Chapter 132 - Wu Xu, the Battle Slave

The Arab fighters all seemed to value their lives highly. Despite having vastly superior numbers, each was afraid of being singled out for a kill. They were all the same too, from the wounded man who played dead to the prince who retreated.

The only comparable person Han Qingyu knew was probably Liu Shiheng.

It seemed the rich truly were more reluctant to part with their lives. That probably meant all that stuff about rich people actually being unhappy, or about poverty being spiritually fulfilling, was nonsense.

They even used Tao Yuanming[1] as a classic example of this blatant lie. Old Tao was born into a noble family, but ultimately walked away from a life of wealth and prestige.

Han Qingyu had never spent a single day as a rich man in the ordinary world. Even once he got money, source energy had him strapped for resources in this cruel world behind the curtain. Deep down, he longed to live a few comfortable years, well-supplied and never running short.

This little ambush had yielded three energy cores.

The one taken straight from the pocket of the man who’d played dead was full. The other two came from combat cases and had some wear, but still added up to about one and a half cores’ worth combined. Han Qingyu filled them up to the max and handed them to Shen Yixiu for safekeeping.

There was also the black spear, which was about two meters and forty centimeters long. They propped it up so that one end rested against the cave wall.

We can use it to dry clothes, Han Qingyu absently thought. Wait, never mind. We don’t do laundry out here.

Han Qingyu picked up the spear and examined it. “This spear seems pretty impressive. When the man in black was spinning it to deflect the Arab fighters’ dead iron curved blades, I noticed some of their blades chipped on the edge. Basically, the dead iron purity of this spear is probably higher than any weapon we’re using.”

The Coalition didn’t forge dead iron straight blades from pure dead iron because of how precious the raw material was. Parts of the blade’s non-contact surfaces were filled with an alloy composite.

This was common knowledge taught in the Coalition’s classes. In combat, warriors occasionally ran into an embarrassing situation where they’d hack away at something only for the middle of the blade to hollow out, leaving nothing but a frame.

“Plus, almost everyone here can use this thing,” Han Qingyu continued, passing the spear along. “Take Yin Caixin, for example. You can probably clear out an area the size of a basketball court if you use your blades with your Invincible Firewind Wheels. Switch to this, and you could get a whole soccer field. People who can’t dodge in time will be sent flying.”

In truth, Yin Caixin was a bit on the slender side, which didn’t exactly match the raw, overbearing nature of the Invincible Firewind Wheels. It felt like a move that some hulking, muscular man would perform.

This made for a strange sense of contrast every time the image came to mind.

Han Qingyu smiled as he watched her take the spear and give it a few test swings. He then moved on to everyone else. Rust Girl could use it with the precision of skewering tanghulu[2], while he could throw it like a javelin.

With the spear’s length, even Wen Jifei could grab it and jab at people from a distance if forced to fight.

There was always the chance he’d stab his way to an A-rank hit. Even if not, alternating between an E-rank thrust and a B-rank thrust would probably confuse the hell out of his opponents.

In the end, the black spear was given to He Tangtang, even though he was the only one who wouldn’t see a dramatic power increase from it. This was simply because his frame suited it best.

Although the sky was growing dark, Han Qingyu decided to abandon this cave and move elsewhere.

Their approximate location had been exposed, and he couldn’t be sure whether teammates of the lone fighter would come looking, or whether the Arab prince would bring reinforcements to settle the score. Even if they only passed on the information, staying here was a bad idea.

“Also, those Arab fighters seem to have brought a trained hawk in with them. Everyone, keep an eye out when we’re on the move. If that feathered pest is still around...” Han Qingyu trailed off.

“Then what? We don’t have a gun,” Wen Jifei said with some frustration.

“No worries. If it’s still around, I’ll catch a snake and see if I can lure it down to roast it.” As Han Qingyu led the way through the mountain forest, he added offhandedly, “Oh, right, if we run out of food, would you all mind eating snake for a few days?”

Shen Yixiu was silent. Good thing I don’t need to eat.

“Raw?” Yin Caixin asked.

It seemed the Swiss pulled the same trick of making recruits eat raw meat during the first half of recruit training too.

Han Qingyu smiled. “Roasted.”

“That’s fine, then. Can you actually catch any, though?” Yin Caixin asked seriously. “It’s pretty cold out here.”

“That’s a rude question, Little Caixin. Show some respect for the Han family’s ancestors.” Wen Jifei laughed. “When Little Qing hunts, he might not catch the females, but the males? Piece of cake.”

The rush to relocate meant Yin Caixin didn’t have time to settle the score with him, so he’d livened up again.

“Shh, stop talking.” Han Qingyu quickly cut them both off to prevent Plague Chicken from creating another awkward situation and focused on leading the group carefully forward.

A while later, He Tangtang quietly caught up to him. “Will we be able to find another cave?”

Practically every other team had brought tents for this trip into the trial grounds. Only Han Qingyu had confidently said they wouldn’t need one.

“Yeah, just follow me,” Han Qingyu said.

He Tangtang believed him.

***

Wu Xu walked through the forest with a dead iron curved blade in each hand. His black clothes were in tatters, and his body was caked in blood,

Afraid of leaving tracks, he dared not hack through the undergrowth to clear a path. However, moving through the dense woods was exhausting. Not wanting to waste source energy, he also didn’t activate his device and moved more slowly than usual, his injured body aching the entire way.

He’d deliberately gone in a wide loop first to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Then he’d spent a long time feeling his way through the forest before finally spotting the sparse markers that the Young Miss and the others left.

After following the markers for some time, they petered out. Wu Xu knew that meant he was close to where Young Miss and her group were hiding.

He leaned against a tree trunk in exhaustion, his body sliding downward until he simply sat on the ground. Catching his breath, he fished out a piece of dried meat from inside his pocket, bit into it, and chewed as though gnawing on tree bark. Then he swallowed.

His parched throat called for a drink of water, so he reached for his waterskin. It had been slashed open during the fight. The best he could do was tilt his head back and let the few remaining drops inside trickle into his mouth.

There was the sound of a stream nearby, but he dared not leave, fearing that the Young Miss’s people wouldn’t be able to find him.

About an hour passed like that.

A pebble finally struck a tree about a hundred meters ahead of him with a thud.

This was a very old method of making contact.

Wu Xu got to his feet. The other party didn’t wait for him. He followed the sound, walking a long way before finally finding the Young Miss, Yu Fengzi, and four others beneath a rocky overhang concealed by trees.

“Are you sure you weren’t followed?” Yu Fengzi asked the moment she saw him. She appeared to be in her late twenties and carried an eighth-gen device on her back.

“I’m sure I wasn’t,” Wu Xu answered, standing.

“Oh, good.” Yu Fengzi looked him up and down, then asked in irritation. “Where’s your spear?”

“The spear...” Wu Xu hesitated. “Someone took it.”

“Took it?!”

“Yes.”

Yu Fengzi seemed to hold herself back for a moment. “Did you at least get any energy cores?”

Wu Xu lowered his head and shook it. “No.”

Yu Fengzi lost her patience and swung the flat of her dead iron broadsword at Wu Xu in a temper.

Wu Xu didn’t move.

“Fengzi.” A man in his early thirties nearby caught Yu Fengzi’s wrist. He flashed Wu Xu a friendly smile, then pulled her aside and said quietly, “Fengzi, what are you doing? Take it easy. We still need him.”

“We can still use him even after I hit him. He lives and dies at my command. You outsiders wouldn’t understand.” Yu Fengzi smiled proudly at the Preserver man named Yuan Qing. “He’s my family’s battle slave. You don’t know what that means, do you? My father picked and raised him. All he’s ever known since he was born is fighting and loyalty. Nothing else.”

Yuan Qing blinked. These reclusive clans really did produce some bizarre things. “Still, he seems very strong.”

“Of course. The weak ones were weeded out long ago.”

1. Tao Yuanming, also known as Tao Qian, courtesy name Yuanliang, was a Chinese poet and politician. He was one of the best-known poets from the Six Dynasties period. Tao Yuanming famously fled political life to live in seclusion, living his days as a farmer, because he hated the murkiness of politics. ☜

2. Chinese candy made by dipping bamboo-skewered fruit into a sugary candy coating. It’s traditionally made with hawthorn berries, but can also be made with other fruits like strawberries or grapes as well ☜