Although the elite cavalry blocking Xu Zhongxing's path wore tattered leather jerkins over their armor to pass themselves off as horse bandits, their disguise was laughably half-hearted. Every single rider wielded a lance of refined steel and a four-foot curved saber gleaming with an azure sheen. The sabers in particular were standard-issue weapons of the elite Southern Qi cavalry.
As for the elite cavalry Wei Yuan led, no one had ever seen their kind before. Their armor fell somewhere between light and heavy cavalry, and the weapons in their hands were none other than the fire guns that had just given Xu Zhongxing so much grief.
Xu Zhongxing's face was dark as still water as he slowly rose into the air. In response, two Dharma Idols ascended from the "bandits'" side, and two Dharma Idol puppets rose from Wei Yuan's flank.
There was zero suspense to this battle. Formidable as Xu Zhongxing was, he could hardly take on four adversaries at once, not to mention Wei Yuan glaring down at him like a tiger eyeing its prey.
The bandit chief looked remarkably young, his cultivation only at the late Dao Foundation stage. Yet his amplification and defensive spells were astonishingly potent, exerting a noticeable effect even on Dharma Idol cultivators. Bolstered by his spells, the combat power of the four Dharma Idols rose a notch, putting Xu Zhongxing in dire straits.
The battlefield below was equally devoid of suspense. Ten thousand elite cavalry against forty thousand shattered survivors of a rout was nothing short of a massacre.
Xu Zhongxing had no choice but to order his troops to scatter and flee. He himself locked his sights on that young bandit leader. Launching a sudden, all-out blitz, he slashed and wounded the two bandit Dharma Idols in an instant, lunging right before the chief!
Li Zhi took fright, inwardly cursing his rotten luck. Straining with all his might to parry a strike from Xu Zhongxing, his two protective magical treasures were shattered by the sword before he managed to slip away.
Having survived by the skin of his teeth, Li Zhi could not understand it no matter how hard he thought. He had no reputation in these parts, and every debt had its debtor—Xu Zhongxing ought to have gone after Wei Yuan! Why fixate on him instead?
What Li Zhi did not realize was that Xu Zhongxing had a seasoned eye. After several clashes with Wei Yuan, he knew Wei Yuan was exceedingly hard to kill. In fact, Xu Zhongxing could not even guarantee slaying him in a one-on-one fight, let alone under present circumstances. That was precisely why he had turned his attention to Li Zhi.
Seeing Xu Zhongxing risk everything, the cavalry under Li Zhi's command abandoned their pursuit and rushed back to protect their lord, allowing many of the fleeing enemy cavalry to slip away. Having achieved his objective, Xu Zhongxing disengaged and fled far off.
Even when surrounded by four Dharma Idols, he could come and go at will—testament to his sheer ferocity.
After capturing some remnants, Wei Yuan and Li Zhi joined forces and raided another supply camp. Moving like lightning, they caught the camp midway through packing and preparing to set fire to the stores. But before a spark could be lit, Wei Yuan was upon them. The defending garrison scattered in an instant, abandoning mountains of supplies and fifty thousand laborers to Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan did not linger. Tapping a point on the map, he and Li Zhi agreed to execute a pincer movement and converge there.
Then, each leading a column of elite cavalry, they swept across several hundred li in a wide arc, finally converging two hundred li outside Hanyang Pass and scooping up over ten thousand more routed soldiers.
Atop the walls of Hanyang Pass, four Xu family Dharma Idol elders watched in total silence as two columns of military qi crisscrossed the distant horizon.
There were still sixty thousand troops inside the pass, yet not a single soul suggested sallying out to reinforce their men. Instead, the gates remained tightly barred, and the pass-protecting grand formation had been activated early.
News of True Monarch Qiuniu's defeat had already spread among the higher-ups, yet nobody knew where Zhu Yuanjin had gone. If they ventured outside only to bump headfirst into that bringer of calamity, not one of these Dharma Idol elders could endure a single finger from her.
Who would have imagined beforehand that she could lie low in the Shattered Lands for so long? She had to possess some supreme treasure capable of masking heavenly secrets. And if it could deceive the heavenly laws of the Shattered Lands, it could certainly fool the divine sense of cultivators.
One of the Dharma Idol cultivators suddenly asked, "She couldn't already be inside the city, could she?"
Everyone shuddered involuntarily, then glared fiercely at him. Knowing he had misspoken, the Dharma Idol cultivator quickly gave an awkward chuckle. Yet the longer he chuckled, the more his hair stood on end.
In a bookstore within the city, a woman in plain cloth walked inside. Fair-skinned and graceful, she carried an alluring charm in her posture.
Approaching the counter, she tipped a small handful of copper coins from her purse and said, "Shopkeeper, give me a few of the latest storybooks."
The shopkeeper cast a greedy eye over the woman before taking out seven or eight storybooks.
Watching her walk out the door, the shopkeeper muttered to himself, "Her looks are only decent, so why does she seem more enticing the more I look at her?"
Suddenly slapping his thigh, he grumbled in regret, "Ah! I forgot to ask her name and where she lives!"
***
In the commandery seat of Bianning Commandery.
Standing atop the city wall, Commandery Governor Xu Xi watched a large force of cavalry bypass the city not far off, feeling equal parts furious and alarmed. The cavalry escorted three to four thousand captives, marching steadily westward.
Half of these captives were private troops of the Xu family and half were Western Jin regular soldiers. Many had fled almost to the foot of the commandery walls before the Qingming cavalry intercepted them.
Earlier, a junior officer on the wall had shouted arrogance and clamored threats, only to be shot square in the face by a gun, losing half his head on the spot.
From then on, no one on the wall dared utter a word, let alone open the gates for the routed soldiers. The Jin troops atop the walls could only watch helplessly as their broken forces were rounded up and escorted toward Qingming.
Xu Xi naturally knew the ins and outs of the battle. An icy chill gripped his heart, and one thought circled relentlessly in his mind: *An army of three hundred thousand, overseen by a True Monarch—how could it collapse just like that?!*
Xu Xi had not the slightest intention of sallying forth to do battle. Though a Dharma Idol, he was a civil official, not someone skilled in combat arts—otherwise, he wouldn't have been knocked unconscious by a cat's paw back then.
Below the walls, both the Qingming cavalry and the bandits looked up at Xu Xi, their gazes cold and indifferent, as though committing his face to memory. Xu Xi gave a cold snort, muttered an order to "maintain strict guard," and hurried down from the ramparts.
The Western Regions was truly a wretched, lawless place. The Military Commissioner's troops openly rode alongside horse bandits, shot an imperial officer over the slightest disagreement, and brazenly rounded up regular troops right beneath the walls of a commandery seat. Where was the law of the realm?
Mopping up took another full day. Only after Wei Yuan and Li Zhi rounded up over ten thousand routed soldiers and escorted them, along with one hundred and twenty thousand laborers, back to the domain did the war finally draw to a close.
In this campaign, the five thousand light cavalry Li Zhi brought had suffered several hundred dead and a thousand wounded. Wei Yuan felt truly guilty about it. He took Li Zhi to a warehouse and ordered a chest of cuirasses brought out, asking, "Brother Li, what do you think of this armor?"
Li Zhi picked one up and examined it closely, then praised, "Uniform steel quality, outstanding protection. Indeed, this is first-rate armor, fit to equip the elites of our Great Zhao."
"Brother Li, you came ten thousand li to aid me, and I can scarcely repay such a debt. Your domain has also just been founded and is in dire need of military supplies. How about I gift you five thousand suits of this armor as a token of my gratitude?"
Li Zhi was taken aback and hurriedly replied, "How could I accept that! This is far too valuable! Besides, we are brothers. When you were in trouble, how could I not come? If I take your gifts, wouldn't that make me someone who does favors only to expect a reward?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "To be honest, I have great use for those laborers. I originally intended to buy them from you at one tael of immortal silver per head, but then I realized you were probably in greater need of armor. As you can see, Qingming is developing nicely now. Only when your Zhenshan Domain flourishes as well can we watch over and support each other."
Seeing how sincere Wei Yuan was, Li Zhi ceased refusing and said, "Then I shall accept!"
Wei Yuan then ordered chests of armor plates brought out. Naturally, the smaller fittings would have to be forged by Li Zhi's own craftsmen.
After seeing Li Zhi off, Wei Yuan ordered the seized supplies inventoried and stored. The chunks of flesh transformed from True Monarch Qiuniu's blood proved somewhat troublesome, however. Each block weighed tens of thousands of jin. In the end, Old Daoist Chuhe summoned the naturally strong snake to haul all of them to the foot of the peak.
These pieces of flesh held the quintessential essence of heaven and earth; how to use them would require careful discussion with the others.
The only regret was hearing that the Xu family had originally prepared two million dan of rations, but most of it was stored in the commandery seat of Bianning Commandery. Wei Yuan had to give the King of Jin some face, and keeping up appearances was still necessary; he could not openly assault a commandery seat.
Otherwise, against the ten thousand bottom-tier troops and a single civilian Dharma Idol inside the walls, Wei Yuan could have taken the city with just a cat in tow.
Meanwhile, the pool within Jade Mountain churned, yet in the end failed to produce a third Dharma Idol. After churning for a long while with no further souls reincarnating, over a hundred Dao Foundation warriors stepped forth from the pool.
***
In the Bureau of Military Affairs in Qianqiu City, Xu Zhongxing knelt in the middle of the grand hall. Dozens of people sat on elevated chairs around him, all looking down upon him from their high perches.
The man seated highest in the center said slowly, "Three hundred thousand men, wiped out entirely, without a shred of achievement to show for it. Xu Zhongxing, is this how you lead an army?"
Xu Zhongxing raised his head, meeting the gaze of the man above without flinching, and said in a heavy voice, "The soldiers were willing to lay down their lives, yet those in high positions had no heart to fight to the death!"
"What do you mean by that?"
Xu Zhongxing said, "I know I ought not to say this, but if I stay silent, I would fail True Monarch Qiuniu who oversaw the battle and suffered injuries above, and I would fail the tens of thousands of brothers who fought in blood to the death below! Of the elders who marched out with me this time, one saw the tide turn against us and fled without fighting, never to return. Two others cared only for their own skins, dragging out battle against a weak enemy without prevailing. The collapse of the campaign lies primarily at their feet!"
At these words, the entire hall was shaken. Outraged curses erupted at once, and some began to make an issue of Xu Zhongxing's status and lineage.
In total, four elders had deployed alongside Xu Zhongxing this time. One had died in battle, and Xu Zhongxing had just denounced every single one of the remaining three. Most of those present were also elders of equal standing to those three. Their stepping stones to advancement were identical: joining major campaigns as de facto army inspectors to pad their credentials and claim military merit.
These elders were of noble birth, their bloodlines close to the Immortal Ancestor. Meanwhile, those of meager origins like Xu Zhongxing had to scrape and crawl through the front-line armies, clawing their way up step by step through piled-up achievements.
Normally, a commanding general would tremble before an army inspector like a mouse before a cat, scarcely daring to breathe too loudly. When had anyone ever dared openly accuse inspector elders of cowardice right in the grand hall of the Bureau of Military Affairs?
The man at the head fell silent for a moment before saying, "As to the specific details, this seat will consult True Monarch Qiuniu before further deliberation. In the meantime, remand Xu Zhongxing to the Black Ice Abyssal Prison to await judgment."
Xu Zhongxing snapped his head up, anger flashing in his eyes, but in the end he calmed himself and allowed them to escort him away.
The Black Ice Abyssal Prison lay deep underground, one of three abyssal prisons where the Xu family held condemned felons. To be imprisoned here usually meant one's end was near.
Several guards escorted Xu Zhongxing down and down, descending several hundred zhang without pause before shoving him into a cell hewn from black ice.
At that moment, the head jailer suddenly passed Xu Zhongxing a medicine bottle and said, "This is the Xuanhuang Fortune-Virtue Pill the Lord has granted you. The Lord says that this place is supremely yin and frigid, ideal for suppressing karmic debt. After taking this pill, meditating in seclusion for a month will dissolve a fraction of your karmic debt, temporarily sealing it so it will not erupt immediately. Eradicating it entirely, however, will be exceedingly difficult."
Both surprised and grateful, Xu Zhongxing accepted the medicinal pill and said, "Please convey my thanks to the Lord!"
"The Lord also said that since your Life-Slaying Sword has been unsealed, you should use it sparingly from now on."
***
Ganzhou, the commandery seat of Tianyin Commandery.
In the garden of the commandery governor's manor, a man stood by the edge of a pond, feeding fish. The commandery governor stood respectfully at his side. Though this was the governor's own home, he stood there looking like a servant.
At this moment, the commandery governor swiftly recounted the events of the Battle of Qingming before concluding, "That is how it unfolded."
The man took a pinch of fish food and scattered it into the pond. A mass of fish surfaced at once, competing frantically for the morsels. Mottled grey, black, pale azure, or white, they were ordinary fish, not a single colorful specimen among them.
Looking at the fish in the pond, the man remarked, "Only fish that look as plain as these are tough enough to survive no matter the environment. That is precisely what the Old Ancestor likes about them."
Setting the fish food aside, the man glanced at the sky and said, "The Xu family's envoy should have reached the outskirts of the city by now."
The commandery governor asked, "My Lord, how should we negotiate with them this time? Should we change the terms agreed upon before and ask for better conditions?"
The man smiled faintly and said, "No negotiations."
Chapter 346