Chapter 45 This is Not Historical at All

The imperial military general was named Mo Hong, a native of Qingzhou. In his youth, he had been taught by a strange master and mastered the art of the palm lightning spell. Because his mortal ties were not yet severed, he descended the mountain to join the army, and relying on this mystical art, he was invincible and unstoppable, rising all the way to the rank of commander within a few years through accumulated merits.

This time, tasked with suppressing the bandits of Yushan Mountain, he had not taken the matter to heart.

Mere mountain bandits—couldn't they be wiped out with a flick of a finger?

It was not until Li Gui displayed peerless valor that Mo Hong cast a second glance at him.

Yet, that was all.

He did not know how many fierce champions and bold bandits had died beneath his palm lightning, and adding one more now was of no consequence.

He was long accustomed to summoning lightning in the midst of battle. The moment Li Gui crashed to the ground, his charging horse reached Li Gui's front, and he thrust his spear forward.

Casting lightning first, followed by decapitation—this routine procedure had long become second nature to him, and he had never missed. Who could have anticipated an accident today?

After being blasted to the ground by the lightning, Li Gui's body merely grew rigid; the circulation of fortune within his body immediately dissolved that numb and itchy sensation.

Just as Mo Hong's spear tip thrust downward, Li Gui vaulted to his feet, grabbed the shaft of the spear, and with a fierce yank, dragged Mo Hong right out of the saddle.

"Wretch!"

"You actually know how to use lightning!"

Shock and fury intertwined in Li Gui's heart. Fearing that the enemy general would blast him with lightning again, he lunged forward, raised his vinegar-bowl-sized fists, and smashed them down fiercely at the general's head.

So terrified was Mo Hong that he screamed at the top of his lungs, "Hold on! You cannot kill me! My master—"

Before the words could escape his lips, his forehead took a blow. With a crisp "crack," Mo Hong's head jerked violently backward, and his cervical vertebrae snapped.

Li Gui's second fist followed immediately. With a dull "thud," Mo Hong's head was crushed into a bloody mush like an overripe persimmon. A wisp of red fortune quietly emerged from the corpse and sank into Li Gui's body.

Only then did Li Gui feel at ease. Tossing aside Mo Hong's corpse, he wiped the blood and brain matter from his fists onto his clothes, stood up, and let out a roar like thunder that shook the surrounding wilderness.

"The Song general is dead! The Song army is defeated!"

Thrice he shouted thus, and the battlefield situation changed instantly.

On the battlefield, situations were volatile. In the blink of an eye, twists and turns followed one after another, and no one could predict the outcome.

First, the invincible champion of the mortal world, Great Chieftain Li Gui, was struck down by a celestial spell, failing to last even a single move.

This very scene shattered the morale of the bandits of Yushan Stronghold, nearly causing the battle formation to collapse on the spot.

Yet immediately afterward, the Great Chieftain, who had suffered a bolt of lightning from the Song general, not only did not die, but instead turned the tables and hacked the Song general to death, reversing the entire situation once again.

This simply dropped everyone's jaws to the ground.

On the side of the Song army, from Commander Mo Hong downward, more than half had already fallen in battle. The remaining few deputy commanders and subordinate officers could no longer keep the troops in line, and twos and threes of "clever men" began to flee and scatter.

Clutching his broadsword, Li Gui rushed beneath the commander's banner and hacked the flag-bearing soldier to death with a single stroke. The remaining flag-bearers dared not linger and fled, dropping their banners.

As the banners fell, every soldier knew the commanders had lost, and their fighting spirit instantly evaporated. How could they dare continue fighting? They cared only for preserving their own lives.

The Yushan side, however, saw their morale soar. Led by the three chieftains, shouting, "Our elder brother is the Heavenly Killing Star descended to earth," they howled repeatedly and once again swept forward in a routed-enemy pursuit.

A mob of motley troops was always like this: invincible when the wind was at their back, collapsing a thousand miles when facing the wind.

When it came to slaughtering easy targets, the men of Yushan were experienced. Operating in squads of three to five, they began wantonly cutting down those unlucky ones who ran too slowly.

Seeing that victory was assured, Li Gui could not be bothered to continue fighting. Standing in place, he began to examine the wisp of red fortune he had acquired.

Though he stood motionless in place, within a radius of thirty paces around him, not a soul was to be seen; no one dared cross that forbidden boundary by even half a step, and even deserters instinctively detoured around him as they fled for their lives.

As Li Gui's physique grew stronger and stronger, the white fortune offered him negligible improvements. Now, having obtained the red fortune, he could continue to enhance himself, striding toward the limits of human capability.

After consuming this wisp of red fortune, Li Gui felt his original muscles and bones become denser and tougher. His originally tall and robust body actually shrank slightly, but his weight increased even further.

According to Li Gui's estimation, even without armor now, an ordinary sword capable of cutting iron would leave nothing more than a white mark upon him. Only weapons forged from fine steel could leave a wound on his body.

He wondered if this world possessed hard qigong techniques like the Golden Bell Shield or the Iron Cloth, but Li Gui's current physique already showed signs of being impervious to swords and spears.

One could easily imagine that as long as this strengthening continued, in the end, Li Gui would undoubtedly reach the limits of humanity, and perhaps even transcend those limits to achieve the extraordinary.

The Yushan forces pursued the enemy for more than an hour, driving the imperial troops all the way out of the borders of Yishui County, before gradually coming to their senses, returning slowly, and being re-gathered by their respective squad leaders.

This fierce battle had lasted less than an hour from start to finish. The actual frontal clash consisted only of the brief initial ambush, and what ultimately decided the outcome was not the battle between ordinary soldiers, but Li Gui wiping out the enemy commanders, which cemented the victory.

Though the fierce battle was short, a subsequent inspection revealed that the casualty rate had exceeded five percent, the severe injury rate had surpassed ten percent, and nearly everyone had sustained light injuries.

The reason the Yushan army did not collapse was entirely because the enemy army collapsed first. Inspired by victory, they performed beyond their usual limits.

Li Gui was relatively satisfied with this outcome.

His original purpose in training the army was to pin down the enemy's main force and create an opportunity for him to single-handedly assassinate the enemy general.

However, this incident made him realize a serious problem.

"Motherfucker!"

"Someone actually knows Daoist magic!"

"This is truly the world of *Water Margin*, completely defying history!"

In the very first chapter of *Water Margin*, there was "Celestial Master Zhang Prays to Avert Plague, Marshal Hong Carelessly Releases Demons."

In this world, cultivators genuinely existed, and Daoist magic and demons were real matters of fact.

Those one hundred and eight marshals on Mount Liang were even authentic demon kings reincarnated, sent down to endure their karmic tribulations!

Thinking further of Master Lu, who pulled up a weeping willow by its roots, and Wu Song, who casually tossed around stone locks weighing four to five hundred catties like toys, Li Gui instantly felt that his current level of martial prowess was somewhat insufficient.

As for the legendary heavenly book bestowed upon Song Jiang by the Nine Heavens Mysterious Maiden, he wondered if it was true; if given the opportunity, he would have to snatch it and take a look.

However, it seemed that this heavenly book did not contain fundamental cultivation methods, but merely various applied spell techniques, military treatises, and tactical strategies—in which case, it would be useless.

As for how the different colors of fortune came to be, why should Li Gui care about all that?

As long as killing granted fortune and it could be used, that was enough!

Once he killed enough, he would naturally know!