398 The Valley (1/2)

Although the army of the Great Snowmountain now had more than 10000 soldiers, Gu Shenwei did not feel that their strength had improved. The original troop, of about 1500 or 1600, were still the ones that he could rely on.

After defeating the reinforcements hired by the nobles, the men from the Great Snowmountain managed to find a substantial number of healthy slaves both in and outside of the capital. With the addition of the tribal soldiers who had surrendered and the few nobles who had survived the forest, their army had expanded, but the newly joined were either weak-willed or cowardly. They were like a big group of children which constantly required supervision, ultimately draining a considerable amount of energy from the veterans.

The battle before them was a major test for the 8000 or so new recruits. Not only did they need to prove their combat power, they also had to show the extent of their loyalty to Dragon King.

It was already coming to a month since the army of the Great Snowmountain had left the capital of the Land of Fragrance. Throughout this time, they had travelled across mountains and rivers and even trampled out small paths hidden amongst the wilderness into a road that was able to accommodate horses and carriages. They had left a few soldiers behind at certain locations to ensure that there would be a smooth passage through this route in the future so that supplies could be transported from the Land of Fragrance.

Gu Shenwei and Maid Lotus pushed on with their journey without a stop and caught up with the main body in just a few days' time.

There were three to four hundred volumes of books left behind by the high priest which were, surprisingly, not thrown out by the illiterate soldiers. Still, it took considerable effort to dig them all out, and it would be much more difficult to piece together the entire text of the eighth chapter of the Wayless Book together from the books.

The texts had originally been arranged in order and matched with each sentence of the incantation, but their sequence had been jumbled up by the late high priest. If anyone wished to cross-check the texts with the incantation, he or she would have to read through the books at least once to match them back into the correct order again.

Gu Shenwei had no energy to perform such a task.

Maid Lotus used spare time over the next few days to read through dozens of the books. Once she noticed sentences that were similar to the incantation, she would reread the paragraph in great detail. Utilizing such a tedious method, she somehow managed to piece together some words that seemed to be a Kung Fu manual. This proved that Shangguan Ru's deduction was possibly correct.

As they drew nearer to the Western Region, her role as Dragon King's protector grew increasingly important and she had to set the books aside.

Gu Shenwei ordered men to take proper care of the books and decided to turn his attention to them once things had somewhat settled down. After all, the most important wa to secure dominance over the Western Region was not extraordinary Kung Fu but a strong, loyal and dependable army.

The opposing army was already in formation as they stood on an undulating mountain slope. They looked like rows and rows of trimmed trees.

These were the coalition forces made up of the Wushan tribes from the south of the Xiaoyao Lake and they guarded the main route through the mountain, blocking the exit for the army of the Great Snowmountain.

There were a total of five kingdoms surrounding the Xiaoyao Lake: the Stone, Kang, Sha, and Hui Kingdoms were on the northern shore of the lake; only the An Kingdom sat on its southern shore. Further south of the An Kingdom was the Wushan mountains. This endless mountain range contained the best iron ores as well as the most chaotic tribes in the entire Western Region.

No one knew exactly how many tribes there were in the Wushan region; conservative estimates pegged them over more than a hundred. In their struggle to gain control over the profitable ore lodes, the tribes engaged in battle with one another and sometimes joined forces for alliances. Likewise, no one could understand the relationship between these tribes.

To the southwest of the mountains stood a small, barren hill. Very little vegetation grew on it and it did not contain rich iron ores; it was an area disliked by all tribes. As such, it became a natural barrier for the Land of Fragrance.

Every year, the nobles from the Land of Fragrance would send out a small merchant caravan to cross the mountain range and trade their native products with anything except the precious ores from the Wushan tribes.

For centuries, these small merchant caravans did not attract any attention from any tribe; the tribes could not even tell the difference between them and the other merchants from the Western Region.

Therefore, when the seven sons of the Shili family came looking for reinforcements, the merchants who knew them were shocked.

The native products of the Land of Fragrance were various herbs. Normally, they would fetch a good price and the merchants would spend some of the money earned from the sale to purchase supplies that their country was lacking in before bringing the rest of the taels back.

Years of accumulation had allowed the Land of Fragrance to have a large reserve of valuable wealth. It was this reserve that the Shili family used to hire reinforcements in an attempt to save their country from invaders.

The 3000 reinforcement troops entered the Land of Fragrance and traveled without pause. They managed to cover a journey that usually took about 20 days in just half a month. They saw for themselves the legendary riches of the Land of Fragrance and even got to pack the taels into boxes personally. However, they ended up benefiting others instead: more than half of them died in the battle and the riches, which they had just gotten ahold of, fell into the Dragon King's possession.

Not only was it a double loss to the tribes who had sent out their soldiers in response to the Shili family's request, but it was also a huge embarrassment that was hard to forget.

Ha Chilie, the son of the Dongshan Mountain Tribe, ran back to his hometown barefooted. He had lost much weight and was dirty from the journey. He was treated as a savage who had lost his way and almost died at the hands of his own people.

He requested for his father to gather the neighboring tribes and conveyed the news of their annihilation.

Before they entered the Land of Fragrance, the Wushan tribes had been misguided by the Shili family into believing that they would be facing a bunch of bandits from the forest. They could never have imagined that their enemy would be Dragon King and the swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain who had disappeared for several months.

”The Great Snowmountain has already been destroyed, how could it...” The chiefs from the dozens of tribes had come over and were unable to believe Ha Chilie's news.

However, the truth was right in front of them; only one of the 3000 soldiers had returned and they did not see any of the promised gold or silver.

The tribal chiefs were enraged and swore to seek revenge at all costs.

Initially, they wanted to gather more tribes but the army of the Great Snowmountain calculated their timing well; it was only three days after Ha Chilie had returned home before the army of ten thousand closed in on the border.

The tribes hastily prepared for battle and managed to gather 2000 soldiers. They had home ground advantage and high morale. Moreover, they were familiar with the geography of their own land.

However, once they saw the army of the Great Snowmountain covering the mountains, every one of them, from the tribal chief to the common soldier, began to panic.

Just like that, even before the fight began, each party already felt that the other was stronger.

There were more than a thousand soldiers in the army of the Great Snowmountain who had surrendured from the tribes. Dragon King had instructed them to get their weapons from the battlefield, so in essence, they were as good as hostages.

Gu Shenwei ordered them to stand behind the main body of his army on high areas so that their own people in the opposing army could see them.