At noon, the group found a slope downwind and decided to take a short break there. The buns everyone was carrying had frozen hard. But they had no other choice as this was what it was like in the wilderness.
Based on what the private soldiers were saying, it was quite good that they had buns to eat at all.
While the soldiers ate their field rations, someone suddenly complained, “They’re really inhumane for making us march in such accursed weather!”
“But what can you do ’bout it?” One of the soldiers took a bite of the cold, hard bun and said, “If I hadn’t stocked up on some buns last night, I would’ve starved to death along the way today. It’s impossible to keep moving in this weather if we have no food to eat.”
“Hey, you don’t say! Seeing Liu Taiyu’s current plight can’t make me any happier.” Someone said, “All of our pay and entitlements must have been embezzled by that bastard, Liu Taiyu!”
“But I still feel like it isn’t enough. Why didn’t that Divine Arms officer just kick him to death?” one of the soldiers said angrily.
“We’re still dozens of klicks away from the nearest mountain, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi and Mt. Shuanglong are even further north. I wonder when we’ll reach our destination since it’s snowing so heavily now,” someone said in total despair. “Moreover, those bastards from the reinforced company are even starting to keep an eye on us now, so there’s no chance that we can escape.”
“Forget about it,” one of them said. “Escape? It requires tremendous courage in this weather just to head into the mountains alone to seek a quick death. There’s still a chance of survival if we stick with everyone. But once you become a deserter, death is certain.”
“Let me give y’all a suggestion.” Someone chuckled. “When we set off again later, just pretend you’ve fainted. As soon as you faint, that idiot called Chen Wudi will come over and carry you. We can walk much less that way!” But as soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill creep up behind his back, causing him to shudder even more in this already cold weather. But when he turned around to look, everything seemed perfectly normal. ‘That’s strange! What’s going on?’
As Ren Xiaosu was furtively cutting pieces of cured meat to share with Chen Wudi and the students, he noticed Chen Wudi looked dismayed. “Wudi, what’s the matter?”
Chen Wudi whispered, “Master, I’ve regained my super hearing.”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “But Wudi, the Great Sage doesn’t have that power.”
Chen Wudi replied, “Well, the version of the Great Sage that I am does.”
“Hm.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. ‘Alright, whatever you say.’ Honestly, Ren Xiaosu did not even know which version of the Great Sage Chen Wudi was anymore. How amazing it was to be able to “patch” oneself like that.
“Master,” Chen Wudi said dejectedly, “I don’t want to help them anymore.”
“Why’s that?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “What did you hear?”
“They said that they’re going to pretend to faint when we set off again so that the idiotic Chen Wudi will carry them,” Chen Wudi answered.
Ren Xiaosu’s eyes narrowed at the answer. “Who said that?”
Chen Wudi did not mention the man. “Master, you’d kill the man if I told you.”
“What’s the big deal with killing some people?” Ren Xiaosu sneered.
“Master,” Chen Wudi said, “I just don’t understand why some people in this world are so evil?”
“They’ll get their comeuppance,” Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the private soldiers around him with a dark expression. For the first time in recent days, he was keen to kill someone.
When they resumed their journey in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu was silent as he walked along with the troops. Suddenly, five people dropped to the ground at the same time. Ren Xiaosu slowly walked up to these people and seemingly stepped on the back of a person’s hand accidentally. The man trembled in pain but pretended to remain unconscious and did not open his eyes no matter what.
Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng with a smile, “Get me a rope. We have some in our field
packs.”
“OK.” Li Qingzheng did not know why Ren Xiaosu wanted a rope, but he still got it for him.
He watched Ren Xiaosu tie the rope around the calves of these five people who were on the ground. Then, he started dragging them forward in the snow!
When one of those people on the ground sensed something was wrong, he wanted to quickly get up and say that he had regained his consciousness. But as soon as he got up, Ren Xiaosu kicked his chest. The man coughed up blood on the spot!
Everyone turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu’s back as he stood in the snow. Snowflakes in the air swirled around him, and he was full of killing intent.
He said calmly, “Did I say that you could get
up?”
In response, someone on the ground got up and shouted, “We’re going to die if we get dragged like this in the snow by him. Let’s fight him!”
But when they tried to stand up, Ren Xiaosu kicked all of them back into the snow. These people could only feel a foot as hard as steel when the kicks landed on their chests, while the people watching could not even see how fast Ren Xiaosu’s movements were. But they only thought the snowfall blurred their vision.
Ren Xiaosu turned around and grinned at the others. “You’re all adults, so walk on your own, got it?”
Chen Wudi stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu while standing in the snow. “Master…”
As the young man’s figure faced the blizzard in the wilderness of the mountains, he smiled at Chen Wudi and said, “Master will help you get back at them.”
Then Ren Xiaosu dragged the five of them behind him through the snow with the rope. Li Qingzheng went up to him. “I’ll help you
pull.”
Jiang Wu’s eight students also came over. “Monitor, we’ll help too.”
In this moment, no one in the troops dared to speak up for these five men. Those in the know all knew Ren Xiaosu had probably realized the five of them were deliberately trying to take advantage of Chen Wudi’s kindness.
Sometimes, there were just some people who stood head and shoulders above millions of others. Before Ren Xiaosu had revealed himself, everyone thought he was just a normal young man. But in this moment, his ruthlessness made everyone terrified of him. They knew Ren Xiaosu was going to drag all five of them through the snow until they died!
When the Divine Arms officer standing furthest ahead of the troops watched this occur, he was a little dumbfounded. “I heard there were many ruthless people in the Office of Special Investigations. I didn’t believe it before, but I do now.”
Another Divine Arms officer muttered, “When we meet up with the others after the war ends, we must tell them not to ever mess with those from the Office of Special Investigations. Their ways are extremely cruel.”
In fact, Ren Xiaosu had never openly admitted to his master-disciple relationship with Chen Wudi. After all, he had never taught him anything before, and the way he became his disciple was also inexplicable.
But Ren Xiaosu really liked Chen Wudi addressing him as master. Chen Wudi was just like a pure, flawless crystal. Who wouldn’t enjoy getting along with someone like that? As a result, Ren Xiaosu had long since acknowledged this master-disciple relationship in his mind.
But today, Ren Xiaosu was not actually that insistent on standing up for Chen Wudi. All he wanted was to help Chen Wudi hold on to his last ray of light.
