Chapter 244

Chapter 244
Chapter 244 – Chasing Zou Jing
Tong returned to his camp with complicated emotion . He was not satisfied with the result of the fight as his bow was broken . He tried to scour for a bow from the dead bodies, but he could not find a replacement . All the dead soldiers were spearmen and shield bearers, which did not carry what Tong needed .
However, killing thousands of enemies leveled up his homing arrow skill, and he reaped several hundred thousand years of lifespans .
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**Status**
Name: Zhang Tong
Age: 18
Lifespan 929,767 Years
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Tong had lost count of how many soldiers he had killed . They were too many as he spammed 25 arrows for every two seconds for over half an hour . One arrow might not kill an enemy right away, but it usually took two or three arrows to finish a soldier as Tong did not have a good visual on the targets . Thus, the lock-on was placed on random parts of their bodies instead of the vital spots .
He had spent 200,000 years to get two of his skill back, yet he still profited from killing Liu Yan's soldiers . The number of years gave Tong a butterfly feeling in his chest as he imagined that he could live for so long .
Calmed his emotion after a few minutes of excitement, Tong sighed .
'The dream of immortality … It would have been nice had the system not existed . '
To Tong, the number in the system menu was just an illusion as the system would oppress him in the future to extort his lifespans and return it to the system pool .
Glancing at the skill status, [Homing Arrow] had reached max level, which increased the range to 600 meters .
'I don't think I'll need all the troops . I can solo Liu Yan Army as long as I have a workable bow . '
…
Next morning, Tong secured two wooden bows from the supply convoy in his army . However, they were not up to Tong's quality standard .
The rest of his army projectile weapons were repeating crossbows, which Tong had tried to use his homing arrow skill with it, however …
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The repeating crossbows they were using were not standard crossbows with only a string and a lock, but they were like wooden mechanical tools which each of it had a lever and a handle, which the system did not treat it as a bow or a crossbow .
As his force had changed their range weaponry technology to repeating crossbows as their army standard, they had stopped manufacturing traditional bows . All former bows had been sold to the merchants, while the substandard bows were kept to be used as firewood as they were unsellable .
In addition, Zhen Yi troops also used ancient crossbows, which was not compatible with Tong's homing arrow skill .
He could fire homing arrows with normal crossbows, but it always took him several minutes to draw the bowstring back to its ready position, which was inefficient in a solo combat .
Tong grumbled after he left the supply camp . The bows on his back were defective bows which were destined to be scrapped .
'These bows won't last ten minutes . The bowstrings are too fragile!'
Feeling helpless, Tong had to stop going after Liu Yan or Zou Jing alone at night .
20,000 Yellow Turban troops continued cutting the woods, paving a road toward Ji City in leisure .
…
…
Meanwhile, Zou Jing retreated five kilometers from the previous trap-camp location .
At this place, another camp had been built beforehand two days ago . The retreating troops gathered inside the camp to regroup and reform their platoons .
The number of survivors and the stats of troops depressed every soldier and Zou Jing . Less than 10,000 men from the initial 20,000 soldiers survived from last night .
Zou Jing bit his thumb fingernail . His pale face distorted while sweat drops were rolling down his cheeks .
In his mind, it was impossible for one man to kill over 10,000 soldiers in a night, yet the reality disagreed with him . The nightmare of Tong's existence haunted Zou Jing the second time .
"Put scarecrows around the camp and disguise them as guards! We'll continue to retreat!" Zou Jing ordered .
"Sir? But the strategy was to buy times and lure them to our territory …"
"Nonsense! I say we're going to retreat, then we'll retreat! Do you not understand the human language?"
The lieutenants paled as they also recalled that their loss was massive . Their current troops would not be able to handle Tong's illogical magic and his 20,000 elites .
At late noon, Zou Jing Army departed from the pre-made camp, withdrawing north to another pre-constructed camp 10 kilometers away .
…
At night, the Yellow Turban moved their camp five kilometers further north, securing the areas with cautious . They were five kilometers away from the trap-site where Tong had raided yesterday .
Horsemen scouts relayed their discovery back to Tong . They found three camps further away beyond the forest . One was the burnt camp, the second camp was abandoned, and the last camp was 15 kilometers away to the north .
All signs indicated that Zou Jing was running away from them .
Sweat drops appear on Tong's face as he had his worries . The forced mission by Lilim had a short time limit as he had less than 40 days to kill Zou Jing .
Furthermore, a part of Liu Yan troops was missing . There were only 20,000 soldiers last night while the spies from Jia Xu said Liu Yan had more troops than that .
There should be another army or a detached force somewhere!
"Second uncle, I want you to take all blue troops back to Zhongshan . "
"What? Are we not sieging Ji City? Why are we retreating?"
Tong shook his head, "You misunderstood me . I have a feeling that they are baiting us . I want both of you to go back and fortify Zhongshan . I'll take 5,000 men and chase after Zou Jing . Bo Cai and 5,000 men will continue cutting the path to making a road as planned . "
Though Zhang Bao was confused, he accepted Tong's suggestion and arranged his men to return .
…
February 19th .
Zhang Bao withdrew with 10,000 soldiers while Bo Cai and his 5,000 soldiers were clearing the forest . Both of them did not know why Tong wanted to pave a road to Ji City in this time of war, but they did it anyway .
This road project was Tong's idea as he had studied about merchant trade routes and main roads between cities .
Currently, no road connected between Ji and Zhongshan . To travel from Zhongshan to Ji or the other way around, they had to pass Nanpi City, which was controlled by Yuan Shao .
Since Yuan Shao was a strong foe that Tong had no confidence that he could capture his headquarter city in a year or two, he decided to capture Ji City first before he could target the Yuan Clan .
Once he controlled Ji, he could amass his troops from this border city and pincer Nanpi with armies from four cities, Ji, Julu, Zhongshan, and Ye . No matter how talented Yuan Shao's generals, otherworlders, or strategists were, they would not have enough personals to handle four major armies .
"Serving Karma, one asshole at a time . "
It was the phrase that Tong told Jia Xu about his future plan, which was approved .
Tong and his men force-marched through the forest to catch Zou Jing . They formed two columns instead of the usual ten columns during the march as Tong was wary of small traps, such as bear-traps, tree-traps, or a pitfall .
The path was rough and bumpy as obstacles, such as bushes, swamps, mud, and tree roots were blocking their way . However, the rough passage lasted only five kilometers .
As soon as they got through the unclear forest, they reached the burnt camp .
"Ignore the camp! Keep moving forward . The scouts already checked this area, there's nothing to see here! Bo Cai unit will come to clean this place later . "
After this camp, the road was easier to get through as Zou Jing had cleared the forest when he had gotten here as well . It seemed he also wanted a path between Ji and Zhongshan .
Because of the cleared road, the marching pace quickened as they began jogging instead of walking . An hour later, their front troopers could see another camp ahead of them .
Tong's scouts had already explored the areas . Zou Jing had left several scarecrows, dressed as soldiers, inside the camp .
'Did he want to scare my scouts and me?' Tong was baffled by Zou Jing's logic .
'It might have worked if I'm paranoid enough . '
Tong ignored this camp and pointed his finger toward the north .
"We continue! But we'll slow the pace . Save your strength and keep your eyes open!"
Four hours later, they traveled another ten kilometers and saw another camp . This time, living soldiers were garrisoning the interior of the camp .
"Form ranks! Wait for the logistic troops . I'll handle this myself . "
Not bothering using his soldiers to attack, Tong took out his broken bow and tried to lock on the soldiers inside the camp .
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Listening to the system warning, Tong frowned . The other night, he had used his sense to feel the surrounding and acquired the targets, but he had yet to expand his sense today . In addition, Liu Yan soldiers were too far away that Tong could only see small dots from a distance .
'Right, I forgot . Sunday has that [Hawk Eyes], so her vision is better than mine . '
Tong exerted more mental strength and spread his sense . Spiritual vision about the surrounding appeared within his mind .
He opened his eyes to lock on the targets . However, he could see that the red cross-hairs were moving around the bodies of the targets .
'Huh? I can pinpoint the lock on location?'
Tong smacked his forehead as he forgot that he had a clan chat system . He texted Hua Shi to ask her about the skill .
"You have to see the targets first to lock on . Then, you can specify the body part that you want the arrow to hit . If you lock on the target roughly, the cross-hair will randomly pick a body part for you . Try to manual control it if you can . "
The comment of his wife made Tong facepalmed again .
'I wasted too many shots the other night! I should have aimed for the head like the Great Thanos said!'
Enlightened by Hua Shi, Tong moved closer to the camp to get a good visual on the soldiers inside .
[Homing Arrow] activated .
After Tong maxed his skill, he could lock-on 40 targets at once . Ten sets of 40 light arrows chased after the head of garrison troops without mercy .
However
'It's too quiet . I fired probing shots, but they did not sound an alarm or mobilize their army . '
The camp was still quiet after 400 light arrows killed the targets .
"Get me a hundred men . Go search the camp! Scout teams, I want you to double check the surrounding areas . Report to me if you see anything in the range of 5 li . "
A hundred men rushed into the camp, and the scouts galloped away . Tong did not stay idle, he used his sense to search for a living being signature in the woods or inside the camp .
At dusk, Tong got his reports which answered his suspicion .