Great Sun Heart Sutra

After coming down from the city wall, Sheng Huai'an spotted Old Soldier!

Smiling, Sheng Huai'an walked toward Old Soldier.

Seeing his battle robe in tatters and his armor covered in blade marks, Old Soldier frowned slightly.

"You went up on the city wall to kill enemies again?"

"Killing enemies to serve the country is the glory of men like us!" Sheng Huai'an said with a grin.

"Be serious!" Old Soldier glared.

"Hehe, Uncle, only through battle can the strong grow quickly!" Sheng Huai'an said seriously.

Serving the country or not was just a slogan, something said for others to hear.

Killing enemies to gain Slaughter Value and grow stronger was his true purpose.

Naturally, that was his secret, and he would not speak of it.

"Well said. The strong ought to grow in battle." Old Soldier nodded in agreement.

"Today, General Yang fought two Xiongnu Grandmasters. Uncle, did you see it? That display was simply as startling as a celestial being descending to earth," Sheng Huai'an said.

"I saw it. Grandmaster-level experts truly are terrifying beyond measure." Old Soldier nodded with admiration as well.

"I will become that kind of expert too, shaking an entire region with my might!" Sheng Huai'an declared with towering ambition.

"Not bad. You have aspirations. Uncle supports you in spirit." Old Soldier smiled and nodded, without saying anything to discourage Sheng Huai'an.

"By the way, I heard that in a couple of days, you'll be leading troops onto the grasslands again?" Old Soldier asked.

"Uh, Uncle, how did you know?" Sheng Huai'an looked at Old Soldier curiously.

Very few people should have known about this, aside from General Yang and the five Brigade Generals.

And the people who had been selected. No one else should have known.

This matter had originally been kept secret, lest there be Xiongnu spies in the city.

"General Yang came to me and asked me to go too, but I refused," Old Soldier said.

"Is that so?" Sheng Huai'an nodded.

"Go wash up. Come find me after dinner." With that, Old Soldier left.

Sheng Huai'an returned as well. Only when Tang Yunshan, Hai Dahe, and the others saw Sheng Huai'an return safely did they finally breathe a sigh of relief. Their Captain truly was a battle-crazed man!

"Captain, you finally came back alive," Hai Dahe said.

"What, were you hoping I'd die so you could take over as Captain?" Sheng Huai'an looked at Hai Dahe with dangerous eyes.

This brat had his eyes on his position? He wanted to rise to the top?

"No, that's not what I meant, Captain!" Hai Dahe hurriedly said upon seeing Sheng Huai'an's dangerous gaze.

"No? Dare you say you don't want to be Captain?" Sheng Huai'an stared hard at Hai Dahe.

Hai Dahe swallowed. It was over—his ambition had been exposed.

A soldier who did not want to become a general was not a good soldier.

A general who did not want to become emperor was not a good general.

How could he not want to be Captain? He dreamed of it.

"Mm..."

Hai Dahe quickly shook his head again. "Captain, you misunderstand me. Am I that kind of man? I, Hai Dahe, will always be your soldier."

"Really?"

"Truer than real gold!" Hai Dahe said sincerely.

"I'll believe you for now." Sheng Huai'an did not pursue the matter of this soldier wanting to replace him any further.

"Captain, honestly, you pay too little attention to your safety. You had just returned from the grasslands, yet you went right back up the city wall to kill enemies," Tang Yunshan said with concern.

Seeing Tang Yunshan's bootlicking expression, Hai Dahe felt sick to his stomach.

How could a true man live under another's heel for long?!

"Enough nonsense. Go prepare hot water. I want a bath," Sheng Huai'an said.

"Yes, Captain. I'll arrange hot water right away." Tang Yunshan hurriedly nodded.

He did not forget to shoot Hai Dahe a provocative look. You little punk, trying to compete with me for the Captain's position? Go drink foot-washing water.

With Sheng Huai'an covered in blood like this, any child who saw him would have nightmares for ten years.

As his subordinates looked at Sheng Huai'an, they felt that the blood-soaked Baleful Intent around him had grown even heavier.

Before long, his men had prepared hot water for Sheng Huai'an.

He washed up, scrubbing away the blood and grime on his body, then bandaged his wounds.

After finishing dinner, Sheng Huai'an went to Old Soldier's place.

"Uncle, I'm here!"

"Come in, then!" Old Soldier's voice rang out from inside a barracks room.

Sheng Huai'an pushed open the door and entered. Zhang Da Niu was still there, but Li Bu Si was nowhere to be seen.

There were also several unfamiliar faces, soldiers newly assigned under Old Soldier's command.

"Where's Brother Bu Si?" Sheng Huai'an asked.

Zhang Da Niu looked at Sheng Huai'an and slowly said, "Dead."

Those two weightless words made Sheng Huai'an's heart skip a beat.

Li Bu Si had been one of the first people he had gotten to know after arriving in this world. Yet now, he had learned that the man had already died in battle.

Li Bu San had been severely wounded and was recuperating in the wounded soldiers' camp. No one knew when he would recover, and now Li Bu Si had died in battle.

Of the two brothers, one was dead and the other grievously wounded.

Of the people he had first come to know, only Old Soldier, Zhang Da Niu, and Wang Wu remained!

Wang Wu was now under Sheng Huai'an's command.

"Life and death are determined by fate. Brother Huai'an, there is no need to grieve. For soldiers like us, dying on the battlefield has always been our destiny," Zhang Da Niu consoled him.

Sheng Huai'an merely nodded lightly.

Over these past days, he had grown used to life and death. Still, hearing that someone he knew had died in battle was something he could not accept for a while.

"Come with me!" Old Soldier said blandly as he looked at Sheng Huai'an.

Sheng Huai'an followed Old Soldier into the inner room.

"Uncle, what is it? Why so mysterious?" Sheng Huai'an asked.

Old Soldier pulled an ancient book from his robes.

"I bought this book from a beggar. That old beggar said it was a cultivation technique passed down by Emperor Haoyang Wu—the Great Sun Heart Sutra!"

"I studied it for most of my life but could not even get started. Now I'm passing it on to you. I hope you can cultivate something from it," Old Soldier told Sheng Huai'an.

Sheng Huai'an accepted the book Old Soldier handed him and looked at the four large characters on its cover: Great Sun Heart Sutra!

At a glance, those four characters had clearly been written by hand—crooked, slanted, and ugly.

They were even worse than the chicken-scratch handwriting of elementary school students from his previous life.

The entire ancient book looked fake at first sight.

"Uncle, you bought this martial arts manual from an old beggar?" Sheng Huai'an looked at Old Soldier.

"Of course. It cost me one tael of silver!" Old Soldier nodded seriously.

"And then you cultivated it for half your life and got nothing out of it?"

Old Soldier nodded seriously, his eyes full of hope as he looked at Sheng Huai'an, hoping Sheng Huai'an could make something of it.

"You brat have extraordinary martial talent, so I'm passing it to you. I hope you can cultivate it successfully, then teach me how to cultivate it. Otherwise, why would I give it to you? This is an Emperor-level cultivation technique. If it were out in the open, countless experts would fight over it." Old Soldier spoke cautiously, afraid someone might overhear.

Sheng Huai'an felt that Old Soldier had been swindled by that old beggar.

It reminded him of a scene from a movie in his previous life, where a little boy spent all his savings to buy a martial arts manual from an old beggar.

It seemed to be called some kind of Divine Palm.

"Uncle, are you sure you weren't scammed?" Sheng Huai'an asked as he looked at the ancient book in his hand.

"What, do you think I'm stupid? That I'm so easily fooled?" Old Soldier glared at Sheng Huai'an, giving off a faintly dangerous aura.

Seeing the look in Old Soldier's eyes that said he was about to hit someone, Sheng Huai'an wisely swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

"Uncle, you are supremely intelligent. How could anyone possibly fool you?" he hurriedly praised.

"Enough, get lost. If you don't want it, give it back. I wasn't even eager to give it to you. I spent one tael of silver on it," Old Soldier said disdainfully as he looked at Sheng Huai'an's ingratiating face.

Sheng Huai'an grabbed the ancient book and fled. He was genuinely afraid Old Soldier would beat him.

"You're not sitting for a while?" Zhang Da Niu asked as he watched Sheng Huai'an rush out in a flurry.

"Brother Da Niu, not today. I'll come see you next time when I have time." Sheng Huai'an ran off in a puff of smoke.

"What happened to him? He ran like a ghost was chasing him." Zhang Da Niu scratched his head.

"Brother Da Niu, who was that?" a soldier asked.

"Him? His name is Sheng Huai'an. He came out of our squad, and now he's already a Captain, commanding a hundred soldiers," Zhang Da Niu said.

"A Captain?!"

"He commands a hundred soldiers?!"

The several soldiers were greatly surprised. They could not tell at all that someone so young was already a Captain.

"Work hard and kill enemies. You can become Captains someday too," Zhang Da Niu told them.

"We'll definitely kill enemies well, earn Military Merit, and become Captains."

The soldiers' eyes were full of longing. Looking at them, Zhang Da Niu could not bear it. The pie he had painted was a little too large and a little too dry; he did not know whether these soldiers could swallow it.

Sheng Huai'an returned to his quarters and took out the martial arts manual Old Soldier had given him.

"This handwriting is really ugly!"

He could not help complaining, then began flipping through it to see what was written inside.

Night had deepened!

Sporadic lights glimmered within Anning City.

Yang Ye looked at the lights in the city and at the common people within the pass.

On the desk behind him lay a sheet of calligraphy.

Written upon it were the words:

Speak not to me of marquis honors; one general's success leaves ten thousand bones to wither!