Chapter 189 Chapter 188 The Most Simple Method of Investigation
In the early morning, in the Dream Palace.
They woke up and saw each other.
Ji Ma nudged George with her calf and said, “You really are a beast… and you’ve picked up massage quite quickly. Can you give me another one?”
“No.” George replied, “The army is approaching, and you still need to inform Duke Carson.”
“Well… speaking of the approaching army…” Ji Ma lazily glanced at the fake sun outside. They were in the Dream Palace, “Didn’t you eventually choose to stay in the Dream Palace? Why wasn’t there an army approaching then?”
The Dream Palace could only ensure a slow recovery of magical power for two people. Ji Ma’s magic power had only recovered to seventy-eight percent.
“Sometimes for you, I am willing to go against wartime regulations.”
Ji Ma smiled and said, “Beast.”
After saying that, she lifted her soft foot and kicked George. George grabbed her ankle and pulled her up…
Forty minutes later.
Dressed neatly, Ji Ma appeared at the entrance of the Dream Palace, shaped like the eye of a typhoon, and went to her tent.
She wore a brown cloak and a short-sleeved shirt, exposing her snowy white arms, which were adorned with silver rings that George had given her. She wore tight pants, and her booted foot had just landed.
A sleeping orange cat immediately woke up, stood up with its tail raised, and rubbed against Ji Ma’s calf, meowing.
Seeing that Lianxi Cat had gained quite a bit of weight, Ji Ma was too lazy to pick it up and said, “Little Li, you might as well turn back into your human form. This morning, George… sigh.”
She finally sighed and gave Lianxi Cat plenty of room for imagination.
A puff of smoke appeared, and when the smoke dissipated, Lianxi, dressed in a proper maid outfit, with cat ears standing upright on her red hair, appeared, filled with righteous indignation, saying, “That hypocrite is really too despicable.”
Ji Ma said, “Little Li, you can talk behind his back, but it’s best not to let George know.”
In Lianxi’s eyes, her dear master Ji Ma was worried about her being beaten by George—just like how George always liked to make her cry out in the room: “As you command, master.”
“Alright, pack up the tent.” Ji Ma commanded, “We have to set off soon.”
“Understood, master.”
Lianxi immediately got to work.
As Ji Ma was leaving, she patted her bottom. There was still too little meat; she hadn’t grown up.
She said, “Work hard.”
Lianxi felt warmth in her heart: “Thank you for your concern, master.”
Ji Ma stepped out of the tent.
The small camp had already awakened, with knights helped by attendants putting on armor, gathering around pots steaming with white vapors, fishing out cooked beans and softened jerky.
Ji Ma walked to George’s patched tent, where a piece of cloth hung at the entrance, saying:
“Please report your name before entering.”
Looking at this line of text, Ji Ma reached out, wanting to enter without announcing herself.
But at that moment, there was a sense of authority emanating from the text, causing her hand to falter and instinctively follow the rules. She spoke up, “George, it’s me, Ji Ma.”
George’s voice came from inside: “Please enter.”
Why am I being so honest? It must be George’s power at work.
Ji Ma lifted the tent and walked in.
George stood in the center of the tent, his attendant, a horned child, squatting behind him and pulling tightly on the straps of his greaves. Upon seeing Ji Ma enter, he looked up briefly, then quickly lowered his head.
The full greaves could not completely close, revealing a gap where black combat armor was visible.
“Your greaves don’t fit.”
“They’re armor I wore when I was fifteen,” George said. “Now my calves have become stronger. And when will my super Gothic armor arrive?”
The full greaves were probably the part with the strictest requirements for fit.
“Ahem, the great Dragon Slayer George must be a humble and simple person; even wearing ill-fitting armor can still take down wild creatures.”
George ignored Ji Ma’s banter and asked, “What’s the matter? Why did you come to see me?”
“It’s serious. Because my intel has been too sparse, Duke Carson isn’t very satisfied. He wants me to gather more,” Ji Ma said. “However, thanks to my eloquence, Duke Carson is very pleased with our victories during this time and plans to reward us with treasures.”
“Are you planning to go alone again?”
“I think that sometimes we should use a straightforward method of investigation.”
“What?”
“Directly approach and investigate. With your current strength, if you team up with me and Eve Frostleaf to form a small squad of strong warriors, you can easily get close to the beastmen army and uncover the truth hidden beneath the fog of war.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“Then let’s hurry up and do it.”
“Wait a minute.” George took out a yellowed book titled “Battle Tactics of Heroes,” opened it, and held it up to Ji Ma, which detailed various regulations regarding extraordinary reconnaissance.
“As captain, I will act according to the regulations, and I expect you to follow my orders.”
“Hey, hey, believing everything in a book is worse than not believing at all. The battlefield situation is ever-changing, and we must adapt accordingly.”
“So, I will only adhere to a few principles from the book.”
Ji Ma pointed out, “But you lack military experience. In the end, aren’t you just relying on the book?”
“I have little experience in this area,” George said seriously, picking up the book. “So I need the wisdom of those who came before. The book states, ‘War is about making fewer mistakes than the enemy, while hubris leads to making mistakes.’ Ji Ma, I think you underestimate the beastmen.”
I actually think you overestimate the wild creatures. Even if the other side is an army of demons, with your diamond strength, you can still mess around.
But Ji Ma didn’t say it. If she did, George would definitely ask her how she came to that conclusion. And she certainly couldn’t say that she based it on the memories of the demon king, Kima, could she?
She also didn’t want to admit that she was greedy for Duke Carson’s rewards.
This morning, Ji Ma had just seen Duke Carson reward a knight who had contributed with a box of shiny magical items.
She nodded and said, “Maybe it’s because as a demon, there’s an inherent disdain for the beastmen.”
After roughly agreeing, George stepped out of the tent to find Eve Frostleaf, and Ji Ma followed him. Suddenly, she turned around, looking at the horned child, catching the moment he hurriedly lowered his head, Ji Ma narrowed her eyes and followed George out.
That evening.
George, Ji Ma, and Eve Frostleaf, a three-person reconnaissance team (the elven maid was quite at ease because Ji Ma was present), had already clashed with the beastmen vanguard for the fifth time.
Hanging from a grotesquely spiky green tree was a centaur, its lower half being a strong horse’s body, with its head tilting to one side, snoring.
Standing opposite it, Ji Ma opened her eyes, stood up, and steadied the golden leaf brooch that held her cloak in place, saying, “Alright, we’ll walk another kilometer east, then advance north. We should be able to encounter the beastman army.”
George asked, “Did you get any intel on the number of the beastman army?”
“I got an estimate,” Ji Ma replied. “It could be around a hundred thousand or maybe one hundred fifty thousand. You know, many beastmen aren’t good at math.”
Ji Ma’s so-called straightforward method of reconnaissance was very simple. Since the beastmen army was shrouded by gray mist and moving through the Dream Palace was laborious, they could utilize George’s formidable strength to charge directly at the beastman army, capturing beastmen for intelligence.
“That’s enough.”
George wiped the blood off his shoulder armor with a prickly leaf, with several bloodstained leaves scattered at his feet. The blood came from several centaur corpses lying behind George, their limbs scattered and partially concealed in the bushes.
“That’s not enough. I want to see the whole beastman army with my own eyes.”
“That might be too dangerous.”
George pointed to a scorpion-tailed lion pinned against a tree by three long spears about ten meters away. This fearsome magical beast could easily snatch up a full-grown water buffalo, but because it had dipped too low while diving, it was struck down by George’s thrown spear.
For George, killing a scorpion-tailed lion could be done in under ten minutes. But for Ji Ma, as a weak woman, facing such a pure magical beast in the air meant only one option—running away.
“Anyway, with you here, my survival ability is pretty strong.”
“I believe, according to wartime regulations, we ought to be retreating right now,” George said. “And as captain, I declare we withdraw.”
What a blockhead! You’re already with diamond strength; with that kind of power, why stick to strict rules?
Ji Ma had a daring plan that could fully leverage her extraordinary abilities to cause trouble for the beastman army.
But with George’s current attitude, it seemed impossible to carry it out.
“You said earlier that sometimes you’d be willing to defy wartime regulations for me, and now you’re turning your back on me.”
Not far away, Eve Frostleaf squatting on the treetops twitched her white long ears slightly, tilting her head towards the two.
“Ji Ma, stop messing around. If you have any ideas, just say them directly, and we can discuss them.”
If I were to say them, there’s likely nothing to discuss.
At that moment, the centaur hanging in the tree woke up and emitted a snarly cry.
Ji Ma’s eyes were sharp and quick; she lifted her “branch axe spear” and with one chop, struck the centaur’s thick neck, silencing its cry in its throat.
Without a single drop of blood, the “branch axe spear” in her hand brought her a sense of satisfaction.
“Enemies approaching from the three o’clock direction.”
Eve Frostleaf jumped down from the treetop, still holding her decorative silver bow, her long legs landing lightly on the ground.
Before her words were finished, a group of angry centaurs, clad in armor, charged towards the three from the woods.
Ji Ma flapped her wings and flew towards the east. George followed suit, running away from the centaurs. It was not that they were afraid of the centaurs, but for those who were strong, killing and running from pursuing foes was far easier than charging head-on.
George raised his hand to catch an arrow shot from behind, flicking it back, and a tall centaur fell immediately. He said, “Ji Ma! We should retreat.”
“George, this land has suffered too much from warfare.” Ji Ma said, “Look, these trees have been completely eroded. Killing all the beastmen one day earlier could save countless lives. Don’t you think so?”
“Precisely, but we cannot be reckless.” Before George could finish, the centaur leader swung a heavy sword towards George’s neck.
George turned one hundred and eighty degrees, quickly retreating while running, facing Ji Ma, his hands gripping his greatsword easily deflected the incoming blade.
“Let’s not forget that we also have to be responsible for the lives of everyone in Quinas Castle behind us.”
The centaur leader, enraged by George’s disregard, bellowed and swung his axe towards George, but George struck his waist in return, killing the centaurs trying to surround him.
Meanwhile, he kept retreating at speed.
“I’m a military genius,” Ji Ma patted her chest vigorously. “I guarantee there’s not much danger!”
“Let’s hope so.”
The group of centaurs was already fleeing in all directions. George picked up a centaur’s spear and threw it.
Ji Ma suddenly shouted, “Ah, we’re here.”
George turned around just in time to reach the top of a slope, and before them lay a long brown river stretching into the distance, and they had come face to face with marching beastmen.
George quickly stopped, raising a cloud of yellow dust behind him, halting before a bull-headed man twice his height.
The latter glared at him, snorting heavily, raising the heavy ring in his nose.
“Ji Ma! Isn’t this reckless?”
Ji Ma retorted, “This is the simplest and most accurate method of reconnaissance!” referring to directly charging in to gather intelligence.
Then, the wind howled from the axe raised by the bull-headed man, drowning out her voice.
