Chapter 33: Beneath the City Walls

“Once we pass through Zhongzhou City, nothing can stop us from getting through.”

“After that, we’ll take the eastern route, bypassing the roads controlled by the Pingbei Metropolitan Command, and easily reach Huining Fort’s gates.”

“Once those gates close behind us, everything will be fine.”

Late July, Year 588 of Yuxing

Six hundred miles north of the ruins of Xuanshan

Zhongzhou City.

Outside the city gates, refugees from Dong Song fleeing the south gathered anxiously, eyes fixed on the city soldiers, hoping they would open the gates.

These refugees were mostly pale and gaunt, faces etched with fear.

Days of relentless flight and hardship had left them ravenous.

They only wished to enter Zhongzhou City, find some food, and continue their journey northward.

Yet the Dong Song soldiers guarding the city showed no intention of opening the gates.

Instead, they had already harvested every last strand of silk moss outside the city walls.

For the people of Dong Song, who, like the Tianyu people, could easily survive by harvesting silk moss, this was the first time they faced the bitter agony of having no food at all.

The moss that hadn’t yet grown was crowded with pitiful civilians.

Distressed children clung to their mothers, suckling for milk that barely trickled.

But how could their mothers produce milk when their own bellies were empty?

Among the few surviving elders who had mustered the strength to reach the city gate, many succumbed to hunger and collapsed, never to rise again.

The soldiers dragged the bodies of the elders from the muddy ground before the gates and cast them into a pyre pit for cremation.

The rising smoke of ashes mingled with the persistent drizzle, drifting over the heads of the people stranded in the mire.

The harsh conditions bred disease, which spread swiftly.

More and more people perished.

Hunger.

Disease.

Mud.

And the relentless pursuit by the Stardust Army, savage as wild beasts.

These countless hardships weighed heavily upon the people outside the city.

No matter how they wailed, no matter how many bodies piled up in the burning pits,

the Dong Song soldiers refused to open the gates.

Some villagers who ventured in to plead for food were brutally beaten by the city’s defenders.

After several clashes, public outrage began to swell beyond the gates.

Lily silently observed the suffering refugees.

“True God, why must we go to Zhongzhou? Can’t we try somewhere else, like Qingzhou to the east…”

“To reach Qingzhou, we’d have to cross mountains and valleys, scale the 3,000-zhang-high Nanzhong Mountain—it would take a whole month.”

“By then, the Stardust Army might have already reached Huining Fort.”

“We don’t have time to waste.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t enter the Jade Realm right now, so I have to rely on you to hurry to Huining Fort on foot!”

“So soon?”

Although Lily had witnessed the terrifying power of the Stardust Army manipulating ether and flying with shields,

according to the old man’s words,

the ether in the Jade Realm was still insufficient.

The Stardust Army had expended much of their internal ether assaulting the Xuanshan Fortress, and replenishing it in the Jade Realm proved difficult.

Now, they couldn’t even fly their shields, forced to march on foot northward.

Still, even on foot, their pace was astonishing.

“Old man, didn’t you say that the King of Liao has been preparing to provoke the three Jade Paths to send troops?”

“Even if the Jade Paths send ten thousand soldiers, they’re still mere mortals without ether.”

“But over there, it’s different.”

“With the Blue Dragon, the Electric Phoenix, and those two lunatics leading them…”

“Even ten thousand troops from the Jade Paths might not make it back.”

“Two lunatics? Could those two even still be human?”

“Monsters who can take human form.”

“Oh, got it.”

Lily rubbed her still-aching right shoulder and stood up.

Squatting in the muddy pit, she felt surrounded by the stench of rot.

Her leather armor was caked with mud after days of fleeing.

Yet, to avoid suspicion,

she still wore the stolen guerrilla uniform and armor.

With a Face-Changing Talisman, she still looked like a Dong Song officer.

Only now, this officer was mingling among a horde of disarmed, demoralized soldiers.

Following the deserters had one advantage:

if there was no food, the soldiers could snatch whatever the civilians had.

Using her officer status as cover, Lily decided to find some protection for herself.

“Can one person make it all the way north?”

“We have to gather together to survive!”

Thus, Lily created a small miracle destined to be swallowed by the flood.

She gathered a group of over a hundred and, as the ranks swelled into the thousands of deserters, they held out beneath the walls of Zhongzhou.

“Guo Guerrilla! Brothers, what do we do if we can’t get into the city?”

“Hey, do you have any food left? Give me some!”

Lily looked at the little soldiers beside her, their eyes green with hunger.

She pointed at the tightly shut Zhongzhou gates.

“See those gates? Inside, there’s food.”

“But Guo Guerrilla, we can’t get in!”

“Can’t get in? We’ll be in soon enough.”

Lily planned to use her miraculously sustained hundred-man squad to burst open the tightly closed gates of Zhongzhou.

But her own stomach gnawed with hunger.

She flipped open the hand of a Dong Song villager who had died of starvation on the ground, only to find he was clutching a small bag of dried moss noodles.

He hadn’t starved to death—he was beaten to death by Dong Song deserters trying to steal his food.

Not far off, a lifeless catfolk girl lay on her back in the mud.

Her eyes were wide open, empty and devoid of life.

Lily pried open the father’s hand and took the dried moss noodles.

“Eat this; I’m not hungry.”

She turned and handed the noodles to the deserters, who wolfed down the uncooked moss noodles.

Lily walked over and gently closed the girl’s eyes.

“Spirit, return… return to…”

Lily wanted to recite the Jade people’s soul-calling words but choked.

“They don’t believe you, old man.”

“They believe only what they see—the vast Ether Sea, which the catfolk call the ‘Ephemeral.’”

“Then… let her return to the Ephemeral.”

Lily murmured, staring at the child no older than seven or eight.

“What use are these words when someone’s dead…”

She rose and led the deserters, who had eaten a little, toward the city gates.

The small miracle she had created was gradually collapsing.

More deserters deserted the group as they marched.

But Lily didn’t care—everyone’s fate was their own.

She glanced at the bodies of the starving villagers nearby.

Their fur had fallen out from hunger.

The catfolk valued their pelts deeply, even having temples dedicated to the so-called “Fur God.”

Yet now, neither the Ephemeral nor the Fur God could save them.

“Old man, after you saved me, couldn’t you have just sent me straight to Huining Fort?”

“From Donglai to Zhongzhou is over five hundred miles, and the whole way is fraught with fear.”

“I’m truly fed up…”

Although Lily had faced many dangers before,

this was the first real war she had witnessed, with so much death.

“There’s no time to go elsewhere, kiddo, and the Jade Realm doesn’t have enough ether now; the Stardust Army has used up a lot…”

“My abilities aren’t strong enough to send you directly to Huining Fort…”

The Jade God’s tone was somewhat somber but then he smiled.

“For now, I can only give you some small things.”

Suddenly, Lily felt something added to her arms.

She glanced at the dozens of deserters still trailing her and then at the items in her pocket.

It was a hard, biscuit-like food, sweet in flavor though powdery.

But it tasted quite good.

“Hide it well, girl. There are wolves and tigers around you now; exposing wealth would be foolish.”

“Pfft, when it comes to fighting, I’m not afraid of these etherless fools—especially when they’re just deserters.”

The Jade God chuckled and slipped a few more of the “pancakes” into Lily’s pouch.

Ahead, a commotion rose.

At the southern gate of Zhongzhou, fierce fighting broke out—not because the Stardust Army had arrived, but because hundreds of refugees tried to storm the gates, clashing with the city’s defenders.

Dong Song soldiers raised their long spears and bronze swords, pointing their blades at their own people.

Seeing this, Lily glanced back at the girl’s corpse.

But she found the girl had been tossed into the pyre pit.

The air carried the acrid scent of burning fur.

“Damn it, these damned cat soldiers tormenting their own people every day—they’ll surely be cursed by heaven!”

“The Dong Song kingdom is controlled by aristocrats; in this land, only the lives of the elites matter…”

“A nation of millions, half are moss-gathering slaves.”

“The rest of the citizens are oppressed by nobles and military officers.”

“The anger of the common folk has long reached its peak.”

The Jade God spoke of Dong Song’s situation with deep understanding.

Though barred from entering the Jade Realm, he was still a deity of that world.

“But that mad god and his followers are crazy—forcing even moss slaves to flee north.”

Lily saw tattooed moss slaves joining the conflict with the soldiers.

They were thinner than ordinary refugees, with shoulder marks proving they labored day and night harvesting silk moss for Dong Song’s cities.

But these catfolk, oppressed to the brink of death by the Dong Song kingdom,

refused to serve under the Stardust invaders.

“Those Stardust bastards are truly driving people to their deaths.”

Lily stuffed the last bite of the hard pancake into her mouth.

She gathered the remaining dozen soldiers and headed toward the southern gate.

“Now we have to find a way into Zhongzhou City; only then can we continue north.”

Lily looked toward the side of the city where the lantern-lit Danqin Stage flickered and sighed.

“But even now, we can’t get into Zhongzhou City, True God.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be inside soon.”

“Hmm?”

“Reinforcements have arrived from the north—troops from the two northern counties. When reinforcements reach these gates, they will open naturally.”

“Huh? But this is the south gate; reinforcements coming from the north…”

“The border troops of the northern county are proud; they intend to sally out and fight the Stardust Army in the field. Of course, they must open the south gate.”

Lily was at a loss for words.

Field battle… can they win?

“I’ll have to trust you, True God. I hope you can calculate this right.”

“Civilians must not linger inside the city, civilians must not linger inside the city.”

“Girl, head toward the northern gate. I’ll guide you to take a shortcut eastward, quickly crossing Xinglong Mountain.”

“At our speed, we should reach Huining City ahead of the Stardust forces.”

Hearing the Jade God’s resolute words, Lily could only sigh and press forward.

“Let’s hope everything goes smoothly.”