Chereads / The Great General: Wan Heian / Chapter 9 - CHAPTER 9: WHEN FIRE MEETS ICE

Chapter 9 - CHAPTER 9: WHEN FIRE MEETS ICE

The sun rose over the blue horizon, the flowers bloomed and the farmers started to irrigate the fields. The water in the crops was reflecting the sun's brilliant light. The group departed from Nilachand and were in a place full of paddy fields, having their breakfast and having a time of peace after the incidents that they experienced. Each of the scenes was engraved in their heads. Giving them a new glow in their eyes, to face the next obstacles. Fui started off with his jokes and the usual argument between Guang and Fui began. Sen was in the fields and sparring with Yadav. Kyou was on the top of a tree, looking over a long distance. Something along the wide horizon caught his eyes, it was a wall. The wall was the check post to Rathameer, but the design of the flags was different. He closed one of his eyes to get a more long-distance view. It was a Chinese-designed flag on top of the wall and on top of that it was the flag of Jin. Kyou was horrified by seeing this, he lunged from the tree and ran towards the rest. He told to everyone that there was a piece of bad news. He said," The city of Rathameer has been invaded by the state of Jin!!" After hearing that Sen and Yadav came rushing. Gung asked if he had any idea which any idea who the general in that city was. Kyou said," I have no idea about that, but by judging the armours of the soldiers it is a Golden General." Guang's face changed, it was always the face that he made when there was any problem. His eyes had this tint of coldness within them. Gung went to the path that led to Rathameer and checked the mud, it was trodden. This indicated that many people had left the city and there was also blood in the road. Guang asked in a distraught manner if Jin had begun to make the food. He kept his hands in his head and he was sweating. Kyou noticed something odd, a sound was emerging from somewhere. He ran towards the tree on which he stood before. He checked and there were large mountains of sand in a specific area of the forest. He called Guang and Sen and rushed towards the spot. It seemed like something was buried inside the ground. Suddenly a bad odor struck their olfactory senses, the odor of dead human bodies. The human bodies were buried under the ground. They felt pity for all the people who died and prayed for their peace. They turned back to leave and that instant they heard something emerging from the ground. The sand was moving and something of the same colour started to emerge, it was the hand of a person. Guang shouted," That man is alive, dig the ground and take him out!!!" They dug with all their might and dug out the man, it was a commander of the army of Rathameer. There was a sword on his chest, completely penetrated through his heart. They thought about how he was alive, his fingers were shivering. They took him to a pond near the paddy fields and poured some water over him to remove all the sand. After that, they give him a hot tea made from the hibiscus flower. The sword had penetrated through his whole body, they thought how to take it out. They had no idea about the situation. After an hour, the man swiftly opened his eyes and started to vomit blood. Jin gave him some medicine. The man's mouth wobbled a bit and he started to talk with stutter. He said," My name is Rakshak and I am a commander of the Rathameer army, the leader of the army unit 1. The man held his sword by the handle and started to take it out slowly, he was enduring the pain. His eyes were red and by mustering up his strength he removed the sword from his body. A small amount of blood was gushing out. Jin gave some leaves to cover the wound. Rakshak told everything about the fight with the Golden General. Fui asked how he was alive although the sword had penetrated through his heart. Rakshak told them about his Chinese origins and that he was actually the descendant of a clan known as Wei Shi. The clan is known for people with extraordinary muscles and body structure. He said," At the moment he took my sword to kill me I used all of my muscle's strength to move my heart further to the left. I really gave up the moment I knew he would kill me. But my will to live wasn't ready to accept that, everything happened in a split second and I couldn't process everything. Jin gave him food, he was coughing a lot while eating and blood started to flow from his nose. The noise Kyou had heard earlier was getting near, it was an army. Kyou shouted," An army is rushing here, probably because of the smoke that rose while Jin made food. They were really near, and Rakshak tried to stand on his feet. Kyou gave him a cloth and said," Cover your face with this. You don't have to fight them. We are not average merchants. An army of 10 people came to the spot. Sen, Yadav, Kyou and Fui stood before them. Everyone in the army had golden armour. Before heading out for the fight Kyou said," They are not at all you average soldiers. Each of them is on the level of general. They are the soldiers of a Golden General." One of the soldiers said," Are you merchants of intruders?" Yadav replied that they were merchants. The soldiers were greedy and they asked them to hand over their wealth. They didn't reply. The soldiers came to the ground and one of them said," The atmosphere isn't too nice here. Thus I will kill you all." They took their swords, stains of blood were there in them. Yadav and Sen said that they would handle them and told Kyou and Fui to head to the city. Fui and Kyou turned back and started to walk. That moment the soldiers rushed towards them, Yadav shouted, "Shoooooot!!!!!" Many arrows were fired from the back, and each of their aim was the soldiers. These arrows had too much amount of force in them. They were fired by the children, after constant practice and too much bleeding and wearing of their hands. They mastered to fire the arrows with precise aim and power to penetrate through the armours. Kyou, Fui, Yadav and Sen left without a scratch. Sen said," Being a general class soldier alone isn't enough. You should be disciplined and well-behaved and know to use your brains." They went to the tent and asked Rakshak to come with them by covering his head. Rakshak agreed to that and they departed to Rathameer. After an hour they finally reached the place and they entered the city from the main gate. The city was mostly empty and there were beggars on the streets. They were begging for money and other valuables. They made the tent near the walls and looked for shops to trade. Yadav started to explore the city. The city of Rathameer felt like a graveyard to him, it was empty and dead. The light of the sun made it even hot and steam left by the evaporating water made him dizzy. He started to go through every turn in the streets. After turning mindlessly on another turn, he saw a rich man being beaten. A really big man was beating him. At first, Yadav's mind told him to turn his back on the man. However, Yadav started to wonder if that was an action appropriate for a General. The big man took axes to slit the rich man's throat. After seeing that Yadav made a dash, dived below through the big man's arms mustered full force in his arms, turned and blocked the axe. The big man was none other than the Golden General, Xie Hong. Xie was impressed by that. He took his axe up in the air to swing it again on the sword Yadav held. Yadav couldn't react perfectly to move his sword at the correct time. The axe cut the blade of the sword into two pieces. Yadav clenched his fists, and Xie also took his fists to hit Yadav. Yadav gave a counter hit, his veins and muscles were sprouting out due to blocking that much force. Xie couldn't believe that a young boy managed to stop his fists with his own fists. Yadav told the rich man to run after him. Yadav and the man ran from there. Xie was running behind them, Yadav told the man to run ahead, and he took his wooden sword. Made a side flip to his back while running, the flip was so quick that no normal person could block it. But Xie held his sword by the hand. Xie said," Lad you are truly powerful, can't believe that someone as small as you can face me with fists. Yadav used his legs to flip backwards by pushing against his Sword Xie held in his hands. The rich man was on a horse and was calling Yadav to get on it. Yadav made a quick leap to the horse. They used the horse to run away, Xie had stopped following them and he stood there with his eyes pointed to Yadav and he also stared Xie back. Those eyes were reflecting their contempt towards each other and their will to kill each other. The eyes also conveyed the message that they will meet each other soon.