Ren Tianye steadied his mind.
"Investigate further and report back!"
Soon, the scout returned to report: "General, their... their commander is coming toward you."
"He is alone!"
"He's a burly man, carrying a tiger-head wolf-fang mace."
Ren Tianye immediately realized who it was.
Shi Hu!
Outside Sifang City, Shi Hu had been a scattered border soldier forced to become a bandit. Because he lacked equipment and horses, he had been pinned down and beaten by Sifang City's elites.
Therefore, he had come to surrender.
He had brought ten thousand men with him.
Later, Ren Tianye had sent Shi Hu in his name to recruit men in the Northern Frontier. It had been many days since they last met. Was Shi Hu back?
That's right!
Shi Hu was leading his men directly back to Yunji City!
He might not have been able to figure out Ren Tianye's exact whereabouts right away, but Yunji City was their home base—he knew that clearer than anything else.
Thinking of this, Ren Tianye spurred his horse forward.
Zhang Shi, worried about potential mishaps, followed closely behind.
Then, they saw Shi Hu riding a horse, carrying his tiger-head wolf-fang mace, galloping toward them. When he got close, he immediately dismounted and bowed deeply: "General, Shi Hu pays his respects!"
Ren Tianye also dismounted and helped him up.
He said, "General Shi Hu, it has been several days since we parted. How did the task I gave you go?"
Shi Hu looked very excited and deeply moved.
"General, I am convinced, I am truly in awe of you!"
"I followed your orders to recruit soldiers in the Northern Frontier. As soon as I mentioned that you would pay them 2.5 taels of silver a month, the vast majority agreed."
"Those who initially disagreed also agreed after hearing that you had conquered Sifang City."
"As a result, I recruited thirty thousand men in one fell swoop!"
Thirty thousand!
Ren Tianye was pleasantly surprised!
There were actually a full thirty thousand!
This was something he hadn't expected!
He had thought that it would already be extremely rare if Shi Hu could recruit ten thousand men for him. He never expected him to bring back thirty thousand!
Zhang Shi, standing to the side, felt a bit sour.
A newly surrendered general had achieved a greater merit than him!
"I originally thought that recruiting thirty thousand men would be enough to return and report back!" Shi Hu continued, "But I didn't expect that on the way back, people kept contacting me."
"They wanted to pledge allegiance to you, General!"
"After asking carefully, I found out that Shanhe City is completely empty. Countless prominent families inside wanted to defect, causing many scattered soldiers to want to ally with the prominent families of Shanhe City to take the city together."
"Knowing that I was recruiting for you, they all came to join me."
"They hope that you, General, will lead them to conquer Shanhe City."
"So, later on, I recruited another forty thousand men!"
"Seventy thousand in total!"
"They are waiting just up ahead!"
Ren Tianye was even more thrilled.
Seventy thousand men?
Are you kidding?!
He clearly remembered that when he left Yunji City to pursue Ye Fan, he only brought 3,800 men!
Which included the Eight Hundred Army!
As a result, in the blink of an eye, upon returning to Yunji City, he now had...
170,000 men!
If he added the roughly ten thousand men inside Yunji City!
He had 180,000 men in his hands!
With 180,000 soldiers, even if not many were elites, as long as they were trained a bit, they could sweep across the Northern Frontier and swallow the world!
In this Great Yu world, did he, Ren Tianye, finally have enough power to claim a piece of the pie?
He ordered, "Command them to make camp where they are!"
"I will bring my men to go see them right now!"
"And bring them back to Yunji City!"
Shi Hu quickly accepted the order and added, "General, their intention is to attack and capture Shanhe City. What do you think..."
"I have already taken Shanhe City!"
Ren Tianye immediately went to dispatch his troops.
After all, he couldn't go alone into an army of seventy thousand whose background he hadn't fully figured out yet.
This left Shi Hu stunned.
"Shanhe City has already been taken?"
"Shanhe City is taken!" Zhang Shi muttered gloomily from the side.
"Really?" Shi Hu's previous official position was a participating general, which was one rank higher than Zhang Shi's guerrilla general rank. But now that Zhang Shi had been following the General for a long time, he naturally didn't dare to underestimate him.
With a very friendly expression on his face, he said, "General Zhang Shi, you guys are truly amazing!"
"To think you actually captured Shanhe City."
"Mm!"
"General Zhang Shi, what's wrong? Why do you sound so sour?"
"It's nothing, just a toothache!"
...
Yunji City.
The city gates were wide open.
Sun Xiang, who had already received the news, had long been waiting at the gate with his men to welcome them.
Seeing the army approaching, he immediately took a half-kneeling posture to salute.
He felt the horses rush to his side like a gust of wind. Looking up, he saw Ren Tianye leap down from his horse.
Ren Tianye pulled him up in one swift motion.
"Sun Xiang, well done!"
Ren Tianye patted Sun Xiang on the shoulder, his tone full of praise.
This single sentence almost made Sun Xiang burst into tears.
When facing the relentless day-and-night siege of the barbarian army of eighty thousand, he hadn't cried; when facing the chaos in the city and the shortage of equipment, he hadn't cried; when facing mountainous pressure, he hadn't cried.
He had always gritted his teeth and dealt with it strongly.
But Ren Tianye's single sentence brought all the hidden bitterness and grievances in his heart to the surface, surging and unstoppable!
Worthless tears just fell down.
It was like a wandering son finding someone to rely on; all his hardships finally had a place to be poured out!
Ren Tianye patted him on the head to comfort him, took his hand, and headed straight back to the General's Manor.
During this process, Sun Xiang's emotions finally settled down. Moreover, after experiencing this difficult defensive battle, his psychological endurance had become much stronger. In the future, his shoulders would be able to carry even greater burdens!
In Ren Tianye's eyes, he was absolutely a fine general!
—How could there be so many favored sons of heaven in this world? Among the vast majority of famous generals who went down in history, which one wasn't forged step by step on the battlefield?
As long as there was an opportunity!
Even talents from a single county or commandery were enough to rule the entire world!
"Convene the council!"
Ren Tianye gave the order.
All the matters from this recent period were gathered together. The main issue he had to deal with was the matter of military merits!
Especially the military merits of the soldiers!
After all, they were newly subdued and hadn't fully integrated into his Yunji City family yet, so they needed to be rewarded immediately.
Ren Tianye was not stingy.
Merits must be rewarded!
As the rewards were distributed one by one and the news reached the ears of the large army stationed inside and outside Yunji City, waves of cheers erupted.
He dealt with it until midnight before barely finishing.
Then...
There remained those who were not soldiers but had achieved great merit!
Ren Tianye had someone call for Su Hong.
His face was amiable, with a friendly smile on his lips.
"Su Hong!"
"This commoner is here!" Su Hong quickly stepped forward, feeling a wave of daze in his heart. He still remembered that Ren Tianye had previously called him "Second Uncle!"
That was a much more intimate address.
It was also an address that had almost driven him, and their Su Manor, into a desperate situation.
"Sun Xiang told me about your contributions. On behalf of the people of Yunji City, I thank you."
"During this outing, your eldest niece Su Jin also achieved great merit."
"All things considered, your Su Manor has given me a pleasant surprise once again!"
Su Hong knew what Ren Tianye meant by the previous pleasant surprise; those nightmare-like days still left him with lingering fears.
However, this time, there was finally no need to live in constant anxiety.
"From now on, the trade in the Northern Frontier shall be entrusted to your Su Manor."
"Once I conquer the entire realm, I shall continue to rely heavily upon your Su Manor!"
"You had best not disappoint me again!"
...
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
