Chapter 358: Day 775 (2) – The Sacking Of New Beijing

Chapter 358: Day 775 (2) – The Sacking Of New Beijing

“Um, who are these people?” Fu Ge asked as he nervously got up. The soldiers were wearing uniforms, but a mix of brown and green to better blend into level 2 zones, where they would primarily fight.

“Soldiers from the nation of Purgatory. My nation,” I replied and Fu Ge looked a bit shell shocked at this development. “Wake up Qi Ji Long for food and water, we are leaving soon.”

“Sure,” Fu Ge nervously said and leaned down next to the child who was still sleeping on the ground. I leaned against a nearby tree while I waited for them. Captain Mitchell has his people rest and form up a perimeter.

He then came up to me. “That child is the VIP, right, Champion Michael?” he asked.

“He is. He also has no stats and must be treated with extreme care and protection,” I replied.

“I thought you would have someone like the Master Fleshcrafter or the Inquisitor. If I can ask, whose child is he?”

“He is the child of Divine Empress Hei Long. That is top secret. He cannot be allowed to be recaptured alive or risked in any way.”

“You plan to bait her?” Captain Mitchell asked.

“No. He is being taken to the Avatar. Make sure that is what is understood. No speculation or gossip.”

“Understood. But if it was leaked, the Divine Empress is more likely to find out the information,” Captain Mitchell replied.

“Once she has you within visual or sensory range, there will be no escape. Even if all ten of you tried to run in different directions at the same time, it would be useless. If there were a hundred people. One or two might escape and that is a big might. When she returns, she is going to go on a rampage killing everyone she finds to get answers. If people know you know...” I trailed off.

“Then she will come right for us. I got it. Keep our mouths shut about the kid. The other nations?” Captain Mitchell asked. I explained to him about the assassin and the Avatar’s forces.

“As far as I can tell there are now four or five political factions. Purgatory, the Divine Empress’s forces, rebels against the Divine Empress, the Avatar’s nation, and possibly the assassin who might be from the Dragon Empire. The Divine Empress is missing, but once she returns everyone will fall back into line. That is why we need to kill as many people in her Empire as possible before that point. So she no longer has an empire and has to waste time building it back up,” I said.

“Or she could go on a rampage as a one-woman army,” Captain Mitchell said. I let out a sigh at that.

“Which is probably what is going to happen. But the less support she has, the better. We won’t be able to beat her with attrition, but we can make it so she has to grind up her own stat points and she can’t be everywhere at once.”

“So wilderness living then,” Captain Mitchell said.

“Until she is dead, yes. The risk is too great otherwise. Tracking down people in the wilderness would be an exercise in futility across the sixteen known cities and the few more that are probably out there. Assuming twenty cities, with 250 people each every 10 days, she would need to kill a person once every 3 minutes, not counting people who are already here or travel time to match the new arrivals.” Captain Mitchell gave me a weird look at that.

It was honestly a bit unfair. Even for me the champion of unfairness thought it was ridiculous. But that is what you get when you rise up and become the leader of an empire. All the wealth flowing to a single person to empower them.

The situation made me think of cultivation stories about how there were a few people at the top and they scrapes to the people below. I always thought it was unfair, but there was something about having the strongest person who could crush everything in their path being on your side that impacted your mentality.

I guess it was a short coming and mental blind spot I had from growing up in America. I never really thought about how having a lesser military would impact the mindset of a nation on a national perspective. In the Systemic Lands, powerful people were nations.

Earlier I had said my nation, and I wasn’t thinking about me being a part of it. But that it was an extension of myself. That is why I didn’t mind commandeering these soldiers.

I thought it was acceptable. I put the kid in my front pack and then Fu Ge went piggyback style. It was embarrassing, but there was no other way he could keep up. The soldiers packs were quite full and they weren’t trained how to carry a person without injuring them.

A key part of that was having over a thousand in the Body stat to adjust forces. We went back to the road and set off. I let Captain Mitchell set the pace. It felt incredibly slow to me, but it was quite fast for all these people.

I took the time to observe their running form. It was decent and they seemed to have developed a good kicking style off the ground. It was all in the ankle and foot angle. That was key. You wanted to tap your foot down to generate horizontal momentum at a steady pace.

That was why the roads were so nice. I didn’t have to think about the rhythm I needed to maintain a certain speed. So while I was going much slower, it didn’t really annoy me that much.

We made good time and reached New Beijing. “Alright, you are getting the kid.” I put Qi Ji Long on the ground and pulled off the cuff. “You are getting cuffed to him. That way he can’t wander off.”

“Is it really necessary sir?” Captain Mitchell asked.

“Yes. Everyone better be dead if the kid is gone. This will ensure that even if you are distracted he can’t run away,” I explained.

“But my combat ability will be limited.”

“You men can fight. You are keeping the Qi Ji Long safe, understood Captain Mitchell?” I asked him pointedly.

“Yes sir,” he replied with a salute and then held out his left arm when I gestured at him. I slapped the cuff on his wrist. With that done, it was time to sack a city.

I charged the South gate, melting everyone in my path. I then cleared the walls and the towers near the gate. The unit moved in as I set off for the plaza, there seemed to be no issues. Some people had scattered, but I didn’t pick up anyone nearby.

One thing I did note, was that the walls were easier to see through compared to the Forbidden City with my Sense stat. Probably related to the city level. The general toughness of everything increasing was no surprise.

I outraced any of the people fleeing towards the plaza and began a massacre of everyone. No one was spare as I went from building to building, hunting people down. It was distasteful work, but the city needed to be purged for my forces to control it. That was what total war meant, killing everyone and everything in your path.

There was no point denying that the Divine Empress and myself were in a state of total war.