Chapter 18: An Old Friend Arrives

“Damn traitor!”

“We agreed that only two would come to exchange the documents, yet Luo Yuluo sent over thirty men.”

“And they’re all his elite retainers.”

“If we had sent only two messengers, I’m afraid it would have ended badly…”

Long Zhu clicked his tongue and instinctively pressed his hand against the jade sword at his waist.

“We must be prepared!”

Dai Longmei activated his inner energy, channeling it into the jade ring, then mentally checked the sword’s position inside for quick access.

“Hey, Fifth Master, later you should show those fellows your ‘Flying Sword from the Ring,’” Long Zhu said eagerly.

Long Zhu had long known that his Fifth Master possessed a magical ring that could hold anything, hence his expectant demeanor.

“If negotiations fail, we’ll have to fight. We came here to exchange the pass documents, after all. This is the proper procedure for the Liaodong army to advance east and return home.”

“But if they decide to attack first…”

Long Zhu’s question was anticipated by Dai Longmei long ago.

Seeing the Jin army’s ‘hospitality’ now, his concerns grew even heavier.

After the Jinchuan War, the Liaodong army handed over the restoration of Jinchuan to the Longyou army and swiftly marched eastward, aiming to reach the capital quickly and plan military deployments.

But at the eastern border of Jinchuan, the situation shifted.

Jin King Luo Yuluo had remained inactive during the Jinchuan War but now marched westward, intending to seize the unclaimed Jinchuan Road lost by Bobai.

Twenty li east of Gao Dazhu, over thirty thousand Jin soldiers had entrenched themselves aggressively.

They were blocking the Liaodong army’s eastern advance.

Though the Jinchuan War had ended, tension between the Liaodong and Jin armies now hung thick in the air.

Eldest brother Dai Rusong sent a letter to Jin King, earnestly outlining the stakes.

Most importantly, he offered to give the Liaodong army’s spoils from the Bo family to the Jin King.

“Damn that old thief Yuluo! We gave him all the treasure we plundered, and now he dares block our path!” Long Zhu said indignantly.

Dai Longmei also felt resentment over this but, recalling his second brother’s comical anger when he learned the jewels had been intercepted, he could only laugh heartily.

“Zhuzi... they’re coming with ill intent!”

“Fifth Master… you’re the real intruder here!”

“Nonsense! Under heaven, is there any land not meant for jade? I am a man of jade, so who’s really the intruder?”

“Does the entire world belong to the Luo family alone?” Dai Longmei shouted again.

His mount, Pursuing Wind, shot forward like a carrot dangling in front of a horse.

“Oh my, not again!” Dai Longmei laughed loudly and shouted,

“Zhuzi, charge toward Gao Dazhu!”

“Charge!”

Galloping on horseback, Dai Longmei felt the fierce wind whipping past his ears.

He loved this feeling—the cold wind brushing by and the exhilaration of charging into the enemy like in his days as a wandering knight across Tianyu.

Though those years lasted only two, they had been his happiest.

He was no longer being taught who to be but striving to become who he wanted.

But in the end, he failed.

The reason for his failure was his father.

“Old ghost…”

His father had sent his beloved eldest brother to trick and capture him, drugging him unconscious and dragging him back to Liaodong.

He had to abandon newly made friends and the people he was helping.

For this, he hated his father.

That was why, back at Nanguan in Jinchuan, facing Liu Zhengxiong’s accusations, Dai Longmei was left speechless.

He didn’t know how to defend a father who built a carved mansion, married dozens of concubines, and treated his sons as tools of war.

Anger and helplessness always flared when thinking of what his father had done.

He tried to recall his late mother to soothe the anger—

But he could not.

Because, according to eldest brother, the day his mother died was also the day he was born.

“Sigh, what can be done…”

Dai Longmei spurred his horse onward, hoping the rushing wind would help him forget the feud with his father.

Yet even as he raced, visions of his father drinking and living indulgently haunted him.

He tried to bury the pain again.

Glancing back at his determined comrade Zhuzi, who was chasing after him with all his might.

Though he never liked his father, he respected eldest and second brothers and Uncle You Sheng.

More than that, he valued the comrade behind him who chased desperately.

Ten years ago, they had been enemies on the northern border, each trying to kill the other.

But in Dai Longmei’s heart, scarred by his father’s betrayals, those former foes felt far closer than the father who spent his days drinking in the carved mansion.

With this thought, he urged Pursuing Wind faster.

The silly horse felt like it would turn into a lightning bolt, dashing toward Gao Dazhu.

The sturdy black horse blasted into the Jin cavalry formation like a meteor.

“Freedom is a priceless gift from heaven.”

The startled Jin warhorses neighed wildly, and Jin retainers nearly tumbled from their mounts.

A sentence suddenly came to Dai Longmei’s mind—one he had read in an immortal’s book retrieved from an underground city, bought on the black market for tomb raiders.

Tightening the reins, Pursuing Wind reared high, letting out a triumphant neigh before the dumbfounded Jin soldiers.

This was Dai Longmei’s favorite moment, just as the old stories of his youth described:

Standing firm on horseback, wielding a sword—reveling in justice and vengeance!

However—

“Being enslaved without freedom is the bitterest fate.”

As the horse halted, that phrase echoed again.

When not charging, not fighting like a knight of old, he was just a soldier caught in Tianyu’s martial strife.

To outsiders, he was a noble of Liaodong.

But this nobleman risked his life battling wolf-like beasts.

And was also the former rogue who had been drugged and dragged back by his own father.

“Who dares intrude into my army?” the leading officer shouted.

“Wait! Don’t attack yet! Slow down~” someone behind pushed aside the officer’s spear pointing at Dai Longmei and Long Zhu.

“Oh, isn’t this the eldest son of Jin Yuan Dao’s lord? What’s this? Skipping your duties in Jin Yuan City for pleasure and now roaming here?”

Dai Longmei’s teasing was aimed at Luo Yusheng, son of Jin Yuan Dao’s protector, Jin King Luo Yuluo.

Clad in shining rhinoceros-hide armor, wearing a magnificent bronze helmet embossed with dragon patterns, and mounted on a chestnut stallion, even his bronze sword hilt was ornately decorated.

He looked imposing.

Yet Luo Yusheng bore no soldier’s bearing.

His physique was even less sturdy than the officer’s, let alone the nine-foot-tall, bear-like Dai Longmei.

“Don’t mock the younger brother. Yusheng is just following orders,” someone said.

“Following orders?”

Dai Longmei pointed at the wary Jin retainers surrounding them.

“Your letter said only two men would come to receive our Liaodong army’s pass documents.”

“A routine matter. Yet how many did you send?”

Dai Longmei’s loud voice made the Jin soldiers back away.

“Over thirty retainers, the finest of your Jin troops, but none as sturdy as our Liaodong men.”

“We strictly sent two, as per the letter.”

“The Jin King set this trap, planning to cause trouble—that’s not right.”

Long Zhu chimed in.

“Commander Luo, do you think we Liaodong men are blind? Is this how you show sincerity in accepting documents?”

Looking at the two men, who appeared furious, Luo Yusheng forced a strained smile.

He was a known pleasure seeker, usually uninvolved in military affairs, only assigned by his father to this post.

Clearly, he was flustered.

“Deputy General Dai, I brought so many because I feared dangers on the road…”

“Hmph, dangers? Except for a few tomb raiders, what danger is there here?”

Dai Longmei again pointed at the officer Luo Yusheng held back.

“Did the Jin King order you to beat the messengers delivering the documents and then tell others Liaodong men are banned from Jin Yuan territory?”

Dai Longmei’s words silenced the officer.

Such thuggish behavior! If they didn’t want us to pass, they could have brought an army instead of this humiliation!

Dai Longmei thought.

“Just looking for trouble,” Long Zhu added.

“But we didn’t expect a deputy general and a guerrilla fighter on our side.”

Faced with the blunt words from one man and a wolf, Luo Yusheng’s face showed helplessness and fear.

His hand trembled slightly on his sword hilt.

Seeing this clearly unfit soldier, Dai Longmei wondered why Luo Yuluo sent his own son for a task any officer could manage.

Although Luo Yusheng was the twenty-fifth of Luo Yuluo’s thirty-five sons.

“Where are the documents? Deputy General Dai, once the men get the documents, they plan to leave.”

The officer said so but still surrounded the two nine-foot men with over thirty cavalry.

Yet Dai Longmei remained calm, gently stroking Pursuing Wind’s neck with ease.

“Documents? That thing requires sincerity on the other side to be handed over!”

Dai Longmei turned his horse and scolded the soldiers still pointing spears at him.

“Who gives documents to others with spear tips aimed at them?”

“Heh, this is ridiculous,” Long Zhu added again.

“Lieutenant Luo, why don’t you lower your spear? Let’s have a proper talk with Deputy General Dai…”

Luo Yusheng appeared meek but had forgotten his father’s orders.

“Talk? Big cousin, did you forget what the Jin King instructed?”

The officer nearly laughed at the confused Luo Yusheng.

He hadn’t expected the Liaodong army to send Deputy General Mei and Lord Wolf Zhu personally to deliver the documents.

But the Jin King ordered to “humiliate the Liaodong soldiers delivering the documents.”

Failing to complete the mission would surely bring the officer’s own punishment given the King’s brutal nature.

Thinking it over, the officer gripped his spear tighter.

“Brothers, since these Liaodong men are unrighteous and dared to attack our Jin Yuan army, let’s not hold back.”

Dai Longmei almost burst out laughing.

How could this bungling officer seriously call himself “righteous” when planning a sneak attack?

“Liaodong men attack our document escort—kill them! Kill them!”

At the officer’s command, several Jin cavalry charged at Dai Longmei and Long Zhu.

“Zhuzi! The feast begins!”

“Right!”

The jade sword, like a swimming dragon, flew from the ring.

Dai Longmei grasped the sword in his right hand, reins in his left, ready to charge the Jin cavalry.

At that moment, from the cockpit atop Gao Dazhu came a startled shout:

“No, no, you’re going to fall—aaaah!”

Several shots rang out.

Dai Longmei saw a gun and a fuzzy object plummet from Gao Dazhu, striking him squarely in the face.