Medical and Martial God

"Why hasn’t everyone arrived yet?"

After waiting for half an hour, the Clan Leader had only seen some core members of the Long Family show up. Not a single person from the branch families or the affiliated families had arrived, making him so anxious he felt like he was breaking out in a rash. He said, "At this rate, they’ll be wiped out on the road by Huang Quan before they can even make it here."

The middle-aged beauty beside him spoke respectfully, "The Long Family is too vast, and their villages are too scattered. Your carrier pigeons can only reach the core members. The core members must then send their own pigeons to the branch villages, and the branch villages in turn send pigeons to the affiliated villages."

"By the time everyone receives the message and hauls their families over dozens of miles of mountain roads, it will take at least three hours for them all to arrive."

This instantly gave the Clan Leader a massive headache. "It seems my Long Family’s defense strategy is far behind the times."

The Long Family had a lineage dating back over two thousand years and an extremely large population. Counting the various affiliated families, their total population residing in Hundred Flowers Valley numbered in the tens of thousands. This didn’t even include the collateral branches of the Long Family living in the cities.

The Clan Leader had divided these tens of thousands of people into three tiers: core members, branch families, and affiliated families, spread across countless villages. The branch family villages were situated around the core village, and the affiliated family villages were situated around the branch villages.

The Clan Leader’s original thinking behind this arrangement was that any invading enemy would first have to pass through the affiliated villages, then the branch villages, before they could ever reach the core.

However, Hundred Flowers Valley was simply too vast. Within it, the forests were a boundless sea, the valleys were deeply cut, ravines crisscrossed the landscape, and mountains rose in countless overlapping layers. All the Long Family’s villages were spread out, especially the affiliated villages, which were separated from the core by dozens of miles of mountain roads.

Moreover, there was no cell signal in Hundred Flowers Valley, making mobile phones useless. Messages could only be passed by word of mouth or carrier pigeon, unlike the outside world where a single phone call could solve everything.

If a large-scale enemy invasion occurred, the affiliated villages could be wiped out before the news even reached everyone in the Long Family. Furthermore, if the enemy had snipers or specifically targeted the carrier pigeons, the messages wouldn’t get out at all. Even if a message did get out, by the time other villages raced dozens of miles along mountain roads to provide aid, they would be far too late.

"Huang Quan has taught me a lesson," the Clan Leader said gravely. "If we survive tonight, I will enact bold and sweeping reforms for the Long Family."

"I just hope everyone can arrive safely," the middle-aged beauty said worriedly. "I’m afraid the people from the affiliated villages might be caught and killed by Huang Quan’s men before they get here."

The Clan Leader’s heart leaped into his throat as he grew tense and worried. Time ticked by as large groups of Long Family members began to arrive. First came the core members, followed by people from the branch villages, and finally, those from the affiliated villages. Three hours later, every member of the Long Family had arrived.

"I asked around. No one was attacked on the way here," the middle-aged beauty reported.

The Clan Leader was completely bewildered. "That makes no sense. Huang Quan airdropped over two hundred people on the outskirts of our territory. Why haven’t they attacked?"

"Could Huang Quan be trying to gather the entire Long Family in one place to annihilate us all at once?" the middle-aged beauty speculated.

At her words, the hearts of the Clan Leader and the family members nearby leaped into their throats.

"It’s possible!" The Clan Leader quickly ordered, "Send word to everyone immediately! Be on high alert!"

"Yes!" The people nearby immediately scrambled to relay the order. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Suddenly, a whistling noise pierced the air.

All the Long Family members looked up to see a shell, over two meters long and forty centimeters in diameter, flying in from a distance. It plummeted straight toward the crowded gathering.

"Fuck!" the Clan Leader yelled.

The tens of thousands of Long Family members were so scared they nearly wet themselves. None of them had anticipated that Huang Quan would use paratroopers to lure them all together, only to bombard them with a shell.

The Long Family members wanted to flee, but it was too late.

BANG!

The shell crashed into the crowd, its warhead burying itself in the ground.

"No..." the Clan Leader let out a desperate roar.

Tens of thousands of Long Family members also cried out in terror.

However, a few dozen seconds later, the crowd of tens of thousands fell silent, all of them frozen in place.

"Why didn’t it explode?" someone asked, confused.

Everyone stared at the shell stuck in the ground.

"Is it a dud?"

"That scared me to death."

Tens of thousands of Long Family members breathed a collective sigh of relief. The shell hadn’t exploded; they had just been given a new lease on life.

"Huh? There’s writing on the shell," the middle-aged beauty exclaimed, her eyes sharp.

The Clan Leader and the others immediately looked over. It was now past four in the morning, and while the light was still dim, it posed no obstacle to the vision of the experts present.

"There is writing."

Someone plucked up their courage and, trembling, moved closer to the shell to read the words aloud: "Gave you a scare, didn’t it? This one’s a dud. The next one won’t be, and there’ll be more than one."

Hearing this, the Long Family members felt their scalps tingle with fear. So Huang Quan had deliberately sent a dud just to frighten them.

"Clan Leader, what should we do? Huang Quan can target this location, which means he knows the Long Family very well. He could launch countless shells from a distance and level every one of our villages," the middle-aged beauty said gravely. "And he has over two hundred experts airdropped around our territory, ready to attack or hunt our people at any moment."

"Clan Leader, we can’t stay in Hundred Flowers Valley any longer. If we do, Huang Quan will annihilate us."

"We should relocate the entire clan! At least in the city, Huang Quan won’t be able to use shells!"

The Long Family members all urged the Clan Leader to order a full relocation.

The Clan Leader hesitated. The Long Family had lived in Hundred Flowers Valley for generations under the orders of the three major Judicator Families. If the Long Family violated that order and relocated, the three major Judicator Families would surely exterminate them during the Jiazi Covenant.

But if they didn’t relocate, Huang Quan would exterminate them.

Either way, it was death.

Just then, a surprised voice cut in, "Huh? What’s going on? Why is everyone gathered here?"

"Sixth Brother?" The Clan Leader was startled. "Why are you back at a time like this?"

"A simple ruse from Ye Liangchen was enough to expose me as an impostor. He didn’t believe I was from the Long Family at all, so I had no choice but to return and ask for your instructions," Long Tianhao said with a wry smile.

The Clan Leader sighed, looking towards the heavens. "It seems I must appear in person. In that case, the Long Family will relocate."

"Relocate the entire clan?" Long Tianhao was stunned. "Big brother, what in the world happened?"

The Clan Leader quickly explained what had transpired.

Long Tianhao nearly wet himself in terror after hearing the story. "Then let’s plan the relocation immediately!" he said in a panic. "If we wait any longer, we’ll be bombarded by those shells!"

The Clan Leader nodded. "Immediately send someone to notify our collateral branches in the city and have them prepare accommodations for us. The heads of each branch family and the leaders of the affiliated families are to come with me to discuss the relocation site. Everyone else, return to your homes and prepare at once."

"Yes!"

Ye Xiu’s plan had succeeded. Exposing Long Tianhao and questioning his identity was meant to force the Clan Leader to show himself. Air-dropping members of the Shen Family around the Long Family’s territory was to intimidate them, to make the Long Family mistake those two hundred-plus Shen Family members for Huang Quan’s people. This, combined with the intimidation from the inscribed shell, formed a series of interconnected ploys with a single objective: to force the entire Long Family to relocate to the city.

Ye Xiu wanted to toy with the Long Family in the city.