Chapter 197 — A Gathering of Masters
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Yue Qinghong glanced back and saw that the hundreds of strange hatted figures were not following at all; they sat outside the tea shed, each cradling a cup of tea, drinking in silence—a most eerie sight.
"What a strange lot," Xue Hu'er said. Si Yunxiang drew close to Shen Mu and whispered, "Did you reach an agreement?
" Shen Mu nodded. "You will know when the time comes.
" When they arrived outside Daxiang City, army camps blanketed the wilderness—barracks and great stockades everywhere.
The Duke of Wei and the two grand generals, Guanjun and Huaihua, had massed their troops here but had not immediately assaulted Daxiang. Daxiang was a strategic stronghold of the Southern Wilderness; the enemy had gathered thousands of troops and myriads of horses, rebel armies converging from every quarter, and disciples of the various sects arriving in an endless stream, sleeping on their arms and awaiting battle. If war broke out, it would surely be a battle of epic grandeur. As Shen Mu walked along, he saw golden-armored stalwarts pushing enormous cloud chariots, drilling in siegecraft.
These golden-armored stalwarts were masters of the body-forging branch among the combat-technique schools, able in an instant to swell their flesh dozens, even hundreds of times, becoming giants clad from head to toe in armor cast of dark bronze and dark gold—the armor alone half a foot thick. As these giants drilled, iron chains were fastened about their bodies, and each had to hold up a shield with one hand while pushing a cloud chariot. The chariots were intricate: besides giant iron rams for battering gates and walls, they carried flying ladders that could rise more than ten zhang and be set against the walls for soldiers to climb.
Beyond that, there were soldiers activating formation diagrams, unrolling them and setting troops upon them to drill battle formations.
There were also cavalry mounted on great birds that, led by their commanders, plunged downward in dives; myriads of sword lights shot straight down from the sky, and with a single dive the ground for a dozen-odd mu around was bristling with flying swords! After the cavalry swept past, the flying swords in the earth rose with a clatter, one after another, into the sword cases on their riders' backs.
The flying cavalry came and went like wind and lightning, impossible to guard against. Nor was there only one such corps—there were dozens of flying-cavalry units, the great formations executing hive tactics and wolf-pack tactics; should ground forces meet the flying cavalry, it would be nothing short of annihilating.
And if they met a powerful foe, the flying cavalry could resort to kite tactics, stringing the enemy along until he dropped. Besides the flying cavalry there were tower ships: this time the Duke of Wei and Generals Guanjun and Huaihua had mobilized several hundred of them, each able to hold over a thousand men—an army of several hundred thousand.
"Imperial Teacher Jingping's military reforms have truly made the army of the Jingping Nation invincible.
If our Youmo Cult were to suffer an assault like this, we too would be wiped out to the last man," Shen Mu thought to himself. When they reached the army, Imperial Teacher Jingping exchanged a few words with the Duke of Wei and Grand Generals Guanjun and Huaihua, who had come out to welcome him, then led Shen Mu and the others toward Daxiang City.
The walls of Daxiang flew the banners of every sect and school, and the banners of some nations already destroyed. Imperial Teacher Jingping glanced up and shook his head.
"If the old era is not utterly destroyed, how can any great undertaking succeed? At any moment they will rekindle like dead embers and come surging back.
Revolution demands blood—it demands the fall of a hundred million heads. " Shen Mu asked, "Imperial Teacher Jingping, is everything in place? " "It is in place.
" Imperial Teacher Jingping looked up.