Chapter 340 — The Iron-Blooded Frontier General

If you go to Little Jade Capital, you may not be able to talk them round.

" The Lame Elder was so excited he rubbed his hands: "Little Jade Capital — I have never been there!

If I have never stolen from that holy ground, my life cannot be called complete!

A pity old Master Huo is not here.

.

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" Xiong Qi'er looked up at the Lame Elder and said earnestly, "Grandpa Lame, you will be beaten to death if you steal. " The Lame Elder doted on the little girl.

He stroked her head and said with a smile, "Does Qi'er want to be the third greatest master hand under heaven? " "I do!

" the little girl said in a loud voice.

In Helan Pass, the various armies were setting their equipment in order, and the commanding generals reported their losses to the Jingping Imperial Preceptor. This time, with the tower ships and gunboats opening the way, the armies' casualties had not been severe — fewer than in an earlier small engagement — and the various elemental soldiers lost and the grain and spirit medicines needing resupply were not many either.

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor blurted out, "What? " "Impossible!

" The Jingping Imperial Preceptor rose abruptly: "The medicine stones laid in aboard the tower ships this time were three months' worth.

How could they be gone in a single day? " Jiantang spoke little: "Fired away by the cannons.

" Yuyuan Chuyun said, "Jingping Imperial Preceptor, the cannons after Doctor Shen's improvements consume enormous energy, and the improved pill furnaces need even more medicine stones.

In the battle just now, every cannon fired a hundred times as many shots as before! The consumption was a hundred times as great! That is how the medicine stones were fired away.

" The Jingping Imperial Preceptor steadied himself: "Then the pursuit of the enemy cannot be entrusted to the New Army.

Let the cavalry and the flying cavalry pursue.

Your New Army shall rest and reorganize first; when the medicine stones arrive, I will have other tasks for you. " Yuyuan Chuyun said, "Jingping Imperial Preceptor, the New Army still has no name.

We beg the Jingping Imperial Preceptor to bestow one.

" "It is not proper for me to bestow a name; the Emperor must bestow it. " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor waved his hand and sent them off, thinking, "How could they all be fired away? The things Master Shen improved seem to spare no cost — piling on energy desperately, as if afraid the firepower might prove insufficient. .

. " Just then, a flying cavalryman came with urgent word, whistling in; a nine-headed eagle landed, rolled on the ground, and became a divine-power cultivator who knelt on one knee and cried, "Report — Jingping Imperial Preceptor, General Bian begs Doctor Shen to come to the front at once! " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's heart stirred.

This time all the armies were resting; only Bian Zhenyun, leading the army of Qingmen Pass, was pursuing the enemy closely, preparing to strike straight at the Mandi Kingdom's capital, Huanglong Prefecture.

Bian Zhenyun had long guarded Qingmen Pass and knew the grasslands well.

This time he led his elite troops straight for Huanglong Prefecture; speed was the essence of war, and cutting off Huanglong Prefecture outright was well within his reach. "Doctor Shen has already gone to the Daoist sect and is not here. What has happened?

" "Witch poison! " The cultivator suddenly tore open his clothes and bared his chest, and there upon his body were corpse spots and vast ulceration. He said in a hoarse voice, "Every young man of ours in the army has taken the witch poison; many brothers are already dead!

The military physicians of the Imperial Academy say a Great Witch poisoned the water! " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's face went grim.

He rose abruptly and said in a heavy voice, "Take me to see. " The cultivator practiced a bodily supernatural power and was about to shake himself into a nine-headed eagle and fly, but the Jingping Imperial Preceptor circulated his magic power and froze him where he stood, so that he followed along in the air whether he would or no, saying in a deep voice, "Do not use your magic power, or the witch poison will erupt the faster.

You need only point the way.

" His speed was extreme, like wind and lightning, and the space beneath his feet seemed to shrink sharply away; after the time of a single stick of incense, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor had crossed a thousand miles and caught up with Bian Zhenyun's troops.

Before he had even come down from the air, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor was stunned. As far as his eye could reach, the grasslands were covered with corpses — the corpses of people and beasts, and not only of the Jingping troops led by Bian Zhenyun, but far more of the grassland herdsmen and their livestock! The speed at which those corpses rotted was enough to make the tongue click. Blowflies swarmed wildly through the air, buzzing round the countless bodies, yet not daring to settle.

If a fly settled on a corpse, the fly died too!

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's eye twitched. Suddenly the cultivator beside him gave a muffled groan and spewed blood and the liver and guts from his belly, splattering out; he died on the spot, and his corpse dropped away from his side. The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's heart sank lower and lower. Now even if Shen Mu, that divine physician, came here it would be of no use: the Golden Palace had poisoned the whole of the grasslands, and there was no way Shen Mu could undo the witch poison everywhere!

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor clenched his fists and walked among mountains and seas of corpses. Many of the officers and men around Bian Zhenyun were still alive, but their flesh was already rotting at flying speed.

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's eye trembled, and he looked at Bian Zhenyun.

Bian Zhenyun's cultivation was deep and mighty, and the witch poison had not come near him, yet this old general wore a blank look, sitting dumbly beside a young officer — his son, who had already died of the poison. "General Bian.

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. " Bian Zhenyun raised his head woodenly, his eyes empty.

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor turned and walked away, saying in a deep voice, "Stay here, all of you. Do not enter the pass. " Bian Zhenyun watched his receding back, then suddenly cried out in a harsh voice, "Jingping Imperial Preceptor, I still have many sons of Jingping here — I cannot let them all die in this place—" The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's body shuddered, but he did not halt; he walked on toward Helan Pass.

Within the pass, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor looked at the Jingping cultivators, each with a green gourd on his back, and not one of them made a sound. "Begin. " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor closed his eyes and waved his hand: "Flood the grasslands and wash away the witch poison.

" One after another the gourd mouths opened; one after another dark clouds rushed into the sky and covered the grasslands; crack, crack, thunderbolts fell without cease, and then the heavens sent down a great rain. That rain fell on and on, washing without cease, until ten days later it slowly stopped, and the grasslands had become stretch upon stretch of flooded land.

The Jingping Imperial Preceptor entered the grasslands once more. Of people and beasts drowned, there was no counting. He found Bian Zhenyun; of the army of Qingmen Pass only Bian Zhenyun was left.

All the others were already dead.

"General Bian, return to the pass," the Jingping Imperial Preceptor said softly. Bian Zhenyun looked at him woodenly and said in a hoarse voice, "I brought them out, and I could not bring them back.

I have failed them. .

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Jingping Imperial Preceptor, take our corpses home to our country.

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I have failed you all! " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor opened his mouth, and Bian Zhenyun drew his sword, cut off his own head, and held it in both hands, setting it before him.