Recapturing Houting

"Commander Yuan." A deep voice pulled Yuan Hao back from his murderous reverie. Suppressing the impatience in his heart, Yuan Hao glanced back at the newcomer and smiled. "General Zhou, are preparations complete?" The Houting County region was the first line of defense established by Great Yan to prevent the barbarians from sweeping south, painstakingly fortified over many years. It was composed of three cities centered on Houting County, along with twelve permanent stockades, mutual horns of defense stretching several hundred li from east to west. After taking command of the mixed heavy cavalry marching south to reinforce and undergoing a brief respite, he had urgently coordinated the siege assignments with several commanders. They had to take down the entire defensive line before Zong Qingsheng's central army arrived, and be prepared at any moment to meet an offensive from the south. General Zhou hesitated slightly before speaking in a low voice: "Preparations are complete. However, I went to inspect the snowdrifts around Houting County. They are very deep—it might work against a full-scale assault." "Snow?" Yuan Hao murmured, casting a glance at the border city amidst the wind and snow in the distance. Snow deep enough to cover one's ankles was already considered heavy, and drifts reaching a person's height were virtually unheard of under normal circumstances. Yet the blizzard that had plagued the Northern Border for months had piled snowdrifts across this wilderness deep enough to nearly bury century-old pine forests. Drifts seven or eight zhang deep were normal across the plains; five or six zhang was considered shallow ground; worse still, some low-lying ravines were almost completely packed with snow. Heavy cavalry—mounts, riders, and barding included—weighed several tons each. Across snowfields like these, charging at full speed was fundamentally out of the question. That this heavy cavalry force could drive a thousand li south in half a ten-day was entirely thanks to high-ranking cultivators accompanying the army, who took turns day and night unleashing their profound cultivation to blast away the snow ahead, forging a path through the frozen sea for the tens of thousands of heavy riders behind them. Pondering for a moment, Yuan Hao chuckled softly. "No matter." General Zhou hesitated at his response. "Commander Yuan, are you certain you only want to take a single battalion to attack Houting?" Hearing this, Yuan Hao shook his head with a smile. "General Zhou, I said before that the cities around Houting County are essentially empty. A single battalion is more than enough." "Empty cities..." General Zhou frowned, wanting to ask for the source of his intelligence, but held his tongue. They had been stationed near Mount Dali all along and were in the dark about much of the situation. Yuan Hao, on the other hand, had been parachuted in from above; he likely possessed intelligence they lacked. After a moment of silence, General Zhou sighed and cupped his hands. "Since Commander Yuan already has a plan in mind, this Zhou will say no more. May martial fortune smile upon you." Yuan Hao grinned. "Then I shall take General Zhou's good wishes." Pausing, Yuan Hao reminded him once more, "And don't forget, General Zhou: the moment I scale the city walls, detonate the Cloud Qi Bomb immediately. That is Lady Lou Ji's directive." With that, paying no heed to the bewilderment in General Zhou's eyes, Yuan Hao leaped forward and vanished into the snowstorm. *** In a detached courtyard of the Houting County Yamen. *Creak—* With a faint groan from the wooden door of the wing, a handsome man wearing a loosely draped sleeping robe stepped out into the courtyard, yawning. As he walked, he lazily lifted his eyes toward the gloom of the sky. As a Flesh Integration Realm cultivator, he had no need for sleep, but staying awake was far too boring. Because he was under house arrest. After being ruthlessly extorted by that Xu Changtian kid, he had managed to save his neck and reach the outskirts of Houting County. But after being personally welcomed into the city by the commanding general here, he had immediately been placed under house arrest in this courtyard under the guise of "protection." At the thought, Li Junqing had already stepped into the dilapidated pavilion in the courtyard, brushing off snow and sighing. In truth, house arrest was no great hardship; he had long prepared himself for it. The real problem was that these sects were utterly shameless—they hadn't provided him with a shred of entertainment during his confinement. Leave aside summoning courtesans to attend him; they hadn't even given him an illustrated storybook to pass the time. Aside from sleeping, all he could do was sit idly in this courtyard, gazing at the snow in a daze. As for cultivation? Cultivating was out of the question. If he kept cultivating, he might accidentally break through to third-rank Grandmaster, at which point his eldest brother would surely take issue with it. To avoid brother turning against brother, it was best not to make such unnecessary provocations. Taking out half a jug of monkey wine left over from yesterday from his Sumeru ring, Li Junqing began another dull day of watching the snow. Unfortunately, beneath the heavy snow clouds blanketing the sky, daylight looked barely any different from night. Without circulating his cultivation technique, all he could see was pitch-black gloom drifting downward; yet if he did circulate his technique, he risked drawing the attention of the sect border army stationed outside. Living under someone else's roof, he ultimately chose endurance to avoid being suspected of stirring up trouble and consequently "disappeared." If it was unsightly, so be it. Black snow was still snow; he could make do with admiring it. Staying alive wasn't shameful, after all. As cup after cup of fine wine flowed down his throat, Li Junqing was just beginning to feel a hint of drunkenness when a series of clamors suddenly reached his ears from outside the courtyard. Though he wasn't circulating his technique, the physical senses of a fourth-rank Flesh Integration Realm cultivator were still what they were. At first, the noise was faint—so faint Li Junqing thought he had misheard, for those serving as guards within the county yamen were essentially elite sect troops. Even if they couldn't stand unflinching though Mount Tai collapsed before them, they were seasoned veterans of a hundred battles nonetheless; in peacetime, obeying orders and observing basic military discipline was well within their capabilities. Soon, however, Li Junqing dismissed that thought, for the commotion spread outward in short order. Chaos seemed to engulf the county yamen, and he could even hear the whinnying and hoofbeats of monster steeds. Someone was riding horses inside the county yamen? Were they fleeing? After several breaths of silence, Li Junqing weighed his options, set his wine cup gently onto the stone table, and prepared to stand up and check outside. In the next instant, a flash of brilliance abruptly erupted across the heavens, coalescing into an orb of light a dozen zhang across in the sky north of Houting County. The moment he saw the glowing orb, Li Junqing's pupils contracted. He had seen an orb like that once before. A Cloud Qi Bomb... Even as the thought crossed his mind, spiderweb cracks began spreading across the surface of the orb in the sky. Light radiated from the fissures, dazzling enough to nearly blind anyone looking. And the moment the orb shattered completely, an invisible shockwave blasted outward, carving a gap of several hundred zhang right through the pitch-black clouds! As the clouds roiled, the shockwave did not continue expanding. Instead, upon reaching a critical threshold, it was suddenly sucked backward, forming a circular high-pressure ring about half a meter wide in the dense snow clouds. At that very instant, the celestial phenomenon seemed frozen in place, as though someone had hit pause. Everything turned terrifyingly still. The next moment, a tempestuous gale exploded outward from the center of high pressure! The wind pressure swept across, scattering the ten-thousand-li stretch of snow clouds in every direction like dead weeds before a storm. One breath later, a ray of brilliant midday sunshine cascaded onto the earth. Two breaths later, the wind pressure blasted across the snowdrifts several zhang deep on the ground, the gale bending tree trunks nearly double. Three breaths later, a cloudless expanse stretched for ten thousand li; the accumulated snow had scattered completely. Looking at the scene before him, Li Junqing realized what was happening. His eyes narrowed slightly as he let out a sigh and plopped back down onto the stone bench. "An ultimatum to the Barbarian King and the sects? What an enormous ruckus. Tsk..."