Shan Yi wanted to protest, saying that her pitiful strength wouldn't be able to wound him in the slightest bit. However, his words stuck in his throat, and he was unable to say anything else. All he could do was to stare at her with dumfounded expression with his sword not far from him.

"Not satisfied, Bandit Leader Shan Yi?"

"That's…" Shan Yi wanted to speak, but he found her gaze to be quite disturbing. The cold and calm gaze seemed like she had long gotten used with killing. It was both scary and frightening.

What caused a young girl to look like she was so used with spilling blood?

"It's a long battle."

"You can keep your sword now," Yang Xian said from the side.

Wei Liuying nodded and lowered her weapon. She knew that her face and back were drenched in sweat by now while her hand started to feel numb. Parrying the attack of a big man like Shan Yi was not easy for a young girl at her stature.

Any longer and it would be her who would be killed.

"Are you really a girl?" Shan Yi asked in exasperation. However, he knew that his eyes were good when it came to differentiating between women and men. There was no way that the young girl in front of him could be a boy.

Men and women were different in stature. While there might be those that could disguise themselves, Shan Yi had trained his eyes to differentiate them. This was very important for him because bandits have to deal with all sort of annoying people.

Getting tricked was clearly not in his plan.

"I am."

"Ugh…"

Shan Yi sighed and walked a step back. He looked at Wei Liuying from head to toe, feeling a bit appalled. From her stature alone, he would have never guessed that the one who would meet the end would be him.

She was truly good with sword.

Yang Xian laughed lightly. "Do you already forget about the young lady whom you fought in the forest not long ago?"

"Young lady? Forest?" Shan Yi never bothered to store unimportant information inside his head for a long time. It was then he recalled that he did find a young girl who was worthy of his blade when he visited the capital city not long ago. His eyes widened as he turned to look at Wei Liuying.

She hadn't grown taller, so she still looked the same as she was three months ago. With that, Shan Yi could say for sure that she was truly that young lady.

"The one that stopped me from doing your task?"

Yang Xian rolled his eyes. "I only ask you to stop Princess Ji Xiaoli in case she come to the forest and not harassing her."

"Well, you know that my men are rowdy."

"Good thing those who come with you had disappeared."

Shan Yi snorted. How could he know that his men often act by themselves when he had so many subordinates? It was already hard for him to control most of them when it was most necessary.

"I met with some guards after meeting you. Guess my luck was really bad that night." Shan Yi grimaced. The harsh battle that ensued afterwards was not light at all. It was truly a nightmare for him to run into a patrol army that was stationed there.

Who would have thought that they were patrolling near the forest at that damned time?

Wei Liuying's eyes flickered. She glanced at Yang Xian who gave her a smile. He must have known that the plan eventually failed because of an unexpected factor. Whenever they schemed something, they would put everything into their calculation, but there would always be something that they might missed out.

"Anyway, let me introduce myself properly, I'm Shan Yi, leader of Shan Xi Gang."

"Shan Xi?" Wei Liuying felt that it was the name of the destroyed village not far from Huang River. When the Huang River flooded again a few years' prior, several villages were drowned and refugees flocked the street to find new place to stay. Shan Xi village was one of the few who got heavily damaged by the incident.

There were a few other villages too. After all, there was not only one village that was staying near Huang River.

"Do you know the place?" Shan Yi asked.

"I have heard of a village named Shan Xi, but I have never been there."

Shan Yi smiled. "My parents used to be the village head there and our ancestors are the founder, which is why my surname is Shan. There's a long story about how they managed to…."

As Shan Yi began to tell his story, Wei Liuying was a bit dumbfounded. She didn't expect that the previously scary bandit leader was actually quite a good story teller. From the way it looked like, he was so proud of his previous village to the point that he could sing a song about it.

Not just song, he was practically making poems out of his previous village. Wei Liuying sneaked a glance at Prince Ji Sheng and Yang Xian only to see that they had poker expression. It seemed that this was not the first time Shan Yi told them the story about his wonderful village.

But…

Couldn't they do something to stop this man from giving them an extremely long story? Wei Liuying had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to last if she had to listen to him like this because he looked like he could last for several incense sticks of time.

"Shan Yi wants to rebuilt Shan Xi village," Yang Xian remarked from the side as if answering Wei Liuying's wish. "However, the location near Huang River is completely flooded. Even though there has been some effort to fix it, there was no apparent result so far."

"Even during autumn?"

"Yes. The water is still flooding part of the area and with the coming of spring, the entire place had turned into that of a river. There wouldn't be any way people could possibly live there," Yang Xian explained.

Huang River was also known to be full of mud, which eventually gave out the color of the river. While it was good for farming, it would also give a lot of trouble when the river flooded the residential areas around it. The destruction was much larger compared to river without muddy water.

Wei Liuying looked at Yang Xian. "With the war still ongoing, how can they divert their attention fully to suppress the flood?"

"That's one of the reason."

Shan Yi laughed. "That's why I'm going to support Prince Ji Sheng and wait for the time he can become the one at the top. At that time, I'm going to rebuilt Shan Xi village for sure and give place for my men."

"Make sure they don't misbehave first."

"I know that, Xian."

Wei Liuying listened to their conversation with interest. This was the first time she knew that Prince Ji Sheng's group actually consisted of people with many background, goals, and also personality. Looking at how he worked, she could guess that he was simply picking them based on their capabilities and also personality.

If only the world was not divided by class and also power, would it be possible for everyone to work together?

Wei Liuying laughed lightly. That was too good of a dream, but probably changes could be made little by little. After all, there were also a lot of commoners who were actually very talented in numerous field. It would be a waste if they were just buried under the mud without any chance to show their brilliance.

After getting interrupted, Shan Yi chose not to tell the story anymore. He could tell from Yang Xian and Prince Ji Sheng's eyes that they would kill him if he dared to say anything more at this time.

Shan Yi stretched his body. "I guess it's almost time for me to leave. Before that, can you tell me clearly why is there even a noble young lady who can fight so well?"

"Circumstances."

Shan Yi groaned.

"I know that one! D*mn, if you don't want to tell then I'm not going to ask. Let's go boys! Time to *********!"

Wei Liuying was stunned for a moment and rubbed her forehead. She had forgotten that Shan Yi was a real bandit, so his way of speaking was rougher than most people. It wouldn't be weird even if he cursed all the time in his speech.

Yang Xian patted Wei Liuying's back. "You're not bad, but we'll need to work on your strength more."

"I'll train."

"There might not be enough time for you to train too long. However, I'll ask the commanders in the camp to let you train whenever there's time," Yang Xian said after mulling for a bit. Having too little strength would do her no good in the battlefield, so he had to have her worked on her overall strength first.