Chapter 103: The Unhelpful Ally!

Inside the inn, Zhao Yu had already fallen into a coma. Yin Chan was attending to her wounds, while An Luo had been dispatched to a nearby pharmacy to gather medicinal supplies—having been given strict orders to break down the door if they refused to open it.

Cui Jue sat silently to one side, awaiting the report from the troops he had sent in pursuit. Feng Mowang was stationed outside, keeping watch; thanks to An Luo’s training, this young man’s individual combat skills had seen a leap in quality.

Ming Tian explained to Mo'er and Xin Zhu what had transpired within the organization and detailed De Yi'ao’s actions. Only then did the two realize they had been on the verge of being deceived.

"I am sorry, my Lord. I almost..." Xin Zhu lowered her head in self-reproach, her small lips pouting with guilt.

Ming Tian chuckled and patted her head. "It’s alright. You only acted that way because you care about me. Besides, in that situation, anyone would have assumed I was dead. As long as everything turned out fine in the end, that is all that matters."

"But..."

Xiao Xin Zhu wanted to say more, but Ming Tian used an index finger to gently block her words before pulling her into an embrace.

"You don't need to say anything."

Accepting his hug, Xin Zhu finally let go of her guilt, closing her eyes to savor the warmth that had so nearly been lost forever.

"It’s so good that Master is alright!"

Mo'er happily hugged Ming Tian’s leg, her face filled with joy. Despite having cried so fiercely earlier that her eyes were still as swollen as if they had been hit by cannonballs, she looked perfectly content.

"Reporting!"

Before long, the scout from the Chaos Rippers, dressed in night-raiding gear, finally returned.

Cui Jue, who had been waiting for quite some time, stood up impatiently. He was a man who valued his reputation and did not want to be branded a "useless teammate" by Ming Tian again.

"Well? Did you catch him?"

The scout lowered his head and shook it helplessly. "We killed all of their soldiers, but their leader, De Yi'ao, managed to escape. However, we tracked him and discovered that he fled back to their headquarters!"

Damn it!

"What good does it do to know he fled back to headquarters?"

Before Cui Jue could speak, Ming Tian, having heard the news, was practically exploding with rage. "You already knew where his headquarters was! I knew, everyone knew! What is the point? Their headquarters is full of traps. If you had the ability to storm it, would we even be in this mess today?"

Cui Jue’s face turned green upon hearing this.

It wasn't that the failure of the pursuit caused any massive loss; it was simply that Cui Jue felt his pride had been utterly shattered in an instant.

Ming Tian was also feeling a massive headache. While he hadn't suffered a direct blow from this, he knew full well the trouble that would come from letting a tiger return to its mountain.

Although De Yi'ao had escaped, he had to be eliminated in the short term. De Yi'ao’s organization, having been trained by Yin Chan and subjected to his own strategic deployments, had seen its strength skyrocket. If he were given time to catch his breath, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Cui Jue turned around stiffly, the word "EMBARRASSMENT" practically carved into his square-jawed face.

Ming Tian narrowed his eyes into equals signs.

Truly, a weak soldier makes a weak unit, and a weak general makes a weak army! Cui Jue and his men were all complete fools!

"Ming Tian, I..."

"Useless teammate!"

"No, wait, I..."

"Useless teammate!"

"You can't just say that..."

"Useless teammate!"

"How was I supposed to know we needed arrows? This..."

"You brought a whole mob of people to surround and annihilate them, of course they were going to run! You just brought people with butcher knives to hack away? Do you think you're in a gang movie? Over a hundred people chasing a dozen half-dead men and you couldn't even secure De Yi'ao’s head? A brain is a wonderful thing; I really wish you had one!"

"..." Cui Jue was left speechless and humiliated, feeling incredibly stifled. But since everything Ming Tian said was a fact, he could only purse his lips and turn away to avoid further provocation.

"Useless teammate!"

"Hey, I've stopped talking, why are you still..."

"I'll curse if I want to! I thought you guys were tough; I had even prepared lines of praise for you. Instead, you slapped my face hard enough to ring in my ears. Even elementary school students are more reliable than you! You won't even let me vent a little? Pig!"

Though he was so humiliated his face was flushed, Cui Jue had no retort.

Cui Jue was a man who cared deeply about his status. Even though he and Ming Tian were enemies, they were bound by an alliance, and his honor and principles would not allow him to break his word, so falling out with Ming Tian was impossible.

Yet, now that Ming Tian had seized the moral high ground and was berating him mercilessly, he had no power to refute it because Ming Tian’s every word was true. He was so angry his eyebrows felt like they were burning.

"Waste of space!"

In a fit of rage, Cui Jue kicked the scout, sending him sprawling on his back to vent his frustration.

"You... you bunch of spineless cowards! You’ve lost me all my face! Tomorrow, every member of the assault unit will wake up and perform five thousand squats. No one eats until they finish!"

The scout’s face turned purple upon hearing this.

"Cui... Commander Cui, five thousand? That will kill people!"

"Think that’s too few? Good! I love how much backbone you have! Make it ten thousand then."

The scout was left completely dumbfounded.

It looked like their assault unit would be taking a very long break starting tomorrow.

After berating Cui Jue, Ming Tian felt slightly better, but... De Yi'ao absolutely could not be allowed to live.

"My Lord," Xiao Xin Zhu’s soft, melodious voice asked curiously, "since De Yi'ao has escaped, what do you intend to do?"

The question gave Ming Tian another headache.

Tonight should have been the perfect opportunity to eliminate De Yi'ao. If the Chaos Rippers hadn't set a Guinness World Record for incompetence, none of this would have happened. Now that De Yi'ao had escaped back to his headquarters, taking him down would be extremely difficult.

At his headquarters, he had over a hundred core soldiers, and with the regular members, a total of four hundred people—outnumbering the Chaos Rippers by twenty or thirty percent.

To attack recklessly would not only mean heavy losses for the Chaos Rippers, but Cui Jue would never agree to a head-on confrontation anyway.

"Their headquarters' layout is easy to defend and hard to attack. There is only one entrance. I stayed there for three days and found at least three hidden escape routes, not to mention it's riddled with traps. It is almost impossible to break in from the front, and even if we did, we would be surrounded and wiped out," Ming Tian sighed helplessly.

After thinking for a moment, he asked Cui Jue, "Hey, you jerk, didn't you invent explosives? Are there any in Yangzhou?"

"My name is Cui Jue, not 'you jerk'!"

Cui Jue thought about it and shook his head. "There are some in Yangzhou, but the formula has only just arrived, and the total stock is only two or three hundred pounds. That stuff isn't TNT; you need a massive quantity for it to be effective. We used two tons just to blow up the Alliance back then. If you want to blow up their organization... it definitely won't be enough."

Two tons?!!

Ming Tian was stunned.

Was this efficiency really that pathetic? If it were two tons of TNT, it would be enough to level three city blocks.

"If you produce at full capacity, how much can you make in three days?"

Cui Jue pondered. "At most, three or four hundred pounds. Added together, that's just over half a ton."

Only half a ton.

Ming Tian rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Based on the explosion in Jiankang and his understanding of the resistance organization's internal layout these past few days, he figured it would take at least five tons of explosive force to level them.

Half a ton... that was barely one-tenth of what he needed. It seemed the plan to blow them sky-high was unrealistic.

"Sigh." Just then, the innkeeper, Pang Chong, walked out with a sigh.

Watching his inn being dismantled like a demolition site, the money-grubbing owner felt his heart ache so much his face turned pale. Looking at the menacing Cui Jue, he didn't seem to have the guts to ask for compensation.

"Oh, heavens, if you have eyes, send me a rain of money," the resigned Pang Chong muttered to himself, his voice filled with unrealistic despair as he headed back to his room.

Ming Tian felt a twinge of guilt toward the owner. It was because of him that the inn had been torn apart. Indeed, once this matter was settled, he would have to compensate the man properly.

Wait, a rain of money? What kind of imagination would conjure up such a fantasy... Wait.

A rain of money? Rain?

As he pondered, Pang Chong’s mention of rain hit him like a lightning bolt, clearing the deadlock in his thoughts.

That’s it! Rain!

*Bang!* Ming Tian slammed his hand on the table and stood up in a fit of ecstasy.

"I have a way to wipe out the resistance organization without losing a single soldier!"

"Cui Jue, immediately send men to surround the resistance organization! Cut off their logistics! And have your team work at full capacity to produce explosives!"