Xi Qingyue told Xi Weilan in the space what had happened outside, and Xi Weilan listened with great anger.
"Sister, Tafeng is ours, and they still want to take our things. These people are nothing but bandits."
Xi Qingyue nodded in agreement. "Yeah, pretty much like bandits. When I entered the city, they registered me carelessly, as if they didn’t care where I came from at all. They only cared whether I had brought anything good into the city. The moment they heard I had a mule, they let me right in. These people even steal from refugees—too wicked."
She hadn’t expected that the county magistrate conspiring with bandits was bad enough, but even the prefect of this entire province was no good either.
"Sister, then let’s go wipe out the bandits."
Hearing Xi Weilan’s words, Xi Qingyue patted her head. "Lan’er, no need to rush. We first need to figure out why they’re doing this. The prefect governs the entire Bo province, and he has quite a number of soldiers under him. After removing the city garrison, he still has at least over a thousand troops he can mobilize, not counting the militia and his private forces."
Xi Qingyue didn’t know everything, but she understood that in Bo province, the prefect was like a local emperor. With the current tense times, his forces were certainly substantial.
Killing people was easy, but she wouldn’t act rashly. She had to understand what was going on.
Xi Weilan didn’t understand these things. She just looked up at her sister with big, expectant eyes. "Sister, are you going out again later? Can you take me with you?"
Xi Qingyue smiled and nodded. "Alright, but let’s eat something first. We’ll go out after we’ve had a good meal."
Outside the space, several unconscious soldiers were found and woken up.
The leader was a patrol squad leader patrolling nearby. He looked at the men with displeasure. "What the hell happened here? Weren’t you chasing the mule?"
A soldier shook his head groggily before speaking. "Squad leader, that mule was vicious. It just rammed into me, and I passed out. Then I didn’t know anything else."
The squad leader turned to the other two soldiers, who gave the same account. They had fainted too quickly and had no idea what happened afterward.
After hearing their words, the squad leader looked at them suspiciously, frowning deeply. "Even warhorses aren’t that fierce. Can a mule really turn things upside down? Are you sure you didn’t just fail to catch the mule and then lie down, pretending to faint while making up a story?"
With that, he shot a glare at one of the corporals beside him. "Your men—handle them yourself."
He turned and walked away without looking back.
Several soldiers looked at their corporal, feeling wronged. They insisted they weren't lying.
"Corporal, we really aren’t lying. That mule was truly fierce. If you don’t believe us, just find that kid and ask."
The corporal snorted coldly. "The kid is gone. Where am I supposed to ask?"
He was furious inside—he wanted to get promoted. If this matter caused trouble with his superiors, how could he rise?
"Enough, stop nagging. Go do something else to make up for it. As for the mule and the kid, maybe someone else caught them. Keep an eye out."
One soldier wanted to speak again but was stopped by another.
When only the three of them were left, the soldier who had spoken first couldn’t hold it in anymore. He looked dejected. "We’re telling the truth, so why won’t anyone believe us?"
"How can they believe? Nobody else saw it. Who would believe that three of us got knocked out by a mule?"
At this, the most quiet soldier shook his head. "It’s not that they don’t believe—it’s that they can’t believe. Losing an ordinary mule is one thing, but losing one that’s as powerful as a warhorse makes a huge difference. If we find it, fine. But if we don’t, whose fault will it be?"
These words made the other two realize the seriousness of the situation. They instantly understood the difference between claiming they’d lost an ordinary mule and passed out, versus losing a mule fiercer than a warhorse.
After they left, Xi Qingyue carried Xi Weilan out of the space.
They had overheard the conversation just now, and it was within Xi Qingyue’s expectations. People who hadn’t seen it for themselves would find it hard to believe a mule could be that powerful.
She held Xi Weilan, leaped onto the rooftops, and after a few bounds, appeared in a different alley.
They walked out of the alley and strolled casually along the street. There weren’t many pedestrians, and some shops were still closed.
Xi Qingyue observed the street and felt that Bozhou City looked a lot like Liangcheng. Many commoners had probably already left—or more accurately, fled.
A prefectural city, and a mid-tier one at that, shouldn’t be this deserted.
After wandering for a while, Xi Qingyue found a big tree and took Xi Weilan up into it.
Xi Weilan tilted her head in curiosity. "Sister, aren’t we going to check out the place they prepared for us to stay?"
"No. A wise person doesn’t stand near a crumbling wall. When it’s completely dark, we’ll feel our way around the city and see what we can learn."
Xi Qingyue had originally planned to go there with Xi Weilan, but she decided it wasn’t necessary.
She had come to Bozhou City because the main road was shorter, and she didn’t want to make a detour.
Knowing there was trouble there and still taking Xi Weilan along would be asking for trouble.
Not long after, they heard chaotic footsteps below.
Xi Qingyue saw a group of soldiers chasing a woman. The woman stumbled and fell, and the soldiers caught up to her.
A soldier sneered at her. "Still running? Once you enter Bozhou City, you’re not leaving."
Xi Qingyue found the woman familiar. Looking more closely, she recognized her—it was the woman who had spoken to her on the road earlier that day.
The woman’s face was full of terror, and regret showed in her eyes. If she’d known it would be like this entering the city, she’d rather have gone into the mountains halfway. At least in the mountains, vast as they were, there would have been a chance to escape.
How was she supposed to know the soldiers were worse than beasts?
"You animals! You tricked us into the city, didn’t even take our belongings, and still go on to do such vile things! Are you even human?"
The woman was filled with bitterness and resentment, but more than anything, despair.
She had learned about what other women here had suffered and tried to escape, but getting caught was inevitable.
The soldiers burst into laughter. The lead soldier showed a lecherous expression. "You refugees have nowhere to go anyway. Our lord is kind enough to give you a place to stay and a bite to eat. What’s wrong with letting you serve us a little?"
The woman glared at the soldiers, hating that she didn’t have the strength to kill them. But she still coldly spat out a question. "Aren’t you afraid my son will find out? You make him do hard labor, and yet you torment his family like this? What about the other refugees? Aren’t you afraid everyone will rise up against you?"
Hearing this, the soldiers scoffed again. The leader looked contemptuous. "Your son and the others are just scapegoats we found. When the Bei Yue army attacks, they’ll be the pitiful fools buying us time."
The soldiers, never intending to let the woman live, bluntly revealed the truth.
Xi Qingyue, perched in the tree, roughly grasped the situation by now, her gaze colder than ever before.
This time, she didn't plan to use a gun or a sword.
The soldiers below, smug and reaching out to seize the woman, suddenly saw her swept away by a fierce gust of wind, whisked out of their grasp.
In the next instant, a whirlwind engulfed the dozen or so soldiers, laced with blades that raced across their bodies in a swift, relentless dance, accompanied by blood-curdling screams of agony.
When the screams faded, the wind dissipated, leaving behind a ghastly pile of mangled flesh on the ground.
