Chapter 358: The World Is as Desperate as Reality Makes You Strong

Located in the well-connected Wolonggang Mountain.

The cold stone room was unusually quiet, with only the rustling sound of pens being worked on on the desk piled with various files.

After the dancer left, Wang Yao cleaned up the conference room by himself, then returned to the stone chamber that was used exclusively for his office, and began to calculate the relevant data such as the military supplies that would be needed in the future.

Wang Yao had been a captain of the Shu army, had done similar armament budgets, and was well aware of the necessary conditions for leading an army, namely, food, clothing, housing and transportation. Now he had to be fully responsible for all of these. Otherwise, even if you had great ideals, who would fight for you if you didn't have enough food and clothes?
There are still many things that he wants to do, and there are still a lot of things that he hasn't finished. Now Wang Yao basically has no free time.
"2da."

After an unknown amount of time, Wang Yao suddenly stopped writing.

"What's wrong?" Sima Yi, who was leaning in the shadow of the corner, raised his face.

"After thinking about it, I feel that you should help me with this." Wang Yao raised his head and said.

Sima Yi was silent for a while, then asked tentatively: "Do you want me to help you prepare supplies?"

"Yeah." Wang Yao nodded. The advantage of being with smart people is that you never need to speak too bluntly.

"You saw it during the meeting. Although the allies have reached a consensus on their goals, they still have hope and want to reap the benefits. Therefore, in addition to asking them to provide 3,000 elite soldiers, I did not ask them to provide the first batch of military supplies. After all, it is not easy to get their support at the moment. If I ask for supplies again, it will inevitably be suspected of being too aggressive."

"That's right." Sima Yi nodded without comment. "Fusang is far away and lacks supplies. It can't provide any decent supplies. Although Wei has the strongest financial resources, the Lord of Wei still has concerns. As for Wu, although Zhou Yu has a deep friendship with you, he is not the true Lord of Wu after all. It is not impossible to ask these people to help raise huge amounts of supplies, but I am afraid it will cause a series of related problems."

After a pause, Sima Yi asked again: "But why do you think I can do this?"

"As one of the 22 Arkas of the world's aristocracy, the Sima family should have considerable financial strength." After a pause, Wang Yao added, "I also believe that you will be able to help me solve this problem."

In this world, there are 22 Alka families between heroes and soldiers. To put it simply, they are a bit like the samurai class in history, but in fact, they are the foundation of the world's largest consortium.

“Although I don’t know where you got this information from, you are blatantly exploiting our aristocracy.” Sima Yi couldn’t help but shook his head with a smile.

"When everything is stable, the Federation will not treat your family unfairly." Wang Yao said, "The coalition forces need armor and weapons to fight, and we also urgently need our own equipment to distinguish ourselves from other forces on the continent. After all, strictly speaking, we are now an independent force."

Sima Yi hesitated for a moment and asked directly: "How many pairs do you want?"

"20." Wang Yao handed the document he had just written to Sima Yi: "All the baggage and food supplies needed are also noted in it."

Although he was mentally prepared, Sima Yi's expression changed slightly when he heard the specific amount. This was indeed a big problem.

That being said.

"I will leave for Wei immediately." Sima Yi finally took the documents from Wang Yao's hand, stood up and walked towards the exit of the stone chamber. At this point, he would do his best to help Wang Yao.

Finally, he turned around and asked, "By the way, what kind of color do you want for the armor?"

"Gilded."

"understood."

After another half day, until dusk fell——

Feeling that the hand holding the pen was becoming increasingly weak, Wang Yao finally stopped, stood up and walked out of Wolonggang.

It was snowing heavily outside, and the ground was covered with snowflakes. The sky and the earth were connected into a line in the reflection of the setting sun, blurring the boundaries and the human world. Only the long string of footprints heading towards Jingzhou, like tiny flowers, dotted in a corner of the ground, became a solitary annotation.

Jingzhou City.

Because it was winter, the once bustling streets were no longer bustling with people. Only a few civilians were still struggling for their lives.

On the roadside, in a shop selling steamed buns, the owner surnamed Chen was wrapped in a thick cotton jacket, curled up by the stove and warming himself by the fire.

"This damn weather is so damn cold!" Boss Chen muttered while shivering, thinking that he should close the shop early today and go home to hug his wife on the warm bed. After all, no one would come to buy buns from such a bad genius!

Having made up his mind, Boss Chen immediately stood up and prepared to close the stall and go home. However, as he turned around, he suddenly saw a black shadow with two bloody streaks standing outside the stall and staring at him silently since he did not know when.

"Oh my god?!" Boss Chen was caught off guard and was so frightened that he almost fell to the ground.

Whose child is this? Who is he trying to scare to death in broad daylight? !
This scene was indeed a bit too scary; Nas was standing there outside the stall, not even making a sound, with an extremely hideous ghost mask on his face, which would scare anyone who saw him at first sight.

Fortunately, Boss Chen was over 40 years old and had seen a lot of things in the world. He quickly calmed down. Of course, he didn't dare to get angry out of fear. He just stepped forward and asked carefully, "Uh, sir, do you want to buy some steamed buns?"

In response to the shop owner's question, Wang Yao pointed his finger at the steamer next to him that was steaming in the cold wind.

Boss Chen felt a chill run down his spine when he saw this. He looked carefully and found that the man in front of him had no breath at all. He looked just like the living dead in the rumors! He did not dare to neglect it and hurriedly took out a piece of oil paper, wrapped five Mantian and handed them to Wang Yao, saying tremblingly, "Thank you, sir. That's a total of 5 copper coins."

Wang Yao still didn't say anything. He just took the steamed bun wrapped in oil paper from the store with one hand and reached for his waist with the other hand. At this moment, his movements suddenly froze.

"."

"??"

After a three-second pause, Wang Yao silently withdrew his hand, gently handed the oil paper wrapped around the steamed bun back to the shop owner, and then turned around and left without saying a word.

Only Boss Chen was left with a confused look on his face. What was going on? ?
"You can't be the leader of the alliance, how could you end up in such a miserable state?" A clear voice suddenly sounded from another direction without any warning.

Wang Yao paused and turned around, only to see a girl in a green dress with bright eyes and white teeth smiling at him from afar.

"Hey, shopkeeper, pack up all the steamed buns here for me." Sun Shangxiang flicked her snow-white thumb, and a gold coin that was extremely bright in the air was thrown accurately into the hands of the shop owner.

"Great!" One gold coin was more than his monthly turnover. Boss Chen, who felt like pie in the sky, immediately ran to the side with a smile on his face and started packing.

Sun Shangxiang walked over to Wang Yao. She could tell that Wang Yao was penniless, but she didn't point it out. Instead, she smiled and said, "What's the matter? We've known each other for such a long time. If you have any difficulties, you can tell me!"

Wang Yao did not respond enthusiastically to this, but simply said, "No problem."

“Uh.” Sun Shangxiang scratched her head subconsciously, as if she thought Wang Yao might be too embarrassed to admit his predicament. After all, she often did this: “Well, then why don’t you accompany me to eat something? I’ll treat you.”

This was the only way she could think of to avoid embarrassing Wang Yao.

Wang Yao finally glanced at Sun Shangxiang, but still didn't say much: "Thank you, but no need."

Having said that, he walked away.

"Hey, wait a minute, I haven't finished talking yet!"

Behind him, Sun Shangxiang's obviously unhappy shouts were heard from afar, but Wang Yao never looked back.

And almost at the same time——

Right in front of Wang Yao, at the end of the street, a man unexpectedly came towards him. He was an old man with a sturdy body but messy white hair. At this time, it was snowing heavily, but he was like a lifeless stone, not afraid of the cold, wandering on the street with his bare chest like a wandering ghost.

“Huh?” Sun Shangxiang, who was about to catch up, suddenly stopped. She remembered that this old man seemed to be - the Soul-Burning Heavy Cannon - Huang Zhong?

Hiss, hiss.
The old man and the young man, their long boots sinking into the snow, bumped into each other unexpectedly, and walked closer and closer until they passed each other without stopping, just like strangers.

Strange, they should know each other, right?

Just when Sun Shangxiang was feeling a little puzzled, the next second, Huang Zhong suddenly turned around, grabbed Wang Yao's collar from behind, then did a 180-degree turn in the air and slammed Wang Yao to the ground.

boom! !

A violent gust of wind suddenly spread out in all directions with the two of them as the center, blowing away the snowflakes floating in the sky.

"!!!" Sun Shangxiang subconsciously covered her mouth. She hadn't realized what was happening yet. Even the shop owner next to her was stunned.

And inside the venue——

"Huh? Who did I think it was? Why does the breath sound so familiar? Isn't this the famous General Yao in our Shu Army?" Choking Wang Yao's neck tightly, Huang Zhong pressed his knee into Wang Yao's abdomen, and stared coldly at the young man wearing a ghost face mask under him.

His eyes were bloodshot and frighteningly red.

"."Wang Yao did not respond, but he did not resist either. Because he was wearing a mask of pain, his expression could not be seen clearly. He just looked like dead, allowing Huang Zhong to press him to the snow.

Huang Zhong did not say anything else. He just grabbed Wang Yao suddenly, and then -

Bang!
A punch hit Wang Yao's face hard.

The huge impact made Wang Yao stumble back several steps, but before he could stand firm, Huang Zhong had already rushed forward and slammed his knee into Wang Yao's abdomen, followed by elbow strikes, straight punches, and uppercuts.
Bang!Bang!Bang!
The punches hit Wang Yao mercilessly and with all his strength, causing him to stagger back repeatedly. However, facing Huang Zhong's torrential rain of punches and kicks, Wang Yao just endured it unilaterally, like a tumbler, neither falling down nor making a sound.

Bright red blood began to splatter on the surrounding snow with Huang Zhong's punches and kicks. Against the backdrop of the white earth, it was so shocking.

This was an unexpected encounter, but also a one-sided crushing that was incomprehensible.

Until Huang Zhong stomped Wang Yao to the ground with a head-on kick and stomped him three feet into the ground.

Click!

A crossbow was aimed directly at Huang Zhong.

"Stop, stop! You're going to beat him to death!" Sun Shangxiang bit her lips tightly and glared at Huang Zhong viciously, as if they were mortal enemies.

Because of this, Huang Zhong finally stopped. He turned back coldly and stared at the girl with a ferocious expression: "When is it your turn as an outsider to intervene in the matter between him and me?!"

Sun Shangxiang was stunned for a moment, as if she felt that this was indeed none of her business. However, looking at Wang Yao who was beaten to death, she could not help but feel a surge of anger rising up: "It's none of my business, but you just can't hit him! That's what I said!"

"Heh." Hearing Sun Shangxiang's arrogant words, Huang Zhong lowered his head and laughed in anger. He left Wang Yao, turned around coldly, and then suddenly punched him!
Before the fist arrived, the strong wind pressure had already forced away the naturally falling snowflakes. This punch was even more powerful than the previous one!
Although Sun Shangxiang saw Huang Zhong's fist getting closer and closer to her, she did not dodge it, but subconsciously closed her eyes.

Bang! !

The iron fist hit Wang Yao's abdomen hard, but Wang Yao blocked it in time in front of Sun Shangxiang.

"Cough!" Wang Yao coughed up a large mouthful of blood. Under the mask, a large amount of blood had seeped out from the corners of his mouth. He staggered back a few steps, while pushing away the hand that Sun Shangxiang had extended to support him.

"Go away." A hoarse voice came coldly from under the ghost mask.

"But." Sun Shangxiang was about to say something.

"Get lost!" Wang Yao interrupted her with a low shout.

Sun Shangxiang was completely stunned. She looked at Wang Yao in astonishment as he was still bleeding. The next second, a feeling of grievance and inexplicable pain surged in her heart at the same time, causing her eyes to slightly turn red even though she was always very strong-willed.

"Okay! I'm meddling in other people's business!" She said this angrily, and left without looking back like someone who had made up her mind.

In this white world, only Wang Yao and Huang Zhong were left.

"I'm sorry I didn't protect her." An extremely low voice came from under the cold mask of pain. That was his softest part, which he was no longer willing to show to others.

In front of this old man, he could not act tough, nor did he want to pretend anymore, because the only person he felt most guilty about now was this old man.

But, if saying sorry is useful, why would there be so much love and hatred in the world?
hiss--

Huang Zhong grabbed Wang Yao's collar again, piercing him with his red eyes, and roared hysterically like a wild animal: "Do you think that just saying sorry is enough?!"

Bang!
The fist hit Wang Yao's face hard again.

"You were right there at the time, right in front of the child! But did you do anything?!"

Bang!
Huang Zhong grasped Wang Yao's collar with his left hand and punched Wang Yao's face with his right fist with every question.

"Why didn't you push her away? She was willing to sacrifice her life for you, but you couldn't?!"

Bang!
"What did you promise me in the first place? I was so foolish that I believed you to hand over the child to you!!"

Bang!
"Speak up! Why aren't you talking? Aren't you always the most eloquent? Speak up!!"

"You damn thing, you shouldn't be alive in this world!! Why wasn't you the one who died? Why?"

The questioning voice gradually became weaker, the fists gradually became powerless, and finally, the old man shed two lines of tears in great pain.

Why
Huang Zhong, heartbroken, weakly tugged at the corner of Wang Yao's clothes and slowly knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his face.

Men don't shed tears easily, but at this moment, the old hero could no longer control his emotions and broke down crying.

Why would God punish them in such a cruel way?

Yeah, why?
Wang Yao, who had already turned into a bloody man, looked up at the snow-covered sky without a sound. His heart seemed to be cut and scraped by countless sharp knives, making him bleed profusely and making him feel worse than death.
He might be strong enough, but that girl was the only softest weakness in his heart; when he watched the girl risking her life to block the devastating blow for him, and he was powerless to do anything even though she was so close to him, the sadness and despair in his heart even far exceeded his anger.

Anger for a beauty? Is that really the case? Perhaps he has never been a man of blood and animality, so when the girl who meant more to him than anything else was annihilated before him, anger was no longer his emotion at the time, but despair that was beyond his mental endurance.

What else can a person who has completely despair do at that time?
Huang Zhong is right. In fact, how good it would be if he was the one who died at that time? If he died, he would not be implicated in the girl's death, and he would not suffer so much.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her." The extremely hoarse voice sounded again.

Perhaps this is the only way. Now, even thousands of words cannot heal the emptiness in Huang Zhong's heart, and he will continue to live with this heavy sense of guilt until "that moment" comes.
At dusk that day, the Soul-burning Heavy Artillery left Shu alone and has been missing ever since.
As the sun set, Wang Yao stood alone between the sky and the earth covered with snow. There was no sound for a long, long time.

(End of this chapter)