Chapter 154: Entering the Military Camp, Attacking the Stronghold

When Zhou You and Jiang Hua entered the military camp, heads were being chopped off inside.

A large pit 50 meters in diameter had been dug in the ground; a row of people knelt along the edge of the pit, with soldiers holding blades standing behind them.

At the command, the soldiers swung their blades down, and the heads rolled rumbling into the bottom of the pit.

Fresh blood sprayed into the sky; once the pressure in the chests was released and the blood fountain weakened, a soldier kicked the back of a headless corpse.

The corpse rolled down the slope of the circular pit, pinning its matching head under its stomach or buttocks.

"Bring the next batch!"

The silent crowd was like lambs, led to the edge of the pit to kneel; looking down, they saw countless headless corpses at the bottom.

The atmosphere was even more oppressive! The air was filled with the scent of blood and the stench of not-so-fresh corpses.

Green-headed flies buzzed back and forth before their eyes, as if enthusiastically welcoming guests.

"Commander, people from the martial arts school have come to return a cannon."

"Send them in!"

Old Master Wang and Commander Chen had quite a friendship, but no one could clearly say what the specific situation was.

Even an old hand like Jiang Hua did not know if the two were close friends or sworn brothers! Commander Chen wore armor and sat among a group of officers, looking stern and unsmiling.

"Are you Wang Jianxiong's apprentices?"

"Zhou You (Jiang Hua) pays respects to Commander Chen; our master sent us to bring his greetings."

Commander Chen chuckled and instructed those around him, "Bring them some stools, sit down and talk."

The cannon had already been dismantled from the carriage and assembled; it had been inspected by specialists, who confirmed it was well-maintained with no damaged or missing parts.

"How many of you came?"

"Besides the two of us, there are seven or eight other Junior Brothers; um, they are all Strength Apprentices."

Commander Chen moved his fingers, seemingly calculating something, "Stay, all of you, and help me exert effort in attacking the mountain stronghold."

Zhou You looked at Jiang Hua in surprise; they hadn't been told they would be conscripted before coming! Jiang Hua seemed to have anticipated this, and said respectfully to Commander Chen, "Master said, once we reach the front, we are to follow the Commander's orders."

The circular pit to the side was still killing people; counting by batches of over a hundred, over a thousand had already been killed.

Does Cloud-Touching Stronghold have that many bandits? "Recently, famines have broken out everywhere, and more and more bandits are joining Cloud-Touching Stronghold; it has already broken the 5,000 mark."

"In normal times, it would be easy for my army to wipe them out."

"But now, the enemy is many and we are few; this bit of military strength is stretched thin."

5,000 people—wasn't it said to be 1,000?

While greatly shocked, Zhou You understood why they had to attack Cloud-Touching Stronghold.

Under normal circumstances, a stronghold would have at most eight hundred to a thousand people; any more and they couldn't be fed.

The number of people was a red line; as long as it didn't exceed the red line, no one cared about small scuffles.

Previously, Cloud-Touching Stronghold had 1,000 soldiers, which was tolerable, but with the bad harvest this year, it had unexpectedly surged to 5,000.

A mere mountain stronghold certainly couldn't feed so many people, so what to do? Rob! Even simple robbery wasn't enough; the only way was to attack cities and rebel.

This scale had already exceeded the dangerous red line, which was why Commander Chen had brought his entire force to wipe them out.

He must have revealed the news when communicating with Old Master Wang, which was why they were returning the cannon and incidentally sending a few disciples to help.

Jiang Hua and Zhou You, both at the Blood-Qi stage, accounted for one-third of the Inner Courtyard Disciples in the martial arts school.

From this, it appeared their relationship was truly unusual.

"We fought a few battles in the past few days; the rabble were swept away, and now those entrenched on the mountain are all die-hard old thieves."

"There are fewer than 800 of them, and every one of them is a seasoned killer with extraordinary martial prowess."

Commander Chen pointed to the dirt pit, "After the last batch is killed, we will march out of the camp tomorrow with banners and drums to formally attack the mountain."

"You will rest for the night and escort the cannon up the mountain tomorrow; if any thieves harass you, just kill them. Fire the cannon at the designated location to take the stronghold; if you miss the deadline, you will be dealt with by military law."

Military orders are like mountains, permeated with a murderous aura.

The soldiers and officers around them did not speak, their backs standing like mountains; the oppressive atmosphere made one not even have the thought of refusing. Zhou You looked at the few apprentices; each of their faces was very pale, and they could barely walk.

"Don't think too much; follow us up the mountain tomorrow."

This time, they could only advance and not retreat; surrounded by the army, they couldn't fly away, and even if they escaped, they wouldn't be able to answer to the martial arts school.

Zhou You smelled the scent of iron and blood; not only was he not afraid, he was instead filled with excitement and anticipation.

On the eve of the mountain attack the next day, Zhou You met up with his fellow disciples and found that, except for Jiang Hua, everyone's complexion from resting was not very good.

Someone from the army came to notify them that they could collect a set of armor and weapons.

Armor and weapons were things that saved lives; from this, it seemed Commander Chen did not treat them as cannon fodder.

Cloud-Touching Stronghold had been entrenched here for many years; every blade of grass and tree had mechanisms and traps, and hidden arrows could shoot out at any moment.

The road up the mountain was full of murderous intent at every step; a moment of carelessness would cost one their life.

"Kill!"

A wave of arrows fell, and several of the able-bodied men pushing the cannon fell.

Then, several mountain bandits rushed out from behind the rocks, fierce and malicious, their very breathing vicious.

Several apprentices met them head-on, using the Tiger-Subduing Fist at the first encounter; the mountain terrain was a huge advantage.

Zhou You raised a hand in a claw, directly tearing open the throat of a mountain bandit who had rushed in front of him; the corpse flopped to the ground.

He glanced in Jiang Hua's direction; he had also just finished his work, and the skin and flesh of the bandit corpse at his feet were melting, sizzling with blood.

"Two Senior Brothers, we've cleared them out."

As they continued on their way, Zhou You asked casually, "Senior Brother Jiang, your moves don't look like the Jade Tiger Art?"

"This is a palm technique I practice on the side, called the Blood Sand Palm; speaking of which, all of us brothers know a move or two from other schools, you couldn't possibly not know that, right?"

"Ha, I really didn't know; Blood Sand Palm, interesting."

The group worked together to push over and destroy three or four hidden outposts, collapsed five or six tunnel exits, and killed seventy or eighty mountain bandits.

On the road, they also encountered mountain bandits at the Qi and Blood level, all of whom were successively killed by Zhou You and Jiang Hua.

"Junior Brother Zhou, your strength doesn't look like Qi and Blood Stage 1 at all!"

"Oh, perhaps it's because I've been training hard recently and had a breakthrough; it's possible I've reached Qi and Blood Stage 2."

Jiang Hua did not say much; it was far more than Stage 2, he feared it had already reached Stage 3—this junior brother was unfathomable.

An Apprentice who had been scouting the path ahead returned; the designated location had been reached.

They assembled the cannon, laid the foundation, and positioned it at the set coordinates, seeing the Cloud-Touching Stronghold hidden in a corner of the towering mountains from afar.

"Shall we fire a shot from this angle to test its power?"

Jiang Hua raised his hand to gauge the angle and distance, offering a suggestion.

He and Zhou You had collaborated before and were no strangers to operating the cannon.

"I think that works."

Zhou You estimated the coordinates; the mountainous terrain was complex and the distance was too great, so the first shot would serve as a baseline for aiming, with a very low hit rate—to truly strike the stronghold, it would have to be the second or third shot onwards.

The two fellow disciples smiled at each other, as if returning to the time they bombarded the Iron Peak Martial Arts Hall.

A stone projectile the size of a human head was loaded, and the cannon began to operate amidst the ear-piercing sound of grinding joints.

Whoosh! The stone projectile tore through the air, carving out a leisurely arc before falling into the Cloud-Touching Stronghold within everyone's line of sight.

They had gotten lucky; the first shot hit the stronghold, directly blasting a large gap in the stronghold wall.

A roar came from behind the gap, originating from the Third Mountain Lord of the Cloud-Touching Stronghold, a powerful Martial Master.

"Those dog government soldiers are firing cannons from the back mountain; I'm going to slaughter them."

"You all focus on dealing with the main army attacking from the front; I'll be back shortly."

(End of this chapter)