Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty Six – Variable
“You? Just first maturation.” Pu Yao looked at the anticipation on Zuo Mo’s face, and did not hesitate in his blows. “Basically, advancement is only possible at third maturation. Little bro, it’s early for you.”
Hearing this, Zuo Mo couldn’t help but feel disappointed. “Why is advancement this difficult?”
“Difficult?” Pu Yao smirked coldly. “What difficulty is this? Good things are not so easy to get.”
“That’s true.” Zuo Mo thought and found that it was right. He still remembered his time when he planted ling grains. Not talking about those good items, but even for those spells to reach a grade, at that time, he had to put in all of his energy to get.
His days had only gotten better after he had met Pu Yao. Pu Yao would occasionally do something bad to him, but Zuo Mo never really took to heart. Without Pu Yao, he would still be an outer sect disciple of Wu Kong Sword Sect.
His attitude towards Pu Yao and the mysterious gravestone were the same. He could accept everyone making some transactions. To receive good things, he had to pay a price. This was reasonable, a matter of consent. But if the other was going to force him, he won’t take it.
“What are these blood beads?”
“Nothing, just the beads made from your essential blood.”
Zuo Mo instantly jumped in fright. “My essential blood? What time? How come ge didn’t know?” He looked at Pu Yao with slightly unfriendliness, his tone changing. Had this guy done something again?
“None of ge’s business!” Pu Yao rolled his eyes and mimicked Zuo Mo’s tone. “Your woman did it.”
“Ge’s woman?” Zuo Mo stilled. “When did ge have a woman?”
“The one wearing the mask.” Pu Yao undoubtedly had extreme talent in being a ruffian. As he learned a little bit, the disrespectful attitude was born. He clearly was a high grade ruffian of high status and identity, with some dignity and laziness. In comparison, Zuo Mo with his twisted features, and wiry hair was like the ruffians that ran about the streets with bricks.
“When did she do that?” Zuo Mo furrowed his brow.
“Don’t be unable to recognize people’s aid.” Pu Yao unconcernedly glanced and then yawned. He lazily said, “Received the benefit and still pretending to be good. Mo physiques will change during maturation. Oh, you were quite fierce, played with essence blood explosions. The other is very good, and help you condense them into blood beads so it wasn’t a waste. However, she really is a powerful girl!”
Zuo Mo’s expression instantly became awkward. He had always been full of suspicion towards this woman of unknown origins.
“What’s the use of this?” The practical Zuo Mo quickly pulled the topic onto the blood beads.
“There are many uses. If you cultivate mo skills with blood and fiends, it is a very rare treasure. Right now, I can’t think of any,” Pu Yao said irresponsibly.
Coming out of the sea of consciousness, Zuo Mo coincidentally saw the female xiu. It might have been Pu Yao’s words, but he suddenly found her much more pleasing to look at.
“Thank you.” He raised the blood beads, and thanked the female xiu.
He knew the female xiu definitely wouldn’t respond. After showing his appreciation, he turned and went back to the work of building the city.
Zuo Mo didn’t know that just as he turned around, a purple light flashed across the eyes behind the mask.
———
Gongsun Cha gazed at the changes on the battlefield. He was continuously trying out new tactics. Any battle tactic, from seeing it, to familiarity, to understanding, the entire process required spending a lot of effort and thought. Even more important was actual use and experimentation.
In the war chess, Pu Yao had shown many kinds of battle tactics to Gongsun Cha. Each tactic had its own qualities, but not every tactic was like the three section wave killing charge, being able to be used after just trying it out. The tactics related to the mixture of people, and the structure of the troops.
In the war chess, there was only yaomo. To say of nothing else, the combat methods of yaomo and xiuzhe were extremely different. Just adapting the tactics over to use was not going to work.
However, after being continuously abused by all kinds of tactics, Gongsun Cha’s knowledge was much broader. No one told him what should be. He could only experiment to increase how long he could stand up under Pu Yao’s hands.
Mimicking, concluding, and experimenting.
If it was a normal person, after they had a sweet taste of the three section wave killing charge’s sharp blade, they would naturally worship it as the truth, the strongest weapon. However, Gongsun Cha was continuously experimenting with different tactics. Because it was difficult to find jade scrolls on battle formations, he had even asked Zuo Mo in hopes of finding more battle formations.
Unconsciously, he walked onto a path that had surpassed what everyone imagined.
About twenty li from them, there were two xiuzhe roaming about, watching the changes of the battlefield from a distance. Gongsun Cha ignored them. Each time they fought, they would encounter scouts like these from other factions. These scouts were extremely skilled in flight. They would only watch from afar. If they saw the situation wasn’t right, they would instantly get on a sword and fly away. There was no way of dealing with them.
So even though the scouts had been discovered, Gongsun Cha only ignored them other than preparing the necessary defenses to stop these scouts from participating in the fight.
———
However, the two people that were watching were not scouts. Jiang Wei was a leader of a faction. Previously he had not noticed Gongsun Cha. However, he had became alerted when Gongsun Cha had plucked up several of the other factions in succession.
He wasn’t unfamiliar with these factions. They had interacted before. Even though Gongsun Cha was still a distance away from his base, but he felt unsafe. So he had followed his subordinate and pretended to be scout to personally see this mysterious troop.
“Boss, that’s them.” His subordinate pointed at Gongsun Cha’s group far away.
Jiang Wei made a sound of acknowledgement. However, his heart was beating rapidly and his expression changed slightly. The battlefield seemed entrenched and chaotic, but to become a leader, how could he not have some good eyes?
This mysterious group had clearly taken the lead. Right now, they were just playing with the other side, like a cat playing with a mouse.
But after a while, he flinched with shock.
That wasn’t right! It wasn’t playing.
The chaotic battlefield gradually cleared up because this group started to organize themselves, and traces of organization.
As he continued to watch, Jiang Wei’s face paled, while his heart continuously dropped. This group’s organization and tactics were beyond his imagination. These guys were trying new tactics! Their chaos was not created by the enemy, but by themselves. As they familiarized themselves with their new tactics, the battlefield quickly turned clear.
He recognized the other side of the battle, Moustache Wang. Moustache Wang’s conduct was extremely powerful, and skilled in battle. He had a group of lawless fighters under his command. When he saw the other, he had to call the other Wang ge.
But someone as powerful as Moustache Wang was being used by the other to try out battle tactics! He actually was not able to resist!
Watching as Moustache Wang charged left and right with his band, but appearing as though he was sinking in the bog without a way out, a hint of sorrow came into Jiang Wei’s heart.
This group was too strong!
Their cooperation was very high. It wasn’t how smooth or grand their tactics were. In reality, he had seen the unfamiliarity in their cooperation at first glance . It should be a kind of tactic they had never used before. Moustache Wang did not lack skill. He had found the enemy’s flaws several times, but just when the balance was to be upset, this group would use a different kind of battle tactic.
That was the battle tactic they frequently used and were familiar with. It was astoundingly keen. Moustache Wang’s furious counterattack would be torn to pieces in moments.
Right after, this group would also return to their unfamiliar and new battle tactic in search of familiarizing their cooperation.
And so it repeated.
“It’s really terrifying!” Jiang Wei muttered to himself.
The subordinate didn’t understand why Leader would say it was scary. In his view, the two sides had fought for this long before this group had secured the advantage, they were not as strong as they were rumored to be.
Jiang Wei did not explain. He rejoiced inside that he had made a correct decision today by coming.
———
A hint of a smile finally came to Gongsun Cha’s lips. The xiuzhe under his command finally found rhythm with his new battle tactic. Any kind of battle tactic, no matter how well people trained, was discounted in power unless they went through true battle. The situation on the battlefield had tens of thousands of variations. It was completely different than normal training. Just copying what they normally practiced was useless.
As Lil’ Miss smiled, the rock in the hearts of the xiuzhe beside him finally landed.
The battle quickly ended. They had captured about one hundred and fifty xiuzhe.
Seeing the dense black patch of xiuzhe beside them, he couldn’t help but rub his forehead, “How many xiuzhe have we already captured?”
“One thousand one hundred and fifteen people,” the subordinate gave a precise number.
After some thought, Gongsun Cha ordered, “Transport them back. It is not safe to take them with us for each battle. Send a division.”
Zuo Mo was not here and could not put jinzhi in these captives. Due to that, he could only take all their talismans and send people to guard them. Some of the xiuzhe had been directly taken into the troops like those seal xiu, and three sword xiu who had comprehended sword essence, Moustache Wang among them.
These captives were very docile.
Every two or three days, they would see Gongsun Cha and the others defeat a faction. Naturally, everyone was docile. They looked fearfully at the remaining three hundred xiuzhe. Even though their own numbers were three times that of Lil’ Miss, but no one dared to disobey.
Before this, they had never thought there would be such a terrifying army. Of course, the xiuzhe who had seen the yao army would say the yao army were the most powerful. But even those people had to admit that this troop was the strongest troop they had ever seen other than the yao army.
The subordinates had long ago suggested to Lil’ Miss to send the captives back.
No one felt it was too few for one hundred something people to transport more than a thousand captives.
This mission landed again on Wei Ran. Lil’ Miss felt that while Wei Ran’s individual strength was average, but his mind was good and he was calm. This was a person worthy of nurturing. Truthfully, Wei Ran wasn’t quite willing. He was enjoying the fight. If he had to transport the captives, wouldn’t he fall behind the others? He had just gotten a taste of the new battle tactics.
However, he did not dare to disobey Lil’ Miss’ commands. He could only lead his subordinates and dejectedly go to transport captives.
———
Looking at a portion of the troop transporting a dark patch of xiuzhe, Jiang Wei first stilled and then instantly understood. He couldn’t help but shake his head. In his view, if they included these captives in the troop, it would actually cause the battle abilities of this terrifying troop to decrease. As long as one had these three hundred people, where couldn’t they go?
Maybe they had other ideas, Jiang Wei thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.
A daring idea came out.
Translator Ramblings: A cliffhanger happens … … it’s been a while since we had one.
The Chinese has this obsession with jade, first white mutton-fat jade early on, and then green jade afterwards. I don’t know why but fantasy worlds seem to have endless supplies of jade. Why does all the writing and the ornamentation have to be primarily jade? I’ve never saw a story involving a jade mine. I guess jade in these worlds is very cheap and plentiful so they use it for communication and everything else and where the jade comes from isn’t of any significance.