The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 376 The Loss of Three Famous Generals

Li Xian did not answer. If he took any notice of such idiotic words, wouldn’t he seem to be as stupid as Li Keyong? He just simply attacked with his spear.

The spear came to him in an instant, and Li Keyong opened his eyes wide and was forced to retract his sword and defend himself, chopping heavily on the spear.

This was a face-off between two generals. As a military warrior of Militarism, he was the master of the entire Military Formation, which could mobilize the entire Military Formation. As the sword and spear struck, it was like a tide smashing on the pier. It was majestic and grand and the Spiritual Qi was surging.

Their robes swayed backwards.

At the same time, the two formations collided, and the power of the Military Formation was like mountains crashing together. The earth shook, and countless people stumbled on the spot and flew backwards. Smoke and dust raged in the wild Spiritual Qi.

Among this chaos, Li Keyong’s face turned dark and blood squirted suddenly. He could no longer stand on his feet. He stumbled backwards. He was only able to stand still after seven or eight steps back.

Although he stabilized his feet, his state of mind was another story. Li Keyong looked at Li Xian with shock, like he had seen a ghost. His complex and violent emotions made him tremble all over. The opponent actually had the strength to crush him, and that was not an act.

Li Keyong couldn’t accept it. He was on the verge of collapse. “This is impossible! You, who are you?”

Li Xian did not answer him.

What answered him was the Military Formation, which was advancing valiantly.

Three thousand Wolf-tooth Troop rushed into Li Keyong’s Military Formation.

The fighting did not last long.

In this battle, nearly half of Li Keyong’s eight thousand elites were killed by just three thousand Wolf-tooth Troops.

At sunset on this day, outside the city of Taiyuan, the two armies were in offensive and defensive patterns.

When emperor Xuanzong led the Tang Empire to its heights, the world knew that three people’s contributions were not to be left unrecognized. On the inside there was the two pillars of the imperial court and outside, there was a heaven-sent general. The former referred to Li Xian and Gao Pian, and the latter referred to Zhang Yichao, the commissioner of the Guiyi Army. The three of them were on par as it pertained to reputation, and together they boosted the Tang Empire to its apex.

Zhang Yichao died of illness in Chang’an several years ago. It was said that his realm of cultivation had indefinitely approached the famous generals of Militarism; he had just one step to go.

After Wei Baoheng’s fall from power, Gao Pian visited Zhang Yichao before leaving Xi Chuan. The two talked all night long.

That time, the purpose of Gao Pian’s visit was to share their experiences of Militarism cultivation and find a possibility to break through the realm of Famous General Realm, so that he could not fear any attack from the Nanzhao army when he was out of Xi Chuan.

After all, at that time, only Zhang Yichao had reached the highest realm out of all the Tang Empire.

However, Gao Pian failed. After all, Zhang Yichao was still not a famous general and could not let him become enlightened at once.

Since then, Gao Pian’s realm had not been able to go further to this day.

It was rumored that on the night of Zhang Yichao’s death, he let out a long sigh towards the moon, “The Prince An’s early death has caused the Tang Empire to lose three famous generals. What a pity!”

...

The secret region.

The water under the small bridge was flowing through the village. Li Ye was turning the soil in the farmland wearing only a short gown, sweating like rain.

There was no sun in the secret realm originally, but now the sun in the sky was extremely vicious. The ground was like a cake about to be baked, and even the earth was steaming. Even if Li Ye had a body that could be comparable to a Qi-refining cultivator, it was hard to do farm work in such a harsh environment.

However, Li Ye had no choice. He had to work constantly to guarantee the yield of grain in the fields and not let the vegetables die. He already had a lot of experience because he had been here for three years.

Yes, three years had passed in an instant, and more than a thousand days and nights slipped away just like that. Li Ye was still in the secret region, and he failed to break this last level that could be recognized by the Tao of Heaven and obtain the luck of heaven.

However, Li Ye still didn’t know how much time had passed outside the secret region, maybe one day, or only six hours. One day in the cave was like a thousand years in the world, this was very common in the Cultivation World. With the power of the secret region, it could even create a “sun” above their heads, so controlling the time here was easy.

In all fairness, Li Ye did not know how to do farm work at first. But everything could be learned. After the first year or two of hardship, he finally managed to be self-sufficient. During the time when he could not be self-sufficient, he and Feihong Bodhisattva did suffer a lot.

Whenever the crops in the field died, and the crops were cut or reduced, they would be brought up by thunder and lightning and receive the “electric punishment” given by the secret region. Electricity torture was carried out once a day and lasted for four hours each time, which made them be overwhelmed with sorrow. Even Li Ye had to shout in the end.

The sun had reached the middle of the sky in an instant. Li Ye dragged his hoe to the shade of the field, and sat down directly in front of the trunk. He wiped the sweat on his face and arms with a towel on his shoulder. Because he wiped sweat too often, his towel was already soaked, but fortunately it did not smell.

It wasn’t long before Li Ye sat down and rested, a woman came along from the fields. She was dressed like a typical country woman. There was a basket in her arms covered with a blue cloth, and there was a teapot in her other hand, but the teapot was obviously old and looked dim.

This “woman” turned out to be the Feihong Bodhisattva!

The Feihong Bodhisattva was no longer expressionless like before. At this moment, her expression was vivid, just like an ordinary peasant woman in the nearby village. In the shade, she skillfully placed the basket on the stone, uncovered the blue cloth, and brought out the food inside.

There were only two bowls of food.

Each bowl was half-filled with rice and half-filled with vegetables. Of course, there were more vegetables than rice, because rice was more expensive. Fortunately, there was a variety of wild vegetables.

Li Ye couldn’t wait to take the teapot and raise his head to drink. He did not put it down until it was time to breathe. Of course, this tea was not good tea. It was produced by the tea trees in the backyard, and the quality was very ordinary. But at this moment, Li Ye was drinking it as though it were nectar.

The Feihong Bodhisattva gave him a sideways look and added, “How many times have I told you not to drink out of the teapot, use a bowl! There is only one teapot at home, if you drink out of it, I have to wash it again before I can use it next time!”

When the Feihong Bodhisattva spoke those words, she was serious, and looking at her posture, she was still going to chatter for a long time. Fortunately, Li Ye knew how to behave in a delicate situation. He just obeyed. After taking the bowl, he ate like a wolf.

Having Seen Li Ye like this, the Feihong Bodhisattva didn’t have the heart to chatter. After all, Li Ye was doing all the work in the field. She was just doing laundry and cooking.

Since they got here, Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva’s cultivation were completely suppressed. Aside from the fact that they could maintain Level 1 cultivation, their Spiritual Qi could not be used at all, just like ordinary people.

Here, Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva’s clothing, food and shelter were all made by their own hands. The only way to get these things was to farm the land and then exchange it with food—the surplus food after paying taxes.

The farmhouse where Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva lived was not isolated. There was a village not far from the east, and there was a market farther away, where daily necessities could be exchanged everywhere.

That was to say, in the past three years, Li Ye had not been isolated from the world with the Feihong Bodhisattva. On the contrary, they had integrated with the people and lived among them.

The people in those villages were living people, not puppets. According to them, this place belonged to Li County, which also belonged to the Tang Empire. However, no one could say clearly where the Tang Empire was. Li Ye and the Feihong Bodhisattva emigrated here three years ago.

All in all, what Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva were experiencing now was a normal and completely ordinary life. It was so normal that they would get sick, and they would be troubled by bullies and be supported by good people.

After finishing the meal, Li Ye leaned on the trunk, covering his bulging belly with heartfelt satisfaction, “I never imagined that one day I will be extremely satisfied after doing farm work and eating a bowl of tasteless food.”

The Feihong Bodhisattva was unhappy immediately, and added with a dark face, “The food I cook is tasteless? Don’t eat it anymore!”

With that said, Feihong Bodhisattva started to clean up the bowls, chopsticks and teapots, her actions were agile and clear, and she was very powerful.

Li Ye called out quickly, “Leave the teapot, I will drink it later!”

The Feihong Bodhisattva then added unhappily, “Go to the well and drink!”

Li Ye was about to speak, but said nothing. He felt like weeping but had no tears.

If it were three years ago, he would not be able to imagine that the Feihong Bodhisattva would be so “irrational”. She would show obvious emotions because of his words—No, this was not an obvious emotion, but an unpredictable emotion.

Because it was unpredictable, it looked real and ordinary.

In the past three years, Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva had a clear division of labor. Generally speaking, it was “Man doing farm work and woman spinning and weaving”. Li Ye was responsible for farming and hunting, and the Feihong Bodhisattva was responsible for housework. The two were not willing to accept this division of labor at first, thus was the meaning of the Tao of Heaven.

Once anyone failed to do their work or crossed the line, they were greeted by “electrocution”.

The pain of electrocution was not what Feihong Bodhisattva wanted to bear.

Day after day, they became what they were today.

Before coming in, Li Ye used to say to the Feihong Bodhisattva in a joking tone that in this third stage, the Tao of Heaven might test their skill to live. Now it seemed that Li Ye’s prophecy had unfortunately come true.

However, neither Li Ye nor the Feihong Bodhisattva dared to be careless in these three years. They both knew very well that in this bland life, there must be hidden true meaning of the Tao of Heaven.

And in the end, it was likely that only one of them could successfully pass the test.

After the Feihong Bodhisattva had cleaned the dishes, she didn’t leave immediately, but hesitated for a moment. Then she added with a twist, “I feel a little uncomfortable these days.”

“Where is the discomfort?” Li Ye did not understand it, and the Feihong Bodhisattva looked a little embarrassed. Even her cheeks flushed red, what was going on? This had never happened before.

The Feihong Bodhisattva took a deep breath and then added, “I feel nausea, occasional dizziness... If my predictions are correct, there is a problem in my stomach.”

Having heard this, Li Ye was stiff, and he looked at the Feihong Bodhisattva in horror. After freezing for a long time, he swallowed hard and added, “Are you... pregnant?”