Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1571 - 1514: The Last of the Yellow Turbans
"Good stuff." With a slash, he easily beheaded a Miscellaneous Hun, casually directing the spear aimed at him in the direction of its force, and then effortlessly killed another enemy. A soldier, while stroking his leather armor, had a look of greed on his face, yet helplessly shook his head.
Carrying a sword and wearing leather armor, holding a small shield, the soldier moved effortlessly among the Miscellaneous Huns. Relying on experience and instinct, he easily teamed up with allies who might appear at any moment to slash down the enemies in front of him.
Such ease and elegance broke through several layers of the front line in a very short time. This scene left Xu Shu utterly stunned, while Wei Yan and Guan Ping couldn’t help but rub their eyes in disbelief.
"How is this possible?" Xu Shu looked incredulously in the direction where Zang Ba was advancing. He could feel the momentum of the soldiers behind Zang Ba; among them, two or three hundred had already reached the level of Qi Refining to Gang, with several even as formidable as Zang Ba himself.
Only by having such individual quality could such a terrifying scenario occur. The remaining three thousand soldiers, though just ordinary soldiers at the level of Inner Qi Condensation, executed their movements with such unnerving experience that it made Xu Shu shiver.
The way they roamed the battlefield, effortlessly blocking and dodging attacks, using leverage in combat - only those veterans who had survived hundreds of battles might accomplish such feats; yet, in this era, veterans who survived that many battles no longer existed.
"If I had these weapons back then, it wouldn’t have been so frustrating." Casually swinging his sword to cut off the long spear of a Miscellaneous Hun cavalryman, a soldier shook his head as he spoke.
"Stop talking, our time is limited." Another soldier, passing by and killing an enemy soldier effortlessly, coldly said upon hearing this.
Zang Ba swung his great sword, slashing an enemy general in the lead. For some unknown reason, his eyes suddenly felt incredibly sore at that moment.
"Follow me, charge, and break through!" Zang Ba, not caring about the stunned Wei Yan and Guan Ping, roared as he continued slashing down enemy after enemy.
In the rear, Huyan Chu and Qiu Linbei were numb-faced because, standing at a high vantage point, they could see the entire situation. Thus, they could clearly sense the breakthrough speed of Zang Ba’s Central Army.
"Military Spirit..." Huyan Chu spoke quietly. Only in this way could there be such combat power that defies the heavens.
"This can only be explained..." Qui Fu said in silence, the sense of overwhelming power that could only be explained by Military Spirit.
"It’s not Military Spirit, it’s another existence even more terrifying, yet it’s in decline." At this moment, Lan Clan, always following behind Huyan Chu, spoke as well. Being a sacrifice of the Huns, he knew relatively more.
"Manifestation of national belief?" Huyan Chu suddenly inquired.
"I’m afraid so." Lan Clan paused in silence and nodded. Such terrifying power had once been possessed by the Hun people as well. When the Hun Empire fell, it was forged by the belief of the entire Northern Huns. However, it disappeared once the Northern Huns escaped the calamity of death.
"Is it in decline?" Huyan Chu looked in the direction of Zang Ba and asked aloud.
"Yes, it’s in decline," Lan Clan nodded and spoke, "It can’t last long, at most two incense sticks’ time."
"Order them... forget it, just let it be, after breaking out we can pursue," Huyan Chu initially contemplated a costly effort, but then reconsidered and decided against stubbornly confronting a soon-to-vanish myth.
Setting aside the feelings of the Huns and Wei Yan and others, even Zang Ba himself was stunned by such power. But no matter how powerful, when the time left was measured in seconds, it was merely a brief, glorious bloom.
"We can’t maintain it for long, helping you break through to that position is already the limit. After all, we are merely a belief, and moreover, our root has already vanished. Even if it covers the consciousness of your soldiers, showing full force, it can’t support for long." A soldier, after helping Zang Ba slay a centurion, shook his head and spoke to Zang Ba.
"Thank you." Zang Ba, with a hint of silence, said to him. He didn’t know him, but he was very clear about who these people were.
"It’s nothing. At least everything we once wanted is now being realized, and what we never dared to imagine is also being realized in your hands," the other said casually. "And by the way, being able to witness this again makes me very satisfied!"
"Don’t mind that I deceived you all?" Zang Ba asked in a somewhat low voice as he continued to kill the Hu cavalry in front of him.
"Why would we mind? We’re all dead, the dead do not mind. As for the living, you’re dead too. The four seasonal festivals, the three livestock and six animals, they recognize you more than they recognize us, Great Commander, the inheritor of the Thirty-Six Sides of the Yellow Turbans, the inheritor of General Tiangong. You are more Yellow Turban than we are!" Said another soldier casually from beside him.
"So, you shouldn’t think too much. There are so many Yellow Turbans in the world, but only you inherited the legacy of the Yellow Turbans. Isn’t it because they recognize you more?" Said another soldier to Zang Ba.
Zang Ba remained silent. It was only a few years ago when he suddenly realized the belief of the Yellow Turbans entrusted to him here that he vaguely understood. The identity of the Great Commander has increasingly been recognized as life got better, while the identity of the Yellow Turban continually faded.
The Yellow Turbans from the lowest stratum, everything they longed for, was achieved with the help of Chen Xi after the Great Commander committed suicide, and they abandoned their Yellow Turban identity to merge into Qing and Mount Tai.
"Hey, if you have the power to talk, then hurry and kill the enemy. The Yellow Turbans have disappeared in history, and the collective belief of the Yellow Turbans cannot be retained if not for the real presence of the Great Commander," said another soldier, pointing coldly at Zang Ba.
Everyone got serious at once and rushed forward. Indeed, they could no longer consume it. With the disappearance of the Yellow Turbans, the collective belief could no longer be replenished, but rather because the old dream was gradually being realized, the collective belief had become ever thinner.
Seeing a group of Yellow Turbans saying nothing more, Zang Ba couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. Since he took over the belief of the Yellow Turbans, he had been anxious and uneasy. He, Zang Ba, was not a Yellow Turban. He, Zang Ba, had deceived all the Yellow Turbans, but during the four seasonal festivals, he received the sacrifices of the three livestock and six animals, and even the collective belief of the Yellow Turbans fell into his hands.
Perhaps, initially, Zang Ba did not understand what this belief was, but as he delved deeper, Zang Ba gradually understood the essence of this belief. The power of this belief, in essence, far surpassed Military Spirit. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
This belief assumed by Zang Ba was the collective belief of the Yellow Turban group, the longing of the Yellow Turban group. It represented the belief of nine-tenths of the Central Plains’ populace when the Yellow Turbans rebelled. If Military Spirit could be said to be a highly unified belief of a small group, then this belief was that of the entire Yellow Turban collective, even the thoughts of the Central Plains’ lower-tier populace of that era.
Though not highly unified, the overwhelmingly large mass of populace was enough to form a belief far surpassing the Military Spirit. And it was from here that Zang Ba glimpsed another thing—the Military Soul of the Empire.
