Rebirth of the Prime Dragon Master
Chapter 354 It Was A Plague

Rocky came back to the stationed military camp late at night.

"Where have you been?" Marin looked petulant as she interrogated earnestly upon Rocky's appearance. She had been waiting for him in the middle of the campsite. She sounded to be daunted witless that Rocky would not come back. And the mere thought agonized her a bit.

"As I informed you before I took off, I went for a stroll.” Rocky twisted his lips as he responded. And again he sought from the Deputy Commander Chen, "Are you done with what I assigned you to do?"

"Yes, everything is all set up.” Deputy Commander Chen nodded his head as he took a glimpse at the hundred bodies that were laid beside them. Those bodies had been degraded beyond recognition.

Rocky approached the bodies to look at them by himself in order to ward off any mistake. He found no foibles in the result. So he proposed to the Deputy Commander Chen to lead in person of several scores of soldiers to complete the plan. They commanded the soldiers to stuff the hundred bodies on ten grain carts. They subsequently transported the bodies out of their stationed camp. They went on until they appeared to a small river which was adjacent to the two eastern camp sites of the Timber Deity Empire. They forced all the bodies into the stream.

They returned to the stationed camp under cover of the night after they had completed their tasks. The next morning, inside the right camp of the Timber Deity Empire at the east side, two Commanders were debating about the schemes to beleaguer and apprehend the Rough Slope by one single battle since they received the order from their princess.

"Commander Zhou, Commander Zuo, we are in a tight corner!" A Deputy Commander shrieked as he hastened like a hunted deer into the camp with significant perturbation at that moment.

"What is the matter there?” Commander Zhou rapped over the knuckles.

"Many soldiers felt numb this morning when they woke up this morning. They were utterly paralyzed," the Deputy Commander reported straight away.

The two Commanders looked at each other in silence as a lamb for a few seconds before Commander Zhou asked hurriedly like lightning, "What is the diagnosis of the military doctor?" "The military doctor thought they might have been poisoned,” the Deputy Commander replied. "Poisoning?" Commander Zuo looked grave upon the news. Again he inquired again, "What did they have for supper yesterday?"

"They presumably had the same food as the others," the Deputy Commander responded.

"Is that possible that someone poisoned the food?" Commander Zuo made suppositions.

"The military doctor recommended paying a visit to the river where we used to take the water from to have an investigation on the cause..." The Deputy Commander continued his answer.

"Then what are you still twiddling your thumbs for? Send someone to find out what is the problem in a flash,” Commander Zhou ordered in a dull voice.

The Deputy Commander disengaged himself with the directive.

"Commander Zhou, what about the plan to blockade the Rough Slope? Shall we institute it in a dash?" Commander Zuo fixed his gaze at Commander Zhou as he posed for answers.

"It will be appropriate for us to hold our horses for the result of the investigation. We cannot afford to fail this time. Otherwise, we will have to start digging our graves. The princess will not exonerate on one more out of the blue failure.” Commander Zhou figured out that they had put themselves in grave jeopardy since they let the northeast army get the military provisions and supplies. They would be incarcerated to death if they flopped in the capture of the Rough Slope.

Shortly thereafter, the squad that was dispatched to investigate delivered back the report promptly after they found a hundred rotten bodies on the upstream of the water source. They found the bodies were severely disgusting with overpowering malodor.

The news frightened the two Commanders. Unable to comprehend what had just occurred, they decided to go to the spot in person with the military doctor. The military doctor concluded after careful examination and identification.

"They might have infected by some sort of plague which fatally festered their body. It seems that the soaked body resolved some kind of poison which contaminated the water of this river. That was why some of the soldiers paralyzed after consuming the water from this river,” the military doctor judged.

"Then, why are the rest of the soldiers all in perfect condition?" Commander Zhou inquired.

"It probably has something to do with the constitution of the body. But what is imperative right now is whether the poison would develop into another plague. Everyone in the entire military camp would be infected once it develops into a plague. If that were the case, we'd be in big trouble,” the military doctor acknowledged.

"What safety measures can be taken to deter it from occurring?” The two Commanders were struck dumb to the diagnosis of the doctor. They stood as if paralyzed from the neck up. The tens of thousands of soldiers in the east campsite would have no lack of conviction that they would be infected if the plague were real.

"We have to burn these bodies in the first hand. Then we have to put the soldiers who were poisoned in an isolated room. At the same time, we need to collect some herbs that can discharge the toxic. Then, inculcate the herbs to medical liquid. Spray the liquid on every corner of the two campsites. And everyone from the military camp, include the two Commanders, has to be immersed in the medical liquid. As for the soldiers who had been poisoned, they would be all right if there were not any other symptoms by tomorrow evening,” the military doctor said.

"Tomorrow night? Then, does that imply that we have to bog down our ambush by two days?" Commander Zuo glanced, making inquiries to Commander Zhou.

"These bodies should have been discarded here by the northeast army. I have the notion that the plague might have been spread in the entire northeast military camp. They also wanted the epidemic to spread over in our camp. If we take action to attack them, we may fall prey to their trap. What if it is what they want? Since they have only a few thousands of soldiers, they will feel it worth to die with our army of twenty thousand. So I think they threw the infected bodies to the source of our water to hook us up. We need to be on guard about it.” Commander Zhou had a sneaking feeling with his concerns.

"Then we shall follow the military doctor's instruction.” Commander Zuo could not help but nod in compliance. The Commanders ordered the soldiers to incinerate the bodies immediately. The first thing they did when they showed up to their east campsite was to put the paralyzed soldiers in an isolated place. Then, an army of several hundreds of soldiers were sent to the hills near their campsite to collect some toxic-expelling herbs. They subsequently infused the herbs into medical liquid. They sprayed the medical liquid to every corner of the military campsites very carefully, and used it to soak themselves as a preventive measure.

But, the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire were with one's stomach in knots in front of a mere possibility of a plague. The morale of the soldiers fell to zilch.

Meanwhile, Rocky pricked up his ears to the report from the intelligence personnel in the camp with his legs crossing and yarning at the same time.

"They have fallen into the trap. They were convinced that there was a plague. Hah-hah..." Rocky laughed out loud. His giggle was a stone bouncing across a glossy lake, creating ripples of mirth where there had been none.

"I can't believe we pulled a fast one on them.” Marin was also shell startled by the outcome. When Rocky first came up with the idea, she did not perceive it would stand any chance to work out. In case the dupe was seen through, the scorned twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire would take action to invade the campsite in Rough Slope. If that were the case, they would have been wiped out by the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire.

"But, it would not take long for them to smoke out, right?" Deputy Commander Chen worried. The Commanders of the Timber Deity Empire would not be so dumb to have been fooled by Rocky for three days.

"That can at least buy us some time till tomorrow evening. In this case, we will have two days in hand. We will triumph the battle if we can hold on one more day.” Rocky squinted his eyes as he said, filled with aplomb.

"But, what if the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire perceived it is out ploy to buy us more time by tomorrow? And they preferred to assail us under the cover of the night. What shall we do then?" Marin wondered.

"That is highly possible. So we have to finish all our deployment before the dark of tomorrow. We will make a move before they could make a riposte.” Rocky awakened everyone by his comment. "Make a move before they could respond?" Marin and Deputy Commander Chen marveled in a lack of credence.

"That is correct. We require to knock out the spirit of the army of the Timber Deity Empire. Let's call it a Move of Decapitation.” Rocky bowed his head.

"What is a Move of Decapitation?" Marin and Deputy Commander Chen were in complete bewilderment.

"You know, there are two Commanders. Each of them commands two campsites respectively in the Timber Deity Empire. If only we could eradicate either one of the Commanders, then the soldiers of the two campsites could go to rack and ruins due to the lack of leadership. The military force of the Timber Deity Empire would be forced to reorganize. That would take at least another day. Then we can make it for these three days." There was a cold look in Rocky's eyes.

Marin and Deputy Commander Chen were left mouth-open after they heard Rocky's plan.