Chapter 505

First Volume, Chapter 505: A Once-in-a-Millennium Genius

The Night Owl was always the Lord's claw and fang; at such a moment, his actions were naturally brutal and decisive.

Seeing the reinforcement soldiers all slain, Chen Ping seemed to yield, letting out a long breath: "Fine!"

The Central Army Camp, barely five li away, was already in utter chaos: scouring soldiers either fled on the spot or huddled in groups of hundreds, jumpy at every whisper, as if facing a mighty enemy.

The soldiers guarding the Military Supply Depot had long since vanished. Xu Qian had intended to step out and restore order.

But seeing the chaos outside the camp, he mistook it for the Enemy Army launching a full-scale assault with exceptional tactical advantage, fearing that if he slipped up, they might capture him first to break the command—so he remained hidden inside his Ying Zhang, never showing himself.

Around his Ying Zhang, hundreds of soldiers guarded him—not to protect, but merely to huddle together for warmth.

In these soldiers' minds, the Di had always been the ones attacking others; how could anyone ever attack the Di?

Having guarded cities their entire lives, they'd only heard tales of how brutal the Front Line was, how heroic the Di forces were, yet they'd never even seen blood.

Now, standing face-to-face with the blood and fire of a real battlefield, witnessing its true cruelty, they trembled all over, hearts pounding.

At first, some soldiers had prepared to earn glory, charging forward to fight the Enemy Army to the death.

But seeing comrades running back and forth, half their ambition to earn glory faded.

Then, hearing the constant screams, their grand ambitions gradually gave way to fear.

To hell with earning glory—saving their lives came first!

After all, Law Does Not Punish the Many; if the sky falls, the superiors will bear it—it won't crush a lowly soldier like him.

The Central Army Camp had three Military Supply Depots, all assembled from materials and supplies raised by the County Cities of Ben Zhou.

Now, two of them had been swallowed by roaring flames.

Ning Hu led ten Tianji Camp Guards, already disguised as scouring soldiers, walking boldly through the chaos toward the last Military Supply Depot. Along the way, they passed countless scouring soldiers—even several temporary Colonels.

Yet not one of them paid Ning Hu any attention.

At first, Qin Feng had ordered him to merely scare Xu Qian—no need for real violence, since the Enemy Army was too numerous; one feared not ten thousand, but one slip.

Ning Hu strictly followed Qin Feng's orders: under cover of night, he eliminated a few night patrols, swapped their armor and uniforms, then crept within twenty steps of the Enemy Camp and fired dozens of arrows into it.

He killed six soldiers in total.

He expected the enemy to go mad and charge out—but it turned out exactly as Ning Hu had not anticipated.

The scouring soldiers who spotted Ning Hu didn't even think of fighting back; they turned and ran, screaming as they fled.

"The Enemy Army is attacking!"

"The Enemy Army is attacking?" Hearing such a cry in the dead of night—even Qin Feng would have been terrified, rushing to assemble troops and prepare carefully.

But these low-grade city guards here instantly panicked: one ran, then two, then the entire camp erupted into chaos.

Even Ning Hu stood stunned for a long moment.

He'd seen cowards before, but never ones this cowardly—who could have imagined that under the protection of the Di's Tiger Wolf Elite Troops, the local garrison troops were this utterly pathetic?

In the end, they'd been coddled too well, with zero real combat experience.

Since the enemy was handing themselves over, Ning Hu had no qualms—he led his ten Guards straight into the Enemy Camp, bold as brass. After all, this so-called Search and Exterminate Army was a ragtag force cobbled together from county garrisons; no one knew anyone else.

Seeing Ning Hu and his men sprinting toward the Military Supply Depot, the soldiers on the scene assumed he was going to protect it—and ignored him completely.

Ning Hu thus easily reached the last Military Supply Depot, tossed in a lit Fire Torch, killed the soldiers who witnessed it on the spot, then turned and walked away without a backward glance.

Qin Feng stood on the MountainWaist, watching the flames blaze across the Mountain Foot, and couldn't help but feel baffled.

"Wait—I'm sure I only gave Ning Hu ten Guards, ordered him to scare Xu Qian—how did this turn into a full-scale fire attack?"

"No! Something's wrong here. Even if Xu Qian is useless, isn't there the Xiongying Brigade? When the Central Army Camp fell into chaos, the Xiongying Brigade would have rushed to reinforce immediately. Once they arrived, military morale would stabilize instantly—if Ning Hu had been a second slower, he'd have been trampled under their iron hooves."

Weird! Truly weird!

Qin Feng had fought countless battles, yet this scene left him utterly bewildered…

Only when Ning Hu returned with all ten Guards unharmed and explained the full story did Qin Feng finally understand.

He couldn't help but laugh.

"Heh, Xu Qian has stirred up such hatred and alienation that even the Xiongying Brigade won't bother with him—maybe they're even hoping he gets killed."

"Xu Qian is a treasure—absolutely cannot let him die. As long as he lives one more day, we comrades can enjoy one more day."

At these words, the surrounding Guards burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! Young Master is absolutely right—Xu Qian is our lucky star."

"How valiant are the Di forces? How heroic is the Xiongying Brigade? The Di King and our Liang Holy Man are evenly matched—so how did they end up with Xu Qian? This must be a stain the Di will never wash away."

"Young Master, look—below, it's still chaotic."

Qin Feng shook his head with a wry smile.

This Xu Qian, as Main General, let the entire camp descend into chaos—and still didn't lead the Supervisor of the Army to assert authority and restore order? What kind of talent is this? He's clearly a once-in-a-millennium genius!

Qin Feng loved Xu Qian so much he immediately ordered: all soldiers, from this moment on, must not harm Xu Qian in the slightest.

From the moment Ning Hu launched his surprise attack and burned all the Search and Exterminate Army's materials and supplies, it took one Envoy before the chaotic army gradually calmed down.

Not because Xu Qian finally found the courage to lead the Supervisor of the Army and quell the unrest—but because Chen Ping could no longer bear to watch and arrived with the Xiongying Brigade to reinforce.

When Chen Ping stormed into the Central Army Camp, he found Xu Qian huddled behind a Shushu, clutching a Zhan Dao, trembling violently.

Chen Ping was so furious he nearly charged forward and beheaded him on the spot: "Xu Cishi! The camp is in this state of chaos, yet you hide in your Ying Zhang? Is there ever such a Main General in this world?"

"All three Military Supply Depots are reduced to ashes—what will you use to assault the mountain? How will you exterminate the bandits?"

Facing Chen Ping's rebuke, Xu Qian finally snapped out of it, swallowed hard, ignored Chen Ping entirely, and rushed out of the Ying Zhang.

He discovered that the Supervisor of the Army, along with the Colonels he'd promoted and several unlucky soldiers—over thirty men—had been executed on the spot by Xiongying Brigade Cavalry. The remaining soldiers stood by, not daring to breathe.

The chaos was instantly quelled under the iron fist of the Xiongying Brigade.

Xu Qian's fear deepened—not because of the enemy's surprise attack, but because this incident must never reach the superiors; otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable.