Chapter 50

Chen Hai, Ge Tong, and Shen Kun decided to stay after their discussion. Although this did not align with their previous plans, everyone knew over the years how difficult it was to find a superior officer in the military who would appreciate and heavily rely on scholars from humble backgrounds.

Although Li Xianghai was now demoted to a Thousand Martial Officer, it was not difficult for him to be reinstated to his original position. If Ge Tong and Shen Kun followed Li Xianghai in forming the new army, they would be considered his core followers.

Even if their future was not as promising, Li Xianghai would most likely ensure they could serve as officials in the Dao Academy or as military officers in the prefectures and counties, such as battalion commanders or city patrol commanders...

For scholars from humble backgrounds, this was an opportunity they could not afford to miss.

Cultivation, who could guarantee they would definitely break through their bottlenecks?

Moreover, even if they broke through the bottlenecks and advanced to higher realms, they would still need to seek a career path.

Not to mention ordinary mystic cultivators; even those old monsters in the Dao Dan and Dao Tai realms, who had lifespans of several hundred years, ultimately had to seek wealth and power in the secular world—otherwise, what was the point of their cultivation?

Chen Hai, Ge Tong, and Shen Kun had made up their minds, but they did not rush to find Li Xianghai. They needed to maintain a certain level of dignity and at least not let Li Yulin and Li Hu, who were by Li Xianghai's side, look down on them.

Li Xianghai, busy with forming the new army and preparing to defend the northern slopes of Yulong Mountain with the Yulong Prefecture Army, was nowhere to be seen.

Chen Hai, Ge Tong, and Shen Kun enjoyed a few more days of leisure. Zhou Jun, unable to fathom what Chen Hai and the others were thinking, finally could not hold back and came to them:

"Junior Brother Yao has a better path. What about Senior Brothers Ge and Shen?"

Zhou Jun said he was asking for Ge Tong and Shen Kun's advice, but his eyes kept darting to Chen Hai's face.

Ge Tong and Shen Kun, being straightforward, realized at this moment that Chen Hai's status in Zhou Jun's mind was more important than they had imagined, so they personally came to seek advice.

After fighting side by side on Yulong Mountain, Chen Hai knew that Zhou Jun's cultivation foundation was much deeper than that of Ge Tong and Shen Kun.

Ge Tong planned to cultivate four main meridians before opening the Spirit Sea, but from Zhou Jun's performance, Chen Hai believed he had already cultivated at least five main meridians and was likely aiming to cultivate a sixth main meridian before opening the Spirit Sea. His future goal was to reach the True Transmission of the Ming Qiao realm, not just to become an inner disciple.

"Whether a war will break out between Wuhui and Hexiang towns, I do not know, but the gathering of forces on Yulong Mountain is happening now," Chen Hai said with a smile. "Senior Brother Zhou has already made his decision, why ask us about staying or leaving..."

Zhou Jun smiled and said, "Then I will stay too. In the future, I will need the support of Junior Brother Yao, Senior Brother Shen, and Senior Brother Ge."

Zhou Jun was determined in his cultivation. He could enter the inner sect of the upper seven peaks at any time after reaching the Spirit Opening realm, but without clan support, even if he entered the upper seven peaks, he would still lack sufficient cultivation resources.

Even if he had the opportunity to serve in the military after entering the inner sect of the upper seven peaks, he might not be assigned to Yulong Mountain.

He also agreed with Chen Hai that the gathering of forces on Yulong Mountain was happening now. As the conflict between Wuhui and Hexiang towns became public, Yulong Mountain's importance in Hexi would increase, and the sect and the Grand Protector General's Office would allocate a large amount of resources to Yulong Mountain.

Therefore, staying on Yulong Mountain to secure a position, then entering the inner sect of the upper seven peaks for cultivation, and finally returning to Yulong Mountain to take up a post, was the best choice.

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After the conflict between Wuhui and Hexiang towns became public, Yulong Mountain became a focal point.

In early July, the Wuhui Army Grand Protector General's Office ordered General Chai Teng and others to strengthen the defenses on the northern slopes of Yulong Mountain, with the construction of the Huanglong Gorge defense fort being the top priority.

Chen Hai and others, along with Li Xianghai, took over the Yulong Prefecture Army's one thousand soldiers and two thousand civilian laborers and directly moved along the rugged stone gorge to the Huanglong Gorge, about five hundred miles away.

The rebels, fearing bloody reprisals from the Wuhui Army, hastily withdrew from the Huanglong Gorge, leaving behind tens of thousands of corpses inside and outside the Shuangfeng Stone Fort. The armor and weapons were taken away. It was mid-summer, and the trees on the surrounding hills were sparse, causing the corpses to rot severely, filling the air with a foul stench.

To prevent the spread of disease, Chen Hai and his team spent two days cutting down trees, gathering the corpses, and burning them. Only then did they have the time to clean up the severely damaged Shuangfeng Stone Fort. Tens of thousands of refugees had camped on the riverbank of the Huanglong Gorge, leaving behind a mess of makeshift shelters.

It was only then that Chen Hai had the opportunity to see the legendary lake in the mountains where a yellow dragon was said to have appeared in ancient times.

The Huanglong Gorge, surrounded by mountains, collected rainwater, and at the bottom of the lake, there was a spiritual spring that continuously flowed.

This spiritual spring ensured that the Huanglong Gorge did not completely dry up during years of drought, creating a faint aura of spiritual energy around the area.

As one of the few water sources deep in Yulong Mountain, even after years of drought, the Huanglong Gorge still had a surface area of over a thousand acres, with a maximum depth of over a hundred meters, and a large spiritual spring, making it a rare and valuable location.

However, the Huanglong Gorge was located near the watershed between Hexiang and Wuhui towns, making it a highly sensitive area. Neither side had occupied this valuable location beforehand, but now the Wuhui Army was no longer hesitant.

The Shuangfeng Stone Fort was located to the north of the Huanglong Gorge. General Chai Teng decided that Li Xianghai should build a new fort on a steep hill to the south of the Huanglong Gorge.

About two to three hundred miles further south was the Lanchuan Prefecture, which was under the jurisdiction of the Hexiang Army. The terrain was relatively flat, and building a fort to the south of the Huanglong Gorge would allow them to overlook the border areas of Lanchuan Prefecture.

Li Xianghai, leading the main force, would garrison the Shuangfeng Stone Fort. Besides repairing the fort, he would also recruit more civilian laborers from Yulong Prefecture to construct a road between the Shuangfeng Stone Fort and the Chenqiao Fort.

The stone gorge in Yulong Mountain was winding and extremely narrow, making it difficult for troops to pass. A new route needed to be opened to allow for the passage of vehicles and horses, and to shorten the distance between the Shuangfeng Stone Fort and the Chenqiao Fort to within two hundred miles.

Li Xianghai also ordered Li Hu to lead Chen Hai, Shen Kun, and Ge Tong, along with a thousand civilian laborers, to enter the hills to the south of the Huanglong Gorge and choose an abandoned fort to transform into a sturdy outpost.

Although Li Xianghai did not inherit the title of Lord Li, he was the only remaining member of the Li clan to reach the Ming Qiao realm, placing him on par with the clan's patriarch. Therefore, he brought a group of elite disciples, including Li Hu and Li Yulin, to assist him in managing the army and garrisoning the Huanglong Gorge.

Li Hu and Li Yulin both had mid-Spirit Opening realm cultivation, making their status in the military higher than that of Chen Hai and the others.

The garrison at the Huanglong Gorge could be expanded to two thousand soldiers, but even the one thousand soldiers taken over from the Yulong Prefecture Army mostly lacked a foundation in martial cultivation and were far from being elite. They needed rigorous training.

Chen Hai did not want to delay his cultivation and was not familiar with the detailed military drills, so he brought Zhao Shan from Mengyi to help train the soldiers...

Chen Hai, as a member of a noble family, naturally had the authority to do so. Li Xianghai and Li Hu did not interfere. If Chen Hai could bring more elite veterans from the Chen clan, it would not affect their status and would significantly enhance the garrison's combat capabilities, which would be a win-win situation.

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As the lowest-ranking military officers, Chen Hai and his team were not privy to the specific progress of negotiations between the Grand Protector General's Office, the imperial court, and the Hexiang Army. However, in mid-September, the Hexiang Army established the Yanchuan Camp in the Yanchuan Prefecture to the south of Yulong Mountain, formally incorporating the tens of thousands of surrendered refugees.

This indicated that the two major powers in the northwest of the Great Yan Empire, under the mediation of the imperial court, were not having a pleasant negotiation.

In response to the Hexiang Army's actions, the Grand Protector General's Office issued three new orders in late September.

First, a new county town, Xinqiao, was established, and the Yulong Prefecture administration was moved to Xinqiao County. Second, a new Yulong Camp, equal in status to the Weijiang Camp and the Tieliu Camp, was officially established, with Chai Teng appointed as the deputy commander of the Yulong Camp, temporarily overseeing the Yulong Camp and also serving as the governor of Yulong Prefecture. The Grand Protector General's Office would also dispatch more elite soldiers and officers to the Yulong Camp. Third, Zhao Ruhui, Zhang Huaiyu, and others were ordered to establish the Yulong Mountain Huanglong Gorge Dao Academy...

Everything unfolded as Chen Hai had predicted. The gathering of forces on Yulong Mountain was happening now.

The Wuhui Army, by establishing the Yulong Camp on the northern slopes of Yulong Mountain, expanding the military, setting up a new county town, and establishing the Huanglong Gorge Dao Academy, which was directly under the leadership of the upper seven peaks of the Taowei Sect, was essentially treating the Hexiang Army to the south as an enemy force, similar to the Western Qiang tribes in Jinzhou, and placing it under the highest level of alert.

No one had anticipated that the Taowei Sect's swift and decisive campaign to pacify Yulong Mountain would end in such a disastrous defeat, with two Ming Qiao realm elders, over fifty inner disciples, and more than seven hundred Dao soldiers losing their lives at the Huanglong Gorge. No one had also anticipated that the campaign to pacify Yulong Mountain would directly mark the beginning of the standoff between the Wuhui Army and the Hexiang Army in the northwest of the empire...

The situation on Yulong Mountain suddenly became tense.

Chen Hai, Shen Kun, and Ge Tong, under the command of Li Hu, supervised a thousand civilian laborers and entered the hills to the south of the Huanglong Gorge, choosing an abandoned fort to transform into a garrison.

This fort was conveniently located in a valley between two mountain peaks, facing the Shuangfeng Stone Fort to the north, controlling the entrance to the Huanglong Gorge. Therefore, in official military documents, the two forts were referred to as the Huanglong Gorge South Heavenly Gate Fort and the Huanglong Gorge North Heavenly Gate Fort.

The South Heavenly Gate Fort was long from north to south and narrow from east to west, covering only about forty to fifty acres, not much larger than the Medicine Garden on the eastern slope of the Tieliu Ridge where Chen Hai and his team had been stationed.

The fort originally had over a hundred dilapidated huts. Besides organizing six rows of barracks and converting the abandoned stone temple into the garrison's administrative office, Chen Hai and his team also leveled a field in front of the barracks to serve as a training ground for the soldiers.

The walls of the South Heavenly Gate Fort, although built of stone to prevent bandits, were quite thin. The twelve to thirteen-meter-high walls were only about two meters thick, and mid-Spirit Opening realm mystic cultivators could easily collapse them.

Regardless of whether the sect would eventually set up defensive arrays in the South Heavenly Gate Fort, the Yulong Camp required the walls to withstand the full force of a mid-Ming Qiao realm expert.

The engineers brought from Yulong Prefecture suggested building another stone wall and filling the space between the two walls with slurry soil.

This made the construction of the walls a large-scale project. Additionally, Chen Hai and his team were responsible for building a road on the western shore of the Huanglong Gorge to connect the North and South Heavenly Gate Forts.

After the Grand Protector General's Office issued new orders in late September, Chen Hai and his team had another task: to build the palaces and residences needed for the Dao Academy on both sides of the Huanglong Gorge and to provide housing for the Dao soldiers after they moved in...

Besides the two forts at the Huanglong Gorge, the Yulong Camp also planned to build eight more forts on the hills to the south of the Huanglong Gorge, aiming to control the entire Yulong Mountain and overlook the northern part of Lanchuan Prefecture from a higher position.

To achieve this, in addition to the newly expanded thirty thousand soldiers, Chai Teng also recruited fifteen thousand civilian laborers from Yulong and other prefectures and counties. The Yulong Mountain, spanning over a thousand miles and lying between Wuhui and Hexiang towns, suddenly turned into a massive construction site.