He took enormous bites out of his steamed bun, as if he were gnawing on Western Xia itself.
Li Su's eyes bulged as he wolfed down the food in front of him, devouring it at a whirlwind pace.
Once he'd eaten his fill, Li Su let out a long breath, turned to Xuanci, and wrote with a charcoal pencil: "The Song Dynasty lost?"
Xuanci nodded, his face taut with worry.
Clutching his head, Li Su threw it back and sighed at the heavens.
What the hell was this supposed to mean???
It had been five days since Monk Tianming brought them to Weizhou. Li Su had been unconscious for four days and four nights before waking up.
As soon as the intelligence arrived, Weizhou immediately dispatched troops and began carrying out a plan to surround and wipe out the Western Xia Army.
They'd thought they could catch Western Xia off guard this time and leave them unable to invade the Song Dynasty for decades to come.
The idea had been excellent.
As for their ability to carry it out... well, to put it bluntly, it was pathetic.
The man leading the troops was a fellow named Ge Huaimin. His ability fell short, but he was wildly ambitious and eager to prove himself.
They'd clearly told him that once he reached Liupan Mountain, he was to organize the troops and set up defenses at once, cutting off the enemy's route south.
That bastard had followed orders at first. But after winning two small battles, he immediately let success go to his head. When he saw the Western Xia Army retreating, he didn't think twice. He waved his hand and led his troops in pursuit.
Good grief.
Under normal circumstances, the ratio of casualties between the Song and Western Xia armies was around one to three. A one-to-one ratio was usually possible only after building adequate defensive fortifications. Yet this man had led more than ten thousand troops in pursuit of over thirty thousand Western Xia soldiers for ten whole miles, plunging straight into the trap they'd prepared for him.
A one-to-three casualty ratio, and he'd sent ten thousand against thirty thousand. What had given him the nerve? How had he let himself get so carried away?
When the commander was incompetent, the whole army paid the price.
Listening to Xuanci's account, Li Su experienced the full force of that saying for the first time.
Ten thousand men. Ten thousand!
Only a few hundred had made it back. The army had been all but wiped out.
No wonder the Song army's fighting ability kept declining as the years went by. With idiots like that in command, only a lunatic would risk his life for the cause.
That bastard hadn't just doomed his troops; he'd gotten himself killed, too. Wang Yan, the general of Weizhou, had been so furious that his face turned purple and he smashed several tables. He'd wanted nothing more than to cut the man down himself.
Come to think of it, the previous battle had been much the same.
But the commander that time had been a civil official. Civil officials after the Tang Dynasty were mostly arrogant as the heavens, silver-tongued as orchids, and the moment they reached the battlefield, they were just like Zhao Kuo.
This time, the fellow had been a military official. His father had been a general, too, and there had even been famous generals among his ancestors. He came from a proper military lineage.
This was just too damn ridiculous.
With wolves circling all around them, the Song Dynasty was clearly raising its military officers like pigs.
Were they more afraid of an internal rebellion than of losing their country and their homes? What kind of thinking was that?
Li Su didn't know what the Song Dynasty of real history had been like. But the Song Dynasty in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils really was a sparrow trying to find a cow's mother—utterly incredible.
"What now?"
Xuanci said, "All we can do is defend and wait for reinforcements to arrive from the other routes."
Li Su drew a breath. He wanted to go find his master right away and ask if they could leave. But he held back.
Even if martial artists weren't governed by the imperial court, the authorities in Weizhou clearly wouldn't let anyone leave the city at a time like this. The defeat had already left everyone in a panic, so the city gates had been placed under strict guard at once, and no one was allowed out. If someone fled, it would easily set off a chain reaction. Besides, he reckoned his master wouldn't leave either.
After all, people who roamed the martial world cared about their reputation.
"Senior Brother Tianxing, if Weizhou can't be held, take Xuankong and leave."
In Monk Tianming's quarters, he spoke up abruptly. The authorities had squandered their overwhelming advantage, and the Buddha himself wouldn't believe that Monk Tianming felt nothing about it. Faced with the situation, he couldn't help feeling pessimistic.
Monk Tianxing had come with the group. He hadn't taken part in the previous battle, mainly because Xuankong had handled things so well. Each time Tianxing had tried to step in, Xuankong had smoothly defused the danger. After that happened several times, Tianxing simply stopped moving.
After all, his role was to protect them from the shadows. If he could avoid revealing himself, he should.
"Sigh. I understand."
Monk Tianxing, the most hot-tempered among them, was unexpectedly calm at that moment.
He knew the Song Dynasty's military was a mess, but he hadn't imagined it could be this bad. The general had set out looking so bold and confident that Tianxing had thought he was a famous commander. Instead, he'd turned out to be a complete buffoon.
That wasn't all. What shattered Tianxing's worldview most was the fact that the general of Weizhou, Wang Yan, also bore a share of the blame. Everyone probably thought the failure was all that fellow Ge's fault.
It wasn't!
The general of Weizhou, Wang Yan, was responsible for at least half of it.
What kind of thinking led them to put someone with no experience commanding an independent campaign in charge of such an important battle? And make him the commander, no less? Did Wang Yan think he'd smashed those tables because he was furious that Ge Huaimin's defeat had cost the Song army so many lives and ruined the planned strategy? It wasn't that simple. He'd been partly responsible for the appointment, and since Ge Huaimin was dead, the court probably wouldn't punish him. So who would get the blame instead?
Ge Huaimin's defeat had not only squandered a splendid opportunity, but had also made these martial artists lose all faith in the Song army.
Monk Tianming and the others could clearly hear the commotion outside. The tension was mixed with something else—not just anxiety, but panic, and a complete loss of direction.
Their territory and population were several times larger than the enemy's, yet they'd never won a single battle? Wasn't that ridiculous?
*******
Near Liupan Mountain, at Dingchuan Fortress, Western Xia soldiers were resting.
Their great victory had bolstered the Western Xia soldiers' morale.
The soldiers laughed as they ate and drank supplies looted from Song territory. Every now and then, the sound of desperate cries for help and muffled sobbing could be heard.
At that moment, in a side tent somewhere, three people sat inside.
One was powerfully built, with a savage face and a pair of hawk-like eyes brimming with murderous intent.
He was Tuoba Xiong. After failing to intercept Monk Tianming, he was now consumed with rage. In his hands, he held a girl whose chest was drenched in blood, with a huge piece of it clearly torn away. She had already stopped breathing, yet he was chewing on her with a blood-smeared face.
Beside him sat a man who was difficult to describe. His hair curled like a nest of writhing worms, and his eyes were especially peculiar: triangular, with green irises unlike those of ordinary people.
His name was Poison Wolf, one of the three leaders of the Western Xia First Class Hall.
He shot Tuoba Xiong a look of disgust. "Tuoba Xiong, when are you going to break this disgusting habit? You've ruined the rug." He was more upset about the carpet on the ground.
Tuoba Xiong rubbed his head and let his gaze shift.
Shaking his head, the man beckoned. "Someone, drag the body out and feed it to my little darlings."
Soon, a tall Western Xia soldier came in, picked up the corpse, and dragged it away like livestock.
Then the only one of the three who had made no sound or movement stirred. He was very short, his gender impossible to tell, and wore a ghost mask. His aura was unquestionably the strongest.
He tapped the table in front of him and revealed a hand hidden beneath his clothing. It was a tender, pale hand, like a baby's.
At the gesture, even Tuoba Xiong, who loved eating people, showed a trace of deep wariness.
The Western Xia First Class Hall had three first-rate experts, and all three were in this room.
Tuoba Xiong needed no introduction, and Poison Wolf was a ruthless man too. But neither dared show the slightest contempt for the person before them.
He'd only just joined the First Class Hall, yet had been appointed one of its three leaders at once. Among the three of them, nothing could be done without his say-so; whenever he spoke, he took the lead. Naturally, this had stirred up plenty of resentment.
He'd ripped the hearts from three second-rate and more than twenty third-rate members of the First Class Hall.
Of course, that wasn't what made the story so terrifying. As fellow leaders, the other two were even more cruel than he was.
But the truly horrifying part was that they hadn't seen any of it happen. It had taken place right in front of their eyes, and by the time they reacted, more than twenty fresh hearts were already laid out before them.
Though a long time had passed since then, they had only just entered the first-rate realm at the time. Even now, with their strength growing ever greater, they still feared him deeply.
"Among the martial arts of the Central Plains, only a handful can withstand a second-rate expert's blade with bare hands. The Shangqing Mysterious Jade Hand and Shaolin's Indestructible Art are two of them. To have mastered such a top-tier martial art at barely more than ten years old... I'd thought the Shaolin Temple, the martial world's great authority, was merely living off its reputation. Now I see its depths are unfathomable. And that girl, who could force out the Muscle-Softening Powder with her internal energy... I never expected the Shangqing Sect to have nurtured such a genius again after all these years."
His voice was strange. It didn't come from his mouth beneath the mask, but echoed directly through the room. Hoarse and ancient, shrill and grating, like a machine, it held not a trace of emotion.
"Tuoba Xiong, was Monk Tianming the only martial artist who came to Weizhou this time?"
"Yes!"
"That means there are at most two first-rate experts in Weizhou City..."
"Tuoba Xiong, you're furious, aren't you? I'll have General Meizang attack the city. You can bring me the heads of those two. How about it?"
"Really???"
Tuoba Xiong's face lit up with wild delight, and he couldn't help bursting into laughter. "Good! Very good!"
The two young monks and the girl who'd caused the whole plan to collapse—he wore a cruel smile, especially at the thought of the girl. The two-legged sheep of the Song Dynasty tasted delicious, and with martial arts to boot, she must be a delicacy, right???