Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Face-Slapping the genius from another world (10)
Editors: Nadralexe, Chestnutwhale
Zhou Xu got up from the bed in a laguid fashion. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to hurry, rather, it was because he couldn’t move fast at all. His waist was killing him, and he felt it could already be considered very good that he could get up. It was really inhumane to have to get up and lead the clan into battle on the day after nearly being done to death.
Yan He was actually already awake when someone came to report the arrival of the Hexi clan.
Besides, everyone in the clan already knew about the relationship between the clan leader and Yan He, and no one was opposed to it. In any case, the selection of the clan leader was never hereditary, so the leader could do whatever he wanted. When the time came, a new leader would be elected.
Yan He gently held Zhou Xu’s waist to give him something to support himself with, but when Zhou Xu turned his head to stare at him, Yan He immediately lowered his head and withdrew his hand.
Zhou Xu was speechless. He took Yan He’s hand and put it on his waist. He then turned his head toward the reporting clan member and asked, “How many and where are they now?”
“One thousand three hundred people. There’s still one hour and a half before they arrive at our territory. They are full of spirit as their leader came with all the warriors. This attack is led by their clan leader.”
Yan He was stunned for a moment. Then, the corners of his mouth lifted. He gently applied pressure on Zhou Xu while listening on how Zhou Xu would arrange the troops.
“Very good, they’re all walking on the road on the east side, aren’t they?”
“Yes, leader, can we use the same strategy as last time, this time?”
Zhou Xu shook his head, “They are not stupid, they won’t be tricked by the same method twice. However, we still have another strategy.”
“Leader, what strategy? Hurry ya, they will be here in an hour and a half.”
Zhou Xu was speechless as he looked at the warrior who had come to report. He was clearly one hundred ninety centimeters tall and as strong as an ox, but still spoke like a child.
Truth be told, most of the warriors in this world were like this because their lives were relatively simple, unlike modern times where there were so many deceptions. Even if they had a conflict with someone, they could just meet for a fight to settle it.
“What’s the hurry? You, go and get Zhou Yang and a few doctors for me.”
“Ah? Okay.”
The warrior ran off and Zhou Xu leaned back just enough to settle into Yan He’s arms. Looking at Yan He from bottom to top, he realized that he was still handsome.
Touching his face, Zhou Xu said, “Next time, be gentler and reduce the number of times.”
“Okay.”
Soon, the doctors came. In fact, at this time, Zhou Xu should have gone to the clinic himself but he really didn’t have the strength. Since he’d already had a plan in mind for a long time, he didn’t care about these few minutes.
“Doctors, the Hexi clan is coming to rob our grain, there are one thousand and three hundred of them.”
“That’s right, so Leader, send the warriors to meet the enemy.” The doctors were also anxious. Though the previous leader was also nonchalant in nature, this one was even more calm. They were really anxious to death.
“Don’t be anxious. I’ll give you a prescription, go and prepare it for me quickly.”
“What’s the point of making a prescription at this time, even if it were poison, it’d be impossible to poison over a thousand people to death at once, clan leader.”
“Then don’t poison them all to death, poison them half to death.” Zhou Xu smiled faintly, not at all impatient.
The doctors also had no choice but to look at their calm clan leader with grievance, waiting for him to finish writing down the prescription and take it to dispense it.
The process of dispensing medicine was not quick, taking nearly twenty minutes to get it right. But the key point was that there were some of them that were freshly grounded, making them waste a lot of time.
After that, Zhou Xu called several warriors and then separately told them several locations. Then, Zhou Xu laid down leisurely in Yan He’s arms, because he knew that after an hour, the warriors of the Hexi clan would reach their territory. After arriving, they would all fall down together.
Actually, the move that Zhou Xu had used was very poisonous – he actually put a drug in their water. This drug would not directly cause death but diarrhea. If there was no antidote, then the person would die from dehydration.
This drug would not break out immediately but rather forty to fifty minutes later. It also meant that even if the Hexi clansmen drank water, they would not immediately discover that they have been poisoned.
Sure enough, an hour later, Zhou Xu and the others did not receive the news of the invading of the Hexi clan but instead received their call for help.
Zhou Xu, who was almost completely rested, got up from Yan He’s arms. He rubbed his own waist and decided to go meet the Hexi clan leader as well as their warriors.
Only after seeing the Hexi clan leader did Zhou Xu realise that a major factor as to why the Hexi clan was so weak was because of their leader.
First of all, he had selective hearing. Often, despite not being clear about the circumstance at all, when someone suggested something and he felt that it was good, he would immediately take action, without making even the most basic of preparations.
Secondly, he was bold but not very astute, acting impulsively.
This, combined with the first point, had directly transformed the originally powerful Hexi clan, into a clan that couldn’t even feed itself.
Looking at the fat Hexi clan leader, Zhou Xu also understood another thing – the Hexi clan’s meat had probably all been eaten by this clan leader.
The Hexi clan leader covered his stomach and negotiated with Zhou Xu, who only had one sentence to say, “The Hexi clan will merge with the Hedong clan, and you, and all the Hexi clan’s elders will commit suicide, or else the lives of these one thousand or so warriors will be lost.”
There were also a dozen or so warriors of the Hexi clan who came to negotiate at the same time. After they heard what Zhou Xu said, they were about to go mad. In the end, Zhou Xu smiled and gave them a sentence, “Either a dozen dies, or a thousand dies. You choose.”
The ten or so Hexi warriors suddenly drew a blank as they realised that what they were angry about was not their clan leader dying, but simply humiliation.
However, under these circumstances, Zhou Xu obviously had the right to insult them. He even had the power to kill them all on the spot.
Eventually, the dozen warriors retreated back, while the Hexi clan leader pondered and said, “I cannot die.”
Zhou Xu leaned back in his chair and placed one hand on the armrest of the chair. He looked casual, but at the same time, he also emitted an overpowering presence. He looked at the dozen warriors behind the chief and smiled coldly, “You heard it.”
The warriors behind obviously heard it. They didn’t utter a word because they didn’t dare to believe it. If more than a thousand warriors were gone, the Hexi clan would be thoroughly finished, but if the leader was gone, they could just choose a new one.
Their eyes were full of disappointment, Zhou Xu guessed that the warriors weren’t very supportive of their clan leader, or rather, they had been dissatisfied with him for a long time.
He just sat in his chair in that casual way, and Zhou Xu didn’t say anything. Anyway, he always liked to watch plays.
“Clan leader! That’s more than one thousand of our brothers!” One of the warriors roared out, but when he finished roaring, Zhou Xu noticed that the warrior’s eyes had already reddened.
“But I’m the clan leader, I absolutely cannot die.”
“Then a thousand of our brothers should die?” Another warrior looked angrily at the clan leader.
“So what, I’m your clan leader, you all have to listen to me.”
“What clan leader? If we lose those thousand warriors, our clan would be finished. For the sake of our clan, clan leader, I request you to commit suicide.” There were the words of the tallest warrior beside the clan leader, he was also the leader of the Hexi clan’s warriors. His prestige was basically the same as Yan He’s in the Hedong clan.
After he finished speaking, the other warriors were stunned, but then all of them also spoke up.
“Clan leader, if you don’t kill yourself, then I will make a move for the sake of those thousand brothers. Even if I will be burned to death, I will still be willing.”
“Are you rebelling?”
“We don’t want to rebel at all, you are forcing us to.”
“Heng, you must want me to die and become the clan leader. Hahaha, don’t be foolish, I’ve put the rest of the warriors under Ruan Shijin’s control. Even if you go back, you won’t be able to become the clan chief.”
The obese Hexi clan leader’s words finally made the warriors under him angry. He handed the warriors of his clan to a monster without legs?
“In that case, don’t blame me for being rude.”
The strongest warrior at the side of the leader finally drew his knife and aimed at his own leader.
Blood spurted out. Zhou Xu just happened to sit across the table, and some of the blood landed right on Zhou Xu’s face.
Zhou Xu pulled Yan He’s sleeve and wiped it directly. Yan He looked at Zhou, then used the other sleeve to wipe Zhou Xu once again.
When there was no bloodstain left on his face, Zhou Xu stood up and suddenly bowed to the warriors.
The warriors took a step back in surprise, only to hear Zhou Xu say in a very sincere and serious tone: “I was not joking when I said I wanted to merge with you. Your clan has many brave warriors, and our clan’s technology is more advanced than yours. There are many more clans in the world and we may also encounter natural disasters. In this case the stronger the clan, the better. Your leader is already dead, so I will not pursue the matter of the elders. Of course, I will spare your brothers. But please give serious consideration to the matter of merging.”
The warrior who killed the clan leader didn’t say a word all along. He suddenly kneeled down with a putong sound and put his two hands on the ground. This was the gesture of the Hexi clan when they were showing their submission.
“I agree with the fusion. Regardless of the opinions of others, I agree to stay for you.”
After he finished talking, the other warriors followed and kneeled. None of them felt that the fusion was a loss for them, rather, those who had been captives of the Hedong clan still felt that they took unfair advantage from it.
“In this case, I’ll give you the antidote.”
Zhou Xu was very generous. It was not because he didn’t doubt the loyalty of these persons, but that he understood one thing, in order to gain some people’s loyalty, one must first give their trust.
In fact, Zhou Xu was not wrong, by giving the antidote to these dozen of warriors and then these warriors in turn won the hearts of the thousand of warriors.
Occasionally, one or two of them, who were staunch supporters of the original clan leader, were killed on the spot by them. This was not because they wanted to kill, but just as how Zhou Xu had done for them, they also wanted to express their sincerity to Zhou Xu.
That night, Zhou Xu held a big welcome banquet. The warriors of the Hexi clan who had not had their fill for a long time could finally understand what was called “having ample food and clothing”.
Zhou Xu also directly announced that all the Hexi clan warriors were now their brothers and were to be treated equally.
That evening, Zhou Xu was wondering how Ruan Shijin was still alive. He then received the news that Ruan Shijin had led the remaining warriors of the Hexi clan, along with women, elders, and children together to the Hedong clan’s territory to kill.
Zhou Xu was going to die from laughing because of Ruan Shijin. He led women and elders into battle, was he stupid?
Actually, Ruan Shijin did not die because Gao Zhuang dragged his body to send Ruan Shijin in a trap they had designed. That trap was not far away, and the beasts should also leave it alone. However, the trap was too small for two people.
In the end, the exhausted Gao Zhuang saved Ruan Shijin, while he, himself, became a meal for the ferocious beasts.
Ruan Shijin was rescued a few days later, but by then Ruan Shijin had already gone mad.
He wanted to take revenge on Zhou Xu, he had to.
He endured silently to once again gain the trust of the clan leader. For this reason, he told the clan leader about him being a transmigrator and also about a lot of matters from the modern world. The clan leader didn’t know what modern world was, but he ended up thinking that Ruan Shijin could talk to their god.
Regarding this, Ruan Shijin felt it was even better. This way, it was easier to control this leader.
Finally, he found an opportunity to talk about the Hedong clan’s matter, as well as their food and houses, thus moving the Hexi clan leader’s heart.
After that, it was time for the clan leader to invade the Hedong clan with more than a thousand warriors, which of course ended in failure.
The already insane Ruan Shijin now vowed to take revenge on Zhou Xu even if he had to die. He replaced the clan leader and mobilized the entire clan to attack the Hedong clan.
However, the reality was that Zhou Xu directly invited the over one thousand warriors of the Hexi clan to go and fetch their families.
As a result, Ruan Shijin’s so-called attack became a farce.
On that night, Ruan Shijin, who had been tied up, met Zhou Xu once again, but he was already able to talk.
Zhou Xu said with a slight smile, “It seems that you have found the antidote.”
“I ate all the grass I could catch so that I didn’t die. Zhou Xu, I can’t kill you in this life, but in the next life, or the life afterwards, when I become a ghost, I will chase after you.”
“Then sorry, in my next life, I won’t be in this world.”
After talking, Zhou Xu lit the firewood under Ruan Shijin’s feet.
Burning at the stake, this was the most severe punishment of the Hedong’s clan.
Ruan Shijin died. The Hedong clan and Hexi clan completely merged.
By the time Zhou Xu was twenty-three, Zhou Xu invented the steam-powered flour mill and He Xiao invented many agricultural tools.
By the time Zhou Xu was twenty-four, all the houses of the entire Hedong clan had been turned into stone houses.
By the time Zhou Xu was thirty, the death rate of the Hedong warriors that year was zero.
By the time Zhou Xu was forty, the Hedong clan had merged with more than a dozen small and big tribes, becoming the most powerful clan of their time.
By the time Zhou Xu was fifty, he travelled with Yan He.
By the time Zhou Xu was seventy-eight, he died.
Yan He, on the other hand, had not changed at all since the year Zhou Xu met him.
Yan He finally admitted that he really was a different being and couldn’t die, unless he committed suicide. After Zhou Xu’s death, Yan He stabbed himself in the center of his foot.
Yan He died, but after death, he found himself as if slightly levitating. He thought that it was his soul, but then discovered that he was in a space where he could once again see Zhou Xu, and all his memories came back to him in an instant.
In the vast space, Yan He said to Zhou Xu, “Xiao Xu, wait for me.”
T/N : I’m really sorry that I’m a week late. I really wanted Chestnut to proofread it but she doesn’t have time because of end of semester, assignments, etc. I may update it once again when she has time to look through it. I’ll probably be able to publish the next chap part 1 this week, maybe at the end of the week, depending on the editors ~
So this is the final chap of this arc ~ What did you think about it? Personnaly, it’s my least favorite >_< it’s kind of slow-pacing, dull?
GI/N : I PULLED DILUC AND ZHONGLI \o/.