Chapter 5: Betraying One's Comrades

  Wu Fan, who had been hastily promoted without a formal order, followed his superior General Qian Rui out of Luoyang City.

  Outside Luoyang City, all 2,300 people from the entire Qianhu Suo gathered together, standing solemnly on the empty pounded earth road, with extremely strict discipline.

  Qianhu Yingyang's deputy, Zhao Xi, wore a very good suit of armor and sat on a majestic war horse. He glanced at the nearly assembled troops, waved his hand, and signaled to set off.

  "Damn it! Sons of bitches! Those bastards from Youji Squadron! They've got me eating dust again!"

  Because of the task requirements, the Thousand House was divided into "Youji House" and "Jiashi House", which means cavalry and infantry. Three out of ten hundred households were Youji House, and the remaining seven were Jiashi House. Usually, it's okay, can't see any difference, but once encountered such a long-distance running task, those who got war horses in Youji House would have a good time, while people from Jiashi House could only follow behind and suffer, which made many people from Jiashi House very dissatisfied.

  Wu Fan covered his mouth and said to the complaining subordinate while running: "Shut up, when you speak, don't you swallow another two taels of ash?"

  It's a small flag, Wu Fan has twenty brothers under his command. Wu Fan is normally very aloof and doesn't like to form cliques. However, he is the top fighter in his hundred-man squad, with martial arts skills far surpassing those of others in the Eagle Guards. As a result, people below him admire him and are willing to follow him.

  "Wu Tou'er! Have you heard?"

  A young man in his early twenties squeezed beside Wu Fan, with a mysterious expression on his face, but couldn't help but smile.

  Wu Fan raised an eyebrow, with some guesses in his mind, and asked feigning ignorance: "What's going on?"

  The young man said in a low voice: "Chen Baihu... no! Chen Yu Xi is the sharp and pointed one of Maitreya's evil sect, beheaded by you. Then his vacancy must have been filled by either Qian Zongqi or Guo Zongqi. You think, with such great merit this time, the vacant position of General Flag..."

  "What needs to be said has been said, and what shouldn't be said should not be spouted! The higher-ups will naturally have their own considerations," Wu Fan shook his head indifferently: "Let's just conserve our energy, lest when we really encounter the demonic people of the Maitreya Sect, our hands and feet turn soft, and we become ghosts under the knife."

  When Wu Fan said that, everyone around him who was making a racket also fell silent, adjusted their breathing, and followed the main team with their heads down.

  He ran over ten miles at once.

  "Get around!"

  Deputy Commander Zhao Xi finally spoke up, loudly ordering the Eagle Guards of the Commander's Office to surround half of a high mountain outside Luoyang City.

  "Forward!"

  After letting the Eagle Guards take a short break, Zhao Xi gave the order to hunt down and kill.

  More than 2,300 people from Luoyang Qianhu Su's Eagle Wing Guard rushed out, of course, they had confirmed the location where Maitreya teachings were hiding. The Eagle Wing Guards lined up in a single row, holding their weapons tightly, and advanced up the mountain in a carpet-like formation with short intervals between each other.

  The mountain called Baitou Mountain is very high, over 300 zhang tall, with dense forests and thickets of shrubs, making it a great place to hide. The only bad thing for the Eagle Guards is also good news: on the other side of the mountain is a steep cliff formed by the mountains, where the Luo River flows through. In short, the Maitreya Sect, which has already been targeted by the Eagle Guards, can only face forward and has no way to retreat.

  After entering the dense forest, Wu Fan drew out one of the fourteen styles - a three-foot long fine steel beheading knife, and became vigilant.

  It won't do to be off guard! Those who know about the Maitreya teachings are not people who can be easily swayed by superficial accomplishments, but rather they are all very powerful and experienced individuals in the Jianghu world, and it's not easy to provoke them. Why did the Southern Liang Kingdom perish? It was because these people were dissatisfied with the governance of the ruler of Liang, and constantly caused trouble, creating internal strife within Liang, which ultimately led to its downfall at the hands of the Great Sui Empire.

  Logically speaking, the people of Maitreya should be considered indirect contributors to the downfall of the Southern Liang Dynasty by the Sui Empire. It is only natural that they would be accepted. However, things did not turn out that way. According to legend, the high-ranking officials of the Sui Empire were also wary of these people and launched a massive manhunt and slaughter against them after the destruction of the Southern Liang Dynasty. They went so far as to say that it was better to mistakenly kill 1,000 people than to let one person go. In the south, having suffered greatly at the hands of the Sui Empire, the Maitreya sect had no choice but to begin migrating northward. It began to take revenge on the Sui Empire and in just over a month, it had already set its sights on the eastern capital city of Luoyang.

  Regarding the Maitreya Teachings, Wu Fan didn't know much about it, but he was very clear that at present, the Maitreya Teachings were absolutely the number one object of vigilance for the Great Sui Empire, except for the northern state of Yan. That's why he dared to use the Maitreya Teachings as a pretext, assassinating his superior, Baihu Chen Yu. At this moment, Wu Fan was single-minded, licking his lips like a wolf that had spotted its prey. The reason was simple: he needed money! He needed achievements! And the heads of the Maitreya Teachings' followers, as well as the wealth they carried with them, were exactly what he needed!

  "Rustle!"

  The leaves underfoot were trampled and made a rustling sound.

  The pungent smell of rot wafted in, carrying with it the faint scent of mud and leaves, an indescribable stench that was also somehow fragrant.

  It's quiet, too quiet, so quiet it's almost abnormal.

  Wu Fan waved his hand, signaling the twenty men beside him to stop in their tracks. He pretended to listen carefully with his ear cocked to one side, then stretched out his hand and continued to call out for others to advance.

  That's right, let others advance, Wu Fan himself did not advance.

  "Hiss! Thud thud!"

  With a swing of his body, the fourteen knife sheaths shot out, and the steel cables with sharp tips nailed themselves to the trunk of a tall tree. Wu Fan rose from the ground to the top of the tree, then relied on the mechanism of the fourteen stances to move between the trees, like an ape.

  "Ah!!!!!!"

  A chorus of miserable cries suddenly rang out, and nearly a hundred Eagle Guards, including several under Wu Fan's command, fell into the pit. For a time, the wails of despair did not cease to echo in one's ears.

  Looking at the sharpened wooden stakes in the pit, as well as the people hanging from them who were still crying out in agony, Wu Fan on the big tree wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Indeed, my premonition was correct! The Eagle Guard has discovered the Maitreya Sect, and the Maitreya Sect has also discovered the Eagle Guard. Moreover, they had been prepared!"

  "Kill all these imperial running dogs!"

  A loud roar, like a tiger's howl in the mountains, was immediately followed by a sturdy man emerging from the depths of the dense forest, holding two short axes.

  Immediately afterwards, countless Maitreya sects charged downwards with an air of superiority.

  Someone has come out, which means there are no landmines on the ground.

  Wu Fan pondered for a moment, dispelled the state of flying in the air, landed on the ground, and shouted beautifully: "Form an array! Kill all the Maitreya Sect demons, avenge our fallen brothers!"

  Fourteen men without any hidden agenda immediately regarded Wu Fan as their leader and formed a small cone-shaped formation.

  This is the usual military formation of Ying Yang Wei, specializing in dealing with those Jianghu Wugong who are good at solo fighting. With a small flag of twenty people or ten people as a unit, they form an overall situation to crush the Jianghu Wugong and slash them with chaotic knives.

  "Kill!"

  Perhaps Wu Fan's side evolved the military formation faster than the others, catching the attention of that Maitreya Teach's burly man. The man held an axe in both hands and charged over, shouting.

  "Looking for death!"

  Wu Fan let out a cold snort, stretched out his hand to put the knife sheath behind him at his waist, and patted it against the robust man.

  "Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh!"

  Dozens of steel needles soaked in deadly poison by Wu Fan shot towards the robust man with incredible speed.

  Fourteen postures don't just mean fourteen knives, it's a small arsenal of weapons from big knives to steel needles, hidden bows and crossbows, far mirrors and steel ropes. "One box in hand, no worries about escaping" Have you heard of it?

  "Ding ding ding!"

  That sturdy man saw Wu Fan's action of releasing the hidden weapon, and desperately swung his two axes, trying to knock down all the steel needles. Unfortunately, his internal breath cultivation had not yet reached the point where he could ignore the hidden weapons, and was nailed to his chest by a steel needle.

  "Boom!"

  The deadly poison on the steel needle took effect instantly, and the giant had not yet reached Wu Fan's front when he fell to the ground with a thud, his face iron-green and foaming at the mouth.

  "Whoosh!"

  Wu Fan took a big step forward and with one knife cut off his opponent's head, holding it in his hand, furious and covered in blood.

  With a majestic and powerful gesture, Wu Fan held up the head in one hand, while pointing his knife at the approaching Maitreya sect members with the other. "You insolent fools," he shouted, "how dare you rebel against your superiors? Brothers, follow me!"

  Seeing their own superior so brave and fierce on top of them, the dozen or so people below suddenly let out a loud cry, treating him as if he were a god.

  Wu Fan quietly retreated into the army formation, thinking to himself: "You will soon find out why I don't like to be in contact with you guys usually. It's better to have no feelings so that you can take advantage of me! Speaking of which... is there a sinister point system for selling out teammates and taking credit for oneself? Alas, I'm really bad!"

  ……

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