Chapter 349: Manhunt

A man covered in bandages laid upon a lounge chair in the center of a large hall. The doors of the hall swung open and a row of armored soldiers walked in. From their armor, it was clear they were members of the Jade Horde. None of them were actually Hoplites which meant they were all highly ranked. The dozen soldiers removed their helmets and carried them under their arms, walking through the hall to the injured man. The lounge chair was placed a few steps higher than the rest of the hall, making it apparent he was in a high position.

The lead soldier had markings on his armor that identified him as a Legionnaire, someone in charge of a full legion of 1000 of the Jade Horde. He saluted the bandaged man and then passed over a scroll to a servant standing to the side. The scroll was brought up to the injured man where the servant opened it up and held it out for him to read. After a few moments the injured man lifted his hand angrily and was about to smash it down when he was stopped. A middle aged man to the side reached out and halted his motion, “You’ll exacerbate your wounds, Sir City Lord. Please calm yourself.”

The injured man grumbled and then waved for the middle-aged man to step back, “Yes, you’re right Doctor Yang. I let my anger get the better of me. These damned bandages are so annoyingly in my face.”

The man complains a bit before starting to unravel some of the wrappings covering up his face and mouth, leaving the ones over his temple and ear. With the bandages removed the face of Wu Chang is revealed, albeit quite badly bruised and sporting many stitches from three huge gashes. The slices across his face were somewhat aligned, like the claws of a beast tearing across his body. One of his arms was locked in a metal tube-like cast, covered in array symbols and restricting his motion. He also had a similar device around his chest and waist.

In front of the injured man, the group of soldiers waited patiently, not one of them daring to say anything until Wu Chang told them to. Earlier they had thought this City Lord to be quite accommodating, but ever since -that- day, he’d become far more cruel than before. Wu Chang was known for being easy to read, his thoughts and emotions plain to see on his face and in his words. It’s just too bad that didn’t mean he was a nice man. There wasn’t a lot of kindness in his actions, he cared only about results lately. The soldiers had no choice in this matter as they had already chosen to stand on Wu Chang’s side. When those two County Prefects had started threatening Lionheart Town, it also secretly started corresponding with Black Saber and the members of the Seven Stars in the city.

At that point it was a matter of choosing to fight a losing battle, or betraying their leader. Black Saber, Whitestaff and the Strongfist Brothers held out for a while, but when Ling Sheng had no plans, they chose to accept the offer. None of them had any deep connection to the Jade Horde, nor its founder. They were grateful to be accepted into a greater power, but they also stood at the top of it now. Ling Sheng had stepped down from a direct leadership position, yet still expected a cut of the resources and gave orders to them. Black Saber had taken over as the leader of the Jade Horde, yet found himself still subservient to another. It was annoying to answer to someone weaker than yourself, but it was only a minor issue.

What had turned them was the ultimatum delivered by the County Prefects. Would they really sacrifice their lives in a hopeless battle? It was far easier to depose one man and hand him over to their enemies. The sacrifice of one to the benefit of the rest. Even though they were the Jade Horde now, most of them used to be Mercenaries and Bandits. It was a simple decision. Black Saber and the Seven Stars merely had to get the Legionnaires and Centurions on their side and the rest fell into place quite quickly. Instead of fighting a hopeless battle they’d only need to hand over one man and then continue on as they had before.

“Damn, that snake is hard to catch. Who would have thought he was a Demonic Beast and not a human? You say that one legion isn’t able to keep up with him? Then send two! You just have to stay on his tail until I recover.”

The Legionnaire nodded and saluted, “Yes Sir! Which legion shall we send?”

“You do it! Take the fourth legion with you as well. Don’t let him rest, just like dogs hunting a bear. Keep harassing him day and night. Keep it as quiet as you can, we don’t want anyone else catching wind of him. You’re dismissed.”

After bowing deeply, the Legionnaire and the other soldiers with him turned and left the room without any further fanfare. The clap of their boots and the creaking of their armor left the room with them and soon it was almost painfully silent once again. Wu Chang laid on his lounge chair with a doctor to one side and an assistant on the other. A few servants stood to the back of them, waiting for orders. The City Lord rubbed his chin, thinking about his next actions. That Ling Sheng was in the fifth rank and Whitestaff couldn’t defeat him. The only way to take him down would be to combine his own strength with Whitestaff, but even then there wasn’t a guarantee they could keep him from escaping.

He turned to his assistant, “How about the ring? Any progress?”

The older man shook his head, “Sorry, Sir. Even the expert refiner and appraiser we invited to examine it are unable to determine how to break into it.”

“That punk. We already confirmed he brought back over a million Spirit Stones, who would have known he had some sort of special lock on his Storage Ring. We were supposed to use those funds to appease Dawn Mountain and Red Jungle.”

Wu Chang didn’t even bother to use the names of the County Prefects, just calling them by their county names. He grumbled for a bit and then made a decision, “Alright, we’ll just have to raise some funds then. Put the word out, carefully mind you. Let it be known that we’ve got a slot open in the Seven Stars and we’re going to offer it to whoever our most ‘generous’ friend is.”

The assistant nodded and then slowly left the room, leaving Wu Chang with the servants to attend to his demands. With the death of Black Saber, Wu Chang had taken over leadership of the Jade Horde. He was already the strongest person in the Horde before that, but strength only decided who was in the Seven Stars, not who was the leader. At least, that’s how it had been when ‘Ling Sheng’ ran the Jade Horde. Now, with Wu Chang in charge, it seemed he was already making changes. Auctioning off a high ranking position in the Jade Horde to pay off their debts and get the County Prefects off their back. They had intended to hand over Ling Sheng as a scapegoat, but now with him having escaped they followed a secondary plan. One of the Legions of the Jade Horde was already doing work for them, and now Wu Chang had devoted the rest of their strength to keeping tabs on their founder.

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