The Attack of the Wastrel

Upon hearing Gu Lingzhi’s reply, Zhang Jun laughed heartily and he knew instantly that the prince had caught on to him. It was important that the general eat with his troops before a war to motivate them. Although Pan Wen normally acted in a joking and half-hearted manner, he was reliable for official matters. Hence they were happy that their Crown Prince was there to have a meal with everyone.

Fifteen minutes later, Gu Lingzhi arrived at the canteen. Rong Yuan, now under the identity of Bian Cheng, also walked in with a black face. Regaining his composure, he asked, “Your Highness, what do we do now that the Alliance knows about our plan?”

“What else can we do but continue fighting?” Gu Lingzhi’s eyes swept past Rong Yuan. She was in slight disdain at Rong Yuan’s acting. Instead of sitting at her usual seat, Gu Lingzhi chose another seat and instructed men to serve her food to her.

This was the proper meal time and troops who were off duty streamed into the canteen to eat. At the sight of ‘Pan Wen’ seated in the canteen, they jumped in shock. When did the drunken fool eat meals at the canteen?

Very soon, they came to a realization.

‘Pan Wen’ smiled brightly, stood up and announced, “My troops, I believe that you are all aware that the Alliance knows about our plan. We should not drag on further and begin executing our plan before schedule.”

Gu Lingzhi paused for a while and allowed a confident gaze to pass through her eyes, “It is alright even if the Alliance knows our plan. We have more than ten thousand brilliant troops in addition to the army from the other kingdoms. Regardless of what the Alliance does, they are just struggling in vain before death. No matter how many people arrive, they will never return!”

Zhang Jun and the other guards around Gu Lingzhi resounded, “Never return!”.

They had summoned spiritual energy when they shouted, their voices rang through the hall with power.

With strength in their voice, many other troops seconded and a lifting chant boomed through the camp, “Never return, never return!”

Gu Lingzhi grinned from ear to ear at the sight of the troops’ high spirits. Never return? They would not be glad to know who were the ones who were never going to return.

The atmosphere and spirits in the hall was high and this aided Gu Lingzhi in her subsequent plans. She encouraged the troops to eat up and the generals drank up without restraint. Bottles were emptied and the troops celebrated. They looked down on the Alliance and they had the misconception that it would be easy to take them down.

As time ticked by, a few generals got drunk and even the few who were still clear headed had drunk a bit.

By evening, the army camp was so silent that even Nie Sang, Tianfeng Jin and the others who were standing guard outside suspected that something had gone wrong. They had worried that Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan had been found out.

However, upon a closer look at the army camp, they had to hold back their laughter from seeing the drunken generals and troops lying on the ground like a pile of dead corpses.

What did the both of them obtain from the Spirit Tribe? How did they get an entire army camp of ten thousand people to be poisoned and drunk? What a terrifying sight!

After a minute or so, Nie Sang waved his hand and beckoned the troops behind him to move forward and capture the generals. These troops had arrived there with the intention of dying for a good cause but the sight of their enemies pitiful state tore the serious expressions of their faces. If they had known this would happen, they would not have approached the mission with such a solemn outlook.

Nonetheless, these troops who were with Nie Sang were fast and efficient. The group of men dressed in black outfits moved swiftly through the enemy’s army camp. One by one, the drunken troops were tied up by ropes. There was no worry that they would run out of ropes as they had a plentiful supply from carrying out the operation in an army camp.

Nie Sang led the students from the Royal School and headed directly towards where the Marshal of the army lived. Before they closed in on him, they heard a familiar voice, “Xiao Jin, are you here?”

It was Gu Lingzhi’s voice. Nie Sang and the group quickly turned around to see ‘Pan Wen’ and ‘Bian Cheng’ standing not far away. Instinctively, they assumed an attacking stance and only relaxed after they realized that Gu Lingzhi’s voice had come from ‘Pan Wen’. It was only then that they recognized ‘Pan Wen’’s identity.

Thinking of the drunken corpses that laid the entire army camp, the group smirked at the brilliance of the two. No wonder so many people had fallen for the trick…who would suspect that the Crown Prince of the North Qiu Kingdom would be a spy?

The man beside Gu Lingzhi, would naturally be Rong Yuan.

After the group recognized the identities of the two, they immediately stepped behind Rong Yuan as his guards. Hua Qingcheng also moved behind Gu Lingzhi without a second thought. Although he had become a Demigod twenty years ago, he was full of respect for Gu Lingzhi. He was amazed and in admiration of Gu Lingzhi’s ability to raise her cultivation rank so quickly.

Someone who could become a peak level Martial Sage before a hundred years old was considered a rare genius. Compared to her, his talents were worth nothing.

With the number of troops that Nie Sang led, there was no need for them to worry and hence they proceeded forward to the hall with confidence.

Opening the door of the hall, the group was shocked by what they saw.

A few dozen generals dressed in smart armor were seated at the corner of the hall and they appeared to be in a meeting. At the sight of the men who entered, the generals scanned them briefly before they turned their attention to ‘Pan Wen’.

These were the generals of the enemy!

Nie Sang and the troops recognized a few faces and they immediately stiffened. Hateful glares were sent in the direction of the generals as the troops stood their ground behind ‘Pan Wen’ and ‘Bian Cheng’, whose true identities were Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan.

“…Something is off. They do not appear to have bad intentions.” Yan Liang found something odd and muttered to himself. He stared curiously at the men before him and pondered over their unusual calmness.

How could these men be ignorant over what happened outside? Unless…

“They are all my men. Let’s not stand around and discuss what we should do next.” No one, not even Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi had expected the operation to proceed so smoothly where they did not have to consider using any of their back up plans. At that point, the men were all gathered in the same place and it was a good opportunity for the next strategic meeting.

The next day, Gu Lingzhi led the troops from the Minglan and Muji Kingdom to attack the surrounding kingdoms nearby the army camp. This battle front stretched over the entire border of the Qi Kingdom to the Minglan Kingdom and even further into the neighbouring Muji Kingdom. Many had been injured and many had died along the process. Before reinforcements from the Sangna Kingdom arrived, ‘Pan Wen’ managed to successfully take control over Minglan and Muji Kingdom.

The King of the North Qiu Kingdom jumped for joy at the news and he gleefully left ‘Pan Wen’ in charge of the military matters in the east. Thereafter, he ordered Sangna Kingdom and other Kingdoms in the Empire to allow half of their reinforcements to head to the western front.

War seemed to befall the entire continent as the two camps fought intensely against each other. A few Demigods led the frontlines and engaged in fierce fighting.

After all, the Empire had plans in place for a long time and even if the Alliance succeeded in the western side, they would not be able to regain their losses in the east. Just as everyone thought that the Alliance would fall in the west, bad news arrived from the eastern front.

Things had turned on the eastern front. The kingdoms who had surrendered to the Empire early had shockingly allied with the Alliance and rebelled against Pan Wen and his troops. As a result, the entire army on the eastern front was wiped out.

As soon as he heard the news, the King of North Qiu almost fainted from devastation and shock.

“How can this be? Although Pan Wen is young and unpredictable at times, he has the abilities to lead an army. How could the entire army be wiped out?”

“This…it is rumored that the king of Sangna Kingdom ordered a woman to seduce the prince. This spy passed a fake order under the Prince’s name and this caused the army to fall to the Alliance. Now, the Alliance is using the Prince as a hostage to make demands from us.”

Without warning, Pan Yu’s eyes rolled backward and he fainted.

The general who reported the news to the king, shivered with fear before he turned towards Pan Liwen.

Pan Liwen was the Demigod who Pan Yu led from Earth Palace previously. At that point, he wore a dark look and a bitter expression. Glaring at the general, he glowered, “What does the Alliance want in exchange for Pan Wen? The western front is not doing well and the eastern front has been returned to the hands of the Alliance, do they want us to surrender directly?”

“About that...they did not specify.” The general wiped the beads of cold sweat that dotted his forehead as he stammered.

Who knew that the face of the battle would change so drastically in one day? If they had known that this would happen, they would not have been overly ambitious with their actions. At the sight of things then, the general feared that Pan Liwen would order his execution out of anger. The general could almost faint from anxiety then!

“No matter what they request, we cannot agree to it!” Pan Liwen declared with certainty. “As the Crown Prince of the kingdom, he would have to be sacrificed if he had so easily fallen for the trickery of a woman. He caused the entire army to be wiped out by his own hands!”

Right then, Pan Yu had slowly begun to regain his consciousness. Pan Liwen’s declaration immediately caused him to black out again and he stayed limp on the floor of the hall. Pan Wen…was his best son and the most suitable candidate for the Crown Prince among everyone else. If Pan Wen was abandoned, would he have to leave the kingdom in the hands of that rotten son, Pan Yue? What difference was that to breaking up the entire kingdom?

While the Empire boomed with anger, the Alliance was in a celebratory mood. All men from the Alliance were filled with pride and joy upon learning that the army from the Empire was chased out of the Alliance’s land. With the beating of the drums in respective army camps all over the continent, the Alliance armies roared and cheered at their victory on one front.

Many of the top generals in the Alliance also celebrated the win with joy. Pure happiness filled them as they learned that their land had finally returned to their hands. The seventy year old battle seemed to be coming to a close.

The state of the continent seemed to flip entirely from what it was a few days prior. Not only did the Alliance recover the eastern front, the western side army advanced forward and took control of territories after a spy report from Rong Yuan. The Alliance army took over large kingdoms and did not spare the smaller ones either.