Chapter 207: A Man’s Killing Field
No one responded to Yun Ce’s passionate shout.
They were extremely nervous; the enemies who came were too many, far exceeding their expectations.
Originally, they had thought the general had foresight and had hidden them in the forest ahead of time, preparing to raid the enemy.
Now it seemed there was no raid at all.
Shadows of Xiangcheng’s horned horse cavalrymen loomed, yet it was eerily silent; thick Yi Tree Cloth was tied to their horses’ hooves. They were closing in from all directions. Not only were their horses’ hooves wrapped in Yi Tree Cloth, but their weapons were also wrapped in cloth, so that the cold moonlight shining on them showed not a hint of cold gleam.
These were a group of well-trained men. After entering the forest, they dismounted, forming six teams of two hundred each, spaced a bowshot apart, slowly encircling. In the darkness behind them, eight hundred cavalrymen stood under the night sky, quietly awaiting the enemies in the forest.
Yun Ce’s plan to raid was obviously impossible now. The six teams appeared loose, with open spaces in between. Neither Yun Ce nor the several battle-experienced Cao Clan Centurions chose to exploit the gaps to break out at this time.
Because the gaps were the most terrifying killing traps. If Yun Ce dared to go, he would be greeted by arrow volleys from the enemy on both sides, and crisscrossing arrow volleys had the greatest lethality.
Yun Ce drew his saber. Today, he planned to use this saber to make everyone in the Great Han recognize him anew.
The saber hilt fit his hand perfectly, just right for positioning it. This should be a saber with its center of gravity at the rear, specially forged for him by Yun Linchuan.
1 A saber with its center of gravity at the rear was very suitable for defense.
1 It seemed that Yun Linchuan, who had charged his whole life, was not willing to let him charge.
1 But today, Yun Ce couldn’t avoid charging even if he wanted to.
1 For some reason, just as the intense battle was about to begin, Yun Ce suddenly recalled words Yun Linchuan had once said.
1 “A man’s nature is combative and cruel; this has nothing to do with a man’s cultivation or knowledge. I’ve seen a refined professor stab three Japanese invaders to death with a bayonet. Though he himself was stabbed twice, he laughed happily and told me it was the most exhilarating moment of his life.
1 A man’s duty is to seize and plunder. This doesn’t mean we’re born bad, but when a man’s bloodline is inherited to you, brutal genes flow in your veins.
1 Because your ancestors used their own brutality and viciousness to pass down their bloodline from ancient times. As for those kind and merciful people, they died out long ago in the long course of history.
1 Overall, people only become worse and worse, not better and better, because passing on virtues is a painful thing, while passing on bad things is often a joyful one.
1 Pain cannot overcome pleasure; that’s an inevitable conclusion.
1 Every man should participate in a life-and-death duel in his lifetime, because until you’re on a desperate battlefield, you’ll never know if you’re truly brave or cowardly.”
2 Yun Ce didn’t know why these words suddenly popped into his mind at this moment. Perhaps it was because after being scorched by the Shehuo recently, many memories had awakened.
2 He stood up from the concealed grass holding his saber. This was the forest, inconvenient for riding. The Red Date Horse didn’t know where it had run off to, but it didn’t matter—as long as he needed it, the Red Date Horse would come on its own.
2 “General, how do we kill the enemy?” Watching the enemy army gradually closing in, the Centurion’s voice trembled slightly.
2 Yun Ce smiled and said, “Once you’re on the battlefield, just kill.”
2 Then, that Centurion saw Yun Ce holding a slender knife, stepping on the mottled moonlight on the ground, walking toward the enemy.
2 Xiangcheng’s army hadn’t found Yun Ce’s army’s scouts, so they knew their own raid plan had been seen through.
2 At the deputy general’s command, several soldiers carrying fire baskets removed the cowhide covering the baskets. The archers lit rockets with the fire baskets, nocked arrows, and shot toward the forest.
2 As the dense rockets took to the air, Yun Ce appeared before a Centurion. Against the fiery red backdrop behind him, without giving the Centurion time to react, Yun Ce’s saber gently sliced open the Centurion’s throat.
2 By the time the Centurion dropped his weapon and clutched his throat in despair as he fell, more enemies were charging toward Yun Ce over dry branches and fallen leaves.
2 The saber wasn’t suited for large-scale combat, especially not in the military where everyone wore armor. At such times, using an iron club, wolf-tooth club, or meteor hammer was the best way to fight.
3 Tonight, Yun Ce still planned to use the saber, because enemies killed by a saber didn’t look as gruesome as those smashed by meteor hammers—sometimes it was hard to tell who was who among those corpses.
3 Back at Ghost King Mountain, Yun Ce had used the meteor hammer. First, it had a large area of effect; second, his martial arts weren’t mature yet, and he needed to maximize his strength advantage.
3 Now it was different. Yun Ce preferred the saber—it was light and handy, and extremely sharp. It took almost no effort to slice open the enemy’s body from the weak points of their armor, the places they couldn’t guard.
3 The saber’s blade was truly very sharp, cutting through flesh like tofu. While using the saber, Yun Ce even had the spare effort to deliberately avoid bones and such that might damage the blade, making the faint sizzle of the blade slicing through flesh ring out densely in the forest.
3 Since stepping out of the forest, Yun Ce had been advancing. With every step, another corpse was added to the ground. Their corpses were very intact, just with large gashes—some so big it was hard to associate the wound with a person. Normally, such wounds only appeared on a butcher’s cutting board.
3 Clearly clad in heavy armor, looking clumsy, yet this armor-wrapped body gave the feeling of floating in the wind. A heavy hammer smashed onto the armor, but the warrior wielding it felt no joy of striking flesh—this hammer was more like hitting a fallen leaf, only pushing it away without damage.
3 The saber avoided the front of the warrior’s shoulder armor, even playfully dipping into the shoulder armor’s gap to cut the leather rope beneath, then thrusting forward until it severed the warrior’s throat.
3 On the battlefield, there was always much strength to borrow, like the force of a spear thrust, the chop of a long saber, the smash of an iron hammer. Ever since being forged by the Shehuo, Yun Ce had gained new cognition of strength.
3 Those forces coming to harm him were actually good kinetic energy. By slightly changing their direction, they became forces protecting him.
3 Strength itself had no good or bad.
4 A spear thrust from behind, hitting Yun Ce squarely in the back. The spear tried to pierce further through Yun Ce’s armor, but the spearman found his strength could only act on the armor’s surface. The excess force pushed the enemy forward, and on that path, the slender saber in the enemy’s hand didn’t stop. He pushed forward five steps, and his five companions died under that saber.
4 Yun Ce was immersed in the battle, unable to extricate himself, even somewhat oblivious. As the battle entered its white-hot phase, his control over strength seemed even more proficient.
4 How to resolve two opposing forces?
4 The best way was naturally to cancel each other out. If they couldn’t be canceled, then he must see clearly which force came first and which later. Handling the later one first wasn’t good; there should be a better solution, but Yun Ce couldn’t think of it for the moment.
4 Yun Ce glanced at the two corpses fore and aft. With no time to think, he faced a chain attack from three sides.
4 From the start, the battle had entered white-hot intensity, with no opportunities to gain advantage over the opponent. Head-on clashes became the only choice, and Yun Ce killed the enemy in a frenzy.
4 Even after breaking out of the encirclement with some men, seeing some Cao Clan Cavalrymen still struggling in the encirclement, he turned back without hesitation to kill in again.
4 Each time he charged into the thick of it, he could bring out several scarred Cao Clan Cavalrymen.
4 The surviving Centurion saw Yun Ce’s armor long soaked in blood, the man looking like he’d been fished out of a blood pool. Seeing Yun Ce about to charge into the thick again, he said to Yun Ce, “General, withdraw. There’s no need to save the rest; you’ve already done enough for them.”
4 Yun Ce just gave the Cao Clan Centurion a cold look before swinging his saber once more and charging into Xiangcheng’s army’s encirclement.
5 Perhaps inspired by Yun Ce, the Centurion shouted and followed Yun Ce back into the enemy ranks. The Cao Clan Cavalrymen Yun Ce had saved also cried out and followed Yun Ce into the Xiangcheng enemy ranks.
5 Yun Ce had always been working hard to save people, but unfortunately, the friendly troops he saved grew fewer and fewer, and saving them became ever harder. Even so, Yun Ce still charged back and forth relentlessly, like an tireless killing machine.
5 The fifth time Yun Ce pulled that Centurion out of the chaos, the Centurion looked at Yun Ce in despair and said, “General, what the hell are you doing?”
5 Yun Ce opened his mouth, revealing bloodstained white teeth, and grinned, “Naturally, kill all the enemies.”
5 With that, he tossed the Centurion into the pile of wounded and howled before charging into the fray again.
5 This time, the Centurion didn’t follow. He collapsed powerlessly onto the grassland, looking at the bright moon in the sky, muttering to himself, “Madman, madman.”
5 Deputy General Zhou Cheng discovered his subordinates had been engaged in fierce combat the whole time. It was forgivable at the start, but after half a shichen of fighting, not only had the intensity not lessened, it had grown even fiercer.
5 The forest was filled with the screams of his subordinates everywhere. Looking out, corpses littered the ground, mostly his own men.
5 Originally, two thousand elites facing five hundred men wouldn’t require him, the commanding general, to step in; two Thousand-man Generals leading men would suffice to annihilate this force.
5 Now, Deputy General Zhou Cheng planned to go to the battlefield personally to see what exactly was happening there.
