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

The setting sun was like blood, and after a series of bloody battles, the city gate of Woye City was finally smashed to pieces by the Jing Army's battering rams.

Fu Qing, carrying the Cold Iron Blade, was the first to step into the city gate. The dark blue color on the blade had been obscured by bloodstains, and the soles of his boots crunched on the ground, which was a mixture of gravel and bone fragments.

An Sheng followed behind him, dark red blood droplets still dripping from the blood groove on the silver spear, it was hard to tell whether they were from the Gu cultivators of Yue Kingdom or from the common people controlled by the Gu worms.

There were no living people to be seen on the streets of the city.

The corpses lay scattered on the bluestone pavement, some still in a crawling position, their fingers digging into the cracks in the stones, their fingernails turned up.

The air was filled with the stench of blood and the bodily fluids of the Gu worms, a smell as if rotten flesh and medicinal dregs had been boiled together in a pot for three days and three nights.

Fu Qing stopped in front of the Drum Tower in the center of the city, wiped the blood from his cold iron sword on his trouser leg, and sheathed the sword.

"An Sheng".

"Your subordinate is here."

"Lead men to search the city and see if there are any remaining Vietnamese soldiers. Capture them all without exception."

An Sheng clasped his hands in acceptance of the order, then turned and led a group of men to search house to house along both sides of the street.

Fu Qing stood on the steps below the drum tower, watching the vanguard soldiers carry their fallen comrades out of the pile of corpses.

The body of a young soldier was dug out from under the collapsed wall, his chest riddled with a fist-sized hole by a worm, his face frozen with the last expression of his death.

Fu Qing walked over, squatted down, and reached out to close the soldier's eyelids.

He recognized the face. Yesterday, outside the camp, this soldier had been bragging to his comrades that after the battle, he was going to get married and had already saved up enough dowry.

He rolled his eyes at the time, intending to advise these guys against randomly planting their flags, but little did he expect that it would actually come true today...

Another body was carried over; it was the youngest medic in the vanguard battalion, only eighteen years old.

This child followed Suwen and Suxue from the Medicine Palace to the Southern Frontier. He had just learned how to use medicinal energy to expel the Gu worms when he was attacked on the battlefield for the first time and a Gu worm crawled into his throat.

The person who carried him over was his fellow disciple, a Medicine Palace disciple in his thirties. He squatted beside his junior brother's body, wiping the blood and tears from his face with his sleeve for a long time, but he couldn't get them clean no matter how he wiped them.

Looking further over, Liu Wentong was squatting in front of a row of corpses, straightening their collars one by one.

These are veterans who fought alongside him all the way from southern Xinjiang; some of them have been with him for several years.

Liu Wentong's face was expressionless; he mechanically repeated the same action—turning up the collar, flattening it, and then turning up the next one.

His finger paused on the chest of an old soldier. Inside the old soldier's armor was a faded red cloth, a good luck charm that his wife had sewn for him before he went to war.

Fu Qing stood before these fallen soldiers, remaining silent for a long time, before turning to Liu Wentong and giving him his orders.

"Gather all the fallen brothers properly, write down their names, and don't miss a single one. Erect a monument in this city and carve their names one by one on it, so that future generations will know that their blood was shed on this land."

Liu Wentong paused for a moment, looked up at Fu Qing, and after several attempts, managed to utter a single sentence.

"General Fu—this humble general thanks you on behalf of my brothers!"

He stood up, saluted Fu Qing, and then turned to relay the order.

After taking a few steps, he turned back to look at Fu Qing again, his war-scarred face now displaying an expression he had never seen before.

After the news spread, the soldiers of the vanguard battalion fell silent.

An old soldier with a missing left arm sat against the wall, listening to those around him say that General Fu was going to erect a monument for the fallen brothers. He stared blankly for a long time, then wiped his eyes hard with his sleeve, tapped his pipe, and...

"Hehe... This is strange. I've been a soldier for most of my life, and all I ever do is die and be buried in a pit. Nobody remembers my name. General Fu wants to carve our names in stone, carve them in stone!"

"From now on, everyone who passes by will see it and know that we fought here and people died here. Damn it, that bastard Black Donkey got caught up in it all, and now it's even engraved on a monument..."

As he spoke, his voice choked up, and he simply buried his face in his knees and stopped talking.

Zhao Laotie was directing his soldiers to clear the battlefield at the city gate when he heard a messenger running to deliver Fu Qing's order. He almost dropped the pipe in his hand.

He served in the border army for decades and had seen at least dozens of generals. Some treated soldiers as expendable resources, while others only cared about claiming credit for their victories...

No general would ever personally kneel down to close the eyes of fallen soldiers after a battle, or erect a monument to them and inscribe their names.

He shoved the pipe stem into his mouth and exhaled a muffled smoke ring.

"This kid, I'm impressed."

Sun Bufan led a team to clean up the remains of the Gu worms in the west of the city. After hearing the news, he stuck his shovel into the ground, put his hands on his hips, and took several deep breaths.

He came from a martial arts academy and was taught from a young age that "soldiers are for the generals." Soldiers are like swords in the general's hand; if a sword breaks, you just replace it.

Now someone is telling him that his name will be engraved in stone and that his death will be remembered by posterity.

"If anyone dares to say again that General Fu got his position through connections, I, Sun Bufan, will be the first to draw my sword and fight them to the death!"

The adjutant beside him cautiously reminded him that he himself was the first to question General Fu. Sun Bufan glared at him and kicked him.

"Screw you, that was then. Now is now, so why are you spouting so much nonsense?"

...

When Zhang Wukai received the news of the vanguard battalion erecting a monument in the central command tent, he was holding a cup of tea and looking at a map.

The messenger recounted Fu Qing's actions from beginning to end. Zhang Wukai remained silent for a long time, then put down his teacup, stood up, and walked to the tent entrance, looking at the still-smoking ruins of Woye City in the distance.

He fought for most of his life, from the northern border to the southern frontier, and saw countless generals. There were few commanders like Tian Jingming, and even fewer generals like Fu Qing.

He turned to look at the army clerk.

"Issue my order: the entire army, like Fu Qing, shall erect monuments for the fallen soldiers, engraving their names clearly one by one, without omitting a single one!"

The registrar accepted the order and left. Zhang Wukai picked up his teacup again, took a sip, and suddenly chuckled softly.

"Oda's eye for people is definitely better than mine."

...

After the news of this decision spread throughout the army, the morale of the entire Southern Expeditionary Army was greatly boosted.

The soldiers were whispering amongst themselves, saying that Marshal Zhang and General Fu had erected a monument for them and inscribed their names, which meant that their lives were not consumables in their eyes, but were valuable.

This morale is far more important than a big victory.

...

After capturing Woye City, the army rested in the city for three days.

Fu Qing's vanguard battalion lost several hundred men and was replaced by new recruits transferred from the rear.

Most of these new recruits had just been conscripted from various prefectures and cities. Some had never even seen blood, and their legs trembled as they stood in the vanguard battalion's camp.

Liu Wentong gave a lecture to each of the new recruits, his face, tanned dark by the scorching sun of southern Xinjiang, approaching each one.

"Damn it, listen up! First, the anti-Gu pills issued by the Medicine Palace are sewn into your collars and carried with you at all times. Losing them means losing your lives. Second, don't wander off after entering the mountains. Stick close to your veterans..."

"Third, don't panic when you encounter Gu worms. The more panicked you are, the faster you'll die. Got it!"

The new recruits were so frightened that they shouted in unison, "We'll remember!" Liu Wentong then added, "..."

"Fourthly, when General Fu is at the forefront on the battlefield, you all better stick close to him. Wherever he charges, you charge in. When he's fighting the Gu cultivators, you protect his back. General Fu's life is more valuable than ours, understand?"

The new recruits shouted in unison, "We understand!"

An Sheng, carrying his silver spear, watched Liu Wentong give his lecture with a grin, nudging his old buddy.

"Old Liu is practically Brother Fu's personal bodyguard now."

Old Zhao, with a pipe stem dangling from his mouth, gave a rare smile.