Chapter 353: 362 Brains

Xishan.

A young man, at most sixteen or seventeen years old, was dashing through the forest.

The youth's movements were agile, his footsteps swift; although he was on foot, his speed exceeded that of a fine steed. His feet landed with extreme lightness, and as they touched the layers of fallen leaves, they produced only a barely perceptible "rustle," clearly indicating his light-body technique had reached a certain level.

Yet, although his speed did not slacken, his state was somewhat disheveled, and his posture was staggering, as if he might collapse at any moment.

Behind him, three youths of similar age, both male and female, were in hot pursuit, their speed on par with his.

The four of them remained separated by several dozen zhang, neither widening nor closing the gap.

"That brat from the Land Inspection Division is truly slippery. If we keep chasing and let him reach the mountain pass and enter the Pingyuan, it will be troublesome."

At this, the youth who was clearly the leader of the three pursuers frowned and said, "Once we reach inhabited areas, it won't be easy for us to make a move in broad daylight."

Although he was sprinting, he spoke without gasping for breath, clearly possessing a solid foundation in Inner cultivation.

The short youth beside him wiped his face and said, "Don't worry, we'll finish him off at the mountain pass ahead. A-Feng has already circled around from the side. He is the fastest and a local familiar with the terrain; we only need him to obstruct him for a moment, and once the three of us surround him, we will surely hack him to death."

A young girl beside them laughed, "No need to be so bloody; it's not as if we must have his life. He isn't a Heavenly Demon. We only need to break one of his legs to let him know the might of our Prison Suppression Division."

The short one bared his teeth and said, "It wasn't necessarily my intention to kill him, but he is too good at running and has wasted too much of my time, so I won't let him off. It doesn't matter; in these deep mountains, if he's killed, he's killed—no one will know."

The girl glanced at the tuft of deep red hair on the crown of his head and shook her head.

Seeing the mountain pass right before them, the running youth had already rushed out, disappearing from sight with a sudden turn.

Suddenly, they heard him let out an "Ah," a sound that, though soft, traveled on the wind to the ears of the three pursuers. The three were overjoyed and said, "He's been intercepted!"

Immediately after, the three of them rushed out of the narrow mountain pass together.

Turning past the cliff wall, they saw figures interweaving ahead.

It was not one person, but five!

The tall youth swept a glance and discovered that he did not recognize a single person before him, and that they were faintly surrounding them in a circle, so he couldn't help but shout, "It's a trap! Retreat quickly!"

The three turned back, only to see that the mountain valley entrance they had come from had already been blocked.

Waiting for them were not five people, but six.

This time, it was two against one.

The short one gritted his teeth, drew his Art Tool sword, and shouted, "Fight it out, we're breaking through..."

Before he could finish his sentence, someone had already flashed before him, similarly sweeping with an Art Tool sword, sword against sword, knocking him away horizontally, and cursing, "Break through your mother? Still trying to break through."

The short one hit the mountain rock with a "Bang," dazed and dizzy. In his confusion, he saw that the one who had made the move was the very person he had been chasing for a day and a night, and he stammered, "You..."

How did you become so strong?

And why is your speed still so fast?

You took me down in one move?

Then why were you running?

The youth sneered, "If I hadn't pretended to be on par with you trash, could I have lured you into the pocket? Chasing for a day and a night—if Master Qu wanted to shake you off, you wouldn't even see a shadow."

At this moment, the others nearby were also engaged in combat. The gap between them was not as large as it was here, but being five against two, they were winning regardless. In the chaotic battle, the tall one nearly broke through, but was swept down by the youth who had been watching coldly from the side.

Finally, with the strongest "Master Qu" watching from the side, the others tied the three up tightly, like three zongzi.

One of them pointed at them and said, "Boss, should we kill them?"

The three who were tied up struggled vigorously, but their mouths were also stuffed, so they could not express their opinions.

The youth in charge scoffed, "Forget it. As for these three, blades have no eyes during a fight, so if they were killed, they were killed. But now, they are tied up like pigs... after all, we are from the same cohort, and they aren't Heavenly Demons, so there's no need."

The person from before said, "But they just wanted to kill you. This is in the mountains, no one can see, so killing them is fine."

The youth laughed in spite of himself, "Are you really not taking Instructor's words to heart? The so-called 'three feet above your head there is a blue sky'—does it mean that things you wouldn't do in front of people can be done when no one is around? I don't kill them because I don't want to, not because I'm afraid of being seen. They shout about killing because they have no one to teach them, or because the people who taught them are themselves rotten to the core, releasing them with hearts full of ghosts and schemes. We must be different from them."

Without waiting for the others to speak, the youth pointed at the leader and said, "You all remember this: the one who holds the grudge of humiliation against you today is Qu Huan. The one who grants you the grace of not killing you is also me, Qu Huan. In the future, if you have grievances to settle or debts to pay, just come find me."

Qu Huan and the others left the three behind, but instead of leaving the mountain, they turned back along the mountain path.

Along the way, the group, having just won an ambush, was in high spirits. Someone flattered him, "Boss, you're truly capable. First, you arranged the formation, then you toyed with the three of them by yourself, personally leading them into the encirclement. Is this Art of War and strategy perhaps even stronger than Instructor's?"

Qu Huan squinted and said, "Are you complimenting me?"

The group burst into laughter, and another person said, "Boss, how did you know this terrain was suitable for an ambush? Are you a local too?"

Someone beside him said, "Are you stupid? The boss is from Zhongtian Prefecture. He must have investigated the terrain beforehand."

The first person wondered, "That's not right. The examination grounds are kept secret. How did the boss know the exam was in Mu City? And how could he memorize the surrounding terrain in advance?"

The others were momentarily speechless, saying, "Perhaps the boss's family..."

Qu Huan smiled faintly, "Isn't it enough to just memorize all the mountains and geography of Yunzhou?"

The group fell silent, and in the end, there was only endless admiration, which was much more sincere than the various rainbow-farts from before.

Qu Huan said, "Let's go, let's take the steeds. Did we get the horses of those three guys from earlier?"

Someone laughed, "When they were chasing you, Lao Zhu snuck over and took all the steeds. This is what they call the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."

Qu Huan laughed, "Good. These lunatics from the Prison Suppression Division only know how to be fierce; how would they know that the important thing in this exam is the brain?"

The six of them looked at the situation in the horse-hiding valley, dumbfounded.

The valley was empty; there wasn't a single horse. Only "Lao Zhu" was tied up and placed under a tree.

On the cliff opposite, a woman was leading the horses, looking down at them from above, and laughed, "Students from the Land Inspection Division, you've arrived very late."

Qu Huan pointed at her and said, "Jing'an Division? You stole our horses?"

How could he not know now? While he was plotting against the Prison Suppression Division, he had been outflanked by the Jing'an Division.

The woman giggled, "This is called the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. You lot, use your brains." Saying this, she led the horses away.

At this moment, Qu Huan and the others were at the bottom of the mountain, and she was on the mountain; even if they climbed the cliff to chase, it would likely be too late. Everyone looked at Qu Huan, and Qu Huan gritted his teeth and said, "Chase—"

Suddenly, they heard a cry of surprise from the woman on the mountain, followed by the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground.

Everyone looked at each other, feeling that this scene was somewhat familiar.

Are they also playing at luring the enemy deep?

Qu Huan ground his teeth with a clatter and said, "Do not climb up the cliff, lest they lie in ambush above and cut off our retreat. We shall flank them from the side."

Qu Huan was indeed familiar with the terrain; he led his companions up a small path on the side of the mountain, and upon reaching the top, they were once again greatly astonished.

They saw only the woman who had stolen the horses lying on the ground, with several fine steeds tethered in the distance. Apart from that, there was not a single person.

The oriole catching the mantis, the hunter is behind them, so to speak.

The group was stunned; someone went to check the horses and discovered that the number was only short by one, yet enough for everyone. A note was pressed under the reins of one horse.

"To Qu Huan: The steeds are returned, use your brain."

After a while, someone whispered, "This is... one of our own, right?"

Just because they said we have no brains doesn't mean they are the enemy.

Someone else said in an extremely soft voice, "The tone sounds like Big Sister Wen."

Qu Huan shouted, "It is not. How could I not recognize the handwriting of that woman surnamed Wen? This is clearly... clearly..." He tore the note to shreds in a huff and said, "No one is allowed to speak of today's events! Let us go, ride the horses straight to the examination grounds, and cause no more trouble."

Such conflicts, gains, and losses were happening every moment within dozens of miles of Mu City. Over a hundred examinees were neither many nor few, and they were all elites; once they had a common goal, competition and conflict followed one after another.

Since there was conflict, there was naturally winning and losing. Most of the time, the conflicts were not like Qu Huan's, involving gathering gangs and deploying formations, but rather single combat. Among them, the Prison Suppression Division was holding back to snipe at the Land Inspection Division, and once the Land Inspection Division realized this, they fought back with all their might. Meanwhile, the Jing'an Division was muddying the waters.

The Central Army New Sharp Battalion... no one knew what the Central Army New Sharp Battalion was doing.

Such conflicts naturally caused attrition, but before the dust settled, no one knew who would win or lose. At least until they stepped out from the shadows and brought their horses to the horse field, the results were all unpredictable.

Qu Huan led his brothers all the way to the examination grounds; this group had more people than others and was very conspicuous—even if not a vast, mighty force, it was still a dense, swarming crowd.

However, upon reaching the perimeter of the horse field, one could see small squads, mostly five-man squads, arranged unevenly but moving in unison, as if there were an Array in place.

Qu Huan was not lacking in discernment and knew these were all young people from the New Sharp Battalion.

The smallest formation in the army is the "Wu," five people to a unit, taking the meaning of the five fingers. These New Sharp Battalion elites did not join the main army, but they would all form into five-man squads, which was also the basic unit for combat at the Qianxian. Although theoretically, they should have set out for the examination grounds alone, they had quickly found their companions according to habit and arrived in formation.

Seeing these squads moving with discipline and coordinating with tacit understanding, Qu Huan felt secretly anxious, thinking: "Damn it, isn't this impossible to fight? Bullying the few with the many naturally holds a great advantage. Although I also gathered a team, compared to their coordination, my brothers are just a rabble."

He circled the horse field and counted to himself; by the time he counted to six squads, the number of people already exceeded thirty, which made him feel even worse. He thought to himself: Even the total number is this high! The Central Army is bullying people too much!

Just as he was secretly planning to make contact in the shadows, he suddenly caught sight of someone. He hesitated for a moment, then walked over, patted the person, and said:

"Hey, was it you who left the note for me earlier? Eh, you look strange, what happened to your hair?"