On top of the giant boulder, Jill Young had already pulled out her short spear. To hell with all that 'endure the small to achieve the big' nonsense—there’s no need for grand strategy to kill these guys. The only thing that mattered now was how to protect the hostages, not whether to charge in or not.
Just then, the noise from these men finally attracted the attention of their boss. Out strode a hulking brute—so massive he barely seemed human, towering at over 2.2 meters and built like a mountain god. He carried a giant sledgehammer on his shoulder, each step thudding on the ground. He swept his gaze around and roared, "All of you, knock it off!"
The men who had surrounded the captives instantly fell silent. The leader of the group grabbing women spoke up: "Haven't we already played a few to death? What's a few more or less?"
"Hmph, these gals are needed for something else today—nobody’s allowed to kill them just for fun!" The giant swung his hammer and barked, "You there, get these women inside!" Immediately, soldiers came up and started dragging away the battered women, hauling them toward Ditiangate. There were still plenty of unconscious women in the tents, and after a rough count, about fifty were herded into Ditiangate.
"If you want to mess with women, go inside too." The giant flashed a nasty grin. "The gals across the cliff are holed up on defense—so if you want to play, do it right in front of their faces. Don’t just play, kill them! Behead, dismember, eat them—let’s see how long they can keep their cool!"
"Brilliant! Genius! Commander, you really know how to get things done!" The men cackled, arm in arm, and headed off toward Ditiangate together.
"These villains—I’ll never let them get away with this!" Wu Zhengfeng’s eyes burned with rage, ready to charge in. Jill’s killing intent was rising too, like a volcano about to erupt. She studied Ditiangate closely, plotting how to sneak in. All she needed was to slip inside and shut the gate—then it’d be slaughter time.
Just as they were about to move, chaos broke out near the mountain gate. Someone sprinted over, shouting, "Report! Lord William Bo of Weihong Island has crushed Cold Frost Cave and returned victorious—he’s already escorting a bunch of prisoners past the gate!"
"What?" The crowd erupted, Wu Zhengfeng included. Jill turned to look toward the gate—sure enough, William Bo was swaggering over with his crew, waving, smiling, bowing, and generally showing off like a hero on parade.
Wu Zhengfeng immediately flew into a rage. "Damn it, that William Bo’s switched sides again!"
"No, wait, it’s not betrayal," Jill Young kept her cool. "His actions don’t look like he’s switching sides—they’re more like improvisation. Look, Han Xue’s still calm, and there are about forty unfamiliar people with them. There’s got to be more to it. Can you let me use secret voice transmission right now?"
"No can do," Wu Zhengfeng shook his head helplessly. "Even with my purest internal energy, it’d take at least thirty years of training to use secret voice transmission. Anyone who hasn’t broken through would need even deeper cultivation."
"Guess there’s no remote control option," Jill muttered, spotting her chance to slip off the boulder. While nobody was looking, she quickly blended into the group of Cold Frost Cave women. Sixty of them marched together, all in blue—one more or less wouldn’t be noticed. Jill wrapped a headscarf to hide her hair, hunched over with a kid on her back, and vanished into the crowd.
Seeing Jill join them, the women’s anxious faces settled down. Jill whispered, "Don’t look so calm—act scared! Imagine you’re about to get raped!" Instantly, everyone put on a terrified face, some even turning pale and trembling.
Jill sidled up to Han Xue and asked, "What’s going on?"
Han Xue replied right away, "Shortly after you two left, we ran into a patrol of over forty people. I figured there was no way to quietly take down that many, so I made the call to play along and ask the envoy for forgiveness."
While they were talking, William Bo strode into the tent area at the front of the pack. A few acquaintances rushed up to flatter him: "Lord William, your victory’s made us look good—congratulations!" "We’ve always heard you’re both brainy and brawny, and today you took Cold Frost Cave in a flash. You really live up to your reputation!"
"Oh, come on, brothers, you flatter me too much! I only won thanks to Lord Wu’s guidance—I don’t deserve all this praise! Hahaha!" William Bo’s acting was spot-on, really nailing that smug-yet-fake-humble vibe. With his beaming smile, nobody but the insiders would guess he’d just suffered a crushing defeat and had no control over his own fate. Looks like he’s really trying to put on a show.
"Lord William, we heard you led three hundred men to attack Cold Frost Cave—where are the rest?"
"They’re still at Cold Frost Cave, cleaning out the place. You wouldn’t believe how rich that cave is—treasures everywhere! I’ve got the folks from all the islands counting and sorting, so they’ll be here in a couple days. I just came ahead to deliver the two-legged treasures first." William Bo shot a wink toward the women from Cold Frost Cave, and everyone burst out laughing.
He took the credit and fame, but gave up the real spoils. Everyone thought William Bo was a slick operator—a real old fox. He acted so normal that nobody wondered if the Cold Frost Cave women were actual prisoners, or bothered to check if their ropes were really tied tight.
The giant stomped over and waved his big hand: "Perfect, the more women the better—send them all inside! Boys, get ready—if things go well inside, we’ll charge in right away!" "Yeah!" Everyone got busy, prepping for battle.
Led by twenty rebels and twenty traitors, the Cold Frost Cave women headed for Ditiangate. Jill Young scanned the crowd and spotted someone pulling out a saddle-like thing—except it was way too big for a horse, so she couldn’t tell what it was for. Meanwhile, William Bo chatted up the giant: "General, any idea where Lord Walter Huan is?"
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"That old coot Walter’s inside, probably at Wangtian Gate. Go in and you’ll find him."
Following the crowd into Ditiangate, it turned out Spirit Eagle Palace wasn’t a palace at all—no fancy buildings, no Qing dynasty gardens. It was more like a fortress: simple, direct, and built for traffic. Inside Ditiangate was a straight main road, with a few medium-sized courtyards to the sides.
Wu Zhengfeng explained that this area was usually deserted, but since she’d de-aged, security had been beefed up. Nobody expected Ditiangate to fall so easily, letting dozens of palace women suffer humiliation.
Heading down the main road, they soon hit another gate—just like Ditiangate, with a tower above and an archway below. "That’s Wangtian Gate. There’s a loft platform inside, then a sheer cliff ahead. If enemies attack, that’s the key defensive line. Walter Huan’s probably holding the fort there."
Beyond Wangtian Gate, on the loft platform, Walter Huan stood with a face like thunder. In front of him was a bottomless abyss—a cliff so deep it looked like a heavenly sword had split the earth, leaving a chasm over ten meters wide. Only the best martial artists could cross it in one leap.
Peeking over the edge, the abyss below was so deep and shrouded in mist that it made your skin crawl. Across the way was another fortress—its walls even taller, giving the defenders a clear advantage.
Usually, thick iron chains linked both sides of the chasm, so those with Lightness Skill could cross. Plus, each cliff had a drawbridge—ingeniously designed, each stretched seven meters to form a five-meter-wide bridge. But now, the chains had been loosened from the far side, and the drawbridges pulled up. This abyss was worse than any moat—totally impassable.
"Lord Walter Huan," a heavily armored man walked over, speaking broken Chinese, "your tactics are working well. Should we keep attacking?"
Walter Huan had an idea: have archers provide cover while martial artists with Lightness Skill tie ropes to their waists and charge across the cliff, then climb up the enemy’s walls. If they could break into the gate and lower the drawbridge, the army could storm in and win for sure.
This plan was risky, but it worked pretty well—yesterday, it nearly succeeded. Spirit Eagle Palace’s defenses were solid, but the garrison was mostly women and kids. The chasm was daunting, but it wasn’t enough to stop Walter Huan.