57: Chapter 57 The Missing Tiger Girl

Li Jiao led the Rebel Army to quickly capture ten county seats. As the rebel forces gradually expanded, Li Jiao did not occupy them; instead, he retreated to his original county after looting a wave of money and grain.

He built city walls, developed civil livelihoods, manufactured weapons, and drilled his generals and soldiers.

The Pi Kingdom did not lack food, and there was no natural disaster. The fact that the common people could not afford to eat did not stop the grain in the granaries of officials and landlords from rotting!

After striking several major landlords, Li Jiao's supplies were abundant. Combined with the martial arts manuals and medicinal prescriptions gifted by Lu Hu, the Rebel Army grew visibly stronger.

Li Jiao was not satisfied. Even with the martial arts manuals, it took too long to train martial artists, and they were still unable to contend with established martial artists.

He couldn't afford to wait. So, Li Jiao brought in a cart of golden rice stalks and stayed in his room, hammering and clanking without coming out.

Seeing Li Jiao's actions, Lu Hu understood what he wanted to do. He immediately chose to stay a while longer. He also wanted to get a couple of guns to play with. Although he was now a tiger, he still quite liked things like guns.

Lu Hu discovered that Li Jiao possessed incredibly rich knowledge of firearms and extraordinary hands-on ability.

After less than a day of secluded work in the room, Li Jiao used the golden rice stalks to hand-craft a gun. It wasn't just one gun; he had actually fashioned a lathe. As long as there were materials, he could manufacture guns. This skill—he wasn't sure if it was something Li Jiao already knew or a 'golden finger' brought by his transmigration.

While the golden rice stalk guns were slightly weaker in power, when used as hidden weapons for a surprise attack, even a Third-Class Martial Artist basically couldn't block them.

Next, Li Jiao gathered materials like sulfur, nitrate, and sugar to create simple bombs. Combined with the local environment and mixed with golden rice leaves, they became an inhumane super-weapon. Once thrown, not even bones would remain!

The appearance of these weapons allowed an ordinary person to easily kill a martial artist who had practiced for decades or even a lifetime.

The Rebel Army developed rapidly. One day of growth could rival decades of effort from other factions.

During this process, there was no shortage of martial artists who came to attack Li Jiao head-on or assassinate him.

Martial artists didn't have that many First-Class experts; most were just Third or Second-Class. They were simply mowed down by the rebels wielding golden rice guns.

Among them, a First-Class Martial Artist broke into the military camp intending to assassinate Li Jiao, only to be stopped by Tiger Brother.

Although Tiger Brother was not yet a true Spirit Beast, his intelligence had awakened, and his strength was at the peak of the Second-Class. Tigers inherently possessed a natural advantage; once Tiger Brother went berserk, he could stand his ground against a First-Class expert.

Teaming up with Li Jiao, they used bombs to directly scheme the First-Class Martial Artist to death.

Out of a hundred people, one might have the aptitude for martial arts, and out of a hundred martial artists, a single First-Class expert might not even appear.

Every First-Class Martial Artist possessed great fame. After the death of one, the Pi Kingdom government realized that this peasant uprising was not just a disorganized mob.

A Grandmaster set out from the Imperial City, leading a team of ten First-Class Martial Artists. They intended to use thunderous methods to wipe out the Rebel Army in one fell swoop, serving as a warning to the 'lowly commoners' to honestly serve the Imperial Family and not indulge in delusional dreams.

The result was that the bodies of this Grandmaster and his team of ten First-Class experts were all hung upon the city walls.

Once the news spread, the common people of the entire Pi Kingdom saw hope in their hearts. With Li Jiao leading the call, the people of Pi Kingdom, who had suffered oppression and exploitation for years, finally erupted. Uprisings broke out in many places to resist the Pi Kingdom and defect to Li Jiao.

Meanwhile, the Pi Kingdom's Imperial Family fell into silence. Grandmasters were the top combat power of the Pi Kingdom, and they knew exactly how powerful a Grandmaster was. The death of one made them afraid to act rashly or send anyone else to assassinate Li Jiao. They could only vent their fury on other, less capable rebel armies.

Li Jiao's side entered a temporary period of development. Lu Hu also collected a 'tiny bit' of guns and bombs, and his stockpile of golden rice reached a full fifty tons.

Using this as seed, it would be more than enough to grow a thousand tons. Lu Hu prepared to leave.

The human world was really boring. He had already acted very kindly, yet everyone who saw him would get all worked up, and some even wet their pants in public. No fun at all.

"Roar?" (Are you sure you're not coming with me?)

Before leaving, Lu Hu asked Tiger Brother, "Roar~" (Follow me, and your strength will improve even further!)

"Roar!" (Not going, I want to stay here!)

Tiger Brother refused decisively. He had been enchanted by Li Jiao's words and spent his days dreaming of achieving great feats, leaving his name in history, and reaching the pinnacle of a tiger's life.

"Roar~" (Fine, come find me if anything happens.)

Lu Hu took out ten tiger fruits and left behind some Crimson Molten Beast meat and ten scales from the Whale Monster.

As a Grandmaster-level Crimson Molten Beast, the Whale Monster's scales were very special. They were immune to a Grandmaster's True Qi, and even a Grandmaster would have to expend considerable effort to break them.

Since the Pi Kingdom didn't even have a Grandmaster, no one could break the Whale Monster's scales.

Lu Hu personally cut the scales into small pieces and made a set of Crimson Scale Armor for Tiger Brother, protecting him from all angles.

With this, Tiger Brother only needed to worry about his offensive output on the battlefield. Even if a Grandmaster used every ounce of their strength, they wouldn't be able to hurt him.

After thinking about it, Lu Hu took out a few more scales and gave them to Li Jiao. This man's manual skills were top-tier, but his martial arts aptitude was indeed poor.

He was extremely fragile; if a martial artist got close, he would be dead.

Such a great talent couldn't be allowed to just die like that.

Lu Hu was ready to leave. After taking two steps, he suddenly turned around and stared straight at Tiger Brother.

"Roar~" (Do you really not know where Tiger Sister is?)

"Roar~" (I don't know!)

Tiger Brother's paws waved rapidly. If it were the old Big Brother, he wouldn't have said anything even if he knew Tiger Sister's location.

But now that Big Brother had changed, why would he hide Tiger Sister's location from him?

He truly didn't know. Back when he was wandering with Tiger Sister, they were starving because they couldn't catch prey. They encountered a brown bear and got separated while running away!

"Roar~" (Where is that bear?)

"Roar~" (Dead!)

Tiger Brother replied. After eating the fruit Big Brother gave him, he had gone back and bitten that bear to death.

"Roar~" (Tiger Sister might be in that direction.)

Tiger Brother pointed toward the south—not the south of the Pi Kingdom, but the south of the Tianduan Mountains.

The Tianduan Mountains were too vast. Tiger Brother didn't have a sense of smell as powerful as Lu Hu's, which could detect scents from months ago.

After searching for a long time without success, Tiger Brother had given up!

"Hmm."

Lu Hu nodded and then left the Pi Kingdom. This trip's harvest was decent: he had the golden rice, and he'd gotten some guns and bombs. The only thing was that he hadn't brought Tiger Brother back.

On the way back, Lu Hu specifically took a detour to the south to see if he could find Tiger Sister's scent, but there was no sign of her. At least within the last half year, Tiger Sister had not been active in the southern part of the mountains.

Lu Hu returned to the sinkhole and looked at the fifty tons of golden rice with a headache. With so much and no large-scale farming machinery, how long would it take to plant it all?

Lu Hu thought of Tiger Brother's Wolf Pack lackeys. Fine, it looked like he really was going to become a landlord.

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