I asked you to go hunting, and you ended up wearing a yellow robe?

The messenger's gesture of raising the command arrow froze in mid-air.

The torches crackled, and the two hundred border soldiers remained completely silent.

Li Long stared intently at the command arrow.

His chest heaved violently, and his face flickered between light and shadow in the firelight.

Li Long snatched the command token from Li Long.

With a snap, he broke the command arrow in two and slammed it to the ground.

"Bullshit! I'm from Black Dragon Stronghold!"

Li Long drew his sword and pointed it at the messenger, his eyes bloodshot.

"You're a fake messenger!"

"This imperial edict is fake too!"

He turned his horse around, and the blade swept across the faces of the border soldiers behind him.

The sound exploded in the night sky like thunder.

"Brothers! This man is impersonating an official; he deserves to die!"

"Charge into the city and slaughter these scoundrels and sham officials!"

"Before dawn, I guarantee you'll all be promoted three ranks!"

The messenger turned pale and staggered back several steps.

"Li Long! You're insane! This is a personal order from Commander Qianhu!"

Li Long grinned maliciously and spurred his horse toward him.

A flash of light.

The messenger clutched his neck and fell off his horse, blood splattering everywhere.

Zhao Bingkun was so shocked he almost fell over, but Chen Chong caught him.

"He...he actually dared to kill the messenger!"

The border troops below the city were stunned at first, then burst into a beast-like roar.

Dozens of Li Long's trusted personal guards drew their swords and spurred their horses toward the city gate.

The remaining border troops looked at each other in bewilderment, and many of them quietly reined in their horses.

But in the chaos, nobody cared anymore.

Li Long took the lead, his horse's hooves crushing the torches on the ground.

Sparks flew everywhere, and his ferocious face looked like a mad beast in the firelight.

"Qi Shan! Zhao Bingkun! You just wait!"

"After the city falls, I will make you wish you were dead!"

The people on the city wall turned pale.

Qi Shan stepped onto the crenellations of the city wall, his robes fluttering in the night wind.

With his left hand, he took the repeating crossbow from behind his back, and with his right hand, he drew the long sword from his waist.

"Meng Da, watch carefully."

He said it without turning his head.

Meng Da hadn't reacted yet.

Qi Shan had already leaped down from the city wall.

Zhao Bingkun cried out in alarm, "Captain Qi!"

Qi Shan stood on the sloping side of the city wall, his body almost parallel to the ground.

Each step landed on loose sections of the rammed earth, sending loose soil tumbling down.

He raised his arm and pulled the trigger.

Five crossbow bolts were fired in quick succession, drawing five cold streaks across the night sky.

The five guards at the front all screamed and fell from their horses at the same time.

Each person had a crossbow bolt inserted into their throat, and blood spurted three feet high.

Qi Shan stepped onto the crenellation halfway up the city wall and used the momentum to leap into the air.

He changed the crossbow magazine with his left arm and held a long sword horizontally in front of him with his right hand.

Click, the new crossbow magazine engages into its slot.

Li Long suddenly looked up, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

The dark shadow in the sky obscured the moonlight, like a mountain eagle pouncing on its prey.

"Fire! Fire your arrows!"

Li Long roared and pointed to the sky.

A dozen or so guards frantically raised their bows, and the arrows flew crookedly into the air.

Qi Shan twisted and rolled in the air, arrows whizzing past the hem of his clothes.

He pulled the trigger.

Five more crossbow bolts.

Five archers fell from their horses, not even having a chance to scream.

The other archers were so frightened that they threw down their bows, turned their horses, and fled.

Qi Shan landed steadily, his boots carving a shallow furrow in the ground.

He was no more than ten steps away from Li Long.

Li Long's eyes were about to burst, and he roared as he brandished his sword.

"Charge! Kill him!"

A dozen or so mounted guards charged forward, swords drawn, the sound of their hooves shaking the ground.

Qi Shan neither dodged nor avoided, but instead stepped forward to meet him.

He shifted his body to the side, dodging the oncoming blade.

With a swift, sweeping motion along the ground, the longsword severed the horse's leg, and the cavalryman fell to the ground screaming as his horse overturned.

The blade slashed upwards, the tip piercing the ribs of another cavalryman.

With a single flick, the blood gushed out from the blood groove.

The third slash swept across, and a head flew into the air.

The corpse was still in the posture of wielding a knife, and a three-foot-long column of blood gushed from its neck.

Qi Shan moved through the flashing blades.

Like a slippery eel, dodging at impossible angles.

Every time you dodge a blow, a fatal counter-stab is sure to follow.

There were no unnecessary movements.

There are no fancy moves.

Every slash was aimed at a vital point.

Ten breaths later.

More than a dozen guards were lying on the ground, none of them still moving.

Covered in blood, Qi Shan walked towards Li Long, stepping over the corpses scattered on the ground.

The repeating crossbow had been tucked into its waistband at some point.

He dragged his knife in his right hand, the blade slicing sparks across the bluestone slab.

Li Long's warhorse pawed at the ground in terror and retreated repeatedly.

"What's there to be afraid of!"

Li Long gripped the reins tightly, his face pale, his teeth clenched.

"He's just one man! I still have two hundred soldiers!"

Before the words were finished, a clear, cold female voice came from the darkness.

"Who said you still have two hundred soldiers?"

Dozens of torches lit up at the same time.

In the firelight, Jia Hui rode a chestnut horse, wearing the standard armor of the border army.

Behind him were two hundred border infantrymen, their swords and spears like a forest, their shields like a wall.

She raised the command arrow in her hand, her voice icy.

"By order of Commander Qianhu! Li Long has colluded with bandits, forged military orders, and plotted rebellion by murdering officials!"

"From this moment forward, the border troops will be temporarily under my command, Jia Hui!"

Two hundred infantrymen raised their swords in unison.

The flashes of swords merged into one in the firelight, their sharp edges pointing at Li Long and his personal guards.

"Put down your weapons! Kneel down and you will not be killed!"

The border soldiers behind Li Long looked at the infantrymen, then at Qi Shan, who was covered in blood.

A crisp clang.

Someone threw away the knife.

Then a series of clanging sounds followed.

Hundreds of border soldiers dismounted, threw down their weapons, and knelt on the ground, burying their heads in their hands.

Only Li Long and his seven or eight die-hard bodyguards remained, standing alone in place.

Li Long looked around and suddenly burst into laughter.

The laughter was shrill and menacing, like that of a jackal driven into a corner.

"Great! Excellent!"

He stared intently at Qi Shan, his eyes filled with resentment and malice.

"Qi Shan, Qi Shan, do you think killing me will bring peace?"

"Let me tell you the truth, Zhao Wuji is my sworn brother!"

"You killed his son; he will never let this go!"

"He will lead three hundred ruthless bandits to raze Qingyang County to the ground! Oh wait! You're not just dealing with bandits! Without my control, Qingyang will surely descend into chaos!"

"At that time, not a single chicken or dog will be spared; men, women, and children will all be buried with my son!"

He became increasingly frantic as he spoke, spitting as he spoke.

"Go ahead and kill me! Kill me!"

"I'll be waiting for your whole family on the road to the underworld!"

"I'm waiting to see your three wives get—"

The words came to an abrupt halt.

Qi Shan's figure blurred, and he covered a distance of three zhang in one step.

The long sword slashed diagonally upwards.

All anyone present saw was a flash of silver light.

The hundred-refined steel knife in Li Long's hand broke in two.

The blade clattered to the ground, the cut as smooth as a mirror.

Li Long staggered backward, the madness still etched on his face.

Qi Shan sheathed his sword, then drew it again.

The second cut ripped open Li Long's throat, the movement as swift and decisive as butchering a chicken.

The blade cuts open the throat, severs the trachea, and passes through the gaps in the cervical vertebrae.

In and out, clean and efficient.

Li Long's eyes widened, and he opened his mouth as if to say something.

Only hissing bubbles came from his throat, and blood foam gushed from his mouth.

He fell backward, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Do not look down.

Qi Shan shook the blood off his knife and looked around.

The people on the city wall, the border soldiers kneeling on the ground.

Everyone stared in disbelief at the scene.

He picked up his knife, turned around, and took a few steps toward the city gate.

Stop and look at the people at the city gate holding torches and hoes.

The voice wasn't loud, but every word was crystal clear in the deathly still night.

"From today onwards, Qingyang County will no longer support soldiers and bandits."

A silence.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Long live Constable Qi!"