Fortunate General

Lu Chen frowned, his mind stirring slightly. The thick, abyss-like Profound Black Internal Energy within him instantly fell silent, and the aura around his body once again became frail and weak. His face resumed its perfectly measured pallor.

He slowly pulled back the door bolt, only to see Foreman Wang standing at the entrance with a ruddy face, his triangular eyes flickering with a sickly light—a mix of excitement and malice.

"Boy, your ancestors' graves must be smoking with good fortune!" Foreman Wang grabbed Lu Chen by the arm, practically dragging him out. "The Captain, mindful of your great merit, has given you another heavenly plum of a task! Do it well, and you'll truly rise to the top in one step!"

Lu Chen's internal alarm bells clanged wildly, but his face wore a look of flattered panic.

"Foreman... Foreman Wang, what... what task is it?"

Foreman Wang didn't answer directly. Instead, he hauled Lu Chen all the way to the notice board of the Demon Suppression Division.

There, freshly posted, was an emergency mission order stamped with a bright red seal.

"...Thirty li west of the city lies Willow Creek Town. Three days ago, a strange Water Plague erupted. The entire town—over three hundred souls—all died suddenly, not a single survivor. Preliminary investigation shows the corpses do not decay and show signs of Corpse Transformation, suspected to be the work of a rare Water Ghost Sha. To prevent the plague from spreading and the corpses from turning into a disaster, the Captain's Office urgently orders: immediately seal off Willow Creek Town and dispatch personnel to burn all remains on site. No mistakes allowed!"

Below the order, a line of small red characters was added.

"This mission carries extreme risk. The Killing Intent is foul and not something ordinary people can bear. It is hereby ordered that the Fortunate General, Lu Chen, take charge of this matter, with ten Warriors assigned to assist in transport. By imperial decree."

The two characters "Fortunate General" were written large and red, dripping with glaring mockery.

This was, of course, Foreman Wang's design—ever since Captain Li had personally bestowed the reward.

He had already sensed the danger.

He wished nothing more than for Lu Chen to die on some mission.

Around them, clerks of the Demon Suppression Division had already gathered to watch the spectacle.

They looked at the mission order, then at Lu Chen, held fast by Foreman Wang. Without exception, their faces showed a complex mix of pity, sympathy, and schadenfreude.

Willow Creek Town!

That place was now a massive pit of corpses!

Over three hundred bodies soaked in plague-tainted water, every single one of them could turn into a man-eating monster at any moment.

Forget handling them—just getting close could shatter one's mind with the overwhelming Corpse Sha Qi and cause instant death.

This wasn't a plum assignment. It was a death warrant with no chance of survival!

"Hear that, boy?" Foreman Wang pointed at the mission order, spittle flying as he roared, his voice brimming with barely contained glee. "The Captain himself has chosen you! What an honor! Quickly accept the order and give thanks!"

At that moment, Lu Chen's body began to tremble "violently."

His face was as pale as paper, his lips quivering, as if he had been stunned stupid by this "heavenly good fortune," unable to utter a single complete sentence.

"This... this subordinate... obeys... obeys the order..."

His legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground, only managing to stay upright thanks to Foreman Wang's "support."

Seeing him so spineless and pathetic, Foreman Wang's sense of triumph reached its peak.

He waved his hand grandly and shouted with feigned magnanimity: "Good! A man of responsibility! The Captain has ordered that supplies be plentiful! You lot," he casually pointed at ten Warriors who had been watching the show, "follow our 'Fortunate General' to the Logistics Office to draw Fire Oil and sulfur. Everything is under Lu Chen's command! If you mess up or flee the field, hmph, military law will deal with you!"

The ten Warriors' faces instantly fell, as if they had swallowed dead flies.

Going to Willow Creek Town was already a near-certain death sentence, and now they had to take orders from this jinxed Corpse Handler?

But they dared not defy Foreman Wang's authority. Forcing themselves, they reluctantly acknowledged the order, glaring at Lu Chen with venomous eyes.

On the way to the Logistics Office in the back courtyard, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense. The ten Warriors deliberately lagged behind, leaving Lu Chen isolated ahead, muttering curses under their breath.

"Damn it, what rotten luck, stuck with this ill-omened bastard on a mission like this!"

"Foreman Wang clearly wants us dead, and he puts this waste in charge?"

"Pah! Fortunate General, my ass—more like a death omen!"

The gate to the Logistics Office courtyard was wide open. The Steward, a fat clerk surnamed Liu, was dozing in a recliner.

Hearing the commotion, he squinted to look, saw Lu Chen and a group of dejected Warriors, and immediately twisted his face into a look of disgust.

"Oh, if it isn't our division's great Fortunate General," Fatty Liu said with a sarcastic drawl, not even bothering to get up. "What's this? Foreman Wang's given you another nice little job?"

One of the Warriors slapped the mission slip onto the table in frustration: "Leader Liu, it's the Willow Creek Town job. We need supplies—Fire Oil, sulfur, Strong Liquor—as much as possible!"

At the mention of Willow Creek Town, Fatty Liu shot upright as if pricked by a needle, his jowls quivering.

He glanced at the slip, then at Lu Chen's ashen face, and suddenly let out a sneering laugh.

"Willow Creek Town? Hahaha! Good, good, good—truly a Fortunate General, always getting the best gigs!"

He slowly stood up, kicking a few rusty, leaky old barrels in the corner. "Here, these are your 'top-grade goods.' Take them and get out of my sight, don't clutter the place."

The Warriors' lungs nearly burst with rage. These oil barrels were clearly discarded junk that hadn't been used in years—short on content and likely to leak before they could even be poured.

"Leader Liu! What's the meaning of this? Can this even be used? The slip says supplies are plentiful!" one hot-tempered Warrior couldn't help shouting.

"Plentiful? This is it!" Fatty Liu glared back, pointing at the junk. "Take it or leave it! Who knows if you'll even come back? Giving you good stuff would be a waste! What, the Fortunate General didn't bring you luck?"

He emphasized the words "Fortunate General," dripping with mockery.

It was obvious Foreman Wang had tipped him off!

The Warriors trembled with rage but dared not speak out, so they redirected their anger at Lu Chen, blaming him for their misfortune.

Lu Chen kept his head down the whole time, but the tip of his nose caught the scent of Fire Oil coming from another direction.

Just as Fatty Liu was gloating and the Warriors were at their wit's end, he suddenly spoke, his voice faint but clear: "Steward Liu, in that warehouse over there, it looks like there are still quite a few new barrels..."

He pointed toward a large locked warehouse in the corner of the courtyard.

Fatty Liu's face changed color—that was where he had hoarded good stock to embezzle and sell off. How did this kid know?!

"Those are newly sealed oil barrels, not stable yet. I can't let you load them onto the cart like this! If they spill, wouldn't that bring hidden trouble to the Demon Suppression Division?"

"Of course, if you're moving them by hand? Then I might consider letting you take them."

The Warriors were indignant.

Each barrel of fire oil weighed a hundred catties or more!

Making them carry it—wasn't that just making things difficult?

The standoff dragged on.

The Warriors looked at the arrogant Fatty Liu, then at the silent Lu Chen, and felt nothing but despair.

Just then, Lu Chen stopped arguing.

He silently walked over to the pile of barrels.

Under everyone's stunned gaze, he took a deep breath, and then—

He grabbed the rim of a huge, worn-out barrel that stood nearly as tall as a man and required two people to wrap their arms around. The seemingly frail muscles on his arm tensed slightly.

"Up!"

With a low shout, he lifted that impossibly heavy barrel with one arm, raising it three feet off the ground!

The rusted iron of the barrel let out a grating creak that set teeth on edge, but his arm was as steady as a rock, without a single tremor.

Then, as Fatty Liu stared wide-eyed and the Warriors' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, Lu Chen swung his arm again and again, as if he were moving straw instead of heavy loads.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

One, two, three! Three entire massive barrels were stacked neatly on top of each other, held steady with one hand, as immovable as a mountain!

His face wasn't flushed, his breath wasn't short—he only kept that same pale complexion as he turned to look at Fatty Liu, his tone carrying even a hint of well-timed bewilderment: "Steward Liu, look... I'll just take these three barrels. They're full enough, should be... enough, right? We won't trouble you any further."

Silence!

A deathly silence!

Everyone was dumbfounded, including the ten Warriors. They looked at the stack of barrels taller than a man, then at Lu Chen's seemingly thin frame, their minds completely blank.

This was a heavy barrel that needed two people to carry! He was lifting three with one hand?! Was this the same Corpse Handler who looked like he'd collapse in a gust of wind?!

Fatty Liu's fat face went from red to white, from white to green. His finger, pointing at Lu Chen, trembled as he couldn't get a single word out.

He was completely cowed by this inhuman strength, and dared not make any more trouble.

Lu Chen paid him no further attention, turning his gaze to the ten Warriors, who had turned to stone. "Brothers, the remaining sulfur and liquor... could you trouble yourselves to move them? I'll... I'll take these to the cart first."

With that, he steadied the precarious stack of barrels with one hand and walked steadily toward the cart.

The Warriors snapped out of their daze, watching Lu Chen's back, their expressions completely changed.

The previous resentment and contempt vanished, replaced by a mix of shock, fear, and a trace of incredulous awe.

They dared not show the slightest delay, rushing into the warehouse with swift hands and feet, hauling out the best sulfur powder and strong liquor, quickly loading them onto the cart.

The supplies were soon fully loaded.

The cart became unbearably heavy. But under the awe of Lu Chen's unbelievable strength, no one dared complain a single word.

Those ten Warriors even refused to let Lu Chen push the cart, taking on the hardest labor themselves, their gazes toward Lu Chen filled with complex emotions.

In a strange silence, the convoy slowly drove out of the back gate of the Demon Suppression Division, setting off on the road to Willow Creek Town.