Stellar Transformation-Chapter 79 - 9: Destroying Decayed Wood with Great Force
When Qin Yu and Little Black were traversing the Boundless Wilderness, fiercely battling various Demon Gods, the suppressed tensions of the Chu Dynasty on the Hidden Dragon Continent were about to erupt tonight—
Xiyang Town, a small town near the Black Water Mountain Range, served as the headquarters for the Qin Family’s initiation of the great war. Stationed here were Prince Zhen Dong, Qin De, and the military advisor, Xu Yuan. At this moment, Qin De and Xu Yuan were playing Go.
"It’s already dark. Looking at the time, General Qin Feng’s troops should soon be launching the first wave of attack," said Xu Yuan in a black brocaded robe, glancing at the sky with a smile. His fan continued to wave gently in his hand.
After gently placing a white chess piece down, Qin De spoke evenly, "If we do not win the first battle, Feng does not deserve to be a general."
A smile appeared on Xu Yuan’s face. Although Qin De seemed calm on the surface, Xu Yuan was certain that Qin De’s heart was anything but calm, given the mistake Qin De had just made with his move. Normally, with Qin De’s skill in Go, he would not make such an error.
Calm?
How could Qin De be calm?
His wife died; his son died. And the centuries of preparation by the Qin Family were all going to erupt tonight. Even if he were a Daluo Golden Immortal, it would be impossible for him to remain calm.
As the sky gradually darkened, in a small city at the easternmost part of Thunder Blood County called Yanglin City, the defenses were still quite strict. After all, the Xiang Family also knew that the Qin Family was about to attack. Although Yanglin City was merely a small city and considered an obstacle, the intelligence from the Xiang Family suggested that the Qin Family did not have the strength to breach Thunder Blood County. Therefore, only a few thousand troops were stationed in this small city.
"The city gates are closed; if you want to leave the city, wait until tomorrow!"
A few dozen city gate guards yelled at someone who approached.
"Officer, my father is seriously ill, and I must rush out. Could you make an exception?" Two young men, looking like scholars, approached the city gate guards and took out a purse, opening it to reveal several large gold ingots.
In the dark night, the light from the several large gold ingots made the guards stare blankly.
Suddenly—
Outside Yanglin City, several agile figures with shields emerged at great speed from a small grove, rushing out. The guards on the city walls could never have imagined that the grove, albeit small, was hiding people.
The soldiers moved extremely quickly, covering several meters in a single step. Each was an expert from the Inner Family. Seeing the speed of these Qin Family soldiers, the city guards on the walls turned deathly pale as they immediately saw the disparity between them.
"The enemy is attacking, the enemy is attacking!!!" Shouts immediately arose from the city wall.
"Move aside!" The lead guard grabbed the gold ingots and pushed one of the scholars, clearly intent on taking the gold ingots for himself.
The two scholars, however, moved like illusions. After a few low thudding sounds, dozens of guards widened their eyes as they clutched their throats and fell, blood pooling on the ground. The two scholars put away their daggers and smiled at each other.
The Qin Family had to win the first battle quickly and decisively. General Qin Feng was personally leading an army of a hundred thousand troops, and the ones to fight the first battle were the absolute elite of Qin Feng’s hundred thousand troops—the core army, Po Jian.
The Po Jian Army only had three thousand men, but they were the finest selected from the hundred thousand, each highly skilled, and all practiced potent Inner Strength. Meanwhile, the two scholars were innate experts from the Qin Family’s Dark Arrows. For two innate experts to kill dozens of ordinary soldiers happened in an instant.
"Shoot the arrows, quickly!"
The panicked officers on the city walls immediately started shouting. However, the experts of the Po Jian Army used their shields to block the arrows, and some of the Po Jian experts ran straight to the city gate and just... went in.
"Boom!"
The city gates opened—
"Why are the gates opening? Close them, close them!" an officer atop the city wall immediately shouted,
Among the three thousand, experts like arrows released from bows charged into the city. After two Dark Arrow experts opened the gates, they abruptly tore off their scholar clothes, revealing a set of night attire. With the gates wide open, the Po Jian Army of three thousand swept through the small city with ease.
"Whoosh!"
A Sound Arrow shot into the sky.
"Haha, Yanglin City has fallen. Launch the second wave of attacks immediately. We must take four cities in the eastern part of Thunder Blood County." The moment Qin Feng saw the signal from the Sound Arrow, he issued an order without a shred of doubt about this first battle. If even a small place like Yanglin City couldn’t be taken with the elite three thousand Po Jian Army and two Innate experts, then those experts might as well commit suicide to apologize.
Following Qin Feng’s order, several Sound Arrows shot into the sky immediately.
Suddenly... the four cities on the eastern side of Thunder Blood County, almost unprepared, faced the aggressive assault of tens of thousands of soldiers. In just half a night, all four cities were breached. Meanwhile, Jiang Tao and Fu Bing each led an army of a hundred thousand through these cities, beginning a sweeping assault on Thunder Blood County.
And the three hundred thousand ’Black Water Army,’ once Black Water Mountain Bandits, under the command of General Fan Yu, directly captured the southern cities of Thunder Blood County. The three hundred thousand soldiers split into several detachments, ranging from a hundred thousand to twenty thousand each.
...
"Spurt!"
A Qin army soldier, wielding a war saber, directly chopped off the head of a local soldier.
"Haha, these fledglings have never seen blood, yet they try to fight us. I’ve killed more than a dozen wolves myself!" the Qin soldier laughed heartily, while his hands showed no mercy as he slaughtered the resisting enemies.
"We surrender, we surrender!"
One by one, the Xiang Family soldiers shouted out. The Qin Family had declared "surrender and be spared" at the beginning of the war and indeed adhered to this rule. The peaceful life had left the Xiang Family soldiers with little experience in killing.
Meanwhile, most of the Qin army had been on the borders of the Primordial Wilderness, fighting fierce beasts, which naturally made them stronger.
...
Half a month, just half a month.
Six hundred thousand soldiers swept through the entire Thunder Blood County like a flowing river. The combat prowess of the Qin Family Army’s soldiers was now apparent for the first time, vastly surpassing the ordinary soldiers of the Xiang Family, who had never fought to the death.
This time the Qin Family showed no mercy, attacking the entirety of Thunder Blood County with an absolutely firm stance.
In half a month, Thunder Blood County was completely taken. And the other three counties of the Xiang Family had deployed heavy troops by now, so if a forced assault were to be made, the Qin Family would also suffer heavy losses, as siege battles were extremely difficult.
The Black Water Army then stationed itself in several cities on the southern side of Thunder Blood County, serving to deter the Mu Family of the Southern Domain Three Counties.
"Snap!"
The teacup shattered violently on the floor.
"Bang!"
The desk in the Imperial Study, specially used by the Emperor, was completely overturned, everything on it crashing to the ground. At that moment, Xiang Guang was like a furious lion, his eyes bloodshot, as if he was about to devour someone.
"A whole prefecture, an entire prefecture gone just like that. Everything’s in chaos, the plan is completely in chaos."
Xiang Guang was gasping for breath, his bloodshot eyes fixated on the people before him.
"My intelligence officer, how highly I valued you! And what about you to me? Six hundred thousand troops. Did you hear that? The Qin Family mobilized six hundred thousand troops to attack my Thunder Blood County. Where did they come from? Tell me, tell me where these six hundred thousand troops came from?"
Xiang Guang kept gasping for breath.
A prefecture, that is an extremely vast area, with hundreds of cities. Moreover, this prefecture was one of the four tirelessly managed by the Xiang Family, and it was completely overrun in just half a month.
"You planned so well initially. You even said that everything was figured out, that the Black Water Mountain Bandits could keep Jiang Tao and Fu Bing’s two hundred thousand troops from acting. Merely a hundred thousand troops from Qin Feng, thinking that hundred thousand could break through my Thunder Blood County is simply a pipe dream. But now?" Xiang Guang glared at the man with the hook-nosed.
The hook-nosed man knelt down in alarm and said, "I didn’t know either. The Black Water Mountain Bandits didn’t keep their promise. They completely submitted to the Qin Family. Those three hundred thousand troops of the Black Water Army were originally the Black Water Mountain Bandits." The hook-nosed man was also very frightened.
"Haha... surrender, submit?" Xiang Guang threw his head back and laughed loudly.
"The Black Water Mountain Bandits, with a history of hundreds of years. And over those centuries, the Qin Family eliminated the Black Water Mountain Bandits dozens of times, with several incidents resulting in tens of thousands of casualties. Is all of that fake? Ah, is it all fake? How could they possibly submit to the Qin Family, how could they!!!"
Xiang Guang roared in anger.
"Emperor, now it appears that the Qin Family had double intentions all along and had been planning for hundreds of years. Those Black Water Mountain Bandits were also chess pieces set by the Qin Family hundreds of years ago, always used to mislead us. Only this can explain why after hundreds of years of fighting, the Black Water Mountain Bandits would silently submit to the Qin Family," said Yi Yan, leader of the Ba Long Army.
Xiang Guang was most reluctant to believe this, but now it seemed that it was exactly as Yi Yan had said.
Xiang Guang shivered, "Hundreds of years, heavens, the Qin Family had been preparing for hundreds of years. How many more hidden pieces do they have? Hundreds of years of preparation, once it erupts, how terrifying it would be." At that moment, Xiang Guang was completely terrified by his own thoughts.
Those present were all Xiang Guang’s most trusted people; however, at that moment, no one dared to speak.
Xiang Guang bowed his head, not knowing what he was thinking, and people like Yi Yan dared not interrupt.
"Hahaha..." Xiang Guang laughed softly and then raised his head and stared at everyone, "Well, isn’t it just a prefecture? So the Qin Family has an extra three hundred thousand troops from the Black Water Army! Fine, I will make sure that Qin De understands who truly reigns over the Chu Dynasty!"
Xiang Guang was wrong.
The Black Water Mountain Bandits becoming part of the Qin Family did not mean the Qin Family just gained three hundred thousand troops. No, it was five hundred thousand troops. Because the two hundred thousand troops originally meant to deter the Black Water Mountain Bandits could now also be committed to the war.
The Qin Family originally had six hundred thousand troops, plus an secretly recruited additional two hundred thousand. Plus the three hundred thousand from the Black Water Army, that’s a total of 1.1 million troops. Moreover, the Qin Family’s troops generally had higher combat effectiveness compared to the other three families.
"Emperor, the old ancestor is requesting your presence," someone said.
A serene voice arose next to Xiang Guang’s ear, causing his body to tremble. He immediately scolded the few people present, "All of you, go back and attend to your duties properly. If there are any more mishaps, do not blame me for being ruthless."
"Yes!"
The few people present bowed and retreated.
After everyone had left, Xiang Guang straightened his attire and left the Imperial Study Room to visit that esteemed ancestor.
...
There were some areas in the Imperial Palace where outsiders were forbidden, and the Weiyang Palace was one such restricted area. At the moment, Xiang Guang entered this forbidden palace. Within the Weiyang Palace, both Xiang Guang and Mr. Lan stood outside a bedroom. Although only a beaded curtain obstructed the doorway, no one dared to break through.
Xiang Guang bowed outside the beaded curtain, saying, "Guang’er pays respect to the esteemed ancestor."
"Guang’er, tell me about the war situation." A cordial voice came from inside the room, and through the beaded curtain, one could faintly see a figure sitting cross-legged on a bed that was faintly emitting light.
Xiang Guang organized his thoughts and said, "Esteemed ancestor, those Black Water Mountain Bandits have now renamed themselves as the ’Black Water Army’ and have become one of the Qin Family’s forces. They mobilized an army of six hundred thousand troops at once and took over our Xiang Family’s Thunder Blood County in a fortnight. Thus, the Qin Family now commands an army of 1.1 million. Moreover, I suspect that the Qin Family has been preparing for this rebellion for hundreds of years."
"Hundreds of years? You’re quite astute to guess that," the voice inside slightly praised.
Without any embarrassment, Xiang Guang continued, "Even so, I still have confidence in annihilating the Qin Family. As far as I know, they have already dispatched three hundred thousand troops to infiltrate the Northern Domain Two Prefectures secretly. The moment the Qin Family starts their attack, have Shangguan Hong turn her coat and join forces with my Xiang Family for an internal and external pincer attack."
"Oh?"
It dawned on Xiang Guang, and he hurriedly said, "Esteemed ancestor, is Shangguan Hong reliable? The Qin Family has been preparing for hundreds of years; there’s a chance that Shangguan Hong might actually side with the Qin Family, which would be disastrous." This thought suddenly struck him.
"Rest assured, even in death, Shangguan Hong would not side with the Qin Family," the voice inside sounded very confident.
Upon hearing this, Xiang Guang felt much relieved; he had blind admiration for his esteemed ancestor.
Suddenly, the voice of the esteemed ancestor became stern, "Guang’er, has your intelligence department found out about the matter of the Qin Family’s deceased Third Son, Qin Yu, particularly how he managed to cultivate?"
"Qin Yu? That useless Third Son?" Xiang Guang was taken aback.
Actually, Xiang Guang was still unaware of the events of the great battle during which Qin De crossed the tribulation because all his men, except for Wood, had died, and Wood did not deign to tell Xiang Guang the truth.
"Useless? The Four-directions Killing God and Ge Min. Five Innate Great Perfection Experts! A nineteen-year-old youth killed five Great Perfection Experts, and even the Upper Immortal Wu Xing before dying. And you still dare to call him useless?" the esteemed ancestor sounded slightly angry.
Xiang Guang was stunned.
He had paid attention to Qin Family’s eldest and second sons but had never cared about this third son. However, now, even the mysterious esteemed ancestor was paying attention to this Qin Yu.
"You must investigate immediately. What kind of cultivation technique could allow a nineteen-year-old to reach such strength? I absolutely refuse to believe that a person’s talent can reach such a level; there must be a top-tier cultivation technique involved. If the Qin Family possesses such a technique and trains a batch of decisive experts, that truly would be a disaster!" the voice of the esteemed ancestor intensified, clearly enraged.
Xiang Guang had never heard the esteemed ancestor speak with such anger, and he hastily responded, "Yes, I will investigate right away." Saying this, Xiang Guang hurriedly left the Weiyang Palace.
