Chapter 264
Chapter 264
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unnumbered]
Chapter Title: Arrival in the Western Capital
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That night, Chen Shi hauled away the twenty-four cannon carts under Cao Chuting's command, seized more than two thousand cannonballs the size of human heads, and placed them all around Cao Chuting's camp overnight. He had been waiting precisely for this moment.
The blaze of the explosions lit up the sky. Even Tian Yue'e and the others, more than a hundred li away, could see the massive fireballs soaring into the heavens, resembling enormous golden mushroom clouds. Surrounding the mushrooms were searing silver-white bolts of lightning, crisscrossing like plows tilling the soil, sweeping outward in all directions—terrifying beyond measure.
Such devastating power could obliterate even those with heaven-piercing, earth-shattering cultivation!
The explosions even unleashed a ferocious gale that skimmed the ground and roared outward, snapping everything in its path!
Chen Shi watched as the thunderfire gradually faded. Once the gale had passed, he approached the camp's location and meticulously checked for survivors. Any he found would need to be eliminated root and stem. Cao Chuting's camp had become a vast pit of molten lava, the ground fused into slag—nothing remained.
"The might of this thunderfire is simply too overwhelming."
Awe gripped Chen Shi, deepening his reverence for the Lord of Qianyang Mountain. He slipped away quietly, retracing his original path back.
At daybreak, Tian Yue'e, Huang Fengnian, and the others had waited through the night in heart-pounding fear. Nothing occurred; all was peaceful. A few minor evils had approached the wooden carts, chatting idly with some sleepless juren about household trifles, trying to lure them out for a bit of fun.
Other evils danced lewdly in the winds, posing seductively with enchanting grace, but alas, none took the bait. Everyone huddled near the wooden carts, not venturing a single step outward.
Dawn arrived, the winds stilled, the skies cleared vast and blue, and the evils vanished entirely.
Black Pot straightened his frame, took down the lantern, blew out the candle within, and stowed it away. He then fetched rice, flour, grains, and oil from the small courtyard, along with tables, chairs, stools, pots, bowls, basins. The group helped kindle the fire and prepare the meal.
Now and then, someone sensed something amiss, but normalcy soon returned. Some even felt an extra person among them, though no one could pinpoint who. Black Pot scurried about busily, addressed as a "classmate" by them, seamlessly one of their number—as if he too were a juren bound for the capital exam.
Others recalled him from private school days, a fellow pupil who'd studied alongside for years, bonds thicker than blood. They spoke to Black Pot, receiving no reply, yet each was convinced they had been answered.
Someone then spotted Chen Shi approaching from afar and hurriedly set aside their task. The others noticed him too, putting down their work to watch him draw near.
"It's all clear now."
Chen Shi smiled at them.
All clear?
The juren stared in confusion. Had the artillery assailants withdrawn?
Sun Yisheng awoke, his wounds gravely severe. He lay limp in the wooden cart, eyes fluttering open in bewilderment as he surveyed his surroundings.
Chen Shi came to his side. Black Pot ladled a bowl of thin porridge, which Chen Shi accepted, tested, and found no longer scalding. He propped Sun Yisheng up and fed him.
"Head home."
Tears tumbled into the porridge as Sun Yisheng's lips quivered. In a raspy voice, he said,
"Young Master, head home. Western Capital is far too perilous—Lord Chen Tang cannot shield you there. Returning might yet preserve your life. Staying alive trumps everything..."
Chen Shi smiled.
"Lord Sun, living is indeed paramount, but if a better life is possible, one must strive for it. See these juren—all risking death to rush to Western Capital. I hold myself no lesser than any; how could I content myself lagging behind?"
He paused, then continued.
"There's also this: Shenji Battalion Captain Cao Chuting held no edge over you in strength, yet even he could not survive the thunderfire."
Sun Yisheng's frame shuddered faintly.
"Captain Cao Chuting? He orchestrated our ambush? Where is he now?"
Chen Shi replied,
"I heard he blew himself up last night, careless while mixing gunpowder."
Sun Yisheng eyed him.
Chen Shi's face remained impassive. Sun Yisheng could not discern if it was jest.
Cao Chuting was merely a humble captain, yet his prowess was extraordinarily fierce. As a Shenji Battalion man, ever handling explosives—self-detonation seemed implausible. He struggled to credit it.
Chen Shi spooned more porridge, chuckling.
"Don't let wild thoughts trouble you. Heal properly. Aim to be hale and hearty by Western Capital, lest Chen Tang suspect I mistreated you."
Sun Yisheng huffed.
Young Master Chen forever frets over impressions on Chen Tang.
"Cao Chuting was but one captain. The Shenji Battalion boasts sixteen like him."
He seized the bowl, shoveled in the gruel himself, and growled,
"His charge: Red Yi great cannons. Others oversee Franqui cannons—swifter, forty-eight guns per company. Bowl-mouthed rifles too, bores wide as bowls, packing three-inch shot to pulverize a Soul Transformation Realm nascent soul. Four hundred men per company, all so armed. And the Firestriker Division—thunderfire spells bolstered by powder. Heh, mountains flatten in their wake."
He drained the bowl, passed it to the pup signaling for seconds, and added,
"Cao Chuting targeted you at another's behest. Strike failed—will they dispatch more? Stay vigilant."
Chen Shi's heart clenched.
"I'll act with care."
Sun Yisheng wolfed two great bowls of porridge, rallied somewhat, and rested in the cart.
Breakfast done, amid packing, another exam caravan overtook them—over a dozen scholars, book-boxes slung wearily. They merged, banter and laughter flowing.
En route to Western Capital, Chen Shi had tarried days at the Tomb of the True King. Beyond the Xiaolang Emperor Chapter Merit scroll in the scripture pavilion, he had committed nearly all stele forest techniques outside the tomb to memory.
The True King bequeathed them as legacy for Western Ox New Continent. Chen Shi conferred with each, probing paths and tempers, matching stele arts aptly, imparting per individual merit.
Tian Yue'e, bold and swift: All-Heaven Thunder Lord Curse.
Huang Fengnian, medicinal adept yearning depth—Purple Canopy Primordial Scarlet Great Method vast and unbound; thus, Three Essences Mountain Subduing Art.
Fu Xiu, serene disposition: Infinite Jade Pearl Art.
Hu Guang'an, mercurial spirit: Dragon God Marvelous Art.
Each grasped distinct arts, advancing leisurely. Quandaries brought to Chen Shi—who, uncultivated in them, divined while instructing.
Treacherous paths, perils galore, gales recurrent: pace slackened.
Rear caravans accreted; tally swelled past a hundred.
Breakthroughs peppered the band—Golden Cores revolving at whim, a dozen daily shattering entrenched blocks. Unthinkable for them; unforeseen even by Chen Shi.
Juren were no dullards—survivors here, phoenixes among mortals, cultivator crests.
Talent keen, insight sharp, fortune kind—no deficit to clan heirs. Yet erstwhile: no arts, scant resources, no elixirs. Breakthroughs? Satiety strained.
Springs fiercely coiled—the harder compressed, fiercer snapback.
Opportunity alone lacked; Chen Shi supplied. Elixirs, spirit jerky needless—direct ascendance! Days on, six Nascent Soul cultivators arisen.
Chen Shi disseminated gratis, return uncraved. Young Master Xiao, Scholar Zhu, True King successively entrusted Western King seal—likely bidding him propagate stele lore thus.
Duty discharged; repayment superfluous?
Yet to Tian Yue'e and kin: grace ineffable, mentor-deep thrice over—rebirth boon! Drip repaid by geyser.
Rebirth? What recompense suffices?
Gratitude's tongue falters, barren, void.
Mid-March: cohort neared two hundred, attained Western Ox New Continent's mightiest range—Huangyan Mountains, sinuous o'er myriad li, north-south spine. No singleton swell, but scores aligned longitudinally.
March mandate: ford intermontane grand canyon, miasma-thronged wilds 'midst beasts exotic, evils, demons—an death-realm traversal—to gain Western Capital ere April dawn!
Prior treks: apex mortality. Scores halted pre-range, awaiting confreres for canyon fording. Their two hundred arrival: shock-joy admixture.
Amalgam: two hundred threescore-plus, plunged canyon vast.
Chen Shi's two hundred-odd juren—breakthrough-exhilarated bulk—waylaid novitiate spells on beasts, evils unblinking.
Strength burgeoned; path paved in combat. Solo fail? Decuple. Decuple? Centuple! Peaks' hoary demons routed to kneel-mercy.
Huangyan canyon dire straits spied by Chen Shi—ambush dread; thus, Ten Absolutes Array drill. Per juren one sigil-slot: tally two fifty-six. Roused: two fifty-six HuaXia divinities, lethal tribulation grid!
Tomb's scripture-pavilion immortal-guard array, puissance immense. Singular sigil rivals Chen Yindu titans! Juren tally: puissance inconceivable!
Solitary assay: canyon-riverine, miles-broad flux underfoot, array afloat.
Chen Shi array-heart: activation—majesty towered, river sundered, environs dechromed, silence universal, cosmos necrotic, vitality void!
Test aborted hasty, array dissolved.
Cart-bound Sun Yisheng: viscera quailed, nascent soul nigh-fractured. Oppression abyssal, terror incarnate!
He—Void Refining paragon, Dao-field sovereign—deemed array ingress: doom absolute!
"Chen Tang scion: what abomination?"
Shock inward: two hundred juren array eclipses myriads, outstrips Western Capital's triad camps' matrices. Credence nil!
Aura-clusters, hundred-odd li peripheries, fled velocity-max; stun, epiphany.
"Road-ambush experts manifold, slaughter-prepped!"
Pulse thundered; late-detect on egress bespoke superiors galore! Array-terror routed them!
Ambush primed, strike withheld; array sensed, voluntary flight.
"Ambushers' identity?"
Sun pondered.
"Were I they, array-aura beheld: war-spirit quenched, strike forsworn. Annihilation absolute!"
Chen Shi cohort unscathed Huangyan traversed, egress late-March.
En route, Chen Shi dispelled myriad cultivation conundrums. Stele-arts uncultived, yet explication self-enlightened. Colloquy cull-million.
Post-Huangyan quiescence: Xiaolang Emperor Chapter Merit assay—former impasses lucid! Chen Shi transfixed.
Memorization erst mind-wounding; comprehension now innate!
"Interval: cultivation stagnant, erudition burgeoned; pedagogy self-pedagogy."
Spiritual efflorescence sensed, sagacity consummate.
Tentative cultivation, scruple paramount. Immortal canon, abyss-profund; errancy irremediable.
Succeeding days: Western Capital loomed.
Two-three hundred juren beheld hoar citadel fore, fervor uncontained.
Western Capital reciprocated gazes.
Post-roads: Divine Shrines ascended, divinity radiant. Golden Cores quadranted hues; wee Nascent Souls vacuum-throned. Righteous qi heaven-earth convoked, azure torrents montane, hundred-li drape.
A voice proclaimed:
"En route: strike-void. Western Capital: occasion births!"
Abrupt: firmament thunder-riven, bolts plummeted Goldens, Nascent.
Instant: gauze-umbrella ascended, whirled, acre-spanned, umbrella-deities celestial palace-analog, thunders extraneous rebuffed. Spell dispatched: high-void thunder-talismans pulverized.
Gauze-umbrella contracted gyrant, unstored, juren-crown persistent. Subsurface: divine susurrus god-choric, juren-ward.
Myriad eyes: Chen Shi led two hundred threescore juren, ingress Western Capital.
Cart-reclined Sun Yisheng, gaze-burdened, unease gnawed:
"High-profile surfeit. Ours too garish."