Chapitre 102: Days of Battle
Dàilán looked out at the sparsely wooded landscape in the early morning light. Fog still clung and hung among the lower branches and in the gullies, hazing out the scene in a deceptively perfect appearance as the early feathers of the Golden Crow brushed over the plants and grass, sending dewdrops sparkling like jewels despite the long shadows cast by the trees.
Tiredly rubbing her forehead, she glanced back at the group of Guan Female Cultivators, mostly formation masters, that she was currently cautiously leading through the lightly forested hills towards the Sect's location.
The crews on the boats provided by the White Lotus had, despite her Father's best efforts, been insistent that the refugees leave their boats at first light with the supplies they had been provided or escaped with.
Thankfully, the group had enough various spatial items between them to carry the camping supplies, food, medicine and other equipment to manage - or it would have been extremely difficult - or rather, even more extremely difficult. It had been all her Father could do to convince the boat crews to continue travelling throughout the night, instead of immediately grounding the boats and forcing the group of refugees off after the attack.
His intent had been to give the group of exhausted refugees an extra three shi on the boats to sleep and rest - rather than attempting to set up camp in the wilderness with a large group of inexperienced Cultivators - after the harrowing events of the previous six, but in practice it was a nervous, largely sleepless night for everyone. The boats were ill equipped to sleep the group of nearly fifty refugees in any sort of comfort, everyone was over-exhausted, stressed and despite the rotating guard schedules that had been set up - or perhaps because the Noble Cultivators were largely unused to combat situations - most could not sleep for fear of another attack.
This meant that despite their average age being higher, most of the women had less experience in combat or living rough than she did, were constantly on edge, exhausted from lack of sleep or nervousness and despite their determination for vengeance, were quickly becoming a liability. She was starting to understand the reality behind Sect or combat Cultivators disdaining noble Cultivators as empty vases. Was this how she would have turned out without her mother's intervention?
During the hasty planning after the boats left, the BloodWitch had expressed concern that a large group of Cultivators travelling through the wilderness to a known combat zone was just a large target.
Unfortunately, as most of the Guan Cultivators - apart from a few who had taken field assignments to set up formations - were unused to operating outside of the city, the small group of remaining Knife Sect Cultivators that had escaped from the compound before it was destroyed were the only combat effective Cultivators in the group - aside from her father, Chénli and herself, of course.
The group had briefly discussed splitting the group into three as a smaller group of people was easier to manage, faster, more agile and was easier to defend. They had considered having Dàilán, her Father and Chénli lead separate smaller groups - each traveling in a similar direction with assistance from the Knives throughout to provide some offensive capability.
This would, in theory allow them to coordinate a three pronged advance, with each group being able to come to the defence of the others if attacked, but that assumed everyone could contribute to its defense equally and react appropriately in combat situations, which was not the case.
In the end it was decided that it would be more likely that any one of the smaller groups would be overwhelmed easier by any attackers, before the others would be able to come to their aid - to say nothing of what would happen if all three were attacked at once.
Instead, the Guan Cultivators had offered their Formations expertise to construct a mobile 'fortress', which used formations sustained in various complex combinations and managed by the Cultivators as they moved together - to create an area of defence and offence that moved as they did - using the Formations Masters that made up the majority of the group to maintain them in shifts.
Their idea was basically to give the group enough time to withstand initial attacks and then respond with formations like they had used on the boats last night, while the battle Cultivators like the Knives or the Clan Leader could go on the offence, catching any attackers in a hammer and anvil scenario.
The combat capable Cultivators - mostly Knives with the few combat capable Guan and her Father - were split into several scouting groups ranging around, sweeping out and back from the main group as far as several lǐ in all directions.
"Sect Heir," looking back, Dàilán looked back to see Monitor Leng approaching and she quirked a questioning eyebrow at him, "news from the first and third scout teams, no sign of enemy," he responded shortly.
"That seems odd," she mused aloud, "they must know we are coming…" She motioned to the large group behind her; everyone rose from their defensive positions and started to walk cautiously forward through the trees, formations distorting the air around the group slightly as they moved.
"Not necessarily, Heir. Whatever they are doing to block the Sect Communication Formations is blocking - every - means of communication," asserted the Formations Master, "that means the Grass members conducting the siege are unaware of events outside the blocking area."
"That… seems stupid," questioned Dàilán after a moment as she walked forward, cautiously scanning around herself as well as sending out pulses of Essence, "why would they cut themselves off like that from outside communication? It means they would be unable to adjust to accommodate events happening outside."
"As a Formations Master going up against other Formations Masters, I know of no other way to prevent a large Sect or Clan from getting communications out of a siege," replied the young Knife, "If you leave a hole to let your own Formations out for communications, it is inevitable the other side will find a way to break into it and use it themselves. The Grass absolutely cannot afford to let the Imperial Clan discover what they are doing before they topple the Sect."
He hesitated and continued slowly, keeping pace beside her, "it may be a side-effect of how they have prevented the soul Essence based soul-tablets from working. If you had asked me this yesterday morning, I would have told you it was not possible to cut off communications between the Sect and its members as we use Soul Essence linked to the Heart, not orthodox communication formations in our jades. Whatever they are using must be absolutely tyrannical and likely downright evil, in order to achieve the capability to suppress soul linkages."
The young heir frowned, "I had just been about to ask you about that aspect - even with all the knowledge the Heart bestowed on you during your stay with it, you cannot think of anything?"
The Formation Master scowled, "theoretically a complex enough sacrificial construct might be able to counter freely shared soul links, but the amount of death required…" he trailed off grimly and both of them spat to the side and made the sign of the evil eye to ward off spirits.
"Evil huài dàn," growled the young teen, "We will avenge those also," walking a few more paces forward she clicked her fingers, "What about more standard means of sending messages - like constructs or trained beasts?" asked Dàilán thoughtfully, "or runners?"
Monitor Leng shrugged, "in a siege, both sides will be on the lookout for that sort of thing and be doing the best to stop or intercept them - either for intelligence they can use to counter attack with or to stop the other party from getting out call for assistance. If it was not for your unusual connection to the Heart, we would still not know about what is happening."
"Have you been able to contact other Knife Members who were out on missions?" asked the young heir, "can we expect assistance?"
"Most of those we have been able to reach - and please be aware that even with the BloodWitch's level of access, we have only partial access to the network of Knife cells - have only narrowly escaped their own attacks," the young Formation Master rubbed his eyes tiredly as he walked, "most of them are heavily injured or not in a location they can reach us from in the next day or so. We have requested that everyone we contact pass on the message to everyone they can reach, but that will take time."
"The Grass has prepared for a long time," sighed Dàilán quietly, "the Sect became complacent. Now…"
Monitor Leng nodded heavily, "A few of the higher ranked members have tried to use the páifāng gates to move between the zodiac divisions - to either reach us or to break the siege - but those that have reported back have confirmed that Grass Cult members are blockading the entry and exit páifāngs in every division over Golden Crow Planet. Several of those that stated they would try - no longer respond to communication - we presume they were lost in the attempt."
Dàilán looked over her shoulder at Leng, "instruct the survivors to be more subtle - brute force is apparently not going to be sufficient at this point. Try and get a message through to the Imperial Clan as well - but if possible, we must keep Grass under pressure and not allow them free reign away from their established positions."
"Counter siege?" wondered the other Cultivator, "that will be difficult with our limited forces, but if we can act in the shadows and make it so they do not feel comfortable leaving their blockades for fear reinforcements will get through… it may work." He shrugged fatalistically, "we have been trying to establish contact with the Lotus Court since all this started, but Grass has apparently subverted the usual channels - bribed the officials probably - we will keep trying, of course, Heir."
"Yes," Dàilán paused and waved the group forward as the current Formation holders cycled out and handed over control to the next teams in the rotation, "So you think the attack last night was leftover cult members that survived the compound collapse from Hujian?"
"Likely. Any attacks that Grass can send against us will come from reserve forces or weaker Cultivators not involved in the main siege," calculated the Monitor with a scholarly tone, "their powerhouses must be all involved - if the Sect was mostly composed of lower level Cultivators the Sect would would have crushed them easily by now."
"So their main generals will not be managing their response to our force either if they are inside the border of whatever blocking technique they are using. Could we attack Grass' headquarters instead? They must be vulnerable, if their forces are at the siege," speculated the Heir.
"Probably, but if I had planned this campaign, I would have left at least one or two powerhouses locked down inside their own Cult lands to prevent such an opportunistic attack - either from Knife members outside of the siege or other groups," he looked at the group of grim-faced Guan Cultivators as they passed, "our group's strength is insufficient to overcome even one quasi-world-level Cultivator - a pair of Peak Sky Levels with a small amount of lower level defence forces and a Cult's defensive formations would have a similar strength, we would be merely delivering ourselves for the slaughter. As it is, they are likely the ones co-ordinating Grass' response to any attempts to lift the siege."
"Where the siege force is spread among the entry and exit páifāngs, so we may be able to overwhelm one force… and destabilise the stalemate - in theory anyway," mused Dàilán.
"It is not that simple," came the cold voice of the BloodWitch as she appeared from behind a tree, "if it was simply a case of applying enough force to one or two exit points the Knife Sect would have broken out of the siege already."
"Perhaps a simultaneous attack," offered Leng, "the Sect has to be watching for attacks from outside - so if they attacked the same páifāng we were coming through."
"Yes, and that is why we have decided to take this approach," allowed the BloodWitch, "but I fear it will prove to be more difficult than that - doubtless those Evil shǎ bī have ways to counter such an attempt." Visibly frustrated, the Bloodwitch closed her eyes, "Heir, no enemies as yet. Any success in communicating with the Heart?"
Dàilán grasped her Soul Tablet and pushed her Essence and awareness towards it, only to shake her head a moment later, "No change. The same message."
The BloodWitch grunted and vanished. Leng sighed and bowed slightly, "I will go and check the defence formation…" he turned and jogged slightly to catch up with the main group, his scriber already creating runes as in the air as he went.
Dàilán rubbed her neck and sighed as she followed, feeling unease coiling in her belly. She wondered if they really could keep this up - at this pace it would take the full day to reach the páifāng she and Chénli had originally taken only a shi to reach last time and they would be exhausted as a group. They would have to rest, postpone their attack until tomorrow and that left more time for enemies to find them or something else to go wrong.
---
A shi later, Dàilán was cursing in her heart as she dodged another Essence blast from an ugly looking technique that threw grass, dirt, leaf litter and branches into the air as acidic liquid splattered, Chénli yelling out orders to the main group as they went to ground and pushed their defensive formations to full power.
"Monitor Leng, there are - three - groups of attackers! The Guan - have - to anchor the center so the rovers can concentrate force...! Otherwise!" Dàilán winced as a particularly strong strike smashed into the larger group's defence Formations, sending several women stumbling back with pained cries as the fields pulsed with the strain.
"Chén'er, let Leng do his job," ordered Dàilán, "we need to engage at least one group - at least long enough to let the others have a chance to shut down the other two."
"-You- are their primary target, Mistress," shot back her friend grimly as she pulled back a bow and arrow and loosed, resulting in a sharp cry, "got the little mā de," she grunted in satisfaction as the both of them dodged the retaliating fire, "they are assuming you are with the main group! The minute they realise otherwise, they will concentrate their efforts on us!"
"Which would let the others get back on their feet long enough to hit them - or are you saying we cannot move quickly enough?" Without waiting for an answer, the young heir released the Veil and shimmered into invisibility, her passage only trackable by the swirl of shifting grass and dirt that moved away at high speed towards the nearest attackers.
Chénli swore, shaking her head, "her father and grandfather are going to kill me before the Grass manage it," a grin spread over her face as she charged in an attempt to distract the Grass cultists from Dàilán's approach.
Several of the attackers ahead of her spun to the dirt as blood flowered beautifully from their throats and the Essence attacks against the main group lost cohesion as the Grass went on the defensive trying to find the invisible attacker. She sneered as they turned their backs on her, exposing them to her own strikes, "Idiots." Cultists crumpled to the grass in pain or dead as Chénli's sword and Essence strikes smashed their lines.
"Danger close!" came Leng's warning from her soul tablet and she flung herself to the ground as it heaved and rocked, blinding heat and light announcing a strike from one of the Guan Formations. The Defensive formations woven into her robes sparked and glowed as they fended off the blast, but the Grass withered ironically, under the powerful impact.
Pushing herself to her feet, Chénli stabbed her sword casually into a horribly burned Grass cultist writhing on the ground just behind her, "Where is that little…"
---
The Golden Crow sent feathers of fire to shine inconveniently in Dàilán's eyes as she crouched in a small gully with her Father beside her. Both were filthy, robes showing the wear and tear of a morning of constant skirmishing with waves of Earth Cultivators that had pinpointed their position sometime after chén shi and had struck randomly throughout the remainder of the time.
"This is the third attack in as many shi," her father pointed out, his voice rasping from effort, dust and shouting, "they are increasing tempo. They are only mid to low levels and we are killing them, but they are wearing us down."
Dirt fell on them both from the banks of the gully as the ground shook from a Defensive 'War Strike' Formation - as they had taken to calling the increasingly elaborate and powerful Formations that Leng and the Guan had devised in answer to the constant attacks - and a Grass Cultist fell into the gully. Both of them lashed out with their weapons instinctively, killing the low level Cultivator without even pausing in their conversation.
"Leng says the other Guan are close to the end of their rope," admitted Dàilán, "the Formation strikes and keeping up constant defenses take a lot out of them - to say nothing of the anti-human wave tactic defenses," they both grimaced at the reminder of the second attack of the day.
That attack had been composed of a hundred or so shrieking mortal cultists and low leveled Cultivators enraged beyond reason by forbidden medicines, rushing out of the forest and seeking to overwhelm them with sheer force of numbers.
It was an attack which came perilously close to working, as the mobile Formations were less effective against physical attacks - until the Guan had charged up dozen or so full-powered versions of the 'Lightning Fortress' formation that Míng had taught Dàilán the offensive fighters had nearly failed to hold the human wave tactic back.
Dàilán clenched a fist, "we simply do not have enough offensive Cultivators to keep the Grass off balance. Our only fortune at this point is that the attackers do not have high Cultivation levels - our theory that the powerhouses are all occupied by the siege must have some merit."
"We need to counter attack," admitted the older man as the all clear came from their communication jades and the young Heir's soul tablet. They both leapt out of the gully falling into a practiced formation to watch out for further attacks.
"We need to eat and rest," pointed out Dàilán sourly, "It is already late afternoon. We will have to be satisfied with making it half of the way today. Let us find a defensive formation to fort up - that will take the rest of the afternoon to have set up for the rest of the night - once we find it."
"We can send out counter attacks if we can free up some of the defensive Cultivators," mused her Father, "at least we must be drawing their reserve and roving forces away from the siege and possibly making a mess of their coverage outside the siege area which is all to the better."
"That can only help us not to get caught between a reliving force and the blockade at the páifāng," agreed Dàilán as they caught up with the main group, "let us find the other Knives to discuss our next moves."
---
Crouching in the dark with the Veil Technique pushed out to hide her presence Dàilán observed the flickering of a small fire pit about a yǐ ahead of her in a small hollow and smirked.
"They are there," she signed carefully to the BloodWitch and two other Knives a few zhàng behind her.
The Bloodwitch nodded and made a few gestures then vanished into the underbrush along with the others. The Heiress nodded and clasped her soul tablet to send a message of 'contact made' to the other counter attack parties that the group had sent out.
Acknowledgments came back from the other parties along with similar contact affirmations from two others. Moments later, directions came from the base camp the Guan Cultivators and Leng had set up several lǐ behind her current position for the parties that had found no Grass groups to reinforce those who had.
With the Formations anchored to land and feeding off ambient Essence, the exhausted Guan Cultivators could rest and recover, although several had been in a good enough condition to volunteer to accompany some of the counter attacking parties, which meant they would soon have a barrier specialist helping them.
A rustle behind her announced the arrival of their reinforcements a few moments later and after a quick exchange of signs and a few taps on the heiress's shoulders from the Guan specialist who shot her a bloodthirsty grin as defensive formations rose around Dàilán silently. The reinforcements vanished to join the Bloodwitch and the others except for two who stayed with her.
As the order for all parties to attack their similarly unsuspecting targets simultaneously came through, Dàilán's lips curved up in a vicious snarl of bloody glee.
---
"Well, we got rid of those groups that were harassing us last night," announced her Father who had taken the role of tactician. In the early dawn light, he pointed out three locations on the map set out on a table in the center of their main camp, which bustled with activity as the group prepared to continue traveling.
The mood of the camp was surprisingly upbeat despite the situation - probably due to absolutely annihilating their enemies in last-night counter attacks - and the resulting several Gēng of peaceful sleep and recovery. The higher level Cultivators handled the watches, leaving the refugees to rest, rotating in and out with only a couple Gēng rest, which was sufficient to refresh them.
"I did manage to co-opt their Communication Formations last night before we took those camps out - I got enough copies of their Communications Jades, from the day's previous attacks," stated Monitor Leng, who was studying the map intently, "It does not let me get through the block they have placed on the Knife Sect, but I have gotten into their lines outside the siege, between their Cult and their other forces - basically that is where these attacks came from."
The Formations Master tapped the map where the páifāng that led to the nearest entry point to the Knife Sect was, "They have shifted all their non-siege involved forces in the area to deal with us. As we surmised, they can not contact their forces inside the siege unless one of their higher levels feels the need to step out of the blockade to check on things out of schedule
Leng chuckled darkly, "according to the communications I have intercepted, that is unlikely - none of the Elders want to miss out on the plunder Grass is anticipating by being away from the siege a Miǎo longer than they must - and the ones outside the siege are delaying reporting they have screwed up until then, rather than sending an out-of-schedule call for assistance and being punished - they are sure they can deal with us before the next report is due."
"When is the next scheduled contact then?" inquired the BloodWitch intently.
"Three days," responded Monitor Leng, "I do not have the exact schedule, but - the really concerning thing is that they are anticipating the Sect will fall before then. In the meantime, they have sent out someone to deal with us - or rather, someone demanded to be sent out."
"Oh?" Dàilán looked up from where she had been studying the map herself, something about it pricking at her thoughts.
"Yes - our old friend, Cǎo Jiàn," answered the young Knife with distaste, "apparently he was held back from participating in the siege or the attack at Hujian as a punishment for getting caught. But he is the highest leveled Cultivator still at the Cult apart from the Elders that are guarding their land and they have evidently decided that they would rather risk him messing up again rather than admitting their failure in their next report."
Chénli snorted, "Well, we can fix that. I have a score to settle with him." Monitor Leng winced and bowed, then moved away from the table a few chǐ away to where a group of Formation Masters were discussing the newest set of Formations they wanted to add to the mobile defenses.
"So we have three days to hit the páifāng, or we are dead when we get there - they will position too many forces waiting for us to survive once that report is made," summarised the BloodWitch, "and we need to deal with the traitor and whatever force he scrapes up before we can do that. We will have to pick up the pace - if we can hit the páifāng today we might be able to smash their blockade before that waste of breath catches up with us."
Dàilán's father grimaced, "My Clan is willing, but most of us are simply not conditioned to the standard required - there is no way we will cover that distance today - especially if Grass manages to throw more attacks at us to slow us down."
The group fell to discussing and planning and Dàilán took the opportunity to move around to where Monitor Leng was discussing some point of Formations that was too esoteric to understand and stood quietly until the Clanswoman had nodded her understanding and turned away, bowing to Dàilán as she did so.
Monitor Leng turned to her and bowed, "Apologies, Heir."
Dàilán waved off the apology, "You are looking to our defense - apologies are unnecessary. I only have a quick question." She waited until the Formation Master nodded in understanding and then carried on briskly, "on the map - I noted that yesterday there were Grass attack teams around us in all directions except in the one we are travelling in - East, towards the border where the páifāng is."
"Strictly speaking, if you are referring to the border with the Fusou Wilderness, that is more Northeast of this location - the páifāng is further Southeast," answered Leng, "but oddly enough, as far as I can tell, there - was - a team ahead of us."
"We missed one?" asked Dàilán sharply.
"No," answered the young man, "they are not there. All their communications are answering and they are reporting a location - but, when we sent a team to check the location last night, it was not there - it was part of why we were able to reinforce the other three attacking teams so strongly."
"You said they are not there," asked Dàilán, her eyes narrowed in thought, "does that mean they are still reporting a location ahead of us, even though we cannot find them?"
"No. They went silent at the same time as the other Grass we killed," he had a fascinated look on his face, "if we were not at war, I would definitely go and investigate."
"There was a Grass team reporting that was not actually there," repeated Dàilán slowly, thinking furiously, "and whomever was pretending to be them, stopped when we killed the others."
"Yes," agreed Leng, "the absolutely remarkable thing about it they all had different voices and mannerisms - no alarm was raised by the people they were speaking to - so no one in Grass realised someone was impersonating those people even when they claimed to be attacking us and never appeared."
"And you are absolutely sure that Grass has not realised we have access to their communications outside the siege - they could be feeding us false information?" questioned Dàilán carefully.
"Yes - at least, as far as we can be sure. All the other Grass teams we are - or were - tracking from their communications we verified as they came into range of us. But none of the Grass teams 'reporting' from the Fusou Wilderness edge of the border that were supposed to be nearby were ever actually there - as far as we can tell," Leng stated, "we are watching for traps, but so far it appears that someone else out there does not like Grass."
"We have an escape route to the North of us if we need it, is what you are saying," pointed out the Heir quietly.
"North East is more accurate, but - the Fusou is notoriously dangerous. Whomever is doing this may not like us either," cautioned Monitor Leng.
"En," Dàilán frowned, "still, you should let the others know and let them decide if the risk is worth the chance of retreating safely." Leng bowed in acceptance, flushing at the light reprimand.
After a moment's thought, Dàilán took out the map she had purchased from the peddler - she wondered where he was in all this as she unrolled it, then shook the errant thought away - unless he turned up in front of them, it was pointless wondering.
"Can you show me roughly on this map where the missing Grass members appear - or appeared - to be reporting from?" she asked and Leng nodded, studying the map, then drawing a line with his scriber in a broad northeastern arc.
"If there is nothing else, Heir?" Leng asked politely and he left quickly to some other task as she nodded absently, studying the line he had drawn.
The village of the Mountain Spirit the Peddler had marked out was almost precisely in the center of the arc.
"Fascinating," Dàilán breathed.
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WheeledWriter
WheeledWriter Having issues with the spell check on WN - it insists things are wrong then the markup vanishes. It's not coming up on google Docs where I write my drafts - so I do not know if there are mistakes or not, which is frustrating.
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