Chapter 340 — The Iron-Blooded Frontier General
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
He rose abruptly and said in a heavy voice, "Take me to see. " The cultivator practiced a bodily supernatural power and was about to shake himself into a nine-headed eagle and fly, but the Jingping Imperial Preceptor circulated his magic power and froze him where he stood, so that he followed along in the air whether he would or no, saying in a deep voice, "Do not use your magic power, or the witch poison will erupt the faster.
You need only point the way.
" His speed was extreme, like wind and lightning, and the space beneath his feet seemed to shrink sharply away; after the time of a single stick of incense, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor had crossed a thousand miles and caught up with Bian Zhenyun's troops.
Before he had even come down from the air, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor was stunned. As far as his eye could reach, the grasslands were covered with corpses — the corpses of people and beasts, and not only of the Jingping troops led by Bian Zhenyun, but far more of the grassland herdsmen and their livestock! The speed at which those corpses rotted was enough to make the tongue click. Blowflies swarmed wildly through the air, buzzing round the countless bodies, yet not daring to settle.
If a fly settled on a corpse, the fly died too!
The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's eye twitched. Suddenly the cultivator beside him gave a muffled groan and spewed blood and the liver and guts from his belly, splattering out; he died on the spot, and his corpse dropped away from his side. The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's heart sank lower and lower. Now even if Shen Mu, that divine physician, came here it would be of no use: the Golden Palace had poisoned the whole of the grasslands, and there was no way Shen Mu could undo the witch poison everywhere!
The Jingping Imperial Preceptor clenched his fists and walked among mountains and seas of corpses. Many of the officers and men around Bian Zhenyun were still alive, but their flesh was already rotting at flying speed.
The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's eye trembled, and he looked at Bian Zhenyun.
Bian Zhenyun's cultivation was deep and mighty, and the witch poison had not come near him, yet this old general wore a blank look, sitting dumbly beside a young officer — his son, who had already died of the poison. "General Bian.
.
. " Bian Zhenyun raised his head woodenly, his eyes empty.
The Jingping Imperial Preceptor turned and walked away, saying in a deep voice, "Stay here, all of you. Do not enter the pass. " Bian Zhenyun watched his receding back, then suddenly cried out in a harsh voice, "Jingping Imperial Preceptor, I still have many sons of Jingping here — I cannot let them all die in this place—" The Jingping Imperial Preceptor's body shuddered, but he did not halt; he walked on toward Helan Pass.
Within the pass, the Jingping Imperial Preceptor looked at the Jingping cultivators, each with a green gourd on his back, and not one of them made a sound. "Begin. " The Jingping Imperial Preceptor closed his eyes and waved his hand: "Flood the grasslands and wash away the witch poison.
" One after another the gourd mouths opened; one after another dark clouds rushed into the sky and covered the grasslands; crack, crack, thunderbolts fell without cease, and then the heavens sent down a great rain. That rain fell on and on, washing without cease, until ten days later it slowly stopped, and the grasslands had become stretch upon stretch of flooded land.
The Jingping Imperial Preceptor entered the grasslands once more. Of people and beasts drowned, there was no counting. He found Bian Zhenyun; of the army of Qingmen Pass only Bian Zhenyun was left.
All the others were already dead.
"General Bian, return to the pass," the Jingping Imperial Preceptor said softly. Bian Zhenyun looked at him woodenly and said in a hoarse voice, "I brought them out, and I could not bring them back.
I have failed them. .
.
Jingping Imperial Preceptor, take our corpses home to our country.
.
.