91: Chapter 91 War Begins

The day after the manifesto spread across the world, the atmosphere in the main hall of the Black Tiger Gang headquarters was strangely quiet.

Twelve Great Grandmaster retainers stood on both sides, their expressions varied; some were livid, some had furrowed brows, and some were calmly observing the two people sitting in the main seats.

Wei Feisen sat with his legs crossed, twirling a short blade in his hand, the blade flipping between his fingers like a bored street thug.

You sat beside him, holding that manifesto in your hand, reading it from beginning to end before setting it down.

"It is well written," you said, "it is just that the four words 'humble origins' are not elegant enough. It would sound better if changed to 'grassroots origins'."

Wei Feisen sneered, "They are cursing me for my humble origins, and I still have to teach them how to curse?"

You didn't reply, your gaze sweeping over the retainers on both sides.

A few people's hands were trembling slightly.

"Everyone," you began, your voice not loud, but the hall instantly became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard, "speak if you have something to say."

After a moment of silence, an old man in a gray robe stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "Vice Gang Leader Lin, the Nine Sects plus the imperial family have combined forces of no less than 300,000, with experts as numerous as clouds. The Patriarch of the Martial Dao Sect is even at the Earthly Immortal Realm... Your subordinate is not afraid of war, but I just want to ask, what exactly are our odds of winning?"

You glanced at him.

"Ten out of ten."

The hall was in an uproar.

The gray-robed old man opened his mouth, clearly feeling this answer was too absurd.

Wei Feisen stabbed the short blade into the table, stood up, placed both hands on the tabletop, swept his gaze across the room, and the smile on his face slowly faded.

"I know what you are thinking," his tone suddenly became very light and slow, "You are thinking whether you should run away now, whether you should secretly go to the allied forces to sell yourselves for a good price, or whether you should cut off my head and hers to use as a token of allegiance."

The expressions of several retainers changed instantly.

Wei Feisen tilted his head, "Those who want to run can leave now, the door is unlocked."

No one moved.

"But I will say the ugly things first," Wei Feisen's voice suddenly turned cold, and a dark red True Qi spread from his body like a layer of blood-colored mist, "Anyone who leaves this door and is caught by me again, I will peel their skin off inch by inch and hang it on the archway of Tianquan Mountain to air-dry."

The temperature in the hall plummeted.

You coughed lightly.

Wei Feisen immediately withdrew his Protective Aura and turned to look at you, his expression instantly switching from murderous to obedient. The speed of this change made everyone present twitch their mouths.

"Alright," you stood up, "Execute the specific deployment according to the previously decided plan. Each battalion must complete mobilization within three days. Provisions and heavy equipment will be uniformly allocated by the Chamber of Commerce, and firearms and ammunition will be distributed at double the amount."

"As for the question of winning odds..."

You paused, the corners of your lips curling up slightly.

"Once the fighting is over, you will know."

Seven days later, the ink on the Nine Sects Allied Forces' manifesto had not yet dried when the iron hooves of the Black Tiger Gang had already stepped out of Dongzhou.

You did not shrink back into defense, nor did you fight from within the cities, but instead did the opposite and took the initiative to attack.

Two armies set out simultaneously.

On the northern route, Wei Feisen personally led 8,000 iron cavalry, carrying Black-robed Puppets, and charged straight into the territory of the Taiyi Sword Sect in Beizhou. The Taiyi Sword Sect Master was not present, and the strongest person in the sect was only at the Great Grandmaster Middle Stage. Facing the crushing power of the Black-robed Puppets and the massed charges of the firearm cavalry, the Taiyi Sword Sect's mountain gate defense line was torn open by a huge gap within half a day.

On the southern route, you personally took command, leading a mixed infantry and cavalry legion of 12,000, equipped with 3,000 long guns, and marched south into Jizhou to capture the largest power in Jizhou — the Xuanwu Sect.

The Xuanwu Sect Head was a veteran expert at the Great Grandmaster Late Stage, with nearly 20,000 soldiers under his command. He originally thought he could maneuver by relying on the favorable terrain, but he underestimated the power of firearms.

In the first field battle, the Xuanwu Sect's proud charging formation, composed of 3,000 Acquired Martial Artists, was beaten into a rout under the volley of 3,000 long guns, without even touching the Black Tiger Gang's front line.

Lead bullets flew everywhere, flesh and blood were blurred, and the True Qi protective covering of the Innate Realm was like a decoration in the face of the dense rain of bullets.

Those Martial Artists who once ran rampant in the Jianghu learned for the first time what it meant to say, "In the face of absolute firepower, individual martial prowess is meaningless."

The Xuanwu Sect Head attempted to charge the formation with his Great Grandmaster body, but was forced back by your sword, his shoulder blade shattered within three moves, and he fled in a sorry state.

Three commanderies broken in seven days, nine commanderies taken in fourteen.

The news spread back to the Central Plains, and the world was shaken.

The Nine Sects Allied Forces only then realized that the troops they had spent three months assembling were simply not enough to look at in front of the Black Tiger Gang.

But it was too late.

When the main force of the Allied Forces finally finished assembling in Pingyang Commandery of Yuzhou Province and rushed to the front line, the Black Tiger Gang had already swallowed most of the territory of Beizhou and Jizhou, with their blades pointing straight at the heart of Yuzhou Province.

Both sides stood in a standoff at Fengming Plain, west of Pingyang Commandery.

Fengming Plain, an open plain extending for a hundred miles, backed by the Funiu Mountain range to the north and the Ru River to the south, has been a strategically contested place since ancient times.

The late autumn wind blew from the north, whipping up withered grass and yellow sand that filled the sky, and the world was filled with a murderous aura.

You stood beneath the main army's great banner.

Wearing an ink-black war robe, with a silver-white narrow belt tied around your waist, your dark hair tied high into a ponytail, a few strands of hair were blown across your cheeks by the wind. Your left hand held an unsheathed long sword, the scabbard entirely pitch-black, with only a thumb-sized silver bead embedded at the end.

Your twenty-two-year-old face, under the blessing of [Peerless Elegance], even while amidst weapons of war, possessed a cold beauty that made it impossible for people to look away.

Wei Feisen stood half a step to your right, dressed in a dark red martial outfit, his hair tied loosely behind his head, his blade resting horizontally on his shoulder, his face wearing that punchable, annoying smile that made people want to hit him.

You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye.

Great Grandmaster Early Stage.

Five years ago, he was only at the Xiantian Peak, but now he had actually broken through two major Realms in a row, jumping directly to the Great Grandmaster Early Stage.

You were deeply puzzled.

In terms of talent, he was inferior to you; in terms of Cultivation Technique, the Taixu Visualization Method crushed the one he practiced; and in terms of effort, you did not put in any less than him.

The only explanation was those few bottles of Medicinal Pill obtained from the Immortal Cultivator.

Just this? Just this could break through two major Realms?

The Medicinal Pill of the Immortal Cultivator is truly terrifying.

You withdrew your gaze and looked at the opposite side.

On the other end of the Fengming Plain, the dark, dense formation of the Allied Forces stretched for several miles, with banners and flags blocking out the sky and sun.

Over 300,000 troops, the elites of the Nine Sects plus the Imperial Guards of Great Qing, iron armor like a forest, spears like wheat, the sound of horse hooves and the clashing of armor merging into a dull thunder, the earth even trembling slightly.

At the very front, an old man with white hair and beard stood with his hands behind his back.

He was wearing a gray Taoist robe that had been washed to white, with no armor, no weapons, and he wasn't even wearing shoes, his bare feet treading on the withered grass, but the aura emanating from his body was like an invisible mountain, pressing heavily over the entire battlefield.

The Patriarch of the Martial Dao Sect, Patriarch Jiang Buzhou.