Chapter 329: Conflict! (1/2)

Chapter 329: Conflict!

But soon, Bai Siling turned around and returned to her original position.

By then, Huang Yongtu had already realized the interaction between her and Wang Chong.

”What did you talk to that brat about?” Huang Yongtu frowned.

”Nothing much.” Bai Siling walked past Huang Yongtu and returned back to her own platoon.

Huang Yongtu was displeased by her cold reply and harrumphed impatiently. But soon, his eyes turned back to the furious blaze in the mountain. On the other hand, Wang Chong was still a little surprised by the matter with Bai Siling.

That woman... isn't she a little too sharp? Did she notice something? Or is this based on her intuition?, Wang Chong thought, as he assessed the unmoving Bai Siling from his spot.

Bai Siling's actions were completely unexpected. Wang Chong didn't expect her to be paying attention to him.

Nevertheless, Wang Chong didn't think that he had displayed any openings that would betray his true intentions. In his view, it was more likely for this matter to be a result of the uncanny intuition of a lady.

The ladies from the training camps are truly extraordinary!, Wang Chong thought. It was like that for Second Sister Wang Zhu Yan, Marquess Yi, and Princess Ni Huang, and now there was a Bai Siling to be added to the list.

Also, he suddenly recalled Bai Siling's earlier words. The latter had said that she seemed to have seen him somewhere before.

However, Wang Chong was certain that he had never seen her before!

I have really underestimated her previously, Wang Chong thought.

On the top of the mountain, the flame was still blazing. It was a mission that should have been accomplished swiftly, but Xu Gan took an entire hour before he managed to return back to the group.

When he emerged amidst the forest, his clothing was marked with black ashes and signs of burns. However, what was even darker than that was his face.

”Lord...” Zhang Lin drove his steed forward to welcome his return, but Xu Gan simply tilted his face to the side.

”There's no need to ask, it was a failure. Two of them got away!” Xu Gan said with a livid expression. He had headed over confidently, thinking that he had covered all of the possible scenarios.

But when he finally reached the top of the mountain, everything went contrary to how he had expected it.

He spent an entire hour trying to pursue the bandits who had escaped from his encirclement, hoping that he could make up for his failure. But the darkness of the night, as well as the complicated terrain, had become his greatest obstacle instead.

Despite giving it his all, two bandits still managed to escape.

In fact, Xu Gan was even injured in that encounter. It didn't come from the bandits but the sharp thorns when his steed lost his balance while he was pursuing the bandits anxiously.

Xu Gan would have loved to lie and say that he had slain all of the bandits, but twenty veteran soldiers of Great Tang were standing behind him. There was no way he could do it before them.

”There's no need to be disheartened by this, there are still many other bandit bands before us. There are still plenty of opportunities, you just have to be more careful the next time,” Zhang Lin consoled him.

In the first place, the royal court didn't expect the recruits to succeed when they assigned them this mission. They were simply making use of this opportunity to temper them.

Perhaps due to this, Zhang Lin didn't seem to be too disappointed by Xu Gan's failure.

In any case, it was still early. Making use of the short interval before the news could reach any other, the group hurriedly rushed to the next den.

Xu Gan was simmering with frustration from his previous failure, so this time, without even waiting for orders, he led his platoon of cavalrymen on a ferocious charge up the mountain.

Having learned from his previous lesson, Xu Gan was exceptionally careful this time around.

But an hour later, he appeared before everyone else with an even more livid face.

As careful as he had been, a couple of bandits still managed to escape from his encirclement.

It wasn't that Xu Gan had never participated in such cleanups before, but the bandits along the west road were particularly cunning. Their familiarity with the local terrain, their expertise in making use of it, and their experience with dealing with government soldiers; like loaches, no matter how hard Xu Gan clamped down on them, they would still manage to find some way to slip through his fingers.

”Damn it!” Xu Gan's face was absurdly dark. It finally dawned on him that he had been underestimating the difficulty of this mission.

Huang Yongtu drove his steed forward and asked politely, ”Brother Xu, why don't you let me try?”

”There's no need for that! I don't believe that I, as an elite trainee of Longwei Training Camp and the offspring of the Xu Clan, won't be able to deal with mere bandits!”

If anything, the previous two failures only further fueled Xu Gan's determination. If he were to give up now, he would never be able to wash away this humiliation.

Traveling westward through the darkness, when they finally reached the third bandit den, Xu Gan immediately led his platoon to charge there without the slightest hesitation.

He was much more wary this time around. There were no blazing flames nor furious war cries in their operation.

But when a bandit slid down the cliff along an ivy vine and disappeared into the mountain valley, Xu Gan nearly exploded on the spot.

The escape of any bandit meant the exposure of their trail. Without a doubt, this signified that he had failed once more.

Mishaps had occurred three consecutive times. With this, Xu Gan's operation had officially come to an end.