As the smoke cleared, only blood and corpses remained.
From among the heaps of dead, Luo Bingtian surged to his feet. Wiping the grime and blood from his face, he howled like a beast, "Brothers, charge! Kill them all! Avenge our fallen brothers!"
In the distance, the twenty thousand iron cavalry stirred in turmoil. Several thousand horsemen broke rank and galloped toward the fray. With Yue Jinshan gone, the remaining generals were without a head; some barked orders to halt, while others looked on in silence.
Luo Bingtian hammered a fist into his chest, forcing a blood-stained cone of metal to burst out through his back. Lifting his horse-chopping saber, he rasped hoarsely, "To hell with my commission! If you're my brothers, follow me and take our revenge! We men of the northern border don't just stand by while our brothers die before our eyes!"
Another stir swept through the cavalry ranks behind him, and several thousand more riders broke away to join the charge. In mere moments, over ten thousand of the twenty thousand cavalrymen who had previously held back were thundering toward the battlefield.
Spurred by the surge of military qi, the thirty thousand youths drew together into a dense phalanx. Unsheathing the pointed blades from behind their waists, they fixed them to their emptied guns in unison. Thirty thousand moved as one in crisp, deliberate cadence; the fixing of the bayonets made only a single sharp snap!
Then thirty thousand youths sank their waists and stepped back, bracing for brutal close-quarters combat. Their military qi soared into the heavens, casting the sky and earth three shades darker!
Luo Bingtian gripped his blade with both hands and roared as he charged the formation. Swept up in his wake, over ten thousand iron cavalry began to accelerate behind him.
Right then, Luo Bingtian caught the sound of approaching footsteps—calm, unhurried, each step seeming to resonate with heaven and earth. Then he saw Wei Yuan holding a spear, walking onto the battlefield to take a composed stand before the thirty thousand youths.
"This fratricidal slaughter ends here!" Wei Yuan's voice was not loud, yet it resonated in the ears of every soul present.
Luo Bingtian shouted in fury, "Whoever stands between me and avenging my brothers, I'll cut down where they stand!"
"Is that so? By all means, try." A brilliant red immortal sword appeared in Wei Yuan's left hand. With a crisp click, it slotted beneath the front of his spear.
He held the spear in one hand, the immortal sword serving as its head pointed at the ground, and sudden gale-force winds erupted between heaven and earth!
Wei Yuan stood at the eye of the storm. He waved his left hand behind him, and every youth lowered their weapon in unison and shifted formation, rank upon rank and line upon line departing toward the depths of the domain.
Wei Yuan leveled his spear across his chest, standing alone to block the path into the domain.
Several generals of the Northern Border Cavalry sensed that something was amiss and finally stopped watching from the sidelines, rushing forward to seize Luo Bingtian. Luo Bingtian looked back at the ten thousand cavalry behind him, then across the field strewn with corpses. With his grief and fury having nowhere to vent, he pointed at Wei Yuan and barked, "Fine! We won't bring the soldiers into it! But I demand a fight to the death with you, one on one—no one interferes!"
His fellow officers were alarmed and held him back frantically while urging him to stand down.
To their astonishment, Wei Yuan's imposing aura suddenly vanished. With a snap, he detached the red immortal sword and drew it back into his body.
The Azure Steed arrived, treading upon clouds, and halted by Wei Yuan's side. Wei Yuan vaulted into the saddle and hung the spear beside it.
Luo Bingtian watched in bewilderment and yelled, "What the hell are you doing? Where are you going?"
Wei Yuan spared him a glance. "You haven't even formed a dharma idol. Defeating you would bring no honor."
Luo Bingtian flew into a blind rage, roaring, "Let me go! I'm going to hack this bastard to pieces today!"
Wei Yuan said coolly, "If you truly have no fear of death, go slaughter a few more alien races. Then perhaps I might look upon you with a shred of respect."
Then Wei Yuan wheeled his horse around and rode into the domain. As he departed, the thousand-odd riders who had stood motionless all this time followed in his wake.
While stationary, they had seemed unremarkable, but as they moved, each rider displayed an imposing presence. Boundless auras converged into a surging wave of murderous intent, rolling alongside Wei Yuan like crashing tides. By the measure of their military qi, these thousand riders were not in the least inferior to ten thousand Northern Border Iron Cavalry.
A few hundred of the youths had suffered wounds or death, and they carried away their fallen comrades during the withdrawal. Wei Yuan left the battlefield to his adversaries so that they could collect the bodies of their fallen.
The ten thousand cavalry dismounted and began collecting their comrades' corpses one by one.
Among the piles of dead, a wounded cavalryman groaned as he regained consciousness. Two searching riders immediately rushed over and lifted him, preparing to carry him to the rear for treatment.
With a metallic clatter, an object fell from the wounded cavalryman. The rescuer picked it up and examined it: a palm-sized pointed cone, thick as a hen's egg, stained not only with blood and grime but also fragments of internal organs.
The rider holding it stared in disbelief. Was this the thing that had killed so many of their comrades? And where had it fallen from?
With a sickening gush, a torrent of blood and shattered viscera spilled from the armor of the cavalryman they were carrying. The light quickly drained from his eyes. Horrified, the two carrying him hastily checked him over, only to find a hole the size of a bowl in his flank, punching straight through to the other side of his torso—it simply hadn't pierced through the armor on the opposite side.
One day later.
Western Jin royal capital, the Hall of Political Affairs.
More than a dozen high-ranking ministers knelt prostrate, chanting in unison, "We welcome the Sagacious King!"
"Rise, all of you," the King of Jin replied casually. He strode into the hall and seated himself in the high seat.
The ministers rose and took their places to the left and right. A palace eunuch carried in a tray and placed it before the King of Jin. In the center of the tray lay a metal cone as thick as an egg.
The King of Jin reached out, took the pointed cone, and studied it before his eyes for a moment. "It was a thing like this that slaughtered ten thousand of our iron cavalry?"
The King of Jin was tall, appearing as though he had just reached middle age. His features carried an effeminate elegance, and his voice was soft and magnetic. Yet everyone knew that the more womanly his tone, the greater his wrath.
The Minister of War spoke: "Though this object is novel and quite lethal, it was not the cause of the defeat. In truth, Yue Jinshan lost due to an inferiority in strength. Qingming possesses a secret technique capable of elevating a soldier's strength in an instant. During the battle, every one of their thirty thousand soldiers wielded the strength of peak Bone Tempering. Pitting thirty thousand at peak Bone Tempering against ten thousand at peak Body Casting naturally favored their victory."
"A secret technique? Interesting. Are there restrictions?"
The Minister of War replied, "This official knows little on the matter. I only know that this art cannot leave the domain; the rest remains unknown for now."
The King of Jin nodded slightly. "Even if it cannot leave the domain, it is still formidable. Can it be put to our use?"
The Minister of Works stepped forward and said, "If this secret art is linked to the Qingming immortal stone, it will most likely vanish once the stone is excavated."
With a sharp clatter, the King of Jin tossed the cone back onto the tray. "If shorn of this secret technique, Qingming is nothing more than a chicken rib. Do we lack for a few stray boundary stones?"
A rather youthful-looking official standing outside the hall stepped forward and said, "To bring Wei Yuan into the fold is to acquire this secret technique. This art is more than adequate for defense, though insufficient for conquest; placed in the far west, it would perfectly guard the gates of our realm. This official petitions the Sagacious King to revive ancestral practice and enfeoff Wei Yuan as a commandery governor."
This official was named Wang Wei, who served as Censor-in-Chief with the concurrent title of Participant in Political Affairs, granting him the privilege to stand below the hall and speak on matters of state.
The King of Jin fell silent in thought, seemingly swayed.
At the far end of the hall, a general spoke in a deep voice, "This must under no circumstances be done!"
The King of Jin's brow twitched. "Why not?"
This general was named Lü Zhongzhi, Commander of the Nine Gates and head of the Imperial Guard. By lineage, he was the King of Jin's nephew, and he was the sole true military officer in the Hall of Political Affairs. All other military matters fell under the purview of the Right Prime Minister and the Ministry of War.
Lü Zhongzhi said, "The northern mountain gate of the Palace of Grand Beginning expands incessantly, having already blocked half of our Great Jin's route north. Qingming lies in the far west; if we grant a century-long commandery governorship, would we not be ceding the western frontier to the Palace of Grand Beginning once more? When Great Jin expands its territory in the future, must we look to the Palace of Grand Beginning's moods?"
The King of Jin's expression darkened slightly. He nodded faintly and said, "Very well. We shall discuss this matter at a later time."
The King of Jin rose to leave the Hall of Political Affairs. Passing by the Minister of War, he thrust the metal cone into the minister's hands and said, "Under your command are so many erudite masters of warfare and so many craftsmen, consuming tens of millions of taels of immortal silver each year. How is it that they cannot craft a small trinket like this?"
Cold sweat soaked the Minister of War's back. With a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees, crying repeatedly, "This old servant is incompetent!"
The King of Jin snorted and walked out of the Hall of Political Affairs.
Western Jin Palace, Chunhua Hall.
It was late spring turning to early summer, and the weather was lovely. In the hall, Consort Yuan, casually attired, reclined upon a divan while rubbing a snow-white cat in her hands. For a moment, it was hard to tell which was whiter: her hand or the cat.
Seated in the hall, Marquis of Xiang, Wang Qian, remarked, "His Majesty visited the Hall of Political Affairs this morning. He initially intended to grant Wei Yuan the rank of commandery governor, but was blocked by Lü Zhongzhi, Commander of the Nine Gates. Isn't Lü Zhongzhi one of yours? Should we drop him a hint?"
Consort Yuan said somewhat languidly, "Lü Zhongzhi is my man, and he is also the eunuch faction's man, but above all, he is His Majesty's man."
Wang Qian realized. "So that's how it is! Since this was His Majesty's intention, things will likely run into a few snags. Still, no one could have anticipated Yue Jinshan suffering so disastrous a defeat. Anyone hoping to make a move on Qingming hereafter will have to think twice. It's just that the Crown Prince's side likely won't let the matter rest."
"Killing a mere ten thousand isn't enough to make certain people give up. If it were up to me, I would have butchered all thirty thousand horsemen! Not just a commandery—the entire Ningxi Prefecture would have been mine by then. Yuan'er is still far too softhearted. You should teach him properly when you find an opportunity."
With a yowl of pain, the cat tore itself free from Consort Yuan's grasp and bolted across the floor.
"With His Majesty rejecting the proposal, what do we do now?"
Consort Yuan sneered. "If he won't give it now, he'll have to give it later. I have already made arrangements. In a little while, even if His Majesty has no wish to enfeoff him, he will have no choice. And by then, a mere commandery governor won't be nearly enough."
Wang Qian praised, "I knew you would have a way!"
Consort Yuan sighed. "My sister and I must scheme for everything. What use are you as an uncle?"
Wang Qian was not in the least offended and smiled. "With a niece as unerring in calculation as you, the best thing an uncle like me can do is refrain from taking matters into my own hands or thinking myself clever. Whatever you say, I will carry out."
Consort Yuan scoffed. "There really is no helping you! How are things on my sister's side?"
"She has already met five or six young lords from prominent families, but none caught her eye. At any rate, there is plenty of time, so I thought she should look around more and be selective. Still, the aristocratic houses in the royal capital are in an uproar; all the young talents are eager to try their hand, and even the Eighth and Ninth Princes harbor intentions. After all, Chunyi shares eighty percent of your likeness."
Consort Yuan sat up slightly, drew out a sheet of jade paper, and handed it to Wang Qian. "Listed here are some of the more outstanding young men of late. I have circled a few names; let her see more of them."
Wang Qian took the jade paper, glanced over it, and tucked it into his robes with a chuckle. "Chunyi has high standards and won't settle for ordinary sorts. Oh, right—she has been clamoring to visit Qingming and see Wei Yuan again, saying he's the one with real ability."
Consort Yuan huffed. Reaching out with a beckoning gesture, the white cat hiding in the shadows let out a wail and flew uncontrollably into her clutches.
Consort Yuan stroked the white cat with gentle motions, yet the feline began to tremble violently.
"Young girls are prone to fanciful notions. As her uncle, you ought to exercise a little more discipline."
Wang Qian's smile stiffened slightly, and his voice went dry. "Of course, of course. I certainly will."
Chapter 302