Chapter 98: The Battle of the Feigned Troops

At this moment fourteen boats were facing the gate of the water stronghold; Le Jin hurriedly ordered the helm to be turned, but the fleet ignored the command, and, including Leng Ying's empty boat, all vessels began to spin in place without stopping.

"Someone's in the boat!" Le Jin shouted, and before the voice faded he heard the sounds of people falling into the water around him.

Li Bucai did not use Wu Zhuoyue's men to guard the water stronghold, because all under her command were people from Sky City, and Sky City people, apart from fishermen and water‑navy troops, knew nothing of swimming. Li Bucai had no water navy, and the Undead were impervious to water and fire, so they could serve as water troops. Thus the entire water stronghold was defended by Undead. Her fleet was limited, so at night she sent one person with a Qingwolf Beast, piloting a canoe far more maneuverable than a fishing boat to keep watch on the river. When Tan Jiang's vanguard approached, the Qingwolf Beast heard the paddling from afar, returned to report to Li Bucai, and ordered a squad of Undead to dive into the water. When Le Jin's fleet reached the vicinity of the water stronghold, the ambush was already clinging to the ship's side, and someone, following their signal boat, capsized the ship from a distance.

The troops Le Jin led were the people who had followed Tan Jiang into battle from the start, highly vigilant and constantly watching the surroundings. The Undead did not understand that these people could not swim, and were fewer in number than the enemy, so they could only wait for the right moment. By chance Leng Ying arrived and warned Le Jin that an ambush lay ahead. Le Jin gave a single command, and the men on the boat focused all their attention on turning the helm; the ambushers seized the opportunity and capsized the boat.

Le Jin and Leng Ying were on the same boat, using their own strength to force the vessel steady. In the water a chaos erupted—soldiers slashing, drowning, wails and cries rising and falling. After much effort the boat stopped rocking, and at that moment a command rang from the stronghold wall, sudden flames flared, lighting the river surface. Sixty Undead archers all hurled torches at the ships; under the fire a volley of arrows rained down. The few boats that had not capsized saw their soldiers struck by the arrow rain, flipping and plunging into the water.

Le Jin and Leng Ying were both poor swimmers; Le Jin shielded Leng Ying with a shield and said, "We're too far from shore; we need to think of a way."

"Dead on both sides; follow me and charge!"

"Their arrows never stop; how can we charge?"

"Cover me; I have a way."

Le Jin used his shield to protect the two, then leapt onto his boat; Leng Ying drew his knife and slashed the two black bags in the boat, instantly revealing two disheveled humanoid forms. Rather than humanoids, they were more like two corpses, making Le Jin's heart skip a beat. He knew those two had originally been two good‑looking girls; the two scouts were the ones he had captured.

By now, those two had been transformed beyond recognition. Their original black dresses were reduced to a few torn strips clinging to their bodies; under the monsters' powerful binding force the fabric had been driven into the flesh. Apart from their faces, which remained intact, there was no unbroken skin anywhere—only fully drained muscle was exposed, still coated with a slime that only those monsters possess. The stench of that slime was nauseating, and the horror of the corpses made his heart race.

Those monsters fed on the fluids inside animals, and they also liked to eat humans.

Leng Ying wanted to toss the corpses onto the stronghold wall; although they were only dry corpses, the wall was far away. The assassin, who valued speed over strength, said, "Your strength exceeds mine; I'll cover you and return those two bodies to them."

He then brandished his dual knives, moved to Le Jin's front, and struck the eagle feather. Le Jin, with his face turned away, could not bear to look at the two corpses; he grabbed one in each hand. Among all troop types, the Vajra‑type brute strength is the greatest, different from the War God‑type explosive power. Those who practice the Vajra style are born with far greater strength than ordinary people. Although the corpses were dry, each weighed at least forty or fifty jin. He tossed them casually, and the two bodies flew straight to the stronghold wall.

All the people on the fourteen boats fell into the water, leaving only two commanders. On the stronghold wall, Undead girls concentrated fire on the two men aboard the boat, but two black shadows flew in, one after the other. As they approached, Yin Ji recognized the faces as her own people, urgently ordered a ceasefire, and leapt to catch them. When she landed, she found they were already dead; the gruesome condition of the bodies made her scream. She hurriedly pushed the corpses aside and retreated, so startled that she forgot the narrow footpath—only about a meter wide—behind her, slipped, and fell into the water. The few nearest to her also jumped in panic; seven or eight people fell at once.

The stronghold wall was just over six meters tall; it could stop foot soldiers but not a commander with excellent lightness skill. Leng Ying had already, during the pause in arrow fire, leapt onto the wall, brandishing his dual knives with lightning speed, stabbing five or six people in the blink of an eye. Undead are impervious to blades and spears, but their strength is weak; the force of his thrust sent them tumbling over the wall into the water.

Le Jin, a Blade Badge Warrior, practiced the Vajra Mantra, his lightness skill not as fast as the assassin's, but a commander's skill equals a lord's skill, though his aptitude is inferior, so the power differs greatly. He used the Vajra‑style exclusive lightness technique "Three‑Fold Ascend", the first leap vaulted over four meters, still several meters from the wall; drawing power from nowhere, he consecutively performed the second and third leaps, landing precisely on the wall.

Only sixty people guarded the water stronghold; after the commander fell into the water upon receiving the corpses, none of the remaining men could match the two, and they were successively driven over the wall by the pair, all falling into the water.

When the girls launched their arrows they had already thrown all the torches, leaving the stronghold wall in darkness. In the darkness, Leng Ying and Le Jin could not tell whether the other was Undead, nor whether the stabbed ones were dead or alive. Everyone who fell made a few splashes and then fell silent, presumed dead. With the last person into the water, the water stronghold returned to its original dead silence.

"I'll take it from here; you go inform the second stronghold master, tell him the water stronghold is secured, have him watch the lookout tower—reinforcements may arrive from there soon, and it's best to pass through here," Leng Ying told Le Jin the location of Tan Jiang. After he left, Leng Ying cut a rope from the watchtower, tied the two corpses to it, dragged them to the main gate, hung the bodies in the center of the front door, then leapt into the stronghold, quickly searched every barracks, found none, exited the stronghold, hid at the road junction, and waited silently for Tan Jiang's troops.

Soon a pungent stench assaulted them; after a while the sound of footsteps arrived. Tan Jiang rode a fine horse, and, surrounded by Le Jin and six other commanders, seven figures appeared at the road junction.

Leng Ying understood his intention: he wanted to duel Li Bucai alone first, defeat Li Bucai, and then send whirlwind death soldiers to slaughter his troops and civilians.

"Second stronghold master," Leng Ying emerged from the darkness, bowed to Tan Jiang, and pointed to the mountain, saying, "That's the lookout tower up there; shall we clear it first?"

He easily swept away the water stronghold, which surprised Tan Jiang, who laughed sharply, "Those leftover remnants, we won't deal with them now; after we finish with the Li clan, we can come back for them later." He led the seven along the road, swaggering forward.

……

Dragon Fin Mountain, on the side near White Horse River, was where Li Bucai had previously captured the Luru Beast; at this moment Wu Zhuoyue led a hundred archers ambushed on the mountain.

"Lord, seven have arrived; the person ahead looks like a lord; shall we fire arrows?"

"No, let them pass."

The fighting at the water stronghold ceased, and the eight arriving here indicated the stronghold had fallen. Li Bucai had long anticipated that sixty could not hold them, and had ordered all torches to be thrown away in the first volley precisely to conceal the Undead's identity and use them as a surprise force.

The water stronghold was only a structure of wood, surrounded by trees, built in a few days; devouring these two hundred plus people at once would offset the stronghold's losses and keep the Tan family brothers sleepless for days. Within half a month they would lack the strength to attack again, granting half a month of peace for the stronghold to be rebuilt, and the fishing boats they left behind became a treasure. Shipbuilding is purely a technical craft; even with many civilians, they lack the strength, so only three carpenters can build them, making progress very slow. With these dozens of boats, a lot of time can be saved; the villagers need only a few days to teach them to swim, and they can be trained as fishermen.

Fortunately, Tan Jiang was misled by the preceding sixty, believing victory was certain, and did not set fire to the water stronghold. In the lookout tower, Li Bucai had specifically ordered them to hold fire, only to let the people from the rear of the water stronghold cut off their retreat together.

Tan Jiang led only a few people, riding at the front, indicating he wanted to spar with him. He had wanted to meet him back at Luo Ping Hai, but at that time they were on the same front and had to consider the bigger picture; now they were enemies, and he wanted a duel. Not revealing himself would seem too cowardly.

Li Bucai said, "I'll leave this to you for now; if a large force passes through here, fire arrows immediately."

Wu Zhuoyue nodded. Li Bucai flipped and leapt onto a wolf's back, saying, "Let's go to the White Horse Beach garrison."

……

Tan Jiang and his party passed smoothly from the foot of the mountain, traveling a distance until an open field appeared ahead, the very land Li Bucai had reclaimed for grain fields. As they walked, a door clanged with a "yi yi ya ya" sound from ahead. Soon a rider on horseback emerged from a garrison, holding a torch, standing across the road. From his horse, Tan Jiang looked far ahead and saw it was Li Bucai.