Five Immortal Sects - Chapter 9: Military Advisor Ji and General Hong (Part 2)

Chapter 9: Military Advisor Ji and General Hong (Part 2)

This attack by the Meng Kingdom was extremely dangerous for the defenders of Green Mountain Pass. If it weren’t for Hong Linying’s ruthless and decisive tactics, which delayed the enemy’s attack with over 10,000 soldiers, the city would have fallen before they could even deploy their troops.

The enemy’s ferocious faces kept appearing on the city walls, making the citizens tremble with fear. The memory of this battle would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

After the battle, the city walls were stained with blood, which flowed down the stone walls like a stream. The streets near the city walls were like a blood pool, and the usually bright and clean streets were now stained with blood, making a “patter-patter” sound as people walked on them.

Whenever Hong Linying thought back to this battle, even with his strong will, he felt a chill down his spine. He recalled Ji Wenhe’s words from the previous night, mentioning that the enemy might be hiding heavy troops, and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.

A few months later, Ji Wenhe visited him twice, informing him of the enemy’s movements and deployments. Hong Linying began to take Ji Wenhe’s information seriously and made targeted arrangements, resulting in two major victories with minimal losses.

Another thing Ji Wenhe did was to search for a successor in the military, but his selection criteria were unusual. He didn’t look at their martial arts foundation or use internal energy to detect their physical condition. Instead, he used silver needles to diagnose the person’s pulse, like a doctor.

Ji Wenhe explained to Hong Linying that their sect’s internal energy cultivation method was unique. If someone failed the test, forcing them to cultivate their sect’s unique heart method would only lead to internal energy reversal, causing them to die from blood flowing in reverse.

As time passed, Hong Linying found it strange that Ji Wenhe couldn’t find a suitable person among the many strong and healthy soldiers in the military. It was only after Ji Wenhe’s repeated major victories that Hong Linying decided to let the original military advisor step down and appointed Ji Wenhe as the new military advisor.

As for how Ji Wenhe obtained enemy information, Hong Linying didn’t care much about it, assuming that Ji Wenhe had many ways to gather intelligence. After all, the information Ji Wenhe provided was extremely accurate.

If Ji Wenhe was a spy, the cost would be too great, and it was impossible to exchange the lives of 7,000 to 8,000 people for a potential future plot. This move, however, made many soldiers in the military unhappy. But after several small and large battles, all of which were planned by Ji Wenhe, they were able to defeat the enemy almost effortlessly.

This made Ji Wenhe’s reputation in the military soar, and his position became increasingly stable.

What brought his reputation to its peak was a battle two and a half years ago. Before the battle, Ji Wenhe went to the central military camp, thirty miles north of the city, to continue searching for his unknown “disciple”.

There were tens of thousands of soldiers stationed in the area, and even with Ji Wenhe’s exceptional abilities, he could only test around a hundred people in a day, considering the military’s busy schedule.

So, over the past three years, Ji Wenhe had been searching for his disciple, aside from testing the tens of thousands of soldiers at Green Mountain Pass. He would occasionally go to the central military camp to search for his disciple.

At first, the military personnel found Ji Wenhe’s disciple search strange, but they eventually got used to it.

On that day, Ji Wenhe went to the central military camp in the afternoon, and suddenly, the Meng Kingdom launched a surprise attack. Hong Linying led his troops to counterattack, engaging in a fierce battle with the enemy.

The enemy employed a tactic of gradual reinforcement, slowly increasing their numbers, determined to use human lives to fill the gap. This put Hong Linying in a difficult position, slowly getting trapped in a tight encirclement.

Meanwhile, Ji Wenhe, who was thirty miles away, received a rapid report and rushed to the scene with his troops. By the time they arrived, Hong Linying and his troops were on the brink of defeat.

Ji Wenhe ordered his troops to form an Eight Trigrams Linked Array, encircling the enemy and pushing forward step by step. He himself revealed his terrifying martial arts skills to the public for the first time.

With one sword, he was like a celestial being, moving freely among the enemy ranks, as if he was in a no-man’s land. Except for occasionally deflecting enemy attacks, every time he struck, someone would die.

In the end, he single-handedly broke through to the enemy’s central command, flying through the air like an eagle swooping down on its prey. Before the enemy guards could react, he had already beheaded the enemy’s deputy commander.

Then, he brushed aside the surrounding enemy soldiers, his body flexible and agile, and in just a few steps, he stood on top of the enemy’s high flagpole, holding his sword in one hand and the enemy commander’s head in the other.

He let out a loud roar, like thunder, shaking the surroundings, and the enemy’s morale instantly collapsed. They lost their will to fight and retreated in defeat, allowing Hong Linying to break through the encirclement.

After this battle, Military Advisor Ji’s name became renowned, even surpassing General Hong’s reputation, and people realized that this military advisor, who could “talk about war on paper,” was also an extraordinary martial artist.

After this battle, the imperial army no longer focused solely on defense, but also launched frequent attacks on the enemy’s borders, and the two sides engaged in a series of battles, with neither gaining a clear advantage.

Although Ji Wenhe’s existence was a significant factor, one person’s power ultimately couldn’t decide the outcome on the battlefield. Moreover, the Meng Kingdom had already learned that Green Mountain Pass had a master who could behead an enemy commander, and they had also dispatched several top-notch experts to suppress the enemy.

Hong Linying was convinced that Ji Wenhe’s martial arts had reached an extraordinary level, possibly even surpassing that level, which was unknown to him.

Previously, he had guessed Ji Wenhe’s abilities, but he never thought he was so powerful. As a martial arts enthusiast, Hong Linying couldn’t help but feel a burning passion in his heart after that battle.

No matter how hard he investigated, he couldn’t find out from which sect he came from.

Through occasional sparring with Ji Wenhe, he felt that Ji Wenhe’s martial arts skills were truly exceptional.

To be precise, it was Ji Wenhe’s internal energy that was extraordinary. Any ordinary technique, when infused with Ji Wenhe’s internal energy, would make Hong Linying feel like he was facing a mighty river that flowed endlessly, or a massive mountain that crushed him with its weight, leaving him powerless to resist.

This made him even more eager to learn Ji Wenhe’s internal energy cultivation method, and he was willing to do whatever it took to obtain it.

However, Ji Wenhe’s search for a disciple had yet to bear fruit, and Ji Wenhe’s complexion had grown increasingly poor over the years, with his face aging significantly.

Hong Linying thought that he could inherit this unique skill and decided to approach Ji Wenhe after a banquet.

“Advisor, it’s been many years, but you still haven’t found a suitable disciple. What kind of person can enter your eyes?”

Ji Wenhe smiled slightly and replied, “Our sect’s tradition is to pass down our skills to only one person, not because we don’t want to accept many disciples, but because our internal energy cultivation method has many restrictions, making it extremely difficult to find a suitable person. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

“You’re not just talking about finding a needle in a haystack; I think it’s more like finding one in ten thousand. You’ve tested half of the soldiers in the military, and I think it’s unlikely to find one in ten thousand.”

Hong Linying shook his head and sighed, then asked, “What kind of abnormal physical response will appear when you use the silver needle to test someone’s pulse?”

Ji Wenhe thought for a moment. “It’s not certain. It could be an unusual change in complexion, or an abnormality in the body’s internal energy. I need to use my internal energy to explore and find out if it’s compatible with mine.”

Ji Wenhe never allowed outsiders to observe his testing process, and only the person being tested was allowed to enter. Hong Linying had asked around, but those who had been tested didn’t reveal anything, so he couldn’t get any information.

Hong Linying pretended to be slightly drunk and said, “Advisor, why don’t you take a look at my physique?”

He didn’t say whether it was suitable or not, and his tone was casual, as if he was just curious.

Ji Wenhe smiled slightly and nodded. “Why not? It’s not like I have anything better to do. Let’s give it a try. Who knows, maybe the General has a connection with our sect.”

Just then, Ji Wenhe took out a cloth bag from his side, opened it, and pulled out a silver needle.

It’s said that Ji Wenhe always carries this cloth bag with him, as he would test the martial arts skills of the soldiers whenever he has the chance.

After the silver needle was inserted, Hong Linying felt a numbness in his wrist, but he didn’t feel any abnormalities or sense any internal energy entering his body.

Ji Wenhe shook his head in disappointment, put the silver needle away, and said, “It seems that the General is also not destined to learn this technique.”

This meant that Hong Linying was unable to learn this technique, but how could he be convinced of that? He had been practicing martial arts since he was young, and he had never encountered a technique that he couldn’t learn. It all depended on his willingness to cultivate.

However, he couldn’t help but feel that Ji Wenhe was hiding something from him. Although Ji Wenhe seemed to be declining in recent years, Hong Linying estimated that he could still take him down with just a few moves.

Although Hong Linying was a Supreme Expert in the martial arts world, he still had a clear understanding of his own limitations.

Until last year, Ji Wenhe finally found a disciple in the military camp.

Hong Linying had secretly investigated Ji Wenhe’s disciple, even using his internal energy to probe the disciple’s meridians, but he didn’t detect anything unusual. This made him suspect that Ji Wenhe was hiding something, but he didn’t know what.

However, just a month after Ji Wenhe found his disciple, the disciple suddenly died one night.

After the incident, Ji Wenhe looked devastated and said that the disciple didn’t understand the martial arts principles, which led to a deviation in their practice, causing their internal energy to flow in reverse and ultimately leading to their death.

Hong Linying saw the disciple’s corpse, which was swollen and black, and suspected that the disciple didn’t die from practicing martial arts, but rather from poisoning.

This led him to have two suspicions:

One was that Ji Wenhe was using the disciple as a medium to transfer the poison from his own body to the disciple’s, in order to cure his own poisoning.

The other was that Ji Wenhe’s technique was extremely powerful and the disciple had practiced it incorrectly, causing their internal energy to flow in reverse and leading to their death.

However, Ji Wenhe’s expression didn’t seem to improve, which made Hong Linying doubt the accuracy of his suspicions.

After the disciple’s death, Ji Wenhe continued to test the soldiers, and Hong Linying wanted to get close to him to observe his selection process.

He leaned back in his chair, gazing at the tent, his eyes flashing with thoughts.

“This matter is indeed tricky. I’ve been trying for years, but I still can’t get to the bottom of it. If Ji Wenhe’s words are true, and he only has one or two years left, then what should I do?”