Chapter 207: Breaking the Array

Seeing this, He Lingchuan now could not help but feel that the spider den, which was already eerie, had become something downright uncanny.

What are these things to Zhu Erniang?

And why did these things come all the way down here just to die in a neat row?

At the end of that line, he found an eighth.

This one was about the same size as Zhu Erniang and was also leaning against a rock wall, firmly settled.

Yet something about it felt... off.

He stepped back two paces to glance at the seventh spider for comparison, and then he realized that this eighth one had no glowspores on it.

This probably means that this one hasn’t died for long, if at all.

Right as he was staring and puzzling it out, the giant spider lifted a foreleg and rubbed its eyes.

Holy shit! This one’s still alive!

The shock was bone-deep, and his scalp prickled. He sprang backward, spun on his heel, and bolted.

Compared to fighting a giant spider that far outmatched him, there was still a sliver of hope when it came to trying to find a way out of the maze.

* * *

Meanwhile, chaos still reigned in Wei City.

The Baling city guards stationed in Wei City and the infiltrating Gale Army were locked in a tug-of-war under the gate. The latter were stronger on an individual level, but the former had numbers, and the troops inside the city had finally reacted and were counterattacking.

Everyone could feel a faint tremor underfoot. Not far off, the clatter of hooves rose.

Taking that together with the signal arrows the spies and infiltrators had just shot skyward, this was most likely another Gale Army force lying in ambush outside, now rushing in on seeing the sign to seize the city.

Wei City was surrounded by flat steppe. By daylight, one can see for roughly fifty kilometers. However, the tall grass and the dim light of the night hid the Gale Army’s movements.

So the five thousand who first assaulted the walls were only bait. The real killing stroke had been holding position all along.

It was another case of luring the tiger from the mountain.

The Baling garrison blanched at the oncoming thundering hooves. The struggle for the gate instantly went white-hot. Both sides knew that once the Gale Army reinforcements reached the gate, if it was not shut and barred by then, it would not be shut tonight, and it was likely that Wei City would fall into the hands of Panlong City once more.

However, Wei City’s gate was built small and narrow for defense, which was ironically to the benefit of Xiao Maoliang and the others who had already squeezed inside. Only a few enemies could force their way through at a time, and most of the Baling troops were jammed behind their own comrades. With just twenty-odd men, Xiao Maoliang’s group could still barely hold.

But this was very much barely.

They were a tiny rock in a storm-lashed sea, a single wave too strong, and they could be swallowed whole.

The logistics man standing by the gate’s copper talisman glanced down at the small pot in his hand.

The Three Corpses Worms that he had released were already roaming the city. They had tried to invade the Baling soldiers, but whenever they approached the seven apertures, they were bounced out.

This was not normal. On battlefields, the Three Corpses Worms were nearly unstoppable. The original plan had been to sabotage the talisman array behind the gate, then unleash the worms to drive the Baling troops into frenzy and mutiny. After that, they would open the gate, allowing their forces to sweep in and finish the job.

It was a perfect plan until step two went wrong.

The Three Corpses Worms were not doing their job.

This meant that the Serene Mind Mantra or some other divine technique was still active, and it was keeping the Baling troops’ minds clear and warded.

However, large aura-type arrays like that were complicated to make, bulky, and a pain to move. He scanned the base of the walls and saw no sign of any such array.

Where could it be hidden?

Just then, the voice from the inner street spoke again, this time aimed at him, “Seize the Red General on the city gate, dead or alive! Whoever succeeds will be made a marquis and awarded five thousand in gold!”

The Red General?

Indeed, the stealthy plant lurking atop the wall was the Red General himself.

He was a commander who had dared to risk his own neck for this bold move. If the gate slammed shut, he would be a dragon trapped in a jar.

Like a ladle of water thrown into boiling oil, the Baling troops exploded into a roar.

The Red General’s figure flickered. He slipped past the seven or eight feathered arrows loosed from every direction.

A rich bounty does wonders. Every Baling eye snapped to him at once.

His next move was to leap off the gate tower. Up there, room to maneuver was tight. If he stayed any longer, he would be turned into a pincushion. Only, the ground below was packed shoulder to shoulder with Baling soldiers.

But in midair, he snapped his fingers and said, “Wind!”

A freak gale sprang up from nowhere—short, sharp, easily force 11–12 on the Beaufort scale[1]—laden with the steppe’s ever-present grit and grass-blades, scouring eyes until they could not stay open.

It came so abruptly that the Baling soldiers reflexively turned their heads and covered their faces; otherwise, tears would stream and their eyes would burn.

Xiao Maoliang and the rest seized the chance and shoved the gate a few more meters inward.

One or two hundred torches blew out at once, plunging the gate into darkness. The Baling soldiers groped through the wind to grab the Red General only to realize that they could not find him at all.

From the start, he had hidden in the dark, and no one had even seen his face. After he vaulted off the wall, he was already wearing a Baling uniform, so once he was amidst their ranks, how were they supposed to tell who among them was the Red General?

At the same time, a cold voice sounded in Hu Min’s mind. It was the Red General’s.

“Shoot out those torches!”

Torches?

Hu Min peered. Sure enough, the whole city lay in darkness, the inner wards dark as well; even the oil lamps in homes had been snuffed by the wind.

Only to the right front of the city gate did a few torches still burn, their flames stubbornly giving off light and heat even as hailstones pinged through the gale.

Earlier, torches were everywhere; those few had not stood out. Now that every other flame was dead, only they remained, suddenly conspicuous.

The relay station’s in that direction, isn’t it?

It was the Red General’s order. Hu Min and the others raised their bows without a second thought.

As an archer, he had holed up in a dark nook as soon as the fighting started; now he could work at his leisure.

Strangely, the instant they drew, the gale cut out. Otherwise, in that wind, even a veteran would fail to hit their mark.

The Red General had not brought just one sharpshooter. In the space of a couple of blinks of an eye, six torches dwindled by two.

In the general chaos, the Baling troops were floundering when a shout rang out, “The Red General’s gone to the relay station!”

At once, men bolted that way.

A bark from the inner street rippled across them, “Hold where you are! Disobey and be cut down!”

A mass of soldiers surged out from the inner street. In the middle stood a leader in light armor with a sweeping cloak. Behind him, two bodyguards held open boxes packed with glowspores.

Just like that, they had light.

The leader pointed down at the crowd by the gate. “Stand down. No one advances!”

His authority was clear. Most halted at once. But there were still men from Hua Mucuo’s command in the mix. They did not stop on a dime and pelted a few more steps toward the relay station.

For the convenience of envoys and travelers, the relay station sat by the gate to begin with, meaning that it was only about ten to thirteen meters from the wall. Those soldiers, with those few extra strides, were nearly upon it.

Hu Min and the rest fired again, and again. Soon, only two pinpricks of flame still burned around the relay station.

In the dark, two figures suddenly hurled themselves toward it.

Archers beside the Baling leader drew and shot, and they successfully pinned the two figures.

No one noticed the third figure hunched behind those two unlucky souls, slipping into the relay station like a ghost.

That figure was Red General.

He ducked inside and glanced around, and just then, his own archers snuffed the last torch. The entire relay station fell into pitch darkness.

The Red General moved through the relay station at a rapid prowl. In the span of two breaths, he had swept through the porter’s lodge, the main hall, and the stable. Passing the stable, he noticed a faint azure glow seeping from the floor, but a blanket of dry grass hid the source.

So it really is here!

The Red General stepped forward and flicked the weeds aside with his changdao, revealing another copper talisman beneath.

It was no wonder the Three Corpses Worms could not get into human hosts. The Serene Mind Mantra inscribed on this copper plate was still in effect.

His opponent had been meticulous. To protect and conceal this array, they had even laid a second array around the relay station with torches, setting up one layer wrapped in another.

Unfortunately for them, it backfired. In that conjured gale, the torches that refused to die became conspicuous instead.

Now that Hu Min and the others had shot out six more, the array was broken, clearing the Red General’s last obstacle.

Ruin this copper talisman, unleash the Three Corpses Worms, and the scales of victory would tip toward the Gale Army.

But as the Red General raised his blade, the hay piled in a corner exploded and a massive figure burst out from within!

They were barely over a meter apart, and the stable was narrow. The Red General had no room at all to dodge.

Moreover, he had not sensed a living presence in that haystack.

By then, the struggle at the gate had reached its final pitch; men on both sides were fighting to the last drop.

Three more of Xiao Maoliang’s squad went down.

If the gate closed, the squad’s odds of survival would be cut off as well. And yet, though a few steps back would see them out through the gate, not one of them would take them.

They clenched their teeth and held, willing to block with their chests, to shoulder it with their lives.

Hold out, and reinforcements would arrive any moment.

Hold out, and victory would belong to the Red General.

Twelve battles in three years, and the Red General had never lost. However grim the field, he always managed to turn it around in the end.

Those Gale Army soldiers at his side had near-blind faith in him.

Just then, the relay station’s thatch roof blew open in a great hole, and the Red General was swatted into the air.

Like a ball struck by a club, he flew about ten meters before hitting the ground and barely catching his balance.

An instant later, a hulking figure smashed through the relay station’s brick wall and thundered out, planting itself before the Baling commander and fixing the Red General with a predatory stare.

It was a giant stone man. The stone man’s entire body was made of rocks large and small, driven by an unknown core.

No order was needed. The Baling troops surged in and encircled the Red General tightly.

In a heartbeat, the situation flipped.

“The famed Red General who moves troops like a god, so that’s all you are!” the Baling commander laughed aloud. “And to think you were once Lady Mitian!”

To have trapped the Red General with a single stratagem, he could not help his glee.

The Red General cocked his head. “And you are?”

“The man who defeated you is Shao Yingyang, son of Shao Yan, State Preceptor of Baling. Remember—”

The Red General cut him off, “Which god stands behind you?”

Shao Yingyang’s smile vanished. “Return what isn’t yours, and you’ll know soon enough.” He then stretched his hand in command. “Kill them all! Leave no survivors!”

The Red General meant to stall for time; Shao Yingyang was not biting. First, they would shut the gate. The rest could be handled at leisure.

Hah, what war god? What Gale Army? To him, they were nothing but a pack of louts.

1. There was no explicit mention of the Beaufort scale, but I added it since it’s what I think the author is referring to by eleven or twelve-level grading. This sets the wind to a speed equivalent to that of a hurricane. ☜