“Ku Lo, you’ll lead the Third Squad and head north,” Dai Meifen addressed the Seventh Expeditionary Team. “See if you can spot anything from atop that mountain.” 

“Understood!” Ku Lo wasn’t going to bother asking questions if Meifen was favouring him like this. 

After him accepting the battlefield promotion, some people around them shared a few quiet whispers and envious glances directed at him. On the other side were his groupies and Huang Gingge who appeared excited about this. 

Ku Lo smiled at his girlfriend, ignoring the jealousy.

Meifen cleared her throat. “Your actions were exemplary during the ambush. Try to keep it up.” 

“I will!” 

“The others will…” Meifen went on to instruct the other teams as Ku Lo pulled aside the three other Outer Court Disciples. 

As expected, the three others weren’t happy about him getting the promotion instead of them. Who could blame them? They are more experienced and have seniority over me. 

Still, he was given the job — even if it was due to favouritism. “Is there something you want to speak of?” His light-blue eyes glared at HIS team consisting of two lanky youths and a man in his forties with a visible beer belly. 

Nigh silent murmurs responded. 

“Let’s go.” He spun with his hand, ordering them to follow him starting to run. 

…

On their ascent of the aforementioned mountain, the air became colder. It began sneaning through the white robes he wore and started to nibble at his skin and reduce muscle movement. 

This was annoying for sure, but Ku Lo wasn’t fazed. Comfort was a luxury. A small annoyance shouldn’t be mourned at all, especially when on a mission where he could lose his life in seconds if unconcentrated. 

Like right now. If he’d been pondering about something else, he surely wouldn’t have seen the light ray be reflected off a metallic surface.

Enemies! Ku Lo ducked behind the nearest boulder, signalling with his hand for the men behind him to follow with haste. 

Meifen’s words and authority were enough to keep them in line with minimal authority from him. They listened, he noted as they slid behind him with the first man’s body wrapping around his to confirm the sighting. 

Up the barren mountainside, he saw a group of bandits hanging about without worry. 

They sure are taking their guard duty seriously, he thought, watching how the man, supposedly on guard duty, looked the other way while also exposing his sword in a way that light rays bounced right off of it. Bunch of idiots. 

Ten minutes later, he had seen enough of them dance, and jump around to count five bandits on this guardpost. With no more singing in the background either, he withdrew his body to tell the news. 

“Five of them, drunk for the most part…” he started explaining every detail he got. 

“I didn’t see a way past them-” He shook his head. “That being, we’re going to knock them out quickly, so we can continue.” The skirmish began with him rushing from behind the boulder to another one twenty meters up the mountainside. 

There he peeked out of the cover and signalled for the others to join him with hand movements. 

Bit by bit, the four of them arrived on the enemies flank without being noticed. At this point, Ku Lo knew the advantage was theirs. 

The position they occupied was a few meters up from their opponents. The bandits had probably picked this spot because it held the wind off, ignoring the fact that the ridge also obstructed part of their vision and without putting up a separate guard to cover the blindspot. 

Nevertheless, for one last check, Ku Lo peeked over the ridge separating the two groups to confirm their numbers, weaponry, and disrtibution. 

Five of them, as he’d counted before. Weaponry and combat readiness were at a level they might as well cut their throats now and save his blade from having to draw blood. 

The sight almost made him jump on them alone. Calm down… That isn’t the proper way… It would show you are a hot-headed idiot… 

As the eagerness began to set down, he put up five fingers. 

One finger curled down into his palm. 

Another one. 

By the third one, his subordinates got the idea and so nudged forwards. The intent to kill now visible on their faces. 

All of them down, clenched into a fist Ku Lo roared. 

Not a second later, they swept into their enemies' midst with weapons drawn.

Four bandits were impaled, their lives cut before Ku Lo’s roar had vaned into the distance. The survivor crashed onto his ass, screaming for mercy and his mother. 

Ku Lo’s hand shook as he dropped the idea which wouldn’t have been approved by his leader, teacher, and lover. Instead of killing the man right there, he offered a chance to live. “Surrender, talk, and live.”

In an instant, the bandit got off his ass and into a kowtow in front of Ku Lo’s feet. “If you spare me I’ll tell you anything, I know,” the man begged profusely. 

“Is there anyone else nearby? At a watching distance?”

“No.” 

“When is the guard change?” 

The bandit peered towards the sky before answering. “An hour.” 

“Good, then we have an hour to question him-” He glanced at the others. “Guys, grab a pen and paper. I’ll do the questioning, you guys try to remember everything.”

“How many bandits?” Ku Lo started with the questions that could be compared with the ones the Inner Court Disciples had extracted from the Bandit Captain yesterday before executing him. “How’re the conditions? Any pay last month?” he asked, trying to see if the enemy could be bribed. 

This questioning would go on for almost an hour and be filled with so many boring questions the other disciples were getting bored from writing and memorising them. 

“Thanks, that’s all,” he said. “You may run now, I don’t care.” 

The bandit raised his head, and seeing them all stand down began to scurry away.

“Someone kill him already…” 

The bandit looked at him over his shoulder while still trying to flee. “Y-you said th—” 

“In your dreams, scum.” The beer-bellied man had been yearning this moment. During the questioning, he had honed his blade the entire time for this moment in which he took the liberty to practice his head cutting swing on a live target. 

“Bandits.”

“Did he really think he would live?” 

“Let’s focus on the future now-” Ku Lo changed the topic as he took his attention away from the head starting to roll downhill. “We’ll be switching clothes and cleaning this place fast. You big guy, go and retrieve the head if you don’t wish to be exposed.” 

The three others were confused. 

“Yes?” 

“Umm…” the man who’d been told to retrieve the head meandered with his words instead of completing the task given. “What are we doing exactly?” 

“Even if we can compare their testimonies, we can’t trust bandits, right?” 

“They aren’t the most trustful of fellows.” One of the lanky brothers said. 

The others nodded. 

“Indeed, so-” Ku Lo picked the bandit clothing most suited for him before locking eyes with one of them. “We're going in.”