Volume 2 - Chapter 4: The Haotian Banner!
The news of the retreat spread, and in the army camp, many soldiers who were resting and recovering in their tents stumbled out groggily.
When the vice generals repeatedly announced the news in loud voices, the soldiers' numb expressions gradually gave way to a flicker of vitality. Soon, the air was filled with wails of grief and sorrow.
Many soldiers wept bitterly, clutching their heads. Others ran straight to the burial mounds, finding the graves of their fallen comrades. They cried and laughed at the same time, scooping up handfuls of yellow earth from the graves to tuck into their armor, carrying it back home with them.
"Reporting to the commander!"
"The entire Blood Fiend Army of the Crimson Battalion, originally numbering 100,000 soldiers, now has only 9,623 left. All have returned to formation!"
"Awaiting orders!!"
A middle-aged vice general from the Li family’s branch line stepped before Li Hongzhuang. His voice, hoarse but resolute, echoed with a steely determination. His eyes, however, were already glistening with tears.
Li Hongzhuang’s pale face, as serene as the moon and snow, trembled slightly. Her gaze swept past the vice general and landed on the exhausted, pale, and tearful faces of the soldiers standing behind him, brimming with hope.
Finally, her eyes rested on the burial mounds in the distance.
Over 90,000 soldiers had already found eternal rest there.
These were the troops she had personally trained, one by one.
The vastness of those burial mounds extended far beyond 90,000 graves. They also included the soldiers of the battalions led by her third and sixth brothers, who had been buried there. It stretched as far as the eye could see.
Even Li Hongzhuang, who had long since numbed herself to such grief, found her eyes reddening slightly.
She took a deep breath, suppressing her emotions, and shouted loudly, "I hereby announce: the Blood Fiend Army will set out today... to return home!"
The words "return home" echoed in the ears of the 9,623 soldiers, bringing tears to the eyes of every one of them.
"The entire Blood Fiend Army has received the order!!"
The three vice generals, along with the remaining soldiers, roared in unison.
Their declaration encompassed not just the living soldiers but also the over 90,000 heroic spirits buried there. They would carry their souls home.
At last, they could embark on the path back to their homeland...
Amid the weeping and exhilaration, a vice general stepped forward, bowing to Li Hongzhuang. "Commander, what about our reinforcements?"
"Reinforcements..."
Li Hongzhuang turned to glance at Li Hao and said, "He is your reinforcements."
The vice general looked at Li Hao, his body stiffening.
Reinforcements... were a child?
"Commander, this..."
"Don’t ask. Go now. Return home quickly; once night falls, the roads will be hard to traverse!" Li Hongzhuang's face returned to its usual stern and icy demeanor.
Seeing her expression, the vice general dared not question further. He nodded and took another long look at Li Hao, memorizing the youth’s appearance.
Their conversation had been overheard by the other soldiers. After their initial joy, they were stunned. The entire camp was to retreat, leaving the defense of this place to a child?
Some soldiers cried out anxiously, questioning the decision. Others declared that, given the circumstances, they too would stay behind.
But Li Hongzhuang remained silent, her face cold and indifferent. Under the urging of the vice generals, the soldiers were eventually driven away to pack their armor and equipment, preparing for the journey home.
Li Hao silently watched as the soldiers filed past him. He could smell the dirt and the thick scent of blood clinging to these battle-worn veterans.
The small white fox crouched obediently at his feet.
Ren Qianqian stood quietly behind Li Hao, holding her sword. As the young girl saw the soldiers’ scarred bodies, damaged armor, and bent blades, her heart trembled with emotion, and her eyes reddened.
"Commander, aren’t you leaving?"
Another vice general turned to Li Hongzhuang, unable to hold back his question.
Li Hongzhuang shook her head slightly. "You go ahead. I will follow later. No need to wait for me."
She knew that if she said she would stay, many soldiers would insist on staying too, refusing to leave no matter what.
After years of fighting side by side, putting their lives on the line together, how could they abandon her so easily?
Hearing her words, the vice general hesitated before glancing at Li Hao again. He still couldn’t fathom why a boy who looked like a wealthy young master had been sent as reinforcements to guard this desolate fortress.
But with no explanation forthcoming from Li Hongzhuang, they could only guess. Bound by military law, they had no choice but to obey orders.
As the 9,000-odd soldiers left, the camp became eerily silent and empty.
Now, only Li Hongzhuang, Li Hao, Ren Qianqian, and the little white fox remained.
Li He was nowhere to be seen. He had privately told Li Hongzhuang that he would act from the shadows, intervening only if Li Hao’s life was in danger. Otherwise, he would stay out of everything.
Li Hongzhuang hadn’t commented on this.
She knew a little about the situation between Li Hao and her seventh brother from Li He’s words, but as she hadn’t been directly involved, she didn’t fully understand what had happened.
Her sole focus was defending this isolated fortress.
Li He had also passed along a message to her:
The Great Yu was now engulfed in turmoil, with demons wreaking havoc across the land. Emperor Yu had expressed intentions to abandon Tianmen Pass temporarily.
When the Great Yu regained its strength, they could reclaim it later.
Thus, even if the place fell, there would be no serious consequences. Any blame would fall on Li Tiangang.
Having achieved great merits in the north, Li Tiangang would at most face a few reprimands and a deduction in salary. Such "punishments" were just for show, meant to placate other officials.
In other words, this place had already been abandoned.
No reinforcements would ever come.
Li He had advised Li Hongzhuang that she could leave whenever she wished and not risk her life here.
But leave?
Li Hongzhuang looked at the burial mounds. In her mind, she saw images of her third and sixth brothers drinking and fighting here, shedding their blood for this land. Every inch of this soil was soaked with the blood of their soldiers.
Emperor Yu might abandon it. Her seventh brother might abandon it.
But she... could not.
Taking a deep breath, Li Hongzhuang gathered her emotions and walked back into the camp.
Though the soldiers had departed, some of the tents remained, allowing them to create the illusion that many troops were still stationed here, hopefully misleading any demons into thinking their numbers were substantial.
“You can choose any tent you like. Conditions here are simple. Ever since the city fell, all the civilians were relocated over ten years ago.”
Li Hongzhuang spoke casually to Li Hao, then strode into the camp.
Li Hao nodded and looked around, his gaze eventually landing on the burial mounds in the distance.
He walked toward them with Ren Qianqian and the little white fox by his side. His eyes moved over each grave marker, each inscribed with a name or a uniform title.
A cold wind blew, sending a chill down Li Hao’s spine.
“These... are all the fallen heroes who perished here?” Ren Qianqian’s face paled as she covered her mouth, her voice trembling.
Seeing this field of countless graves—far more than just ten thousand—was a shock that words could scarcely describe.
Even the usually lively white fox was silent, quietly sitting at Li Hao’s feet and watching solemnly.
Li Hao stood in silence for a while.
He had come here merely to repay the Li family for raising him.
When three years passed, he would consider the debt paid.
However, as he looked upon the countless graves of fallen soldiers, he felt an inexplicable sense that his coming here was meant for more than just repaying a debt.
In these three years, it seemed he should do something more.
But his strength was still too limited.
As a master in the Heaven and Man Realm, he could theoretically establish his own sect within the Great Yu. But here, in this dangerous frontier, his life was always at risk, and he depended on Feng Lao’s protection from the shadows.
If he could reach the Three Immortals Realm, he would at least be able to protect himself.
“My cultivation is advancing too slowly…” Li Hao’s gaze grew heavy.
Though reaching the Heaven and Man Realm at fourteen was a remarkable feat, in this situation, it was still insufficient.
He needed to grow stronger—faster!
Taking a deep breath, Li Hao left the burial grounds and returned to the camp.
He searched through the remaining tents but found nothing to eat. As he wandered, he saw Li Hongzhuang seated on a small mound marked “Cangya City,” meticulously polishing her sword.
“Senior Hongzhuang,” Li Hao called as he approached.
Li Hongzhuang raised her eyebrows slightly and looked at the approaching youth. She frowned and said, “You should call me Aunt.”
“I’m no longer part of the Li family,” Li Hao replied.
Li Hongzhuang’s expression darkened as she recalled what Li He had told her. “Why did it come to this?”
Li Hao shook his head slightly, unwilling to elaborate. Instead, he asked, “It’s getting late. Are you hungry? I can look for something to eat.”
“Night is falling, and demons are prone to appear. You shouldn’t go off alone,” Li Hongzhuang advised. She knew that Li He would protect Li Hao in secret, yet she didn’t want him taking unnecessary risks.
Li Hao glanced up at the sky, where the moon had already risen and the stars were beginning to appear.
He gave a slight smile, then turned and left the mound, leading Ren Qianqian and the white fox to wander around the camp and its tents.
The tents were neatly packed, though a few pieces of broken armor and tattered, foul-smelling clothes remained. Li Hao eventually located the camp’s mess area and found a container of salt.
He chuckled, then summoned his Divine Soul to explore the surroundings. Soon enough, he detected a demon lurking in the nearby wilderness.
Picking up a broken sword blade from the ground, he threw it like a stone skipping over water.
The fragment sliced through the air, piercing the demon’s skull thirty miles away with a soft thunk.
The demon’s body trembled and then collapsed, lifeless.
Li Hao used his Object Manipulation technique to draw the demon’s corpse back to him.
It was a creature weighing around three tons, with features resembling a cross between a boar and a lion, with protruding tusks.
Li Hao grabbed Ren Qianqian’s sword, using it as a makeshift butcher’s knife to cleanly cut through the demon’s body, swiftly removing its innards and slicing it into portions.
“Qianqian, can you start a fire?”
“Of course.”
Having traveled with Li Hao for several days, Ren Qianqian was used to helping him. She quickly gathered firewood, and within moments, had a fire going.
Li Hao finished preparing the demon meat, selecting the best cuts, then skewered them on sharpened sticks and broken spear shafts he’d found on the ground, placing them over the fire to roast.
As the demon meat roasted, Li Hao sprinkled it with salt and seasonings. The dripping juices sizzled over the flames, releasing a mouth-watering aroma.
While the meat was cooking, Li Hao walked over to a tent with black and yellow stripes.
He examined it, then took it down, using his sword to cut and shape pieces of cloth into uniform strips.
Using hair from the demon, he fashioned a brush, dipped it in the demon’s blood, and began painting on the cloth strips.
“What are you doing?”
Drawn by the scent of roasting meat, Li Hongzhuang had descended from the mound and approached the campfire, where she suddenly spoke up.
Li Hao looked up at her and smiled. “Your Blood Fiend Army has departed, and its battle flag has been taken down. I’m making a new one.”
“My banner wasn’t completely taken down. I left a few here,” Li Hongzhuang replied.
Li Hao smiled faintly. “Those are yours. This banner is mine.”
“Hm?”
Li Hongzhuang looked over at him.
Li Hao finished his work, then released his power, forcing the blood on the cloth to dry instantly. Extending his Object Manipulation ability, he reached out to the forest several miles away, drawing in a few trees.
He quickly shaped the trees into poles, wrapping and binding them with extra cloth before anchoring them firmly in the ground.
In this way, a simple battle flag took form.
The fabric unfurled in the night wind, bearing two large characters written in the demon’s blood:
Haotian!
Li Hongzhuang stared at it, stunned. After a moment, she turned to look at Li Hao. "Are you actually in the Fifteen Li Realm?"
Li Hao shook his head.
"I'm in the Heaven and Man Realm," he replied truthfully.
"?"
Li Hongzhuang’s pupils contracted, and she froze, unable to believe what she had just heard.
The Heaven and Man Realm?
Li He hadn’t told her about Li Hao’s cultivation, only mentioning certain events within the family estate.
As someone stationed on the frontier for years, she was completely cut off from news within the Great Yu, consumed daily with keeping demons at bay. She had no time or thought to spare for affairs back in the realm…