Chapter Ninety-Three: Radiant City

The beast tide sparked by the founding of the city lasted a full day and night. Only after confirming that the horde had completely withdrawn did Li Hongshen and the others finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Hongshen then directed the soldiers to go outside the city and collect the beast carcasses. These were valuable spoils, and because of the sweeping beams from the lamp posts, the beast horde had failed to drag off many bodies.

This was far better than what some of the other young lords had faced. In some cases, after the daytime assault and defense battle ended, the battlefield corpses were dragged away by the beasts by nightfall, leaving not even a shred behind for the lord—no broth to drink, not even enough to make a loss less painful. It was a complete losing bargain.

As for Li Hongshen, after tallying everything afterward, it was roughly a case of breaking even. Before he led the charge himself, the city walls on the other sides had already set fire to the corpses in turn, reducing the first waves of beast bodies to nearly pure charcoal. Apart from the blood crystals inside, the rest could only be used as fertilizer.

Still, Li Hongshen did not dwell on it. To endure until the beast tide ended and defend the entire city was already an excellent outcome.

After all, in order to secure the advantage of usable space, he had removed the inner city gate and the moat, making what should have been a relatively manageable defense somewhat dangerous.

The fact that they had weathered it safely now was entirely thanks to everyone’s support and effort. Besides, the burning-corpse strategy had been approved by him in the first place, and the final result had been exactly as he expected.

After gathering the beast carcasses and inspecting the city walls, Li Hongshen began to tally the specific figures.

Six people had died this time. Two were skilled fighters who had followed Li Hongshen in his charge; the other four had been dragged from the walls by beasts that had climbed up and fallen to their deaths outside the city.

Such losses were still acceptable to Li Hongshen. It was just that the fall of those two Tiger-Wolf Cavalry members pained him somewhat. Although their armor had been recovered, the soldiers themselves had not even left behind complete bodies.

He then checked the inventory. The grain and meat were still fine, but the arrow consumption had been rather heavy, and the expenditure of blood crystals was also terrifying.

The main reason was that after igniting the corpse piles, he had no choice but to activate the formation around the city walls. This formation encircled the entire wall, and every second it was active consumed Li Hongshen’s stockpile of blood crystals.

But if he did not activate it, the soldiers would be placed in a relatively dangerous situation. So Li Hongshen spared no expense and kept the formation running until evening, right up until the flames died out.

Even after all that, only a little over thirty thousand blood crystals had been scavenged from beneath the city, along with some beast meat and pelts. This time, Li Hongshen could only be said to have avoided a loss.

Li Hongshen did not intend to hold a grand summary meeting. Instead, he first ordered the soldiers to rest for two days, and after that, they would begin helping Li Fuzhen with her awakening.

In truth, by the logic of their cooperation, a smaller city like Li Fuzhen’s should have undergone the transformation first. That would weaken the beast tide a bit before it reached the larger city, effectively reducing the pressure.

But when it came to Li Hongshen, his male pride ultimately prevailed. By his reasoning, Li Fuzhen was his woman; how could he possibly use his own woman to scout the way for him?

In the end, Li Fuzhen failed to convince Li Hongshen and was instead conquered in bed, which was why the situation had become one where Li Hongshen went first and Li Fuzhen followed behind.

Two days later, Li Fuzhen stood in the center of Radiant City and, under Li Hongshen’s gaze, began the transformation of the city heart.

Her situation was much the same as Li Hongshen’s, except the color of the light was not as varied. Aside from the same gold and silver, there was only a single brilliant shade of violet-black.

When Li Hongshen saw that color, he truly did not know how to describe it. At first glance, it looked violet-black, but within that violet-black radiance there flowed starlight, as though gazing into the night sky itself. Li Hongshen knew this was power born from the bloodline of Li Fuzhen’s family.

The radiance, together with intricate patterns, spread outward from the city center. Li Fuzhen did not imitate Li Hongshen’s arrogance; instead, she built the inner city gate and moat in the most standard fashion. Only after the patterns had spread beyond the moat did they begin to contract again.

Then, once again, that fluctuation Li Hongshen had previously sensed spread outward from this place.

This time, the beast horde arrived much later than it had for Li Hongshen. Li Hongshen waited on the city gate until he was nearly asleep before he saw any sign of the beasts. It was only after he had finished lunch that the attack finally came.

It was still the same pack of direwolves, but now they were accompanied by a new group of herbivores: cracked-horn cattle.

These cracked-horn cattle were genuine herbivores, and many young lords even raised them in their own territories.

But clearly, these cattle were not very bright. Led here from far away by the fluctuation, they did not think for even a moment and simply lowered their heads and charged straight into the city wall.

On the way in, some rammed themselves to death, some were crushed by the cattle behind them, and some even took a few direwolves down with them.

But precisely because of this new herd, Li Hongshen did not dare to lead a charge out of the city lightly. Unlike the direwolves, if the Tiger-Wolf Cavalry were to be struck by the cracked-horn cattle during their advance, it could very well turn into a real threat of annihilation.

Yet even this did not stump Li Hongshen in the end. He had Li Zhong try more than a dozen times, and at last they found the chance to ignite the tails of several cracked-horn cattle with flaming arrows.

Amid the bellowing of the cattle, several cracked-horn beasts, panicking, shattered the formation of their own herd. In the confusion, some of the red-eyed cracked-horn cattle were drawn by the bright flames and ran off together with those few beasts, breaking away from the chaotic mass.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Hongshen once again led his troops in a sortie. This time, Zhao Yun and Li Li were also among the ranks, greatly increasing the impact of the Tiger-Wolf Cavalry’s charge.

Moreover, unlike Li Hongshen, Li Fuzhen had a moat, and so she used a drawbridge. This spared Li Hongshen from having to clear a patch of open ground as he had before.

With a drawbridge lowered halfway, the Tiger-Tiger Cavalry could leap out, and then it could be raised again immediately—safe and practical.

The only real shortcoming at present was that there were no aquatic beasts in the moat. Li Hongshen did have the giant crocodile, but because of its enormous size, it would occupy far too much space if placed in the moat, making it unsuitable for deployment there. Thus, Li Fuzhen vetoed the proposal of letting the giant crocodile enter the water.

Li Fuzhen’s beast tide lasted much less time than Li Hongshen’s had. By that afternoon, the entire battlefield situation had already been brought under control, and by evening it was completely over.

This was because the direwolves had already gone through one round of luring. Most of the direwolves that had been drawn into losing control had already been nearly wiped out in the previous battle. The remaining ones were beasts capable of restraining their own desires and breaking free of the lure.

So when battle had just begun and they saw Li Hongshen lead the charge, they quickly regained their senses and retreated from the battlefield in a highly organized and disciplined manner.

This left Li Hongshen feeling as though he had punched the air. He had barely exerted any force before the enemy had already thrown down its weapons and surrendered.

With no other choice, the Tiger-Wolf Cavalry could only adapt on the spot and become cattle drivers, herding and gathering the cracked-horn cattle into one place to await the subjugation teams that would come later.

Only one update today; I’m not feeling well. Men have those few days every month too, please understand. Thank you.

End of chapter.