The blow didn't just strike metal; it reverberated through bone and marrow.
Xiao Ke's weapon slammed into Song Jiongyang's back with the force of a collapsing mountain. The strike failed to shear through the enemy leader's legendary black armor, but kinetic energy has a way of bypassing steel. The impact surged through the plating and into Song's body, churning his internal organs into a chaotic stew. His lungs seized, and it took every ounce of his discipline to swallow the bile and blood rising in his throat.
Song Jiongyang was a survivor, and more importantly, a Level 9 Valiant General. He didn't panic. Instead, he suppressed the agony, channeling the Origin Power coursing through his veins into a desperate counterattack. His lightsaber swept out in a blinding horizontal arc, a wall of searing energy that forced Xiao Ke and his lieutenant, Qin Bing, to recoil.
It was a feint. The moment the space opened, Song didn't press the attack; he turned and ran.
"Protect the Leader! Cover him!"
The shout went up from the remnants of the "Guns & Roses" faction. Song Jiongyang had ruled this territory for years, and unlike many warlords in the Lawless Lands, he had cultivated loyalty. Dozens of his men threw themselves into the meat grinder, charging Xiao Ke's line with suicidal desperation to buy their boss a heartbeat of time.
It worked. Song was wounded, moving like a tiger with a broken rib, but a tiger is still a lethal apex predator. With his resolve set entirely on escape, and his subordinates dying in droves to facilitate it, he became slippery. He broke the perimeter, leaving his men to be slaughtered.
His escape marked the end of the battle, but not the bloodshed. The "Guns & Roses" rear guard fought until they were overwhelmed, adding several hundred more corpses to the mud of Anping Town before the silence finally fell. Song Jiongyang had fled into the dark wilderness with only a few hundred survivors, leaving behind the bulk of his two-thousand-man army.
For Xiao Ke's Iron Wheel battalion, the victory was absolute but costly. Over a hundred of his warriors lay dead; three hundred more were wounded. Yet, the strategic shift was undeniable. The "Guns & Roses" organization had been gutted. Unless Song was willing to leave his other territories defenseless and risk a total collapse to launch a vendetta raid, he was no longer a threat.
The balance of power had shifted. As the smoke cleared, the reality settled over the town like the coming dawn: Anping Town had a new master.
In the Lawless Lands, this was the only law that mattered: the weak are meat, and the strong do the eating.
The night was spent in the grim business of cleanup. Xiao Ke was not a man to leave a mess.
When the first gray light of dawn touched the rooftops of Anping Town, the streets were eerily quiet. The locals—natives who had lived here for generations and the transient merchants who fueled the economy—had spent the night huddled behind barred doors, listening to the screams and the clash of steel. Now, driven by a mix of dread and curiosity, they began to creep out.
Anping Town had been Song Jiongyang's personal fiefdom for years. Many had tried to wrestle it from him. Some were rival warlords; others were ambitious scions from the Empire's High Noble Clans, looking to carve out a black market empire. They had all failed. The nobles, in particular, had learned a hard lesson: pedigree means nothing against a savage with a blade.
So, the townspeople emerged expecting to see the Iron Wheel annihilated, just another failed coup.
Instead, when they reached the central plaza, they stopped dead. A collective gasp sucked the air out of the square.
The first thing they saw was the corpse.
Hanging from a tall wooden pole, swaying gently in the morning breeze, was Aragon. He had been the Town Lord, a puppet installed by Song Jiongyang. Aragon had possessed no real power, but he had compensated for his impotence with cruelty, bullying the locals under the protection of his patron. Now, the town's number one lackey was strung up like a curing ham.
But it was what lay beneath him that turned stomachs.
Stacked in the center of the plaza was a pyramid of human heads. There were over a thousand of them, arranged with bricklayer precision, face out, eyes glassy and staring. The pile had been dusted with a thick layer of white lime powder to suppress the smell of decomposition and ward off disease.
A Jingguan.
It was an ancient, brutal tradition—a tower of enemy heads built to boast of martial prowess and terrify the living. Even the hardened residents of the Lawless Lands, who had seen their share of barbarism, felt a chill crawl up their spines.
"Those aren't the Iron Wheel soldiers," a merchant whispered, his voice trembling. "Those are Song Jiongyang's men."
The realization rippled through the crowd. Song Jiongyang, the untouchable warlord, had been routed.
As if on cue, the rhythmic thud of boots on cobblestone echoed from the main avenue. A column of soldiers marched into view. They were fully armored, moving with a synchronized discipline that was alien to the chaotic banditry usually seen in these parts. Above them flew the battle standard of the Iron Wheel.
Walking at the head of the formation were the architects of the slaughter: Myriarch Xiao Ke, flanked by his officers—Ling Feng, the ethereal Ye Yun, and the icy Chiliarch Qin Bing.
Xiao Ke looked fresh, despite having slept only a few hours. He signaled for his men to disperse. Teams of soldiers began pasting large paper notices on walls and posts.
Xiao Ke stopped in the center of the plaza, near the grisly monument of heads. He surveyed the crowd—the fear in their eyes, the uncertainty. He knew this was the critical moment. Conquest is about violence; ruling is about perception.
"As you can see," Xiao Ke's voice projected clearly across the silent square, "Anping Town is now under the jurisdiction of the Iron Wheel. But let me be clear: you have no cause for alarm. For the law-abiding, nothing changes."
He let the words hang there. "Nothing changes" was code. It meant the markets stayed open, the booze kept flowing, and the protection money they used to pay Song Jiongyang would now go to him.
The tension in the crowd evaporated visibly. In the Lawless Lands, continuity was the best-case scenario. As long as the new boss wasn't a maniac who burned down shops for sport, they could adapt.
With the public display of dominance concluded, Xiao Ke moved to secure the administrative heart of the town. He led his officers to the Town Lord's Mansion.
Aragon was dead, which left a power vacuum. Xiao Ke needed a local face to handle the bureaucracy—someone who knew the intricate web of local grievances, trade routes, and tax evasion schemes.
He found her waiting for him at the gates.
Her name was Liu Feifei. She was the Vice Town Lord, a woman in her late twenties with the kind of ripe, knowing beauty that could disarm a man at twenty paces. She wore a dress that clung to her curves, and as Xiao Ke approached, she walked to meet him with a swaying, serpentine grace.
"Lord Myriarch," she cooed, bowing low enough to offer a generous view. "You've arrived. Please, honor my humble home with your presence."
Inside, the mansion was a hive of activity. Young, attractive female clerks were busy printing more copies of the peace notices. It was immediately clear to Xiao Ke that Liu Feifei was not mourning her former boss. She was already auditioning for the new one.
She led them to the main parlor and served tea herself, dismissing the servants. She didn't dare sit. She stood before Xiao Ke, hands clasped, head bowed, the picture of obedient submission.
Xiao Ke studied her. His first impression was that she was sharp. A survivor. He sat in the master's chair and accepted a file handed to him by Ye Yun. It was a dossier on Liu Feifei.
She was a former tavern owner. In a place like this, a beautiful woman running a tavern without a powerful backer ends up dead or enslaved. She had survived by attaching herself to Aragon. The dossier confirmed she was his mistress, but it also noted that Aragon was an incompetent fool. Liu Feifei had been the real brain running Anping Town.
Xiao Ke closed the file and took a sip of tea. The silence stretched until it was uncomfortable.
"Aragon was your man?" Xiao Ke asked flatly.
Liu Feifei hesitated for a fraction of a second. She knew her life depended on this answer.
"If you are asking if he was my husband or my love, the answer is no," she said, her voice steady. "If you are asking if I shared his bed, the answer is yes. More than once. Though never by my own choice."
Xiao Ke looked at her over the rim of his teacup. "I don't care about your private life. But I killed Aragon. The question is, do I need to replace his Vice Town Lord as well? Or can you be useful?"
Liu Feifei understood the subtext immediately. He knew she was capable, but he worried she might be resentful.
"I beg you to let me stay, My Lord," she said.
"Give me a reason," Xiao Ke said, leaning back. "Convince me."
Liu Feifei took a breath. She dropped the seductive facade for a moment, revealing the desperate steel beneath. "My relationship with Aragon was purely transactional. He is dead, and the town has fallen. Without your protection, I am nothing here. I will lose my tavern. I will likely be... used by lesser men. I have no choice but to be loyal to you. It is my only path to survival."
She looked him in the eye. "Furthermore, no one knows this town as I do. I know every ledger, every secret, every coin. I am the most competent person in a city of twenty thousand to run this office."
Xiao Ke smiled, with a cold, sharp expression. "Good. You're hired. From today, you are the Town Lord. Not a puppet like Aragon, but officially recognized. I'll send the paperwork to the Empire myself."
Liu Feifei fell to her knees, relief washing over her face. "Thank you, My Lord!"
Xiao Ke wasted no time. He dispatched Qin Bing to organize the city defenses and sent Ling Feng to set up a field hospital for the wounded. Then, he sat with Ye Yun and listened to Liu Feifei's briefing on the town's finances.
She was thorough. She broke down the factions, the trade goods, and the revenue streams. But when she mentioned the monthly tax revenue—roughly ten thousand gold coins—Xiao Ke frowned.
It wasn't enough. The Iron Wheel was a sanctioned unit, but the Empire provided no funding. They had to eat what they killed. Ten thousand gold a month would barely cover wages and maintenance.
Liu Feifei, ever the observer, caught his displeasure immediately.
"The taxes in town are limited," she said quickly, stepping forward to refill his tea. "If My Lord desires real wealth, you must look outside the walls. Sixty miles from here lies the Death Canyon Mine."
Xiao Ke's interest piqued. "Go on."
"It's a Black Iron mine," she explained, "but it has veins of companion Black Crystal. Black Iron is cheap, but Black Crystal? The price is always high. The output is low, but steady. Currently, it's held by the remnants of 'Guns & Roses.' Taking it would require effort, but the payout..."
Xiao Ke nodded, genuinely impressed. "You see? I knew I made the right choice keeping you."
Liu Feifei beamed. Emboldened by the praise, she leaned in closer as she poured the tea. The neckline of her dress dipped, and she cast a sultry, inviting look toward him. She was a creature of habit; she knew that for a woman in her position, the safest place was often in the warlord's bed. If she could become his favorite, her safety was guaranteed.
But Xiao Ke merely frowned. He looked at her not with desire, but with a vague annoyance, like one looks at a persistent salesperson.
Liu Feifei froze. She was an expert at reading men, and the message was clear: Not interested. She immediately retreated, correcting her posture to that of a professional subordinate. Pushing too hard could get her killed.
After she withdrew, the room felt larger. Xiao Ke sat with his inner circle—Ye Yun, Duan Canglong, and Luo Hou.
Xiao Ke turned to Ye Yun. Today, his "Third Brother" was not in armor but dressed in pristine white robes that accentuated his delicate features.
"So, Third Brother," Xiao Ke asked, smiling. "What's your assessment?"
He meant the strategic situation—the town, the mine, the finances.
Ye Yun, however, smirked. The expression lit up his face, making him look startlingly beautiful. "I think," Ye Yun drawled, "that the new Town Lord is quite a catch. She certainly knows how to please a man. I saw the way she looked at you, Big Brother. Are you telling me you felt nothing?"
Xiao Ke sighed, rubbing his temples. "I was asking about the mine, not the woman. And no, I don't go for women like Liu Feifei."
"Oh?" Ye Yun's eyes twinkled mischievously. "Then what kind of woman does Big Brother like?"
Xiao Ke paused. The question caught him off guard. He had spent his life in the mud, fighting for scraps; romance was a luxury he had never afforded himself.
Unbidden, an image of Qin Bing flashed in his mind. The icy, capable warrior who had trained him. She was his mentor, his friend, and now his subordinate. She was everything Liu Feifei was not: strong, honest, lethal. But admitting that out loud, especially in front of the guys, was impossible.
He looked at Ye Yun. The younger man's face was soft, almost feminine in its perfection.
Xiao Ke grinned, deciding to deflect with a joke.
"You know, I haven't really thought about it," Xiao Ke said, leaning forward. "But looking at you, Third Brother... I sometimes think that if you were a woman, you'd be a kingdom-toppler. Hell, even I might not be able to resist you."
It was just banter, a rough joke between soldiers. But Ye Yun didn't laugh.
Instead, his face flushed a deep, burning crimson. He shifted in his chair, suddenly unable to meet Xiao Ke's eyes, looking for all the world like a maiden whose secret had just been dangerously brushed against.