Chapter 67: Three Immortal Deeds

Fang Hetong called in several men to move the three crates of military supplies into the storage depot, specifically instructing them to meticulously inventory and record everything, and only sat beside Wei Yuan after all arrangements were complete.

Fang Hetong fell silent for a moment, then sighed and said: “To be honest, this is also my fault. A few months ago, when the Liao barbarians invaded, I threw down my pen and took up arms out of righteous fervor—but when I arrived at Quyang County, I discovered the Assistant Regional Commander was embezzling troop rations, and the County Magistrate was covering for him. In peacetime, embezzlement might be tolerable, but now that foreign tribes have breached our borders and our frontier troops are understrength, who suffers most but the common people? Enraged, I submitted a memorial to the Provincial Governor, and also impeached the County Magistrate.”

“But I never expected the Provincial Governor to be in cahoots with them—my letter vanished without a trace, while retaliation from the County Magistrate and Assistant Regional Commander came swiftly. At that time, I rallied a few hundred patriots to defend our homes, but the Assistant Regional Commander refused to recognize them as civilian defenders, and the county issued not a single coin or grain. I had to subsidize their rations myself. But what family wealth did I have? Even after selling my land and property, I had little more than a few taels of silver. Only the support of my fellow students from the academy kept us barely afloat—until we finally ran out of food. If you hadn’t arrived, Wei Brother, I truly didn’t know what to do.”

“You are older, Senior Fang—I cannot accept such a title from you.”

“I am merely a few years your senior; then I dare call you Younger Brother.”

“Please continue, Senior Fang.”

Fang Hetong let out a long sigh and said: “I’ve often thought—if it weren’t for me, but someone else who had rallied the defenders, those brothers outside might have received official recognition long ago, and not died fighting the Liao barbarians while their families starved at home.”

Wei Yuan was unfamiliar with the political situation of the Western Jin, and his mission here was solely to guard the border; the Tai Chu Palace had no intention of interfering in Western Jin governance, so he did not know how to handle these bureaucratic matters. But if the government would not act, then the Tai Chu Palace would.

Each of the two crates contained a thousand pieces of dried meat, enough to feed these two hundred soldiers for ten days. But the Tai Chu Palace’s standard for soldiers required completed Muscle Casting, and such individuals consumed far more than ordinary people. For the villagers of Shayang, who had only just begun Body Casting, half a piece per day sufficed. For untrained commoners, one piece lasted four days.

One crate of dried meat cost one immortal silver tael in the Tai Chu Palace. In other words, a beginner disciple’s monthly stipend could sustain over a thousand ordinary people for more than a month—even by military rations. If exchanged for coarse rice, it would feed them for half a year. Wei Yuan could support these people entirely on his own monthly stipend.

Fang Hetong rallied himself and said: “I was just momentarily discouraged, venting a few complaints—Younger Brother need not take it to heart. You’ve just arrived; let me first update you on the battle situation.”

The two approached the map. Fang Hetong said: “Our direct enemy is the A Gulah tribe of the Liao barbarians. A Gulah is a mid-sized tribe among the Liao, yet still commands over a hundred thousand mounted archers. A few months ago, A Gulah captured the last three counties of Pingning Prefecture, annexing the entire region—now Bianning and Ganning Prefectures have become the front lines. Quyang County is the poorest in the entire prefecture, and the Liao have little interest here; their main forces are concentrated in Ganning. Here, only scattered detachments operate, mostly coming from the north and northwest. I suspect their encampments lie in these locations.”

Fang Hetong pointed to several spots along the map’s edge: “Based on the earth veins, these places likely harbor underground water sources—natural sites for encampments. The Liao are experts at locating water; they would never miss these spots.”

Fang Hetong added: “The Liao rely on cavalry, moving swiftly like the wind. To restrict their mobility, besides raising the walls, I dug numerous pits—one foot wide and two feet deep—outside the walls to prevent them from charging at full speed. But they sometimes launch night raids, which is extremely troublesome. Many men cannot see clearly at night, so I must personally stand guard to ensure safety.”

Fang Hetong described several other defensive measures, the most important being three powerful crossbows borrowed from the academy, each devastating within a hundred zhang. He also possessed a magical longbow capable of shooting three hundred zhang. With his archery alone, he held his own against Liao cavalry.

Fang Hetong gathered all the elderly, weak, women, and children from the three villages and relocated them to two villages behind. Initially, small Liao cavalry units, seeing Shayang’s strong defenses, tried bypassing it to attack the rear villages. But Fang Hetong’s magical longbow covered every path leading to those two villages. Over a dozen Liao riders were shot dead during their detours; since then, they have never dared to bypass Shayang.

Fang Hetong understood the Northern Liao intimately, his defenses were well-planned, and with everyone fighting to protect their homes and kin, he managed to hold off the Northern Liao for three full months with only a few hundred untrained peasants, despite having no food or pay.

Wei Yuan listened and held deep admiration for Fang Hetong. Fang had already forged his Dao Foundation, having entered the immortal path—yet he endured hunger and cold, leading a band of peasants against foreign invaders, even exhausting his personal wealth, and never yielded despite relentless suppression and harassment by the powerful. Such integrity was rare.

“Wei Younger Brother, may we exchange insights on our Dao Foundations and favored techniques? That way, on the battlefield, we can understand each other’s strengths and coordinate better,” Fang Hetong proposed. It was a natural suggestion; Wei Yuan naturally agreed.

Seeing Wei Yuan nod, Fang Hetong said: “I am of dull talent; after over twenty years of diligent cultivation, I have barely completed Muscle Casting, and had no hope of forming a Dao Foundation. Then one day, while reading the Three Immortal Deeds of the Sages, I had a sudden awakening—and thus formed my Dao Foundation. My Dao Foundation is a book, containing three essays: one titled ‘Establishing Words,’ another ‘Establishing Merit.’”

Before Wei Yuan’s eyes appeared a book, its binding ancient, stitched with thread. Seeing this book, Wei Yuan was startled—he had not seen a book made of ordinary paper in a long time. Within the Tai Chu Palace, all books were jade paper; most “books” were single sheets read with spiritual sense. Important texts used only three jade sheets: cover, content, back.

A single jade sheet could hold a million characters; high-quality jade paper could even retain a trace of Dao resonance. Therefore, all cultivation methods of the Tai Chu Palace were inscribed on jade paper, often infused with the author’s personal insights, greatly aiding readers’ understanding. The highest-grade jade paper could even carry the enlightenment of a True Lord—but it required ten thousand ordinary jade sheets to forge just one such sheet, so the Tai Chu Palace possessed very few, all reserved for recording the path to transcendence.

Fang Hetong’s book was not thick, about a finger’s width, roughly a hundred pages. Though it was a Dao Foundation, Dao Foundations manifest within the heart—meaning in Fang Hetong’s mind, a book must look like this.

“Why not use jade paper?” Wei Yuan asked. This was not disdain for ordinary paper, but as a Dao Foundation, jade paper and ordinary paper were not even comparable—they could grant countless supernatural qualities. A book that carries the Dao is no ordinary object. Had Fang Hetong’s Dao Foundation been a jade paper book, it might already be Earth-grade.

Fang Hetong sighed helplessly: “Our Bai Feng Academy is a small, humble sect—we cannot compare with immortal sects. Aside from a few inherited cultivation methods, all our texts are on ordinary paper. Since entering the academy, I’ve copied texts and practiced calligraphy on ordinary paper, read only ordinary paper. Even ordinary paper is scarce. So my Dao Foundation took this form.”

“I see. What are the functions of these three essays?” Wei Yuan smoothly shifted the topic.

Fang Hetong’s spirits lifted immediately, and he explained in detail.

“Establishing Words” allows Fang Hetong to achieve twice the results when teaching, instructing, and resolving doubts. “Teaching the Dao” here means not only reading texts, but also enhancing disciples’ cultivation. For these past months, Fang Hetong spent days leading everyone in fortifying defenses and farming, then taught them reading and writing at night, followed by an hour of Body Casting before sleep. These men were originally illiterate peasants; now, the least literate recognize over a hundred characters, the most over five hundred, and all have made progress in Body Casting. Achieving such progress while barely fed is no small feat.

“Establishing Merit,” in its original sense, means achieving great deeds; in Fang Hetong’s Dao Foundation, it temporarily enhances the abilities of those around him. Under this effect, these former peasants can perform at the level of fully cast Muscle, matching the combat capability of qualified frontier soldiers. Though the duration is brief, its battlefield impact can be decisive. It is precisely this essay that has repeatedly turned certain defeat into victory, allowing a band of peasants to hold back the fierce Liao barbarians for months.

Fang Hetong did not mention the third essay, and Wei Yuan did not ask. They had only just met; it was natural for Fang to withhold some things.

When it was Wei Yuan’s turn, he calmly said he had only reached peak Muscle Casting and had not yet formed a Dao Foundation. As for his favored techniques, he had never thought about it—he could do a little of everything.

Wei Yuan’s physical strength was seven or eight times that of his peers; his spiritual power exceeded theirs by over tenfold. At this stage, he could freely use any Dao technique, so he could not claim any particular specialty.

Fang Hetong did not look down on Wei Yuan for lacking a Dao Foundation. Disciples of immortal sects and those from small sects lived in entirely different worlds; crossing ranks in battle was commonplace. Even if an immortal sect disciple had a mediocre Dao Foundation, their magic treasures and techniques could still crush those of small sects.

Of course, the more terrifying threat was not the disciple himself, but his teachers and fellow sect members. If you struck down one immortal sect disciple with a Dao Foundation, you might have to fight your way up the entire hierarchy—until you faced a Yu Jing True Lord. Unlike Bai Feng Academy, which could barely muster a single Law Body—and even that one was the weakest in its rank, forced to compromise everywhere.

After exchanging insights on Dao techniques, Fang Hetong further discussed defensive systems with Wei Yuan.

Fang Hetong first explained local defenses. The Northern Liao’s large-scale southern advance could not possibly be stopped by mere garrison troops and civilian defenders. The main defensive force in Quyang County was actually a force of fifteen hundred elite frontier soldiers stationed at a military stronghold thirty li away, commanded by Assistant Regional Commander Liao Jingwu, who had forged his Dao Foundation over twenty years ago and was rumored to still have a slim chance of advancing further.

The military stronghold was the core of northern defense for the Great Tang. Armies fortified key positions with strongholds, each equipped with massive bed crossbows—only Dao Foundation cultivators could fire them, each arrow capable of killing a Dao Foundation cultivator. Each stronghold also had a cavalry unit: against large enemy forces, they held the stronghold; against small raiding parties, they sent out cavalry to annihilate them. These fortified strongholds, each garrisoned with elite troops, formed defensive nodes across hundreds of li, interwoven with county towns and villages into a comprehensive defense network.

Wei Yuan immediately understood: the key figure overseeing local defense was Assistant Regional Commander Liao Jingwu, who held authority over troop deployment, military supply allocation, and control of civilian defenders.

Yet the very man Fang Hetong had petitioned the Provincial Governor to impeach for embezzlement was this same Liao Assistant Regional Commander.

(End of Chapter)