Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 1155 – The Elderly Youth

The spear looked ordinary and unremarkable, even more so than Xiao Zhang’s own spear.

But a spear that could injure Black Robe could never be ordinary.

This was the number one weapon on the Tier of Legendary Weapons, Emperor Taizong’s personal weapon, the Frost God Spear.

“Everything is futile. Your defeat is inevitable.”

Leaving behind her cold and gloomy words, Black Robe transformed into a black fog that dispersed amongst the chaos of the battlefield.

Xiao Zhang wanted to pursue, but his body swayed and he almost fell to the ground.

It seemed like his attempt to attack Xuelao City on his kite was real, and the heavy injuries he had sustained were also real.

Though no one knew when Shang Xingzhou had brought him onto his carriage.

“A kite for ten years with this spear—do you think the exchange is worth it?”

“Of course it’s worth it.”

Xiao Zhang caressed the spear, an excited look on his face.

Every spear user dreamed of personally holding the Frost God Spear, and he was no exception.

Shang Xingzhou shook his head.

In his view, he had cast pearls before swine.

In truth, he had never felt like anyone of the current era was worthy of holding the weapon left behind by Emperor Taizong.

But it was necessary to defeat the demons, and Xiao Zhang was the strongest spear user, so he had reluctantly allowed him to use it.

Xiao Zhang raised his head and looked in the direction that Black Robe had vanished, warily saying, “I feel like the matter is not this simple.”

He had been hiding in the carriage for days, silently accumulating energy. Even his preparations and the might of the Frost God Spear were still not sufficient to kill Black Robe. This was related to the injuries he had sustained, and it was also because Black Robe was too strong. Yet it was possible that Black Robe had not been using her full strength.

“The demons truly want me to die, even if it’s just a few weeks earlier, but this is not so important that they would leave the city and start the final battle early.”

Shang Xingzhou was very calm as he spoke.

His gaze saw farther than Xiao Zhang’s, or perhaps penetrated farther.

The demons had started the final battle early in order to cause chaos on the plains. The chaos was meant to conceal their true intentions, which now appeared to be assassinating him. But could the demons have made even more plans in advance? For instance, if their assassination failed, this chaos would also serve to distract the humans.

If this really was the case, what was the Demon race’s true killing move?

Shang Xingzhou turned to the south.

……

……

For a war, the most important thing was naturally logistics.

And the most important things in logistics were rations and fodder.

If weapons were destroyed, one could rely on the body to fight. If Sacred Light crossbow bolts ran out, one could just use regular arrows. In the most arduous of moments, courage and will would often play an extremely crucial role, but if there were no rations or fodder, how could one fight if the body was starved of strength? If the Dragonhorses could no longer move, how could the army move? And there would certainly be no charge.

The Great Zhou Dynasty placed extreme importance on logistics, and for this war in particular, they had been preparing the necessary resources for ten full years. If one took into account the seventeen strongholds and the granaries in the northern reaches of Tianliang County, one could even say that the preparations had stretched back to the era of the Tianhai Divine Empress and Emperor Xian. There were even some strategies that had been decided on in Emperor Taizong’s era.

Gathering and preparing rations and fodder was an exceptionally difficult task, and it was even more dangerous and difficult to transport them. This task grew even more difficult as the war continued. With each successive victory, more and more of the supply line extended into demon territory, increasing the chances of disruption and even large-scale raids.

For the sake of safety and efficacy, the transportation network utilized by the human armies grew larger and larger, and more and more cultivators began to accompany the convoys. The most important convoys would even be escorted by an expert of the Divine Domain. Mao Qiuyu had traveled several times between the north and south.

The war had now entered its ending phase, and Mao Qiuyu had been heavily injured and returned to Mount Han to recover. Huai Ren, the Mount Li Sect Master, and the Prince of Xiang lacked any more strength to fight. Wang Po, on the other hand, was tasked with watching the Demon Commander, and even though he had not fully recovered, he could not take one step away from Xuelao City, so he had no energy to devote to this matter. Fortunately, the demons were in an even worse situation, having already lost three experts of the Divine Domain since the start of the war. Moreover, important figures like the Demon Commander, Black Robe, and the Second Demon General could not leave Xuelao City, so the situation was still safer than it was before.

“The Ministry of Revenue is taking the lead on the matters of the Imperial Court, and it’s mostly the Tang clan and the Mutuo clan that are providing the goods from the south, so I don’t understand why the Qiushan clan is in such a rush.”

The logistics official frowned as he looked at the carriage at the front of the convoy.

The Qiushan clan head and its legendary Guardian who was only half a step from the Divine Domain were in that carriage, putting a massive pressure on the entire convoy.

A subordinate officer said, “Everyone knows that the Qiushan clan head is obsessed with his son. That he’s willing to put in so much effort almost certainly has to do with Qiushan Jun.”

The logistics official recalled that rumor and teased, “So what he really wants is to get back some face for Mount Li.”

He was referring to that story from the northern expedition of many years ago.

The Mount Li Sword Sect disciples in charge of transporting supplies ended up being late for some reason and were almost all executed by Jin Yulu, who was impervious to any pleas for mercy.

In the end, that generation’s Mount Li Sword Sect Master used the manual of the Mount Li Sword Style to convince the White Emperor to appear, preserving the lives of Xiao Songgong and a few other disciples.

As for Xiao Songgong being punished after Mount Li’s internal strife, that was another matter.

To the Mount Li Sword Sect, this story was the sole stain on their reputation in the minds of the common people, as long as one did not count Su Li.

At the moment, the Mount Li Sword Sect was being managed by Qiushan Jun, and this rather taciturn son of the true Dragon naturally hoped to use this war to wipe away that stain. Perhaps it was for this very reason that the Qiushan clan was so proactive, acceding to every request of the Imperial Court and even volunteering to join the troops in the north.

“It’s not solely about face.”

The subordinate officer said, “I heard Lord Jin Yulu say that if this matter was done well, he would return the Mount Li Sword Style manual to Mount Li after the war concluded.”

The logistics official froze, and then he said with a hint of envy, “That’s just a little too simple.”

He wouldn’t believe it if anyone said this, but since Jin Yulu had said these words, he had to believe them.

Since the start of the war, the demi-human army had done nothing but march in circles in the plains of Cong Province, never once going to the battlefield. Both the people and court of the Great Zhou were furious and fuming with criticism, but no one had any complaints about Jin Yulu, much less any doubts.

This was in part due to the fame he had achieved in the campaigns from long ago, and it was also because he had played an extremely important role in this war as well.

Everything related to the logistics of the army was completely under Jin Yulu’s purview, every detail, whether big or small, decided completely by his words.

The Emperor of the Great Zhou and the Pope had granted him this special authority and trust, but they had also placed a frightening pressure on his shoulders.

To help him alleviate this pressure, he had several hundred officers and old officials from the Ministries of the Army and Revenue, accountants from the Tang clan, secretaries specializing in money and fodder from the Wu clan, two manservants he had brought with him from White Emperor City, and his appointed deputy, Tang Thirty-Six. All these were his subordinates.

By now, many of those old officials and accountants had been taken out of action by illness while Tang Thirty-Six’s unrelenting fever had confined him to Mount Han.

Jin Yulu was so thin that he was nothing but bones, but he still persisted.

He had won the reverence of the entire army.

One part of reverence was fear.

The logistics official gazed at the distant mountain range looming out of the plains. His body trembled as he inwardly hoped that nothing would go wrong.

The supply wagons of this convoy could guarantee that the soldiers on the front lines would have enough rations and fodder for twenty days. It consisted of thirty thousand peasant laborers and several thousand large wagons. From head to tail, it extended for several dozen li and presented quite the breathtaking sight. It was also being escorted by three thousand cavalry and the experts of the Qiushan clan, so there was no need to worry about attacks from scattered demon soldiers, and there was certainly no danger from bandits. But the road was long and no one knew what one might encounter. If they were even late by one day, even if they were not given the death penalty, the truncheon of martial law was also not easy to endure.

At this moment, a general rode his horse to the carriage of the Qiushan clan head and whispered a few words into it. After a while, the deep voice of the Qiushan clan head came from the carriage, soon followed by shout after shout from the surroundings. The stewards and guards of the Qiushan clan grew somber and the convoy began to advance even faster. The galloping of hooves sounded like a downpour as the cavalry swiftly rode past the supply wagons and into the distant plains. While scouting, they also worked to clear the road.

“It seems like we’ll pass through Nuorilang before nightfall.”

The logistics officer raised his horse whip and pointed at the distant mountain range, adding, “Then we’ll be able to see Starstrewn Gorge tomorrow.”

……

……

Looking from the plains, it appeared like a mountain range towering into the sky.

But from the sky, it looked like five mountain ranges forming a series of barriers across the plains.

Nuorilang was the highest peak of these mountain ranges, so both demons and humans were in the habit of using Nuorilang to refer to the entire mountain range.

No one could have expected that in a certain mountain of the western foothills, a thousand-some wolf cavalry were hiding.

A fishy scent rose from the open mouths of the giant wolves while the eyes of the thin demon soldiers burned with a dark green light.

But both these giant wolves famed for being hard to tame and these demon soldiers maintained absolute silence, not making a single sound.

The leader of the wolf cavalry looked very young, his face rather childish. He seemed to still be a teenager.

But his eyes were extremely old, as if they had seen everything in the world and experienced countless varieties of pain.

“Burn all of their provisions.”

He looked to the wolf cavalry and calmly finished, “And then kill them in the final charge.”