Chapter 68: Night Raid
Fang Hetong had finished talking about the local defenses. Now, it was Wei Yuan’s turn to explain the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s defensive arrangements.
The Palace had several thousand years of experience resisting the foreign races. Naturally, they had established a self-contained defense system across the two commanderies. First, the True Lord presided from on high, overseeing heaven and earth. Next, the Truemen each guarded a domain and served as pillars of stability. Powerful Dao Foundation cultivators such as Zhang Sheng would patrol the regions, identifying weaknesses, patching gaps, and providing timely reinforcements. Finally, disciples like Wei Yuan—those who had completed the Body-tempering stage or newly ascended to the Dao Foundation stage—were dispersed across various strongholds as defensive fulcrums.
The Palace had basically laid down a huge net between the two commanderies. Their plan to deal with Northern Liao’s ferocious assault was to be immovable. In fact, this strategy had a bit of sacrifice planned into it. If the enemy managed to seize the outlying strongholds, the forces they deployed would inevitably exceed the Dao Foundation stage, making them easy prey for the Palace to capture and devour in one fell swoop. Wei Yuan knew this well and harbored no complaints. War was inherently a matter of trade-offs; victory inevitably came with sacrifices.
After he was done discussing defenses with Fang Hetong, Wei Yuan wasted no time in engaging the militia in small conversations. By now, the working men had finished their work for the day. They had boiled a large pot of broth using the dried meat he brought and were eating steaming bowls of rice with the broth. They had gone hungry for days, and this pot of broth was cooked on the basis that four men would be sharing a single strip of meat. Despite this, each man only took a small bowlful—no one scrambled for more, nor did anyone ask for extra servings.
It was easy to fall ill for a person who had starved for some time to eat a full meal. The peasants could not have figured this out themselves. Thus, Fang Hetong must have taught them about it. That said, things were easier said than done. The Palace’s military rations might not be all that delicious in the heavens, but it was a different story for those living in the mortal world. But despite the temptation, not a single one of these several hundred men had stepped out of line. In Wei Yuan’s opinion, this was a disciplined army in its own right.
To have transformed a bunch of illiterate peasants into a well-organized, well-disciplined army in just the span of months—Fang Hetong was unquestionably a man of great ability.
In any case, these honest peasants hurriedly rose to their feet when they saw Wei Yuan. They were all wearing grateful expressions, but no one dared to take the initiative to speak to him. Instead, they answered whatever question he threw at them.
Nighttime arrived in the blink of an eye. The men went back to their homes to rest after drinking the meat broth. The military rations specially created by the Palace of Absolute Beginning gave an ordinary person night vision after two days of continuous consumption, but today was only the first day. Thus, they could not be relied upon to watch the night.
Past a certain level in the Body-tempering stage, one’s five senses would naturally improve. It would be ridiculous to say that a cultivator at this level could see something from several hundred zhang away, but it shouldn’t be a problem for them to view a fly about a dozen zhang away clearly. However, they had only been cultivating for two months or so, and it was purely thanks to Fang Hetong’s Establishing Words that they were able to make some progress. Thus, they were only at the level where their strength was a little greater, and their bodies were a little tougher than normal. Their five senses were not yet honed.