Night.
White armor, snowfield, an orderly, grim military array.
The ten thousand-plus Beifeng armored soldiers garrisoned in the Barbarian Sacred City had barely managed to assemble after two hours, arrayed outside the city walls.
An assembly time of two hours seemed rather sluggish for an elite force like the Beifeng Army, but this was hardly the soldiers' fault.
After all, the three battalions garrisoned within the Barbarian Sacred City were scattered across all four perimeter walls; coordinating them required traversing the entire city.
Because of this, compared to his brother companies on the other battlements, Li Yongliang, who was on duty at the southern wall tonight, felt rather fortunate.
"Hehehe."
Standing before the formation, Li Yongliang stroked his chin, grinning foolishly.
Standing rotation duty was far more than simply leading patrols.
To prevent surprise night attacks and manage emergencies—such as an inability to locate superior officers—the officers on duty were granted a temporary half-rank promotion. They were also entrusted with several trivial yet vital authorities, such as unsealing ordnance reserves, blowing alarm horns, and raising or lowering the city portcullis.
Yet among Li Yongliang and his fellow officers, such temporary elevations of power were hardly considered a good thing.
In peacetime, certain commanders loved making trouble, suddenly rousing the entire army in the dead of night for live-combat drills.
Handle it well, and it was simply part of your duty.
Mess it up, and congratulations—you were blessed with a hefty parcel of disciplinary punishment.
There had once been an incident in the Beifeng Army's Third Town where an officer on duty handled things poorly and triggered a camp mutiny, prompting the commanding general to chop his head right off on the spot.
Still, every coin had two sides.
In ordinary times, this was a miserable chore, but on the eve of battle, it was tantamount to answering a call of duty in a crisis!
Though not quite holding up a collapsing mansion, it was still a prime chance to earn major merit.
At this thought, Li Yongliang glanced over his shoulder toward the slender, red-armored figure standing atop the gate tower, his heart stirring with quiet excitement.
Competence was certainly important, but it still required the higher-ups to see it, didn't it?
Though he had lost his chance to show his face before the Marquis because of that bastard Wang Cheng's scheming, tonight's unforeseen developments had given him the opportunity to show his face before Her Highness.
Though they had had no direct contact and the orders had been conveyed by Commandant Tang, Her Highness was standing atop the gate tower after all; she had surely seen everything he had done.
"Hey, Old Li, what are you grinning like an idiot for?"
As he was lost in thought, a deep, slightly resonant voice drifted over from the side.
Li Yongliang looked back to see a burly man clad in the white armor of a qujiang striding toward him, a hand resting on the hilt of his saber. The soldiers trailing behind him were escorting a squawking mass of barbarian women and children who remained.
A chaotic swarm of people, noisy and clamorous, needing raw force to keep them intimidated.
The burly man's armor clattered with every step. With a hint of a smile in his voice, he asked, "What's the situation? Is it the Marquis who arrived, or Her Highness?"
"Old Bai, cutting it close again, are we?"
Pausing for a second, Li Yongliang grinned. "Aren't you afraid of getting punished for delaying military operations?"
"Cut the crap."
Bai Jiaqi punched Li Yongliang in the shoulder, chuckling in reprimand. "My company is stationed on the north side, and today was our rotation off. Gathering the boys and rushing here in such a short time wasn't easy at all, let me tell you."
"Oho."
Li Yongliang shot him a knowing look and muttered under his breath, "You weren't stirring a cauldron with a toothpick again, were you?"
"What?" Bai Jiaqi didn't catch it.
"Nothing." Li Yongliang waved a hand. "I said Her Highness is here."
"Her Highness?" Bai Jiaqi froze.
Li Yongliang jutted his chin toward the gate tower.
Bai Jiaqi took a quick peek and immediately retracted his gaze, frowning. "Isn't Her Highness supposed to be in Beifeng? Why did she suddenly come to this barbarian city?"
Li Yongliang rolled his eyes and held his hands out.
"Hah, you think too highly of me. How would a measly qujiang like me know anything about Her Highness's whereabouts?"
"Then what's the purpose of this muster?"
"Don't know that either."
"Tsk, how do you know nothing at all?"
"I already said, I'm just a qujiang, how would I know so much? Or why don't you yield some military merits to me and let me promote to yajiang? Maybe I'll know next time."
"Piss off!"
Bai Jiaqi laughed and swore. He surveyed the sea of white armor arrayed around them, leaned in a bit closer, and whispered, "I recall you're on duty for the south city tonight, aren't you? Are you forbidden to speak, or do you truly not know?"
While a qujiang was already considered a mid-level officer in the army, superiors rarely explained the precise reasons behind orders on the eve of battle. Most of the time, they were only expected to bury their heads and charge.
Li Yongliang clicked his tongue softly and sighed.
"The order I received was simple: relay and coordinate all units within the city to muster outside the southern gate."
"..."
Bai Jiaqi furrowed his brows.
Though superiors never went out of their way to explain the meaning of their deployments, their years of military life had granted these mid-level officers a degree of military instinct.
His expression turning grave, Bai Jiaqi murmured softly, "Muster all forces across the city... Are we breaking camp? No, if we were breaking camp, I didn't see the provisions officers hauling baggage on my way here, nor were the scout eagle-beasts dispatched to survey outside."
At that, Bai Jiaqi looked at Li Yongliang with probing eyes.
"So, tonight is a live drill? But if it's a drill, why did they have me bring these barbarian captives along?"
"..."
Li Yongliang shrugged and smiled. "Why overthink it so much? Her Highness is right here."
Their eyes met.
Bai Jiaqi grinned and clapped the other man on the shoulder. "Fair enough, Old Li. I'll head over to our company's assembly point first."
With that, just as he was about to depart, Bai Jiaqi's peripheral vision caught sight of a young man wearing the robes of a provisions officer driving a carriage out from the gate archway, heading straight toward them.
The carriage was drawn by a tall white demon horse. The carriage bed behind it stood an entire zhang high, and through the oiled paper wrapping inside, one could faintly discern stacks of wooden cases. The iron-banded wooden wheels carved deep ruts into the snow.
Seeing this, Bai Jiaqi instinctively halted his steps.
By military protocol, a carriage of materiel like this would be looking for Li Yongliang, the officer on duty.
And sure enough, amid the faint rumbling of the iron-banded wheels, the carriage pulled up and stopped right in front of Li Yongliang.
The young provisions officer hopped down nimbly and asked with a smile, "Qujiang Li?"
"..."
Li Yongliang cupped his fists in return and respectfully presented the duty-officer tiger tally hanging from his waist.
He recognized this man: one of the provisions transport supervisors of the Beifeng Third Town, already a Fourth Rank powerhouse at such a young age.
His intent-soul swept over the tiger tally, confirming the identity.
The young provisions officer stepped slightly to the side, flicked a finger toward the carriage, and said amiably, "Commandant Tang has ordered this load of materiel to be distributed among the soldiers. I must trouble you with it."
As this fell directly under the duty officer's responsibilities, Li Yongliang instinctively inquired, "Provisions Officer Zhou, may I ask what materiel this is?"
"Of course."
The young provisions officer put on no airs, yet as he spoke, the smile faded from his face, and he exhaled a sigh: "Inside this carriage are twenty chests of Jinqi Pills."
"..."
Jinqi Pills...
Hearing that, Li Yongliang instinctively glanced at Bai Jiaqi, only to find the other man staring back at him.
In that single heartbeat of eye contact, both men saw the gravity settling into the other's eyes.
Jinqi Pills were an extremely restricted medicinal substance in the military, distributed to individual companies by the supply division only prior to massive engagements.
It was a medicine that granted greater power in the short term at the cost of damaging one's meridians and physical vessel.
Anyone who had served in the army long enough had basically ingested one before.
After all, though Jinqi Pills carried severe side effects, before death and defeat, such consequences ceased to be terrifying.
The young provisions officer said nothing more, bowing deeply and respectfully toward Li Yongliang. "Qujiang Li, if there is nothing else, Zhou shall take his leave."
"..."
Watching the young man's figure vanish in silence, Li Yongliang drew a deep breath. He glanced at Bai Jiaqi, his mouth twitching as he spoke in a solemn voice: "Twenty chests of Jinqi Pills... Divided among ten thousand men, how many is that per person?"
Bai Jiaqi fell silent for several breaths before spitting out two words: "Four pills."
"..."
Hearing that number, Li Yongliang's fingers trembled slightly.
The efficacy and side effects of Jinqi Pills magnified with every increase in dosage.
Take one, and you couldn't get out of bed for over half a month.
Take two, and your meridians suffered irreversible damage, impairing future cultivation.
Take three, and your meridians would shatter into pieces, virtually guaranteeing no further advancement in cultivation for the rest of your life.
Take four, and your dantian would surge in violent backlash, leaving you grievously wounded and on the brink of death.
Take five, and your entire body would turn fiery crimson, flesh burning as though trapped in an oven, bleeding through your skin until death took you.
Four pills...
Officers like them with higher cultivation might barely endure it, but for the common rank and file beneath them, four Jinqi Pills was practically a lethal sentence.
After a few breaths of silence, Li Yongliang's voice turned low and gravelly: "Old Bai, Her Highness loves her troops like her own children. Unless it was absolutely necessary, she would never issue such an order. What do you think she's planning to do?"
Bai Jiaqi instinctively gazed toward the pitch-black southern horizon, licking his dry lips.
"What is she doing?
"Though this barbarian city lacks a city-protecting array, the walls remain sturdy. If an enemy army were attacking, we should hold the ramparts and defend. Deploying outside the walls in a dense formation like this... it must be... it must be to deal with a high-stage cultivator."
A prolonged illness turned a man into a doctor; anyone who had marched in the army long enough without being an idiot could discern the truth from such details.
In just a few words, Bai Jiaqi had deduced the correct answer.
"A high-stage cultivator..."
Li Yongliang murmured, also looking out toward the southern horizon.
"Old Bai, tell me, a high-stage cultivator who forces three battalions of our Beifeng Army—over ten thousand elites—to swallow four Jinqi Pills just to fight... just how high must he be?"
"..."
Bai Jiaqi shuddered. He cracked a stiff grin and laughed. "How high could he be? Transcendent Realm, obviously. I remember Commandant Tang mentioning during the feast after taking the city that the Barbarian King is merely at the Transcendent Realm."
Li Yongliang shot Bai Jiaqi a look and said grimly, "Stop kidding yourself. In our twenty-odd years in the army, it's not like we've never faced Transcendent powerhouses before. It wouldn't come to this."
Bai Jiaqi's grip tightened on his hilt, his voice trembling slightly. "If it's a Saint... why didn't Her Highness withdraw beforehand..."
"Can you outrun a Saint? Or can our brothers escape a Saint's intent-soul sweep?"
Li Yongliang gazed up at the pitch-black sky, letting out a long sigh as he clenched his fists tight. "Without Her Highness, to fight is to break, and to break is to die. If Her Highness, with her precious royal person, is willing to stay behind for our sakes, what do we have to fear?"
"..." Bai Jiaqi remained silent.
Li Yongliang vaulted onto the carriage. Standing on the carriage frame, he looked down at Bai Jiaqi and chuckled, "What are you standing there gaping for? Call over your idle brothers to lend a hand! If we make it back alive, remember to treat me to wine and a courtesan at Langui Pavilion."
Coming back to his senses, Bai Jiaqi looked at the man's scruffy, bearded smile. Steadying his mind, he jumped onto the wagon as well, helping out while laughing and cursing, "Damn it all, why should I treat you just because I survive?"
"Because of your toothpick stirring a cauldron—"
"Cough... I—I'll buy you two!"
"Hahahahaha!"
***
Atop the wall, beneath the gate tower.
Leaning against a stone pillar, Xu Yuan gazed at the slender red figure not far away.
Her profile was flawless, her form-fitting crimson armor cool, elegant, and lethal.
Just as Li Qingyan had said in the subterranean palace, merely standing there, a qualified commander could turn the unease in people's hearts into trust.
When she had "borrowed" the Jinqi Pills from him, Xu Yuan had worried that such an extreme dosage would incite a camp mutiny among the soldiers below.
After all, a dosage of four Jinqi Pills was practically lethal for ordinary Sixth and Seventh Rank soldiers.
Yet the troops below had not fallen into panic; instead, their morale burned even fiercer.
"..."
As he thought this, Xu Yuan's gaze instinctively slid downward, settling on the curve of her hip wrapped in armor.
His lips curved faintly. Lowering his eyes, Xu Yuan glanced with lingering relish at the tip of his slender right middle finger.
This chest-binding princess was truly vicious. He had merely teased her through her clothes, and she had immediately drawn a blade to stab him. Still, the texture against his fingertip...
"Changtian."
A cool voice snapped Xu Yuan from his reminiscence. Looking up, he found Li Qingyan gazing calmly at him, her eyes shimmering with a dim light.
"What are you looking at?"
Xu Yuan didn't care in the slightest, replying with a chuckle, "What, is Her Highness Wuyuan so tyrannical that I can't even look at my own hand?"
Li Qingyan drew a deep breath, her chest remaining perfectly still as she said, "You'd better be looking at your hand."
Xu Yuan chuckled helplessly, pointing toward the southwest as he teased, "With battle imminent, since when does our Qingyan care about such petty romances?"
Li Qingyan averted her eyes, ignoring the rogue. She said solemnly, "Counting the time, the Barbarian King will arrive very soon."
Xu Yuan pondered briefly and nodded, turning somewhat serious. "Don't worry. I'll do my best to create an opening for your strike."
Li Qingyan said in a hushed voice, "This princess didn't mean that..."
"What?" Xu Yuan uttered in mild surprise.
Li Qingyan glanced at the red armor she wore and murmured, "Have Senior Luo stay by your side. This princess doesn't need her."
Xu Yuan's eyes widened in mild astonishment, and then, as if realizing something, he smiled. "Are you worried about me?"
Li Qingyan shot him a sideways glance. "If you die, wouldn't that play right into my second brother's hands? Once this princess returns, I still intend to settle scores with him."
"..."
Xu Yuan felt a touch disappointed by the answer, yet found it somewhat amusingly characteristic.
After a brief pause, however, Li Qingyan's voice came again, slightly softer than before:
"Of course... if you truly died, this princess might feel sad."
Hearing that, Xu Yuan looked up, straightened his posture, and walked toward her. "Qingyan..."
"Stay back!"
Li Qingyan knitted her brows, barking a sharp warning.
What had just transpired made her reluctant to let this nuisance near her.
Not to mention, unlike earlier, there were over ten thousand soldiers down below looking up at their commander.
"..."
Xu Yuan's eyes flickered. With a step, his body flashed right up beside her in an instant.
Li Qingyan's gaze flared with immediate vigilance.
Yet to her surprise, the rascal didn't make any improper moves this time, merely gazing calmly toward the southwest.
Li Qingyan turned her gaze in that direction as well.
As far as the eye could see, there was only boundless, pitch-black horizon.
Yet she sensed a disturbance of Source Qi roiling heaven and earth—like a primeval behemoth crouching in the distant skies!
Someone was hurtling at high speed toward the Barbarian Sacred City.
Xu Yuan looked at the horizon and inhaled deeply.
"Look at that. The Barbarian King isn't concealing his aura at all. Since he's so confident, just wait and see what a grand gift your husband has prepared for him."
"Be careful," Li Qingyan murmured softly.
"Don't worry. I'm very strong right now."
Xu Yuan smiled faintly, patted her shoulder, and soared into the sky under Li Qingyan's complex, mildly worried gaze.
Since he had ample time, he would show this Barbarian King what a true caster could do!
Standing in the dark void, the aura around Xu Yuan surged upward, layer by layer, as a dense, ink-like bloodiness swiftly spread outward with him at the center...
Chapter 317