Chapter 75: Getting Past It
Yun Ce felt that Peng Zeng’s luck was very bad. Watching him being thrown into the sewer outside the Drill Ground, floating and sinking as he drifted away, Yun Ce straightened his clothes, led the Red Date Horse, and walked into the Drill Ground.
Zhou Chengming and the others were all preparing to leave when they saw a Green Robe youth of fairly tall build but slightly immature features leading a Thunder Smoke Beast over.
“Chuyun Prefecture, Pingyuan City, Hekou Village Liu Chang’an requests instruction from the Captain’s Mansion!”
A soldier who had just thrown Peng Zeng out sneered, “Another one who doesn’t know death has come.”
He prepared to step forward, but Zhou Chengming grabbed him and said softly, “Someone says he is very formidable.”
A soldier said, “The one just now was also very formidable.”
Zhou Chengming smiled and said, “He just watched me deal with that person named Peng Zeng, and he still dares to come in now. This courage alone is not weak.”
With that, he personally came forward to greet him: “You don’t look down on my brothers either, do you?”
Yun Ce cupped his hands and said, “Any warrior who defends the country is an outstanding person. Liu admires them greatly; how could there be any disdain?”
Zhou Chengming smiled and said, “In that case, do you want to start with the armored infantry soldiers?”
1 Yun Ce released the reins of the Red Date Horse, went to a soldier wearing infantry armor, knocked on the armor, patted his shoulder, and turned back to Zhou Chengming: “He is a good man.”
1 Zhou Chengming laughed loudly: “You still look down on him.”
1 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “Someone told me that when the Captain beheaded Bear King Xiong Pi on the battlefield a few days ago, he was injured by it. Is it true that his body is currently inconvenient?”
1 After hearing this, Zhou Chengming laughed even harder, pulled open his collar, revealed his abdomen wrapped in cloth fragments to Yun Ce, and said, “True, truer than true.”
1 Yun Ce looked regretfully at the crowd from the Captain’s Mansion and said, “Spring is warm and bright, with tall mountains to climb. After I join the Tiger Guards, I will drink and chat merrily with all you brothers.”
1 Zhou Chengming chuckled and said, “You still look down on them.”
1 Yun Ce took the saber sheathed at his waist, put on a pair of clean white gloves, slowly drew the saber, turned back to the Tiger Guards captains with ugly expressions, and smiled: “If I am defeated later, when you brothers throw me out, please do not throw me into the stinking ditch.”
1 Zhou Chengming looked at the slender saber in Yun Ce’s hand and asked puzzledly, “I’ve never seen a saber like this before. Does it have a special usage method?”
1 Yun Ce shook the saber and smiled: “This saber was given by an elder. Besides cutting nails and iron like cutting tofu, slicing iron like mud, its usage method is called: Chaotic Cleaving Wind!”
1 Zhou Chengming looked at Yun Ce and smiled: “Good Chaotic Cleaving Wind. Today, let me see your Chaotic Cleaving Wind.”
2 Yun Ce composed himself, held the saber hilt to his chest with the blade aligned with his brow and nose tip, then said to Zhou Chengming, “Please instruct me.”
2 Zhou Chengming was a bit confused by Yun Ce’s strange battle etiquette, shook his head, and said, “I’ve never experienced a battle like this before. Whose etiquette is this?”
2 Yun Ce certainly would not tell him that he wore gloves to cover Doggy wrapping the hilt to analyze Zhou Chengming’s lightning-fast saber techniques for him. Since he was wearing gloves, he naturally also learned the way mark soldiers hold sabers during inspections.
2 He did not know how Zhang Min had described him, such that Zhou Chengming took him very seriously and did not attack first.
2 “Left ribs!” Doggy suddenly spoke. Without thinking, Yun Ce stepped forward and thrust the saber toward Zhou Chengming’s left ribs.
2 After coming to this planet, Yun Ce’s strength had increased a lot, and his reaction speed had also improved greatly. Merely with a stepping thrust, the blade reached Zhou Chengming’s left ribs in an instant.
2 Zhou Chengming dodged aside. Without needing Doggy’s command, Yun Ce instantly turned the thrust into an upward flick, the saber chasing after Zhou Chengming’s figure in pursuit and kill.
2 With a “ding” sound, Zhou Chengming’s long saber barely deflected Yun Ce’s saber. Just as he was about to counterattack, Yun Ce’s saber actually stuck to his long saber and flicked up, sparking all the way like lightning directly toward Zhou Chengming’s saber-holding right hand.
2 The long saber naturally had a guard. Zhou Chengming originally did not want to bother with it and prepared to punch toward Yun Ce’s face. But just as the saber was about to touch the guard, he suddenly remembered Yun Ce had said his saber could slice iron like mud. His left fist that was originally aiming for Yun Ce’s face changed direction and heavily smashed the side of Yun Ce’s saber. The saber vibrated with a hum and left the long saber.
2 Yun Ce took the opportunity to retreat a step and resumed his saber-holding salute.
3 Zhou Chengming looked at the sharp blade of Yun Ce’s saber, faintly feeling some lingering fear. If he had not been quick-witted just now, with the force of Yun Ce’s upward flick, it would definitely have severed his fingers.
3 Yun Ce’s strike, swift as a hare rising and falcon falling, was not only dangerous but also very impressive. With just this one move, the Captain was faintly at a disadvantage. This made those arrogant soldiers instantly lose the idea of watching the fun and start worrying for their Captain.
3 “I can’t see his weakness. Attack a bit to test, collect more material, and I can analyze.”
3 Seeing Zhou Chengming not attacking for a long time, Yun Ce raised his saber and slashed toward him. He felt that as long as his strength was great and his saber fast, Zhou Chengming would not be able to attack him.
3 Unexpectedly, after their sabers touched, there was no sound; instead, it stuck to Yun Ce’s saber, using strength against strength and nearly throwing Yun Ce out. If not for Doggy releasing a bit of electricity…
3 The two separated again. Zhou Chengming looked puzzledly at his long saber, switched it to his left hand, clenched his right hand a few times. Clearly, he had been shocked just now.
3 “Right shoulder!”
3 “Left shoulder!”
3 “Step forward and strike, retreat, retreat…”
3 Under Doggy’s series of urgent commands, sweat beaded on Yun Ce’s forehead—not from fatigue, but from anxiety. Zhou Chengming’s left-hand saber was clearly faster than his right. Besides some instinctive blocks, he had to follow Doggy’s commands, so Yun Ce’s speed slowed down. Several times he was nearly injured by Zhou Chengming.
4 As Yun Ce’s coordination with Doggy gradually improved, a fabricated Chaotic Cleaving Wind saber technique actually fought Zhou Chengming to a standstill.
4 After “clang clang clang,” the two sabers clashed three times in a row, Zhou Chengming looked at his jagged long saber, then at Yun Ce’s saber without a single mark, and could not help saying, “Good saber, good skill too, just the saber technique is a bit lacking.”
4 Yun Ce wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “You know, I am a wildman.”
4 Zhou Chengming said, “Let’s call it a day. Do you really want the Zanniao Title?”
4 Yun Ce shook his head and said, “I think the Shang Zao rank suits me very well.”
4 Zhou Chengming laughed loudly: “I think so too. Come on, let’s go handle the procedures. At the latest in half a year, you will be Chuyun Prefecture’s new Shang Zao. Honestly, at your age, Shang Zao rank is too early.”
4 Yun Ce tossed the saber in his hand to Zhou Chengming: “Try it.”
4 Zhou Chengming gripped the saber, swung it casually twice, listened to the sound of the weapon cutting through the air, then handed the saber back to Yun Ce: “The design is unreasonable, too disadvantageous for infantry combat. It would still break against heavy weapons.”
4 Yun Ce smiled: “It is originally prepared for mounted combat, focused on sharpness.”
4 Zhou Chengming thought for a moment and said, “Not as good as the horse spear. Also, has your Thunder Smoke Beast not gone to the horse stables to pledge allegiance?”
5 Yun Ce shook his head: “This is also a beautiful living being. It is most beautiful just being alive like this. The pledge allegiance process is too cruel. I do not want to turn my partner into a fool that only recognizes me.”
5 Zhou Chengming, walking ahead, turned back with an indescribable look at Yun Ce: “Your thoughts are really strange. Do you know who the last person to say this was?”
5 “Who?”
5 “King Huo! He rode sixty-seven Thunder Smoke Beasts in his life without any pledging allegiance, yet each followed him in battle on the battlefield, fighting. Many fell in battle without showing the beast nature they should have.”
5 “I hope your Thunder Smoke Beast can be the same.”
5 Yun Ce was not surprised at all by this answer. Huo Qubing was a cavalry commander himself; he loved warhorses all his life and regarded them as his most loyal partners. How could he allow others to nail nails into his warhorse’s head.
5 If he were like the people here, that would be the strange thing.
5 Yun Ce followed Zhou Chengming to his official residence, where he saw Zhang Min quietly sitting on a cushion, seemingly asleep.
5 The moment Yun Ce entered, Zhang Min woke up, looked at Zhou Chengming, and smiled: “We were not wrong, were we?”
5 Zhou Chengming looked at Yun Ce for a long time before saying to Zhang Min, “Go get the Spirit Seeking Insect.”
6 Zhang Min reached behind his buttocks, grabbed a pretty cage and handed it to Zhou Chengming. He took the fat insect out of the cage, placed it on Yun Ce’s shoulder, and said to Yun Ce, “The process for wildmen to receive ranks is complicated, especially for the nineteenth-rank Shang Zao, which requires reporting to Chang’an for approval by the Grand Commandant’s Office. Round trip, half a year is fast.”
6 While he spoke, his eyes stayed on Yun Ce, who was playing happily with the Spirit Seeking Insect. After a long time, he took the Spirit Seeking Insect off Yun Ce, put it back in the cage, and handed it to Zhang Min.
6 Zhang Min smiled: “Flying Bird transmission would be faster.”
6 Zhou Chengming sighed, shook his head: “Do you think a Flying Bird transmission I send would be easier for the Grand Commandant’s Office to approve than a letter mixed in with a large number of official documents?”
6 Zhang Min fell silent. Yun Ce coughed dryly: “Do I need to enlist?”
6 Zhou Chengming shook his head: “In another half month, I will lead troops out of Chuyun Prefecture to garrison the border. You staying in Chuyun Prefecture to help Zhang Min is also good.”
6 Zhang Min frowned, took a bar of soap from his sleeve and handed it to Zhou Chengming: “This thing is for use during baths, much better than bath beans. I think this business can work.”
6 Zhou Chengming looked at Zhang Min, then at Yun Ce, suddenly realizing: “Made by Liu Chang’an?”
6 Yun Ce sighed: “Rice is expensive in Chuyun City; living there is not easy.”
6 Zhou Chengming seemed to remember something, chuckled, handed the soap back to Zhang Min: “Give it to Wu Tong. I have no time.”
7 When Yun Ce finished the complicated procedures and rode the Red Date Horse out of the barracks, a black human-shaped object covered in sludge suddenly grabbed the Red Date Horse’s hoof. The Red Date Horse impatiently shook its hoof, and the human-shaped object flew into the sludge again.
7 Yun Ce had been thinking about things just now and vaguely heard someone shouting—beast.
