Chapter 108: Fight for the First-class Merit
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
While everybody in the Camp of Jin Army was busy allocating missions, Junior Leopard flew all the way from Tian Long Mystic Mountain to Zhonghe City. He arrived to find the siege was at its climax.
There was a saying that a troop of 10,000 was boundless, and a troop of 100,000 was devastating.
Originally there shouldn’t be a big stir in Zhonghe City. There were only some disciples from the Sect of Flame rising in rebellion. The solution for this should have been simple too. They could be suppressed easily by soldiers. But nobody expected that the imperial court would send out 100,000 troops to besiege them. What was even more surprising was that the troops would be defeated a few times. The losses were costly and retreat was a disgrace.
All of that was unexpected.
But none of that was Junior Leopard’s business. He was immediately introduced into the Military Camp as soon as he was right outside Zhonghe City. It happened that disciples of the Wu family who originally came to Zhonghe City together with him didn’t leave there. All of them joined the Military Camp instead.
Outside Zhonghe Prefecture the Military Camp had set up a reception station.
The reception station was actually four pillars standing beside the road with mats made of reed tiled on ceiling. Coming out to welcome Junior Leopard was Lou who also was a disciple of the Wu family. Previously, they were all meant to solve the stolen goods issue. Lou was overjoyed seeing Junior Leopard. He led Junior Leopard directly through the military group and met Wu Family disciple together. They explained that after dashing out of Zhonghe prefecture, all of them couldn’t find Junior Leopard. Eventually they had no choice but to go back to Yunzhou. While they were on their way back, they came across the Great Jin’s troops surrounding the city. Everybody agreed that this would be a good chance to become well known in Jianghu and obtain some benefits. So they decided to join the Military Camp at once. A couple of escorts from the Flying Tiger Escort Agency also joined the Military Camp.
This group of Wu Family disciples was with prestigious backgrounds and they also had enough feats. All of them devoted a lot to the siege several times and gained contributions and the Camp Supervisor was satisfied with them. As time went by, more and more jianghu people were coming to join the Military Camp. The environment outside Zhonghe prefecture gradually became sophisticated and order was distorted with the crowd. To solve this issue, the Military Camp set up a few reception stations to welcome and guide these men in Jianghu.
Lou was injured during their last siege and was still recovering. So he was assigned here to do easy work in order to recover better. What he didn’t expect was he would meet Junior Leopard here.
After Junior Leopard was led into the Military Camp, all of the Wu family’s disciples were overjoyed. Jin Nanqing was even more excited who thumped his chest heavily and blamed, “You bastard, where have you been? I was so worried about you!”
Judging from Jin Nanqing’s facial expressions, Junior Leopard could tell he wasn’t pretending. He threw out the excuse he already made up before coming, “I met an expert and got hurt when I left the city. Then I had to find a quiet place to heal my wounds. But it is surprising that when I got back, the troop had surrounded the city. If I didn’t bump into Senior Brother Lou, I’m afraid that I would have gone back to Yunzhou already!”
“You were injured? Where is the wound, is it serious?”
Jin Nanqing’s face became gloomy when heard that Junior Leopard was injured. Everybody didn’t know what Junior Leopard was capable of but Jin Nanqing knew. Jin Nanqing had heavily overestimated Junior Leopard’s capabilities ever since he saw Junior Leopard make a crushing vacuum fist and kill Liu Si in an instant. In Jin Nanqing’s eyes, nobody could hurt Junior Leopard unless the enemy was a Tendon-Changing realm expert. Now that Junior Leopard had been wounded outside of the city, could it be that he met an expert over Level Seven?
Who would it be?
Although there were countless enemies in the city, there was only one expert over Level Seven. That was Prince Xiaoming. Had Junior Leopard met Prince Xiaoming?
“It wasn’t a big deal. I only have some tiny wounds. The reason I was defeated was that I had just improved one level and my cultivation wasn’t stable yet. So the enemy found my weak point.”
“So now you are alright, and your phase is stable?” Jin Nanqing asked.
“Of course!” Junior Leopard nodded, “If I haven’t recovered, I would not have the thought to come back and take my revenge!” Junior Leopard’s eyes were cold and sharp when he mentioned ‘revenge’. A chilling blast of killing intent spread out as he spoke.
Jin Nanqing shivered under Junior Leopard’s authentic killing intent and he squeezed out a smile on his face, “Long time no see, your strength has improved once again. Congratulations!”
“It’s no improvement, only that my current phase is stabilized!” Junior Leopard laughed.
He continued to pass his greetings to the Wu family disciples for a while.
“Well, let me show you the way to Mr. Zhao, the Camp Supervisor!” Jin Nanqing suddenly said before he started to lead Junior Leopard deeper into the Military Camp. But before he could move a few more steps, they heard a burst of drumbeats.
“DONG! DONG! DONG!”
The drumbeats rolled like thunder and could upturn heaven. Jin Nanqing smiled bitterly as he heard the drumbeats, “Damn it, we are out of time, it’s our turn to attack. Junior Leopard, when the attack begins, stay behind me, be careful and don’t panic. Although the siege appears dangerous, your ability has reached Level Three. Nobody can be an actual threat to kill you except that Prince Xiaoming in this Zhonghe City!”
Junior Leopard nodded his head and followed up. He was indeed confident in his capability, but it was still his first time on the battlefield, a real battle. Moreover, the siege was the most catastrophic battle. Anybody would feel timid amongst so many troops, even if he was extremely confident.
It was a once in a lifetime big scene!
Camp Supervisor Zhao was called Zhao Ting in his 40’s, who was born in a well-known military family. He was tall and his cultivation had reached Level Five. Now he was the one who had the finest martial arts cultivation in this Military Camp. The way he dealt with issues was also fair and brilliant. Hence, hundreds of fellows in Jianghu all listened to his instructions willingly.
The first roll of the siege had ended. Soldiers surged up to the city’s rampart and then they were all defeated by Sect of Flame troublemakers. However, the assault didn’t end here. The second roll of the siege started. According to the normal practice, it was the Military Camp’s turn to besiege and attack the city.
People in the Military Camp didn’t have much sense of discipline, but their advantage was obvious as each of them excelled in martial arts. This feature made them the most suitable for intensive and labor consuming sieges and scuffles. Especially for inland cities such as Zhonghe City which didn’t have any geographical advantage against the enemy, with a comparatively short city wall, martial artists who had good Lightness Skill could easily get on to the wall without any help from ladders and tools. Those whose Lightness Skill were not good enough could also get on to the wall by leveraging a few shoulders of soldiers.
What could make people concerned were these experts from the Sect of Flame, who were defending on the city wall. Although their discipline couldn’t be compared with well-trained soldiers, their organization was much better than the men of Jianghu randomly gathered here in the Military Camp. What made them more difficult to defeat was their unique unison technique. Often was the case, when two or three people were standing together and forming a matrix, the wall was like it was made of iron. No matter how many guys went upward, they had to return with wounds and disappointment.
“God knows how many people in Jianghu can survive from this battle!”
Standing on a gentle slope near the city wall, Zhao Ting gazed at the Great Jin’s soldiers fighting and retreating as the impatient and cluttered people in the Military Camp were itching to try, he smiled bitterly.
Soaked in the thunderstorm like drumbeats, one after another, the army’s assault began.
Along with 5,000 soldiers, Junior Leopard dashed towards Zhonghe City right behind Jin Nanqing with his two silver hammers already in hand. Because they were the quickest group, the Military Camp was at the front. Everybody was utilizing their body movement to the utmost. With a few ups and downs, they were already at the front of the city wall. The Lightness Skill experts flew directly on to the city wall. Other experts couldn’t fly directly onto the wall, but they had their own ways too. Some brought hooks and ropes. Some formed a group, stopped 100 feet away from the city wall, waited for the soldiers behind them to catch up and then used their abilities again to step on these soldiers’ heads. The soldiers were already used to these circumstances. They quivered a little when stepped on by the martial artists and then continued to dash towards the enemy.
Both Junior Leopard and Jin Nanqing belonged to the former type. Junior Leopard was especially eye-catching. He was originally behind Jin Nanqing, but the longer he ran, the more nervous he was. As he neared the city wall, he could see huge stones, hot oil, and even excrement pouring down from the wall. He was scared and excited. So much so that he unconsciously used Yanfu Inner Strength madly. “Sou!” His body soared up into the air and he was soon in front of Jin Nanqing, twin hammers weaving a compact web around the body.
“Dong, dang, hua, pu!” All sorts of sounds popped like a symphony on top of one’s head. Thanks to his Level Three cultivation plus Yanfu Inner Strength, in a second, he was already on top of the city wall with his clothes still spotlessly clean.
The Sect of Flame soldiers were astonished by his speed and they didn’t know that he could climb up the wall so quickly and so all their minds were blank. Junior Leopard was absent minded too. After a while, both parties realized what happened. The soldiers discarded their oil pots, drew their swords and then dashed towards Junior Leopard. On the other hand, Junior Leopard was not easy to bully. He threw out his twin hammers and the soldiers in front of him were all stroked away. In the meantime, more soldiers came along.
Junior Leopard was entirely conscious now. He didn’t dare to think more about anything else. Instead, he waved his silver hammer up and down, blowing away all of the soldiers whose cultivation was not high enough. Now he had taken over a corner of the city wall.
Junior Leopard wasn’t proud after occupying the top corner. He defended this spot securely as agreed before with Jin Nanqing. In the meantime, he tried his best to sweep down the Sect of Flame soldiers in order to wait for more people from his team.
On the other hand, the Sect of Flame diciples had noticed something abnormal happening here. Although Junior Leopard was young, the Sect of Flame followers on this city wall were all experienced soldiers. Even though they had seen his two flying silver hammers, they had all decided to go and fight against him. They only cursed in a very light voice.
Junior Leopard defended the corner and no loophole could be found by the enemy. He didn’t fight for any credits but rather fought with the aim of not making a mistake. The hammers in his hand were heavy weapons. Hence, the soldiers couldn’t do anything against him in a short amount of time. Junior Leopard had successfully repelled a few people. Right now, Jin Nanqing also arrived. Seeing that Junior Leopard had already taken a corner of the city wall, Jin Nanqing was quite happy in his heart. He didn’t speak much and went nearer beside Junior Leopard with his weapon. They were fighting against the enemy together. Now that Junior Leopard wasn’t alone, and since the intensive fight he experienced just now could not hurt him, his status became more stable. The two silver lights in his hand became more fluent, his movements also became more flexible. All of his hammering skills were demonstrated well now. It was well known that heavy weapons like hammers were born to defend against enemies and take up spots. Junior Leopard pointed his hand to the east and the hammer would strike the west, as he pointed to the south his hammer would strike the north. With his invincible hammer, the Sect of Flame’s disciples were gradually beaten backwards. It did not take long before a relatively spacious place was cleared out. While he could defend this place securely, more and more people could climb up here. Soon the Great Jin’s people began dominating a number of the Sect of Flame’s disciples.
“This lad is doing pretty well!” Seated in the Camp of the Jin Army and observing the situation on the city wall, Wang She smiled satisfactorily.
“Chief Wang, do you know that teen?” Hearing Wang She’s comments, Li Yuan’s face twitched as he asked.
“I met him once last time when I was at the Wu family. He is a disciple of an elder there. He’s named Zhou Bao. Look at the twin hammers in his hands, hehe; he has entirely exerted the essence of Wu family’s Wild Hammering Skill!” Wang She said.
“Yes, that is excellent. If we can occupy the city this roll, I should reward him a first-class merit!” Li Yuan praised.