Chapter 444 – You're a Meanie
Jiangxia City
Sun Shangxiang blinked, looking at her mother and the surroundings with curiosity.
"Dah?"
"Ah, did she try to speak just now?"
Wu Guotai was happy, seeing the smiling face of her daughter. She only had sons, so it was a new experience having a daughter, and it delighted her.
Sun Quan was also there, watching over his sister and mother.
'It's different, but she made it.'
Sun Shangxiang and Sun Quan were close in his previous life. Now that she was finally born, he was relieved.
'This world is different, so I won't marry you to Liu Bei again. I hope you can be happier without getting involved in politics.'
Unbeknownst to Wu Guotai and Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang inherited her memory as Hua Shi, but she forgot about the live experience as Sunday, the nurse.
'I'm alive.'
'I'm a baby?'
'That means, I'm back?'
'YAY!!!'
The baby girl laughed and brought joy to her relatives.
"Look, she's laughing."
"Very cute, haha!"
Sun Shangxiang rechecked her status menu to see if her skills were still there. A transparent menu appeared before her, but Sun Quan and Wu Guotai could not see it.
Upon seeing her skill list, the girl widened her eyes.
'I thought I deleted most of them, but they are still there! Lilim, you rock!'
Celebrated for a minute, Sun Shangxiang noticed that one skill was missing.
'Where is my [Regeneration]? Where are my ultimate yang vein thingy and my dual-cultivation!?'
Her favorite life-saving skill that she treasured was gone.
'LILIM, YOU BITCH!! I WAS TRICKED!!'
Sun Shangxiang cried, which surprised the mother and the brother.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Maybe she's hungry?"
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March 3rd, 194 AD.
Jia Xu, Zhang Bao, Zhang Liang, and 50,000 elites rushed ahead toward Gungnae City while Xu Huang and 10,000 logistic reserves followed them with their casual pace as they guarded the army's supplies and provision.
The four-wing demon stalked the reserve troops, waiting for a chance to strike.
He wanted to slaughter all soldiers right away, but he was afraid of Xu Huang's mysterious weapon.
'That thing can instantly kill immortal demons. Then, it can kill me. I need to find that person and fight in a close range, so I can defeat him and steal the weapon. Once he died, all Han infidels can be easily killed.'
The unaware soldiers stopped and made a temporary resting camp at 7 PM, yet the demon did not attack at this period. He continued to watch the men from afar.
He waited until 2 AM the next day.
At that time, the majority of Xu Huang's men fell asleep, and the sentry guards looked tired. Some of them yawned and dozed off, but several hardened captains of the guards were wide awake.
Xu Huang, as well, was still awake. He disguised himself as an ordinary sentry guard among the night patrol, and he pretended to yawn once in a while.
As he was waiting for the demon to strike, he was also scanning the surroundings non-stop.
'He's patient. If it were me, I would have attacked an hour ago. Does he want to attack at dawn?'
There were many kinds of strategies in night raids, which involved human psychology. People might be vulnerable during sleep, but there were other exploits that elite commanders and strategists enjoyed exploiting.
The most common one would be somewhere between 10 PM to 2 AM when the moon could be seen in the middle of the sky, so the raiders could use the moonlight to guide their ways to the enemy's camps.
Raiding at 5-6 AM when opponent forces were having breakfast was also a viable tactic as it was the time that people let their guard down the most. It could hinder their decision or force an error on them, resulting in making mistakes. Many commanders prepared this time of the day as they could use fog to hide their presence.
3 AM to 4 AM was mostly avoided. Often, the starting daily routine of strong men in ancient times began at 3 AM in the morning. Many hardened soldiers usually slept early at 7 to 8 PM and woke up at this time, which increased the defense capability of the enemy camps.
But nothing was certain in every war. Patterns and advice from old warlords were merely a guideline for later generations, not a rule to be followed.
Xu Huang had this in mind and lurked within his patrol unit, ignoring all advice from books and ancient scrolls. Using his experience in the other world, he knew that those guideline patterns were for newbies in warfare.
Real generals and ambushers always attacked whenever they wanted.
'It seems I'm up against an elite. I can't detect him, but I can vaguely sense his aura. Where is he?'
Xu Huang kept looking around. He parted from his patrol group and climbed the watchtower to get a better view.
Upon getting on top of the watchtower, Xu Huang enhanced his eyes with his aura. He could see in the dark as if it was daytime.
With such sight, his search radius expanded.
'Hmm?'
Xu Huang saw a shadow 500 meters away.
'Over there!?'
He took out his pistol and aimed at the shadow. Although it was not the recommended range for the gun, Xu Huang was confident that his reinforced bullet could still hit this man.
As Xu Huang was aiming, the shadow came out from the shade.
It was a bear.
Xu Huang clicked his tongue and put the gun away.
'Bummer.'
As he sighed, a familiar sensation hit him. It felt like something attempted to influence his mind and thoughts.
It was a curse from a demon!
Xu Huang turned to his men. Sure enough, all of the night patrols were affected by this sudden curse.
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The Goguryeo demon laughed as he successfully inflicted his curses upon the reserve soldiers of Xu Huang. His souls, [Pride], [Greed], [Wrath], and [Envy] affected everyone with the power of the souls, breaking their mind with their sins.
Now, he could withdraw or watch the carnage from afar.
'Too bad, I can only use this ability once a month. Well, you're done for, Han infidels!'
He was proud of himself that he was the only one who had this ability.
Unfortunately, he never fought against an angel with the same power.
"[Humility], [Honesty], [Valor], [Sacrifice]!"
The demon heard the shout from someone inside the camp, and everyone who was about to berserk was glowing in white light.
'A blessing? That fucking angel is here?'
The demon gritted his teeth in anger. He thought that Xu Huang had left with the main force, but he appeared here instead.
'I wasted a month for that!? Curse you, Han infidels!'
There were pros and cons of being angels and demons.
Demons were punishers that did not get punished by cursing people or killing mortals. However, their curse abilities had limited use of once a month.
On the contrary, angels could not harm mortals, and their interference with mortal affairs was limited by karma. However, they could bless any human as many times as they wanted by sacrificing their lifespan.
In other words, angels excelled at supporting people, while demons were good at creating chaos. As for their combat prowess, it varied.
The demon retreated, using the dark night as a cover.
However,
*BANG*
"UGH!"
Something hot punctured through his right leg and destroyed the leg bone. The demon fell on the ground as he lost his body balance.
"What!?"
He looked back and saw Xu Huang flying above himself, looking down on him with the mysterious weapon in his hand.
The demon took out a short knife, injected his aura into it, and tossed it at the general.
*TINK*
Xu Huang flew backward, and the knife missed.
In retaliation, he pointed the gun muzzle at the demon again.
"I hate this weapon, but it's efficient. I'm sorry."
*BANG*
The bullet was too fast for the demon, who had never fought against a gunner, to dodge. He covered his body with his aura, hoping to defend against the oncoming shell.
*TINK*
He managed to block it, but he could also feel the impact on his forehead. Blood flowed down from his fresh wound.
Seeing that the reinforced bullet could not kill the demon as he had done to the others, Xu Huang widened his eyes.
*BANG*
*TINK*
*BANG*
*TINK*
*BANG*
*TINK*
Xu Huang took his time to focus his aura into each shell before he pulled the trigger, but he still failed to get through the demon's aura barrier.
"Ho."
The general smiled. He put the gun away and wield a poleaxe, which had been hanging behind his back from the very beginning.
"Come! Let's fight in a fair duel!"
The demon was on the verge of retorting in anger, "FAIR DUEL MY FOOT! YOU'VE ALREADY AMBUSHED ME AND CRIPPLED MY LEG!"
Before he could utter the words, Xu Huang's poleaxe was right before his face.
*SOEK*
The axe hit the ground as the demon general rolled to the side and dodged it.
He drew his sword as he sprang up, standing on one leg.
"YOU'VE DONE IT NOW!! I HAVE BEEN TRAINING GUNGNAE SWORDMANSHIP FOR THIS DAY. MY GRUDGE FOR THE HAN BEGAN 30 YEARS AGO-!
*POEK*
The sound was similar to the noise of someone chopping a coconut in half. The head of the four wing demon was cleaved into two as his aura force could not withstand the sudden strike of an aura-reinforced axe.
Xu Huang stared at the dead demon, blinking his eyes in confusion.
"What were you talking about again?"
He tilted his head to the side as he was interested in what the demon said, but the latter was already dead. However, he heard a wind whispering as if the soul of that demon was complaining to him.
[I haven't done talking. You're a meanie.]
"…"
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The report of the four-wing demon's death relieved Jia Xu and others.
Jia Xu proceeded forward for another day of forced march all night and arrived at Gungnae before Gogukcheon Army.
Without the defending forces, Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang did not have a problem taking over the city within a day. The difference from the other world's history, they did not sack the city, but they occupied it.
Tong: "You two disobeyed my command once, and that's enough to execute both of you. From now on, your legion will be governing Gungnae and convert their citizens and officers into our systems."
Tong ordered them to do so.
Without a choice, Jia Xu and Xu Huang treated this as their punishment for violating Tong's peace policy.
However, the war was not over yet as Gogukcheon was still with his army.
After Gungnae had been captured, the Goguryeo king retreated to Lelang, hoping to regroup at Pyongyang.
They did not know that Tian Yu and Gan Ning's forces were sieging the city at the moment.
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The Goguryeo monarch was in disbelieve that his strongest demon failed to curse Han's soldiers. Moreover, he lost his capital city in the process because his army could not return to Gungnae in time.
7 Days later, they arrived at Pyongyang, but they were greeted with another bad news.
Pyongyang had fallen, and it was captured by Tian Yu!
"What the fuck is going on!?"