Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 289 A Born Strategist
I just heard that woman refer to these children as 'Fanlu'.

Yun Ce knew the literal meaning of "繁露" (Fan Lu). The two characters together mean "dense dew," which is often used to describe the dew that condenses on grass and trees in the early morning, implying the vitality and fleeting beauty of nature.

These two words aptly describe these children with nails in their heads. Children are like newborn dewdrops, only short-lived here, like dewdrops on grass that disappear as soon as the sun comes out.

Huo Wudi stared intently at Yun Ce with her large eyes. She seemed to be puzzled as to why this person was able to come to Panxing Tower and find her so accurately, especially when she was piled up in the third-to-last human wall.

"This is Fan Camp, a place that specifically drives nails into children's heads."

Yun Ce pulled Huo Wudi off the wall of children, put her on the ground, and continued to ask, "Are these children all conscious like you?"

Huo Wudi shook his head and said, "Many children were killed by nails, and some became stupid after being nailed. Only I became smarter after being nailed."

As Huo Wudi spoke, she reached out and touched her head.

Yun Ce, mimicking Huo Wudi, sat down against the wall of children, took out a strip of dried meat and handed it to her, then continued to ask, "Where's your brother?"

Huo Wudi, biting into a strip of meat, said expressionlessly, "She died. She was nailed to death. Then, my mother went mad. She ran away carrying a little girl by the leg, and then she never came back."

As she spoke, Huo Wudi reached out and touched her head, then earnestly asked Yun Ce, "Does she not want me anymore?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "I heard that your mother smashed a little girl into a pulp at the entrance of the Dragon God Temple."

Huo Wudi nodded while chewing on the dried meat and said, "My mother was going to catch me, but I switched places with that little girl."

Yun Ce tilted his head and looked at Huo Wudi, saying, "It would be better if you didn't have the blood of the Guifang people in you."

Huo Wudi asked, "If I didn't have the blood of the Guifang people, how would you treat me?"

Yun Ce thought for a moment and said, "I will treat you like my own daughter, raise you to be fair-skinned, plump and beautiful, teach you to read and write, teach you to recite some beautiful poems, teach you to sing some beautiful songs, teach you martial arts, ride horses, dance, basically, I will give you everything a girl should have."

Finally, I'll marry you off to a handsome young man you love, and we'll have children and live happily ever after.

A hint of admiration flashed in Huo Wudi's eyes, but she quickly regained her senses and looked at Yun Ce, saying, "Just because my mother is a Guifang person, does that mean I don't deserve all of this?"

Yun Ce replied earnestly, "Yes."

Huo Wudi continued, "You still want to kill me, don't you? Don't lie to me. I could feel your desire to kill me when we were in the small building."

Actually, even if you kill me, I won't blame you. I don't know why I don't have a father, nor do I know why my mother sent my brother and me here to be nailed to the ground. The sooner we died, the less we would have to suffer so much.

Yun Ce frowned and said, "I don't understand why I didn't kill you back then. I should have killed you. That way, you, a child with Guifang blood flowing in your veins, wouldn't have tarnished your father's reputation."

“My father died, my mother said so.”

“Your mother is a liar. Your father isn’t dead; he’s been locked up.”

"My father is Han Chinese?"

“That’s right, he’s a Han Chinese whose bloodline is even purer than mine.”

Huo Wudi finally finished eating the dried meat and listening to Yun Ce's words. Like an adult, she leaned against the wall, closed her big eyes, and her long eyelashes seemed to tremble. After a while, she opened her big, black gem-like eyes and looked at Yun Ce, saying, "You came here tonight to kill someone?"

Yun Ce nodded and said, "Yes, is the person you asked me to kill someone who lives here?"

Huo Wudi said, "Yes, they like to hammer nails into children's heads; it hurts a lot."

"You snuck in here today just to kill them?"

"I can't kill them all at once, so I plan to kill one first, and then see if I have a chance to kill them all one by one later."

Yun Ce stood up and said, "Okay, I'll help you. You can put your plan into action now."

Huo Wudi stretched out her left hand, which had been tucked into her sleeve, and held a piece of broken iron in her hand, which looked to be part of a shattered blade.

Yun Ce took a sharp short sword out of the Dragon Ball and handed it to her, saying, "This is useful."

Huo Wudi brandished his short sword twice in the air and said, "Alright."

Yun Ce jumped onto the roof beam and leaned down to Huo Wudi, saying, "Let's begin." Huo Wudi looked at Yun Ce, who had jumped onto the roof beam, and said, "If I die, could you bury me a little deeper? I'm afraid of the cold, and I'm also afraid that dog skin will dig me out of the ground."

"Okay, I'll burn you to ashes, then I won't have to worry about the cold or the dog skin."

Huo Wudi lowered her head, her small shoulders trembling violently, and she looked like she was crying. However, she only cried for a short while before putting the whistle that Yun Ce had given her into her mouth and blowing it.

Yun Ce crouched on the high place, watching as the wall of children collapsed with Huo Wudi's silent whistle, and then watched them surge out of the door like a tide.

Huo Wudi looked up at Yun Ce, then lowered her head again, and finally, on both hands and feet, she mingled with the group of children and left the house.

With Gouzi not around, Yun Ce didn't know if He Junnian was here, nor did he know if Huo Wudi was sent by someone to frame him.

Neither He Junnian nor Heng Ji are normal people, so you can't be too careful when dealing with them.

Huo Wudi truly lived up to his reputation as Huo Qubing's son. Although he was only six or seven years old, he was already very good at arranging troops. Those who climbed to the front were the older or stronger children, while those who followed at the back were the younger or weaker children.

They are all children, at the age when they should be most lovable, but unfortunately, just by looking at their bloodshot eyes, you can tell that these children can no longer be called human beings.

He Junnian's skill in making Tiger Legion soldiers has clearly improved. These children have many more expressions than the strong men in the Tiger Legion. Judging from their frenzied appearance, they should still have basic mental responses. In other words, they are an upgraded version of the Tiger Legion. If they receive training from a young age, their combat awareness will be much stronger than that of the Tiger Legion when they grow up.

As for Huo Wudi's special physique that allows her to absorb internal energy, she is the only one. When he was leaning against the children's wall just now, he examined many children, but the children's bodies were still very ordinary, just standard children.

A scream suddenly came from the stairwell.

Yun Ce stood in the shadows, observing coldly.

Now, the stairwell is crowded with children. Perhaps it's because Huo Wudi gave the order to attack. These children are like rabid dogs, biting and scratching anyone they see.

At first, the women wearing veils were just catching children everywhere. But when they found that the children they caught were starting to cling tightly to them and even bit them, it became very difficult for them to shake off the children clinging to them.

Yun Ce didn't see any martial arts skills in them. Although these women had some skills, they were only slightly better than ordinary people.

When the kids aren't going crazy, they're easy to deal with; you can kick them one by one and send them flying. But when they go crazy, they're much harder to handle. If you kick one of them, they'll open their mouths and bite you, let alone a group of kids.

When Yun Ce saw a child bite a piece of flesh off a woman, he carefully hid himself even more discreetly.

Yun Ce calculated that there weren't actually that many children, probably no more than two hundred. After the group of children ran over the woman like tanks, she was practically unrecognizable.

Finally, one of the women was so terrified by the group of demonic children that she screamed, turned around, and ran away, leaving the other women who were still trying to stop the children behind. She ran into a door and closed it tightly behind her.

The remaining women then resorted to violence, throwing some children against the wall. Some children were unharmed, while the smaller ones lay motionless in the corner.

"what--"

A woman screamed and fell to the ground, a short sword stuck in her head. Huo Wudi had somehow gotten hold of a hammer and was forcefully smashing it against the hilt of the short sword.

The short sword suddenly sank half a foot, its blade emerging from her chin.

Huo Wudi showed no discomfort after killing someone. Watching her step on the woman's head and forcefully pull out the short sword, Yun Ce felt that this was probably not the first time this young girl had killed someone.

As the commotion grew louder, samurai finally appeared in the corridor. These men were all very tall, and two of them standing in the corridor filled it completely.

Seeing the horse-slaying swords in their hands, Yun Ce knew that these must be the Tiger Warriors trained by He Junnian.

After killing the women, the children rushed at the burly man blocking their way without hesitation.

The burly man had already raised his saber, but instead of swinging it, he held the blade forward, preparing to use brute force to deal with the little devils in front of him.

Yun Ce, who was about to make a move, suddenly stopped because he saw those burly men, after a moment's pause, drop their sabers, get on all fours like the children, turn around, and pounce on their companions behind them.

With the addition of these burly men, Huo Wudi's team suddenly became almost invincible. All the Tiger Warriors controlled by her whistle began to attack indiscriminately those who were not controlled by the whistle.

Moreover, Huo Wudi's command skills improved significantly. Initially, the Tiger Warriors could only fight instinctively by discarding their weapons. However, after Huo Wudi figured out how to use the whistle, he gained a group of guards armed with various weapons.

Among them, four tiger warriors with bloodshot eyes actually abandoned the enemies in front of them, trampled over the children, and swung their sabers at Yun Ce.

(End of this chapter)