Ou Yangming met his old friend, who had not shown up for a long time, in the living room.

Sui Hezhi was considered a notable figure as he was a part of the Guards in the West Camp. Although he was not on par with the squad leaders from the Guards of the five camps, he was not inferior to squad leaders who were not from the Guards.

Back then, he had made things a little difficult for Ou Yangming when they exchanged blows, but he gave a wild beast to Ou Yangming every ten days from then on in exchange for their friendship.

Nonetheless, as Ou Yangming became more capable than anyone had expected, and as he crossed paths with people with higher rankings, they no longer contacted each other.

If Ou Yangming was still in the Immense Forest Military Camp, perhaps they would have conversed for a while if they met.

However, the fact that Sui Hezhi had suddenly visited Ou Yangming in the prefecture could only mean that something was off.

Both of them lamented when they saw each other, especially Sui Hezhi, who had somewhat watched Ou Yangming rose to an unreachable height in a short span of time. Even though Ou Yangming was still polite when they reunited, Sui Hezhi knew very well that there was a huge disparity between them, and they could not be like how they used to be.

"Brother Sui, when did you arrive at the prefecture?" Ou Yangming asked with a smile.

Sui Hezhi quickly answered, "Master Ou, I was ordered to come here three days ago."

Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows. "Brother Ou, we're old friends, so you don't have to be so constrained, and you don't have to call me a master. Remember, we're always friends."

Sui Hezhi felt a warmth in his heart. It did not matter if Ou Yangming was being sincere or not because the fact that he said that was enough to make Sui Hezhi feel deeply touched.

"Master Ou, thank you for remembering me." Sui Hezhi nodded and was rather anxious. "We were still thinking — if you ignore us, we really don't know what to do anymore."

"What?" Ou Yangming frowned and asked, "What do you mean 'we'? What happened?"

"By we I meant our brothers from the Immense Forest Military Camp, who have come to the prefecture," Sui Hezhi answered sternly, then asked after some hesitation, "Master Ou, do you still remember Jiang Chengwei?"

Ou Yangming's eyes moved a little. He instantly recalled the fearless archer and squad leader from the Middle Camp, who had protected him even if it cost his life.

There were very few people in the Immense Forest Military Camp who was a squad leader and an archer at the same time. Besides, Jiang Chengwei had died because of Ou Yangming, so how could Ou Yangming forget him?

Seeing as he nodded slowly, Sui Hezhi asked in a careful way, "Master Ou, do you know Squad Leader Jiang's family?"

"I heard him say that he had applied for home leave to visit his family in the prefecture. He has a younger sister…" Ou Yangming responded, and his face darkened at once. "Could it be that his family is in trouble?"

Sui Hezhi nodded and was glad.

In actuality, after he had asked to meet Ou Yangming and brought up Jiang Chengwei, he was waiting to see Ou Yangming's reaction.

If the young master was unmindful, Sui Hezhi would be dispirited, and he would not talk about the matter further.

When he saw Ou Yangming's reaction, his heart burned with fire.

"Master Ou, help!" Sui Hezhi stood up abruptly and kowtowed at Ou Yangming.

Ou Yangming was taken aback, so he immediately reached out his hand to help him up. "Brother Sui, what are you doing? Quickly get up!"

Sui Hezhi initially wanted to kneel until Ou Yangming agreed to help, but he felt a huge power when Ou Yangming helped him up.

In terms of power only, Sui Hezhi was not inferior to Ou Yangming at all. Nevertheless, when he tried to resist the force, his power had strangely reversed and was offset by his follow-up force. Subsequently, Sui Hezhi was somehow lifted by Ou Yangming.

As for how exactly Sui Hezhi had gotten up…

He was still puzzled even when he was already standing.

Sui Hezhi looked at Ou Yangming in astonishment and exhaled deeply. The present Ou Yangming had indeed become a figure who was beyond his reach.

He recalled the times when he exchanged blows with Ou Yangming and taught the blacksmith the military's first technique and blade art.

Those scenes seemed so vivid at the moment, but they were already gone with the wind.

Despite that, Sui Hezhi curbed his emotions at once. "Master Ou, please save Squad Leader Yan!"

Ou Yangming twitched his mouth as he wondered, 'What are you talking about?

'You were just talking about Jiang Chengwei's family, but now you're suddenly talking about Yan Haobo. The change is too fast.'

"Ah, Brother Sui, what exactly happened? Tell me slowly."

Perhaps Sui Hezhi was influenced by Ou Yangming's composure, he finally recollected himself.

Following that, Ou Yangming found out the entire matter through the soldier.

After Jiang Chengwei and the other soldiers died in the fight, the Middle Camp, the South Camp, and the West Camp had given a pension each. The Middle Camp and the South Camp were obliged to do it because their men had died, but the West Camp's pension came from Chen Yifan's own pocket.

General Chen considered himself as Ou Yangming's master, hence he had a favorable impression of the soldiers, who died protecting his disciple.

Since Jiang Chengwei was from the prefecture, his pension was naturally given to the military camp in the prefecture to be passed on.

On top of that, Chen Yifan had somehow lost his mind as he even ordered his Guards to visit the family members of the deceased soldiers. If the family members had reasonable requests, he would act at his own discretion.

When the general gave the order, someone naturally had to run the errand.

Yan Haobo was the squad leader who was instructed to come to the prefecture, and given that he was coming to the prefecture, Liu Zhengye had asked him to bring Sui Hezhi, who was friends with Ou Yangming, along.

They initially thought that it was going to be a regular trip of an official duty.

However, when they arrived at the address given by Jiang Chengwei before he passed, they were shocked.

The residence was no longer occupied by Jiang Chengwei's family, but by a few unrelated strangers.

When Yan Haobo questioned the strangers, not only did they deny all knowledge of the matter, but they also remarked disdainfully, "How dare a squad leader from a remote military camp drop in? You have a death wish!'

Yan Haobo was very well-experienced, thus he instantly left and asked around.

Jiang Chengwei and his younger sister had been depending on each other. Apart from the ancestral house, they did not possess anything valuable.

Before Jiang Chengwei joined the military, he and his younger sister had been living poorly. Fortunately, Jiang Chengwei gained a firm foothold in the military due to his martial arts background, so he was able to live a better life with his younger sister.

That said, everything changed after he died in the fight.

Three days after the bad news came, someone visited his younger sister and insisted on selling their house.

Jiang Chengwei's younger sister was obviously unwilling to sell it, but the people threatened her to choose between the house or her life.

Therefore, the house's owner changed on the fifth day. As for Jiang Chengwei's lonely younger sister, she was nowhere to be found.

At the very least, nobody had seen her, and nobody knew her whereabouts.

Yan Haobo was infuriated after finding out what had happened. Though Jiang Chengwei was the Middle Camp's squad leader and was not directly related to the West Camp, the Immense Forest Military Camp was not that huge, so they used to have a nodding acquaintance. Moreover, the soldiers had always adopted a hostile attitude toward people who bullied soldiers.

As such, Yan Haobo immediately barged into the house.

Nonetheless, the men were already on guard such that five Yin Grade martial artists attacked when Yan Haobo and Sui Hezhi entered.

Yan Haobo made a prompt decision by letting Sui Hezhi break out of the encirclement, and he ended up resisting the five martial artists on his own. While Yan Haobo fought with a desperate attempt to cause destruction to both sides, he had fallen into enemy hands in the end.

Sui Hezhi thought about Ou Yangming as soon as he escaped. If Ou Yangming wanted to stay out of the matter or his hands were tied, Sui Hezhi could only hurry back to the Immense Forest Military Camp to report to the general.

Ou Yangming closed his eyes after hearing the whole story.

He was expressionless, but Sui Hezhi somehow sensed a hair-raising chill as if the temperature around them lowered.

'I applied for home leave as I'm visiting my younger sister in the prefecture.

'Okay, it's a blessing to be able to travel with you, Master Ou.

'Boom —'

The insignificant squad leader had used Heaven and Earth as its bow, and his body as the arrow. He shot the most dazzling arrow in his life.

The explosive arrow on his body soon exploded, causing numerous steel shards to burst in all directions. Additionally, there was a drizzle of blood in that area.

As Ou Yangming kept his eyes shut, his eyes became bloodshot as the tragic scene surfaced again.

Amidst the flesh and blood, Ou Yangming even saw the head and the face of the squad leader, who did not die in peace and looked like he was asking him a question.

'I was the one who invited Jiang Chengwei to travel together, and he died without his corpse intact in order to protect me.

'But I actually forgot about his family.'

An intense feeling of regret bit Ou Yangming's nerves, and a fire burned his heart like it was going to turn him into ashes.

"Brother Sui, has Squad Leader Yan been captured?"

"Yes," Sui Hezhi answered involuntarily as he shivered.

"Is Squad Leader Jiang's younger sister still missing?"

"Yes."

"She's likely in a terrible spot, right?"

Sui Hezhi hesitated for a while, but he answered, "Yes."

Although it had not been confirmed, and there was no proof that she was already dead, they believed that the weak lady who lost her older brother's protection had unlikely survived.

Ou Yangming finally opened his eyes, which were full of intense and undisguised killing intent.

"Let's go!"

Sui Hezhi was dumbfounded. "Where to?"

Ou Yangming smirked. "Where you came from is where we're going!"

Sui Hezhi followed him nervously, but for some reason, his footsteps were steadier, and he was feeling more thrilled.