Chapter 43: War Among the Scouts

Everyone, report your investigation results.

Guan Shan returned to the camp with a grim expression, looking at Deng Li and the other instructors who were returning one after another.

Seeing Guan Shan's unpleasant expression, Deng Li and the others felt an ominous premonition.

I only found many monster beast corpses, mostly around one-star five to six rank, with nothing else abnormal.

Same here, nothing abnormal; these traces could be made by any martial practitioner, so we can't confirm they were done by enemy state scouts.

The reports from the several instructors were all roughly the same.

But listening to their reports, Guan Shan still furrowed his brow.

Killing a patch of one-star monster beasts is something anyone present could do; it's nothing remarkable.

But nobody would be bored enough to actually go slaughter those weak monster beasts, not even taking their corpses.

If it were really done by enemy state scouts, not cleaning up would be as if they were afraid of being discovered.

No scout would be so brainless.

But such things are happening in all directions, making him unable not to take it seriously.

Finally, only Deng Li hadn't spoken yet, so Guan Shan turned to him and asked,

"Old Deng, how's your side?"

"My side is about the same as theirs."

Saying this, Deng Li suddenly changed the topic, taking out from his storage bag some things that looked like bone fragments.

"However, I found these in the forest."

Guan Shan and the others quickly turned their gaze, and even someone stepped forward to pinch the fragment and feel it.

"This is… the saber-toothed pig's saber fang?"

Deng Li nodded, confirming the other's guess,

"I roughly pieced together these broken fangs; if we count the missing part, these fangs are probably at least two feet long!"

"Hiss!"

Hearing what Deng Li said, several instructors all sucked in a breath of cold air.

The system of weights and measures in this world differs slightly from what Gu Han knew before his transmigration, but not by much.

Two feet plus a bit represents a saber length of over half a meter.

To have such long fangs, it must be at least a two-star saber-toothed pig!

"Old Deng, where did you find it?"

If it was found on the border line, it would be normal for a two-star saber-toothed pig to occasionally cross the border.

Deng Li thought for a moment, then said,

"That place is about ten kilometers from the border."

Guan Shan furrowed his brow; this distance is neither near nor far, so the appearance of a saber-toothed pig wouldn't be strange.

"The key point is that someone could crush the fangs of a two-star saber-toothed pig to pieces."

Deng Li continued,

"Although we could all do this, it's obviously not done by any of us."

Guan Shan instantly understood Deng Li's meaning and countered,

"Are you saying that besides us and possibly the Jian Chi State scouts, there might be a third party?"

Deng Li nodded,

"That's right."

For a moment, Guan Shan could not relax his brow.

If there really is a third party lurking in the dark, then this matter would be hard to resolve.

At least we must determine clearly which side the third party is on.

"No matter what, we must quickly capture the third party and the scouts who have infiltrated!"

After Deng Li and the others nodded, they quickly dispersed.

At that moment, Gu Han was unaware that his killing of those two saber-toothed pigs had caused both the Ben Lang Guo Border Army and the Jian Chi State Border Army to become tense.

The covert clashes between the two sides made the waters beneath the ostensibly calm border pass surge with turbulence.

That day's training for the combat soldiers was temporarily halted due to the special circumstances.

Although the combat soldiers had some complaints, they had to return to the military camp under the instructors' strict orders and resume normal training.

Time passed day by day.

The Ben Lang Guo and Jian Chi State Border Armies clashed fiercely in the dark, leaving many corpses at the mountain range junction.

Most of these corpses could only be left in the mountains and forests, becoming food for the monster beasts.

Gu Han, meanwhile, hunted monster beasts with trepidation while also hunting the Jian Chi State Border Army.

After all, he is also a person of Ben Lang Guo; when encountering Jian Chi State scouts, he naturally shows no mercy.

When facing those he cannot provoke, Gu Han hides in the grass, patiently waiting for them to leave.

Over this half month, Gu Han estimated the number of Jian Chi State scouts dead at his hands.

Even if not fifty, there are thirty.

And Gu Han's strength finally reached the rank of martial practitioner!

And Little Wolf's bloodline only needed a few more monster beast inner pellets to advance.

Two-star monster beasts are already hard to find around here, and furthermore, not every two-star monster beast drops an inner pellet.

This greatly slowed the speed of Little Wolf's bloodline advancement.

"We must speed up progress, striving to help Little Wolf advance its bloodline today."

There is still one day until the Ten Camps Competition; although Gu Han is not a Combat Soldier, he also wants to rush back to cheer on his several older brothers.

Furthermore, the commanders guarding the border between the two states have also been overwhelmed due to the covert skirmishes at the border during this period.

Mu Shan Cheng General's Manor.

A square-faced, muscular man whose body is like forged steel is swinging a cold, gleaming saw in the courtyard.

"Old Three, how has the situation been for the scouts lately?"

Guan Shan casually sat on the nearby stone bench, sipping tea, and spoke,

"On our side, thirty-three scouts have died; we have surveyed seven hidden outposts of the Jian Chi State, and within our borders we found fifty-seven corpses of Jian Chi State scouts."

"Huh?"

General Guan Zhen stopped the cold, gleaming saw in his hand, his eyes lighting up with surprise as he looked at Guan Shan,

"You actually killed that many enemy scouts? Not bad—double the rewards for all scouts, plus an extra ten Quenching Blood Pills."

Scouts always carry out their missions with their heads tucked into their waist belts!

Once danger arises, it's either you die or I die.

Without sufficient rewards, relying solely on faith cannot recruit qualified scouts.

Moreover, just the discovered enemy scouts number fifty-seven; counting those still undiscovered, there are likely even more.

In this battle, the scouts' performance deserves praise!

Guan Shan nodded, naturally understanding this,

"Big brother, you don't need to worry; I will properly arrange these."

However, many of the enemy scouts killed have not yet come forward to claim the credit.

In the Ben Lang Guo, rewards and punishments are strict; they would never casually assign credit to someone else.

All merits must undergo verification; only after being confirmed correct can they be claimed.

Thus, instances of falsely claiming battle merits are extremely rare.

Regarding this, Guan Zhen solemnly spoke in a low voice,

"Some scouts have already died in battle; these merits may belong to them, and no one will ever come forward to claim them."

"They are all heroes of our Ben Lang Guo!"

"If after three days no one comes forward to claim them, then it shows these merits belong to the fallen heroes!"

This is not Guan Zhen trying to swallow these merits and withhold the rewards that should rightfully exist.

Rather, he wants to truly return these merits to those heroes.

Once the time limit passes with no one claiming them, the merits will gather dust, becoming truly ownerless.

And he, as the commander, attributes the merits to the fallen scouts; although the scouts are dead, their families can thus receive the merit rewards.

They can also receive protection from the local county office, free from bullying.

This is what Guan Zhen wants to do—so that all warriors have no worries behind them!

After all, he never expected that these merits would not only truly have an owner.

But they actually came from the hands of a Logistics Soldier!