573 Crazy Decision
Translator: DavidT | Editor: DavidT /Rock
“Hehe… Yellow Gold’s face turned red again…” Ling Chi pointed at Ling Seventeen and laughed to the point his body trembled.
“You dog egg…” Ling Seventeen’s face wasn’t red at the start but turned red from what Ling Chi had said. He then glared at Ling Chi fiercely and waved his fists around.
“Yellow… err, Seventeen, do you have some trouble?” Ling Jian was too used to using Ling Seventeen’s nickname and had almost blurted it out without thinking.
“It isn’t ‘some trouble’ at all but it is a huge trouble,” Ling Seventeen said with a depressed look. “I have never been afraid of death but am afraid that my death wouldn’t be sufficient to complete the young noble’s mission. That would be horrible and extremely embarrassing.”
“Oh,” Ling Jian looked at Ling Seventeen with a smile which didn’t seem like a smile. “There isn’t a need for you to rush, young noble is here already. Let me tell him now that Ling Seventeen does not have the ability to complete this mission. I believe that the young noble will understand you for sure.” Ling Jian’s voice suddenly turned cold and he turned and walked away.
“Don’t don’t… don’t… brother Jian, ancestor Jian…” Ling Seventeen’s burly figure pounced forward and grabbed onto Ling Jian’s calves and was dragged by Ling Jian along the ground for a short few feet, “My dear ancestor, please don’t play with me. I will die…”
Ling Tian sat on a smooth rock with a bunch of burly men seated opposite him respectfully.
“Speak, what kind of difficulties do you have?” Ling Tian looked at the ape-like Ling Seventeen in front of him and could not help but be shocked. When he was in the courtyard, Ling Seventeen could already eat more than the others and had a larger built as compared to his peers. In just a short few years, Ling Seventeen had grown horizontally and currently looked like a rectangle. In a couple of years, who knows if he would turn into a square.
Especially his extremely boorish face and his needle-like beard. No one would ever be able to imagine that this boorish man who looked as though he was more than thirty years old was actually less than eighteen! Ling Tian almost suspected that Ling Seventeen had taken steroids.
“Young noble, this subordinate wants to launch an ambush to capture the surrounding twenty or so lookout stations before sending men to guard the ends of the two roads. The others will then dig up this segment of the road and sister Chen’s mission would be complete.” Ling Seventeen scratched his hair and a handful of dandruff fell off as he said helplessly, “It is a pity that we do not have enough manpower.”
“Puchi!” Ling Seventeen was greeted with a face full of water and never expected that his young noble would spit out his mouthful of water.
Ling Tian had just received the gourd which Ling Chi offered him and drank a mouthful of water but was choked by the words that Ling Seventeen said. “What did you say? Ambush more than twenty lookout stations? Guard the two ends of the road? Dig the road up??”
Lling Tian stood up and kicked Ling Seventeen’s burly shoulders with exasperation. “Dammit! Without 5000 soldiers at least, it would be impossible to attack more than twenty lookout stations at the same time. On top of that, if you want to guard the two ends of the road, you would need 50,000 soldiers at the very least and even then, you guys may not be able to guard the road! As for digging the road up, while the idea isn’t bad… the road is filled with iron and rocks two feet underground. How do you plan to dig it up? You only have a mere thousand soldiers and you actually came up with such a huge plan? I really don’t know if I should call you a genius or idiot! If I were to really go with your plan, I might as well bring all of our soldiers over to have a final battle with the Xiao Family. What is the point of talking about disrupting their resupply route? To think that you really came up with such a plan.”
“Hehehe… yellow gold is truly pigheaded!” Ling Chi gloated by the side.
After being sent rolling by Ling Tian, Ling Seventeen stood up foolishly with a few leaves stuck onto his bird nest like hair. He then blinked his eyes with doubt and asked, “Err… sister Chen was the one who said that… we need to destroy the resupply route. If we don’t dig up the road, how should we destroy it?”
“Haiz!” Ling Tian let out a long sigh and had the urge to bang his head on the rock. He was truly playing music to a bull.
“Pig! Do you really need to touch the road to destroy the resupply route?” Ling Jian let out a flurry of fists, hating the fact that Ling Seventeen had truly thrown his face. “Setting fire to burn it is destroying the resupply route. Killing them all is also destroying the resupply route. Dammit, even if you guys infiltrate the Xiao Residence to kill them all cleanly, it would still be destroying the resupply route! Do you understand?!”
Ling Seventeen used one hand to cover his face and the other to guard his two important parts, implementing the battle philosophy which Ling Tian had taught him back then, “Cover his face, hug his balls and allow the other party to punch and kick as they like!” His body began shaking from left to right as he begged for mercy, “Brother Jian… I will pick some soldiers to infiltrate the Xiao Residence to kill…”
“F**k!” Ling Tian was completely speechless!
The saying of ‘a disciple truly takes after his master’ was truly right. Ling Jian’s idea was truly completely rotten and wasn’t any much better than Ling Seventeen’s plan of guarding the ends of the road and digging up the road! To think that he would have a look of righteousness on his face, scolding his subordinate for being a pig. In actual fact, he wasn’t any much better than Ling Seventeen.
Kill everyone? If they really killed everyone, what was the point of destroying the resupply route? Wasn’t this akin to taking off his pants to fart?!
A few hundred thousand soldiers, even if they stood still and allowed you to kill them, you would require a few months to complete the task!
“Stop fooling around! All of you are a bunch of pig heads! Pot calling the kettle black!” Ling Tian grunted, “Show me the map of the surrounding area!”
It seems like I will still have to rely on myself. Ling Tian sighed helplessly. It was completely nonsensical to rely on a bandit and assassin to destroy a military resupply route! Just what was Meng LiGe thinking about? You have to know, every occupation has a specialty…
Seeing Ling Jian finally stopping his attack, Ling Seventeen carefully removed his hands from his head and crotch. To the thick-skinned Ling Seventeen, this round of beating was truly nothing much. Turning around and seeing his subordinates look at him in a daze, he immediately flew into a rage, “Didn’t you guys hear that young noble wants the map? Aren’t all of you bstrds going to fetch the map? A bunch of pig heads without any reaction! Are you guys going to wait for my whip to teach you guys a lesson?”
With a loud bang, the bandits scattered like the birds and hurriedly ran to fetch the map…
Ling Tian frowned and let out a sigh. In order to fetch a map which was a mere few grams, more than a hundred people were required to fetch it…
Ling Seventeen turned around in embarrassment and scratched his head foolishly, “Young noble please don’t be anxious… err, the children are going to fetch the map and it would arrive soon. Hehehe… these fellows are a little slow… it isn’t much, I only need to give them a good beating…”
Ling Tian looked at the bushy face in front of him and was speechless. At the same time, he felt his stomach churning in disgust before sighing and saying weakly, “Seventeen, I finally understand why you unloaded the yellow gold into your pants back then and also completely understand Ling Jian’s mood when training you. It isn’t easy.”
Ling Seventeen was dumbfounded with his jaws down in shock. He completely could not understand how this matter was related to his embarrassing past. Besides that, what has this got to do with his boss Ling Jian? What wasn’t easy for Ling Jian? Their young noble’s words were truly deep and profound and he was truly a well-learned individual.
Feng Mo, Ling Jian, and Ling Chi looked at the dumbfounded Ling Seventeen and their faces contorted from holding in their laughter.
The sound of footsteps broke Ling Seventeen’s doubt and snatched the map from the hands of his subordinate. He then turned around and presented the map with both his arms raised as though he was presenting a treasure to the king, “Young noble, hehe, the map is here.”
“Sssss…” In a moment of anxiousness, a large hole was torn in the fragile map and Ling Tian who witnessed it was about to blow up.
“Scram to the side!” Ling Jian kicked Ling Seventeen in the ass and cursed.
Ling Seventeen held onto his ass and stood by the side shamelessly. At the same time, he winked at Ling Chi, “Hehe, dog egg, hehe…”
Ling Chi rolled his eyes and looked to the side. Facing a shameless person like Ling Seventeen, Ling Chi was truly helpless. Of course, there also wasn’t a need for him to flare up at Ling Seventeen as flaring up at Ling Seventeen was just a waste of effort. Even if you went completely bonkers from anger, Ling Seventeen wouldn’t understand why you were angry.
Ling Tian frowned and looked at the gigantic map carefully. After considering for a long time, he finally made up his mind and pointed to the map, “It shall be here!” He then revealed a helpless smile. Ling Jian could clearly feel that there was a dense feeling of pity in Ling Tian’s eyes and he could not help but be stunned. Why? Why would Ling Tian be acting in such a manner?
Looking at where Ling Tian’s finger was pointing at, Ling Jian saw a large lake on the map with a blue stream beneath it. Following along the stream, Ling Jian noticed that it was surrounded by two tall peaks by the side with a large road in the center. Following that, there was a sturdy looking castle and it was the number one perilous location of the southeast, the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass! This was also the Xiao Family’s natural barrier towards invaders!
After going through the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass, they would be greeted with three thousand miles of fertile land and that was where the true territory of the Xiao Family was. It was also the reason why no other power was able to infiltrate into the Xiao Family’s territory for the past 500 years!
Regardless of whether the Xiao Family wanted to send out armies or the outside world wanted to invade them, it was necessary to pass through the Heavenly Water Ravine Passing and there wasn’t a second path! The mountains which spanned across a couple of thousand miles and the precipitously steep slopes that were high up in the clouds made it impossible for any army to surmount it!
This Heavenly Water Ravine Pass was truly capable of blocking ten thousand soldiers with a single man! At this place which only required 2000 soldiers to defend steadily, the Xiao Family actually sent a whole ten battalions!
Ten thousand men!
This was only counting the ordinary troops and did not include the various personal guards, cavalry and other various troops. If all of these were to be added in, there would be 20,000 soldiers at the very least! Regardless of how terribly the Xiao Family loses on the outside, as long as they were able to protect this place, the three thousand miles of territory behind it would always be theirs! Even if all of their soldiers on the outside perished, the Xiao Family only needed a few decades of rest before they would be able to produce tens of thousands of soldiers again and rule the world!
The grain of the Xiao Family was sent out from this place and the defense of the resupply route was watertight. There was no place for them to take action and even if they only wanted to cut off the supply of food for three days, it was an extremely challenging task! This was only possible if they could grasp control of this ancient pass within their hands! Apart from that, the Xiao Family would be able to repair any form of damage that they created in a short day or two. As for harassment tactics, that was completely useless.
In front of this massive obstacle, all of Ling Tian and Meng LiGe’s plans were armchair theories!
Ling Tian resolutely decided that things probably wouldn’t end at just disrupting the resupply routes of the Xiao Family!
Since they wanted to play, they should increase the stakes and bring forward the final battle!
A crazy battle intent burned in Ling Tian’s heart! It is either this half of the continent becomes peaceful from now on or the whole continent shall break out into chaos!
“Does young noble want to seize the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass?” Ling Jian took in a breath of cold air. Even the reckless Ling Jian could not see any hopes for this plan to work out. The generals guarding this pass had always been the direct descendants of the Xiao Family and would be loyal to the Xiao Family to the very end. At the same time, they were also all experts among experts!
How would it be an easy task to take over the pass in one swoop!
Ling Jian was certain that if he and his young noble wanted to infiltrate the pass, they would be able to do so with a couple of martial arts experts and their movement techniques. However, it wouldn’t be easy for them to retreat fully after infiltrating the pass, and as for seizing the control of the pass… even with Ling Jian’s arrogance and faith in Ling Tian’s strength, he felt that it was no more than a joke!
A mysterious smile could be seen on Ling Tian’s face, “With our strength, it would indeed be a dream for us to capture the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass. But what if I said that we want to destroy it?!”
Ling Jian had the sudden urge to roll his eyes with disdain. If not for the fact that Ling Tian was a deity-like existence to Ling Jian, Ling Jian would definitely blurt out: Young noble, do you have a fever? If there is really a way to destroy this pass, would the experts of the continent allow it to remain for a few hundred years?!
Ling Tian could naturally tell what Ling Jian was thinking about and smiled, “Under normal circumstances, my idea would be no more than a dream. However, there isn’t anything absolute in the world. Ling Jian, have you seen these two mountain peaks?”
Ling Jian looked at where Ling Tian was pointing at and said, “These two mountain peaks lie behind the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass and are the two highest points of the ridgeline. What does this have to do with our plan? Does young noble have other plans? However, how could these two mountains be moved by human strength?!”
Ling Tian sneered and traced out the azure river with his finger and said with a devilish smile, “Even if our human strength is lacking, the forces of nature are unparalleled. A large amount of river water flows past these two mountain peaks and after thousands of years of weathering, a precipice has been formed. The road which the Xiao Family has been maintaining for a thousand years is on the other side of the mountain. Even though the road is broad, there is only a single road with steep mountains on both sides. If these two mountains were to collapse, it would definitely cut off the flow of the river. At that time, where will all the water flow to?”
“The river water will definitely flow into the mountain road and may even drown the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass. If that’s the case, not to mention three days, even if the Xiao Family was given three months they may not be able to redirect the river water. If that happens we would have destroyed the food resupply route and even sending out a single soldier would be of great difficulty. If that’s the case, the 450,000 soldiers on the outside would be left without any reinforcements.” Ling Jian shook his head with a depressed look, “However, why would the mountain peak collapse without a reason? It probably wouldn’t be completely destroyed even if lightning strikes it. As for causing the mountain to collapse with human force, there isn’t even a need to think about it.”
“I naturally have a plan!” Ling Tian smiled with confidence before his face turned serious, “Send my orders!”
Everyone immediately straightened their backs and sat up attentively.
“Ling Seventeen, pick out a few guides familiar with the place to be the guides of these troops. Feng Mo’s troops are to be split into five groups and will take turns to harass the lookout stations. Regardless of whether or not they are successful, they are to retreat after a single wave of attacks and are not to drag out the battle. However, the attacks must happen frequently and this matter cannot be delayed.”
“As for the rest, collect large amounts of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal. The more the better! I have my own use for them!”
“Feng Mo, immediately send a message to the Courtyard to ensure that the soldiers’ morale is high. Regardless of the price, they are to defend against the attacks of Southern Zheng and the Xiao Family and wait for my good news.”
“Besides that, inform the advisor to mobilize all of our troops. Apart from those at the Southern Zheng’s battlefield, all other troops are to be sent to the east.
“Command Shen RuHu is to take a roundabout route to get here. They are to fortify their defenses and prepare for a bitter battle! Tell the general to get ready to swallow up the Xiao Family’s 400,000 man army! Over the next few days, the Xiao Family’s army will definitely fall into chaos!”
“Send my orders to my father’s army. The moment we start the battle with the Xiao Family on the east, they are to swallow up Southern Zheng in the quickest time possible!”
“Ling Jian, order the remaining forces of the First Pavilion stationed in the Courtyard to go down south and listen to my father’s orders. They are to assist the army to the south and I allow them to carry out assassination missions. Within half a month after battle breaks out in the east, I want to receive news of Southern Zheng being captured! They will then send their army up north and towards Eastern Zhao!”
“Inform DongFang JingLei to create chaos in Eastern Zhao within three days. Even if he has to sacrifice all of his men, he is to complete this mission! Tell DongFang JingLei that regardless of how much he loses, I will pay him back double! But if he does not complete the mission, not a single member of the DongFang Family will be left alive! I will not go back on my word!”
“Ling Jian and Ling Chi, pick out a hundred elites capable of scaling this mountain and await my orders! They should be prepared to go past the mountain and I will have further orders for them.”
“There isn’t any room for negotiations and all of these orders are to be carried out immediately! Those who defy my orders will be dealt with by military law!”
Ling Tian then looked at the two tall peaks afar with killing intent in his eyes and muttered under his breath, “Since we want to play, let us go all in! Let me see how the Xiao Family army is going to survive after losing their food supply.”
“In three months time, I will unite my half of the continent and only leave the Xiao Family’s territory alone. At that time, the Heavenly Water Ravine Pass will be in my hands and the Xiao Family won’t be a cause for concern!”
Ling Tian grinned ferociously, “I originally didn’t want to do this but since the Xiao Family has this natural indestructible obstacle that no power is able to threaten, hehehe…”
Ling Tian’s chuckle filled with killing intent made everyone present feel their backs turn cold and hair stand.
It was a pity that Miss Li Xue wasn’t present today. Only Li Xue would be able to guess what was going on in Ling Tian’s head. If Li Xue was present today, she would also be laughing and looking forward to the scene in future…
Even though none of the members present in this meeting could understand the rationale for Ling Tian’s orders, they still swiftly carried it out because of the faith they had in Ling Tian.
Ling Jian thought about everything that Ling Tian had said and could feel his blood boiling with excitement. Although he didn’t know what Ling Tian wanted to do, based on his understanding of Ling Tian, this plan of his must definitely be one that will shake the heavens and will definitely succeed!
If the young noble wants to do something, how would it possibly fail!
Ling Jian had a sudden premonition that the whole continent would be transformed because of Ling Tian’s orders today!
……
Ling Tian stood up at the peak of the mountain and his gaze swept past the surroundings. Even with Ling Tian’s eyesight, the barracks beneath the mountain looked like small little soybeans.
The sky seemed to have been cleaned of all its clouds and it was blue for ten thousand miles!
The cold breeze swept past Ling Tian’s face and his black robes fluttered in the winds. His black hair drifted in the winds and Ling Jian stood guard behind him silently. Looking at the tall and slim back view of Ling Tian, Ling Jian suddenly felt a deep reverence.
Even though they were only a couple of steps away from each other, Ling Jian felt as though Ling Tian was high up in the skies! In this life of his, Ling Jian felt that he would never be able to achieve such heights!
Ling Tian’s silhouette was clearly outlined by the sun and it seemed as though there was a layer of golden light covering him.
A thousand mountains and rivers were all beneath his feet!
“The world is like a painting, who will rise and who will fall?” Ling Tian’s eyes were narrowed and a bloody killing intent flashed past his eyes. Despite only muttering a single phrase quietly, a powerful killing intent was suppressed within it! This was something that Ling Jian could clearly feel.