Nearly at once, soldiers standing aside laughed and booed. They were all waiting to see General Leng, who looked so weak compared to Tuoba Wuyu, to make a fool of himself. They hadn’t seen him fought since he was appointed to be the General. Besides, Leng Changxi looked fairly handsome and weak. His face was rather pale, as if he hadn’t exposed himself to the sunlight for long, so soldiers thought he was weak.

Tuoba Wuyu was very aggressive, but Leng Changxi stood still. Leng Wu became worried and then was comforted by what Qin Yunuan said. “Don’t worry. Changxi can easily defeat such a strong man now.” Qin Yunuan briefly explained to Leng Wu that Leng Changxi’s Qigong of Tongming Gate had been activated when they were in the Yeren Valley. Leng Wu was surprised. There should be such a kind of powerful Qigong. No wonder he felt Leng Changxi had totally different genuine energy now.

Two axes Tuoba Wuyu used were like two scary and overwhelming tigers. But Leng Changxi moved quickly like a swift snake and avoided Tuoba Wuyu’s all attacks. Tuoba Wuyu exerted all his strength every time and seemed to fight like crazy, while Leng Changxi always stayed poised, which irritated Tuoba Wuyu more.

“Come on. Take this seriously. Don’t dodge. Are you so afraid that you can’t even fight?” Tuoba Wuyu goaded Leng Changxi.

“Alright.” Leng Changxi nodded. When Tuoba Wuyu gritted his teeth and was ready to attack, Leng Changxi squinted, raised his hand gently and held up a finger to leverage his genuine energy. Right before he touched Tuoba Wuyu, the latter, who was as strong as a cow, should suddenly slip and fall down to the ground.

Almost no one saw clearly how Leng Changxi made Tuoba Wuyu fall down. Actually, they all thought it was Tuoba Wuyu himself causing his fall.

“General.” A close guard of Tuoba Wuyu tended to help him up, but Tuoba Wuyu wielded his axe to stop him. “We know these 200,000 soldiers can only have one general. Leng Changxi, you should trick me. How insidious!”

“Ah, he played a trick.”

“Gosh, why does His Majesty appoint him to be the general? Honest is the most important in the competition, but he should play tricks.”

“Nonsense.” Leng Changxi titled his head and took a tough stand. “When did you see I tricked you?”

“Or why did I fall down?” Tuoba Wuyu was wide-eyed and confident somehow. He looked up at Leng Wu, Qin Yunuan and other people in the distance and said, “You all, roll up your sleeves. You must have hidden weapons.”

Leng Wu thought Tuoba Wuyu was unreasonable and provocative. He was going to blow up but stopped by Qin Yunuan who was smiling and not impatient at all. Their disadvantaged position and caring-nothing attitude now would be in sharp contrast to their triumph later.

Seeing Qin Yunuan rolled up her sleeves, Leng Wu, Leng Shuang and others followed. Tuoba Wuyu paused after finding nothing on their bare arms. Then he said to Leng Changxi, “Well, it must be you hiding something.”

Leng Changxi also rolled up his sleeves to reveal his two muscular arms, and then said with his hands clasped behind his back, “I won’t use my hands later, so there is no chance for me to use any secret weapon.”

Leng Changxi was satirizing Tuoba Wuyu, but the latter didn’t care about it. Tuoba Wuyu’s eyes already turned red, and he was determined to win. He wielded axes again. Leng Changxi stopped frowning and lifted his leg to kick at Tuoba Wuyu’s lower abdomen. The latter raised himself suddenly. Then Leng Changxi lifted his leg again and this time, aimed at Tuoba Wuyu’s face. However, he stopped before touching Tuoba Wuyu. When Leng Changxi lifted his right leg high, Tuoba Wuyu closed his eyes tight, waiting for a scary and hard attack. After a while, Leng Changxi said lightly, “Well, don’t be afraid. Open your eyes.”

The fight seemed like a farce. Tuoba Wuyu became rather embarrassed because Leng Changxi didn’t kick him just now. He wondered what martial arts Leng Changxi practiced and why he could defeat him within several moves. Tuoba Wuyu was quite strong, but when Leng Changxi attacked him, he should be unable to move. It was weird.

“What kind of strange martial art did you practice?”

“Not any strange martial art,” Leng Changxi answered as if nothing amazing happened. “It’s the Qigong of Tongming Gate.”

At once, people around all whispered. They knew only royal members of West Xia could practice the Qigong of Tongming Gate. It seemed that those claims about Leng Changxi were true.

“General Tuoba, can we set off now?” Leng Changxi smiled and looked at Tuoba Wuyu, but his smile made Tuoba Wuyu flesh creep.

“I’m not worthy of this title,” Tuoba Wuyu replied reluctantly after keeping silent for a while.

“Yes. I remember you said that all these soldiers could only have one general.”

“You’re the general,” Tuoba Wuyu cut in before Leng Changxi finished. He was in a cold sweat and looked totally different from what he was like before. The guard near him was curious about why Tuoba Wuyu became so humble. Leng Changxi didn’t even kick him.

“Remember what you said.” Leng Changxi titled his head a bit and raised himself slightly. He said to soldiers around, “You all did a good job today. Have a good rest here, and we will set off tomorrow morning.” Then, he called Qin Yunuan to pitch tents on the other side.

When they left, soldiers and guards of Tuoba Wuyu surrounded him immediately.

“General, he was just close to kick you. Besides, his kick might not even hurt you. Why do you admit defeat and let him lead us?” A grumpy soldier complained. “In my opinion, we should plan a sneak attack at midnight. Catch that ungrateful and lamb man and force him to kowtow and apologize to General Tuoba. What do you think of this?”

Many soldiers agreed on this suggestion.

“Bah, you know nothing!” Tuoba Wuyu’s face didn’t turn ruddy until now. Seeing only his henchmen around him, Tuoba Wuyu directly took off his armor and rolled up his clothes to reveal his lower abdomen which was kicked by Leng Changxi. His abdomen already turned dark purple and nearly black.

“He should poison you.” Some stood up at once and took their weapons, wanting to get back at Leng Changxi.

“You all, sit down.” Tuoba Wuyu frowned. Why did his henchmen have the body of a man but the mind of a child? “This isn’t caused by poison, but General Leng’s Qigong. I clearly remember that he didn’t touch me, and this injury can only be caused by his genuine energy. He just pretended to kick me to mislead others. I assume he can already use his genuine energy to hurt people without touching them now. He hadn’t exerted all strength to beat me. If he had, I would die now.”

Soldiers then understood and realized that Leng Changxi, who looked impressive, really got something. However, some were not reconciled yet and secretly planned an evil trick.

At night, they finished pinching tents. In all, there were three layers of tents with the outermost one for soldiers who kept a vigil tonight. Leng Wu had a tiring day. But as Leng Changxi’s lieutenant, he took the lead to keep a vigil. Maner wanted to accompany him but was refused.

“It’s cold outside. How can you, a woman, stand the coldness? Besides, you will distract me if you stay here.” After giving a simple explanation, Leng Wu urged Maner to go back to the innermost tent where Qin Yunuan lived.

The sky was full of stars tonight. But at the hillside, people could only see half of the sky, not the whole one. Shining like diamonds on a black fur cloak, stars were dazzling.

Maner walked back with her head down. She had asked Qin Yunuan for leave before, so she didn’t need to wait on her tonight. But now that she was free, she could return to duty. When she was close to the tent where Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi lived, she suddenly saw a figure flashed. She stopped with her eyes wide open and became so frightened. A spy sneaked in?

She kept walking and wanted to figure out what happened. Someone covered her nose and mouth. Maner struggled, but that person was skillful and directly dragged her to a dark place.

“It’s me.” The voice from behind was tender, charming and familiar.

Maner looked back and found it was Yuanyang who “kidnapped” her. Yuanyang was in all black. She would be deemed as an assassin if people just caught a glimpse of her. Besides Yuanyang stood Leng Shuang who was also in all black and looked neat and smart.

“Why do you…?”

“Hush.” Yuanyang made a gesture to ask Maner to keep silent. Then, they only heard the wind and occasional chirps. They three hid themselves near the water storage bucket behind the narrow tent. Inside the tent, Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan could be seen clearly against the light. Leng Changxi sat down, and it seemed that he was reading military books or maps while good-shaped Qin Yunuan leaned against the table to grind the ink stick.

Suddenly, a thud and a man’s muffled groan attracted their attention.

“Hold on. We’re not waiting for this man.” Yuanyang quickly made a judgment. It was urgent now, and they had to seize the moment. Yuanyang leveraged her genuine energy to check people around. She smiled suddenly and nodded to Leng Shuang. “As Madam expected, more than one bunch of attackers have sneaked in. What a busy night!”