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nThe next morning, Ou Yangming submitted the pieces of Attribute Equipment that he had smithed earlier, which really surprised Kang Weibo.

nWith those pieces of equipment, nobody would dare to complain even if Old Craftsman did not hand in any equipment this month.

nFollowing that, Ou Yangming informed Ni Yunhong of the situation, and decided on a date to meet in the prefecture. Ni Yinghong had initially offered to travel with Ou Yangming, but was stopped by Ni Yunhong, who was highly against it.

nOu Yangming arrived at the military camp’s entrance after bidding farewell to everyone.

nAlthough the prefecture was far away, he would only be away temporarily, and he had comforted Old Craftsman yesterday, so the old man was calm when he left.

nAt the military camp’s entrance, Fang Yihai and the others had been waiting for a long time.

nFang Yihai smiled when he saw Ou Yangming. “Little Brother, I initially wanted to travel with you, but according to the military rules, a commanding general can’t leave the camp so easily. Instead, I’ve arranged a squad of soldiers to escort you.”

nIn actuality, if the military rules were strictly followed, it was true that the commanding general could not randomly leave the camp, but the same applied to soldiers too.

nNonetheless, as strict as the rules were, there were ways to work around them. Based on Fang Yihai’s authority in the military, it was a piece of cake for him to arrange a squad of soldiers for a task.

nOu Yangming could not help but laugh. “General Fang, you’re being too polite, I can actually head there myself.”

nFang Yihai laughed and shook his head. “How can I allow that? You’re going there to help my family, so how can I be impolite?”

n“Okay, if you insist, thank you,” Ou Yangming quickly responded as he was afraid that the straightforward general would say something inappropriate again. He later did a fist salute to the general. “General, since everything is ready, I’ll be making a move.”

nFang Yihai waved at him. “Okay, thank you for the help.”

nOu Yangming responded to him, then left with the squad of ten soldiers that was sent by Fang Yihai.

nIn actual fact, the soldiers were not strangers to Ou Yangming because they were the ones who fought side by side with him in the dense forest. He just did not know their names back then.

n“Master Ou, my name is Lin Chao, and I’m the squad leader.” Once they were far from the military camp, the leader cupped his fists at Ou Yangming, then sighed. “I was injured by the half-spirit beast that day, so I was sent away to be treated. I regret not being able to fight with you.”

nOu Yangming smiled. It was then that he found out that this man was the squad leader who had left the dense forest in advance due to his injury.

n“Squad Leader Lin, thank you for taking care of us throughout this journey.”

nLin Chao quickly replied to him, “Master Ou, please don’t say that. It’s my honor to be able to serve you throughout this journey.”

n‘I’m indeed different from who I was before.’ Ou Yangming sighed. Even though a squad leader was a lower-level officer, Lin Chao was the squad leader of the Guards under the South Camp’s general’s command. Whether it was his cultivation base or the treatments he received, they were better than a normal squad leader’s.

nLin Chao would never show such a weakness when he faced normal Military Fire Blacksmiths.

n“Master Ou, please stay back.” Lin Chao’s face changed suddenly, and his eyes looked valiant. As he waved his hand, a few soldiers behind him immediately rode their horse forward into a formation to surround Ou Yangming.

nOu Yangming was stunned as he did not know what they were doing.

nHis confusion was resolved very quickly. This was because intense gallops were heard coming from behind as a fierce horse sped in their direction.

nLin Chao yelled sternly, “Who’s there? Stop right now!”

nThe soldiers around him even fit an arrow and drew their bow to aim in that direction.

nIf Lin Chao gave the order, they would shoot the arrows without any hesitation.

nThough their arrows were not explosive arrows, they were selected warriors in the military, so the arrows shot by them would definitely make one suffer.

nThe galloping horse that was a distance away immediately slowed down, and the rider shouted out loud, “Lin Chao, what are you doing? Are you going to kill me?”

nLin Chan and Ou Yangming were dumbfounded. They knew at once who it was by hearing the voice.

nIt was Squad Leader Jiang Chengwei from the Middle Camp, who was well-known for archery. He had rendered meritorious service during the slaughtering of the half-spirit beast, and was given a huge amount of credits. Additionally, he had forged a good friendship with Ou Yangming.

nThat said, why was he here at the moment?

nThe other soldiers instantly put down their bow when Lin Chao waved his hand. They would not show mercy if they were killing an enemy, but they dared not kill a brother from the military.

nAfter a brief moment, Jiang Chengwei rode his horse to approach them, and laughed. “Master Ou, where are you going?”

nOu Yangming asked with a smile after looking at him from head to toe, “Where are you going?”

nJiang Chengwei answered, “I applied for home leave to visit my younger sister in the prefecture.”

nLin Chao narrowed his eyes right away. “Visiting your younger sister? You’re meeting your lover, aren’t you?”

nThe soldiers behind him immediately burst out loud. Some of them even winked and made signs at Jiang Chengwei as though they were mocking him.

nOu Yangming smiled plainly. He had lived in the military camp for two years, after all, and had heard many off-color jokes, so he could understand.

nHowever, Jiang Chengwei glared at the others and said, “Enough with the nonsense, she’s really my younger sister!”

nLin Chao and the others were startled and embarrassed.

n“Squad Leader Jiang, since fate has brought us together, let’s travel together.” Ou Yangming could not help but laugh.

n“Okay, it’s a blessing to be able to travel with you, Master Ou.” Jiang Chengwei laughed.

n“Brother Jiang, it’s not easy to receive the favor of Master Ou.” Lin Chao sneered.

nJiang Chengwei expressed angrily, “What? Are you the only ones allowed to fawn over Master Ou? Am I not allowed to do so? Hmph? Believe it or not, I’ll go to the West Camp to ask Yan Haobo to come over.”

nLin Chao immediately shut up and dared not utter another word. Everyone knew that Master Ou was actually closest to Commanding General Chen Yifan from the West Camp, and Squad Leader Yan Haobo was the first squad leader whom Master Ou knew. If Yan Haobo came, Lin Chao’s position would definitely be replaced.

nOu Yangming cleared his throat and urged. “Everyone, we should move on.”

n“Yes, we should carry on with our journey,” Lin Chao replied to him, then waved his arm to call out to the other soldiers, “Brothers, let’s hurry up.”

nAfter responding to him, the other soldiers rode their horses to keep up with Lin Chao and Ou Yangming.

nThe military camp and the prefecture were at least 100 kilometers apart. They would naturally be faster if they spurred their horse to full speed, but there were more than ten of them, and they could not ravage the horses like that. Once they traveled quite a distance, Lin Chao and the others slowed down. They had noticed something; Ou Yangming’s ability to ride a horse was definitely inversely proportional to his smithing capability.

nNevertheless, Ou Yangming was extremely strong, thus he could ride a horse steadily without falling off. If a normal person had ridden the horse instead, that person would be wailing on the ground by now.

nOu Yangming suddenly looked to the side and asked, “Squad Leader Jiang, that’s the dense forest that we hunted in, right?”

nAlthough the dense forest was visible from that distance, it was at least 5 kilometers away.

nBefore Jiang Chengwei could answer, Lin Chao said, “Master Ou, you’re right, that’s the holy ground that we hunt in. If we continue on the main path for another 15 kilometers, we’ll be completely separated from the forest, and it’ll be out of our sight.”

nJiang Chengwei glared at Lin Hao and thought, ‘Master Ou was clearly asking me, why are you interrupting!

nOn the other hand, Lin Chao glanced at Jiang Chengwei proudly. The general has ordered me to make Master Ou feel at home throughout the journey, so there’s no way you’re going to ruin this!’

nOu Yangming had a faint smile on his face when he looked at the dense forest. There was a tight bond between him and the forest. His current results were closely related to the flesh and blood that were acquired from there.

n“Eh?” Jiang Chengwei suddenly exclaimed and pulled the rein. “What’s that?”

nEveryone stopped to look in the direction he was pointing at. They vaguely noticed a tiny black spot, but did not find anything else.

nLin Chao focused on it for a while and asked, “What’s that? I can’t see it clearly.”

nJiang Chengwei hesitated before he said, “I can’t see it clearly too, but it somehow gives me the shudders.”

nLin Chao tensed up a little, and his face quickly took on a grave expression. He was ordered to escort Ou Yangming to the prefecture, which proved how much the general trusted him. It was a task desired by many, but was also a relatively heavy responsibility.

nWhile they did not believe that anyone would risk condemnation to attack Ou Yangming during their journey, if they actually came across a madman like that or if an accident happened, Lin Chao would have to bear all responsibilities. He could not afford to do so.

nLin Chao turned to instruct, “Little Shan, go take a look.”

n“Yes,” a soldier responded, then rode his horse to go take a look.

nJiang Chengwei was hesitant but decided to get closer to Ou Yangming to ask, “Master Ou, since you have such good vision, can you see what that is?”

n‘I’m not wearing my helmet, and I don’t have the Vision attribute with me. How can my vision be better than a professional like you?’ Ou Yangming wondered, but asked half-heartedly, “Squad Leader Jiang, what do you think it is?”

nJiang Chengwei thought for some time and answered, “That’s probably a person, but I have no idea why he’s standing in the middle of the road.”

nOu Yangming said to himself, ‘There are plenty of weird people in the world, why should we be so concerned about every single one of them? The squad leaders are being too cautious.’

nHowever, Jiang Chengwei suddenly shouted at the next moment, “Oh no!”

nEveryone else was shocked. When they turned to look, they noticed the black shadow zooming in their direction as if it was flying, and the soldier whose name was Little Shan had collapsed with his horse, unable to get up anymore.

n“Formation! Defend!”

nWith a fierce look in his eyes, Lin Chao roared.

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