Jun Huailang gripped the wooden stick and shoved forward, pushing the refugee back a little.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of more people appearing atop the wall.
With one glance, Jun Huailang could tell that the academy walls were high, and those who had been lifted onto the wall and jumped into the courtyard were all relatively short and thin.
Presumably, they had sent these people inside specifically to deal with the guards blocking the gate. As long as they forced the gate open, everyone outside would be able to enter.
Therefore, he had to stop the people coming in. They still had the strength to fight these people, but if they let them open the gate, then the tragedy that had occurred at Linjiang Academy in his previous life would happen all over again.
“Quick, stop the people on the wall!” Jun Huailang ordered loudly.
Several of the guards remained stationed at the gate, while the others hurriedly grabbed bamboo poles and wooden sticks and went to block the people on the wall.
Although they knocked several people down, it was like trying to stop a cart with a mantis’s arms. Before long, several people had jumped into the courtyard.
And just as Jun Huailang finished speaking, the refugee he had stopped charged at him again. Jun Huailang held a guard’s saber in his hand, and with several moves, he blocked the man’s attacks.
After a few exchanges, Jun Huailang had already figured out some of his opponent’s style.
This man had no real martial arts foundation, nor did his attacks have any discernible technique. He merely possessed brute strength. Yet his fighting style was wild, carrying an air of someone who did not care whether he lived or died, like a desperado from the wilderness.
Several of the men who had entered the courtyard came over with clubs raised. Fortunately, Jun Huailang had practiced martial arts for self-defense since childhood. Although he could not be called highly skilled, dealing with these bandits who possessed nothing but brute strength was not difficult.
After a short while, these men realized that this seemingly refined and delicate scholar was actually not easy to deal with.
“Don’t get tangled up with him here!” one of them shouted. “Opening the gate is more important!”
Immediately, the bandits surrounding Jun Huailang scattered and returned to the gate, attacking the several guards stationed there.
Jun Huailang quickly stepped forward to help those men hold them back.
But before long, he realized that he was also beginning to find himself stretched too thin.
He fought while retreating, gradually being forced back toward the gate. More and more people jumped into the courtyard, eventually reaching more than a dozen, and all of them fought their way toward the gate.
Jun Huailang gritted his teeth.
The courtyard was filled with the elderly, the weak, and scholars. Trying to deploy them in battle under such circumstances was simply asking too much of him.
A chill ran down Jun Huailang’s back. He had already been forced all the way to the gate, his back pressing against the academy’s doors.
Jun Huailang pursed his lips tightly.
He knew that relying on himself alone, he would not be able to hold these people back for long.
Just then, he heard a commotion coming from a classroom not far away.
Jun Huailang knocked one man back and looked up, only to see Shen Liufeng charging at the front. He was holding a long bench in his hands, and he brought it crashing down onto the back of one of the bandits in front of Jun Huailang.
Following behind him were more than a dozen scholars dressed in long robes and straight-fronted gowns. In their hands were nothing but chairs, benches, rulers, and other objects from the academy.
Among them was one of the students Jun Huailang had just persuaded to go back.
“Huailang, we’re here to help you!” Shen Liufeng shouted.
But in the next moment, the bandit he had just struck until he was dazed turned around and slammed a club heavily into his shoulder.
Shen Liufeng grimaced in pain.
These scholars understood even less about martial arts. They did not even possess much brute strength. Once they became entangled with the bandits, all they could do was take beating after beating.
But the pressure around Jun Huailang suddenly eased considerably. In only a moment, he forced several men in front of him back, allowing the guards to regroup around the gate.
“Everyone, be careful! Don’t let anyone be seriously injured!” Jun Huailang shouted.
Fortunately, since these bandits needed to disguise themselves as refugees, they had not brought swords or other weapons. The number of people able to climb over the wall and enter the courtyard gradually decreased. Everyone became locked in close combat, and while Jun Huailang guarded the courtyard gate, he also divided his attention to protect the students. For the moment, the battle remained at a stalemate.
There were some households nearby. Presumably, after hearing the commotion and fighting at the academy, they would certainly go report it to the authorities.
But at that moment, a cry of alarm came from beneath the wall.
Jun Huailang looked over and saw a burly man jumping into the academy. A sword was actually hanging at his waist.
The moment he landed from the wall, he drew the sword and thrust it straight toward one of the guards.
It was a child of only around ten years old.
Jun Huailang watched as the child froze in terror. Without caring about anything else, he immediately leaped forward and, when the sword was only half a chi away from the child, barely managed to block it.
The force was so heavy that Jun Huailang’s wrist trembled, and the heavy iron saber in his hand nearly slipped free.
He raised his eyes and saw the man’s vicious features.
It was actually the foreman he had questioned in the rain that day.
Why was this man here?
Both Jun Huailang and the bandit froze for a moment.
The foreman who had been repairing the road that day was actually one of today’s bandits?
That meant there must certainly have been something suspicious about the road repairs as well. Otherwise, workers who had been receiving wages to carry out the work would never have participated in something like this today.
So the road repairs, the embankment repairs, and the bandits gathered outside Linjiang Academy were all connected.
But before he could think any further, killing intent had already surfaced in the bandit’s eyes.
In the next moment, he raised his sword and advanced, aiming straight for Jun Huailang’s heart.
Jun Huailang knew that the man intended to silence him today.
He raised his saber to block the attack, but immediately, the next sword thrust came straight at him.
This man was different from the bandits before him. After only a few exchanges, Jun Huailang knew that this man was clearly trained in martial arts, and his skill was quite formidable.
He was certainly the bandit leader.
While blocking his attacks, Jun Huailang struggled to think. The stalemate in the courtyard had clearly lasted too long, and the bandit leader had grown impatient. Thus, he had personally leaped inside and exposed himself.
If they allowed these men to succeed now, everyone inside the courtyard would certainly be silenced. Not a single person would survive.
Just then, one sharp-eyed bandit noticed the two of them fighting and seemed to have the idea of earning credit. He actually rushed forward to help.
Jun Huailang was focused entirely on dealing with the bandit leader in front of him. Caught off guard, he was struck on the forearm by the suddenly charging bandit.
Clang!
The saber in his hand fell to the ground.
At that exact moment, the bandit leader’s sword thrust straight toward him.
With nothing in his hand to block it, Jun Huailang could only rely on instinct and twist his body to dodge to the side.
But the sword was too fast and too vicious. No matter how agile Jun Huailang’s movements were, he could not completely evade it.
The sword tip was about to pierce through his shoulder blade.
Yet suddenly, a black shadow soared over the tall wall.
Like an arrow released from a bow, it tore through the hazy curtain of rain and descended from the sky.
Before the bandit leader could complete his thrust, someone heavily kicked him in the face. He did not even have time to cry out before he was sent flying several feet away and crashed heavily onto the ground.
The next moment, that person landed in front of Jun Huailang.
Even from nothing more than his back, Jun Huailang recognized him at once.
Xue Yan.
Just then, Xue Yan turned his head and looked at him.
Those amber eyes were terrifyingly cold, making even Jun Huailang tremble involuntarily.
Then Xue Yan raised a hand. With one hand he drew his sword, while with the other he seized Jun Huailang’s chin, turning his face to the side and forcibly shifting his gaze away.
The next moment came the sound of a sword piercing flesh, stabbing straight through a body.
Warm blood splashed onto Jun Huailang’s lapels at once, crimson spreading and dyeing a large patch of rainwater on the ground red.
The one who died was the bandit who had knocked Jun Huailang’s weapon from his hand just now.
Jun Huailang’s chin was released.
He turned his head and saw Xue Yan pull his sword free, then kick the man’s corpse away.
The torrential rain immediately washed the blood from his sword until it was completely clean.
Without even turning his head, he steadily walked toward the bandit leader.
The kick to the face just now had directly broken the bridge of the man’s nose. He struggled desperately to get up, only to see the man who had descended from the sky walking step by step toward him.
Amid the heavy rain, he looked down at him.
Those amber eyes were icy and vicious, filled with killing intent and the glint of blood.
He looked like a fiendish Asura demon that had come to drag a person straight into hell.
The man walked up, but did not immediately attack. Instead, he delivered another kick straight to the chest, sending him sprawling onto his back.
With just one kick, he could no longer catch his breath. It felt as though all the organs inside his chest had been displaced. His vision went black, and he nearly passed out.
He saw that Asura walk over, holding the sword in one hand and silently looking down at him.
The bandit leader’s eyes widened. His face was covered in blood, and hoarse, rattling sounds came from his throat as he struggled to get up.
He knew that this man was not refraining from killing him because he could not bring himself to do it.
Rather, he was like a falcon repeatedly slamming its prey against the ground, intending to torment him to death bit by bit.
The moment he managed to sit up slightly, the Asura delivered another kick, knocking him back onto the ground.
Just then, a commotion came from the gate.
The academy gates swung wide open.
The people who entered were not his bandits, but a large contingent of Brocade-clad Guards dressed in black-and-gold flying-fish robes.
The scattered bandits in the courtyard were immediately subdued where they stood.
A young man wearing a flying-fish robe stepped forward, clasped his fists, and bowed. His voice was hoarse with the roughness of adolescence:
“Master, they have all been apprehended. Shall we kill them?”
The Asura lowered his head and looked expressionlessly at the bandit leader.
“Take them back,” he said. “As for those who deserve to die, I’ll handle it myself.”
The young man saluted and withdrew.
Only then did the man’s sword slowly rise, hovering over the bandit leader’s chest.
The cold blade scattered droplets of rain as it gleamed with a biting, chilling light.
“Next life, make sure you understand who you should never lay a hand on,” the Asura said.
Immediately afterward, the sword suddenly descended.
But at that moment, a cold, pale hand grasped the Asura’s wrist.
“Xue Yan, don’t kill him.”
That hand was clearly not very strong. It was even trembling faintly from exhaustion after the fierce battle.
Yet the Asura seemed to have been bewitched.
He actually stopped.
The hand holding the sword remained suspended in place.
Through his hazy vision, the bandit leader saw the Asura turn his head.
Standing behind him was the very young master who had handed him an umbrella that day and blocked his path today.
The Asura said nothing.
The young master spoke slowly.
“These people are all suspicious. This man is their leader. We need to take him back for interrogation.”
The Asura did not move. His expression remained terrifyingly cold.
The young master did not release his hand.
“Xue Yan, don’t act rashly,” he said quietly.
The Asura still said nothing.
The next moment, he turned back.
He did not sheathe his sword, but instead delivered a heavy kick to the bandit leader’s head.
His vision went black, and he passed out.
The rain poured down relentlessly.
All the students in the rooms had been kept back by the Brocade-clad Guards, while the injured scholars and guards in the courtyard had all been moved outside.
Apart from a few scattered Brocade-clad Guards standing there with their eyes lowered, as stiff and silent as wooden men, only the two of them remained in the courtyard.
The bandit leader did not see that after Xue Yan kicked him and confirmed that he had passed out, he sheathed his sword and turned around.
Before the young master could say anything, he spoke coldly first.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay at the residence and not run around?”
The young master froze for a moment.
“I…”
The next moment, the vicious demon who had been filled with murderous rage just moments ago stepped forward and pulled the young master tightly into his arms.
Only after a moment did he grit his teeth and speak in a low, hoarse voice, the words filled with restrained fear in the aftermath.
“Are you trying to scare me to death?”