Having the genes of a demon king, I never intended to be a kept man.

Bai Jian wandered aimlessly through the city. People were being searched and arrested everywhere. The city's defense forces had screened almost everyone in the city and arrested every suspicious person who could not prove their identity. Even civilians were not spared.

Bai Jian was confused about the situation inside the city. Unconsciously, he found himself in a gladiatorial arena, where he usually trained his soldiers.

"Big Brother." Several superhuman warriors clad in swordsman armor walked up from behind him.

These soldiers were Bai Jian's longest-serving subordinates. Although they still addressed Bai Jian as "General" in formal settings, they generally called him "Big Brother" in private.

Bai Jian looked at them and said, "What are you doing here? You should be on guard the city wall right now."

“Brother, we know what you’re thinking.” The leading soldier, named Duan Ye, said, “If you can’t leave, we’ll go in your place. We’ll go and rescue General Bai Qing.”

"Are you kidding me?!" Bai Jian frowned. "It's too dangerous. I won't allow you to act recklessly! Besides, this is a critical moment for Baicheng. As soldiers, how can you disobey orders and act on your own?"

"Brother, you should know that we never obey Wang En's orders."

"...What do you mean?"

“We will always stand by your side.” Another soldier said earnestly, “We’ve been your brothers for so long, of course we know what you’re thinking.”

Bai Jian gritted his teeth, turned around, and looked at the old generals standing in front of him.

Duan Ye, Lei He, Wang Meng, Li Yue, Zhao Ling... There are only a few dozen people in total, but they are indeed his most trusted brothers. They have a bond that has lasted for countless battles between the myriad races, from the past to the present, where they have crawled out of piles of corpses together!

“Brother, I know you can’t disobey orders, and Baicheng can’t do without you.” Wang Meng said, “In that case, let us do it for you.”

“Yeah, we don’t care about being traitors or not anyway.” Lei He shrugged. “We’re already accomplices of the traitors in the Empire, so if we become traitors again, wouldn’t that make up for it?”

"But you're going to your deaths," Bai Jian said gravely. "You fought the Ye family that night, don't you know how powerful those demonized humans are? Even Xiao Qing was ambushed and captured when she infiltrated the Ye family camp. How are you going to rescue her? This is utter nonsense..."

Duan Ye was both amused and exasperated: "Brother, how can anyone live without ever being a little silly? You've been a general for too long, that's why you're so bound by rules. Remember those days a hundred years ago when we were just common soldiers on the battlefield of the myriad races? To avenge our fallen brothers, a bunch of us took matters into our own hands in the middle of the night and stormed back to the dark race's camp... How exhilarating was that night? We slaughtered at least several thousand dark race soldiers together, right?..."

Bai Jian sighed softly, "But it was that impulsive act, driven by a moment of anger, that resulted in the death of Ninth Brother, the loss of Eighth Brother's leg, and severe damage to his meridians and soul power nodes. His martial arts were crippled, and he can only walk with a prosthetic limb to this day..."

“But Lao Ba has never regretted what he did. For thousands of years, we humans and the dark races have been mortal enemies. Before the Qin Empire, we humans were practically slaves of the dark races. Killing one is not a loss, killing two is a huge gain. Isn’t that how our human soldiers calculate things?” Duan Ye curled his lip. “But look at us now. Wang En is colluding with the dark races, and we still have to fight for him. I don’t know how the brothers who died on the battlefield can close their eyes in peace if they knew.”

"!" Bai Jian's brows twitched suddenly.

Duan Ye said earnestly, "Brother, if it's worth it, it's worth the price."

"Yes, brother, let us go."

"Let's go..."

Bai Jian: "......"

After a long silence, Bai Jian let out a deep breath and glanced at Duan Ye and the others: "Be careful when you take action. Observe before you act and make a plan. If it doesn't work, don't force it."

"Alright!" Duan Ye grinned. "That's exactly what I was waiting for. Don't worry, brother, we're not brainless brutes. We won't recklessly throw our lives away."

Bai Jian nodded, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

He suddenly realized that although his extraordinary level was high, reaching the Asura Realm, making him one of the top ten strongest in the Southern Region, he was sometimes surprisingly incompetent. In such situations, as the eldest brother, he couldn't shield them from the storm and needed his brothers and subordinates to risk their lives for him...

Duan Ye and the others were about to leave.

Just then, a series of chaotic footsteps could be heard. Captain Ma led a group of city defense soldiers in and surrounded them.

Duan Ye raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"

Captain Ma said with a sneer, "His Excellency the Duke has ordered us to thoroughly investigate any intruders within the city, including you, of course."

"Me?" Duan Ye curled his lip. "Are you out of your mind?"

Bai Jian frowned immediately: "Captain Ma, please don't do anything rash. These people are all my subordinates, and I can verify their identities."

“General Bai Jian, this kind of proof is useless.” Captain Ma shrugged. “Those infiltrators from the Ye family are very skilled. They can use magical transformation spells to become the appearance of everyone we know. So you think these people are all your old subordinates, but they might just be enemies in disguise.”

"Go to hell!" Lei He pointed at him and cursed, "You're here to cause trouble, aren't you? How do you expect us to prove our identities?"

"That's not up to me, it's up to the interrogation department," Captain Ma said leisurely. "The interrogation department has a magical artifact that can expose the true form of infiltrators disguised by transformation magic, but it will be a little tough... But as a tough guy who has been on the battlefield of ten thousand races, surely you can't even endure this little bit of hardship?"

With that, Captain Ma waved his hand: "Take him away."

Duan Ye and the others glared at him fiercely, but they were still taken away by a group of city defense soldiers.

Bai Jian placed his hand on the sword at his waist, his fingers gripping the hilt tightly several times, trembling slightly.

But in the end, he did not draw his sword.