At 100 years old, he joined the army in place of his granddaughter, and became a national war god.

"Get up! Get up!"

Before dawn, a piercing sound of gongs and drums rang out from outside the camp, accompanied by a loud roar:

"We have a big task today, so get to work quickly! Let's get started!"

Su Mu woke up from his sleep.

He propped himself up on the hard bed and rubbed his lower back with his withered hands.

The bed board was as hard as stone; after sleeping on it all night, every bone in my body was protesting.

The other cooks around him were already getting dressed.

They moved swiftly, quickly putting on their coarse cloth clothes and slipping on their straw sandals as they walked outside.

Someone passing by Su Mu paused, looked down at him, and paused in their tracks.

"Old man, at your age, you still sleep so well?" The man sneered, his tone sarcastic. "Get up and get to work. Let me make this clear: our cook camp doesn't support idlers. We won't pity you just because you're old."

Su Mu ignored him and focused on dressing.

Outside the camp, it was just beginning to get light.

About two hundred cooks stood together, forming a crooked and awkward line.

Some people were still yawning, some were rubbing their eyes, and some were squatting on the ground tying their straw sandal straps.

Zhao Huotou stood at the very front of the line, his chubby face taut with tension.

He glanced at the ranks, cleared his throat, and said, "Listen up! Today we received orders from General Qin to prepare food for an additional five thousand men! So today's workload is increased!"

A commotion broke out in the line; some people whispered among themselves, while others sighed.

Zhao the cook's eyes widened, and he continued, "Especially those who carry water and chop firewood!"

As he spoke, his gaze swept over the row where Su Mu was located.

Su Mu then realized that the team he was assigned to had the hardest job in the cookhouse: carrying water and chopping wood.

"This morning, you need to carry two thousand buckets of water and two thousand loads of firewood!"

Upon hearing this, the group erupted in chaos.

"Two thousand barrels? In just one morning?"

"Are you crazy?! Who can handle this?"

"There are only ten of us, and each of us needs two hundred buckets and two hundred loads!"

"This isn't work, this is death!"

Complaints rose and fell, but Zhao Huotou remained unmoved, arms crossed, utterly serious.

"I don't care whether you can finish it or not." His voice turned cold. "If the general holds you accountable, you'll be responsible yourselves."

"You all divide the tasks yourselves and get to work immediately!"

The captain of Su Mu's team stepped forward.

He was a man in his thirties, tall and lean, but with a lot of muscle!

He sighed, shook his head, and said with a sense of helplessness.

"Did you all hear that? Two thousand buckets of water, two thousand loads of firewood."

"There are ten of us. Each of us will carry two hundred buckets and two hundred loads. It's fair and just. No one can slack off."

His gaze swept across the group, finally settling on Su Mu, where he paused for a moment.

I won't pity you just because you're old.

"This is a military camp, not a charity, so I will treat everyone the same."

The men next to Su Mu all turned to look at him, eager to see what would happen to him.

"Old man, you'd better do a good job." A burly man crossed his arms and smiled. "Don't hold us back."

He shook his fist, his knuckles cracking.

Another tall, thin man chimed in, his tone sarcastic: "Hey, don't say that. What if the old man is a hidden master?"

"They came carrying a greatsword; they could probably split a mountain in two with a single blow!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The group burst into laughter.

"Alright, alright, stop joking around." Captain Wang waved his hand. "Disperse! Get to work!"

The crowd dispersed in a commotion, each grabbing their carrying poles and buckets.

Su Mu stood still, without moving.

He ignored the ridicule.

He had one thing on his mind: how to finish all this work.

Two hundred buckets of water, two hundred loads of firewood.

For young people, it's a long, tiring day.

For an old man like him, even working normally, it would take seven days to finish the job.

But his current strength is not that of a normal person.

The effects of the powerful pills are still present.

He can lift 2,000 jin with one hand, and carrying dozens of buckets of water at a time is no problem.

The problem is that the carrying pole isn't long enough; it can only carry a maximum of four buckets of water at a time!

Su Mu's gaze swept around the camp and landed on a thick wooden pole piled next to a woodpile.

That wooden pole was at least ten meters long and as thick as a bowl. It was leftover scraps from when we set up the tent, and it had been sitting there for days without anyone using it.

Su Mu walked over, bent down, and picked up the wooden pole.

Then he walked over to the pile of buckets.

One, two, three...

He started hanging buckets on the wooden pole.

One after another, they were hung up neatly, with twenty-five on each end of the wooden pole, for a total of fifty.

Upon seeing this scene, the cooks who were busy working around stopped what they were doing one after another.

They turned their heads and looked at the white-haired, hunched-over old man who was hanging buckets densely on the wooden pole.

Everyone's mouths were agape.

"What...what is that old man doing?"

"Is he crazy? How many buckets are hanging on that pole?"

"Let me count... one, two, three... my goodness, fifty!"

"Fifty buckets? Each bucket, when full, weighs at least thirty pounds, so fifty buckets would weigh 1,500 pounds! Add that wooden pole, and it's almost two thousand pounds!"

"How could a 100-year-old man lift 2,000 pounds?"

"He can't even carry these fifty empty buckets!"

"Is this old man not thinking straight?"

"Two thousand catties? Even an ox couldn't carry two thousand catties!"

"Don't laugh," someone said, suppressing a laugh. "What if they actually start something?"

"Really? If he can even lift it, I'll eat this carrying pole right here and now!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The laughter grew louder and louder, and more and more people gathered around to watch the spectacle.

Not only the cooks, but even the soldiers in the neighboring supply battalion were alerted, craning their necks to look this way.

"What's going on over there? It's so lively!"

"I heard a centenarian has come to the kitchen camp and wants to carry fifty buckets to fetch water!"

"A centenarian? Carrying fifty buckets? Hahaha! This is more entertaining than a monkey show!"

More and more people gathered around, forming layers upon layers, chattering and pointing.

Su Mu turned a deaf ear.

He crouched down and steadily placed the wooden pole on his shoulders, gripping both ends of the pole with both hands to test its weight.

An empty bucket with wooden poles weighs about 300 jin (150 catties).

For him, it was a piece of cake.

So he easily lifted the entire thick wooden pole with fifty buckets hanging on it.

A ten-meter-long wooden pole lay across his shoulder, with twenty-five iron buckets hanging from each end, swaying back and forth like a giant centipede.

Then they slowly walked toward the water source.

Behind me, there was only deathly silence.

The person who was just laughing suddenly stopped laughing.

His eyes were wide open like saucers, and his expression was as if he had seen a ghost.

"He...he really stirred things up?"

"Fifty buckets, at least three hundred pounds... How can a centenarian carry three hundred pounds so steadily?"

"It's not just two hundred pounds! You forgot? That was an empty bucket! He'll need to fill it with water when he gets to the water source! Once it's full, it'll probably weigh over two thousand pounds!"

"Two thousand pounds...can he still walk?"

No one answered the question.

Because everyone wants to know the answer.

"What are you doing?"

"Why not practice!"

A captain, seeing that the soldiers were not doing their morning drills but instead gathering in a group to watch the spectacle, became angry and roared at them.

"Sir, look over there!"

The captain followed the soldier's finger and was immediately dumbfounded.

An old man with white hair was carrying a long row of buckets on his shoulders!

"What's going on with this old man?!"

"At his age, he still has this much strength?"

"Truly a divine being!"

"I must inform General Qin!"

After saying that, the captain ran towards the general's tent!