Chinese Generals Summoning System

Chapter 9: The Second General

Upon hearing that the village ahead had just been massacred by bandits, with over a hundred corpses inside, Liu Ji was not only unfazed but his eyes lit up. He immediately exclaimed urgently, “Liu Pi, follow me into the village to see if there are any survivors left!” Over a hundred corpses—if they had died less than two hours ago—meant Liu Ji could instantly gain over a hundred soul points. Hearing this, there was no way Liu Ji would let such an opportunity slip by. Although Liu Pi had been summoned by Liu Ji through the system, he was unaware of the system’s existence. The memories the system had implanted in him led him to believe he was a native of this world, so he had no idea of Liu Ji’s urgent need to absorb soul points. “My lord, I’ve checked the entire village. There shouldn’t be a single survivor left.” “Let’s go into the village first. It’s almost dark anyway, so we’ll spend the night here for now! Niuniu, stop munching on that venison for now. We’ll have Liu Pi roast some more for you later. Close your eyes—keep them shut until I tell you to open them.” Liu Niuniu’s hands and mouth were covered in grease at that moment. Hearing Liu Ji’s words, she pouted and said, “Big Brother, Niuniu is very brave—I’m not afraid of dead people!” In the end, however, Liu Niuniu obediently closed her eyes and lay across Liu Pi’s back. With Liu Niuniu on his back and the warhorse in tow, Liu Pi followed behind Liu Ji toward the village inside the earthen enclosure. Liu Ji led the way into the earthen enclosure. As soon as he entered, he saw dozens of corpses lying on the village’s only road—mostly elderly people, children, and young men—but there were almost no young women among them. The entire village felt eerily eerie and terrifying. Liu Ji had no time to feel any fear. He immediately walked over to the body of a man in his thirties, nudged it with his foot, and a smile involuntarily tugged at the corners of his mouth. If this man had died less than two hours ago, his Soul Points would increase by one, bringing his total to 31. Liu Ji then quickly nudged all the dozens of corpses lying along the village paths with his foot. He proceeded to search for bodies inside the various thatched huts throughout the village. Even when he saw corpses with their bellies slit open and vomited violently, he did not stop his search. Liu Pi, carrying Liu Niuniu on his back, found a thatched hut with no dead bodies inside and began preparing dinner. Liu Pi, Liu Ji, and the others had fled so suddenly that they hadn’t had time to bring any food with them. The venison, dog meat, and millet they’d had earlier were all carried by the women. However, the original owner of the warhorse had tied a cloth sack to each side of the horse—one containing a little over 5 jin of soybeans, and the other holding more than 20 white flour flatbreads, each weighing about seven or eight liang. The soybeans were likely meant for the warhorse; a warhorse cannot survive on grass alone, or it would be unable to run for long distances. Adding soybeans boosts the horse’s endurance. As for the wheat flour flatbreads, they were probably prepared by the horse’s original owner for himself. Combined with the few pieces of venison Liu Ji had saved, the three of them would not be short of food for the time being. Liu Ji worked until he was drenched in sweat and pale-faced before he finally finished searching the entire village; the sweat was from exhaustion, and the pallor was from vomiting. But it was all worth it. Liu Ji ended up gaining 175 Soul Points from this village, indicating that 175 people had died at the hands of the bandits—including two infants only a few months old. This made Liu Ji grind his teeth in fury at the bandits’ cruelty, yet even as he cursed them, he still absorbed the Soul Points from the two infants. Liu Ji ultimately absorbed another 175 Soul Points in this village, bringing his current total to 205. This was enough for him to summon two more third-rate generals. Earlier, it was thanks to Liu Pi’s timely arrival that Liu Ji had survived; otherwise, he might have lost his life at the hands of the bandits. Now that Liu Ji had been separated from his father again—and was in desperate need of reinforcements—he didn’t hesitate to have the Chinese General Summoning System consume 100 soul points to summon a third-rate general. Just as Liu Ji was filled with anticipation, the system poured cold water on his hopes: “User, we deeply regret to inform you that this summoning of a third-rate general has failed! 9527 kindly reminds you that it is best to first provide your own martial prowess value to increase the summoning success rate.” Liu Ji’s current martial prowess was 8, and the success rate for summoning a third-rate general was a mere one in sixty-four. Failure was to be expected, and Liu Ji was well aware of this. However, when the system actually informed him of the failure, he was instantly devastated. He’d worked so hard to collect all those soul points, only to waste 100 of them in an instant—Liu Ji felt as if his heart were bleeding. Although the world is in turmoil right now, opportunities like this don’t come around very often. After all, there’s a restriction on absorbing Soul Points: they can only be extracted from corpses that have been dead for no more than two hours. As for the suggestion to first boost his martial prowess to increase the summoning success rate, Liu Ji could only roll his eyes—by the time his martial prowess improved, the opportunity would have long since passed. Calculating that he had 105 Soul Points remaining, Liu Ji gritted his teeth. First, he silently prayed to the gods to ensure the success of this summoning, then had the system consume another 100 Soul Points to summon yet another third-rate general. Moments later, a maniacal grin spread across Liu Ji’s face. “Congratulations, User. You have successfully summoned Gong Du, a third-rate general from the Three Kingdoms period, with a Martial Value of 69, Intelligence of 35, and Command Value of 41. In his early years, he served as a Yellow Turban general. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Gong Du and Liu Pi led a remnant force of Yellow Turban rebels and established a stronghold in Runan. After defecting to Liu Bei, Gong Du remained steadfastly loyal. During a grain transport mission, he was besieged by Cao’s forces and was ultimately slain by Xiahou Yuan in the ensuing battle!” “Gong Du’s assigned identity is that of a fellow villager of Liu Pi in this world, and he and Liu Pi are sworn brothers.” He never expected to summon Liu Pi’s best friend, Gong Du—and Gong Du’s martial prowess was even 5 points higher than Liu Pi’s. Though his intelligence and leadership scores weren’t as high as Liu Pi’s, as long as the summoning was successful, everything else was secondary. Liu Ji excitedly pumped his fists several times—this was amazing! A one-in-sixty-four chance—and he’d pulled it off again. Could it be that he was blessed with a lucky aura? Under the current circumstances, adding a highly skilled bodyguard to his side was like adding an extra layer of protection for his life. Liu Ji’s excitement was truly indescribable. “9527, where is Gong Du? Also, Gong Du is just Liu Bi’s sworn brother—can he pledge his loyalty to me?” “User, Gong Du has already reunited with Liu Pi. Please rest assured that all generals are 100 percent loyal to you and will never betray you. You have no need to worry about anything else.” Just then, Liu Pi’s voice rang out from the distance, “My Lord! My Lord! Where are you?” Liu Ji quickly replied in a loud voice, “Liu Pi, I’m right here!” Soon, Liu Pi appeared before Liu Ji, carrying Liu Niuniu on his back. Following behind Liu Pi was a burly man clad in iron armor and a steel helmet, carrying a long-handled double-edged broadsword and a bow and arrows on his back; the style of this man’s armor and helmet was identical to Liu Pi’s.