After that first engagement, neither side had been able to gain any decisive victories. There had been fighting, and even Gao Yuanjun’s unit had seen some action, but Jiaguo wasn’t willing to commit to any major engagements, while Qin’s forces could not pursue their retreats. Qin took more losses than Jiaguo did, but they were fairly minor and it was far from enough to overcome their superior numbers, not to mention the reinforcements that were en route from the north.
It was going...smoothly. In a way that made Gao distinctly uncomfortable. It was too neat and orderly. War was always full of surprises and chaos, and he felt as though a turning point was on the horizon.
“Senior Gao! Well met, brother!”
His juniors greeted him as usual, and he returned their greeting with a bow.
“Shun, Wen. Well met.”
He’d remembered their names, this time. Their family names, at least. Now that they’d seen combat together, he wasn’t inclined to stand on formality. Even the lightweight clashes they’d experienced were enough to form a sort of unspoken bond. It was only natural when you entrusted your life to the men next to you.
“Did you hear the news, Senior?”
That would be Wen, the man from Baishulin. He wasn’t so bad for one of Bai’s lot, and after some cajoling he’d even named his sect—the Swift River Rapids sect. It was...a rather generic name and likely a very low ranking sect, but he’d been capable enough to be recruited to the army, and they’d fought alongside each other. Gao didn’t judge.
“What news?”
“We’re being reassigned! They want to reinforce the northeastern block to prevent another attack there.”
Gao furrowed his brows. It was unlikely that Jiaguo would try the same trick again, though he’d make a point of watching his back in case they ran into any of those teleporters. Besides...
“Isn’t that where Elder Bu Dong Rushan is?”
Shun, his brother-in-craft from the Austere Mountain, nodded excitedly.
“That’s right! Can you imagine it? We’ll be fighting alongside a xiantian warrior!”
Wen blanched.
“I hadn’t heard about that. Isn’t that usually a bad thing?”
Gao nodded sympathetically.
“Normally I wouldn’t envy such an assignment, but Elder Bu Dong Rushan is another matter. I’d wager there’s no safer place on the battlefield.”
Though what he was doing off in the furthest corner of their encirclement, Gao had no idea. Even Shun was surprised by his declaration.
“I’ve heard the stories, but is he really that powerful?”
“He is. Perhaps even more powerful than Grandmaster Qian Shi.”
“Surely not! Why wouldn’t he challenge him for the position?”
That was a long story, but as they had time while they made their way to the new position, he decided to tell it.
He was an odd one. All xiantian cultivators had their eccentricities, but Elder Bu Dong Rushan was especially strange. Nobody even knew his true name, and he answered only to the self-appointed appellation—Immovable as a Mountain. Simply Rushan to his friends.
He lived up to the name. The story went that he had been an unknown hermit residing in the mountains when the Austere Mountain sect was founded. He emerged from seclusion to challenge the founder, who promptly dropped a mountain on him and walked away. Only for Bu Dong Rushan to emerge a century later, unscathed and insisting that their duel was not over.
He was as stubborn as his name suggested, too.
In the end, the two fought to a standstill on numerous occasions, but never established a decisive winner. After the founder’s death, Rushan insisted that he had won by virtue of outlasting his opponent, but declined to take leadership of the sect.
It was something of a tradition for prospective grandmasters of the Austere Mountain to challenge Bu Dong Rushan, but none had ever bested him. Mind you, that didn’t necessarily mean they lost either.
The precise counts varied wildly depending on who described them, but Rushan had hundreds of wins, and not a single loss. However, thousands of his duels ended in draws. Like many xiantian experts, he was a man of singular focus, and that focus was absolute, impenetrable defense.
Such was his power that he was even able to extend his blessing to those within his domain, rendering them nearly as invincible as he was.
Shun stared at Gao with wonder in his eyes.
“Amazing! And we’ve got the honor of fighting under his command!”
Wen was a bit more circumspect.
“Senior, did he really stay buried under a mountain for a hundred years?”
Gao scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“That part of the tale may have been exaggerated, come to think of it.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
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The turning point arrived both sooner and closer than Gao Yuanjun had ever imagined it would.
Elder Rushan was impossible to miss. He lived up to his name not only in power and technique, but in sheer physicality as well. He was an absolute mountain of a man. Gao had known that xiantian cultivators could influence their appearances with their domains, but he’d rarely seen so dramatic an example as Bu Dong Rushan.
The man stood nearly twice as tall as any other soldier, with finely crafted custom robes that still struggled to contain the sheer rippling physicality of the Austere Mountain elder. He had a long white beard, and bushy black eyebrows that twisted into a permanent scowl. His weapon was an enormous heavy glaive with a haft like a tree trunk and a blade that would have been oversized on a normal two-handed sword.
He met them personally as Gao’s unit reported for duty, scrutinizing them under his grim visage.
“What’s this, then? Regulars? I was expecting another unit of Earthshakers.”
Gao Yuanjun bowed deeply, holding a fist to his palm before him.
“Honorable Elder, this junior has simply followed the orders given. It is not my place to know the reason.”
The elder grunted in acknowledgement and gestured casually with his impossibly heavy weapon.
“Rearguard, then. Support if you’ve got long range techniques. You there—from Bai?”
Wen bowed hastily, sweat beading on his brow.
“A lesser branch, Elder.”
“You do traps?”
“No sir—that is the main branch’s specialty.”
Bu Dong Rushan turned away, losing interest.
“Sort yourselves out, then. Our vanguard here are all elites. If they’re pressed, you lead the retreat—not even my blessing will protect you from that.”
That was a surprising sentiment. Multiple squads of Austere Mountain and Silver Orchard elites, led by no less than one of the army’s most powerful xiantian fighters, and empowered by his blessing. What could possibly press them?
But that was Bu Dong Rushan. Proud, confident, and unfailingly cautious. It was not that he feared the enemy, only that he understood that anything which could threaten their vanguard would utterly annihilate regulars like Gao and his unit.
They took their positions at the back of the formation. There was no dishonor in the rearguard position. It was a crucial role, protecting the back of the formation from flanking attacks and leading retreats. Though as Gao felt Elder Rushan’s domain wash over them, it was almost impossible to imagine their army being pushed back.
The encirclement of Kucheon was hardly a solid line of soldiers sweeping along the perimeter. That was impossible in the uneven terrain surrounding the city, and wouldn’t be desirable besides. Instead, they occupied strategically valuable hills and cliffs—defensible positions from which they could hold their ground or move to reinforce nearby armies.
At first, Gao had questioned how much they reinforced the furthest corner of their formation, but the more he considered it, the more he started to see the wisdom of Yan De and the army commanders.
On the southern side, the army was protected from flanking by the mountain, while the remaining encampments were protected by each other, all the way up to their own northern camp, which served as another sort of anchor.
If Jiaguo wanted to assault the weaker north corner with a flanking attack, they would have to attack Bu Dong Rushan directly. If anybody could hold the line long enough for reinforcements to drive back the enemy, it was him.
A mountain on one side, Rushan on the other. It was somewhat poetic.
Qin’s position was dug in, defensive, and practically unassailable. Jiaguo couldn’t attack without risking enormous losses, and without any decisive victories for them, it was only a matter of time until Qin amassed enough reinforcements to overwhelm Kucheon’s defenses.
But as Shun had said on that first day—an animal was most dangerous when cornered.
“Enemy approaching!”
The call startled Gao out of his reverie. He gripped his spear and sharpened his senses, standing at high alert. It was unlikely that the rearguard would see any major fighting, but he still needed to watch out for enemy bombardment.
What he didn’t need to worry about was flanking—an officer would call it out if they had to prepare for close combat. So instead, he kept his eyes forward, to see who would be foolish enough to march on the invincible xiantian elder.
His blood ran cold at what he saw.
Most of the force was what they’d come to know as typical of Jiaguo’s forces—a combination of Yamato infantry supported by Goryeon mages. But it was their vanguard that drew Gao’s attention.
Demons. Unmistakable and monstrous. He’d heard rumors that the false empress allowed them within her lands, but he’d scarcely believed it. How was it even possible? They were mindless, violent monsters, incapable of higher thought or coordinated discipline. Even the demonic enclave, according to the stories he’d heard from those who participated in the coalition raid against them, was only very loosely held together by their more powerful leaders.
These ones, however, marched like soldiers. The woman leading them was among the most horrific creatures he’d ever seen—a twisted mockery of the human form dripping with black ichor and green miasma.
The demon hunters in the vanguard nearly moved to intercept them, but Bu Dong Rushan held up a hand to stop them.
“Hold. Maintain your formation—we stop them here.”
That was another trait typical of the elder, and part of the reason his duels tended to end in draws. Bu Dong Rushan defended. He held his ground, neither moving nor moved. He allowed the enemy army to form up before them.
The allied armies did not move to intercept either. Elder Rushan was an anchor, and his position was meant to hold on its own so that the rest of their forces could maintain formation. Wherever Jiaguo struck, Qin could descend upon them from all directions—except here, where Elder Rushan would hold the line.
He slammed the haft of his giant polearm into the ground and bellowed a deafening challenge to Jiaguo’s army.
“I am Elder Bu Dong Rushan, of the Great Austere Mountain, xiantian, undefeated. Retreat now, and you will not be pursued. Lay down your arms in surrender, and you will be treated properly. Come forth to attack, and you will die.”
Qin’s army stirred. He was offering to let them go? Allowing demons to surrender? Elder Rushan truly was an unusual man among unusual men. Jiaguo, on the other hand, was unmoved. The demonic leader raised her hand and released a flashy technique into the air—a signal?
Gao felt a prickle on the back of his neck, his hair standing on end. Jiaguo had their own xiantian experts, and they would not knowingly attack the elder without one. Surely none of them could match Bu Dong Rushan’s impenetrable defense, but which would be bold enough to try?
The sky exploded in a blinding flash of light and a crash of thunder. Gao shielded his eyes as he desperately tried to blink the spots out of his vision to look up at the source. He felt the weight of the elder’s domain press down on him as it resisted the newcomer’s power.
An enemy xiantian—something Gao had never had the displeasure of seeing before. She was a living storm of lightning, floating high in the air between the two armies, arcs of power flashing out in every direction and grounding themselves around her. Even from his place at the back of the army, Gao could see her glowing golden eyes glaring down at them as her white hair fluttered in the wind around her.
The false empress, the heretic, the pretender—after seeing her in person the derisive nicknames fled his mind. There could be no mistaking her from that day forward.
That was the first time Gao Yuanjun encountered Empress Yoshika, Sovereign of the Jiaguo Empire.