Chapter 597: Gathering the Night Sky (6)
Roughly two thousand li north of the Ming Empire’s Juyongguan Fortress, beyond sheer mountain ranges and fifteen massive peaks, across desolate plains.
It was just next to Qingguangping, the battlefield where Jeong Yeon-shin had once clashed with the Six Liu Yuan Star Lords. Even for a renowned master of qinggong from a great sect, if one departed from the Great Wall, they’d still need to ride a horse to reach it.
That was where Divine Sword Corps’ Yeoklu Fortress stood.
A yellow clay fortress, one hundred jang from north to south, and seventy jang from east to west. Around it, a wall six hundred sixty-six jang long enclosed the inner city in a square.
The first Northern King slain by Jeong Yeon-shin—Yeomyeolshin—had hardened this fortress with her Yeolyang Qi Technique, turning it solid as if she were the Fire King.
Naturally, its scale far exceeded that of a mere village.
Northern Yozoku, Southern Han, the Celestial-blooded Ming, and the Iron Clan, along with people of Mongol and Jurchen descent, all lived here together, forming a vast, multicultural metropolis.
Even scattered bloodlines from the fallen Dae-ri Kingdom could be found here.
The outer gate said as much.
In front of the gate—framed by iron spikes, carved whole from a single boulder—stood a group of several dozen people with features like a fusion of furnace-blasted metal: hulking bodies, pointed ears, squat stature, shaved foreheads with long braided queues.
“We need to leave this place,” one of them said.
“Word is the Southern Emperor has raised an army. Yeoklu Fortress won’t survive. Let us go.”