Joyce stared at the platoon of tanks with a shocked expression.

"Where the hell have y'all been hiding your tanks in the middle of a city?!" Joyce shouted. Luco firmly decided not to reply.

"In the parking lot, what do you mean?" Pania replied. Joyce stared at them like she'd been personally offended.

"Oh, okay, so that's why y'all've got so many parking lots," Joyce deadpanned. "Fine."

Luco tried not to laugh at the spirit-sent's exasperated expression, even though Joyce had evidently had gotten a good laugh about Luco's failed paternity test.

"We have some antiquated tanks that work just fine, but we have to get a little further North to get at them," Mohan said in a mild tone. Joyce spun towards him.

"Like how North we talking about again?" Joyce said.

She pulled out a map, looking at it in anticipation. Luco tried not to shake his head, struggling to hide his reaction at Joyce's blatant disregard for the different factions around her who were obviously eavesdropping. Working with Joyce was really difficult for someone like Luco, who couldn't hide his facial expressions and had a lot to react to.

"We've got a batch 50 miles north of Canton," Mohan replied without hesitating. Joyce slowly put the map away again.

Spade squinted at Mohan. "How old are the tanks though?"

"Lin Bo refurbished them before, they're fine," Mohan said. Luco perked up at the mention of Lin Bo. Mohan nodded in Luco and Pania's direction.

"Did Lin Bo ever teach you guys how to upgrade tanks?" Mohan asked. Luco shook his head.

"No, and you shouldn't be talking about this kind of thing in public anyway," Pania grit out.

"It's fine, we're all in this together," Joyce said cheerfully.

"Will you not know because we don't say it?" Spade followed up. Pania ignored them.

"In either case…why are you guys still over here? The other commanders are gathering over there already," Luco pointed at where Taeyun and Helang were bantering with Jia Xu.

"I wanted to check out your tanks and say hi to you guys since Feng Xia looked annoyed," Joyce said petulantly. "They're just going to argue more anyway."

"He's right, you should get over there," Spade prodded at her until she got off the tank she was sprawled on.

"We'll head over first then," Joyce said cheerfully.

Luco waved as she began to leave with Spade and Mohan in tow. Joyce paused for a second as she passed him to slap a hand onto the crook of his elbow before walking towards Taeyun and Jia Xu, waving at them as soldiers parted to let her through.

"What's that?" Pania asked. Luco glanced at his elbow, where Pania was currently pointing. Joyce had slapped a small spirit on without him noticing, but it didn't seem to be a tracking spirit. Luco lifted it to scrutinize the tiny thing.

"I think it's a message," Luco said thoughtfully. He held the wind-spirit to his ear, waiting for Pania to lean close before activating the message.

'Try to be the first to check out the Vermillion Bird Shrine in Nanjing if you want to learn more about Lin Bo,' Joyce's voice sounded out before the wind-spirit flew away. Luco and Pania exchanged a look with each other.

"Should we tell Taeyun?" Pania asked. Luco looked at Joyce talking at an exasperated Taeyun in the distance. A strange feeling welled up inside of him.

"It's not important, we shouldn't make him worry for nothing," Luco said. He felt a rush of relief as Pania nodded.

Nanjing would likely be the most dangerous place by the time they got there, as that was the likeliest spot for the alliance to fall apart. If the three factions wanted to destroy each other, that was probably where they would do it.

Luco didn't trust Joyce not to have set a trap for him, but he also didn't trust Taeyun not to keep him from investigating only to send in the Intelligence Department.

Whatever information Luco found there, he would have to keep to himself.

----------------------------------------

Joyce looked around at the gathered troops, blithely unbothered by the fact that her forces were the smallest. They had assembled in Fogang County, just outside the northern boundaries of the city.

There was the Shaman Council's group in gray and gold robes to her right, with shaman brigades prominently featuring a phoenix insignia on their backs. The group was almost 70% shamans and 30% non-shamans, and there were over 5,000 people. Joyce felt like she was in a soccer stadium.

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Joyce glanced at the Hengshan Association on her left. They were wearing deep green robes, shamans marked with a gold Kirin beast embroidered on their chests. They had a similar number of people, but the shaman-nonshaman ration was more balanced at about 60% shamans and 40% non-shamans.

From where she sat cross-legged on the top of an armored truck, Joyce looked at her own group. They were bringing about 1,500 people, only 1,000 of which were shamans. Another 1,000 shamans were to remain in Canton. Looking at the pitiful amount of people in black robes, Joyce felt a little disgruntled.

It was a little weird, but not at all unexpected that this was the first time any of the factions saw the other factions' forces. Even so, it wasn't as though everyone had brought out their whole army. As expected, Taeyun and Jia Xu would move their forces in batches, since they had an overwhelming advantage in numbers.

The four provinces closest to Canton had all but given up. From east to west, the provinces of Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hokkien all needed to be subjugated to reach Nanjing, and the three-way alliance intended to use them as footholds in the next stage. Of course, it wasn't as straightforward as that, but more or less in that vein.

The warlords in those four provinces were weak to begin with; there wasn't much they could do to gain power when there were 50,000 shamans only a few hours away. Now a combined force of several thousand shamans was set to move into their territory, it was a wonder the warlords haven't shitted their pants. They'd certainly started begging their allies for help, which was another matter to worry about.

Joyce almost felt bad for them. Almost.

She felt worse for herself and the other Flying Dragons who had to sit through Taeyun and Jia Xu giving impassioned speeches to their troops. She zoned out as Helang followed up with more inspirational words.

Rather than listening to the useless words, Joyce thought back to what Mohan had told her after the negotiations three months ago.

"Once we get to Nanjing, we'll probably split into three groups and each go our own way," Mohan had said. "Anything you achieve after that is completely up to you. However, it is more than likely that they will try to push the North to you."

Joyce had nodded, thinking that it was both a curse and a blessing. The North had the fiercest warlords, but she'd already terrified a good chunk of them. It wasn't a bad deal. They would get the Temple of Heaven, an important shamanic location, as well as a large number of shamanic documents and artifacts left behind by the Qing Dynasty in the sealed sections of the Forbidden Palace.

Plus, the North was much more industrialized, especially Manchuria with its combined Russian and Japanese investment, though that also came with a side of unsanctioned military presence. Joyce got a headache just trying to think about it.

Whatever happened to ensuring she only touched one-step plans?

Mohan obviously didn't give a shit about that.

"Taking the North will be very difficult, but the same goes for the rest of the country. More likely than not, after the subjugation is completed, no one will be capable of expanding for at least ten to fifteen years unless they want their economy to crash.

However, you must ensure that Xi'An, the Western Capital and location of the Great Temple, remains a neutral city. It is also best to do so with the Five Sacred Mountains too. If possible, you should also try to secure Canton, Macau, and Hong Kong as neutral ports," Mohan had calmly piled on more and more difficult sounding tasks.

Before Joyce could object, Mohan had let out a deep sigh. "It will not be easy, Joyce. You will probably have to work hard until long after I have died." Joyce decided not to comment on the unnecessarily long commitment.

Looking around her right now, Joyce didn't think she could even imagine what came after their first step. Of course, that was only partially true, but the other things she'd prepared were all separate one-step plans. None of them were as burdensome as the things Mohan was saying.

Spade caught her eye, furiously hinting at her to make some kind of gesture towards their group. Their relatively small size compared to the other groups had already scared a lot of the newbies, and now Joyce was blanking out. She felt sorry for her own guys.

"Alright, guys! Let's get this show on the road! Who wants to play some BGM for me? Anyone have a good playlist?" Joyce shouted, using wind-spirits to amplify her voice.

Kiyoko dutifully pulled out her phone. "Thanks, Kiyoko," Joyce pointed finger guns at the frowning girl.

"Chairman, I only have electro-pop," Kiyoko said, paling as her voice was also amplified. Joyce stared blankly at Kiyoko for a moment.

"Whatever then," Joyce said.

She promptly summoned a thunder-spirit so that low rumble of thunder sounded out in the sky as the winged-serpent shot out of the clouds to unfurl at its full length above them, coiling and uncoiling in the air.

"How's that for dramatic?" Joyce said triumphantly.

"It's a total trainwreck," Spade grumbled, glaring as his voice was also amplified.

Mohan, Kajio, and Selva were determinedly not looking at her while Taeyun and Jia Xu had identical looks of pity and disdain.

Joyce ignored them, looking at the mildly exasperated faces of Flying Dragon members. At least they weren't stiff-faced and nervous anymore. There seemed to be the general consensus that "no matter what, the Chairman will just muck around as she likes," and seeing that Joyce was indeed mucking around and making a total mess of her speech confirmed that.

"A trainwreck is fine if it blows up your enemy," Joyce declared. "We'll need a lot of trainwrecks. And I will make it happen literally too, so look forward to that."

"Why the hell would anyone look forward to that? Leave that poor thunder-spirit alone and let's get going already," Spade said. He scowled as his voice was amplified again.

Joyce laughed cheerfully, letting the thunder-spirit flee as the winged-serpent continued to half-heartedly glare down at her. Seeing Joyce and Spade interact normally, Joyce's amplified laughter ringing out for all to hear, the Flying Dragon members started to look more confident as well. After all, awkwardness hit a little different than paralyzing inferiority.

Joyce grinned in satisfaction. This was a great chance for her to copy and adapt other shamans' techniques, but at the same time, she had to ensure her own group was doing well.

Mohan had emphasized that prior to Nanjing, Joyce had the chance to observe how the best shamans in this generation fought and to adapt the parts she was capable of.

"Absorb," Mohan had instructed her. "It'll make you more powerful. Only the doable parts though."

The type of work that required subtlety and skill, Joyce would leave to the others. She'd all but given up on crafting proper wards, choosing instead to raise walls of concentrated spiritual energy, countering through brute force.

Nonetheless, brute force was still a powerful thing. Joyce would be relying on that.