Chapter 33: I Do Not Know What You Are Talking About

Wang Lu’s acting was over-the-top, while Shen Lian’s was merely awkward.

But that didn’t matter.

If two Centurions were willing to put on a show for a mere Banner Officer like you, Ling Yunkai, you should count yourself lucky.

Yin Cheng had been helpless against Shen Lian, but against Ling Yunkai, he fought with everything he had. As their blades clashed, Ling Yunkai shouted, "Take him down!"

His men lunged forward instantly. In the span of a single breath, a gash was carved into Yin Cheng’s back. Had he not retreated in time, that strike would have surely flayed him to the bone!

"Banner Officer Ling, fear not! I come to your aid!"

"Yin Cheng, stop!"

Wang Lu and Shen Lian shouted in unison, both stepping forward to swing their blades. Just as Ling Yunkai was wondering why Wang Lu was here—and why he would ever help him—his eyes suddenly narrowed in alarm!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Wang Lu intercepted two of the blades aimed at Yin Cheng, while Shen Lian parried the third. Ling Yunkai’s men felt a massive force surge from the blades into their arms, leaving them numb.

"Shen Lian and I will pretend to attack you to keep Ling Yunkai’s men at bay, but you must be the one to kill Ling Yunkai! If you kill him, you live; if he kills you, you die. At the very least, that is better than dying a cowardly death by your own hand!"

"Won't I still die after killing Ling Yunkai?"

"If you kill him, Shen Lian and I will handle the aftermath. The choice is yours."

Was there even a question of how to choose?

Killing Ling Yunkai offered a sliver of hope; not doing so meant certain death—Centurion Wang Lu’s gaze had made that clear. Shen Lian might have given him a chance to commit suicide, but while Centurion Wang Lu hadn't explicitly said it, it was obvious he lacked Shen Lian’s soft-heartedness and would surely seize him for the bounty!

Besides, I, Yin Cheng, am not necessarily weaker than you, Ling Yunkai!

Yin Cheng watched as Shen Lian and Wang Lu blocked Ling Yunkai’s men with their exaggerated and awkward theatrics. While they shouted, "Madman!" and "Protect Banner Officer Ling!", their blades relentlessly kept his men occupied.

"Bastards!" Ling Yunkai’s mouth twitched. Did these two take him for an idiot? They were clearly helping Yin Cheng kill him, yet they kept up this absurd charade that not even a fool would believe. It was utterly ridiculous!

Clang! Bang! Clang!

Driven by the threat of death, Yin Cheng found a surge of courage and swordplay that surprised even himself. After a heavy blow was parried, he kicked Ling Yunkai in the abdomen. As Ling Yunkai staggered back, he was met with a ferocious Yin Cheng charging in for another strike. Two blades collided, sending sparks flying through the darkness. Pedestrians scattered, and shop clerks hurriedly pulled down their shutters.

"Die! Die! Die!"

Yin Cheng abandoned all defense, lashing out at Ling Yunkai with his life on the line. For a moment, Ling Yunkai was forced onto the defensive.

Back when they had clashed over the assassination of Beizhai, Ling Yunkai had fought Shen Lian to a standstill, while Yin Cheng had been disarmed by Shen Lian in a single move. Clearly, Ling Yunkai was superior. But the situation was different now. Yin Cheng was fighting for his life, with no path forward other than killing Ling Yunkai. Ling Yunkai, however, had been caught completely off guard.

Wang Lu’s arrival had turned a guaranteed victory into a downward spiral. Furthermore, the fact that Yin Cheng had shifted from a panicking fugitive to a man possessed in such a short time had nothing to do with Shen Lian. It was Wang Lu!

*Sshh!*

Distracted, Yin Cheng feinted a strike at Ling Yunkai’s neck, then forcefully shifted his blade downward. The strain on his body was immense; Yin Cheng felt a loud pop in his shoulder as the blow landed.

*Pfft!*

Ling Yunkai’s eyes widened in agony. The strike was impossible to parry, sinking deep into the space between his shoulder and arm, carving a wound so deep the bone was visible!

Yin Cheng’s face lit up with a grim joy as he prepared to pull his blade free for a killing blow. But his smile froze in the next second.

*Sshh!*

Humiliated by the pain and the shame of being wounded by a subordinate, Ling Yunkai gathered all his remaining strength and swung his blade at Yin Cheng. The steel bit into Yin Cheng’s neck as if hacking into aged, rotted wood. Yin Cheng’s eyes bulged, as if they were about to burst from their sockets. In his final moment, he was still struggling to pull his blade from Ling Yunkai’s shoulder.

But his strength faded with his life. Yin Cheng smiled bitterly.

"No... no longer... a coward..."

*Thud!*

Yin Cheng’s head slumped onto his chest, his hand slipping from the hilt to dangle limply in the air. Ling Yunkai’s face flushed with violent rage as he kicked the corpse aside.

"Yin Cheng, die!" Seeing Ling Yunkai behead Yin Cheng, Wang Lu dodged the blades of Ling Yunkai’s men and lunged forward, shouting.

Ling Yunkai breathed heavily, his eyes bloodshot with resentment. "Centurion Wang! You are an accomplice of Yin Cheng!"

"What kind of talk is that!" Wang Lu declared righteously. "I came to save Banner Officer Ling! Even though you aren't under my command, we of the Imperial Guard are one family. No matter who you were fighting, I, Wang Lu, was bound to step in and help!"

"You claim you were helping me?!" Ling Yunkai glared at him as if he could eat him alive.

"Well... isn't that obvious?" Wang Lu smiled faintly and stepped forward. "I must say, your men are truly useless. If Shen and I hadn't stepped in, they might have accidentally struck you themselves in this darkness!"

"If we hadn't been here to hold the line and rattle Yin Cheng, your family would likely be weeping for you right now."

"Heh. I have no family, and I haven't been killed, so I'm afraid I've disappointed you, Centurion Wang," Ling Yunkai sneered. "But I will report everything that happened here to my superiors!"

"Isn't your superior Centurion Sun Qiang? Rest assured, I will speak with him personally to ensure he handles this for you," Wang Lu promised with feigned sincerity.

"Banner Officer!" As Ling Yunkai seethed with fury, one of his men stepped forward, cupping his hands. "Just now, Centurions Wang and Shen blocked us from saving you! What should we do?!"

"Centurion Wang, don't think everyone here is blind or stupid!" Ling Yunkai looked at him coldly. "How do you explain that?"

*Clatter, clatter, clatter.*

At that moment, a squad of armored Imperial Guards approached. "Lord Shen! Lord Wang!" they saluted, then turned to Ling Yunkai. "Banner Officer Ling, I am Xie Ding'an, a subordinate of Lord Shen. My brothers and I witnessed Lord Wang and Lord Shen pursuing Yin Cheng, and we saw them intervene to rescue you when he attacked."

Ling Yunkai’s expression turned icy, but Xie Ding'an ignored it and continued, "It all happened so fast, and your swordplay was so skilled, that by the time we arrived, you had already slain him. It seems there may have been a misunderstanding regarding Lord Wang and Lord Shen?"

"Shen Lian!" With his shoulder still bleeding, Ling Yunkai walked up to Shen Lian. "I never knew you were capable of such tricks. Or was this all Wang’s idea?"

Shen Lian looked straight ahead, his expression calm. "I have no idea what you're talking about. You're badly wounded; you should head back and attend to your injuries."

*Bang!*

A sound drew their attention. They turned to see Wang Lu sitting on top of the subordinate who had just accused them, pummeling him with his fists while shouting, "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch! Trying to ruin the friendship between me and Banner Officer Ling! You must be one of Yin Cheng’s accomplices!"

Ling Yunkai felt a tightness in his chest, and the world began to spin.