Bai Yuan: "All right, everyone to your posts. Wait for them to reach the central courtyard we've prepared, then we finish these dumb bandits off."
The villagers murmured in response: "May the Celestial Lord protect us."
A timid voice piped up—it was the man called White Cat, one of Wang Er's men who had come to warn them: "After you deal with them, you must go save Big Brother Wang Er."
"Naturally."
---
Zheng Yanfu led over two hundred bandits in a quick dash to the open fortress gate, meeting up with Zhong Guangdao. "Third Brother, your climbing skills are truly impressive."
Zhong Guangdao grinned. "Heh, after this job, you can call me Second Brother. I'll start calling you Big Brother."
Zheng Yanfu was delighted. "Hahaha! Right! Let's go!"
The two bandit leaders charged into the fortress at the head of their mob. Immediately, they found themselves in a maze of narrow passages, walls made of hard, unforgiving iron plates on either side.
They hurried along the passageway, but found no rooms—just more corridor. Rounding a corner, they entered a small courtyard. Another passage led out from it.
"Why's the inside like a maze?"
"All the rooms are empty!"
"There are only about a hundred people in this village,but this fortress has so many houses. Of course many are empty. That's not strange."
"Keep pushing in!"
At the end of the courtyard, one passage led left, another right. The two leaders could finally split up, each taking about a hundred men down a separate path.
They soon discovered, however, that each passage simply led to another, identical courtyard.
Both Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu were starting to feel that something was off.
Just then...
Numerous lanterns suddenly flared to life on the surrounding rooftops, flooding the courtyards with light.
A middle-aged man in a white scholar's robe appeared on a rooftop. He even held a folding fan, which he snapped open with a flourish. Two large characters were written on it: "Gentleman."
It was, of course, Bai Yuan. Putting on airs, he pointed a dramatic finger at the bandits in the courtyard below and declared loudly, "You lot..."
His grand, pretentious speech was cut short. On the rooftop beside him, a formidable middle-aged woman hoisted a large rock and hurled it down without ceremony.
THUD!
A bandit was struck squarely, his skull cracking open. He fell.
Bai Yuan: "Hey! I wasn't finished talking!"
But it was too late. Once that first rock flew, no one else could hold back. They all grabbed their prepared stones and began raining them down into the courtyards. In an instant, a hailstorm of rocks descended from the rooftops on both sides.
A few villagers who had bows also drew their light hunting bows and fired indiscriminately into the chaos below.
Caught completely off guard, the bandits fell in swathes.
Only then did Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao realize they had walked into a trap. Shocked, they raised their makeshift wooden lid shields over their heads.
Several bandits who had bows immediately returned fire toward the rooftops. But Li Daoxuan's giant hand promptly reached down from above, swatting the bandits' arrows aside. The villagers' thrown rocks, however, he let through untouched.
Playing favorites, plain and simple.
Zheng Yanfu, a hardened bandit after all, didn't think first of fleeing. His instinct was to fight his way up to the rooftops. But reaching out to touch the wall beside him, he found its surface was polished smooth, without a single crack or handhold for climbing.
A wave of panic hit him. Escape was the only option.
He spotted what looked like a small passage at the corner of the courtyard ahead and lunged for it.
Just as he was about to dash in, a large figure sprang from the passage mouth, blocking his way. The man grinned a wide, simple-minded grin.
Gao Chuwu had arrived.
Zheng Yanfu: "Take this, you oaf!"
His blade flashed down at Gao Chuwu with surprising speed. It was, however, completely useless. The strike landed with a metallic CLANG!, deflected by the iron plates on Gao Chuwu's chest armor.
"Armor?!"
Zheng Yanfu was stunned. The other side had armor? Were these imperial troops?
Gao Chuwu responded with a horizontal sweep of his great axe. The force behind it made Zheng Yanfu's blood run cold. In a desperate move, he threw himself to the ground, rolling several times to avoid the blow.
While Gao Chuwu's brains were nothing to write home about—a true academic failure—his physique was top-tier. A classic case of "fails all written tests, excels in P.E." His strength and speed were first-rate. As Zheng Yanfu scrambled on the ground, Gao Chuwu's foot shot out, catching him squarely in the abdomen.
The kick carried tremendous force, sending Zheng Yanfu flying sideways. He crashed into two of his own men with a heavy thud.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this?!" Clutching his stomach, Zheng Yanfu struggled to his feet and bolted in another direction.
In the other courtyard, Zhong Guangdao was in an equally miserable state. Rocks kept falling from the rooftops, punctuated by the occasional arrow. How the hell were they supposed to fight this? Like Zheng Yanfu, he tried to dash for a small passage.
But this passage was guarded by a group of men, all wearing padded armor. At their head stood Zheng Daniu, holding a lumberjack's axe.
Zhong Guangdao managed one wild slash before Zheng Daniu's axe swept back, nearly taking his head off. Terrified out of his wits, Zhong Guangdao didn't dare press another attack.
Why did everyone in Gaojia Village have armor? Damn it all, was a company of imperial troops hiding here?
In truth, only the front-line fighters had armor. But in the darkness of the night battle, the panicked bandits couldn't see clearly. Seeing the first few opponents armored made them assume everyone was.
In these times, those who had armor were the imperial troops.
The mere thought of facing "imperial troops" shattered the bandits' morale. The will to fight evaporated, replaced by pure survival instinct.
The bandits tried to flee back the way they came, only to find their entrance silently blocked by large stones moved into place by the villagers.
Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu fought their way through the passages and met up again. A quick scan revealed one last possible route...
A narrow, long passageway.
It was their only escape route.
The two leaders charged into it simultaneously...
Bai Yuan shouted from above, "Li Da! Gao Yiyi! Get ready! The rats are headed your way!"
The two blacksmiths perked up. They took their positions behind the "Immortal's Great Fire Cannon," hefting their large hammers, faces alight with fanatical grins.
Come on then!
You bandits!
Taste the might of an Immortal's artifact!
Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao arrived. The passage was narrow, but still wide enough for two men to run abreast.
Their panicked followers squeezed in behind them, a desperate, fleeing mob.
As they ran deeper into this passage, they noticed no rocks were falling from the roofs above.
Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao's hearts leapt with wild hope.
Have we found a weak point in their defenses?
If we just keep running down this path, we might actually escape!
They weren't the only ones thinking this. Every bandit behind them had the same thought, pushing and shoving to follow their leaders. The narrow passage became packed wall-to-wall with bodies.
The tight corridor was now like a sausage, stuffed to bursting with desperate, terrified meat.