Chapter 554: Captive

Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations

"Spiritual technique? Divine technique?"

Fang Yuan stared at the enemy general, who exhaled clouds of white mist, with interest.

This person's abilities reminded him of the witches.

Even though the blood of the witches flowed in his veins, it had been greatly diluted. His natural talent in the divine technique was only because the spiritual technique that he practised enjoyed a chemistry with his constitution and bloodline.

"General Heng and Ha*?"

Fang Yuan had arrived at a silent conclusion.　　

"He's a realm energy practitioner!"

Meng Kuo palmed his fist.

"These Dongyi people have actually managed to enlist the help of realm energy practitioners?"

'Realm energy practitioners? Could this become a system to be developed by the world in the future?'

Fang Yuan looked at Meng Kuo.

"What are realm energy practitioners?"

"Jie...this isn't the right time to ask questions."

Meng Kuo loosed a few arrows with his bow with a helpless look on his face.

"After we win this battle, I'll tell you everything!"

"Alright, I'll hold you to it!"

Fang Yuan snatched the whip over from the charioteer and rushed towards the enemy general.

The white mists enveloping the general were intimidating. None of the Shang men had dared to approach him, giving him free rein to wreak havoc.

He laughed out coldly when he saw Meng Kuo's approaching chariot.

"Here comes someone with a death wish!"

The enemy general manoeuvred his spear and thrust it towards the chariot.

"Dang!"

Fang Yuan parried the blow with his sword. A dark gleam rushed along the blade of the sword as it split the spear into two parts.

"Impressive!"

The enemy general was shocked but recovered himself quickly. He exhaled another cloud of white mist and pounced towards Fang Yuan.

'Actually...this person is merely an amateur. That trick he is doing with the white mist is but a simple trick of deception. Still, I cannot reveal my abilities yet…"

Considering the power level of Fang Yuan's divine soul and true aura, he could probably resist the combined efforts of the real Generals Heng and Ha to take him down.

Nevertheless, Fang Yuan had to conceal his true powers. He quickly grabbed the charioteer over and used him as a human shield.

"Thump!"

The white mist had caused the charioteer to fall unconscious to the ground.

At this point, Fang Yuan threw out his sword in a deadly piercing move.

"Slash!"

The enemy general barely avoided the full brunt of sword slash. A large gash had been torn into his shoulder. He fell off his horse and tried to make a run for it.

"No one escapes me!"

Fang Yuan drove the chariot after him and thrust the sword forward once more. This time, it sank into the face of the enemy general.

"Ughh…"

The enemy fell to the ground and was taken alive by Fang Yuan.

"Jie has taken the enemy!"

Meng Kuo lifted up his bow with a shout when he saw Fang Yuan's catch.

"Jie has taken the enemy!'

The surrounding Shang soldiers who had witnessed the events echoed after Meng Kuo and broke out into cheers of jubilation. The morale of the soldiers had received a great boost.

"Jie? A true warrior!"

Senior Fang and the other officials watched on with a multitude of expressions but all of them were impressed.

"The Guru has been captured!"

"The Guru has been defeated!"

In contrast to the Shang, consternation broke out within the ranks of the Dongyi warriors as they made a confused and hasty retreat.

"Chase them down! Chase them down!"

Upon seeing the rout of the Dongyi army, Senior Fang ordered the Shang soldiers to pursue them without hesitation.

The Shang soldiers were more ferocious than the Dongyi soldiers to begin with. They had experienced losses earlier on because the Dongyi general had intimidated them with his brash confidence.

Now that they were rid of this factor, the Shang soldiers began to mount their counter-attack.

"Charge!"

Fang Yuan and Meng Kuo both took a chariot and rode towards the enemy. As they drove the horses along, they mowed down the enemy soldiers in their way. Meng Kuo was especially awesome as he loosed streams of arrows at the enemy.

"It's a pity that there aren't any other powerful figures!"

Fang Yuan could not be bothered to count the number of Dongyi soldiers he had cut down. He was slightly disappointed that he had not managed to find another opponent who was capable of displaying a divine technique.

The scorching sun illuminated the chaotic battlefield.

The rout of the Dongyi army was a disastrous affair and the Shang soldiers had all but destroyed them.

In the end, the Shang army had defeated the Bai, Yue and Shan Dongyi divisions. They had killed two thousand enemy soldiers and had captured another three thousand. It was an overwhelming victory.

Later that night, the camp bathed in the soft glow of numerous lanterns as well as the aroma of roast beef and lamb. A large banquet had been thrown in the army camp to celebrate the victory, where the Shang soldiers made merry and revelled in food and wine. 　

"Is this supposed to be the greatest army in the world?"

Fang Yuan was speechless as he observed the party.

"If the enemy could exploit the current laxness of the Shang army and launch a night attack, one thousand people would be sufficient to bring this army to its knees. Of course...we can't expect much from the armies of the Shang era…"

After all, this was the Pre-Qin period, where people were more simple and naive. 　

Besides, these armies were not professional but were made up of slaves. The military training that they underwent was a cursory one and their main occupation was farming the land.

"The standard of the Pre-Qin armies was comparable to the armies of the Europe Middle Ages...there was no such thing as military discipline. It was a time where armies simply won by being less incompetent than their rivals…"

Fang Yuan shook his head and walked over to his tent.

Ever since Fang Yuan had displayed his martial prowess on the battlefield, the Shang treated him respectfully and provided him with a splendid tent as well as servants. Fang Yuan entered his tent to see that there was bound captive in the corner.

According to the Shang way, Fang Yuan's captive belonged to him. It was up to Fang Yuan whether he wanted to kill the captive, sell the captive or even set him free.

Fang Yuan sat down cross-legged behind his table and examined the bound captive.

The captive looked to be in his forties. He was square-jawed, large-eared and had an upturned nose. His features were crude, even ugly. His eyes were tightly shut and he looked like he had not yet regained consciousness.

"Alright, stop pretending!"

Fang Yuan drained the content of his bronze wine vessel and spoke in an indifferent manner.

"I know that you're awake and are looking for a way to escape…"

"Argh!"

Fang Yuan had just finished speaking when the burly captive roared and snapped the ropes bounding him. At that moment, he looked like a leopard who had been rudely awoken and sprang towards Fang Yuan.

"Hmph!"

A sharp blast of air shot out from his nostrils and flew towards Fang Yuan like a dart.

The burly man seemed so sure that Fang Yuan would not be able to escape his attack and would fall into his hands.

However, in the next moment, the blast of air hit Fang Yuan and dissipated harmlessly. Fang Yuan raised his left hand and smacked the large man to the ground.

"How was it? Do you want to try me again? Death will be the outcome of your next failed attempt!"

Fang Yuan said in a calm voice.

"Never mind. Having fallen into the hands of a realm energy practitioner, I, Hei Zhong, will accept my fate!"

The burly man gritted his teeth.

"Is it so? I can set you free. Just get all your masters to avenge you! I'll take on every single one of them!"

Fang Yuan said with a gleeful smile.

"Hmph! Although I don't understand what you're playing at, do your worst!"

"Hmm?"

Fang Yuan was taken aback.

"Are you not going to scare me with the name of your master, or try to get into my good books? Life is precious!"

"I don't have any masters. My divine technique was imparted to me by a stranger that I met in my youth."

Hei Zhong was obviously not very bright and Fang Yuan managed to find out all about him within a short time.

Hei Zhong has had an unusually large appetite since he was young and frequented the mountains in his quests for food.

One time, he had encountered a ferocious tiger and had bumped into a figure in his escape. The figure had saved his life by chasing the tiger away and upon seeing that he had some talent, proceeded to teach him a technique.

This technique was a little deceptive trick but was effective in hunting for small game and scaring away larger beasts. Hei Zhong developed his skills in the technique such that it became a formidable white mist that could rival divine techniques.

However, since then, he had never seen his benefactor ever again.

As his reputation grew, the Dongyi lured him to their camp with gifts and enlisted him to fight the Shang.

'Sigh…'

Fang Yuan was unhappy now that he had found out all that he wanted to know. Fang Yuan had wanted to become acquainted with other realm energy practitioners and powerful beings through his captive.

It was a pity that he had failed even before he had gotten started. 　　　　

"What a fool. I'll probably either sell or kill you!"

Fang Yuan's expressions were cold. 　

His interest in the systems of the realm energy practitioners had been piqued.

It was thanks to Meng Kuo that Fang Yuan had a better understanding of the background of the realm energy practitioners now.

"Five hundred years ago when the Xia still ruled the world, the prevailing cultivation technique was the Da Qian way. However, it was revised by the dream masters and became impure. The other supernormal force was witchcraft. Of course, there might be a small group of priests as well…"

"The rise of realm energy practitioners followed centuries later. They believed that heaven and earth were made up of original essence, which turned into elemental force over time! Thus, the point of cultivation was to purify the elemental force into original essence so that one could trace its source and achieve immortality!

He had to admit that this was similar to how Da Qian's elemental force worked.

In Fang Yuan's opinion, this was the embryonic form of the celestial dao.

"Unbelievable. The celestial dao has been developed in only five hundred years...of course, taking into account primeval rituals and methods of worship, there is also the god dao!"

"Celestial dao, god dao and witchcraft dao...are these the native power systems that have been set up in this world? Wait a minute...perhaps there should be another addition - demon dao!"

Fang Yuan could not help but remember the time he had to deal with Wu Zhiqi, Xiang Liu and company during the Great Flood. Although they were part of the Hidden Dragon Guards, they were of the demon race!

Displayed on Fang Yuan's face was a mix of emotions. Hei Zhong looked at Fang Yuan's unreadable expression and was overcome by fear. He dropped his tough guy act and blurted out a plea for mercy.

"Wait a minute. You could let someone redeem me or let me stay on as your slave. Please spare my life!"

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* Two generals of the Shang Dynasty in chinese mythology

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