Eleven years ago, in the tenth year of Liang Jianchang, the second year of Zhou Wucheng, the first year of Qi Tianbao, a battle erupted at the border of Zhou and Liang in Jingzhou. Yao Shi Moke had just ascended to power, leading the Twenty-four Military Mansions southward to attack Liang with a force of 100,000 warriors, thousands of messengers, and countless support soldiers, claiming a 500,000 strong army.

The Emperor of the Liang Kingdom, Shao Hu, was in his prime at the time and personally led an army of 150,000 to confront Yao Shi Moke. This battle lasted from autumn to spring, and both sides withdrew as the weather turned hot. The only evidence of this battle were the tens of thousands of corpses along the Jingxiang line, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees left destitute by the war effort.

In the records of both countries, they each claimed victory. Yao Shi Moke had suppressed the arrogance of the Liang Kingdom, while Shao Hu had thwarted the ambition of the northern invaders. In the hundred years of the Three Kingdoms’ standoff, such skirmishes were too numerous, and two years later, the young and ambitious Empress Ying Le beat down both Zhou and Liang, even attacking their homeland in the Northern Border, earning the illustrious title of ’Celestial Monarch Fengyi.’

Nowadays, when people mention the Battle of Jingxiang, they have to ask which year you are talking about. Even when given the specific year, most people’s reaction is just, ’It seems like that happened.’

A war that doesn’t change the world doesn’t deserve others’ attention.

But it did change many people’s lives, such as Shi Sanren.

Shi Sanren wasn’t born with this name; he was originally named Deng Shitou, a tenant farmer’s son from Qingxi County in Yongzhou Prefecture. All lands in Qingxi County were owned by the third house of the Yuwen Family, which heavily exploited the tenant farmers. Deng Shitou grew up hungry, and at the age of seven, his father and elder brother were called up as Zhuang Linglang and never returned, only to have taxes waived the following year.

He barely survived to the age of fifteen, and that year the Yuwen Family summoned Zhuang Linglang again. Deng Shitou, luckily not killed, was rewarded by becoming a Mansion Soldier, which meant he could eat his fill of wheat buns and beef daily, but the price was participating in Secret Realm conquests.

Yet Deng Shitou had a high aptitude, not only avoiding casualties like his colleagues but also being promoted to messenger in less than ten years, acquiring a token that earned him the respectful title of Messenger Sir from ordinary people outside. Those were his most satisfied times.

But tokens were not easy to acquire. As a messenger, Deng Shitou had to conquer the First-Turn Secret Realm and occasionally get drafted into the Second-Turn Secret Realm, each time risking his life and accumulating scars. As he looked set to die in the Secret Realm, Deng Shitou bribed a Commander to retire and return home. The Commander took the Spiritual Jade and told him that having benefited from the Military Town, he must serve as a messenger for forty years. If he wanted to retire early, he would have to buy off with Spiritual Jade, a thousand per year.

Yet Deng Shitou could only save at most four hundred Spiritual Jade a year, and at this rate, he figured he wouldn’t last another five years.

It was hard to say whether it was good or bad, but the Battle of Jingxiang broke out. Deng Shitou, as a Yongzhou Mansion Soldier, went to war and survived many battles. During the withdrawal, he was assigned a task: to recover the tokens from the corpses.

With so many Masked Mansion Soldiers dead on the battlefield, timely recovery wasn’t possible, nor could they allow enemies to obtain them. It was a dangerous task because the Liang Kingdom also sent people to recover tokens. However, any Spiritual Jade found along the way could be kept.

This led Deng Shitou to the biggest turning point of his life: he found the corpse of the Yuwen Family Commander.

Within it were a Second-Turn rare defense token, a Second-Turned Treasure Long Saber, a Secret Magic Book, and thousands of Spiritual Jade.

Logically, such a high-ranking person would have family members specifically sent to collect the body, and it wouldn’t have been left exposed on the battlefield. But this corpse was crushed under a pile of Liang soldiers’ bodies, so the Yuwen Family had missed it.

These tokens Deng Shitou couldn’t possibly keep for himself, nor could he sell them, as anyone able to buy them would know they belonged to the Yuwen Family, notifying them to have him arrested would be the logical consequence. Moreover, the search team worked in pairs, and Deng Shitou wasn’t the sole discoverer.

Should he turn them in? Then return to the Secret Realm to fight life and death again? If lucky, he could retire at sixty and return to farming?

As the son of a tenant farmer for so many years, Deng Shitou knew that farming could not produce tokens, only poverty.

So Deng Shitou steeled himself and, before his colleague realized it, struck him down with a blade, seizing all his tokens and Spiritual Jade.

It was then that he suddenly became aware of something he’d never noticed before:

Humans are far easier to kill than demons.

From then on, Yongzhou had one less Mansion Soldier, and the Zhou Kingdom gained one Demonic Messenger.

There were many deserters like him; initially, there were eighteen, but after internal rifts, only five remained. They fled to the Ba Mountain area, roaming the forests and self-proclaimed as the Five Scattered People of Ba Mountain, when in reality they were the Ba Mountain Five Thieves, plundering and pillaging villages and towns for Spiritual Jade, infamous for a decade.

"Boss, is this really a good idea?" Shi Sanren asked, anxiously, "If we rob the Blood Steward’s prey, we definitely won’t be able to operate in Shu Dao Mountain in the future, and might even be hunted by the Blood Phase..."

The Five Scattered People decided after a discussion to quietly descend the mountain, bypass the ambush, intending to leave Zhong Ji and others behind to claim the spoils for themselves.

"Third Brother, once we rob this lot, why would we still hang around Shu Dao Mountain!" Iron Wanderer said indifferently, "That dog Zhong Ji thinks he can dismiss us with five hundred Spiritual Jade? I’ve already found out, they have at most one Second-Turn and one Third-Turn, and they’re just a little girl and a woman. We alone are enough to take them down!"