The Ning River was the second largest river in the State of Ji. Winding and twisting, flanked on both sides by treacherous terrain, it had been contested military ground since ancient times.
At this time, the main force of the rebel army led by Lu Jiande was locked in a confrontation with Xiao Jingyuan, the newly appointed Grand General of the State of Ji's imperial forces. The two sides had already been fighting fiercely for months. Although Lu Jiande lacked superior numbers, fielding fewer than one hundred thousand men, all of them were battle-hardened elites.
While Xiao Jingyuan had three hundred thousand elite soldiers at his command, Lu Jiande avoided direct clashes with him. Instead, he constantly wheeled around, seizing cities and territory. He had already crossed the Ning River twice, catching Xiao Jingyuan completely off guard. The hundreds of thousands of Ji soldiers were led around by the nose, repeatedly suffering counterstrikes whenever Lu Jiande turned back to snap at them, leaving them in a thoroughly miserable state.
Now, beneath the moonlit night, Lu Jiande had left a small force of a few thousand men on the left bank of the Ning River while his main army marched along the right bank under cover of moonlight. The pursuing Ji forces were just over a hundred li behind them, likewise split into two columns: a flank force of thirty thousand on the left bank and their main army on the right.
Lu Jiande stood atop a mountain peak overlooking his tens of thousands of rebel troops, watching the army wind forward through the night like a dragon of fire. A general said in a deep voice, "We march faster than the Ji army, and fifty percent faster than them at night. By our reckoning, when we reach the upstream crossing, the main force will have just enough time to cross the river."
Another general added, "Who could have imagined that Lord Lu would cross the Ning River a third time? When the time comes, we will turn around, devour the Ji flank detachment, and raid their granary in Sui County. The Ji army is bound to fall into chaos."
"Xiao Jingyuan is praised to high heaven, but he's old after all. How could he possibly compare to our Lord Lu?"
Lu Jiande smiled slightly, looking rather pleased with himself. His subordinates were not wrong. Xiao Jingyuan would never anticipate that he had already dispatched elite cavalry ahead of time to secure the crossings on both banks. Once the main army reached the crossing, they could board the prearranged boats to cross the river. With the support of spells from high-cultivation masters, the crossing would be remarkably swift.
Once his army crossed over from the right bank to the left and destroyed the ferries and docks, they could strike straight at the Ji army's weakly guarded granaries and main camp, sweeping through the counties and cities one by one. By the time Xiao Jingyuan's army crossed the river in pursuit, Lu Jiande would have swept through at least five or six counties, swallowed up over a hundred thousand local imperial troops, and swaggered off.
The entire plan was flawless. Lu Jiande intended to nibble away at the Ji army's main forces bit by bit until spring, when he would wipe out Xiao Jingyuan's main force in a single decisive battle. By then, his faction would reach full maturity, allowing him to punch through the State of Ji and advance upon the Tang dynasty.
The Tang dynasty was hollowed out, with hardly any troops to speak of, and had not fought a war in many years. They would be no match for Lu Jiande's battle-hardened elites.
When he marched into the capital and shook the world, having achieved great glory, he could accept an imperial amnesty and return to the State of Ji as a prince of a different surname. Whether to rule a fiefdom as a local warlord or hold absolute sway over the imperial court would be his own choice.
Just as he was envisioning the future, Lu Jiande's brows suddenly furrowed. A streak of military qi abruptly appeared in the distant night sky. The military qi was condensed to the extreme, actually glinting with a metallic sheen. Lu Jiande had campaigned across the realm for half his life, yet he had never seen military qi like this.
The ground trembled faintly. Under the cool moonlight, a silvery tidal line appeared on the distant horizon. Only when it drew closer did he see clearly that it was composed entirely of heavy cavalry. Both horses and riders were clad in full armor, their breastplates reflecting the moonlight like the crest of a nocturnal tide!
The cavalry advanced at an unhurried, measured pace, the spearhead of their charge aimed directly at the rebels on the left bank!
The rebels on the left bank numbered only eight or nine thousand. Facing several thousand heavy cavalry, it spelled certain death. No matter how battle-hardened they were, chaos inevitably began to stir.
Lu Jiande was greatly alarmed. Leading several generals, he flew straight over and shouted, "Who are you people? Do you dare oppose my Great Shun Heavenly Army?"
The heavy cavalry did not answer, continuing their headlong charge. As they drew nearer, Lu Jiande looked intently and saw a faint sheen flowing over each and every rider—they were all blessed with karmic luck!
Both shocked and enraged, yet not daring to make a move rashly, he kept his composure and said to a general beside him, "Insolent scoundrels! General Lin, please step in and halt their advance—take the wind out of their sails!"
Suspecting nothing, the general bellowed in fury, sweeping his great axe to unleash a hundred-zhang wave of axe light that surged toward the center of the cavalry!
Yet the torrent of axe light suddenly vanished completely. At the tip of the light, a figure had appeared: tall and burly, with a purple-hued face and a curling beard. Holding a spear reversed in one hand, he lightly reached out with the other and seized all of the axe light right into his palm!
The all-out strike delivered by that general with his peak Dharma Idol cultivation was reduced to a ball of clear light, spinning rapidly in the man's palm. With a sneer, the man curled his fingers into a tight fist, and several plumes of white vapor instantly vented from between his fingers!
With a cry of agony, the wisp of divine sense attached to the axe light was obliterated, and the general toppled backward, knocked unconscious.
Only then did the cavalry slowly come to a halt. The rebel forces opposite them had been pressed to the riverbank in complete disarray, already broken into a rout. The rebels were considered elite, yet under the silent, imposing might of the heavy cavalry, their formation had completely collapsed. The sheer disparity in combat strength between the two sides was readily apparent.
Countless banners then rose among the cavalry, some bearing the character "Desolation" and others bearing the character "Li."
The purple-faced, bearded man hovered in midair, his voice booming like thunder as he barked, "Are you men under that Lu Jiande fellow? Go back and tell him: from this day forth, the Chief of the Eighteen Routes of Smoke and Wind is none other than me, the Spear Saint of the Great Desolation, Li Yitai!
"Tell that useless bastard to abdicate his post, and be quick about it!
"If he has any objections, I'll smash his head crooked!"
Abdicate? Lu Jiande fancied himself well-read in the classics and held nothing but contempt for such crude poseurs who had never read a proper book. With a faint smirk, he said, "It is not out of the question for the Chief to step down, provided you are a true hero and a real man! This humble Lin lacks talent, but I would like to experience your Dao arts."
Li Yitai glared fiercely, laughing out of sheer outrage. "Good, good, good! It seems not many people in this world know my name anymore! Come on, then—I'll show you what damn Dao arts really are!"
Lu Jiande flew forward. A small jade knife appeared in his hand. He ran a finger across the edge, slicing the skin and smearing a line of fresh blood over the blade.
With a boom, faint ghostly flames ignited across a radius of a thousand zhang! Not daring to take him lightly, Lu Jiande had already used this knife to trigger his mindscape world.
Without even glancing at the world of ghostly flames, Li Yitai gripped his spear, let out a thunderous roar, raised the spear high, and brought it smashing down toward Lu Jiande with agonizing slowness!
Behind him, an immense, deep-yellow celestial body suddenly emerged. Suspended high in the air, it descended slowly alongside the momentum of the spear strike! In that moment, the stars and moon across the firmament were entirely eclipsed, leaving nothing in sight but this colossal star!
The strike was only halfway down, yet the entire sky was filled with the intent of heavy earth! Under the terrifying pressure of this giant star, all the ghostly flames were instantly extinguished. Even though the rebel generals all possessed middle- to late-stage Dharma Idol cultivation, none of them could move a muscle—they could not even lift a finger.
Lu Jiande, situated at the very epicenter of the force, fared even worse. He could not even control himself, his body being pulled toward the giant star against his will!
With a sharp crack, the jade knife shattered! Lu Jiande spat out several mouthfuls of blood!
The downward descent of Li Yitai's spear suddenly accelerated. A single blow slammed into Lu Jiande, sending him hurtling backward ten thousand zhang and punching straight through a mountain peak!
The giant star vanished. Li Yitai drew back his spear, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and sneered, "A mere Scenery Command dares to show off before me? I'll spare your dog life today solely so you can deliver a message to that man surnamed Lu: he has three months to prepare the abdication ceremony. He can pick any location he likes, so long as the mountain is high enough.
"If he refuses, once I catch him, I'll cripple his cultivation and toss him into a catamite brothel to earn silver for me!"
With that, he swept his gaze across the nearly ten thousand rebels by the riverbank below and bellowed once more, "Down on your knees!"
The rebels dropped to their knees in a rustling wave, not a single one hesitating. They had witnessed with their own eyes the Chief engaging in magical combat and failing to withstand even a single blow from his opponent; how would any of them dare act stubborn?
In truth, when the rebellion first began, some among them might have harbored notions of enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven. But as years passed and they took countless lives, those who survived to this day were all men who knew how to bend with the wind.
The rebel generals, having regained their freedom of movement, were just about to slip away when they heard Li Yitai's sinister voice behind them: "Fellow Daoists, please hold your steps!
"Where are you in such a hurry to go?"
The generals turned around to find the purple-faced giant already behind them, scaring them out of their wits.
The sharpest among them immediately fell to his knees in midair. "This general isn't going anywhere—I only wish to follow Your Excellency!"
"I have drifted for half my life without finding an enlightened master; today I am blessed to encounter the Spear Saint!"
Under Lu Jiande's influence, the generals were accustomed to reading in their spare time. Educated men were indeed different—even their flattering words carried a refined air.
Only then was Li Yitai satisfied. He declared, "Mark my words: from this day forth, the leader of all rebels in the world can only be me!"
The generals chorused, "It must be Lord Spear Saint!"
Li Yitai grew even more pleased and threw back his head in hearty laughter that reverberated across the wilderness. The laughter reached Lu Jiande's ears from afar, infuriating him into coughing up yet another mouthful of blood.
Spitting blood aside, he dared not linger, accelerating his flight. His mind was consumed with a single thought: just where had this Spear Saint of the Great Desolation sprung from, and how could he be so terrifyingly powerful?
That spear strike bringing a colossal star down with it had been heavy beyond measure—Lu Jiande even suspected that an entire grotto-heaven had come crashing down on his head.
Meanwhile, surrounded by the generals, Li Yitai was in fine spirits, having gained several adoptive grandsons in the blink of an eye. Now that they had bowed before Li Yitai, the generals were beaming with joy, suddenly looking down on their former colleagues still among the rebels, deeming them unworthy of being mentioned in the same breath.
Standing beneath the night sky, Li Yitai turned to cast a deep glance across the lands of the State of Ji shrouded in darkness.
Turning back to gaze upon the blossoming smiles of the seven adoptive grandsons before him, Wei Yuan—wearing the guise of Li Yitai—decided that when he had spare time upon returning, he would write another book: *On the Self-Cultivation of an Actor*.
Chapter 1042