Lite rain drizzled over No Leaks village as Fan Shun gazed over an open parade ground from the balcony overhanging the second floor of the humble building that had been prepared for him. It had been a little over a month ago that upon returning to Little Green bamboo village he was sent to reinforce the alliance defenses lining the coast of the Flowing Grass River. Three weeks of hasty marching had led his legion to the medium-sized village controlled by the Wang clan and they had been there for barely a week.
Around him, modest furnishings provisioned the headquarters building and two-story barracks that sat on the opposite side of the parade ground. Great care had been taken to hang banners that proclaimed this the temporary garrison of Fan clan forces among the alliance troops; however, little else set the sparse walls of the spartan military compound apart.
Overhead, the misty clouds that had blown in from deep inside the river's domain cast the village and compound in a dim light that seemed to sap the good mood from the air. Three long years Fan Shun had been at this, long years of butchering every Wei clan loyalist he could seize. Anger had not overtaken him; however, his actions had become more and more aggressive as the conflict continued.
Time and time again the enemy had tried to capture him in ambushes yet each time Fan Shun had served as the blade for the observer reports to cut down straggling Wei clan units. The merits had been plentiful but none of them seemed to calm the rage inside his heart, pain flaring from the death of a man that had pledged to follow him through life and death and even the next life if that existed. Shaking his head, Fan Shun turned his attention back to the stack of reports that had been delivered over the past week.
During the time his unit settled into the compound he had been busy organizing the troops and making sure all of their needs were tended to. As such, he had expected a mountain of paperwork to work on when the time finally arose to tackle it. To his surprise, however, only this small stack of intelligence reports had come in.
Among them were the usual communications about what different clans were providing troops to which fronts or where various attacks had occurred. Over the last year, the fighting had boiled down into somewhat of a stalemate, because of this aside from the occasional skirmish no major battles had broken out recently. What had caught his attention were the reports that only Fan clan legion commanders received, internal reports that weren't shared with the rest of the alliance.
It had been spaced out over the last month but with Fan Shun's master realm mental energy processing the connections were simple, the clan's core legion and two whole palms had been subtly shifted to return home. All of the orders had been offset so that no large number of troops moved at once and so that every single one of them would arrive back in Little Green Bamboo village within a week from now. Not only that, Fan Shun soon started to remember reports that he had received about legion movements before arriving home and right before departing.
Connecting those he could also see that the remaining three legions had been split across all fronts where the clan was openly operating. This had started even earlier, almost two weeks before his legion had started for No leaks Village. Without any pitched battles occurring it would seem to any outsider that the Fan clan was still manning each of their fronts with close to full force.
Add in some illusion formations from the observer lineage and it would appear as if nothing had changed at all. Rapid thoughts spun throughout Fan Shun's mind, this must be an operation of massive proportions. Indeed, it was the entire clan marshaling as an army, only with all of them silently acting as one without knowing it.
Adrenaline flowed through his veins, fervor to fight the enemy. Qi gathered as the master-realm mental energy flowed over the balcony, drawing in tendrils of power that seemed to fill Fan Shun with boundless energy. For just a moment he was ready to face the world as boundless fury built in his eyes, if gods blocked the way he would slay gods and if buddha blocked the way he would slay buddha! Even if the mythical Four Primordial Immortal Ancestors stood in the way, Fan Shun's sword wouldn't yield!
Sword hymns sung from the gathering Qi as the image of an army of stalwart soldiers gathered behind the old warrior. In a rush, the grand image faded, reason and calm returning to Fan Shun's eyes. He understood well how reckless heads could foil well-laid plans, no matter how much he wanted to be there for a grand battle the fact of the matter remained that he had been chosen for another role.
Looking out on the parade ground across the forms of the entire legion training he could see Zi Bao and Fan Yong training with the passion of youth. For now, Fan Shun would simply have to do his duty to keep those under his command safe and trust in the will of the clan leader. With a sigh, he leaped from the balcony. After all, these warriors were going to train themselves, properly at least. At the thought, a small smile started to form on his lips.
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Wei Tu had never had an easier time approaching an enemy stronghold. As he walked through the bamboo forest that spread all around Little Green Bamboo Village it almost felt as if he was walking through his own backyard. With his Grandmaster-realm mental energy, he could take in the startling beauty of the forest as it melded seamlessly with the boundaries of the man-made clearings. As if the clearings had naturally appeared rather than being artificial.
Warm rays of sunlight filtered through the canopy as the sound of animal life played all around. In the sky, small birds trilled their songs as the underbrush swayed with the gentle wind of the day, forming a melody all its own. Already, scouting groups had ranged out from the Wei clan army as they approached, nothing within a day's walk west of the Fan clan ancestral village should have escaped their net.
Today would be a glorious day, one that would unite the valley under the power of the Wei clan and as such restore the order that should have been long ago. In total, 50 master-realm experts spanned the army with countless supporting Wei clan warriors. Including the scouting group, this totaled 200 strong.
In truth, the Wei clan could have fielded a much larger army but there were two problems with that. The first being that 200 men were already stretching the capabilities of the illusion formation that was being powered by the four strongest masters and Wei Tu himself as the eye of the formation. This had required them all to wear pouches with specially inscribed tablets at their waists that constantly needed a small amount of Qi from an active user to work.
Most of the energy was supplanted with spirit stones that were stored in the packs each of them was wearing, however, the foreign elder had been clear, the formation needed active energy at least in some part from a living user. As such after some testing, it was seen that the energy requirements for the formation went up with the number of men it was covering and all of them had to remain within the formation boundaries formed by those running the formation. With Wei Tu serving as the eye at the center of the army the other four master realm experts determined the outline of the border by their position such that the border was formed using them as the corners of the boundary.
With this, the Wei had been able to secure enough spirit stones to get within a day's walk of Little Green Bamboo Village. After the formation needed active power to activate they dropped it and started sending out the scouts to find any stragglers or spies trying to inform the greater Fan clan force at the border. Even if they found out this information should seem baffling to the Fan clan higher-ups as it would seem that the Wei clan army simply teleported past their defenses to right outside their home!
The second reason the Wei didn't field an army of 1,000 or even 10,000 was that larger numbers simply stopped mattering in fights with high-realm martial artists. Even though the Wei clan could field an army 10,000 strong easily, powerful foes like the leader of the Fan clan would arrive and crush such numbers with his high realm of martial arts training. Thus it became that in battles of martial artists that quality usually outweighed quantity and what truly mattered was how many trained warriors one side could field.
As such the 150 non-master-realm warriors that had been brought on this assault would mainly focus on securing objectives and resources as well as contending with other lower realm opponents. In doing this all 50 experts of the Wei army could be freed to combat the Fan clan elders and overwhelm them with force. Although pure force of numbers lost its effectiveness when it came to untrained soldiers, if one could find a reasonable number of martial artists one realm lower than the target, they could be overwhelmed with sheer numbers.
This was the assault plan today as Wei Tu and his elite strike team would find Fan Long and bring back his head. It was said that the Fan clan martial artists were more powerful man for man than most other forces however, by reports they only had 25 or so experts in the master realm or higher. With Wei Tu's grandmaster realm strength he felt he would be a match for the Fan clan leader.
Frowning at the thought, Wei Tu remarked in his mind that he had wanted the clan lord to accompany him on this assault, surely with two grandmaster martial artists Fan Long would fall swiftly and surely. It seemed that Wei Hua had different plans however as he had stayed in Wei City amid some illusion formations, ones that presented images of Wei Tu himself as well as the other Wei army higher-ups. Shrugging he continued forward as the walls of Little Green Bamboo Village were in sight, now was the time for action instead of thought.
With a war cry, Wei Tu ordered his men to charge and they stormed forward with speed that made falling leaves seem to pause mid-air. In the span of a breath, the entire group of 50 master realm experts blurred forward, emerald and gold scaled armor sparkling in the noonday sun as they blurred across the 200 meters between them and the walls. Transparent whisps seemed to flutter in the air around them as a whistling sound rose.
Blurry green swords seemed to ride these winds and as the group approached the gate it seemed to shudder as thousands of sword slashes lashed out across it. Mortal treasure bamboo creaked amid the force of phantom Qi swords hitting it over and over, holding for one breath before shattering into hundreds of slices. Shards of the gate rained down as the green blurs seemed to pass through them, moving so fast that they had to dodge the fragments as if they were frozen in the air.
Streets blurred by as the army rushed forward, scouring buildings and roofs as they went, nothing could stop them. Buildings and roads turned into scattered fragments as the sword Qi started forming formations of wind and sword in the air that destroyed all in front of them. Soon they approached an open square, where all roads gave way to a large clearing. At the center of this clearing sat a small dais and on that daise stood a man with his back facing them.
His long black hair flowed with the wind as it came to the middle of his back matching the movements of the golden robe the man wore. On this man's back stood the proud crest of a golden palm with an open eye at the center of it, this palm seemed to suppress all things in the world! When facing this person the entire Wei clan army felt that they were gazing upon an immortal mountain.
As he turned around the man's piercing golden eyes seemed to look through all things, his demeanor like that of an immortal from legend! In his right hand was held a plain staff made of smooth pure stone that seemed to warp the air around it as if the object was too heavy for the world to bear. A sad smile crossed the man's lips, this was obviously Fan long, the leader of the Fan Clan!
"Is this how you greet fellow seekers of the martial path? I recall being far more polite last time I visited Wei City." Fan Long's tone was gentle as if his mind was elsewhere, deep sadness seemed to underline his words as.
His gaze contained no fury nor contempt, it was as if he was speaking to a misbehaving child who was old enough to what they had done wrong.
"Senior Long, I, Wei Tu, have boundless respect for your martial prowess. Today, I am here to serve my lord's orders. Nothing more, nothing less" Wei Tu's tone was like an immovable stone, nothing would convince him to shirk his duty!
"Indeed? That is good to hear. Today let it not be said that the leader of the Fan Clan is one to bully juniors. I give you a single chance, surrender now and swear to leave the service of Wei Hua. If you do so, your lives shall be spared and I swear no harm will come to you!" Fan Long's tone firmed and steel entered his eyes.
Some of the Wei masters looked around in bewilderment as if looking for an ambush. Indeed many of them sent out wisps of mental energy into the environment to see if Fan long had any reinforcements. Suddenly they sneered as many of them felt a large number of troops approaching from outside the village. It seemed that they had been hidden well as even the Wei scouts had not found them!
"Senior Long, you seem to misunderstand. With the 50 of us here, you'll be dead long before your troops arrive. After that, with me here, they stand no chance. Today the Fan clan will follow in the footsteps of the Jie" Wei Tu smiled wickedly.
"I take it that means you refuse then?" Fan Long's expression turned forlorn as he shook his head, looking at the ground
Wei Tu spat on the ground and gathered the Qi he had been generating. Without warning all of the Wei clan soldiers attacked. In the fraction of a moment after they began attacking all of them felt a chill go down their spines.
Fan Long looked up and swept his gaze across them, his eyes burning like golden suns. A pressure that Wei Tu had never felt in his life before descended upon him in that instant, a force straight out of legend.
"Impossible… you've broken through! Supre-" Wei Tu's words were cut off as Fan Long let out a warcry that seemed to split the heavens.
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Fan Zhong grunted as his staff ripped through a short bamboo shoot, sending a burst of air out in all directions. All around him lay broken pieces of shoots here and there, evidence of his hard work in training that morning. Something still seemed to be out of his grasp, as if he needed only the slightest bit of improvement to achieve the first-grade realm.
Sighing, he reset into the void gate stance that had become so familiar over the past years. Little else had kept the young warrior occupied as the war had dragged on. It had felt suffocating, to be in one of the core legion battle squads and feel so utterly useless. Every battle had the looming shadow of his seniors or brothers over him.
Even Little White had proven to be more of an asset than him on the battlefield, roaming like an invisible reaper that caused the enemy to constantly look over their shoulders in fear. Guilt gnawed at Fan Zhong from all directions, guilt from simply feeling suffocated when the seniors were only trying to protect him! Anyone else in this situation would be grateful and he was, however… there was a feeling of wrongness.
Should he be protected more than Fan Yong or Zi Bao, both of who fought equally as hard as him? Had they, or anyone else for that manner, truly done any less for the clan? Confusion built inside his mind simply thinking of the topic, with no idea of what to do he simply prepared to keep practicing his technique. In these years he had managed to improve the piercing origin palm quite far and finally managed to get it to what his elder brother had acknowledged as the familiar realm of attainment for an unformed technique.
Although the road was long, he could only keep walking it until the technique was complete. To that end Fan Zhong had found this spot, some two hours walk from the mine, to train alone. He had felt that a personally formed technique needed to be improved and refined as naturally as possible.
As such, every morning Fan Zhong would slip away to work on the technique in seclusion, only occasionally showing it to the seniors when he was truly perplexed about something. Breathing in deeply, he prepared to channel all of his frustration and confusion into a furious bout of training. Suddenly a blur of movement caught his eye and before he could react, a group of eight Wei clan soldiers stood in front of him.
Instantly Fan Zhong could feel the heavy mental energy of the two in the lead who was dressed in resplendent emerald and gold magical treasure armor. Their control was sloppy, Fan Cheng had been teaching him how to better sense someone else's mental energy and realm, but there was no doubt that they were master realm, martial artists
"Well would you look here, it seems today is our lucky day Brother Zhen. Young Master Fan Zhong himself in the flesh, having fun playing soldier brat?" The lead Wei soldier spoke with a rasp, laughing between words.
Tensing, Fan Zhong prepared to fight however, at that moment an ear-splitting warcry seemed to sunder the heavens. Shortly after a horn belting three short notes over and over in a hurried fashion rang in the air. All of the Wei clan soldiers seemed to hesitate before all but the leaders fled in the direction they had come.
Menacing glares fell on Fan Zhong as he activated his movement technique to the fullest at the first sign of the enemy hesitating. Quickly he was off, concealing himself among the underbrush and terrain. They may be experts but steel-ridden resolve was flashing through Fan Zhong's eyes, he was no longer the weak boy he had once been.
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"Commander Cheng, I'm sure junior brother Zhong is fine. It's normal for him to practice his technique-" Kang Ah's words were cut off as a warcry split the heavens followed by three ringing notes from a horn.
Inside this warcry came a shocking message concealed in mental energy, stronger energy than any of the many Fan clan members stationed around the village had ever felt.
"Sons and daughters of Fan, today we pay the Wei back for all the blood they have spilled. Today we put an end to this meaningless conflict. All units collapse on the village, kill all who resist, and capture those who surrender. Let us see how the Wei dog's like the taste of a supreme grandmaster's fury!" Fan Long's voice echoed with boundless resolve through the mental energy.
This was a fairly simple technique that one could learn or receive even in the first-grade realm. However, to be able to project it to all of those within a day's walk of Little Green Bamboo village was astonishing and would most likely consume a large part of even a grandmaster's energy reserves! With the shocking news of his father breaking through, Fan Cheng was speechless, none of this had been told to him beforehand!
"Brother Cheng…." Fan Jiahao looked at him with concern.
"Go, meet up with the first core legion unit you can and support them. I will return to you with junior brother Fan Zhong shortly" Fan Cheng gritted his teeth, shooting a look of challenge at all of his officers.
This was disobeying a direct order, something that Fan Cheng would normally never do! In their hearts, the rest of the squad was shaken as well as moved. Shaken at the ever stalwart and orderly Fan Cheng disobeying an order however moved at the same time by his love for his brother.
With a nod all of them blurred from sight, using Qi to enhance their movement techniques to the extreme as their mental energy stretched out towards the village. As soon as they left Fan Cheng heard a growl and looked up to see Little White staring at him from the top of the ravine. A nod and a bark were all that was needed to convey their sentiments. Soon Fan Cheng was pulling in as much Qi as he could while following the fleeting form of the water wolf.
In his heart panic rose, he could only hope that Fan Zhong was safe.