Dragon Canon

Beyond the heavens, the towering will fell silent for a moment. Several other towering wills withdrew their gazes and turned their attentions elsewhere.

By this time, Qingming’s forces had already finished assembling and were marching toward the southwest. After Wei Yuan flew to join the troops, the entire army picked up speed and raced toward Mount Eshan.

Mount Eshan lay over 10,000 li from Qingming, situated at the border between the Mountain Dwellers and the Shamans. Of the 20,000 troops Wei Yuan had mustered for this expedition, only 5,000 were regular cavalry from Dragon Wings, while the rest were mounted infantry. Bolstered by the power of the Great Realm, the army marched at an extraordinary pace, covering several thousand li a day. They reached the outskirts of Mount Eshan after three days.

Mount Eshan was a small, gently rolling hill range. Lee Zhi had been surrounded on a small hill there and had been holding his ground for several days. Fortunately, the area was plagued by continuous rain and thick with trees, so there was no shortage of water or materials for fortifications. Lee Zhi had relied on his fortifications to hold his ground and succeeded.

This was Wei Yuan’s first time facing the Mountain Dwellers in battle, so he deployed all his elite troops and dared not take the situation lightly. When they were 100 li from Mount Eshan, he slowed the march and spread out his forces, with scouting cavalry dispatched to both flanks to search the way ahead.

Maybe it was because Wei Yuan had arrived too quickly, or perhaps the Mountain Dwellers were primarily on guard against reinforcements from the realm of Zhenshan and the State of Zhao, there were no ambushes in Wei Yuan’s direction. As a result, he was able to advance directly to the Mountain Dwellers’ main camp.

The sudden appearance of Wei Yuan’s army threw the Mountain Dwellers into a state of panic. A series of shrill whistles rang out across the encampment, and then large groups of Mountain Dwellers rushed out, forming battle lines outside the camp.

At the central command, Wei Yuan gazed into the distance. A faint mist was drifting over the undulating hills. Above the Mountain Dweller’s encampment, a gray-green qi enveloped a small hill in the center, gradually eroding the army aura emanating from it.

The small hill wasn’t high, and a makeshift fort had been built upon it. Although it had been besieged for days, the army aura remained concentrated and undispersed, soaring to a height of dozens of zhang. Lee Zhi’s army aura was a surprisingly brilliant golden yellow—the orthodox qi of a King of Humans—and one could tell at a glance that it was extraordinary.

If Wei Yuan were honest with himself, he felt a touch of envy when he looked at Lee Zhi’s army aura, mainly because it looked so dazzling and striking. However, Lee Zhi was of the Southern Qi royal bloodline and had been groomed as the next King of Humans at the Four Sages Academies. In the future, he would at least be a duke with his own fiefdom. WIth such a pure and noble lineage, it was only natural for him to possess the army aura of a King of Humans.

On the other hand, if Wei Yuan dared to exude such much as a speck of that bright golden qi, the King of Jin would likely be the first to send troops to wipe him out.

Having observed the army aura and realized that Lee Zhi was not in immediate danger, Wei Yuan turned his attention to the Mountain Dwellers at the front of the positions.

The Mountain Dwellers were slightly shorter than the human race, averaging only shoulder height for a human. However, they were physically robust and possessed unusually long arms. They were capable of traversing mountains and ridges as if walking on flat ground. They generally wore leather armor studded with steel plates, wielded various high-quality steel weapons, and possessed a large number of heavy crossbows. The quality of their military equipment was in no way inferior to that of the human race.

Wei Yuan had already reviewed the information regarding the Mountain Dwellers prior to this expedition. The Mountain Dwellers excelled at iron smelting and hunting, and they raised and trained a variety of spirit beasts. There were also the Mountain Giants. Years ago, even a weakened version of one had once routed an entire group of freshmen from the Palace of Absolute Beginning.

It was at this moment the Mountain Dwellers let out a continuous series of “woo-ya-ya” battle cries, and several heavily armored, brown-furred giant bears appeared within their formation.

Wei Yuan immediately ordered a formation change: Dragon Run took the front and raised heavy shields; the regular infantry spread out on both flanks, and Dragon Wings seized the high ground nearby.

A wave of shrieking erupted from the Mountain Dwellers’ ranks as a massive crowd of them charged forward, howling. The brown-furred war bears roared like thunder and quickly surged to the very front of the formation. Meanwhile, the Mountain Dwellers in the rear continuously loosed wave after wave of arrows upon Wei Yuan’s positions.

Fortunately, these elite infantrymen were all equipped with large shields and cuirasses. As the Mountain Dwellers’ bows and crossbows were inferior to those of the Liao, it was very difficult for their projectiles to pierce a cast, one-piece cuirass. And even if an arrow did penetrate, it wasn’t fatal. One volley of arrows had barely inflicted any casualties upon Wei Yuan’s forces.

By this point, the largest brown war bear leading the charge had closed to within 100 zhang. Suddenly, a volley of gunshots rang out from Wei Yuan’s ranks, and the giant bear’s momentum came to an abrupt halt as spatters of blood blossomed across its body. It reared up on its hind legs, only to be struck repeatedly in the chest and abdomen. The sudden torrent of blood had nearly dyed its entire body red.

A brown bear was extremely tenacious. It actually managed to withstand the hail of bullets and continued its charge for another several dozen zhang before finally collapsing.

The fates of the remaining bears were much the same; the one that made it the farthest within the kill zone managed only 60 zhang tops. The charging Mountain Dwellers were frequently knocked backward, and some were even blown in half right in the middle of their charge!

At close range, Qingming’s guns—now loaded with a new type of gunpowder—were more powerful than your conventional bow or crossbow. A single hit could tear off an entire limb from a Mountain Dweller’s body.

In the front row, the Dragon Run Army held their shields upright to repel the enemy, while the soldiers in the rear row fired continuously through the gaps between the shields. They were reloading and firing at a rate of one shot per second. As for the Dao Foundation squad leaders, they had all switched to the new guns fed by magazines. Naturally, it allowed them to shoot faster and output an unbelievable amount of firepower.

It was just a distance of 100 zhang, but the Mountain Dwellers had left countless bodies on the ground and suffered heavy casualties. All the war bears were killed in action.

Only after paying this heavy price did the remaining Mountain Dwellers manage to charge to the front lines and engage the enemy in close combat, only to discover that their opponents had fitted bayonets[1] The gun barrel slash spear pole was already quite long to begin with, not to mention that the bayonet itself was two-chi-long. Each thrust delivered a devastating blow upon their targets. On the other hand, the Mountain Dwellers were short in stature, and their preferred melee weapon were curved sabers. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties in the very first exchange yet again.

As the two sides plunged into a chaotic melee, Wei Yuan mentally manifested the Great Realm. Under its blessing, his soldiers’ strength surged abruptly, and the Mountain Dwellers’ casualties rose sharply. It was obvious to anyone looking that they were being cut down in droves.

Wei Yuan immediately swept his perception across the battlefield and located the Mountain Dwellers’ central command. It wasn’t difficult to find at all; aside from the banners, it was the only place where two Avatars were present.

Wei Yuan pointed toward the sky, and a jade hill plummeted from the sky, crashing down with overwhelming might on top of the two Avatars!

The Mountain Dwellers’ Avatars cast several spells in rapid succession at the jade hill, but they could not halt its advance in the slightest. At the very last moment, they had no choice but to flee in opposite directions while watching helplessly as the jade hill crashed to the ground. Amid an earth-shaking impact, it carved out a shallow crater a hundred zhang in diameter and instantly killed every one of the over 1,000 Mountain Dwellers within its range.

Wei Yuan waved his hand forward, and Dragon Wings began their charge. The vanguard pierced through the center of the enemy army—now a death zone—and charged straight toward the Mountain Dwellers’ main camp!

At that moment, a bright yellow army aura on the hill also stirred. Seeing that reinforcements had arrived, Lee Zhi led his troops into battle.

Empowered by the Great Realm, the 5,000 Dragon Wing cavalrymen were simply unstoppable. Caught in a pincer attack between Lee Zhi’s and Wei Yuan’s forces, the Mountain Dwellers suffered a devastating defeat. They eventually abandoned their main camp and fled into the mountainous regions on either side.

After breaching one of the Mountain Dwellers’ main camps, Wei Yuan and Lee Zhi joined forces.

Lee Zhi looked ashamed as he admitted, “I got careless and led my troops into an ambush. Thank goodness you arrived quickly, worthy little brother, or who knows when reinforcements from Zhao would arrive? The consequences would’ve been unimaginable.”

Wei Yuan asked curiously, “Even you with your abilities couldn’t secure reinforcements from Zhao, Brother Lee?”

Lee Zhi sighed. “I am of the Southern Qi lineage. Although I was exchanged for this territory, the King of Zhao is wary of me as a matter of course. Moreover, Queen Dowager Xiao has no intention of letting me off so easily; she has long since bribed the border generals. I’m already grateful that they hadn’t come to hinder me—how could I possibly expect them to send troops to my rescue?”

Wei Yuan pointed ahead and said, “We’ll discuss these matters later. The Mountain Dwellers hadn’t been completely defeated yet, so let’s finish them off first.”

At the moment, the routing Mountain Dwellers were fleeing toward another large camp. Inside, the soldiers were rushing out to form battle lines and bring out several dozen more brown war bears to bolster their ranks. As they advanced in formation, they gathered the fleeing troops. The two Avatars who had been driven off by Wei Yuan’s jade hill earlier had also reappeared and joined hands with the Avatars of this encampment, bringing their total number to five.

Lee Zhi was protected by two Avatars of his own. Although an ordinary Mountain Dweller Avatar was weaker than a human Avatar, the disparity in numbers was so great he had no choice but to hold his ground and await reinforcements.

Wei Yuan carefully observed the Mountain Dwellers’ army aura. He already had a clear grasp of the situation.

Lee Zhi furrowed his brow slightly and said, “There are still quite a lot of Mountain Dwellers to chew through, but we no longer have the element of surprise. My soldiers are also extremely exhausted. Why don’t we retreat for now?”

At this point, Lee Zhi had only a little over 4,000 soldiers remaining under his command, and nearly every one of them was wounded. Days of continuous defense had left them utterly exhausted. Although their army aura remained bright and clear, Wei Yuan could see that this was really due to Lee Zhi’s Dao Foundation forcibly raising it by one rank. In reality, their combat strength was not as great as their army aura would indicate.

When Lee Zhi suggested retreating, the two Avatars behind him along with several generals and commandants all breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear they had lost the will to fight any further.

But Wei Yuan disagreed. “The enemy doesn’t have any Mountain Giants, and that’s a glaring weakness. I’ve given it some careful thought, and I don’t believe defeating them will be too difficult. Here’s what we’ll do: Brother Lee, you will lead your men here to provide cover for me, and I’ll demonstrate to you how to deal with the Mountain Dwellers. Since they will be your main enemies in the foreseeable future, this might be of some help to you.”

Lee Zhi looked concerned as he replied, “Then let my two bodyguards lend you a hand.”

The Mountain Dwellers had five Avatars in total, while Wei Yuan’s army did not have a single one. Although Lee Zhi knew Wei Yuan was strong enough to defeat an ordinary Avatar in single combat, five of them would be a stretch. That was why Lee Zhi intended to have his two Avatars accompany Wei Yuan to protect him and resist the enemy’s high cultivators.

But once again, Wei Yuan declared, “No need! The Mountain Dwellers’ Avatars aren’t much of a threat. Just five is no problem at all. Now watch closely. The enemy only has seventy or eighty thousand troops, and that’s barely enough for me to demonstrate one time.”

1. It’s been so many chapters but I’m still unsure whether to use the term bayonet here even though it’s perfectly accurate because... you know. Still, if you guys think it’s okay then I’ll use bayonet from now on. ☜