Chapter 56: Chapter Fifty‑Seven

No wonder… Not to mention that Bai Lang's own demonic aura is extremely heavy right now, and the Tiger Form True Meaning makes him appear to onlookers as if he were a man‑eating tiger, and within the Junying there is a legend that this General Bai is the White Tiger Star Lord descended from heaven—after all his surname is Bai and everyone sees him as if he were a tiger, right? When he kills, he is as swift and ferocious as a raging tiger… Moreover, the strange rumor passed by word of mouth is that when people glance past or their eyes flicker over Bai Lang, they vaguely seem to see a tiger perched, but on closer look it's only Bai Lang sitting upright…

So how could these women possibly become tiger‑like terrifying demons? They didn't get scared to death outright, which already shows the courage they've forged in the Junying. "Being frightened into unconsciousness is no good…" Bai Lang could only laugh and cry, yet he wasn't foolish enough to ask the trembling women whether he was frightening. Because if he went to ask, they'd probably faint as well. "Enough, enough, I, the old master, can wash myself; I don't need your serving." He waved his hand, signaling the women to leave, and also ushered the fainted woman out.

Now those women were terrified, immediately kneeling and begging Bai Lang not to drive them out. "Why so extreme… but fine, if you wish to stay here, then stay." At this moment two women, trembling, forced themselves to approach Bai Lang, intending to remove his blood‑soaked clothes. Bai Lang hasn't yet reached the level where his Internal Force can cause blood not to stain when he kills, nor is his Internal Force strong enough to lay a protective aura around him.

"What does a trembling hand look like?" Bai Lang thought to himself, but he deliberately restrained his Internal Force, perhaps to lessen the intensity of his demonic aura. As for the so‑called presence, Bai Lang hasn't yet mastered the ability to emit or absorb it. Though his hand trembled, the two women finally undressed him and said, "We don't need this, just throw it away. I doubt the bloodstains can be cleaned." Bai Lang softened his tone.

In fact, most of the clothing was removed by Bai Lang himself, because if he let the two women handle it, their trembling hands would be too slow, and moreover Bai Lang isn't accustomed to having women attend to his bathing. The water in the wooden tub was set to a slightly hot temperature, and Bai Lang jumped straight in, first grabbing a washcloth and scrubbing himself from head to toe, including his hair—since his last return from the modern era, Bai Lang has been growing his hair according to custom.

That world, though it placed no special restrictions on hair or beards, still had people accustomed to ancient Chinese attire; of course, you could be a wild youth with disheveled hair, and if you cut it short you could become a monk and no one would mind—however, after successfully cultivating the Golden Bell Shield, Bai Lang felt that extreme cold and heat affected him far less, so since he no longer felt hot, he could keep his long hair. This also helped him blend into the present world.

However, long hair, though no longer hot, became dirty and troublesome to wash, and the few maidservants, sensing this, hurried to help when they saw Bai Lang untie his hair to wash, carefully cleaning his hair. Soon the first bucket of water was poured out, and the guards outside saw red water gushing from the wooden trough into the outer ditch. "How many people were killed…" they muttered to themselves.

How many people did Bai Lang kill in this pacification? He hadn't counted carefully, and his soldiers couldn't either, but Bai Lang estimated that roughly two or three hundred men under Zuo Liangyu died directly by his hand. As for the tens of thousands of others who died, that was the responsibility of the camp's mismanagement, mainly because those incompetent officers were poor at running the army, and it had nothing to do with Bai Lang.

Changing the water was naturally done by the guards outside, who brought in hot water, replacing it twice in total. Bai Lang finally felt clean, though his disheveled hair still needed time to dry, and he, still clothed, was leafing through books he had retrieved from the Left Junying. Now was not the time to exhaust his Internal Force cultivating martial arts; he was just looking for something to relax himself. As for the upcoming campaign? That was Governor Deng's concern; Bai Lang only needed to charge forward and kill.

Governor Deng at this moment was brimming with energy, still striving to keep the military authority of these troops in his hands, and also needed to dispatch forces quickly to Xiangyang to break the siege; if possible, capture Zhang Xianzhong and send him to the Capital for execution. Bai Lang's assignment was to select his own camp leaders, at least guards who could charge with him. Bai Lang thought a few cavalry would suffice; the opponent was not Qing troops but bandits, and even though many of those bandits were originally former Ming soldiers, Bai Lang didn't consider them to have become regular troops.

Anyway, these days there's no real difference between regular troops and bandits, right? He had no confidence in the combat effectiveness of late‑dynasty armies; the late Great Han regulars still had some merit, but the late Ming regulars? Forget it. The bandits were the same; currently on this Asian continent only the Qing troops seemed relatively strong—though the rate at which this army decayed was unprecedented. At least Bai Lang recalled that these guys had barely entered the passes before they became ineffective, and they hadn't even conquered the whole of China yet.

So Bai Lang only prepared to pull a few cavalry, not because he despised Zhang Xianzhong— even if several adopted sons of the Eight Great Kings joined, Bai Lang thought he could kill them in less than the time it takes to finish a cup of tea.

At dawn the next day, under Governor Deng's urging, Zuo Liangyu's original army had already selected 5,000 elite troops, and under Bai Lang's "leadership" they marched toward Xiangyang City. Bai Lang had never led troops before, nor did he intend to; after all each soldier had his own superior officer, so the command hierarchy was like that, ultimately reporting to Bai Lang. Bai Lang had no close aides, nor any Master or similar attached to the army, so almost everything rested on him alone.

Thus this fellow irresponsibly adopted a hands‑off approach, delegating authority and letting the thousand‑household and hundred‑household guerrilla units each manage their own sectors, then merely urging them to advance at full speed. Moreover, the order he issued was absurd: "The entire army shall carry ten days of dry rations and shall not set up camps; just follow me into the charge."

The subordinates were also startled and immediately pleaded, "That's like sending us to our deaths!" Yet faced with Bai Lang's tiger‑like demonic aura, they could not be swayed, and simply fled in secret… However, the next day, dozens of the fleeing soldiers' corpses were dumped at the edge of the camp. Although over a hundred had escaped, any who were caught by Bai Lang were killed. "Using fear to command an army never works, but these Left Army soldiers were already scum; their deaths are no loss. Besides, we only need them this once; wiping them out completely is fine!"