Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 226 What a ghost?
After Yun Ce finished eating the beast leg, Shen Tingyu's reinforcements still hadn't arrived, so he simply spread a blanket on the ground and lay down on it. He hadn't slept much last night, and with the sun shining brightly, he could take a rest for a while.

He slept until dusk.

Yun Ce got up and stretched. It seemed that Shen Tingyu's reinforcements were not coming.

After tidying up the blankets and feeding the chestnut horse some water, he prepared to find a sheltered spot to camp. Although he wasn't worried about the heat or cold, the Gobi Desert was known for its strong winds at night.

After riding up a high slope, I looked around and saw the sun on the horizon, which became the dividing line between heaven and earth. At this moment, there was no difference between heaven and earth; both were half dark and half yellowish.

Yun Ce dismounted and looked back from between his legs. Sure enough, just as he had thought, there was no difference between heaven and earth. If there was any difference, it was that there was a small fire in a corner of the earth.

At this time, Yun Ce really enjoyed making friends, especially those from the Gui Fang faction. Moreover, the higher a friend's martial arts skills, the more he liked them, and only such friends were worth treating well.

Worried about scaring away his complete stranger across the street, Yun Ce hummed a desolate Northwest folk tune as he slowly rode his chestnut horse over.

As Yun Ce approached, he saw a burly Gui Fang man sitting by the fire, roasting a beast leg—or rather, roasting it over charcoal.

This shows that this person is a gourmet who enjoys eating, unlike other Guifang people who can't wait for the firewood to turn into charcoal before they start roasting meat, resulting in meat that is dark and inedible.

Yun Ce took out some wine from the Dragon Ball and filled the wine gourd. After all, how can you make friends without wine?

Just as he was about to speak, the burly man who was roasting the animal leg said, "Wait a moment, the blood hasn't been completely drained yet."

Yun Ce obediently sat opposite the burly man. The burly man looked up, smiled at Yun Ce, and said, "We've been apart for less than a day, and we meet again."

Yun Ce blinked and looked at the lively Shen Tingyu in front of him, then nodded and said, "How have you been?"

Shen Tingyu grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and said, "It's all chopped up by you, how good could it be?"

Yun Ce was usually oblivious to things, but the appearance of Shen Tingyu still surprised him. At first glance, he thought it was a trick of twins.

Now that he had confirmed the appearance and voice, Yun Ce was no longer so sure. He always observed people closely and paid more attention to details that others might not notice, rather than the whole picture.

As things stand, many details about this person are exactly the same as those of the Shen Tingyu we met earlier, especially the tiny wart the size of a grain of rice that grows at the junction of his jaw and neck, which is also exactly the same in location and color.

"So, you were waiting for me."

"Yes, the wilderness is too vast. It is my honor to meet a talent like Brother Chang'an."

"Who is Shen Lexi to you? When I slept with her, I was so focused on spreading her legs that I forgot to ask about her background."

Upon hearing this, Shen Tingyu laughed heartily and said, "Brother Chang'an, you are quite lucky with women. My sister has always been very picky. Even though she is of marriageable age, she looks down on me, a fine young man from Guifang."

Now that Brother Chang'an has wasted over twenty large fish bladders on her, I can say my wish has been fulfilled.

Without warning, the meteor hammer appeared in Yun Ce's hand. The next moment, the meteor hammer swept past the pile of charcoal fire, carrying a few sparks, and smashed straight towards Shen Tingyu's face.

Two giant axes suddenly appeared behind the roasted beast's legs, firmly clamping the flying meteor hammer. The force on the meteor hammer dissipated, and it fell slumped to the ground.

Across the fire, Shen Tingyu still grinned, showing off his big white teeth, and said, "Last time I miscalculated. This time, I would like to ask Brother Chang'an to take another look."

The giant axe swept across the fire, heading straight for Yun Ce's head. He tugged on the chain of the chain hammer, and before the fallen meteor hammer could even move, he slammed the chain hammer in his hand down hard.

With a clang, the giant axe flew back, and the meteor hammer was also bounced back. The shock of the axe and the hammer striking each other shattered the flickering embers of the charcoal fire, which was being blown about by the night wind, sending sparks flying everywhere.

Across the swirling sparks, Yun Ce's gaze towards Shen Tingyu began to turn serious.

This Shen Tingyu is far more formidable than the Shen Tingyu we encountered earlier. With just that one axe blow, he sent Yun Ce's meteor hammer flying back—something the previous Shen Tingyu could never have accomplished.

This couldn't possibly be a single person, much less someone who could be brought back to life.

Yun Ce remembered very clearly that Shen Tingyu had half of his body smashed by his hammer, and later his dog sucked out his useful essence and flesh, leaving him looking like a mummy when he died. Finally, he was chopped into more than a dozen pieces by his giant axe. It was absolutely impossible for such a bizarre thing as resurrection to happen.

Thinking of this, Yun Ce, in order to strengthen his will, threw the meteor hammer out again. No matter what was on the other side, under the enormous force of the meteor hammer, even the living would have to become dead.

Yun Ce's chain hammer flew out, and Shen Tingyu's giant axe followed. This time, the chain hammer and the giant axe did not collide with each other, but instead rushed towards the enemy.

By this time, the sun had completely disappeared below the horizon, with only a faint glimmer of dawn stubbornly indicating that the world was still functioning normally. Yun Ce's chain hammer, accompanied by a gust of wind, crashed down on Shen Tingyu's head. Shen Tingyu threw his giant axe with one hand, and the hammer and axe met in mid-air, producing another loud crash before flying backward. Before the hammerhead could return, Yun Ce silently swung his other hammer straight at Shen Tingyu's chest.

Shen Tingyu chuckled, his thick arm holding the axe in one hand making a semi-circle, and the blade of the giant axe accurately struck the meteor hammer. The iron chain that was dragging the meteor hammer immediately went limp, and Shen Tingyu's giant axe advanced instead of retreating, heading straight for Yun Ce's chest after leaving Shen Tingyu's hand.

In a panic, Yun Ce grabbed the other hammer head to block, but before the hammer and axe could collide, another giant axe came crashing down on Yun Ce's left shoulder with the force of splitting a mountain.

In his panic, Yun Ce took a step to the right, and the giant axe almost grazed his arm before crashing to the ground, embedding itself more than a foot into the earth.

Shen Tingyu chuckled and said, "I learned this move from Brother Chang'an. It will be my signature move from now on. Surely Brother Chang'an recognizes it?"

"Hehehe, having learned Brother Chang'an's killer move, I also need to learn Brother Chang'an's heroic posture in bed. You used over twenty large fish bladders to deal with my little sister. When I meet my sister-in-law, I'm afraid thirty large fish bladders would barely be enough for my household expenses. I just don't know if my sister-in-law can handle it."

Enraged, Yun Ce swung his meteor hammer and smashed it down. This time, he didn't throw the meteor hammer away, but grabbed the iron chain near the hammer and let the meteor hammer rain down on him.

Shen Tingyu also grabbed the handle of the giant axe and, without any fancy moves, took Yun Ce's hammer head-on.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells"

"Jingle bells, jingle bells."

"Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding..."

Yun Ce kept smashing, and Shen Tingyu kept parrying. The distance was close, and there was not much time to react. Whether it was smashing or catching, once it started, there was no time to think about anything else.

The hammering and catching lasted for a full half hour. Yun Ce felt his arms burning with pain, but the more it hurt, the more excited he became. He hammered even harder, refusing to believe that his body, strengthened by the dragon race and the Shehuo (a traditional folk performance), could lose to a ghost in terms of endurance.

Yun Ce's speed never slowed down, but Shen Tingyu's strength weakened with each strike. When Yun Ce's heavy hammer slammed into Shen Tingyu's giant axe, the axe no longer had the strength to protect his body. It was sent flying by the hammer and landed on Shen Tingyu's left shoulder. With a "crack" sound, his shoulder blade was instantly crushed.

Yun Ce quickly followed with his other hammer, striking Shen Tingyu in the chest and abdomen. Shen Tingyu's body flew backward, and the dog's tentacles eagerly burrowed into his body, sucking away with loud gulps.

Shen Tingyu's internal organs have been severely damaged. If not treated quickly, many good things will lose their vitality and eventually become useless.

Yun Ce approached Shen Tingyu, who was still coughing up blood, squatted down, and asked, "What are you?"

Shen Tingyu opened his mouth, and the blood stained his white teeth made him look strangely handsome.

"I'll be back."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "To this day, only one guy named Grey Wolf has kept his promise of 'I will come back.' No one else has, not even you."

Shen Tingyu laughed miserably, "Fine, next time I come, I'll tell you that I'm stronger than that guy called Grey Wolf..."

The dog's tentacles wriggled out of Shen Tingyu's body, finally retracting little by little into the wristband.

This time, the dog failed to mummify the guy's corpse. Although it was slightly shrunken compared to when it was alive, you could still roughly make out its appearance and mannerisms.

"This is too bizarre," Yun Ce thought as he burned Shen Tingyu's second corpse.

"Their internal energy is the same, their blood type is the same, and DNA verification will take time. However, I still have to say that the similarity between the internal energy of that Shen Tingyu and this Shen Tingyu is too high, so high that I can mix their body essence together, or rather, classify them together."

Furthermore, this Shen Tingyu is far more powerful than the first Shen Tingyu you encountered.

Yun Ce got up and looked around. Finding it pitch black everywhere, he said to Gouzi, "Infuse me with the first Shen Tingyu's inner energy."

The dog chuckled and said, "Do you really think there's going to be an even more powerful Shen Tingyu coming after you?"

Yun Ce sighed and said, "Although I really don't want to believe it, the way this guy spoke to me before he died was so sincere that I couldn't help but believe it."

Dog laughed and said, "There's nothing so strange about it. I can tell that these two Shen Tingyus are actually identical twin brothers."

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "Making me stronger is the most important thing first."

(End of this chapter)