1073 Heading for Yangzhou II

After a brief bustle, the Tang army immediately calmed down and started to set up. From poles to the tents, the barracks were quickly finished. Everyone from soldiers to officers was aware that the allied forces of Taoism came out of the city only to defend, rather than having the guts to raid the Tang army before they set up. 

The Tang army was confident enough but no less vigilant. They received information from inside Yangzhou that the Divine Halls of West-Hill had sent a lot more divine priests to the allied forces. The powerful figures from the Tianshu Institute and the array masters in the Tang army could probably withstand the divine skills of those divine priests. But who could take Hengmu Liren?

The legendary young Great Divine Priest from the West-Hill already recovered from the wounds a few days ago. A super powerful figure like him could be vital to a war. If no one could handle him, then he would kill the cultivators in the Tang army one after another with the assistance of the cavalrymen of the Divine Halls of West-Hill. Once he killed all the array masters and talisman masters, how could the Tang army defeat the cavalrymen from the Divine Halls?

The Tang army was at their gate today. Yet the leaders of the cliques and the generals of South Jin on top of the city walls were still acting calmly and arranging their troops systematically. Because they knew clearly that as long as Hengmu Liren was there, the allied forces would never be defeated and the City of Yangzhou would never be captured. Then why should they worry?

In front of the commander's barrack of Tang, a few dozen cavalrymen stood on the meadow and stared at the City of Yangzhou. In fact they were all looking at Ning Que. The vital factor in this battle was the confrontation of him and Hengmu.

No one was confident that Ning Que could kill Hengmu Liren. Despite the fact that he was Mr. Thirteen from the Academy and extremely well respected by the Tang army and people, his enemy was after all Hengmu Liren, the son of Haotian.

People could only hope that Ning Que would defeat or at least slow down Hengmu Liren, and prevent him from rewriting the result of this battle.

Ning Que seemed to be immune to people's attention. He stared at the City of Yangzhou silently, looking around the fields outside the city, the roads among the fields, and the lush trees along the roads. Perhaps because that Hengmu Liren did not want their vision to be blocked, the bodies of the young followers of New Stream and Tang sentenced by the Divine Halls of West-Hill were not showcased on the fields. But due to the wars and extinction, farmers no longer cultivate and the fields were almost barren.

There were no young crops but only weeds and wildflowers on the fields. Ning Que was not sure whether it was late spring or early summer. But he suddenly recalled some poem upon seeing the wildness and blossoms on the misted fields.

"Take a journey to Yangzhou in the misty and flowery March," he crooned.

Song Qian and the rest were severely wounded by Hengmu Liren and had to stay inside the Verdant Canyon. No medicine could help them recover instantly. Therefore Wang Chi was the only one who could come to the battlefield with Ning Que today.

Wang Chi shook his head and corrected him, "It's already in May with the full blossoms."

Ning Que remembered that when he left Chang'an it was still snowing. How time flew! He sighed. "I could barely pay any attention to the trivial." 

Time seemed to be an important factor. But he had to take a journey to the North Wilderness, come to the Qinghe Prefecture, kill so many powerful enemies and make various difficult decisions, which all seemed to be more important than worrying about time.

"Eleventh Brother, I will go first," Ning Que said to Wang Chi.

Wang Chi felt worried and said, "If you cannot take him, don't be too hard on yourself."

Ning Que smiled and lifted the rein to launch the big black horse. It hoofed forward, crushed the weeds and wildflowers, and proceeded toward the City of Yanghzou.

Along their way dozens of arrows were shot at them from now and then.

The big black horse looked at the enemies on top of the city walls and felt disappointed. It was not challenging at all. Ning Que did not even dodge but simply watched the arrows fell on the fields in front of them.

Seeing the big black horse and the man wearing a black suit of the Academy, someone finally realized who he was and yelled in panic.

"Ning Que!"

"Mr. Thirteen!"

"The Academy!"

Upon recognizing Ning Que, people in the City of Yangzhou went into an uproar. They were running and moving the shields around which created deafening sounds. The proud red-robed divine priests turned pale instantly. They waved their arms and screamed, "Inform the Great Divine Priest right away!" 

Bai Haixin was killed outside the Verdant Canyon many years ago. The current chief commander of the South Jin troops was Dong Wei, his younger brother-in-law. Dong Wei had always been calm and confident. But now he was already hiding behind three layers of shields. He stared at Ning Que and his iron bow and could not help from trembling. His voice was also trembling when he said, "Please excuse us for a while, Mr. Thirteen! The Great Divine Priest himself is coming!"

Nowadays the entire human world was aware of Ning Que's power and how terrifying he could be. While the Tang people were aware of the mighty Hengmu Liren, Ning Que was equally threatening and terrifying to the enemies of Tang. Fortunately for Dong Wei and the red-robed divine priests the iron bow as still placed on his shoulder. Otherwise they would have already been numbed.

Even if they could still speak, they were not calling for a battle. They could only say, "Please excuse us for a while, Mr. Thirteen! The Great Divine Priest himself is coming!" For people in the current human world, the peerless figures like Ning Que and Hengmu were no difference with immortals. As the immortals were destined to fight today, why should these insignificant human beings seek for their own destruction?

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The news of Ning Que coming to Yangzhou was delivered to Hengmu Liren as instantly as possible. The young man smiled sincerely and said in relief, "Finally."

A divine priest were delivering the latest military information from the Divine Halls of West-Hill, that the Golden Tribe Royal Court was defeated and Ning Que stopped tens of thousands of cavalrymen with a single arrow shot outside Wei. His voice was trembling when he begged the Great Divine Priest to take his enemy seriously.

Hengmu Liren laughed innocently, ruthlessly and satisfyingly, and said, "So what? He is after all an ordinary human being. While I am the real Divine Son."

Indeed, he regarded himself as the real Divine Son in the West-Hill. Long Qing was never his match. He would have killed Long Qing and claimed the title if Long Qing had not been so quiet and staying so low.

"Ning Que, I'm coming to you out there," Hengmu Liren looked toward the north and said slowly. His young voice formed a beam and darted out of the countless layers of gauzes around the sedan, pierced through the air for a dozen miles and clapped above the fields outside the city like spring thunder.

Bang!

Many soldiers on the city walls of Yangzhou were almost knocked down by the thunder. They managed to stand still with great efforts and became excited upon realizing what had happened.

Their Great Divine Priest's voice were like heavenly manifesto and he was far above any level of human cultivation. No matter how powerful Mr. Thirteen from the Academy was, how could he defeat their Great Divine Priest?

Ning Que slightly lowered his head and looked at the wild flowers on the field. He seemed calm. The big black horse also kept his head low and chewed on a wild flower. But it spat the flower immediately due to the ugly taste. Both of them seemed never heard the series of spring thunder.

"Coming to see me out here?" He raised his head and stared at the City of Yangzhou, then said, "I own this place. And I am the one to decide how we should meet." He did not deliberately apply Haoran Qi and said it naturally. It was not earth-shaking like Hengmu Liren's words. But he knew that Hengmu would hear him.

Upon saying so he took out a handful of pills and gave them to the big black horse. The big black horse did not dare to disobey and swallowed them immediately with efforts. Then it lowered its head and chewed on some fresh grass with dewdrops so as to cover the choky taste.

Those pills were Wang Chi's special design. It was very effective yet tasted terrible.

Ning Que took another handful of pills himself while looking at the countless cavalrymen of the Divine Hall of West-Hill and the South Jin that stationed around the City of Yangzhou. He stroked the big black horse's mane and said, "You belong to the Southern Battlefront Army. It was me who chose you at the Academy and led you out of the ranch or the Military Ministry. You are after all a warhorse."

The big black horse nodded slightly in consent.

He said further, "You've been to many places with me and defeated many enemies. However we were never in a real battle. I used to be a cavalryman and you used to be a warhorse. Isn't that a pity for us?"

The big black horse wanted to say it was actually not a pity for it. But it dared not. While the pills were taking effect inside its body, it felt its blood temperature raising and became eager for a charge.

Was that called burning blood?

It recalled the last time when it had such a feeling and impulse. It was many years ago in the racing event of the Left Royal Court in the Wilderness when it saw that coquettish and charming white mare who was wanting a mate.

The big black horse started panting heavily and rapidly, and snorting with burning breath.

Ning Que took down the iron bow and casually pull it to the full, aiming at the City of Yangzhou.

Countless people on top and down by the city walls were observing his every single movement. At least half of them were staring at the iron bow previously placed on his shoulder.

When he pulled the iron bow and targeted at the City of Yangzhou, they could not help screaming in panic and went into another uproar.

The leaders of the cliques and the generals of the allied forces were fully aware of the horrifying power of the Thirteen Primordial Arrows. They were the most vigilant and worried, therefore the first to react. Upon a whoosh, they crouched together with their heads under their arms, as if they were some wild grass blown in a sudden wind, apparently not strong grass.

Despite the fact that they were merely being pointed at, the cavalrymen in front of the city gate could not help feeling that they were falling into the bottomless hell of death. Some whipped their horses as hard as they could, while others did nothing and let their horses run toward the sides. A path was made immediately.

There was nothing between Ning Que's arrow and the city gate of Yangzhou, not even a single barrier.

He let go of the bowstring. But he just shot an ordinary arrow instead of the Thirteen Primordial Arrows.

Upon a swoosh the arrow was shot at the newly established city gate of Yangzhou. The gate was very thick. Even if the arrow was inserted half a meter into the gate, it could still not pierce through. 

When everyone thought that the arrow was about to stop, it started shaking violently and created frightening buzzing noise when the nock vibrated in the air.

The arrow was deeply inserted into the thick and heavy gate. Upon the high frequency vibration the part of the gate around the arrow became loose and started cracking. 

And when the arrow started vibrating on the city gate, Ning Que also moved.

A deafening neigh pierced through the tranquil sky outside Yangzhou.

Instead of standing up on its rear legs, the big black horse kept its head low and stepped its rear hooves heavily onto the soft ground, and created some mud rain and blinding dust. 

The mud rain and dust blocked the view of the Tang army. When the dust settled and they could see the fields clearly again, the big black horse was already hundreds of meters away!

To dash out hundreds of meters within a blink — what a horrifying speed! Everyone was stunned by the straight line of dust on the fields and the bolt-like big black horse.

They were getting closer to the City of Yanghzou.

A commander of the cavalrymen from the Divine Halls of West-Hill exclaimed and tried to stop them with his talisman saber.

Ning Que did not even take a glance at him, nor did the big black horse.

The exclaim became scream instantly when the commander of the cavalryman was thrown into the air. Blood spurted from his neck under the armor and created a blood rain.

The City of Yangzhou was even closer.

A swordsman from the South Jin wanted to pull out his sword and prepared for a sneak attack. Although he was not from the Sword Garret he had learnt some of their skills and knew that he had to attack from nearby. Therefore he held tighter onto his sword.

He wanted to stab the sword at its full strength.

The big black horse knocked into him before he could even stab because the big black horse was too fast for him to predict and calculate, unimaginably faster than his sword.

To attack from nearby?

His sword was pushed back by the big black horse when he was about to pull it out. Blood splashed when the body of this swordsman from the South Jin was chopped into halves, by his own sword!

Along with roaring dust the big black horse charged into the ten thousands of cavalrymen.

It was resolute and fearless because its blood was burning. But of course he would have not been so resolute without the pills.

Along with the straight line of dust, a black bolt flashed over the fields. Alongside the straight line of dust, countless people were thrown into the air.

In a series of bangs, their strong armors were distorted. In a series of rumbles, their blades were broken.

The City of Yangzhou was right there.

The cavalrymen of the allied forces finally took their most effective defending position. Countless spears were pointed forward with the poisoning tips shone chillingly under the sun.

Ning Que stared at the vibrating arrow on the city wall and said, "Up."

The big black horse leaped a few miles into the air in a clear neigh!

Time almost ceased at that moment.

Sitting on his horse, Ning Que punched onto the nock of the arrow.

Countless cracks were formed on the thick city gate like spider webs.

The city gate collapsed in clattering.

The big black horse landed deftly like a swallow.

The horrible spears were already way behind it.

Instead of slowing down, it kept darting forward like a black spirit.

They entered the City of Yangzhou.

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