https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-304-Spear-Sweeps-a-Hundred-Riders/13026492/
Chapter 303: Foreign Tribe Cavalry
Chapter 303: Foreign Tribe Cavalry
In the forests of Ice State's Cold County, Chen Mu quietly made his way, clad in simple linen clothing.
Upon entering Cold County, he and Feng Hongsheng temporarily parted ways, heading south and north respectively to investigate the county.
True to its name, Cold County had a harsh climate, but unlike Frost County, it lacked rainfall due to its proximity to Sha Prefecture. As a result, it wasn't as extensively covered in frost and snow, and most of the land was barren wilderness as far as the eye could see.
In terms of area, Ice State was significantly larger than Jade Province, but due to its relatively barren resources, it had a smaller population and was less well-governed than Jade Province, according to Chen Mu's knowledge.
"Ice, cold, and frost, this Cold County is probably the most ordinary of the six counties in Ice State."
Chen Mu strolled through the sparse forests, his gaze sweeping across valleys, sensing the flow of heavenly and earthly power. He contemplated the heavens and earth while keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings, occasionally climbing to the top of a peak for a panoramic view.
As he traveled along the border of Cold County, he encountered very few signs of human life, and any settlements were scattered and sparse, which was understandable given the county's barren nature, making it difficult to sustain large-scale towns or villages.
However, as he continued his journey, Chen Mu unknowingly spent seven or eight days in Cold County, gaining some experience in the Heaven-Earth Conceptual Realm, which was better than nothing. He was now just a step away from completing his seventh deduction.
On the ninth day, Chen Mu's pace slowed, and his expression grew somber as he approached a village, not particularly small, with at least thousands of households. He stood at the village entrance, his face grim.
The village was a scene of devastation, with ruins and broken walls everywhere. The ground was strewn with severed limbs, and blood had soaked into the barren earth, freezing and solidifying, indicating a fierce slaughter.
"Foreign tribes..."
With a stern face, Chen Mu stepped forward, entering the village that resembled a hell on earth.
The scale of the massacre made it clear that it wasn't the work of the Heavenly Corpse Sect or the Celestial Demon Sect. The Heavenly Corpse Sect rarely left behind corpses, and even if there was occasional slaughter, they would typically take the bodies away.
The Celestial Demon Sect was similar; most victims would be consumed as blood food, and they rarely indulged in wanton killing, despite their inherently violent nature, akin to not slaughtering all chickens and ducks just for one meal.
Only the foreign tribes would commit such atrocities.
They would kill all the men, plunder resources, and abduct women, leaving behind a trail of devastation.
Chen Mu's gaze swept over the mutilated bodies, and he walked along the ruins, eventually closing his eyes slightly:
"Less than a day?"
Along his journey, he had encountered more than one village ravaged by demons or foreign tribes. However, based on the traces, the attack on this particular village had occurred just half a day ago.
The purpose of his trip with Feng Hongsheng to Cold County was not to engage in direct confrontation with the foreign tribes, the Celestial Demon Sect, or the Heavenly Corpse Sect. Instead, they aimed to gather intelligence on the locations of the foreign tribes and the two sects' strongholds and understand the situation in Cold County.
But encountering such scenes repeatedly filled Chen Mu with a chilling sensation.
Just as Chen Mu was about to leave, his eyes flickered, sensing something. He took a few steps in a specific direction and soon reached a deep well on the side of the village.
He peered down into the well, which was about several zhang deep. Despite the darkness, he could still discern a slight indentation on one side of the well wall, from which he faintly sensed a weak aura.
Chen Mu sighed.
He extended his hand and waved it towards the bottom of the well, releasing an invisible Qi energy that descended into the indentation and lifted out a tiny, frail child wearing a cotton jacket, seemingly around five or six years old.
The child, a little girl with braided hair, had a deathly pale face, weak breath, and trembling body. She was unconscious.
Evidently, she had been hidden in the well during the foreign tribe's attack and had been trapped there for half a day. Even a robust adult would struggle to endure the cold and dampness in the well for that long, let alone a child of her age.
If not for Chen Mu's cultivation of the Martial Body and his heightened sensitivity to Qi, he might not have detected the surviving girl at the bottom of the well.
Chen Mu stood by the well, looking at the little girl suspended in the air by an invisible Qi energy, and couldn't help but recall a similar situation from many years ago. He had served as a magistrate in Wutongli, leading the resistance against a frost disaster. Back then, he had just begun his martial path, and during that disaster, he did his best to save a group of refugees.
Despite not being under his jurisdiction, Chen Mu couldn't stand by and watch after encountering this village in such a dire situation. He didn't know if the little girl's survival was fortunate or unfortunate, but since he had encountered her, he wouldn't let this life fade away.
"Come."
Chen Mu lifted the girl with one hand and gestured with the other, causing the water mist in the air to silently gather and flow into his palm, forming a stream. A flame then rose, heating the water to a comfortable temperature.
At the same time, Chen Mu's other hand emitted a warm energy, dispelling the cold that had permeated the girl's floral jacket, warming her entire body.
After that,
Chen Mu guided the warm water towards the girl's mouth with his right hand, allowing her to drink it slowly. Finally, a hint of color returned to her pale face, which had almost lost all vitality.
In reality, even if she had been rescued from the damp and cold well immediately and taken to a doctor, she would still fall severely ill. However, Chen Mu had transcended the ordinary, and he effortlessly dispelled the external cold and used his inner energy to regulate her body, which was thoroughly chilled to the bone.
And so,
Before long, the little girl slowly woke up in Chen Mu's embrace.
Contrary to Chen Mu's expectations, the girl slowly opened her eyes, and after a moment of confusion, her dark eyes stared unwaveringly at him without showing any signs of panic or fear.
Chen Mu had assumed that the tragedy in the village had traumatized her, but he soon noticed a glimmer of life in her eyes, indicating that she wasn't completely dazed.
"You're awake."
Chen Mu spoke with a gentle tone.
The girl continued to stare at him blankly.
"Do you remember what happened?"
Chen Mu asked softly.
The girl looked at Chen Mu again, and this time, she finally spoke in a weak voice, "In the village, bad people came, and my father put me in the well... Did you save me, brother?"
"Yes."
Chen Mu looked into the girl's eyes, slightly surprised. He saw a hint of sadness in her dark pupils, and despite her young age of five or six years, she seemed to understand everything.
The girl paused for a moment, then said,
"Thank you, brother."
She then lifted her head slightly in Chen Mu's embrace, looking around. She realized they were already outside the village, and after a moment of hesitation, she asked in a soft voice, "Are my father and the others...?"
Chen Mu glanced at the girl and shook his head slightly, deciding against fabricating a lie. "Apart from you, no one else survived."
The girl in his arms, despite her young age, seemed more mature than Wang Ni when she was ten years old. Her dark eyes expressed a sorrow that seemed to understand everything, even as she asked him.
Chen Mu sighed inwardly.
Then, he looked into the distance, narrowing his eyes to discern the surroundings. He took a step forward, and his entire body moved silently, covering dozens of zhang in an instant. Then, he continued to stride forward.
The girl in his embrace tried hard to keep her head down, fighting back tears. After a long while, when she lifted her head again, the scenery in her field of vision seemed to change rapidly, as if she were moving forward at an incredible speed. Yet, she didn't feel the cold wind on her face, leaving her momentarily stunned.
She had heard her father mention that there were people in this world who cultivated martial arts to an incredible level, moving like tigers and wolves, with lightning-fast speed. But even the kind of person her father described couldn't match the speed she felt in Chen Mu's embrace, as the nearby scenery blurred and only distant mountains remained visible.
"Brother, where are we going?"
After a while, she couldn't help but ask.
Chen Mu gently patted her head and said in a warm tone,
"To kill some people."
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
He didn't like killing, and he never had.
But sometimes, the turmoil in his heart could only be calmed by blood.
Although this trip to Han County was meant for reconnaissance and shouldn't involve too much commotion, the county was already in such chaos that killing a few people wouldn't matter.
It wasn't to avenge the girl's family or the commoners who had died tragically in the village. He was doing it for his own peace of mind, to calm his turbulent emotions.
Swish, Swish.
(End of Chapter)
With each step, he covered dozens or even a hundred zhang, moving with ghostly speed, yet his strides were smooth, devoid of any gusting winds. The air around him seemed non-existent.
The little girl only glanced at the changing scenery for a few moments before feeling dizzy, and she instinctively averted her gaze, resting her head on Chen Mu's chest. She knew that this stranger who saved her was even more formidable than the powerful figures her father often spoke of.
As her dizziness subsided, she lifted her head again, gazing at Chen Mu's profile, momentarily lost in thought.
Chen Mu appeared younger than her father, and his build wasn't as robust, but up close, nestled in his embrace, she felt a strength beyond her comprehension.
Time passed.
The little girl eventually noticed Chen Mu's pace slowing down.
When she cautiously looked around, she realized that Chen Mu, at some point, had carried her to the top of a high slope, gazing into the distance.
Following his gaze, she saw a large group of people and horses.
There were about two to three hundred elite cavalry, mounted on tall, sturdy horses, clad in heavy armor, galloping on one side.
Each stride of these cavalry was heavy and muffled, accompanied by a humming sound, like the beating of drums by a thousand troops, causing the nearby ground to tremble.
Alongside these hundreds of cavalry, there were nearly a thousand armored foreign tribe soldiers, their appearance vastly different from the common people, with taller and more robust builds, brown hair, brown beards, and green eyes, deep-set in their sockets.
This group of soldiers was escorting a batch of carts loaded with plundered goods.
Additionally, they were herding a crowd of thousands, mostly women and children, who struggled to keep up with the procession. Any stragglers were immediately met with the soldiers' whips.
"So many people..."
The little girl, nestled in Chen Mu's embrace, stared at the crowd in the distance, unable to contain her curiosity.
She scanned the faces of the women and children, searching for familiar faces, but to no avail. These people were not just from her village but also from nearby settlements.
"They're the ones who killed your father. Are you afraid of them?"
Chen Mu's gaze swept over the crowd before speaking softly to the girl.
The girl bit her lip and shook her head.
Her eyes, fixed on the foreign soldiers, revealed a deep-seated hatred.
Chen Mu already knew that the little girl in his arms was stronger than many older children he had encountered. At this moment, he didn't say much, gently patting her head, and asked, "Do you want them dead?"
"Yes," the girl nodded firmly.
Chen Mu smiled slightly, carrying her forward. After a few steps, they quietly descended the slope, and after a few more strides, they crossed the wasteland, appearing silently in front of the foreign cavalry and infantry.
In the vast wasteland ahead, there was nothing in sight, but in the distance, on the dry, frozen ground, stood a figure holding a small child, facing the foreign soldiers scattered across the wasteland.
Finally, the leading cavalry noticed Chen Mu, their eyes widening in surprise. One of them pointed at Chen Mu and shouted something to the cavalry commander behind them.
The cavalry commander rode forward, his brows furrowed as he stared at Chen Mu in the distance. He barked, "Full alert! Spears up! Form a formation!"
As the leader of the foreign tribe's cavalry, he knew that encountering large groups of refugees in the Cold County was not a threat, nor was encountering small groups of martial artists. However, encountering a solitary individual with mysterious movements was highly dangerous!
Anyone daring to confront their hundreds of cavalry and thousands of infantry without fleeing was no ordinary person! Regardless of the opponent's background or strength, whether a powerful martial artist or a hidden trap, the strategy was clear: full formation charge and crush them!
When dealing with such formidable individuals, scattering and retreating was a poor tactic. Instead, the best approach was to concentrate their forces, with thousands of infantry and cavalry, forming a united front. Even a Five Viscera Realm expert would struggle against such a charge!
(End)
Chapter end
Report
