Chapter 42 Don't Test Human Nature
It was a while before Li Daoxuan finally understood why the sentry was so panicked, and why San Shier had ordered all the villagers to arm themselves and ascend the ramparts.
It turned out that the sentry had witnessed a horrifying sight.
A vast crowd, dragging their children, weeping and crying out for their parents, fled ahead. Behind them, a horde of bandits, brandishing blades, relentlessly hacked at the fleeing people.
From time to time, someone would fall behind, only to be cut down by a pursuing bandit's blade, their blood spurting far and wide.
Seeing this, those ahead ran in even greater terror. The bandits behind, having tasted blood, grew even more savage, descending into a frenzy. They continued their pursuit and slaughter, all while emitting deranged laughter.
Who could witness such a scene and not panic?
The villagers of Gao Family Village, had they not been protected by ramparts and the presence of Dao Xuan Tian Zun hovering above them, would likely have been paralyzed with fear upon seeing this, already devising their escape.
“To the ramparts! Quickly, quickly, everyone to the ramparts!”
“Bows and arrows! I have a bow, salvaged from those bandits last time.”
“Bring everything! Even the bamboo poles!”
The villagers scrambled up the ramparts, clutching a motley assortment of improvised weapons.
Li Da, the blacksmith, and Gao Yiyi surprisingly unearthed two sets of Two-Plate Armor from a corner of the workshop. Donning the armor and seizing their large hammers, they instantly became the best-equipped warriors in all of Gao Family Village.
Both men were powerfully built. As they stood on the ramparts, clad in armor and hoisting their hammers, they immediately became a stabilizing presence, like pillars anchoring the sea. Many weaker villagers instinctively gathered around them.
Two others, though unarmored, were equally imposing in their immense stature and formidable presence. These were Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu. Each wielded an axe, and dozens of villagers clustered around them as well.
Just as they completed their defensive deployment, the people outside had entered Li Daoxuan's field of view.
Those running fastest didn't appear to be ordinary commoners; they seemed to belong to a wealthy family. They even had a carriage, but without a proper road, the carriage struggled, jolting violently. Thus, it wasn't much faster than those on foot.
The carriage was the first to reach the village gate. The driver wasn't a coachman, but a middle-aged man in a green scholar's gown, clearly someone of status. He craned his neck, shouting up at the ramparts: “What village is this? Please open the gates and let us in to take shelter! The bandits behind us are murdering people, they are feroci—”
He didn't finish his sentence before San Shier exclaimed, “Eh? Isn’t that Master Bai?”
The man looked up, startled. “Ah, Master San! Have I reached Chengcheng County town? No, that can’t be right! The county town should still be far away, shouldn’t it?”
San Shier instructed, “Quickly, open the gates! Let Master Bai and his family in!”
The villagers quickly cranked the wooden mechanism, the fishing line pulling the two wooden gates open slowly. Master Bai flicked the reins, and the carriage immediately surged into the village.
“Can we close the gates now?” the villager responsible for opening them called out.
San Shier glanced outside. Master Bai's family, thanks to their carriage, had created a significant distance between themselves and those still fleeing behind them. Therefore, opening the gates to let them in and then closing them again in time wouldn't be difficult. However, the distance between the remaining fleeing pedestrians and the bandits was dangerously small.
One was practically treading on the heels of the other.
If they let the people ahead into the village, the pursuing bandits might rush in right behind them. And that would be catastrophic...
In that brief instant, sweat beaded on his brow and trickled down his face.
Should he prioritize self-preservation and order the gates shut immediately?
Or should he save more lives, risking the entire Gao Family Village to the bandits’ invasion?
San Shier was no military commander. Faced with such a dilemma, he couldn't think clearly. He was utterly distraught.
Fortunately, Li Daoxuan didn’t give him a chance to make that agonizing decision!
Human nature cannot withstand every test.
Li Daoxuan had no desire to force a fundamentally decent person into becoming cruel through such circumstances. He had the power to resolve it, so there was no need to test human nature.
He puffed out his cheeks, and with a forceful gust directed at the dusty ground outside the village, he blew.
A swirling cloud of yellow dust rose into the sky, enveloping both the people behind and the bandits.
The bandits needed to see their targets to pursue and hack them down, but the fleeing people did not; they only needed to run straight ahead.
In a mere ten seconds or so, the fleeing individuals burst out of the swirling dust storm, creating a significant gap between themselves and the bandits.
Once the distance was clear, Li Daoxuan could swat the bandits like flies with his palm, or flick them on the forehead like troublesome children...
He raised his hand, considered it, then lowered it again.
He could eliminate them at any moment; there was no immediate rush. Besides, overly coddling his people wouldn't be beneficial. The villagers needed to gain experience in handling such situations. Otherwise, if he were absent one day, the entire village, lacking combat experience, would be utterly lost in the face of trouble. Even with a strong fortress, they would be overrun in a single wave, left without a burial ground.
Activating his 'Dao Xuan Tian Zun's Cold Gaze Upon the World' mode, he decided to observe how Gao Family Village would handle things for now.
After the fleeing group, aided by the sandstorm, had distanced themselves from the bandits, San Shier no longer had to face that test of humanity. He commanded loudly, “Let everyone in, then close the gates!”
No sooner had he shouted than Master Bai himself appeared on the ramparts. After his carriage had surged into the fortifications, he promptly dismounted, hurried up the ramparts, and stood beside San Shier, bellowing, “Anyone with a bow, loose a few arrows haphazardly at the bandits! Scare them off!”
For an outsider to leap onto the ramparts and start issuing commands so brusquely was quite audacious. Yet, amusingly, the villagers didn't care who was giving orders; they simply obeyed anyone who did. They drew the bows salvaged from the previous bandit attack and loosed a volley of arrows at the bandits outside.
A few scattered arrows, lacking any force, whistled weakly, not striking a single one of them.
But it was enough to deter the bandits. The group of bandits collectively halted some tens of meters away. They craned their necks, staring at the formidable ramparts before them, and began to murmur amongst themselves.
The remaining refugees seized the opportunity to surge through the village gates. The villagers quickly turned the winch, several others helping to push. With a resounding thud, the gates clanged shut.
Only then did Master Bai finally let out a sigh of relief. “Thankfully, my mastery of the Six Arts of a gentleman proved useful, especially charioteering. I personally drove the carriage, fleeing all the way here. And fortunately, you were here, otherwise I would have perished.”
San Shier, still flustered, asked, “Master Bai, what... what exactly happened?”
Master Bai sighed. “Bai Family Fortress has been breached by bandits.”
San Shier exclaimed, genuinely startled!
Bai Family Fortress, as the name implied, was the fortified manor of the Bai family.
The Bai family couldn't be called a powerful scholarly clan; they were merely a minor gentry family. Their ancestors had produced a prefect and a county magistrate, but by this generation, no one in the family held official positions at court.
Relying on the foundations left by their forebears, the Bai family still commanded considerable influence in Chengcheng County. They possessed a stoutly built manor-fortress, staffed by dozens of household guards and protected by over a hundred tenant farmers. Moreover, the Bai family had consistently invested time and resources to organize a militia among the villagers near Bai Family Fortress to resist bandits, making their strength considerable.
Smaller bands of horse-mounted bandits and mountain brigands in the vicinity had always steered clear of Bai Family Fortress.
San Shier had truly never imagined that bandits could breach Bai Family Fortress. What kind of terrifying bandits could be so formidable?
Master Bai gestured towards the bandits outside the walls, who were still murmuring amongst themselves, and shook his head, sighing. “These few dozen bandits chasing us are but a small fraction. Behind them are hundreds, even thousands, more. My Bai Family Fortress held out for less than four hours before those brigands breached it. The militia was decimated, and our household guards suffered heavy losses. Only this handful of us managed to escape...”
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