Chapter 14: Attack For Another’s Jade
In the deep autumn of October of the same year, at Yongji Pass, a row of forty-five crossbowmen stood fifty paces away aiming, while another forty-five were in the back row on standby. This was two-stage strike training.
The training content was divided into crossbow volley and close-range direct shot. There was nothing special about direct shot training; it was similar to the firearm system. Crossbowmen looked at the target direction, based on the mountain sight ruler, and pulled the trigger. On the one-man-high wooden targets in the front row, the one with the most arrowheads hitting the target was the best!
As for crossbow volley? Each crossbowman could not see the target and shot arrows based on the direction of the whistling arrow. According to combat drills, the target of the crossbow volley was the enemy vanguard before the charge, meaning the effect was to form an arrow rain area covering the enemy vanguard centered on the whistling arrow. The smaller the area, the greater the arrow rain density, and the better the suppression of the vanguard.
Therefore, in the drill, as the whistling arrow was released, cavalry then went to check, bringing back arrows marked by each crossbowman. Then, based on the distance from the whistling arrow, the top ring count was determined; the closer to the whistling arrow, the better the achievement. If all ten groups were top achievements, there would be wine and meat at night, and pay increased by one grade. But if all were low achievements, although meals would not be deducted, they had to walk around the military camp with a bamboo plaque stuck on them saying “Thanks to xx for the arrow.”
In the military camp, merit was revered. The assessment standard set by Xuan Chong for actual combat was recognized by the soldiers, and after this standard was established, admiration and mockery among the soldiers followed.
…Perspective shifts to the target field…
Wu Fei, however, stood at the end of the target field where shots were fired,
As the whistling arrow from afar fell toward him, Wu Fei reached out and grasped the arrow shaft. The arrow shaft slid in his hand, the heat from intense friction passing through the leather in his palm to his palm, while the arrowhead’s force also involuntarily pulled his arm back.
Wu Fei nodded slightly at the bow skill of the whistling arrow shooter.
However, soon a buzzing sound came from afar. At this time, the soldiers who heard the whistling arrow raised their crossbows and pulled the trigger toward the direction of the breaking air sound based on the feeling from training.
This was not some underling challenging superior; first, Wu Fei was now wearing a mask and suddenly darted to the target field, and separated by one hundred fifty paces, the soldiers could not clearly see who the distant target was. Finally, since he had greeted them beforehand and informed these soldiers that the general’s personal soldiers wearing armor would come to the target field today to test bow strength, all arrow shafts had cotton wrapped on their heads today.
As the person involved, Wu Fei looked at these high-speed arrows like a swarm of bees and felt somewhat apprehensive inside, but he still quickly reacted by drawing his sword and stimulating killing intent.
Directly in front of Wu Fei, as the killing intent suddenly released, ripples spread like water waves. The incoming arrows were deflected from their trajectories by this stirred-up “wave.”
But the impact force of the arrow rain could not be ignored. Wu Fei retreated two steps, looked around, and saw arrow shafts stuck all around him, while the central area where he stood was empty, but the surrounding area was outlined with a patch.
But immediately the second wave came, and Wu Fei’s expression changed drastically. The reason was simple: the second wave of arrow rain was even fiercer! And compared to the first wave, this second wave also carried killing intent!
…On the opposite side of the target field…
The veteran responsible for shooting the whistling arrow, after seeing the first wave of bow and arrows, saw that birdman not even bend his waist, just casually wave his hand and all the arrowheads fell to the side. He was stunned on the spot, then the cat-kicking effect began.
The veteran, full of killing intent, said to the soldiers: “Did you all skip meals! That bastard on the opposite side grabbed your arrows in his hand and waved hello to me!”
After the veteran released his killing intent, the soldiers all lowered their heads, but they all knew this wave of arrows had lost face, so this second wave of arrow rain was obviously different.
Since Wu Fei was a superior in the army corps, the soldiers behaved properly in all their current actions, so killing intent was generally unfelt. To be precise, when Wu Fei was present, all soldiers’ killing intent was basically restrained. Only a very few, like Zhao Xian Zhong, could still have their killing intent detected by Wu Fei, but even so, Zhao Xian Zhong was proper in front of Wu Fei.
Similarly, if Wu Fei went under Wu Hanluan’s command and was bound by military order, his killing intent would also be constrained.
In summary, killing intent in the military camp was a broad existence; only when in the military position given by the military order system was one immune to killing intent invasion. Once detached from the established position in the military camp, killing intent could be immediately felt.
For example, the accompanying masters in Wu Hanluan’s army all had to wear a “killing intent repelling talisman” to cast daoist arts. At that time, Wu Fei thought the “killing intent repelling talisman” was like the waist token of a palace attendant or other military mid-level officers, but later he learned that without this waist token, cultivators could not cast magic in the army.
…Wu Fei was the same; after leaving the commander’s seat, he was like a small boat in the sea…
As Wu Fei fled in embarrassment in the second wave of arrow rain, the squad leader commanding the whistling arrow release burst into laughter. Giving a bit of color to the personal soldier within the scope of authority was capital for these roughnecks to brag about at night.
But after one incense stick of time, when the dragon horse carried that “personal soldier” over from the side of the target field, this squad leader was smug one second, and the next second, after seeing the “personal soldier” remove his mask, he hurriedly knelt down.
Wu Fei held the whistling arrow and asked: “You shot it?”
Squad Leader: “This subordinate, I, I,”
While he was stammering, Wu Fei said: “Well shot. Reward!”
Then Wu Fei tossed him a piece of gold leaf and left.
After Wu Fei left, the squad leader bit the gold leaf in hand, beaming with joy, then saw the soldiers around him looking at him eagerly, and shouted: “Those who hit seven rings or above on the target today, follow me to drink.”
…Bright and upright back figure…
As for why Wu Fei came over, because there were many people and loose mouths in the military camp, soldiers often bullshitted each other during training breaks. His visit to the target field was not too secretive; as this squad leader and other personal soldiers communicated (drinking and bragging), everyone would sooner or later learn that he shot not at a personal soldier, but at the general.
If he (Wu Fei) had left without stating his position now, this squad leader would worry about being resented by the general. Thus, he would be anxious during training.
The purpose of setting up the “whistling arrow” in the military camp was to make soldiers, upon hearing the command, not overthink and just act; how could the one shooting the whistling arrow be anxious?
Therefore, Wu Fei came over and tossed a piece of gold leaf, meaning nothing else but to give this squad leader an attitude: he did right, it should be rewarded, no need to think about the possibility of punishment.
…Wu Fei was not yet fifteen years old this year, unable to be unfathomably majestic, only able to reward and punish appropriately.…
Back in the camp, Wu Fei carefully experienced the feeling of just manipulating killing intent to resist, and encountering the killing intent arrow rain volley.
When the first wave was shot, as high-speed arrows flew in, “repulsion” occurred. The specific feeling was just like the sensation when same poles of magnets repel each other; this process did not eliminate the “impact.” Wu Fei involuntarily slid half a meter backward on the sand with his footsteps in the arrow rain. And if it were a cavalry charge, even if he used this stimulated repulsive force to parry, he would still be sent flying.
Killing intent was limited, like explosive reactive armor; after one use, it could not be replenished in the short term.
Therefore, in the second wave, Wu Fei was breached by the arrow rain, shot with bruises on his body, forced to hug his head and scurry like a rat. If the arrows had not been wrapped in cotton, they would penetrate flesh; if the arrowheads had been soaked in golden juice, the arrow sores on the body would require ten days of quiet rest without moving.
…Charge formation ability was still insufficient, but that did not mean giving up…
Wu Fei opened the manual written in tadpole script by “San Gu.” After system translation, um, excluding many useless hints, summarizing the whole text, and then translating the practical part’s title by meaning, it should be called “agile parry.”
Regarding the use of killing intent, it existed in the inheritances of various military strategists. Wu Hanluan knew it; Wu Fei thought: Wu Hanluan did not teach him because he did not have killing intent at the time.
The way Da Yao military generals used killing intent was to fuse “blood qi” and killing intent, ultimately condensing the killing intent in the bone marrow, and with the burst of killing force, blood qi rose like wolf smoke.
While the set given to Wu Fei by San Gu did not rely on “blood qi,” but completed it by tattooing “force-storing patterns” on the body with materials, which opened the door to a new world.
That is, immortal patterns conforming to human kinematics could be constructed between armor and weapons, equivalent to directly condensing the killing intent in the bone marrow step onto the armor and weapons.
On San Gu’s tadpole script, amid those useless narrations, the patterns similar to bone marrow killing intent meridians constructed on this armor and weapons were called “immortal pattern”! And the ultimate “immortal pattern” power was called “Taiqing immortal force,” with descriptions of various effects using the adjective “divine.”
Of course, after understanding that it was just that, Xuan Chong recalled the content of the canon given by San Gu, judged a considerable part as “public knowledge type articles,” and shook his head: “Foreign monks chant scriptures well because there are many fools, but I am not.”
The system very inappropriately interjected: “Hard to say,” and the floating ball was spinning rapidly.
Xuan Chong twitched the corner of his mouth and said to the system: You come out when I ask you to translate; this is none of your business.
While Xuan Chong was summarizing San Gu’s manual, he continued his original line of thought. In his previous life, he had seen many “fake foreign devils” seriously chanting “foreign scriptures.” Their specific routine was to hype a part of success as unique experience over there, making you not try to find cases to verify on your side. In the inability to verify, external experience became superior experience, and your original traditional experience became backward. After cutting off your verification ability, he could stuff his own stuff into his classic.
Xuan Chong now strongly suspected that San Gu had this purpose! What she gave could not be said to be useless, but after Xuan Chong got the system translation version and compared it to the original, he found that her original version did not give references to the traditional manipulate killing intent system within Da Yao for comparison.
Instead, it step by step led you into her narrow, isolated dead end where no other system could be found for verification. That is, the more you delved into the knowledge, the more mysterious it felt, the lonelier, and the more directionless.
But according to Lao-Zhuang school: The Way is in shit and urine. The laws of all things are equal, no high or low nobility; all knowledge systems can find routes for mutual corroboration and verification.
Objectively, “knowledge” has no higher or lower.
The so-called “mysterious” and “common sense” only exist in human subjectivity as “prior cognition” and “later cognition.”
…Characteristics of a good student: extrapolate from one…
Six hours later, after Xuan Chong finished reading the agile parry content in the “manual,” he restrained the urge to immediately try it out, only engraved the relevant plan on the bamboo tally in front of his window, and wrote a letter to Wu Hanluan.
Several days later, Wu Hanluan sent over a black lacquered box. After opening it, the box was empty, but Xuan Chong raised his hand, and as killing intent eroded, the paint inside the box began to peel due to the killing intent, followed by the manual appearing in the box in wrinkle text form.
Xuan Chong began to copy this set of blood qi manipulate killing intent and bone marrow nurturing killing intent method, but after spending six days, um, a total of five hours, in calm mindset understanding, Xuan Chong still did not master this system.
Xuan Chong was cautious; higher, faster, stronger had nothing to do with him; the key was not to have accidents. His future choice of charge formation was straight for Zhuge Liang’s four-wheeled cart, not charging against Lu Bu.
Based on the manipulate killing intent method given by Wu Hanluan, Xuan Chong listed the patterns of killing intent circulating in his bones and muscles, then opened San Gu’s “agile parry,” and listed the mechanism by which the “killing intent patterns” in the armor could replace “muscles, blood, bone killing intent” in movements.
That is, under the same usage, one stimulated killing intent form from bones and blood, the other stimulated killing intent form from armor as source. The two started differently but had converging parts.
When overviewing the “different paths” of various dharma gates, Xuan Chong only used this part of the “converging” section.
This system did not give him a “system” on the body! As the saying goes, “Embrace the system, conquer the enemy.” Only what can be verified with the system can be used and integrated. As for what the system cannot verify, Xuan Chong, with extremely right-conservative ideology, would be quite cautious toward new technology, because who knows what hidden dangers “unverified outliers” have.
…Five days later…
Wu Fei came to the blacksmith shop and began personally forging iron, engraving killing intent circulation patterns on the armor. That’s right, Wu Fei still felt it safer to use this “external object” first. As for this “external object storing killing intent” method, it was crafted based on the entry-level state glimpsed from the manipulate killing intent method provided by Wu Hanluan; this was called using “stones from one’s own mountain to attack the jade of others.”
As some fine iron powder was sprinkled in, the furnace fire immediately changed, heat waves rolling continuously in the blacksmith shop. However, drenched in sweat, with only a cloth pouch in his crotch, Wu Fei did not notice that hundreds of zhang away, Yao San Gu was watching obsessively through a blue eye unfolded at her brow center.
However, this was not romantic love. Dark blue light continuously crossed space, “disturbing and changing.”
In the blacksmith shop, as Wu Fei refined the weapon, inspirations continuously arose; these inspirations were insights from his memory of reading the “tadpole script original,” but! Wu Fei ultimately did not temporarily add these inspirations to the current work.
Wu Fei’s own motto: A plan is a plan, it can be recorded for next time, but during current execution, it absolutely cannot change morning orders by evening.
The armor was thus continuously quenched and formed, and beside it the matching iron sword—oh, this long double-edged sharp weapon that looks like a sword, later to have a shaft installed, this was called a spear!
The killing intent patterns inside the armor could seamlessly connect to the spear shaft, ultimately converging on the spear to form a sharp edge.
Wu Fei’s plan was completed without any changes.
However, hundreds of zhang away, in the mage’s residence in the military camp.
San Gu, closing her brow center blue eye, helplessly: “So hard to enlighten? Such a stubborn and ignorant fellow!” Then, across space to the North, she softly said: He only sets his mind once he confirms others have it. So you also help persuade him.
After San Gu’s telephone-like narration, her spiritual eye opened again, already having received a response.
