Chapter 210: Growth In The Face of Hardship

　　Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

　　Fang Ping and the others dodged past the boulders. Those they could dodge they forcefully hacked to smithereens.

　　Soon, they arrived at the village gate.

　　The next moment, a cold order sounded from within the village. “Kill them!”

　　Dozens of people surged out from the village with a rallying war cry. They were almost deranged in their actions. Though they were mediocre in terms of skill – some were civilians, even – they charged suicidally toward Fang Ping’s team as if their lives did not matter.

　　Fang Ping even saw some old people among them—crazed elderly citizens with glowing red eyes!

　　Many of the students faltered at the sight, their weapons half-raised…

　　Gu Xiong sent someone flying with a punch. “Kill them!” he bellowed in fury.

　　The rest of the students blinked as if they had just woken from a dream. They charged as well, firmly suppressing their trepidation.

　　“These are what they call martial artists! People who murder the innocent, even the old and weak, women and children! Hilarious!” someone in the village said loudly. He continued coldly, “These are the “protectors” who claim that they want to protect the earth and humanity?

　　“Currently a crowd of elderly people is here waiting for you to slaughter them—weak, helpless, and entirely innocent! Is this the so-called benevolence you claim to have?

　　“Lies! Nothing but lies!”

　　“There are 64 more civilians in the village. 12 of them are above 60, and 6 are children aged below 10. I want to see how many of them you can kill!”

　　With that, several confused-looking children ran out to join the crowd of villagers.

　　Fang Ping and the others abruptly halted. Gu Xiong looked serious. He suddenly bellowed, “Retreat!”

　　Without further prompting, the three squads retreated more rapidly than they had charged in, vanishing from the villagers’ sights.

　　…

　　Outside the village, in the temporary encampment.

　　Everyone fell into an oppressive silence.

　　Zhao Yang slammed his fist on the ground. He said, gritting his teeth, “Bastard!”

　　Yu Xianghua massaged his forehead and said tiredly, “So what do we do now? Do we kill them?”

　　Everyone fell silent. Gu Xiong gritted his teeth and said, “This is war! If we go to war with the Catacombs, as long as they are Catacombs humans, we kill them!

　　It’s the same with evil sect martial artists!”

　　Someone pointed out, “We know…that’s what we all say, but when a situation happens like what we just encountered, would you really be able to kill them? Gu Xiong, what if you lead a team in charge of killing those civilians while we deal with the martial artists? Death on the battlefield would be better than our current situation!”

　　Gu Xiong fell silent. He had seen the slaughter of Catacombs civilians before but had not taken part in it himself.

　　Those children, especially, looked completely at a loss. They might not even know what was right and what was wrong.

　　The deluded ones were their parents and grandparents, not them.

　　A group of young martial artists in their twenties would not be opposed to risking their lives killing evil sect martial artists. If someone died in battle, the ensuing sorrow would only last for a time.

　　They were loath to fight against those children, though.

　　Han Xu considered the matter for a while. “What should we do now, then? Those evil sect martial artists are obviously putting them on the frontlines. They’re using the children as a shield, so they can lie in wait and drag things out with us…”

　　Fang Ping was silent for a while. He asked, “What would the others do if they were in this situation?”

　　Gu Xiong said, solemn, “Kill them!”

　　“These people look frail and helpless, but if we do hold back from killing them, we may suffer later on as a result.

　　“Perhaps the school assigned us this settlement because they had considered this point…”

　　“Or we can knock them out…”

　　Someone suggested, “Wait till we kill off those evil sect martial artists, then let the Military Department take care of them.”

　　“That’s also a good idea. We might not be able to keep from killing them though…”

　　“If they die, there’s nothing we can do. This is as much as we’re capable of, everyone. We can’t delay the entire operation over this matter.

　　We’ll have to deal with it even if we drag things out till the last minute.”

　　Everyone traded glances, and a unanimous agreement was reached.

　　…

　　Ten minutes later, everyone charged toward Boulder Village again.

　　Just like the last time, the same band of civilians and children came running out.

　　Fang Ping and his team did not retreat this time. All of them attacked, the edge of their palms striking their opponent’s necks. Stunned or dead, that was a matter of conjecture.

　　Half of the students attacked, while the other half stood guard in case the martial artists in the village decided to exploit this opportunity and charge.

　　This proved to be the case.

　　The students were already seething with anger, so they did not hold back when they came face to face with the evil sect martial artists. They charged, bellowing, and dispatched dozens of their opponents.

　　“Withdraw, mount defenses!” someone in the village bellowed. The evil sect martial artists retreated back into the village.

　　Fang Ping and the others did not give chase. They retreated also, taking with them the village civilians who had collapsed onto the ground.

　　“Hypocrite! If you want to kill them, just do so! Why pretend to be benevolent? Since they’ll die sooner or later now that you’ve captured them, why not just kill them now and put them out of their misery?”

　　Someone in the village taunted. Zhao Yang turned, only to growl, furious, “Just you wait! When we meet you, we’ll make sure you die happily!”

　　“Hahaha! I’ll wait for you, then. If you want to use us for target practice, we’ll do our best to oblige! You’ll know at your dying breath how cruel this world can be!”

　　The speaker in the village was hidden from sight, but Fang Ping and the others could feel his Vitality thrumming in the air. It was very strong. He might have been a higher-stage Rank-3 martial artist, perhaps even Peak-rank.

　　The villagers had still not attacked yet, either because of fear, or something else.

　　As Fang Ping and the others made to retreat with the civilians, the speaker in the village suddenly said, “Go!”

　　Boulders started tumbling down the next moment.

　　The village had very little in the way of other natural resources but they were certainly not short of boulders.

　　None of the students had any wish to time tangling with these large rocks and retreated swiftly out of range.

　　As they brought the civilians back to their camp, the boulder attack stopped. One of the students standing guard suddenly yelled, “Throw these people out!”

　　Fang Ping and the others froze in their tracks stunned, before Gu Xiong seemed to recall something. He bellowed, “Throw them out! Everyone else, evacuate!”

　　At Gu Xiong’s furious order, Fang Ping and the others immediately flung the civilians they were carrying to one side and withdrew from the area frantically.

　　The sound of a huge explosion shattered the air just as everyone evacuated the camp, and boulder debris flew everywhere.

　　…

　　When the dust settled, quite a few people bore confounded expressions.

　　They looked back at their temporary camp, which had now been blasted into a gigantic crater.

　　“Assholes!”

　　“Is anyone hurt?”

　　“Only a surface injury…”

　　Fang Ping was completely mentally exhausted. Yang Xiaoman said, gnashed her teeth, “They had bombs attached to their bodies!”

　　“Those were detonators…Boulder Village’s just by the mountains. There were mines here, so they probably still had detonators left. The evil sect martial artists did this deliberately. They probably guessed what we would do.

　　“If no one had spotted the detonators, and we brought those civilians back into camp…who knows…”

　　All several hundred students were above Rank-2, but a lot of them would probably be dead if they had been within blast range.

　　These consecutive setbacks had discouraged many of the students, and they had begun to second-guess themselves.

　　Fang Ping cursed. He then said in a subdued tone, “This is only preparation for a Catacombs battle. Are there bombs in the Catacombs, too?”

　　Gu Xiong shook his head and sighed. “There are no bombs in the Catacombs. The main point of this is to test our adaptability though, not our way of handling bombs.”

　　“Test, my a**!”

　　Fang Ping cursed again. He said furiously, “If those bombs had exploded while we were in camp, many people would’ve died!”

　　Everyone fell silent at that. The student who had ordered them to throw the civilians aside said, “Suicide attacks are the hallmarks of evil sect martial artists, and we have evidence of this.

　　“We’ve just never countered such before ourselves.”

　　Everyone looked at the speaker; he was a higher-stage Rank-2 martial artist from CCMAU.

　　He grimaced when he saw everyone’s eyes on him. “Don’t look at me. All of us haven’t experienced combat on such a scale before, so we just default to charging in when on the battlefield. The situation on the battlefield changes fast enough we can’t evaluate it in time.”

　　Yu Xianghua exhaled. He thought for a while and said, “Better if the few of us don’t decide by ourselves this time. Everyone, please share your thoughts. What do we do now?

　　“The civilians on the enemy side are almost completely wiped out.

　　“All the people in the village now should be martial artists, but the village’s infrastructure is quite complicated. The number of martial artists and their whereabouts are difficult to pinpoint.

　　Whether we continue to hold our positions outside the village or charge in, we must decide on a plan.

　　“They may want to lure us into the alleys. Boulder Village might be just a hamlet, but their buildings are all quite tall, and most of the houses are built with bluestone from the mountains.

　　“If we end up fighting in the alleys, we will incur huge losses. The evil sect’s main objective now will be to kill more of their enemies.

　　“They don’t fear death. They’re only dragging this out to exhaust our patience.

　　“If we lose patience and charge in, we’ll probably be segregated in no time, surrounded, and killed…”

　　At this, Fang Ping asked, “They’re relying on geographic advantage now. Can we burn the village?”

　　A student from MCMAU shook his head. “Most of the buildings in Boulder Village are built with stone, so burning will only bring limited results. This village is not an enclosed one, either…”

　　“So what should we do now? Just stand here and watch?”

　　A few people in the group discussed in hushed tones. Finally, someone said, “Right now, we need to break their geographical advantage and force them to fight with us face to face. They should be inferior to us in that regard; they wouldn’t make use of so many indirect strategies otherwise.

　　“Our suggestion is that, firstly, we move as one unit. Rank-3 martial artists will stand at the frontlines and demolish the buildings.

　　“It’s only a village, after all, so there won’t be too many structures. If we spend some time on this, we should be able to bulldoze the buildings.

　　“Second, ask the students from the School of Production to construct some simple catapults. We’ll attack them with boulders as well.

　　“We are all martial artists, and our goal is only to destroy the buildings in the village. This might be time-consuming, though, so it can’t be done by today.”

　　Fang Ping said in amazement, “You know how to make these things as well?”

　　“It’s only a simple projectile device. It’s not really a catapult. It will mainly depend on the collective strength of all of us martial artists to work. If we have to construct it to the requirements of normal people, it can’t be done in a short amount of time like this.

　　“This is not some huge city anyway; it’s only a village. Our goal is to demolish the buildings and force the evil sect martial artists out from hiding. It can be done.”

　　Fang Ping and the other Rank-3 martial artists looked at one another. Quickly, someone asked, “How long will this take?”

　　“If we build them overnight, we can make seven or eight by next morning…”

　　“If they climb the mountain after that…”

　　“We’ll attack them with fire if that happens. The vegetation is sparse over there; it’s mainly rocks.

　　“If we burn the trees, they no longer have the advantage over us.”

　　“If we use martial artists to bulldoze the buildings…”

　　“The only concern is that our enemies won’t give us time to recuperate after our Vitality is exhausted.”

　　Fang Ping said, after some consideration, “If everyone’s willing to sponsor me some Vitality Pills, I can be a human bulldozer. What do you think?”

　　Everyone looked stunned for a moment. Fang Ping continued, “My Vitality recovers quickly. The evil sect martial artists might not know about this.

　　“If we create the illusion that we exhausted our Vitality from demolishing the buildings, we might be able to lure them into taking the bait and attacking us.

　　“We’ll have to wait till tomorrow for the catapults. Who knows what might happen in a night…

　　“The others can stay vigilant and maintain their Vitality. The damage I can cause on my own is more or less equivalent to the damage done by 10 Rank-3 martial artists.

　　“Think about it. Would the other side pass up the opportunity if they think that ten of our Rank-3 martial artists are out of power?”

　　There were very few Rank-3 martial artists among the students. If the other side assumed that many of the student powerhouses were exhausted, they might very well take advantage of the recuperation period to attack.

　　Zhao Yang asked after that, “How many Vitality Pills do you want?”

　　“Give me thirty to fifty Rank-3 ones…”

　　The whole group fell silent. After a moment, Fang Wenxiang said with a sigh, “We’d better wait for the catapults.”

　　Fang Ping had the nerve to set such a high price!

　　“20’s okay too!”

　　At everyone’s silence, Fang Ping said moodily, “You guys are too stingy. If you do it yourself, including launching the catapults, you’ll have to expend your Vitality, won’t you?

　　“You have to replenish your Vitality by taking pills.

　　“15, then. This is the minimum. I’ll supply some of mine, too…”

　　Everyone exchanged looks. After a moment, Zhao Yang from CCMAU said, “What does everyone think?

　　“If we really enlist Fang Ping’s help on this, we’ll deduct the Vitality Pills from the war spoils. Does anyone have something to say to that?”

　　“10 pills, that’s acceptable. Too many, and we might discover the spoils might not be worth 15 Rank-3 Vitality Pills!”

　　One Rank-3 Vitality Pill cost 40 credits in MCMAU.

　　15 of them were equivalent to 600 credits or 18 million yuan. It was impossible to tell if they would earn as much from the battle.

　　Those evil sect martial artists would have taken their pills in advance, as they knew they were sure to die. If they had not, they would have destroyed them before they died.

　　The only loot worth collecting would be the evil sect martial artists’ weapons, and it did not seem that there were many of those either.

　　Fang Ping made some calculations. 10 Rank-3 Vitality Pills had a value of 12 million yuan, and that was the value of the pills alone. They could provide him with a further 8 million in Wealth points.

　　If he sold the pills later, he could earn about 10 million from them later, give or take.

　　If he spent so many Wealth points, the value of the pills would remain still; that would be his net profit.

　　After considering this, Fang Ping said virtuously, “Everyone’s doing this for the sake of the mission. 10 pills then. Let’s destroy the buildings together!

　　“After we demolish the buildings, they can only go up the mountain or fight with us face to face.

　　“I think that the former is unlikely to happen. They’re prepared to die to serve their cause. When the time comes, they’ll aim to kill as many as they can instead of fleeing.

　　“Will the Military Department and the instructors on the sidelines lend a helping hand if they think we can’t destroy them?

　　“We don’t think so, but the enemy side may think otherwise.

　　“They might defeat us in a fight, but that won’t be the case if they fight against the instructors.”

　　After that, Fang Ping continued, “Rank-3 martial artists, cluster together with me. The rest of you, stand further away from us. Everyone, create the illusion that we’ve exhausted ourselves and lure them into attacking us. If they really do come, unleash your full powers and give them a surprise!”

　　Fu Changding said all of a sudden, “Can you really do it? Your Vitality will recover, but your stamina will be depleted. If that happens…”

　　Fang Ping smiled, “I should be able to. If I really can’t maintain it, I’ll retreat early. No objections, everyone?”

　　“Alright. If we really do destroy the buildings and lure them out, the other side won’t be a match for us unless they have many powerhouses above higher-stage Rank-3 in their midst.”

　　Gu Xiong nodded. “We have more people compared to them. Our casualty rate will be minimized if their Rank-3 martial artists don’t square up against our Rank-2 people.

　　“They won’t be our match one-on-one, provided that both the same rank.

　　“Their weapons are poorly made and their combat techniques are unrefined. If we take them on two to one, we can kill them swiftly!”

　　Gu Xiong continued, “The Rank-3 martial artists here have the most responsibility. You’ll have to delay their Rank-3 martial artists or even those at higher-stage or Peak.

　　“If not, they’ll inflict serious damage if they come face to face with the rest.

　　“There shouldn’t be too many martial artists Rank-3 and above. If they did have that many, they would have already attacked and killed two or three of us each.

　　“We’ll follow the original plan. If someone with a high rank appears, we Rank-3 martial artists will hold them back while the martial artists on the Rank-2 list will face off against the other Rank-3 enemies.”

　　After further altering their plans, everyone took a break before departing for Boulder Village together.

　　Fang Ping also received the 10 Rank-3 Vitality Pills everyone contributed

　　Soon, he would have to contribute a great deal himself.