Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The remorse for their own mistakes and the pain of losing their comrades in arms compounded the misery of the survivors of the battle.
When the fight was over, the morale of the Great Snowmountain soldiers began to fade away. They kept looking around blankly, searching in vain for their best friends, until the grief of seeing familiar faces among the pile of corpses wrenched their hearts. After that, these hard-bitten warriors, who would rather die than surrender before the enemy, would slump down on the ground with the most vacant expression on their face, their minds completely blank.
Before long, they would begin to ponder, “Why did we fail to win this battle? And why did we fight this battle?”
The soldiers were suffering from low morale caused by the huge loss, so much so that even the appearance of the Dragon King failed to cheer them up.
All the tribal chiefs were seriously wounded, and more than 1,000 swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain were killed.
Tuo Nengya, the battle-seasoned macheteman, had dozens of wounds on his body and became soaked in his own blood. He stared at the Dragon King but was unable to utter a word. His reputation was untarnished, but he did not know whether there was still any chance that he would be able to use his patronus’ saber again in the future.
The machetemen troop he had worked so hard to build up now only had less than 500 people. The machetemen quietly gathered around their leader, seemingly wanting to bring more vitality to him in this way.
Amongst the four battles during the past 20 days or so, the fourth one caused the most damage to the Great Snowmountain. Among the 4,000 soldiers of the army, only 1,600 survived the battles and nearly half of them were injured.
Gu Shenwei walked past all the survivors, full of grief and anger. He swept his gaze across their faces, some of which were unfamiliar to him, and gradually subdued his anger.
He firmly believed that there was a hidden traitor in his army and it was probably one of the five tribal chiefs. This traitor had made use of the bravery and arrogance of the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain, and spurred them to launch this suicide attack.
Neither the simple-minded swordsmen nor the proud middle-aged macheteman had suspected that there was a scheme behind the whole thing, but Gu Shenwei, who had grown up in a world of intrigue, was keenly aware of this possibility.
Nevertheless, now the top priority was not finding out the hidden traitor, since it might further shatter the morale of the army.
Gu Shenwei was well aware that justice must be served in an appropriate way, otherwise it would do more harm than good to his army.
After banishing the thought of tracking down the hidden traitor right now, Gu Shenwei summoned all the important figures in his army to meet together.
The Great Snowmountain consisted of five peaks, which were equivalent to five tribes. Each peak was further divided into many different valleys, and each valley had a leader, who did not have much real power. In accordance with the current rules of the Great Snowmountain, all the matters within a tribe were determined by the tribal chief, and the leaders of the valleys were just in charge of delivering messages and carrying out orders from their chiefs. However, this time, Gu Shenwei decided to break these rules.
Beside the five tribal chiefs and Tuo Nengya, who were carried by others to the meeting, Gu Shenwei also invited all the 70 valley leaders of the Great Snowmountain and 23 leaders at all levels from the machetemen to the meeting. As such, there were a total of 100 people, including the Dragon King, at the meeting.
These 100 people would determine the fate of the army.
The Dragon King’s main tent was not big enough, so he chose an empty slope for the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, all the participants knelt down to mourn for the dead. After that, they all sat on the ground and listened to the Dragon King’s speech. Gu Shenwei stood on top of the slope and once again called on everyone to leave with him.
Pressed for time, he did not summon any warlock or use any ornate language to persuade his soldiers this time around. He explicitly told them, “I’ve just come back from the Xiaoyao Lake in the southeast. It’s a beautiful and prosperous place, and a natural choke point. The locals down there are worried that the Golden Roc Fort is going to expand to the south, so they invite us, the soldiers of the Great Snowmountain to fight side by side against a common enemy.”
Nobody had expected the Dragon King to make such a request. The tribal chiefs and the valley leaders began whispering to each other, “Aren’t we going back to the Great Snowmountain?” The leaders of the machetemen all lowered their heads and remained silent, while thinking, “Now things look awfully bleak for us. It’s better for us to disband and go into hiding at different places, waiting for another chance to come back.”
Gu Shenwei could notice their doubts about him and continued, “Now, the situation in Western Region is totally different. The Golden Roc Fort is in league with Norland and their armies are busy making war all over the region. A succession of cavalrymen is rapidly advancing toward Shu-lik in the west. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Only kingdoms around the Xiaoyao Lake in the south are not occupied by our enemies, since that place is isolated by deserts. This is our only chance. Once we occupy that land, we’ll be hunted no more and we’ll gain a firm footing in Western Region.”
As these words were intended for the leaders of the machetemen, Gu Shenwei quickly continued, trying to argue the swordsmen into supporting his decision. “I’m your Dragon King. I’ve promised you that I’ll capture Golden Roc Fort within three years, and this promise is still valid. I implore you, the people of the Empyrean, the swordsmen of the Great Snowmountain, to continue fighting together with me. Don’t be depressed by this momentary defeat. The Empyrean has appointed me to unite the five peaks of the Great Snowmountain. It won’t abandon me when we’re faced with formidable enemies and it’ll never let the five peaks split again.”
Gu Shenwei did not tell them the whole truth, but his speech still touched many people. Firstly, it was the swordsmen who stood up and cheered in agreement, and then the machetemen quickly followed suit.
At this moment, several senior leaders of the swordsmen asked whether they were obligated to offer sacrifice for the Empyrean and pray for a blessing. The Dragon King flatly refused to hold such a ceremony, since there was no time to lose. “Everyone gets ready to leave this camp as soon as possible. Let the injured ones mount the horses, and the others travel by foot. Bring as much hay and water as possible, and leave the other things behind. We’ll set out at any minute,” Gu Shenwei commanded.
Most soldiers in the camp had no idea how they were going to step out of this camp, as the Golden Roc Fort’s army had already blocked up the only exit of the valley. Despite that, they still moved swiftly to carry out the Dragon King’s order on such short notice.
Gu Shenwei climbed up a watch tower to observe the military camp of the Golden Roc Fort.
It was nearing midnight, but the camp was still brightly lit, showing no sign of retreat.
He had already sent out some scouts to investigate the situation, but none of them had come back by far.
He had ordered the Shangguan brothers to meet Dugu Xian at noon, but he had never expected Dugu Xian to withdraw his army only by late afternoon. “If they only got the chance to meet the commander when he returned to the camp, they probably would not have ample time to complete the task,” thought Gu Shenwei worriedly.
He was getting increasingly unsure that the Golden Roc Fort’s army would retreat toward the east before midnight, but this was not his main worry, since it would be alright if they just delayed their withdrawal. What concerned him most was that they saw through the brothers’ scheme. He feared that he had pushed the cowardly brothers too hard and stressed them out. Under such circumstances, they might make mistakes when trying to finish the task in a hurry.
Time passed, and around midnight the soldiers of the Great Snowmountain all got fully equipped to start a journey. As they had lost most of their horses during the previous battles, only the most severely wounded ones could get mounts. They were ordered to leave no one behind, and even prepared to carry the unconscious ones with themselves.
“We’ll only be able to travel at a very low speed,” Gu Shenwei sighed secretly, but he could not command his soldiers to ditch their wounded comrades. The swordsmen of the Great Snowmountain were different from the Golden Roc Fort killers and would not tolerate any despicable behavior from their leader, not to mention that they all considered their Dragon King a demigod.
There was no water clock in his camp, but Gu Shenwei was able to tell the time by the position of the moon and the stars. He was pretty sure that midnight had already passed.
At this moment, the firelight in the camp of the Golden Roc Fort was as bright as before.
“Dragon King, the Golden Roc Fort’s army has withdrawn. They’ve left,” a scout ran back to report, while panting heavily.
Gu Shenwei suspected that this might be a trap. “Shangguan Hong and Shangguan Fei probably plan to win back their father’s favor by luring my army into an ambush. As for the antidote for the Intestine Severing Powder, they probably don’t care much about it. Perhaps they believe that their father is always able to find a way to save them.”
To find out what had happened, Gu Shenwei personally led his vanguard, which consisted of 500 soldiers, to cross the battleground and sneak into the military camp of the Golden Roc Fort.
They vigilantly scanned their surroundings but saw no one in this camp, although the tents, camp fire and weapons were all left intact.
Gu Shenwei forbade his soldiers from touching anything in the camp and focused on checking the marks left by horseshoes. The tracks were still fresh, clearly indicating that the Golden Roc Fort’s army had already retreated toward the east.
Gu Shenwei was pleased to know that Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong proved themselves competent during their first cooperation.
He led his troops to march toward the west, and after traveling a few kilometers, he was pretty sure that there were no enemies waiting in an ambush for his army. He sent out scouts to investigate the situation ahead of and behind his troops, and messengers to summon the other troops to follow up.
Soon enough, the remaining 1,600 or so soldiers of the Dragon King gathered together and regrouped into three parts: 500 people taking the lead, another 500 at the rear and the wounded soldiers and pack animals traveling in the middle. The Dragon King led his army quietly toward the west, and just after daybreak they were already far away from their camp. As they left in a hurry, many dead bodies of their comrades had been left behind.
As Gu Shenwei had expected, the Great Snowmountain troops could only travel at a very slow pace, which was about a dozen kilometers a day, while carrying a large number of wounded soldiers. Besides, they also lacked horses.
He was worried, not only because the Golden Roc Fort would discover the Shangguan brothers’ deception sooner or later but also because now they were marching on the road, which had been used by the cavalrymen of Norland when they went to invade Shu-lik. If they appeared again on this road, the Great Snowmountain troops would incur a heavy loss.
Gu Shenwei prayed sincerely, asking the Empyrean for help for the first time. This time, luck was indeed on his side.
On the third day of their journey, the Great Snowmountain troops arrived at a burned-down sentry post of Shu-lik. From this point on, they were going to travel toward the southeast, following the route between the desert and Gobi, and if everything went smoothly, they would reach the Xiaoyao Lake 23 days later.
It was going to be a difficult journey, so Gu Shenwei wanted his soldiers to rest for a day and be well prepared for it. He ordered his men to pitch camp here, take care of the injured ones and graze their horses nearby.
Toward evening, Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong returned to the Dragon King’s army at the agreed time. They even brought back a captive—Dugu Xian, the commander of the Golden Roc Fort’s army. Dugu Xian did not understand what the Shangguan brothers had done to him until he met the Dragon King.
Shangguan Fei and Shangguan Hong were overjoyed that they had successfully completed the mission. Apart from claiming their respective credits, they even praised each other in front of the Dragon King, showing unprecedented friendship.
“The Ninth Young Master is such a genius. All the killers were convinced by him, and one of them even said that he had found Dugu Xian suspicious a long time ago and anticipated the lord to remove him from his post someday. Haha,” said Shangguan Hong.
“Master Hong was very helpful. He deluded them into believing that Norland’s cavalrymen were lying in wait in the west. He told them that once the soldiers of the Great Snowmountain began to flee, they would be eliminated in the ambush,” said Shangguan Fei.
Gu Shenwei gave them two red pills and claimed that they were an antidote for Intestine Severing Powder. He had received these pills from Maid Lotus when he had been severely wounded at one time. Regardless of the fact that Maid Lotus had contended that they were nontoxic and had good curative effect, Gu Shenwei still refused to take them or use them on his own warriors.
“Now, you can return to Jade City,” said Gu Shenwei.
The Shangguan brothers exchanged a look with each other and then said simultaneously, “No, Dragon King. We want to stay with you.”
There had been no justifiable reason for Supreme King’s decision to kill them, but at present, the obvious fact that they had assisted the Great Snowmountain troops to escape offered an adequate explanation for their father’s cruel decision. Once they showed up in Jade City, the Supreme King would openly hunt and kill them.
Given that, both of them were clear that in the entire Western Region, only the Dragon King could protect them.
After nightfall, the Dragon King and his army ran out of luck. Their scouts returned and reported, “The Golden Roc Fort’s army has been chasing after us at top speed since uncovering the deceit. They took a short-cut and have already blocked the way leading to the Xiaoyao Lake.”
“That’s not a big deal. We’ve a hostage,” said Shangguan Fei. Surprisingly, this time, he was collected in the presence of danger.
Gu Shenwei gave a glance at Dugu Xian who stayed in the corner of his tent and wondered, “Does this commander carry enough importance? Are we really be able to stop the Golden Roc Fort’s army by taking him hostage?”
