In the night, more than twenty people sat in a cliff cave with many oil lamps lit.
On the cave’s highest platform was a golden chair. Even though it wasn’t gold but bronze, because of its size, it still seemed extremely imposing.
Below this large chair were two rows of large black iron chairs. Regardless of whether it was the large gold chair or the black iron chair, there were long curtains hanging down, giving this cave more of a deep level feeling, at the same time formlessly giving it a type of shrine-like solemn and heavy aura.
On the great golden chair was a dark green robed, black jade crowned middle-aged man with a ruthless and grim appearance.
Several halts ago, the twenty or so individuals seated on the large black iron chairs below him already entered an intense conflict over a certain matter. Now, this intense arguing not only didn’t stop, it instead seemed to have gotten worse. The entire cave was rumbling with noise, the curtains even moving slightly as if affected by these voices.
The middle-aged man was always watching this with the detached eye of a bystander from several halts ago. Only at this time did a hint of a cold smile appear on his face.
“Just what are you all scared of?”
He spoke up, saying with mockery, “Just a letter advising for surrender, just some traces of enemies appearing today, yet all of you are already this scared?”
The voices in this entire cave instantly came to a grinding stop. The twenty something gray leather armored individuals seated on black iron chairs all shut their mouths, looking at this exceptionally ruthless and cold faced middle-aged man, a bit of coldness unable to help but appear in their eyes.
“It’s not like I’m Gong Tingjue.”[1]
This black jade crowned middle-aged man spoke a third sentence.
The entire cave became even more quiet, quiet to the point where even a needle falling could be heard.
“Even that Gu Yunjing[2] who has the Black Flag Army couldn’t do anything to me, could it be that you all are scared of a girl who only knows how to kill?”
The middle-aged man’s eyes swept over everyone below. “Scared that she might be a Sacred Expert?”
“Even if she is a Sacred Expert, forget about a Sacred Expert, even if it was ten Sacred Experts, so what?”
“As long as their attacks cannot reach us, then there is nothing to fear… Do not forget that this place was created through twenty years of operations. Your fears are precisely insulting my endless efforts, insulting my ability!”
The middle-aged man’s cold and ruthless voice began to continuously ring through this cave like an ocean wave.
When they heard everything up to here, the coldness in the hearts of everyone seated on the black iron chairs became even stronger, but most of them still couldn’t help but feel doubt. So what if their attacks can’t reach us? If we still have to fear that god of death every time we go out, does this mean that we don’t have to feel fear anymore?
As if he knew what everyone was thinking, the cold mockery on this middle-aged man’s face became even stronger. “All of you have followed me for quite a long time already, but who would have expected that all of you are still weak like mud, unable to support anything… Dealing with this woman isn’t hard at all, it’s not like you don’t know about some of Dragon Snake Border Army’s provisions transport routes. Send some people out tomorrow to seize some border army supply carriages and the problem is solved.”
“Seize the border army’s provisions supply carriages?!”
When this middle-aged man’s voice sounded, the expressions of quite a few of the individuals seated on black iron chairs below changed. All of them reacted, but there were still quite a few people who turned pale with fright. It was because for them, this type of thing that would thoroughly anger the border army was like jumping straight into a pit of fire.
“What? Are there still people who don’t understand?”
The middle-aged man sneered. “During these years, the border army wasn’t willing to pay the price of surrounding this place, which was why I had the ability to turn this place into this type of location that can’t be attacked… during these years, we indeed didn’t cross the border army’s bottom line. However, it is precisely because we never did this type of thing before, do you think the border army will immediately think it is us?”
“Right now, in Dragon Snake Border Pass, which bandit group is the most notorious, their actions the most unrestrained?”
“Dragon Snake Border Army will naturally think it is the thousands of men led by this woman, so they will naturally direct their anger towards them. No matter how strong that woman is, would she be stronger than the Dragon Snake Border Army?”
“In the end, even if the Dragon Snake Border Army discovers that it has to do with us, they still won’t be able to take us down, still won’t be able to attack us. Your eyes have to see a bit further. Do not forget that right now, Yunqin is currently fighting a war against the south, so how could they use corpses to smother us here?”
“In this entire border line, other bandits are still bandits, while we are already a country, this is precisely the greatest difference… Yunqin’s war against the south is even more so the best chance for us to strengthen ourselves, I even have a chance of becoming a king… You all are actually scared of this type of woman?”
This cold and dignified voice rippled through this cave.
Under the cheerful replies and praise of his subordinates, this black jade crowned middle-aged man who was extremely dignified and full of absolute confidence looked towards a window at the side of the cave.
He indeed had the qualifications to have this type of confidence.
It was because he was the most powerful bandit leader in Yunqin’s east twenty years ago, Guo Dongshen.
Outside this cave window was an extremely high precipice.
The lower half of the precipice only had some weeds that grew on the short trees extending from the precipice walls. Only in the upper half of this cliff were there some finger thick mountain vines hanging from the summit.
Under the cover of mountain vines, one could vaguely make out many cave openings.
Many of the caves’ depths couldn’t be seen, full of a mysterious feel, while there were some cold metallic glints visible within some of the caves.
At the very top of this cliff, one could see an extremely thick and broad stone wall. There were corner towers, as well as signs of many large scale military equipment.
It wasn’t just this side.
The high mountain’s three sides were all like this. Only one side that was a bit inclined, with a path only two people could walk through side by side that was made artificially. Moreover, this was a mountain path that was precipitous to the point where without lowering one’s body, it was impossible to stand steadily on.
This precipitous mountain path that was created on this cliff was precisely the only way into this mountain’s upper half.
However, despite this being the case, this mountain path was still divided into segments by the dozen or so cave houses forcibly built on this precipitous mountain.
This place was Dragon Snake Mountain Range’s Turtle Edge Mountain.
This was a place that was a thorn in Dragon Snake Border Army’s side, yet they had no choice but to turn a blind eye to it, a place they had to pretend did not exist. This was the place Lin Xi told Chi Xiaoye and all of the cave barbarians about, telling them that with only him and Nangong Weiyang and Zhantai Qiantang, they couldn’t take it down.
…
Battles between cultivators, battles between the military and cultivators, as well as battles between army and army were all entirely different.
Guo Dongshen was originally a high ranking military officer who committed a serious crime in Yunqin’s military, so he understood these differences clearly.
For a defending army, even if it was a Sacred Expert level cultivator, their advantage was only within three to four hundred steps.
It was because many powerful sword controlling Sacred Experts could only control a sword within three hundred and four hundred steps. There were some top level Sacred Experts who could control a sword within five hundred or more steps, perhaps even reach a thousand steps, but the further the flying sword went, the more terrifying the soul force consumption.
That was why twenty years ago when he began to operate within this Turtle Edge Mountain, Guo Dongshen’s arrangements and fortifications could precisely keep Sacred Experts four to five hundred steps away.
The defensive retaliation from halfway up the mountain was over eight hundred steps from the foot of the mountain.
Meanwhile, in the beginning, Guo Dongshen arranged large amounts of rolling wood and falling stones on the cliff over eight hundred steps above.
These rolling wood and falling stones’ weight all exceeded a thousand jin, they were fastened with leather ropes. When people wished to charge up the mountain, they would be quickly dispatched of.
Rolling wood and falling stones weighing a thousand jin, their falling momentum was something even Sacred Experts would have no choice but to evade, no way they would want to face it head-on. They definitely wouldn’t want to be hit head on while climbing up the cliff.
In the following twenty years, Guo Dongshen exhausted a lot of effort in arranging close to two hundred sets of all types of Yunqin standard crossbow carts, as well as several more permanently fixed crossbow machines.
At the very top of the mountain, Guo Dongshen also arranged several dozen Stone Catapult Carts.
This wasn’t all… Guo Dongshen even already invented a type of sliding path blade carriage.
He opened up long caves that inclined downward, setting up slippery paths. At the end of the paths were carriage-like blade carts filled with many sharp stones, their tips all sharp like blades.
When these blade carriages were removed, after passing through the paths, the speeds that they rushed out of the caves with would be extremely shocking, able to reach several thousand steps of distance below the mountaintop at the furthest. Moreover, through adjusting the height at which these carriages were released, the distance of these sliding blade carts could be controlled.
After all of these powerful military arrangements, even if those arrow towers and three thousand bandits’ long-range attacks were ignored, then if Lin Xi had to describe it, then it was just like an outer space fort covered with countless blasters.
Either way, for Lin Xi, even if he imitated Wenren Cangyue and made a hot air balloon, learning from Jadefall City’s Wenren Cangyue, it still wouldn’t work.
It was because the mountain really was too tall, the winds too strong. Forget about being unable to land, with so many city guarding crossbow-like improvised crossbow carts, it could easily blast things floating through the air to pieces.
It was just like killing a Sacred Expert, the best way was to use even more Sacred Experts to smother them.
If one wanted to break down this type of fort made of so many large scale military equipment, the best way to do so was naturally by using powerful military equipment as well.
However, Dragon Snake Mountain Range’s terrain was craggy to begin with. Moreover, below this Turtle Edge corner was a ‘Turtle’s Back Mountain’ with stepped fields, two different gradients.
This way, in this world, there might not be any large scale military equipment that could take down this Turtle Edge Mountain. Meanwhile, it wasn’t hard for the bandits on this Turtle Edge Mountain to come down at all. It was because below this precipitous cliff was an extremely vast and mist filled primitive valley. Guo Dongshen arranged many capstans and slipropes for people to go down. Moreover, even if Yunqin’s military sent out a great army of tens of thousands, they still might not be able to completely surround this primitive valley.
Meanwhile, this was precisely the reason why in the last twenty years, Guo Dongshen spared no effort to invest all of the things he plundered, all of his wealth and energy into defensive fortifications.
For him, this would always be a country of its own, an impenetrable country.
That was why he only snorted disdainfully towards Nangong Weiyang’s previous message and threats, not attaching any importance to that bandit group that had already become the most powerful group in the east.
It was because of this type of exceptionally stable foundation, because of Yunqin’s war against the south that his ambitions became even greater.
However, the moment this ruthless and cold man looked outside this cave window at the flowing clouds, he sniffed a hint of bloodiness.
1. Former self-proclaimed king of the eastern black market B11C1
2. Dragon Snake Border Army’s commander-in-chief
