Chapter Seven Refusal at the Gate

  "Alright then." Leiming nodded in agreement, "If you don't join, then..." He made a slashing motion with his hand across his neck. The two men who had knocked General Meng to the ground looked at each other, laughing and crying at the same time, they never thought they would be threatened like this one day.

  "Stop pretending! You'd better just spit out all your blood from practicing internal energy!" Yang Tian angrily shouted at the two people who had fallen to the ground.

  General Meng and the other man stared at each other in confusion, unsure of what to say. General Meng relaxed, crossing his legs and sitting comfortably, then spoke up: "I don't know what you're getting at. Although my breathing is calm now, my energy is still blocked, and I won't be able to use much strength." The robust man also sat down on the ground, unwilling to back down.

  At this time, the sound of killing came from outside, and soon after, the sound of wailing and screaming was heard, the desperate cries before death. The two generals Meng's faces turned pale for a moment, then calmed down again.

  "Maybe they really don't understand." Lei Meng concluded, as the longer he didn't speak out, the more painful it became. "I'll do it, you two sit still and don't move!" After finishing speaking, he put away his Tang knife and walked towards the back of the two people. General Meng and the other person were injured at this moment, if Lei Meng wanted to kill them, they wouldn't have any way to resist, so they sat calmly.

  Lei Meng's internal energy surged into his right hand, and with a few quick jabs to General Meng's left shoulder and back, he pressed his palm against the general's upper back, forcing out a mouthful of blood. After spitting out the blood, General Meng felt much more comfortable, but just as he was about to circulate his internal energy again, Lei Meng quickly jabbed several points on the general's back, rendering him unable to muster any strength once more.

  "It's better for you to just stay honest." Lei Meng hummed and then also punished the strong man according to the law.

  Yang Tian saw that they had finished and walked up to say: "I'm Yang Tian, he's Lei Meng. I don't know what you two are called? What kind of people are you?"

  General Meng gazed at Yang Tian's eyes for a moment, seeing only sincerity in them, and then said: "I am Meng Fan, the highest ruler of this city. He is Luo Jie Cheng, a master who came here to travel."

  "Which sect are you from?" Yang Tian stared at Meng Fan and asked.

  Meng Fan couldn't bear the gaze, so he shifted his line of sight and said: "To be honest, we are from Tianwei Sect. We came to inspect the people's livelihoods. If the people are suffering too much, we will advise Huangtian not to implement policies that harm heaven and humanity. I don't know who you two are..." He looked back and forth at Lei Ming and Yang Tian, really unable to think of which sect had such a talented person.

  Lei Meng and Yang Tian exchanged a glance, both thinking to themselves that this was deeper than they had expected. Lei Meng asked: "How many people are in your Tianwei Sect? How many experts like you are there?"

  "This... I don't know either. When I was young, all I knew was that my master took me as his apprentice, taught me martial arts, told me the principles of our sect and then left. I roamed around everywhere, two months ago, Emperor Chu Wei appointed me as the General of Yao City. Luo Ze also found this place and learned here that he is a disciple of my master's brother. Unexpectedly, today I fell into your hands..." Meng Fan's face was filled with sorrow.

  Yang Tian's stomach was churning, what a pitiful child, he had just started out and was already caught. But thinking about his own luck index not being high either, he let out a sigh and didn't mock him, saying: "The two of us come from..." He stretched out his hand to point upwards, Meng Fan and Luo Jie were shocked, then nodded in understanding.

  I don't know what they understand, anyway it can't be right. Yang Tian continued: "We joined the Jin Yuan army, but at that time General Tong Wen was framed by someone, and the whole army was forced into Huatian, and then all these things happened." After finishing speaking, he shrugged his shoulders and stared at the two of them again, as if trying to see flowers on their faces.

  "Join us, we don't want to fight either. After all, it's the ordinary people who suffer in a war. We're just short of food and have no choice but to take it by force." Lei Ming proposed at the right moment.

  Seeing the two hesitating to speak, Lei Meng continued: "If we had a piece of land, we would definitely govern it much better than Huang Tian and Jin Yuan, and the people would live much better lives."

  At this time, the shouting outside gradually subsided, and it seemed that the situation was almost under control. Meng Fan thought about whether to respond or not, after all, just talking was not enough to prove anything. This was a very difficult decision: if he didn't respond, he might die; but if he did, he feared it would go against his principles...

  Lei Meng saw the hesitation in Meng Fan's eyes and turned to look at Luo Jie Cheng. Luo Jie Cheng, seeing Lei Meng looking over, stiffened his neck and said: "You ambushed us from behind, I don't accept it!"

  Lei Meng's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he encountered another proper second fool. Yang Tian heard this and chuckled: "You can be injured by me, but you can't win against him. He's much more formidable than I am." He pointed at Lei Meng.

  Meng Fan and Roger were shocked to hear this, but they still had some doubts in their hearts. Yang Tian was already formidable enough, and the two of them looked about the same age, so how could there be someone even more formidable?

  Lei Meng smiled slightly and said, "Don't you wonder how I managed to touch your back?"

  "Uh..." Roger was stunned, thinking to himself how he could have forgotten this, and it wouldn't be too hard for someone to sneak up behind him and take him out.

  "Alright, you guys think carefully. I'm going to find something to eat." Lei Meng's stomach growled twice, he touched it and turned around, picked up two pieces of meat from the table and swallowed them down.

  Yang Tian also rushed over and picked up two pieces of padding to fill his stomach. If they weren't so hungry, the two of them wouldn't be eating in a place with three corpses lying around.

  Meng Fan and Roger stared at each other in silence.

  Before long, Luoyang Tian, Qin Hao, Mr. Wen and Huang Chu arrived at the hall, seeing Lei Ming and Yang Tian sitting on chairs drinking wine, three people lying motionless on the ground, and two more people sitting on the other side.

  Everyone was shocked and did not expect that there were still survivors under the two killing gods. Luoyang Tian asked, "Leiming, who are these two people?"

  The thunder rumbled on, but he ignored it and continued drinking. Yang Tian said, "They're captives. The one on the left is called Meng Fan, and the one on the right is called Luo Jiecheng." After finishing speaking, he also quickly grabbed a wine jug to pour himself another bowl.

  Jian Luo Yang and others still did not understand, Yang Tian continued: "These two are masters, they may join our escape."

  "Oh~" Luoyang Tian's expression suddenly became clear, but it was unclear whether his understanding matched Yang Tian's intention.

  Qin Hao quickly called two people over and had them tidy up the hall. In fact, they only needed to carry out three corpses for disposal.

  Soon, the soldiers found food in the granary of Yaicheng and cooked it for dinner. Leiming and others did not ill-treat Meng Fan and his wife, but simply locked them up in a room; as for the captured Haotian soldiers, they were all tied up and detained to be dealt with tomorrow.

  At midnight, Meng Fan said to Luo Jiecheng who was wide awake in the dark night: "Jiecheng, what do you think?"

  "What's going on? We're blocked off from Wugong, and it's hard to escape." Roger Cheng replied without hesitation.

  "No, I'm asking you what you think of Lei Meng and Yang Tian."

  "They're both very formidable, at least I'm no match for them."

  ……

  After a moment of silence, Meng Fan said: "I also can't beat them. Maybe they really are from above. Sigh... let's talk about it tomorrow instead. Anyway, they won't kill the two of us."

  The black night fell silent again, the thunder outside did not hear any useful news, lost interest, turned around and touched back to sleep.

  The next day, just after dawn broke, Lei Meng and Fang were taken to eat breakfast by the two men, who treated them completely without regard for their status as captives, except that they restricted their martial arts and freedom. The two of them watched with their eyes and felt it in their hearts, silently making a decision.

  Lei Meng proposed that all Jin soldiers wear the heavenly attire, defend the city wall to pretend to be real, because they need time to rest. The proposal was passed unanimously and quickly executed.

  At noon, Lei Meng, Yang Tian, Luo Jiangjun, Mr. Wen and others, including Meng Fan and Luo Jiecheng, were inspecting the city together. Meng Fan was introducing the relevant things of this city like a family treasure, actually just talking about which shops and mansions are here.

  At this time, a scout came to report that a Haotian soldier had come from the direction of Tianyuan City. Leiming tilted his head and asked: "Meng Fan, you are the commander here, what do you think?"

  Meng Fan glanced at the surrounding Jin Yuan generals, knowing that this was a test for himself. He smiled and said, "Lei... Lei Meng, you've all come here. I think he's here to report something, let me strengthen our defenses."

  "So what do you plan to do about it?" Lei Meng asked.

  "I... " Meng Fan glanced at the people staring at him, thinking to himself that if he answered incorrectly, would he be stabbed with a sword. He rolled his eyes and said, "I will let him go back, tell him I know about this matter, and prohibit civilians from entering or leaving."

  Everyone nodded, and Lei Meng rubbed his smooth chin, saying: "Hmmm, not bad, you're considered qualified." Meng Fan was sweating profusely. Being told he's qualified by a kid is truly humiliating. The more he looked at them during the day, the younger he felt Lei Meng and Yang Tian were, they just had a slightly more mature demeanor and extremely high martial arts skills.

  "Then I'll go with him." Yang Tian volunteered to accompany Sakura, and after finishing, he smiled and looked at Meng Fan, as if waiting for his performance.

  "What?! Me?" Meng Fan's face was full of surprise, he hadn't expected his previous hypothesis to actually require him to take action. But seeing Lei Ming nodding in affirmation, he let out a light breath and said, "Alright then. I'll go."

  Meng Fan turned and walked towards the city wall, with Yang Tian following closely behind. Before long, the two of them disappeared around the bend. Luoyang Tian, Mr. Wen, and Huang Chu all cast admiring glances at Lei Ming, each thinking that his move had profound implications.

  Lei Meng shrugged his shoulders and didn't care much about it. After all, no matter how hard Meng Fan jumped, he couldn't turn the sky upside down, and Yang Tianke was following him anyway.

  Meng Fan and Yang Tian arrived at the city wall, looking at the defending Jin Yuan soldiers - although they were wearing Huatian uniforms, Meng Fan knew that couldn't be Huatian soldiers, because his 5,000 troops had been killed or captured. The defense was tight inside but loose outside, and he couldn't help but secretly praise Lei Ming and others for their ingenuity and the excellence of the soldiers.

  Before long, a horseman came galloping from the south. Meng Fan looked up and gazed into the distance, and indeed it was a Heavenly Soldier, and judging by the hat he wore, he must be a messenger.

  Before long, the messenger arrived at the city gate, looking at the closed city gate and the sparse defense on the city wall. Just as he was about to shout for the door to be opened, Meng Fan shouted: "Who is coming! I am Meng Fan, the commander of Yaocheng!"

  That man on horseback cupped his hands and said: "I am the messenger of Tianyuan City, ordered by General Wang Weilong to inform the general: Jin Yuan's roving troops may make a surprise attack, so strengthen your defenses and do not be caught off guard."

  "Alright, alright, you can go now." Meng Fan waved his hand impatiently.

  The messenger saw that the city gate was not open, and he was blown back like this. He was a bit angry in his heart, but thinking about the rumors related to him, his martial arts were high, but he was very proud of himself, looking down on people... He endured it, hummed softly, and turned his horse's head to gallop away.

  "Haha, this person is so rude, he actually left without even greeting General Meng!" Yang Tian sneered, emerging from behind the city wall.

  Meng Fan shrugged and spread his hands, saying: "I've always been like this! They've long since grown tired of me. Only..." He had originally wanted to continue speaking, but considering the high level of martial arts skills they possessed, he didn't want to offend them too much; however, thinking about how he was captured just last night, he swallowed back those words, which made him feel a wave of discomfort.

  "Hehe......" Yang Tian thought it was quite fun to tease Meng Fan a bit, at least better than Luo Yangtian and Qin Hao.

  The two of them finished dealing with this matter and then went down from the city wall to join up with Lei Meng and the others.