Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 387: Chapter 372: The Slippery Old Eunuch

Yang Zhenshan stood atop the battlement, the long spear pointed directly at Prince Qing.

“Subordinate Yang Zhenshan greets Prince Qing!”

Prince Qing gazed at him intently, his eyes piercing as he said, “General Yang, what a strategist and what a skilled fighter you are!”

“Thank you for the praise, Prince Qing!”

A slight smile lifted the corners of Yang Zhenshan’s mouth as he said, “Next, we might have to inconvenience Prince Qing a bit!”

“You want to take me down? Haha, let’s see if you have the strength!” Prince Qing let out a cold laugh.

Yang Zhenshan glanced around. At this point, many soldiers from the Personal Guard Camp had already scaled the city walls, and even the elite troops by Prince Qing and Ji Feiyu’s side would find it difficult to resist the strength of the Personal Guard Camp’s soldiers.

Without any unnecessary words, Yang Zhenshan leaped forward, thrusting his long spear furiously.

“Your Highness, you go first!” Ji Feiyu stood in front of Prince Qing, his trident clashing with Yang Zhenshan’s long spear.

But he still somewhat underestimated Yang Zhenshan’s cultivation. When he blocked the short spear shot by Yang Zhenshan, he felt that Yang’s strength was above his, but he still underestimated Yang’s power.

Yang Zhenshan’s strength was not just above his – it far surpassed him.

The heavy Mystical Iron Spear wielded pressed down upon the trident. With a clang, Ji Feiyu couldn’t maintain his grip, and the trident flew out of his hands.

Ji Feiyu’s pupils shrank suddenly, but before he could react, Yang Zhenshan had already struck his chest with the spear shaft.

A heavy thud reverberated, and a terrifying force struck. Ji Feiyu only felt pain in his chest, followed by a sweet, fishy taste rising to his throat, spewing forth.

Ji Feiyu’s cultivation was not weak; he was at the Postnatal Ninth Layer, and though he had just broken through to this level, he was considered the highest ranked in cultivation among all former Generals of Chongshan Town.

Neither the previous General Liang Chu nor the one before that, General Zhang Shouwang, had anything more than a Postnatal Eighth Layer cultivation.

What was more important was that he was only in his forties, his body not yet worn down, in the prime of his life.

In comparison, Yang Zhenshan was already fifty. By all accounts, Yang’s body should have begun to age, but in reality, Yang’s physique was still full of vitality, without any signs of decline.

Moreover, with Yang Zhenshan already at Half-step Innate, the difference between them was as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth.

With just one strike, Ji Feiyu was seriously injured and fell to the ground.

“Take the Prince and leave!”

Seeing that Ji Feiyu was no match for Yang Zhenshan, Zhang Yu immediately urged the guard beside him to escort Prince Qing away, at the same time he leapt forward to face Yang Zhenshan.

A slender soft sword sprang out from his sleeve, the sharp edge aimed at Yang Zhenshan with an exceedingly strange wrapping motion around the Mystical Iron Spear.

Yang Zhenshan’s eyes shimmered slightly, his body abruptly retreating, increasing the distance between them as he stood on the battlement.

Zhang Yu did not pursue, but held the soft sword and watched Yang Zhenshan vigilantly from where he stood.

And Yang Zhenshan too, stared back at him.

An old eunuch with the cultivation of Half-step Innate!

This was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Yang Zhenshan was aware of who Zhang Yu was; the Secret Martial Guards had provided him with files on Zhang, indeed indicating he had considerable cultivation. However, the exact level of his cultivation was not precisely recorded in the files.

This was normal; Zhang Yu had always been by Prince Qing’s side, and it was rare for someone like him to take action, making it difficult for outsiders to ascertain his true cultivation and strength.

Half-step Innate!

And a master of Half-step Innate level who was skilled in using the strange weapon of a soft sword.

Yang Zhenshan found it rather tricky!

The soft sword was not a conventional weapon; it could be considered a bizarre or exotic weapon, and such oddities were quite troublesome because their moves were not only unpredictable but also hard to anticipate.

As the saying goes, ’Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will fight without defeat’. Facing an opponent whose moves you cannot predict makes victory significantly more difficult.

“Who would have thought that there would be such a master by Prince Qing’s side!”

Yang Zhenshan said with a heavy voice.

“This humble one also did not expect that General Yang would have cultivated to the level of Half-step Innate!” Zhang Yu’s wrinkled face was filled with a grave expression.

Yang Zhenshan merely felt he would be difficult to deal with, but Zhang Yu knew well that he was not Yang Zhenshan’s match.

The reason was simple: he was already over sixty years old, and his bodily functions had long started to decline, which meant his strength had to be discounted.

Postnatal Martial Artists could not stop their bodies from aging, and even at Half-step Innate, it was no different. Of course, due to individual physique and health conditions, the rate of aging could vary.

For instance, a martial artist plagued by hidden injuries might start experiencing a decline in his physical prowess before forty, while someone who had never been severely injured might only begin to face decline after fifty.

Reaching the level of Half-step Innate could delay the onset of this decline, but the delay wouldn’t be very long, usually only about a decade or so.

So although Zhang Yu’s strength has begun to decline, the degree of decline is not very great, and of course, he is no match for Yang Zhenshan.

Yang Zhenshan not only has the cultivation of half-step Innate, but his body has been nourished by Spiritual Spring Water for a long time, and thus maintains the youthful vitality of its functions.

Therefore, Yang Zhenshan’s strength did not decline. On the contrary, due to the nourishment of the Spiritual Spring Water, his strength has even increased a bit.

To prevent the aging of the body, one must enter the Innate Realm.

In the Innate Realm, True Qi returns to the root within the body, subtle and continuous, bringing neither cold nor heat. It naturally harmonizes, transforming the body from the old to the new, and revitalizing vitality.

Therefore, the lifespan of Innate Martial Artists far exceeds that of ordinary people, with the most long-lived reaching the age of three hundred years.

At the same time, the strength of Innate Martial Artists comes from the accumulation and properties of Innate True Qi, creating a situation where the older one gets, the stronger one becomes.

This is not to say that an older Innate Martial Artist will certainly be stronger than a younger one, but that the strength of an Innate Martial Artist will grow with age. More precisely, strength will increase with the accumulation of time.

However, Yang Zhenshan and Zhang Yu are not Innate Martial Artists right now; they are only half-step Innate, and they are at a distance from the Innate realm which seems very close but in reality is quite far away.

The two faced each other off, while the battle around them grew increasingly fierce.

With the Personal Guard Camp reaching the city walls, the battle entered its most intense phase.

And below the city, Uncle Song finally smashed open the city gate, but what they entered was only Vessel City, and they still needed to break through the second gate to enter the city.

“Brothers, follow me and charge!” Uncle Song, reckless of his safety, rushed into Vessel City, where there were still enemies ahead, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle inside Vessel City.

Inside the city, Ming Zhi and Yang Mingzhen had joined forces and were attacking the city gate, hoping to open it, but they faced not a few enemies.

Although by now a fair number of soldiers inside the city had turned their coats, the forces under Ji Feiyu’s command originally outnumbered those under Yang Zhenshan, plus most of the soldiers were climbing the city at the moment, so in reality, the number of enemy troops inside the city far exceeded that of the turned soldiers.

However, at this time, the gate on the middle wall of Chongshan Pass had been opened, and Lu Chongde was leading thousands of turned soldiers rushing out from North City and attacking towards the southern city gate.

The shouts and cries of killing filled the entire Chongshan Pass, and the streets and city walls were everywhere fiercely contested.

Hearing those tumultuous shouts and killing cries, and seeing Prince Qing’s figure disappear on the city walls, Yang Zhenshan swung his Long Spear and charged at Zhang Yu again.

A longer weapon has the advantage!

Yang Zhenshan, wielding his Long Spear, forced Zhang Yu to retreat continuously, leaving him no room to utilize the versatile forms of his Soft Sword.

It was delusional to think that one could use a Soft Sword to parry Yang Zhenshan’s Long Spear.

However, Zhang Yu really was tricky to deal with. After more than thirty bouts with Yang Zhenshan, he still managed to evade each attack.

Zhang Yu’s martial arts were more like those of Jianghu Martial Artists, skilled in Light Body Skill and movement techniques, and his moves were unpredictable and versatile, suitable for one-on-one fights. Although Yang Zhenshan had made up for his deficiencies in Light Body Skill and movement techniques, compared to Zhang Yu, they were still far inferior.

This led to the current situation where Yang Zhenshan chased Zhang Yu to strike, Zhang Yu could only evade without the power to counterattack, but Yang Zhenshan also found it difficult to defeat Zhang Yu quickly.

The two of them fought from the lower part of the city gatehouse to the top, and from the top of the city gatehouse into the city itself.

Zhang Yu fled like a lost dog everywhere, but Yang Zhenshan just couldn’t take him down, which made Yang Zhenshan somewhat impatient.

This old eunuch was slippery and really annoying.

In a moment of urgency, Yang Zhenshan flung out a handful of Copper Coins.

Dozens of Copper Coins flew, but were still dodged by Zhang Yu, the old eunuch.

Even the usually surprising Thousand Mechanism Hand was ineffective before Zhang Yu.

“Damn it, this old eunuch is really tough to deal with!”

Yang Zhenshan truly had no other choice and could only compete with Zhang Yu in endurance.

In fact, this kind of fighting consumed a tremendous amount of strength, especially for Zhang Yu, who originally had less physical strength than Yang Zhenshan. Evading required more strength than attacking, so his consumption was far greater than Yang Zhenshan’s.

As time ticked away, Zhang Yu was already exhausted!

While Yang Zhenshan was entangled in fighting with Zhang Yu, Ming Zhi and Yang Mingzhen also encountered trouble—they ran into Hou Yao.

Hou Yao’s cultivation was about the same as Liu Zeqing, possessing the cultivation of Postnatal Eighth Layer, while Ming Zhi and Yang Mingzhen both had the cultivation of Postnatal Seventh Layer.

However, the two had also been nourished by Spiritual Spring Water for a long period, and although their constitution was not as exaggerated as Yang Zhenshan’s, it far surpassed those at the same level.

The two of them working together against Hou Yao ended up fighting equally matched.

This meant they no longer had the strength to attack the city gate and were forced into a bitter struggle.

Outside Vessel City, Uncle Song had already taken care of the enemies before him, and they had pushed the battering ram over and began striking the second city gate.

Inside the city, the thousands of turned soldiers gathered by Lu Chongde were also locked in a bitter battle; the more soldiers he gathered, the more enemies he attracted.

The breakthrough point of this battle fell on Niu Zhuang and Tang Feihu.

When each place was caught in a hard fight, Niu Zhuang and Tang Feihu, from east to west, occupied a large section of the city walls, working hard to expand their gains. More and more soldiers climbed onto the walls, and more and more soldiers from the walls surged into the city.

As more and more soldiers poured into the city, the scales of victory began to tip towards Yang Zhenshan’s side.