Chapter 328

Taihang Mountains, deep within.

Layer upon layer of peaks, forests deep as the sea.

This place has long been a hideout for bandits and a haunt of ferocious beasts, rarely visited by humans.

Now, as Great Chen and the False Song face off across the light curtain, this vast and perilous mountain range has become an even better breeding ground for certain shadowy activities.

An extremely concealed valley, its entrance hidden by natural vines and scattered rocks; without deliberate searching, it would be nearly impossible to find.

The atmosphere inside the valley is starkly different from the vibrant vitality outside.

The air is filled with a faint, mixed scent of blood and icy coldness—the distinctive aura of Nether Energy Crystal Ore.

Dozens of men in tattered black combat attire, their eyes numb and sinister, were silently busy.

They are the remnants of the Iron Crow Army who managed to escape after the Battle of Jinzhou.

Compared to the previously well-equipped, murderous-aura-ridden Iron Crow Army, these people now appear destitute and disheveled, their armor incomplete, many still bearing unhealed wounds, yet the bone-deep cold and lifelessness within them remain unchanged.

In the center of the valley, a clearing has been cleared out.

On the clearing, rather than pitching tents, they used a kind of dark-red powder, as if soaked in dried blood, mixed with powdered Nether Energy Crystal Ore, to trace an extremely complex and eerie sigil about three zhang in diameter.

The sigil's lines are twisted, full of ominous meaning; at its core, three fist-sized pieces of Nether Energy Crystal Ore, obviously superior to ordinary ones, emit a faint blue light, sustaining the sigil's basic operation.

A thin-built leader, his face half-covered by a black metal mask, stood at the edge of the sigil, his gaze fixed firmly on the space above it.

There, the light was slightly warped, as if behind a trembling sheet of water, one could faintly glimpse what seemed like a forest on the other side, but extremely blurry and unstable, as if it might shatter at any moment.

This is the makeshift, highly unstable 'passage' prototype they have barely maintained at great cost, using the secret art granted by the master of the Iron Crow Army, combined with a relatively weak spatial node in this place.

"Increase the energy output by a notch!" the masked leader rasped, his voice dry like sandpaper, "We must stabilize the passage a bit more! At least ensure messengers and a small amount of supplies can pass safely!"

Beside him, a subordinate in charge of operating the sigil, his face pale, replied with difficulty:

"Leader, the energy output is already near its limit! Forcibly raising it further risks the crystal ore failing to support it, causing the sigil to backlash, and all our prior work would be for naught!"

The masked leader snapped his head around; the lone eye visible beneath his mask flashed with a mad, obsessive light.

"All our prior work for nothing? If we fail to complete the task assigned by the Superior, we're just as good as dead!"

"The False Song's northern expedition has suffered setbacks; the Superior urgently needs to regain strength!"

"We must quickly establish a relatively stable passage to send more manpower and resources over, to assist Zhao Kuangyin and push forward the next node!"

"Otherwise, once Chen Wen's wings grow ever fuller and his Fortune Momentum ever heavier, we will have no day of comeback!"

"Execute the order!"

The subordinate, cowed by the madness in his leader's eye, dared not speak further; he gritted his teeth and carefully poured more energy into the three Nether Energy Crystal Ore at the sigil's core.

A low hum—

The sigil's light suddenly flared bright; the distorted light-shadow above seemed to clear a little, but immediately the entire sigil began to shudder violently, some of the dark-red powder at its edges even turning scorched black, while the three core crystals emitted a strained hum under the overload.

"Hold steady! Hold steady for me!" the masked leader growled, fists clenched.

At this perilous juncture, the light-shadow passage underwent a violent jolt; a black silhouette, as if spat out, stumbled out of the passage and collapsed inside the sigil.

It was a scout from the False Song's Ministry of Works, still bearing the spatial-tearing wounds from traversing the passage, his face ashen as paper.

He ignored his injuries, scrambling and crawling to the masked leader's side, and reported urgently:

"Sir! The Song ruler's northern advance has been halted at Taiyuan; army morale is low, supplies inadequate, and they have temporarily withdrawn thirty li to set up camp!"

"The Song ruler urges, asking when the passage will stabilize; they desperately need the Superior's support, especially… stable Nether Energy armaments!"

The masked leader's lone eye flashed with cold light as he seized the scout's collar in one grip.

"Zhao Kuangyin, that worthless fool! He commands a great army yet cannot even take a mirror-image of Northern Han!"

"Tell him the passage is being stabilized with all our might! Let him prepare to receive us!"

"Also, have him find a way to push forward the next node as soon as possible! Be it the 'Treaty of Chan-Yuan' or anything else—the Superior needs the power recovery that a successful node would bring!"

"Yes… yes!" the scout trembled from the killer aura emanating from him, answering repeatedly.

At that moment, a member of the Iron Crow Army remnants on outer perimeter rushed into the valley.

"Leader! We've spotted traces of the Great Chen's Justice Bureau scouts! They're active on the ridge twenty li to the east, seemingly searching for something!"

The masked leader's pupils contracted sharply.

"The Justice Bureau… Qian Gui's hound-nose is indeed sharp!"

He released the scout, glanced at the still-unstable passage light-shadow that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, and a flash of resolve crossed his eyes.

"We can't wait any longer!"

"Pass the order down—everyone get ready!"

"In three days, when the next spatial fluctuation eases, we will attempt a small-scale transfer at any cost!"

"Send over our three most stable crates of Nether Energy Arrow Clusters, plus five 'Nether Shades'!"

"At the same time, have Zhao Kuangyin's side prepare to receive and provide cover!"

"Leader, a forced transfer carries too great a risk… I'm afraid…" a subordinate beside him voiced concern.

"No fear!" the masked leader barked, cutting him off, "This is our last chance! We must establish this lifeline before the Justice Bureau pinpoints our exact location and plans!"

"For the Superior! For the Purification Accord!"

His last few words were almost shouted out, filled with a religious-like fervor.

The Iron Crow Army remnants in the valley, hearing this, all shuddered; their formerly numb eyes reignited with a twisted sense of duty, and they roared in unison:

"For the Superior! For the Purification Accord!"

Yet they did not know.

Almost at the very moment that the False Song scout passed through the unstable passage and reached the valley,

far out on the periphery of the Taihang Mountains, inside a hidden cave,

several Justice Bureau scouts clad in camouflage that blended with the surroundings, their aura sharp, were gathered around a peculiar compass-like device that continually flickered with a faint red light.

At the device's center, a needle trembled violently, stubbornly pointing toward the valley's direction.

"Found it!" The Scouts team captain, eyes flashing with sharp light, lowered his voice, brimming with uncontainable excitement.

"The source of the energy fluctuation is in that direction! Its intensity far surpasses previous ones, and it is accompanied by abnormal spatial disturbances!"

"Quick! Immediately send back the coordinates and discovery, by the fastest means, to the Bian Liang Commander's Office!"

"A big fish, finally about to surface!"

A covert struggle revolving around this not-yet-fully-formed "passage" has quietly opened its curtain in these silent Taihang deep mountains.

And Chen Wen and Qian Gui, far away in Bian Liang, are also about to receive this key intelligence that could potentially change the standoff situation.