The Hunt

After returning to Great Qin Village, Zhao Fu assembled his troops once more. This time, he expanded the squad by five members, a mix of men and women with relatively high intelligence stats, bringing the total to thirty-five. Of course, these were only the soldiers, excluding Liu Mei and the others.

First, Zhao Fu cast Holy Light Art on the ten Goblin Champions and ten infantrymen. They charged to the front, and with the shield wall formed by the Goblin Champions, they could adopt a cowardly tactic: hiding behind the sturdy shield wall while casting Holy Light Art.

As for the archers, due to the limitations of spell range, he did not cast it on them. Now that Zhao Fu's archers had used the Soul of Martial Refinement, their archery skills were incredibly sharp; if the skeletons were caught off guard, they could almost pierce their skulls with every single arrow.

As for the five new recruits, Zhao Fu had them learn Holy Light Bullet.

Next was the time to verify the results. They arrived at a tunnel that hadn't been blocked off and moved slowly along the dark path. Before long, over a dozen skeletons revived, raised their weapons, and charged toward Zhao Fu's group.

The goblins and infantrymen were unhurried; they first set up a shield wall, then unleashed Holy Light Art. Streaks of blinding white light landed on the skeleton soldiers, and immediately, wisps of white smoke rose from their bodies as they shrieked and retreated.

Following that, more streaks of blinding white light landed on them. The skeleton soldiers shrieked again, their combat effectiveness instantly dropping by a third.

The appearance of the white light made the originally dark tunnel as bright as day, even blindingly so.

At this moment, five glowing orbs radiating white light flew out from behind the shield wall and landed in the midst of the retreating skeleton group.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The light orbs landed among the skeletons and exploded, emitting a massive amount of blinding white light. More than half of the skeleton group wailed and fell apart, turning into a pile of bones. The remaining few had less than one-tenth of their combat power left and were finished off by the infantrymen with iron hammers.

Now, the skeleton soldiers posed almost no danger; the battle was essentially a rout by Zhao Fu's side. They continued to advance, easily killing several waves. Even when they encountered a Skeleton General, it only caused a minor inconvenience, and the soldiers finished it off without Zhao Fu or his companions even needing to strike.

Zhao Fu thought for a moment and handed everything here over to Li Wen, telling him to continue the exploration and to notify him if they encountered anything at the level of a Skeleton General. He then took Bai Qi and the others back to the surface to handle other matters.

Furthermore, Zhao Fu was not stingy with all the Soul of Martial Refinement he had obtained, using them all on his soldiers. Now that he had the Heaven and Earth Refining Array, he no longer had to worry about aptitude issues.

Back on the surface, Zhao Fu took Little Gray and his group to personally scout the surrounding area, hoping to discover some villages to annex and increase the manpower of Great Qin Village. Currently, the combined military strength of all of Zhao Fu's villages was not even five hundred, which was nowhere near enough to defeat the Orc Tribe.

Leaving some soldiers behind for standard defense, Zhao Fu took three hundred soldiers to explore the surroundings. Now that he had Little Gray, as long as someone had left a scent, he could definitely find a village by relying on Little Gray's sensitive nose.

Currently, Little Gray was crawling on the ground, sniffing along the way. As a former wolf king, doing this meant he was completely loyal to Zhao Fu, who followed right beside him.

"Woo..."

Suddenly, Little Gray seemed to have smelled something; he let out a few low growls and then looked up at Zhao Fu.

Seeing this, Zhao Fu nodded. Receiving the order, Little Gray darted out, and Zhao Fu shouted for the others to follow.

The group began to run, following behind Little Gray, until they arrived at a hillside overlooking a village below.

This village appeared to be an intermediate village with a population of over six hundred, but its defenses were very weak and its management was somewhat chaotic. First, the houses were built without any planning, and the farmland was scattered in patches here and there, showing that the lord lacked management ability.

How should he take this village? Zhao Fu frowned. A village like this had weak defenses, but there were no other openings to exploit. Poison? They didn't eat from a communal pot, they had their own farmland, and they didn't go out hunting in large groups, so it was impossible to pick them off one by one. Charging in directly would result in significant losses.

For now, he could only wait. Seeing that the sky was not early and was gradually darkening, he found a concealed spot to set up camp and wait to see what he could discover tomorrow.

At night, although there was no moon in the sky, the heavens were filled with twinkling stars. Standing under the river of stars would have been absolutely beautiful and spectacular.

Zhao Fu, however, had no heart to admire the scenery. Instead, he frowned and asked, "Bai Qi! What is your take on this situation?"

Upon hearing this, Bai Qi pondered for a moment and said, "If we truly cannot find any flaws, we can only wait until three or four in the morning, when people are at their most exhausted, to launch a night raid. This village's defenses are still somewhat weak, so the chance of success is high."

After listening to Bai Qi, Zhao Fu nodded. If there was really no other way, he would have to resort to a forced assault.

Early in the morning, the sun in the east gradually rose from the horizon, marking the arrival of another day. Zhao Fu also rose early, keeping his eyes on the mountain village below.

After a while!

A burly man with muscles all over his body, holding a large saber and carrying a bow on his back, led a dozen men with similar equipment out of the village, seemingly heading out to hunt.

Zhao Fu had an idea and immediately summoned his soldiers.

"Brother Da Hu! Today we must bag a big wild boar to take back so everyone can have a good meal of meat," a young man said to the burly man with a happy face.

The burly man let out a hearty laugh and said, "Alright, don't talk about one wild boar; even if it were three, your Brother Da Hu would catch them for you."

Hearing the burly man's words, the young man looked at him with admiration and said, "Mm! I believe in Brother Da Hu. You are the strongest person in our village. If even you can't do it, then no one can."

Hearing the young man's words, the burly man laughed even louder with joy, but the next second, his smile faded, and he looked at the surrounding bushes with a serious expression.

Seeing the burly man suddenly become so serious, the young man didn't quite understand and asked curiously, "Brother Da Hu, what's wrong?"

The burly man stared intently ahead and whispered, "There are enemies!"

The others heard the burly man's words and immediately became vigilant, gathering together and looking around. However, they didn't seem to find anything, and everyone thought the burly man had sensed wrong. They turned to look at him.

"Your Excellency! No need to hide anymore, I have already discovered you." At this moment, the burly man suddenly shouted loudly.

Hearing this, Zhao Fu realized that although this group hadn't fully entered the encirclement, they couldn't escape now, so he brought his men out into the open.

The burly man and his group watched as the bushes swayed. The sight of goblins holding crossbows, archers with bows drawn, and soldiers appearing one after another made their faces turn pale with fright.

"Who are you, Your Excellency? Why intercept the people of our Da Hu Village?"

The burly man's face was also somewhat pale. Although he had sensed danger, he hadn't expected there to be so many people. Looking at the arrows pointed at his group, he knew they had no chance of escape.