Under the glow of the campfire, every face flickered between light and shadow. The stench of blood from the slaughter still lingered in the air, yet both sides that had just been fighting now stood frozen, staring at the body that had been reduced to a pulp of flesh, then at Lin Lei with the Blackjade Heavy Sword strapped to his back.
An eighth-ranked powerhouse. Killed in a single sword stroke.
This was…
Unbelievable!
"Brothers, charge! Kill these bandits!" Big-bearded Malon was the first to recover, immediately shouting with excitement. "Kill these bastards! Avenge our fallen brothers!"
The bandits heard Malon's roar and snapped back to reality one by one. Their leader, One-Eyed Snake McKinley, had been cut down in a single stroke. Forget the mercenary guards—the man with the heavy sword alone could have swept through all of them.
"Revenge! Revenge! Kill!" The mercenary guards' eyes blazed, their morale soaring. One after another, they charged forward with weapons drawn.
"Run! Run for your lives!"
The bandits screamed and fled in every direction without a second thought. The archers among the mercenary guards nocked their bows immediately, watching the fleeing figures with cold eyes. Arrow after arrow flew through the air, and with wet thwack after wet thwack, six bandits were pierced through and dropped to the ground on the spot.
The remaining seventy-odd men vanished into the darkness of the night in the blink of an eye.
The mercenary guards didn't pursue relentlessly. They chased for about a hundred meters before falling back—their mission was to protect the convoy, after all.
"Hah!"
The merchants and travelers in the convoy all let out sighs of relief. But the mercenary guards' faces were grim. One by one, they went to collect the bodies of the dozen or so mercenaries who had fallen.
"Everyone, get some rest," Malon called out in a loud voice.
Quite a few of the mercenary guards had also been wounded and needed proper treatment. The hundreds of people in the convoy quieted down and returned to their spots. Those who spent their lives on the road were no strangers to incidents like this and didn't make a fuss.
Campfire after campfire was lit. The bodies of the dozen mercenaries were buried by their comrades in the barren ground beside the road. Mercenaries who made their living by the sword could die at any moment, and when they did, their bodies were buried right where they fell. Other members of their teams would at most take back whatever personal effects they had.
Lin Lei stood with the heavy sword on his back, leaning against a large tree by the roadside, watching the mercenaries quietly.
"Lord Lei." Quite a few merchants from the convoy hurried over to express their gratitude to Lin Lei. Some even offered gold coins as thanks, but Lin Lei politely refused every one.
"Brothers—rest well," Malon bellowed.
All the mercenaries stood before the freshly dug graves and bowed in unison in a deep, solemn salute. In the mercenary world, death was an everyday occurrence. Once the ceremony was done, the mercenaries returned to their posts.
The leader of the mercenary team, big-bearded Malon, walked over to Lin Lei together with Lonz and Luder, and said with deep gratitude: "Lord Lei, thank you. If not for you this time, our mercenary team would have…" He shook his head, unable to finish.
"Brother Lei, you saved our mercenary company this time," young Luder added gratefully.
Whether it was the warning from earlier or the final strike, either one could be considered saving the entire team.
"It was nothing," Lin Lei said with a faint smile.
"Lord Lei, please accept this—ten thousand gold coins." Malon produced a Magic Crystal Card from inside his cloak. "This card is unregistered, with ten thousand gold coins on it. Lord Lei, you must take it. If not for you this time, forget about completing the mission—our whole mercenary company might not have survived at all."
Lin Lei smiled and shook his head.
"Brother Lei, please take it," Lonz urged. Most men in the mercenary trade were generous and straightforward by nature. These people who walked the line between life and death every day placed extraordinary value on loyalty and debts of gratitude.
"Do I look like I'm short on money?" Lin Lei said, glancing at the three.
Inside his spatial ring, Lin Lei had no fewer than twenty-two Magic Crystal Cards, each loaded with a hundred million gold coins. Two point two billion gold coins—an enormous sum that even the Dawson Trading Company wouldn't produce easily.
The prominent families in the Four Great Empires were powerful, and they certainly knew how to rake in money. But no matter how formidable they were, they couldn't match the wealth accumulated by the royal family of a kingdom.
After all, the super-families of the Four Great Empires still had to remit massive sums to their emperors.
The Fenlei Kingdom, by comparison, enjoyed far greater autonomy. Thousands of years of accumulated wealth had reached a staggering level.
Malon paused, taken aback by Lin Lei's words, and didn't press further. He certainly didn't dare be stubborn with a powerhouse like Lin Lei. And making money as a mercenary was no easy thing.
"Chief Malon, go look after your wounded. I can see quite a few are in bad shape," Lin Lei said.
"Then please rest, Lord Lei. I'll take my leave." Malon bowed respectfully. Wherever there was strength, there was respect.
The campfires crackled. Most of the people in the convoy couldn't fall asleep now. They sat gathered around the fires, and apart from the few who dozed off, everyone was discussing the battle that had just taken place. From time to time, many of them cast glances in Lin Lei's direction—clearly the subject of their conversation.
Lin Lei sat cross-legged at that moment, quietly feeling the vastness and depth of the earth, feeling the wind that filled heaven and earth.
After three years of training in the Magic Beast Mountain Range, Lin Lei had gained a deeper understanding of the path of cultivation. Whether it was a warrior's training or a magician's, ultimately one had to commune with nature.
Just like that moment—McKinley had been an eighth-ranked warrior too, and Lin Lei was an eighth-ranked warrior.