Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

Suwen and Suxue were also refining new medicinal energy day and night.

After the physicians of the Medicine Palace cleaned up the remains of the Gu Pool in Woye City, they converted it into a temporary clinic. Rows of wounded people lay on stone slabs covered with dry grass, and medicinal vapors rose from several copper furnaces, forming a light green protective shield above the clinic.

Suwen sat in front of the makeshift medicine table, holding a silver needle in her hand, and was injecting medicinal energy into a newly refined pill.

Her face was very pale, and three consecutive nights of staying up late had left deep shadows under her eyes.

As Fu Qing lifted the curtain of the clinic and walked in, she was just taking a pill out of the medicine furnace without even looking up.

"You haven't taken your medicine yet. Here's the blue one on the table, help yourself."

Fu Qing picked up the pill, popped it into her mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. "An Sheng said you haven't been sleeping much these past few days."

Suwen continued to infuse the next pill with medicinal energy, saying, "There are too many wounded, not enough medicinal herbs, and no time to sleep."

Fu Qing stopped opposite her. "If we don't have enough medicine, we can send someone back to get more. If you collapse, there will be no one to save the wounded in the vanguard battalion."

Suwen paused for a moment, then continued grinding the medicine without saying a word.

Seeing that she was unmoved, Fu Qing directly took the medicine pestle from her and picked her up in his arms.

Suwen instinctively hooked her arm around his neck, paused for a moment, then frowned slightly. "What are you doing?"

Fu Qing carried her towards his tent. "No, I'll let you rest! I'll stay with you and you're not allowed to get up until you've slept for a full hour."

As he spoke, he went into the tent, placed Suwen on his bed, covered her with a blanket, and then came out of the tent and squatted at the door to sharpen his knife.

Suwen blinked, glanced at the figure standing at the door, a slight smile appeared on her lips, and she felt a sense of relief before closing her eyes.

...

After the army finished resting in Woye City, Zhang Wukai summoned all the generals in the central command tent to plan the next steps.

A huge map of the southern frontier hung on the tent wall, with the retreat route of the Yue army marked on it in vermilion ink.

Zhang Wukai pointed to the deep mountain area marked in black on the map.

"The remnants of the Yue Kingdom have retreated into the Ten Thousand Mountains, relying on the terrain and the Gu formations to hold their ground. Their stronghold, the Ten Thousand Gu Valley, is located deep within the Ten Thousand Gu Valley. If we capture the Ten Thousand Gu Valley, the Yue Kingdom will have no power to fight back!"

"I have decided that the army will advance into the mountains in three routes—General Zhou will lead the left wing to launch a feint attack from the east to contain the main force of the Vietnamese army, while General Sun will lead the right wing to cut off the Vietnamese supply lines from the west."

His finger moved to the southernmost point of the map. "Fu Qing, your vanguard battalion is responsible for the southern route. Cross Ghost Cry Ridge and flank Ten Thousand Gu Valley from the side."

"This route has the densest miasma, the most complex terrain, and the relatively weakest defenses of the Vietnamese army. I'm assigning you the most difficult route, is that alright?"

Fu Qing stood up, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "This humble general obeys."

...

The vanguard battalion entered Ghost Cry Ridge.

This is the place with the densest miasma in the Ten Thousand Mountains. The branches and leaves of the towering ancient trees block out the sun, and the canopy is so dense that even the midday sun cannot penetrate. The forest is dark as dusk all day long.

The pale green poisonous miasma that lingers on the mountainside year-round is like a thick veil covering the entire mountain range; even touching a leaf will leave you with a sticky layer of venom.

The soldiers had to take a miasma-relief pill every hour in order to continue their advance. The number of miasma-relief pills distributed by the medicine palace was limited, with a maximum of two pills per person per day.

The mountain path was narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time. The procession of several thousand people stretched out like a long snake on the mountain road, with the tail of the procession still at the foot of the mountain while the head of the procession had already crossed two mountain peaks.

The Yue Kingdom's Gu cultivators were far more familiar with the terrain than the Jing army.

They laid countless traps in the dense forests of Ghost Cry Ridge, including Gu worm egg sacs buried under fallen leaves. Stepping on them would cause the egg sacs to burst, releasing Gu worm larvae that would burrow into the blood vessels from the soles of the feet...

A swarm of poisonous bees hides in the tree canopy. If someone passes by, the bees swarm out and sting them, and one bite can cause half an arm to swell up so badly you can't lift it...

The paralyzing poison powder hidden upstream of the stream is colorless and odorless, dissolving in water. After drinking it, one's entire body's meridians become paralyzed, rendering them unable to move and forcing them to watch helplessly as they are bitten to death by poisonous insects in the jungle.

In the first few days after the vanguard battalion entered Ghost Cry Ridge, hundreds of soldiers died from various poisons and traps, sometimes several people died in a single day.

Fu Qing ordered An Sheng to lead a scout team to explore the area ahead, using medicinal vapors to clear away the surrounding Gu worms and traps every so often.

But the Gu cultivators of Yue Kingdom are like maggots clinging to bones; as soon as one batch is cleared out, a new one is immediately laid out.

Suwen followed the scout team, using her medicine cauldron to detect the surrounding Gu energy.

She discovered that the Gu cultivators of Yue Kingdom used a special tracking Gu to mark the location of the Jing Army. The Gu cultivators could sense any place that had been cleared by medicinal energy and immediately redeployed their defenses.

The vanguard battalion was completely on the defensive.

In one month, the vanguard battalion had only advanced less than a few dozen miles in Ghost Cry Ridge.

The number of casualties in the camp, which numbered in the thousands, continued to rise, with stretchers being carried down from the front every day.

One of Liu Wentong's hundred-man squads was almost completely wiped out in a night raid. Yue Kingdom Gu cultivators sneaked into the camp under cover of night and released hundreds of Gu worms. The hundred-man squad was controlled by the Gu worms in their sleep and began to kill each other.

When Fu Qing arrived with his men, only the captain and two soldiers were still alive.

Fu Qing stood in the tent, staring at the short distance the map showed, and remained silent for a long time.

This war of attrition cannot continue—the Gu cultivators of Yue Kingdom intend to use the terrain of the Ten Thousand Mountains and the Gu worms to wear down the Jing Army until they can no longer withstand the casualties and have to retreat on their own.

Fu Qing sat in the central command tent all night. The tent flap was open, and the night wind carried the unique smell of decaying leaves from Ghost Cry Ridge in gusts. The table was covered with military reports sent by Liu Wentong.

It is a detailed record of the Vanguard Battalion's battles with the Yue Kingdom's Gu cultivators over the past month.

Each page records the time, location, type of Gu worm, number of enemies, and casualties on our side.

He arranged the military reports in chronological order, and then marked the location of each encounter on the map with charcoal dots. After marking them, he took two steps back and stared at the dense black dots on the map for a long time.

"An Sheng." He didn't even turn his head.

An Sheng was dozing against a pillar by the tent entrance when he heard the call and jumped up. "Your subordinate is here."

"Go and call Liu Wentong over, and have him bring all the records related to the water source since we came into the mountains."

Liu Wentong arrived quickly, placing a thick stack of supplementary military reports on the table. Fu Qing flipped through a few pages and discovered that Liu Wentong had a habit when making records—he would mark the nearby terrain and water sources after each encounter.

This habit saved the vanguard battalion's life.

"Look here..."

Fu Qing pointed to a mark on the map,

"On the ninth day of last month, we were attacked by Gu cultivators in the valley on the west side of Ghost Cry Ridge. More than thirty brothers died. The next morning, scouts found fresh Gu worm molts by the stream in the same valley."

He pointed to another marker, "On the seventeenth of last month, An Sheng led a team to intercept a group of Yue soldiers transporting grain. The prisoners confessed that the water in the Gu pool in their camp had to be changed every once in a while."

"Every time the water is changed, the Gu cultivators have to send someone to fetch water from the nearest water source. And look at this—on the 24th of last month, when Zhao Laotie was patrolling the south slope, he ran into a few Gu cultivators squatting by the stream. They ran away when they saw our people. Laotie couldn't catch them, but he found this by the stream."

He picked up a piece of insect exude, as thin as a cicada's wing, from the table and placed it in front of Liu Wentong.

Liu Wentong picked up the insect shell and examined it against the candlelight.

"These are the molted shells of Gu worms. Gu worms will molt after being cultivated in the Gu pool for a certain period of time. The molted shells must be thrown into running water and washed away by the water flow, otherwise they will infect new worms if left next to the Gu pool."

"The Gu practitioners in Yue Kingdom have a rule: the molted skin can only be thrown into a specific stream at a specific time. This is their ritual to worship the Gu God."

"Therefore, their supply lines must rely on mountain streams."

Fu Qing stood up and walked to the map, his finger slowly moving along the ridgeline of Ghost Cry Ridge.

"The cultivation of Gu worms requires a constant supply of fresh water. Gu cultivators must go to a fixed water source to fetch water and discard their molted shells every once in a while. These water sources are their lifeline."

An Sheng leaned closer, staring at the map. "Brother Fu, you mean..."

"Call everyone here."