Xu to the ground.
"You…"
Commander Xu collapsed with a heavy thud, thinking, "This strike was harsher than we agreed on..."
The swordsman, furious, took out his frustration on Commander Xu.
Only because Xu was still useful was he left alive; otherwise, he'd be dead by now.
The swordsman wanted to chase, but Gao Ze had already led the remaining militia and villagers to escape.
The swordsman glared hatefully in Gao Ze's direction, flicked the blood off his sword, and sheathed it.
...
The bandits, fresh from their brutal fight, advanced toward the theater.
The general counted his men and found their losses far greater than expected.
Initially, he thought they could wipe out the enemy with only twenty or thirty casualties, but over fifty of his men had died!
Less than sixty men remained, half of them wounded.
This result was hard for him to accept.
Still, with Magistrate Tang and his guards mostly dead, the bandits felt secure, thinking no one in the town posed a threat.
Although Gao Ze was a nuisance, he was only one man.
The priority now was to rest and recover strength before looting in full.
The general had also promised the scholar they'd visit the theater, something he was interested in as well.
The marketplace in front of the theater was chaotic.
Many vendors, having heard of the bandits' approach, had already fled, but some remained, hurriedly packing their wares, unaware the battle had ended.
The bandits, their eyes gleaming, charged into the marketplace, starting their plunder!
The general said nothing, fully aware of the bandits' nature. Allowing them to loot the next morning was already a compromise; denying them now might lead to rebellion.
So he let them have their way, heading with two shadow servants, the swordsman, and a few bandits into the theater.
Many other bandits entered the marketplace, slaughtering merchants who hadn't escaped in time.
To the bandits, these vendors were mere lambs to the slaughter.
One bandit, holding stolen goods, ventured deeper into the market, greedily searching for his next target.
His eyes gleamed with avarice as he spotted a female vendor nearby, hurriedly packing a heavy bundle that seemed to hold valuables!
"You! Don't run!"
He shouted in ancient Eastern Yi as he rushed toward her.
The woman panicked, grabbing her bundle and trying to flee, but she couldn't outrun him and was quickly caught.
Seeing her face, the bandit was momentarily stunned.
She was quite beautiful, not at all like a typical woman from a small town!
Tears streaked her face, and she trembled, seemingly terrified.
The bandit, delighted, laughed as he moved closer.
But his laughter abruptly stopped!
The bandit felt a chill in his chest, looking down in disbelief. His sidearm, a short dagger usually meant for narrow spaces or suicide, had somehow ended up in her hand, piercing his chest!
Before he even considered suicide, she had fulfilled that destiny for him.
The woman's fear vanished, replaced by cold disdain.
She didn't pull the dagger out immediately; instead, she covered his mouth with her left hand and slid to the side, only removing the dagger after ensuring no blood splattered on her.
"What's going on here?"
A nearby bandit noticed something wrong and approached.
But in the chaos of the marketplace, he couldn't see clearly.
Xia Ruoling let the bandit's body fall with a thud, slipping through the confusion with the dagger and her disguise, searching for her next isolated target.
...
"Damn it!"
The Eastern Yi general's face darkened as he slapped a nearby bandit across the face.
Even the demon within couldn't comprehend why three bandits would die in a simple looting of the marketplace without capturing the killer.
What was worse, the assassin seemed unarmed, using the first bandit's own dagger as a weapon.
While these losses weren't devastating, they were hard for the general to accept.
Their earlier fight with Magistrate Tang had already been costly, and now, with these three losses, only about fifty bandits remained.
The demons possessing the general and swordsman sensed something was amiss with this invasion, though they couldn't pinpoint it.
In the end, they abandoned the idea of scouring the town for Gao Ze and the assassin, focusing on their primary objective.
The general's gaze swept over the people in the theater, considering whom to alter.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone