"The Yan people... The Yan people's flying demonic beasts are attacking!! Notify the chieftain!"
"Didn't the King say the Great Yan main army is deep in the snow plains? How dare these remnants venture out of the city?"
"Don't panic! Ready the sacred armaments!"
Guttural, tongue-twisting barbarian words echoed one after another throughout the temporary encampment.
Though barbarians were combative by nature, they were by no means immune to fear.
The moment Great Yan's demonic beasts took flight, chaos inevitably descended over the barbarian camp, and once the smoke screen formed, that chaos reached its zenith.
Prolonged warfare had made them no strangers to the Yan people's endless array of military machinery, yet when an unfamiliar new implement of unknown purpose appeared, panic still spread across the camp.
Right then,
"Do not panic! The King foresaw this long ago! Act according to His Majesty's sacred decree!"
"Are the sacred armaments ready?!"
"Form the array and summon the Barbarian God totem!!"
Booming shouts in the barbarian tongue rang out deafeningly.
As these voices arose, the chaotic barbarians finally remembered that their King had already made contingencies.
Soon, order in the eastern encampment finally prevailed over the chaos.
Just as the turmoil was being suppressed, ferocious demonic beasts broke through the fog of that smoke chasm—one after another, stretching across the sky like dark storm clouds, bellowing with massive mawparts agape as they bore down upon the barbarian camp.
"..."
Amid the barbarian encampment's tense preparations, a young barbarian officer standing guard outside the chieftain's tent stared up blankly at the incoming demonic beasts. A pair of calloused, keratin-covered hands trembled slightly as they gripped a sacred weapon, his dark lips continuously muttering prayers like "Barbarian God protect our Sacred Race."
As a confidant of the chieftain, Eji knew far more than his fellow tribesmen.
Ever since the King united the tribes, the Sacred Race had enjoyed strength unseen in a century, mobilizing the entire race's might southward to seek a land to call home.
Back then, he had believed that under that King's leadership, everything would go smoothly for the Sacred Race.
And facts had proven it so.
Destiny was with their Sacred Race.
The Yan armies—deemed invincible in the tales of tribal elders—had been so frail and pathetic.
Under the King's leadership, the Sacred Race had won victory after victory, marching smoothly south all the way beneath the walls of Beifeng City.
Only then, with the stalled campaign, did Eji realize things seemed to have changed.
Back then, the Yan cities had been difficult to attack, but they were by no means impregnable.
As long as the Sacred Race's people threw their lives forward without fear of death, the border towns held by those death-fearing Yan people would swiftly fall.
Yet this Beifeng City...
It was like a death domain.
However many children of the Sacred Race charged it, that many died.
Without exception.
Aside from several large-scale assaults utilizing the Ice Beast Colossi, their attacks could not even graze the city walls.
Even then, this colossal fortress of Beifeng remained as impassable as a natural chasm.
Even so, up until that point, he still believed that under the King's lead, the Sacred Race remained undefeated.
What followed, however, completely shattered that conviction.
That hideous Yan princess known as Wuyuan had broken their unbroken streak of victories.
And thereafter, the Sacred Race's mandate of heaven seemed to vanish.
Over half of the Sacred Race's million-strong army had perished in the rout.
For the first time, Eji truly witnessed the strength of the Yan people spoken of by the tribal elders.
It wasn't just the troops brought by the Yan princess; even the Yan border troops, who had once routed at a touch, had become invincible.
Man for man, the people of the Sacred Race were practically slaughtered in a one-sided massacre.
Yet the chieftain and the King seemed to have anticipated this long ago.
He had even heard the King utter words to the effect of: "The depths of the snow plains cannot sustain so many mouths anyway. Let more die; the useless have no value. Preserving the battle-hardened elites will make our next comeback all the smoother."
Hearing this had caused Eji's faith in that King to crumble.
The King's past displays of loving his people like his own children, his promises to secure a homeland for the Sacred Race—all of it seemed mockingly ironic beneath those words.
Yet as Eji's rank rose throughout the war, he came to realize that the King was still that same ruler who loved his people.
Survival of the fittest was the Sacred Race's only way to endure.
The aged, the frail, and the untalented had to die on the battlefield, concentrating limited supplies to nurture the stronger, more gifted kin, ensuring they would remember this hatred and wage the next war.
And so the cycle repeated.
This was the destiny borne by countless generations of the Sacred Race.
And to break this destiny, their only option was to march south.
Pondering this, Eji watched the Great Yan demonic beasts drawing ever closer in the sky, clenching his fists so hard that the keratinous calluses on his palms deformed slightly.
Yet marching south was easier said than done.
In a mere few months, Great Yan's formidable might had been etched into his very bones.
Had it not been for this auspicious snow, they likely never could have breached this giant fortress of Beifeng in their lifetimes.
The King's decision was a perilous gamble; counting even the corpses of their own fallen kin, their provisions could barely sustain them for two months.
Yet for the future of the Sacred Race's children, they had to gamble—even at the risk of losing an entire generation.
"Children of the Sacred Race, fight alongside me!!!"
***
Looking down from the sky, billows of smoke and dust rolled like a sandstorm bearing down upon the city.
Except for the northern face, nearly all three remaining sides of vast Beifeng were cloaked in dense smoke.
Even standing atop the mountain-like gate tower, as far as Xu Yuan's gaze could reach, all remained a blinding blanket of white.
The earth-shaking thunder of hooves beneath the gate tower was Xu Yuan's only means of perceiving the battlefield.
His chest-binding fiancée had likely already ridden out of the city.
Having been in this world for so long, Xu Yuan's mindset had changed dramatically, yet facing war directly still made him slightly nervous.
In the silence, a series of colossal booms suddenly resounded from the distance.
Xu Yuan glanced sideways at Vice General Cang, whose expression was as calm and sunken as still water, and broke the silence:
"The barbarians have anti-air capabilities?"
"Naturally."
Vice General Cang looked up toward the source of the explosions. "Eight or nine out of ten beasts in this batch probably won't return."
Hearing this, Xu Yuan recalled the sky-blotting flock of flying demonic beasts that had just left the city and let out a soft sigh.
"War is truly a matter of burning money. Raising a single flying demonic beast costs at least two thousand taels of silver or more. Factor in the armaments they carry, and a single sortie burns millions."
Vice General Cang seemed touched with sighing sentiment as well, but immediately shook his head slightly.
"Young Master Xu, Her Highness had no other choice for this expedition. The sect granaries inside the city were destroyed, and we can no longer maintain a swarm of demonic beasts of this scale. Though most are military-trained beasts, without food, they still risk running amok."
Demonic beasts were immense in size and consumed vastly more food than ordinary cultivators; sustaining them was utterly impossible.
Xu Yuan's eyes flickered, and he asked abruptly, "If so, wouldn't sending out so many flying demonic beasts provide meat for those barbarians?"
If a thousand various flying demonic beasts were used as food, they could essentially be measured in tens of thousands of tons.
Hearing this, Vice General Cang grinned.
"If the barbarians dare eat these beasts, it will save us a lot of trouble."
Xu Yuan understood in an instant. "You poisoned them?"
Vice General Cang cupped his hands. "What Young Master Xu could think of, Her Highness naturally took into consideration. The morning feed for all these departing flying demonic beasts was laced with Crane-Crest Powder. This drug arouses their feral nature while tainting their flesh with venom."
Xu Yuan looked at the smoke screen that had already expanded to the edge of the city walls, shook his head, and fell silent.
War recognized no scruples.
Back in Shengshan City, he had already witnessed war's brutality—horrific scenes of piled flesh and blood.
Stepping on that gore, one could still feel the warmth of what had once been living beings.
And that had merely been a minor battle, hardly worth mentioning on a grand scale.
In the days ahead in the Northern Border, he might well see true burial mounds of ten thousand—or even a hundred thousand souls.
As he was thinking, seven resonant tolling bells echoed throughout Beifeng City.
Vice General Cang naturally turned his gaze toward the south.
Xu Yuan looked over as well.
Just as Li Qingyan had anticipated, the barbarians had launched their counterattack from the south of the city.
Over there, the smoke released by the "Sun-Blotter" was abruptly punched through by a mighty gale, blasting open a colossal gap as the smoke surged skyward, even overtopping the towering ramparts.
Standing high and looking far, aided by the visual enhancement granted by the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art, Xu Yuan could faintly make out the city-protecting array on the southern front visibly flickering for an instant.
Then—
Rumble—!
Rumble—!
Rumble—!
A trembling like an earth dragon turning in its sleep caused the sturdy ramparts to vibrate faintly.
Xu Yuan lowered his eyes to watch the pebbles quivering atop the gate tower, his brows furrowing slightly. "This is..."
Vice General Cang's voice grew grave. "Ice Beast Colossi. That lunatic Barbarian King actually deployed the Ice Beast Colossi straightaway."
Xu Yuan pondered briefly, exhaled a plume of white vapor into the freezing wind, and asked, "Normally, they wouldn't deploy them for a siege?"
"No. Without the Ice Beast Colossi, it is difficult for the barbarians to breach the ramparts. Such colossi are exceedingly precious to them—fewer than ten in their entire possession."
"You mean the barbarians usually expend human lives to wear us down first?"
"Yes." Vice General Cang nodded. "Resources are scarce in that bitter frozen expanse. Whenever these barbarians face overpopulation, they must expend them in warfare. The colossi are different; they are their greatest asset in besieging cities during their southward drive, and taming even one comes at an immense price."
A thoughtful look crossed his face, and Xu Yuan suddenly grinned. "Vice General Cang, may I ask you a question?"
"What is it?" Vice General Cang asked with surprise in his eyes.
Xu Yuan weighed his words carefully before asking in a low voice, "Though barbarians are not of our human race, they possess intelligence. Having made a detour across towering mountains and deep ranges, their morale might not be completely steady. If you were the Barbarian King, how would you handle Wuyuan raiding the camp?"
Vice General Cang stared at Xu Yuan for several breaths before answering honestly, "Hmm... Were I that Barbarian Heterodox King, given the current intelligence, I would most likely dispatch troops to feign an assault on the south wall to force the princess to fall back on defense, keeping an elite reserve on standby at all times."
Xu Yuan nodded. "Indeed. To the barbarians, the eastern camp is expendable, but to us, Beifeng's south wall can never be lost."
Vice General Cang continued deducing and analyzing the situation. "If the assault on the south wall yields results, I would commit the reserves to press the advantage and strive to breach the city in one stroke. If the south wall falls into a stalemate, I would use the reserves in coordination with the troops from the eastern camp to strangle the princess's sortieing Feather Forest Guards. While the gains from this might not be massive, in either scenario, the barbarians stand to benefit."
Pausing, he added grimly, "After all, morale within Beifeng City is already teetering on the edge of collapse. The longer this drags on, the more advantageous it is for them."
"Indeed. Their absolute numerical superiority allows the barbarians to act with far more composure." Listening to the intermittent explosions from the eastern camp, Xu Yuan replied softly, "If that's the case, why would this Barbarian King make an all-or-nothing gamble like Wuyuan and commit the Ice Beast Colossi directly to assault the city?"
"..."
Vice General Cang frowned and said hesitantly, "Beifeng City is currently hollowed out... Perhaps the Barbarian King wants to take Beifeng as quickly as possible. After all, how long this blizzard will last is completely unknown."
Xu Yuan was quiet for a few breaths, then shook his head.
"I'm more inclined to believe these barbarians are running out of provisions. The Black Scale Guards compiled reports on the various supplies the barbarians looted; a great portion of them are difficult to transport."
The biggest problem troubling the seven hundred thousand elite troops deep in the Northern Border was how much supply the barbarians could carry after taking a detour.
If it was less than what the Northern Border's seven hundred thousand troops possessed, a scorched-earth policy would leave the barbarians defeated without a fight.
Vice General Cang fell silent for a few breaths, then ventured hesitantly, "Young Master Xu, you mean... they intend to use the Ice Beast Colossi as food?"
Xu Yuan fixed his gaze on the pebbles rattling with mounting intensity atop the gate tower. "We couldn't afford to feed that flock of flying demonic beasts. A gargantuan brute of tens of thousands of tons like a colossus... its feed consumption shouldn't be small, right?"
Vice General Cang frowned. "The daily food for three ice plain colossi is indeed an unbearable burden..."
Xu Yuan slowly retrieved a crystalline sphere from his Sumeru ring.
It was a communication device he had used before in Wanxiang City—paired in a set of two; crushing one side would register on the other.
Seeing this, Vice General Cang's brow knitted. "Young Master Xu, what are you..."
Xu Yuan shook his head with mild helplessness. "Against an assault like this, relying on my family's five thousand-odd Black Scale Guards and thirty thousand border troops, we probably can't hold out, right?"
A trace of disdain flashed in Vice General Cang's eyes, though he masked it well. "Young Master Xu holds noble status. If you wish to depart, this subordinate will naturally not stand in your way."
Xu Yuan shook his head and murmured, "Rest assured, the time to leave hasn't come yet. This isn't for saving my own skin, but to notify the Black Scale Guards' beast yards inside Beifeng City."
"Beast yards?" Vice General Cang raised an eyebrow.
"To have all the flying demonic beasts in the Black Scale Guards' yards reinforce my dear fiancée, of course."
"But the massive flock of beasts from earlier should have been more than enough."
"..."
Xu Yuan stared at Vice General Cang with an odd expression for several seconds, then suddenly shook his head. "Vice General Cang, you've followed Qingyan for so many years, yet you still don't understand her as well as I do."
"What... do you mean?" Vice General Cang's brow furrowed tightly.
Xu Yuan said nothing at first, sweeping his eyes across the smoke screen enveloping all of Beifeng City before speaking faintly, "A tactical base-trade maneuver is certainly the mark of a lunatic, but Qingyan isn't an ordinary madwoman. She's crazier than even that Barbarian Heterodox King."
Hearing this, a look of astonishment surfaced on Vice General Cang's lightly wrinkled face. "Young Master Xu, you mean—"
Xu Yuan shook his head, looking toward the south of the city.
There, the war colossi had already reached the walls.
Behind the colossi was the barbarian host, already formed in battle arrays and invoking their totems.
Braving countless siege-defense engines, the bear-shaped colossus's gargantuan body was battered into a bloody mess before slamming into the city wall with a thunderous crash, collapsing on the spot.
A tremendous shockwave rippled out at a speed visible to the naked eye, causing the city-protecting array in the sky to flicker into view and waver.
At the same time, that impact also blasted a vast swathe of the smoke released by the "Sun-Blotter" outside the city up into the sky.
And right at that moment—
A massive contingent of Feather Forest iron cavalry, formed in a military array and veiled by the smoke, abruptly burst forth, thrusting like a razor-sharp arrowhead straight into the barbarian center army!
"..."
Atop the gate tower, Xu Yuan listened to the grim clamor of battle over there and gave Vice General Cang a helpless smile.
"Guessed right. Seems my princess truly is crazy..."
With that, he crushed the crystalline sphere in his hand.
Chapter 247