The method was taught to him by the Headmaster of the Academy with a stick on the balcony of the Building of Pines and Cranes. Eldest Brother also hinted at it in the Wilderness. He also thought of the method when he was imprisoned in the cliff cave.
The method was simple, clear, and full of power. However, from another perspective, it could be said to be stupid and not in line with Ning Que's bright but dark outlook on life.
Standing on the streets of Chang 'an in late spring, Ning Que thought about what would happen after autumn. He was sometimes excited and sometimes gloomy. He did not notice a cloud floating from the north.
"Are you Mr. Thirteen?"
Ning Que looked back and saw a man bowing to him respectfully. The man was dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, but it could not hide the stern aura of a soldier.
Since last spring, he had become a celebrity in Chang 'an. However, not many people had seen his face and could recognize him on the streets of Chang' an.
Ning Que was a little vigilant, especially because of the identity of the man.
The man admitted his identity in the next sentence.
"General Xu Shi requests your presence."
…
…
The Tang Empire dominated the world with iron armor and swept the world with force. Naturally, they valued and respected soldiers, especially the four generals.
The Defender-general of the State, Xu Shi, had fought for decades and gained many military achievements. He had opened up countless territories for the empire. Even Xia Hou, who had been very famous in the past decade, could only look up to him. He was the most powerful person in the military of the empire in terms of military achievements and reputation.
Ning Que knew that the most powerful general did not have a good impression of him. He did not know the specific reason, but he knew that he would meet him sooner or later. However, he did not expect it to be today. He did not expect that he would be tracked by the Tang Empire the moment he left the palace.
General Xu Shi did not choose to meet Ning Que at the Military Ministry. Instead, he chose to meet Ning Que in the General's Mansion near the Vermilion Bird Avenue. It seemed that this was a private conversation.
Following the man into the imposing General's Mansion, Ning Que frowned slightly. He was stimulated by the killing aura emitted by the poplars and stones in the mansion.
Walking into the depths of the General's Mansion, he saw the old general sitting by a desk on a quiet platform.
The old general wasn't wearing court robes, official robes, or armor. Instead, he was wearing very ordinary cloth clothes. He wasn't planting cabbages or sharpening knives. Instead, he was holding a rice bowl and eating.
The dishes on the table were very simple: two bowls of brown rice, a bowl of pork belly, and three pieces of boiled vegetables.
The man who led Ning Que into the mansion left quietly.
Ning Que stood outside the stage. After a moment of silence, he walked up the stairs and bowed slightly in front of the old general.
The old general said, "Sit."
Ning Que lifted the front lapel of his Academy uniform and sat down. He looked across.
The old general said, "I didn't expect you to come so soon. Let me finish my meal first. Mr. Thirteen, please don't blame me for being rude."
Ning Que bowed his head and said, "General, your words make me afraid."
The old general did not say anything more and continued to concentrate on eating.
The old general's hair was white and his dark cheeks were full of wrinkles. He was a little hunched and wore ordinary cloth clothes. He looked like an idle old man that could be seen everywhere in Chang 'an. However, when he picked up the chopsticks to pick up the meat, it was as if he was holding a spear and stabbing it into the chest of the enemy general. It was very domineering.
Although the general was old, he was not an old general.
A general was a general.
Especially when facing the enemy.
…
…
The streaky pork gravy mixed with the brown rice smelled a bit fragrant, but the taste was presumably only average. The general, however, enjoyed it very much. His grizzled beard trembled from time to time, and the three pieces of boiled vegetables made crunching sounds as he chewed on them. It was as if those legendary demons from the underworld were gnawing on human bones.
Perhaps it was a habit formed during his military career, the general ate very quickly. He swept away all the food on the table like a gust of wind. Then, he picked up the teacup and rinsed his mouth.
Ning Que said, "Eating too quickly and drinking tea in a hurry is not good for your health."
The general looked at him quietly and said, "You don't have to pretend in front of me."
Ning Que fell silent and stopped pretending to be a junior. He pretended to be gentle and considerate.
The general said, "Cultivators should come out of the human realm, not enter it."
Ning Que did not expect that the conversation would enter the most critical stage without any foreshadowing or preamble. He could not help but be caught unprepared.
He had originally thought that this would be a long conversation. He had thought that this conversation would be like boiling chicken soup and that they would need to test each other's fire control. He did not expect that it would be so fierce and quick. If he was not careful, the vegetables in the pot would become burnt and could no longer be eaten.
"Why not enter the human realm?"
Ning Que asked after a moment of silence.
The general looked into his eyes and said indifferently, "Because for cultivators, the human world is too weak. They are like ants. It is easy for cultivators to become arrogant when they enter the human realm."
Ning Que raised his head and looked back at the general's calm and oppressive eyes. He said, "General, you have fought for the Tang Empire and have been in the human world for decades."
"Before being a cultivator, I am first a soldier."
The general said indifferently, "That is the biggest difference."
Ning Que said, "I am also a soldier."
The general shook his head slowly and said, "You used to be a soldier and an excellent one. But unfortunately, you were not a cultivator when you were a soldier."
"What's the difference?" Ning Que asked.
The general squinted and looked at him. He said in a low voice, "If you could cultivate in the City of Wei, I would have trained you well and made you a great martial cultivator. Then you would have been able to truly understand what is going on on the battlefield. Then the stories later would not have happened."
Ning Que said after a moment of silence, "I don't understand what you mean."
"I have seen all your files."
The general's voice was emotionless and calm. "You are indeed a good soldier. But you have not experienced a real battle with cultivators."
Ning Que fell silent again. He had joined the army in the City of Wei when he was very young. But the Tang Empire was so powerful that even the cavalry of the Golden Palace on the grassland did not dare to provoke them. He had not experienced a real battle. He had not seen the performance of cultivators on the battlefield during his years of military service in the frontier fortress.
The general said, "People think that cultivators are very powerful. But they do not know that on the real battlefield, cultivators are also very weak when facing the surging cavalry."
Ning Que thought of a powerhouse like Second Brother and could not agree with this statement.
The general seemed to know what he was thinking and said coldly, "Even a powerhouse in the Knowing Destiny State can only die when facing the sky full of arrows and the charge of thousands of heavy cavalry. This has been proven countless times in the history of war. Do you know why?"
Ning Que shook his head.
The general said, "Because the cultivator's body is too weak. Unless he can cross the threshold and break through the Five States and enter the Limitless State, he can ignore the rain of arrows. Or he can enter the Tianqi State and understand the supreme power given by Haotian, he can ignore any impact. Otherwise, a cultivator alone will never be a match for an army. "
"What about powerhouses at the Peak of Martial Arts like the general or General Xiahou?" Ning Que asked.
General Xu Shi said, "Martial Arts cultivators use their Psyche Power to summon the Qi of Heaven and Earth to train their physical strength. They use their Psyche Power to condense the Qi of Heaven and Earth on the surface of their bodies. However, as long as one is human, his sense of perception will be limited. His Psyche Power will eventually run out. If one person cannot kill him, then a hundred people cannot. I will use ten thousand people to kill him. Remember, if a powerhouse at the Peak of Martial Arts is invincible, why does the empire need to keep so many cavalry?"
Ning Que placed his right hand on the table and looked into the general's deep eyes. He said, "One cultivator can exchange for ten thousand ordinary soldiers. Isn't that powerful?"
The general looked at him expressionlessly and said, "There is not even one cultivator among ten thousand ordinary people. There are not many cultivators in the world who can fight against ten thousand people. Exchanging ten thousand ordinary soldiers for the death of a cultivator like this is a very worthwhile thing to do in war."
Ning Que was silent for the third time.
He turned to look at the upright poplar trees in the garden and the stones piled randomly. He had to admit that the first person in the empire's military was right and incisive. He could not refute it.
He knew very well what General Xu Shi wanted to talk to him, so he was not willing to be convinced. He frowned slightly and said, "But you and General Xiahou are also cultivators."
At this point, the conversation had returned to the beginning.
"The cultivation of Martial Arts is difficult and clumsy. Without decades of hard work, there is no effect at all. Most people give up halfway when they have some brute strength and muscles. They become the servants of Sword Masters and Psyche Masters. So for the cultivation sects, the cultivation of Martial Arts is almost useless."
The general said, "Only in the army can a Martial Arts cultivator have the chance to grow through bloody battles. To cultivate to the peak, who knows how many people they have to kill and how many times they have to be injured."
Ning Que asked, "What does this have to do with what you want to say?"
"What I want to say is that all Martial Arts cultivators are in the army. Just like what I told you at the beginning, whether in the eyes of the world or in their own eyes, they are strictly disciplined soldiers first, then so-called cultivators. They do not carry umbrellas in summer and do not wear fur coats in winter. They have less selfish desires."
"I understand."
Ning Que looked at the leftover juice of the boiled vegetables on the plate and said, "But I don't understand what you are trying to tell me by saying this."
The general looked at him expressionlessly and said, "What I want to tell you is that you are very weak. No matter how fast your cultivation level has improved, in my eyes and in the eyes of the Tang military, you are still very weak. With a single order from me, the armored black cavalry can charge at you and kill you. You only have 13 arrows. How many times can you swing a saber like the one used against Liu Yiqing? So don't be arrogant. You must know how to respect the law of the Tang Empire. "
Ning Que raised his head and looked at the general's old face. He said, "I have always been law-abiding."
The general said coldly, "As I said, I have checked all your files and information. Since it is all, it is not limited to the records in the City of Wei. I know how many Horse Gangs by the Shubi Lake died under your knife. I also know that three families of hunters in Min Mountain were burned to death by you."
"As I said, don't pretend in front of me."
The general said coldly, "Killing the Horse Gangs and chopping firewood is fine because the law of the Tang Empire does not protect people outside the borders. But how are you going to explain what happened in Min Mountain? One of the families had a newborn baby who also died in the fire. How are you going to explain it? "
"No matter how you hide in front of the Headmaster of the Academy and His Majesty, no matter what image you have in the eyes of the world, no matter how frivolous and funny you pretend to be after you come to Chang 'an, you can't change the fact that you are a shameless, cold-blooded, greedy, and murderous villain."
Ning Que lowered his head again and said nothing.
He did not expect that the Tang Empire could investigate someone so far in the past. At this moment, he felt that his clothes had suddenly disappeared, as if he was naked.
This feeling was not shame or guilt, but vigilance and uneasiness. He had never thought of himself as a good person, and he had never wanted to be one.
In order to survive, in order to let Sangsang live, he would do anything. Killing and arson were just ordinary things. The evil deeds that the general exposed were just an inconspicuous part of the bloody past. How could a person like him be a good person?
Xu Shi looked at him and said with disgust, "Ning Que, you are not a good person."
There was dead silence on the platform.
…
…
Ning Que suddenly raised his head and looked at Xu Shi who was sitting across the table. He asked with a smile, "General, is there really a person as clean and guiltless as snow in the world?"
The general looked at him and said with a slight mockery, "Do you want to comfort yourself with the filth of others?"
Ning Que shook his head and said, "General, you talked about how difficult it is to be a martial cultivator and the suffering of the Tang Empire's soldiers. To me, it is a little boring. Because you have not experienced my life, you do not know what I have suffered. Naturally, you cannot understand the choice I made in the past."
He looked at the general and said with a smile, "In the deep forest of the mountains, you were caught by a hunter. For some reason, it could be because you stole a rabbit from his snare ten days ago, or because the hunter was a damned rabbit to begin with, or because the hunter was a relative of the damned old hunter. In short, he wanted to kill you. What would you do?"
The general frowned slightly.
Before the general said anything, Ning Que continued with a smile, "Don't forget, you were not even ten years old at that time. You were weak and tired because of malnutrition. You had a five or six-year-old girl with you. You were injured and had no weapon. You only had a fire starter hidden in your crotch. Then you were locked in the woodshed."
"I don't know what you would do, General."
"But I would definitely light the thatch and dry wood in the woodshed."
"I don't care if the hunter died or not. I don't care if there was a baby in the room. Even if there was a paralyzed old man in the room, I would still light the fire."
Ning Que's smile was very gentle, and the expression in his eyes was very calm.
…
…
(The next chapter will be out before half-past midnight.) (To be continued.) If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
