This mortuary had originally belonged to the Li clan, complete with communal houses, farmland, granaries, and a family academy—it had never been meant solely as a place to keep coffins. Later, as the Li clan fell into decline, their descendants sold off the farmland and moved away from Blackwater City, leaving the compound abandoned.
After years of weathering the wind and rain, the two characters for "Li Clan" fell from the hanging plaque, leaving only "Mortuary." Seeing this, He Chunhua had taken it as the will of Heaven, and so it had become Blackwater City's public mortuary—a mortuary for holding coffins.
Places where the dead were laid to rest naturally carried the heaviest yin energy. People had long suggested relocating it outside the city, but during He Chunhua's tenure as prefect, Blackwater City had never gotten around to breaking ground.
When Prefect Hu succeeded him, he had left it alone as well.
Thus, the mortuary remained in the western quarter of the city, less than a hundred paces from the southwestern corner wall.
A place like this was thoroughly deserted; no one came by under ordinary circumstances. To be safe, He Lingchuan and the others still scanned their surroundings and slipped inside only after confirming no one was near.
The compound was vast, still retaining the layout from the Li clan's glory days. He Lingchuan led Qiu Hu and the others through twists and turns, slipping into an inconspicuous alley behind the old granary.
Cut off from sunlight year-round, the brick walls here were smothered in green moss.
It was fortunate that he had often played here as a boy; otherwise, he truly would not have known the location He Chunhua had pointed out.
The seventy men following behind him were a mix of Mount Rong disciples like Qiu Hu and elite personal guards brought by He Chunhua.
In this crucial engagement, He Chunhua had still chosen to place his trust in his son, assigning him his finest soldiers.
He Lingchuan was genuinely curious: did his old man believe in his eldest son's luck, or in his eldest son's ability?
At the end of the alley stood a ramshackle woodshed, appearing to span no more than six or seven square meters at most, its door and window both nailed shut.
With an effortless pull and a loud snap, He Lingchuan tore the wooden door open.
Inside lay lengths of timber strewn in every direction—some covered in green mold, others sprouting mushrooms, the entire room draped in cobwebs. There was no telling how long it had been since anyone had set foot in here.
Young Master He was certainly not one to soil his own hands with heavy labor. He pointed into the shed:
"Clear it out!"
Half a dozen men went inside and began hauling out the timber.
All of them were burly, vigorous young fellows; within a dozen breaths, they had emptied the shed without a single man breaking a sweat.
Suddenly, a hunting hawk swept down and landed before He Lingchuan, speaking in human tongue:
"No one over there."
Only then did He Lingchuan step into the shed, tapping around both walls to listen for echoes.
Before he could finish, Qiu Hu pointed toward two wooden planks. "There's a draft coming from behind these, and a damp, moldy smell."
He Lingchuan shot him a look. Where in this entire room was there not a moldy smell? How could the man even tell one stench of mildew apart from another?
Not since Fu Shanyue had he encountered anyone with such a keen nose.
"What are you waiting for? Tear it down!"
With several sharp cracks, the wooden planks were ripped away, revealing a pitch-black opening behind them.
The tunnel stood seven feet high and a man and a half wide, large enough for them to file through one by one.
"Impressive." Seeing the tunnel, Qiu Hu understood why He Chunhua had rejected his earlier suggestion to dispatch a squad out of the city ahead of time.
Blackwater City had a secret passage leading beyond its walls!
Governor-General He could send men out whenever he pleased.
At dusk, when He Chunhua had instructed his eldest son on slipping out through the secret route, He Lingchuan had also slapped the table in admiration.
It was entirely unexpected, yet made complete sense.
Blackwater City had changed hands several times, and it had been the foundation where He Chunhua first established himself in his early days. Even a cunning hare had three burrows; with He Chunhua's temperament, how could he fail to leave himself a way out?
Now, that escape route had become an avenue for a surprise attack.
He Chunhua had told his son that the other end of the tunnel opened into an old riverbed two li west of the city.
The river had changed course long ago; its dry channel held no water, only thick, overgrown weeds.
Now that the hawk had scouted the area, they knew the exit lay outside the Andongese encirclement, completely devoid of watchers.
He Lingchuan looked up. Night had fallen. Overcast clouds choked the sky, leaving neither stars nor moon.
"What a fine night for killing." He tilted his head toward the men. "Move out!"
***
The Andongese confined their assaults to daytime and rested once night set in.
Yet past midnight, war drums suddenly thundered from Blackwater City. The city gates swung wide, and a force of over three hundred men charged out.
Alerted, the Andongese swiftly raised their banners and marched to meet them.
The two sides traded several cautious skirmishes on the open ground east of the city.
Watching from atop the battlements, He Chunhua fully agreed with his son's assessment. Against the Blackwater City troops, the Andongese were matched almost evenly.
Evidently, the Andongese had not committed their main force, still remaining guarded against the city.
A quarter of an hour later, Blackwater City's north gate opened in secret, and another three hundred soldiers surged forth.
Both sortie forces contained large numbers of newly conscripted recruits.
The Andongese had already posted troops in this direction, and upon seeing the charge, they advanced to intercept.
Once the fighting at both the east and north gates was raging at its peak, Blackwater City's south gate quietly swung open as well. Over five hundred men slipped out and swung around toward the south, aiming to raid the Andongese camp at Hulu Mountain.
Among them were the dozens of outside reinforcements, including Zhang Lianhai.
If they wanted to reach the Panlong Desert, they had to head north, but the northern battlefield was completely blocked by the clash of both armies. Barring the capture of Hulu Mountain, they had no other way around.
Though these cultivators possessed remarkable prowess, they enjoyed virtually no origin power enhancements within the Yuan Kingdom. On a battlefield of four to five thousand men, even they could hardly stroll through the fray with effortless ease.
He Lingchuan possessed a sharp eye and had long seen through them: their cultivation was formidable, but they were not soldiers and had little battlefield experience.
Between raw recruits and seasoned veterans on the battlefield, the difference in fighting capability was vast as night and day.
At first, everything went smoothly. The group swiftly wiped out the Andongese unit outside the south gate, giving the enemy only enough time to fire off two command arrows.
The southern force then pressed eastward. Yet after four li, they slammed directly into enemy troops guarding the main camp!
The Andongese camp was by no means lightly defended.
Judging by the past methods of Liao Shan, the Andongese commander, a man capable of scheming to kill Prefect Hu and forcibly opening Blackwater City's gates was clearly attentive to tactical detail.
Naturally, he understood the vital importance of the supply camp; before answering the challenge, he had left behind his most loyal confidants and elite troops to defend it to the death.
Liao Shan knew full well that Blackwater City's garrison was far smaller than his own. So long as the supply base held and his main army remained steady, victory would ultimately belong to him.
Now that a surprise raid had turned into a head-on encounter, what else was there to say?
Fight!
The southern force and Liao Shan's elite force of roughly twelve hundred men clashed in fierce combat!
It was now that Zhang Lianhai and his companions proved their mettle. Though lacking in battlefield experience, their martial skills were undeniably formidable. Zhang Lianhai's attendants could each take on five men single-handedly, while the disciples of the Jianyang Sect swung their blades like gusts of wind, reaping lives with frightening speed.
Vicious beyond all was Zhang Lianhai's lamp spirit. Shifting unpredictably and devoid of physical form, it feared nothing of blades, spears, or cudgels, wary only of origin power.
Everyone understood that when two foes met on a narrow path, the valiant prevailed. Having reached this point, they could only swallow their broken teeth with their own blood and fight to the bitter end.
Outnumbered though they were, the southern force actually pushed the battle line eastward.
In less time than it took to drink half a cup of tea, the Andongese suffered over a hundred and forty casualties.
Chapter 817