Chu Zhao took a deep breath and forced down his panic.
He had never been on a battlefield, but in his previous life he'd spent plenty of time online and had watched many related videos.
He hurried over to Xiao Yan and began issuing instructions.
“Xiao Yan! Have the archers take the high ground and target their knees and wrists! Pull the close-combat fighters into a tighter defensive circle. Don't give them any opening to break through!”
Xiao Yan froze for a moment, admiration flashing in his eyes, then immediately shouted the order:
“Archers, hear my command! Take the slope! Aim for the enemies' joints! Everyone else, tighten the formation!”
As soon as the orders went out, the chaotic battle stabilized.
Chu Zhao let out a breath and was just about to wipe away his sweat when he remembered what the System had said. His temper instantly exploded.
[No wonder there's another mission! System, aren't you way too stingy? After all this time, every mission just rewards Reputation Points, plus some random plans. What am I supposed to do with those?!]
[Host, mission rewards are automatically matched by the backend. This System has no authority to interfere.]
The System sounded slightly aggrieved. [However, Reputation Points can unlock the System Shop, allowing you to freely purchase the items you need. It's very flexible.]
As soon as it finished speaking, a shop panel glowing pale blue appeared in Chu Zhao's mind. At the top, his current Reputation Points were displayed in glaringly bright numbers: 600.
Chu Zhao: …
All right. He suddenly realized he was extremely poor.
Continuing to look, he found four tiers of shelves. At present, only the icons on the first tier were lit.
Hm? These must be the things he could currently buy, right?
Chu Zhao's eyes lit up. He excitedly opened the list—and one second later, his expression cracked.
The entire display was filled with things like instant noodles for 100 Reputation Points, spicy snack strips for 50, and cola or lemon-lime soda for 200.
Chu Zhao: ???
Even if he wanted to eat this stuff, would he dare take it out in this era?!
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he had no choice but to patiently keep scrolling upward. The farther he went, the more expensive the items became.
Sweet potatoes cost 10,000 Reputation Points, corn 20,000, potatoes 20,000, premium high-yield seed stock 30,000, fertilizer 50,000…
Every single one was a lifesaving treasure!
But they were too expensive! He couldn't afford any of them!
Chu Zhao smacked his lips and could only feast his eyes. What could he do? He was poor!
He kept scrolling upward until he reached the third tier of shelves and opened it.
Hm? Diamonds for 50,000 Reputation Points, peerless dark iron for 70,000, a portable multifunctional □□ for 90,000, a Marrow-Cleansing Pill for 100,000…
Aside from those flashy but useless diamonds, the rest made Chu Zhao's eyelids twitch and his heart itch with desire.
The peerless dark iron was obviously an excellent material for forging divine weapons, and that □□ was clearly no ordinary object just from its description!
As for the Marrow-Cleansing Pill…
His gaze stuck to the final line, where the Marrow-Cleansing Pill carried a truly astronomical price.
[System!] he asked. [This Marrow-Cleansing Pill… what exactly is it?]
System: [The Marrow-Cleansing Pill, as the name suggests, can deeply optimize the user's constitution.]
[Within a short period, it significantly enhances muscular strength, bone density, and vitality, while modestly extending the active life cycle of cells to produce a life-prolonging effect. Note: results vary slightly depending on the individual.]
Chu Zhao's eyes shone as he listened!
Good stuff. Truly good stuff!
He stared at the intimidating price of one hundred thousand Reputation Points and swallowed hard. An overwhelming desire collided violently with the clearheadedness of a poor man.
Save money! He absolutely had to save! Once he accumulated enough Reputation Points, he had to get one and try it no matter what!
Only the final tier of shelves remained. Chu Zhao tried opening it, and when he saw the products, he was completely dumbfounded.
[System, aren't these things supposed to belong in a martial-arts or immortal-cultivation world? Are you sure I can buy them?]
[The Jade Maiden Heart Manual costs 100,000 Reputation Points? The Sunflower Manual costs 150,000? There's even an Art of Flying Through Heaven and Burrowing Through Earth? System, tell me the truth. Did you get your wires crossed with some martial-arts cultivation System?!]
[Uh… th-these all come from the central bureau's unified product pool. Maybe it covers too many types of worlds.]
The System's voice was clearly uneasy as it hurriedly explained:
[Host, just ignore those. The important items are still the infrastructure supplies on the first three tiers!]
Chu Zhao was speechless. [Your bureau is seriously unreliable!]
The System couldn't help feeling guilty. It didn't dare tell Chu Zhao that it was a newly manufactured rookie System.
By the time Chu Zhao exited the System interface, less than the time needed for one stick of incense to burn had passed, yet corpses already littered the ground. Most of the fallen, however, belonged to the enemy.
These men were burly and brutish, with vicious faces that immediately marked them as mountain bandits. Yet even as they died, they probably never imagined that what they had taken for an ordinary robbery would turn into such a hard nut to crack.
Just then, one bandit turned his head while fighting and shouted:
“Second Chief, these people look like officials! Shouldn't we get out of here? The brothers can't hold much longer!”
The man being called Second Chief was seething with hatred.
Damn it all! They had run straight into a hard target this time! So many of his brothers had died for nothing!
The Second Chief's heart practically bled from the loss!
That damned Xiao Liuzi had sworn there was a group of wealthy merchants passing through this area. That was why he'd brought his men down from the mountain.
Who would have thought they were government people? Now they were in serious trouble!
Losing a few brothers was one thing. If the authorities later sent troops to wipe them out, that would be absolute ruin!
The Second Chief wiped the blood from his face and shouted at the bandit who had spoken. “Old Fourth, call the brothers together! Retreat, now!”
“Yes, Second Chief!” The bandits rapidly regrouped, fighting as they pulled back.
Chu Zhao was sharp-eyed and immediately noticed what they were doing. He ordered the guards beside him:
“They're trying to run! Stop them! Make sure at least one is taken alive!”
“Yes!” The nearby guards immediately raised their sabers and rushed at the bandits.
Seeing the soldiers chase after them, the bandits feared being caught and fled even faster.
“Xiao Luzi, bring me a bow.”
At once, Chu Zhao had Xiao Luzi bring him a bow and aimed the arrow at the bandit leading the retreat.
“Whoosh!”
Fortunately, during university he'd joined an archery club and practiced whenever he had free time. He never expected it would prove so useful at a critical moment.
Meanwhile, the Second Chief heard the arrow behind him and, acting on pure instinct, grabbed a small bandit beside him and dragged the man behind his own body as a shield.
“Ah!”
Sure enough, the very next moment, the Second Chief saw the low-ranking bandit take the arrow in the back, spit out a mouthful of blood, and die miserably beneath the shaft.
The sight scared the Second Chief out of his wits, and he ran even faster. But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't outrun Chu Zhao's arrow.
Seeing that his first shot hadn't hit the bandit leader, Chu Zhao loosed another. This time, he wouldn't miss.
The second arrow flew straight toward the back of the Second Chief's head.
The Second Chief seemed to sense something and turned around in terror. Before he could react, the arrow pierced straight through the center of his brow, and he crashed heavily to the ground.
The surrounding bandits saw their Second Chief lying dead with his eyes still open and scattered in terror. But Chu Zhao's guards quickly caught up and killed them one by one.
Fifteen minutes later, Xiao Yan escorted a thin man, bound tightly from head to toe, before Chu Zhao.
“Your Highness, all the other bandits have been eliminated. This brat is the only one left!”
Chu Zhao was sitting beside a brazier warming himself. He couldn't help it. In his previous life he'd been born in the south, while Liangzhou lay in the northwest. The cold was driving him insane.
Warming himself by the fire, he asked:
“What's your name? Which mountain are you from?”
When the bandit heard the guards address Chu Zhao as “Your Highness,” what else was there to misunderstand? He knew he'd truly brought disaster upon himself this time!
Heavens above! How could he be this unlucky? He'd actually tried to rob a prince!
“Your Highness, spare my life! This lowly one is from Tigerhead Mountain. Everyone calls me Scarface. I'm truly innocent! We really didn't know you were a prince. If we'd known, we wouldn't have dared even with a hundred lives…”
Chu Zhao laughed in anger. “So if this prince had been an ordinary commoner, you would have felt free to rob me however you pleased?” He had never seen a murderer defend himself as if he were somehow in the right!
At that, cold sweat poured down Scarface's face. His lips moved soundlessly, and he had no idea how to answer. Neither answering nor refusing to answer seemed safe.
“His Highness asked you a question! Are you deaf?!”
Seeing that this bandit actually dared ignore the prince, anger surged through Xiao Yan. He kicked him viciously. Years of martial training had given Xiao Yan astonishing strength, and the kick sent the bandit called Scarface flying away with blood spraying from his mouth.
“Ah! I'll talk! I'll talk!” Scarface hurriedly crawled back and sobbed. “Your Highness, we had no choice! I'm just a low-ranking lackey. I do whatever Big Brother tells me. Whatever he orders, I do.”
Chu Zhao couldn't be bothered listening to his nonsense. No matter how the man tried to argue, it couldn't change the fact that they were bandits.
Not all bandits in this era were necessarily evil. Many had been forced into banditry, and at most robbed the rich to help the poor or stole property without taking lives.
But this group was obviously the sort of ruthless killer who didn't blink at murder.
Chu Zhao had never killed anyone in his previous life. But with murderers like these right in front of him, if he didn't kill them outright, was he supposed to keep them alive so they could come back and kill him instead?
Besides, Liangzhou would become his base from now on. It really was time to clean things up properly.
But not yet. Once he found these bandits' lair, it wouldn't be too late to kill them then.
Chu Zhao gave Xiao Yan a look. Xiao Yan understood at once and barked, “You! Behave yourself and lead us there!”
Scarface hesitated instead. “This…”
Seeing that, Xiao Yan kicked the bandit hard again, drew his saber, and threatened coldly, “Lead the way honestly, or I'll slaughter you!”
“Ow!” Scarface cried out in pain and trembled in terror, desperately knocking his forehead against the ground. “Sir, spare my life! I'll lead the way! I'll lead the way right now!”
…
Tigerhead Mountain was exceptionally lively that night.
The Second Chief had taken the brothers down the mountain to rob someone. Word was that the targets were fat sheep. When the First Chief heard, he was delighted and had ordered a banquet prepared early, simply waiting for them to return so everyone could celebrate.
The First Chief sat in a large chair draped in tiger hide, with one scantily dressed, seductively made-up woman in each arm.
“Hee-hee, Great King, let this little woman feed you some wine~” a woman in red cooed.
“Hahaha!” The First Chief laughed smugly, pulled the woman into his arms, and began pawing at her. Just as he was about to go further—
A scout suddenly rushed in from outside, looking anxious, and shouted his report:
“Report! First Chief, a group has come up the mountain. They look like government men!”
“What?!”
The First Chief shoved the woman away and sprang to his feet, face twisted with fury.
The women on either side paled in fright. Neither dared make a sound. They lowered their heads and shrank away to one side.
The First Chief glared. “Impossible! If the authorities really sent troops to wipe out Tigerhead Mountain, why didn't that person warn me?!”
The scout looked terrified. “First Chief, it's absolutely true! I saw them clearly. They're all dressed alike, riding tall warhorses. If they aren't government men, who else could they be? They're heading toward the stronghold right now!”
The First Chief immediately began pacing anxiously. “Fuck! Don't tell me that person wants to burn the bridge after crossing the river!”
“First Chief, don't panic. I believe there may be more to this. After all, we're still doing work for that person.” At that moment, a scholar-dressed man walked over, slowly fanning himself as he calmly advised him.
Hearing this, the First Chief became even more anxious. “That makes it worse! If they weren't sent by that noble patron, then there's only one other possibility… Damn it! Adviser, what do you think we should do?!”
Second Brother had taken most of the men down the mountain. The only people left in the stronghold were the old, weak, sick, and wounded. They couldn't possibly withstand government troops.
“First Chief, don't panic.”
The adviser thought rapidly, searching for a solution. Suddenly, he grinned.
“First Chief, have you forgotten our trump card?”
At those words, the First Chief remembered as well, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
“As expected, the adviser has the best brain!”
He immediately turned and issued orders. “Quick! Gather all the brothers! Prepare every weapon on the mountain too. We'll fight them to the death!”
Although fear showed on the bandits' faces, after hearing the First Chief's order, they hurried off to prepare.
