The damp vapor had condensed into drifting rain. As the warhorses galloped past, it was as if they were swimming across a small river.
Sun Lie pressed forward with his head low. A thread of qi linked every rider to him like a silken cord, allowing him to know where every scout in the detachment was at any given moment. When necessary, Sun Lie could also channel a portion of his own power back to them, bolstering that rider's abilities.
This was the power of his Dao Foundation. He still remembered that when he first entered that mysterious world and met Wei Yuan, Wei Yuan had been thoroughly astonished by his Dao Foundation.
The very next day, Sun Lie had been brought to a small camp of fifty cavalrymen and told that from then on, this would be the Scout Battalion—and he was its commander.
A faint stench of blood constantly drifted on the wind, making Sun Lie want to vomit. It was the scent of human blood, something to which he was exceptionally sensitive; every whiff of his kin's blood made his abdomen spasm with nausea. Yet a powerful physical body could suppress any unwanted reaction, pain included.
Soon, the source of the bloody scent came into view. It was a small squad of scouts entangled with Inkblood Vanguard outnumbering them several times over. The two sides pursued and slaughtered back and forth, men falling continuously.
Only five riders remained in that scouting squad. Fighting while retreating, they did not flee in panic, but slowly dragged thirty enemies along as they shifted into the distance.
Sun Lie had sensed them from far away, but he neither paused nor went to their rescue, instead continuing his charge toward the depths of the Wu domain. With a single leap of his warhorse, Sun Lie crossed the three-hundred-li boundary, and the world before his eyes changed abruptly!
The pale green horizon turned into deep emerald; puddles on the ground noticeably multiplied, and black began seeping through the green of the earth. Swarms of palm-sized mosquitoes were everywhere.
Sun Lie suddenly reached out, pulling a giant mosquito from a swarm dozens of yards away. Its abdomen continually swelled and contracted, bearing a prominent golden ring.
This was a gold-ring giant mosquito, a creature found only deep within the Wu domain. Previously, they would appear only five hundred li beyond the border, or even farther. They were extraordinarily sensitive to their environment; as Qingming expanded, they had steadily retreated. Yet now, they were appearing at the three-hundred-li line.
Sun Lie knew all too well what this signified. The Shamans were clearly preparing to do something, and it had to be earth-shattering; otherwise, they would not have strengthened the Wu domain's environment on such a massive scale and tried everything to seal off this three-hundred-li perimeter.
A cold sweat broke out over Sun Lie as he realized a detail he had overlooked. Over the past ten days, his scouts had won many minor skirmishes, with kill ratios even reaching one to three. Delighted by this, he had failed to notice that not a single scouting unit had penetrated past the three-hundred-li line.
Sun Lie suppressed the unease in his heart and pressed on. He knew that the silent dharma idol cultivator in his unit would relay everything to the Domain Lord. He could also sense that something was concealed within his ranks, though he was entirely unable to detect its aura.
As the detachment advanced, the earth beneath them swelled slightly. An unknown entity detached from beneath the unit and swiftly swam off in another direction underground.
Yet it had not traveled far before two blurry figures emerged from the grove, giving close chase.
Sun Lie continued forward. Distinct tremors could now be felt from the flank, followed by a heavy scent of blood carried by the wind. In that direction, hundreds of scouts and Inkblood Vanguard were locked in fierce combat. As the ground rumbled more violently, all the Inkblood Vanguard instinctively clustered together.
Countless scouts charged out from the mist—a full five hundred riders! This was the Scout Battalion's core force, and their emergence plunged the Inkblood Vanguard into despair.
Yet the two hundred Inkblood Vanguard fought desperately without yielding. Dark green mist welled up from the earth as rider after rider appeared, exceeding a thousand in the blink of an eye! They swiftly outflanked and encircled the Scout Battalion's main force, and a life-and-death struggle broke out between both sides.
Though the Scout Battalion was now at a clear numerical disadvantage, every man fought to the death. The Inkblood Vanguard held only a marginal advantage, their casualties even surpassing those of the scouts.
With the appearance of the Inkblood Vanguard's main force, Sun Lie's detachment abruptly accelerated, rushing toward the depths of the Wu domain at top speed!
Just then, another tiny figure darted out from their ranks. Though small, its speed was unbelievable, vanishing more than ten li away in the blink of an eye.
Figures emerged from the sky, underground, the water, and the tall grass, each chasing after that tiny silhouette. Immediately afterward, however, a faint silver line shot out from the detachment, pursuing the four ambushing Shamans ahead.
With six or seven ambushing Great Shamans drawn away, Sun Lie felt the pressure lighten at once. He advanced at full speed, breaking past four hundred li a moment later.
The dharma idol cultivator in the unit, silent until now, suddenly drew his weapon—a multi-barreled flying-sword autocannon fitted with a side sword-case that held a full two hundred flying swords.
Ahead, an intercepting unit of Inkblood Vanguard finally blocked the path, and Sun Lie drew his flying-sword gun as well. A strange buzzing hum suddenly rang out from the rear of the detachment as the autocannon in the cultivator's hands spun up. Flying swords poured forth almost tip-to-tail, instantly sweeping swaths of Inkblood Vanguard from their warhorses!
Sun Lie and the others opened fire at the same time. The dense volley of flying swords shattered this squad of Inkblood Vanguard, allowing the cavalry to plunge right through them and keep pressing forward.
This had been Sun Lie's plan all along: first deploy scouts in wave after wave, increasing the numbers gradually, as was his customary tactic; then commit the entire main force of the Scout Battalion, making it look as though they were trying to swallow the opponent's bait whole just like before. And as long as the Inkblood Vanguard's bait held out for even a little while, their ambushing main force would arrive, dragging both sides into a true decisive battle!
That decisive battle was precisely what the Inkblood Vanguard wanted, and what Sun Lie had always strived to avoid.
As for the outcome, the Inkblood Vanguard would undoubtedly suffer greater losses, with the casualty ratio perhaps reaching two to one. Yet in the end, they would only be heavily battered, while the Scout Battalion would be virtually wiped out.
By offering up the entire Scout Battalion as bait, Sun Lie was confident he could divert the Shamans' attention, leading them to overlook intercepting his small detachment. Even if they discovered his true goal, they would only dispatch heavy forces to stop Sun Lie from escaping back, rather than block the way ahead.
What the Shamans did not know was that this time, Sun Lie had planned a one-way trip. As long as he delivered the Domain Lord's eyes and ears to their destination, it would be enough.
Sun Lie had originally worried about ambushes by Great Shamans and had prepared himself to sacrifice every rider in his unit; as long as he could carry the dharma idol cultivator past five hundred li, the mission would be accomplished.
Fortunately, it appeared that the Domain Lord had indeed placed hidden assets in the ranks, luring away all the Great Shamans lying in ambush along the way. Moreover, that final silver figure had inspired an indescribable, instinctual dread in Sun Lie—it was clearly no ordinary dharma idol.
Spurring their steeds to a full gallop, the cavalry hacked their way through two more waves of interceptors, finally breaking through the five-hundred-li mark!
Now before Sun Lie lay a dark green expanse of heaven and earth, with nothing visible except churning mists. The Shamans had actually set up yet another barrier!
Gritting his teeth, Sun Lie was about to charge forward when he suddenly saw three Great Shamans manifest between heaven and earth, barring his path. This time, he was truly trapped in a desperate impasse.
Right at that moment, an indistinct silhouette suddenly darted out from the detachment, flashing through the three Great Shamans in an instant before vanishing into the distance!
The three Great Shamans wobbled like drunkards and crashed from midair. Once on the ground, they rolled about in agony, completely unable to get up, leaving no clue as to when they had even been wounded.
The dharma idol cultivator who had remained silent all this time suddenly tapped Sun Lie on the shoulder and pointed toward the three Great Shamans ahead. "Finish them off. Take two yourself, and let the others share the third. We retreat in ten breaths."
Sun Lie obeyed instinctively. Returning after ten breaths, he finally asked, "But we still haven't found out what the Shamans are planning."
The dharma idol cultivator said impassively, "The mission is complete. Retreat. The rest is the Domain Lord's concern."
Ever decisive, Sun Lie immediately led his riders to fight their way back toward Qingming.
By now, Wei Yuan was flying swift as lightning. Before the successive Shaman defensive lines could even react, he had already crossed them, penetrating a thousand li deep in the blink of an eye and piercing the final barrier.
The Shamans' true undertaking finally appeared before him: a massive trench several zhang deep and ten zhang wide, where hundreds of thousands of Shaman coolies and commoners were digging furiously, steadily extending it toward Qingming.
The excavated earth and stone were piled onto both banks of the trench, raising the dykes on either side. Innumerable Shaman artisans and laborers hammered wooden piles several zhang long into the banks on both sides of the trench. Across the distant landscape, natural pools had been connected together into a network of small waterways, along which countless flat-bottomed boats drawing only a foot or two traversed back and forth, ferrying craftsmen, laborers, materials, and grain.
Still farther away was a natural lake, already enclosed with a dam. The moment the sluices were opened and the water released, this deep trench would become a canal leading straight to Qingming.
Chapter 472