The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Yet another favoured saying from Hongji’s father, but it wasn’t to say there was no need for planning. Instead, he meant that one should always be flexible in case your plans should fall through. If he needed a single tool for something out in the field, he would never only bring the one he needed, but his whole tool box instead just in case. When bringing crops to the Lord’s manor, he always checked the wagon the day before at the latest, and sometimes several times in the days leading up to his trip. When helping their neighbours raise a new barn, he’d carry a pouch of clean bandages just in case, and this sort of thinking is partially why Hongji excelled in areas of command.

Essentially, Hongji’s father made plans for when other plans went awry, which wasn’t the worst lesson to take to heart. Hongji wasn’t the only commander who liked to thoroughly prepare for any and all eventualities, as one of the first lessons a Field Officer learned was that the path to success was much smoother with the right preparations. Akanai, Nian Zu, Shuai Jiao, and more, Hongji had seen these great generals go to great lengths to prepare for the worst, though few went to such great lengths as Legate Falling Rain. The young man’s penchant for widespread planning encroached on the boundaries of paranoia to the point where it seemed like no surprise could faze him.

One only needed to look back at his trip to the Central Citadel to attend Legate Shen ZhenWu’s banquet of heroes to see the lengths Legate Rain went to in order to prepare for the worst, and it was a most eye opening experience for Hongji indeed. Rather than board a ship and make his way to Central with all haste, the Legate travelled alongside Nian Zu’s military convoy with the intent of luring his enemies out. At the time, the general consensus was that the crippled Legate was taking advantage of the Colonel General’s forces to keep himself safe, but time and circumstances proved them all wrong. Travelling under heavy guard was merely a means to minimize the variables involved, because even though Nian Zu’s presence meant the Legate had no need to worry about being ambushed at any given moment, he used this to create a controlled vulnerability which he used to lure his enemies out of hiding. By personally escorting the Divine Turtle out to the river every morning and evening without fail, he presented his enemies with a target too tempting to pass up, but when the ship the Vast Distance arrived bearing assassins intending to take his head, Legate Rain revealed that he’d long since been aware the ship had been co-opted by his enemies and set the Disciplinary Corps on them for failure to fill out the proper permits correctly. A masterful stroke of genius engineered to not only use the Disciplinary Corps to deal with his enemies, he also caused his rivals to lose face by showing just how inept they truly were, and though the culprit had yet to be revealed to the outer provinces at large, Hongji was certain this move had ended the political career of some aspiring Imperial Scion or another, if not their life as well.

Schemes within schemes, that was Legate Rain’s preferred speed, and he continued to showcase his abilities in the days leading up to the banquet. Going shopping with his mother and concubine only to ‘coincidentally’ run into his allies, who then brought him to watch an opera show where he humiliated Ishin Ken Shibu with his words and actions both, followed by a casual trip to a popular dessert parlour as if without a care in the world. All this with a shattered Core mind you, which left him that much more vulnerable, yet with the proper planning, he was able to humiliate an Imperial Scion, destroy the reputation of a promising young Central Warrior, and evade Mother knows how many assassination attempts along the way without ever showing a hint of weakness the entire time.

None of which could have been possible without thorough planning and preparation, else who knows how many times the Legate would have died that day. In contrast, Hongji was far from able to match Legate Rain’s obsessive attention to detail, but more interesting was that he discovered the Legate’s father was quite the opposite. It wasn’t that Baatar eschewed planning altogether, but rather his plans weren’t based on facts and evidence, but instinct and gut feelings instead. As the scouts and retinues moved into place around Pan Si Xing using the underground network of tunnels, Hongji envisioned a thousand and one things going wrong along the way, which made for the most stressful hour he’d ever experienced. What if the Defiled had found the tunnels themselves and were using them to move about the city? Or worse, had the exits watched and guarded meaning his divided troops were all walking headlong into death and disaster as the Enemy waited in ambush? What if a unit found the way forward blocked? Could he afford to keep the rest of his forces waiting for a single unit to find a new entrance into the city? If one unit wasn’t worth the risk, how many units would be? Two? Three? Five? What about his distribution of soldiers? With their forces spread out all across the city, he’d had to ensure that each retinue had enough strength to operate on their own lest they be overrun by Demons and Peak Experts aplenty. That was the greatest danger here, the Enemy gathering an elite fighting force similar to what Legate Rain did when taking the harbours last month. The Empire’s greatest advantage lay in unity which they needed to go up against the numerically superior Defiled forces, but here in Pan Si Xing, all that had been flipped on its head at young Jorani’s suggestions.

Credit where it was due, the plan was a good one. Break into groups of two to three thousand, infiltrate the city at various locations where slaves were bedding down for the day, and secure those choke points to buy time for the slaves to escape. From there, it was merely a matter of making enough chaos inside the city to force Bai Qi out of hiding, which could be done in any number of ways, but what Hongji hated the most was how Baatar, Jia Yang, and everyone else was counting on him to coordinate their efforts in real time. In short, once the troops were all in place, the rest of their plan could be summed up as, “Leave it to Hongji”, a weighty responsibility which he was unable to bear. Every Officer of note had studied his actions during the defence of the Central Citadel wherein he coordinated a city-wide guerrilla defence against Bai Qi’s invading forces, a feat only made possible by his familiarity with the Citadel, weeks of planning, and a fortuitously timed bout of Insight from the Mother Above. Yet now, everyone expected him to replicate that same miracle in spite of all his efforts to explain how that wasn’t possible.

All this stemmed from the unusual manner with which Hongji used to Form his Natal Palace. Since most Martial Warriors had based their Natal Palaces on a real structure or location they could visualize and visit when meditating, everyone thought Hongji had taken the Central Citadel and recreated it in its entirety within his Natal Palace. From there, the details varied, but every Warrior of note he’d spoken to believed that this was the key to the Chi working with which he used to oversee the fighting and coordinate a Citadel-wide defence against the Enemy. Whether it was a complex, multifaceted working of Scrying, Listening, and Sending, or deploying his Domain and materializing his Natal Palace to link the material and immaterial together, all those theories were completely off base because Hongji’s Natal Palace had no perceivable form. Though he went to great efforts to commit the sprawling maze of Citadel streets to memory, he never went as far as recreating it in his Natal Palace, not like how Legate Rain recreated his hometown village or Du Min Gyu recreated WuTai Mountain. Even if his Natal Palace had a visible form, how was he supposed to envision the concept of self-reliance and self-certainty? Even using an image of himself wouldn’t fit, because the Hongji everyone saw here today was different from the man he was yesterday, and vastly different from the Hongji of ten years ago. Not all of the changes were visible, but there were enough of those to make his point, and because he never had any need for a fixed Natal Palace to visit, he saw no point in bothering with it now. No, when Hongji closed his eyes and reached for Balance, the only thing he saw was the darkness behind his eyelids, which was how it’d always been.

Though unable to come up with a suitable way to explain it, he also failed to understand why the others seemed so skeptical about his claims. Du Min Gyu’s endless curiosity was understandable since he wanted to know more in order to better guide his grand-daughter who was following a similar Path to Hongji’s, but to this day, Akanai and her husband Husolt were still unable to fathom how he formed a Natal Palace without creating a mental structure to visit when meditating. In contrast, he was at a loss to explain how others could keep the entirety of their Natal Palaces forever fixed in memory and always in mind. There were times when Hongji had walked into a room only to discover he’d forgotten why he’d entered in the first place, so the thought of always keeping a complex, lifelike model image in mind at all times was almost incomprehensible. Granted, he was the outlier in all this considering most Martial Warriors Formed their Natal Palaces in this manner, but regardless of the facts, none could deny Hongji had a Natal Palace. It even functioned the same way, but instead of visiting a mental construct to practice his Chi skills and Forms as if in a separate plane of existence, he simply mentally went through the motions as if reliving a memory in his mind and making corrections along the way. There was no need to visualize the process, because it wasn’t as if he could see his every movement as he Demonstrated the Forms or see anything worth mentioning while utilizing his Chi, so why was it so important to visualize himself while meditating?

This lack of understanding from both sides made it difficult to explain his hardships however, because few understood his process well enough to have an idea of the issues he faced. While it was true he’d memorized the Central Citadel in its entirety, which played a large part in the miracle he accomplished during the siege, it wasn’t as if he had a perfect recreation of every stone, street, and building stored in his mind or Natal Palace. No, he memorized the Citadel layout by physically walking the streets until he was familiar enough with the area to know where he was at all times, something people naturally did when staying in one location long enough. Hongji simply put a little more effort into the process than most, and in doing so, paved the way for his defence of the Citadel. He remembered the battle well and the part he played in it, but it wasn’t until after the Enemy breached the third line of defences that the Mother saw fit to bestow Insight upon him. He remembered seeing the entire Citadel from a bird’s eye view, but the information he gleaned from it was more than merely visual. It was as if this advanced Scrying were capable of transmitting all sensations the Citadel experienced as if the entire fortress itself were a living entity. He could feel the Enemy marching across his cobble-stone skin, hear the short, staccato breaths of his soldiers on the cusp of panic, even smell the metallic tang of blood and steel in the air itself, a multitude of sensations which he processed all at once without ever losing sight of his thoughts and goals.

Only then was he able to coordinate such an effective defence, for this bout of Insight did not simply grant him awareness of the happenings within the Citadel, but enabled him to perceive all that information without needing to follow any singular thread of thought. It was like playing a thousand instruments to perform twenty different symphonies at the same time, far beyond what Hongji had ever thought possible, and in the moment, all he could do was surrender himself to the moment and focus on defending the Citadel with everything he had. Reading the reports of what happened in those scant few hours was an odd experience, because he remembered giving each and every individual order, but the sheer volume of commands and instructions was staggering to say the least. One Senior Captain claimed Hongji had given him step by step instructions on how to navigate his way through a Defiled infested market, while at the same time, a Lieutenant Colonel on the other side of the Citadel claimed Hongji had led him and his troops in a series of successful ambushes against the encroaching Enemy. All the while, there were hundreds of other Officers reporting that Hongji had spoken to them in the same general time frame, which meant Hongji had somehow split his mind to focus on and speak with multiple Officers at the same time.

A feat made all the more impressive when Hongji admitted he still had yet to understand how to Send a single message to multiple recipients at the same time, much less Send two different messages to two different people.

In short, ever since that fateful day, he’d tried to recreate that same sensation countless times each passing day, but he never even came close, so for Baatar, Jia Yang, and so many others to expect a repeat performance from him here in Pan Si Xing was nothing short of impossible. Hongji himself brought it up a number of times, but Baatar merely smiled and said, “You are a capable commander even without Insight to guide you. You need only treat this battle like any other and victory is sure to be ours.”

An encouraging sentiment to be sure, but Hongji still had his reservations regarding his ability to live up to such lofty expectations. Alas, there was no other option left to him save to try his best, because they’d come too far to give up without even trying. It wasn’t as if they didn’t stand a chance either, because if all went according to plan and Baatar was truly capable of killing Bai Qi, then this might well be enough to throw the Enemy forces into disarray and open up a path to salvation for the Imperials. In the hours leading up to the attack, Hongji studied the maps and questioned the locals in the desperate hope of stumbling across something to tip the scales in their favour, and he continued to do so even now after the arrow had been loosed. Then, just as Hongji’s forces were almost all in place, disaster struck as the sounds of combat alerted the Enemy to the Imperial threat making their way into the city.

With the advantage of surprise already lost to them, Hongji Scryed over the city to match what he studied on the maps with the actual situation. The spyglasses were useful, but limited in scope since they only enlarged what the human eye could see. Reports arrived through Sending which his aides narrated out loud, informing him that the Legate’s retinue had landed themselves in hot water after failing to silence the Defiled sentries before they raised the alarm. A quick study of the city movements showed no real concentrated defence forming up just yet, so Hongji ordered the rest of his forces to remain hidden as they moved into place, while wishing commander Jorani the best of luck. The city came alive as Defiled scented blood in the air and converged around the Legate’s retinue, while armoured Chosen made their way through the streets in an organized grid pattern in search of other hiding Imperial forces. Hongji expected no less from Bai Qi who quickly grasped the crux of the issue, for he knew that if one group of Imperial soldiers could make their way deep into the City undetected, then surely there were others.

Within the span of five minutes, three more Imperial units were discovered and came under Defiled attack even as Jorani’s unit forced their way out into the streets to avoid having the building collapsed on top of them, a turn of events which was less than promising. Bai Qi had instantly seen through their plan and determined that the Imperials were targeting the slave sleeping quarters, but the worst part was that the Chosen were none too gentle in their search. Panning across the city from his command centre over a kilometre away, Hongji watched as the Enemy terrorized and brutalized Imperial citizens while looking high and low for soldiers. Heads were smashed and throats slit for no reason other than to express their displeasure as the Chosen and tribesmen left a trail of death in their wake, and Hongji’s blood boiled to witness such callous disregard for life. Not just from the Enemy, but from the people of Empire as well, most of whom simply regarded the violence unfolding around them with apathetic disregard. For two years, the people of the west had suffered under Defiled rule, and though he knew it could not have been pleasant, to see the results with his own eyes was heartbreaking indeed.

Yet much as he yearned to order his troops to slaughter the Defiled and free the people of the west, there was nothing he could do but watch and wait as his countrymen paid the price for this attack. Though he could not hear what was being said, or even read their lips from his vantage on high, Hongji knew the Enemy believed the locals had kept quiet about the tunnels underneath the city and might even have provided this information to the Imperials. Not true, as even the oldest half-beast in the Empire had been born more than a century after the tunnels were sealed, meaning these poor people knew nothing of them, but the Enemy agents were clearly displeased by the lack of answers forthcoming, and the innocent people of Pan Si Xing paid dearly for it.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Hongji turned to his aide in sheer disbelief at what he thought was said. “Repeat that last message.”

Looking like a fish out of water, his aide wasted no time reiterating his report once more. “A soldier has taken it upon himself to Speak to the people of Pan Si Xing,” the aide reported, unable to meet Hongji’s eyes yet unwilling to turn away. “He is encouraging them to ‘strike off the shackles of fear and oppression to take up arms against the Enemy’, sir.”

The aide continued narrating the soldier’s words out loud, but Hongji was in no mood to listen. “Damned fool!” Slamming his fist against the table, he snarled at his aides and said, “Get me that soldier’s name and rank! If he survives the coming battle, then I’ll have his head for this.” How dare he give these poor slaves such feeble and futile hope? Rise up against the Enemy? Might as well ask them to deliver the moon on a silver platter instead. It was a Martial Warrior’s duty to defend the people of the Empire from the Enemy, not lead them to the slaughter. While Legate Rain’s Irregulars proved themselves able enough, they at least had courage and training enough to know what they were getting into. After two years under Enemy rule, the people of the West were like beaten dogs cowering before their new masters, but this defeated, docile nature also kept them safe. So long as they remained compliant, they were a valuable commodity to be exploited, but with an Imperial soldier encouraging them to rise up and resist, Bai Qi might well order the slaughter of every last man, woman, and child in the city just to send a message to the rest of the Empire.

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Though he knew what he saw might well haunt his nightmares for years to come, Hongji felt it was his responsibility to bear witness to what might befall the poor people of the West. Would they die on their knees pleading for mercy, or would they see this lamentable fate as an escape from the staggering trials and tribulations they’d faced these past two years? Returning his attention to his Scrying, he steeled his heart for the worst -

And found the city in upheaval as the people of the West rose up in bloody insurrection.

Mere minutes before, these same people had cowered and looked away as Chosen and tribesmen slaughtered their kin, yet now, with little more than a few words from a nameless soldier, they were filled with renewed vigour and purpose. All across the city, Imperial commoners poured out into the streets to throw themselves at their hated foes with varying results. In some areas, the Enemy soon found themselves overrun as abused, half-starved Imperials fought tooth and nail to slaughter their captors through sheer weight of numbers. Elsewhere, commoners died in droves charging at a dug in foe, throwing away their lives to achieve nothing except drive their comrades to do the same. Some commoners threw themselves out of windows to tackle the Defiled below, while others tossed lit lanterns at their foes to set them ablaze. Just south-west of the city, quarry workers took up their picks and hammers to express their anger at their slavers, and it was here the westerners found the most success, for unlike inside the city proper, the people of the Empire vastly outnumbered the Enemy stationed at the mines, and they made the most of their advantage.

Regardless of their effectiveness, the sheer scope of the outbreak was unexpected to say the least, as commoners in every corner of Pan Si Xing took up arms against the Enemy without hesitation. While planning for the attack, Hongji had noticed the refugees were fond of saying ‘the West still resists’, which he took to be an expression of their faith and how they held firm against the Father’s lies, but now he saw that they meant so much more. The people of the West had endured long enough, and a single spark of hope was enough to set them ablaze.

Much as he mourned their sacrifice and resented the soldier who encouraged it, Hongji knew he had to strike while the iron was hot. His command room faded from vision as he turned his focus wholly upon the city and set to devising a plan to make the best use of it while he could. “Heed my orders,” he began, sounding far calmer and in control than he currently felt as he rattled off a string of commands that he hoped would see the people of Pan Si Xing safe. Taking advantage of the chaos and confusion caused by the uprising, he manoeuvred his soldiers through the city streets to link up wherever they could, while sending strike forces out to run roughshod over the Defiled whenever it seemed like they were gathering to form a concentrated defence. Any civilians his soldiers came across were encouraged to retreat into the tunnels, where a skeleton crew of soldiers had stayed behind to guide people out to safety, but few cared to retreat now that blood had been spilled. The people of the West had endured for long enough, and now their collective repressed rage had been brought to a boil, so Hongji could do naught but allow them to express their murderous anger in a more effective fashion.

In the north-eastern quadrant of the city, Situ Jia Zian led his troops headlong towards an oil storage depot, which had Bai Qi scrambling to muster up a defence. Wave after wave of tribesmen threw themselves at the young Patriarch’s twin sabres in a desperate attempt to slow him down, but he carved a bloody path through them all like a dragon cutting through the waves. Time and time again, he led the charge against the Enemy in a dizzying whirlwind of steel and death, so full of deadly grace and natural poise it was easy to mistake him for a Warrior twice his age. None could stand in his way, not the tribal Champions bearing their tainted weapons or the Runic-armoured Chosen unfortunate enough to meet him, all of them fell before him like rice during harvest. Had the Defiled fallen back to regroup and strike as one, young Zian’s forces would not have had it so easy, but then there would have been no one to stop him from seizing the depot and using the oil to set the city ablaze. Imperial law dictated strict measures for limited quantities of oil being stored at any one time, but the Defiled had not adhered to those rules for various reasons. No doubt Bai Qi believed that was their intended target which was why he paid so dearly to block him, but this was only a feint as Hongji ordered Zian to veer south-west and link up with two other units to support the rampaging miners, who had long since dispatched their overseers and were making their way back towards the city with a thirst for Defiled blood, led by a mousy little woman with a bloody pick in hand and murder in her eyes.

In the south-east quadrant, Tam Taewoong’s forces emerged from the tunnels into what was once a thriving market square, the largest, most open area in all of Pan Si Xing. Any fighting here would be bloody indeed, for there were no less than twelve direct avenues leading to the square, to say nothing of the countless unsecured buildings bordering it, making the square all but impossible to secure. The Enemy came thick and fast from all angles and young Taewoong would have been hard pressed to hold them back, but he was Hongji’s favoured successor for good reason. Rather than sit and wait for the Enemy to surround him, he led his foes on a merry chase in and around the market, smashing through any smaller forces that stood in his path and avoiding the larger ones until their eager impatience caused them to spread out thin. Though he killed far fewer Defiled than young Zian, Taewoong's efforts occupied the attentions of at least three times as many combatants as he led his soldiers to dance upon the knife’s edge of victory and defeat. Granted, he couldn’t keep this up forever, or even for long as less than fifteen minutes later, multiple sizable Enemy forces converged around the marketplace and left him no room to maneuver any more. Forewarned of the impending attack thanks to Hongji’s Sendings, Taewoong gathered his forces into the centre of the market in preparation for a desperate last stand. They made for a tempting target, but Bai Qi’s attention could be seen here as the tribesmen proceeded into the square at a somewhat orderly pace whereupon they hung back to wait for their allies to arrive so that they could launch a concentrated and coordinated charge.

Which left them in perfect position for Major Chu XinYue’s heavy cavalry and Ulfsaar’s cattle-drawn chariots to strike.

Emerging from sealed service tunnels buried under at least a full meter of sand, the two contingents of cavalry surfaced less than fifty meters from their closest respective targets after taking the tunnels once used to bring raw ores to sell at market. Needless to say, the Enemy was wholly unprepared to receive their thunderous charge and the results were as bloody and satisfying as Hongji hoped. In a crash of steel and blood, the cavalry made short work of the Defiled inside the marketplace and left a trail of corpses behind them, but even a single jaunt around the perimeter left the beasts panting and heaving with exertion. Luckily, the market had plenty of access to water for the thirsty beasts, but Hongji knew they couldn’t be used too often or for too long lest they succumb to the desert heat, which made this initial victory all that much more valuable to have achieved.

North of Taewoong’s position, Major Rustram’s Stormguard marched into the heart of Pan Si Xing to assault the most difficult target of them all. Once the shining jewel of the city where the Magistrate and noble families built their manors, the city’s central district had long since been transformed to cater to the needs of merchants and travellers alike. Inns, taverns, restaurants, and general stores had lined the streets in the days before the Enemy invasion, and now the Chosen used this area as their barracks. It was also the most likely area for the Enemy command centre, meaning there was a good chance Bai Qi was hidden somewhere close by, but Major Rustram was more than up to the task. Though he himself only commanded three-thousand Stormguard, Hongji granted Rustram command of four more units for a total of fifteen-thousand soldiers in total, most of whom were Westerners posing as reinforcements from the North and well-motivated to succeed. The young Major put these staff-wielding Warriors to good use clearing the streets of Chosen, personally leading from the front to ensure their righteous anger did not get the best of them. Step by careful step, he advanced deeper into the district, the heavy staves of the Western soldiers making short work of the Runic-armoured Defiled. Though impervious to blades, arrows, and various Chi skills, the enchanted armour offered minimal protection from raw, blunt force impacts, which the Westerners doled out with near-crazed enthusiasm. A Runic helmet kept their skulls from being crushed, but it did nothing to stop Defiled brains from the concussive impact delivered by giant staves smashing into heads, a scene which never failed to satisfy no matter how many times Hongji saw it.

Impressive as their effectiveness might be, Hongji was even more impressed by what he saw from the Stormguard themselves, who moved with what appeared to be little to no direction from their commander. Breaking off into groups of five, they cleared out the interior buildings room by room with such efficiency Hongji would have believed it if someone told him they were Warriors with years of experience fighting in cities rather than what basically amounted to raw recruits who barely stepped onto the Martial Path a year ago. It wasn’t their Martial skill that impressed so, which was fairly middling on all accounts, but rather their strict discipline and flawless teamwork built upon a groundwork of open communication. Whenever they came across a group of numerically superior Chosen, the Stormguard were quick to fall back and call for reinforcements, but in clashes with even numbers, they undeniably had the upper hand.

Time and time again, Hongji watched the Chosen approach their foes with the expectation of pairing off into a series of one on one matches, which was how most small skirmishes were fought. Each Warrior picked an opponent, and you tried to kill them or hold out long enough for help to arrive, while hoping your enemy’s support didn’t arrive first. The Stormguard defied those expectations each and every time, with a select few charging forward to hold the Enemy at bay while the remainder gang up on a few vulnerable stragglers. Few Warriors were so accustomed to fighting as a team, which meant they were less effective than the sum total of their strength, though the same could not be said for the Stormguard. In most engagements Hongji saw, the charging Stormguard suffering an injury in exchange for the near instant death of the Chosen stragglers, a more than fair trade any day of the week. It was frightening how well the Stormguard worked together, coordinating their attacks so that even if the Enemy were to block or counter one, there was still a second, third, or even more attacks to contend with, while the defending Stormguard usually only had to deal with one attack at a time as the Chosen struggled not to get in each other’s way.

For a time, Hongji was unable to understand how the Stormguard were able to accomplish such a feat, so he chose a single unit at random to pay more attention to. Soon enough, he discovered why their behaviour seemed so odd to him at first, and why he could never shake the feeling that these Martial Warriors were still commoners yet. It was simply because the Stormguard lacked the inherent pride and arrogance most Martial Warriors possess, which one usually only saw in raw, rank recruits who’d only just barely created their Cores. This lack of airs worked in their favour however, because even though each five man group had a de-facto leader, any one of the members might make a call that the others would heed without question. This was almost unheard of as there was a strict hierarchy which most Martial Warriors followed, and giving orders to a superior was the same as spitting in their eye and telling them they weren’t good enough to lead. It was a matter of face, in which the superior gave the orders while the inferior gave suggestions that may or may not be accepted, but this social nicety didn’t exist among the Stormguard. A minor, almost inconsequential distinction one might think, but to Hongji’s surprise, it made the whole unit function much more smoothly as a whole. This cooperative spirit translated to working with other units as well, with no jockeying between leaders to see who would take charge, because they would default to listening to whoever was best poised to give orders.

At first glance, such a system might prove to be too confusing in massed battle, but it gave the Stormguard an unshakable advantage as they made their way through the inns and taverns of the central district. Even when outnumbered, they strove to turn the fight to their advantage by singling out their targets to kill one at a time. The lack of individual action also meant the Stormguards were less likely to put themselves at risk to kill their foe, because even when fighting alone, they knew that their comrades were there to support them. In the military, Officers were the pillar that held up the Heavens so that the soldiers could fight safely underneath them, but the Stormguard shared that burden amongst themselves and played their part with pride.

It was a different sort of pride from what most Martial Warriors possessed, not the pride of a lone tiger or dragon perched atop their mountain, but the pride of a wolf moving in stride with his pack.

This was far from the extent of Mister Rustram’s skill however, for while he advanced slowly along the main thoroughfare, he dispatched a force of soldiers to patrol around the edge of the central district and guard his back. Led by none other than Tong Da Fung, who was joined by his Senior Martial Sister Li Song, the young Magistrate made for a fetching image in his fine silk robes as he strolled through the city as if out for a mid-day jaunt. Despite the bloodshed and violence around him, he couldn’t even be bothered to carry his own weapons, which were borne effortlessly by his intimidating manservant and bodyguard, the half-weasel Fu Zhu Li, who Hongji had long since sworn never to cross. Beside them, Li Song cut a much more heroic figure in her Runic breastplate, her stony expression fixed in the focused vigilance of a Warrior who knew never to let her guard down. Her new Spiritual Weapon hung from her hip, but she had precious little chance to use it, for the Warriors of Fung’s retinue were far more capable than they appeared and quickly dispatched any and all Defiled sent their way. Most were stragglers too crazed to heed their Chieftains’ commands, but even a concentrated push from a force of five thousand tribesmen failed to force Fung’s retinue back a single step. Were he not privy to the details, Hongji would have thought them both spoiled silk-pants with overprotective parents and Mentors, but when an Enemy Champion made his presence known, Fung was the first to act. Charging in with his heavy spear, he skewered his foe in the first exchange before retreating back to his servant's side, where he traded the weapon for a perfumed handkerchief which he used to dab the faintest beads sweat from his brow.

Before they parted ways, Akanai had taken Hongji aside and asked him to place Fung wherever the fighting was thickest, and to inform her if the boy dared to slack off. Of course, the boy had been present when she said as much, as was Li Song who’d attached herself to his retinue, so Hongji could hardly do otherwise, but at least the boy was up to the task. Say what you will about Tong Da Fung, but he did not lack Martial talent, and as the Enemy sent more tribesmen to punch through his position, the young Magistrate killed three more Defiled Champions with similar ease.

All of this and more took place in the span of a quarter hour, a frantic, nonstop fifteen minutes in which he barely had a moment to draw breath as order after order spilled from his lips. It wasn’t a repeat of his accomplishment in the Central Citadel, but having experienced this state of higher focus once before, he’d improved by leaps and bounds in matters of mental speed, acuity, and efficiency. At his behest, the young Wolf Huushal brought the Enemy on a merry chase around the city before circling back around to set fire to a now undefended storage depot, which he promptly set ablaze. From the market square, Tam Taewoong pushed headlong into a Defiled armoury filled with mundane spears which he then distributed to the local insurgents. Major Chu XinYue and Ulfsaar trotted to and fro along the city streets, threatening the flanks of moving Defiled units and indirectly relieving pressure from friendlies already in combat without needing to do more than move at an easy trot. Warrant Officer Sang Ryong led his troops into a Defiled ambush and suffered significant casualties before fighting his way free, a troublesome turn of events had Lin Ji Yeon not moved into position to capitalize on the subsequent Defiled overexertion. All the while, Major Rustram pushed steadily forward into the heart of the city while Warrant Officer Situ Jia Zian rampaged unchecked throughout the entire south-western quadrant, a far more promising turn of events than Hongji could ever have hoped for.

And then, everything went to shit in the blink of an eye as Bai Qi made his presence felt.

“Major Rustram reports Cloud-Stepping Chosen approaching from the north.”

“Warrant Officer Huushal reports riders approaching from the east.”

“Warrant Officer Jia Zian reports Demons sighting in the forging district.”

“Major Chu XinYue reports he’s engaged with Half-Demons and requests immediate reinforcements. Status critical.”

More and more sightings rolled in as Hongji’s stomach flopped in place, his nerves getting the better of him at this pivotal moment. They’d expected as much, for there was no way Bai Qi would move without a contingent of Peak Experts and Demons to guard him, but this was the real deal. Even though he’d spread his Peak Experts thin to ensure no single unit would be overrun, the greatest risk of spreading his forces out across the city was if Bai Qi gathered his strongest combatants together to strike at a single target with overwhelming force. Which unit was the hammer then? The Chosen in the central district? The Half-Demons hunting Chu XinYue? The feral demons moving in to surround young Zian? Or any of the other reported sightings?

Difficult to say until they struck, which meant the price for this information would be paid in Imperial blood, but this had been the plan all along. Whoever incited the enslaved locals to act pushed up their estimated timeline, as Hongji thought it would be the better part of an hour before the Demons were set loose. That was the way the Enemy fought, chipping away at Imperial strength one tribesman at a time until those brave Warriors no longer had the strength to fight off greater threats. However, with the civilian uprising occupying the attention of most of the Defiled tribesmen, Major Rustram’s forces were now poised to eliminate the bulk of the Chosen stationed here in Pan Si Xing before any reinforcements could arrive to support them. Now, Bai Qi’s only choice was to dispatch his Demons and Peak Experts to save his Chosen elites, but Baatar and Hongji had planned for this well in advance.

“The sharks have entered the waters,” he Sent, knowing there would be no response, for Baatar and his elites could not afford to give away their locations. “Standby.”

A warning to be ready in case the worst should come to pass, but only then. Unless their participation hinged on victory or defeat, the Peak Experts with Baatar would not enter the battle until the ‘Tiger came down the mountain’, or more specifically, Bai Qi revealed himself. For now, Hongji’s forces would have to make do with lesser, but still capable heroes like Lawgiver Won Gwang, Li TieGuai and the Devilish Duo, and other such valiant Warriors. Hongji only prayed that their preparations would be enough, but then again, even all the preparation in the world would not save them from the worst case scenario. Namely that they succeed in killing Bai Qi and crippled the Enemy forces here in Pan Si Xing only for an Enemy Divinity to show up and break the treaty in full. Though Baatar assured him that they had their own Imperial Divinities on standby, Hongji had seen what a casual exchange between Divinities had done to the once thriving city of Sinuji, and he would rather not experience it first hand here in Pan Si Xing, a name which was a homonym for Death Sentence.

Imperial or Defiled, whose death sentence it was still too early to say, but at this point in time, it could really go either way. Not the best odds to stake everything on a roll of the dice, but there was nothing left to do but fight and pray.

Chapter Meme