"I...did I hit him too hard?" Princess Changning asked hurriedly as she rubbed Qin Mu's sore throat upon hearing his scream.
Qin Mu was fine, of course. Princess Changning hadn't hit him too hard. Feeling Princess Changning's burning body temperature, Qin Mu couldn't help but bite her neck and gently suck on it.
Princess Changning was suddenly attacked and froze as if she had been struck on a pressure point. Then she felt a warm sensation envelop her earlobe, and her mind went completely blank.
"Hmm!" This was an unprecedented experience, causing her to make an involuntary sound. Then her legs went weak, and she leaned against Qin Mu instead.
At this moment, Qin Mu was no longer tired at all; on the contrary, he was full of energy! However, he knew that this was not the right time, so he slightly hardened his body to show respect, then stepped back and helped Princess Changning to the right.
Good heavens! Princess Changning glanced back at Qin Mu, her watery eyes almost making him lose control.
This happened very quickly. The loud shouts of battle around them brought them to their senses, and they hurriedly stood at attention, looking towards the battlefield.
With over a thousand transformed soldiers, the killing became much faster, and one ferocious beast after another was quickly brought down.
"That's not right! Why are we only seeing ferocious beasts and not any beastmen?" Seeing that most of them had already been killed, Zhai Changsun walked back and asked with a frown.
"It must take quite a few people to control so many ferocious beasts, right?" Qin Mu asked.
“There are definitely quite a few. Judging from the current situation, there must be at least a hundred beast tamers, plus the cooperation of priests. If they were to take action, we wouldn’t be able to do it so easily!” Zhai Changsun explained.
The unknown is what worries us the most, so Qin Mu had to brace himself and personally go around the camp again to check it out.
Back at the camp's main gate, the battle was over. Aside from a few struggling beasts, nothing else was alive and kicking. The pungent stench of blood assaulted everyone's senses; no one let their guard down, all remaining vigilant and observing the outside world.
With a thought, Qin Mu sent the remaining conjured soldiers rushing out of the camp. Qin Mu's effective control range was now three hundred meters; beyond that, he could only let them move freely until the righteous energy dissipated and they disappeared. The area outside the camp was now filled with enemies, so he wasn't worried about friendly fire.
Watching the illusory soldiers disappear into the darkness without a fight breaking out, Zhai Changsun and Qin Mu frowned. The orcs wouldn't just randomly show up and run away without even revealing themselves. They weren't there to offer themselves up for a ride.
In any case, they couldn't just wait idly. Qin Mu ordered 500 men to clean up the battlefield, finish off the wild beasts, and repair the camp as much as possible. At the same time, dozens of bonfires were lit outside the camp, illuminating it brightly.
A wild beast is still a wild beast. Even when controlled, it will instinctively avoid the fire, and the firelight will also allow it to see further.
Qin Mu and his men were worried, but the soldiers were overjoyed. One after another, the wild beasts were carried into the camp, and then they began to skin and butcher them. The main reason was that in this weather, the meat would likely spoil if it wasn't processed quickly.
Qin Mu used the excuse of resting to go to the middle of the camp and collect the corpses of twenty tigers into the Heavenly Mystery Tower. The main reason was that it was inconvenient to expose them, otherwise he could have collected them all.
The battle lasted only an hour, but it was extremely fierce. The frontal defenses of the camp were almost completely destroyed. Fortunately, Qin Mu intervened in time, and with the help of his soldiers, they achieved victory, and not many people were killed.
However, the cost was no less than yours: two thousand men were exhausted, and three hundred were seriously injured. The main problem was the sheer strength of the beasts. If several attacked a squad simultaneously, their formation couldn't hold. A mere graze resulted in injury, and a direct hit meant death.
Another reason Qin Mu avoided the scene was that he didn't want to see dead people. It wasn't that he was afraid, but he felt a pang of sorrow and couldn't bear to look at them. Apart from the Xuanjia Army soldiers, everyone in the camp was a familiar face; he had personally trained some of them, and had even spoken with some of them.
People from a peaceful world can never be as indifferent to life and death as Cheng Huaimo and his companions, especially to people they know well.
"Forty-six lives," was Yuchi Baolin's report. Qin Mu frowned upon hearing this, then immediately devoted himself to treating the seriously injured.
Most of the injured were seriously injured, with fractures being the most common. Fortunately, Qin Mu had not only read several medical books but also had a great understanding of human anatomy. Combined with his knowledge, he was able to treat the injured without being overwhelmed.
As he became more skilled, he treated more and more people, and faster and faster. Then Qin Mu had the meat cooked. The meat of these wild beasts was the best way to nourish the body, and besides, the more than two thousand exhausted people also needed nourishment.
"Brother Qin! Have a bowl of soup!" Xiangli Yanran walked up to Qin Mu with a large bowl in her hand. Although it was called soup, it was almost entirely filled with meat.
"Thank you!" Qin Mu didn't stand on ceremony and took it without hesitation.
After eating, more than an hour had passed since the battle began, and there was still no movement. Only then did Qin Mu feel slightly relieved.
"Huai Dao, I think the orcs have really retreated! They probably don't want to lose manpower, after all, this is the heart of the Central Plains, and it won't be easy for them to replenish their forces. Every one who dies is one less," Cheng Huaimo analyzed.
“You make a good point. Let’s arrange for someone to be on duty later, and everyone else can rest!” Qin Mu thought for a moment and agreed.
In fact, Qin Mu and his group didn't know that the orcs didn't attack because they were completely frightened by Qin Mu. Ordinary Confucian cultivators could hardly conjure up such solid soldiers, and even if they could, they would only be a few. How could Qin Mu have produced nearly two thousand soldiers at once, along with several experts who could shoot rapid-fire arrows?
Therefore, the orcs believed that there was at least one great Confucian scholar in the camp, not to mention the great general Zhai Changsun. After all, it was reasonable to send a great Confucian scholar and a great general to protect the princess.
Even a few thousand soldiers around a great scholar are far more powerful than tens of thousands. They had no chance of winning, so they wisely chose to retreat. After all, even if the beasts were gone, they could still be tamed in the mountains.
The orcs, living deep in the mountains, also face immense hardship. Many of their people die each year, making them even more determined to avoid further losses; otherwise, even victory would be futile. A mere hundred or so individuals cannot survive alone. Furthermore, there are beings in the mountains they cannot afford to provoke.
"Hmph! We've really suffered a huge loss this time!" A tall orc said with heartache from a mountain peak only ten miles away from the camp.
This time, their military campaign was certainly not without reason. Someone had lured them with weapons while simultaneously leaking information about the princess's presence in the camp. By killing the princess, incurring Li Shimin's wrath, and causing chaos in the Central Plains, they would have a chance to return to their ancestral grasslands.
"We'll talk about it when we get back!" the priest, carrying a wooden staff, said with a gloomy face.
"Priest! You've suffered such a great loss and you're just going to let it go?" the orc asked, his eyes wide.
"Don't worry, even if we don't take the camp, they won't dare to shortchange us on those weapons!" the priest said in a deep voice.
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