Chapter 48: Heroic Success and Failure, Crossing the River

*Whoosh!!! *

The corpse smashed over in mid-air; Adjutant Zhou was in a state of high tension and subconsciously swept his blade over.

With a *bang*, the corpse was hacked away by his blade, smashing into a nearby tree, its jacket completely torn, revealing the golden soft armor worn underneath.

Zhou Fuguan's blade strike was precisely because it hit the golden soft armor that it didn't destroy the corpse.

"Regiment Commander?!"

Zhou Fuguan realized, his heart greatly alarmed.

He had originally adapted to the rhythm of being surrounded, preparing to rely on his armor, risking taking two hits on unimportant parts of his body, to hack Zhong Jinqiu to death with one blade.

But seeing Regiment Xu Tuanzhang's corpse, he was greatly shocked and terrified, his momentum collapsing completely.

Old Yu suddenly rose to his full height, shouted loudly, and with his left-handed blade, hacked down at Zhou Fuguan's head like splitting Mount Hua.

"Die!"

If it were before, with his one-armed, single-blade, blood-loss state, daring to use such an open and wide move in front of Zhou Fuguan, the moment the blade was raised, he would probably have been split in two.

But at this moment, facing the blade that came with a shout,

Zhou Fuguan could only subconsciously raise his hand and block with his blade.

*Clang!! *

The two great blades struck sparks.

Zhong Jinqiu had already appeared on the side, his narrow blade piercing straight in, entering from under Zhou Fuguan's armpit.

Half of the blade body was thrust into Zhou Fuguan's torso.

Zhou Fuguan's body froze instantly.

Zhong Jinqiu twisted the blade body and retreated rapidly.

Blood sprayed out in large patches.

Zhou Fuguan fell to the ground, his great blade also falling, gasping as he said: "To think that my big brother and I would be ruined in the hands of you few..."

"Back in the town, I was still thinking of letting you go, not arguing with you..."

"Heh, you guys didn't let me go!"

Zhong Jinqiu flicked the blood off his blade and sighed: "I was originally a carefree person, living in a small town, with no great ambitions. It's just that you did too much evil and brought this upon yourselves."

Zhou Fuguan pushed up his face mask, revealing a pale complexion after massive blood loss, but his pupils were still pitch black, revealing a heat that had not wavered.

"What the hell is 'too much evil'? We brothers also spent effort and energy to get to where we are today. In the end, it's just that the winner is the king and the loser is the bandit..."

"Nonsense!"

Chu Tianshu interrupted him, standing in the forest and looking over.

"Throughout history, there have been many people who were defeated but are still remembered by the people as heroes."

"The excuse of 'winner is king, loser is bandit,' whether said by the living or the dead, is just an attempt to drag dazzling heroes into your quagmire to add some luster to your own faces."

Zhou Fuguan stared fixedly at Chu Tianshu, blood flowing from his mouth, his gasping becoming weaker and weaker.

He suddenly caught sight of Old Yu letting Zhong Jinqiu run to Regiment Xu Tuanzhang's side, both of them starting to strip off that golden soft armor.

"I, I haven't even worn it yet!"

Zhou Fuguan spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed.

And Chu Tianshu, who had actually only said those few words, didn't pay attention to this side anymore, having already turned to check on Xiao Huo's injuries.

Xiao Huo had been smashed away by Meng Daizong and was unconscious.

But his injuries didn't look like they were from an impact, but rather like his internal organs had been squeezed.

The "squeeze" force in Taiji Fist, when used by those with shallow kung fu, is the least harmful, but when used by those with deep kung fu, it is the most insidious.

With one squeeze, although the five internal organs hadn't ruptured, they had all shifted, causing even deeper pain.

Chu Tianshu originally wanted to use needles on him, but after checking his injuries, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, remembering the commonalities between Palm Thunder and needle techniques he had been pondering.

Internal energy could cause the five internal organs to shift, and it could also cause them to return to their positions; in this regard, it should be faster than needle techniques.

Chu Tianshu carefully reached out and massaged Xiao Huo's chest and abdomen a few times, and Xiao Huo coughed up some blood and regained consciousness, though he was weak all over and couldn't crawl up yet.

Shopkeeper Ma untied the donkey cart over there and left the cart in the forest.

Cai Shanjun had planned meticulously, and back at the Wu Family Stronghold, he had prepared medicinal pills to stimulate the donkey's potential, to be used in conjunction with the "Command" character technique.

The group helped Xiao Huo onto the donkey's back and hurried toward the pier.

There were several sailboats at the pier.

If someone risked great danger to go into the water elsewhere and wanted to cut across the river to a safe route,

the soldiers originally guarding the pier would also need fast boats to pursue and intercept them.

Now, these boats were just right for Chu Tianshu and the others.

Shopkeeper Ma and Zhong Jinqiu listened to Cai Shanjun's instructions, raised the sails, and adjusted the direction.

The direction of the wind might not be blowing exactly from this bank to the other, but if the sail direction was adjusted well, they could borrow a force from the wind that pointed directly to the other bank.

The sails were blown high and full, and the sailboat's speed gradually increased, cutting through the water surface.

Before long, the group had moved far away from the shore.

Chu Tianshu sat on the side of the boat to rest, watching the white clouds in the sky being blown by the wind, scattering and rolling away, and then looked at the angle of the sails.

In his mind, he seemed to recall some physics problems from high school, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Grand Governor, you really know everything."

Cai Shanjun relaxed quite a bit once he was on the river, and laughed: "I don't know how to fight, otherwise I would have rushed up just now."

Chu Tianshu shifted his gaze and found that there was no suitable place to lie down on the boat, feeling a bit regretful as he hammered his neck.

"Who says you don't know how to fight?"

Chu Tianshu placed his fist forward and looked toward the other bank.

"Like this punch of mine, one punch can't reach the other bank, and naturally it can't reach the capital either."

"But when you gather your troops and resist the national traitors, that will be the true heavy punch."

"Even, as soon as this fist of Yizhou is raised, and the news spreads throughout the world, those Yuan people will be a bit restless, right?"

Chu Tianshu's eyes were bright and radiant.

"This can be called the Fist of Protecting the Country, the Fist of Stabilizing the Country; throughout history, it is a fist of satisfaction worthy of being ranked first-class."

Cai Shanjun's expression shifted slightly, his gaze looking far away.

"First-class satisfaction?"

Cai Shanjun said leisurely, "A battle that must be fought for the sake of righteousness is indeed a painful yet satisfying thing."

He looked at the surging river, as if he could also see the flames of war that would soon cover the land.

Water splashes were like sparks, and the river was like a battlefield.

Could the river have a day of clarity? Could the world have a time without war?

However, the surging river does not rot because it flows long; people must do it to know if that day will come.

"The iron fist will always have a day of rusting; if I could choose, I would rather be a splash in the great river."

Cai Shanjun suddenly became interested and asked with a smile, "If you look at the nature of heaven and earth, what would you want to be?"

Although Xiao Huo was lying down, he was the one who answered without hesitation upon hearing this.

"A bullet. I want to be a bullet; my whole life is one path, unswerving and unchanging, destined to reach the bullseye."

Old Yu laughed: "I still want to be a person. Being a person is quite good, forget the rest."

Shopkeeper Ma was full of interest: "I want to be a wine cellar, with a thousand jars of wine in my belly, treasures hidden in the cellar; although inconspicuous, I'm actually quite well-stocked."

"Then I'll be a turtle."

Zhong Jinqiu rinsed the golden soft armor in the river water, lazily draped it over the side of the boat, and yawned, "I heard there are turtles in the sea."

"The deep sea shouldn't be disturbed by outsiders; a turtle family will live long and securely."

Shopkeeper Ma looked at Chu Tianshu: "Little Chu, what do you want to be?"

"Me!"

Chu Tianshu drew out a long tone and laughed, "Then I want to become the wind."

Shopkeeper Ma pondered: "I thought you would want to be a raging fire, the sun, or something like that, but the wind? That's too ethereal and fickle, complex and changeable."

"Although the wind is changeable, every autumn and winter, the cool breeze arrives on time, and after the new year, the spring breeze always arrives as promised."

Chu Tianshu said, "To be as free as the wind, to arrive as promised like the wind, isn't that very good?"

He had just fought battle after battle, his spirit focused and clear; now his body and mind were very relaxed, and his brain was like a rebound, full of imagination.

While talking about the wind, he suddenly thought.

On Earth, there would still be extreme weather disasters like the Little Ice Age; at that time, the cool breeze and warm breeze wouldn't be very normal.

If he really wanted to arrive as promised like the wind, would he have to smash the annoying extreme weather along the way?

Ha, that's really not something a person can do.

After crossing the river, the group did not linger and traveled another hundred miles.

That evening, they arrived at another large city with troops stationed.

Cai Shanjun had already revealed his true appearance, and once he arrived here, the treatment was immediately different.

Not only was Regiment Commander Xie of this regiment his old subordinate, but most of the battalion-level cadres in this regiment had listened to his lectures at the Martial Arts Academy, and several had even trained at the Grand Governor's Mansion.

They basically counted as his students.

Arriving here, although they hadn't entered Kunming, they could be considered completely safe.

He had the local regimental headquarters send a telegram directly to notify many people in Kunming.

Chu Tianshu and the others also settled down in this regimental headquarters.

When he entered the room, Chu Tianshu was actually a bit pleasantly surprised.

Because there was an electric light in this room.

Although it was a light bulb with wires wrapped directly around the rafters, it looked simple enough.

However, having not seen electrical equipment for two months, Chu Tianshu felt quite close to it.

After turning on the light and sitting at the table, he summoned the token screen.

Xu Youjiang and Meng Daizong were thorough martial artists, and even those ninjas only practiced telekinesis combined with drugs; there were no evil spirits on them.

Although after this great battle, he felt that his fist art experience had improved, there was no harvest in the evil spirit material column.

The column for "Qi Number," however, had advanced by leaps and bounds today.

Before leaving the Wu Family Stronghold, the progress was only a little over half.

Today, the great battle, crossing the river, and arriving at Regiment Commander Xie's place, the Qi Number column surged three times.

Chu Tianshu remembered that on the way after crossing the river, the Qi Number column had already reached the standard for returning home once.

At that time, he clicked in and saw that the annotation below said that within three days, he could choose to return at any time.

And now, the Qi Number column even had an overflow.

Below the progress bar required for returning, another line was listed, showing a small segment of Qi Number.

【At the time of return, apart from the token holder themselves, if one wishes to carry tangible and substantial objects, their value will be deducted from the overflow Qi Number.】

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 49 =====