Lord of the Desert

Chapter 356 Stress
From the two main meridians of Foot Taiyang and Foot Shaoyin, the true Qi carries the fire-type spiritual energy and sinks into the deep meridians. A slight force will cause a tingling sensation in the popliteal area.

Hong Fan stopped immediately, fortunately no one was injured.

True Qi is too "rough" and innate spiritual energy is too "wild", so the two must be combined into true essence in order to open up the connection between the twelve meridians.

[That was a bit reckless.]

He reflected on himself solemnly.

Turning his gaze inward to the spirit platform, he saw that the branches and leaves of the Dragon Soul Tree were swaying without any change, except that the fog under the roots was becoming thicker.

Due to the limitation of realm, the vitality plundered from the dead cannot be smoothly transformed into cultivation.

[If we get stuck in the interaction between heaven and man, wouldn’t this war be in vain…]

This thought ignited like a wildfire in the wilderness, and then was cut off in an instant.

【Why would I think so? 】

Hong Fan felt extremely uncomfortable and withdrew from his meditation.

It was pitch black inside the tent, with only a ray of moonlight coming in through the crack in the door, straight and sharp.

The sand flows silently.

Hong Fan took a two-inch-long stone from outside the tent and held it in his palm.

With five fingers exerting force, grayish-white powder fell down.

A moment later, the stone was crushed and turned into sand, spreading evenly in circles on the ground.

In terms of basic physical qualities such as strength and endurance, Hong Fan has always been stronger than warriors of the same level.

In the past, he thought that this was simply the blessing of his destiny star, but after this period of stagnation in his realm, an originally vague idea gradually solidified in his mind.

[Apart from the improvement of my cultivation, my strength, agility, and recovery ability have been slowly improving. ]

【This comes from some changes deeper in my body.】

It has been exactly two and a half years since Hong Fan came to this world, and his understanding of the Dragon Soul Tree is still superficial.

Floating in the spirit, half illusory;

He was able to powerfully balance the cultivation of the upper and lower Dantian, and even suppressed the Life Star with ease;

The Dragon Soul Fruit is produced after plundering the blood of the dragon heir. After using it, you can gain a lot of vitality, and it is no problem to open the acupoints and meridians, and regenerate bones and flesh.

So vitality is the real goal of the Dragon Soul Tree?
Hong Fan doubted this.

Vitality is the embodiment of "survival" and is shared by ordinary warriors and even all living things.

However, the Dragon Soul Tree only has special sensing abilities towards dragon heirs and star gods.

There was not enough experience before to summarize, but now Hong Fan speculated that the Dragon Soul Fruit was not the "essence plundered" as originally thought, but "the impurities after removing the essence."

He had no direct evidence, but he had some speculation.

The vitality plundered by the Life Star can only be digested slowly, but the Dragon Soul Fruit can take effect instantly;

The vitality storage capacity of the Life Star is relatively limited, but the Dragon Soul Tree seems to have no such limit...

Both of them have the ability to "plunder" vitality, but the Life Star accepts everyone, while the Dragon Soul Tree does the opposite.

This may indicate that this was not the original target of the Dragon Soul Tree.

So what is its goal?

Hong Fan asked himself this question many times.

But this time he has the answer—the heir of the dragon, or the star lord who carries the dragon's life-granting star.

[It must want something that dragon heirs have but ordinary people don't. ]

He answered himself.

[The bloodline of Zulong? ]

A new speculation brings a new question.

[The vitality of the dragon heir turned into the dragon soul fruit as a byproduct, so where did the plundered dragon blood go? ]

Thinking of this, Hong Fan unconsciously lowered his breathing to the lightest level.

He stretched out his right hand and placed his palm under the silvery moonlight.

The skin is fair and the blood is slightly red.

Against the glow, the veins in the knuckles appeared a light purple.

Whoops!

The wind blew outside the tent, rolling up the curtain and cutting through the silence of midnight like a knife.

Hong Fan clenched his five fingers into a fist and was startled, as if he had returned to daytime:
Meteor shower;

Flame and Thunder;

The innate masters fought against each other, sweeping across the battlefield like a storm; but what lingered in my mind the longest was the painful look of Pu Jian being pierced by a stone in the skull and his eyes bulging out before he died...

His breathing came and went.

Time passed by slowly but actually quickly. Hong Fan could hear his own heartbeat like a drum and felt the wet sweat on his palms.

Just now, he experienced firsthand the typical symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): "re-experiencing trauma."

In his previous life, Hong Fan had read Hemingway's works, but at that time he did not understand the emptiness and fragmentation of the generation that experienced the First World War.

But at this moment he felt the same way.

Witness the universality and inevitability of death on the most intense battlefield.

Thus, we know that life is as short as morning dew.

As a result, value loses its value.

As for the rest of your life, it is nothing more than a long and irrecoverable stress.

Hong Fan exhaled deeply, stood up and opened the tent.

"The way of martial arts is to reduce the deficiencies and provide for the surplus..."

He silently recited Tang Xingqing's words, and a strange desire arose in his heart - to transcend fragility with strength, and to elevate the ordinary with martial arts.

The sky is high, the earth is vast, and the wind is still blowing.

The starry sky glances at the tiny man.

Hong Fan raised his head and looked towards the southeast through the clear night sky.

In the distance where the azure blue and the dark black met, there was a faint flicker of velvety white light - that was the Wind and Cloud Peak that had entered its active state after the blood sacrifice.

"People are like duckweed, guests in the wind."

Hong Fan asked softly.

"So, that's what you think?"

The world was empty, no one responded.

There was only a laugh outside the tent.

······
Hong Fan slept late and was not very restful during the night of the military meeting.

So the next day he was unusually lazy in bed and didn't get up until after half past noon (eight o'clock in the morning).

The sun on September 12 was soft and dim, with a gentle breeze and white clouds, just right for the occasion, reminding people of autumn outings, drinking and entertainment.

Unfortunately, the battlefield makes everything out of place.

By the time Hong Fan had finished his breakfast, the camp was already half empty.

He walked quickly out of the camp gate, and when he looked up, he saw a large group of people gathered in a group under the city, wriggling like living things.

It was the "Jiuyan" that had just been excavated.

This fortification was built between two sections of filled-in moats, and it neither blocked the trajectory of artillery vehicles nor blocked the route of nearby vehicles.

The Baisheng Army did not launch an offensive, but only stationed elite armored troops on both sides of the earthen platform to prevent the defenders from leaving the city for a surprise attack.

Hong Fan went further forward, passed through the artillery position that had been repaired overnight, and saw the entire layout clearly.

The earth platform construction area is more than 30 meters wide horizontally, and the front part reaches 50 meters below the city.

The gentle slope was only about one meter high at this time, but a thick arrow shield about ten feet high had been inserted in front.

The work was divided into three groups: digging the soil, carrying and dumping the soil in bamboo baskets, and leveling and compacting the soil; the total number of people was about a thousand.

In addition, there are the same number of auxiliary troops on standby in the rear, ready for rotation.

Across the city wall, there was also smoke and dust rising from the southeast, probably because construction was going on in the east city, another main attack direction, at the same time.

Hong Fan found an officer to inquire and learned that the command post had been newly set up on the side of the hill, so he went to look for it alone.

The Victorious Army has been stationed outside the city for six days.

A rotten smell gradually filled the air.

A few vultures circled in the air but did not dare to land.

There were five people sitting on the stage.

Xu Yuntao and Qiu Yuankui were both there, but there was no sign of Gu Yixin - Duan Tiannan had to recuperate these days and would not go out unless necessary.

Seeing Hong Fan coming over, everyone signaled with their eyes, but the conversation did not stop.

PS: My hands finally felt warm when I wrote this chapter.

But it was already the end of April.

This part of the plot will be a bit flat, mostly explanations and transitions, which will help me get back into the groove.

(End of this chapter)