Chapter 194: Su Family Elders (3)

"No!" Su Yu decided instantly that it was better not to tell them, otherwise who knew what kind of trouble they would cause.

"Hmm?" Su Quan's eyes were almost squinted into a slit, his face full of disbelief.

Su Yu chuckled and continued to play dumb: "Really no, it's just things like training soldiers. You know, training soldiers in the General's Mansion is a common occurrence."

Su Quan turned to look at Su Ren and smiled: "Ren, do you have anything to say?"

Su Ren replied readily: "No."

Three little rabbits, teaming up to hoodwink them, huh! Su Yan was about to lose his temper when Su Ren suddenly seemed to remember something and said: "Right, Ice Lotus has already chosen its mistress."

Su Yan rolled his eyes at him: "Of course we know, otherwise do you think we'd come here specially to play with our old bones!" Did he really think they had nothing better to do!

Su Quan's face, which had been smiling the whole time, stiffened, and he asked: "That girl is Ice Lotus's choice?"

Su Ren shrugged, which counted as an answer.

"Impossible!" Su Yan looked as if he'd been struck by lightning: "What's wrong with Ice Lotus, choosing people worse each time! This time it just chose a sickly beauty!" Although Su Ling's mother wasn't a martial arts expert, at least her body was healthy. If this woman became Ling's wife, would she even have trouble giving birth?

"Not right. The clan emblem has been frequently abnormal lately, and Ice Lotus hasn't been this excited in over a hundred years. That girl named Qing Mo doesn't look like she can control it." Su Qing shook his head gently, his eyes piercing as he looked at Su Ren, wanting to see some clues on his face, but unfortunately, Su Ren looked back with a faint smile the whole time.

The reason they came this time was entirely because of Ice Lotus. It had always guarded the Su family mistress, but only guarded. This time it seemed unusually excited, which made them unable to resist coming to find out the truth. They heard the Emperor gave a woman to Ling, named Qing Mo. At first, they also thought it would be her, but after seeing her thin frame just now, they really couldn't believe she could trigger Ice Lotus's power.

Su Yan grabbed Su Ren by the collar and snorted coldly: "Ren, you aren't trying to hoodwink your Uncle Yan, are you? With that small frame of hers, how is she worthy of Ice Lotus?" Just the cold air alone would be enough for her to suffer!

Su Ren smiled, pulled Su Yan's hand away, and said: "The three uncles follow me, whether she is worthy or not, you will know after you see it in a moment." Thinking of the formation on the drill ground, a strange smile rose at the corners of Su Ren's mouth.

"What do you mean?" The three looked at each other.

When Su Yan and the others chased after Su Ren to the training ground, they only saw thousands of soldiers standing in the vast open space, dark and dense. The entire training ground was silent, quiet to the point of being frightening. The sun had long since set, and there were no torches lit on the open ground, so they couldn't see the expressions of the soldiers clearly. Even so, thousands of elite soldiers standing indifferently, that intimidating aura was enough to make one's breathing difficult. What was even more peculiar was that one could vaguely feel a sense of resentment and anger.

Su Quan's already small eyes squinted hard again, and he finally saw Su Ling's dark, tall figure on the high platform. Su Quan tilted his head to look at Su Ren and asked with a smile: "Is Ling training soldiers? Ren, boy, what did you call us here to see?" They had no interest in training soldiers.

Before Su Ren could speak, Su Yan noticed a petite shadow standing beside Su Ling, and his face turned black instantly: "Since when can women watch when the General's Mansion is training soldiers." What kind of trick was Su Ling playing? Even if he doted on a woman, he couldn't dote to this extent! No wonder the soldiers had resentment!

"Uh, Uncle Yan, it's fine to say it here, but it's best not to call her woman, woman in front of her, otherwise—" Su Yu coughed twice and didn't continue. Now, whenever he heard the word woman, he got goosebumps. At the time, he had also shouted at her like that, and as a result, he had been shredded of both his face and his dignity!

Su Yan replied dismissively: "Otherwise what can she do to me?" Otherwise it would be miserable. Su Yu and Su Ren looked at each other, and with a tacit understanding, they didn't say it out loud.

Over there, they were confused. Over here, Han Shu had waited all afternoon, and his temper wasn't small either. He shouted at Gu Yun, who was still in the mood to sit down: "How exactly do you want to compete? It's already dark."

Gu Yun smiled lightly: "Compete, light the fires."

Han Shu couldn't understand what she was thinking, but annoyed as he was, he still executed her order and shouted: "Light the fires!"

At Han Shu's command, the torches around the drill ground were lit instantly, illuminating the entire drill ground and also illuminating one firm face after another.

Gu Yun lifted her eyebrows slightly. They looked pretty good; after being exposed to the sun all afternoon, they were still quite spirited, their postures still tall, their momentum like a rainbow, without a hint of decadence. It seemed Han Shu had also put in a lot of effort to select these three thousand people; no wonder he was so protective of them.

Gu Yun stood up slowly, and her wrist tightened suddenly. Su Ling's dark, gloomy eyes were looking at her coldly. Gu Yun sighed secretly; this man was truly hard to deal with!

Pouting helplessly, Gu Yun explained: "I'm telling them the rules, don't worry, I won't leave this high platform." She wasn't crazy; she still cherished this little life of hers!

Su Ling finally let go of her hand, but in his heart, he began to regret why he had suggested letting her train the soldiers. Seeing her looking so incredibly serious, Su Ling had no choice but to go along with her.

Gu Yun walked to the front of the high platform, her bright eyes slowly sweeping over the firm and cold faces on the drill ground. The killing intent honed from long experience on the battlefield was enough to make one's heart tremble even if they did nothing. The corners of Gu Yun's lips lifted slightly, and she suddenly felt a sense of excitement. They weren't the group of greenhorns she had led half a year ago; she was really looking forward to their performance.

On the high platform, she was in plain light blue robes, her long hair tied high, facing a group of iron-willed men, her face peaceful, her eyes calm.

Su Yan pointed at Gu Yun and asked: "What is she going to do?"

Su Ren secretly observed Su Qing beside him, only to see him slowly stroking his long beard, his eyes full of inquiry as he looked at Gu Yun. Su Ren smiled secretly and didn't answer Su Yan's question, saying: "Three uncles, let's sit on the high platform and watch slowly."

Su Qing nodded with great interest, Su Quan was still laughing happily, only Su Yan was full of displeasure.

Su Ren led the three to sit on the side of the high platform. Su Ling turned his head and saw them, his dark eyes sinking. Su Ren's eyes flew around, refusing to meet his gaze, pretending he didn't see him. While they were having a contest of eyes in the back, Gu Yun's mind was entirely on the competition.

Without explaining why she had let them be exposed to the sun all afternoon, without any comfort or apology, Gu Yun lifted her hand gently and pointed to the strange things on the side of the drill ground: "Later, fifty people will be divided into one group. In front of you are four obstacles: a deep pit, a thorn net, a single-log bridge, and a high wall. You must jump into the deep pit and then come out. When passing through the thorn net, you must crawl forward. Those who fall off the single-log bridge must start over from the beginning. There's no need for me to say anything about the high wall; you must climb over it. Behind the high wall, there are ten bows and ten arrows. The target has no bullseye; a feather is hung on it. Those who shoot the feather can stay." Her clear, moist voice was very loud, allowing everyone to hear it very clearly. Those things they had watched all afternoon were nothing special. The soldiers were expressionless, but the few old men on the high platform were a bit curious.

On the twenty or thirty-zhang-long field, the front part had a deep pit dug that was over a zhang deep. In front of the pit was a net made of thorns, one foot off the ground. Under the net was a mud pool. Crawling through it would definitely be a mess. After passing the thorn net, ten tree trunks as thick as a bowl were laid horizontally on the ground, and past that was a high wall standing vertically on the ground, over two zhang high.

What was the use of this girl making so many strange things? Suddenly feeling it was very interesting, the three watched with great interest.

There were no soldiers in the Su family army who didn't know martial arts, and the martial arts of the elite soldiers went without saying; they all looked calm. Gu Yun smiled slightly and said: "I know you are all the elite of the elite, and I don't doubt at all that you can pass these obstacles, but you must remember, there are only ten arrows."

The soldiers understood. Her meaning was that only the ten fastest people in each group were qualified to shoot arrows; the others would all be eliminated.

Confirming they all understood her meaning, Gu Yun said to Han Shu beside her: "Start."

"Divide into groups and line up!" Han Shu ordered loudly, and the soldiers immediately lined up in an orderly fashion, fifty people in a horizontal row. Three thousand people were exactly sixty rows, and the speed was very fast and very neat. Gu Yun sighed in secret; General Su's formation training was too powerful. When facing enemies on a large scale on the battlefield, this precise and rapid way of lining up meant the enemy would definitely not find any soft underbelly to attack!

Gu Yun was still praising when the team had already jogged to the obstacle course. "Start." With Han Shu's order, the first row of soldiers rushed forward like arrows released from a bow. Everyone understood that if they couldn't get into the top ten, they were defeated.

Fifty people jumped into the deep pit almost at the same time, but when they came out, there was an obvious difference in order. In that pit, which was three meters long, three meters wide, and three meters deep, fifty people jumping in at once meant they were almost skin-to-skin. There wasn't enough space for a running start inside, so it was basically a standing jump, and coming out was really not easy. Sure enough, this one pit had already pulled them apart in distance.

Crawling forward was no difficulty for them; it would only make them covered in mud, creating obstacles when climbing the high wall. After running across the single-log bridge, the six-meter-high wall blocked the way for many people, but those with a foundation in lightness skill still climbed over.

When all ten arrows had owners, Su Ren's deputy general, Yu Shijun, stood by the high wall and shouted: "Those behind, retreat."

All those who couldn't climb over the high wall quickly were naturally all defeated, and those lucky enough to get the long arrows didn't necessarily get their wish.

The result of this round was: "None hit." Yu Shijun glanced at the feather still fluttering on the target and secretly slandered Gu Yun for being so tricky.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 195 =====