Chapter 346: There Won’t Be A Negotiation

The elite cavalry blocking Xu Zhongxing’s path from the front wore tattered leather jackets to show that they were horse bandits, but their disguise was clearly half-hearted. They were all armed with fine steel spears and four-chi-long curved sabers that gleamed with a bluish sheen. The sabers especially were the standard-issue weapons of the Southern Qi’s elite cavalry.

As for the elite cavalry unit being led by Wei Yuan, no one had ever seen it before. Their armor appeared to be a mix between light and heavy cavalry, and their weapons were none other than the firearms that had just given Xu Zhongxing a rough time.

Xu Zhongxing’s face was stormy as he slowly rose into the air. He then saw two Avatars rising from the horse bandits’ side, and two Avatar-stage puppets appearing on Wei Yuan’s side.

The two sides engaged, but though the battle had just begun, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. No matter how formidable Xu Zhongxing was, he could hardly take on four Avatars on his own, not to mention that Wei Yuan was watching intently from the sidelines.

The horse bandit leader appeared to be very young, and his cultivation was only the late-stage of the Dao Foundation stage. However, his skill in spell amplification and defensive enhancement was astonishingly good and clearly effective even on Avatar-stage cultivators. All four Avatars experienced a small boost in their combat strength and put Xu Zhongxing in an even more difficult position than he already was in.

The outcome of the battlefield below was equally predictable: 10,000 elite cavalry versus 40,000 remnant forces who had just come away from a battlefield thinking they had survived, only to come face to face with death itself. It was a total massacre.

Xu Zhongxing had no choice but to order his troops to scatter and flee. At the same time, he set his sights on the young horse bandit leader. Suddenly, he launched an all-out assault, instantly wounding the two horse-bandit Avatars and charging straight toward the horse bandit leader!

A stunned Lee Zhi inwardly cursed his bad luck. It took him everything he got just to block Xu Zhongxing’s strike, and he still lost two protective mystic treasures as a result. Still, he was able to escape with his life intact.

Having narrowly escaped death, Lee Zhi wondered why Xu Zhongxing had decided to attack him. He was a complete unknown in this region, and the garrison commander’s grievances should be directed solely at Wei Yuan—so why was he targeting him instead?

What Lee Zhi didn’t know was that Xu Zhongxing had an exceptionally keen eye. After clashing with Wei Yuan just a couple times, he figured out that the realm lord would be extremely difficult to kill, so much so that he wasn’t sure he could even defeat him in a one-on-one fight, let alone under the current circumstances. That was why he had turned his attention to Lee Zhi instead.

Seeing Xu Zhongxing fighting with such ferocity, Lee Zhi’s cavalry gave up engaging the enemy and rushed to protect their young lord instead. As a result, many of the enemy riders were able to escape the encirclement. Seeing that he had achieved his objective, Xu Zhongxing withdrew and flew off into the distance.

The man was able to break free at will even while surrounded by four Avatars. It was a testament to his power and skill.

After capturing some stragglers, Wei Yuan and Lee Zhi combined their forces and launched a surprise attack on the other supply camp. The two moved so fast that they arrived right as the defenders were done packing up their stuff and preparing to set camp ablaze. The garrison immediately scattered in panic upon spotting them, abandoning countless supplies and 50,000 laborers to Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan did not linger long. Instead, he marked a point on the map, agreeing with Lee Zhi to flank the enemy from both sides and converge at that location.

After the brief discussion, the two commanders, each leading a force of elite cavalry, traced a wide arc across the region until they finally converged 200 li outside Hanyang Pass. There, they were able to encircle and capture another 10,000 stragglers or so.

On the ramparts of Hanyang Pass, four Avatar-stage elders of the Xu Clan gazed at the two army auras zooming everywhere like they owned the place, keeping conspicuously silent.

Although there were still 60,000 troops inside the pass, not a single soul suggested dispatching reinforcements to rescue the stragglers. Instead, all four gates were tightly shut, and the pass-wide defensive array had been activated long ago.

By this time, news of True Lord Qiu Niu’s defeat had already spread among the upper echelons, but no one knew about Zu Yuanjin’s whereabouts. It was why none of them were keen on leaving the pass. If they happened to run into the walking disaster, none of the Avatars here would be able to withstand even a single finger strike from her.

Who could have imagined that she had been lying in wait in the Shattered Realm for so long? She must possess some sort of supreme treasure that allowed her to shroud the heavenly mysteries. And if she could evade even the Heavenly Dao of the Shattered Realm, then she sure as hell could evade the spiritual senses of mere cultivators.

An Avatar suddenly asked, “What are the chances she is already inside the city?”

Everyone instinctively shuddered at the question, then shot the speaker a furious glare. Realizing his mistake, the Avatar quickly offered an awkward smile in apology. However, the more he smiled, the more a chill crept down his spine.

In a bookshop inside the city, a plain-clothed woman with a fair complexion and a rather alluring figure stepped through the door.

She approached the counter, poured out a small handful of copper coins from her money pouch, and said, “I’d like a few copies of the latest novels, shopkeeper.”

The shopkeeper cast a greedy glance at the woman before pulling out eight novels.

Only after watching her walk out the door did he mutter to himself, “She’s just passable-looking, but the more I look at her, the more alluring she seems. Why is that?”

Suddenly, he slapped his thigh in frustration. “Oh no! I completely forgot to ask her name or where she lives!”

The seat of Bianning Commandery.

Commandery Administrator Xu Xi stood on the city wall, feeling both angry and alarmed as he watched a large contingent of cavalry circling around the city in the distance. The cavalry was escorting between 3,000 to 4,000 prisoners and heading west.

Half of these prisoners were part of the Xu Clan’s private army, while the other half were Western Jin official troops. Many of them had nearly escaped to the foot of the commandery city when they were intercepted by the Qingming cavalry.

It wasn’t like his men had offered no resistance. A junior officer had arrogantly shouted at the Qingming cavalry for them to stop what they were doing from the city wall, only to catch a bullet to the face and lose half of his head on the spot.

From then on, no one on the wall dared to speak, nor did anyone dare to open the gates to help the defeated troops. The Jin soldiers on the wall could only watch helplessly as the routed troops were captured and led away to Qingming.

Xu Xi, of course, knew the full story. His heart felt ice cold as he thought to himself: We had an army of three hundred thousand and a True Lord to act as a trump card! How could we have lost so utterly?!

Of course, Xu Xi had no intention of leaving the city to fight. Although he was an Avatar, he was a civil official and pretty terrible in combat. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been knocked unconscious by a cat’s paw that day.

Below the city walls, both the Qingming cavalry and the horse bandits were staring at Xu Xi with cold eyes, as if intent on committing his face to memory. Xu Xi grunted, ordered, “Main strict vigilance,” and hurriedly descended from the ramparts.

The western regions were definitely as notorious as the rumors suggested. Not only were the military commissioner’s troops openly marching alongside the horse bandits, they had shot and killed an officer at the slightest disagreement and wantonly captured official soldiers right beneath the commandery city walls. Where was the rule of law?

It took another full day to wrap up the aftermath. It wasn’t until Wei Yuan and Lee Zhi had rounded up over 10,000 fleeing soldiers and escorted 120,000 civilian laborers back to the realm of Qingming before the battle was finally considered over.

In this battle, the 5,000 light cavalry that Lee Zhi had brought with him had suffered several hundred killed and 1,000 wounded. Wei Yuan felt deeply guilty about this, so he took his sworn brother to a warehouse, ordered his men to fetch a crate of cuirasses from inside, and asked, “What do you think of this armor, Brother Lee?”

Lee Zhi picked one up and examined it carefully. He then offered his heartfelt compliment, “The steel is uniform in quality, and the defense is outstanding. This is high-quality armor that is fit for use even for the elite troops of our Great Zhao.” ℯℯ𝘭.

“Brother Lee, you’ve traveled a long way to come to our aid. I truly have no way to repay such a favor. Your realm has only just been established, and I’m sure you are in dire need of military supplies right now. Thus, I’d like to present you with five thousand sets of this armor as a token of my gratitude. What do you think?”

Caught completely off guard, Lee Zhi hurriedly replied, “This is too much, too much! We are brothers—how could I, your foolish older brother, not come to your aid when you’re in trouble? If I accept your gift, wouldn’t that turn me into a man who seeks repayment for a favor?”

Wei Yuan smiled. “To be honest with you, I have great use for those civilian laborers. I was going to buy them from you for the price of one tael of immortal silver per person, but upon further reflection, I realized that you probably need armor even more than you need manpower right now. As you’ve seen, my realm of Qingming is doing quite well at the moment. Only once your realm of Zhenshan has flourished can we truly support one another, no?”

Seeing how sincere Wei Yuan was, Lee Zhi stopped refusing and replied, “Then I shall happily accept your gift!”

Wei Yuan immediately ordered his men to bring out crates of armor plates. Of course, the smaller components would have to be crafted by Lee Zhi’s own craftsmen.

After seeing Lee Zhi off, Wei Yuan ordered his men to store the various military supplies they had seized in the warehouses. However, the chunks of flesh formed from the blood of True Lord Qiu Niu proved to be a minor nuisance as each one weighed tens of thousands of catties. In the end, Trueman Chu He had to summon his snake—who was born with supernatural strength—to finally haul all the chunks down to the foot of the mountain.

These chunks of flesh contained the essence of Heaven and Earth. He would have to discuss their use in detail with everyone later.

His one regret in this battle was that, according to the reports, the Xu Clan had originally prepared 2 million stones of military rations. However, most of it was stockpiled in the commandery seat of Bianning[1]. Appearances had to be maintained, and Wei Yuan had to give the King of Jin some face. That was why he had refrained from attacking the commandery city.

Otherwise, he and Trueman Chu He’s cat alone could have taken on the 10,000 third-rate troops inside the city and their one civil official Avatar and easily win.

On a related note, the black pond inside the jade hill were still churning, but it ultimately failed to produce a third Avatar[2]. After gestating for a long time and receiving no new souls, 100 or so Dao Foundation stage soldiers emerged from its waters instead.

In the Bureau of Military Affairs of Qianqiu City, Xu Zhongxing was kneeling in the center of the main hall while surrounded by dozens of people seated on high chairs, all looking down on him from above.

The man seated highest in the center said slowly, “Three hundred thousand men, and all you’ve achieved is total annihilation and zero noteworthy achievement. Is this how you lead your troops, Xu Zhongxing?”

Xu Zhongxing raised his head and met the man’s gaze without fear. He replied in a deep, resolute voice, “My soldiers were willing to die for the cause, but what can they do when those in command lacked the resolve to fight to the death?”

“What do you mean by that?”

Xu Zhongxing replied, “I know I shouldn’t say this, but if I remain silent, I would be betraying True Lord Qiu Niu, who was wounded in acting as the trump card of our army, and the tens of thousands of brothers who fought to the death! Among the elders who had gone into battle with me, one, upon seeing the situation turn against us, fled without a fight and never returned. As for the other two elders, they were only concerned with preserving their own skin and could not achieve victory despite fighting a weak enemy for an extended period[3]. The three of them bear the primary blame for the collapse of the battle!”

The entire hall was stunned upon hearing these words. Immediately, some people began cursing loudly, while others started to make an issue of Xu Zhongxing’s status and lineage.

A total of four elders had gone into battle with Xu Zhongxing this time. One of them had been killed in action, while the remaining three had been thoroughly berated by Xu Zhongxing. Most of those present were also elders and of equal standing to the three in question. They had also all attained the same rank: their role in this battle was akin to that of a military inspector, and they sought only to earn seniority and military merits.

These elders were all of noble birth and possessed bloodlines that were closely tied to the Immortal Ancestor. On the other hand, Xu Zhongxing came from a less distinguished background and possessed a much weaker bloodline. That was why he had to struggle his way up through the ranks on the front lines and gradually accumulate merits to rise in status.

Normally, the mere sight of a military inspector was enough to make a commanding general cower like a mouse before a cat, not daring to even breathe heavily. Who had ever dared to openly accuse a military inspector elder of being a coward right there in the Bureau of Military Affairs?

The figure at the head remained silent for a moment before saying, “I will consult True Lord Qiu Niu on the specific circumstances before reaching a decision. In the meantime, Xu Zhongxing is to be imprisoned in the Profound Ice Dungeon to await his sentence.”

Xu Zhongxing jerked his head up, a flash of anger crossing his eyes, but he ultimately regained his composure and allowed himself to be led away.

The Profound Ice Dungeon was located deep underground. It was one of the three dungeons where the Xu Clan held its most dangerous prisoners. Being confined there often meant that one was not far from death.

Several guards escorted Xu Zhongxing downward, walking several hundred zhang in one go before pushing him into a prison cell built of profound ice.

At that moment, the lead guard suddenly handed Xu Zhongxing a medicinal vial and said, “This is the Xuanhuang Fude Pill that milord has given you. Milord says that this place is extremely yin and cold, making it ideal for suppressing karmic debt. After you take this pill and meditate for a month, you’ll be able to dissipate a small portion of your karmic debt. At that point, it can be temporarily sealed and won’t erupt immediately. However, eradicating it completely will be very difficult.”

Xu Zhongxing was both surprised and grateful. He accepted the pill and said, “Please convey my thanks to our lord!”

“Milord also said that your Killing Life has become unsealed. You should use it sparingly from now on.”

The commandery seat of Tianying[4] Commandery, Gan Province.

In the garden of the commandery administrator’s office, a man was standing by the pond and feeding the fish. Beside him stood the commandery administrator, prim and proper. This was his home, yet he was acting as if he were a servant.

The commandery administrator quickly recounted the events of the recent battle in Qingming. He ended with, “That is how it happened.”

The man took some fish food and scattered it into the pond, instantly causing a school of fish to rise to the surface and vie for it. The fish were gray, black, cyan, or white. They were all ordinary varieties, with not a single one sporting a vibrant color.

Watching the fish in the pond, the man said, “Only seemingly ordinary fish are resilient and can survive in any environment. It’s exactly what the Ancestor like about them.”

The commandery administrator asked, “How should we handle the negotiations with them this time, my lord? Should we revise the terms agreed upon previously and demand better conditions.”

The man smiled faintly and said, “There won’t be a negotiation.”

1. OMFG this author and his typos. I was wondering since when we had a border army commandery.... ☜

2. The second one was created during the battle, if you guys remember. Wei Yuan originally only had 1 Avatar puppet. ☜

3. Yeah, it was explicitly said that at some point neither Trueman Chu He nor them got another injury in the previous chapter. ☜

4. Meaning Sky Silver. ☜