At the very moment bright sunlight shone over Houting County, the environs around Beifeng City were still shrouded in a wild flurry of swirling snow.
The howling of the wind and snow made the interior of the commander-in-chief's tent seem exceptionally quiet.
The makeshift command tent was not large. Over a dozen generals clad in the armor of border commanders sat sharply divided on either side, while upon the high seat in the center sat an old man with snow-white hair and beard.
Not one possessed cultivation lower than third rank. Commanding vast forces, each was a grand figure capable of shaking the entire Northern Border with a single stomp of their foot.
Yet at this moment, a deathly silence spread among these power brokers of the sects.
A quarter of an hour ago, they had learned through various channels that a Cloud Qi Bomb had been detonated in the vicinity of Houting County.
A few days prior, when the imperial court produced two Cloud Qi Bombs and demanded they immediately march south to reinforce Beifeng City, some among them had even harbored crooked thoughts toward the weapons.
It could not be helped—the Cloud Qi Bomb was truly a marvelous thing.
After witnessing its effects, this new type of military armament capable of altering celestial weather instantly aroused their greed.
If they could get their hands on a single sample, their own grandmaster array masters could attempt to reverse-engineer it.
Lou Ji had not paid them the slightest heed.
Leaving behind the words, "Go or don't go, at worst we all die together," she had shattered their greed on the spot.
If Beifeng City fell, the imperial court's three hundred thousand troops dying trapped in the snowfield would, at most, severely sap the court's vitality. For the northern sects, however, it would be an utter catastrophe.
If their three hundred thousand elites were lost, all their vast herb fields, workshops, arms manufactories, money houses, and other industries would directly face the edge of the barbarian advance.
Those left behind guarding their home bases were only some core disciples of the inner sects and second-line recruits of the eighth and ninth ranks.
The core disciples possessed high cultivation but did not train in military arrays; the recruits had never tasted blood, and on the battlefield, they would crumble in an instant.
Driven by helplessness, they had marched south to this point, yet unwilling to risk their lives, they had struck a deal with the Barbarian King.
From their perspective, there was no way the Barbarian King would refuse their charity.
The barbarians dared to detour south entirely because of this blizzard, which gave them an overwhelming advantage of weather and timing.
Yet once the Beifeng Army and Black Scale Army marched south and united with them, a single Cloud Qi Bomb dispelling the cloud cover, and seven hundred thousand troops assembling a military array—without a city-protecting array for protection, they could blast down the city walls themselves.
And now, a third Cloud Qi Bomb had indeed been detonated.
Yet compared to the location they had anticipated, there was a slight discrepancy.
It was not at Beifeng, but Houting.
Having fought in the Northern Border for decades, they naturally understood what this meant.
In the dead silence, the old man upon the central seat—Supreme Elder Qian Shuisheng of Lingshui Palace—finally spoke up:
"Everyone, speak your thoughts on our current situation."
Yet after his words fell, the silence persisted.
After a long pause, a female general on the left suddenly stood up and cupped her hands toward the old man.
She had a slender and petite frame, yet her looks were striking—skin like snow, a face like blossoms, brows like kingfisher feathers, and a voice as pleasant as silver bells:
"General Qian, I believe this is a delaying tactic by Marquis Wucheng or that woman Lou Ji. Xuepo Valley's liaison post outside Houting County has sent no word of Houting falling."
Hearing the woman speak, a man with a scar on his cheek raised an eyebrow, pondered for a moment, and also said, "Qingfeng makes some sense. The timing simply doesn't align. The Black Scale Army and the Beifeng Army are far away at Mount Dali. Even with cavalry, it would take them at least two to three days to reach the Houting area."
His hair and beard stark white, Qian Shuisheng gave a genial smile, stroked his white beard, and gave a slight nod. "Indeed, that is a possibility."
Pausing for a breath, Qian Shuisheng's eyes, slightly cloudy with age, sharpened in an instant.
"Yet even if it is as you two say, who will contact that Barbarian King? And who can make that Barbarian King believe us?"
With that, his gaze swept over the generals in the tent.
"Heh... If you were in that Barbarian King's shoes, would you rashly deploy troops north? I think not. At the very least, he would dispatch an army expert to verify, but if so, time might run out..."
The words fell, leaving silence.
The time gap.
The terms they had offered the barbarians were to yield the Houting County region, allowing the enemy to take over all military equipment and the city-protecting array there, thereby blocking the returning Black Scale Army and Beifeng Army.
And the key within was the time gap.
Now that a Cloud Qi Bomb had exploded over there, even if the imperial forces had not truly arrived, it bought them the time to do so.
It was also blatantly telling the barbarians:
Fight your own fight; don't come near me.
Looking deeper:
If you barbarians don't act quickly, the Beifeng Army and Black Scale Army could come down looking for you with a Cloud Qi Bomb at any moment.
Tell me, wouldn't you be afraid?
"Bastards!" A burly man cursed under his breath. "Marquis Wucheng and Zong Qingsheng calculated brilliantly—they want our border army to face these hundreds of thousands of barbarians all alone!"
"Enough." Another middle-aged man with full whiskers sighed. "Words are useless now. The urgent priority is figuring out how to break this deadlock."
The burly man glared, opening his mouth to curse, but held back, letting out a cold snort and falling silent.
Just then, the fair-faced female general spoke again: "Today I was responsible for encampment security. Our scouts detected many barbarian wolf riders roaming around our camp. We cannot determine their main force's position. If the army moves rashly, we could be ambushed by those barbarians at any moment."
Beifeng City was merely forty li or so from their camp; in normal marching conditions, they could arrive in half an hour. But if the barbarians used the wind and snow to strike their flanks mid-march, they would all be finished together.
Forty li—right before their eyes, yet worlds away.
The whiskered middle-aged man hesitated a moment, whispering, "Right now, our camp's defensive capabilities are practically nonexistent. Whoever still has materials in reserve, bring them out. We need to reinforce the camp, and the array masters traveling with the army must hurry to carve some simple defensive array formations to guard against a barbarian raid."
The scarred man suddenly sneered. "Reinforce the camp?"
The whiskered middle-aged man frowned and stared at the scarred man. "Why, does General Hou believe we shouldn't reinforce the camp?"
The scarred man casually shook his head and smiled. "Of course I have no objection. Our Huangyue Palace actually has some leftover materials from previously repairing Houting County. If the other sects chip in some materials too, we should be able to raise the camp's defense by an order of magnitude."
Saying so, the scarred man fixed his gaze on the whiskered man. "The problem is... how much grain do we have left?"
Hearing this, everyone in the command tent instinctively turned to look at Qian Shuisheng in the head seat.
Meeting the gaze of the commanders, Qian Shuisheng pondered for a moment and said in a low voice, "Earlier, in order to convince the barbarians to march north, we provided them with a third of our supplies. Our current provisions and wagon train can supply our army for about twenty days. If we reduce rations, we can hold out for about a month. If we are willing to slaughter the cavalry beast-mounts, we should be able to last even longer."
"..."
A month...
These words caused some of the generals present to begin harboring hidden thoughts.
Compared to the vertical, centralized command structure of the Black Scale Guards or the Beifeng Army, their side was more like a coalition—a coalition forced to band together under external pressure.
After a prolonged silence, a gentle voice suddenly asked, "What about the barbarians and the imperial court?"
Qian Shuisheng glanced at the speaker. He was the only person present who did not belong to a Northern Border sect.
A handsome young man with thin lips and peach-blossom eyes, elegantly refined.
The Wanyao Sect.
Wherever there was war, their figures could virtually always be found.
Here for business.
They took charge of treating wounded soldiers; as long as you were willing to pay, they could even regenerate severed limbs for low-rank troops.
Of course, hiring them required silver, and occasionally catching some live barbarians for their medicinal experiments.
Qian Shuisheng pondered for a moment and spoke truthfully: "The barbarians should have plenty of food. The carcasses of three Ice Beast Colossi, combined with the corpses of soldiers inside Beifeng City and the bodies of their own fallen kin, could sustain them for several months at least."
And barbarians, living year-round in the Desolate Snowfield within the Land of Utter Darkness, had no moral code to speak of.
Surviving was their sole morality.
And the lower your bottom line, the more provisions you had.
Just as demonic beast carcasses were to humans, the corpses of human cultivators were considered great tonics to barbarians.
Having reached this point, Qian Shuisheng glanced north. "According to our intelligence, Marquis Wucheng's original supplies could also last around a month, but before Wuyuan left, she likely took with her whatever provisions from the city that could be moved."
Hearing this, the handsome youth narrowed his eyes slightly and chuckled. "In other words, among the three factions in the Northern Border right now, we have the least grain?"
"..."
Qian Shuisheng said nothing, merely sweeping his gaze across the dozen or so sect commanders below.
Yet wherever his eyes landed, heads bowed one after another.
Seeing this, the wrinkles on Qian Shuisheng's face twitched, and he let out a faint sigh.
In marching and warfare, who didn't keep a few Sumeru rings on hand?
As the saying went, better fellow Daoists die than oneself. Everyone actually held some grain reserves, more or less. But turning it over—heh, weren't they still short of total desperation?
When the grain truly ran out, they could haggle and squabble, perhaps even sell it at an exorbitant price to seek post-war compensation.
Seeing the intentions of the commanders below, Qian Shuisheng did not say more.
Because it was useless.
He was commander-in-chief in name only. Military operations had to be decided by consensus; without discussion, without distributing benefits, without offering compensation, they would likely fall apart immediately.
The handsome young man of the Wanyao Sect rubbed the bridge of his nose and muttered, "So we can only hold out here? A contest of who has more food?"
Qian Shuisheng exhaled, leaned back against the head seat's backrest, and countered, "Our northern sects have sacrificed so much for the greater good. Can the sects from other regions offer no support?"
The handsome youth smiled gently, unhurried: "Elder Qian, hasn't the compensation manifest already been submitted to you? All those resources are ample to restore your vitality."
Whenever the imperial court took action, the sects in the afflicted region contributed manpower and strength, while sects from other regions provided materials afterward as compensation.
When trouble struck one side, support came from all eight directions—an unwritten consensus among the sects.
Qian Shuisheng gave the young man a deep look. "I mean sending men."
Hearing this, the youth smiled without a second thought. "Elder Qian, that would break the rules. Moreover, heavy snow now blocks the roads of the Northern Border, and the imperial court has sealed off the vital highways leading north. Even if we wanted to reinforce the Northern Border, we couldn't get in—"
Before his words had even finished—
*Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!*
A series of booming blasts erupted over the border army's camp, causing the generals in the commander's tent to knit their brows slightly.
If they had still harbored a sliver of hope that the barbarians would borrow passage north before this, that hope was now completely extinguished.
The Cloud Qi Bomb detonated over Houting County had ultimately driven the barbarians to prioritize dealing with the sect border army here.
Catapults employing brute force hurled countless boulders and various armaments toward the encampment that stretched for miles. High-ranking cultivators accompanying the army leapt into the air to intercept, yet caught off guard, the first volley still saw over a dozen massive boulders and Corrosive Acid Beasts crash to the ground, triggering a wave of chaos.
Yet this chaos was suppressed in an instant, without requiring the commanders to step forward to restore order.
Though the sects excelled at infighting, it did not diminish their martial vigor.
Thus, by the barbarians' second volley, not a single boulder or Corrosive Acid Beast managed to land within the camp...
After a long moment, Qian Shuisheng suddenly stood from the central seat, cupped his hands to everyone, and said, "Because of the imperial court's inaction, in our current situation we can only wait and see for now. I trouble you all to organize military arrays and prepare to repel a raid by those barbarians at any moment."
With that, he glanced toward the scarred General Hou. "General Hou, I will trouble your Huangyue Palace with reinforcing the camp. We will certainly double your compensation afterward."
The scarred man grinned upon hearing this. "Rest easy, Elder Qian, this is Huangyue Palace's duty—"
"Report!"
A loud shout suddenly rang out outside the tent, drawing everyone's attention.
With surprise in his eyes, Qian Shuisheng said, "Enter."
A man clad in the armor of a captain strode into the tent, dropped to one knee, and said directly, "Elder Qian, someone outside the camp wishes to see you and the commanders."
"See me?" Qian Shuisheng frowned. "Who?"
"An envoy sent by the Chancellor's Manor," the captain reported truthfully with lowered eyes. "He says he is here to talk business with you all."
Hearing this, peculiar looks appeared across everyone's faces.
Qian Shuisheng reacted fastest. Letting out a breath, he chuckled and said, "Why stand there dazed? Invite the gentleman in."
"Understood," the captain replied, and exited the tent in an instant.
A few breaths later, an unshaven, middle-aged man walked at an unhurried pace into the command tent under the captain's lead.
Looking at the room full of powerhouses in the tent, Zhou Chen felt his heart skip a beat.
Seventeen people in total; apart from seven Grandmasters, the rest possessed fathomless cultivation.
*Motherfucker, if I'd known, I wouldn't have played dead. Faked my death back then, and now here I am redeeming myself through meritorious service. What a curse!*
Cursing silently in his heart, Zhou Chen wore a genial smile on the outside and said, "Yo, good afternoon, everyone."
Qian Shuisheng stared calmly at the newcomer and smiled slightly. "Mister Zhou, the military situation is urgent right now. Why not speak plainly?"
"Elder Qian is truly an impatient man." Zhou Chen's smile remained intact as he cupped his hands. "Then I won't beat around the bush. My master sent me to make a deal with you all."
"What deal?" Qian Shuisheng's expression did not change.
Zhou Chen looked all around him, then said at an unhurried pace, "My master knows that your situation isn't easy right now, Elder Qian. He sent me to ask you all: do you have any interest in purchasing Cloud Qi Bombs?"
Chapter 258