Mopping Up

Only after Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque confirmed that their opponents had drawn their last breath did they truly relax. Together, they looked up toward Chen Chuan. They saw him strolling toward them with his long saber in hand, an iron-masked head dangling from his waist. Wisps of white vapor steamed upward from his body. Even though he had not deliberately released his biological field, an invisible oppressive presence emanated from him all the same. Yuan Qiuyuan swallowed hard, trying his best to steady his breath. Staring intently at the severed head, he could not resist asking, "Captain, it's done?" Chen Chuan stopped before the two and nodded. "It's done. But there are still a few loose ends to take care of." Yuan Qiuyuan walked up and clicked his tongue twice in admiration. "This is the Iron Demon, after all. People back at the outpost turn pale just hearing his name. And that presence of his earlier—good grief, it was something else." He reached out and nudged the head. "Look at him now. Still ended up handled by us." Qin Qingque corrected him earnestly, "By the captain." "Hey, the captain said it himself—we're a squad. What the captain handles, we handle together." "Officer Yuan is right," Chen Chuan said. "We are a team. Without the two of you tying down the others, I wouldn't have been able to dispatch the Iron Demon so smoothly." Yuan Qiuyuan straightened his back at once, though he let out a chuckle and added, "Captain, words aside, Old Yuan knows what's what. I know who really has the chops. From now on, I only answer to you—I won't acknowledge anyone else." Qin Qingque did not speak, but the look on her face conveyed the exact same sentiment. Chen Chuan smiled faintly, then reminded them, "Keep an eye on your activation indices." After all, they were out in the wilderness with no field connection to the outpost. From a distance, they couldn't see each other's activation index. Now that they were close, he noticed that both of theirs had risen above twenty. Fortunately, neither had crossed the warning line—likely the result of conscious restraint on their part. A chill ran through both Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque, and both answered in affirmation. During the fight, their nerves had been strung tight. But once they let their guard down, they noticed their numbers creeping upward again. They hastily guided their breathing techniques to coax the readings back down. At that moment, they couldn't help glancing at Chen Chuan's reading, only to find that it was still "zero." Their admiration deepened even further. They knew bringing the index down was one thing, but driving it further down grew progressively harder. Chen Chuan had just battled the Iron Demon under far greater strain than they had endured, and the fight had only ended minutes ago. Yet in that brief span, his reading was already down to zero. Such self-restraint and physiological control were nothing short of astonishing. Just then, Chen Chuan suddenly sensed something. Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque noticed it as well. The three turned together toward the rear, where the remaining cavalry warriors had regrouped. Facing in their direction, the riders were dressing their ranks, and before long, they adopted a charge formation. Yuan Qiuyuan looked puzzled. "What are they trying to do? Charge us with just those numbers?" A band of Second Limit cavalry thinking they could take on three third limit fighters—weren't they practically begging for death? Were the Iron Demon's subordinates truly this loyal to him? Qin Qingque observed them for a moment, pondered, and said to Chen Chuan, "Captain, the front rank is shielding the rear, but I caught sight of grappling hooks. They probably aren't coming for us—they want to retrieve the corpses on the ground." "We can't give those back to them. Those are our spoils of war!" Yuan Qiuyuan yelled out and sprinted straight for the off-road vehicle. Reaching the side, he vaulted onto the roof with a single hand on the chassis and gripped the heavy machine gun. "Captain, leave this small chore to us! Give us a chance to show what we can do!" Chen Chuan said, "Then I'll leave it to you." "All right, watch me! I've had training for this!" Qin Qingque said, "I'll drive." She scrambled into the cab, and moments later, the vehicle roared to life, speeding head-on toward the approaching cavalry. Seeing them drive the vehicle out, the opposite line faltered slightly, but quickly reformed and spurred their mounts forward in a headlong charge. Chen Chuan shook his head. The riders surely knew what charging into a machine gun meant; even armored horses modified with implants could not withstand heavy machine-gun fire. Yet they likely had little choice. According to the military traditions of the Imperial Court, if a commander fell, his personal guards were beheaded. If they failed to recover his body, the entire unit faced severe punishment. What was more, this unit had been assembled by the Iron Demon himself, so their loyalty was beyond doubt. Soon, the roar of machine-gun fire echoed from behind, accompanied by the wretched shrieks of warhorses and the thuds of heavy bodies crashing to the ground, all engulfed in swirling plumes of smoke and dust. Chen Chuan paid it no heed. Standing by the riverbank with his saber planted in the ground, he gazed out across the flowing water, reflecting on the changes he had witnessed in the Iron Demon. He believed true perfection of mind and flesh was not what the Iron Demon exhibited. To be sure, when they had first clashed, the man seemed to possess no apparent weaknesses across spirit, body, jin, and technique. In truth, however, those elements were loosely knit; as the fight dragged on, he had grown increasingly incapable of coordinating them. Was it a lack of some force to bind them together, or had the entity within his body hindered him? After some thought, he figured it was likely a combination of both. What, then, did genuine perfection look like? After about half an hour, the noise outside gradually subsided. The off-road vehicle drove back through the swirling billows of dust. As the haze dispersed, it revealed a field littered with wreckage and blood, where human and equine limbs could no longer be told apart. When the vehicle pulled up and stopped, Yuan Qiuyuan leapt down from the roof. "Captain, all wrapped up. But the numbers don't quite add up." Qin Qingque climbed out of the driver's cab and said, "Captain, at the start, two squads headed toward our rear, likely looking for a shallow ford to flank us from both sides. They probably haven't arrived yet." Chen Chuan said, "Since we came out to hunt them down, we might as well go try to clean them up. It doesn't matter if we miss them—they won't get far anyway." "Understood." Both squad members answered in unison. After this decisive victory, their morale soared, and their faith in Chen Chuan had become absolute. First, however, they had to dispose of the battlefield remnants—above all, thoroughly incinerating the Iron Demon's corpse to eliminate any future trouble. At the same time, the armor worn by him and his subordinates, along with accompanying documents, jade seals, and other vital effects, had to be taken back as proof of identity. By the time all of this was tidied up, another half hour had passed. Yet there was still no sign of the detached cavalry warriors. If they hadn't circled back by now, they had likely received word mid-route and scattered. Even so, an attempt at pursuit was warranted. Chen Chuan glanced at the dying embers. Seeing that everything there had been reduced to ashes, he drew back his gaze and said, "Let's go." Qin Qingque stepped forward, opened the vehicle door for Chen Chuan, and saluted. "Captain, please get in." Chen Chuan gave an affirmative hum and got in. Once the vehicle was underway, he checked the sky. Counting the battle and all the cleanup before and after, roughly three hours had elapsed. He hadn't anticipated the battle concluding so swiftly. Earlier, he had wondered whether the clash might drag into the night if they reached a stalemate. It wasn't that he was unprepared—he had already inscribed rituals on his two teammates' outerwear in advance. But the critical factor was the activation index, a variable far too volatile. Judging from the battle, however, the Iron Demon had never intended to drag things out. He might have been equally wary of the night, or perhaps he had been anxious to settle the outcome quickly to avoid being surrounded. From that perspective, Advisor Rao's intelligence deception had proven exceptionally effective, serving as a crucial catalyst—and perhaps it could even be used to flush out the mole. Just then, he asked, "Officer Qin, were any of those cavalrymen carrying portable radios?" Qin Qingque answered, "No, Captain. They probably relocated them ahead of time. But if they learn the Iron Demon has been killed, they will likely destroy the radios, making it very difficult to trace them back through signal trails." "No need to force it then," Chen Chuan said. That was not their responsibility anyway; finding clues would be a bonus, but failing to find them mattered little. They only needed to fulfill their own duty. Following the tracks left by the riders, they circled to the rear and found that the cavalry squad had indeed lingered here before scattering in retreat. After conferring, they concluded that the remaining cavalry posed little threat, and chose not to pursue them further. Chen Chuan said, "Officer Qin, you may send a telegram back. And extend our thanks to Advisor Rao while you're at it." He knew that intelligence deception was no simple matter; Advisor Rao had undoubtedly taken a great risk. "Yes, Captain." Inside Outpost 73, Advisor Rao had been waiting by the radio the entire time. Worry gnawed at him ceaselessly—for Chen Chuan's squad, and equally for himself. Just as Chen Chuan had surmised, an operation like intelligence deception had to be deployed at a pivotal moment. If it accomplished nothing, he would be held accountable. Just then, the operator looked up and said, "Advisor, a telegram has come in." "It's here? Quick, let me see!" Advisor Rao urged. An incoming telegram meant they were alive—at least the worst-case scenario had not come to pass. As the operator jotted down the cipher, Rao didn't even wait for a clean transcription. Snatching the sheet, he scanned it directly. His eyes went wide, and then his hands began to tremble. An unrestrained look of delight spread across his face. Yet after reading it several times over, a flicker of doubt crept back in. He telegraphed back for confirmation, and only after exchanging two messages—and hearing that they were bringing back the Iron Demon's head and personal effects—did the tension finally drain from his body. With a grin plastered across his face, he instructed the operator, "Send a wire to the command post. Tell them..." At this point, he slowed his speech, striving to make every word distinct and clear. "Confirmed: at approximately 10:00 a.m. today, the Iron Demon and his subordinates were engaged along the middle reaches of River Reach 24 by our elite sortie squad." He paused. "Following nearly two hours of fierce fighting, the squad successfully decapitated the Iron Demon and two commissioned warriors under his command, annihilated over thirty elite cavalry warriors, and dispersed the remaining ten-plus riders in flight. "Note: The squad was led by First-Class Enforcement Officer Chen Chuan, with squad members Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque, tactical advisor Rao Qili, and others..." Here, he glanced at his watch. "Time: November 26, 2:23 p.m." Looking up, he told the operator, "Report it just like that."