Family Cultivation: My entire family are Villains-Chapter 519 - 244. Greeting the Lord

"The demon chaos two years ago killed over three hundred thousand people in Baiye County City, leaving not a single survivor. It essentially became a city of death."

After Tongling was restored, some people found a lot of gold and silver treasure within the city that probably belonged to those who had no time to escape. Once this news spread, many loose cultivators and even nearby county powers became interested. Since the Hou Clan wasn’t managing the place, numerous people ventured into the city to pick up easy loot."

At first, it was not a big deal. Many benefited and spread word that there was still a great deal of untouched loot in the city, drawing even more people into it. Then, by the end of last year, trouble began."

"What kind of trouble?"

"It became haunted!"

"You mean, by demons, right?"

"How did big brother guess that?"

"Four hundred thousand resentful spirits bred demons; it’s only natural. Initially doing nothing, they just threw out bait to attract more martial artists. This is obviously a demon’s tactic, specially designed to lure those greed-blinded martial artists. Remember what happened during the turmoil in Tongling because of Maiden Hong..."

"Big brother."

Outside the gates of Baiye County City, Hou Yuxiao was conversing with Hou Yuling. This disaster was too much like the chaos in Tongling, and he immediately guessed it was the work of demons. He was about to compare it to the situation in Tongling when Hou Yuling interrupted him. He turned around only to find her signaling strangely for him to look at Hou Yuduan."

Seeing the dazed expression on Hou Yuduan’s face, he realized he should not have mentioned Maiden Hong in front of Old Fifth. He sighed internally and deliberately changed the subject, asking, "What happened afterward?"

"We didn’t even know about this at first, but as the situation escalated, we realized that some of our warriors had also gone there. Once we investigated, it turned out that dead numbered in the thousands."

"Later, Old Fifth and Fourth Elder, carrying the Upper Hou Gate forces, took care of all the demons in the city. To ensure no further big troubles arose, we simply sealed off the place, forbidding anyone from coming here."

So from that point on, this was supposed to still be a dead city. Hou Yuxiao felt the surging energy emanating from inside and considered how Hou Yuduan had asked him to come here right as he had mentioned the Zhaoyang Army. He had already guessed the likely response from Hou Yuduan."

"Baiye County City is precisely an empty city. After the demon incident and our subsequent sealing, hardly anyone has come here. The place is secluded enough with the infrastructure of the city still largely intact. After I returned from Hedong in April, I converted this place into our Baiye Camp for the Hou Clan, accommodating fifty thousand Zhaoyang soldiers and five thousand Red Flame soldiers here. It’s convenient for their daily training and also effectively avoids outside scrutiny."

Hou Yuxiao nodded slightly. The Zhaoyang Army was still manageable, but those five thousand soldiers trained in the Holy Army’s tactics were the family’s biggest reliance and secret. Naturally, they couldn’t publicly display this, making Baiye Camp indeed a great location to station troops."

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"Big brother, shall we go inside and have a look?"

"Good!"

Hou Yuxiao had been eager to proceed and, when Hou Yuduan gestured with an inviting hand, he immediately spurred his horse towards the city gate, with four others hurriedly following behind."

The gates of Baiye County were in ruins, though the cast-iron doors were mostly intact, they were overgrown with weeds and marked with streaks of old blood that no one had bothered to clean, faintly revealing the cruel and bloody disaster brought by the demon two years ago."

The gate was clearly unattended, and seemingly no one had passed through here in a long time. If people occasionally did pass by, the weeds would not have grown so high. Seeing this, Hou Yuxiao looked questioningly at Hou Yuduan, wanting to know what was going on."

"Subordinate Gao Changlong, greeting the Family Head!"

A robust figure in red armor suddenly leapt out from one side of the gate, bowing to Hou Yuxiao. It was none other than Gao Changlong, the eldest of the Gao Family’s Tiger and Leopard brothers who had joined the Hou Clan two years ago."

"Rise. Was my arrival communicated to you by Yuduan?"

Hou Yuxiao was curious. Gao Changlong’s cultivation was only at the Gangqi Third Realm Bao Dan Period, and he had sensed him the moment he moved earlier, but obviously, he had been waiting here for a while. He couldn’t help but ask, thinking that Hou Yuduan might have informed him in advance."

"Not by Fifth Master. Actually, when the Family Head and his group were fifty li away from Baiye County, we had already received advanced notice, which is why we were waiting here specifically!"

Knowing from fifty li away? Hou Yuxiao immediately became curious, as Gao Changlong led the group into the city through a small path on the other side, he began to explain why."

"The Fifth Young Master specifically instructed that the Red Flame Army is our most crucial secret; hence, apart from locking down Baiye Camp to bar anyone from entering, we also need to guard against any interested spies. Therefore, we have scouts stationed along the Official Road setting up watch posts. Although these scouts aren’t highly cultivated, they excel in concealment, and their task is just to monitor anyone on the Official Road without revealing their presence, making them hard to detect."

"Upon spotting anyone approaching, they send messages through signaling arrows, passing the information down the line, allowing us to make advance preparations and avoid prying eyes!"

Hou Yuxiao’s eyes lit up at hearing this. Sending messages by scouts wasn’t a particularly sophisticated system, but it was a sign the Hou Clan’s army was becoming more standardized. However, he then realized that these measures of the Red Flame Army had been adopted from the military tactics learned from the Great Jin and Demon Sect’s forces during the recent years of rotating troops in Hedong."