Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 14 The Jade for Attacking Another Mountain

In late autumn of October of the same year, at Yongji Pass, a line of forty-five crossbowmen stood fifty paces away, aiming, while another forty-five waited in the rear. This was a training exercise for two-stage firing.

The training consisted of strafing and close-range direct fire. Direct fire training was straightforward, similar to a musket system: the crossbowman aimed at the target, used a sighting line, and pulled the trigger. The best crossbowman fired the arrow that landed on the highest number of targets on a row of tall wooden targets.
What about strafing? Each crossbowman cannot see the target; they release the arrow based on the direction of the whistling arrow. According to actual combat drills, the target of strafing is the enemy's charging front. The effect is to form a rain of arrows centered on the whistling arrow, covering the enemy's front. The smaller the area, the greater the density of the arrow rain, and the better the effect of suppressing the front.

Therefore, during the exercise, after the whistling arrows were released, the cavalry would inspect them, carrying the arrows marked by each crossbowman. Then, the number of rings hit would be determined based on the distance of the whistling arrows; the closer the arrow was to the whistling arrow, the better the result. If ten groups achieved a good result, they would receive wine and meat that evening, and their pay would be increased by one grade. However, if all ten groups achieved a bad result, although their food would not be reduced, they would have to wear a bamboo tag that read "Thank you XX for the arrows" while walking in the army.

In the military, merit is highly valued. Xuan Chong's assessment standard, established for actual combat, was recognized by the soldiers. However, after this standard was established, praise and ridicule among the soldiers also followed.

…The perspective shifts to the firing range…

Wu Fei, on the other hand, stood at the end of the shooting range where he would be shot.
As the distant arrow fell towards him, Wu Fei reached out and grasped the shaft. The shaft slid in his hand, the intense heat from the friction penetrating the leather and reaching his palm, while the force of the arrowhead involuntarily pulled his arm backward.

Wu Fei nodded slightly at the archer's skill.

However, soon a buzzing sound came from afar. At this moment, the soldiers who heard the whistling arrow raised their crossbows and pulled the triggers in the direction of the sound, based on their training.

This is not a case of insubordination. First of all, Wu Fei suddenly appeared on the shooting range wearing a mask, and the soldiers couldn't see who the distant target was even 150 paces away. Finally, since they had been informed that the general's personal guards would be on the shooting range today to check the bow strength, all the arrow shafts were wrapped with cotton at the head.

As for Wu Fei, the person involved, he felt a little scared when he saw the arrows flying at high speed like a swarm of bees, but he still reacted quickly and drew his sword, activating his killing intent.

Directly in front of Wu Fei, as the evil energy was suddenly released, ripples spread across the water. The arrows that were shot towards him were deflected off course by the turbulent "waves".

However, the impact of the arrow rain was still not to be underestimated. Wu Fei took two steps back and looked around. He was surrounded by arrow shafts, while the central area where he was located was empty, but the area around it was marked with arrows.

But then the second wave came, and Wu Fei's expression changed drastically. The reason was simple: the second wave of arrows was even more ferocious! And compared to the first wave, this second wave was also imbued with a murderous aura!

…opposite the firing range…

The old soldier in charge of firing the signal arrows was stunned when he saw the first volley of arrows. The birdman didn't even bend over; he simply waved his hand, sending all the arrows flying to the side. Then the "kicking the cat" effect began.

The old soldier said menacingly to his men, "Haven't you all eaten? That bastard over there is holding all your arrows in his hand, and he's waving at me!"

After the old soldier released his murderous aura, the soldiers all lowered their heads, but they all knew that their first volley of arrows had made them lose face, so the second volley of arrows was obviously different.

Because Wu Fei was a superior in the legion, the soldiers behaved with impeccable decorum in his presence, and therefore, they had never sensed any murderous aura from him. To be precise, the murderous aura of all the soldiers was basically suppressed when Wu Fei was present. Only a very few, such as Zhao Xianzhong, could still be detected by Wu Fei, but even so, Zhao Xianzhong remained well-behaved in front of Wu Fei.

Similarly, if Wu Fei were to join Wu Hanluan's forces and be bound by military orders, his murderous aura would also be restrained.

In summary, the malevolent aura in the military exists in a broad sense. Only those in military positions governed by orders and regulations are immune to its influence. Once one leaves their designated position, the malevolent aura can be immediately felt.

For example, the accompanying mages in Wu Hanluan's army all had to wear a "warding-off-evil plaque" to cast spells. At the time, Wu Fei thought the "warding-off-evil plaque" was similar to the waist badge of military officers such as the sect leader, but he later learned that without this waist badge, cultivators could not use spells in the army.

…Wu Fei was the same; after leaving his position as commander, he was like a small boat adrift at sea…

As Wu Fei fled in disarray amidst the second wave of arrows, the soldier in charge of releasing the signal arrows burst into laughter. Within their authority, teaching their personal guards a lesson was something these roughnecks could boast about at night.

However, after an incense stick's time, when the dragon horse carried the "personal soldier" over from the side of the shooting range, the soldier, who was smug a second ago, immediately knelt down when he saw the "personal soldier" take off his mask.

Wu Fei, holding the whistle-piercing arrow, asked, "Did you shoot that?"

Soldier leader: "Your subordinate, I, I..."

As he stammered, Wu Fei said, "Well done! Reward!"

Wu Fei then tossed him a gold leaf and left.

After Wu Fei left, the soldier leader bit the gold leaf he had just received, beaming with joy. Then, seeing the soldiers around him staring at him expectantly, he shouted, "Anyone who scores seven rings or higher on the target today, come with me for a drink!"

…A righteous and upright figure…

As for why Wu Fei came, it's because there are many gossips in the military, and soldiers often boast to each other during breaks from training. His presence at the shooting range wasn't exactly a secret; as the squad leader and other guards interacted (drinking and bragging), they would eventually find out that he wasn't shooting at his own men, but at a general.

If Wu Fei leaves without giving his opinion, the squad leader will worry that the general will hold a grudge. Therefore, he will be anxious and indecisive during training.

The purpose of setting up "whistling arrows" in the army is to ensure that soldiers, upon hearing the order, should not overthink and should just do it. How can the person shooting the whistling arrow be hesitant or indecisive?

Therefore, Wu Fei came over and tossed a gold leaf, not for any other reason than to show the soldier that he had done the right thing and deserved to be rewarded, and that he shouldn't think about the possibility of being punished.

…Wu Fei is not yet fifteen years old this year, and cannot fathom the unpredictability of Heaven's will; he can only reward and punish with moderation. …

Back in the camp, Wu Fei carefully reflected on the feeling of using his evil energy to resist the attack and the feeling of being bombarded by a hail of evil arrows.

When the first volley of arrows flew at high speed, a repulsive force occurred, much like the repulsion between like poles of a magnet. This process did not eliminate the impact; Wu Fei involuntarily slid half a meter backward on the sand amidst the rain of arrows. Even if he were facing a cavalry charge, though he could use this repulsive force to block, he would still be thrown back.

The amount of malevolent energy is limited, similar to explosive reactive armor; once used, it cannot be replenished in the short term.

Therefore, in the second wave, Wu Fei's defenses were breached by the rain of arrows, leaving him with bruises and swellings all over his body. He was forced to flee, covering his head. If the arrows hadn't been wrapped in cotton, they would have pierced the flesh; if the arrowheads had been soaked in molten gold, the wounds would have required more than ten days of rest and immobility. ...His ability to charge into battle was still insufficient, but that didn't mean he had given up...

Wu Fei opened the manual written in tadpole script by "Third Aunt". After systematic translation, well, after removing a lot of useless hints, and summarizing the whole thing, and then interpreting the title according to the practical parts, it should be called "Agile Parry".

The use of malevolent energy exists in the traditions of various military strategists, and Wu Hanluan knew it. Wu Fei believed that Wu Hanluan did not teach him because he did not yet possess malevolent energy at that time.

The way the Great Martial Generals used the killing energy was by fusing "blood energy" with the killing energy. Finally, after the killing energy condensed in the bone marrow, it exploded with killing power, and the blood energy was like smoke from a wolf's beacon.

The set that Auntie San gave Wu Fei did not rely on "blood and qi," but rather on "power-accumulating patterns" tattooed on his body using materials. This opened the door to a new world.

In other words, it is possible to construct aura patterns that conform to human kinesiology between armor and weapons, which is equivalent to directly condensing the aura into the bone marrow onto the armor and weapons.

In the useless descriptions of the tadpole-like script used by the Third Aunt, the patterns resembling marrow veins on this armor and weapon are called "immortal patterns"! And the ultimate power of the "immortal patterns" is called "Taiqing Immortal Power," with all the descriptions of its effects using the adjective "mysterious."

Of course, after learning that it was all just a matter of fact, Xuan Chong recalled the contents of the classics given to him by his third aunt and judged a considerable portion of them as "public intellectual type articles," and shook his head with a tsk: "Outsiders are good at chanting sutras because there are many fools, but I am not one."

The system interrupted inappropriately, saying "It's hard to say," while the floating ball was spinning rapidly.

Xuan Chong's lips twitched, and he said to the system: "You can come out when I tell you to translate. This is none of your business."

As Xuan Chong summarized his aunt's wisdom, he continued his previous line of thought. In his past life, he had seen many fake foreigners who solemnly recited foreign scriptures. Their specific tactic was to successfully tout certain parts as unique experiences from their own country, preventing you from trying to find examples to verify them. Since verification was impossible, their external experience became superior, while your traditional experience became outdated. By effectively stripping away your ability to verify, they could then insert their own ideas into their classic texts.

Xuan Chong is now very suspicious that this is what his third aunt was after! You can't say that what she gave him was useless, but after Xuan Chong got the system translation and compared it with the original, he found that her original version didn't give him any reference to the traditional fortune and misfortune system within the Great Yao.

Instead, it leads you step by step into her narrow, isolated dead end, where you can't find other systems to verify your knowledge. In other words, the more you delve into the knowledge, the more mysterious it seems, the more lonely you become, and the less you know where you're going.

According to Lao-Zhuang philosophy, the Tao is found even in excrement and urine. The law governing all things is equality; there is no high or low, noble or base. All knowledge systems can be verified and validated through mutual corroboration.

Objectively speaking, there is no such thing as higher or lower "knowledge".

The so-called "mystery" and "common sense" only exist in the subjective "pre-cognition" and "post-cognition" of human beings.

…A characteristic of good students is: they can apply what they've learned to other situations…

Six hours later, after Xuan Chong finished reading the "treasure book" on skillful parrying, he restrained his intention to try it out immediately. Instead, he inscribed the relevant plan on a bamboo tablet by his window and wrote a letter to Wu Hanluan.

A few days later, Wu Hanluan delivered a black lacquered box. When he opened it, the box was empty. However, when Xuan Chong raised his hand, the lacquer inside the box began to peel off due to the evil energy. Then, the secret manual appeared in the box in the form of wrinkled characters.

Xuan Chong began copying this set of Blood Qi Circulation and Bone Marrow Nourishment Techniques. However, after spending six days, well, a total of five hours, trying to understand it with a calm mind, Xuan Chong still hadn't grasped the system.

Xuan Chong is cautious. Higher, faster, stronger is irrelevant to him. The key is not to cause trouble. His future choice to charge into battle is to head straight for Zhuge Liang's four-wheeled chariot, not to clash with Lü Bu.

Based on the method of circulating evil energy given by Wu Hanluan, Xuan Chong listed the pattern of evil energy circulating in his bones and muscles. Then he activated the "nimble parry" given by his third aunt and listed the mechanism by which the "evil energy patterns" in the armor could replace "muscle, blood, and bone evil energy" during movement.

In other words, under the same application method, one generates a form of malevolent energy from the bones and blood, while the other generates a form of malevolent energy from the armor. The two start from different paths, but they have some common ends.

When reviewing the various schools of thought on “different paths”, Xuanchong only used this part that “leads to the same goal”.

This system has essentially given itself a "system"! As the saying goes, "Embrace the system, and you will prevail." Only by verifying with the system can it be used and integrated. As for systems that cannot be verified, far-right conservatives will be quite cautious about new technologies, because who knows what hidden dangers "isolated cases cannot prove" might have.

…five days later…

Wu Fei arrived at the blacksmith's shop and began forging iron himself, engraving the patterns of evil energy circulation on the armor. Indeed, Wu Fei still felt that using this "external object" was safer. As for this method of "external object storing evil energy," it was made according to the standard of the entry-level state in the method of circulating evil energy provided by Wu Hanluan. This is called "using the stone of one's own mountain to attack the jade of another mountain."

As some refined iron powder was sprinkled in, the furnace fire changed immediately, and heat waves rolled continuously in the blacksmith shop. However, Wu Fei, who was sweating profusely and only had a piece of cloth covering his crotch, did not notice that while he was condensing the evil runes in the blacksmith shop, hundreds of feet away, Yao Sangu was watching him intently through her blue eyes between her eyebrows.

However, this was not love. The dark blue light constantly traversed space, "disturbing and changing."

In the blacksmith's shop, Wu Fei was constantly inspired while forging weapons. These inspirations came from his memories of reading the original "tadpole script". However, Wu Fei ultimately did not incorporate these inspirations into his current work.

Wu Fei's own motto: A plan is a plan. It can be recorded and tried again later, but when it is being executed, it should never be changed frequently.

The armor was thus continuously forged and shaped, and the matching iron sword beside it—oh, this long, double-edged weapon that looks like a sword, with a shaft attached to the back—is called a shuo!
The fiendish patterns inside the armor can be seamlessly integrated into the shaft of the spear, ultimately converging on the spear to form a sharp edge.

Wu Fei's plan was completed without any changes.

However, several hundred feet away, in the residence of the mages in the army.

The third aunt, her blue eyes closed, sighed helplessly, "So difficult to enlighten? Such a stubborn fool!" Then, speaking softly to the north, she continued, "He can only settle his mind once he's certain that others have the same idea. So you should also help persuade him."

After her aunt's phone-like narration, her spiritual eyes opened again, and she had received a response.

What are the students' characteristics? A clear-eyed folly; beware of shills.
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(End of this chapter)