Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 592 - 564 Flexible Internal Qi

The cavalry hidden on both the left and right sides of the camp sprang to their horses at the moment the rain of arrows fell on the front camp, roaring as they charged out towards the outside of the camp, forming a large encirclement.

"Retreat quickly!" Zhang Liao desperately knocked aside the incoming arrows, but even so, after deflecting several bed crossbow bolts in rapid succession, his strength waned and he was pierced by a few arrows. However, fortunate for Zhang Liao, he was mighty in strength. He pulled out the arrows and pressed down on his wounds, summoning his inner Qi to lead his soldiers in a slanting breakout toward the direction away from Guan Yu’s camp.

"Don’t even think about leaving now that you’ve come!" Guan Yu’s booming voice carried over, the might in his words even instilling fear in Zhang Liao’s elite troops.

Zhang Liao didn’t respond, looking towards Guan Yu’s direction with a trace of wariness. Silvery-gray inner Qi continuously poured into his long spear, but no obvious shine emanated, instead condensing into a strand of silvery-gray thread within the spear.

"Take this move from me!" Guan Yu bellowed, slashing down fiercely with the Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand, sending a hundred-meter-long azure light blade chopping out.

"Break for me!" The moment Zhang Liao saw Guan Yu’s massive light blade, his long spear swept out violently, and countless fine threads exploded forward, wildly colliding with Guan Yu’s light blade, forcefully deflecting it just before it could reach him.

"Boom!" A huge sound resonated as Guan Yu’s light blade slammed into the ground, cutting out a trench over a hundred meters long.

"Go!" Zhang Liao had already noticed the cavalry from the left and right camps killing their way over; he immediately lost the will to fight and turned his horse to retreat in the direction he had come from.

"The general is mighty!" Zhou Cang was the first to bellow out, and the soldiers of the front camp, who had been kept in the dark about the intent to lure Zhang Liao and knew nothing, also responded after Zhou Cang’s shout, roaring out in unison without any sign of disorder.

"Eh!" Guan Yu was taken aback. He had seen those who dodged his attacks, those who took them head-on, and those who clashed directly, but he had never encountered someone like Zhang Liao before.

"Order Li Fuu and Chen Chuang to pursue for twenty li. If there are no gains, retreat back here," Guan Yu commanded Zhou Cang.

"Is there a problem?" Guo Jia asked curiously. His understanding of inner Qi was superficial compared to Guan Yu, not grasping what had just happened.

"Our adversary turns out to possess flexible inner Qi; he’s the only martial artist with flexible internal Qi that I’ve ever seen," Guan Yu said with a frown. Although flexible inner Qi had many benefits, one thing all martial artists knew was that it wasn’t suitable for battle, as its attack power was too weak.

"Oh?" Although Guo Jia didn’t understand inner Qi, he still grasped the difference between rigidity and flexibility. Rigidity inner Qi was essentially for combat, while flexible inner Qi was purely for nourishment and recovery. It wasn’t fit for battle.

[The voice that spoke earlier, it sounded somewhat like it was from my hometown.] Guan Yu furrowed his brows. It had been so many years, and ever since he had started killing, he had never returned to Xieliang of Hedong. As for the accent, it had been over a decade.

Zhang Liao arrived quickly and left just as swiftly; of the thousand Wolf Cavalry that he led, half were dismounted in an instant. Though being dismounted didn’t equate death, when Zhou Cang led the School Sabre Bearers in a charge, those dismounted Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry barely struggled before being completely captured by Zhou Cang.

Chen Chuang, Li Fuu, and a few others led two thousand cavalry in pursuit, but the distance between them and Zhang Liao’s Wolf Cavalry grew wider and wider. After chasing for nearly twenty li, they directly abandoned the pursuit, turned their horses around, and returned to the military camp.

Looking back at the retreating forces under Guan Yu’s command, Zhang Liao had already steadied the morale of his troops. He had planned to march on a bit further to stretch the uneven chasing ranks, then deliver a Backward Thrust to properly avenge the prior arrow wound. However, to his surprise, his opponents turned their horses around just as their formation began to extend.

While slowing down the marching speed, Zhang Liao counted his men, ordering those without injuries to bandage the wounded, and then dispatched scouts to probe the surroundings to avoid being secretly encircled by Guan Yu.

"General, the enemy seems to have retreated. They don’t appear to want to pursue us," Zhang Xing said, lowering his head in response to Zhang Liao, regretting his previous mocking of Guan Yu’s foolishness, now realizing his own.

"Advance slowly, and bring along the heavily injured soldiers," Zhang Liao said with a bitter expression. Having fought for so many years, it was the first time he found himself crippled without even touching the enemy’s hair, and he still didn’t understand how they had managed it. If it weren’t for the flash of firelight that allowed him to see the reflection of the black light on the arrowheads, he probably would have been finished as well.

Zhang Liao infused each of the severely wounded soldiers with a burst of Inner Qi to preserve their lives. The advantage of Flexible Internal Qi was that it had excellent effects on healing and treatment, but its significantly low Combat Power made it easy to be killed in battle.

As he marched, Zhang Liao pondered where he had gone wrong. No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t understand how he had been detected. He knew there was nothing wrong with his timing, ambush location, or level of caution. It just didn’t make sense to him—how could he have been discovered?

"At night, just keep the regular patrols and secret guards. They won’t come again. They have too few numbers now, and not everyone has Gan Xingba’s abnormal thinking," Guo Jia said to Guan Yu after Zhang Liao had fled.

"Gan Xingba…" Guan Yu frowned. Although he wasn’t fond of the frivolous Gan Ning, even he had to admit that Gan Ning’s courage was absolutely abnormal.

"That guy is the boldest one I’ve ever seen. And, General, you shouldn’t underestimate him—his frivolity is just a guise," Guo Jia said with a laugh, looking up before he turned to go and rest in his own tent.

[Isn’t it just Gan Xingba’s disguise, and am I not also the same? But once a disguise becomes a habit, who knows? Gan Ning relied not on intuition, but on a true grasp of the overall battle situation. His strategic vision is very good, yet regrettably, he does not wish to reveal it, always acting the fool to put others at ease.] Guo Jia thought quietly to himself.

Guo Jia had a high opinion of Gan Ning after closely examining information about him. He discovered something interesting: Gan Ning’s actions, rather than being reckless, seemed predicted in advance. However, in the chaos of the big picture, every battle Gan Ning fought appeared helter-skelter.

[As for this commander, from the information obtained from captured enemies, the opposition is Zhang Liao. I’ve heard Zichuan and Wen Ru mention him before. This military general isn’t bad at all, exactly as Zichuan and Wen Ru described. His grasp of the situation is excellent, his intuition very keen.]

Guo Jia secretly evaluated Zhang Liao. However, since he was unable to see clearly how Zhang Liao had discerned the ambush, Guo Jia could only attribute it to intuition for now. (To be continued. If you like this novel, please come to Qidian ) to vote and recommend tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)