Chapter 97: A Storm of Songs

I leaned on the balcony''s railings on the third floor of my wooden Chinese-style mansion. From up here, I could see everything within and beyond the town.

However, the golden-tinted barrier ruined the view of the forest in the distance. Still, it was quite a view as I could see the governor''s mansion and the two clans'' compounds from here.Ree?ad latest novels at novelhall.com

I sighed and looked into the distance as I had been doing for weeks. Outside the walls, Body Tempering disciples were working on traps and other miscellaneous things I had prepared for the next Beast Wave.

It had been a while since I sent the letter to Song Song, and there had been no reply. So, it was safe to assume that the messaging had failed. Song Song would have noticed the strange way I acted in the letter and would have at least paid a visit. But there was no way for the enemy to know the relationship between myself and Song Song.

I had hoped the letters reached her, but I knew the chances were nonexistent. If the message hadn''t reached her, then the monstrous beasts should have been fed misinformation.

I had gone through a lot of trouble preparing everything else, too. While my plan would need some luck to be successful, there were also many other factors.

The monstrous beasts might have human-like intelligence and perhaps had even learned how to speak the human language by listening to humans. However, I doubted they knew how to read. But they should have a messenger to read the letter for them.

Here''s hoping they were too intelligent to just kill a human. Instead, they would force him to read their letter, at least. If somehow they had disregarded the letter they had caught from the sword, I had ensured the scout got a similar letter on him.

This experience taught me that schemes needed more than just playing around and lying to people. There was also the unstable factor of luck and coincidences to take into account.

I clenched my fist as I remembered the scout, one of the guys who acted as the Hong Clan Leader''s bodyguard. I had never spoken to him or known anything about the guard, but he no doubt had a life of his own; perhaps he even had loved ones waiting for his return.

I knew nothing about the guy, and he had not wronged me. But in the end, my plan led to his death, even though the Hong Clan Leader had the right to choose who he wanted. Thankfully, he had offered his own members during the meeting, as I would have hated to send someone and sentence them to death myself.

"This is why I don''t like politics," I grumbled. "I don''t have the heart for it."

For all I knew, the guy could have been a monstrous murderer who liked killing cats. Or he could have been a saint. Either way, my choice was made, and even if no one would remember that man, I would do so until my time came too. Everyone would die eventually; some just went faster than others. He was already dead, and thinking about these things too much was detrimental when I was in the middle of a war.

But as I sensed a Qi Gathering Cultivator getting closer, it broke me out of my melancholic thoughts. I stared ahead and was greeted by the Hong Clan Leader looking at me with a smile.

Unlike usual, he was alone this time. He had snuck past the guards and was standing in my garden, where Speedy was staring at him with a pointed look.

I was already growing tired of looking at the governor''s or the clan leaders'' faces so much when we had meetings. Adding to that time was the last thing I wanted. Those guys were almost entirely useless when it came to the logistics of keeping a war or preparing for it.

"Clan Leader, how can I help you?" I asked, leaning on the railings and acting nonchalant, though I was prepared for any of these guys to attack me at a moment''s notice.

The clan leader jumped and covered the distance from the ground to the third floor in one leap. He stepped to the edge of the railing I was leaning on and turned toward me with his ever-present smile.

"Well, I just came to give you some information you might consider useful," he said. "Before setting off, the messenger I chose knew that it was unlikely he would make it through this alive. So he volunteered to take a tracking talisman with him to roughly show us how far the monstrous beasts'' perimeter is."

I almost believed his story for a second as he looked at the ground with a sad look. But then I remembered who I was talking with, and there was an almost 100% chance this guy had used some underhanded methods to get such information. Also, despite looking sad and singing the messenger''s praises, the Hong Clan Leader never mentioned this "hero''s" name.

Did he even know the guy''s name?

Either way, if his information was accurate, it would be helpful. As the Clan Leader relayed the information to me, I adjusted some plans in my head and reacted accordingly.

If what he said was right, the monstrous beasts were far from the forest entrance, but not that far. I could work with that.

"Anyway, I hope that after the war is over, you remember that the Hong Clan were always your friends and willing to make sacrifices to see that humanity wins against the vile monstrous beasts," the Hong Clan Leader said with a serious look.

Essentially, after removing all the flowery words, he was asking for some benefits after the war. But he was barking up the wrong tree if he wanted something like that.

"I won''t have much power after the war is finished since I will be gone, and someone like the governor, who was a part of the higher echelon of the Blazing Sun Sect, would have more pull around these parts," I said.

I took out a notebook and began writing down my stats. I hadn’t had the time to relax like this in a while.

Name: Liu Feng

Age: 17

Talent: C (fifty-three spirit root branches)

Cultivation: Body Tempering (nine-star) → Qi Gathering (one-star)

Strength – 9.9 → 11

Agility – 9.9 → 12

Endurance – 9.9 → 14

Qi – 1

Techniques:

- Sonic Fang Fist (Mortal Grade)

- Rushing Bull Step (Mortal Grade)

- Turtle Shell Body (Mortal Grade)

- Dancing Jade Armor (Semi-Earth Grade)

- Falling Moon Claw (Earth Grade)

Skills:

- Array Conjurer - Level 2 (Practitioner)

My endurance was still leading in growth. By now, the Turtle Shell Body Technique was no longer as helpful. At least it wasn''t supposed to be, but considering the changes in Speedy... I smiled fondly thinking of him. He had grown so much since I bought him at the market.

But a sudden cold wind interrupted my thoughts as a snowstorm began setting in, the first of the winter. We were already past the middle of winter, and I hoped this ordeal would soon be over.

As the snowstorm picked up, I had to cancel the barrier protecting the mansion against snow. It would be a waste of spirit stones to keep powering it since it wouldn’t handle the weight of accumulated snow.

Suddenly, a crackling sound came from my pocket. I quickly took out a flashing talisman connected to arrays around the forest. Soon, other talismans followed, flashing in my hand.

My heart dropped, and I looked up at the building snowstorm.

During this month and a half, I wondered why the monstrous beasts hadn’t attacked. Had my plan been successful? Perhaps the letter had intimidated them, prompting a move to another region? Such assumptions were based on hopeless optimism, and I paid them no mind.

But as I stared at the snowstorm, I realized what the monstrous beasts had been waiting for. Just as we had prepared for them, they had also prepared against us.

One thing was sure: they wouldn’t have come out recklessly after waiting so long. We had to fight on their terms.

“Guards!” I called out to the two men at the gate. “Summon the governor and notify the clans. It’s time for battle!”