Chapter 45 Absolute Silence

Wang Ba's military boots stopped in front of Zhao Si. He glanced down at the pathetic, pulp-like injuries.

"Drag him away and heal him."

There was not a trace of emotion in his voice.

"Yes!"

Two close-guards started in a panic. They practically lunged forward, fumbling to untie the blood-soaked ropes. Each grabbing a side, they hoisted the unconscious Zhao Si and bolted toward the medical officer's tent as if fleeing for their lives.

Wang Ba didn't bother to look at that mass of ruined flesh again.

He turned around and walked step by step back up to the towering command platform.

As he moved, the thick stench of blood, mixed with the indelible, aged foulness clinging to him from yesterday's latrine duty, billowed toward the military formation.

The soldiers in the front row swallowed hard, forcibly suppressing the churning wave of nausea in their stomachs, yet their feet felt as though they had grown roots, unable to shift an inch.

He stood up there on the platform, his spine held ramrod straight.

The vast parade ground, home to three thousand men, was dead silent.

Even the wind seemed to have stopped.

There was only the sound of breathing suppressed to the extreme, and each man's own drum-like heartbeat.

Every gaze was nailed rigidly to the figure on the platform. Fear, like an invisible giant hand, gripped everyone by the throat.

What was he going to do next?

The cold wind whipped up the dust on the ground, but not a single person noticed the biting chill.

Their bone marrow had long been frozen by an entirely different kind of terror.

If Xiao Zhan's previous slaughter and rewards felt like the majesty of gods and demons—too distant from their daily reality—then Wang Ba's twenty lashes were a horror branded directly into their bones!

Who was Wang Ba?

He was a brother who used to drink, eat meat, and boast together with them!

Who was Zhao Si?

Wang Ba's most loyal underling!

And now?

He was beaten without a moment's hesitation, mercilessly!

The whip fell on Zhao Si, but the pain pierced into the heart of every single man present.

Those twenty lashes shattered the last shred of wishful thinking in their hearts and snapped all cheap "comrade-in-arms sentiment."

In the Ghost unit, there are no brothers.

There is only obedience.

There is only iron discipline.

Up on the command platform, Zhang Wei's face was frightfully pale.

His lips trembled, unable to utter a single word.

"Killing... and condemning the soul..."

Qin Cang squeezed the four words out from between his teeth, his body trembling uncontrollably.

In an instant, all the clues connected in his mind, and an extremely vicious picture unfurled abruptly!

First, promoting "Nimble-Fingered" was telling everyone that meritocracy reigned supreme here!

Next, appointing Wang Ba was telling everyone that seniority did not matter here—only ruthlessness and absolute loyalty counted!

Finally, making Wang Ba personally sever his own past was also severing everyone else's illusions about the past!

How vicious! How brilliant!

This wasn't troop training.

This was reshaping the souls of a whole group of men!

Qin Cang looked over at Xiao Zhan.

That man maintained a faint smile throughout; this bloody spectacle before his eyes was merely a good show to him.

Qin Cang suddenly felt that the barbarians might not be Great Ming's most terrifying enemy.

The man right in front of him was.

Wang Ba stood back behind Xiao Zhan, lowering his head without a word.

Xiao Zhan patted him on the shoulder, just like praising a child who had done a good job.

Then, he stepped forward and addressed the three thousand rigid soldiers standing below.

"Now, does anyone still have objections to Instructor Wang's appointment?"

"None!!!"

The response was a neat, uniform roar laced with terror!

"Very well." Xiao Zhan nodded with satisfaction. "Instructor Wang, your men are yours."

With that, he truly stepped aside, ceding the entire command platform to Wang Ba.

Wang Ba stepped forward.

He looked out at the three thousand familiar faces below. In his mind echoed everything Xiao Zhan had said to him yesterday:

"Stupid pigs belong in a pigsty."

"Having strength without a brain makes you a stupid pig!"

He took a breath, and with a hoarse voice, issued his first command as chief instructor.

"All personnel, attention! Pick up your 'Ghost's Fangs'!"

"Clatter!"

With absolute uniformity, three thousand soldiers picked up their weapons.

"I know many of you are unconvinced in your hearts."

Wang Ba's voice echoed across the parade ground.

"You think that I, Wang Ba, am just a soldier who stumbled into blind luck."

"You think I am merely more ruthless and shameless than you."

"You are wrong."

Wang Ba shook his head.

"The first thing My Lord taught me was neither killing nor obedience."

He tapped his own head.

"It is using your brain!"

"Starting today, your first training task is this!"

"Yesterday, you learned to disassemble and assemble. Today, I want you to complete it blindfolded!"

"What?!"

An uproar broke out below.

Blindfolded?

Are you kidding me?

They were all thumbs yesterday even with their eyes wide open, and now they were expected to do it blindfolded?

"The rules are the same." Wang Ba ignored the commotion. "Half an incense stick of time to complete it once. Those who fail will go to the latrine to take their punishment."

The latrine...

Those two words possessed a magical potency.

They instantly quashed all the commotion.

"Blindfold yourselves!"

At Wang Ba's order.

The soldiers cursed inwardly, yet dared not defy him in the slightest. One after another, they tore off strips of cloth and covered their eyes.

Darkness descended.

With their vision stripped away, the "Ghost's Fangs" in their hands instantly became utterly unfamiliar.

"Begin!"

At the command, the chaotic clinking and clattering erupted once again across the parade ground.

But this time, it was even worse than yesterday.

"Damn it! My hands!"

"Parts! Where did my parts go?!"

"How the hell is this possible!"

Complaints rose one after another.

Just then, Wang Ba moved.

He stepped off the command platform and walked straight up to a soldier who was cursing aloud.

He said nothing, reached out, and tapped three times lightly against the barrel of the rifle in the soldier's hands.

"Thud. Thud-thud."

The sound was very soft, yet carried a peculiar rhythm.

The soldier's cursing stopped abruptly.

He froze.

Without paying him any mind, Wang Ba walked over to another flustered soldier and similarly tapped a few times against his rifle barrel.

"Thud-thud, thud, thud."

The rhythm was different this time.

He walked all the way through the ranks, tapping out a different rhythm on the weapon of every soldier trapped in difficulty.

At first, no one understood what he was doing.

Soon, however, the first soldier he had tapped showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

Instead of fumbling around blindly with his hands, he cocked his ear and, mimicking Wang Ba's example, began lightly tapping various parts of the rifle with his fingers.

"Clink..."

"Clack..."

Different parts and different components produced distinct, entirely separate sounds!

Found it!

He had found the mechanism that was jamming him!

"Click!"

Success!

He was so excited he almost shouted, but immediately clamped his mouth shut, continuing to use this new method to feel out the next part.

Soon, the second and third soldiers caught on as well.

They were no longer headless flies.

They began to "see" with their ears and differentiate by sound!

This cold steel could actually "speak" after all!

On the command platform, Qin Cang's pupils contracted once more.

He looked at Wang Ba's back, a tumultuous storm raging in his heart.

This Wang Ba... was he really just shoveling shit yesterday?

No.

He had been forcefully enlightened inside a living hell!

Xiao Zhan had not only given him strength, but had personally forged the heart of an assassin into this fierce tiger! He had instilled a wisdom that was both the simplest and the most practical!