Chapter 13: Wearing Down the Enemy

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Chapter 13: Outlasting the Enemy

A month passed in a blur. It was now the sixth month of the twenty-seventh year of the Chonghui era.

On the official road near the capital, Qin Yuan rode slowly atop an outrageously overgrown giant panda, holding a sunflower over his head for shade.

With some frequency, he saw shriveled corpses by the roadside.

Qin Yuan’s expression was numb.

His heart was even more numb.

He had seen tens of thousands of such corpses along the way.

Most had starved to death.

The population of Great Hun was simply too large. With the current level of productivity, there was no way to feed so many people.

As he continued onward, the faint sound of fighting drifted toward him from ahead.

Which wandering hero had decided to make a generous donation this time?

Qin Yuan touched the banknotes in his pocket. Their thickness had doubled since he left the capital.

After traveling a little farther, he began to hear the dense, murderous clamoring found only on a battlefield.

Strange. Hadn’t the war ended?

He dropped the sunflower, leaped off the giant panda, and crept forward like some bizarre species, reaching a high patch of land where the vegetation was sparse.

He gazed into the distance.

Far away, two armies numbering tens of thousands were locked in fierce combat.

One was the Yellow Lotus Sect, its banners and clothing a chaotic jumble of colors.

The other was the imperial army, uniform in appearance.

From the looks of it, the imperial forces had ambushed the Yellow Lotus Sect.

Not long ago, they had been fighting the nations of the Western Sea together. Tsk, tsk.

Qin Yuan thought of the chamber-pot theory.

What was the chamber-pot theory? It was simple: when you needed to relieve yourself, you brought out the chamber pot and used it. Once you were finished, you kicked it straight into a corner.

Over the next several hours, the Yellow Lotus Sect launched repeated desperate charges, only to be beaten back every time.

Just then, a figure came rushing through the forest below.

Qin Yuan thought for a moment and decided not to leave.

In the blink of an eye, the newcomer arrived.

It was none other than Yu Ting, Governor of Qingzhou.

“It’s you.”

Yu Ting recognized Qin Yuan at once.

“Governor Yu actually remembers a nobody like me?” Qin Yuan asked in surprise.

He and Yu Ting had met only once.

It seemed that everyone capable of accomplishing great things truly possessed something extraordinary.

“First, I have an excellent memory. Second, you’re an unusually handsome man,” Yu Ting replied with a smile.

So it was because he was too handsome.

Though “unusually” was an exaggeration.

There were plenty of readers more handsome than him.

Qin Yuan first put on an expression of sudden realization, then pretended to understand only a moment later. He bent at the waist and cupped his hands.

“Greetings, Governor.”

“No need for such ceremony.” Yu Ting waved casually with a smile, then asked, “Which side do you think will win?”

“I don’t understand military formations, sir,” Qin Yuan said modestly.

When a superior asked you a question, answering honestly meant you were a fool.

Yu Ting looked down at the battle below and said calmly, “The Yellow Lotus Sect’s left wing has already been routed by my troops. The fleeing soldiers will soon throw the entire Yellow Lotus Sect into disarray.”

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As Yu Ting had predicted, the fleeing soldiers from the left wing broke the Yellow Lotus Sect’s formation.

On a battlefield, once an army’s formation collapsed, defeat was certain.

“Governor, your mastery of strategy is truly admirable,” Qin Yuan praised at the appropriate moment.

Yu Ting burst out laughing.

This was what was good about scholars: they always knew when to flatter their superiors.

Unlike the roughnecks under his command, who flattered people even when they should not.

“I still have an opening for a clerk.”

“I’m accustomed to living a carefree life. I couldn’t endure military discipline,” Qin Yuan declined tactfully.

He would have to be insane to get mixed up with someone like Yu Ting, who stood at the very center of power.

Besides, there was something about Yu Ting that he could not quite see through.

Something just felt wrong.

Yu Ting gave a brief acknowledgment and said nothing more.

He had merely mentioned it in passing. If Qin Yuan refused, so be it.

Every year, eight hundred or a thousand people like Qin Yuan sought to join him.

One more made little difference, and one fewer mattered no more.

After a while, Yu Ting removed the bundle from his back and spread it open. Inside were several strips of dried meat.

Qin Yuan could not tell what animal they had come from.

Yu Ting picked one up and began chewing.

The meat was thick, greasy, and salty, yet he ate it as though it were the finest delicacy in the world.

This was the second time Qin Yuan had seen Yu Ting devour food with such ferocity.

His curiosity was extraordinary.

But he had no intention of investigating.

Every secret would eventually lose its battle with time.

All he had to do was wait.

After another while, several dozen members of the Yellow Lotus Sect came hurrying in their direction.

So that was why Yu Ting had come here: to intercept them.

Having just finished eating, Yu Ting wiped his mouth and rose to his feet.

Qin Yuan frowned and retreated behind him.

The corner of Yu Ting’s mouth twitched slightly.

He suddenly felt that the roughnecks were more dependable after all.

“Not good! It’s Yu Ting!”

A member of the Yellow Lotus Sect at the front of the group paled in terror.

Whoosh!

Yu Ting charged forward, trailing a violent gale.

The shouting sect member was smashed apart on impact.

Then Yu Ting began striking them down one by one. His strength was so tremendous that it was as if a dinosaur had possessed him.

Trees as thick as a man’s embrace snapped effortlessly in his hands. He wielded them like toys, smashing them into his opponents. Everyone in his path vomited blood.

What kind of martial art had Yu Ting practiced to eat so much and possess such absurd strength?

No, it was not martial arts.

If it were, why was there no sign of inner power circulating through him?

“Beware! It’s a Strength Gu!”

A woman among the battered members of the Yellow Lotus Sect cried out.

A Strength Gu.

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Qin Yuan was even more astonished.

So Old Yu had chosen such a wild path.

Qin Yuan had once read an account of Strength Gu in a travel journal kept in the Pavilion of Stored Books.

Strength Gu were descendants of the Gu King. By raising a Strength Gu inside one’s body and constantly feeding, one could grow stronger alongside it. In theory, there was no upper limit.

Qin Yuan had always assumed it was nonsense.

He had never imagined it was real.

If that was the case, then a considerable portion of the records in the Pavilion of Stored Books must also be true.

While Qin Yuan was pondering this, Yu Ting and the members of the Yellow Lotus Sect disappeared into the distance.

Qin Yuan altered his appearance, shrank his bones, changed his clothes, masked his scent, and followed after them.

A short while later, in a mountain forest where astral energy crisscrossed and shadows moved everywhere, Qin Yuan found Yu Ting and the sect members.

Yu Ting drew the saber at his waist and made a simple downward slash.

At last, there was a sign of inner power circulating.

Why had Yu Ting suddenly switched to inner power?

The next moment, a massive blade of energy forty meters long appeared.

Wherever it passed, forests were destroyed and mountains shattered.

The members of the Yellow Lotus Sect were either gravely wounded or killed on the spot.

Only one person remained standing: a thin woman of ordinary appearance.

“The Yellow Lotus Sect’s leader truly is extraordinary. Even Tyrant Blade could not kill you,” Yu Ting exclaimed in admiration.

Qin Yuan was stunned.

Wasn’t the leader of the Yellow Lotus Sect dead?

Damn these unreliable rumors.

No, wait. What had Yu Ting just said?

He had used Tyrant Blade.

Wasn’t Tyrant Blade the signature technique of Wang Wu, the missing ninth-grade saber master?

Could Wang Wu have fallen into Yu Ting’s hands?

Just how many secrets was this man hiding?

At the very moment Yu Ting prepared to strike again, Qin Yuan appeared like a bolt of lightning and carried the Yellow Lotus Sect’s leader away.

Qin Yuan was very curious about the Strength Gu inside Yu Ting’s body, but he had no intention of investigating.

At worst, he could wait until Yu Ting was dead and examine it then.

Time was always on Qin Yuan’s side.

“Who is this now?” Yu Ting exclaimed in astonishment.

He was about to give chase when a powerful wave of hunger surged through him once again.

“Damn it!”

Yu Ting slashed apart a massive boulder beside him.

The hunger grew even stronger.

Yu Ting: “…”

…

End of Chapter