504: Chapter 504 List of Our Own People

A group of Japanese pirates had long since grown impatient. Having sailed at sea for half a month, they were just waiting to ruthlessly plunder a heap of food and snatch a group of women to take back.

Yamagami's reminder drew many fierce glares.

Seeing this, Yamagami didn't dare say anything more and could only bite the bullet and shut his mouth.

"The old rules: Sato-kun, lead the men to outflank them. Don't let the Gan people escape!"

"Hai!"

A one-eyed pirate nodded and led dozens of subordinates to circle around the side and block the road from the other direction.

Once the deployment was complete, Ota led his men, splitting into three groups, and began to creep into the outskirts of the small town.

At this time, every household had their lights out, and families, old and young, were fast asleep.

They only needed to sneak in and hack the fishermen to death with their blades before they could even react!

Even if there were a few screams, by the time the rest of the town reacted, it would be too late for them to escape.

Ota very skillfully used his blade to split open the latch of a door.

Walking into a residence, he saw a couple and two children under the age of ten sleeping on a large communal bed in the darkness.

With a murderous glint in his eyes, Ota raised his blade and slashed directly at the neck of the man of the house!

Swoosh!

A cold arrow shot in from outside the window, directly piercing through Ota's temple!

Before Ota could even realize what was happening, he collapsed!

"Ota-kun!?"

Seeing this, his two subordinates behind him both cried out in alarm.

But what greeted them was a succession of "swoosh-swoosh" sounds of cold arrows!

Before the pirates could even see who was attacking, their heads and throats had been pierced, and they died on the spot!

The other pirates who were trying to enter houses to kill people also felt like they had "encountered ghosts"!

In the darkness, figures lunged out from unknown locations, launching sneak attacks on the pirates from different directions!

A bunch of guys used to carrying out sneak attacks and assassinations in the dead of night were suddenly the ones being counter-ambushed; naturally, their ranks fell into chaos!

"Cunning Gan people! We've fallen into a trap!"

"Quick, back to the ships!"

After realizing things were going south, Yamagami immediately led a few pirates around him in an attempt to run toward the sea.

But a figure flashed past in front of him, and after several flashes of cold light were thrown out, Yamagami found that he could no longer breathe!

He clutched his throat in terror; it had actually been slit by something!!

Fast! Too fast!

Sato, who was responsible for guarding the escape route, realized the situation was wrong and immediately led his men to retreat.

But just then, a middle-aged man holding a long sword, wearing a loose and ill-fitting robe, and looking somewhat unkempt, suddenly blocked the path.

"You just got here, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

The middle-aged man grinned, revealing a harmless-looking smile: "Stay a while longer."

"Kill him!!"

Sato didn't waste words and gave the order directly. Dozens of pirates swarmed forward!

The middle-aged man sighed, took a quick stride, and counter-charged into the crowd of pirates.

After a burst of screams, the flashes of blades and swords ended. All dozens of pirates had their throats slit by a single sword strike!

"Im... Impossible! How could there be an expert like you in such a small place!?"

Sato had already realized that the fellow before him was a top-tier martial artist of the Tianwu Continent. Even if he wasn't a Sword Dao Grandmaster, he was very close!

The middle-aged man didn't answer but suddenly placed his sword against Sato's neck.

"Come, give me a smile."

Confused and gripped by fear, Sato forced a smile that looked uglier than crying.

"Not pretty."

The middle-aged man shook his head, his eyes showing a hint of coldness.

Sato's head immediately rolled off.

By now, the shouts and sounds of killing in the town had already woken many fishermen.

As candles were lit one by one, the fishermen were terrified to see the dead pirates at their doorsteps or inside their homes.

Fortunately, most of the pirates had already been dealt with, and the town's fishermen suffered no losses.

The few pirates left behind on the two ships saw that things were going poorly and tried to slip away, but they were caught by a group of soldiers who suddenly emerged from the coastal rocks.

An officer warned loudly: "I am a Commandant of the Qizhou garrison! You pirate scum, surrender your weapons immediately, or you will be shown no mercy!"

These few pirates, who didn't speak the language, couldn't understand what the officer was saying, but they recognized the blades in the soldiers' hands.

They hurriedly knelt on the deck, kowtowing and begging for mercy, not daring to resist at all.

A crisis was swiftly quelled within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

After the Yan Army soldiers finished reassuring the townspeople, the people thanked them repeatedly while cursing the pirates as absolute beasts.

Meanwhile, on a nearby beach.

The hidden weapon expert and the sword dao expert who had just shown their great prowess were leading a few subordinates to bow toward Lin Xiao.

"The Second Floor Master of the Yanyu Pavilion, Baili Zhuifeng."

"The Fourth Floor Master, Xiao Yixiao."

"Pay respects to the Prince of Zhenbei!"

Lin Xiao had been watching everything from the shadows just now. Out of trust in the strength of these two, he hadn't intervened.

[Baili Zhuifeng (Governor of Qizhou), 51 years old, Second Floor Master of Yanyu Pavilion, inspector general of Qi Province, personal disciple of Zhu Ming, Aptitude: Earth Grade]

[Realm: Hidden Weapon Grandmaster]

Indeed, this Baili Zhuifeng was both a high-ranking Second Floor Master within the Yanyu Pavilion and a disciple of Zhu Ming, and he had even become the inspector general of Qi Province!!

The "List of Our Own People" that Lin Xiao had obtained from Zhu Ming back then included Baili Zhuifeng.

One must know that among the five eastern provinces, Qi Province had the largest area and the largest population.

Prince of Donghai probably wouldn't imagine in his wildest dreams that the inspector general of Qi Province, Governor of Qizhou, was actually Baili Zhuifeng's other identity!

Crucially, he was already an inspector general, yet he was still working as an assassin. One could only say he was quite "passionate" about the assassin trade!

And for such a figure to be Zhu Ming's disciple also showed that Old Man Zhu indeed had real ability.

The other person was not simple either.

[Xiao Yixiao, 49 years old, Fourth Floor Master of Yanyu Pavilion, traitor of the Sword Forest, Aptitude: Earth Grade]

[Realm: Sword Dao Master]

According to the intelligence Lin Xiao had acquired, this fellow liked to make his targets smile before killing them.

If the target's smile was pretty enough, he would show mercy.

It wasn't that he wouldn't kill them, but he would just wait until the next time he came, until the smile was no longer pretty, before he would strike.

"A bunch of useless trash. Having Master Han and Master Xiao take action, your Pavilion Master has perhaps made a mountain out of a molehill."

Lin Xiao had thought that the ones lying in ambush here this time would just be ordinary Yanyu Pavilion assassins.

As it turned out, two heavyweight figures had been sent.

It was said that including Shu Yelan, the Yanyu Pavilion only had three Martial Arts Grandmasters, but now it seemed that these two simply hadn't revealed their true strength.

"Your Highness is joking. Before Your Highness, our martial arts are nothing to speak of."

Baili Zhuifeng complimented: "The Pavilion Master said that although this group of pirates isn't their regular army, there must not be any mistakes, so Xiao Yixiao and I naturally had to go all out."

"Indeed, we invited Your Highness to watch a good show. If we needed Your Highness to personally take action to deal with these third-rate pirates, then what use would we be?" Xiao Yixiao said with a beaming face.

Lin Xiao asked curiously: "From what you're saying, these Japanese pirates are even divided into regular and irregular ranks?"