Start with a red name

Soon, the group was honored to have the opportunity to meet the "divine child".

They knelt before Geng Xuan with the utmost piety and deference.

Geng Xuan accepted the offer without any embarrassment or prevarication.

But what he was really concerned about was the reason for Monteau's absence.

"...He was going to greet you in person, but yesterday morning we suddenly received some very bad news."

Many sand tribe settlements are being organized and mobilized on a large scale to plunder the various tribes scattered deep in the wilderness.

"...They don't want any survivors; once they're found, they'll kill them without hesitation."

"Because many of the troops from various units were conscripted by Dong Guan."

The rest, in order to maintain the illusion that everything in the tribe was normal, did not stay with the scattered and hidden tribespeople at all.

Faced with the looting and killing by these people, they had absolutely no power to resist.

"Although Monto wanted to greet you personally, after much deliberation, he left us here while he took his men to deal with the search and killing by the sand people."

After understanding the whole story, Geng Xuan looked at Tie Lang beside him and said:
"Your job has come."

Iron Wolf nodded solemnly, already understanding what he needed to do, and asked directly:

How many soldiers can I take with me?

Geng Xuan did not answer, but looked at Liu Mu instead.

Liu Mu thought for a moment and said, "Five thousand."

Upon hearing this, Tie Lang frowned slightly, somewhat displeased with Liu Mu's "stinginess."

However, after Liu Mu said the following words, his furrowed brows immediately relaxed.

"...Five thousand Xuanyou Iron Cavalry, we will hold off Dong Guan's army here."

With these five thousand iron cavalry, you should be able to handle the riots that follow.

Having said that, he stared at Iron Wolf, whose face showed a pleased expression, and instructed him:
"I'm entrusting these people to you. You must urge them to diligently learn the 'throwing technique' and not slack off."

In addition, this is our trump card against Dong Guan, so we mustn't let them reveal it prematurely.

"...Five thousand Xuanyou Iron Cavalry are more than enough to crush these rabble!"

Iron Wolf cupped his hands in a respectful gesture and solemnly replied:
"I can spare it."

At this point, he looked at Geng Xuan and asked for instructions:

"My lord, shall I go now?"

Geng Xuan looked at the person who had just reported and asked, "You should know the area where Montau and his group are currently operating, right?"

The man quickly replied, "I don't know the exact location, but I do know the general area where he is active."

Geng Xuan nodded slightly and said to Tie Lang:
“Bring them along too…try to meet them before Monto and the others.”

I plan to make him your deputy as well, and from now on, he will command all the soldiers from those tribes.

"Whatever you require of them, or whatever your ideas are for those tribes, just let him handle it and coordinate it."

Iron Wolf nodded slightly, understanding in his heart.

I know this is the military commander's response to his previous question.

This is also how he used these "Blue Wolf Followers" and how he established communication with alien tribes.

Find a "middleman" that both parties trust.

Since Monto has gained the favor of the military lord and grown up to this point, his loyalty to the military lord is beyond doubt.

More than a month ago, Monto had already begun working around the area. As a fellow tribesman and an envoy personally dispatched by the "Son of God," he was far more trusted than outsiders like them.

With his mediation, the "knot" that had been bothering him was suddenly untied.

Soon, the five thousand Xuanyou Iron Cavalry, led by Iron Wolf, broke away from the main force.

They sped westward and soon disappeared into the depths of the night.

Song Mingzhu, Liu Mu, and others had put the matter aside and began discussing how to set up camp.

According to Liu Mu's plan, this was not a temporary campsite to be set up for one night and then withdrawn, but rather a place to keep Dong Guan occupied for more than ten days.

This was not only to ensure that all the iron cavalry could learn the basic throwing techniques, but also to prepare a sufficient number of standard javelins.

After the initial test that day, Liu Mu accompanied Zhang Shan and others to conduct more tests.

To maximize the throwing power, the weight and shape of the javelin were standardized.

Forging a batch of these javelins also takes time.

Fortunately, the "Black Wind Army" is not short of these materials.

Starting with the "Black Wind Gang" during the "Wild Wolf Gorge" period, the "Black Wind Army" swept across the land, quickly encircling and taking away everything of value that could be carried away.

Even if it slows down our progress, we are willing to do so.

These bandit strongholds already had considerable reserves of crude minerals, which were the key products for these places to conduct stable transactions with the channels controlled by Dong Guan.

While there are many high-value and high-quality minerals, in terms of quantity, various iron materials are the most abundant.

In addition, there were spoils from the "Huangwei Island", the "Shuimen Army" camp, and the consumption of more than ten other post stations.

In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of weapons destroyed in various battles, from "Wild Wolf Gorge" to the present day.

Except for a small number of high-quality pieces that have repair value, the vast majority were collected and remelted into iron billets.

All things considered, there is enough material to cast hundreds of thousands of javelins.

Moreover, unlike forging other weapons, this does not require a high level of skill from the forger.

The tens of thousands of bandits, along with the hundreds of blacksmiths gathered from places like Huangwei Island, plus the ever-increasing number of rough "apprentices," were enough to get everything done in a short time.

Even if the quality is a bit low and the product is a bit fragile, it's best to treat it as a disposable item.

After use, it can be recycled and recast for continued use.

Therefore, Liu Mu, Song Mingzhu, and others naturally had to make many plans.

Only Geng Xuan was still looking in the direction where Tie Lang and the others had left, and in his eyes was an expression that no one else could see or understand.

No one knew that Geng Xuan had already known about the plight of these ordinary tribal people several days earlier.

When he first learned of this situation, he had not yet confessed to Liu Mu his intention to completely change the Iron Cavalry tactics.

At that time, the "Black Wind Army" had only recently left the west coast of Xuanqinghai, and the troops were still marching westward at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour.

Then, sixty-seven wisps of red energy caught up with him from behind and entered his brow one after another.

The most significant characteristic of these sixty-seven wisps of red energy compared to the red energy he had previously captured and refined was that their color was all paler.

Based on his experience, the most potent one could offer him no more than ten points of good fortune.

In the end, these sixty-seven clusters of red aura only brought him four hundred and sixty-nine points of good fortune.

On average, each person contributes a meager seven points of good fortune.

That alone is not enough for Geng Xuan to fully determine the source of the red aura.

After all, while he was stirring up trouble in Xuanyou and Youzhou for the past two months, the famine in Yuanzhou had reached its peak.

Because of his prior arrangements, not only did a continuous stream of auspicious energy rush towards him, but there were also many with auspicious energy levels below ten.

But all this red aura came from the south.

However, the 67th Regiment came from behind him, from the direction of Xuanzhou in the east.

Furthermore, even stronger evidence lies in the names of those who contributed to the Red Fortune, which differ significantly from the naming rules of the descendants of the Five Emperors, and share many similarities with names like Zhaluo, Baima, Hake, and Mengtuo.

If you still don't know who these "contributors" are at this point, then you're really out of your mind.

For nearly a day afterward, two more waves of similar red energy surged toward him and entered his brow.

The low luck score, coupled with the name identifier, further confirmed Geng Xuan's suspicions.

About a day later, the frequency of this "red tide" surge suddenly intensified.

Almost every two or three hours, at least one wave, ranging from dozens to hundreds of red wisps, would surge toward him.

Today, the intervals between each surge of "red tide" have been shortened even further.

This indicates that the tribespeople scattered throughout the wilderness, without any means of self-defense, are being searched for and killed on a large scale.

Efficiency is still increasing.

Considering the current situation in Xuanyou and Youzhou, Geng Xuan could even guess what methods Dong Guan had used.

He was aware of these things early on, but naturally he "knew nothing" and continued to act according to the established plan.

At this moment, Geng Xuan was also pondering this matter.

But his focus was more on something else.

Just now, when he received those dozens of people who paid homage to him in a pilgrimage-like manner.

He gained a full forty points of luck.

Based on past patterns, the Black Wind Army only achieves such results when it recruits thousands of new members at a time.

Then Geng Xuan recalled that when he had brought the more than 60,000 "Canglang believers" under his command, there had also been an abnormal increase in Baiyun.

Then there's the thought of those tribespeople, perhaps thousands of miles away, whom we've never met, who, after being slaughtered and killed, also contributed their "remaining energy."

Geng Xuan had some guesses about the situation behind this "abnormality".

"Is this considered 'being represented'?"

Long ago, when the first abnormalities were discovered on Zhaluo and others.

Geng Xuan discovered that when they recited "Canglangtian" together, the "ripples" on their bodies would resonate in unison, a strange phenomenon.

These "ripples" can originate from both the physical and the more unpredictable mental realm.

From a certain perspective, these different individuals are gradually "infected" with the same aspects because of a common "intermediary".

The more devout the faith in "Azure Wolf Heaven", the more common ground they will have.

Even more remarkably, now, because of his intervention, there is another visible and tangible "Divine Child" beyond this ethereal "Azure Wolf Heaven," thus making this connection even stronger. It has a more concrete and clear anchor point.

When a portion of the group unequivocally embraces him, those seemingly unrelated to him, bound together by shared beliefs, passively become his "own people."

It's like individual iron balls existing on the surface of ice, now connected together by strands of silk.

When some of the iron balls fell into the water through a hole, those seemingly unrelated iron balls that were originally on the shore were also dragged into the water.

Furthermore, as more and more iron balls fall into the water, and their scale becomes larger and larger, the "potential energy" of the dragging action will become increasingly terrifying.

Ultimately, none escaped; all the iron balls would inevitably fall into the water.

There is only one way to escape this predicament: to break free from the entanglement of these "threads" and return to being a complete yet solitary individual.

Unfortunately, compared to the iron ball, the silk thread that seemed so easy to break free from was actually the most impossible constraint to escape.

In fact, the more dangerous the situation, the more desperate the situation, and the more life-or-death the moment, the more steadfast their faith in "Azure Wolf Sky" and the more fervent their call for the "Divine Child" will become.

The binding force of those "threads" naturally becomes even stronger.

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Geng Xuan was suddenly awakened by a commotion.

Following the sound, they saw a troop of cavalry escorting more than ten people to Song Mingzhu, Liu Mu, and the others.

Soon, led by Song Mingzhu and others, the group arrived at Geng Xuan's side.

"What happened?" Geng Xuan asked.

“A spy from Siyebao,” Song Mingzhu said.

"Siye Fortress?" Geng Xuan asked with slight doubt.

Song Mingzhu explained, "It's that sandy settlement not far to our east."

Geng Xuan suddenly realized.

"They received a message from Dong Guan, organized a militia, and began to hunt down and kill the tribesmen scattered in the wilderness."

They noticed the commotion and assumed it was the tribespeople causing trouble, so they sent some night riders to investigate. However, they ended up falling into the hands of our scouts.

The scouts of the "Black Wind Army" all used the Xuan You Iron Cavalry.

These settlement militias were naturally easy to handle.

Any death or injury would be a disrespect to the Xuan You Iron Cavalry, a super unit.

"What are your plans to do?" Geng Xuan asked.

Song Mingzhu did not answer, but looked at Liu Mu instead.

His responsibilities are gradually shifting towards "domestic affairs".

For him, the most important task at present is to speed up the construction of the camp.

Such matters related to combat were naturally left to Liu Mu to worry about.

Liu Mu had clearly already made his plans.

He offered his "solution" almost without hesitation.

He said in a deep voice:

"My lord, I was just about to tell you this... I want to take Siye Fort now."

Geng Xuan listened quietly without making any comment.

Liu Mu continued:
"Kill all those who resist."

Those who were willing to surrender were all moved here.

The elderly and weak were transferred to the rear, while the able-bodied remained to be used as laborers for construction.

As for Siyebao, it was burned down, and its water source was destroyed and polluted as much as possible.

Upon hearing this, Geng Xuan frowned.

Upon seeing this, Liu Mu's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly explained:
"Even if we do nothing and let them roam around, their fate won't be any better; it will only be worse than it is now!"

Geng Xuan was taken aback, then suddenly realized, and whispered, "Dong Guan!"

Liu Mu nodded and said, "Yes, it is Dong Guan."

"Siyebao is more than 20 li away from here, and there are a lot of ready-made houses."

Once Dong Guan leads his army close in, he will surely requisition it and use it as a base to expand his camp, making it the source of his strategy to confront us.

We can't let him get away with this.

Given Dong Guan's actions, now that he has taken over Siyebao, how can those people inside possibly fare well?

All the grain would be collected and requisitioned as military rations.

He couldn't keep those useless old and weak people around to consume precious military rations.

Those useful young adults will also be quickly drained of all their value.

If the value they provide doesn't match their daily consumption, he will also not hesitate to dispose of them...or send them to storm our camp, to test the waters and gauge our response!

Geng Xuan remained silent.

It sounds cruel, but this approach is not unique to Dong Guan; it is a "common solution" used by military garrisons in various states.

Once a place becomes a battlefield, the veil of warmth and affection that is usually maintained to preserve rule will be quickly torn away.

Everything, everyone, and everything around us must serve the war effort.

People within the area have exactly two choices.

Anything that is beneficial to the war should be put into the war in various ways, even if it is in the form of "military rations" or "consumables".

Anything that is not beneficial to the war, or even that may pose a potential hindrance, even if it only consumes a certain amount of food and water, must be "deleted" immediately.

Transporting supplies from the rear to the front lines is extremely costly.

For every additional person lost at the front lines, food might be snatched from the mouths of ten people a thousand or two miles away in the rear.

This is such a simple calculation problem that any rational person would know how to do it.

Geng Xuan remained silent.

Liu Mu wasn't finished speaking.

"...Based on what we know, Dong Guan's army is about a day behind us."

We not only want to remove 'Siyebao,' the closest obstacle, but I also want to make full use of this period to eliminate all the settlements within a hundred miles that he could leverage.

Even for those who are far away and cannot act directly, we must still spread the information.

I believe that, based on their understanding of Dong Guan, they won't need us to urge them; they will all flee on their own."

Given Dong Guan's "illustrious reputation," no matter how respectful those settlements had been to him in the past, once they learned that their homeland had unfortunately become a front-line battlefield, those sand people would surely abandon everything and flee for their lives.

Because they all knew very well what the outcome would be if they stayed behind.

In the sparsely populated Youzhou, an unprecedented wave of exodus is about to occur.

Although this was due to Dong Guan's "prestige".

However, I still bear direct responsibility.

Geng Xuan did not engage in any internal strife or self-blame regarding this.

Because he knew very well that, whether it was here or there, there would always be a place that would unfortunately become the front line of the battlefield.

Although he wanted to move the battlefield to the vast, uninhabited wilderness to minimize the disturbance to ordinary people.

But just one question was enough to kill him.

water.

The combined number of Xuanyou Horses and Canglan Horses exceeds 100,000.

The total number of soldiers in the "Black Wind Army" exceeded 100,000.

Even if it's just to meet the bare minimum living needs, the amount of clean drinking water required every day is enormous!
The most important reason he chose to settle here was because there was a large underground spring behind it!

Therefore, he had no reason to blame himself or suffer internal strife regarding the inevitable chain of consequences. He simply observed a two-minute moment of silence for the fate of these strangers, then nodded in agreement with Liu Mu's plan. "Go ahead. Do whatever you deem appropriate."

However, we should avoid killing if possible.

You can also remind them that if they want to escape Dong Guan's clutches, they can run westward. Geng Xuan added softly.

Liu Mu glanced at him and replied softly:

"...Dong Guan has already spread our bad reputation far and wide."

Dong Guan is indeed terrifying, but it is we who are the ones they hate with a passion.

In their view, this disaster was entirely caused by us!

"..."

Geng Xuan was speechless.

Although he wanted to refute it, from the perspective of these sand people, it was actually correct.

He himself was the one who brought disaster and slaughter to the Xuanyou and Erzhou states.

If it weren't for him, the two states of Xuanyou, including the most discriminated alien tribes, would be immersed in the glorious results of Dong Guan's invasion of the south, and the rich benefits they could enjoy!

Anyone who is a member of Dong Guan's system, even the lowest servant or maid, will have the opportunity to eat meat and drink soup.

Now, not only have they ruined such an opportunity themselves.

They're still causing endless trouble, going back and forth between Xuanyou and Erzhou.

No wonder they hate themselves!
Geng Xuan, suddenly realizing what was happening, simply waved his hand and said, "I've done everything I could. As for how effective it will be, let's leave it to fate."

After saying that, he stopped talking about it and ended the topic himself.

After giving a respectful bow, Liu Mu led his cavalry, numbering over ten thousand, and quickly left the camp.

Not long after, Iron Wolf and the others who left the camp in the previous wave.

The difference is that Iron Wolf and his group went west.

Liu Mu and his group headed east.

The remaining cavalry scattered to various locations to prevent the "flies" that had been following them from getting closer.

Some joined others in the rapid setup of the camp.

Geng Xuan watched silently for a while, then handed over the construction of the camp entirely to Song Mingzhu. He gave Song Mingzhu a few simple instructions on guard duty, and then disappeared into the depths of the night.

About ten miles north of here, there is a small mountain range that runs from northwest to southeast and is only about four hundred miles long.

There was no sign of life, no water source, and not even a proper name.

But this is also one of the reasons why Geng Xuan finally chose to settle here. It is like a natural protective wall that can stop Dong Guan's iron cavalry from swooping down from the northern wilderness.

By simply taking a little precautions during the construction of the camp, many potential hazards can be eliminated, reducing the "options" available to Dong Guan.

After leaving the camp alone, Geng Xuan headed straight north.

They soon reached the southernmost peak of the small mountain range, less than twenty miles from the camp.

According to what Geng Xuan had learned in advance, this is the most outstanding and highest peak in this small mountain range that is no more than 500 miles long.

Before he had even reached the summit, Geng Xuan felt the temperature plummet and the wind grow stronger.

Geng Xuan did not stop, his figure moving quickly, his body swaying and rising up the bare cliff face like a light and ethereal shadow.

Before long, he had reached the summit.

It is not a sharp pyramid tip, but a slightly concave and sunken mountaintop platform covering an area of ​​more than ten acres.

Aside from the biting cold and fierce winds, Geng Xuan's biggest impression was the unprecedented density and brightness of the stars in the sky.

It was as if the "sky" above their heads had become closer to them.

Geng Xuan looked up and wondered to himself, "Is this just my imagination?"

In his view, the difference of two or three thousand meters between the peak and the foot of the mountain was so insignificant as to be negligible compared to the distance between the earth beneath his feet and the stars.

Now, standing on the mountaintop, I feel the stars are brighter and the sky is closer, but this is just a change brought about by subjective perception.

After glancing up twice, Geng Xuan shook his head, shaking off these distracting thoughts. Standing on the southern edge of the peak, facing the relentless howling wind, Geng Xuan gently closed his eyes.

Once again, enter the "Heaven and Earth Stance" state.

Although he rationally believed that there was no fundamental difference between this place and other places.

However, in his mind, when he once again connects with the characteristics of the "Heaven and Earth Stake" and enters that wondrous state.

Originally, in that monotonous and somewhat cold "sky", there seemed to be a faint cluster of stars.

In the wondrous realm brought about by the "Heaven and Earth Stakes", "I" wear "Heaven" and tread on "Earth".

"Heaven" is above, "Earth" is below, and "I" am in the middle.

The "heaven" and "earth," which were originally undisturbed and unrelated to each other, began to interact because of "me," and a rhythmic energy flowed between them.

And the "medium" that allows them to interact and for the flow of energy is, of course, "me".

Now, above my head, amidst the flowing energy, it seems as if stars are slowly rotating, like the remnants of the shifting of stars.

Of course, this was all that affected Geng Xuan.

These afterimage-like traces had no effect on his cultivation.

Whether it's positive or negative.

Once he enters this state, what he pays the most attention to is the "earth-listening spider web" that spreads across the "ground," which is invisible and formless in reality but truly spreads out like a net in the wondrous realm of the "heaven and earth stake."

Thus, everything that actually happens in the real world, through interaction with the earth and the capture of the "earth-listening spider web," receives clear feedback and is presented in his mind.

The dense commotion coming from nearly twenty miles to the south was the first thing he noticed.

From the shapes and outlines created by these movements, Geng Xuan had a rough idea of ​​what the camp would look like.

Then, there were scattered "sources of vibration" around the camp, which were sentinels and scouts from the Xuanyou Iron Cavalry scattered around the camp.

Then, Geng Xuan detected a dense commotion coming from the southeast, more than thirty miles away.

That's Siyebao.

Those were Liu Mu's iron cavalry.

That was because Liu Mu, with his overwhelming strength far surpassing that of Siyebao, easily broke through the enemy's defenses and leaped into Siyebao's territory.

Well, only five hundred riders rode into the fortress.

The remaining nearly 10,000 cavalrymen remained outside the fortress.

However, this force, less than one-twentieth of its original strength, was more than enough to overwhelm the Siye Fortress.

The subsequent movements were more fragmented and somewhat chaotic, but combined with the wisps of red mist that kept disappearing into his brow as they traversed more than thirty miles of night sky, Geng Xuan knew what was happening there.

About an hour later, the previously chaotic commotion returned to order.

The people gathered inside the fortress began to stagger out in an endless stream, and escorted by five hundred iron cavalry, they dragged their families along the way westward, approaching the direction where Song Mingzhu and the others were.

After a while, the nearly ten thousand cavalrymen who had been stationed outside the fort did not return, but instead turned south.

Through the Earth Listening Spider Web, Geng Xuan knew that there was another settlement about twenty miles ahead of them.

After these two groups of people left one after another, Siyebao, which should have been deserted, began to experience tremors of varying degrees that fell into the "earth-listening spider web".

Standing atop the nameless peak, "enjoying" the biting cold wind, Geng Xuan couldn't help but open his eyes.

Then he saw a crimson flame shooting into the sky from the southeast.

With his keen eyesight, which allowed him to see the night as if it were day, Geng Xuan could vaguely make out the menacing outline of the raging flames even from a distance of more than thirty miles.

In fact, on a night like this, at this distance, even without his keen eyesight, one could still clearly see the horrific sight of the dying being devoured by the crowd.

Geng Xuan glanced at it a few times to confirm the situation, then withdrew his gaze and continued to immerse himself in the wondrous state of being brought about by the "Heaven and Earth Stake".

At that very moment, in the camp twenty miles south of Geng Xuan, figures also paused their busy work, turned around, and gazed at the eastern night sky.

Within the pupils swallowed by the night, swirling, hazy crimson reflections appeared, like flickering candlelight.

Soon, the senior management, led by Song Mingzhu, were the first to react and reminded everyone not to get distracted.

So everyone quickly returned to their own tasks.

Even as the crimson flames in the eastern night sky gradually dimmed, and groups of staggering figures slowly approached under the escort of five hundred iron cavalry, they no longer attracted widespread attention.

With the concerted efforts of over 100,000 people, a camp was built from scratch and quickly spread across the land.

Further west, even the tribal settlements, which were more than ten miles away, were gradually included.

Heading north, we gradually approached the foot of the mountain.

The night ends and the day dawns.

The camp was beginning to take shape, but was far from being fully formed.

Some people have already drifted off to sleep, while many others are still working tirelessly.

To ordinary people, cultivators, regardless of their level of cultivation, are essentially like engineering machines.

According to the prevailing views of this world, labor such as digging pits and filling soil would be considered lowly work, and would be naturally rejected by all cultivators.

However, the "Black Wind Army" is different. Under Geng Xuan's continuous reform, their concepts have long been vastly different from the thinking of traditional cultivators.

Moreover, everyone knew that they had to use this precious window of opportunity to accumulate as many advantages as possible before Dong Guan's army arrived.

Under the threat of over 100,000 Xuanyou Iron Cavalry, the greatest advantage is, of course, to dig deep trenches and build high walls to hinder the Xuanyou Iron Cavalry's charge as much as possible.

Therefore, no one dared to slack off.

Knowing full well the progress of the camp and that everything was proceeding according to plan, Geng Xuan was in no hurry to go down the mountain and continued to immerse himself in the practice of the "Heaven and Earth Stance".

Around noon, Geng Xuan finally stopped cultivating and slowly opened his eyes.

A sense of melancholy and reluctance welled up in my heart.

However, the "earth-listening spider web" detected a lot of noise coming from the southwest.

With a clear objective, they headed straight for the camp.

It was quite fast.

When he opened his eyes and woke up, he was less than twenty miles away from the westernmost point of the camp.

The most striking image transmitted to his mind through the vibrations was that of a thousand iron cavalry.

Without a doubt, this was part of the five thousand cavalry that left with Iron Wolf.

Geng Xuan also discovered that the size of this returning force was far more than just one thousand cavalrymen.

Another force of at least three thousand Azure Horses followed behind these one thousand iron cavalrymen, heading towards the camp together.

Having roughly guessed what had happened, Geng Xuan naturally went to see him.

Standing on the southern edge of the summit, Geng Xuan could see the campsites spread out on the land more than ten miles away by looking down slightly.

Geng Xuan slightly narrowed his gaze, looking down at the rugged mountain range below, which sloped gently down to a drop of two or three thousand meters.

Suddenly, the corners of his mouth curved into a slight smile.

The figure, which had seemed to be one with the peak beneath its feet and unshakable by any force, suddenly collapsed forward without warning.

They appear no different from those who intentionally jump off a cliff.

Just as his body was about to change from upright to horizontal, and the cold wind swept past him.

His feet showed no signs of exerting any force, yet with the surging earth power brought by the master-level "Heaven and Earth Stance," his body was instantly launched as if by a slingshot.

With a "whoosh," it darted forward.

If you look closely, you will find that this forward-leaning posture, almost horizontal to the ground, is similar to the posture of him running fast close to the ground after he has mastered the art of horse judging.

Wind is inherently formless and without appearance.

But at this moment, the gale that was blowing around him and enveloping his entire body seemed to have transformed into a tangible, physical hand.

In particular, the strong wind blowing past him made him clearly feel a lifting force.

This force was lifting his body upwards.

It is resisting the force of his body falling towards the earth.

Based on his past experience, Geng Xuan knew that even without any wind, at his current speed, there would still be a strong wind blowing relative to the void around him.

Not to mention, there is a perpetual gale on this peak.

Taking advantage of this, aside from the moment he was "bounced" off the summit, Geng Xuan did not employ any additional methods.

It was only through rich experience that the body found the best posture for "borrowing the wind".

Then, he quietly observed all of this.

On one side, there was the strong dragging force of the earth on the body.

From the moment his feet left the ground, they desperately tried to pull him back down.

On the other hand, it is the lifting force brought by the fierce wind blowing under you.

It is resisting the dragging force of the earth.

However, the problem is that the wind is changeable, dynamic, and unpredictable.

Therefore, this supporting force is also unstable.

The size is unstable.

The direction is also unstable.

Not only does it lift you upwards, but it also sometimes leans to the left, sometimes to the right, and sometimes even presses you down from behind.

Moreover, the distribution of this lifting force is very uneven.

Ideally, the energy should be distributed evenly throughout the body, with the torso, chest, and abdomen as the center.

But precisely because of this, this "ideal state" is the least likely to happen.

Without sufficient experience and superb and exquisite energy application skills...

Adapt at any time, fight at any moment.

The instability of external forces is adapted and self-balanced through rapid changes in itself.

Otherwise, shortly after he leaped off the summit, his body would have completely lost control, becoming uncontrollable, and he might even have started spinning.

Fortunately, none of this happened.

He leaped from the summit, his body rapidly moving forward while simultaneously plummeting downwards.

But this "fast" is far slower than free landing.

Moreover, the descent speed was quite uniform, rather than accelerating downwards.

As he landed, he looked back.

Based on his visual observation, Geng Xuan estimated that he had fallen by about 500 meters.

However, the horizontal distance from the summit is significantly more than 500 meters, nearly 1,000 meters.

"That was a successful glide," Geng Xuan thought to himself.

Although this is still quite different from his best-case scenario, he is already very satisfied with it.

This at least proves that we were on the right track.

What if it fails?
Anyway, you won't die from the fall; at most, you'll land in a mess.

It's not a real cliff.

This is also the source of Geng Xuan's confidence to try this on his first attempt.

Geng Xuan didn't try a second time. He turned around and continued walking towards the foot of the mountain.

In his mind, he was reviewing the various sensations his body had experienced during the "fall off the cliff".

"Next time, we can go even further and go even faster when leaving the cliff, so that we can take advantage of more of the lifting wind."

"...However, the stronger the wind, the more uncontrollable it becomes."

To counteract this negative state, the body must employ more complex coping mechanisms.

"The biggest difficulty is that your feet are off the ground, you are in the void, and you have nothing to rely on."

Without any leverage to draw upon or any way to deflect that force, the sheer amount of difficulty in all operations increases dramatically, while the effectiveness decreases.

"The amount of consumption is terrifying."

Moreover, because both feet are off the ground, the advantage of rapid recovery by leveraging the earth's strength, provided by the "Heaven and Earth Stance," is completely lost.

"This is just a simple, short-distance glide."

To glide even further, or even to actually fly, the difficulty would increase tenfold or a hundredfold!

"Therefore, this kind of 'treat the symptom, not the cause' approach is completely unacceptable."

"...Before achieving the goal of 'flying,' this problem must be solved first."

Geng Xuan had a plan in mind for how to overcome this challenge, and there was more than one approach.

Whether it's a martial art or a secret technique, as long as it can solve the problem, it's worth trying.

For others, this is already an insurmountable barrier.

However, for Geng Xuan, having a clear path already solved more than half the problem.

The remaining small part is not so difficult to solve.

As Geng Xuan descended the mountain, he sorted out his thoughts.

As my thoughts became clearer, my steps became lighter.

When he emerged from the mountains and returned to camp, he had carefully kept these thoughts in his heart.

At that moment, a group of soldiers arrived at the camp from the west. (End of Chapter)