Chapter 149: Covert Warfare between Song and Liao (Part III)

In Sun Meng’s eyes, a nearly tangible energy sphere plummeted from the sky, grinding the remaining Liao soldiers and their horses into mud. Upon impact, the ground was blasted into a massive crater, leaving the corpses of the Western Xia soldiers and horses plastered flat against the earth, effectively becoming part of the landscape.

Sun Meng blinked. To be honest, he had seen plenty of bloody sights in previous battles, and he had personally caused similar devastation when slaughtering those monsters. Yet, for some reason, watching Li Qingmeng inflict all this left him feeling somewhat uneasy.

He flew over to Li Qingmeng’s side. "How do you feel?"

"Exhilarating!" A look of excitement bloomed across Li Qingmeng’s face. "These damned Liao barbarians—back when I was on the throne, I heard no end of stories about them bullying our Western Xia. You have to understand, the grassland tribes fundamentally believe in the strong; it’s a world where the weak are prey to the strong. Despite Western Xia founding its own nation, we never held any real advantage when facing Liao."

Sun Meng looked at Li Qingmeng. Her smile was like that of a child who had finally gotten the toy she always wanted, coupled with the fierce gleam shining in her eyes. Sun Meng suddenly felt as though he had unleashed a violent woman upon the world!

"You caused quite a commotion just now. We need to hurry to another location."

He observed quietly. When Li Qingmeng had charged into the military formation, the army’s cloud-energy had suppressed her internal Qi and its connection to the outside world. However, because Li Qingmeng had already condensed her stellar destiny, her internal Qi had thoroughly internalized her own will. When her attacks landed on these Liao soldiers, the resulting shockwaves made it much easier for her to absorb the spiritual energy beneath the cloud-energy canopy.

*In other words, because Tier 3 martial artists have tempered their own wills, they can forcibly absorb the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth, while also mitigating the suppression exerted by cloud-energy—the collective will of an army.* Flying along, Sun Meng felt he was faintly grasping a direction for further advancement.

Soon, the two arrived not far from another city.

Li Qingmeng raised her hand and struck the sky above the city with a wave of internal Qi. A firework of internal Qi resembling plum blossoms bloomed, and the next moment, chaos erupted within the city.

Along the Song-Liao border, the buffer zone contained three major cities, fifteen medium-sized cities, and nearly a hundred villages and townships.

Therefore, their plan this time was to destroy one major city, more than half of the combat forces in the medium-sized cities, and one-third of the enemy combat forces in the rural villages.

Now that the second objective had been achieved, the final objective—given the massive commotion they had just caused—would likely be impossible unless Sun Meng intervened personally. After all, while those pugilistic martial artists were somewhat efficient the first time they pulled off such a stunt, repeating it back-to-back simply wouldn't work.

Inside the city at this moment, the sword team belonging to the Tianjun Department of the ethereal-floating Palace had already charged into the Lord’s Manor. This sword formation was the direct lineage of the Lingjiu Palace. Originally orphans, they had practiced martial arts since childhood and mastered the coordination of the sword formation; only now, approaching the age of thirty, had they attained the composition of this half-step Xiantian sword formation.

Fifty people directly formed an intensely offensive military formation. Sword Qi, accompanied by the attacks generated by cloud-energy, bombarded the Lord’s Manor before anyone inside could react, shattering the front gates directly.

The people inside the Lord’s Manor were still somewhat bewildered by the sounds of battle echoing through the city, when the next moment, a massive sword Qi descended from the heavens. The officials gathered in the manor to discuss the intelligence they had received all perished under this single strike.

Charging into the Lord’s Manor, the leading woman of Lingjiu Palace immediately commanded,

"Split into three teams, and ensure the targets are thoroughly wiped out. Remember to collect everything we need!"

"Understood!"

The previously intact cloud-energy instantly fractured, splitting into three identically sized subordinate cloud-energy formations that surged into the interior of the Lord’s Manor from three different directions. A unit of this caliber was likely matched within the Song Empire only by the imperial guards protecting the emperor’s bedchamber.

The Lord’s Manor and the granary were breached almost instantly. The soldiers in the city's military camp gathered together, and under the leadership of their camp commander, quickly formed a military formation to march out of the city and suppress the riot.

However, the next instant, specks of plum blossoms fell from the sky, centered around ice-blue points of light.

"Defense!" The camp commander felt his mind sounding frantic warnings, which meant the seemingly beautiful scene unfolding before him was extremely dangerous.

Clad in crimson, she spun and danced as she descended from the skies.

Twin sleeves fluttering like mist and dreams, like dragons bursting forth from the sea.

Beautiful, yet lethal.

Although the camp commander reacted in time, the disparity in cultivation realms meant that ninety percent of the soldiers failed to respond to Li Qingmeng’s attack in time.

The plum blossoms transformed into sharp blades, slashes across their throats; the ice-blue points of light transformed into flying needles, piercing straight through the centers of their brows.

*Tianshan Snow Dance*—the name Li Qingmeng gave to this technique. This dreamlike, illusory attack first inflicted mental interference on the enemy. Once the enemy's mind experienced a moment of sluggishness, the follow-up attack would instantly claim their lives. This technique was not actually her original creation; rather, it stemmed from the story of her own father and mother.

Their meeting had been dreamlike and illusory, and later, after her father sublimated his mental state, he conceived the prototype for this style of attack. Her mother had then integrated this method into dance, allowing them to recapture the feeling of those bygone years.

"That move of yours..." Sun Meng looked at Li Qingmeng, somewhat speechless. It was undeniably pretty, and its crowd-clearing effectiveness was stellar, but wasn't it a bit too flashy?!

"I've already figured out the trick. Very soon, I’ll be able to integrate the Illusory Charm technique into standard mental attacks." Li Qingmeng wasn't truly a little girl; she had simply thought of this approach first the moment she mastered the technique.

"As long as you know what you're doing. Techniques aren't always better the more complex they are, especially for people at our realm," Sun Meng remarked. Still, Li Qingmeng’s style of mental attack served as a form of inspiration for him; otherwise, dragging opponents into his own domain every time he made a grand entrance wasn't particularly convenient either.

Next time, he could try projecting the imagery of his domain into reality using spiritual force. The effect might turn out even better.

Sun Meng suppressed the urge to test it out right then and there and looked toward the direction of the Lord's Manor in the city.

The overall cloud-energy within the city had already dissipated. The Lord's Manor was smashed, the military camp was uprooted, and even the connection to the Liao Dynasty’s national fortune had been severed.

Sun Meng glanced up at the sky. Only those at their realm could witness a stream of starlight cascading down—this was the true reason why the city’s destiny had been cut off from the Liao Dynasty.

"It didn't link up with the Song Dynasty's national fortune? Is it because the attack wasn't spearheaded by Song people?" Sun Meng harbored some guesses. By this time, the people of Lingjiu Palace had thoroughly slaughtered all the wealthy gentry and officials within the city who had defected to the Liao. As for the commoners, the Han Chinese were left alone, while members of other tribes were gathered together.

Li Qingmeng descended from the sky, using internal Qi to amplify her voice across the area: "There is no need to panic. We are from the Lingjiu Palace, and we have come to rescue you! Among these people, as long as any of you point out those who used their status to oppress you, they will face the harshest punishments, wishing for death!"

"Im... Immortal... Will this place of ours truly never return to the hands of the Liao people?" A white-haired elder stepped out trembling, leaning on a cane as he asked.

Li Qingmeng replied, "Never again. No foreign race will ever be able to oppress you again!" According to their plan, once Liang Zhongshu's men arrived here, command of the city would nominally be handed over to them.

"Long live the Immortal! Long live the Emperor of the Song!" The old man fell to his knees, kowtowing all the way to the ground, tears streaming down his face.

"Long live the Immortal! Long live the Emperor of the Song!" Some of the Han Chinese began to shout along; one could see they were all over thirty years of age, and soon the children and women joined in as well.

Among those of other ethnicities, quite a few broke down in tears. It wasn't that they feared being killed, but rather that they had originally identified with the Song Dynasty as well; it was only after generations of subjugation and rule by the Liao that they had been reduced to foreigners once more. In truth, their lives had not been good, for in the eyes of the Liao people, these tribal members—who didn't even qualify as allies—were nothing more than high-grade slaves.

Meanwhile, in Daming Prefecture, Liang Zhongshu looked at the letter in his hands and couldn't help but swallow hard.

A Liao city had just been taken down just like that! The Liao border's elite cavalry and infantry combined—over ten thousand men—were simply gone!

Should he accept this credit, or should he not?