Chapter 433: Encounter

After Lu set out with the troops, he used the Navy's Large Ship to quickly transport everyone to the opposite bank, but then he did not know which direction to head; Lu was also aimless, as he did not know where those people were hiding either.

So he thought of a story Baifeng had once told, and imitating it, he took off his own Boot, tossed it into the air, and when it landed on the ground, the toe pointed to the northeast, so Lu pointed his hand and said: "We shall head that way to search!"

The others had blank expressions, and until Lu put his Boot back on, no one moved.

Lu put it on, straightened his back, and stared at the group: "I already said to head that way, why aren't you moving? Do you want to disobey military orders?"

Upon hearing this, even if they didn't understand, the Soldiers began to move sluggishly; it was Lu's Adjutant and the Army Supervisor who said to Lu with constipated expressions: "Young General, isn't this a bit too rash? Your Boot is not the King's Boot; can you really rely on it to find where the enemy is?"

Lu's small face turned red: "There's no other way, is there? There isn't a shred of intelligence, and this method was told by the King before; I think it's suitable to use now."

The Army Supervisor was helpless: "You also know that it was just a story the King told; it doesn't have much use."

Lu's momentum weakened a little: "Then what should we do?"

The Army Supervisor was just about to speak, but suddenly remembered his duty; he could not interfere or give reckless orders. If what Lu did was unreasonable, he could point it out in time, but right now, this was not something he could manage.

The Army Supervisor glanced at the Adjutant, who actually didn't have a good method either, just feeling that Lu's method was unreliable. The Adjutant had no choice but to point at the dogs panting and sticking out their tongues and say: "Now we can only count on them!"

Lu also believed that this was the only way now; walking a bit downstream would lead to the former campsite of the Suiren clan. He would go over to see if the dogs could find the hiding enemy based on the scent left behind there, although the possibility was almost zero, it was the only way.

Lu changed the order and headed downstream toward the ruins of the Suiren clan's campsite. This time the Soldiers began to act without the slightest hesitation. After arriving at the place, he had the Soldiers lead the dogs to sniff around.

There was nothing to search for in the campsite; they had already searched it once after the Suiren clan retreated, and even their shacks had been kicked over. Now it was just a mess.

After ensuring the dogs were familiar with the scent, he gave the order to search. The dogs raised their heads and sniffed around, but they were all confused.

Suddenly, one dog began to bark toward a direction. A few other dogs also sniffed in that direction, felt there was something, and joined in the barking, but the other dogs had no reaction.

After a while, the rest of the dogs began to bark in the completely opposite direction, which made Lu feel a bit troubled. Seeing the serious disagreement, Lu immediately decided to split the troops into two, each taking dogs to search. If one side's target turned out to be wrong, they would immediately rush toward the other side's direction.

Lu let the Adjutant lead one team, while he led one himself, and they immediately separated, each taking dogs and leaving.

In reality, the Heaven was already quite late, but because the pursuit could not be delayed, they set out that very day. Lu chased until the sun was about to set and the light began to dim at a very fast speed before he let everyone camp on the spot.

Because they carried quick-assembly tents, they were able to set up the camp very quickly, so they did not feel panicked. It was the same for the Adjutant, though he was more cautious and set up camp earlier. However, he always felt that his direction might be wrong, yet he could not say what was wrong.

Early the next morning, they continued to set out. In the Adjutant's team, the hounds barked more fiercely, which meant they were getting closer and closer to the target. But it was not until the hounds barked at the riverbank and they walked over with caution that they completely confirmed their target was wrong, because on the riverbank was a corpse—the very person they had killed yesterday. The Adjutant felt a bit disappointed, and since this was upstream, to avoid using water soaked with corpses, he had people drag the corpse onto the bank and throw it far away to feed the beasts.

The hounds believed their search target had been found and would not go further. The Adjutant could not say the hounds had found the wrong thing, because they had indeed found people of the Suiren clan, just dead ones. He had no choice but to lead the team back the way they came to look for the team Lu led.

The team led by Lu kept moving forward. During lunch and rest, the dogs became increasingly restless, as if the target were right in front of them. Lu also made a prompt decision: forget about eating, quickly pack up the Dry Rations, and find the target first to prevent them from running away.

Thus, their speed did not slow down; instead, it accelerated a little.

Not far away, the deserters who had killed and fled while fumbling about heard the sound of beasts—like wolves, but not quite, and judging by the sound, there were quite a few. But they were over three hundred people, all Soldiers holding Weapon, so would they be afraid of a pack of wolves? Wouldn't that just be delivering food to them, the hungry ones?

So they took their Weapon with some anticipation, waiting for the wolf pack to appear. When the first wolf appeared, their eyes lit up, but then the rope on the wolf's neck made their vision go black.

Before they could react, dozens of wolves surrounded them, and behind the wolves were Soldiers holding Weapon.

They did not know what was going on, and the subsequently appearing Lu, leading more Soldiers, surrounded them. He was also very surprised at these hundreds of people in front of him who were clearly Suiren clan Soldiers. The Suiren clan had all fled, so how could there be these hundreds of people? Could they be here to scout for information?

In an instant, Swords were drawn and Crossbows were set. The leader of the deserters, seeing the equipment and physical condition of the people coming from the opposite side, immediately guessed that these were Huaxia Soldiers, so he was the first to throw away his Weapon, indicating he was no threat.

The Huaxia Soldiers had long since picked up their Weapon, waiting for Lu to give the order. The hounds were also baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, wanting to pounce forward, while the Soldiers behind pulled the ropes hard to control them.

Once the deserter Leader put down his Weapon, the Soldiers behind also looked at each other and put down their Weapon, because regardless of whether the people on the other side were Huaxia or not, they could not beat them. They could not compete in numbers, nor in equipment, not to mention they had been hungry for several days and now did not have much strength left.

The Leader asked politely: "Are you Huaxia Soldiers?"

Lu also replied with extreme confidence: "We are indeed Huaxia Soldiers. Which tribe are you from? The Suiren clan?"