When Manager Fang of the merchant caravan heard Xi Qingyue’s shout, his face changed abruptly.
He immediately stood up and urgently called out to the others, “Stop everything! Don’t cook anymore, and don’t pack up either. Get on your horses and leave now—if we don’t go soon, it’ll be too late.”
He recognized Xi Qingyue’s voice and knew she wouldn’t lie without reason. If someone who could butcher bandits like chickens was shouting like that, then the number of people coming was definitely more than a hundred.
The group quickly mounted their horses and drove their carts, speeding toward Xi Qingyue’s direction as fast as they could.
Xi Qingyue considerately cleared a path for them. When Manager Fang tried to speak to her as he passed, she waved him off and said, “No need for talk. Hurry and go. There are several hundred people behind us.”
Manager Fang’s face went pale with fright. He immediately ordered everyone to pick up the pace, his heart filled with lingering dread.
He had thought they were safe after leaving Liang City, but he never expected trouble to find them even here.
After traveling for a while, he glanced back and saw countless small red dots emerging along the path. He sucked in a sharp breath. “Faster! Hurry!”
Xi Qingyue did not leave. She rode her steed slowly along the path with a torch in her left hand and a blade in her right—just one person and one mule, leisurely ambling along.
Within the city, killing imperial soldiers would mark her as a rebel, and she had no desire to stir up trouble. But outside the city, whoever struck first would be labeled the villain.
Chen Tai led his men to the spot where Manager Fang and the others had been resting. The campfire there was still burning, and food was even bubbling in the pot—but there was no one in sight.
A cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth. “They ran, and recently at that. Seems they had some skill after all.”
“Sir, there’s a light up ahead,” one soldier pointed excitedly toward Xi Qingyue.
Chen Tai cracked his whip and spurred his horse forward. He halted about twenty paces from Xi Qingyue.
Seeing a lone mule, a child of only a few years old, and the knife in her hand, Chen Tai immediately thought of the killer of his elder brother.
“So you’re the one who killed my brother? Where are the others? That campfire just now—there’s no way you made it all by yourself.”
Xi Qingyue looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Killed your brother? Who is your brother? I don’t just go around killing people.”
She silently added to herself, “The people I kill are never truly people.”
Chen Tai snorted coldly. “Enough with the act. Did you or did you not kill a tall, burly man with a full beard today? That man was my brother.”
He raised his hand and gave the order. “Seize her. I’ll flay her alive and tear her apart to console my brother’s spirit in heaven!”
Just as a dozen soldiers moved to capture Xi Qingyue, she suddenly slapped her forehead. “Oh! I remember now. I did kill someone today—but it was a bandit chief! If you’re saying that man was your brother, then what—are you and the bandits in cahoots?”
She pointed at the soldiers in disbelief. “No way, right? Are all of you colluding with the bandits too? You’re an official-bandit alliance—worse than beasts! Don’t you feel any shame before the people of Liang City?”
Though only eight years old, she pointed at Chen Tai and his men with a look of utter indignation and disappointment, scolding them bitterly.
Chen Tai sneered at her. “Don’t stall. You can’t escape. Neither can the people behind you. Every man here is mine. You can talk until the sky falls, and it won’t change a thing.”
While speaking, Xi Qingyue had been watching the soldiers’ reactions. Seeing no guilt or hesitation on their faces—only a kind of weary acceptance—she understood the situation clearly.
Just as the soldiers moved to grab her, a fierce wind suddenly rose around them. The gale howled so violently that it felt like knives were slicing across their skin.
Before they could even roll up their sleeves to see the wounds, the ground beneath them suddenly caved in, one by one tumbling into pits where sharp stakes shot up, piercing their bodies.
The air filled with agonized screams and the neighing of horses. Some men cried out in terror, shouting that ghosts were at work.
Chen Tai fell from his horse and was stabbed in the chest, arms, and legs by the stakes. His face twisted in pain and rage, his eyes burning with venom and fury.
“It was you! You monster! You’re not human!”
Xi Qingyue sat calmly on her mule and replied, “What nonsense are you talking? I’m a perfectly decent person. This is divine punishment—Heaven is avenging you scoundrels who collude with bandits and prey on the people.”
“Could it really be divine punishment?” one soldier muttered, lying prone on the ground.
Xi Qingyue thought nothing of these soldiers. Killing three hundred zombies would take a while, but three hundred ordinary humans were easy enough. Their bodies weren’t nearly as resilient.
Looking at the groaning soldiers, she spoke slowly. “Since it’s divine punishment, you’d better confess to Heaven. Say everything you’ve done, repent sincerely, and maybe the heavens might show mercy.”
Chen Tai bellowed, “Don’t listen to her lies! She’s a demon! That was just a fluke—charge and kill her!”
Xi Qingyue narrowed her eyes. A wind blade instantly sheared off Chen Tai’s arm.
“Ahhh—”
A gut-wrenching scream tore through the air as Chen Tai nearly fainted from the pain.
Everyone stared in terror at the stump where his arm had been. One soldier closed his eyes and shouted, “I was wrong! Heaven, I was wrong! I shouldn’t have helped Chen Tai kidnap those children, and I shouldn’t have delivered them to Chen He! It wasn’t my fault—I was just following orders! And I never ate a single bite of that meat!”
Once one person spoke, many voices followed. Soldiers began closing their eyes, confessing and begging for mercy from the heavens.
As Xi Qingyue listened to their confessions, her brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
She never imagined that cannibalism—not among refugees, but among corrupt officials—would be the horror she heard first. These people were utterly depraved.
Until now, she had acted with a light hand, aiming only to take each man out of the fight one by one. But hearing these words sent a blazing fire through her heart.
Then Xi Qingyue asked a very serious question, “Did everyone in the county office know what you were doing? Did the soldiers guarding the city know?”
One of Chen Tai’s trusted men answered quickly. “They knew! Everyone in the county office knew. Even some of the common folk found out—that’s why they left Liang City and fled. Most of the garrison soldiers knew too. Sometimes, they were the ones who delivered people to the fortress.”
Hearing this, Xi Qingyue stopped listening further.
She activated her wood-type ability. Vines shot out like blades or coiling dragons, piercing through body after body. Blood stained the cracked yellow earth, turning the pits into rivers of gore.
Xi Qingyue stepped forward and cut off Chen Tai’s head with her knife. She tore a piece of clothing from a corpse, wrapped the head, and tied it securely.
Looking at the several hundred bodies before her, Xi Qingyue’s expression was ice-cold. When humans turn to evil, they can be worse than beasts.
She sent a blast of water across the ground ahead, washing the bodies to either side of the path, clearing a route through the small road.
Hoisting Chen Tai’s head, Xi Qingyue urged her mule forward, heading straight for the gates of Liang City. Some people simply did not deserve to walk this earth.
