Dragon Canon

As dawn broke, small groups of fleeing soldiers were scattered across the land,while squadron after squadron of cavalry and infantry swept back and forth, mopping up the remnants of the enemy forces.

20,000 elite soldiers of the Southern Qi had fought their way through the enemy lines and then set up a strong defensive position along the enemy’s only retreat route, completely shattering their morale and forcing them to scatter in panic. Even Avatar-stage elders were unable to prevent military discipline from falling apart, and in the end, everyone was left to flee for their own lives.

Bao Yun slipped away as soon as she saw the sun begin to rise. No one knew when she had left.

The second war between the Xu Clan of Ning Province and Qingming had ended in defeat for the Xu Clan again. Not only that, it was a crushing one.

The Xu Clan’s commander in this battle was actually a veteran general with decades of experience, but Bao Yun had dangled a bait consisting of the lives of 5,000 soldiers in front of him, lulling him into a false sense of security and convincing him to venture deep into enemy territory without suspicion. As a result, the main force became disjointed and fell into an ambush.

In reality, the 40,000 youngsters possessed only a moderate level of Body-tempering stage, and their actual combat effectiveness was mediocre. Had the Xu Clan’s vanguard dared to charge with all their might, once they had broken through the enemy formation, they could have slaughtered the enemy at will. However, the youngsters had killed nearly 10,000 men in just a few rounds of fire.

A casualty rate of nearly 20% absolutely shattered the morale of the Xu Clan’s vanguard, sending them into a full-scale rout. The middle guard was first overwhelmed by the fleeing troops before pierced by Lee Zhi’s forces. When they saw that their retreat had been cut off, they too routed in earnest. At that point, the outcome of the battle was sealed.

While the battlefield was being cleared, Lee Zhi reviewed the battle in his central command tent. The more he analyzed it, the more cold sweat poured down his face.

The truth was, without the all-empowering effect of Life is a Flash, the vast majority of the forces within the realm of Qingming were inferior even to ordinary official troops. They were essentially at the level of civilian volunteers. The 40,000 youths were merely on par with ordinary regular troops as well. Even with Lee Zhi’s 25,000 elite troops added to the mix, their nominal strength was still far weaker than that of the enemy. This was precisely why Lee Zhi had decided to adopt a cautious approach and engage his enemies in a battle of wills and attrition.

Bao Yun’s ruthlessness lay in her willingness to sacrifice 5,000 men to secure a complete victory. Not only that, these 5,000 men willingly fought to the death despite knowing they were doomed.

It wasn’t so much that they were truly that fierce and brave; it was also because Cui Yu, their chief commander, had truly been fighting on the front lines the entire time, never giving an inch. Since the commanding general himself didn’t retreat, everyone else naturally followed his example and was willing to die.

At this point, Lee Zhi could not help but admire her. He could not bring himself to take such ruthless measures, he lacked generals willing to fight to the death, and he did not have that many soldiers willing to fight to the bitter end even when they knew they were doomed.

In terms of military strategy, he was still one step behind Bao Yun.

However, Lee Zhi was not discouraged. Bao Yun’s strategy was too unconventional and risky. According to the teachings of the scholars at the academy, military strategy should prioritize orthodox methods and use unorthodox ones only as a supplement—that is the true Way of the King. When the time came to command hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops in battle, the “royal way” of warfare would become absolutely crucial. That would be the moment Lee Zhi would surpass Bao Yun.

After the battle, Lee Zhi left all the spoils of war to Qingming and led his troops back to his own realm.

The following days passed in calm.

Despite the major incident involving a Great Karmic Curse, the royal court acted as if it knew nothing about it. Forget appointing a new military commissioner, it hadn’t even sent an envoy to investigate.

Meanwhile, the Xu Clan suffered heavy losses after two consecutive defeats. This time, out of a 200,000-strong army, fewer than 20,000 had managed to escape back. Over 100,000 were taken prisoner, and 40,000 were killed in action.

By this point, the Xu Clan had lost over half of their overt forces. Although those official troops appeared to belong to the Western Jin court, they were in fact under the Xu Clan’s control and no different from the Xu Clan’s private army. They were masquerading as Western Jin forces and living off the court’s resources. It was why the Xu Clan could mobilize them without even needing an edict from the King of Jin.

Following this defeat, the Xu Clan unexpectedly settled down.

Bao Manshan had personally stepped in to contain the situation. Through deliberate misdirection, he had led Zhu Yuanjin to deal a crushing blow to Tao Tie. Coupled with Lee Zhi leading his troops in battle, in the eyes of the higher-ups, it appeared as if the Bao Clan and the Lee Clan of Southern Qi had stepped forward to curb the Xu Clan’s ambitions to expand westward.

Thanks to this series of events, Qingming had settled into a bizarre calm. However, everyone knew that this tranquility was only temporary. The stakes surrounding an intact immortal stone without a realm lord was enormous to put it mildly and equivalent to at least the seat of a region. It was enough to enable a small clan to rise from nothing and eventually stand at the massive threshold that was the Seven Surnames and Thirteen Honored.

Given how big the stakes were, every major clan and even the immortal sects would inevitably get involved to some extent. It was probably going to take an incredibly complex series of behind-the-scenes deals to finally determine Qingming’s fate.

In the past, while Wei Yuan was still around, seizing Qingming required either shattering it to take the fragments or killing Wei Yuan. However, the Palace of Absolute Beginning would never have stood idly by while Wei Yuan was killed. They would even spark a war of true immortals to protect him.

But now, Wei Yuan had suddenly fallen victim to a Great Karmic Curse, and his fate remained unknown. If he were truly dead, then the position of Realm Lord of Qingming could, in fact, be transferred.

Although the Xu Clan had quieted down, the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s situation was no better than before. The Palace Lord had not intervened even after the Great Karmic Curse had occurred, and he had already been in secluded cultivation for many years. As a result, people were starting to question his current condition. Immortal Lord Tinghai himself was gravely wounded, and this Great Karmic Curse had most likely affected him as well and possibly compounded his injuries—he might not have long to live.

That said, the reason the Palace of Absolute Beginning was considered the foremost of the Four Immortal Sects wasn’t just because of their Immortal Lords, but also their vast size. Even if Immortal Lord Tinghai were to perish, and even if the Palace of Absolute Beginning were to temporarily experience a shortage of true immortals, it would not take more than a few decades for new immortals to take their place. Moreover, the Palace of Absolute Beginning boasted a large number of True Lords and Avatars, giving it a decisive advantage over any distinguished clan in this regard.

Furthermore, many of the Palace’s high cultivators shared innumerable intricate connections with various clans. Many members of those clans were themselves disciples of the Palace of Absolute Beginning.

The Palace’s only weakness was that it had been established for a relatively short time. Among the Immortal Ancestors and True Lords of the various clans, few hailed from the Palace of Absolute Beginning. It was only among Wei Yuan and Bao Yun’s generation that the Palace had begun to hold a clear advantage.

However, ever since Zhu Yuanjin publicly declared her intention to abandon the northern mountain gate, the noble clans all worried that the Palace of Absolute Beginning might actually follow through with the threat. Without the northern mountain gate, the three states—Western Jin, Eastern Jin, and Northern Qi—would face a direct onslaught from the Liao, greatly increasing the pressure on the border defenses.

Consequently, the situation was delicate at this juncture. As a single move could very well set off a chain reaction, no one dared to act rashly.

......

Wei Yuan, having made a bountiful harvest, stepped out of the temple. Through the eyes of his Dao Foundation stage warrior, he immediately saw thick, billowing smoke rising from the direction of the village!

Wei Yuan ordered the Dao Foundation stage warrior to take to the air and fly toward the village at full speed, while he himself hopped along behind.

In the village, the elderly woman and a dozen or so villagers stood in an open clearing, surrounded by dozens of Liao mounted skirmishers. Several houses in the village were ablaze.

Most of the villagers were gray-haired and frail. There wasn’t even a single middle-aged person.

A Liao rider stepped out of the village and said, “Judging by the tracks, there should still be seven or eight people in the village—they’ve probably all fled into the woods.”

A centurion looked down on the villagers from above while replying, “I didn’t think there would really be humans here. The great shamanist’s prophecy was correct—there really is a secret in this area. Let’s ask them first if they’ve seen any outsiders.”

A Liao soldier with a basic grasp of the human language questioned the villagers, but they all looked bewildered and said nothing.

The Liao soldier grew impatient, suddenly drew his saber, and slashed at the neck of an old man standing nearby!

The sharp curved blade sliced smoothly through flesh and skin, but got stuck on the neck bone. It simply wouldn’t cut any further!

The Liao soldier could not believe what he was seeing. Just then, the old man suddenly smiled at him, revealing the few charred, yellowish-black teeth remaining in his mouth, and exhaled a wave of indescribably bad breath at him!

While the Liao soldier was distracted, the old man suddenly grabbed the Liao soldier and bit him on the face!

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation stage warrior began to slow down after he flew near the village, using the terrain to conceal himself as he slipped between the buildings. There, he saw the villagers rushing to put out the fire. There were no outsiders in the village, so how the fire had started in the first place was a question.

That said, it was the dead of winter. With snow piled up everywhere, and the hunters in the mountains returning just in time, the fire was quickly extinguished. Everyone then began taking inventory of their belongings and repairing the houses.

Just then, a horse’s whinny rang out in the distance. A tall, majestic steed appeared out of seemingly nowhere and galloped into the woods.

Seeing that nothing else was amiss, Wei Yuan recalled his warrior and returned to the stone hut, where the woman was tending to a snow leopard pelt by the fire. Upon seeing Wei Yuan return, she tossed the pelt aside, lay back down on the bed with her face turned toward the wall, and said not a word.

Seeing that the woman was unharmed, Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. His fears had ultimately turned out to be unfounded.

Wei Yuan ladled a bowl of meat broth and carried it to the bedside, but the woman still did not stir.

Wei Yuan undressed and climbed into the bed, saying, “Since you’re in no hurry to eat, let’s continue....”

Startled, the woman quickly sat up, snatched the wooden bowl from Wei Yuan’s hand, and downed the meat broth in one gulp. As the hot broth warmed her insides, her body grew warm, and her vitality visibly began to return.

The woman had miscalculated one thing, though. Just because she had accepted the food didn’t mean she could skip the exercise....

Two hours later, the overburdened woman fell into a deep sleep.

As for Wei Yuan, he got out of bed and worked on the unfinished pelt. He used the rare moment of mental clarity[1] to reflect on life.

His hands suddenly stopped moving as he recalled the horse the Dao Foundation stage warrior had spotted from afar. Wild horses rarely appeared in such rugged, snow-capped mountains, and this horse bore distinct saddle indentations. It wasn’t a wild horse—it was a warhorse, a Liao warhorse to be exact!

Thinking back more carefully, Wei Yuan also noticed a faint black shadow clinging to the warhorse. It looked as if it was tearing and biting into the beast’s flesh. The way the warhorse was galloping also looked more like it had been seized by a predator and was desperately trying to break free.

Wei Yuan stood up, but then slowly sat back down. He scanned the woman briefly and, confirming that she was fast asleep, did not wake her.

Piecing together all the clues he had observed, Wei Yuan roughly reconstructed the sequence of events. A squadron of Liao cavalry had arrived here for some unknown reason and discovered this small human village. They had burned several houses before suddenly vanishing without a trace, the only survivor being a single warhorse.

A thought crossed Wei Yuan’s mind, and a Dao Foundation stage warrior silently appeared outside the house. He then crept to a nearby vantage point to look down at the small village.

Sure enough, in just a short while, all the houses had been fully restored to their original condition. If Wei yuan had returned even a moment later, he wouldn’t have known the Liao had ever been here.

Wei Yuan casually set up a feng shui array and assessed his current fortune. The result he obtained was that everything was normal—extremely normal, exceptionally normal, so normal there wasn’t a single hint of anything out of the ordinary at all.

It was highly abnormal to put it mildly.

However, Wei Yuan had no intention of taking action just yet. He chose to pretend that nothing had happened. The temple was an excellent source of yin qi, and until he had harvested it for all its worth, he was in no rush to act. For instance, his foray into the temple today had yielded rich rewards. Although he hadn’t encountered a second Avatar-stage monster, the spirituality he had accumulated was nearly enough to unlock his second warrior.

His top priority right now was to recover from his injuries and boost his strength. As long as he was sufficiently strong, it wouldn’t be him who was in danger, but his enemies.

As night fell, the Dao Foundation stage warrior worked tirelessly to carve the flying swords. His movements were lightning-fast, and he was consuming all of Wei Yuan’s naturally regenerated Dao energy, leaving Wei Yuan himself with nothing to do.

So, the woman suffered the consequences once again.

1. Jesus christ the post-nut clarity is a thing here as well. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜