Chapter 67: Lieutenant Commander Zheng Advances! (Long Chapter)

“Your Highness, that barbarian has already broken eight cavalry formations. We should send word to the residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei and ask them to let us enter first.”

A middle-aged man with an elegant beard spoke toward the silhouette behind the carriage curtain.

“What’s the hurry? This castrated old thing isn’t panicking, yet look at you. Tch. Embarrassing.”

Opposite the bearded man sat an elderly eunuch in a blue robe and fur cloak. His face was heavily powdered, almost like a mask. His lips were red, his teeth white, his voice shrill, and the scent of incense on his body was overpowering.

“Eunuch Zhang jests. This official is merely concerned for His Highness. His Highness possesses a body worth ten thousand pieces of gold. He absolutely cannot suffer the slightest harm.”

“Fine, fine. You scholars are best at wearing one face in public and another in private. This old servant can’t win an argument against you. But think about where we are.

“That barbarian has already called himself nothing more than a savage of the desert. If the residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei can’t even deal with one savage, would it still be worth His Majesty losing sleep over them?”

“But blades have no eyes. If that barbarian suddenly goes mad and charges toward us—”

“Teacher Chen, I cannot enter the residence first either. Father Emperor sent me here to congratulate the Old Marchioness on her birthday. Those who understand will say the imperial family is observing proper courtesy. Those who don’t might think the imperial family is genuinely afraid of the residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei.

“We were the ones who said we would line up and submit to inspection according to the rules. If we now take the initiative to ask to enter first, heh... my own face doesn’t matter much. I never intended to compete with Second Brother for the position of Crown Prince anyway.

“But if the imperial clan is looked down upon because of me, then I can wait to be punished by Father Emperor when I return to the capital.”

“Aiya, how annoying, Your Highness. Be gentler...”

“Your Highness, this servant wants some too. I want some too...”

“Hahahaha! No rush, no rush. There’s enough for everyone.”

Laughter and suggestive sounds once again drifted from behind the carriage curtain.

The bearded middle-aged man and the old eunuch exchanged glances.

Both tactfully stepped away from the imperial carriage.

Outside, the guards had already formed defensive positions.

Although the fighting was taking place some distance away, the sheer commotion left them unwilling to relax in the slightest.

Facing the cold wind, the bearded man stroked his long beard and said to Eunuch Zhang beside him, “Eunuch Zhang, that barbarian truly is formidable. One man against a thousand cavalry.”

“The Left Guli King of the barbarian Royal Court had better possess some substance. Otherwise, the Royal Court wouldn’t even qualify as the nominal master of the desert. The other great tribes would’ve swallowed it until not even scraps remained.”

“Heh. This official’s experience is shallow. I’ve spent the last ten years writing essays in the Hanlin Academy. I truly know very little about the affairs of the world.”

“Aiya, Lord Chen, now you’re joking. What The Great Yan Dynasty lacks least is Martial Artists.

“What it truly lacks are scholarly seeds like Lord Chen.”

The two had traveled together all this way.

Chen Guangting looked down on this eunuch’s mutilated body.

Eunuch Zhang likewise despised Chen Guangting’s pedantic scholar’s air.

Yet strangely enough, while they bickered constantly, their relationship had steadily improved.

One had been implicated because of his academic mentor and, after wasting years in the Hanlin Academy, was banished to serve as a lecturer in an idle prince’s household.

The other had been denounced by his own godson, demoted out of the palace, and assigned to manage miscellaneous affairs in that same princely residence.

In a sense, they were fellow sufferers.

The highest seats available to either scholars or eunuchs had already become permanently inaccessible to the two of them.

“What formation is the Zhenbei Army using?” Chen Guangting asked.

“Heh heh. A first-rate Martial Artist in this world possesses qi and blood like the rising sun.

“If you meet one on the battlefield, either send one or two experts of equal level to restrain him and fight him directly, or do what the Zhenbei Army is doing now—use iron cavalry in rotating waves, like a dull knife slicing flesh, shaving away that rising sun little by little until it becomes a sun sinking over the river.

“See?

“That barbarian’s qi and blood are already declining.

“Whether he can survive the second round of eight formations is genuinely hard to say.

“Even if he does, he’ll be at the end of his oil and wick.

“But the third round will immediately follow.

“They won’t give him even a breath to recover.”

“So they’re simply using their own soldiers’ lives to grind away his qi and blood?”

“You can understand it that way.”

“And those soldiers know perfectly well that their lives are being spent merely to wear him down?”

“Of course.”

“And they’re willing?”

The heavy powder on Eunuch Zhang’s face wrinkled as he smiled.

“Otherwise why would they be the Zhenbei Army?

“Don’t laugh at this old servant, but before I was cut as a child, my dream was to join the Zhenbei Army someday and go into the desert to kill barbarians.”

“My respect.”

“You flatter me.”

“I am still curious, though. The barbarian Left Guli King himself has appeared. The residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei supposedly commands three hundred thousand iron cavalry. Surely they have genuine experts stationed here?”

“Of course they do.”

“Then why haven’t they acted?”

“With the Left Guli King himself volunteering as a sparring partner, how often do you get such a perfect opportunity to drill the troops?

“Naturally, the various units should seize the chance to practice.”

“They can actually do that?”

“Look around.

“Today, envoys from every state, representatives of the great clans, and even delegates from major barbarian tribes have gathered here for the Old Marchioness’s birthday.

“Martial Artists comparable to the Left Guli King before us are exceedingly rare even across the entire world.

“But the six great garrisons of the Zhenbei Army add up to a full three hundred thousand cavalry.

“Every great clan and powerful family has a scale in its heart.

“After seeing the Zhenbei Army’s elite strength again today, who will dare act presumptuously before the Marquis’s residence in the future?

“They were just getting sleepy when someone delivered a pillow.

“They’re using this beating to demonstrate their power.”

“Aiya, I’m already finished and that barbarian still isn’t?”

The Sixth Prince, just past twenty, lifted the carriage curtain and stepped down.

“Your Highness, careful. It’s cold outside.”

Eunuch Zhang immediately removed his own fur cloak and draped it around the Sixth Prince.

The Sixth Prince did not care that it belonged to a eunuch.

Instead, he gripped it tightly around himself.

At that exact moment, the slovenly man broke another cavalry formation!

The Sixth Prince clicked his tongue.

“Eunuch Zhang, if you fought him, what odds would you have?”

Eunuch Zhang’s expression became so aggrieved it resembled a chrysanthemum.

“Aiya, my dear Highness, are you praising this servant or insulting the Guli King?

“This servant’s trifling skill is enough to handle petty thieves inside the princely residence.

“But against someone like that?

“This servant could only sacrifice himself to delay him for a few breaths so Your Highness could run as far as possible.”

“Hahahahaha...”

The Sixth Prince laughed.

Chen Guangting spoke at that moment.

“Your Highness, this subject has something he does not understand.”

“Teacher Chen, speak freely.”

Eunuch Zhang immediately waved the nearby princely guards farther away so they would not overhear what came next.

Chen Guangting gave him a grateful glance.

Then said, “This subject heard that Your Highness personally requested this assignment from His Majesty?”

“That’s right.”

“This subject does not understand. Your Highness has always hated tedious affairs. Why...”

“Because I wanted to come see this elder sister, the Princess of the Marquis’s residence, in advance.”

“Your Highness, could it be that you feel—”

“Teacher Chen, you’re thinking too much.

“This elder sister isn’t someone I can afford to enjoy.

“Father Emperor intends her for Second Brother.

“In other words, in Father Emperor’s mind, she is the future principal consort of the Crown Prince.”

Eunuch Zhang smacked his lips at this imperial secret.

“Second Prince has such a mild temperament.

“This Princess, on the other hand, isn’t exactly easy to deal with.”

Eunuch Zhang had already softened the statement considerably.

Everyone present understood.

A young woman had personally held together the entire Marquis’s residence.

Then, to kill a chicken and frighten the monkeys, she had exterminated an entire tribe the moment she struck not even sparing chickens or dogs.

A woman like that was to be selected as Crown Princess?

Across history, even those women who eventually ruled the inner palace and influenced the entire court had at least entered the palace as innocent, inexperienced young girls.

Only after years of tempering inside the deep palace did they gradually mature until phoenix authority could truly overshadow the court.

But this Princess was basically a max-level character before even entering the palace!

“Exactly because Second Brother is too gentle and too upright and modest, Father Emperor probably thinks he needs precisely this sort of Crown Princess to support him.

“She has methods.

“She has schemes.

“Her heart is hard enough.

“And outside the palace, she would have The Great Yan Dynasty’s foremost military stronghold as her maternal family.

“Tsk tsk.

“When Second Brother succeeds to the throne someday, who would dare bully husband and wife?”

Those words were outrageously disrespectful.

Yet Eunuch Zhang and Chen Guangting merely exchanged a glance and pretended not to hear them.

“This time, I didn’t only bring birthday gifts for the Old Marchioness.

“After establishing my own residence these past few years, I made some money myself and purchased quite a few gifts.

“I brought them specially to curry favor with this future good sister-in-law.

“You have to prepare the road ahead in advance.

“Who knows?

“Maybe one day Second Brother’s health will suddenly fail, and he’ll leave early... mm-hm. You understand.

“And then this good sister-in-law of mine might stage a hen-crowing-at-dawn act of her own.

“When she starts cutting into the imperial clan, perhaps she’ll remember today’s incense favor and spare me.”

“Your Highness, outsiders say you are absurd and unruly.

“But this subject knows your intelligence and foresight are almost unmatched.

“So I truly do not understand why Your Highness does not—”

“Teacher Chen.

“Do not say such things again.”

The Sixth Prince shook his head.

Then continued, “After a great and ambitious sovereign, the next ruler is often chosen to preserve what was built.

“Second Brother is Father Emperor’s favorite candidate.

“How should I put it?

“His temperament suits cleaning up the mess and letting the country recuperate after Father Emperor finishes exercising all his ‘grand talent and bold strategy.’

“I, on the other hand, could never sit obediently and properly on that chair doing nothing.

“Believe me.

“If I showed even the slightest intention of fighting for the throne, the Secret Intelligence Department could dig an imperial dragon robe out of my residence tomorrow.”

“Your Highness means His Majesty still intends to use troops?

“South?

“Or north?”

“Teacher Chen.

“I’m tired.”

Chen Guangting immediately dropped to his knees.

“This subject misspoke. Your Highness, please—”

“Chen Guangting, get the hell up!!!”

Eunuch Zhang suddenly shouted in agitation.

“No. If Your Highness does not forgive this subject, this subject will not rise. Your Highness—”

“Chen Guangting!

“That barbarian—is charging toward us!!!”

Chen Guangting immediately sprang to his feet and ran.

...

“All right. Pack up.

“Time for everyone to take their positions.”

Zheng Fan jumped down from the top of the tent.

Feng Siniang and Ding Hao followed.

“Master, what are we doing?” Ding Hao asked in confusion.

“Rescuing the prince.”

“Rescuing the prince?”

Zheng Fan nodded and pointed toward one of the camps ahead.

“See that black-dragon banner?”

“I see it.

“That should belong to an imperial prince who came to congratulate the Marchioness.”

“Mm.”

Ding Hao was still somewhat confused.

But he tightened his grip on his long spear, preparing to follow Zheng Fan.

“Uh...

“A’Hao, you don’t need to come.”

“Master does not trust this subordinate?”

“No.

“He doesn’t know you.”

“Hm?”

Zheng Fan reached out and patted Ding Hao’s shoulder.

Then he traced the shape of a box in the air with his hands.

“If you don’t want to ride home inside a little box, don’t come with us.”

“Oh.

“All right...”

Ding Hao understood absolutely nothing.

But he stopped where he was instead of continuing forward.

Ahead, the voices of Zheng Fan and Feng Siniang drifted back.

“Siniang, when we get there, should I shout:

‘Zheng Fan, Lieutenant Commander of Merchant Protection stationed at Tiger Head City under the Zhenbei Army of The Great Yan Dynasty, is here! Barbarian cur, cease your insolence!’

“Or...?”

“Master, this servant thinks that’s too many words.

“You may not have time.”

“Then I shout:

‘Zheng Fan is here! Cease your insolence!’

“But why does that sound so chuuni?”

“Why don’t you let this servant shout for you?”

“How would you shout?”

“This servant can change her voice:

‘Ah! Who is this hero?’

‘Ah! Isn’t that Zheng Fan, Lieutenant Commander of Merchant Protection stationed at Tiger Head City under the Zhenbei Army of The Great Yan Dynasty!’”

“...”

Zheng Fan.

...

Round after round.

Wave after wave.

The Zhenbei iron cavalry feared death as little as machinery feared damage.

They truly seemed like components within some vast war machine.

One command from above, and every emotion belonging to a human being disappeared.

At last, during the next charge, Shatuo Que Shi failed to break the formation.

Instead, the cavalry formation drove him backward!

This was the clearest sign yet that his qi and blood were approaching complete exhaustion.

The Lieutenant Commanders directing the battle immediately began issuing new orders.

Next, three cavalry formations would charge simultaneously.

They would not give him any space to maneuver.

Not even a moment to breathe.

Yet just as the outer formations shifted, Shatuo Que Shi suddenly launched himself from the earth!

His qi and blood erupted in dazzling scarlet radiance.

His entire body leapt outward, attempting to vault free of the cavalry encirclement!

“What?

“Afraid to die now?”

A deep shout rose from below.

Immediately afterward, a middle-aged general in black armor wielding twin hammers also soared into the air.

Clearly, this was an expert from the residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei.

He had remained hidden and inactive until now.

The instant the barbarian showed signs of breaking out, the man moved to intercept and kill him.

The residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei was not a place where one came and left whenever one pleased.

One man’s qi and blood was still at its peak.

The other’s had already declined.

Yet Shatuo Que Shi showed no fear whatsoever.

Inside his heart, he had already regarded himself as a dead man.

Earlier, hundreds of Zhenbei cavalry had died by his hand.

At least twice that number had been injured.

He had already made his death worthwhile.

BOOM!

Hammer and fist collided.

“Barbarian Curse—

“Death Spring!”

Black mist rose around Shatuo Que Shi in streams.

It was formed from his own vital essence and blood, carrying an overwhelmingly dense aura of curse and death.

He had been raised by the Shrine since childhood.

Although he eventually chose the path of the Martial Artist, he still knew a few barbarian curses.

The hammer-wielding general immediately retreated.

Not because he feared Shatuo Que Shi.

Nor because the barbarian curse itself was particularly terrifying.

As a Regional Commander of the Marquis’s residence who had guarded the desert for years, he naturally understood the barbarian tribes and their curses very well.

The most vicious part of this particular curse was that the caster himself became the sacrifice used to curse another person.

The effect depended on the level of the sacrifice.

The instant the curse successfully activated, the caster would die immediately.

But the victim would also suffer an extremely miserable fate.

He would not die.

However, his path in martial arts would be severed permanently.

In all likelihood, he would never advance another step in his life.

At the same time, his body would immediately enter a period of decline, his qi and blood weakening day after day.

The barbarian’s qi and blood had nearly dried up already.

He was plainly an arrow at the end of its flight.

Trading his own future on the Martial Path for the other man’s life was not worth it.

Besides, even if the Regional Commander did nothing, with the rolling iron cavalry pursuing below, the barbarian could never escape this oasis!

Yet what happened next made the hammer-wielding general’s eyes widen.

The barbarian actually dropped directly into the camps occupied by the visiting delegations.

And without the slightest hesitation, he charged straight toward the encampment flying the black-dragon banner!

“Barbarian dog!

“You dare!”

...

BOOM!!!

Under the savage force of Shatuo Que Shi’s fists, the princely guards were like paper.

More than ten were ripped apart in an instant.

This was what it meant for a centipede to remain alive even after death.

Once Shatuo Que Shi entered the camp, he was a tiger among sheep.

None of the princely guards before him could survive even one exchange.

“Your Highness!

“Run!

“Run!”

The instant Shatuo Que Shi’s killing intent locked onto the Sixth Prince, Eunuch Zhang understood that they could no longer avoid this calamity.

He immediately shouted, “This is a Prince of The Great Yan Dynasty!

“You dare commit insubordination against your superior?

“Can the millions of people of the desert endure the wrath of our Emperor?!”

Shatuo Que Shi paid the threat no attention whatsoever.

He continued forward.

Along the way, he casually tore apart another four guards who dared block him.

Eunuch Zhang pressed both hands downward.

Streams of azure energy gathered in his palms.

His body suddenly surged forward, lunging at Shatuo Que Shi like a giant python striking!

Yet Shatuo Que Shi’s qi and blood had become like divine steel.

No matter how many times Eunuch Zhang hammered him with energy transformed into streaming bands, he could not shake the man in so short a time.

This was what made Martial Artists terrifying.

So long as their qi and blood had not completely run dry, their physical bodies were the strongest weapons!

The stronger the Martial Artist, the more terrifying that principle became.

Shatuo Que Shi reached out.

Tiger roar.

Dragon cry.

He directly seized Eunuch Zhang’s arm.

The azure ribbons of force around the eunuch instantly scattered.

BANG!

Shatuo Que Shi slammed Eunuch Zhang into the ground.

Then stepped down.

Eunuch Zhang spat out a mouthful of blood.

No one knew how many ribs inside his chest had snapped.

But Eunuch Zhang had indeed lived up to his earlier words.

He truly delayed this terrifying barbarian for several breaths.

By then, the Sixth Prince and Chen Guangting had already fled to the edge of the camp.

Shatuo Que Shi ignored the badly wounded Eunuch Zhang.

He stamped one foot into the earth.

His entire body launched forward like a cannonball straight toward the Prince of Yan!

“Impudent!”

A massive hammer dropped from the sky.

BANG!

The hammer struck Shatuo Que Shi squarely.

Because he did not dodge.

He took the blow head-on.

Finally close.

Closer.

Closer!

Shatuo Que Shi saw the panic on the scholar-official’s face.

He also saw the despair on the young Prince of Yan.

“Teacher Chen!

“His target is me!”

The Sixth Prince shoved Chen Guangting aside with one hand and ran in another direction by himself.

Shatuo Que Shi saw that too.

Heh.

This Prince of Yan wasn’t bad.

Yet at that exact moment, a hand suddenly appeared beside him and seized his ankle.

Blood streamed from the hammer-wielding Regional Commander’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

He had forcibly activated a secret art and driven his qi and blood into a frenzy, increasing his speed enough to arrive in time.

And he successfully intercepted Shatuo Que Shi.

Shatuo Que Shi clenched his left fist and punched toward the hammer-wielding general.

The general raised one hammer to block.

BOOM!

Shatuo Que Shi’s left arm split apart and exploded outright.

Shock flashed across the general’s face.

The barbarian had not added force to that punch!

The destruction of his left arm did not affect Shatuo Que Shi in the slightest.

His right hand swept downward.

He picked up a long saber dropped by one of the princely guards he had killed earlier.

Then, he hurled it toward the Prince of Yan!

BUZZ!

The blade transformed into a streak of white light, cutting straight forward.

At that moment, an armored Lieutenant Commander suddenly appeared in front of the Sixth Prince.

Immediately afterward a radiance brilliant enough to blind a pair of titanium-alloy dog eyes exploded from his body!

Zheng Fan went blind.

The Sixth Prince behind him went blind too.

CLANG!

The sound of blades colliding rang out.

The Sixth Prince only felt as though a wall had crashed into him, knocking him backward and pinning him to the ground.

When his spinning vision recovered, he saw a Lieutenant Commander lying on top of him.

The saber in the Lieutenant Commander’s hand had already snapped.

Meanwhile, the blade Shatuo Que Shi had thrown had pierced through his armor.

According to rehearsal, this was the moment when Zheng Fan should have painfully turned his head, looked at the Sixth Prince beneath him, and asked in agony:

“Your Highness... are you unharmed?”

But right now, as a violent pain spread through his abdomen and an eerie chill appeared where his intestines had made intimate contact with the blade, the rehearsed line became:

“Fuck... that hurts...”

(End of Chapter)