Dawn Breaks

He had driven it into their heads time and time again, practically drilling it into their ears. Lei Ni looked ashamed. "A few hired hands snuck out there to gather Emperor's Flowing Dew!" She had been overwhelmed with work tonight; in a single moment of oversight, someone had hatched their own petty schemes. "..." Did those fools have their heads caught in a door, picking a hurricane of all days to head out to the jagged, rocky northwestern crags? The soul-snatching mirror piped up in a bizarre, mocking tone, "They had it coming! Good riddance! Don't save them, don't bother!" Ha, did they think running off to where nobody else was meant more dew for them? Fine wishful thinking, but they forgot about the storm outside! "That's beyond the barrier," He Lingchuan took a deep breath and spoke to the man behind him. "Zhao Yibing, go help rescue them." He had known something like this was bound to happen. Muddle-headed fools were everywhere; there was no stopping them. He Lingchuan felt helpless about it, but as master of Suoding Island, he had to uphold the principle of saving lives whenever possible. In treacherous terrain, golems had the distinct advantage. Zhao Yibing of Mount Rong stepped forward in response. With a wave of his hand, three fine-gold golems bounded behind him toward the southwest. Only then did He Lingchuan turn to Lei Ni. "Once they're brought back, you deal with them." Lei Ni hastily answered, "Understood." ... Toward the end of the hour of the Ox, the Emperor's Flowing Dew came to an end. The spiritual rain stopped falling from the heavens, and that faint, instinct-stirring fragrance vanished as well. The feverish frenzy among the living things below quickly receded. People bustled about hauling jars back inside, and the guards no longer stood on pins and needles as if facing a mortal enemy. An hour later, peace returned to both the docks and the guest quarters. He Lingchuan finally found a moment to step indoors for a sip of hot tea. He stretched, his joints popping with soft clicks all over. Fight first, lay cards on the table second; kill first, govern second. This grueling night was finally drawing to a close. Leading a motley crew while managing seaborne travelers from every corner of the world—heh. His experience overseeing Yuheng City in the Panlong World during the fall of Emperor's Flowing Dew hadn't been a tenth as difficult as tonight! Outside, several guards collapsed flat on their rumps, uncaring of the mud and footprints on the ground, heads tilting sideways as they fell dead asleep. He Lingchuan said to Min Tianxi, who had just stepped in, "The guest quarters must still be patrolled as usual. Guard against theft; don't fall short at the final stretch." The coming hours would be prime time for thefts of the dew. "Ah?" Hearing this, Min Tianxi pulled back the foot that had just crossed the threshold. "Understood." He Lingchuan watched him walk back out, shoulders drooping completely. Yet only a few paces out, Min Tianxi bellowed across the way: "Huang Zhao, Huang Zhao! Hey, you son of a bitch, don't pretend you can't hear me! The lord ordered the guest quarters patrolled as usual—keep an eye out for thieves! Still sitting? Stop sitting on your asses! Up, everyone, move out with me!" Gulping down several mouthfuls of hot tea, He Lingchuan stood up as well. The soul-snatching mirror asked excitedly, "Is it time to harvest the spiritual dew from the formations?" "Yeah, let's go." He had learned of the Emperor's Flowing Dew early on from Nailuotian's avatar. With such a vast territory in his hands, how could he miss out on the spiritual rain falling across the Yangshan Archipelago? He was short on manpower, but he had a better method: using Spirit-Attracting Grand Formations. He had learned this formation in Yuheng City, where it was used to harvest spiritual rain across the outlying suburbs—covering vast ground while sparing both effort and worry. Over the past month and more, part of the tens of thousands of taels of silver Ding Zuodong had spent for him went into purchasing materials for these grand formations. Afterward, He Lingchuan and the men of Mount Rong set them up across the various islands. When the spiritual rain arrived, the attendants only needed to activate the formations, and they would harvest it automatically. Yet the formation could not capture every single drop without leak. He Lingchuan had tested it in Yuheng City: at most, a Spirit-Attracting Grand Formation could absorb about fifty percent of the falling dew. The remaining half still fell to the earth. Panlong City had tried hard to improve the formation, but to no avail. Perhaps it was Heaven's will not to let humans reap every benefit, ensuring that flora, fauna, and all living things also received grace from above. Of course, the formations were also vulnerable to the hurricane, so He Lingchuan had to outfit each one with a protective barrier. All in all, he hadn't anticipated the hurricane and the Emperor's Flowing Dew arriving hand in hand. But because he had done the myriad preparatory legwork in advance, he could remain steady and composed when fortune and misfortune descended together. Now that the Emperor's Flowing Dew had finally ended, it was time for He Lingchuan to reap his harvest. This was his well-deserved reward! ... A night of wind and rain could not hold back the dawn. When Wang Xingyi stood watching the rain beneath the covered walkway of the guest retreat, the hurricane had already swept past the Yangshan Archipelago and made landfall west of Blade Harbor. The wind had noticeably weakened, but the islands remained within the storm's radius, where torrential rain poured as if the heavens had sprung a leak. Carrying an oiled-paper umbrella, Fang Canran stepped in from outside. Seeing him, he smiled and said, "The National Preceptor rises so early. Did you rest well?" "Lying down to the sound of wind and rain, I slept quite soundly." Wang Xingyi dabbed a bit of secret-recipe salve into his palms, rubbed his hands together dozens of times, and pressed them to his temples. This was also a secret cultivation art capable of swiftly restoring sharpness and clarity. "You went over to the docks last night, didn't you? How are things there?" Fang Canran had gone to observe up close. "Not bad. I took a few strolls around last night; nothing major happened. The buildings and structures are basically intact, though everyone looks a bit exhausted." Many had bloodshot eyes. After a whole night of frenzy, how could they not be tired? "Any casualties?" "Fourteen or fifteen injured across the docks and the guest quarters combined, but all minor injuries. I hear they also pulled people out from the northwestern crags, with three injured there as well." Fang Canran lowered his umbrella and stepped onto the walkway. "No word of any fatalities so far." "Oh?" Wang Xingyi was rather surprised. "A hurricane and Emperor's Flowing Dew striking together, and this island had under twenty injured?" Last night Fang Canran had related what he witnessed, so Wang Xingyi knew He Lingchuan had prepared for the dew early on. But preparation was one thing; execution was quite another. Under extreme weather, too many factors lay beyond mortal control. To say nothing of a bustling supply post like Suoding Island, even in elite military encampments of the Mou Kingdom, soldiers had fought to the death over Emperor's Flowing Dew before. Fang Canran relayed what he had gathered at the docks, then added, "The confined guests were eaten up with regret once they came to their senses, though a few are clamoring to lodge complaints with He Xiao. But from what I see, most are fairly satisfied. Order at the supply post has already been restored; it looks no different from yesterday." "Those guards under him, heh. The few I saw yesterday were either slumping their shoulders or leaning against walls—no proper posture, shifty gazes. One look and you could tell they weren't cut out for hard battles." Accustomed to the elite armies of the Mou Kingdom, how could Wang Xingyi think highly of such people? "With a troop like that, how did He Xiao manage to pull through last night?" The headache Emperor's Flowing Dew gave administrators usually stemmed from chaos and volatile minds. For He Lingchuan's men, encountering the dew without falling into disarray themselves was already an achievement, let alone expecting them to control others and keep things running like clockwork. Yet lo and behold, they had actually pulled it off. "Your insight is as piercing as ever. Brother He mentioned that this guard force was formed by taking in pirates from the Yangshan Archipelago and displaced refugees from various regions," Fang Canran said with a smile. "They've been in training for less than ten days." "Less than ten days?" Wang Xingyi's gaze narrowed slightly. Instead of mocking, he was rather astonished. "How did he accomplish that?" "From what I saw at the docks last night, it comes down to clear rules and unambiguous guidelines," Fang Canran said. "This guard force has nothing to do with being elite, but He Xiao clearly laid out what they should and shouldn't do—simple and direct. All they had to do was follow orders and pay mind to nothing else. "On a battlefield, of course this wouldn't work; situations shift in the blink of an eye, and rigid adherence to rules does no good. But for handling a transit island under the Emperor's Flowing Dew, it was more than enough. He didn't need to turn these men into an elite force overnight; they just had to be good enough." "'Good enough'—well said," Wang Xingyi nodded. "Knowing how to employ people effectively is also commendable." What was so impressive about winning with elite troops? That was thanks to good soldiers, not your own capability. What truly set a great commander apart was adapting to circumstances and personnel—playing a terrible hand into an unbeatable triumph. Fang Canran smiled. "Just now when I went to buy some things, I saw the guards still out on patrol, and their spirit was completely different from before last night." After an entire night's tempering, the men had changed. Wang Xingyi hummed in assent. "Interesting." Clever men were plentiful in the Mou Kingdom, nothing rare. But someone who possessed strategic planning, organizational capability, and adaptability all at once was a rare talent. Fang Canran smiled. "Otherwise, how could he have burned down half the Heavenly Palace?" He Xiao was not omniscient; it was impossible to account for every person, measure, and reaction in the Heavenly Palace—no one could do that. In wreaking havoc on the Heavenly Palace, there must have been countless twists, turns, and perils, yet he had resolved them all, making it look effortless and orderly. The hardships and perils involved were beyond what outsiders could ever fathom. Fang Canran took it a step further: "He truly has the flair of your youth." This bit of flattery had Wang Xingyi laughing aloud, thoroughly pleased. "Where is he now?" "He seems to have gone to the other islands." Wang Xingyi looked out toward the cape. High winds and torrential rain still swept over the sea. Was He Xiao rushing out to sea at a time like this to inspect the other islands? ... The sun was slanting toward the west by the time He Lingchuan returned to Suoding Island. The moment he stepped ashore, Dong Rui asked him through the eyeball spider, "Hey, didn't you forget something?" He Lingchuan asked offhandedly, "Forget what?" He had been exhausted for two straight days and had zero desire to use his brain right now. "Didn't you task Moqi Feng last night with writing some kind of combat plan and development proposal?" Wow, those two terms were such a mouthful; Dong Rui's tongue always tripped over them. "Right. Did he finish?" He Lingchuan had given the man a deadline of this morning to hand them in, but he had been so swamped himself that he only found a spare moment as the sun was setting. Dong Rui grumbled, "He wrote it, ruined seventeen or eighteen sheets of my paper! He even asked me what a 'development proposal' was! Goddammit, was that test for him or for me?" The main issue was, Dong Rui didn't know either. "Anyway, hurry over and collect it." He Lingchuan set off toward the center of Suoding Island. "Don't be impatient, I'm heading over to take a look." "When you pass the main street, bring me a box of peach crisps! I'm starving to death!" Dong Rui's snail-toad was hidden near Ding Lake. This area was originally planned as the administrative zone of Suoding Island; it had dense vegetation and few visitors. He let Moqi Feng out, and the moment the latter saw He Lingchuan, he hurried over to submit his work.