Chapter 889: Counterattack

After finishing the previous mission, Pei Shoujing received a new one through her lens—to continue stirring the pot, and, to collect data as the situation demanded, observing the changes in the situation of the Tianmo Jie.

Honestly, this was another relatively simple and basic mission. She had been lurking in the Tianmo Jie for several months, primarily collecting intelligence and secondarily fanning the flames; these were all tasks of ordinary difficulty, and there was always a prior warning: pay attention to concealment, pay attention to safety.

It could be said that she had yet to execute any thorny missions to date, and naturally, she hadn't established any decent merits. The benefit was safety, but the drawback was—this was not the state she wanted. If it weren't to accomplish something, why come behind enemy lines? Even if behind enemy lines were safe, could it be safer than lying at home?

She hoped to play a greater role behind enemy lines, ideally a unique mission that surpassed other lurking companions, for example, catching them off guard and landing a hammer on the heads of certain important enemies.

If she had known, she might as well have joined the assault team on the Qianxian. That way, she might have become a true general.

Although she thought this way, she still conscientiously conceived an action plan according to the mission requirements. Although she could communicate with headquarters in real-time, limited by the lens's capabilities, the information that could be exchanged was limited, and they were scattered too far apart, without a unified action plan, only able to provide a general direction; the strategies were all thought up by themselves. Support could only be informational; at most, there were some supplies to collect. As for real assistance, unless a distress signal was sent in advance to see if a teammate happened to be nearby to help, there generally wasn't any.

Pei Shoujing's personality was completely different from her appearance; it actually carried a bit of an adventurous element. She didn't shy away from formulating more radical strategies, only fearing that mistakes would hinder the overall situation. Therefore, for several months, she mainly focused on lurking, primarily striving for the trust of the local tribes.

She was actually very good at lurking. When she was only ten or so years old, she had once lurked in the Guikou Camp—of course, she didn't have an online connection, she actually just joined the Guikou, but she considered herself to be lurking. Because she was never of one mind with the Guikou. At that time, she had to pretend to believe in the Guikou's ways, and she even relied on excellent acting to gain the trust of a Pillar of State, and even sent a key letter to Tang Zhao, and retreated unscathed; how could this not be considered a successful lurk?

Having received the new mission, Pei Shoujing quickly set a strategy for herself: incite a civil war!

By now, the rumors among the Mi tribe had fermented enough—they had reached the level of Arong, so who in the tribe could not know? Moreover, the response of the Mi tribe's high-level officials was quite extreme; taking action against their own people was a blunder, which could be considered adding a large pile of firewood, and now only a spark was needed to blow it up.

Where was the spark?

Pei Shoujing pondered for a moment and found the answer—in the besieged Qiu tribe.

She was posing as the daughter of a Mi tribe woman who had married into the Qiu tribe, saying she had been abandoned by her father and stepmother, so she had returned to her mother's tribe to seek refuge. Although the story was fabricated, the character prototype existed. And this also showed that the six major tribes were connected by marriage and were actually relatives. Relations had always been good; the Elder Council suddenly struck with a heavy fist, wishing to pull up one-sixth of the tribesmen by the roots—could there not be complaints among the people of the other tribes?

The besieged Qiu tribe was even more resentful.

If she could persuade a portion of the attacking force to turn their weapons around and link up with the Qiu tribe, the crusade would immediately ignite a civil war. Even if she couldn't persuade them, getting those people to show mercy and letting the old and young of the Qiu tribe escape could also create chaos, incite dissatisfaction within the tribe, and perhaps provide an opportunity to rise up...

While thinking this, she decided to act under the cover of night and go to the Qiu tribe.

However, her plan was a step too late; in the middle of the night, she heard a commotion outside. Pei Shoujing frowned and opened the window to look. According to the professional training she had received, she shouldn't have opened the window so blatantly to observe when the situation was unclear, but the character she was playing, A Jing, had never received such training, so naturally, she had to see what was happening.

What she thought in her heart was: Could it be that her identity had been exposed? Or was the identity she was playing, that of a person from the Qiu tribe, exposed? Could they be here to arrest her?

If so, Pei Shoujing felt it was a bit troublesome. The Mi tribe was a small-to-medium tribe, roughly the same as the Fire Spirit tribe. It was not without capable people; the Great Elder's combat power was at the Sword Hero level, and there were several Elders and the leader of the Guardian Knights who were also Sword Heroes. If even one of them came, she would be hard-pressed to deal with them. She could use her Body Protection treasure to escape, but that would inevitably expose her, and perhaps the appearance of an external enemy would make the tribe unite, which would go against her original intention of creating conflict.

At this moment, she saw a figure stumbling over, calling out: "A Jing, A Jing! Something terrible has happened!"

Pei Shoujing didn't need to look at the face to know it was Arong. Her heart warmed slightly; although she was lurking here with a purpose, Arong was truly sincere to her, and Pei Shoujing could not help but feel grateful.

Her calm face changed to one of terror, and she said: "What's wrong? Is it because they know I'm from the Qiu tribe and have come to catch me?"

Arong was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly: "What Qiu tribe? It has nothing to do with you. If they knew you were from the Qiu tribe, they would have been scared away long ago; it would be your turn to catch us! The Qiu tribe has rebelled! They are attacking!"

"Ah?" Pei Shoujing was stunned; what kind of development was this?

She had just wanted to incite a civil war, but the situation had moved ahead of her.

"How is that possible? Rebellion is one thing, but to attack? That's the Elder Council's Knight Team... did the Knight Team rebel?"

"Knight Team?" Arong felt her companion was really too imaginative; how could she think of that? "Why would the Knight Team rebel? The Knight Team was wiped out! The Qiu tribe defeated the Knight Team, annihilated the whole army, and then organized an army to kill their way here!"

Pei Shoujing was dumbfounded and said: "That's impossible. With the Qiu tribe's strength, how could they? Do they have foreign aid?"

Arong said: "Never mind how they attacked; anyway, they have attacked, and they are already fighting at the village entrance. Let's run!"

Pei Shoujing said "Hmm," her mind thinking rapidly, and said: "Where to run?"

Arong was stunned for a moment and said: "To... the north. The Qiu tribe is in the south, and the gate to the north is further away from them."

Pei Shoujing let out a breath. She knew Arong wouldn't think so much, and said: "Fine, let's run and see. If you see that we are surrounded, don't rush out blindly; find a corner to hide in first, and then wait for them to attack before finding an opportunity to run out..."

Then she heard someone shout: "What are you running for?"

The two turned their heads and saw a Mi tribe Deer-Horn person wearing armor running over, saying: "Are you two still Deer-Horn warriors of the Mi tribe? Are you still tribespeople? The tribe is in danger, and you don't think about defending it, but only about running away; the deer horns on your heads are shamed by you!"

Arong's face flushed red. Although she could argue that she was not yet a Deer-Horn warrior, nor a healer, and had not yet come of age, she was indeed a tribesperson of the Mi tribe. Being accused by others of abandoning the tribe, she also felt guilty and had nothing to say.

Pei Shoujing didn't want to run away either, as that would lose the opportunity to continue stirring the pot, so she said: "Brother A Huai, we aren't planning to run; we were just about to go find the troops. Although we are not yet adults and don't have the Mi Deer power, we will definitely contribute our last bit of strength."

This Brother A Huai was not familiar with them, but in a small tribe, everyone saw each other every day. Pei Shoujing had been carefully collecting information on everyone, so she could call his name right away.

A Huai heard that they were minors, his expression softened slightly, and he said: "If you aren't warriors, you don't have to go up now; just be a reserve team. You are at least grown up enough to go to the camp to take care of the old and the young, and when the final moment comes... at that time, whether you want to go to the battlefield or not will be out of your hands. Actually, there is a siege on all sides now; running around blindly is just throwing yourselves into the net. It's safer to be with everyone else. Follow me."

The two had no choice but to follow. Pei Shoujing looked for an opportunity and said: "Brother A Huai, what exactly is going on? We are still confused. Wasn't it said that the Knight Team went to arrest criminals? How did we get besieged in the blink of an eye? What ability do they have to resist the Knight Team and even counterattack? Is it because the Qiu tribe is more powerful than other tribes?"

A Huai was furious and cursed: "Bah! How are they powerful? Our Xia tribe is the strongest tribe! It's just... it's just that they are particularly despicable; it turns out they had already rushed to convert. Converted to the Holy God!"

Pei Shoujing and Arong both said "Ah?" at the same time.

The Holy God was now controlled by Tang Zhao, which was a huge secret. Only a few people in the Human World knew about it, so naturally, it couldn't be told to Pei Shoujing. Pei Shoujing only knew that the Holy God had done something big and killed many gods. In her heart, the Holy God was just an evil god, a very wicked enemy. Arong, needless to say, the Rong God was a trusted subordinate god of the Left Upper God, so naturally, she opposed the Holy God. In her cognition, the Holy God was a terrifying Great Demon King.

A Huai said indignantly: "Those guys got some inside information and then contacted the church over there first. When our Knight Team went to attack, the Holy God's messenger was presiding over a ceremony in the tribe, and then they ran into each other. And then they killed their way here."

He didn't mention the process in the middle, but it seemed there was nothing to say. That was the Holy God, who suppressed all gods so they didn't dare to speak, and now it was rumored that the Holy God had slaughtered the gods and almost unified the Shenjie. Its messenger, even a messenger in such a remote place, could not be underestimated. How could the Deer-Horn Knight Team be their opponent? It was nothing more than being beaten up and then pushed back in the momentum.

Pei Shoujing's heart stirred, and she said: "Then what are their demands? It can't be to wipe us all out, right? We are all the same Spirit Race, and our bloodlines are the same; they can't want to exterminate us, right?"

A Huai snorted and said: "Who knows? If you believe in the Holy God, what bad things wouldn't you do?"

Pei Shoujing didn't say that it was actually you who attacked first, so you couldn't blame others for being wicked, and reminded him: "Could it be conversion? Do they want us to unite under the banner of the Holy God?"