Chapter 250: The Terrifying Liu Changsheng
“I am the Inspector’s son…”
Since Yun Ce had started fighting, he had no intention of stopping. The young man wearing armor was speaking, but his long saber had already slashed toward the pouncing Yun Ce ahead of his words.
Yun Ce deflected the long saber with one hand and punched the head of the warhorse also clad in armor. The warhorse neighed mournfully and crashed to the ground. Yun Ce’s fist followed through, landing on the head of this man who was apparently the Inspector’s someone. He had thought his head would be smashed into the ground as well, but this spot happened to be right at the foundation of the neighboring grain and oil shop’s banner. The ground was covered in thick stone, and his head exploded under the pressure of the fist and the stone, with brain matter splattering onto the stone base, a mix of pinkish-white flecked with bits of red.
At the same time, seven or eight horse spears thrust toward Yun Ce without mercy. Yun Ce retreated several steps, his back against the grain and oil shop’s banner as thick as a man’s leg. He yanked it forcefully with a backhand, uprooting the banner entirely, and without thinking swept it horizontally outward.
The banner was five zhang tall, plus the flag on top listing grain and oil varieties. This swing carried no less than a thousand jin of force, and the cavalrymen who had just closed in on Yun Ce were all smashed off their horses.
Yun Ce got carried away and ignored the fallen cavalrymen, wielding the heavy grain and oil banner to sweep horizontally and smash vertically along the main street, sending those seemingly fierce cavalrymen tumbling head over heels.
“Great—”
Yun Ce vaguely heard someone cheering. Though he didn’t know who shouted it, a smile appeared on his face. He wielded the grain and oil banner, as thick as a man’s leg and five zhang long, making it flip up and down. Any cavalryman within the banner’s range fell from their horses one after another, getting smashed bloody-headed like whack-a-mole by Yun Ce swinging the grain and oil banner.
“Great—”
“Great—”
1 “Great—”
1 More cheers rang out, and this time Yun Ce heard them clearly.
1 So, the grain and oil banner in his hands danced even more vigorously, the force in his swings growing greater, until the grain and oil banner swept a cavalryman gripping a horse chopping saber—man and horse together—smashing them into the wall.
1 The cheers had already erupted thunderously.
1 The street, originally only occupied by Yun Ce and the cavalrymen, suddenly filled with many people. Yun Ce suspected everyone on the entire street had come out to watch the scene of him abusing the cavalrymen. Some bolder ones even secretly picked up the weapons Yun Ce had knocked flying.
1 There weren’t many cavalrymen, just one centurion’s worth. By the time Yun Ce put away the grain and oil banner, there were no cavalrymen or horses left standing on the ground.
1 Some cavalrymen Yun Ce hadn’t smashed too seriously and were still alive even now. However, they could only hide among the corpse pile pretending to be dead, not daring to make a sound.
1 Yun Ce glanced at the people on the street, then reinstalled the blood-soaked grain and oil banner back onto its base, preparing to return to the guesthouse to continue sleeping.
1 At that moment, the window of the brothel across the street opened, and the madam shouted at him: “Strong man, leave now! You just killed Inspector Han Qi’s eldest son Han Chuang. The Inspector won’t let you go.”
1 Yun Ce nodded and flicked a gold ingot with a backhand, embedding it into the window frame beside the madam.
2 “Take it. I never owe money to whores.”
2 The people filling the street watched as Yun Ce dragged back the ramming wood the cavalrymen had pulled aside, using it to re-block the gate. Though they didn’t understand the point of what this strong man was doing, since the strong man had left, they dispersed in a crowd. A few blood-drenched men crawled out from the corpse pile and ran off along the street.
2 Since Yun Ce had been careful about hygiene while killing, his clothes were basically free of bloodstains, though his hands were covered in blood. He washed them twice with clean water, but feeling they still weren’t clean, he found a brush and meticulously scrubbed his nail crevices.
2 There was no helping it; Shehuo was fine in every way, but it couldn’t stand the sight of blood.
2 “Kill once more, and the people in the city might dare to rebel.”
2 Doggy understood Yun Ce’s thoughts very well.
2 “I don’t care if they rebel or not. What I care about is whether I can lure out Han Qi to be butchered by me in the street!”
2 Yun Ce raised his hand, checking his nail crevices against the light to confirm no bloodstains remained, then nodded in satisfaction.
2 “Taizhou’s soldiers are very weak. Among that group of cavalry just now, I couldn’t find a single one qualified to be absorbed by me. But their armor is quite fine.”
2 Hearing Doggy’s words, Yun Ce asked puzzledly: “You mean Taizhou’s soldiers look elite but are actually worthless?”
3 Doggy said: “Think about how you felt killing Yan Fei’s subordinates, then think about killing the Gui Fang centurion. Compare them, and the conclusion comes easily, doesn’t it?”
3 Yun Ce frowned: “According to Great Han military law, in this prefecture’s soldiers, only a hundred-man general can command a hundred cavalry. That’s the army’s foundation. In a centurion’s cavalry unit, there wasn’t a single hundred-man general. That doesn’t make sense.
3 The army is the sharpest spear in a prefecture Inspector’s hand. For the army, an Inspector couldn’t possibly let it run wild. Without an army, the Inspector is toothless. Too abnormal.”
3 “The Inspector’s son was killed by you. He will probably soon send real combat power to avenge his son.”
3 Yun Ce looked at the gradually darkening sky outside and said to Doggy: “Never mind that for now. Shehuo is urging me again to hurry to the Divine Dragon Hall.”
3 Doggy said: “It’s getting impatient.”
3 Yun Ce also felt the bracer heating up. He replaced the charcoal in the room’s brazier with fresh charcoal, told the red date horse not to run around, then flipped over the wall and left the guesthouse.
3 Standing on high ground, he saw Taizhou City was a vast white expanse with few people on the streets. He dashed toward the City Lord’s Mansion using the last bit of light.
3 Climbing the high wall, he found the wind and snow growing fiercer. Some flags on the ramparts were uprooted by the wind along with their flagpoles. Yun Ce paused to catch his breath and felt the air biting cold to the bone.
3 This climate shouldn’t appear in a city blessed by Shehuo. It must be Shehuo sensing a threat and putting on a show of force.
4 Thinking of his own gate being smashed by the Prefectural Office’s people, when passing the Prefectural Office, Yun Ce lifted a thousand-jin statue and smashed it onto the Prefectural Office’s gate. Only after the gate shattered to pieces did Yun Ce safely leap into the Divine Dragon Hall. This way, the red date horse left in the guesthouse would be safe.
4 Unlike last night, the Divine Dragon Hall today was packed. Not only were there Taoist priests circling the Shehuo, praying and chanting sutras nonstop, but also over a dozen strong men holding various weapons, sitting cross-legged on cushions. Their bodies were covered in snowflakes; if not looked at closely, they could be mistaken for sculptures in the Divine Dragon Hall.
4 His own Shehuo struggled out of the Dragon Pearl. He thought it would fly straight toward Taizhou’s Shehuo to start plundering as last night.
4 Unexpectedly, it just quietly stayed on the bracer, glowing faintly like a firefly, bright then dim, without moving.
4 “It’s a bit scared,” Doggy explained to Yun Ce.
4 “Scared of what?”
4 “Too many people…”
4 “Is it shy or scared?”
4 “Both. You should first lure the people away for it.”
4 Yun Ce stood up and kicked the beast head of the roof guardian on the eaves. The beast head immediately broke off, emitting a piercing shriek into the cold wind as it smashed toward the main hall of the Divine Dragon Shehuo.
5 Before the beast head could harm the Divine Dragon Hall, a snow-covered sculpture suddenly came alive. With a flash of the long saber in its hand, it cleaved the beast head Yun Ce had kicked flying into two halves.
5 Four more sculptures awoke. They stepped off the walls twice and scaled the high walls, spotting Yun Ce standing on the eaves. They split into four directions to surround him.
5 Yun Ce stomped forcefully, crashing through the sturdy roof. He fell into the Divine Dragon Hall’s side hall amid clouds of dust and broken roof tiles.
5 Immediately, more snow sculptures in the courtyard awoke and swiftly surrounded the side hall. Yun Ce covered his head with his right hand as his left arm rapidly turned into a Dragon Claw, viciously smashing toward the wall.
5 The Dragon Claw was indeed indestructible. Guided by it, Yun Ce smashed a large hole in the wall like a wedge. Just as he burst through, a middle-aged Taoist priest, face full of anger, hurled an incense burner at him.
5 He had wanted to kick the incense burner back to force the Taoist priest to get out of the way, but the priest neither dodged nor evaded, even spreading his arms to block in front of the fire pit, determined to stand his ground to the death.
5 Yun Ce had no choice but to kick out again, striking a roof tile. The tile overtook the incense burner and knocked it flying just as it was about to smash into the priest’s chest.
5 The Taizhou Shehuo in the fire pit suddenly blazed fiercely. The flames rose two zhang high, reaching the Divine Dragon Hall’s ceiling. Compressed by the ceiling, the flames spread outward in all directions.
5 Yun Ce saw his own Shehuo wobbling as it flew into the glow of Taizhou Shehuo’s flames.
5 He no longer lingered. Before the people surrounding and killing him could fully block his escape, he crashed headfirst into the back wall. As a large hole appeared in the wall, Yun Ce’s figure swiftly vanished into the night sky.
6 In Chang’an’s Divine Dragon Hall, Liu Changsheng watched Taizhou Shehuo fleeing everywhere, bitten by a dark red candle flame. He sighed, reached out, and blocked the dark red candle flame.
6 No matter how the candle flame continuously burned his hand, he refused to let it pass.
6 “Little rascal, you can’t do this. Swallowing once is one thing, but if you keep swallowing, it will cause irreparable disaster to Taizhou.
6 Understand this: in good rules, it’s not that whoever is stronger is right. You’re stronger than Taizhou Shehuo now, so you can nibble on him. But if you encounter a stronger Yongzhou Shehuo, could it swallow you?
6 Shehuo’s power comes from myriad homes’ lights, from the merit you create by summoning wind and rain, from the gratitude of the people you protect.
6 These are the fruits of Taizhou Shehuo’s thirty years of hard work. You can’t plunder them.”
6 Yun Ce’s Shehuo seemed unwilling to listen to Liu Changsheng’s nagging. It turned and burrowed into the fiercely burning ancestral fire’s body. Just as Liu Changsheng thought the matter was over, he saw Yun Ce’s Shehuo pass through the ancestral fire’s thick flames and viciously pounce once more on the Taizhou Shehuo cowering in the corner, not daring to move.
6 In Taizhou Dragon God Hall, a faint dragon roar seemed to echo. The entire main hall shuddered violently, and the two-zhang-high hall seemed to sink a section.
6 Yun Ce, who was playing hide-and-seek with those experts disguised as snowmen, suddenly heard Doggy anxiously say: “Shehuo fled back, something is chasing it from behind. Run fast.”
6 Watch the military parade together tomorrow. I bought flags and invited a group of people to watch together. Cheer together for the strongest army in the history of my China.
