Chapter 76: Keep Your Head to Drink a Few More Sips of Wine

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Following that, Lei Qing let out a whistle. More than a hundred bandits revealed themselves one after another from various carefully designed hiding spots. If the Li Chamber of Commerce really disregarded Li Baobao’s safety and turned against Lei Qing for the sake of reputation or similar reasons, he also had a way to retreat. Several retreat routes that had long been planned were deeply engraved in his mind.

Lei Qing was no fool; he cared deeply about his own life. Unless he had great confidence that he could retreat unscathed, how could he possibly place himself in such a dangerous situation?

Facing several hundred majestic Iron-Armored Personal Guards, the bandits still felt some fear in their hearts. After all, the opposition was power ful. Once they clashed head-on, the bandits would be like a disorderly mob, wiped out as easily as chopping vegetables.

Fortunately, Lei Qing now held extremely high prestige among the bandit group. After nearly a month of bitter training led personally by Lei Qing, the bandits had shed some of their banditry and arrogance. In their movements, they somewhat approached the posture of the Tianlan regular army, appearing much more upright.

Strictly speaking, they could no longer be called bandits. Lei Qing had set up a banner for himself, called the Black Flag Army. He integrated the cavalry team and the original bandits, forming a small force of 160 to 170 people twisted together.

Among them, more than twenty were dismissed with some money for various reasons as they truly did not meet Lei Qing’s requirements. The remaining 150 or so were all strong, sturdy men. This was not strange; even being a bandit had its thresholds. Backing Tiger, from whom Lei Qing had borrowed the manpower, was a well-known leader after all. He couldn’t just recruit anyone into his command, could he? They had to have at least two or three moves up their sleeves.

Thus, although the newly formed Black Flag Army was still very immature, in Lei Qing’s eyes, they were all moldable talents. As long as one was willing to spend effort training and teaching them, they would all become good soldiers.

With Lei Qing present, the Black Flag Army, now merely divided into one main squadron and one Personal Guard squadron, did not show any stage fright when facing the Iron-Armored Personal Guards, who surpassed them several times in both number and quality. Their steps were steady, and faintly, the prototype of a regular army could be seen.

“Subordinate Jiang Yu, Captain of the First Squadron, pays respect to the Young General.” Jiang Yu, clad in full iron armor, walked over with a vigorous stride leading his men. He performed a full military salute and solemnly greeted Lei Qing.

With the help of precious Demonic Beast Crystal Cores and diligent cultivation, Jiang Yu often had the opportunity to ask Lei Qing for advice. His strength had advanced by leaps and bounds recently. Looking at his vigorous momentum, he might break through and step into the Bronze-rank at any moment.

“Captain Jiang, you may dispense with the formalities.” Lei Qing waved his hand: “Proceed according to the plan and transport all these spoils of war away.”

“This subordinate receives the order and will surely not let the Young General down.” Jiang Yu responded with a hint of excitement, then immediately shouted orders to his subordinates and led the horses to start leaving.

“Young General.” There were another twenty people who were Lei Qing’s Personal Guard squadron, that is, his bodyguards. In the military organizations of the Pan-Continent, there had always been the concept of bodyguards. They served to transmit orders, guard, and handle affairs. Generally speaking, their strength was not bad, and they were mostly people close to and trusted by the general.

Actually, if Lei Qing had stayed in the Tianlan Empire to serve in the army, his family would surely have arranged for a few branch family disciples to serve as his bodyguards, entering the army together for development. This could be considered shared glory and shared loss. Thus, over time, the affection between the bodyguards and the general would become very deep.

But here, Lei Qing could freely choose bodyguards to cultivate personally. When the subordinates learned that the Young General was selecting bodyguards, they flocked up in a swarm to request joining, Jiang Yu being no exception.

However, Lei Qing had his own standards, focusing on character, age, aptitude, and intelligence. He valued character the most, rather than focusing too much on strength. After several investigations, Lei Qing finally chose these twenty young people aged sixteen to twenty-two. Over the years, Lei Qing would focus on cultivating them, striving to let them become independent as soon as possible.

Thus, among these twenty bodyguards, only three possessed Black Iron-rank strength. One was Yang Tieshan from the original cavalry team, and another was Miao Renjie, the former vice-captain of the cavalry team.

The last one was a brat of a bandit from Fierce Tiger Ridge. His name was also very domineering, called Li Sanba, and his nickname was Black Bear. He was only sixteen years old, but his physique was as strong as a bear, standing a whole head taller than Lei Qing, who was not short himself. He was gifted with natural talent and possessed incredible strength. He could lift a stone mill weighing three or four hundred catties in one go. Even when his Fighting Qi cultivation was below Black Iron-rank, often several ordinary people joining hands could not defeat him. Even an Elementary-stage Black Iron fighter was no match for him in a contest of pure strength.

Lei Qing saw that he was a talent capable of being molded. If cultivated well, he might become a fierce general sweeping across all directions, so he placed him by his side for cultivation and guidance. He even specially let him learn earth-element Fighting Qi to enhance his strength and defense. Under his careful guidance, Li Sanba broke through his shackles and became a little strong expert of the Elementary-stage Black Iron.

The rest of the bodyguards were also carefully selected by Lei Qing and had certain value for cultivation. But cultivation required spending heart’s blood and time; it was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

Within the Personal Guard squadron, Miao Renjie, who was the oldest and strongest, served as the captain. The brats Yang Tieshan and Li Sanba temporarily served as vice-captains.

“Renjie, do not worry about me. I trust the reputation of the Li Chamber of Commerce.” Lei Qing patted his shoulder as he saw his concern: “You take the bodyguards and act according to the original plan. Use any free time to cultivate more, and strive to step into the Bronze-rank soon.” Although he said this, Lei Qing knew that the reputation of the Li Chamber of Commerce was not necessarily reliable. They would definitely find ways to track him and his subordinates.

However, Lei Qing had long been prepared for this. A series of plans were made for the transfer and life-saving measures after obtaining the ransom.

“Yes, this subordinate takes his leave. Please take care of yourself, Young General.” Miao Renjie was two years older than Lei Qing and knew the priorities of matters. He immediately led the Personal Guard squadron to join up with Jiang Yu and left.

The reason Lei Qing wanted to separate from his subordinates was also for the safety of both sides. With his meager troops, head-on confrontation with the elite of the Li Chamber of Commerce was undoubtedly like an ant trying to shake a tree. Lei Qing traveled lightly, relying on his excellent movement skills and anti-tracking abilities to safely overcome the difficulties. As for his subordinates, Lei Qing was not too worried. The one the Li Chamber of Commerce hated was Lei Qing alone. They wouldn’t even have the interest to glance at those minions of bandit origin. Even if they killed them all, it wouldn’t vent half a breath of their anger. What use was there in taking back those strong crossbows and weapons? The most valuable things were in Lei Qing’s hands.

Moreover, to other forces, these things were an astronomical sum of wealth. But in the eyes of the Li Family, who could be called the richest in the world, it was not a sum that would hurt their foundation.

The Li Chamber of Commerce had powerful strength and was one of the eighteen major forces of the Free Alliance. However, after all, it was not the only dominant power, and it could not cover the sky with one hand within the Free Alliance. As long as they did not openly dispatch thousands of troops to hunt down Lei Qing, Lei Qing naturally had no fear. His means of escape had long since become incomparable to when he first started out.

“Come, come, Brother Sima. According to our previous agreement, you have to stay here with me for three days.” After watching the Black Flag soldiers leave, Lei Qing called out heartily to Sikong Wei, known as Ghost’s Sorrow: “Since we are idle anyway, how about we have a few drinks together?”

“Three years from now, if you are not yet dead.” Sikong Wei stared coldly at Lei Qing: “I will personally take your head.” The series of events just now was a great humiliation to Sikong Wei. Moreover, that squadron of Iron-Armored Personal Guards defeated by Lei Qing was originally under Sikong Wei’s command.

Lei Qing’s actions this time could be considered pulling teeth from a tiger’s mouth or pulling chestnuts from the fire. Being able to ruthlessly knock out a sum from the Li Chamber of Commerce like this would make his reputation soar once the news spread.

But at the same time, Lei Qing had also thoroughly offended a colossal entity. If he was slightly careless, he would be crushed into powder by that colossal entity.

Facing Sikong Wei’s threat, Lei Qing was completely unafraid. He laughed, raised his wine skin, and took a swig of wine: “Good wine, good wine! Then I, Lei, must surely keep my head and wait for Captain Sikong to come take it in three years. No, no, I must take advantage of the time before my head moves houses to drink a few more sips.”

“That’s right, you indeed should take the opportunity to drink a few more sips.” A voice mixed with a hint of gloomy hatred drifted into Lei Qing’s ears: “Otherwise, you will have no chance to drink anymore.”

“Yu Shanshan?” Startled, Lei Qing sprayed out a mouthful of wine.

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