Chapter 736: Northern Border Blood Fire

Happy Peak Pass.

The dilapidated rammed-earth border wall flickered in and out of sight in the morning mist.

Fifty paces inside the wall lay a tiny village of only thirty-odd households.

Wang Lao Han squatted at the door of his earthen house, gnawing on last night's leftover steamed bun with pickles.

His hearing was a bit off, and he didn't hear the hoofbeats coming from afar.

Until the dog next door at the Li household began to bark wildly.

Then chickens took flight.

Pigs squealed.

Wang Lao Han lifted his head.

He saw a black shape emerge in the mist.

Horses.

Many horses.

The riders on horseback wore black armor he had never seen before.

From the seams of the armor seeped a faint dark-blue glow.

Even stranger were the horses—their eyes were blue too, and the breath they exhaled condensed in the cold air into an eerie blue mist.

"Yuan... Yuan troops?"

Wang Lao Han trembled as he rose to his feet.

He wanted to shout, but his throat tightened.

The dark shape had already reached the village entrance.

Leading them was a general with a fleshy, brutal face, his forehead tattooed with a dark-green wolf totem.

A Min.

He reined in his horse and glanced at this pitiful little village.

Then he raised his hand.

"Slaughter."

He spat out the word in Jurchen.

Behind him, the three hundred Dark Energy Cavalry drew their blades at once.

As the blades left their scabbards, they emitted a hum—not the sound of metal scraping, but a sharp keen of some kind of energy vibration.

The Li family's gate was kicked in.

Bloodcurdling screams.

Then came dull thuds.

Like heavy objects slamming into flesh.

Wang Lao Han turned and ran for his house.

But he was old, his legs slow.

Just as he touched the doorframe, he felt a chill on his back.

He lowered his head.

A blade tip glowing with blue light protruded from his chest.

There was no intense pain.

Only a cold numbness that quickly spread through his body.

He opened his mouth, wanting to call his son's nickname.

But what came out was a mouthful of dark-blue blood.

The blood sprayed onto the earthen wall.

It hissed.

The wall coating quickly corroded, revealing the rammed earth inside.

The rammed earth itself turned a grayish blue.

As if it had mold.

As Wang Lao Han fell, he saw the cavalryman pull his blade free.

Not a drop of blood clung to the blade.

Only a layer of flowing blue light coated it.

The cavalryman didn't even glance at him, spurring his horse toward the next house.

The slaughter lasted only a quarter of an hour.

Thirty-odd households, 147 people—all dead.

All the victims died the same way as Wang Lao Han: their wounds bled dark-blue blood, and the blood was strongly corrosive.

A Min rode slowly through the village on his horse.

The cavalry behind him was dragging the corpses one by one to the threshing floor at the village center.

They piled them into a small mound.

"Sir, they're all here."

One cavalryman reported.

A Min dismounted and walked up to the pile of bodies.

He took from his bosom a palm-sized black crystal.

The crystal's surface was etched with fine lines, like blood vessels, like circuitry.

He placed the crystal stone on the forehead of the corpse atop the pile.

Then he stepped back three paces.

He knelt on one knee.

All the cavalry dismounted and knelt.

A Min began to chant—not in Jurchen, not in Chinese, but in a strange language with broken syllables and twisted tones.

As the chant went on, the crystal stone glowed.

Azure light surged out of the crystal stone like a living thing, spreading across the corpse pile.

Wherever it passed, the corpses' skin quickly turned gray and withered.

And the blue light grew ever brighter.

Finally, the entire corpse pile was swallowed by the blue light.

The light lasted about the time it takes to finish half a cup of tea.

Then it suddenly contracted.

It shrank back into the crystal stone.

The crystal stone's color changed from pure black to a dark blue.

Inside, it seemed as if liquid were flowing.

A Min rose and retrieved the crystal stone.

The corpse pile remained where it was.

But it had completely turned grayish-white, as if all moisture and something more essential had been drained out.

A touch, and it crumbled to powder.

A gust of wind blew, raising clouds of bone ash.

"Next village."

A Min swung onto his horse.

The three hundred cavalry followed in silence.

Hooves trod the village road.

They trod over bloodstains.

They trod over land that had turned bluish-gray.

Where they passed, plants withered, soil hardened, and wells turned blue.

Like a festering scar.

Stretching across the land.

In the afternoon, eighty li south of Happy Peak Pass lies Luwen Valley Pass.

The pass guard chief of a thousand, Zhao Binggang, having finished inspecting the city walls, was about to return to the barracks for a cup of hot tea.

His personal guards came rushing in, stumbling.

"Sir! People are coming from the north… from the north!"

"How many?"

"Thirty… thirty-something, all dressed as commoners, but…"

The guard's face turned ashen.

"But they're all wounded, and their wounds bleed blue blood!"

Zhao Bing sprang to his feet.

"Where are they?"

"Outside the gate; we didn't dare let them in, fearing plague…"

Zhao Bing quickly climbed onto the wall.

Outside the gate, indeed, thirty-something commoners knelt.

Old and young, all in ragged clothes, each bearing wounds.

At the front was a middle-aged man whose left arm had been cut off at the elbow, the stump crudely bandaged, but the blood seeping out was dark blue.

"Where do you come from?" Zhao Bing demanded sternly.

"From… Liu Family Ravine north of Happy Peak Pass…" the one-armed man rasped.

"What happened?"

"Demonic soldiers… soldiers whose eyes glow blue…"

The man's words were incoherent.

"They kill anyone they see… after killing, they pile up the corpses… and suck them with a black stone…"

"Their horses aren't right either… their eyes are blue too…"

"They're coming south… heading south…"

Before he could finish, the man suddenly began to cough violently.

What he coughed up was nothing but blue-tinged blood spittle.

Those behind him also began to cough up blood.

Someone collapsed.

He convulsed.

His skin quickly turned gray.

Within a dozen breaths, all thirty-something collapsed, silent.

The corpses, in full view of everyone, began to melt.

Turned into a viscous blue liquid, seeping into the soil.

On the gate wall lay a deathly silence.

Zhao Bing's face was dark as iron.

He turned around.

"Eight-hundred-li urgent, send word to the capital."

"Xifengkou has fallen; demon troops have entered the pass, and all who saw them contracted the plague and died."

"Please, Imperial Court, quickly send a large army……"

He paused.

"No."

"Please, Imperial Court, quickly send…… a mage."

The personal guards stared for a moment, then lowered their heads.

"Yes!"

Zhao Bing looked toward the outside of the pass again.

The ground where the civilians had fallen had turned a gray‑blue.

Not a blade of grass grew.

He felt a chill surge from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

This was no ordinary raid.

【138) This is……

This is…

Plague.

A walking plague.

The same day, at dusk.

Haozhou.

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) stood at the breach in the east city wall that had just been repaired.

The stones underfoot still bore fresh bloodstains.

Chang Yuchun lay on a stretcher, being lifted onto the wall.

The cloth over his eyes had been changed to clean gauze, but his complexion remained pallid.

"Did you hear that?"

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) did not turn back.

"Hear what?" Chang Yuchun asked in a hoarse voice.

"The wind from the north."

Chang Yuchun cocked his ear.

There really was wind.

Coming from the north.

It carried river mud, the stench of blood, and…… a strange sweet‑bloody odor.

"What is that?"

"I don't know."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) turned and looked at him.

"But our scouts, at noon today fifty li out, encountered refugees fleeing from the north."

"They said Xifengkou has fallen."

"The ones who broke the pass were not the Yuan army."

"It was a troop of cavalry whose eyes glowed blue."

Chang Yuchun fell silent.

After a long while, he asked in a low voice:

"Are they allied with the black‑robed ones?"

"I don't know."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) gazed toward the northern horizon.

There, the evening clouds were like blood.

"But those people said that wherever the cavalry's hooves trod, plants withered and wells turned blue."

"Like……"

He paused.

"Like the scene we saw in the fishing village and Li Family Village."

Chang Yuchun clenched his fists.

"Are they heading south?"

"The refugees said yes."

"Target?"

"I don't know."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) drew a deep breath.

"But no matter what——"

He looked toward the interior of the city.

The surviving soldiers were clearing the battlefield, gathering the bodies of their comrades.

Women and children walked out of the cellar, began to make a fire and cook.

Cooking smoke rose.

Covered in wounds, but alive.

"We must hold this city."

"Not just for ourselves."

Chang Yuchun struggled to sit up.

"Give me... three days."

"In three days, I can mount a horse."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) pressed him to lie down.

"Rest and heal your wounds."

"The battle is still long."

He turned and went down from the city.

He walked toward the government office.

There, Liu Ji had already spread out a map, marking the newly obtained intelligence.

"Chief."

Liu Ji lifted his head, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

"I have calculated it."

"If those cavalry travel eighty li a day, without rest, they can reach the north bank of the Huai River within fifteen days."

"If they... \"collect\" offerings along the way, they could be even faster."

"Offerings?" Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) frowned.

"According to refugee accounts, after the cavalry slaughter a village, they pile up the corpses and use some kind of ritual to extract the essence."

Liu Ji drew a line on the map.

From Xifeng Pass, heading south.

"If they truly march this way——"

He paused.

"All living beings along the way will become fodder."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) stared at that line.

One end of the line is Xifeng Pass.

The other end……

Points toward the Huai River.

Points toward Haozhou.

"How much time do we have?"

"At most twenty days."

Liu Ji put down his brush.

"Within twenty days, we must train a force capable of directly resisting the dark-energy cavalry."

"Or……"

He looked toward Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang).

"Find a way to restrain them."

"Find a reason that forces them to stop."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) remained silent.

He recalled the lump of 'strange iron' in his pocket.

He recalled those fragments capable of purifying pollution.

But this is not enough.

Far from enough.

"Issue the order."

He spoke, his voice low.

"Starting tomorrow, all the city's artisans will devote themselves to forging weapons of strange iron."

"Recruit all who can ride and dare to fight, the able-bodied youth, to form a new cavalry unit."

"The training plan will be devised by Chang Yuchun; he will dictate, and you will record."

"Yes."

Liu Ji quickly noted it down.

"Moreover."

Zhu Yue (Zhu Yuanzhang) looked toward the north.

"Send someone toward White River Town."

"I need to know, those black-robed people, and this newly emerged cavalry——"

"Exactly what their relationship is."

The night grew deeper.

Inside the government office, lights blazed.

But to the north.

A Min's three hundred dark-energy cavalry had already slaughtered the third village.

The blue light inside the crystal stone grew a bit stronger.

He rode his horse and stood on the ash pile formed from corpses, gazing southward.

He gazed at the faint, scattered lights visible in the darkness.

That was human settlement.

It was life.

It was also……

An offering.

He licked his lips.

"Continue."

The sound of hooves rose again.

Southward.

Southward.