Chapter 47: Live-Fire Shooting
Wang Ba nodded. For the first time, a trace of satisfaction appeared on his face.
“Everyone who has finished, go and rest.”
“Those who failed, stay.”
No one complained.
The failures remained in silence, continuing their drills.
And when the successful men passed by them, they no longer cast mocking looks their way, but offered encouragement instead.
A new order was quietly taking shape.
Wang Ba walked over to the soldier called Wu Neng and helped him up from the ground.
“Convinced?”
“Y-yes... I’m convinced...” Wu Neng clutched his stomach, genuine awe written across his face.
“Go to the medical officer and have that treated.” Wang Ba patted him on the shoulder. “Tomorrow, I don’t want to see another brainless fool.”
With that, he turned and walked back to the command platform. Facing all the soldiers who were still awake, he announced the next order.
“Today’s training ends here.”
“Tomorrow, assemble at dawn.”
Wang Ba paused. A trace of bloodthirsty excitement entered his voice.
“Live-fire shooting!”
Live-fire shooting!
Those four words exploded through the chests of three thousand soldiers like rolling thunder!
The Ghost’s Fangs in their hands were no longer cold lumps of iron, nor toys that required painstaking disassembly and reassembly. They had come alive! Their insides were about to be filled with thunder and flame!
Every man’s breathing grew heavy.
They had waited far too long for this day!
From the moment they had first watched this divine weapon shatter ten tower shields, they had dreamed of pulling the trigger themselves and unleashing that world-destroying force. What would it feel like?
It would surely be more intoxicating than the strongest wine in the world, more enthralling than the most beautiful woman!
“Everyone, inspect your weapons!”
Wang Ba’s voice shattered their fantasies.
The soldiers jolted and immediately lowered their heads, beginning one final inspection of their Ghost’s Fang. With strips of cloth, they carefully wiped every inch of the weapon’s body, their movements as tender as though they were caressing a lover’s skin.
On the command platform, Qin Cang and Zhang Wei wore solemn expressions as well.
They knew that today marked the true beginning of this army baring its fangs.
“My lord, the targets are ready,” Zhao Tieniu said quietly as he stepped forward.
At the far end of the drill grounds, row upon row of thick wooden targets had already been erected, crude human outlines painted across them.
Xiao Zhan did not look at the targets.
He merely lifted a cup of hot tea and blew gently across its surface. In a seemingly careless tone, he said, “Who said we were going to shoot those dead things?”
Zhao Tieniu froze.
Qin Cang and Zhang Wei’s hearts gave a violent leap.
An ominous premonition swept through everyone present.
Sure enough!
Xiao Zhan set down his teacup and spoke calmly to the men below.
“Instructor Wang.”
“Your subordinate is here!” Wang Ba immediately stepped forward.
“Your soldiers have never even killed a chicken. How will they go to war?” Xiao Zhan asked.
Wang Ba’s expression remained unchanged. He merely bowed.
“Please give your orders, my lord.”
“Bring up the ‘targets.’”
“Yes, my lord!”
At Wang Ba’s command, the gates of the drill grounds slowly opened.
Squad after squad of prisoners entered, their expressions numb, their hands and feet shackled, the household guards shoving them forward.
Prisoners again!
The atmosphere across the drill grounds instantly froze.
Every soldier’s pupils contracted.
They remembered the more than hundred prisoners who had been torn apart by machine-gun fire several days earlier. They remembered the rivers of blood, the scene that had looked like hell itself.
That time, they had been spectators.
Could it be that this time...
“No... It can’t be...” Some soldiers began whispering in disbelief.
Their hands started to tremble.
The Ghost’s Fang, weighing seven or eight pounds, suddenly seemed to possess the weight of a thousand jun.
“Do you see them?” Wang Ba walked to the very front of the formation and pointed at the hundred or more trembling prisoners. His voice held not the slightest warmth.
“These are your targets.”
“Today’s training is very simple.”
“Hit them.”
Boom!
The minds of all the soldiers seemed to explode at once.
Target practice?
Was this target practice?!
This was a massacre! They were being ordered to slaughter more than a hundred living human beings with their own hands!
“What is it? Afraid?” A cold, mocking smile appeared on Wang Ba’s face. “When you kill people on the battlefield, aren’t you all shouting like wild beasts? Now that you’re holding a weapon of the gods, you’ve turned into women?”
...
No one answered.
It was not killing people they feared.
They feared the weapon in their hands!
Its power was too terrifying. It was not a sword or a blade that met the resistance of flesh when thrust into the body. This was thunder! Divine punishment! With the slightest movement of a finger, a living man a hundred paces away could be transformed into a heap of mangled flesh!
The sensation of holding another person’s life and death in their hands was too vivid—and too horrifying.
“Listen to me!” Wang Ba’s voice suddenly rose. “The first thing you must learn in the Ghost unit is to disregard life! Not only the lives of your enemies, but your own as well!”
“Now, first rank, step forward! Prepare to fire from a hundred paces!”
In a ragged line, the three hundred soldiers of the first rank stepped forward with stiff, unnatural strides.
Their faces were paler than the last.
“My lord... I...” A young soldier’s lips trembled. He looked as though he might burst into tears. “I... I can’t do it...”
Wang Ba turned to look at him.
Everyone assumed that Wang Ba would lash him as he had Zhao Si earlier.
But he did not.
He simply walked over to the soldier and took the Ghost’s Fang from his hands.
“What is your name?”
“R-reporting to the instructor... I... I’m called Li Goudan...”
“Very well, Li Goudan. Watch closely.”
Wang Ba raised the weapon in one hand. He did not even adopt a proper firing stance. He merely pointed it casually toward a prisoner in the formation who was trying to shrink backward.
The prisoner was so terrified that he wet himself. He dropped to his knees and began desperately kowtowing.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out!
A hundred paces away, the prisoner’s head burst apart like a watermelon struck by an iron hammer.
Red and white matter splashed across the prisoners nearby.
The entire process was over in an instant.
Wang Ba’s shot had been utterly devoid of drama, as casual as tossing aside a stone.
He blew across the muzzle, still trailing wisps of smoke, then shoved the weapon back into Li Goudan’s rigid hands.
“Did you see clearly?”
“Killing someone is this simple.”
“Now, will you do it, or shall I do it for you?”
Li Goudan stared at the weapon in his hands, still warm with the heat of gunpowder. Then he looked at the headless corpse in the distance.
His stomach churned violently, and with a loud retch, he vomited.
Wang Ba frowned.
“Drag him away! Lock him up! No food for three days!”