Gentle Hearthfire, Iron Steeds Across Frozen Rivers

The storm had arrived. Yet let it come. What did it have to do with him? Near the end of the rainy season, the currents of the Endless Sea churned like boiling water. Swept along by sweeping gusts of howling gales, torrential downpours battered the world, blanketing every inch of sea and land with suffocating thoroughness. In weather this wretched, even a dog wouldn't want to step outside. Outside, the rain poured in sheets, and the distant roar of the coastal tide surged in deafening clamor, yet the room inside remained entirely tranquil. Amidst the howling wind, raindrops the size of beans drummed incessantly against the window panes. Beneath the gentle glow of the lamp, Ji Jue held an enamel mug as he waited for his tea to steep, lounging on the couch with his feet kicked up, lazily perusing the Mirror of Contained Forms. With his materials gradually coming together, he seized the time to study the secret teachings of Chunjun and Pan Ying. Even though he already knew them backward and forward, cross-referencing and comparing the two still brought occasional flashes of insight and progress. *Ah, this is the life!* *Soft is the firewood, warm the barbarian rug; neither Isis nor I shall step out the door!* "Sir, the only one not stepping out the door is you, isn't it?" A certain workshop spirit—tasked with managing myriad affairs across all of Xinquan, maintaining surveillance, overseeing the ever-expanding underground workshops, and directing hundreds of augmented workers—numbly checked today's production KPIs while deftly zapping an employee who was playing dead to slack off, all while wrapping up the aftermath of a safety incident from that very morning... Just ten minutes earlier, a power substation had tripped from an overload. In a chain reaction, another substation was on the verge of failing. A repair team was being organized to set out immediately. During personnel screening, Employee No. 1098 was found to have worked overtime for more than six consecutive hours, exhibiting warning signs such as impaired focus; the application was rejected, and off-duty reserve personnel were dispatched on an emergency basis... At the same time, to maintain Haian Industries' power supply, the load on the six other electrical facilities had risen, exceeding their safety margins. Due to the rainy season, today's vegetable supplies fell short, necessitating a temporary reduction in the menu variety while dispatching a convoy to source groceries nearby. Negotiations with the supplier concluded; advance payments... dispatches... long-term supply adjustments... A fire broke out in Workshop No. 8; human error was ruled out, emergency clearing underway, comprehensive maintenance initiated... Inside the workshop, the fourth batch of materials was undergoing pre-treatment... Kitchen hot water was ready, switched to keep-warm mode, tea steeping duration... Beyond that, the biggest chunk of work was the Haizhou Sweep Plan. Team One had sustained casualties; personnel shifts made; infirmary emergency protocols initiated... Countless tangled affairs flooded in all at once. Within the four-phase spiritus calculation circuits, lights flickered, and spark-like flashes emerged and burst from the spiritus crystal. A deluge of tasks that would give any ordinary human an instantaneous brain hemorrhage was systematically, multithreadingly resolved under the orderly handling of the workshop spirit. At this moment, in the thick of her frantic workload, Isis looked back once more to hear the urging: *"Isis, isn't the tea ready yet?"* Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming urge to ignite the gas and blow it all to kingdom come. "Sir?" Isis's projection lifted her skirt in a curtsey, offering a respectful greeting. "Yeah?" Ji Jue chuckled foolishly at a funny short video Ye Chun had sent him, turning his head to ask, "Isis, did you see this? Come look at this cat..." Isis made a heartfelt plea. "Would you kindly go die?" She paused for a moment and added, "You may take that cat along with you." "What did the cat ever do wrong?!" Ji Jue gasped in shock. "Whether the cat dies or not doesn't matter, so long as you die." Isis warned him coldly, "Or you could take the initiative to shift your honorable backside, drag yourself to the kitchen, and pour the boiling water down your throat along with the tea leaves, putting a swift end to this unsightly display." "Fine, fine." Resigned, Ji Jue hauled himself up, yawning sluggishly as he poured the boiled water into the kettle, asking along the way, "Is lunch ready? What are we having? If no one buys groceries soon, it'll be too late, won't it?" "Today's lunch doesn't require vegetables," Isis smiled. "Is there not enough meat either?" "No meat is required either." Isis said, "You may choose to eat your favorite lead bullets, or you can raise those hands that ought to be accomplishing far more and order yourself takeout!" "Ah, the rebellious phase..." Ji Jue shook his head and sighed. Looking out the window at the momentary lull in the storm, he decided not to eat at home for lunch. Flipping through his chat groups, the people in Beishan District were still working overtime in the high seas on cleanup, so he couldn't count on them. But he could head over to his teacher's workshop; after all, it was only a few steps away. Even though his teacher was still busy, it didn't matter. He could just get Ye Chun to whip up a couple of dishes for him! That way, it would count as her contributing to the advancement of alchemy, wouldn't it? *Boom!!!* Across the overcast sky, a wild streak of lightning flashed without warning. The heavens roared with wrathful thunder. Underneath that same dark canopy and sheeting rain, thunder echoed across the wilderness. Plumes of thick smoke billowed into the sky, while torrential downpours failed to quench the roaring fires spreading over the hilltops. The firepower of a few machine guns stood no chance against the assault of a formidable foe. Under the barrage of howitzers, the towering walls of Panshan Stronghold collapsed with a deafening crash. Screams resounded without end as severed limbs and shattered remains were thrown into the air, splashing down into the mud alongside bloody runoff. Amid the bleak wind and wretched rain lay a scene of utter apocalypse. The artillery roared ceaselessly. Ignoring the wails and pleas for mercy, the howitzer gunners expressionlessly reloaded, fired, reloaded, and fired again. By the time ten rounds had been spent, the heavily fortified Panshan Stronghold was reduced to a battered, hollow shell riddled with holes. "That's about enough." In the passenger seat of an armored vehicle, Lu Feng flicked his cigarette butt out the window and picked up the walkie-talkie. "All units, breach. Execute the sweep—" Instantly, pairs of ferocious, crimson eyes flared to life in the misty rain. Amid the sharp screeches of grinding metal, the iron giants that had been half-kneeling on the ground, bathed in rain, slowly rose. The heavy, bullet-scarred exoskeletons were pitch-black, bearing only the Haian Industries emblem, stark white as bleached bone. The moment a flare as seductive as fire shot into the sky, massive ballistic shields were raised like walls of iron, shoved boldly forward like iron steeds galloping across frozen rivers in a nightmare, surging forward with a roar! "Drop your weapons and surrender! Kneel and be spared—!" Between the gaps of thunderous blasts and gunfire, a static-laced, grating voice suddenly erupted from the massive loudspeakers outside Panshan Stronghold, looping without pause. Yet simultaneously, countless drones launched like a swarm of hornets from the control vehicle, diving into the stronghold. Their cameras swept contemptuously across the grounds, scanning over threatening targets, tagging them, locking coordinates, and transmitting the data. Instantly, upon the visor screens of the exoskeletons, figures hiding inside the stronghold emerged from the incoming feeds, with armed, high-threat targets highlighted in red. There was no need to plunge into the melee. Straight through the fractured walls, the heavy power armor lifted an arm. An anchor armor-piercing gun locked on, and the trigger was pulled. Right after, in the infrared scan, a glowing-hot metal stake pierced clean through the wall, plunged into a body, and dragged the impaled silhouette along with it, pinning them firmly against the far wall. Agonized screams rose without end. The devastating advance and slaughter had only just begun! Under the reconnaissance and target locks of the vanguard drones, it was as if they had opened a Heavenly Eye, steamrolling across the terrain. Signal relay and transmission, threat identification algorithms and analysis, protocol coupling and bridging, exoskeleton targeting assistance and attack warnings, coordinated howitzer and rocket bombardments... Every piece meshed with seamless, natural perfection. A terrifying efficacy that outstripped the Federation Military Department's forty-one-million-dollar squad combat coordination systems had already been achieved—and far surpassed—under the wondrous workings of Deus Ex Machina. Even with completely mismatched parts, chips from various manufacturers, disparate motherboard specs, and hundreds to thousands of differing protocols, authentication methods, and cross-system operations, all hurdles were rendered negligible. As long as a prototype had run through the process once with the help of Deus Ex Machina, everything merged seamlessly into a single whole, as if born that way. Afterward, all it took was mass production and regular server maintenance. At this moment, for all the Haian members, this was less like combat and more like a game—easier even than an FPS. There was no need to worry about health bars; composite armor was more than enough to shrug off ordinary bullets, and the heavy alloy shields could easily withstand close-range explosions and the shockwaves of armor-piercing shells. It even came with wallhacks and aimbot. When had the frontline grunts, who used to fight for scraps in the mud of trenches, ever enjoyed such absurd luxury? Sitting inside armor, pressing a button, and the paycheck was in hand? It even included special combat hazard pay, weather subsidies, and double pay for overtime! Every single one of them charged forward like rabid dogs let out of a cage, tearing ahead with fearless abandon, undaunted unless the system warned of low power or critical damage. Meanwhile, the opponents who had drawn the short straw of matching against them could only weep, howl, and wait to die as quickly as possible. They couldn't even see the enemy before being turned into minced meat through the walls. Stubborn resistance was entirely futile. Yet no one dared drop their weapons, nor did anyone wish to surrender. It wasn't that they doubted Haian's integrity, but rather that they knew Haian's methods all too well... According to Haian's rules, everyone in Panshan Stronghold right now—save for the reserve rations and merchandise locked in the dungeons—deserved to die, every single one of them. And even if they wanted to die, they might not get the chance. If the other side applied even half the torment they themselves had inflicted upon those goods and toys onto them, they'd much rather die clean and quick! Their current wailing and screaming were merely the echo of what they had done to others countless times before, now turned back upon themselves. No one would waver for tears, and no one would hesitate for pleas of mercy. Die! The combatants faithfully carried out Ji Jue's orders—all traitors who had collaborated with the water ghosts, all settlements that treated human beings as merchandise, and all bandit gangs who did not regard people as people had only one fate: death! Those who resisted died! Those who didn't resist were strung up by the neck to die! First Hefang, then Tianning, followed by Shanmen... By the time they had paved the wilderness with severed heads and fought their way to the Taiyin River, a whole week had passed. A full week. A week of slaughter! In these seven days, more people had died in the wilderness of Haizhou than in five or six years of water ghost raids combined! Hefang Town, once one of the largest settlements in the wilderness, had been utterly razed to rubble. It had rained for seven days, yet seven days of storm could not wash away the blood in the ruins. The leaders strung up from the wind turbines had already rotted, yet no one dared take them down. Even when passersby occasionally caught sight of those eerie silhouettes swaying in the wind, they would lower their heads as if they had seen a ghost, pretending not to see. It sent chills down the spine. From the day the water ghosts were annihilated, Xinquan's offensive had gone into full gear. This was retribution—naked, blatant retribution. Anyone who had ever harbored malicious designs against Xinquan, tried to kick them while they were down, or waited to scavenge a piece of the pie was ground to dust by Ji Jue in the exact order of the list! Those who weren't on the list still got a couple of kicks, two hard slaps across the face, and a spit on the ground before they left! Who told you to look so punchable? Don't think I don't know what dirty business you do under the table. Tuck your tails between your legs, every last one of you, and don't let me catch you slipping! Just like that, under the banner of ridding the people of a menace, armed with the list and ironclad evidence extracted from the water ghosts, Haian's combat units and Slan's Knights of Homecoming plowed across Haizhou from east to west and south to north like an iron coulter, unearthing untold skeletons and filth. This time, even the backers and financiers behind the scenes seemed to have vanished into thin air. None dared speak up. They let Ji Jue run rampant. What else could they do? Take a look at who was sitting on either side of him. On his left was the Security Bureau, on his right was the Wild Gathering, and behind him sat the current Haizhou Warden, Lyu Yingyue... People went into business to make money, not to die. Why bother? As for the bounties put up by bitter survivors or the assassination attempts by those who slipped through the net—hilarious. The bounty Shang Tongwen posted before dying was still glittering right above Ji Jue's head, yet had anyone collected it? Do you see me giving a damn? By now, Ji Jue's style made it blatantly clear: he didn't care about consequences, didn't care about money, and didn't care about profits or partnerships. All I care about is whether you die! So, why aren't you dead yet? Unwilling? Then let me lend a hand! At this point, those with connections could seek shelter in the cities, and those who ran fast could flee to distant lands. But for the irredeemable garbage that reeked like cesspools, no one cared anymore. "Boring, so boring..." Amid the booming artillery, inside the armored vehicle outside Panshan Stronghold, Lu Feng lazily dangled one hand out the window, flicking ash from his cigarette as he yawned listlessly. He truly couldn't drum up any excitement. Scenes that would once have made his blood boil and heart race had now become utterly drab. It was just like how no matter how vigorous and fierce a young man in his twenties was, there would come a day when he turned into a middle-aged geezer in his forties or fifties obsessed with fishing. Taking up fishing, polishing wooden beads, practicing calligraphy, and painting, grandly calling it cultivating the mind and temperament, all in a futile attempt to dodge nightly marital duties... He truly couldn't summon the drive. He always felt like something was missing. After cooping up at home for so long, this was a long-awaited grand scene, yet he found it hard to get hyped. Even after climbing back into armor, even after piloting Dragon Mountain once, he hadn't felt the slightest satisfaction. Instead, he only felt an ever-growing thirst. Always a lack, always not enough... "Damn it, this is bad!" Lu Feng pinched his chin, muttering to himself, "Don't tell me I've got ED? That can't be right, I'm only in my early thirties..." Lost in his thoughts, his mind slid down an uncontrollable slope into mounting panic. Until a deafening crash snapped him back to reality. *Boom!!!* A shattering roar erupted from the very center of Panshan Stronghold. Smoke curled upward, accompanied by the screech of twisting and breaking steel, followed by desperate cries for help over the comms. On the screen, a figure radiating astonishing heat was marked. "Die! All of you, die! Fuck, I'll—" Amidst a furious roar, a burly brute burst from a secret chamber. Thick fur sprouted over his body in an instant, his face warping into that of a beast as his frame shifted. As stimulants and forbidden narcotics were pumped into his veins, a metallic sheen surfaced across his dense fur, swelling his mass even further. Like a berserk ape, he seized a battered exoskeleton and slammed it repeatedly until gore burst from the warped steel. The surrounding combat squad was blasted backward, retreating in haste. A beast trapped in a corner. He had nowhere left to run. While attempting to retreat through a secret tunnel, he had caught the scent of the Knights of Homecoming cutting him off at the other end. Paralyzed by fear, he had abandoned his subordinates and doubled back. He had narrowly evaded the Knights of Homecoming's trap, but returning to the stronghold, there was no way out either. His only choice was a desperate, dying struggle. Utterly feral! "All units, be on alert! High-threat target detected! One jackal! Repeat, one jackal!" A raspy voice crackled over the channel. "Team Two, prepare to withdraw. Teams Three and Four, provide alternating cover and suppressing fire..." The rear hatch of the armored vehicle snapped open, revealing the fully serviced power armor. Under Lu Feng's operation, the metal sealed shut, and the ocular sensors flared. System self-check complete. Target locked. And then, the operation began! "Heipi, cover me!" Lu Feng cracked his neck and raised his eyes. "Finally, something with a bit of kick!" The moment the sniper nestled in the torrent along the right hillside pulled the trigger, a monstrously large armor-piercing round tore through the air. Amid the fine rain, an azure light flashed and vanished—an electromagnetic catapult launch! In an instant, from a dead stop, the armor shot into the sky. Disregarding the horrific G-forces of acceleration, the auxiliary wings deployed as the directional thrusters engaged, pivoting smoothly before the thrust violently surged! From dozens of meters in the air, it dove straight down! Under Isis's maintenance warnings, he hadn't resorted to the Meteor Maneuver for a cheap thrill, choosing instead something even more absurd and dangerous—low-altitude skimming! Accelerating to over three hundred kilometers per hour within seconds, the power armor pushed even faster. By the time a ghostly white Mach cone belatedly formed, the suit was already gone from sight, leaving only a winding streak of pale blue flame roaring forward! "Holy shit, Old Lu, chill the fuck out!" The spotting Heipi was utterly stunned, his jaw dropping. "Are you trying to kill yourself?!" Skimming mere dozens of centimeters above the ground with thrusters at full throttle, any minor turbulent draft could cause a stall or loss of control. The slightest graze would send the unstable armor spinning into a catastrophic top, turning the knight inside into mush like a centrifuge. Yet Lu Feng was in his element, howling with exhilaration. His eyes were bloodshot. Flames flickered; steel soared. In a mere instant, that shifting trail of flame burst into Panshan Stronghold, darting like a bird through broken streets and structures, weaving fluidly among the crumbling ruins. By the time the sonic boom belatedly arrived, it was already too late. The armored great ape, having hastily blocked the armor-piercing round, turned back in bewilderment, only to see a crimson flash magnifying rapidly in its vision—the thermal-edge axe was fully charged! A split-second brush-past. Steel met bone, resulting in mutual devastation. The thermal axe, launched from his grip, wedged deep into the skull, fracturing it with fissures before detonating with a roar. Within just dozens of meters, the hurtling suit abruptly wheeled around. Laughing like a madman, Lu Feng lunged forward with a kinetic piercing spear in his other hand! The explosion erupted the moment the spearhead struck armor. Compared to the ape's massive bulk, the crimson spear was as slender as a needle, yet it punched through effortlessly, bursting out from beneath the fur on the other side and snapping. The agonized Vortex Celestial Chosen attempted to turn around, but it was already too late. A crude iron fist struck out, smashing into his forehead. Immediately after, six mechanical fingers tightened, clamping into the skull. The sickening crunch of dislocated cervical vertebrae and shattering steel sounded simultaneously. In an instant of blacking out, the ape's head was slammed into the broken pavement, leaving no time to react... because the engines running at full blast hadn't stopped at all! In fact, they went into overload thrust! "Mantis shrimp, let's roll!" Lu Feng bared his teeth in a wild grin, accelerating once more, ramming the head in his grip against the ground again and again, plowing a straight trench through the ruins of Panshan Stronghold. Smashing through walls, leveling buildings. From this end to that end, and from that end right back to this end! *Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!* Gore smeared evenly across the churned concrete, mixed with brain matter and bone fragments until nothing could be told apart. Yet even with more than half his head and brain ground flat, the armored great ape still thrashed madly, mutating once again in a desperate bid to break free. Too late. *Snap!* Under Lu Feng's command, dozens of anchor armor-piercing guns locked on and fired simultaneously, turning the massive body into a pincushion of mangled meat. The headless, broken torso struggled, trying to crawl up. Right behind him, Lu Feng seized his shoulders and stomped down viciously, snapping the ape's thighs clean in two. Two combat knives flew from the leg sheaths into his hands, driven straight into the spine and heart, pinning the beast firmly to the ground. Close behind, the encircling heavy exoskeleton soldiers swarmed forward. Following standard suppression protocols for high-threat targets, they drew silver-gleaming mechanical spikes wrapped in chilling vapor from their squad weapon crates, driving them into the vital points without hesitation. Immediately after, under the suppressive flow of Solid Alchemy, the containment matrix locked down. On the ground, the mutilated Celestial Chosen convulsed violently. "Aaargh, I'll kill you all, I'll kill... kill... *gurgle*..." As the twitching flesh squirmed and the newly regenerated head recovered its eyes and vision, he finally saw Lu Feng, who had been waiting before him for who knew how long. And behind him, the soldiers already lined up in a queue. Taking off their helmets, they looked down at him full of anticipation, tapping stun batons, iron hammers, and axes idly against their palms. Eager to have a go. "I... I..." The shadow-draped face froze, twitching once, then twice, somehow managing to squeeze out a trace of fawning plea. "K-kill me..." "Shh—" Lu Feng raised a finger, gently pressing it to the man's lips, consoling him, "Don't be afraid. Haian Industries is a legitimate enterprise. Why would we go around killing and burning people for no reason?" Saying so, he reached out, taking a crackling stun baton glowing with blue sparks from a subordinate, and grinned. "Don't worry. We're still counting on helping you 'turn over a new leaf.'" *Boom!!!* A mournful roll of thunder sounded from the heavens, swallowing every wail. Then, amid the falling rain, muffled thuds rang out one after another, mingled with sickening crunches and stifled whimpers, rolling on without end. By the time Ji Jue received the shipment in Xinquan, it was already the next day. He scratched his head for a long time, completely at a loss. What on earth was this lump of paste in the crate, looking like minced meat meant for bouncy beef balls? And more importantly... where was the new employee he had ordered?!