Once Fang Hetong finished explaining the local defenses, it was Wei Yuan's turn to explain the defensive disposition of the Palace of Grand Beginning.
With thousands of years of experience repelling alien tribes, the Palace of Grand Beginning's defensive deployment across the two commanderies formed a self-contained system. First, the True Monarchs held sway high above, surveilling heaven and earth; next, the various Perfected Persons guarded their respective regions, acting as stabilizing anchors; formidable Dao Foundation cultivators like Zhang Sheng patrolled far and wide to shore up gaps and provide timely reinforcements; and finally, disciples who had achieved perfection in Body Casting or newly entered the Dao Foundation, like Wei Yuan, were scattered among various strongholds to serve as defensive fulcrums.
In effect, the Palace of Grand Beginning had cast a vast net over the two commanderies, awaiting movement from a position of stillness to counter the winds and fires of Northern Liao's incursions. This strategy carried an element of trading pieces: if the alien tribes managed to uproot an outer stronghold, the force they committed would inevitably be at or above the Dao Foundation level, making it easy for the Palace of Grand Beginning to seize upon them and swallow them whole. Wei Yuan understood this clearly, but harbored no resentment. War was inherently a matter of tradeoffs, and victory inevitably came with sacrifice.
After going over the defensive situation with Fang Hetong, Wei Yuan made time to chat with the militiamen. By now, the men had finished their labor. Using the dried meat Wei Yuan had brought, they had boiled a large pot of broth and were eating it piping hot over brown rice. Having starved for days, they had brewed the pot using just one strip of dried meat for every four men. Each man dished out only a small bowl for himself; no one fought or demanded more.
Those who have starved long can easily fall ill if they suddenly gorge themselves. These peasants would not know such things; it could only be Fang Hetong who taught them. Principles were easy to speak of, but difficult to practice. Dried meat from the Palace of Grand Beginning's military rations counted as a delicacy in the mortal realm, yet several hundred men exercised restraint, neither causing chaos nor grabbing out of turn. In Wei Yuan's eyes, this was already an army of strict discipline.
To turn a group of illiterate peasants into a disciplined army in just a few short months—Fang Hetong truly possessed great talent.
Seeing Wei Yuan, these simple, honest men were filled with gratitude. They all rose, yet were too timid to speak freely, only answering whatever Wei Yuan asked.
In the blink of an eye, night fell. After drinking their broth, the men returned to rest. If ordinary mortals ate the Palace of Grand Beginning's specially made rations for two days straight, they would be able to see in the dark, but this was only the first day, so they still could not see clearly at night.
If one succeeded in Body Casting, their five senses would naturally improve. While their gaze might not flash like lightning, discerning the appearance of a fly over a dozen zhang away would pose no problem. However, Fang Hetong had only guided their training for two months, and their modest progress had relied entirely on his Establishing Words ability. At this stage, they only had greater strength and sturdier bodies; their training had not reached the level of enhancing their senses.
Fang Hetong hadn't slept in a long time either, so Wei Yuan urged him to sleep first, offering to keep watch for the first half of the night until they switched for the second half. Fang Hetong did not feign modesty and went to rest.
Wei Yuan stood atop the wall, gazing north into the distance. As the night deepened, only a vast expanse of grassland was visible far away, with a few solitary trees standing upon the plain. Beyond that lay a churning darkness that veiled everything.
Wei Yuan frowned slightly. His senses had been keen since childhood, and reaching perfection in Body Casting had only bolstered them further. To him, the faintest glimmer of skylight was scarcely different from broad daylight. Even disciples of equivalent cultivation using the Thousand-Li Eye dao art could not see as far as Wei Yuan's naked eye.
Beyond Quyang County lay open steppe; even if one could not see a hundred li, seventy or eighty li should have been within view. Yet now, with no wind or sand stirring, Wei Yuan could only see thirty li. Beyond fifty li was a churning darkness, completely obscuring all sight.
Watching for a while, Wei Yuan faintly sensed that the night seemed alive, deliberately concealing something. As the third watch approached, the darkness churned and crept closer, until nothing beyond twenty li could be seen.
Wei Yuan looked up. Above was a crescent moon and a scattering of sparse stars. With a moon came faint light from the heavens—enough for Wei Yuan, making it impossible that his sight would be limited to a mere twenty li.
Wei Yuan lifted a rectangular iron case, set it atop the wall, and tapped it lightly. A short spear sprang out from within. Spear in hand, Wei Yuan stared intently at the churning darkness.
"The Liao barbarians are here," Fang Hetong said as he appeared on the wall, his expression solemn.
"Why didn't you sleep longer?" Wei Yuan asked.
"I'm used to keeping watch; I can't sleep. Besides, whenever the Liao are coming, an unease stirs in my chest, so I thought I'd come up and see." Fang Hetong carried a large bow in hand, several runes upon its limbs faintly gleaming with azure light. However, his quiver held only a single enchanted long arrow; the rest were ordinary iron arrows.
Looking out into the distant night, Fang Hetong said, "Night raids by the Liao barbarians are usually small squads, roughly seven or eight riders. If the defenders are careless and let them breach the wall, they'll signal, and their main force in the rear will arrive quickly. But a small place like ours has little spoils to offer, so the Liao barbarians don't care much for coming here. As long as we can fend off their probing squad, we'll be fine."
As he spoke, Wei Yuan felt a sudden chill in his heart, sensing something swiftly approaching through the night!
The night churned, and suddenly a rider leapt from the darkness like a flying fish breaking the water's surface. The horseman cleared several zhang in a single bound, landing without making a sound!
The ambient light was dim, yet Wei Yuan instantly made out the rider's form.
His armor was lined with animal hide, studded with rectangular iron plates, and fur showed along his turned-down collar. His helmet was likewise hide studded with plates, revealing two pointed ears. His four-fingered hand gripped a short bow, and his eyes were disproportionately large, gray irises almost entirely engulfed by his pupils. In addition, his nose was flat, with two forward-facing nostrils, resembling a bat.
The steed beneath this Northern Liao cavalryman was roughly the size of a human warhorse, appearing somewhat small beneath its tall rider. Yet two tusks sprouted from the horse's mouth, giving it an exceptionally savage appearance. Along its flanks were rows of breathing spiracles, puffing out plumes of white vapor from time to time.
This was a warhorse unique to the Vast Sea Liao Clan, inhaling through its nose and exhausting through its flanks. The breed was naturally vicious, feeding on both grass and meat. Its speed matched that of human warhorses, but its endurance and carrying capacity far surpassed them. A superior human warhorse could gallop a thousand li in one breath before needing rest, whereas a Liao horse required rest only after three thousand li, and having eaten and drunk its fill, could go ten-odd days without food or water.
Thus, on the northern steppes, human cavalry were no match for the Liao. Without cities or military redoubts to rely on, should they lose a battle, they couldn't even flee—the Liao cavalry could pursue them for a thousand li in a single chase until the human mounts collapsed dead from exhaustion.
The rider who had bounded out of the darkness was typical Northern Liao light cavalry, clad in short armor, with a quiver slung on one side of his saddle and a saber and javelin on the other.
One by one, Northern Liao light cavalry leapt from the night until twenty riders had emerged in the blink of an eye, cantering steadily toward Shayang Village. Only now did Wei Yuan hear the faint patter of hooves. An ordinary Dao Foundation cultivator would not have heard a thing and could only have deduced an approach from the vibration of the ground. Yet the tremors produced by Northern Liao cavalry were far lighter than those of human mounts, resembling beasts prowling in the night, extraordinarily hard to detect.
Fang Hetong had long since cast an Invisibility Art to conceal their figures, then placed several straw decoys behind the battlements. Viewed from outside the wall, it looked very much as if guards were crouching between the crenels on watch.
Yet Wei Yuan still harbored doubts. According to the records, the Vast Sea Liao Clan possessed extraordinary eyesight, seeing at night as if in broad daylight. Their vision was four times that of an ordinary person, comparable to a human cultivator with perfected Body Casting. Fang Hetong's straw men were crudely crafted; how could they fool anyone?
While Wei Yuan was wondering, he watched Fang Hetong take several sheets of straw paper and paste them onto the decoys' faces. The paper bore lifelike depictions of human faces. One had to admit that among the Six Gentlemanly Arts, Fang Hetong's skill in calligraphy and painting was quite impressive. The straw paper was yellowish-brown, and only the heads of the straw figures were exposed, making it genuinely difficult to discern they were fakes under the cover of night.
In an instant, the Northern Liao scouts were within a hundred zhang. The lead riders drew their bows and notched arrows. The flying arrows made no sound; no sooner had the twang of bowstrings reached Wei Yuan's ears than sharp shafts pierced clean through the heads of the straw decoys!
Chapter 68