Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 558 - 492: Disarmament Before Execution

Accompanied by increasingly sharp and urgent music, the Hu Army was shocked to discover countless snakes suddenly appearing in the dark night.

These snakes were not afraid of the soldiers’ swords and rushed at them rapidly.

"Where do so many snakes come from?" Screams arose.

"Oh my God, you can’t cut these snakes, their blood has little bugs, ah... damn bugs, they’re drilling into my flesh..." Someone was the first to cut a snake that swam over, only to find it strange.

After the soldiers chaotically swung their swords and slashed, someone was amazed to find that what they killed were not snakes but clusters of little bugs forming fake snakes.

Upon discovering the truth, the soldiers became terrified, their hair standing on end, feeling horrified.

Those strange little black bugs seemed extremely sensitive to the smell of blood; the soldiers of the Hu Kingdom already injured became the priority targets of these bugs, which disappeared into their wounds at a bizarre speed. In moments, soldiers clutched their chests, dying in agony.

Ting Mao rushed to the temporary camp outside and was stunned by the terrifying scene before him.

The soldiers in front of him were all dancing with extremely strange and twisted gestures, as if possessed.

"These are Gu Worms, quick, light the torches, light all the torches, Gu Worms fear fire!" Ting Mao shouted.

Some people not yet affected quickly lit more torches and surrounded Ting Mao in the middle.

"Pour kerosene, burn them to death with kerosene!" Ting Mao continued to shout.

Ting Mao’s emotions were on the brink of collapse at this moment.

At Ting Mao’s command, barrels of kerosene were thrown out, and the torches were tossed, igniting a roaring fire.

The bugs crackled loudly as they burned, but a nasty stench lingered in the air.

Ting Mao anxiously pondered; hadn’t the Imperial Family of Great Liang always suppressed the Witch Clan? How were they helping the Linzhou King now?

"Count the remaining people immediately, break camp and retreat!" This damned place full of bugs was no place to spend the night.

Several deputy generals hastily counted and found that only less than eight thousand were left, making their hearts sink.

"Where’s Ting Su?" Ting Mao suddenly noticed an important general missing.

Ting Zheng was always near the raging fire, "Those bugs specifically attack the injured ones; Ting Su got hurt while sieging the city and was struck too."

Ting Mao, overwhelmed with grief and indignation, hated Su Jingchen to the bone; that literary champion from Great Liang had sinisterly made him lose half his men without losing a single soldier.

"Retreat, head towards Yangcheng!" Ting Mao commanded while suppressing his bodily discomfort.

Luckily, there were some fire piles in front of the camp, or else...

Ting Mao, filled with fear, grabbed a torch from a nearby soldier, holding it in his hand to gain a sense of safety.

"Pass it on, everyone should have a torch. The bugs fear fire, burn them if they come again!"

...

Su Jingchen and Qi Yunfan separated action as soon as they exited the city gate. Qi Yunfan pursued the Hu Army’s troop, arriving at the Four Bright Mountains, while Su Jingchen took his team along the small paths, detouring to Linzhou City.

By the time Ting Mao led his troops, marching non-stop day and night to reach Linzhou City, hoping to rest and recuperate, he found the city gates tightly shut. Su Jingchen, dressed in black, stood smiling at the gate tower, seemingly waiting for them for a long time.

Ting Mao felt bewildered; he rubbed his eyes hard, wondering if his lack of sleep for several days had led to an illusion.

Wasn’t Su supposed to be in Yangcheng? How did he end up in Linzhou City?

Could this lad teleport? Isn’t human?

No, even if he could teleport, how did all the other guards defending the city do that? They couldn’t all teleport, right?

Su Jingchen smiled faintly, "I heard you like people calling you Big Xu Lun? Xu Lun—symbolizes demon, ominous threat.

I think you fit that title well, leading your country to ruin!"

At this moment, Ting Mao’s fighting spirit was extinguished; he didn’t even have the strength to curse Su Jingchen.

"Su Zhaogong, we have already retreated, why pursue us relentlessly? Our Hu Kingdom signed a ceasefire agreement with your Liang Country." Ting Zheng saw Ting Mao looking greatly impacted and had to step up himself to negotiate with Su Jingchen.

"Let us pass, and when I return to my country, I will surely persuade the Monarch to return what was taken from Liang Country and offer an additional thousand heads of cattle and sheep every year as tribute."

Su Jingchen had already heard from Qi Yunfan that Jun Mobai sent ten thousand private troops to Hu Kingdom’s base. Not to mention whether that side was cleaned up, he couldn’t let the fish in his net swim back.

The Hu Army marching tirelessly non-stop for two days and two nights, with no water to drink, all he needed was to deftly withdraw the net, getting a substantial harvest. Why let the fish go?

This tremendous merit, he had no reason not to claim!

Su Jingchen made a gesture, and archers on the city walls suddenly rained arrows.

The disheartened Ting Mao was the first to be hit, but he roughly pulled the arrow out and retreated it to his own bow, swiftly shooting it towards Su Jingchen on the wall.

Su Jingchen, standing high, was always on guard against this move, slightly tilting his body when Ting Mao’s arrow was about to hit his face.

"It’s impolite not to reciprocate!" Su Jingchen returned an arrow to Ting Mao as well.

This arrow struck Ting Mao’s heart directly!

Unbelieving, Ting Mao looked down. When he was hit by the arrow, his close guard immediately shielded him with a heavy shield.

As his guard protected him retreat step by step, Su Jingchen sharply seized the swinging gap between two shields and shot an arrow into his heart.

Is Su really a literary champion?

He hadn’t had time to match Li Guangpu, yet fell to a youngster!

Even with an unwilling heart, Ting Mao’s burly body crashed to the ground in the next moment.

"The Great General is dead!!!" Someone shouted, "We surrender!"

The Hu Army ceased being cornered beasts, choosing to lay down their weapons in hope that the Liang army would disarm them without killing.

Su Jingchen closed his eyes slightly, took a deep breath, "Exit the city and disarm!"

"Secretary, what if they come around and fight against us?" Wang Jun worriedly said.

Su Jingchen replied quietly, "Disarm, then kill!"

It was not that he was ruthless, but the wild nature of Hu people was hard to tame; otherwise, the vast wilderness of Yangcheng could have accommodated them to live together.

Letting tigers return to the mountains wouldn’t do, nor would enslaving Hu people to become servants be a permanent solution.

Only by severely punishing Hu people could be the best solace for those deceased Liang citizens at the border.