All across Thousand Flower City, battles erupted large and small. True to Zhou Ziyun's predictions, a second bandit army appeared in the west. The fighting over there was as fierce as the south but with some preparation, the city guards and Zhou Clan fighters were doing alright for the moment.
Elsewhere, the northern and eastern garrisons were on high alert. Small problems arose here and there in the outskirts. They had to send people to quell the unrest while maintaining their formations. In the central plaza, Peng Lingxi was still fighting with the herbal master. Since her opponent was burning their lifespan for this battle, she didn't have any way to end it quickly. It became a dragged-out affair with her mostly defending and dodging to waste the other's stamina.
As for Lin Qingcheng, she continued sweeping through the city. After the group from the Mountain Spring Sect, she led her city guards and charged to another hotspot several blocks away. Here, a small group of about four or five people were setting fire to buildings using some kind of explosive concoction.
"Stop right there!" She shouted.
It had the opposite effect and the five people who had their faces covered but wearing ordinary clothes, sprinted away in five different directions.
She stomped her feet in anger. She randomly chose one and chased after them, even as the two city blocks on either side were burning fiercely.
"Miss Lin! Miss Lin!" Commander Wang Gu shouted after her but she didn't slow down, "First squad, second squad, chase after the arsonists! Third squad, fourth squad, put out these fires, quickly!"
"Yes, sir!"
Lin Qingcheng rounded the corner of a building and caught sight of her target. Although the arsonist had quickly changed their outfit, she couldn't be fooled that easily. She didn't even need her master to tell her. She had locked onto that person's spiritual aura all by herself.
"Stop!" She shouted and injected strength into her legs.
With a mighty burst of speed, she caught up and swung her body around into a powerful kick which landed across the back of the fleeing person's head.
Pa!
The strike sent her opponent flying, crashing into the side of the building before they crumpled to the ground.
"Caught you!" She declared happily.
She let out a long exhale and recovered some stamina. She then grabbed the limp figure by one leg and dragged him back to the city guards.
Around the same time, the first and second squads came back. They had expended a lot of effort and many were breathing heavily or covered in sweat. But they had managed to capture the remaining four arsonists. The fires around them had also been put out although many guards had suffered burns or were covered in soot.
"Let's go, there is another group of evildoers close to us."
Commander Wang looked from her to the state of his guards to the new prisoners. He sighed and barked out quick commands. A small group of city guards dragged the prisoners toward the prison while the rest picked up their weapons and chased after the ever-energetic Lin Qingcheng.
Their next target was an even trickier one. A person had gone crazy within a residential building. They started randomly killing people and nobody in the building could stop them. Some of the residents fled outside and begged for help while others barricaded their doors and prayed.
"Make way, make way!" Lin Qingcheng shouted as she arrived.
She kicked open the door with a squad of twenty or so guards close on her heels. She charged towards the source of commotion on the third floor. Along the way, she passed by several bodies in the hallway that were still warm and bleeding. They had died not long ago. A few of them were even children.
"Damn it!" She shouted and sprinted ahead.
She was angry. She wanted to punch this murder into meat paste. She was angrier than she had ever been. This was her master's city. This was Ten Thousand Flower Valley's beacon in the province. This was the home of her branch sect. Those children could have been the children of her people.
"Stop! You bastard!" She finally found her target.
A disheveled cultivator carrying an axe had just been cleaving at a door to a residence. He turned and glared at Lin Qingcheng. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was red, almost purple. His spiritual aura was wild and unstable as if he was drunk or confused.
Lin Qingcheng raised her golden fists and attacked immediately. Her opponent swung his axe, his movements filled with surprising strength.
Ka!
Metal struck metal and for a moment, they were evenly matched.
But Lin Qingcheng kept attacking. In such close quarters, her style of hand-to-hand combat was far more flexible. Her palm strikes, kicks, and punches were fast and deadly. Her opponent, on the other hand, couldn't swing his axe freely.
Pa!
After a brief but challenging fight, Lin Qingcheng's training and her equipment prevailed. The murderer collapsed after a heavy palm strike and was rendered unconscious. She won but it was not a perfect win. She suffered two slashes from the axe but both bounced harmlessly off the Golden Serpent Robe.
She kicked the unmoving figure in frustration. Her prior anger had dissipated and she was more worried about being scolded by her master than anything else. No doubt, he would go on another long lecture and she would be punished with extra training.
In this sense, she was far different from Wu Qianyu. Wu Qianyu's emotions were sharp and fierce. Her anger towards the bandits burned like the sun and seared her mind. It was of such intensity that she could think of nothing else but to kill everything evil around her.
Lin Qingcheng's anger was fleeting. It was intense during the moment but it was not all-consuming. Compared to Wu Qianyu, they had different emotions. Lin Qingcheng would not become obsessed with thoughts of pain and revenge. In this sense, she was similar to Chen Wentian's personality; casual, flexible, and easy-going.
"Commander Wang, please deal with this one like the others." She said.
Commander Wang Gu nodded and ordered a few guards to do so.
Lin Qingcheng straightened and wiped her brow. She patted her hands and looked around. She was quite tired after having fought several times in a short time. She was far from her peak condition but she felt that she could fight a few more rounds without a problem. There were still more enemies to beat up and more fires to put out. It was her task to fulfill.
"Come on, let's go!" She shouted.
Wang Gu and his men could only follow her orders, some shaking their heads. Like those unlucky fellows in the south of the city, these guards were not exactly fighting with their lives on the line. They were simply chasing after an energic princess who seemed to have endless stamina.
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