Battle Royale of the Sinners

After they passed the fire forest, they sighted the intersection of the river. One path led to the east as expected from the map. However, the other one led to the north.

The northern branch of the grand Yellow River should not have existed here!

Furthermore, the water current carried all of their boats toward the northern path, which was the wrong path.

"Steer the ship!"

"We can't! The water current is too strong!"

They could not do anything against the sudden rapid current. All of their ships were dragged to the northern waterway.

"Shit! What now?"

"Don't panic! It doesn't matter! We will have to land on the west shore for now."

The soldiers tried to steer the ships to the shore, but they encountered yet another strange sight.

A young man was sitting by the east shore at the opposite site where they were trying to go. He dipped both his hands into the river water. For some reason, the river seemed to be absorbed by the hands at a terrifying speed, as if they were a giant hole that devoured everything that came into contact with it, creating the rapid current they were facing.

The river water was being drained by his hands!

The water current was nothing but water going down the sewer holes!

Before they snapped back from the strange sight, the sounds of flying objects came at them.

*BOOM*

Boulders, rocks, and sharp ballista arrows slammed on the surface of the water. One of the stones sunk a ship from the group of 5 scout boats.

"We're under attack!"

*BOOM*

A second barrage with hundreds of head-size stones crashed onto the scout ships, cracking the woods which began leaking water.

*BOOM*

The third barrage sealed the fate of these boats. All of the scout soldiers had to abandon ships and jumped into the river to dodge the incoming attacks.

However, unlike the paranoid soldier who took off his armors and clothes before he jumped into the river, these men still wore heavy iron armor, iron boots, arm guards, and other clothes. The texture of their clothes absorbed water, making themselves heavier.

With all those extra weights on themselves, the soldiers sunk to the bottom of the river without a chance to swim on top of the water.

…

Tong swiped away the dark mud and various kinds of fishes which gathered onto his hands. The black dusk, dirt, and gooey stuff were the condensed living microorganism which could not be stored into the inventory, such as planktons, germs, virus, and parasite eggs. They got stuck onto his skins because of the [Inventory]'s suction force while he took in the Yellow River water into a slot of his inventory spaces.

He watched the sinking ships with a frown. In his radar map, one of the white dots managed to reach the south side of the shorelines.

'One has escaped. But that guy went to the other side of the river.'

'Beyond that territory, it should be the old Puyang.'

'It should take a while before Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun get the news.'

Confirmed that only one of the scout soldiers survived, he signaled the troops to stop firing the trebuchets other siege weapons.

...

In the previous day, he had made a new discovery about this [Inventory] skill while he was touching the river water.

He could store natural water in the river directly!

Tong tested it with the earth soil instead of water that day. He managed to absorb a chunk of 1 cubic meter of land soil for each use.

Since storing and taking out items from his inventory did not consume his lifespans, he started digging the ground, exploiting the feature of his [Inventory] skill.

As Tong planned out this project, he decided not to connect the new channel with the river before it was completed because it would hinder his digging job.

Tong started out by digging down one meter in depth and a hundred meters in width. It began with the small depth at first, so Tong could draft the layout of his new river at will. He leisurely absorbed the cubic-block soil, stones, and mud into his inventory as if he was playing Minecraft.

Many soldiers wanted to help, but Tong made them stood guard in case they were somehow hit by a surprise attack. Tong had seen Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun in action and he knew about their experience and their deeds in his timeline history. Letting down his guard against these two elite generals was not a good idea.

After five days of playing real-life Minecraft in this world, a new branch of the river took shape. This water path carried the stream 10 kilometers to the north. This water channel ended at the edge of Taihang Mountain Range, which was the natural barricade that separated Ji Province and Bing Province in the northern regions.

This new river branch would cut off the pathway from Henei City to Liyang City once it was finished. The only way to reach Liyang was to cross this new river, or they had to sail on the original Yellow River.

The water depth was only three meters as Tong was too lazy to dig another one meter of depth layer. This project could only be completed by him alone, so he gave up digging it too deeply. He had to walk back and forth for ten kilometers for each one-meter width of this river. This ended up with Tong walking inside the dug hole and continue touching the wall nonstop.

Tong counted the distance with his calculation and found out that he walked back and forth for over 500 kilometers in the past 5 days, and his river was only half-finished! The current width of the river was only 50 meters, not 100!

His legs trembled as he realized how hard it was to dig a 100-meter-wide river for 10 kilometers!

Alas, his project came to a stop as Tong detected the incoming ships in his radar map this morning. He decided to connect both rivers together to hasten his next project and got rid of these ships before they realized his real aim.

Although the river expansion project was canceled midway, the next project was more important. Tong had to rush it before the Imperial Army started parading along the river.

...

"Well done. For now, tell everyone to gather over here. I have an urgent job for everybody to do."

Tong opened the local map to measure the distance of the Yellow River again. Calculated the depth of the water level at high season and the current riverbank, Tong stepped back onto the higher ground.

'Rome isn't built in one day. But my barricade wall can be finished in a few days!'

'Just stay there for a little longer. Let me finish this first, so I can farm lifespans at my pace.'

On the high natural field, Tong took out grey cubic-shape stones on the ground one by one. He lined them up together, slowly making a foundation of a wall. Tong set up the foundation for the wall to show the troops how this new barricade should be built. Then he took out all "blocks" in his inventory, so the soldiers could help him construct this new barricade.

The construction progress was awkward at first because the cubic stone and mud soil was too heavy for a soldier to lift. Each of these blocks weighed at least a ton! Only Tong with the passive strength and demonic body buff could move it alone.

Tong had to chop these blocks into smaller pieces for them to carry. In the end, he doubled his workloads as he had to cut these blocks into smaller pieces for his soldiers. At the same time, he had to absorb more soil and stones from other places to make the wall materials.

'Will it be faster if I minecrafted the wall alone?' Tong hesitated.

He dismissed the thought. Tong wanted to take it easy after the marathon river digging from the past few days. Continue working like a spartan exhausted him mentally. Therefore, he decided to push some of his burden to his soldiers, so he could rest a bit.

<<Beep>>

While Tong was in the middle of the work, the system warning from the clan chat beeped. Tong opened his clan chat for the first time in this several days after he left Ye City.

A troubling message came from Li Feihong.

"Liu Ping's edict arrived at Jinyang today. They want us to join their campaign against you. What should we do?"

Tong texted back and retold what Jia Xu had planned for them. The plan was not complicated, but Li Feihong doubted his eyes as he read the texts.

Li Feihong: "But, is it ok?"

Zhang Tong: "Just keep Lu Bu in check.

Zhang Tong: "Tell him that he will get the fight he desires to his heart content."

Zhang Tong: "Heck, he will have more than enough soldiers and generals to kill."

Li Feihong: "Err … Alright then. But can Julu City hold?"

Dong Bai: "I'm here, so you don't have to worry."

Tong knitted his temples while he was reading the message from Dong Bai. Deep down inside, he was worried.

"My Xiao Wu form is probably on par with Lu Bu since Tong already has two wings and our contract is 100% of his strength. If I summon Tong's [Lust Soul] to fight alongside me, no mortal in this world can match me even if that Liu Ping has 100X of his attributes! Just do your job over there!"

"Wait, you can summon my demon soul?"

"I can. I tell you later when you come back. It will take days to teach everything to you."

"Fine, I'll leave it to all of you. By the way, has anything happened with our neighbors? Has anyone made a move yet?"

Tong asked back as he was concerned about Liu Ping's edicts. By now, Yuan Shao, Sun Jian, and Liu Yan should have received theirs. It was questionable if they would not try to take advantage of this situation. A good cause to declare war on neighbor cities was hard to come by. From Tong's impression of these three men, they would definitely attempt to take a bite on Julu City for its wealth.

Zhang Jiao replied this time. "My spy reports said Liu Yan and Yuan Shao is preparing their armies. I think they will mobilize their men in spring. But I can't get any intel from Ganling City, so I don't know if Sun Jian wants a piece of us, too."

Thanked the upcoming winter months and the late reaction of Liu Ping, Liu Yan and Yuan Shao delayed their deployment to either January or February next year because the heavy snow in the northern region was too harsh for the troops to camp in the wilderness.

'Sun Jian is probably the same. He also should not have enough supplies for this battle. I doubt he will try attacking Julu without any support from Tao Qian.'

"Father, switch your spy targets to Tao Qian force Xiapi or Pengcheng City. If they send logistic caravans to Ganling, we can assume that Sun Jian will mobilize as well."

"I see. I'll do that. Don't die out there, son!"

"Be well, Tong. You have to come back and see our baby." Hua Shi encouraged Tong.

The eyebrows of Tong shook as he detected certain lines from the chat.

"... I don't know if you notice this. But don't put a death flag on me, please."