One Man Could Suppress a Nation and Destroy a Nation
Chen Du was in no hurry to explore this world's secret realms, nor was he in a hurry to seek out martial arts.
Every day, he rose before dawn, shouldered his hoe, and went out to the fields with Grandma.
He turned the soil, sowed seeds, pulled weeds, and spread fertilizer,
busy from spring planting through the autumn harvest, until the calluses on his hands formed layer upon layer.
The carrying pole rubbed his shoulders raw. The wounds scabbed over, only to be rubbed raw again.
This body's foundation was too poor. After half a day's work, he was so exhausted he could barely straighten his back. Sweat dripped into the soil, striking it in little dark spots.
But strangely enough, he did not dislike the feeling.
During his years in the Xuanye Realm, he had read ten thousand scrolls, created mythic-grade martial arts, and slain Great Sheng Taizu.
He had helped a new emperor ascend the throne. Every day had been spent scheming, contending, and seeking breakthroughs. Life had not been particularly easy.
He had been like a bowstring drawn taut for seven years, never truly given a moment's slack.
On Blue Star, it had been even more so. The distance between life and death might have been no more than an instant.
But here, on this yellow earth so barren that even weeds struggled to grow, all he needed to do was bend down, swing his hoe, and straighten up again, over and over.
He did not need to think about anything or scheme over anything.
The weariness of his body instead left his mind clearer than ever before.
During those months, he did not deliberately cultivate, but every day after his work was done, he sat cross-legged for a while beneath the old locust tree beside the field ridge, slowly leafing through the thousands of martial arts scrolls he had brought back from the Xuanye Realm within his sea of consciousness.
Examining them again in his present state of profound calm, he gained many subtle insights he had never noticed before.
But he never cultivated any martial arts.
Instead!
[Stunning Everyone with a Single Cry · Lie Dormant experience +1]
[Stunning Everyone with a Single Cry · Lie Dormant experience +1]
[Stunning Everyone with a Single Cry · Lie Dormant experience +1]
[Stunning Everyone with a Single Cry · Lie Dormant experience +1]
[Current progress: Lie Dormant Lv2 (3/4) → Lie Dormant Lv3 (3/8)]
[Lie Dormant has risen to Lv2. The ability's effect has greatly increased, raising its boost from onefold to twofold.]
At the same time, he also began quietly nourishing this body.
The spiritual energy in this expanse of yellow earth was thin, but not entirely absent.
Every day in the fields, he deliberately synchronized the rhythm of his breathing with the swing of his hoe, drawing the scant spiritual energy in the air into his body, strand by strand, as he breathed.
The process was slow, so slow that even he felt as though he were digging a well with chopsticks, but the results were real.
After several months, the emaciated body gradually grew stronger, and his sallow face gained a little color.
When harvest season arrived, he and his younger brother carried the heavy heads of wheat home. Grandma stood at the courtyard gate, smiling until every wrinkle on her face smoothed out.
That evening, Grandma made several flatbreads with freshly ground flour. The golden bread sizzled in the iron pan, filling the whole courtyard with its aroma.
The three of them sat together beneath the locust tree in the courtyard, a sky full of stars overhead and waves of frogsong rising and falling in the distance.
Niuwa ate until his face was covered in grease. For once, Grandma did not scold him for his messy eating, but smiled and put another piece in his bowl.
Chen Du took a bite of bread, and the fragrance of wheat slowly spread through his mouth.
He suddenly remembered his first meal in Qianchuan Hall. The old eunuch who brought it had served him a bowl of cold, thin porridge and half a hard steamed bun...
That had also been the best meal Su Yuanzheng had eaten in four years.
That taste overlapped with the taste of the wheat bread in his mouth now, until he could scarcely tell which was memory and which was reality.
Grandma chatted on about how this year's harvest was better than last year's,
how Niuwa had grown taller again, and how Auntie Wang's sow at the head of the village had given birth to eight piglets.
Chen Du listened, responding every now and then.
Perhaps a life like this really was quite nice.
He did not know how much time had passed.
Even the Lie Dormant skill had smoothly risen to Lv4, and its effect on innate abilities involving emotions had increased from twofold to fourfold.
Chen Du came back from the fields with his hoe over his shoulder and saw cooking smoke drifting above their courtyard from a distance.
He pushed open the courtyard gate, and the aroma wafting from the kitchen was much stronger than usual.
Niuwa was leaning against the stove, staring eagerly into the pot.
"Brother!" Niuwa turned and saw him, his eyes lighting up. "Grandma cooked meat!"
Though he called it meat, it was really just a small piece of cured pork salted for the New Year, sliced thin and stewed with greens in a great pot of soup.
Grandma stood hunched over the stove, stirring the pot with a ladle.
Hearing him, she said without turning around, "Wash your hands before you come in."
At mealtime, the three gathered around the low table.
Grandma picked out all the meat, putting half in Niuwa's bowl and half in Chen Du's. Her own bowl held only greens and soup.
Chen Du tried to put the meat back, but Grandma tapped the back of his hand with her chopsticks. "Eat your food."
She kept a stern face, but the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes were full of smiles. "Look how skinny you two are. A gust of wind could knock you over. You've gotten a little sturdier these past few months, but you're still skinny."
Niuwa ate with grease all around his mouth. He looked up and mumbled, "Grandma, when I grow up and make lots of money, I'll buy you meat to eat every day."
"When you grow up," Grandma said, reaching out to wipe the grease from the corner of his mouth. "First do well in your studies. Mr. Wang from the east end of the village said you've been the best at reciting the Thousand Character Classic lately. Earn an official degree someday, and our family will have something to hope for."
As she spoke, she looked over at Chen Du. "You too. Don't spend all your time working in the fields. Your father was very clever as a child too. If it weren't for..."
She paused and said no more.
The two boys' father had been forcibly conscripted, and the subject was never mentioned in this household.
Chen Du murmured a reply and lowered his head to eat.
Grandma ladled another spoonful of soup into his bowl. "Your body is weak, so drink more. The harvest was good this year, and there's no rush with the work in the fields. Don't wear yourself out."
Niuwa cut in from beside them. "Brother's really strong now! Wang Tiezhu challenged him to an arm-wrestling match today, and he pinned Wang Tiezhu to the table with one hand!"
"What do you mean, 'pinned him to the table'?" Grandma glared at Niuwa. "Speak properly."
She turned back to Chen Du, her tone softening. "Don't go competing with people all the time. What if you hurt yourself?"
Chen Du smiled. "It's fine. We were just playing around."
Grandma gave a snort and added half a spoonful of rice to his bowl. "Even playing around won't do. You've never been one to speak up since you were little, and you never say anything when you're wronged. If anything happens to you out there, come back and tell Grandma. Grandma will stand up for you."
Chen Du held his bowl, the rice broth inside still hot. He said all right, his voice very soft, but a smile lingered on his lips.
A dog barked twice outside the courtyard, and someone in the distance sang a folk song, its long-drawn melody like a ribbon drifting in the night breeze.
A few days later, he was resting on a field ridge at midday while several companions who had grown up together squatted beneath the locust tree, chatting.
They were about the same age as Gouwa, the body's original owner, all youths of sixteen or seventeen. A few had gone out to seek their fortunes in the previous couple of years and seen something of the world, and they loved to boast about it in the village after coming back.
One of them, Wang Tiezhu—the one whose hand Chen Du had pinned to the table in their arm-wrestling match—was speaking with spittle flying about his time working as a shop assistant in a border city of the Zhao Kingdom.
"That city wall was taller than the tallest tree in our village! There were two rows of soldiers standing at the gate, their armor shining, and the spears in their hands were this long!"
He stretched out both arms to demonstrate, sweeping them in an exaggerated arc.
Another, Li Erniu, had traveled to the Yan Kingdom on trading trips. He picked up the conversation, saying that the Yan Kingdom's capital was even bigger. Its moat alone was more than ten zhang wide, and its walls were so high that your hat would fall off when you tilted your head back to look at them.
But as he spoke, he suddenly lowered his voice, as though about to reveal some extraordinary secret.
"Have you ever heard of the Blade Saint?"
The youths looked at one another and shook their heads.
Li Erniu immediately perked up and shuffled into the middle of the group. Wearing an air of mystery, he said, "I heard this from an old soldier when I was trading in the Yan Kingdom.
"Fifty years ago, when the Yan Kingdom destroyed Ning State, it sent an army of five hundred thousand. Just think about it, five hundred thousand!"
"That army surrounded Ning State's capital so tightly that not even water could have flowed through. The soldiers in the city either died or fled, and even the general defending it ran away. The city was about to fall and its people were about to perish. Then one man stepped forward."
"Who?"
"The Blade Saint!" Li Erniu slapped his thigh. "Nobody knew his name. They only called him the Blade Saint.
"They say he was already very old, with hair and a beard as white as snow. But he stood atop the city wall with nothing but a blade in his hand.
"When the Yan army charged, he stood alone before the city gate. With one stroke, he cut the cavalry in the front ranks in two, men and horses alike.
"With another stroke, he blasted a trench dozens of zhang long beneath the city wall, trapping all the siege engines in it.
"The Yan cavalry charged seven times, and he fought his way in and out seven times alone.
"The ground before the city gate was soaked with so much blood that the earth turned to mud. When you stepped into it, it came up to your ankles.
"He held out alone for fifteen whole days! By the time the Yan Kingdom finally took the city, it was a full half month later."
Chen Du leaned against the locust tree, slowly fanning himself with the straw hat in his hand. At this point, his eyes opened slightly.
One man had defended a city against an army of hundreds of thousands, holding them back for half a month...
The Heavenly Human Realm truly was no simple place.
"What happened afterward?" Wang Tiezhu listened wide-eyed.
"Afterward?" Li Erniu spread his hands. "The city still fell, and Ning State was still destroyed. The Blade Saint died amid the chaos of battle, still standing at the moment of his death. The Yan soldiers circled his corpse three times, and not one of them dared approach."
The group fell silent for a while. Then Wang Tiezhu muttered, "What good was that? He still couldn't hold the city."
Li Erniu shook his head, a rare trace of seriousness on his face. "You don't understand. That old soldier told me that although the Yan Kingdom won, its army's morale was badly shaken after that battle.
"The Blade Saint wasn't defending the city. He was telling everyone that a nation could be destroyed, but one man could also punch a hole in the heavens."
Chen Du closed his eyes again, the corners of his lips curving slightly.
Li Erniu had never studied, but those words were well said.
One man could indeed defend a nation,
could indeed suppress a nation,
and could indeed destroy a nation!