Chapter 66.1: Overwhelming Strength to Uproot a Towering Tree! (I)

Night fell, and the air carried a trace of coolness. Prefect Li Mu paced back and forth in the room, his face filled with anxiety. During this tumultuous period, he had tossed and turned sleeplessly, and his whole person seemed to have aged considerably.

The Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert had already become his greatest worry. If they were just ordinary bandits, Li Mu actually would not have been so concerned. Once the trade routes were blocked, the wealthy merchants and gentry would naturally worry and eventually pay in money and grain to quell the bandit problem. However, the White Lotus Cult had become entangled with the Thirteen Riders, and that was truly disastrous.

The White Lotus Cult had been rebelling on and off for over a thousand years. If the cult incited the Thirteen Riders to rebel and attack Nanyang City, and the city fell, Li Mu, as the prefect, would be the first to bear the brunt. He would certainly be killed. That was the root of his apprehension and the reason he had issued the Call for Heroes. Unfortunately, several so-called heroes had already died at the hands of the Thirteen Riders, and no one dared take the quest anymore.

Li Mu walked out of the yamen once more. He had ordered the yamen officers to keep watch over the Call for Heroes poster day and night, hoping someone would step forward to take it.

"My lord."

"Has anyone taken the quest?" Li Mu asked.

"My lord, from daylight until now, no one has shown the slightest interest in the Call for Heroes."

Li Mu frowned. At this rate, he might have to resign, but after years of hardship and political toil to finally become a prefect, he could not accept giving it all up.

"

Hmm

?"

Suddenly, a faint dark figure slowly emerged from the darkness of the night.

The yamen officers tensed at once. "Who goes there?"

They constantly watched the city gates, but no one could guarantee that the Thirteen Riders would not slip into Nanyang City to carry out an assassination. After all, the Thirteen Riders were mixed up with the White Lotus Cult. When it came to assassination, the White Demons were true experts.

The yamen officers drew their sabers one after another and stared tensely at the dark figure. Li Mu also retreated a few steps and was shielded behind several of the officers.

Bit by bit, the figure emerged from the darkness and revealed his features beneath the faint candlelight. He was a burly man with a thick beard, dressed in black and carrying a short sword as he strode toward the yamen.

Naturally, the man was Lu Changsheng. He ignored the yamen officers entirely and walked straight up to the Call for Heroes. He reached out to it and tore it down. Since he wanted to get rid of the Thirteen Riders of the Great Desert, he would naturally come forward and take the quest. After all, a thousand taels of gold and a Divine Strength Realm martial art were far too great a reward to pass up.

"I answer the Call for Heroes," Lu Changsheng said in an even tone. Without waiting for a response, he turned to depart.

Prefect Li Mu finally recovered from his shock and called out quickly, "Wait, hero."

He was baffled that someone would come forward and take the quest at a time like this. Although it was impossible to judge the man's true strength, anyone who dared accept the quest was unlikely to be a fool rushing to his death.

Lu Changsheng halted and turned his head to look at Li Mu. The prefect was in his plain clothes, so Lu Changsheng did not recognize him.

"Hero, this is our prefect," explained a yamen officer at the side.

Lu Changsheng did not bow to the prefect, which made him seem somewhat arrogant. However, Li Mu did not mind. The men of the jianghu all held their heads high and were unruly by nature; a prefect like him truly counted for little in the eyes of martial artists.

"May I ask for your esteemed name, hero?" Li Mu asked with full courtesy.

"Zhuang Shisan," Lu Changsheng said after thinking for a moment.

"Great Hero Zhuang, since you have accepted the quest, if there is anything you require, the prefectural yamen will do its best to assist you."

Li Mu felt like a drowning man, desperately clinging to a pole and not daring to let go. If Zhuang Shisan died as well, he did not know whether anyone else would ever come to take the quest again. Therefore, he had to do everything in his power to support Zhuang Shisan, hoping he could eradicate the Thirteen Riders.

Lu Changsheng considered his offer briefly, then said, "I want a fast horse."

"A fast horse? Certainly. The yamen keeps several."

Li Mu immediately ordered someone to lead out a bay horse from the yamen.

Lu Changsheng vaulted into the saddle. He glanced at Li Mu and asked calmly, "Lord Li, if I kill the Thirteen Riders, what proof will I need to claim the reward? Do I have to bring back thirteen heads?"

Li Mu hurriedly shook his head and said, "No need for heads. The Thirteen Riders use desert sabers. Their method of forging such sabers is unique and extremely rare in Nanyang Prefecture. It is recognizable at a glance. At that time, you only need to bring back the sabers of the Thirteen Riders."

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Li Mu was very familiar with the Thirteen Riders. Their sabers were essentially their lifeblood. As long as they drew breath, the riders would never abandon their sabers.

"Good. Make sure to have the gold and the martial art ready for when I return, Lord Li?"

With that, Lu Changsheng spurred the horse and sped into the night.

As he watched Lu Changsheng disappear in the distance, Li Mu suddenly asked, "Constable Liu, do you know this Great Hero Zhuang?"

Constable Liu shook his head. "I have never heard of him. No one in the jianghu knows his name, so it's most likely an alias."

Indeed, it was perfectly normal for those of the jianghu to use aliases.

"No matter. He just needs to kill the Thirteen Riders. If Zhuang Shisan dies as well..."

Li Mu gritted his teeth. If Zhuang Shisan also failed, he would probably have to seriously consider resigning. Otherwise, once the Thirteen Riders rose in rebellion under the White Lotus Cult's instigation, death would be inevitable.

Lu Changsheng rode out of the city and sped north along the road. About an hour later, he finally halted. Most people in Nanyang knew how the Thirteen Riders moved, so he didn't need a map. They had blocked the main road, and anyone following it would inevitably run into their men.

Sure enough, Lu Changsheng saw a group of bandits up ahead, holding large sabers and staring at him with vicious eyes.

"Not a caravan, just one man? Looks like someone from the jianghu. Have they sent someone to try to kill the thirteen leaders again?"

"Most likely. That dog, Prefect Li in Nanyang City, issued some Call for Heroes. These days, martial artists have come one after another to assassinate the thirteen leaders. They keep wanting to make a name for themselves, but they all fall in the end."

"This arrogant brat has come before us by himself, courting death. Grab him and offer him to the leaders!"

Lu Changsheng's expression was calm, detached, as though he were gazing at a group of dead men. These bandits were all subordinates of the Thirteen Riders, and they were the ones responsible for massacring those villages in Nanyang prefecture. Not one of them was innocent.

Lu Changsheng could not be bothered with idle words. His thoughts were not at ease, his emotions churned, and he was in exactly the mood to kill. Since these bandits had come forward on their own to throw their lives away, he naturally would show them no mercy.

Facing dozens of bandits, Lu Changsheng rose from his saddle, vaulted down from his horse, and landed among them in an instant.

"Silken Thread Sword, kill!"

His blood qi erupted at once, transforming into silken threads, sharp as blades.

Whizz, whizz, whizz, whizz, whizz.

The razor-sharp threads swept out into a deadly torrent, overwhelming the bandits in an instant.

"What the—"

"What the hell is this?!"

"My hand!"

The bandits were terrified, with dozens of them collapsing in one breath. Most of them died instantly, and those who survived were gravely wounded, writhing on the ground and howling in pain.