Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 208 A Man's Success Is Not About the Process

Just as Yun Ce used his saber to cut open the throat of a centurion and was holding the man by the broken neck so that Gouzi could easily collect his inner energy essence, Zhou Cheng, along with fifty personal guards, stepped into the arena that had just ended.

He saw a blood-soaked person sucking blood.

Enraged, he swung the chain hammer with a sharp whistling sound straight at the back of the blood man's head. As if the blood-drinking process had been interrupted, the blood man turned around in extreme anger, opened his mouth and roared silently. His blood-stained teeth were extremely conspicuous in the moonlight.

The chain hammer landed in the opponent's outstretched left hand. Zhou Cheng tried to pull the chain hammer back, but found that it was as if it were permanently attached to the opponent's hand, remaining firmly in place.

Yun Ce squeezed it hard, wanting to crush it. Only by doing this could he bring the strongest shock to the other party. Unfortunately, he couldn't crush the chain hammer, and it even made his fingers hurt.

So he threw the chain hammer back, and just as it was about to hit Zhou Cheng, he shook the chain in advance, causing the chain hammer to change direction, bounce off a tree, and then hit Yun Ce again.

Yun Ce found it very interesting. This guy's understanding and mastery of force had reached a certain level. After grabbing the hammer head again, Yun Ce applied a rotational force to the hammer head. The chain hammer spun and twisted the iron chain, smashing towards Zhou Cheng once more.

Zhou Cheng tried to control the hammer with the chain, but the chain couldn't withstand the force applied to it by the two forces at the same time. It suddenly broke apart, shattering into six pieces that flew in all directions with a piercing shriek.

Yun Ce walked to a spot not far from Zhou Cheng, picked up the hammer head that had fallen to the ground, and looked at Zhou Cheng, saying, "Why didn't Yan Fei come?"

"There's no need for a general to deal with you insects."

Yun Ce sighed and said, "It is my fault for not making a name for myself earlier, which led to being looked down upon by unknown people. However, after the Battle of Xiangcheng, the heroes of the world should not make the same mistake again."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yun Ce pounced on Zhou Cheng like the wind. Zhou Cheng decisively discarded the remaining meteor hammer, picked up a horse spear from his side, and thrust it straight at Yun Ce.

The expected collision did not occur. Yun Ce did not target him, but instead turned and pounced on the leftmost cavalryman halfway. The gleam of his saber flashed in the moonlight, and a line of blood appeared on the cavalryman's neck. Yun Ce chuckled, stepped on the back of the great horned horse, and pounced on the cavalryman next to him.

Perhaps due to the excessive force, the great horned horse collapsed to the ground before it could even whimper. Yun Ce dodged the cavalryman's thrusting longsword, climbed onto his back, spun his saber around the horse's neck, and decapitated him. At the same time, he kicked the short spears on the horse's back repeatedly with one foot, sending four throwing spears flying from their packs and scattering towards the remaining cavalrymen. Caught off guard, the cavalrymen had no choice but to dismount.

In the blink of an eye, Yun Ce killed two people and scattered Zhou Cheng's well-organized troops with several short spears. Zhou Cheng disregarded the military formation, roared, and his Thunder Smoke Beast smashed through two large horned horses without riders. His lance once again slashed down at Yun Ce.

Yun Ce did not take the hit head-on, but dodged Zhou Cheng's spear and continued to pursue the scattered cavalry. Seeing that Yun Ce had killed three more of his few personal guards, Zhou Cheng shouted, "Scatter!"

Taking advantage of the chaos, Yun Ce killed two more people, only to find, to his dismay, that the cavalrymen had fled far away, leaving him and Zhou Cheng alone on the battlefield.

"Who are you?" Zhou Cheng asked intently.

"You're not calling me an insect anymore? I won't answer you yet. I'll tell you when you have a stronger impression of me."

Zhou Cheng, unable to sheath his sword, charged forward with his horse. Yun Ce leaped high into the air, and immediately more than ten arrows shot towards him. He swung his sword and cut down the arrows one by one, while Zhou Cheng's spear was already piercing Yun Ce's chest.

Yun Ce grabbed the lance with his left hand and, using Zhou Cheng's strength, leaped high into the air once more. A short spear, accompanied by the whoosh of the wind, pierced Yun Ce's left arm. The spear failed to penetrate his left arm, and in a fit of rage, Yun Ce abandoned Zhou Cheng. After landing, he took a few quick steps and slashed left and right in the chaotic army until he found the cavalryman who had ambushed him with the short spear. He grabbed the cavalryman's leg and pulled him off his horse. Facing the charging Zhou Cheng, he exerted force with both arms, and with a tearing sound, the cavalryman who had ambushed him was torn apart by his legs.

The description of being torn in half is not very accurate, because when he was torn to the waist, due to the body's structure, one leg was detached from the body along with half of the waist. It did not involve tearing a person in half. The things that Li Yuanba did in "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" are probably fictional and not credible.

Even Zhou Cheng, who was known for his ruthless killings, trembled at Yun Ce's cruel actions and dared not be arrogant anymore. With a wave of his hand, the remaining guards rushed forward.

The battle returned to its initial state. Yun Ce darted around wildly in the woods, while Zhou Cheng and the others rode their horses to chase and intercept him in the sparse forest.

Another half hour passed, and Zhou Cheng, looking at the corpses of the guards scattered all over the ground, began to have second thoughts.

Just then, the remaining troops of Xiangcheng finally found the men that Yun Ce had hidden. This time, instead of killing the wounded Cao cavalry, they tied them all up and sent them to the battlefield where Zhoucheng and Yun Ce were.

Enraged, Zhou Cheng swung his sword and killed a prisoner, then turned to Yun Ce and said, "Surrender, or we'll kill you all."

Yun Ce suppressed a laugh, swiftly grabbed a Xiangcheng cavalryman, sliced ​​off his head with his saber, and threw it in front of Zhou Cheng, saying, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Seeing that he was about to be dragged out and beheaded, Cao's hundred-man general shouted, "General Yun, we have already won a great victory in this battle. Why don't we call it a day?"

Yun Ce peeked out from behind the tree with a smile and asked Zhou Cheng, "Do you acknowledge my victory?"

Zhou Cheng, his face ashen, stared at the less than three hundred men around him and gritted his teeth, saying, "Today, it's a fight to the death." Seeing that the negotiations were about to break down, the Cao family's hundred-man general hurriedly said, "General Yun, if we are all wiped out here, how will you explain to my young master?"

Yun Ce sighed and said, "That's because your young master lent me too few soldiers. You saw it yourself. If your young master were willing to give me five hundred more soldiers, we could have annihilated all of them in this battle."

"Rest assured, after you die, I will tell your young master that you all died fighting valiantly, and each one of you was incredibly brave."

After saying that, Yun Ce's figure disappeared from behind the tree once again. The next moment, he leaped down from the treetop, his saber aimed straight for Zhou Cheng's head.

Zhou Cheng parried with his lance, but did not hear the familiar sound of weapons clashing. He rolled off the back of the Thunder Smoke Beast, and the next moment, a brilliant blade of light slashed across his horse. Still in shock, Zhou Cheng swung his lance in a blur of light and shadow. His body, lying on the ground, kept wriggling backward. Only when he felt that he was out of Yun Ce's attack range did he suddenly jump up and stand firm.

His eyes searched for Yun Ce's figure, and he was shocked to find that the man was six zhang away. Suddenly remembering his embarrassing actions just now, which had been clearly seen by his subordinates, Zhou Cheng felt the urge to retreat for the first time, and realized for the first time that Yun Ce was not someone he could deal with.

As a general, the most important thing is not how high one's martial arts skills are, but the ability to make accurate decisions at the right time. Seeing that Yun Ce had no horse, Zhou Cheng immediately jumped onto his Thunder Smoke Beast and shouted to his subordinates, "Go!"

After saying that, he turned his horse around and galloped away from the edge of the woods.

The rest of the soldiers had long been terrified by Yun Ce's killing. Seeing their general run away, they all turned and ran as well. Those without horses jumped onto their companions' warhorses and ran away as well, showing great discipline.

The Cao cavalrymen, who hadn't had time to kill the enemy, breathed a long sigh of relief. In any case, this hellish torment was finally over.

When they saw their general's strange thunder-smoke beast sneaking up beside him, the Cao family's centurion immediately knew that the battle was far from over.

The chestnut horse's running pattern was quite strange. It didn't closely follow the fleeing cavalrymen in pursuit. Instead, like a carnivorous beast, it would suddenly rush out from the side. Yun Ce was its henchman. After killing the cavalrymen it could reach, it would once again disappear into the tall grass or sparse woods.

Then, when the cavalry were in the most fear, they appeared from an unexpected direction, allowing Yun Ce to use his lance, saber, short spear, and even chain hammer to kill the enemy as many times as possible, depending on their number and distribution area.

The chestnut horse didn't care at all about Zhou Cheng's escape. The distance from the battlefield to Xiangcheng was a full forty miles, enough for it and Yun Ce to kill all the cavalry and finally stop Zhou Cheng before he entered the city gate.

Zhou Cheng lay prone on the back of the Thunder Smoke Beast and ran wildly. The faint screams coming from behind made him want to run even faster. As a general, once a decision was made, it had to be carried out to the end.

After being tormented by the Shehuo (a traditional folk performance), Yun Ce felt that this chestnut horse should no longer be called a horse. If it weren't for the fact that it was still in the form of a horse, Yun Ce would have called it a brother.

While others have to control their horses, he doesn't. His chestnut horse often carries him around to kill enemies. Even those enemies who dismount halfway and hide in the grass can be trampled to pieces by its hooves.

Zhou Cheng was ultimately stopped by the chestnut horse when he saw Xiang Cheng...

After a long time, a thunder-smoke beast finally appeared in front of the city gate carrying Zhou Cheng, and was carefully welcomed into Xiangcheng by the soldiers guarding the city.

Yun Ce lay on a patch of grass, catching his breath.

The dog's voice of admiration echoed in my mind.

"Such pure essence of the inner energy of a thousand generals! It's far superior to that imposter Yu Zhu."

What's the difference?

"Let me tell you, it should be related to Shehuo. When I was searching Zhou Cheng's internal energy, I found traces of Shehuo. This guy's internal energy should have been purified by Shehuo before, but the purification was not thorough or complete."

"Yun Ce, you need to be careful. It seems you're not the only one in this world who knows that Shehuo (a type of folk performance) can help one's inner energy evolve. After all, they've coexisted with Shehuo for thousands of years. Your understanding of this world is still too one-sided."

　Yesterday was quite lively; more than twenty online writers from Gansu came to visit me. They were a very, very nice group of people. Even though I've failed, they didn't laugh at me; they just wanted me to treat them to mutton.

　　If any of you brothers ever pass through Baiyin in the future, I'll treat you the same way. As long as you don't laugh at me for being a loser, you're my honored guests with whom I can talk about anything.

　　The location will be revealed in the bonus chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)