Even though they walk the edge of life and death every day, soldiers are the last people who should ever disregard the value of life! — Soldier King: Unknown.

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In the early morning, after a night of light rain, the soil on the ground mixed with long-fallen leaves, giving off an even more pungent smell of decay than usual.

After a night of hurried travel, Unknown saw the smoke rising from the village he hadn’t seen in days, and his uneasy heart finally calmed down.

Wiping the rainwater from his black hair, Unknown glanced at the hunting tools he had brought back from the dwarf village, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

With these tools, life for the villagers would be much better. Thinking this, Unknown strode toward the village he hadn’t seen in days.

The neighing of horses and the shouts of people reached Unknown’s ears just as he entered the village.

“People of the village! Stop resisting! We are soldiers of the Shenlong Kingdom! This conscription is to defend our country!”

Captain Knight Gregory stood outside the village, shouting loudly, but his eyes revealed a sense of helplessness.

The nineteen knights who came with Knight Gregory looked at the village before them, equally frustrated. In previous conscriptions, they only needed to announce the orders in the village, and the elders would offer up some of the able-bodied men. Who would have thought that, risking their lives to enter the Greater Khingan Mountains, they would encounter villagers even more unyielding than the rebels they’d faced before.

According to previous regulations, when encountering such a village, the knights had every right to accuse them of treason for resisting conscription and wipe them out.

But when the knights tried to do so, they sadly discovered that mountain villages were very different from those around the plains and cities.

To guard against wild beasts, not only were there rows of fences around the village, but beneath the open ground outside the fences, traps specifically designed for beasts were buried. One knight’s horse, eager to charge, had already been forced into early retirement by one of these traps.

Faced with fences even more troublesome than those on the battlefield, and villagers a hundred times tougher than those living near the cities, Knight Gregory could only try to persuade them by shouting.

“We are not people of the Shenlong Kingdom! The soldiers of the Shenlong Kingdom have never protected us, and the kingdom has never given us what we deserve. There are no young people in our village, so you’d better leave!” The old village chief shouted fiercely, holding a hoe in his hand.

Knight Gregory wanted nothing more than to leave this troublesome village, but thinking of the tense front lines, he could only try to threaten and entice the villagers again.

“Anyone who enlists will receive a gold coin as a reward! If you achieve merit on the battlefield, you’ll be granted even more! Even if you die honorably for the country, the compensation is quite generous! Village chief, don’t you want to improve the villagers’ living conditions?”

“Respected knight, we may be inexperienced, but we know that life only comes once, while money can be earned slowly! Please, just go back!”

The nineteen knights’ horses all snorted heavily, as if sensing that their riders were beginning to lose patience.

“Village chief, I know that with just the twenty of us, it’s nearly impossible to take your village. But a knight’s dignity does not allow us to retreat. If we launch a collective charge, your village will surely pay a heavy price before we fall, don’t you think?”

Knight Gregory slowly drew the sword at his waist. “Besides, there’s the mighty army of the Shenlong Kingdom behind us! If we die here, the next to come might be a hundred, a thousand knights. Will you still be able to stop them?”

Knights, respected by most in the outside world, could hardly endure such repeated insults from mountain folk. For a moment, the other knights silently picked up their lances, making the basic preparations for a charge.

The village chief fell silent. The power of a charge by twenty knights was not something he could take lightly.

Whoosh...

Everyone only heard a sharp, piercing sound. When they looked again, an arrow was already embedded in the mud in front of the warhorses.

Knight Gregory looked at the arrow, which had sunk a full foot into the ground, and couldn’t help but gasp.

There was no shortage of master archers in the army, but it was the first time the knights had seen an arrow shot with such force, comparable to a large crossbow.

If it could pierce the ground so deeply, it could just as easily pierce armor. This thought kept circling in the knights’ minds.

To die by the enemy’s blade was, in most knights’ eyes, the most honorable death. To die by an arrow, however, was the most humiliating.

At the thought of dying to arrows, the knights instinctively pulled back on their reins, abandoning their preparations for a charge.

“Unknown! Unknown is back!”

“Good lad! You came back at just the right time!”

“Uncle Unknown is back! We don’t have to be afraid anymore!”