Chapter 263: Just Beginning

Baoxi, accompanied by his trusted aides, walked along the path they had already conquered to observe the fruits of their labor.

However, their ultimate goal was the tribal territory of the Qiexin clan. Their Soldiers were attacking frantically, but after not long, they encountered fierce resistance; combined with the fact that they were attacking uphill from the foot of the mountain, they had now begun to retreat.

Under Qiexin's command, the Xin Tribe had already organized into a disciplined force, and their coordination had improved; even a naked Tribal Chief was better than a sleeping one.

In a short time, Qiexin had already sent several thousand Soldiers to the front line, and there were still many people who had not yet arrived; otherwise, their combat effectiveness could have been even higher.

Seeing that the number of attacking enemies was extremely high, and that they had good Weapons, organization, and coordination—something absolutely no small tribe could achieve—Qiexin actually began to panic inside; without needing to think much, he could guess which tribe it was.

However, he held his ground, believing this was his territory and that his Soldiers were brave enough, so he never thought of giving up, feeling that if the Suiren clan suffered too many losses, they would surely retreat.

Baifeng, on his side, had the sails fully hoisted and was heading downstream at top speed, only to see from afar through his Telescope a scene of utter devastation at the gathering place, with even the water along the bank discolored.

Baifeng secretly thought he had arrived a bit too late, but now he could make a rough guess; being able to sweep through in such a short time showed that the Suiren clan's combat effectiveness was not poor, and their numbers were definitely large enough.

Seeing that there seemed to be no one left on the bank, Baifeng had the Soldiers take down the sails, then used the current to drift slowly downstream, stopping only when they were close to the shore.

They were afraid of running aground, and also afraid that if they were suddenly attacked, the Boat would not have time to weigh anchor and turn around.

Baifeng wanted to go ashore to take a look; now, dead people meant absolutely nothing to Baifeng. When he had first arrived in this era, he could never have imagined killing someone—whether he dared to was one thing, but mainly he would have had a physical reaction, whereas now, the number of people killed by Baifeng's own men was not small.

However, Baifeng's plan to go ashore was vetoed by the Soldiers; they believed that the current situation was simply too dangerous, and as the Tribal Chief and the future of the Baifeng Tribe, he must not put himself in danger. Even though Baifeng possessed absolute power as the Tribal Chief, with everyone clinging to his legs and refusing to let go, he had no choice but to abandon the plan.

When Baifeng sighed and returned to the middle of the deck, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. In the past, they took pride in absolute bravery, but now they understood that bravery must be applied in the right place; otherwise, it was just ignorant stupidity.

Unable to go ashore, Baifeng could only pick up the Telescope to observe. Scanning the field of vision, it was all bloodstains and a mess, but the view in the distance was blocked, so Baifeng had to move positions to look, and then he saw Baoxi followed by several hundred Soldiers.

This group of people walked with a leisurely, domineering, and confident air; they must have been the elite of the Suiren clan. What they held in their hands were all uniform long Bronze Weapons, glittering with gold, which was quite spectacular.

Perhaps Baoxi suddenly had a premonition and felt someone watching him, so he turned his head to look behind him. The distance was too great for him to see Baifeng, but the Baifeng Tribe's Boat was right there, very conspicuous.

Baoxi knew that Baifeng would not really be so obedient as to leave just because he was told to, but in the end, it did not affect their plan, so if Baifeng wanted to watch, let him.

However, before turning away, he raised his hand and made a slashing motion toward the air; he felt that Baifeng would definitely be able to see his action. Afterward, he turned and strode forward directly, because Soldiers had already returned to report the battle situation, saying that their attack was very smooth and they had already captured many parts of the Qiexin clan's territory, with rich spoils of war.

Baifeng had indeed seen Baoxi's gesture. There were no more enemies behind this group of people, so it was definitely slashed for him to see. He did not know if Baoxi had eyes in the back of his head or what, but he could actually perceive this.

Baifeng also casually made a throat-slitting gesture; he felt this should be more dashing, but unfortunately, Baoxi could not see it.

Now that the main force of the Suiren clan had left, there was nothing left for them to see, and they could not see the main battle, so the Soldiers of the Baifeng Tribe were all prepared to return.

But Baifeng did not give the order; instead, he had everyone turn the Boat around and anchor it firmly, then took out things to prepare for fishing, with no intention of going back.

Everyone was a bit confused, not knowing what to prepare. At this time, Baifeng saw that everyone might not have understood the situation, so he spoke to explain: "This war cannot end so quickly; now is just the very beginning."

"We accumulated to this level bit by bit from just a few hundred people, and we haven't experienced many wars, so perhaps everyone doesn't understand what's going on. I will explain it to everyone properly now."

Saying this, the Soldiers all cleverly put down the useless work in their hands and gathered around. The personal guards immediately found a small chair and placed it behind Baifeng, letting Baifeng sit down.

Baifeng sat steadily and then slowly continued to speak: "Don't think that because we have the best Weapons, the best armor, and the strongest city walls on this land, we are the most powerful. In reality, that is not the case."

"All the people in our tribe added together are not as many as the Soldiers of one of their tribes. If you really go out to fight, having good Weapons only gives you more of an advantage; with even the worst Weapon, if you get hit once, you will be injured if not killed."

"What's more, with ten thousand people, even if they stood still and let you kill them one by one, you wouldn't be able to finish in a day. The current situation is that the Suiren clan has come to attack us, and we can only hide in the city like a turtle pulling its head into its shell."

A Soldier felt that the Tribal Chief looked down on them too much, and also looked down on himself too much, so he squeezed forward and said: "Tribal Chief, we have cattle as mounts, and what's more, you have Heavenly Thunder. If you use Heavenly Thunder, we don't even need to take action to kill them all. Heavenly Thunder can even shatter stone mountains; they cannot possibly withstand it."

Baifeng gave a bitter smile: "Heavenly Thunder can of course be used, but for now, it cannot make up for the gap between us and the Suiren clan."

This was not Baifeng being modest, but rather Baifeng knowing very well what Heavenly Thunder was. The tribesmen only thought that the Tribal Chief stored Heavenly Thunder in a Bamboo Tube, a jar, or paper, and just lit it with fire when needed.

However, the amount of Gunpowder used to blow up a stone mountain, as the Soldier mentioned, was extremely large. The Black Powder he made had too little power; to be used in war, it would require a larger amount of powder, as well as shrapnel to cause damage.

The main problem was that due to the needs of various engineering projects over the past few years, the consumption of Gunpowder had been very large, and the Sulfur brought back years ago was now almost exhausted.