“Now that you’ve come to know about my identity, I can’t let you leave here alive. Do it. Take no prisoners,” said Ling Zhang.
“Yes!” chorused Wang Dashan and the other bodyguards.
“That’s some tough talk. I’m not going to let you harm a hair of Lord Chen’s head, not when I still draw breath. So you’re Ling Zhang? Do you know who I am?” the old gray-robed man beside Chen Jing suddenly said.
Ling Zhang looked at him with an inscrutable expression in his eyes. “You’re nothing but an opinionated Gu master. I could tell you’ve suffered severe internal injury. Have you still not learned your lesson? Don’t worry. Today you’ll meet your Maker as well. As for who you are, I don’t see there’s any necessity for me to know.”
“You!” The old man instantly blushed scarlet and, heedless of Chen Jing’s safety, mobilizing his internal energy, took a flying leap in an attempt to get out of the surrounding circle of Ling Zhang’s bodyguards to kill Ling Zhang.
“Down!” However, Wang Dashan and the others would by no means let him get through that easily. Otherwise it would be an absolute disgrace to the twenty-four of them, and the reputation of the trap-and-kill formation in which they had developed a high degree of proficiency after so many years’ practice would be ruined.
The old gray-robed man had not bargained on being held back. In terms of lightness skills, he was among the best in South Xinjiang, and he was confident that even in the three countries, he was almost without equal, but on this occasion he was actually stopped by a group of bodyguards?!
“Hey, old man, we are your opponents. A nobody like you doesn’t get to fight our empress,” Qiu Bing said to the old man after giving a sinister chuckle.
The old man trembled with anger. Then he suddenly sneered, “Since you people are so anxious to die, I shall grant your wishes.”
With that he fished a clay jar out of a bamboo basket he carried with him.
Ling Zhang’s countenance slightly changed. This man was an expert at using Gu worms and poisons. Ling Zhang could tell at a glance that what was in the clay jar was something evil.
“What’s in that jar? I’m quite curious. How about you open it and let me take a look?” someone suddenly said.
Ling Zhang turned aside and found that Mr. Mu, with Yao Yi’s help, also came to the top of the ramparts, arriving just in time to see the old gray-robed man produce the pottery vessel.
The old man, unaware of who Mr. Mu was, believed that the latter was yet another ignorantly fearless man coming to get himself killed. “You’ll find out after you die,” he replied.
Then he dashed the clay jar to the ground!
The jar smashed into pieces, leaving a pool of black liquid on the ground in which countless black worms were wriggling. Some of the worms even splattered across the front of Wang Dashan’s and some others’ clothes.
The old gray-robed man gave an evil grin, waiting to see the worms devour his enemies. However, after a long moment, everybody on the scene was fine, those bodyguards surrounding him unaffected. The old man was dismayed, his grin instantly vanishing.
Those black worms of his which were like a small carpet, instead of burrowing into the people around them, all rolled up into balls as though dead. Even those that had been spattered across Wang Dashan’s and some others’ clothes, fell to the ground and lay motionless as if they had died.
“So this kind of blood-sucking Gu worms are like leeches, which not only suck people’s blood but also look so ugly. I heard that many Gu masters in South Xinjiang hate this kind of Gu worms, that there are very few willing to raise them. Have people there started to raise this kind of creatures again in the past few centuries?” said Mr. Mu, looking disappointedly at those black worms on the ground which appeared to be dead, his face registering distaste.
It was only then that the old gray-robed man came to realize that Mr. Mu was no common person. “Who are you? What have you done? Why are my Gu worms too scared to move?”
Mr. Mu said, “Nothing special. I have something on me, something that scares all Gu worms.”
“That’s ridiculous. Nothing in this world scares all Gu wor–” The old gray-robed man didn’t believe Mr. Mu, but the next moment Mr. Mu produced a crystal pot which contained a living thing. At the sight of the creature, the old gray-robed man paused in midstream, eyeing it incredulously. “Impossible. This kind of things have become extinct. How come you still have one?!”
Mr. Mu said, “Nothing’s impossible. Just like Affection Gu – I thought they had become extinct, but you still have some. Do you have any other Gu worms on you? If you have some that pique my interest, I may be able to have them spare your life and allow me to take you back to do some research on you. If you don’t have any, you’ll really have to die here.”
Research? Most people present were confused, but Qiu Bing who had suffered a lot when learning from Xie Shi, his master, suddenly felt a cold shiver of fear run through him, not daring even to look at Mr. Mu, inwardly shedding tears. ‘These guys are all psychos!’ he thought.
“It was you who killed my Affection Gu,” said the old gray-robed man, instantly cottoning on, looking resentfully from Mr. Mu to Ling Zhang and back again. “I have some serious old scores to settle with Yuwen Tong. If you are just a Gu master hired by them, stay out of this, or there will be consequences.”
“You’re too kind, but right now you are in no position to make demands. What you should do is figure out how to beg me properly. My patience is limited, and so is the value of your life. If you let this opportunity slip away, you’ll have to wait until your next life to get a second one,” said Mr. Mu matter-of-factly.
The old gray-robed man ranted, “What a megalomania you are! Although that thing in your hand deters my Gu worms, nobody here can stop me!”
Mr. Mu, who clearly couldn’t be bothered to say another word to the old gray-robed man, shook his head, walked out of the surrounding circle and told Wang Dashan and the others, “His Gu worms are now useless, and you don’t have to be afraid of his poisons. I can detoxify them all.”
After hearing this, Qiu Bing, with a grin, said to the old gray-robed man, “You hear that, old wretch? Nobody can help you now.”
Wang Dashan glanced at Ling Zhang, who instructed, “I want him taken alive and thrown into a pit full of worms.”
Wang Dashan inclined his head. That remark of Ling Zhang’s sealed the old gray-robed man’s fate. Chen Jing and the others were disregarded.
“Ling Zhang, you’re so supercilious!” bawled Chen Jing.
“You don’t deserve my attention,” said Ling Zhang coolly.
He was neither a military officer nor a politician, and he felt no sympathy for Chen Jing, who, like him, was also a leader. In his sight, Chen Jing was just someone standing in his way, someone who deserved to die.
Ling Zhang’s bodyguards, without further ado, made their move with the intention to restrain Chen Jing and the others. The old gray-robed man, as expected, resorted to poison, but he had just cast poison when Mr. Mu scattered some medicinal powder over the scene. The poison slightly lowered the visibility, but nothing else happened.
At this time, the ramparts were teeming with soldiers shouting battle cry. Xiao Jiangyue and some other officers, along with their men, were attacking the gates. On top of the ramparts were crack troops with very good kung fu skills, each one of whom could fight ten common soldiers at the same time. Though outnumbered by the Wan defenders, they did not let the enemies get the upper hand and kept them from going to Chen Jing’s rescue.
What threw the Wan defenders into despair was that soon another two teams of men charged over from the flanks, all of whom were soldiers of the Great Wen, given their uniform. They had no idea why the enemies were coming from the flanks, and they had still not received any messages from either of the two backup units led by two assistant commanders, who had been sent to the two wings.
“Kill them!”
“Kill them all! Our victory’s in sight!”
Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi, along with their men, hurtled over, wormed their way through the mountain pass and engaged the enemies in there.
Chen Jing and the other officers on the ramparts saw little hope of backup.
Chen Jing had only a couple of bodyguards protecting him, all of whom soon died to the sabers of Wang Dashan and the others. Having been a civil official for many years, he was not as good at kung fu as he had been when young, and thus was no match for Wang Dashan or any of the others; also, he was vastly outnumbered, so before long he was captured.
“There’s no need to keep Chen Jing alive.” Ling Zhang’s wintry voice was heard by his bodyguards.
Panic-stricken, Chen Jing shouted, “I want to see Yuwen Tong!”
Qiu Bing cackled, “You can scream all you want. No one will hear you.”
All the others, ” … ”
“Chen Jing, I’m giving you a last chance to save your dignity by dying with your men, yet you have the nerve to think of leaving here alive?” said Ling Zhang.
Chen Jing gave a violent shudder at these words and looked at Ling Zhang, a mixed expression on his face, clenching his fist with tremendous force. Eventually, he heavily closed his eyes, grabbed the saber of his dead bodyguard beside him and slit his own throat with it, blood spattering. Thus, Chen Jing took his own life in the end, dying on the ramparts with the other soldiers defending the city.
“What a wimp,” sniffed the old gray-robed man as he saw Chen Jing commit suicide. He refused to surrender and continued fighting Wang Dashan and the others.
His kung fu was indeed consummate, but Wang Dashan and the others had improved beyond all recognition in the past five years. Eventually, with their joint efforts, they overpowered him and tied him up.
Bound, the old gray-robed man was unreconciled to his defeat and tried to struggle free, but Wang Dashan and the others who had restrained him naturally wouldn’t let him have his way.
The old man was different from Chen Jing, who had had a line in the sand and the guts to slit his own throat to save his dignity, but the old man would never do that. Having being caught, he was trying to make his escape instead of taking his own life.
Ling Zhang found him ridiculous but did not drop his guard. People like this man were masters of tricks. There was no telling whether or not the old man had recourse to something which would enable him to escape.
He walked up to the old man and ruthlessly shattered his Sea of Chi, neutering him of his kung fu.
“AAARGH!” The old man, who had not bargained on Ling Zhang doing it so quick and mercilessly, had not had enough time to stop Ling Zhang. He let out an anguished cry and limply sank to the ground, powerless to move an inch, his face blanching, his hair turning white instantly as though he had aged over ten years. He fixed Ling Zhang with a quite fierce stare. “You … Curse you … You’ll die a violent death!”
Ling Zhang smiled, “Curse me? It seems you’re playing the trick of a thief crying ‘Stop thief!’. I mean, you tried to kill me, so I’ll kill you. What’s wrong with that? You’re such a sore loser. You should have stayed in the mountains instead of coming here to seek so-called revenge, you know?”
The old gray-robed man was on the verge of vomiting blood with fury. “You killed my apprentice. What’s wrong with me trying to take revenge on you?!”
“Your apprentice? Oh, so you’re here to avenge the death of that Gu master? This whole thing’s getting even more ridiculous. Your apprentice assisted Yuwen Zhi, a treasonable official, with his conspiracy to usurp the throne, and he also tried to kill Yuwen Tong with Gu. Given his actions, don’t think it’s only fair that we killed him? It seems Gu masters of South Xinjiang are all unreasonable. And since you’re unreasonable, you’re in no position to curse anybody. You deserve every bit of what you’ve suffered. The providence won’t hear you, and your words serve only to make us laugh,” said Ling Zhang flatly.
This time the old gray-robed man really spat out a mouthful of blood with rage.
“One way or another, our karma will always find us. You used Gu worms on us, trying to kill us, so I’ll be giving you your just deserts by having you experience the pain of being bitten by a bunch of worms. Lock him up. When the war is over, find somewhere, dig a hole, put some worms in it and then throw this man into it,” said Ling Zhang.
Mr. Mu smiled, “There’s no need to go to that much trouble. Those blood-sucking Gu worms on the ground are still alive. He tried to kill us with those worms, and now we could return the favor.”
Ling Zhang looked at Mr. Mu, his eyes brightening. “Let’s do it your way, Mr. Mu.”
Mr. Mu had Wang Dashan and some others took the Gu master to the spot where the blood-sucking worms were, scattered some kind of medicinal powder over them and with that those worms instantaneously revived and wormed their way into the old man’s clothes and then his body. The old gray-robed man’s countenance changed drastically. He wanted to flee but soon started yelling in pain. Those blood-sucking Gu worms, on entering his body, started sucking his blood quickly. Before long, lumps began to appear on his skin one after another – those were Gu worms that had had their fill of blood. The old man quickly desiccated and after a few moments was reduced to something like a mummy, his complexion deathly pale. After another short while, he breathed his last.
Ling Zhang knitted his brows. Having no intention to waste any time on this matter, he said, “Burn him lest anybody else fall victim to those worms in his body.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Wang Dashan and the others soon gathered some wood after taking apart a couple of wooden frames, collected some hay, made a fire and then threw the Gu master’s body into it. Mr. Mu scattered some kind of black powder over the flames and they instantly flared up. Soon the Gu master’s corpse was consumed by fire. It burned fast and had been reduced to a pile of ash when the defenders on the ramparts were wiped out.
Although Chen Jing and the garrison commander were dead, the battle still lasted quite a long time.
There were many defenders in Jifang City, along with officers of different ranks. Also, there were some mechanical defenses at the mountain pass, and getting through them would take a lot of doing. When the unit led by Yuwen Tong launched a frontal attack on the Wan defenders guarding the pass, the troops led by Yuwen Jin and He Xiao detoured around the pass and engaged the Wan soldiers who were trying to go to the pass to help defending it, Jiang Ke’s and Jiang Xi’s units fighting another group of defenders.
The Wan defenders knew in their heart of hearts that once the mountain pass was taken, the Wan Kingdom would really be faced with the fate of being subjugated, so they were all determined to fight to the last breath, and none of them surrendered.
The army of the Great Wen encountered the heaviest resistance since their entry into the Wan Kingdom. When night fell, the fighting was still ongoing. There were lighted torches everywhere. In the end, most soldiers became desensitized to blood and death, attacking anybody not wearing the same uniform as theirs on sight.
…
The next morning, the sun rose as usual.
The mechanical defenses deployed at the mountain pass had now been destroyed, and the army of the Great Wen stormed through the gates, pushed deep into the city with unstoppable momentum and eventually wiped out the last team of defenders. Thus, Jifang City was taken and the great battle came to an end.
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