Taking the black iron saber handed over by Wei Yun, the first thing Li Dao felt was its weight.
It looked exactly like a standard-issue saber, yet it was seven to eight times heavier. An average soldier would probably struggle just to lift it.
Shing!
Li Dao drew the saber with a swift motion. A cold gleam flashed across the blade—it was visibly sharp.
“A fine blade!”
Compared to the standard ones he’d used before, this black iron saber was perfectly suited to him.
It was a killer’s weapon, and when paired with the Gale Saber Technique he had developed on his own, it stirred an irrepressible excitement in him.
Li Dao looked up. “When do we depart?”
Wei Yun answered frankly, “If you set out early, tonight is the best time.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Prepare the horses.”
“……”
Outside Changgu Town.
The five of them gathered with Wei Yun.
“Hey, why do I have to bring this little maniac with me?”
Shen San sat on his horse, while the “Little Maniac” was tied up just behind him.
The Little Maniac kept baring his teeth and snarling at Shen San, gnashing with jagged teeth, letting out low growls that made Shen San’s scalp tingle.
Wei Yun chuckled. “Because you’re the most suitable.”
Shen San glanced at the others.
Li Dao, the leader, was out of the question—after the earlier “lesson,” the Little Maniac feared him too much to even approach.
On the other side, Xu Hu sat astride a horse. Because of his sheer size, his large rear took up the entire saddle. Shen San couldn’t help but feel bad for the horse as it struggled under the weight.
As for the old ghost—well over a hundred years old—he looked like a gust of wind could blow him away. Could he really endure the Little Maniac’s torment?
Looking around, Shen San had to admit: he was the most suitable.
“Fine, whatever.”
He had already grown used to being the one to take the fall.
Wei Yun walked up to Li Dao’s horse. “I’ve marked the target location for you. There’s an eighty percent chance the Third Prince of Luoyun will pass through there tonight. If you speed up now, you should be able to intercept the convoy ahead of time.”
“Got it.”
“Alright then, you’d best be on your way.”
Li Dao turned to the others and spurred his horse. “Let’s move out.”
At the same time, on an ancient trail near the Northern Barbarians’ frontier…
A convoy of several hundred rode slowly along a path.
At the front rode a young man dressed in ornate clothes on a blood-red horse—none other than the Third Prince of the Luoyun Tribe, here to negotiate with the Tamuk Tribe.
Riding beside him was a burly man in armor, the prince’s personal guard captain.
“Your Highness, do we really need to travel so urgently? Shouldn’t we inform the king first?”
The captain looked worried as he addressed the prince.
The Third Prince of Luoyun waved his hand dismissively. “There’s no need to trouble my royal father. I can handle everything. We’ll just report back once the negotiation is done.”
“But the Tamuk Tribe is close to Great Qian’s borders. If they find out we’re trying to form an alliance, they might send people after us.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? We’re a major tribe too. I don’t believe Great Qian would dare make the first move unless we attack first.”
“But…”
The captain tried to argue, but the prince cut him off again.
“No buts. Stop worrying. All we need to do is reach the Tamuk Tribe, negotiate the benefits, and return to report. It’s simple.”
He yawned, then asked, “Jin Sheng, what time is it?”
“Your Highness, it’s about half an hour until midnight.”
“It’s that late? Have the convoy stop and set up camp in half an hour. I need to rest.”
“Your Highness, I suggest we keep moving and head straight to the Tamuk Tribe.”
“But I’m tired.”
“Your Highness…”
Jin Sheng tried to protest, but the Third Prince raised a hand.
“Jin Sheng, I’ll ask you one thing: can you protect me?”
“Yes!” Jin Sheng responded firmly.
As the prince’s personal guard, protecting him was his sole duty. If the prince died, he died. If the prince lived, so did he.
The Third Prince smiled. “Since you’re so confident, then what’s the harm in me taking a nap?”
“I…”
Jin Sheng was instantly at a loss for words—he couldn’t very well contradict himself in front of everyone.
In the end, he could only lower his head and compromise.
Seeing this, the Third Prince of Luoyun smirked in satisfaction and gave the order, “Continue for another half hour. Then the whole group will stop and set up camp.”
“Yes, Third Prince.”
Half an hour passed quickly.
The Third Prince’s convoy halted right on time and began setting up camp and lighting fires.
As expected of nomads from the grasslands, within the time it took for one stick of incense to burn, the entire camp was ready.
At that moment, not far from the Third Prince’s camp, just behind a sloped hill—
Li Dao and his group of five had gathered.
“Fatty, is this the ‘foolproof’ trap you were talking about?”
Looking toward the target’s camp in the distance, Li Dao turned to glance at Shen San.
Shen San wore an innocent expression. “I didn’t think they’d stop and camp on the spot either.”
Seeing that the Luoyun camp was less than a hundred paces from the trap he’d laid, Shen San couldn’t help but curse inwardly.
Why did they have to stop?
Why couldn’t they have walked just a little farther?
Old Ghost grumbled nearby, “You little fatty, you’ve wasted all my poison.”
Li Dao and Shen San couldn’t really talk back, but when it came to Old Ghost, they made sure to show ‘respect for the elderly.’
“Wasted poison? What the hell? That stuff couldn’t even kill anyone!”
“My poison wasn’t meant for killing.”
“What kind of poison doesn’t kill? What’s the point of that?”
“Wanna try it and find out?”
“…”
Seeing the two bicker, Li Dao gave Shen San a swift kick in the butt. “Shut it.”
As for why he didn’t kick Old Ghost?
Well, the man was over a hundred years old, and Li Dao was dirt poor—he couldn’t afford to accidentally kick the guy into the next life.
“The trap’s useless now, so what do we do next, boss? We can’t wait until tomorrow morning—the chances of them spotting the trap will be way too high.”
Ever since learning Li Dao was the team leader, Shen San had been calling him “boss” left and right. Even though he was older, he had no shame in cozying up to someone stronger.
“We’re not waiting for tomorrow.”
“Then…”
“We strike tonight. Night raid.”
Li Dao looked up at the sky and made the decision on the spot.
Night raid?
Shen San couldn’t help but try to talk him out of it. “Boss, that’s a group of three hundred. Who knows if they’ve got experts among them? Can we even pull off a night raid? What if we get caught?”
“Get caught?”
Li Dao replied without hesitation, “Then we kill them all. No one left to catch us.”
Shen San: “???”
Do you even hear yourself right now?
In the end, the night raid was confirmed.
Old Ghost was in charge of poisoning, Little Maniac and Xu Hu would create chaos if discovered, and Li Dao would lead the overall operation.
As for Shen San? He had the most critical task of all—
Assassinate the Third Prince of Luoyun.
Well, he was the most skilled in lightfoot techniques.
At least, that was the official reason.
Li Dao’s real aim was to use this group of 300+ Northern Barbarian soldiers as stat farming targets.
“Boss, if I get caught, you have to come save me, alright?”
Learning he was in charge of assassinating the Third Prince, Shen San got extremely nervous and spoke with deadly seriousness.
In response, Li Dao just patted him on the shoulder and said, “Hang in there. Victory through perseverance.”
Time passed slowly.
As night deepened, the camp of the Third Prince gradually fell quiet. Only a few campfires still flickered in the darkness.
Li Dao led the group of four, slowly approaching the camp.
Thanks to their caution—and reasonably good skills—no one noticed them for the time being.
“Old Ghost, time to spread some poison,” Li Dao said, turning back to him.
“What kind of poison do you need? I’ve got…”
Old Ghost began rummaging through his bottles and jars as he spoke, but Li Dao quickly stopped him.
“Doesn’t matter what kind—just one that’ll knock them out and keep them from waking up.”
“Oh, I get it—you want…”
Seeing that Old Ghost was about to keep rambling, Li Dao decisively turned to Shen San. “Once Old Ghost releases the poison, you go in for the assassination.”
“Boss, don’t leave me behind!”
“I know, stop talking.”
With that, Li Dao turned his attention to Xu Hu and Little Maniac.
Xu Hu was easy—he just followed orders with no opinion of his own.
As for Little Maniac, his mouth was stuffed with gauze at the moment. He tried to struggle, but quieted instantly under a single glare from Li Dao.
“Xu Hu, keep an eye on Little Maniac. Don’t let him cause trouble.”
“Got it.”
Xu Hu yanked Little Maniac over. Maybe because they had shared meat before, Little Maniac didn’t resist him like he did with Shen San. Though he was a bit twitchy, he didn’t attack.
A stick of incense later—
Old Ghost finished preparing the poison, tested the wind direction, then opened the bottle.
A faint yellow gas drifted out, carried by the breeze toward the camp.
After a few minutes, Old Ghost nodded. “That should do it. It was mixed in a rush, but as long as no loud noises break out, these people won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
Li Dao nodded and looked at Shen San.
Wearing a miserable expression, Shen San nodded back, then slipped into the camp under cover of darkness.
And surprisingly, even with all his fat, Shen San was quite agile. With his lightfoot skills, he vanished into the camp in no time.
Seeing Shen San successfully sneak off, Li Dao made a mental plan: once the assassination was done, he’d send the other four away and stay behind to wreak havoc before leaving himself.
After all, while completing the assassination was important—
Using the Northern Barbarian soldiers to harvest stats was even more important.
Though Wei Yun had promised not to “kill the donkey after it’s done grinding,” Li Dao wasn’t about to bet his life on someone else’s integrity.
So, he wasn’t going to let any chance to grow stronger slip by.
Time ticked by slowly.
The four of them waited quietly near the camp in a concealed spot.
Suddenly, voices rang out from inside the camp:
“Who are you? Where are the guards?”
“An assassin! You’re an assassin!”
“You dare try to kill our Third Prince? Die!”
Hearing the shouting, Li Dao immediately realized Shen San had been exposed.
“Old Ghost, didn’t you say your poison was solid?”
“It is solid!”
“Then how’d the fatty cause such a commotion?”
“Maybe the fatty ran into someone who’s not ordinary.”
“What do you mean?”
“The poison I made only works on normal people.”
Before Li Dao could say anything else, a figure suddenly appeared nearby.
Li Dao instinctively raised his weapon to strike—
“Wait, it’s me!”
Only then did Li Dao see clearly—it was Shen San.
“What happened in there?”
“I don’t even know. I’d just gotten close to the Third Prince’s tent when I got spotted. If I hadn’t run fast enough, that guy would’ve cut me down right then and there!”
Shen San still looked rattled.
“What about the guy who saw you?”
“No idea.”
Suddenly, shouting erupted in the camp:
“Bastards! There’s an assassin, and you lot are still sleeping? Get up!”
The loud, gruff voice instantly stirred the entire camp into chaos, and all the sleeping soldiers began waking up.
Everyone turned instinctively to Old Ghost.
Old Ghost quickly shook his head. “My poison was definitely fine!”
Then he raised his hand to test the wind—and his expression changed immediately.
“Damn—it’s no good! The wind changed direction, the poison didn’t reach them!”
Li Dao shook his head. Figures. Relying on others is never as good as relying on yourself.
He drew the black iron blade from his waist.
“If plan A didn’t work, then it’s time for plan B—the second assassination method I mentioned.”
Shen San instinctively asked, “What second method?”
Li Dao replied plainly, “Kill everyone who saw us. That kind of assassination.”
Shen San: “???”
Honestly, this had been Li Dao’s original plan from the start.
If he hadn’t considered the others’ safety, he definitely would’ve gone with the direct approach from the very beginning.
Rate and review this novel on NU to help people find this novel. Bonus chapters on reaching milestones.
Happy reading!