Wang Chong, after all, was a man who had had many, many ex-girlfriends, so there was never anything wrong with his EQ. Whatever the occasion, he knew exactly what to say and would never pick the wrong thing.
Su Luo Yan, a noble daughter of a great clan, had no experience whatsoever in this area, but she was exceedingly clever—how could she fail to catch the insincerity in those words? She shot Wang Chong a glance that was half-scolding, half-angered, and left him to figure it out for himself.
Wang Chong was secretly delighted. Previously, though Chu Qiuzi had already been quite forward, she had still remained very reserved, and with a few junior sisters playing glaring third wheel, there had truly been little chance. But this time Su Luo Yan had all but delivered herself to his doorstep—how could he not seize the opportunity?
Because so many things had happened along the way, they hadn't marched for long that day. Wang Chong found a place to make camp early.
Using the pretext of teaching these Yaglakar clansmen to speak Chinese, he gathered them all together and told them the story of Battle Through the Heavens for more than a shichen. Never mind these steppe warriors—even the respectable youths under his own command listened as if intoxicated. By the time they sat down to eat that evening, someone even came running over to ask him, "I have ninth-grade internal force—how many stages of dou force would that count for?"
Su Luo Yan listened with relish as well, even secretly covering her little mouth and giggling. Only after Wang Chong had sent off the subordinate who came asking about the next part of the story did she lower her voice and ask, "Where did you dig up this script, that you can tell it so entertainingly?"
Wang Chong chuckled and steered away from the topic. "What does Sister Su know about Bazhou?"
Su Luo Yan said, "Bazhou ranks fourteenth among the thirty-seven regions under heaven and has twenty-four prefectures—more than twice the size of Tongzhou. The Chaoding River runs through it, so the land is fertile. But unfortunately it has no mountains or rivers to serve as natural barriers; it lies open on all four sides, and steppe cavalry often come to raid and plunder, so its population is actually less than half that of Tongzhou."
"The current Bazhou military governor, Shi Lüshan, keeps an ambiguous distance from the court while secretly colluding with the eighteen grassland tribes, and by sheer force has managed to keep Bazhou stable. But this time, when the Yaglakar cavalry crossed into the territory, it was almost certainly he who quietly let them in. The man holds heavy military power and is unruly and untamed, yet his martial arts are near-divine and he is deeply versed in the art of war. You must not underestimate him."
Wang Chong asked, "How many troops does Shi Lüshan have under his command?"
Su Luo Yan answered, "Around seventeen thousand or more. The most elite among them are the two thousand Wild Goose Cavalry under his command. It's said more than half of them can draw a bow and shoot down a goose in flight—no worse than the warriors of any tribe on the steppe."
Wang Chong pondered for a while, thinking inwardly, "If I were to mobilize all of Tongzhou's troops, counting in Qin Gao's men, I could muster over ten thousand as well. But as for how many can actually be counted as combat-worthy, heaven only knows—they might not even be more battle-ready than this surrendered army I have now."
"Trying to rely on brute strength to take Bazhou by force is really a bit much."
"But when it comes to playing tricks and schemes, that's not my strong suit either!"
"What if I disguised my men as defeated Yaglakar soldiers and launched a surprise attack?" He put the idea forward on the spot.
When Su Luo Yan heard it—that he meant to take Bazhou with these thousand-odd men—she was so shocked she was struck dumb, and cried out, "We may be well acquainted, but I still have to ask: have you gone mad?"
"With just these thousand-odd men, seven or eight parts out of ten of them still Yaglakar surrendered troops, you mean to take the Bazhou that Shi Lüshan has been entrenched in for decades?"
At these words Wang Chong's spirits lifted at once. He asked, "Shi Lüshan has already been entrenched in Bazhou for decades? Then isn't he quite old? What's this man's reputation in Bazhou? Does he have any local enemies?"
Su Luo Yan shook her head with a bitter smile. "The little I know about Bazhou is only because someone in the Ten-Thousand-Year Fox House recorded it. But for such detailed matters, you won't find them in the books."
"This man started out as a common soldier and has been in Bazhou ever since, never once leaving. His age really is quite advanced—he should be nearing seventy."
Wang Chong said, "A seventy-year-old—even if he's reached the Innate Realm, I'd wager there isn't much of his martial arts left. Right now I'm young and in my prime, and I'm at the Master Realm besides. As long as I find an opening, I'll surely be able to kill him."
Su Luo Yan, like the monk Xuan Gang and the others, suddenly felt that this Wang Chong was utterly unreliable—who goes about things so rashly?
Shi Lüshan truly was just like Yaglakar Yehu: both were veteran Innate Realm experts. This man had been in the Innate Realm for forty years, and his martial arts were formidable and domineering. Even though Wang Chong had already risen to master, he might not necessarily be able to beat this man—let alone kill this rather ambitious military governor on the man's own turf.
Su Luo Yan rubbed the space between her brows and said, "Actually, that's not how it works. Even if you killed this man, you couldn't possibly control his troops. Bazhou would inevitably fall into chaos, and that would be bad for the court."
Wang Chong thought to himself, "What do I care whether it's good for the court?"
"Once Bazhou falls into chaos, and my Tongzhou sits right beside it—wouldn't I be able to reap the spoils amid the disorder?"
He also knew that plotting to assassinate a veteran Innate Realm expert was no easy matter, so he had only mentioned it in passing and didn't press the point further. Wang Chong and Su Luo Yan chatted half the night. When he noticed that this Chess-Sword Linglong had suddenly gone quiet, watching him with a faint, ambiguous smile, Wang Chong gave a sheepish grin—he knew "Sister Su" had already seen through his intentions. He rose and went off to patrol the camp.
The Yaglakar cavalry were elite indeed. After nightfall their guard was strict as well; even in a temporary camp, sentries and scouts were posted along every route, without the slightest gap.
Wang Chong thought inwardly, "Along the way, I should use these Chinese lessons as an excuse to learn more about commanding troops in battle. I can't keep winning great victories by luck every time."
Wang Chong made a round of the camp and returned to find that Su Luo Yan had already fallen asleep hugging her sword. He took a clean blanket and draped it over this Sister Su, then sat down cross-legged nearby in meditation to hone his true qi.
Originally, Wudang disciples all relied on cultivating the Pure Yang Sword Forging Scroll to break through to the Master Realm. Wang Chong, however, did the reverse—he had first broken through to master, and only then taken up the cultivation of the Pure Yang Sword Forging Scroll, only to find that the many difficult barriers in this scroll all dissolved away before him.
Yet to refine the Pure Yang true qi into a single, extremely fine thread, and then temper it through a thousand condensings and a hundred refinings until it was incomparably tough and unmatched in sharpness—even at the Master Realm, that would take closed seclusion and years of bitter cultivation.
Wang Chong had studied it for a long time without finding any way to bypass the fact that it had to be ground out purely by the passage of time; it seemed there was only the one road of slow, patient honing.
By daybreak Wang Chong felt his cultivation had advanced considerably. He opened his eyes to find that Su Luo Yan had long since brought over some army breakfast and was eating together with him, beaming.
Su Luo Yan had been born to a noble great clan and did not know how to wait on others, yet the feeling she gave Wang Chong was very comfortable. It was just like when he'd been with his third ex-girlfriend—a rich girl who didn't know how to please people either, but had no little tempers about her, and always put others at ease. Back then Wang Chong had even thought about marrying her, but unfortunately her family hadn't agreed and had done everything they could to split them apart.
Wang Chong glanced at Su Luo Yan a few times, and suddenly thought, "My identity as the Prince of Yan is rather delicate—the Su family may not be willing to marry their daughter to me."
"But a martial-world sect like the Qingcheng Sect probably wouldn't care about such things."
Chapter 86