He didn’t know if his father had ascended to heaven yet. He had probably died only recently and was unlikely to have had the chance to bless him from up there. Still, he had run into that Yan Army detachment that had left the city.
Direct Thief! These Yan people only had about three or four hundred cavalry! But in this city, were there not at least a few thousand armed men?
A huge sense of absurdity overcame Sun Jianming’s heart, and the frustration within him steadily intensified.
Out of the whole city, only his father, wielding the family heirloom double-headed spear, had charged the Yan people. If only... Sigh.
At this moment, a figure darted out.
Sun Jianming pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.
The crossbow bolt shot out, but it just hit the door panel. It turned out that the leading Barbarian soldier had propped up a piece of a wall panel from the ground in front of him as a shield.
The crossbow bolt actually penetrated halfway through the wall panel, but after losing its momentum, it couldn’t pierce the Barbarian soldier’s armor. Reloading the crossbow was too late; the Barbarian soldiers were advancing from behind.
Sun Jianming picked up his knife and slashed forward.
In just a brief confrontation, Sun Jianming’s knife was deflected in the clash, the impact jarring his wrist, and the knife clattered to the ground. After that, three or four weapons slashed at him, knocking him down.
There was no earth-shattering battle, no back-and-forth melee, and no heroic last stand taking several enemies down with him. Before this group of Barbarian soldiers, he was as weak as a tiny quail. Read full story at NoveIꜰire.net
As he lay dying, Sun Jianming felt a wave of regret. He regretted that despite having a father who was once an Eighth Rank Martial Cultivator, he had spent most of his energy on literature and the arts. This ultimately led to him, a scion of a military family, being unable to even hold his knife steady. His father was gone, and it was his time to go as well. Fortunately, he had seized his chance and shot their leader dead. That fellow had actually ridden out alone to stand beneath the city wall, dazed. Heh, what a fool he was!
"My Lord? My Lord? My Lord?"
"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."
Zheng Fan started coughing. He had fallen off his horse, his entire back smashing into the ground. Combined with the weight of his armor, it was quite a heavy fall.
"My lord, don’t move! Let me remove the arrow for you."
Liang Cheng was a Zombie. He could leave that piece of spear tip inside him and deal with it later when he had time, but Zheng Fan was not. That crossbow bolt had struck near Zheng Fan’s heart; if not handled carefully, it could very well endanger his life.
However, Zheng Fan shook his head. He reached out, grabbed the crossbow bolt stuck in his armor, and before Liang Cheng could stop him, pulled it straight out.
The anticipated spray of fresh blood didn’t appear. Zheng Fan slowly sat up by himself and shook his head, saying, "I’m fine."
As he spoke, Zheng Fan began to unfasten his armor, reached inside, and pulled out a stone. He smirked, saying, "You know, before we set off, the blind man was insisting I stop keeping him near me. Luckily, I didn’t listen to him." My son, you’ve saved my life again! After saying this, Zheng Fan coughed a few more times.
At this point, the group of Barbarian soldiers who had gone up into the city had brought down Sun Jianming’s head.
He was indeed a character who had established a cult in comics and gotten ’404’d’. The brainwashing effect was truly powerful. These Barbarian soldiers felt a deep-seated fear of Zheng Fan, coupled with an incredibly strong attachment.
They were incandescent with rage at this Qian State man who had almost killed their master.
"Master, let’s take his head back and have Xue San turn it into a bowl for us to drink from!" a few Barbarian soldiers suggested.
In their minds, the punishment meted out by Xue Three—who had once personally demonstrated ’using your skulls as bowls’ before them—was the cruelest in the world, one from which even the soul could not find rest after death.
"No need." Zheng Fan shook his head. Ultimately, it was his own fault. What was he doing, standing idly beneath the city wall, out of formation and in a daze? Things had been going too smoothly; he had become lax.
However, his own words were immediately proven wrong. He had claimed this was a city with only one man, and then, the second man had promptly stood up. Still, that made only two.
Zheng Fan remounted his horse, signaling he was unharmed. The others also quickly mounted, and they headed first towards the earthen slope where they had rested earlier.
A burial mound had been erected there, containing the body of the old spear-wielding man. Some stones were piled on top. As for an epitaph, conditions didn’t allow for it, and besides, it would have been too much to ask of these Barbarian soldiers given their level of literacy.
The bodies of the other deceased Barbarian soldiers were not buried, because Zheng Fan had ordered them to be brought back.
"Can you turn them into Zombies?" Zheng Fan asked Liang Cheng.
"Not now, but I should be able to in the future," Liang Cheng replied.
"Then bring their bodies back and preserve them well for now."
"You, give me that head." Zheng Fan pointed at a Barbarian soldier. The man immediately stepped forward and handed Sun Jianming’s head to Zheng Fan.
Tsk, he died with his eyes open. Sun Jianming’s eyes were still wide open.
Zheng Fan tried to wipe them closed, but he couldn’t get the man’s eyes to shut.
Zheng Fan knew some scientific explanation for this phenomenon: it was likely due to the loss of tension in the eyelid muscles, causing the eyelids to remain open.
However, Zheng Fan didn’t plan to take the severed head back. Instead, he walked over to the burial mound and placed Sun Jianming’s head beside it. "You two, keep each other company here. I imagine you’ll have some common ground."
After saying this, Zheng Fan looked up at Mianzhou City in the distance once more, then turned around and commanded, "We’re heading back!"
The troop of cavalry galloped away, disappearing into the night. The evening breeze blew over the burial mound. Besides that, only a profound silence remained.
And the eyes on that severed head slowly closed at this moment...