Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 323 A Sure Strike

The last explosion at Ghost King Mountain had a significant impact on Black Stone Plains, especially after Shehuo drilled into the mine vein, which triggered a larger-scale underground fire, causing thick smoke to rise from many places in Black Stone Plains.

The continuous burning of the subterranean fire caused the ground here to become unstable. Plains that were once peaceful collapsed in an instant, and valleys cracked open, exposing the burning coal seams.

The chosen road suddenly split open with a huge gash before the army arrived. If it were just a gash, the army would naturally have the ability to build a bridge so that the army could continue rolling forward.

Unfortunately, a pungent smell emanated from the crack, and a foolish scout, in an attempt to see just how wide it was, threw a burning torch toward it.

As a result, the torch exploded out of thin air, killing the entire scout team that went to explore the rift, except for the two scouts who stayed at a distance to take care of the warhorses. The rift was also engulfed in flames.

Therefore, marching across the dangerous Blackrock Plains was not an advisable course of action.

The Ghost Fang army stopped at the edge of Blackrock Plains, waiting for their scouts to find a safer route.

Yun Ce squatted on the black sand and gravel, put a dead Gui Fang person into the black sand pit, picked up a hoe and buried the person, even piling up a small mound of earth.

As I stood up and looked around, I saw that these mounds stretched endlessly from my feet into the distance.

Just last night, more than 1,600 Guifang people set foot on Black Stone Plain.

Of course, Yun Ce didn't kill all of these people; he only killed a few old ghosts who seemed to have great cohesion and were highly respected.

It's not that Yun Ce is a psychopath who enjoys killing the elderly; it's mainly because these elderly people are the core of the Gui Fang people's cohesion. The Gui Fang people are said to be a country, but in reality, they are a collection of tribes. As for cities, they are a product of the last three hundred years. Before that, the Gui Fang people were always a small, self-sufficient ecosystem of herding and gathering.

The survival wisdom of the Guifang people is also passed down orally from father to son. In a tribe, if there are no experienced elders to teach the younger members about animal husbandry, gathering, and other life skills, the tribe cannot live well.

Killing the elders will instill ambition in the young people of the tribe. After all, the elders who held power are dead and have not left any will. Someone needs to fill these vacancies, so the young people's hearts will be in turmoil.

Power within a tribe needs time to gradually take hold before it can be safely established. This time, so many elders died suddenly, without having time to settle their affairs.

In the evening, when Yun Ce was grilling meat again, Nana immediately came over, along with several other children.

"How come you always get to eat meat?"

Nana hugged her knees, staring at the meat skewers dancing on the flames, as if talking to herself, or perhaps questioning them.

"Today, there were many knights fighting each other, and even some bull knights got involved. Some people died, and some bulls also died."

When Yun Ce saw that the meat skewers that Sha Liu was wearing were cooked, he shared them with Nana and the other children.

This time, Nana wasn't in a hurry to eat the meat skewers. She turned to look at the low burial mounds and asked, "Why did so many people die?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "I don't know, but I think it's related to these black stones under us. We need to leave this dark place as soon as possible; this place looks ominous."

"Why are the elderly and children the ones who are dying?"

Yun Ce shook his head and said, "I personally buried six women today. Their health was not good to begin with, and they had traveled a long distance, so it was inevitable that something would happen to them."

Nana took a bite of the meat skewer, chewing slowly. After swallowing the meat, this little girl, who had never known sorrow, suddenly let out a long sigh.

"So many people have died before the war even started."

Yun Ce had no interest in arguing with her about how many Gui Fang people had died. He looked at Nana and said, "It seems that Master Lingyu has forgotten about you. He won't even take you to his tent now."

Nana said, "He's a man who does great things, so it's understandable that he doesn't remember me. It's also my duty to wait for him. Lin Yuluo, I know what you're thinking. I advise you to put your thoughts aside. With the Ghost Eye on me, I am the master of the Prison. Your wild thoughts will only harm you and me."

Yun Ce looked down at the skewers and realized that while he was talking to Nana, the children had already eaten all the meat skewers he had painstakingly grilled. Two of the younger children even used his clothes to wipe their mouths.

Yun Ce looked at the children in front of him, whose clothes clearly indicated they were no ordinary people, and asked, "Whose children are you?"

A child wearing a sheepskin vest stood up, kicked Yun Ce in the thigh, and said, "You lackey, go and roast some meat for me."

Yun Ce couldn't help but look at Nana, who stood up and said, "I went to the clan chief's office, and he promised to send me away tomorrow."

Hearing Nana's words, Yun Ce lowered his eyes and dejectedly began to tidy up the barbecue rack. Even so, that little brat was still kicking him and wanted to eat the barbecue. Yun Ce glanced up at a troop of ox-cavalry about to pass by, avoided the child, and went to the other side of the camp. Soon, the oxen under the ox-cavalry suddenly started to gallop wildly, their hooves the size of bowls trampling over the children.

Once the cavalry had run far away, only four pools of indistinct flesh and blood remained on the ground, stinking horribly; their intestines had probably been trampled and burst.

Nana stood there and cried out loudly, like a mother ape who had lost her cubs.

Yun Ce was a soldier here, and burying the bodies was his responsibility. The four children were blended into the ground and difficult to remove, so he finally used a shovel to scoop them up and hurriedly threw them into a pit, adding some black sand and gravel as if that were enough to bury them.

The bull riders who had trampled the children didn't stop; they rode away, their laughter echoing in the distance. It seemed that killing a few children was nothing to them.

Soon, the child's parents arrived. Yun Ce pointed out the grave mound to them and then busied himself setting up his bedding in the wild. When he lay down on the grass and looked up to see the starry sky, Nana's big eyes appeared above his head.

"I didn't tell you because I was afraid you'd do something foolish."

Yun Ce said softly, "Are you really willing to accompany an old man who is over a hundred years old?"

Nana bit her lip and said, "He is the supreme prison master, and the best of the clan must be offered to him."

Yun Ce said coldly, "Beauty belongs to young men, while old men can only be with old women. When young bodies are intertwined and sweating, old men can only hold hands with old women and sit by the fire, one talking about his virility of doing it ten times a night, and the other rambling about how magnificent his breasts were and how full his buttocks were."

"If it weren't for an old man with white hair writhing on top of a voluptuous young girl, wouldn't you find that disgusting?"

Nana's already large eyes widened even more as she pointed at Yun Ce in horror, exclaiming, "How dare you..."

Before Nana could finish speaking, a clear and melodious voice rang out.

"Beauty belongs to the young, and old men can only be with old women. This saying perfectly captures the helplessness of the world. Young man, what you said is a good principle, but it's not easy to put into practice."

Since ancient times, people have valued strength. With chaos imminent, this is the time for young people to make their mark. Summon your courage, raise your spear, and if you break through the Han army's formation, your desire for a beautiful woman and a young man will come true.

Under the crescent moon, a man in white sat cross-legged on a futon. Just by sitting there, his white robes seemed to blend into the crescent moon, and most of the meager moonlight emanating from it fell upon him.

He didn't look old, except for a few wrinkles around his eyes. His skin was fair and smooth, and his hands were long and slender, holding a sword on his knees.

Yun Ce sat up abruptly, and the next moment, a huge meteor hammer flew out from behind him, heading straight for the man's face.

The meteor hammer was powerful and heavy, and Yun Ce followed closely behind it, displaying a spirit of unwavering determination.

The white-clad man's smile remained warm. He simply raised his sword, but without drawing it, he used the scabbard to gently push away the meteor hammer that Yun Ce was hurling at him. At the same time, Yun Ce, who was rushing forward in a rage, was also taken away by the meteor hammer.

"No!" Nana screamed, but Yun Ce could hear a hint of pleasure in her scream.

Just as Yun Ce was being led astray by his own meteor hammer, another meteor hammer appeared out of nowhere from behind Yun Ce and flew toward the white-robed man from the direction he had deviated from.

The man in white had a smile on his lips and was about to raise his sheathed sword again when the meteor hammer suddenly disappeared from his eyes. The next moment, the meteor hammer reappeared and slammed heavily into his chest.

With a cracking sound of bones breaking, the meteor hammer was embedded in the white-robed man's chest. At the same time, Yun Ce's body, which had been thrown off course, returned to its original position as if by magic, and his left hand flashed across the white-robed man's throat like a hook.

The moment his hand left the throat, blood spurted out from the severed opening. Yun Ce lightly stomped his toes on the ground, forcefully turning his body around. The meteor hammer that had been knocked away by the white-robed man found its correct direction of attack again, landing on the white-robed man's head with the force of a mountain crashing down.

With a loud crack, the head exploded. The meteor hammer, still in its momentum, continued its downward trajectory after smashing the white-clad man's skull, breaking off what was already half of his flesh. Finally, with a clang, it collided with the meteor hammer embedded in his chest before finally coming to a stop.

At this moment, the upper body of the man in white had been completely smashed into pieces by the meteor hammer. Yun Ce pulled the iron chain, and the two meteor hammers flew up again, landing one after the other on the remaining remains of the man in white.

"Boom."

The meteor hammer struck the ground with such force that the earth trembled twice.

Seeing that there were no more chunks of meat larger than a fist on the ground, Yun Ce let out a long howl, jumped onto the silly-looking big horned horse, and turned to gallop wildly into the dark Black Stone Plain.

(End of this chapter)