Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1015: Chapter 365: Hongguan, Town Chief’s Ultimatum, Reinforcements and Their Disputes with the Nine Towns, Standoff_5

In Beishuo Town, although they had never fought, Lu Yang had heard of Gu Tianxiong’s strength, estimated to be over thirty strands. Huang Tianxing’s status was above his, so his strength was certainly a bit stronger as well.

This suggests that the vice institute chiefs of the other four towns probably don’t differ much in strength from Huang Tianxing, and the four towns also assigned them assistants, so at present, there are ten people in the entire team with strength above thirty strands.

Aside from these ten, the remaining more than a thousand people frankly have rather lamentable strength.

Lu Yang himself is at the late-stage Cold Resistance cultivation, with an eighteen-strand strength. At this moment, his position in the team is quite forward, mostly trailing right behind Gu Tianxiong, with only about twenty other people beside him.

Everyone is at the Cold Resistance level, and the marching formation isn’t arranged casually. From this, it can also be inferred how much support the Five Towns are offering Jiangxia.

"Those with around twenty strands of strength, Beishuo has at most twenty people. Wuchuan and Jin Mountain’s two towns are similar. Dragon Valley and Yangqu’s two towns have even fewer, less than fifteen in total, adding up to less than ninety people. Even counting Chui Mountain and Bashang’s two towns, it’s just a little over a hundred. With such little strength, compared to Dajue Temple..."

There’s simply no comparison!

Lu Yang furrowed his brows and directly muttered this in his heart.

He was in East Ridge, but Xia City over there would still share the intelligence brought back by Xu Ning with him. So he was very aware of just how terrifying Dajue Temple’s overall strength was.

Even setting aside the Earth-digging Realm, there are over eight hundred twenty-strand official bhikkhus, over five thousand Zen Temple bhikkhus with hair, such terrifying strength, the seven towns sending such a few people as reinforcements is simply futile.

"However, the Nine Towns don’t presently understand Dajue Temple’s true strength, so it’s entirely reasonable to send only this few reinforcements. Jiangxia must have already suffered defeat; otherwise, it wouldn’t urge this side to accelerate their march.

It’s just unknown how many more defeats it would take before each family sends more reinforcements. The minister gave me orders to provoke conflicts among the towns as much as possible under safe conditions. It’s hard to do that in victories, but it’s too easy during defeats!"

Lu Yang discreetly scanned the other four towns’ troops, his face tinged with a bit of gloom.

"By the way, Brother Chen, all seven towns sent reinforcements for this Jiangxia battle, but only Muyin Town sent no one. Why is that?"

At that moment, this was Lu Yang’s only puzzle in his mind. They had already passed through the Muyin Realm and hadn’t seen a single reinforcer from Muyin Town, so it could be confirmed that Muyin sent no one this time.

"Brother Lu doesn’t know! Since Murong Ding passed away three years ago, and his grandson Murong Yan succeeded him, the entire Muyin Town has been in decline. Now the town is left with only the Xianyang-level town guard, Murong Chui. Murong Yan, in his early twenties this year, is only at the late-stage Cold Resistance cultivation. As the ruler is young and the country is suspicious, there’s a rumor that Murong Chui is soon to seize the position, replacing Murong Yan. Over the past two years, a third of Muyin Town’s territory has been gradually taken over by Jin Mountain and Wuchuan’s two towns. Muyin is in the throes of both internal and external troubles and can’t even protect itself, let alone send people to support Jiangxia Town’s warfare."

This Chen Yiqing is simply a know-it-all!

Lu Yang sighed slightly in his heart, his expression tinged with a bit of gratitude. He recognized the leaders of the Wuchuan and Jin Mountain’s four towns only through asking Chen Yiqing. On this journey, he heard more about the Nine Towns from Chen Yiqing than in his previous three years of inquiries in Beishuo Town.

It seemed there was nothing about the Nine Towns he didn’t know.

The key is that Chen Yiqing, like him, is also a person from Beishuo Town, but he’s from Jingxi, while Chen Yiqing comes from the Dongchuan jurisdiction.

If only he had known Chen Yiqing earlier, he wouldn’t have needed to be so cautiously probing for intelligence about the other Eight Towns in Beishuo City!

"Why did Murong Ding’s grandson Murong Yan succeed him after his death? What about his son?"

Lu Yang put aside his thoughts and continued in a low voice to inquire more from Chen Yiqing about the Murong Family and the other eight towns’ details. Of course, he only asked about things that wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Currently, while marching, even if he whispered, Huang Tianxing and Gu Tianxiong at the front could hear him.

Chen Yiqing had a thick-built appearance but was extremely talkative, and he clearly had a good impression of Lu Yang, willing to chat with him more. Thus, he spoke frankly, without holding back a word, throughout the entire journey.

Though the entire team comprised over fifteen hundred people, they all had Cold Resistance level cultivation, so they moved very fast. Moreover, this time, as reinforcements were dispatched, all the towns must have communicated accordingly, traveling via the Bluestone Road of the Chui Mountain Realm. Before dawn, they had reached the southern border of the Chui Mountain area.

A troop of about two hundred people had long been waiting at the border area between Chui Mountain and Jiangxia. Upon seeing the reinforcement from the Five Towns rushing in from the north, a middle-aged man, with a knife hanging from his waist, greeted them with a smile.

"Brother Huang, Senior Shangguan, Brother Qin, long time no see!"

Upon hearing the newcomer first address Huang Tianxing, Lu Yang’s eyes slightly flickered.

Three years ago, when he first entered Beishuo City, he and Wang Tao speculated that either Chui Mountain or Jiangxia was very likely to have a special relationship with Beishuo. Otherwise, eight years ago, Yang and Li wouldn’t have come to Redwood Ridge. After the investigation in the past three years, it’s almost certain that it’s Chui Mountain.

Seeing the person from Chui Mountain Town greet the Five Towns’ troop, first addressing Beishuo’s Huang Tianxing, evidently further confirmed his prediction.