Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

...

As dawn broke, the sound of a child crying came from inside the house. Zhou Tie suddenly sat up, his eyes wide.

Old Shen pushed open the door, leaned wearily against the doorframe, took off his reading glasses, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "It's a boy, mother and child are safe."

He paused for a moment, then said, "The baby was born more than half a month premature, and is smaller than a full-term baby, but there are no health problems."

Zhou Tie let out a long sigh, his eyes reddening, "Thank goodness! Thank goodness! Old Fu has a son now, hehe..."

Song Nini looked pleasantly surprised and slowly moved into the house.

...

Inside the room, Song Yawei leaned against the headboard, her face pale. She held the baby in her arms and patted him gently, looking down at the baby's wrinkled little face.

The child had his eyes closed, his fists clenched, and his cries were loud and clear, as if he were declaring that although he had arrived a little early, he was no less capable than anyone else.

Song Yawei looked at the child's face with tenderness.

Song Nini, heavily pregnant, sat on the edge of the bed, holding her sister's hand.

"Sis, why hasn't your husband come back lately?"

Song Yawei moved the child to her other arm, her tone calm.

"Didn't the Di Kingdom attack the city? He's been very busy lately, carrying out missions outside the city."

Song Nini didn't think much of it, and lowered her head to touch her belly.

"If my brother-in-law doesn't come back soon, the children won't recognize him anymore."

Song Yawei didn't reply, but looked down at her son who was still crying in her arms and gently touched his little fist with her finger.

...

As evening fell, Zhou Tie stood on the city wall. The stitches from the knife wound he had taken for Fu Qing were still in place, and the blood seeping from under the bandage had already dried.

He looked at the continuous Di Kingdom military camp to the north, and had been standing there for four whole days.

The sound of messengers running around echoed behind him, but he never turned around.

Han Yue's wife came to the military camp to ask about Han Yue's whereabouts. She stood at the entrance of the drill ground, leaning on a bamboo pole, and dared not go in.

Zhou Tie walked over and stood in front of her in silence for a long time before smiling and saying, "Han Yue is with Fu Qing. That kid has never gotten into trouble, so don't worry, sister-in-law."

Han Yue's wife nodded and left.

...

That evening, a wooden stele appeared in the open space behind the military camp, with Fu Qing's name engraved on it, standing next to Old Zhao's cenotaph.

Zhou Tie squatted between the two steles, took out a flask of wine from his pocket, poured half a flask of wine in front of Lao Zhao's stele, and poured half a flask of wine in front of Fu Qing's stele.

After watering them, he threw the empty wine jug on the ground. "You weeds, your son is my son too. I'll take good care of them!"

After saying that, he stood up and left without looking back.

...

As dawn approached, Fu Qing's luck turned.

A horse ranch appears on the horizon on the grassland, with countless horses grazing.

Fu Qing grinned, "Our luck has turned!"

Eight hundred border troops launched a surprise attack under cover of night. Fu Qing cleaved the horse farm guard in two with a single stroke, while Ma Xiong ran around picking out horses from the pile of Di soldiers he had slain in his sleep.

Three thousand warhorses were captured, but there were only eight hundred men, so they couldn't use that many horses and couldn't take them with them.

Ma Xiong couldn't bear to throw away so many good horses, and neither could Han Yue.

"Why don't we split our forces and drive the horses back?"

Fu Qing considered it for a moment and then rejected it.

"We originally only had eight hundred men, and if we split them up, we'd have even fewer. Besides, two thousand warhorses are too big a target, and it's impossible for us to safely cross the Di army's defenses."

He ordered each person to choose two of the best horses to ride in rotation, and the rest to be released back onto the grassland.

With eight hundred men, each riding two horses, the group instantly transformed into a true steppe cavalry force.

Suwen stood beside her horse, holding the reins in her hand, a rare look of embarrassment on her face—she couldn't ride a horse.

On the way here, I could barely keep up with the group, but now that I have to ride two horses at once, it's even more impossible.

"My horsemanship is limited to not falling off."

Fu Qing tilted his head and looked at him. "Then would you mind riding with me?"

Suwen blinked and nodded, seemingly not finding it ambiguous.

Fu Qing reached out and pulled her onto his horse. Su Wen sat in front of him, her back against his chest, and he could smell a faint herbal scent from her hair.

When a horse runs, should a person lean forward or backward?

Fu Qing held the reins and made her lean forward. She said "Oh" and leaned forward seriously, learning very quickly.

Along the way, Fu Qing occasionally let her try holding the reins and riding the horse. She would ask a question and Fu Qing would answer it. After answering, she would stop talking and seriously feel the rhythm on the horse's back.

After running for a while, she suddenly blurted out,

"So riding a horse is similar to refining medicine; both require mastering the timing and intensity."

Fu Qing thought for a moment, "Probably, I've never refined medicine before."

...

In the days that followed, Fu Qing personally led eight hundred cavalrymen to sweep along the Di army's rear supply lines.

Before setting off, Fu Qing had sixteen characters engraved on the saddle and then summoned all the cavalrymen to teach them each character one by one.

"When the enemy advances, we retreat; when the enemy retreats, we advance; when the enemy camps, we harass; when the enemy is exhausted, we attack. Remember these sixteen words: Don't engage them head-on, wear them down, and then find an opportunity to strike decisively!"

The teacher's sixteen-character mantra is indeed a profound truth.

Eight hundred cavalrymen moved swiftly across the grasslands, resting during the day in abandoned winter shelters of herders, and sneaking up at night when the Di army's supply depots were most relaxed during shift changes, slashing down sentries with a single blow, lighting the rations, and running away.

They destroyed several supply depots of the Di Kingdom, and the black smoke rising from the burned grain formed column after column of smoke across the grassland.

Alarm horns sounded between the supply depots, but the 800-strong cavalry came and went quickly. By the time the main force of the Di army arrived, all that was left for them was a pile of burning ashes and a few sentries whose beards had been cut off in humiliation.

The news reached the Di Kingdom's court.

Kublai Khan was holding a military meeting with several tribal leaders in a golden tent when a messenger stumbled in, knelt on the ground, and held up an urgent report from the front lines above his head.

After Kublai Khan finished reading the parchment, he smashed the wine cup in his hand on the ground.

"It's Fu Qing again! It's him again! A mere few hundred cavalrymen burned my grain supplies on my territory! Order Helian Duo to bring back a thousand elite cavalrymen and bring me his head!"

Helian Duo was the commander of the most elite wolf cavalry in the Di Kingdom, a master of the Gang Qi realm. He led a thousand men and chased Fu Qing across the grasslands for several days without even catching a glimpse of him.

Fu Qing never lingered after finishing a supply depot; by the time reinforcements arrived, he had already run far away.

On one occasion, Helian Duo finally caught up with Fu Qing in a depression. After fighting for a short while, Fu Qing ordered a retreat. Helian Duo thought he was scared and ordered the whole army to pursue him. However, they only discovered that his thousand wolf riders had been lured into the swamp by Fu Qing when it got dark.

Not only did they lose their men, but Fu Qing also led his men back in the middle of the night and slaughtered the supply convoy left behind.

Helian Duo was so angry that he almost committed suicide, but remembering the rules of the grasslands, even if one committed suicide, one should still leave a complete corpse, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and return to the royal court to report.

...

That day, Fu Qing led his men to raid a supply station in the Di Kingdom, seizing dozens of kilograms of dried mutton and two bags of fried rice.

The remaining team of less than 700 people was scattered in the mountains and forests, with groups of three or five people around a small fire, roasting dried meat on the fire and cooking fried rice porridge in a pot.

Ma Xiong squatted beside the fire, flipping through several sizzling skewers of mutton, while Xiao Lu squatted next to Fu Qing, wolfing down a bowl of fried rice porridge...

Ding Meng squatted down beside the iron shield, which was riddled with arrows, and munched on dried meat while marveling that it was the most delicious mutton he had ever eaten in his life.

Han Yue leaned against a pine tree, whittling a new spear shaft with a dagger. Faint blood seeped from the bandage on his left arm, but his swordsmanship remained as steady as ever.

Fu Qing sat by the campfire, the knife wound on his back tingling slightly under Su Wen's bandage.

He tore off a piece of dried mutton, popped it into his mouth, and chewed it, glancing at Suwen sitting opposite him.

"Miss Suwen, the Five Internal Organs Temple... you mentioned last time that it's a Bloodline Gu, passed down through generations. I'd like to know where this thing actually comes from?"

Suwen put down the bowl in her hand, looked up at Fu Qing,

"The Five Internal Organs Temple has existed for thousands of years. It is said that the Gu formula originated from the royal family of the Li Kingdom. The empress of the founding emperor of the Li Kingdom was the first person to refine this Gu."

"She originally created this Gu poison for a form of torture—to cause the victim's five internal organs to fail one by one over several years, resulting in a slow and painful death. However, the Gu formula was lost during the internal strife in Li Kingdom and only reappeared when Emperor Gaozu of Jing Kingdom founded the country."

"The first person to be poisoned by the Gu was Feng Changyang."

Suwen continued, "When Emperor Gaozu of Jingguo founded the country, Feng Changyang was the only non-royal king under him. Feng Changyang was enfeoffed as the King of Zhenbei, guarding the northern border, and had the most elite Northern Army under his command."

"Later, Feng Changyang was suspected by Emperor Gaozu, who then used this Gu poison on him. The poison remained dormant in his body for several years until one day he suddenly felt palpitations and shortness of breath on the battlefield and fell off his horse, just like your symptoms."

"Feng Changyang was a master of the Dharma Aspect Realm. From the first onset to the onset of the Five Decays, he lasted less than five years. From then on, the Feng family was entangled in the Five Internal Organs Temple. This Gu was engraved in their bloodline and passed down from generation to generation."

"All those poisoned are descendants of the Feng clan. I've reviewed all the Gu cultivation manuals in the Medicine Palace, and there isn't a single exception!"