Chapter 184

Bai Lang's aura after standing was like a mountain, yet this mountain was about to collapse——the rebel before him, who claimed to be the Junior Protector of the Heir Apparent of the Ming Dynasty, revealed his murderous nature, looking as if he would strike at any moment. The experts recruited by the Xi'an general, though they sensed the situation was dire, still had to step forward to feel things out——as for capturing the rebel to gain merit? That was no longer something to consider. Just letting the rebel spare them so they could eat today would already be good.

Although the Innate Expert could not now project his inner vision outward, his aura was undiminished, enough to crush the spirit and energy of ordinary 'experts'. These few people stood before Bai Lang, trembling, and reluctantly began to speak of the matters on the road, "I don't understand what you're saying," Bai Lang said after hearing a sentence.

"Are you Manchu or Han?" Bai Lang asked, then this person also smiled, "Hey, why bother asking that? Regardless of whether they're Manchu or Han, just kill them all—who let them serve the Tartar court." Having said that, this person merely lunged forward; Bai Lang was being watched by a thousand-strong army, and his movement instantly triggered a chain reaction.

Archers shot arrows, arquebusiers began firing, and no matter how the officers roared, it was to no avail. Then the joke came out——those few experts were still approaching Bai Lang's side, so after Bai Lang had just grabbed and killed one, the other experts had already become like porcupines.

Although the Eight Banners soldiers nowadays could neither shoot arrows nor fire guns, they still had the skill to nock and shoot an arrow at this distance, even if they had no aim whatsoever. When such a volley of arrows grew numerous, it was just as deadly, and so those two experts earned the name of porcupine amid their screams.

And Bai Lang only tore off another's head; he grabbed a corpse to use as a shield; any lead bullet that could hit was basically absorbed by the corpse's kinetic energy—just spherical lead balls, incapable of penetrating flesh. After a round of firing, the arquebusiers became a one-time force, scrambling to reload, while the onlookers on the street had already shouted and trampled each other.

Bai Lang laughed loudly and directly charged at the formation of the Eight Banners garrisoned in Xi'an; with a stretch and a sweep of his arm, he immediately swept the spearheads of the tiger spears to one side, and the soldiers could not even hold onto their spear shafts. With a sweep, a grab, and a pull, Bai Lang's left arm moved thus; the soldiers who still had a sense of duty, hadn't thought of fleeing, or were simply stupid and still clung tightly to their spear shafts were directly jerked forward, stumbling.

Bai Lang then, following the momentum, unfolded his right palm like a giant axe and chopped down. The soldiers' bones were broken and tendons torn; since Bai Lang's Southern Dipper Holy Fist was like a giant axe and spear, an iron hammer and steel awl, thus this cross-section was not so smooth, unlike the Southern Dipper Water Bird Fist. Regardless, bone fragments and such flying about, four or five people were directly cut open by Bai Lang.

This person seized those few tiger spears, one in each hand, and discarded the rest; Bai Lang held the tiger spears level with both arms, turning them left and right, and directly began to kill with these two spears. He had once been a fierce general who charged and broke through enemy lines ten times out of ten; in the past, when he charged against peasant rebels and the Tartar armies, he broke them with a single blow, worthy of being a reincarnation of Xiang Yu. Now, wielding these two long spears, he was also showing these good-for-nothings how the Grand Protector of Great Understanding kills the enemy.

"Nowadays even the weaponry is no good!" Upon picking up the tiger spear, Bai Lang immediately realized that the Tartars nowadays were also beyond reason, manufacturing weapons with shoddy workmanship——these two spears have poor balance, the shafts are too light and lack strength; ordinary soldiers can still get by with them, but once the fighting gets a bit intense, they will immediately fall apart.

Although the spear blades had no shoddy workmanship, the shafts were beyond description as shoddy workmanship. After Bai Lang wielded the two spears and easily cut down and stabbed over ten people, in a powerful horizontal sweep where he clamped the spear shaft under his armpit and supported the spear body with his hand, before the spear blades could strike the person, the spear shafts themselves snapped outright under the immense force. The other spear, after piercing a person, had its shaft explode; Bai Lang casually discarded the spear, spread his hands, and then used fists, palms, claws, and legs; his killing speed slowed a little.

However, the morale of the Eight Banners soldiers was already gone; letting them stand and shoot arrows or fire guns they could still endure casualties, but once they entered close-quarters combat, their morale would quickly vanish—even though the dead and wounded were actually far fewer than in ranged exchanges... This was already the case against other rebels, but now facing Bai Lang it was even worse.

Not to mention the aura of a ferocious tiger brought by the Innate Expert, just the sight of him charging over and, in the blink of an eye, killing ten or twenty people with that terrifying ferocity was already enough to make the soldiers facing him lose courage and flee—Bai Lang had not yet revealed his invulnerable to blades and spears divine skill.

Just by relying on his ferocious killing, he had already intimidated the people before him; their hands and feet went limp, their movements distorted, and they even blubbered idiotically, letting Bai Lang kill them. Right after Bai Lang let out a tiger's roar, the entire Xi'an Eight Banners force collapsed; they ran, complaining that their parents had given them too few legs. Bai Lang merely laughed loudly; he had only thirty or so corpses before him, and the several thousand stationed Eight Banners troops together with the city's constable strong units had already completely scattered.

Bai Lang laughed nonstop, covering his forehead and half his face with his hand, his mocking laughter echoing across the empty street. "I almost forgot to take the lives of the Xi'an general and the Xi'an prefect." He looked at the soldiers on the ground whose legs had been broken by trampling, desperately crawling away, the unfortunate ones——and another ten or so had been trampled to death, making the total casualties around two hundred, even more than those he had killed.

The ground was littered with discarded weapons, armor, and countless shoes; Bai Lang shook his head, too lazy to kill those soldiers with broken legs; he walked into the inn and used the water from the vat to begin washing the blood from his hands and clothes. Bai Lang gathered the spoils of war, which were merely the scattered silver coins on the soldiers' persons; as for the weapons, he inspected each one, and only a few knives caught his eye.

Finally, Bai Lang took away an iron club and a knife; he took no long weapons, and the same went for armor—most of it was padded armor, part was leather armor, and there wasn't even a single set of proper mail or iron armor. Bai Lang headed toward the armory located in the Manchu City within Xi'an, and fortunately the gate of the Manchu City was still closed—they had not forgotten to close it when they fled inside.

Within the city, the petty thugs who engaged in robbery and banditry had already appeared; Bai Lang walked along the main road, and as he went, he would kill, slaying those who dared to engage in robbery and banditry——it would take him little time or effort; in any case, it was just a matter of a leap and a punch. Bai Lang was much like the street-cleansing tiger; as he approached the northeastern corner of the Manchu City, there was hardly anyone to be seen on the road, and even the petty thieves who engaged in robbery and banditry knew the danger.

A solemn, killing atmosphere hung over the entire Xi'an city; the vast majority of people felt their hearts pound and their courage falter, and they simply dared not go out—even if they had never heard that someone in the city was charging and slaughtering military formations, it was the same; naturally they sensed that the situation was bad and dared not go out.

Bai Lang reached out and grabbed, easily sinking his hand into the city wall and then using the leverage to leap upward; in just a single motion he was already standing on the top of the Manchu City wall, there wasn't a single person on the wall who hadn't fled back home. Bai Lang sighed, "What a hassle—I still have to capture a tongue to ask where the armory is."