The First Order

“You already knew about it, didn’t you?” Xu Jinyuan said with mixed feelings. In deciding to tell Ren Xiaosu about this matter, he suffered from sleeplessness the entire night.

In fact, he was still worried that Ren Xiaosu would kill him on the spot when he found out the truth.

Although he had said to his brothers “I believe that he won’t,” he wasn’t actually sure.

But he realized at this moment that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already known about the secret he was hiding.

Yang Xiaojin stood next to Ren Xiaosu and looked at Xu Jinyuan while saying, “You guys deliberately scratched away the logos on your motorcycles, didn’t you? That wasn’t exactly clever, was it?”

“But that’s not enough to suggest anything,” said Xu Jinyuan, pursing his lips.

“Ever since y’all arrived, there haven’t been any bandits coming here from the north.” Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “Someone in the north must’ve already unified all the bandits at Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan, right?”

Xu Jinyuan said stubbornly, “Just because of that?”

Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, “We were bluffing.”

Xu Jinyuan was dumbfounded. They were bluffing?

“Actually, we’ve been watching you for some time.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “But it’s only now that we’ve fully confirmed your identity.”

“Then how are you gonna punish me?” Xu Jinyuan said in a low voice.

The punishments dished out to bandit traitors had always been very cruel. They wouldn’t show any mercy.

Xu Jinyuan knew that if it were any other bandit leader, this would probably mean the end for him. But deep down, he felt that Ren Xiaosu was different!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly put out a hand to him and said, “Welcome to the team.”

Xu Jinyuan heaved a sigh of relief. The young man in front of him was indeed different from the other bandit leaders. He said briefly, “We originally agreed to meet tonight to come up with an attack plan for tomorrow night. But one of the eleven guys I brought here ran away, so my previous gang will definitely know that I’ve leaked their plans.”

“So there’s a possibility that they might attack in advance.” Ren Xiaosu said, “How many bandits does the gang to the north have? How many of them will be joining the attack?”

“They originally had 1,200 people, but it should have increased recently.” Xu Jinyuan said, “But not all of them will come here because they still have to fight with two other gangs in the north. If they all come here together, the other bandit gangs will definitely take advantage of the situation. According to the plan that we had, 600 bandits will be showing up here.”

In response, even Ren Xiaosu, who was already mentally prepared, gasped. The bandits in the valley had even fucking joined forces? How did they end up with so many people?!

Although not all of them would turn up for the attack, 600 bandits could still theoretically crush their refugee settlement.

Of course, that was only in theory.

Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, “Which organization is the leader of the northern bandits from?”

Xu Jinyuan was taken aback for a moment. “I think he used to be from the Qing Consortium, but he has nothing to do with them now. Someone said that he escaped from Stronghold 113 and knows Xu Xianchu of Stronghold 178 as well. However, I’ve never seen him contact Xu Xianchu before, so maybe he only met him a couple times? Eh, don’t you know Master Xu too? Maybe you know him as well?”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Their leader escaped from Stronghold 113 and even knew Xu Xianchu? Could this be someone he knew? “What’s his name?”

“Wang Congyang!”

“Damn…” Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He was not the only one who knew this man. Yang Xiaojin knew him as well.

Yang Xiaojin thought back and said, “Was he that man who was supposed to go with us on the expedition to the Jing Mountains?”

“That’s him.” Ren Xiaosu sighed. Enemies were always bound to meet. If Xu Jinyuan hadn’t mentioned the name, Ren Xiaosu would have forgotten about this person.

Wang Congyang was a junior officer in the private army of Stronghold 113, and he was similarly ostracized by the organization like Xu Xianchu was. Wang Congyang had, in fact, worked together with Xu Xianchu, but they weren’t friends.

Wang Congyang never stopped pursuing Ren Xiaosu after Ren Xiaosu had killed his relative, and importantly, Wang Congyang was a meticulous person. Even though Ren Xiaosu was very good at acting like he wasn’t the one who killed the man, he still got targeted by Wang Congyang.

After that, Yan Liuyuan told Ren Xiaosu that even after he had set off to the Jing Mountains, Wang Congyang still persisted and even led a team to try to arrest him. If it weren’t for Zhang Jinglin, Yan Liuyuan and the others would probably have been put in danger.

The cause of this grudge was because Ren Xiaosu had killed someone. However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any regrets about doing it. Since he had already killed that man, so be it.

However, he never expected Wang Congyang would survive the collapse of Stronghold 113. Furthermore, he even fled north and became a bandit boss?

And he turned out to be a supernatural being too!

Yang Xiaojin asked, “How’s his relationship with Xu Xianchu?”

“I remember Xu Xianchu saying that he didn’t have any friends in Stronghold 113.” Ren Xiaosu said, “That eliminates the possibility that he and Wang Congyang are friends. Old Xu wouldn’t lie to me about that.”

Xu Jinyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin’s expressions and realized they really knew Xu Xianchu.

At the beginning, he thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin might have been lying.

“Have you seen him use his superpower before?” Ren Xiaosu asked.

“Nope.” Xu Jinyuan shook his head. “When we were fighting the other bandits, he would usually just stand behind and not need to do anything.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, “No wonder y’all are so different from the other bandits. Wang Congyang used to be an army officer, so it’s no surprise that he can manage a gang of bandits as well.”

“Boss, what should we do?” Xu Jinyuan asked, “Should we take refuge in the valley until the dust settles?”

“Nah.” Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “He’s only one supernatural being. There’s two of us here, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Not only was he not afraid, but Ren Xiaosu even wanted to seek out Wang Congyang so he could replicate his power.

Remember, he still had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll in his hands. It was not worth learning from Yang Xiaojin since the conjured sniper rifle was only going to be useful in the hands of a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user. Even if he learned her power, he could only use it as an artillery weapon at most. So it would be great if Wang Congyang’s superpower turned out to be quite useful.

Ren Xiaosu walked towards the brick kiln and shouted to Jin Lan, “Hurry up! Have some people push the bricks to the north side! Bandits are coming to attack us! Build the defenses! The enemy might arrive tonight!”

It might be a little too late to build the defenses now, but they had to win this battle no matter what!

Jin Lan and the others had been holding it in for a long time. When they heard they were going to fight, their eyes lit up. “Boss, how are we going to fight this battle?”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, “Fight however you like.”

Yang Xiaojin grinned as she looked at Ren Xiaosu from behind. She felt this could be the most interesting stretch in the 18 years of her life.

Yang Xiaojin turned around and walked towards the wilderness. She did not need to stay here. A sniper was a lone wolf that transcended the confines of the wasteland. A lone wolf should do what a lone wolf did best.

The wasteland was vast and boundless. Yang Xiaojin walked into the distance, stepping on the desolate ground underfoot as the turbulent waters of the river flowed next to her.

She would have to kill a lot of people tonight, but this was the first time she was going to pull the trigger to protect someone.

What a night to look forward to!