Rebirth of a Star General 83
The Formation
“I’m a little angry.”
As soon as this sentence came out, Wang Ba and the others all coincidentally looked at He Yan at the same time.
Shi and He Yan had stayed together for the longest time as compared to the others in the group. He knew that He Yan always had a good-temper. Even when Wang Ba came to snatch her meat buns previously, she only protected the food by herself and did not say that she was angry so seriously.
Right now, this monkey, who no one knew where he came from, actually made He Yan angry.
Lei Hou laughed, “Brother He, the sword has no eyes, don’t be angry.”
“That is only if you can hurt me.” He Yan smiled, flipped her body backward, and quickly arrived behind Lei Hou. Her nine-section whip was like a long snake, swinging lightly, Lei Hou avoided it. However, the whip was long and could not be avoided by a glance, he was thrown off by the whip, as it brushed his cheek. In a flash, a red mark appeared on Lei Hou’s face.
Because he was scratched by the tail of the whip, there was no bleeding, even so, Lei Hou’s face became unsightly.
“Brother Lei, the whip has no eyes,” He Yan hooked her finger at him, “Don’t be angry.”
Lei Hou, without uttering a word, lunged towards her with his long sword in hand. He moved skillfully as his murderous aura soared, completely different from the new recruits trained in the martial arts arena. Each slash was targeted at either He Yan’s throat or He Yan’s heart, which was very vicious.
In contrast, the teenager’s movements were much gentler. He was born thin and fragile, but he was not fatigued at all, as if he had infinite energy. Sweeping and wrapping his whip around, making Lei Hou’s sword impossible to move forward.
He Yan didn’t want to hurt Lei Hou, but Lei Hou thought differently. She pondered about it a few times in her heart, and it seemed that unless Lei Hou was completely knocked down, or left with only a single breath, he would not give up chasing after her and snatching the flags.
However, the fight against Leihou also gave He Yan a strange feeling. This strange feeling was unclear, but after all, it made her feel as if something had been ignored and she was feeling uncomfortable.
Just as she was thinking, a sword light came diagonally. He Yan was startled, and leaned back a little. The sleeve of her hand was cut in an instant, and the wind leaked in.
Lei Hou stared at her, his gaze shining as he said, “At this point, I don’t think you should have the time to be distracted!”
“I was just wondering, how I can calm you down,” He Yan said, “Brother Lei, has no one told you that you are a bit annoying?”
Such blatantly provocative words, coupled with her smiling expression, can really blow up ordinary people. Lei Hou’s face sank immediately as he raised his sword to stab her. He Yan smiled slightly, throwing out the long whip, like a long snake it rolled around, preventing the tip of the sword from slashing and moving an inch more.
She was still smiling, as she continued, “Actually, you don’t know, the whip I use is a very amazing weapon.”
In an instant, the whip flew around in the air, sweeping and rolling forward, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, making people dazzled.
The young man’s voice with a hearty smile, as if it was not a fierce fight for the flag, but a friendly battle with the companions in the martial arts arena, and she spoke as the whip fluttered in the air with her beautiful footwork.
“This is called inside and outside, pivoting.”
“This is called double-crossing an equine.”
“This, White Snake breathing poison.”
“and this, Sweeping Dragon!”
She moved faster and faster, as Wang Ba and the others had long stopped their movements, looking at her, surprised by her aura.
In the martial arts arena, they already knew she was very powerful. But now it seemed that she had been being generous and collected.
Lei Hou gritted his teeth as his complexion became uglier.
He didn’t put He Yan in his eyes, no matter how powerful a recruit was, the recruit wouldn’t know everything. The fact that He Yan was excellent with the sword, bow, and spearman ship did not mean that he could defeat him. But right now, this young man, who came here with a whip, was using it with ease, as if he had already used it thousands of times. Not only was he using it with ease, he was also making use of it very well. It couldn’t be said who was winning the battle.
But He Yan was really too cunning. He had only fought with him a few times, but it seemed that He Yan could observe his weaknesses and attack them exclusively, in such a short period of time. Whereas he was not able to find He Yan’s weakness at all. So he couldn’t even start to try anything, causing Lei Hou to feel alarmed.
The young man’s smile expanded with every slash of whips. Lei Hou felt that the long whip in front of him was like a spinning wheel, and also like a hard and fierce steel rod, sometimes like a worm sometimes like a dragon, infinitely changing. He couldn’t help but feel a little dazzled.
Just when he was dazzled, he noticed the long whip coming towards him again, Lei Hou subconsciously took the sword to block it. The next moment, the whip bent mischievously and leaned straight toward his chest.
Lei Hou secretly said in his heart that it was not good, but it was too late. The whip seemed to have eyes, as the full dozen flags that were directly caught in his arms were snatched.
Lei Hou wanted to block the long whip with his sword, but the long whip could be retracted or put away, as it avoided being entangled by his sword. The whip slipped back and flags fell into He Yan’s hands.
“This is called golden silk-wrapped gourd.” He Yan grabbed the flags in her hand and smiled, “Thank you, Brother Lei, you even tied them up for me.”
Lei Hou was conceited and felt that none of the recruits on Baiyue Mountain who were fighting for the flag today could beat him. Therefore, even the place where flags were placed was open, they were directly bundled with a rope and were placed in his arms. But at this moment, He Yan took everything away. He couldn’t help but to feel regret. It would have been much safer if they were divided amongst his teammates, and all of them would not have been snatched away at once.
Seeing that they were all taken away by He Yan, Lei Hou couldn’t hold back his gloomy expression anymore. Without a word, he rushed towards He Yan.
He Yan took a few steps back and said with a smile, “When something comes to my hands, it becomes my property, and no one can grab my things.”
“What if I want to grab it?” Lei Hou was murderous, his sword slashed like a shooting star.
“Actually, I don’t like fighting,” He Yan sighed, “If you want to grab them, then I have to beat you up.”
The two figures collided in an instant.
Wang Ba and Lei Hou’s companions were already tired from fighting. Besides, the flag was not in their hands, and it is meaningless to fight. They were already sitting under the tree, watching like a spectator. They were also very clear in their heart, this was a contest between He Yan and Lei Hou, whoever wins can take away the flags.
“Can you tell which of them is better?” Lei Hou’s companion asked.
Jiang Jiao shook his head, “I can’t tell.”
“There’s no need to ask, it must be He Yan!” Wang Ba answered naturally.
“Oh? What makes my brother say this?”
“I don’t know, just felt it.”
“…”
“…Want some pine nuts?” Huang Xiong also handed a pine nut to the other party.
“Thanks a lot, well, it’s so fragrant!”
They hadn’t even finished eating a small handful of pine nuts when suddenly they heard a “dong” sound.
Everyone looked forward together, and the two figures had already separated. Lei Hou’s face was still, whereas the young man was smiling, holding a long whip.
A sword was lying on the ground.
“You’ve lost.” He Yan said.
Lei Hou’s face was ugly, and he didn’t speak. After a while, he said solemnly, “You cheated.”
“Soldiers are not tired of the deceit.” He Yan picked up the long sword on the ground and returned it to him, as she earnestly said, “Your leg was injured by me, rest here for half an hour before moving, otherwise your leg will be left with sequelae. In the future, you won’t be able to make any further gains in practice.”
Lei Hou put aside his face and took the sword, not wanting to look at her.
“It’s okay,” He Yan patted him on the shoulder, and said earnestly, “The victory and defeat are affairs that cannot be predicted, and the one who can endure shame is a real man. It’s just a flag fight. You are already very good, but it’s a pity that you met me.”
She pointed to herself, “I am the best.”
Wang Ba and others have heard He Yan say this countless times, and they didn’t bother at first, and so now they were numb. Besides, what she said was true.
He Yan greeted Jiang Jiao, “Let’s go.” and also said to Lei Hou’s companions, “You can rest here, and protect Brother Lei by the way.”
The man looked at her in disbelief.
“You have beaten up so many recruits on the mountain. After a while, the recruits would be going down the mountain. Seeing that Brother Lei is unable to move, it would be inevitable that they’ll join hands to beat him back.”
“That’s why I advised,” she said righteously, “Don’t do evil for trival things.”
…
Lei Hou and his team were left behind, while Jiang Jiao and the others followed He Yan down the mountain.
“He just said that you made a swindle,” Huang Xiong couldn’t help asking, “How did you make a swindle?”
“In fact, it’s not a swindle, but it’s deliberately selling him a few flaws.” He Yan shrugged, “He wanted my life, and I only wanted him to not be able to escape or catch up to me. He misunderstood my meaning, so…”
“That monkey is not very powerful,” Wang Ba said nonchalantly. “If he was really powerful, how could he be defeated so soon! So weak!”
“You are wrong,” He Yan shook her head and laughed. “He is really great. Among the recruits of Liangzhou Wei, if it wasn’t for me, he would be the first one.”
He Yan had fought against him. She didn’t know what this person did in the past. He was only in his twenties and must have practiced martial arts for at least ten years. His knowledge was deep and the techniques were skillful. If there was anything wrong about him, it was just that he was too murderous. Although he didn’t hurt his life, he could seriously injure his comrades with his fighting style.
It was precisely because of his skills that his method of capturing the flag was so simple and rude. It was just the matter of capturing the flag, never a matter of setting up a ring. Whoever that could fight to the end is the winner. Although Lei Hou was very powerful, he had been fighting against other recruits on the top of the mountain. The non-stop ups and downs on the mountain, after all, consumed a lot of his physical strength. It wouldn’t have mattered if the fight happened near the start of the competition, but as the time spent became longer, their flaws became more obvious.
As for He Yan, going up and down the mountain today, all five people acted together. Wang Ba and the others were also working hard. In addition to making arrangements, He Yan didn’t really meet other teams as much. So she was energetic and had the strength to see through Lei Hou’s weakness.
“Is he really not going to follow?” Jiang Jiao was still a little skeptical, and looked back frequently, “I think we should go faster, in case he catches up.”
“Don’t worry,” He Yan said, “Unless he doesn’t want to continue martial arts training, he won’t follow. But what you said makes sense. We’d better hurry down the mountain.”
…
In the guardhouse, a game of chess had yet been played.
Shen Han’s heart was filled with things, and he had no intention of playing chess at all. The young man on the opposite side seemed to be in no rush, nor cared about the result of the flag fight, idly drinking tea, playing the game, being calm and heinous.
A black-clothed guard came in from the door, walked to Xiao Jue’s side, and whispered, “He Yan bumped into Lei Hou and fought against Lei hou. Lei hou was defeated. Right now, all twenty flags belong to He Yan.”
He didn’t avoid Shen Han, so when Shen Han heard these words, he immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.
Lei Hou was noticed by them when he started fighting for the first flag when he went up the mountain. This young man didn’t show his talents before. If it hadn’t been for this flag fight, he wouldn’t know that Liangzhou Wei had such a capable fighter. This person was also recommended by relatives in the family of the headteacher Du Maodu. He didn’t seem special at first, but now he knew that he had real skills.
This man went up the mountain to fight for the flag and fought against others, yet he wasn’t defeated once. His method was also different from He Yan’s ambush, he didn’t hide in the dark, he only knew how to go up straight and not how to cover up. Fortunately, he was extremely skilled, defeating countless people and taking 14 flags at once, twice as many as He Yan.
Shen Han was still looking forward to the meeting between Lei Hou and He Yan. He really wanted to see who would win the match between the two. Shen Han thought that He Yan was used to making tricks, so he might not be able to beat Lei Hou if he did it directly. After all, Lei Hou was really good at it.
He had never thought that Lei Hou would still be defeated by He Yan.
“He Yan and his team have already started walking down the mountain,” Fei Nu continued, “After another half an hour, they would enter the formation.”
Shen Han looked at Xiao Jue.
At first, he thought that for a recruit, there was probably no need to use formations. But now there was only one thought in Shen Han’s heart, this young man is omnipotent, he can do anything. He was afraid that this formation would not be able to trap him.
Xiao Jue looked calm, lowered his eyes, and picked Shen Han’s white pieces away.
Shen Han asked in a low voice, “General… he will win, right?”
Xiao Jue curled the corners of his lips, “Perhaps.”
…
The sun was gradually sinking to the west.
The sunlight changed from the brilliant gold in the day to the warm red, coming through the cracks in the branches and leaves, like a large red cloud, soft and bright, like a red veil worn by a girl.
The cry of wild birds came from the depths of the jungle. Probably because the twenty flags were already in hand, and the victory was in hand, the group was in a good mood. As if they were not up in the mountain to fight for the flag, but instead were returning home after having fun.
Wang Ba said, “I wonder if there will be a reward for going back, apart from the possibility in entering the forward camp?”
“There should be.” He Yan asked casually, “What do you want?”
“Wine! Of course, there should be good wine! I haven’t drank much since I came here.” Wang Ba complained, “If I could drink, I would have more energy than now!”
“That’s wine, not medicated food.” He Yan was a little amused.
“Can they reward me some good weapons?” Jiang Jiao said, “When I joined the army, I never brought along any weapons from home. The long spears in the martial arts arena are not easy to use. If I could get a good long spear in reward, it would be nice.”
Huang Xiong touched the Buddha beads on his neck and said, “I just want to eat hot beef. Drinking a big bowl of wine and eating big pieces of meat, that’s the way to live a life!”
Shi pondered for a long time before he said, “Take wheat to the mountain. He has always wanted to hunt rabbits.”
Among the four, the wishes of three were all related to eating and drinking, and He Yan didn’t know whether to praise them for their lack of desire. Jiang Jiao asked, “What about you? What reward do you want?”
“Me? There’s nothing I want.” He Yan said, “If I could enter the forward camp, I’d be very happy.”
“You really want to make contributions.” Wang Ba said sourly.
“That’s natural. I’m so powerful. Wouldn’t it be a shame if I didn’t make meritorious deeds? I still hope that I could be appreciated by the general and be a guard under him.” He Yan thought that if it was so, she and Xiao Jue would face each other every day. She could also enquire the news of the He family.
“You can just think about it,” Wang Ba rolled his eyes. “If you become one, I will call you father.”
He Yan, “…”
As he was talking, Huang Xiong stopped and said, “Are we going around the same place all the time? Why do I think that we have been here?”
“Pull back,” Wang Ba opened his mouth, “Do you know the way?”
“I also think we have just been here.” Jiang Jiao also said.
He Yan didn’t speak, and the Shi took out a straw rope from his arms, walked to a tree in front of him, stretched out his hand to tie it up, and said, “The mountain roads are complicated, and the trees look similar, misunderstanding them are common. Let’s just walk around and see. “
The group started walking down again, and after the time of a cup of tea, they saw a tree in front of them, and the tree was tied with a straw rope that shi tied just before.
This time, everyone was quiet.
For a moment, Wang Ba spoke, as his voice was trembling with a hint of imperceptible tremor, he said, “Are we caught by some ghost?”
He continued to talk more and more vigorously, and babbled, “I heard a master at the top of our mountain saying that he used to walk the mountain road at night, and once he walked to a place, he was walking in circles at the same place. There was really no way out, so he just sat down and slept at the same place. By the next morning, can you, can you guess what happened?”
He deliberately stopped, but no one answered his words, Wang Ba said angrily, “He woke up and found himself in a graveyard!”
He Yan held her forehead, “Brother Wang, this doesn’t seem to be the time to tell ghost stories.”
“What are you afraid of?” Huang Xiong’s said in a jarring voice, “I have Buddha beads. Demons and monsters can’t get close. On the contrary you,” he turned to look at He Yan, “Did you remember the route wrong?”
“No.” He Yan said.
“Why did we suddenly get lost?” Jiang Jiao was also puzzled. Although Baiyue Mountain was big, it was not too big to get lost. When they came up, it was all going well, and when it’s time to head down, they couldn’t get out.
“We are indeed walking down the mountain,” He Yan said, “But we’re also walking in circles.” A thought flashed in her mind, and she walked to the tree tied with the straw rope and looked around.
This is a wild land, the trees are not as dense as the top of the mountain; the ground was overgrown with weeds, and a few scattered stones were falling everywhere.
Stones?
He Yan’s heart moved, and she walked a few steps forward and saw a pile of rocks. She bent down and looked at it carefully. Several boulders were piled up in a random manner, without any shape. They looked like they were picked up by hunters on the mountain to rest.
“Why are you staring at this pile of rocks?” Wang Ba asked, “Are there any words on it?”
He Yan straightened up and said, “There are no words on it, but they are the reason why we can’t get out.”
“What?” Jiang Jiao and others also came around, all looking at the stones, and they couldn’t see any pattern. Shi frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Daoist magic, birth injury, recreation, dew, landscape, death, surprise, opening the eight doors. Someone has set up a formation here,” He Yan said, “We’ve entered the formation and that’s why we have been spinning around in circles.”
They only understood her words because she said them separately, but it would have been difficult for people to understand if her words were said altogether. Everyone looked at her, and they didn’t even know where to start asking questions.
He Yan also felt very strange. They hadn’t seen Wang Xiaohan and other’s shadows around, indicating that Wang Xiaohan and the others had already gone down the mountain. As it was impossible for Wang Xiaohan and his team to break the formation, this indicated that the formation was not here before. So why was their group trapped here now?
Who laid the formation specifically for her? Shen Han? Or was it Xiao Jue?
Join our Discord for fun and spoilers! || Support Phoenix Walk on Ko-fi for bonus chapters! || Read ahead on Patreon and support the group!
