Seeing that Mrs. Sullivan was already dead, her hands still clutching a horse’s leg, Grace Walker was so heartbroken that his cries became hoarse and faded away.

The sound of hoofbeats echoed as more than a dozen yellow-clad men rode out from Yanggu County. Just now, when Grace Walker killed someone, they had seen it clearly from atop the city walls. The Western Di demon army rampaged and shouted, and the Muyang Military Commissioner of Lingzhou, Yanzhou, and Qianzhou, John Harris, had been killed. His forces were also swallowed up by the other two major commissioners. With the retreat of the armies led by the Western Qi and Huaiyang commissioners, Lingzhou became a power vacuum. The governor of Lingzhou, Matthew Scott, only had some local militias under his command and was completely unable to control all six prefectures and twenty-two counties under his jurisdiction.

The King of Daliang, who had originally taken the opportunity to rebel, dispatched dozens of troops. Knowing that the six prefectures were heavily populated and had some defending forces, he dared not attack them directly, but instead occupied some counties and towns that were already like empty cities.

This group of bandit soldiers was led by one of the King of Daliang’s lieutenants, David Reed.

David Reed had just witnessed Grace Walker’s unmatched bravery and was quite shocked.

Although he now led more than a dozen men out of the city, he felt somewhat uneasy.

“The five great demon clans of the Western Di—among them, the White Moon clan is the most troublesome. They are as swift as the wind, their speed astonishing, but that’s not all. Just now, this little child actually killed my subordinate Samuel Wright with a single punch, which must be one of the ten secret arts of the Western Di royal family—the sinister skills of the Tenfold Frost Demon Path. Anyone who knows such skills can’t be an ordinary demon; perhaps there’s some power behind him…”

Grace Walker suddenly looked up, staring at the dozen or so bandit riders rushing toward him, his chest filled with unquenchable rage, with only the word “kill” burning in his mind. At this moment, he had forgotten that he didn’t actually know much martial arts, and even the few moves of the Twelve Beast Forms he’d learned were forgotten. He put down Mrs. Sullivan’s corpse and strode toward David Reed and his men.

“Hey! Do you know that we are soldiers under the King of Daliang? Surrender at once!”

He was clearly just a six- or seven-year-old child, and David Reed thought to himself, even if Grace Walker had practiced some martial arts, how much could he have achieved? There was no way he could be a match for David Reed’s spear skills, honed over more than ten years.

Yet David Reed still felt a bit uneasy.

Grace Walker raised his head coldly and looked at David Reed. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary college student, yet he had the courage to help a girl being robbed by more than a dozen thugs—he was certainly not a timid person.

Now, shocked by Mrs. Sullivan’s death—a woman who, for a child completely unrelated to her, turned to face the bandits—Grace Walker had long forgotten what it meant to be afraid. All he wanted now was to kill all these cruel and inhuman bandits.

With a low growl, Grace Walker bent his body and sprang up from the ground, both fists smashing down toward David Reed’s head. He had just used this move to kill that yellow-clad bandit, so it came naturally to use the familiar attack again.

But David Reed was no ordinary subordinate like Samuel Wright; his skills were much higher. Seeing Grace Walker leap into the air, he smiled inwardly and relaxed a little. With a flick of his spear, he aimed not to kill but to stab Grace Walker in the thigh, intending only to capture the child. Like Samuel Wright, he thought that a clever child of the White Moon demon clan could fetch a good price in a wealthy household.

Seeing the spear aimed straight at his thigh, Grace Walker was midair, with no way to dodge…

Chapter Twelve: Learning from the Stone to Slay the True Dragon

Boom! A flash of red light shot up, and David Reed could only see a bronze war chariot drawn by eight blazing dragon beasts descending from the sky. After that, he knew nothing.

Although he had practiced martial arts for over a decade, he was still just a minor lieutenant under the King of Daliang, his skills only fourth- or fifth-rate. How could he possibly move the Fire Dragon Chariot, which weighed tens of thousands of pounds?

Summoning the Fire Dragon Chariot and smashing David Reed half to death, Grace Walker let out a sigh of relief, grabbed the Flame Beast Spear, and drove the chariot straight into the midst of the dozen or so bandit riders.

High-level mechanists were extremely rare in the Great Qian Dynasty, and a mechanical war chariot like the Fire Dragon Chariot could take years to build—requiring the resources of the entire nation. Thus, aside from regional governors of the rank of military commissioner, even high officials like provincial governors were not qualified to own one.

These bandits had only heard tales of the Fire Dragon Chariot’s unstoppable might on the battlefield—how could they possibly hope to stop it?

Grace Walker gripped the Flame Beast Spear with both hands. Not knowing any techniques, he simply swung it wildly like a staff. Thanks to the chariot’s high bronze platform, he stood even higher than the bandit riders mounted on wind steeds under the King of Daliang. Striking down from above, his blows were even more powerful.

After smashing seven or eight heads in a row, the blood and gore so stimulated Grace Walker that he completely forgot he was killing living people and not playing Counter-Strike. Having been beaten to death himself, the grievance in his heart had never dissipated, and now, with an outlet for his rage, he became even fiercer.

There were still seventy or eighty bandit soldiers of the King of Daliang in Yanggu County. They had thought that sending David Reed with a dozen men to deal with a child was overkill, but now, seeing their brothers slaughtered and fleeing in panic by a mere child, their own ferocity was aroused. They hastily gathered their forces and marched out of the city to fight.