Chapter 416

Chapter 416

The following dawn.

The combined forces from Gansu and Shaanxi stationed within Xi’an split into two massive divisions and initiated their departure.

The division of troops was not executed along simple regional lines. Because of the lingering psychological instability within the Shaanxi regiments, the high command blended the two armies together to forge entirely revamped battalions, subsequently assigning fifty thousand fighters to march toward An-gang and thirty thousand to reinforce Han-zhong.

The supreme strategic commander tasked with leading the fifty thousand men pushing toward An-gang was Left Envoy Il-mok, whereas the executive commander overseeing the thirty thousand dispatched to Han-zhong was Right Envoy Dugu Ryong.

From a purely defensive standpoint, Han-zhong carried far greater strategic weight, yet its geographical layout transformed it into an inherently formidable fortress. The garrison stationed there could easily maintain a prolonged holdout while awaiting auxiliary forces from An-gang, which dictated this specific distribution of manpower.

If there existed a singular factor causing Il-mok immense mental strain, it was one specific individual.

‘Dugu Ryong. That unhinged old warrior might very well order the massive fortress gates unbarred so he can throw himself headfirst into the enemy ranks instead of maintaining a defensive posture.’

Such was the volatile nature of Dugu Ryong now that he possessed the authority of the Right Envoy.

‘…There is nothing left to do but place my faith in the officers accompanying him to keep his impulses in check. Third Senior Brother is embedded within that division, so things ought to stabilize somehow.’

Among the allied martial forces operating across Shaanxi Province at this moment, there were precisely five master combatants who had successfully breached the threshold of the Profound Realm.

Right Envoy Dugu Ryong. Left Envoy Il-mok.

Hwangbo Family Patriarch Hwangbo Ak. Shadow Pavilion Master Seo Wan-pyeong.

And lastly, Il-mok’s personal attendant Jin Ha-yeon.

Out of these select five individuals, Dugu Ryong and Seo Wan-pyeong were actively heading up the Han-zhong division.

Seo Wan-pyeong had accepted his deployment with a degree of reluctance, fully aware that his primary function was to act as a psychological anchor against Dugu Ryong’s unhinged tendencies.

‘…Or perhaps I ought to pray that the main host of the Central Army Command routes itself directly into An-gang.’

Il-mok genuinely preferred for that massive, two-hundred-thousand-man imperial force to focus entirely on An-gang, if only to grant him a modicum of predictability.

There were a great number of individuals within his command who would likely lose consciousness from sheer terror if they ever became privy to his internal calculations.

“A-are we truly marching out to meet them in open combat?”

This anxious chatter circulated among the native troops of the Shaanxi army.

Their deep-seated terror, which had been briefly suppressed by the thunderous, borderline fanatical confidence displayed by the Gansu regiments, returned with a vengeance the precise instant the columns began to move.

The ears of the Shaanxi combatants, who marched with stiff, unnatural postures and pale expressions, were suddenly assailed by rhythmic percussion.

The cadence was intensely familiar.

As if falling into a light trance, their boots began to fall in perfect synchronization with the percussion, and recognizable verses began to echo from every direction.

It was the identical melody that the Gansu forces had been vocalizing incessantly since the previous afternoon.

What was it they had termed it? A sacred anthem?

“Obliterate the corrupt, companions cleansed of transgression!”

“March fearlessly against the malevolent adversary waiting yonder!”

The Gansu fighters belted out the lyrics with the lighthearted demeanor of festival-goers, displaying a complete absence of dread.

It was as though the reality of an impending slaughter had slipped their minds entirely.

Then, a Gansu regular marching alongside a tense Shaanxi regular grinned widely and gave him a playful nudge with his elbow.

“Join in the melody yourself. It possesses the unique quality of dispelling all internal dread.”

The recommendation sounded precisely like the smooth pitch of a traveling medicine salesman.

Yet, maintaining a stoic silence only allowed their mounting terror to root itself deeper within their thoughts.

The hesitant Shaanxi regular began to clumsily mouth along with the notes of the anthem.

“Ra-diance Ra diance Heavenly Demon Di-vine Cult.”

The act felt incredibly forced and foreign to him, but after being subjected to the Gansu lunatics bellowing the verse without pause since the prior dusk, the cadence and phrasing had become ingrained in his memory.

The actual musical composition? It was impossible to discern. Every single warrior shouted the lines according to their own personal vocal range at maximum output, stripping the melody of any cohesive structure.

Even so, participating in the cacophony brought a greater sense of psychological relief than remaining trapped in his own silent dread.

“Hahaha! Splendid! Project your voice with greater power! Next line goes like this!”

The adjacent Gansu warrior yelled out with pure delight, feeding him the subsequent verse.

This interaction was far from isolated. Identical occurrences were manifesting right across the various marching battalions.

Was it due to the sheer volume of voices joining the chorus? Or perhaps the relentless positive reinforcement from their peers?

“Ra! diance! Radiance! Heavenly Demon! Divine Cult!!”

Before much time had slipped away, even the native Shaanxi infantrymen were screaming out the sacred anthem at the absolute limit of their lung capacity to drown out their lingering terror.

“Heh heh heh. Exquisite.”

The seasoned Gansu converts observed the transformation with deep satisfaction, their eyes flashing with an unsettling, fanatical glint.

The fifty thousand warriors who had filed out of Xi’an completed their journey to An-gang after five consecutive days of hard traveling.

It had been an exhausting trek crossing hundreds of li. They pressed forward day in and day out until painful sores manifested across their soles, yet miraculously, the collective spirit of the host never wavered.

Far from fracturing—with each passing sunrise, the sacred anthem echoing across the marching columns only seemed to gain volume and intensity.

With the thunderous waves of the anthem reverberating from all quadrants, Il-mok, positioned at the core of the advancing army, suddenly found himself gripped by a wave of skepticism.

‘…Is this development truly safe?’

During his prior campaigns, he had resorted to all manner of calculated psychological tactics to bring people into the fold, yet ever since setting foot in Shaanxi, he had not lifted a finger to convert anyone.

He had literally done nothing out of the ordinary, yet the total volume of dedicated worshippers was expanding exponentially. Il-mok found himself entirely at a loss to explain the phenomenon.

‘Well, seeing as their fighting spirit is peaking right before the clash, it serves our purposes.’

Shifting his focus away from the redundant existential worry, he looked up as the Regional Commandant rapidly approached his position.

“Left Envoy! We have received an urgent transmission from our forward reconnaissance scouts!”

“The host of the Central Army Command is actively routing toward our sector?”

“That is correct!”

Il-mok struggled to determine whether this news warranted relief or despair.

Regardless, the luxury of contemplation was no longer available.

“What is their current distance?”

“Estimating by the coordinates of the transmission point, should they press forward at high speed, they will arrive at the gates of An-gang by tomorrow’s dusk. Assuming they pace themselves to preserve troop stamina, expect their arrival around the midday hour two days from now.”

Il-mok clicked his tongue softly, harboring a faint shred of disappointment before issuing his directives.

“It pains me to deny the men a proper recovery window, but our hand is forced. Initiate the reinforcement of the defensive walls without a moment’s delay, and begin hauling our combat stockpiles onto the parapets.”

“As you command.”

The Regional Commandant offered a crisp military salute and darted off to coordinate with the mid-level commanding officers.

Moments later, Il-mok’s executive orders rippled out across the entire host. The infantrymen, who had barely settled down to catch their breath upon entering An-gang, scrambled to their feet and threw themselves into frantic labor.

The following afternoon.

A gargantuan military encampment established roughly thirty li away from the gates of An-gang.

Deep within the central command pavilion of the tightly packed two-hundred-thousand-man imperial host, Eunuch Bang—who occupied the high-ranking office of Inspecting Grand Eunuch for the Central Army Command—was steering a war council.

“Provided we break our lines and mobilize at dawn, our forces will make landfall at An-gang by midday.”

A deputy commander of the Central Army Command indicated a specific coordinate on the strategic chart included in his brief, prompting a nod of agreement from the Supreme Central Army Commander, who subsequently turned his attention toward Eunuch Bang.

“Have we received any updated correspondence from Grand Eunuch Tai?”

Grand Eunuch Tai’s personal proxy, Grand Eunuch Gong, who had departed from the capital city following explicit imperial decrees, had not yet arrived at the camp, leaving them without fresh intelligence.

Nevertheless, Eunuch Bang had remained in the direct service of Grand Eunuch Tai for a span of multiple decades, allowing him to easily deduce their patron’s desires.

“The ultimate objective of Grand Eunuch Tai centers on the total erasure of these insolent vagrants who dare masquerade as masters of martial arts. He intends to ensure that not a single soul who harbors defiance against the imperial court and the royal lineage is left drawing breath.”

Eunuch Bang reached out and jabbed his finger toward the territory of Hubei on the layout.

“To put it plainly, orchestrating the annihilation of not just the Demonic Cult filth but the entirety of the Central Plains martial community—that stands as the absolute priority of this campaign.”

Intelligence had already made its way to the high command of the Central Army Command indicating that a massive gathering of Central Plains martial practitioners had converged in that sector, actively engaging the coalition forces of the Demonic Cult.

“Hmm. In that case, our wisest course of action is to orchestrate a scenario of mutual annihilation between the Demonic Cult and the Central Plains factions—there is no logical basis for us to risk our own men in reckless frontal engagements.”

The Central Army Commander’s strategic input carried immense practical weight, yet Eunuch Bang shook his head in disagreement.

“An accurate assessment on the surface, but we must still secure tangible achievements to present to the court, must we not?”

An unmistakable glint of raw ambition surfaced within his eyes. Having previously stripped of his authority as the Eastern Depot Admiral following a historical administrative disaster, he harbored a ravenous hunger for military glory.

“Wiping out Shaanxi’s Demonic Cult presence down to the last man would ultimately play right into the hands of the Central Plains vagrants. What if we restrict our forward advance specifically to the capture of Xi’an?”

The Central Army Commander offered a counter-strategy to alter Eunuch Bang’s initial concept.

“Oh? Move our lines directly to that position, and subsequently lay total siege to the fortifications of Xi’an.”

“Precisely.”

Despite being a career military officer bound by sacred oaths to safeguard the borders of the empire, the Central Army Commander had consciously tethered his fortunes to Grand Eunuch Tai’s political circle.

At this stage of his career, he occupied one of the premier command positions available to imperial military men, yet his personal greed remained unfulfilled.

He coveted the absolute apex position within the entire military hierarchy.

To realize that goal, he required spectacular battlefield outcomes to satisfy Grand Eunuch Tai.

“Heh heh heh. It is our solemn duty to bring down ruin upon the Demonic Cult for misleading the common folk and instigating open treason, thereby restoring the absolute supremacy of His Majesty.”

An officer of the line and a court eunuch.

The pair of fundamentally incompatible individuals traded a pair of cunning, knowing smirks.

…

The following day around the midday hour.

A relentless cacophony of war drums and signaling horns erupted from the defensive parapets of An-gang.

The defending infantry moved with flawless coordination, packing themselves tightly along the battlements.

Certain detachments stood with bows drawn back, poised to rain arrows upon the approach, others locked their heavy shields together to absorb incoming blind volleys, while additional units readied long spears meant to hurl scaling forces back to the earth.

Gulp.

Across the crowded battlements, the distinct sound of anxious throats swallowing dryly rippled through the air.

These terrified men were the regular provincial troops native to Shaanxi Province.

Throughout their march toward An-gang, joining in the performance of the sacred anthem had gone a long way toward smoothing over their internal panic.

Even as they labored to patch up the masonry and prepare for the meat grinder of battle, that coping mechanism held true.

Be that as it may.

‘Are we truly expected to hold the line against a host of that magnitude?’

The very moment their eyes locked onto the advancing two-hundred-thousand-man imperial vanguard, any confidence they had managed to scrap together evaporated, replaced by a suffocating wave of terror.

Extending outward from a mere li beyond An-gang’s stone walls, an absolute ocean of armed humanity blanketed the entire landscape to the horizon.

The stone ramparts, which had previously felt incredibly towering and impenetrable, suddenly appeared pathetically small and fragile.

Il-mok himself felt entirely clear of personal dread, yet looking out at the sight, he was inwardly taken aback.

A mere two hundred thousand men create an environment this staggering—how unfathomable must those million-man armies detailed in historical records have truly appeared?

Yet, he kept his internal shock entirely masked. A commander showing even a flicker of hesitation could instantly shatter the fragile spirit of his men.

Fixing his gaze upon the approaching tide, Il-mok began to circulate his internal energy. Prior to the commencement of open slaughter, he intended to let loose a thunderous roar to elevate the spirits of his subordinates while dealing a psychological blow to the enemy.

Be that as it may.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The opposing vanguard, upon closing the distance to the base of the fortifications, displayed zero intention of pausing to establish a camp—they immediately surged forward in strict battle arrays to the rhythm of their booming war drums.

‘Absolute psychopaths.’

The leading regiments pushed ahead beneath a canopy of locked shields, with scaling ladders engineered for mounting walls and massive battering rams designed for fracturing iron gates visible between the gaps in their formation.

“Left Envoy.”

The anxious voice of the Regional Commandant sounded from his immediate flank. He was seeking authorization on the precise timing to unleash their archers and defensive artillery pieces.

Il-mok scrutinized the chaotic battlefield layout upon hearing the question.

‘Hmm. If I order a blanket bombardment right at this coordinate, our own defensive walls will be caught in the inferno as well.’

Weighing his tactical choices, a specific concept flashed through his mind, prompting him to issue a directive to the Regional Commandant.

“I shall personally deliver the opening indicator. I intend to make it highly visible. Once the melee commences, the operational command of this defense rests entirely in your hands.”

While the Regional Commandant blinked in utter bewilderment at the unorthodox order.

Whoosh.

Il-mok executed a high-tier lightness skill, stepping directly onto the empty air as he shot upward into the sky.

His path of travel was oriented toward the approaching enemy, yet it followed an incredibly unorthodox vector.

He was not pushing straight across the horizontal plane—his trajectory was angled sharply toward the heavens above.

For all the world, it appeared as though he were ascending directly into the higher realms.

Meanwhile.

Amid the hyper-focused infantrymen keeping watch over the approaching tide, a warrior suddenly roared at the top of his lungs:

“The Left Envoy is taking flight through the sky!”

At that completely absurd proclamation, a multitude of soldiers instinctively yanked their gazes away from the front and cast them toward the heavens.

“Waaah!!”

A portion of the host broke into ecstatic cheering at the immortal-like elegance of Il-mok’s movement, yet for others, their internal panic only intensified.

“Have all of our leaders completely lost their sanity….”

With an empire’s wrath charging down their throats, who in their right mind had the luxury to gawk at the sky when every eye should be glued to the approaching adversary?

Right at that moment.

The Left Envoy, having apparently ascended to an impossible altitude, brought his climb to a sudden halt and transitioned into a vertical dive toward the earth—heading straight for the epicenter of the charging imperial ranks.

Directly following his descent, another voice screamed out from the battlements:

“Radiance! It is the manifestation of Radiance!!”

Those veteran fighters who had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Il-mok through multiple prior conflicts instantly recognized the phenomenon.

The pair of distinct, contrasting energy spheres began coalescing within his downward-pointing palms.

The local Shaanxi military officials, straining every nerve to maintain their defensive focus, finally snapped their heads upward to perceive his form.

“Radiance?”

What kind of nonsensical jargon is that supposed to mean?

Simultaneously, a specific, unbelievable account that had recently leaked out of Xi’an flashed through their memories.

One of the most mythic achievements attributed to the Left Envoy.

• The moment he dictates ‘Let there be light,’ illumination manifests across existence.

  As the details of that dismissed fantasy echoed in their minds.

  The twin swirling spheres of concentrated qi within Il-mok’s grip fused together, transforming into a singular, colossal entity of energy.

• That illumination is a divine force meant to obliterate all corruption.

  As the plunging figure of Il-mok extended both palms downward in a driving motion, the gargantuan taiji sphere drifted downward with an almost leisurely, hypnotic pace toward the dense clusters of the imperial vanguard.

  In stark, reality-bending contrast to the frantic momentum of the two hundred thousand men sprinting forward, that tranquil, slow-moving spectacle magnetically drew the gaze of every single combatant present along the defensive line.

  Zaan zzzzt.

  Subsequently, resembling a massive gathering comprising thousands of predatory birds executing a coordinated dive.

  Pure illumination was brought forth into the physical world.