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

By the time the five centurions had all arrived, the sky was already beginning to lighten.

An Sheng sat on the ammunition box wiping his silver gun, Zhao Laotie leaned against the tent wall smoking his pipe, Liu Wentong squatted on the ground drawing waterway diagrams with his fingers, Sun Bufan stood in the corner with his arms crossed, and He Shan sat in the position closest to the tent curtain with a teacup in his hand.

Fu Qing spread the map out on the table and drew a large circle around the location of Ghost Cry Ridge with a charcoal pencil.

"We've been fighting a frontal assault for almost two months, suffering so many casualties, and have only advanced less than a few dozen miles. The Yue Kingdom's Gu cultivators are trying to wear us down with this mountain range. So from today onwards, I will cease all frontal attacks!"

Fu Qing looked at everyone,

"All of a Gu cultivator's combat power comes from Gu worms. Gu worms must be cultivated in Gu pools. Without Gu pools, there are no new Gu worms. Every Gu worm that has been released dies, and that's one less. We won't fight them head-on; we'll attack their supply lines!"

An Sheng slammed his silver spear on the ground: "How are we going to fight?"

"Water is their lifeline. If we cut off their water supply, it's like strangling them."

Fu Qing marked the locations of several water sources on the map with his charcoal pencil.

"An Sheng, you will lead an elite team to raid the Yue Kingdom's grain transport teams and water collection points. Hit and run, do not linger. You are fast, the Yue people cannot catch you."

"Hey bro, you led your men to set fires and create chaos in the dense forest, making it impossible for the Vietnamese to figure out where we are."

"Wentong, you are most familiar with the terrain of the Southern Frontier. Your task is to keep finding the Gu pools hidden by the Yue people. Once you find them, you don't need to fight them, just mark them."

"Sun Bufan and He Shan led their troops in a feint attack on the front, diverting the Vietnamese army's attention and preventing them from discovering our true intentions."

Liu Wentong drew a circle on the muddy ground with his finger.

"General Fu, the Yue people hide their Gu pools in the most secret places. Some of these Gu pools look like ordinary caves from the outside, and you can't find them without going deep into the area. I fought against the Yue people in the southern border for several years and suffered many such losses."

"There's no need to search for them one by one."

Fu Qing drew an arc on the map with his charcoal pencil, bypassing the front of Guiku Ridge and pointing towards the rear of the Vietnamese army.

"Attacks on water sources are just the first step. When they discover that the water source is blocked, there is nowhere to dispose of the molted Gu worms, and a large number of new Gu worms are infected and die, they will expose all the Gu pools hidden in the dark."

"Because they must send heavy troops to protect the last water source and Gu pools before the new Gu worms die out. At that time, these Gu pools, which have been hidden for countless years, will jump out on their own and tell us where they are."

Old Zhao took the pipe stem out of his mouth, a cruel smile appearing on his rough face. "Luring the snake out of its hole, this underhanded tactic, I like it."

Helan Shan slowly took a sip of his tea, then said, "This subordinate obeys your command."

...

The new tactics were implemented on the second day and had an immediate effect.

An Sheng and his elite squad moved like ghosts through Ghost Cry Ridge, appearing and disappearing as swiftly as the wind.

In his first attack, he wiped out the Vietnamese army's water collection point set up by the stream on the south slope. A dozen or so Gu culprits were squatting by the stream, filling their Gu bags with water, when An Sheng pounced straight down from the dense forest behind them, his silver spear piercing the chest of the leading Gu general...

The remaining Gu cultivators were cut down by his elite squad before they could even release their Gu worms.

He punctured all the Gu sacs near the water source, scattering the Gu larvae all over the ground, and then disappeared into the dense forest with his troops before the Vietnamese reinforcements arrived.

When the reinforcements arrived, they found only fragments of Gu sacs and dead Gu worms scattered on the ground. Leading them was a Gu general at the Gangqi realm, who squatted by the stream, staring at the dark green water, his face ashen.

Downstream, there are at least several Gu pools that rely on this water source for survival. Now that the water is polluted, the Gu worms in those pools will die in large numbers within a very short time.

That night, the Gu cultivators in the Vietnamese army's front-line camp were in an uproar.

Several hidden Gu pools were forced to reveal their locations due to the disruption of their water supply and the mass death of Gu worms. The Gu cultivators had no choice but to send out heavy troops to protect the remaining water sources and Gu pools.

Zhao Laotie then set fires everywhere in the dense forest.

Instead of engaging the enemy head-on, he deliberately set fire to the worm supply depots and grain piles, the flames illuminating half of the mountain ridge.

The Vietnamese army was badly burned and split up to pursue them. However, when they entered the forest, they found no one there. Zhao Laotie had already moved to another place and set off another fire.

Relying on his familiarity with the terrain of southern Xinjiang, Liu Wentong led a team of veterans to infiltrate behind the Vietnamese army's lines, constantly finding new locations for the Gu pools.

Each time he returned, he would draw a new mark on the map with a charcoal pencil, and after a few days, several new black dots appeared on the map.

An Xh attacked three grain convoys, cutting off the Vietnamese army's food supply for several days. Zhao Laotie set fire to two Gu insect supply depots, and the number of Gu insects on the Vietnamese front began to decline significantly.

Fu Qing himself led the most elite Gu-breaking team to specifically behead the Gu generals of the Yue Kingdom.

The individual close combat abilities of the Gu cultivators in Yue Kingdom are generally not strong. Their combat power relies entirely on Gu worms. Once they are approached by a martial artist of Fu Qing's level, they have almost no chance of survival.

Fu Qing killed several Gu generals in a few days, and the Vietnamese army's front-line command system began to fall into chaos.

When Zhang Wukai received Fu Qing's battle report from the rear, he was holding a cup of tea and looking at a map.

The messenger read out the results of the past few days from beginning to end. Zhang Wukai held his teacup in silence for a long time, then put it down and walked to the tent entrance, looking at the dense forest in the direction of Ghost Cry Ridge in the distance, where smoke was still rising.

"This kid is really something. I've fought for most of my life, and this is the first time I've ever seen anyone use this kind of fighting style in the Hundred Thousand Mountains."

He issued an additional military order—Fu Qing's vanguard battalion was expanded to eight thousand men, and subsequent actions would be decided by Fu Qing himself, without the need for further consultation.

The registrar accepted the order and left. Zhang Wukai picked up his teacup again, took a sip, and muttered to himself,

"Oda's eye for people is definitely better than mine."

The vanguard battalion's efficient combat caused the Vietnamese army to retreat step by step on the front line, and the Jing Army took the opportunity to advance dozens of miles.

After a month of fighting, Fu Qing finally reached Eagle's Nest Village. The village was built on a natural stone bridge at the narrowest point of Falling Eagle Gorge, with a bottomless abyss below. The bridge surface could only accommodate a dozen or so people passing side by side.

The stockade walls were built of huge stones, densely covered with Gu array runes, where thousands of Gu cultivators were trapped.

Behind the stronghold lies the entrance to the Valley of Ten Thousand Gu. Once Eagle's Nest Stronghold is captured, the gate to the Valley of Ten Thousand Gu will be opened.

Fu Qing's vanguard battalion had been fighting a bloody battle in front of this village for three days, suffering heavy casualties, but the Gu array runes on the village wall were still circulating, and the Gu worms of the Yue Kingdom Gu cultivators were still pouring down from the village wall in an endless stream.

Can't delay any longer.

Fu Qing summoned An Sheng and Liu Wentong to the front lines and ordered them to lead a feint attack on the front to distract the defenders. He himself led He Lanshan and the Gu-Breaking Team up the cliff on the side of Luoyingjian and circled around to the back of the village—there was a secret passage entrance used by Gu cultivators to transport Gu worms.

As long as they can sneak into the secret passage and open the gate from the inside, the vanguard battalion can take Eagle's Nest Village in one fell swoop.

An Sheng grabbed his arm. "Brother Fu, we only got a rough location of that secret passage from the prisoners. Nobody knows what's inside. What if there's an ambush—"

"We have to go even if there's an ambush!"

Fu Qing hung the Cold Iron Blade at his waist. "If we continue with a frontal assault, all the brothers in the vanguard battalion will die. They are also born of parents; if they are willing to fight to the death, I won't ask for anything more!"