Deductions

A merchant caravan traveled along the official highway leading to Shengshan County, flanked on both sides by endless stretches of refugee encampments. In the center of the caravan, a middle-aged man holding a halberd astride a fine steed gazed worriedly at the camps lining the road, his lips parting slightly. "Too many." A youth riding alongside him leaned in and asked softly, "Captain Xue, what's too many?" Both mounts possessed the bloodline of demonic beasts—tall, handsome, with sharply defined muscle. The middle-aged man glanced at him sideways. "There are too many refugees." The young man looked back at the displaced crowds, fell silent for a moment, and muttered, "Now that you mention it, the refugee camp here is indeed much larger than the ones we passed earlier. But what of it?" Deep concern clouded the middle-aged man's eyes. "One slip, and these refugee camps will erupt into a riot." The youth seemed dismissive. Pointing toward an army camp stationed in the distance, he said, "The border army is encamped right over there. Judging by the scale of those barracks, there's at least a thousand-man regiment. Even if a riot broke out, there'd be nothing to fear." The middle-aged man sighed softly. "I'm not worried about Shengshan County. I'm worried about caravans like ours." The young man paused, his expression turning odd. Looking at the numb, listless refugees, he whispered, "Surely it wouldn't come to that? Raiding an official highway is a capital crime..." The middle-aged man shook his head. "When people can't even survive, who cares about the law? I only hope the Directorate of Celestials' inspectors disperse these refugees soon. If they keep gathering like this without any way to stay alive, they really might turn to banditry." The youth's eyes flickered, and his grip on his weapon tightened slightly. "Yeah. It seems the scale of this beast tide near the Wanxing Mountain Range is..." Before he could finish his sentence, a flock of birds suddenly erupted from the rolling forest on one side of the highway. It was a massive flock—so immense it practically blotted out the sky! Yet as fast as the flock appeared, it vanished just as quickly. In a matter of breaths, it swept over the highway and fled deep into Great Yan territory. Everyone on the road saw this sudden anomaly, and everything along the highway seemed to freeze in place. They all knew what those fleeing birds signified, but stuck in their current position, no one dared to make a rash move. Amid this stillness, the hand with which the middle-aged man held his halberd began to tremble slightly. He didn't look toward the forest; instead, he fixed his eyes on the refugee camp. "Demonic beasts are coming. Prepare for battle..." The youth snapped back to his senses. "Wh-what?" The middle-aged man swung his halberd and bellowed, "Caravan, tighten formations! Prepare for battle!" "..." The demonic beasts breached the forest at last. The moment the first beast charged into the refugee camp and tore its first victim apart, an uncontrollable wave of panic erupted! Terrified shrieks, shrill wails, and furious curses instantly blended into a single roar. Like falling dominoes, chaos spread rapidly through the shantytowns on both sides of the highway. "Beasts... The demonic beasts are here! Run!" "Ah! Help me!" "Damn it all! Our village is gone, and now they won't even let us stay at Erxipo! Oh, imperial court..." "My child! Where is my child?! Erwa!" "No, don't take my grain! That's to save my mother's life! Don't kill me! Please!" "Run, Fan'er! Don't run toward the highway—those masters won't show any mercy! Run toward Shengshan County!" As panic spread, the refugee camps burst apart like boiling water. From the camp along the Wanxing Mountain Range, countless raggedly dressed commoners surged toward the highway like an avalanche. Some merely wanted to flee to the opposite side of the road, while others sought to exploit the chaos to loot. Swept along by the crowd or driven by ill intent, wave after wave threw themselves toward the caravans and escort bands on the highway. The traveling merchants and martial escorts reacted just as swiftly. "These refugees have gone mad!" "Escorts, get ready! Anyone who rushes the caravan, kill without mercy!" "You dare rob the Four Seas Caravan?! Kill them!" "Th-these are just ordinary people... Do we really have to cut them down?!" "Fool! Would ordinary people be pillaging our goods?! They've lost their minds!" "If you don't strike, they won't show you any mercy! Are you going to reimburse the merchant guild for lost cargo?! Kill them!" The guards and martial artists protecting the caravans drew their sabers one after another, yet the flashing cold steel still failed to stem the tide of refugees swallowed by terror and madness. Like an ocean wave, the flood of refugees swept over the caravans on the highway and rolled toward the nearby walls of Shengshan County! The instant the demonic beasts appeared, the grand illusion array inscribed around Shengshan County was activated. In the blink of an eye, the entire county town and the surrounding territory for a mile around were shrouded in thick white mist. Looking down from the sky, Shengshan County seemed to have vanished entirely. Yet that was only true from the outside. Inside the illusion array, chaos raged on. Even though the vast majority of demonic beasts were walled out, the dark mass of refugees continued to swarm toward the distinct city walls like ants! Panic had consumed every shred of sanity in these wretched souls. They threw everything into reaching what they believed was safety, even though the beasts behind them were already held at bay. Unfortunately, Shengshan County's border army would never permit them to enter. The commanding general governing Shengshan County understood all too well that letting this horde of maddened refugees inside would invite an even greater disaster. Stationed beside the refugee camp, the border troops locked into formation, waiting in full battle readiness. After a company commander's warnings went unheeded, as the surging tide of refugees crashed repeatedly against their lines, the slaughter began. Kill! Anyone who dared assault the gates was to be slain without exception, until the maddened crowd cooled down. In the end, the unrest was contained outside Shengshan County. In scarcely an hour, ten thousand people died silently in the turmoil brought on by the beast tide, while fewer than a hundred had actually perished in the mouths of demonic beasts... Shengshan County had three city gates—East, North, and South—with none on the west because it faced the Wanxing Mountain Range. Once trade routes opened up, Shengshan County established three markets along these three gates inside the city. Every market was bustling, and the administration was simple and brutal. Station troops. The highest-ranking official currently governing Shengshan County was a colonel. Expecting an uncouth martial man to handle nuanced administration was indeed asking too much. A company of five hundred soldiers was stationed beside each market; anyone who dared cause trouble in the streets was dragged out and beheaded on the spot. A military general governing a region had its downsides, but it had advantages as well. At the very least, in an emergency, Shengshan County's response time was far faster than any civil bureaucracy could manage. For example, right now. Within an hour of the beast tide's arrival, the bustling streets were forcibly cleared. Squads of border soldiers, weapons drawn, patrolled the city in high readiness. Standing by the inn's window, Xu Yuan looked out at the dense mist in the sky, which seemed as though it had hung there since antiquity. The truth was, the moment he saw the grand illusion array activate, Xu Yuan knew that, predictably, something had gone wrong again. And sure enough, it had. Beyond the patrolling soldiers, riders galloped through the streets at regular intervals, shouting announcements to soothe the populace. According to the criers, this beast tide was small in scale. Vice General Li, acting on Colonel Wang's orders, had already led troops out of the city to hunt the beasts. The grand illusion array set up by Xu Xinyao could trap the incoming beasts entirely within the misty illusion, luring them out in batches for the border troops' battle formations to surround and slaughter. Efficient and safe. Judging by the criers' words, the array would likely be taken down by tomorrow. Taking one last look at the martial-law-restricted streets, Xu Yuan shook his head lightly, turned around, and sat back down on the bed. Ran Qingmo was in the next room; the two of them were not sharing quarters. After a brief silence, Xu Yuan murmured, "Old Man Luo?" "..." After a moment of quiet, the Saint's remnant soul spoke, his voice relaxed and faintly amused. "What is it?" "Tell me, with the intelligence of these demonic beasts, how would they know to attack a walled city?" "Hm?" The Saint's remnant soul let out a soft murmur of surprise, then chuckled. "These beasts breed by the dozen in a single litter. Guyuan can't sustain such numbers, so they can only treat these beasts as expendable assets to expand outward." Xu Yuan shook his head. "I know that. What I mean is, why do these beasts insist on biting into hard bones like fortified cities? Wouldn't it be better to bypass them through the fringes and gaps? They're expendable anyway, so there's no need to consider how they'll return. As long as they thrust into the interior, they'd cause far more trouble for the Great Yan Dynasty." The Saint's remnant soul spoke in a measured, lingering tone. "Demonic beasts have no intelligence, but the demon race does." Xu Yuan fell silent upon hearing this, suddenly catching the meaning behind the old man's words. After a long pause, he muttered, "Infighting again... Great." If they merely caused a commotion along the border, Great Yan's sects and imperial court would hold each other back and bicker. But if the beasts truly pushed deep into the interior, it would infringe upon the shared interests of both court and sects. Do that a few times, push the border sects too far, and they would unite with the imperial court to launch an expedition against Guyuan—a loss the demon race in Guyuan could never afford. "Great? It certainly is clever," the Saint's remnant soul remarked with a grin. "The spring beast tides in the Wanxing Mountain Range attack only towns and cities each year, serving as a routine test by Guyuan. As long as your Great Yan Dynasty can hold the line each year, everyone remains at peace. But if Great Yan ever becomes unable to maintain this hundred-thousand-li border defense, Guyuan will likely consider making a real move. The fertile soils of the Central Plains are far better than that godforsaken wasteland of Guyuan." "..." Xu Yuan was momentarily dazed by these words. He recalled the world lines in *Cangyuan* where Guyuan served as the final boss. In those timelines, it was precisely because the Great Yan Dynasty could no longer maintain this vast border defense that Guyuan judged Great Yan to be weak, seizing the opportunity to invade on a massive scale... Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan looked at the layer of mist outside and suddenly asked, "Old Man Luo, can you forcibly break through this illusion array?" "What?" The Saint's remnant soul sounded slightly surprised. Xu Yuan repeated in a low voice, "I asked, could you and Ran Qingmo break through this grand illusion array together while bringing me along?" "If this old man were at his peak..." "All right, say no more." Xu Yuan sighed. "Tsk... You brat." The Saint's remnant soul clicked his tongue, then asked, "What are you worrying about, boy?" "This afternoon, before Zhou Xiaohe left, she said she would come to this inn to look for us this evening, but they haven't shown up," Xu Yuan said gravely. The Saint's remnant soul caught on quickly. "You suspect this beast assault is connected to the Wanxiang Sect?" Xu Yuan nodded. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but the beast tide hit barely an hour after they left. Besides, those two must hold a fairly high status within the Wanxiang Sect. It's too much of a coincidence." The Saint's remnant soul hesitated slightly. "Yet the Wanxiang Sect has no reason to orchestrate a beast raid on the city. What good does death do them?" Xu Yuan rose slowly, making his way toward Ran Qingmo's adjacent room as he muttered in his mind, "That's what I can't figure out either. First, they spent a massive sum of silver to help my fourth sister construct this grand illusion array, and then they arranged this beast assault. Aside from dead bodies, what does the Wanxiang Sect..." At that point, Xu Yuan's eyelid twitched violently, and his steps halted abruptly. "The Wanxiang Sect... surely they wouldn't go that far?" The thought that flashed through his mind struck Xu Yuan as utterly unthinkable. "Go how far?" the Saint's remnant soul asked. Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment, then glanced at the soul ring and uttered two words: "Ghost mist." "..." Hearing that, the Saint's remnant soul clearly froze for a second. Xu Yuan was no longer in a hurry to step out. Instead, he rested his hand on the wooden door, falling into deep contemplation. "You mean the Wanxiang Sect wants to create ghost mist?" The Saint's remnant soul's voice turned intrigued. Xu Yuan ignored the old man and said with a frown, "There are hundreds of thousands of people here. The Wanxiang Sect shouldn't have the audacity to create ghost mist so brazenly, right?" The Saint's remnant soul lacked Xu Yuan's hesitation, saying in a relaxed tone, "Brat, this isn't brazen at all." "Hm?" "The grand array your sister set up isolates everything inside. Even if every single person in here dies, outsiders will only assume it was the work of demonic beasts." "..." Xu Yuan fell quiet, doubt showing in his eyes. "Yet sacrificing hundreds of thousands of people is enough to see the Wanxiang Sect..." "No one will ever know," the Saint's remnant soul interrupted, shaking his head. "..." Xu Yuan remained silent. The Saint's remnant soul chuckled softly and said, "Actually, verifying your suspicion is quite simple. Go over to the county yamen and ask the border army commanders whether this illusion array can be deactivated, and see just how many beasts have come this time. If the details line up, it's practically nine times out of ten." Xu Yuan pondered for a moment, his gaze turning exceedingly grave. "Let's do that. First, I'll get Ran Qingmo and head to the county yamen to check. If the Wanxiang Sect truly intends to forge ghost mist here, they've likely laid down other arrays in secret." Hearing this, the Saint's remnant soul quietly cautioned, "Keep a low profile. Even if the array in this city is damaged, its full activation won't be pleasant for either this girl Ran or me—not to mention the border troops inside can form battle formations." Xu Yuan pushed the door open and stepped out. "Don't worry. I know my limits."