Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 9: Different Yet Same

When a flock of birds with long, colorful tails glided past the giant tree, Yun Ce easily assumed that they were a flock of phoenixes.

Calling these birds phoenixes was Yun Ce's habitual way of thinking. After all, he had just come here from Earth with a group of dragons, so it was only natural for him to call these birds, which were very similar to the legendary phoenixes, phoenixes.

Logically speaking, birds in flocks are not usually very strong, which is common knowledge on Earth, but I don't know if it's true here.

Soon, when a giant bird suddenly appeared and swooped down on the phoenix flock, Yun Ce knew that his theory was correct, because after the giant bird entered the phoenix flock, it carried out a massacre there.

The giant bird's methods of slaughter clearly exceeded its instinct for hunting. After tearing most of the phoenixes to shreds in mid-air, it grabbed two phoenixes with its two claws, and carried one in its beak. With a few flaps of its huge wings, it flew to the horizon.

Yun Ce reached out and scooped up a phoenix feather that was fluttering in the wind, examining it closely.

This is a feather with a bright red center, and the color of the outer edge of the feather gradually transitions from red to purple and then cyan. Yun Ce couldn't tell whether the color of the very edge of the feather was black or something else, because as long as he shook the feather slightly, the color of the edge feather would change, and if he looked at it in the sunlight, it could even turn golden.

The color change of this feather reminded Yun Ce of polar bears on Earth. These bears look white, but they aren't; their fur is translucent and changes color with the external light.

Polar bears live on the Arctic ice sheet, where the climate is extremely harsh. The reason they have that kind of fur is entirely to adapt to the harsh climate there.

Thinking of this, Yun Ce quickly tore some bark off the tree branch and used the back of his knife to smash the bark into a cotton-like mass to seal the gap in the door tightly.

He had already sensed it; as the sun gradually lowered, the temperature was decreasing along with its movement, and the feathery branches with their huge needle-like leaves were slowly curling up. Coupled with the phoenix with fur like a polar bear, Yun Ce concluded that the climate here couldn't be very good.

Sure enough, just after Yun Ce finished fixing the wooden door, a cloud rushed over from his left.

At first, the clouds weren't very big, but as more and more clouds came from that direction, the small clouds turned into a huge dark cloud. The outer layer of the dark cloud was illuminated by the sun high above, shining golden. However, in the middle of the dark cloud, thunder and lightning had begun to brew.

The reason for such certainty was that Yun Ce's hair had started to stand up on its own.

He desperately wanted to leave this huge tree that was so vulnerable to being struck by lightning, but it was too late. The forked lightning bolts flashing white light had already made contact with the tree canopy. After a loud bang, he saw the outer bark of the giant tree automatically slicing downwards as if plowed open. Yun Ce let out a strange cry, dove into the tree hole, closed his eyes, and resigned himself to fate.

Inside the tree hollow, Yun Ce felt like a mouse hiding inside a guitar. The tree trunk cracked and popped, making him jump around wildly.

Amazingly, the lightning didn't reach him hiding in the tree hole, but the fallen bark quickly turned black and caught fire, scattering down to the ground and igniting some of the not-so-tall trees.

Yun Ce was very worried about a forest fire, but he quickly dismissed the thought as large raindrops began to fall, enveloping the world in a vast curtain of rain.

After thinking it over for a moment, Yun Ce felt that being struck by lightning was better than freezing to death or drowning. So he simply took out a moisture-proof mat, a blanket, and a deflated inflatable pillow from the Dragon Ball. After inflating the pillow, he quietly lay down in the damp wooden house, covered himself with the blanket, and prepared to face his fate.

When he left Earth, he was nearly killed by Ao Bing's dragon might, and during his space travel away from Earth, there was no time for rest.

Now, after accepting my fate, weariness washes over me like a tidal wave.

He habitually set an alarm for his phone, yawned, and fell asleep.

If you have the ability, strive hard; if you don't, live a simple life. If you can survive, try to live a life that stands out from the crowd; if you can't survive, try to live on. If there's really no other way, then just lie down and accept your fate, and gamble on your luck.

The above is the family motto that Langpao Shuiyun has passed down for more than two hundred years.

Yun Ce was seriously gambling on his luck.

When the alarm rang, Yun Ce saw that it was pitch black outside, so he reset the alarm and went back to sleep.

When the alarm rang again, Yun Ce was still extremely sleepy, so he repeated what he had done before and went back to sleep.

When the alarm rang again, Yun Ce sat up and looked out through the gap in the door that he had deliberately left open. He saw that it was still pitch black and he wanted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't fall asleep anymore.

Outside, the sound of rain crashing against the shore could no longer be heard; only the rustling of silkworms eating mulberry leaves could be heard. Yun Ce turned on the flashlight on his phone, opened the door, and looked outside.

As soon as the door was opened, a bone-chilling cold swept over him, and even though he was physically strong, he couldn't help but shiver. Outside the door, in the beam of the flashlight, heavy snow was falling.

Yun Ce reached out and scooped up a handful of snowflakes. Perhaps because the snowflakes were very cold, they were still in their falling state, without melting at all.

The snowflakes that landed in my hand were classic six-pointed star snowflakes, with each branch branching into even more branches, resembling stars in winter, dazzling and exquisite.

"It seems that the laws of physics here haven't changed much."

Yun Ce consoled himself for a moment, then raised his hand and tossed a snowflake into his mouth, slowly savoring the taste of snowflakes from this planet. The snowflakes were cool and moist, and especially after being melted by his saliva, Yun Ce actually tasted a slight sweetness in them.

Yun Ce quickly closed the door. In just that short time, the little warmth left in the treehouse had been completely dissipated.

He had to take out an aluminum foil thermal blanket, first wrapping his body in it, and then covering his entire body with the blanket before the chill that had invaded his body subsided somewhat.

The sky showed no sign of brightening, so Yun Ce had to curl up and rethink the purpose of his visit.

From being targeted by Ao Bing to being exiled to this unknown planet, Yun Ce's life underwent a radical change.

And this change took only seven days.

There was no preparation; everything happened so suddenly.

This is Yun Linchuan's style of doing things: brutal, domineering, and autocratic.

In a way, this is also the operating strategy of soldiers. At the first command, life and death are at stake, and love and affection are no longer important.

This is why Yun Ce refused to go to military school back then, no matter what.

Being a soldier is a sacrifice in itself. It sounds like it's full of heroic and powerful themes of battle, but what's the reality? Once you become a soldier, you have to be worthy of your country and unworthy of anyone else.

After entering politics, Yun Ce once felt that he had distanced himself from the military. Unexpectedly, even though he had shown a strong unwillingness to join the military, Yun Linchuan's words turned him into a soldier, and he was even the vanguard who set off before the army moved!

Calling him a vanguard is a bit of an exaggeration; "reconnaissance soldier" would better reflect his current situation. In the military, scouts and reconnaissance soldiers are among the fastest to die.

Escape is impossible; if you're not dead, you have to work.

Just before drifting off to sleep, Yun Ce cursed Yun Linchuan once more before falling asleep.

Until the sunlight shone through the crack in the broken door, he still hadn't figured out the meaning of his coming to this planet—not counting the nano-communication device in his stomach, of course.

Even if the dragon leaves him dead on this planet, it can be considered that it has fulfilled its promise.

Therefore, Yun Ce came to a simple answer—his physical body coming to this planet was important, but his thoughts were worthless.

For ordinary people, he has already fulfilled his mission. His current life is essentially a gift, and he could live purely for himself. But he cannot. The last sentence of his oath requires him to dedicate his life to his cause.

As long as he survives, he must fulfill his vow.

"Humans need some spiritual pursuits."

If you are born into the Yun family, then the spiritual pursuit of the Yun family is only one thing—to ultimately achieve communism.

Of course, many people in the Yun family have already fully realized their own communism, that is, they have become extremely wealthy.

Yun Ce didn't. The losses his family had suffered for that vow were too great. His grandfather, grandmother, father, and mother had all fallen on the path of fulfilling the vow. He simply couldn't bring himself to break the vow for a little money or other material things, and it wasn't worth it.

Of course, Yun Linchuan is still an old, stubborn, and incompetent man! He'll exploit them to the death until they're all wiped out.

Opening the wooden door, I expected to see a vast expanse of white, but the outside world was still lush and green. The giant tree where he lived had curled up its huge feathery leaves when the cold wave came at night, but now that the sun was out, the leaves were slowly unfolding.

As for the heavy snow that fell last night, it has begun to melt, turning into strings of water droplets falling onto the unseen earth.

The mornings in the new world are a lively spectacle of blooming flowers.

It wasn't just the big tree that he lived on that unfurled its leaves; almost all plants curl up their leaves on cold nights, waiting for the sun to rise before fully unfolding them.

Such a world is much more vibrant and lively than the world on Earth.

Many birds that hide among the leaves at night also take flight at this moment, especially the long-tailed bird that resembles a phoenix that I saw yesterday, which flies in a colorful display.

The birdsong rose to the sky, immediately attracting their natural enemies.

Yun Ce couldn't understand the point of their actions. Was it worth risking their lives to sing at such an inopportune time just because they had escaped last night's cold snap?
(End of this chapter)