Chapter 221: March

~~~

The march to Rainstorm City is long.

The city is in the southern area of Murong Bang’s territory, much closer to the border with the Crimson Cloud Empire than it is to Cloudburst City. It is not the sort of distance Liu Jin’s soldiers can cross in one day or even one week. Their cultivation is simply too weak for a feat like that. Most of them aren’t even in the Nascent Realm.

Transporting them all in the Flame-Wheeled Wagons is not an option. They brought only four to Murong Bang’s territory, and they left two behind with those who stayed in Cloudburst City. Even if they had brought all four, there wouldn’t be enough space. Liu Jin briefly considers putting the soldiers in his spatial pouch, but that would be too dangerous. There is no telling what the men would stumble upon inside.

In the end, running is the only way.

Liu Jin, Lu Mei, and the others ride in the Flame-Wheeled Wagons while the soldiers are told to run. They might not like it, but it is good training for them, something they desperately need if they’re going to be useful. Remembering Colonel Peng’s advice on dealing with soldiers of weaker cultivation, Liu Jin makes sure they’re always given a full night’s sleep. He pushes them but never unreasonably so.

On the third day, he changes things up a little.

“Commander! Help!” one of the soldiers cries out in panic.

An ant the size of a horse has emerged from the ground. Its jaws click ominously as it attacks the unit. While some have begun to fight back, trying to stab the Spirit Beast with their spears, some are paralyzed with fear, and others are running away.

Liu Jin is not sure which of the last two is worse.

“What are you afraid of?” Liu Jin asks, using Qi to enhance his voice. “The enemy is one. You are a hundred. Do you fear it because of its size? Look beyond that and feel its Qi. This creature is in the early stages of the Nascent Realm and nothing more.”

The confidence, the certainty in Liu Jin’s voice, spreads through the troops. Those who are running stop. Those who are frozen snap to their senses. Those who are fighting find renewed purpose. The shock and uncertainty are peeled away from their minds, allowing them to see the giant ant for what it is. A mindless Spirit Beast, and nothing more.

“Group up in teams of five. Surround it. Attack it. Win. Those are your orders,” Liu Jin says.

“Yes, sir!”

Liu Jin watches carefully as the soldiers engage the enemy. Murong Bang told him that he could not fight. He did not say anything about him being unable to pull his soldiers out of a battle before they got killed, not that Liu Jin thinks it’ll get to that point.

It is just as he said. This giant ant should be a simple enough foe for them.

“I am curious,” Lu Mei says, sitting next to him on top of the Flame-Wheeled Wagon. “How did you arrange this?”

“It wasn’t that hard,” Liu Jin replies, his eyes still fixed on the battle. “Lei Kong and Brother Ten have been scouting ahead. They found a whole colony of ants a few miles away. It could have been dangerous for nearby towns, so I had them eliminate the colony. Most of it, at least.”

“And then you told them to bury one of the ants in our path? But then how would you arrange for it to…” She frowns, her red lips lightly pursed. “Did you poison the ant so it’d wake up at the exact moment we’d pass by?”

“You are half-right.”

Lu Mei raises an eyebrow and leans closer. “Oh?”

“I did poison the ant so it’d wake up when we were near.”

Working out the amount of poison needed to arrange that had taken more guesswork than Liu Jin is comfortable with. Still, he cannot argue with the results.

“But I didn’t poison just one ant.”

A second giant ant, a Pale-Faced Harvest Ant if Liu Jin remembers his lessons correctly, rises from the ground and starts attacking the soldiers.

“Impressive,” Lu Mei says.

“Commander!” one of the soldiers shouts.

“You all have your orders,” Liu Jin says, with Qi enhancing his voice. “It is just one more enemy.”

“Is it just one more enemy?” Lu Mei asks him in a conspiratorial whisper.

“For the next ten minutes or so, at least,” Liu Jin answers just as quietly.

Lu Mei laughs.

~~~

It takes some time, but the soldiers defeat two giant ants and the other three that emerged during the fight. They end up bruised and tired but victorious. Perhaps a more eloquent speaker than Liu Jin would have a speech ready about the feeling of victory. Alas, such things are beyond him.

Whatever his Dao is, it is not the Dao of public speaking.

Instead, Liu Jin makes them line up according to their injuries and heals them. A sizable dinner is served afterward. They will need it because the next day…

~~~

“Commander! It’s rats! Giant rants!”

“There are only six of them and a hundred of you. You know what to do. Group up. Surround them. Kill them.”

~~~

And the day after…

“Snakes! Commander! It’s snakes!”

“Avoid the fangs. Watch out for the tail. You should already know what to do without me needing to say anything else.”

~~~

Three days later, it happens.

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“Commander! There is a group of giant boars approaching! They look hostile!”

This time, Liu Jin steps down from the wagon and walks to the front of his troops.

“Men,” He says. “Over the past few days, you have fought vermin. The ants were worthless, the rats were diseased, and the snakes were poisonous. They were simply not fit for consumption, a great tragedy as the flesh of Spirit Beasts is a great resource for cultivators.”

It is almost fun watching realization dawn on some of the soldiers. The smarter ones see where he is going with this, and their Qi thirst with anticipation. Liu Jin is glad they appreciate it. Concocting a lure had been an interesting challenge, but finding the boars had been far more difficult than he expected. Murong Bang’s territory is truly in a sorry state.

“That is not the case today,” Liu Jin says, his hands folded behind his back. The boars are a few hundred yards away now. “Today, you face something you can eat. The creatures before you are not foes. They are your next meal.”

He doesn’t even need to tell the men to charge.

~~~

The men feast that night. The campfires shine merrily under the stars, and the smell of roasted boar spreads to every corner. If there was any alcohol around, someone would have probably started to sing already.