A sickly fellow ridiculed by the entire army? I'll be the most beautiful woman in the barracks!

As one of the bandits charged forward, he watched his comrades fall one after another like wheat being harvested, and the sounds of battle that filled his ears seemed to grow ever more distant.

Gradually, the surroundings seemed to fall into silence, leaving only the sound of my heavy breathing and my rapid heartbeat.

Until an arrow piercing his companion's chest grew larger and larger before his eyes.

He instinctively wanted to dodge, but his body couldn't keep up with his brain.

He watched helplessly as the arrow pierced his heart, followed by intense pain and endless darkness.

A feeling called fear spread among the bandits.

Five breaths later, Zhao Daxuan fired the fifteenth volley of arrows, leaving forty-five more corpses on the ground.

At this moment, the bandits had only charged fifty paces when they saw that half of the brothers who had just charged alongside them were gone in the blink of an eye.

At this point, the crowd could no longer suppress their panic and turned from charging into scattering and fleeing.

Standing behind Zhao Daxuan, Li Erhu watched the fleeing bandits ahead and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He shouted, "Those who surrender will not be killed!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the other city guards shouted in unison, "Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Those who surrender will not be killed!

The shouts were deafening, and the bandits who had just fled stopped and knelt down to surrender.

Upon seeing this, Li Erhu immediately led his men to rush forward, disarmed the bandits, and tied them up.

Zhao Daxuan ignored the surrendered bandits and turned his attention back to the leader who was standing in place.

At this moment, the leader's face was ashen, his lips trembled slightly, and he looked at the scene before him in disbelief, as if he had aged decades in an instant.

He never imagined that his gang, which he had painstakingly built up over many years, would be completely destroyed by the person in front of him in less than half an hour.

Zhao Daxuan walked slowly to the leader and said calmly, "I said I'd take you all by the skin of my teeth, and I mean it."

The leader reached his trembling hand behind him, lowered his head, and said in a hoarse voice, "Do you know who's backing me up to keep me in this position under the very nose of Zhenbei City for so long?

Zhao Daxuan sneered and said disdainfully, "All I know is that no one can save you today."

The leader suddenly looked up, a hint of despair flashing in his eyes. Knowing that all was lost, he sighed, slowly closed his eyes, and raised the long knife in his hand to slash his own neck.

"Ding!"

Just then, a flash of cold light appeared, and an arrow struck the hilt of the sword, causing the long sword to slip from his hand and fall to the ground.

Zhao Daxuan flashed forward and kicked the gang leader to the ground, coldly saying, "Did I say you were going to die?"

After saying that, he pointed to the city guards not far away and said, "Take him away, don't let him die!"

Immediately, someone stepped forward, pinned the leader down, and tied him up. The leader struggled in vain, roaring, "Kill me if you dare!"

Zhao Daxuan ignored him and turned to walk towards the chief's room. Last night's experience of raiding the chief's house had given him a taste of the thrill, and he couldn't help but want to see if there was anything good in the chief's room.

After looking around, Zhao Daxuan was very disappointed. There were only a little over a hundred taels of silver in the room, and nothing else of value.

After carefully putting away the loose silver, Zhao Daxuan turned around and walked out of the room when he saw Li Erhu approaching, presenting an envelope to Zhao Daxuan as if it were a treasure.

Li Erhu fawned, "Sir, these are letters we found on the bandit leader. They might contain some clues. Please take a look!"

Zhao Daxuan took the envelope, opened it, and found a letter and a portrait inside. The person in the portrait was Zhao Daxuan!

Zhao Daxuan laughed heartily, held up the letter in his hand, and looked at the leader, saying, "So, are you willing to reveal the mastermind behind this?"

The leader simply snorted coldly and turned his head to the side without saying a word.

Seeing this, Zhao Daxuan remained unhurried, putting the letter into his pocket. Now that he had both witnesses and physical evidence, he planned to take it back to Zhenbei City for a thorough interrogation.

Looking at Li Erhu's fawning expression, Zhao Daxuan smiled slightly, took out the bag of loose silver he had just found in the chief's room, and tossed it to Li Erhu.

"Take it and distribute it to the brothers present."

Li Erhu caught the silver bag tossed to him by Zhao Daxuan. Feeling its heavy weight, his smile widened even more as he grinned and said, "Thank you for your generous gift, sir! The brothers are truly blessed!"

Having said that, he turned to the group of city guards and shouted, "Brothers, Lord Zhao has rewarded us! Come and get your share of the silver!"

Immediately, the city guards who were busy binding the prisoners cheered, and the huge cheers echoed in the sky above the Daliang Mountains.

On the other side, after Deng Rong led a vanguard of fifty men to set off, Gao Yun waited for about fifteen minutes before leisurely setting off himself.

With the vanguard leading the way and their past experience, the main force that set off now resumed its usual relaxed style. The group didn't seem to be on a military expedition, but rather like they were on a picnic.

As they traveled deeper into the Daliang Mountains, Gao Yuan's brows furrowed. Why hadn't Deng Rong sent him any news yet?

Before setting off, he had privately instructed Deng Rong that after the bandits in the Daliang Mountains launched a surprise attack and killed Zhao Daxuan, they should send someone to report to him so that he could stop going deep into the Daliang Mountains and avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings.

They had already reached more than halfway up the mountain, but still hadn't received any news. Then, when they came to a hillside not far away, they smelled a bloody stench from afar, and a slight smile appeared on their lips.

Suddenly, a gasp came from the front of the group. Gao Yuan's expression turned serious. He strode forward, scolding as he went, "It's just someone dying! What's the big fuss about!"

When he reached the front of the group, he saw on the hillside not far away, there lay the corpses of bandits, all of them killed by arrows, each one fatal.

A quick glance revealed more than a dozen bandit corpses.

Gao Yuan frowned slightly. This scene was completely different from what he had imagined. He had originally thought that the smell of blood came from Zhao Daxuan's corpse, but it turned out to be the corpses of more than a dozen bandits.

This is abnormal. Even if the vanguard fought with the bandits who were lying in ambush, why are there only the bandits' corpses here, and not the vanguard soldiers' corpses? Could they have been taken away by someone else?

Gao Yuan was puzzled, but there weren't many clues here, so he could only continue forward, catch up with the vanguard, and find out what was going on. He then said, "Keep moving forward! Everyone stay alert and pay close attention to your surroundings!"

The main force advanced again. But this time, the relaxed atmosphere of the troops had vanished, replaced by a solemn demeanor.

As we continued along the mountain path, we saw the corpses of bandits appearing on both sides of the path. There were even several decapitated bandit corpses on the path, their faces filled with terror, as if they had encountered something horrific.

Gao Yuan watched this scene with a furrowed brow, and an image flashed through his mind: a group of bandits being chased by a mysterious force. The bandits, powerless to fight back, fled for their lives, but were ultimately shot dead by an arrow.

Who exactly is this mysterious force? Is it related to the vanguard team that set off earlier? Gao Yuan's doubts grew, and he immediately ordered the team to speed up!