Chapter 23: You’re Still Too Young—You Can’t Handle It!

“Wonderful. Truly wonderful.”

Along with that cry of praise,

Su Can rode slowly out from the shadows on horseback.

Whoosh!

In the surrounding woods, countless torches flared to life all at once.

The clearing was instantly lit as bright as day.

Countless members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Flying Fish Robes stood ready with powerful crossbows in hand, golden radiance flowing faintly across them. They had already surrounded the place so tightly that not a drop of water could have escaped.

Chu Hao and the people of the Shan Kingdom were both stunned.

Especially the Shan Kingdom side.

They looked at Chu Hao and his group, who were equally panicked, and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

These people were not from the Embroidered Uniform Guard at all.

Then what exactly had that battle just now been?

Chu Hao was just as shocked, inwardly crying that things had gone bad.

Before coming here, he had already received word.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had supposedly withdrawn.

So why had they suddenly appeared again?

Su Can could not care less what these people were thinking. He decisively gave the order:

“All of you, surrender without resistance. Otherwise, you may try your luck against Great Xia’s Cloud-Piercing Crossbows.”

The Cloud-Piercing Crossbow had been devised by the Prince of Qin and was capable of piercing through most spiritual energy shields.

Moreover, it had won great fame during the war years.

None of them wished to test it with their lives.

The Shan Kingdom experts and Chu Hao exchanged a glance and instantly came to an understanding.

Run!

No matter what, they would join forces first and break out before anything else.

Under no circumstances could they fall into the hands of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Boom!

The few remaining Third-Rank experts erupted with power at the same time and scattered in all directions as they fled.

They had every confidence

that with the speed and explosive force of Third-Rank experts, even if the Embroidered Uniform Guard could stop some of them, they could never stop them all.

Besides, with so many people on their side, surely the unlucky one would not be them.

Just as they were about to burst through the encirclement, a voice rang out.

“Draw a Prison Upon the Ground.”

Bzz!

The gathered experts felt only a flash of brilliant white before their bodies slammed into an invisible wall.

Bang. Bang.

A few dull thuds sounded as they were all bounced back and fell to their original positions.

When they looked up, they saw a translucent white light screen instantly rise, covering an area of one hundred zhang.

Then they turned their heads

and saw the mocking look in Su Can’s eyes, along with the jade pendant shining brilliantly in his hand.

“That aura is…”

Chu Hao was the first to react, gritting his teeth as he spat out:

“Vast Righteous Qi… Xu Tian, Prince of Qin!”

As for the leader of the Shan Kingdom group, a fierce glint flashed through his eyes.

Rather than sit and await death, it would be better to make a desperate struggle.

Take down that brat with the jade pendant first.

“Attack.”

He barked the word in a low voice and was the first to pounce toward Su Can.

Chu Hao and the others also lit up with realization. They knew this was their last chance.

Those who had just been fighting one another to the death suddenly moved with a shared understanding and charged forward madly.

None of them noticed that the “Carefree Young Master” who had taken the lead had already begun quietly retreating.

“A gentleman keeps his tools hidden upon his person…”

The charging figures all looked up in astonishment toward Su Can, high upon his horse.

They could not understand why a coarse martial brute like him would suddenly utter the words of a Confucian sage.

In the next moment, they all understood.

The calligraphy sheet in Su Can’s hand, which had lit up at some unknown moment, suddenly dissolved.

It transformed into strands of white mist that wrapped around the Embroidered Spring Blades in the hands of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and around the Cloud-Piercing Crossbows they held at the ready…

That aura was blazing, upright, and peerlessly sharp.

It was as though Vast Righteous Qi itself had descended upon them!

“…and waits for the right moment to act.”

Su Can suddenly drew his blade.

Shing!

Dozens of Embroidered Spring Blades were drawn at the same instant.

Dazzling saber-light mixed with Vast Righteous Qi so dense it was almost tangible as it burst forth.

Together with the hundreds of Cloud-Piercing Crossbow bolts shrieking through the air, they descended from above in a dense storm!

This was the effect of the Slaughter calligraphy sheet.

It imbued all weapons on one’s own side with Vast Righteous Qi and drastically increased their power.

“Damn… this is monstrous.”

Already fallen back to the rear, Chu Hao felt his scalp go numb at the sight of that terrifying saber-light.

“Xu Tian, Prince of Qin… why is he involved in everything?”

“Elder Qi… help me, quickly… otherwise we’re all going to die here.”

Chu Hao screamed inwardly.

“Ah… the little bit of strength this old man has accumulated…”

The “Old Grandpa” inside the ring let out a sigh.

Then a strange force poured into Chu Hao’s legs.

“Divine Footwork.”

Whoosh.

Chu Hao’s figure instantly blurred.

He actually forced his way through that layer of light screen and turned into a streak of light that vanished into the night.

In the next moment, everyone still within the encirclement was swallowed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s terrifying assault.

“Hm? One got away? Fast!”

Su Can cast a somewhat surprised look in the direction Chu Hao had vanished, then turned his gaze back to the battlefield.

When the dust finally cleared, not a single person was left standing.

“Take them all alive. Only those who survive are qualified to be interrogated.”

Though his words were domineering, inwardly he was deeply shaken.

Big Brother’s calligraphy sheets were too powerful!

In the past, if he had encountered more than a dozen Third-Rank experts like this, it would have been absolutely impossible to take them all down.

After all, if Third-Rank experts truly set their hearts on escaping, they were very good at it.

To forcibly keep them all here would have required an enormous price.

That was why he had called for reinforcement from the City Guard Army.

But he had never imagined that a single calligraphy sheet from Big Brother would settle the matter outright.

Subconsciously, he touched the remaining calligraphy sheets tucked inside his chest and felt a certain emptiness in his heart.

No. He still had too few calligraphy sheets.

At that very moment, the hurried sound of hoofbeats came from afar.

Xue Ren, Commander of the City Guard Army, arrived with a large force of men.

He leapt down from his horse. Looking at the captives strewn all over the ground, he was visibly stunned.

“So fast? Little Su, is this… Vast Righteous Qi?”

Then, when his gaze turned to Su Can, he noticed the Embroidered Spring Blade that was still faintly glowing.

With some hesitation, he asked, “Little Su, what is going on with your blade? This is Vast Righteous Qi.”

He hurried right up to Su Can, his eyes fixed on the blade so intensely that he was nearly drooling.

“If this thing were used on the battlefield, then who could withstand it? This is practically a divine weapon.”

“The Vast Righteous Qi is still leaking away, so it seems to be temporary. Then is there a limit to the number of people it can empower? And how high can that empowerment go?”

“Uncle Xue, calm down.”

Su Can sheathed his blade and lifted his chin as he spoke:

“This is a Slaughter calligraphy sheet personally bestowed by His Highness the Prince of Qin. Even now, I’m only bringing out a tenth, perhaps two-tenths, of its full effect.”

“I heard from His Highness that if it were activated by a Confucian scholar using Vast Righteous Qi, then not only could it be unleashed instantly, but its power could increase severalfold again.”

Hiss!

Xue Ren sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes blazing with light.

“Doesn’t that mean that with this Slaughter Word Formula, plus a few Confucian cultivators to support it, the battle strength of Great Xia’s armies could double outright?!”

Su Can nodded, scratching his head somewhat uncertainly.

“Probably… that’s what His Highness said…”

Brilliant light burst from Xue Ren’s eyes.

It was as though he could already see Great Xia’s armies sweeping across the world.

Suddenly, he stretched out a hand.

“So, Little Su… do you still have that calligraphy sheet? Let your uncle take a look.”

Su Can reacted with astonishing speed. He clutched his chest and took two wary steps back.

“This is my property. What are you trying to do?”

Xue Ren waved a hand, looking full of righteous sincerity.

“What do you mean, trying to seize it? This thing is far too important. You’re still too young—you can’t handle it. It ought to be entrusted to someone steady like me for safekeeping.”

“Uncle Xue is as humorous as ever.”

Su Can let out a grin and turned away with his men.

“For these devils to show themselves at a time like this, there must be a great conspiracy behind it. The most urgent matter now is to interrogate them for intelligence. I’ll leave things here to steady Uncle Xue. I’m going to report back to Big Brother Xu.”

Watching Su Can’s hurried retreating figure, Xue Ren curled his lip and withdrew his hand.

“That boy really did change after a few years of training with the frontier army. He’s much harder to fool now. He’s completely different from the great idiot he was as a child, the one who would follow anyone for a candied hawthorn skewer.”

Then he turned around.

His gaze fell upon the dispirited captives on the ground, and his eyes instantly turned cold as iron.

“This is Zhao Family territory. It truly wasn’t easy for these people to hide here for so long.”

“But… now that we’ve taken live prisoners, things are simple enough…”