Chapter 436

Setting out from Golden Radiance to Great Permissive Valley, the King, despite the three‑hundred‑li distance, stubbornly took four days, giving everyone ample time to adjust to the altitude increase.

Based on the unit's warhorse allocation, the King very cautiously slowed their speed to several times less than the distance light cavalry could travel in a day.

He also discovered the advantage of being few in number: they ate little, were easy to satisfy, and a casual raid sufficed.

On the nomads' pastures, flocks of sheep are always encountered, instantly solving half of the king's food problem. He has no qualms about plundering foreign peoples—the nomads' able-bodied are all soldiers, mounting up as cavalry at the first sign of conflict, with no notion of a professional army; when the king seizes their sheep, he feels no guilt and holds nothing back.

With the king around, securing drinking water is easy—he simply flicks a spring onto the grass and leaves it there; when they break camp he retrieves it from the map. Quite the resourceful fellow.

The troops couldn't stop praising the Shangdang region—at the very least, its water and grass are truly lush, its water resources abundant.

Every population encountered en route was kept in check; the king leisurely crossed the Hehuang valley and reached the core region where the Shangdang Qiang were entrenched. Before the formal assault he paused to rest for a night—staying up late makes altitude sickness likely.

Unlike previous campaigns, the terrain advantage of the Shangdang core area is starkly evident.

The eastern Kunlun foothills and several nameless ranges encircle the Dayin valley; once battle is joined, the Qiang's terrain advantage is overwhelming—easy to defend, hard to attack, allowing them to rely on the valley to resist the assault.

With over four hundred men, there wasn't a single veteran experienced in this kind of terrain warfare. 'Wei Ke, you take charge of fifty personal guards, plus Wei Shen and Xue Ming, Xue Chao also under you; the Snow Cavalry remains under the deputy commander...' Though few, each detail was carried out in order.

The king led a bunch of youths to study tactics there; the Qiang's oath to fight to the death is fine, but we fear they'll just turn and flee—this valley is concealable, ideal for guerrilla warfare, so their mere four-hundred-strong force would instantly become their greatest weakness.

After some discussion, they could only choose a swift, decisive blow—strike before they have time to react.

"No matter how chaotic it gets, we must first seize the Shangdang leader—Ling Yin will handle that."

Wei Shen, seeing everyone's solemn faces, said, "At worst we'll surround them and set them ablaze! Who wants to play hide-and-seek with them?"

Xue Ming nodded as well, "It's not out of the question..."

The king, at a loss, told them to look at the map: "This is the Kunlun foothills, linked to Kunlun itself; the weather is bone‑dry—do you really want to set Kunlun on fire?"

"Burn it, then burn it—grass and trees will grow back next year!" The king couldn't be bothered to lecture these two illiterates on how burning Kunlun would affect the local climate and species; they wouldn't understand anyway. "It's not impossible—go dig a firebreak tonight."

Those two are screwed this time—digging a firebreak is no job for four hundred men!

The king, lost in thought, glanced up and saw Bai Ze give him a look that seemed to say he was an idiot...

"What do you want to say?"

Bai Ze couldn't be bothered to watch him act foolish, lazily lifted his paw and pointed at Zhetian.

The king felt he'd had another epiphany: "Ah! Exactly—let Zhetian extinguish the fire!" How could anyone forget Lord Zhetian's Ice-Seal Earth skill!

Bai Ze almost rolled his eyes—did he actually want to start a fire?

"No matter how the Qiang hide, they cannot escape the keen eyes of the Heavenly Rolling Cloud Eagle." It will just take a little time, stretching the front line.

The king: ……

The room fell silent; everyone else was stunned by the divine beast speaking again and again, while the king reflected that he felt as if his brain had been baked by the sun……

When Shangdang chieftain Dian Liang learned that cavalry were assaulting the Dayin valley, the first three suspects that flashed in his mind were not the northern border; he wondered whether this time it was the Bai Ma or the Dang Xiang.

"Chieftain, you'd better steer clear! Though the cavalry that appear are few, they come with fierce momentum; they're clearly not Qiang, and you can't really tell where they're from, but they're incredibly fierce—impossible to stop!"

"Not Qiang? Could it possibly be Jin people?!"

Dian Liang refused to believe it, immediately mustering his men to meet the enemy—he had no intention of fleeing.

The king wasn't having it easy; their few numbers made the opposing Qiang seem endless to kill.

To catch the enemy off guard, they actually charged with great ferocity. He worried that if the Shangdang chieftain and his nobles were too perceptive and spotted a sign, they'd react and flee immediately. Once they escaped into Kunlun, tracking them down would become a hassle.

If we don't take them all down, we'll just be waiting for them to rise again.

Even Zhetian joined the fight; Bai Ze didn't strike, but he kept watch over the battlefield, ready to step in and rescue his own if necessary.

The Qiang kept streaming forward to block the cavalry's advance; the front half of the king's Shuò had lost its original color.

Shangdang had no royal city; they followed water and grass, with no permanent settlements—Dayin valley was merely a temporary mustering ground they'd used for years. Over time they built a stone‑earth defensive fort there, and the Shangdang chieftain took up residence in its central sector.

The king, with over four hundred men, pressed forward—slaying gods and meeting gods—right up to the fort's walls, where Dian Liang finally appeared.

As the present chieftain, Dian Liang was one of the few who could read Jin script, and he saw the king's royal banner behind him.

"Halt! Everyone, halt! Northern border? Jin people?! Who has the gall of a bear's heart and a leopard's daring to set foot in Dayin valley?!"

The king strode past the front guards, stepped to the front rank, and declared in a loud voice: "I am Bai Li Jing of the Northern Border."

Dian Liang snorted coldly: "Why would a Bai Li fief‑lord invade my Shangdang? He's still just a brat!"

"You're the Shangdang chieftain? To hear you say 'invasion' is laughable! I only just learned that Jinhui City belongs to me; for years it's been occupied by Shangdang, and most of Jinhui's able‑bodied men have been seized and enslaved by Shangdang. You still have the nerve to ask why I've come to Shangdang Qiang? You haven't even bothered to find out who I am—you just know I spend my days herding sheep in this broken mountain ravine—yet you dare to move against my city?!"

Dian Liang was first stunned by the tirade, then burst out laughing: "Hahaha! What an arrogant brat! Bringing just a few remnants to come die in Shangdang—hahaha!"

"Wow~, your laugh is really open‑hearted—I really like it. Ling Yin, keep this one alive; drag him back to farm together with Wan Niu." Death is nothing; the king's happiness is what counts.

He felt the chieftain had taken the bait—the more he's disparaged, the better.

Ling Yin gave a calm nod: "Yes!"

Dian Liang stopped laughing and said, "Arrogant!"

The king nodded, acknowledging it.

"Arrogance—I'll show you—" he lifted the Sun‑Shooting Bow once more: "Today we'll wipe out Shangdang; everyone gets a hundred gold!"

Beside him, Wei Shen drew a deep breath: "Today we're going all out!"

"A hundred gold—a thousand taels—paying it out will surely bankrupt the king!" He glanced at the heaps of broken stone behind the Qiang; could this junk be monetized? What a miserable king!

Hearing that, the cavalry's adrenaline, already surging from fighting their way here, spiked even higher. Buying a house in Youzhou is no longer a dream!

"Kill!"

"Kill!!"

"Kill!!!"

The cries of slaughter shook the heavens; the battle temporarily shifted to the king's favored positional fight—just hack away wildly.

The opposing Qiang quickly noticed something uncanny about these cavalry; they had been guarding against the rear main force, but when the battle began no reinforcements arrived from the opposite side, and just these few hundred men shattered their formation.

Most uncanny of all is their armor—it seems impervious to blades and spears! But how could that be? Is there really such a treasure in the world?!

There was no time to think too much, because they were falling one after another, and in the moment of falling there was bewilderment and fear. How could these be the Jin people, who are not good at war?

Even the Great King himself was giving his all; he knew he wouldn't get altitude sickness, and he wanted to bear as much of the enemy's burden as possible. Only by truly achieving the feat of one against a hundred, or even a thousand, did they have a chance to win. The Owl Cavalry and Snow Cavalry are also men; their stamina will eventually run out.

Over there, Ling Yin cleared away some obstacles ahead and rushed straight toward Dian Liang. Seeing those few moves, Dian Liang felt only that something was wrong, and instinctively wanted to flee, but his timidity never got a chance to turn into action.

Ling Yin came face to face with him; before he could even see the opponent's move clearly, one arm and one leg were already pierced through by the opponent's two swords. Dian Liang's eyes finally showed deep fear, but it was already too late—everything was over.

Ling Yin picked him up and hurled him toward the White Marsh. The White Marsh feared that Dian Liang would be killed outright if he fell, so, out of conscience, it raised a paw to block him. After the force was dissipated and the person fell again, it calmly placed a paw on him…

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Help! Why is there no one lately? The traffic is terrible, terrible! Weren't we supposed to have lots of people during summer break? Where are they? Did they all go to short dramas?? Save the poor soul who stays up late typing, please! ＼(`Δ')／

I'm going to demand a reverse update!

One, give the work a five-star rating【last page of the text】

Two, boost the ranking and generate electricity! 【Click the red box at the end of the text to generate electricity】＼（￣︶￣／