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Early morning. Yewang. The city outskirts.
Xu Zhu stood on a hilltop, gazing in the direction of Lü Bu’s farmhouse in the distance.
Strange — why was there no movement at all?
Whether the operation had succeeded or failed, a signal should have come by now…
At that moment, a black-clad figure came stumbling and crawling toward Xu Zhu’s position. Xu Zhu’s men recognized him as one of their own and rushed forward to help him up, bringing him before Xu Zhu.
“Why are you the only one — where are the others?” Xu Zhu sensed something was terribly wrong, but asked anyway.
“…General Xu, they…they’re all dead…”
“What?” Xu Zhu froze.
“…When we…broke down the door, we found…that wretch Lü Bu was already gone…so we withdrew…but…along the way…our men…started dropping one by one…only then did we realize…the fragrance inside the house…we had all been poisoned…Only I…managed to hold on long enough to get here…” The man lay on the ground as he spoke, his face growing visibly darker by the moment.
“Military Advisor Jia also anticipated that Lü Bu and that assassin might not let us catch them so easily, so he planned ahead for the wretch’s escape routes and laid a net of heaven and earth to catch them. Everyone stay calm — they cannot escape!” Xu Zhu remained composed. He had absolute confidence in Jia Xu, the man who had defeated Lü Bu.
“But using incense poison inside the house as a trap — that sort of method wouldn’t be Lü Bu’s doing. It must be that assassin called Xiao Meng… Hmph! A castrate is a castrate — vicious and underhanded to the core!” Xiao Meng’s identity as a eunuch survivor was no longer a secret within Cao Cao’s camp.
“But…as we retreated…we saw many of our brothers fallen on the ambush paths…they…all died from…poisoned arrows…” The man in black had spent his last breath; he could say no more.
“What?!” Xu Zhu, who had been sitting in a commanding posture, shot to his feet. At the same time, even his not-particularly-sharp instincts told him that something was very, very wrong right now.
— It was too quiet.
Since when, on a morning like this, had even the birdsong gone silent?
Whoosh —
The sound of an arrow. Four of Cao Cao’s soldiers beside Xu Zhu dropped to the ground.
Of the thousand-plus men in this operation to encircle Lü Bu, Xu Zhu himself commanded a unit of three hundred — but those actually stationed at his position numbered just over a hundred. The rest were lying in ambush along the various smaller paths.
Xu Zhu immediately raised his great iron hammer as a shield before him and shouted to his troops, “Everyone stay alert — that castrate’s arrows are deadly. He’s hiding somewhere around here!”
The soldiers roared in response, as though trying to bolster their own courage. The enemy was concealed; they were exposed. This was the worst possible situation.
But they had all guessed wrong. This was not yet the worst.
Xu Zhu had barely recovered from his shock when the arrows came again, relentless, and his men began falling four or five at a time. They tried to locate Xiao Meng hidden among the trees, but the poisoned arrows came from every direction at once — there was simply no way to fix his position.
“…No…no…mercy, please…” When the unit of three hundred was reduced to only a few dozen in a matter of moments, soldiers began to lose control, scattering in every direction to flee for their lives.
But the archer gave them no such chance. Those who tried to run died faster.
How much time passed, no one could say. At last, the hidden arrows fell silent.
Because only one person remained in the clearing.
Morning light filtered into the eerily silent forest. Cold sweat poured down Xu Zhu’s face, great beads rolling into his eyes and blurring his vision — yet his hands, drenched in cold sweat and barely able to hold the iron hammer, dared not move at all. One moment of distraction, and he would become another soul felled by an arrow.
Xu Zhu found he could not control his increasingly rapid breathing.
In less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense — three hundred men, annihilated.
Had Xu Zhu not known who his opponent was, he might truly have believed it was evil spirits haunting the forest. But he knew that the one about to appear was far more terrifying than any evil spirit.
Because he looked at his own hands trembling beyond his control, and he knew — that archer was not Xiao Meng.
There was only one person in the world who had ever made him feel a pressure this overwhelming —
Lü Bu.
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Clad in dark brown robes, a longbow across his back and a short halberd in hand, his imposing silhouette stepped slowly out from the shadows.
He came now as death itself, walking over corpses and through pools of blood.
“Xu Zhu.” Lü Bu looked at him, his tone utterly calm.
“Now, there is only you left.” Lü Bu pronounced the verdict.
His eyes were even calmer than his voice — not a trace of emotion to be read. This, more than anything, made Xu Zhu’s blood run cold. A silent beast, more chilling than one that roars.
“Only I am left” — what did that mean…?
Was he saying that I alone survived here…or was he saying that the thousand-plus men lying in ambush across this entire hillside had all been…
Impossible!
How could any person in this world be so terrifying?!
No…
Because Lü Bu was not a person…!
Xu Zhu strained to listen. He desperately wanted to hear some sound — any sound — to prove that he was still among the living.
But there was nothing.
All was deathly still, save for his own breathing, nearly beyond control.
“Alas…people only remember my Red Hare and my Sky Piercer halberd, yet they always seem to forget my archery.” Lü Bu glanced up at the sky, half-hidden behind the swaying shadows of the trees, and broke the silence first with a sigh — a faint note of exasperation in his voice.
Indeed — on the day Lü Bu shot the halberd at the camp gate, his artistry with the bow had been without equal among all the commanders in the realm. To say none could surpass him was an understatement; those who could match even half his skill were vanishingly rare.
“I am a straightforward man. My original intention was simply to finish you with a single arrow, the same as your men. But —”
Xu Zhu watched Lü Bu. His face still held no particular expression, yet a cold glint flickered through his eyes.
“You insulted Xiao Meng. That is why I had to come out and deal with you myself. Because you must die in a manner that is truly wretched.”
The light had already gone from Xu Zhu’s eyes — for he had lost all hope of survival.
Xu Zhu’s build was of a giant’s scale — he stood two heads taller even than the powerfully built Lü Bu, who was no small man himself. Yet now, standing before Lü Bu, he felt like nothing more than a small white pig before a tiger.
He could not understand how this Lü Bu — now a stray dog without a home — could be a hundred times more terrifying than the Lü Bu of old, who had stood at the height of his glory, commanding three armies.
“Defeated foe — I’ll give you the first move. You came to wash away your shame, didn’t you? Come then. In the end…it makes no difference.” Lü Bu smiled.
Xu Zhu let out a wild roar and lunged forward, swinging both great iron hammers.
It was not courage. It was the terror of a man who wanted desperately to end this nightmare — to end everything — as quickly as possible.
“It makes no difference either way. Things never go as one wishes.” As Xu Zhu lunged to within three feet of Lü Bu, the sound of Lü Bu’s quiet laughter reached his ears.
“Military Advisor Jia, I am willing to lead a thousand troops and go personally to Yewang to capture and kill this villain!”
He remembered how, on that day, he had volunteered with such swaggering confidence.
Jia Xu had glanced at him sideways and smiled. “Oh? The other generals under Cao Gong all seem to prefer holding back. Is it that General Xu does not fear the God of War?”
“The God of War, Lü Bu? All I know is that your stratagems have had him spinning in circles time and again! I’m not flattering you — if not for you, my lord would not be where he is today! Lü Bu may be fierce and formidable, but a wild beast is still a wild beast. In front of a truly clever man, how much damage can it really do?!” Xu Zhu said with a fawning, ingratiating grin.
Crude and hulking as he was in appearance, he understood well enough that half of any warrior’s battlefield accomplishments were owed to a capable military advisor. Among the constellation of fierce generals in Cao Cao’s camp, Xu Zhu wanted to distinguish himself — and this newcomer Jia Xu, who had once dealt Lü Bu a decisive defeat, was an excellent person to curry favor with.
What he did not know was that his own frame — built like a divine soldier descended from the heavens — combined with his wide mouth and broad face, hunched forward and delivering these flattering words with such an eager expression, was so utterly comical that Jia Xu had nearly burst out laughing on the spot.
But Jia Xu instantly redirected it into an appreciative smile. “Excellent! The General thinks only of serving our lord — this is truly a blessing for our lord, and for the court!”
He turned to admire the light clouds drifting beyond the garden, and sighed, “Lü Bu is indeed a hero of this age. But as they say — everything in this world has its match. Having now encountered me, Jia Xu, one can only say that his good days have come to an end.”
This was the last thing that flashed through Xu Zhu’s mind as he crashed to the ground — the conversation he had shared with Jia Xu just days before.
Xu Zhu had not anticipated that within a mere five exchanges, he would already be wide open. Lü Bu drove a fist into his chest; all Xu Zhu heard was a continuous series of cracking bones, and then he crumpled to the ground like a great water buffalo from which the skeleton had been ripped away.
…He hadn’t even used the halberd…
The searing physical pain, paradoxically, had numbed Xu Zhu’s terror.
In those few brief exchanges, neither man had dodged or evaded — it was a pure contest of raw strength.
Xu Zhu was no stranger to defeat, but even the rare few who could beat him had always done so through clever technique.
No one had ever dared to pit raw strength against his enormous body. Lü Bu dared — and it was a total, absolute domination of force.
Not human…Lü Bu…is not human…
This was the last coherent thought Xu Zhu would ever have.
For in a single breath, his life and soul would be swallowed whole by the extreme pain, terror, and despair that Lü Bu brought upon him.
Xu Chang. Jia Xu’s Residence.
Jia Xu stared at the blood-stained secret letter on the desk before him, both hands gripping the armrests of his chair, unable to speak for a long, long while.
In the study, six or seven of Jia Xu’s subordinates stood about, exchanging glances with one another. They had never before seen the Poison Advisor Jia Xu wear such an expression.
Outside the window, layer upon layer of dark clouds had silently begun to gather.
The plan to eliminate Lü Bu had to be carried out in secret, so the Jia residence had become the command center. The operation was entirely under Jia Xu’s authority, with full power to mobilize all manpower and resources within Cao Cao’s camp. Xun Yu and Guo Jia had not intervened, nor asked a single question.
But the news that arrived ten days into the operation weighed on Jia Xu’s heart heavier than the leaden clouds outside the window, pregnant with rain yet still holding back — of the thousand-man encirclement force, fewer than two in ten had returned alive. Every mid- and low-ranking officer who had taken part in the operation was dead. The commanding general, Xu Zhu, was missing.
In the end, Jia Xu sent men back into the mountains to search. They found him.
Xu Zhu’s body had been bound to a tree trunk — bound with his own intestines.
He had been disemboweled.
Only his torso was bound to the trunk. His four limbs had been severed and hung from the branches above.
The Cao soldiers who had the misfortune of discovering Xu Zhu first vomited on the spot. It would become a nightmare they would carry for the rest of their lives.
Yet the most terrifying thing was not Xu Zhu’s mutilated remains — it was his face. Frozen on his blackened features was an expression of sheer panic, terror, and utter collapse.
And the most damning thing of all, of course, was that Lü Bu and the eunuch assassin had vanished without a trace.
“Lü Bu, that villain, will surely go on the offensive now. Pass the order — immediately and covertly reinforce the defenses inside and outside Xu Chang, and keep watch over all suspicious individuals passing through every city gate!” Barely suppressing his own shock and alarm, Jia Xu barked his commands, attempting to use the force of his voice to conceal its trembling.
His subordinates assented.
At the same time, Jia Xu immediately tightened security around his own residence — though he knew full well in his heart that this was little more than a futile gesture.
Cao Cao must already know the situation by now… Jia Xu thought to himself.
He sank back into his chair, his expression dark and unsettled.
His original plan had been to use the abundant resources of Cao Cao’s camp to kill Lü Bu and avenge his former lord Dong Zhuo, while earning himself a great merit — enough to press down both Xun Yu and Guo Jia, and secure his new lord’s deeper trust in him.
He had not imagined that his debut performance upon joining Cao Cao’s camp would end in such utter and humiliating defeat.
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Xu Chang. The Xun Residence.
“Heh heh…quite the storm brewing, wind filling the tower~…cough, cough…”
A clear, pleasant male voice rang out in the study of the Xun residence. The man immediately took a sip of hot tea, trying to suppress the cough.
His features were refined and delicate — the very picture of a frail, scholarly young man. It was none other than Guo Jia.
“We’ve had a rare stretch of leisure these past few days. In weather like this, why aren’t you resting under your blankets instead of coming here to bother me?” Guo Jia drained his cup in one go, and his host Xun Yu smiled and refilled it with hot tea, his words carrying not the slightest hint of reproach.
“Ha — dreadful weather, excellent mood. How delightful, how delightful!” Guo Jia was, for once, beaming with undisguised delight.
In the study, Cao Cao’s two great military advisors — Xun Yu and Guo Jia — were brewing tea and playing a game of chess.
The two sat across from each other by the window, together watching the wind rise and the clouds churn over the city of Xu Chang.
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End of Chapter 16
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Chapter 16 of Burning Dream Records, “The Storm Gathers,” is an original work written by Jing Xixian (Vampire L). All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, reprinted, adapted, redistributed, translated, or used for commercial purposes in any form without the author’s prior written authorization.97Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHmTcL2ctQ
© Jing Xixian (King Heyin) (Vampire L), All rights reserved.
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