The one who arrived was Zheng Daniu. He knew nothing of martial arts and utterly failed to dodge when his opponent swung a blade at him. The strike landed squarely on his chest. Yet, he wore the two-panel armor given to him by Gao Yiyi—a hefty iron plate covering his entire torso.

The result when a blade slams into a solid iron plate is naturally…

Whoa, scared the hell out of him!

Zheng Daniu was terrified by the strike, but when he realized he remained unscathed, his lips peeled back into a vacant, foolish grin.

One Blade drew his sword once more and aimed at Zheng Daniu’s neck—after all, how could iron armor cover that?

But as he brought down the blade, a strange sensation struck him. Something seemed to seize his weapon mid-air, freezing it in place.

Huh?

What?

Why? There was nothing in the air at all! What was grasping his blade?

It was, of course, Li Daoxuan.

The Deity favored his own followers above all others by a thousandfold. What’s more, Zheng Daniu had sweated blood in the service of his micro-sculpting earnings. Such a follower could never be harmed.

Seeing the sword strike toward Zheng Daniu’s throat, Li Daoxuan extended two fingers into the sky and caught the blade like tongs seizing hot steel.

One Blade strained to reclaim his weapon, but it was of no use.

A voice called from a distance, Gao Yiye shouting, “Zheng Daniu! The Deity has pinned down the enemy’s blade! What are you still grinning about?”

Zheng Daniu paused, baffled. “Huh? Ah?!”

Jolted to awareness, he swung his own axe…

His skill with the axe was hard-honed. For days now, he’d been felling trees on the hillside, hauling timber back for the two sculptors to carve figures. Each effort earned him a great basin of happy fat water from the Deity—and after guzzling it these past weeks, he’d noticeably plumped up.

The force he swept through with his axe was enough to terrify century-old trees into ripping their roots from the earth and fleeing.

The thick bovine leather armor wrapped around One Blade’s body offered no defense against that axe swing.

Thunk!

One Blade gasped as agony tore through his chest and belly. Looking down, he saw the axe blade splitting through his thick leather armor. Blood gushed instantly from the gaping wound.

Unable to believe it, he lifted his head toward the heavens once before collapsing backward.

Zheng Daniu hoisted his axe and roared, “Deity protect us!”

Villagers nearby echoed the chant in unison. “Deity protect us!”

…

The bandit army’s chief, the Supreme Bright King, began to feel uneasy.

As the leader, he naturally pushed forward boldly, his toughest brigands charging beside him. So when the large stone flew, it had landed far behind them.

It hadn’t struck him, so why fear?

Once at the foot of the wall, he didn’t climb up himself but kept urging his fiercest men to scale it.

Thus, stones and cascades of boiling oil never fell upon his head.

Again—it hadn’t touched him, so why fear?

He continued waving his demon-head broadsword, shouting and urging the people around him to climb the scaling ladders and kill their way up the city wall.

But as he commanded, he noticed the people around him becoming fewer and fewer.

“Huh? Where is my twelve hundred strong army?”

The Supreme Bright King turned his head to look, and behind him, there was no great army at all, only a scattered few dozen people.

It turned out that the large stones hurled by the catapults continuously smashed into the bandit army formation behind him; the first wave launched a total of twenty large stones, and with these stones falling one after another, they directly shattered the bandits’ morale.

The bandits at the rear were unwilling to charge forward any longer; instead, they retreated farther and farther from the city wall, and finally scattered and fled, vanishing without a trace.

Thus, the first wave of bandits that charged to the base of the city wall became a lone force.

One fewer whenever one was crushed by a stone, one fewer whenever scalded by boiling oil, one fewer whenever climbing a scaling ladder and stabbed down…

The Supreme Bright King’s men were constantly decreasing, but since he stood at the front of the formation, not the rear, and amid the noise, chaos, and confusion around him, he had no idea.

Only at this moment, when he suddenly spun around, did he realize something was terribly wrong.

In that instant, the Supreme Bright King finally understood what was meant by “the defenders have a huge advantage.” After all, this was his first time attacking a city; he had picked up a little knowledge from storyteller tales that erecting a scaling ladder would allow him to climb up, but in real combat, he found it was not like that at all.

The morale of his subordinates wasn’t something he, a mere bandit, could control.

The Supreme Bright King roared, “Retreat, retreat! Withdraw!”

After saying that, he turned and sprinted away.

The last few dozen fierce bandits around him also turned and ran after him.

Mr. Bai extended his hand and shouted loudly, “Bring me a bow!”

A nearby servant promptly handed him a hunting bow and got ready to shout “Good shot!” to flatter his master.

Then, Mr. Bai drew an arrow, nocked it, aimed at a vital point on the Supreme Bright King’s back, let go with his right hand, and with a twang of the bowstring, the arrow shot forth like a startled swan…

Swish!

It flew past a half-zhang away from the Supreme Bright King.

The servant who was poised to yell “good shot” froze in awkward silence.

The people beside him: “…”

Mr. Bai gave a light cough, his aged face flushing slightly red; he hastily shoved the bow into the hands of a nearby servant, clapped his hands, pretended nothing had happened, and thought, “I’d better focus on commanding.”

Cross out, cross out this ‘archery’ skill in the Six Arts of Gentlemen.

Of course, this minor embarrassment of his did not affect the larger situation.

The bandit army began to retreat; the pressure on the city wall eased instantly, and the villagers started cheering, “We won!”

“We repelled the bandits.”

“Gaojia Village is secured!”

“We’re safe!”

“Deity bless us!”

“Deity bless us!”

Mr. Bai looked around left, right, front, and back, and bellowed, “What are you so happy about? The bandit chief escaped; that Supreme Bright King will surely hate us, and who knows when he might suddenly turn back to ambush us?”

The villagers collectively froze.

After some thought, “Huh? Yeah!”

“It’s not about fearing thieves who steal, but fearing thieves who bear grudges.”

The villagers of Gaojia are all good-natured, timid folks; they really disliked being resented by bandits—the feeling was unbearable. Seeking refuge within Gaojia Village’s walls was fine for now, but what if in the future, while harvesting herbs in the mountains, shopping in the county town, or visiting a neighboring village, they were ambushed mid-journey by this Supreme Bright King? Wouldn’t they die without a burial place?

Just then, they suddenly heard Gao Yiye’s voice.

She pointed at the retreating figure of the Supreme Bright King and shouted, “Watch closely, everyone! The Deity will soon cast divine magic to eliminate this problem for good.”

The villagers beamed with joy immediately.

Mr. Bai: “?”

Suddenly, the sounds of wind and thunder rumbled in the sky, as though something massive split the clouds and plummeted down rapidly; an unseen pressure whipped up a violent whirlwind on the open ground outside the city, dust spreading outward in rings.

Then…

“Boom!”

With a deafening blast, the earth trembled violently.

The Supreme Bright King, who was fleeing into the distance, and all his underlings within three zhang of him, turned into flattened masses of meat.

The ground where they had been standing caved in, forming a huge indent shaped like a palm.

The Supreme Bright King’s pulp of flesh lay right in the center of that palm print…