Chapter 289: A Born Strategist
Just now, I heard that woman call these children ‘Dense Dew’.
Yun Ce knew the literal meaning of Dense Dew; the two words together refer to ‘dense dew’, often used to describe the dewdrops condensed on vegetation in the early morning, symbolizing the vitality and fleeting beauty of nature.
Using these two words to describe these children with nails in their heads was very apt; children are like newborn dewdrops, only here they are relatively short-lived, just like dewdrops on grass leaves that disappear as soon as the sun comes out.
Huo Wudi’s big eyes stared fixedly at Yun Ce; she seemed somewhat puzzled as to why this person could come to Panxing Tower and accurately find her, especially when she was stacked in the child wall counting down to the third from the bottom.
“This is the Dense Dew camp, a place specially for driving nails into kids’ heads.”
Yun Ce pulled Huo Wudi out from the child wall and placed her on the ground, continuing to ask: “Are these children awake like you?”
Huo Wudi shook her head and said: “Many children were killed by the nails, and some became idiots after being nailed; only I became smarter after being nailed.”
As Huo Wudi spoke, she even reached out to touch her own head.
Yun Ce imitated Huo Wudi’s posture, sat down leaning against the child wall, took out a strip of dried meat and handed it to her, continuing to ask: “What about your brother?”
Huo Wudi bit into the dried meat strip expressionlessly and said: “He’s dead, killed by a nail; then, my mother went mad, she grabbed a little girl’s leg and ran off, and never came back.”
1 As she spoke, Huo Wudi reached out to touch her head again and seriously said to Yun Ce: “Did she not want me anymore?”
1 Yun Ce nodded and said: “I heard that your mother smashed a little girl into meat mush at the entrance of Dragon God Hall.”
1 Huo Wudi nodded while biting the dried meat and said: “Mother originally wanted to grab me; I switched positions with that little girl.”
1 Yun Ce tilted his head, looking at Huo Wudi, and said: “It would be good if you didn’t have Gui Fang people’s bloodline.”
1 Huo Wudi said: “If I didn’t have Gui Fang people’s bloodline, how would you treat me?”
1 Yun Ce thought for a moment and said: “I would treat you like my own daughter, raise you chubby and pretty, teach you to read and write, teach you some nice-sounding poems, teach you some beautiful songs, teach you martial art, horse riding, dancing; anyway, I would give you everything a girl should have.
1 Finally, marry you off to a handsome young man you like, watch you have children and live happily ever after.”
1 A hint of admiration appeared in Huo Wudi’s eyes, but she quickly sobered up and looked at Yun Ce, saying: “Just because my mother is a Gui Fang person, I’m not worthy of all that, right?”
1 Yun Ce said seriously: “Yes.”
1 Huo Wudi continued: “You still want to kill me, right? Don’t lie to me; I sensed in the small building that you wanted to kill me.
2 Actually, if you kill me, I won’t resent you; I don’t know why I have no father, or why mother sent my brother and me here to be nailed; dying early means I don’t have to suffer so much.”
2 Yun Ce frowned and said: “I don’t understand why I didn’t act back then; I should have killed you, so that you, a child with Gui Fang blood flowing in your veins, wouldn’t tarnish your father’s reputation.”
2 “My father is dead, mother said.”
2 “Your mother is just a swindler; your father isn’t dead, he’s imprisoned.”
2 “My father is Han People?”
2 “That’s right, a Han People with even purer bloodline than mine.”
2 Huo Wudi finally finished eating the dried meat and listening to Yun Ce’s words; she leaned her body against the child wall like an adult, closed her big eyes, her long eyelashes seemed to tremble, and after a while, she opened her big eyes like black gemstones and looked at Yun Ce, saying: “You’re here to kill tonight?”
2 Yun Ce nodded and said: “Yes, is the person you want me to kill one of the people living here?”
2 Huo Wudi said: “Yeah, they like driving nails into kids’ heads; it hurts a lot.”
2 “You sneaked in today to kill them too?”
3 “Couldn’t kill them all at once; I planned to kill one first, then see if there’s opportunity to kill them one by one later.”
3 Yun Ce stood up and said: “Good, I’ll help you; you can carry out your plan now.”
3 Huo Wudi stretched out her left hand that had been tucked in her sleeve; in her left hand, she pinched an iron shard, which looked like part of a shattered blade.
3 Yun Ce took a sharp short sword from the Dragon Pearl and handed it to her, saying: “This is better.”
3 Huo Wudi swung the short sword in the air twice and said: “Good.”
3 Yun Ce jumped onto the beam and leaned down to Huo Wudi, saying: “Begin.”
3 Huo Wudi looked at Yun Ce who had jumped onto the beam and said: “If I die, can you bury me deep? I’m afraid of cold, and afraid Doggy will dig me out of the soil.”
3 “Sure, I’ll burn you to ashes, so you won’t have to worry about cold or Doggy problems.”
3 Huo Wudi lowered her head, her small shoulders shaking badly; she seemed to be crying, but after crying for a bit, she put the whistle Yun Ce gave her into her mouth and blew.
3 Yun Ce crouched in the high ground, watching the child wall collapse with Huo Wudi’s silent whistle sound, then watching them surge out the door like a tide.
4 Huo Wudi looked up at Yun Ce once, then lowered her head, finally going on all fours and blending into the group of children leaving this house.
4 Doggy wasn’t there; Yun Ce didn’t know if He Junnian was here, nor if Huo Wudi was really sent by someone to trap him.
4 Whether He Junnian or Heng Ji, neither were normal people; one couldn’t be too careful facing either of them.
4 Huo Wudi truly lived up to being Huo Qubing’s offspring; though only six or seven years old, she was already very good at arranging troops: the ones crawling in front were the older or stronger children, and those at the back were the younger or weaker ones.
4 Clearly all children, the age when they should be most lovable, but just seeing their blood-red eyes showed these children could no longer be called human.
4 He Junnian’s skill in making Tiger Guards was clearly improving; these children had much more expression than those strong men in the Tiger Guards army; seeing their frenzied state, they still had basic spirit reactions, meaning they were an upgraded version of the Tiger Guards; if trained from young, their combat awareness would be much stronger than the Tiger Guards when grown.
4 As for Huo Wudi’s special constitution able to absorb internal breath, she was the only one; just now leaning against the child wall, he checked quite a few children, and those children’s bodies were still very ordinary, just standard child-like.
4 A scream suddenly came from the hallway.
4 Yun Ce stood in the shadows, watching coldly from the sidelines.
4 Now, the hallway was packed with little children; perhaps because Huo Wudi had issued an attack order, these little children bit and grabbed people like doggies.
5 At first, those women wearing veiled hats just caught children everywhere; but when they discovered the children they caught clung tightly to them and bit with open mouths, shaking off the children wrapped around their bodies became very difficult.
5 Yun Ce didn’t see any warrior qualities in them; these women had some skill, but only a bit stronger than ordinary people.
5 Non-frenzied children were easy to deal with, one kick per child to send flying; frenzied children were hard to deal with—you kick one, it bites you; not to mention a group.
5 When Yun Ce saw a child bite a chunk of flesh off a woman, he carefully hid his body even more secretly.
5 Yun Ce calculated: there actually weren’t that many little children, probably not exceeding two hundred; after the child swarm rolled over the women like tanks, that woman basically no longer looked human.
5 Finally, one woman was scared out of her wits by the demon-like child swarm, screamed and turned to run, abandoning the other women blocking the children, ran into a door, and tightly shut it.
5 The remaining women started using violence; some children were smashed against the wall by them—some unharmed, some small ones lay motionless in the corner.
5 “Ah—”
5 A woman screamed and fell to the ground; a short sword was stabbed into her head, and Huo Wudi had somehow gotten a hammer and was forcefully smashing the short sword’s handle.
5 The short sword sank half a foot fiercely, the blade emerging from her lower jaw.
6 Having killed one person, Huo Wudi showed no discomfort; seeing her step on that woman’s head with both feet to yank out the short sword, Yun Ce felt this probably wasn’t this little girl’s first time killing.
6 As the commotion here grew louder, warriors finally appeared in the corridor; these people were all very large, two of them standing in the corridor filled it completely.
6 Seeing the horse chopping sabers in their hands, Yun Ce knew these should be Tiger Guards nurtured by He Junnian.
6 After the little children killed those women, they didn’t hesitate at all and pounced on the strong men blocking the way.
6 The strong men had already raised their horse chopping sabers, but not swung them; instead, they pointed the blades forward, preparing to brute-force deal with these little ghosts in front.
6 Yun Ce, who was about to act, suddenly stopped because he saw those strong men, after a momentary pause, drop their horse chopping sabers, go on all fours like the little children, turn around, and pounce toward their companions behind.
6 With this group of strong men joining, Huo Wudi’s team suddenly became nearly invincible; all Tiger Guards controlled by her whistle began indiscriminately attacking people not controlled by the whistle sound.
6 Moreover, Huo Wudi’s command was improving; at first, those Tiger Guards could only fight instinctively after dropping weapons, but after Huo Wudi figured out the whistle’s usage, she gained a group of guards holding various weapons.
6 Among them, four Tiger Guards with completely red eyes actually abandoned the enemies ahead, trampled over those little children, raised their horse chopping sabers, and chopped toward Yun Ce.
